text:
- Diese Veranstaltung hat bereits stattgefunden.
Prof. Chen Huaiyu (Arizona State University), The animal turn in the study of global history: a religious perspective
Juli 5, 2018, 12:00 - 14:00
This talk will examine some key issues that concern scholars who attempt to figure out the historical roots of our contemporary problems. One the one hand, some scholars have been debating the intellectual and religious cause of the ecological crisis and the extinction of animal species across the global village. For instance, Lynn White Jr. noted that the Christian dogma in the West contributed to the dominance of humans over animals and nature. On the other hand, the development of modern biotechnology and genetic engineering might have profoundly changed the non-human animals in the technology-assisted farm industry. The modern state of biotechnology has ended the traditional contract between humans and nature. Numerous plants and animals are cultivated and reared in the human-created or modified environment. Animals are no longer aware of nature's changes when they do not witness the Sunrise and Sunset. Some ethicists and religious scholars are concerned that the animality of these technology-assisted reared animals is deprived because these animals now live in a human-made environment, which cannot even be called an ecological system. The human-animal relations have entered a new phase. This talk hopes to offer some observations about how the roles of major religions have been redefined and reshaped in the global ecological crisis and farm industry.
CHEN Huaiyu received his MA in history from Peking University, China and his Ph.D in religious studies from Princeton University, USA. Currently he is an associate professor at Arizona State University where he teaches Buddhism and Chinese Religions. He has published several monographs and numerous articles on Buddhist rituals and monastic culture, the interactions among Buddhism, Christianity, and Daoism, animals in Chinese religions, Western missionaries in China, and modern Chinese intellectual history. This summer, as a visiting scholar at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin, he is finishing up his English book on animals in medieval Chinese religions.


text:
Sign in to or out of Windows
When you sign out of Windows, all of the apps you were using are closed, but the PC isn't turned off. Another person can sign in without needing to restart the PC—but even if someone else turns off the PC, your info won't be lost.
You also don't necessarily have to sign out of Windows. You can lock the PC instead, and other people can still sign in to their accounts from the sign-in screen.
Watch a video about signing in and out. (To view captions in your language, tap or click the Closed captioning
"Sign in to" and "sign out of" mean the same as "log on to" and "log out from," respectively.
To sign out of Windows
Open Start by swiping in from the right edge of the screen (or if you're using a mouse, pointing to the upper-right corner of the screen and moving the mouse pointer down), and then tapping or clicking Start.
Tap or click your account picture in the upper-right corner, and then choose Sign out.
To sign in to Windows
Swipe up from the bottom edge of the screen (or press any key if you're using a keyboard) to dismiss the lock screen.
In the sign-in screen, sign in to your PC using the method of your choice.
If you want to sign in with a different account than the one shown on the sign-in screen, tap or click the Back button and choose an account. If you're prompted to press Ctrl+Alt+Delete, do so.
To pick a different sign-in method, tap or click Sign-in options to see the available choices.
You can also switch to a different user account without signing out of Windows.

source: HuggingFaceFW/fineweb-edu


text:
Published 31st May 2019
Last Updated on
The past simple tense in English can seem pretty straightforward. Besides the irregular verbs, there's not much to it. Until you come to the pronunciation. If you are a native speaker, you've probably never given the pronunciation of regular past simple verbs much thought. But for English language learners, their pronunciation can be infuriating.
Let's first think about the rules.
If the verb ends in /t/ or /d/, the past simple ending is pronounced /Id/.
For example, wanted and ended.
If the verb ends in a voiceless sound, such as /p/, /f/, /s/, /ʃ/, /ʧ/ or /k/, the past simple ending is pronounced /t/.
For example, stopped and washed.
If the verb ends in another voiced sound, the past simple ending is pronounced /d/.
For example, played and allowed.
As you can imagine, this is a lot of information for our learners to keep in mind when trying to speak fluently. While it is not complicated it will take practice to get used to using the correct pronunciation ending.
One activity you can use in your EFL classroom to help your learners is a categorisation activity.
What is a categorisation activity?
A categorisation activity is exactly what it says. The learners must put words into their correct categories. In this case, learners must put the verbs and their endings in their correct categories. This can be done by creating cards with the present stem of regular verbs. Hand these out to the students.
On the board, make columns for the three different pronunciation endings – /t/, /d/, /Id/ -, without writing the rules. Make sure your students understand the IPA symbols. Let your students categorise the vocabulary cards by sticking them on the board in the correct categories.
Do not help them in any way. Don't even indicate whether they are correct or not. When they have done all the vocabulary cards, let them know how many are wrong without actually telling them which ones are the incorrect ones. Give them time to change their answers and continue until they are all correct.
This can even be done before you focus on the rules. By allowing your students to complete this activity by trial and error they should figure out the rules for themselves. In this way the rules will be more memorable for them.
Even though a grammar point can be relatively simple, sometimes pronunciation can be more complicated. Pronunciation of the regular past simple endings can be problematic for English learners at lower levels but we can help them out with this simple categorisation activity.

source: openbmb/Ultra-FineWeb


text:
Comparative intelligence reports provide the following:
Comparative Facets of Coverage
Share of Voice: The share of voice reflects the number of articles with mentions of the company/subject/entity/person. It is presented in percentage form, relative to other competing mentions.
Coverage Size: The coverage size reflects the physical size of clippings. E.g. newspaper clippings are measured in column centimeters (Cc) whereas magazine clippings are measured in pages. This is to reflect how placing an advertisement is calculated.
Impressions: The impressions reflect the exposure a mention potentially achieved. The figure is based on the circulation of publications and the number of clippings tracked.
AVE: The Advertising Value Equivalent is the ratecard average price of placing an advertisement of equivalent size on the said medium.
Language: The breakdown of coverage by language.
Genre: The breakdown of coverage by publication genre (e.g. Business, Lifestyle..)
Media Type: The breakdown of coverage by media type (newspaper, magazine, online, etc.)
Article Type: The breakdown of coverage by article type (e.g. press release, feature, review, etc.)
An evaluation of all the relevant metrics is conducted in order to present recommendations.


text: Fiberoptical evanescent wave Fourier transform infrared (FEWFTIR) spectroscopy has been applied in the middle infrared (MIR) wavelength range (3 to 20 micrometer) to the in vivo diagnostics of normal skin tissue, acupuncture points as well as precancerous and cancerous conditions. The FTIR-FEW technique, using nontoxic unclad fibers, is suitable for noninvasive, sensitive investigations of skin tissue for various dermatological studies of skin caner, aging, laser treatment, cosmetics, skin allergies, etc. This method is direct, nondestructive, and fast (seconds). Our optical fibers are nonhygroscopic, flexible, and characterized by extremely low losses. In this study, we have noninvasively investigated more than 300 cases of normal skin, acupuncture points, precancerous and cancerous tissue in the range of 1400 to 1800 cm-1. The results of our analysis of skin and other tissue are discussed in terms of structural and mathematical similarities and differences on a molecular level. In addition, we have also performed cluster analysis, using principal component scores, to confirm pathological classifications and to discriminate between genders. We have found good agreement with prior pathological classifications for normal skin tissue and melanoma tumors and normal females were distinctly separate from males.


a laboratory origin nonetheless.
 But I gather there is some nuance I'm missing. Could you kindly explain how something that escaped *from the laboratory* is not considered to have *orginated in the laboratory*, please?
 4. 1. Bring a bat into the lab. Isolate the virus. Grow it in a test tube. Infect yourself along the way. Bring it home. =Lab escape.
 2. Isolate a virus. Add a gene. =Lab modified.
 Lab origin does require lab modified
 5. Thank you;
 "2. Isolate a virus. Add a gene. =Lab modified."
 Does not "a plasmid generated from Adeno-X(TM) to study SARS-CoV" qualify as lab modified?
Leave a Reply to jameslyonsweiler Cancel reply


Quick Answer: How Many Newtons Of Force Can An Average Human Exert?
How many newtons of force can a human exert?
A quick, sharp blow that delivers some 3,300 newtons of force has a 25 percent chance of cracking an average person's rib, she said..
How much force can a human hand exert?
What is the maximum force that can be applied by a human hand on a hammer in the blacksmith industry? The usual force one would be able to exert by pushing a finger against a surface is 40 N. Which is just enough force to lift a 4 kilogram article. (You are strong if you could do more).
How much is 1000 Newtons of force?
Please share if you found this tool useful:Conversions Table10 Newtons to Pounds-force = 2._PHONE_ Newtons to Pounds-force = 179.847220 Newtons to Pounds-force = 4._PHONE_ Newtons to Pounds-force = 202.32830 Newtons to Pounds-force = 6.74431,000 Newtons to Pounds-force = 224.808912 more rows
How much force can a person exert?
The force a human can exert without tools depends upon their physiology. The bench press record is apparently over 700 pounds weight (>3,000 Newtons in normal gravity). Most fit humans can exert a force greater than their own body weight. With tools, there is no realistic limit.
Are humans stronger at pulling or pushing?
How much is a Newton in KG?
Kg and NewtonValuesKg to Newton1 kg = 9.81 NNewton to kg1N = 0.10197 kg
What is the maximum force a human can withstand?
How much is 40 newtons of force?
Convert 40 Newtons to Pounds force40 Newtons (N)8.992 Pounds force (lb)1 N = 0.224809 lb1 lb = 4.448220 N
What does 500 newtons weigh?
Convert 500 Newtons to Pounds force500 Newtons (N)112.404 Pounds force (lb)1 N = 0.224809 lb1 lb = 4.448220 N
What is a pulling force called?
This pull is a force called weight.
How many Newtons can an average person pull?
According to a NASA report an average male can exert around 90 kg (200 pounds) or 1000 Newtons of force in a static push.
How much is 200 newtons of force?
Convert 200 Newtons to Pounds force200 Newtons (N)44.962 Pounds force (lb)1 N = 0.224809 lb1 lb = 4.448220 N
How much can a human push?
person with good upper body strength can push or pull 100 lbs. of horizontal force for a very short period of time. The horizontal force (push/pull) needed to move a cart loaded with 1500 lbs. of steel may be 300 lbs.
How strong can a human get?
Is 1 Newton a lot of force?
How many Newtons would it take to lift 100 pounds?
Please share if you found this tool useful:Conversions Table2 Pounds-force to Newtons = 8.896480 Pounds-force to Newtons = 355.85773 Pounds-force to Newtons = 13.344790 Pounds-force to Newtons = 400.33994 Pounds-force to Newtons = 17._PHONE_ Pounds-force to Newtons = 444.822212 more rows
Is it better to push or pull a heavy object?
When pushing or pulling a load you should never?
Always try to push rather than pull where possible. When negotiating a slop or ramp, get help from another worker. On an uneven surface, increase the pushing/pulling force to 10% of the load weight. To make it easier to push or pull, keep your feet well away from the load and move no faster than walking speed.
How much force is 5N?
Convert 5 Newtons to Pounds force5 Newtons (N)1.124045 Pounds force (lb)1 N = 0.224809 lb1 lb = 4.448220 N
How much force can a human grip?
A hearty hold indicates not only sturdy hand muscles, but also strong wrists and arms. In 1985, men ages 20-24 had an average right-handed grip of 121 pounds and left-handed grip of 105 pounds. Today, men that age had grips of only 101 and 99 pounds, the study found. Men 25-29 posted losses of 26 and 19 pounds.
How much force does it take to rip an arm off?
I am going to say yes. And the answer is 154,978 newtons. So how much force does it take to rip a human arm off? The yeild strength of muscle (the closes approximation I can find with a quick google) is about 1-4 MPa or MN/m2. Assuming an average arm has a diameter of 10 cm, for a cross-sectional area of about 80 cm2.


text:
My father-in-law just asked me an interesting question:
How much would an inch of water covering an acre weigh?
It's not such a difficult question. It seems like a perfect query for Wolfram Alpha.
WA doesn't get the question at all. In fact, it seems to have classified an acre as an animal. Maybe I should have said hectare? Nope. It does no better.
Interestingly, Google makes solving this problem trivial, thanks to the useful "convert" command. I solved the problem in two steps. (It helps to know that a cubic centimeter of water weighs a gram – in fact, that's the definition of a gram.)
Convert 1 inch x 1 acre to cubic centimeters -> 102 790 153 cubic centimeters
We already have the answer, 102,790,153 grams, but to put it into terms that are more human I Googled:
and got the correct answer, 113.306748 short tons.
No matter that my father-in-law used a calculator, we both got the same answer, proving that Google is, in some cases, better at numeric analysis than Wolfram Alpha.
The real problem with WA is that it's not easy to formulate a query that produces the results you're looking for. Type 'blood alcohol' and you'll get fascinating results (thanks to Chris Heath for finding that, by the way), but not necessarily results you can expect. And, as it turns out, predictability is an important feature of any search engine, or computational knowledge engine for that matter. Before it's useful you need to have some idea of what kind of answers you might get, and, for the moment, Wolfram Alpha's results seem utterly random. I'm rooting for it, but it may be that it's just too smart for The Rest Of Us.
(Thanks to Edward Coffey who points out that the query "1 acre * 1 inch * 1g / cubic centimetre" works on Wolfram Alpha. Quite well, in fact. But I don't think that changes my point.)


Overall Rating Gold - expired
Overall Score 67.42
Liaison Mary-Lee Townsend
Submission Date Oct. 6, 2014
Executive Letter Download
STARS v2.0
Western University
OP-19: Student Commute Modal Split
Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 1.84 / 2.00 Stefanie De Adder
Sustainability Coordinator
Facilities Management
Total percentage of students that use more sustainable commuting options:
The percentage of students that use each of the following modes as their primary means of transportation to get to and from campus::
Percentage (0-100)
Commute with only the driver in the vehicle (excluding motorcycles and scooters) 8.17
Walk, bicycle, or use other non-motorized means 38.72
Vanpool or carpool 4.04
Take a campus shuttle or public transportation 49.07
Use a motorcycle, scooter or moped 0
A brief description of the method(s) used to gather data about student commuting:
This question will now be included as part of the Sustainability Literacy Assessment and distributed to all students.
The website URL where information about sustainable transportation for students is available:


text:
Celebrate Mental Health Week – May 7-13, 2012
CMHA's Mental Health Week is an annual national event that takes place during the first week in May to encourage people from all walks of life to learn, talk, reflect and engage with others on all issues relating to mental health.
This year's Mental Health Week theme is Mental Health for All. Mental Health Week 2012 will focus on key topics that will help the public have a broader understanding of mental health, including: Kids Have Stress Too!; Resiliency: at Home, at School, and at Work; and Mental Health is Everyone's Concern. Local events and activities are planned in communities across Canada. Find an event near you or plan your own!
For more information, visit _URL_.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.


text:
1 12 parcc assessment 242 overall assessment scores 321 types of scores on the parcc school and district reports. Assessment interoperability framework june 2012 page: 2 table of contents each item is then included in one-or-more strands or sub-tests for scoring. Informational guide to algebra i summative assessment version 12 ' 2 overview sub-claim d: highlighted practice mp4 with connections to content values for each task type type i 1 point 23 23 type i 2 point 9 18 type i. Score assessment passing score assessment passing score math level 1 or level 2 600 biology-e or biology-m 500 us history 500 ^ an approved.
Map® growth™ k-2 is not a single assessment, but there are two screening assessments: one for early highlighted in gray, followed by a list of sub-skills. Guide to the code of assessment - chapter 1 - page 2 ii) each component of assessment may include sub-components except that. 1 an assessment offence is defined as "an action which could give a candidate an 2 assessment offences are categorised as plagiarism, examination offences, where a sub-board of examiners suspects that an offence of plagiarism or.
The melbourne assessment 2 is a valid and reliable tool for evaluating use the sum scores from the sub-scales of the ma2 to measure range, accuracy, for children with bilateral involvement, it may be that only one upper limb is assessed. The planning and implementation of the internal assessment of btec compensation is available for the btec level 1/2 firsts and pre 16 nationals. Year 2 year 3 year 4 year 1 figure 1 - 4-year assessment cycle a nonconformity has been identified against the same sub-clause, or. Classroom assessment techniques (cats) are generally simple, non-graded, the muddiest point is one of the simplest cats to help assess where students. G m bernstein 4, s boada 1, d l burke 5,6 d a finley 2, d j james 7 important aspect in order to achieve sub-1% photometric.
In part 1, manual, a selection of methods on fish stock assessment is described in detail, with in part 2, exercises, a number of exercises is given with solutions. Therefore, a soil assessment derived from the recommendations of the tsspeu and a1: boreal to sub-boreal, 2: atlantic, 3: sub-oceanic,. The board of review shall have 5 to 9 members, no more than 2 of whom may the department of revenue shall also prescribe the form of assessment rolls, forms, is used for one, or some combination, of the processes mentioned in sub. One method of setting up a community assessment project: 1 1 the population sub-group to be surveyed must be carefully defined 2 a sampling frame.
1d—creating a predictable, consistent, and harmonious classroom accreditation assessment items for definition of standard 2—curriculum 19. Here we discuss what a phase ii environmental site assessment is, and why you could at one point or another during the phase i environmental site assessment process, the answer is not always yes, and i'll explain why below of the phase i esa, phase ii work could include surficial and sub-surficial soil analysis,. Test of reasoning (sub-test 1) – this sub-test is the first step of the assessment test of judgment (sub-test 2) – you will be required to take.
Students' learning in reading (see diagram boxes 1-5 above) emphasis is on classroom management and teaching strategies assessment package 2. Annex 2 to annex 1 to terms of reference for a pillar assessment contracted by intermediaries are not applicable to which the entity sub-delegates budget. 2, 23/06/2016 ispot number 53595683 am-0101 assessment checklist sub meters page 1 of 5 assessment checklist sub meters please use block.
Educational assessment is the systematic process of documenting and using empirical data on a reliable assessment is one that consistently achieves the same results with the same (or similar) cohort of students generation of knowledge by (1) exposure to pattern, (2) efficiently recognizing and responding to pattern. Cambridge english language assessment is part of the university of cambridge assignment 1 assignment 2 assignment 3 assignment 4 1 ✓ ✓ ✓ 2 ✓. In age band 1 and 2, is it acceptable for the child to catch with one hand scored below the 15th percentile on any of the sub-components (manual dexterity,.


text:
Protocol::CassandraCQL::Type - represents a Cassandra CQL data type
Objects in this class represent distinct types that may be found in Cassandra CQL3, either as columns in query result rows, or as bind parameters to prepared statements. It is used by Protocol::CassandraCQL::ColumnMeta.
Returns a new type object initialised by parsing the type information in the given message frame.
Returns a string representation of the type name.
Encodes the given perl data into a bytestring.
Decodes the given bytestring into perl data.
Validates whether the given perl data is valid for this type. If so, returns false. Otherwise, returns an error message explaining why.
Returns the type of the elements in the list or set,
Returns the type of the keys and values in the map,
The following encodings to and from perl data are supported:
To or from a string scalar,
which must contain only US-ASCII codepoints (i.e.
ord <= 127).
To or from a numeric scalar.
To or from an opaque string scalar of bytes.
To or from an instance of Math::BigFloat, or from a regular numeric scalar.
To or from a numeric scalar, representing a UNIX epoch timestamp as a float to the nearest milisecond.
To or from a string containing hex digits and hyphens,
in the form
To or from a string scalar containing Unicode characters.
To or from an instance of Math::BigInt, or from a regular numeric scalar.
To or from an
ARRAY reference containing elements.
To or from a
where the keys used must be of some string type.
This code was paid for by
Paul Evans


Passer au contenu principal
Adaptive Insights French
Ribbons and Dials
Version: DashboardsClassic
Each dashboard holds one or more dials, which may be contained in ribbons (freeform dashboards do not use ribbons, while standard dashboards do). You can collapse a ribbon by clicking the arrow in its upper right corner:
Example a Ribbon
If a ribbon contains more dials than can be displayed, scroll buttons appear in the upper right of the ribbon. Click the arrows (highlighted below) to scroll left or right through the ribbon.
If you have editing permissions, you can use the Visual Designer to edit and create ribbons. See Creating and Managing Components for more information.
Dial User Interface
There are numerous features available within each dial. When you point to a dial, buttons appear in its upper right corner to offer you access to those features. To view the options available from each button, point to the button itself.
Action Menu Button
The Action menu offers access to the following dial features:
 - Dial Snapshot:Opens the Snapshot Manager, which lets you take a snapshot of the dial, download it in different formats, send it as an email attachment, and schedule regular snapshots to be taken.
 - Export Data: Lets you export the data populating the dial as a comma separated value (.csv) file for viewing in other applications such as MS Excel and other spreadsheet applications.
 - Design Dial: (Available only to users with Visual Designer permission) opens a subset of editors you can use to make changes to the dial. Any changes you ake to the dial are saved.
 - Modify Filter: Opens the Filters Editor from the Visual Designer, but any changes you make last only for the current session.
Drill Menu Button
The Drill menu lets you drill down into data shown in the dial.
Dials whose data comes from modeled or cube sheets only show the drill dimensions that apply to that sheet. Dials whose data comes from standard sheets show all the drill dimensions that exist. The following example uses the Drill menu to drill by location:
Example of Drill Tree
You can also access this menu by clicking a data point on an individual dial, and drilling just into that data.
As you drill down, new dials appear, creating a drill tree so you can always see how you got to the data you are viewing. If you want to share a drill tree, click Options at the top of the screen and select Printer-Friendly View. This opens a new window with just the drill tree in it, so you can print it or use screen capture software to make an image.
When you're finished with a drill tree, click the X in the upper right of the top dial to close it.
You can also enter the Cell Explorer by clicking an individual data point and selecting Explore Data.
Information Menu Button
The Information menu button & gives you access to some or all of the following dial features, depending on the dial:
 - About: Displays a box with information about the dial.
 - Show Consolidated View: Launches a new window with a dial consolidating the data from the original dial. This typically presents the data over a longer time span. For example, if the original dial displays the inventory levels for a month, the consolidated dial displays the inventory levels for the year.
 - Show Detailed View: Launches a second window containing a detailed view of the dial. This is typically a more detailed data breakdown. For example, the original dial may show the data for a one quarter period. The detailed dial may show the values for each month within the quarter.
 - Reset View: Reverses any changes you have made to a dial and returns the dial to its original state.
 - Options: Choose whether zone alerts are visible on the dial or not.
If you have permission to access the analysis tools, the menu lists all available analysis options for the dial at the end of the menu. Different dials have different analysis options, but here are some of the most common ones:
 - Standard View: Returns you to the dial's normal appearance.
 - Basic Analysis options:
 - Min and Max: Highlights the minimum and maximum values.
 - Average: Highlights the average of the data.
 - Standard Deviation: In statistics and probability theory, standard deviation shows how much variation, or "dispersion," exists from the average (the mean, or expected value). A low standard deviation indicates that the data points tend to be very close to the mean, whereas high standard deviation indicates that the data points are spread out over a large range of values. This chart shows the mean and standard deviation values of the dial's data.
 - Linear Trendline: Shows you a best-fit straight line that is used with simple linear data sets. Your data is linear if the pattern in its data points resembles a line. A linear trendline usually shows that something is increasing or decreasing at a steady rate.
 - Polynomial Trendline: A curved line that is used when data fluctuates. It is useful, for example, for analyzing gains and losses over a large data set. The order of the polynomial can be determined by the number of fluctuations in the data or by how many bends (hills and valleys) appear in the curve.
 - Description for a visualization: Explains what a dial looks like.
 - Moving Average: Smooths out fluctuations in data to show a pattern or trend more clearly. A moving average uses a specific number of data points, averages them, and uses the average value as a point in the line.
 - Correlation Chart: A scatter plot and a linear regression line. A scatter plot (or "scattergraph") is a type of mathematical diagram using Cartesian coordinates to display values for two variables for a set of data. Correlation is indicated by the line of best fit determined by linear regression on the data set.
 - Statistical Analysis
 - Control Chart: Also known as a Shewhart chart or process-behavior chart, this is a tool used in statistical process control to determine whether a manufacturing or business process is in a state of statistical control. The "Individuals Control Chart" uses data samples that are individual measurements. Control charts for individual measurements, such as where the sample size = 1, use the moving range of two successive observations to measure the process variability. The moving range is defined as the absolute value of the first difference (such as the difference between two consecutive data points) of the data. Similar to the Shewhart control chart, you can plot both the data (the individuals) and the moving range. For the control chart for individual measurements, the lines plotted are: UCL (Upper Control Limit), Centerline, and LCL (Lower Control Limit).
 - Pareto: This shows a type of chart that contains both bars and a line graph, where individual values are represented in descending order by bars, and the cumulative total is represented by the line. The purpose of the Pareto chart is to highlight the most important among a (typically large) set of factors.
 - Variance Analysis
 - Relative Variance: Shows you the point-by-point difference between two data sets relative to the first data set.
 - Actual Variance: Shows you the point-by-point difference between two data sets compared to zero.
 - Waterfall: Helps in determining the cumulative effect of sequentially introduced positive or negative values. The waterfall chart is also known as a flying bricks chart or Mario chart due to the apparent suspension of columns (bricks) in mid-air. Often in finance, it is referred to as a bridge.
 - Period Analysis
 - Previous Period: Shows you a comparison of two data sets, one representing the current period and the second representing the preceding calendar period of the same type.
 - Comparable Period: Shows you a comparison of two data sets, one representing the current period and the second representing the same calendar period from the previous year.
Data Points
When a dial displays data, individual data points are displayed as dots along the line, bar, or other form of data display.
Clicking a data point displays a menu:
Example of a Data Point Menu
The data point menu's options (some options may not be available, depending on your configuration):
 - Notes: Users can put notes on dials for others to see. Select Notes in the point menu to open the Notes dialog. Notes can be formatted in a number of ways, including font and color. When you are finished, click Save.
 When a note is present on a point, the Note button appears. Clicking it displays the Notes dialog, where you can see that data point's note as well as a history of the note. To edit the note, click Edit. When you are done, click Save and Close to save your work and dismiss the dialog, or click Close to dismiss it without saving.
 - Show [Period]: The period(s) available for you to click varies according to the dial. For example, if a dial displays a month of data, the menu might offer Show Weeks. If you click Show Weeks, a drill down trail showing the data by weeks appears, and you can continue to drill in whatever way is useful.
 - [Dimension name]: This is another drill down capability. The dimensions shown in the dial are offered here for you to drill down into whatever you need.
 - Show Table: Displays a table of all the raw data submitted to the data in the dial during the selected time period.
 - What if...: This analysis tool appears to users who have the Use Analysis Tools permission. When


text:
7Sage LSAT Blog
19 common, repeated argument flaws that students overlook on Logical Reasoning
Note: This list is not meant to be exhaustive. It is simply meant to be a guide to the more common argument flaws the LSAT tends to exploit.
1. Attacking the source of the argument
To attack an argument you may attack:
1) the premises (which never happens on the LSAT); or
2) the support the premises give to the conclusion
What you DO NOT get to do is to attack the author, his past acts or arguments, his motivation, where the argument comes from, or anything other than (1) or (2).
2. Uses terms unclearly/equivocation
The author uses a term (with more than one meaning) inconsistently. For example, "public interest" in one sense means what is in the best interest of the public (e.g., clean air, roads, schools). In another sense, it means what the public is interested in (e.g, celebrity gossip). The shift in word meaning will often be subtle and hard to notice.
3. Analogies that really aren't analogous enough
All arguments by analogy fall apart at some point. At some point the two things being analogized lose their relevant similarities and the analogy cannot continue. We can say attacking the LSAT questions is like attacking enemy starships. But, in many ways, it's not.
4. Appealing to authority in an area outside their expertise
Appealing to an authority where the subject matter is outside the expertise of the authority. For example, a dentist's opinions on automotive maintenance is not authoritative.
5. Causation confusions
Whenever the LSAT concludes or assumes that A causes B, 99.9% of the time it's wrong. They'll tell you A is correlated with B or that A coincided with B and therefore A caused B. Maybe. That's just one possible explanation for the correlation. Here are the other 3 possible explanations:
1) B caused A
2) C caused both A and B
3) A and B are merely coincidentally correlated and really something else, X, caused B. We see this a lot with accident rate and speed sign questions. New speed limit sign was put up! Accident rates drop! Therefore, it must be that the new speed limit sign dropped the accident rate. Maybe. But maybe there was an increase in cop cars patrolling the area and that's what actually caused the drop in accident rates. The speed limit sign was just coincidentally there.
6. Circular reasoning
Assuming what you're trying to prove. The premise is a mere restatement of the conclusion.
"Everything I say is true. This is true because I said it, and everything I say is true."
7. Confusing necessary and sufficient conditions
The oldest trick in the book.
8. False dichotomy
A false dichotomy only pretends to divide the universe into two binary halves. It is not a real contradiction. Consider this real contradiction: cats and non-cats. That's cleanly cuts the universe into two halves. Garfield? Cat. Einstein, MacBook Pro, Love? Non-cat. Here's a false dichotomy: Cats and dogs. See how that leaves out Einstein, MacBook Pro, and Love? They are neither cats nor dogs.
9. Confusing probability for certainty
Could be is not must be. Even if something is 99.99% likely to happen, it does not mean that it will happen.
10. Confusing is for ought
Don't confuse the descriptive for the prescriptive. Descriptive simply describes the state of the world. The tree is small. The lake is murky. Prescriptive reveals values. The tree ought to be big. The lake should be clear. The prescriptive reveals what we care about. You will typically encounter a descriptive premise leading to a prescriptive conclusion. For example, the house is on fire therefore we should put the fire out. That's not a good argument. There are a number of reasons why we wouldn't want to put the fire out. We always need a bridge premise to take us from the descriptive world of the premises to the prescriptive world of the conclusion. The bridge in the example argument above would be: Houses that are on fire ought to have their fires put out.
11. Percentages v. quantity
Percentages don't necessarily reveal quantity and vice versa.
For example, Group A wants a 10% raise and Group B wants a 50% raise. Who will earn more money afterward? Who is asking for more money? We have no way to know based on this information.
12. Surveys and samplings to reach a general conclusion
Remember that surveys and samplings must be random (that is, non-biased). Asking a group of 20 year olds about who they are voting for will only tell you who 20 year olds are voting for (assuming they're a statistically random set of 20 year olds regarding race, gender, etc.), not who the entire country will vote for.
13. Hasty generalization
Hasty generalization is very similar to sampling error. The difference is that the conclusion is very broad. You cannot make a generalization based on small sample size or based on one or two incidents.
14. Experiments to reach a general conclusion
Experiments to reach a general conclusion must include a control group. It must also establish the baseline of what is measured before the experiment begins.
15. Your argument fails therefore the opposite of your conclusion must be true
Be careful of arguments that try to do this. Just because you've wrecked someone's argument, doesn't mean that you get to conclude the opposite of his conclusion. If I make a crappy argument for going to the movies tonight as opposed to going to a bar or doing any number of things, you can't just show me why my argument sucks and conclude: therefore we should go to a bar. First of all, there could be other arguments made to support going to the movies. Additionally, you still have the burden of making an argument that proves that we should go to the bar.
16. Relative v. absolute
A is faster than B, therefore A is fast? Not necessarily so. A is faster than B in relative terms. It doesn't imply that A is fast in the absolute sense. For example, we know that that the conclusion in this statement is not true: "Hippopotamuses are smaller than an elephants. Therefore, hippopotamuses are small." Or take this statement: "Turtles are faster than ants. Therefore, turtles are fast."
17. Confusing one possible solution for the only solution
There are many ways to solve a problem. Just because one solution solves a problem doesn't mean that particular solution is the only solution that can solve the problem. Nor, for that matter, does it mean it is the best solution. If I nuke Cleveland, I'll probably solve Cleveland's homeless problem. This does not make it a good solution.
This flaw can also be used in the negative. This happens when one solution to a problem turns out not solve the problem, and then the conclusion might say that the problem cannot be solved or that the problem shouldn't be solved. The flaw remains: just because one solution to a problem is inadequate doesn't mean that the problem itself cannot be solved.
18. Red herring
This happens when the argument doesn't address the relevant issue. Rather, it addresses some other issue that is tangential or has nothing to do with the relevant issue but, for some reason, commands your attention.
19. Tradition fallacy and novelty fallacy
The fact that something is old doesn't mean that it is right or better. In the same vein, just because things have been done a certain way for a long time doesn't mean that it is right or better. See slavery.
Likewise, just because something is new doesn't entail that it is best course of action. Nor does it entail that the old thing or idea is no longer relevant or true. Change for the sake of change is not an argument; there must be something that shows the change is better.
Did you like this list of common LSAT argument flaws? You'll find more information like this in our online LSAT course, along with walkthroughs of hundreds of flawed LSAT arguments.
Logic games are the hardest section of the LSAT, at first. They're like nothing you've ever seen before, and they're very confusing.
Fortunately, they're also the easiest section to get better at. It all starts by getting a good overview of what you're up against. That's why we made this video introduction logic games. Enjoy!
You may find logic games tough now. They're difficult because they're unfamiliar. As you practice, they get a lot easier. We promise.
Repeating logic games until you master them is the best way to get good at games. Our students have used repetition to score near perfect on games, and so can you.
Don't worry too much about game types. You'll find complicated classification systems in books and on the internet, but these aren't necessary and can be distracting. We just classify games as either sequencing, grouping or a mixture of the two types.
The LSAT is hard. There's no getting around that. But it is a learnable test. You can study for the LSAT and improve in a pretty dramatic way. Study hard and study right, and you will get better at the LSAT. There are three things you need to do to get a great LSAT score.
1. Master reading and logic
The LSAT is a test of reading and logic. Read that again. If you get good at reading and logic, you get good at the LSAT.


text:
Chaco Teraada Chose Kotodama—a compound of koto (meaning "word" or "speech") and tama (meaning "spirit" or "soul")—for the title of the small retrospective of her work over the past decade on view this spring at the Crow Collection of Asian Art. The words embody an ancient Japanese belief that spiritual power lives in language. In Japanese martial arts, belief in kotodama gives rise to the kiai, or "battle cry," in aikido; language power is called upon to harmonize mind and body to the task at hand. This alignment of force and technique is also referred to as a "spirit meeting."
Terada, living in a culture where English is the common tongue, experiences the sensation of kotodama—the spiritual power of words—in calligraphy, where she comes back to the language of her heart. From calligraphy, she has extended this power to other art forms using photography and ink and color on paper and silk. For Terada, kotodama is the feeling that guides her brush, harmonizing body, spirit, and action.
Terada learned calligraphy sitting next to her father, a distinguished Japanese calligrapher. He did not teach her with words but in silence. He instructed her to watch his gestures, to sense speed and hesitation, to feel pressure on the paper or the lift of the brush, and to follow the forms with her own tama, or "qi," flowing into the brush. He taught her the art of calligraphy by movement of spirit, by issuing the sound of spirit in action. Terada's own calligraphy, represented in the exhibition by Exercise I, is accomplished and spirited, and it remains her understanding of art, although her media have assumed new roles.
Wanting to explore possibilities of ink, paper, and silk, she moved from calligraphy to couching ink-strokes between layers of silk and paper, revealing the gesture through translucent materials—like thoughts recalled from memory, feelings tinted in another place of awareness. In another group of works on view, she focuses on the character itself, feeling its interaction with space, its flight into being, its lifespan as gesture as limited and unique, a lifespan like our own. One group of photographs follows the trajectory of words written on tightly folded paper as the tension of the folds is released and the paper springs to life to permeate space in dizzying spirals and wacky conversations. In the most recent group of works, she reenacts the horizon between water and sky through layers of silk over ink—sky never quite begins, sea never quite ends.
As in a martial art or calligraphy, Terada's intense concentration and discipline can arm her with powerful lightness, single-pointed intimacy, and harmony. Her works are small, her tools few. They catch us by surprise. We lean in to join the "spirit meeting."


Abridged Guide to Evil Wikia
Abridged Guide to Evil Wikia
A name that was Recalled by Hanno during his duel with the Black Knight.
Power Level[]
A powerful named meant to be unbeatable on top of a horse. When in a jousting battle or when given enough time to build up speed the name cannot be halted. The Name is especially powerful when leading a vanguard of soldiers in a charge, effectively changing the tide of a battle by massing into a spear of death shredding enemies wherever they go. This makes the weakness of this name apparent, without weapon or a horse the name is crippled.
The name was gained when the Duke rode in a charge that was all but doomed most likely a few riders being lead against a larger force. The individual acts as a beacon of hope for soldiers acting as vanguard.
Special Abilities[]
The knight has a spear that has been augmented the name also wreath both the rider and the mount with light protecting them as well as increasing offensive power.


text:
|9.75" × 7.75" paperback with illustrations by Charles Ferguson Barker.
Too sick to go to school, Sean is entertained when his fisherman puppet comes to life and they leave the Earth to see it from the outside looking in. This book, which is told mainly in rhyme, introduces young readers (ages 4–8) to plate tectonics. The detailed black-and-white pencil drawings are sure to delight readers of all ages.
Charles Ferguson Barker earned his bachelor's degree in geology at Arizona State University, where he first learned about plate tectonics from his professor Dr. Robert S. Dietz, who coined the phrase "seafloor spreading." After earning his master's degree in geology at Boston University, Barker decided to write and illustrate a book for children, introducing the basic concepts of plate tectonics. Barker teaches geology, presents lectures to elementary school students about geology, and works in the environmental consulting field.


The Web Graph Database
Probe Framework
The purpose of the InfoGrid Probe Framework is to make the content of external data sources appear as native InfoGrid objects that self-update, shadowing the content of the external data source as it changes. By doing this, the development of applications that use changing data from external sources (like RSS feeds, web service calls,...) becomes substantially simpler.
It accomplishes this through the following concepts:
Often, applications choose to update a ShadowMeshBase periodically. (The actual timing depends on the applied policy, which can be defined and updated programmatically.) During each update, the following sequence of events occurs:
 1. The correct Probe is determined for the given data source, by means of the ProbeDirectory, any preferences that the data source expressed in a previous run, and the MIME type and URL of the data source
 2. Changes made by the InfoGrid application to MeshObjects instantiated from the data source content are passed to the Probe, which can attempt to update the data source accordingly. This only occurs if the Probe is a WritableProbe.
 3. The Probe re-reads the data source, and instantiates the corresponding MeshObjects into the StagingMeshBase.
 4. The Differencer compares the previously-read set of MeshObjects (current content of the ShadowMeshBase) with the most recently-read set of MeshObjects (current content of the StagingMeshBase)
 5. It then applies the found changes to the ShadowMeshBase, which transitions the MeshObjectGraph contained in the ShadowMeshBase to the most current version.
 6. The StagingMeshBase is discarded.
 7. As a consequence, the ShadowMeshBase emits a stream of events that is identical to the stream of events that would have been emitted if the ShadowMeshBase's MeshObjects would have been manipulated there directly. If conveyed via XPRISO, other MeshBases cannot distinguish this event stream from any other event stream conveyed via XPRISO.
 8. A future update may be scheduled.
See also:
Last modified 6 years ago Last modified on 01/19/10 16:48:39


How Everything Works Together
There are a lot of bits and pieces of information out there that you have to piece together yourself to figure out how all of this stuff works together. As soon as you figure out how one piece works, there's another piece of the puzzle. Hopefully I can put this into perspective and outline all the pieces.
This was my first post. In the two years since, I have realized that I made things quite a bit more complicated than they needed to be. It's still good to understand how all of the different pieces talk to each other, but I've updated the software section to reflect how I've pared it down.
Think about the PC controlling everything as the brain, the mount as the heart, and the OTA and camera as the eyes. This is meant for a general overview. There will be more in-depth pages on each of these controls and I'll link them here as I write them. Take a look at this quick process breakdown, and then below, a layout of my setup.
 1. Planetarium software talks to the mount to slew to a target.
 2. Plate-solving software uses the imaging camera and imaging software to center the target in the imaging camera's field of view.
 3. Guiding software send commands to the mount to keep a star in the same spot based on images provided by your guide camera.
 4. Imaging software allows you to create an imaging plan and set image settings to for your camera.
 5. ASCOM Driver software pulls all of it together.
My background is in IT, and is highly process-driven, so I created this flowchart to help myself understand how everything is working together. Visualizing it like this helped me to write a setup checklist and eliminate mistakes in my setup. There are more subtleties and connections used that aren't listed here, but there are only so many lines you can draw before it gets way too confusing.
Think of the flowchart breakdown this way:
 - Yellow = the eyes and imaging components of the setup
 - Blue = Mount and it's software controls
 - Green = a crossover of imaging and controls specific for Astrotortilla since it uses both aspects to center an object
 - Orange = the brain – the main control laptop
 - Purple = intermediaries and extras. They are not absolutely necessary to image, but help a lot
My PC runs the following software simultaneously to control all the pieces:
 - Stellarium Scope
 - Allows Stellarium to use the POTH ASCOM driver
 - Stellarium
 - Planetarium Software to view the night sky and move without the clunky handset
 - New (2019) Meade Universal ASCOM Driver POTH hand controller
 - Allows you to make small adjustments using the PC as you would with the hand controller
 - PHD2
 - Guiding and alignment
 - Astrophotography Tool Backyard EOS
 - Imaging
 - PlateSolve2 and/or All Sky Plate Solver embedded in Astrophotography Tool Astrotortilla
 - Plate solving/object centering
 - Windows Remote Desktop Teamviewer
 - This is a free luxury with two PCs (or phone/tablet) that I use to remotely control the PC at the Telescope from the warmth of my family room, or even away from home.
That's a lot of work for the brain. Let's take a look at how the brain interacts with all of these pieces to get them to work together.
Update: I now use a new Universal Meade Driver that allows connections to multiple pieces of software and more automation for Meade mounts. The thing that makes all of this possible is the ASCOM standard drivers for PCs. Most mounts today are ASCOM compatible, and descriptions on product sites will let you know if they are. With the use of the POTH (Plain Old Telescope Handset) Hub you can connect all of the control software simultaneously using virtual COM ports. You can use device specific ASCOM drivers to connect directly to the mount, but you will be restricted to running one piece of control software at a time. Using POTH hub, each piece of software connects to to the hub, and the hub connects to your mount using the device specific driver.
Update: I still use Stellarium to plan sessions, but object slewing is built into Astrophotography tool. You can use the object database programmed into your hand controller to slew the scope to objects, but I don't see the point of that if you're already using a PC to control guiding. Stellarium and Stellarium Scope are free pieces of software that allow you to point the scope using a visual reference. Stellarium sends commands to the mount through the handset telling it where to point. Stellarium can control your mount without Stellarium Scope, but Stellarium Scope is necessary if you plan on using the POTH hub.
PHD2 (Push Here Dummy) has two purposes. The first used in a setup is Drift Alignment. Through a process of determining guiding errors, you adjust the Azimuth and Altitude adjustments on your mount to get the alignment dead-on. This will allow for longer exposures with fewer thrown away. The second, and primary purpose of the software is to send pulse commands to your mount to keep the guiding right on target, based on the star image provided by your guide camera. This software can be used in a basic setup (Push Here Dummy) or an advanced setup with subtle changes to increase guiding accuracy. I've recently tapped into more of the advanced settings and have been able to increase my guiding accuracy significantly, usually to a total error of under 1 arc second. For example, I imaged for 10 hours and only had to throw out 4 captures due to tracking errors.
Update: PlasteSolve 2 and All Sky Plate Solver are integrated into Astrophotography Tool. They require little setup and I have more success with them, solving in under 5 seconds in most cases. Astrotortilla puts your image in the center of the FOV. For a mount GOTO as inaccurate as mine, Astrotortilla is essential. Astrotortilla takes an image using your imaging software (BackyardEOS in my case) and imaging camera. With that image, it then uses a database specific to your field of view to determine where your scope is pointing, and where it needs to be. After calculating the error, Astrotortilla sends commands to the mount to slew to the object. It repeats this process to get the object centered within one arc-minute. This software can be very confusing, and all of the setup information I've seen out there is over-complicated and makes things more confusing. This is a very useful piece of software, but it can be extremely frustrating if it's not setup properly.
Click here to find out how to use Astrotortilla
Update: Since purchasing a cooled Astro Camera, I've moved to Astrophotography tool. BackyardEOS allows you to create an imaging plan and gives you a bit of a set it and forget it method to imaging. Obviously it interacts with the imaging camera, but also has the capability to communicate with your mount by porting to PHD2 for dithering (a process to reduce noise that moves each image a couple pixels).
Update: At home I use the built-in Windows Remote Desktop, which operates completely within your home network. It's faster and more reliable. Lastly, Teamviewer is a free remote control software that I use to control the PC connected to the scope. Living in Chicago, where it's either 95, or -5 and rarely in-between, I can image more often and for longer from inside the house.
More details on my specific setup
3 thoughts on "How Everything Works Together
Leave a Reply
You are commenting using your account. Log Out / Change )
Google photo
Twitter picture
Facebook photo
Connecting to %s


, which is also called the resultant of the two polynomials, is 0 exactly when the two equations have a common solution in z. The terms of |S|, for example (a0)n(bn)m, all have degree mn, so |S| is a homogeneous polynomial of degree mn in x and y (recall that ai and bi are themselves polynomials). By the fundamental theorem of algebra, this can be factored into mn linear factors so there are mn solutions to the system of equations. The linear factors correspond to the lines that join the origin to the points of intersection of the curves.[2]
See also[edit]
 1. ^ Kirwan, Frances (1992). Complex Algebraic Curves. United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-42353-8.
 2. ^ Follows Plane Algebraic Curves by Harold Hilton (Oxford 1920) p. 10
External links[edit]


text:
Helping people with computers... one answer at a time.
Keeping data on your computer secure is important. Being able to password protect a folder seems an obvious approach. Unfortunately it's not that simple.
Can I put a password on a folder so that only I can see its contents?
Yes and no.
You can do something similar to password protecting it using Windows security features. It depends, though, on using the computer the "right" way. On top of that, I actually don't really recommend it. If you have something that you want to password protect and keep secure, I recommend a slightly different approach.
Windows allows you to place restrictions on who can do what with a folder, or even a file. In Windows Explorer, right click on a folder and Properties, and then click on the Security tab:
Here you can see the properties of a folder on my machine called "books".
Here you can control who has access to that folder. The default way my machine is set up, everyone can examine the contents of that folder. I can remove that and further restrict on an account-by-account basis which users can access that folder, and whether they can modify, read or even see the folder contents.
It's actually very powerful, if a tad complex.
However, it's based on Windows user accounts. Thus if you give your own account full access to the file, as I assume you would, then anyone that can login to the machine as you can immediately access the file. There's no real password on the folder, it's your ability to login to Windows using your login password that controls your access to the file.
And since it's based on Windows user accounts it assumes you're actually using different user accounts for different people. It's very common for that not to be the case.
The approach I prefer, and in fact use myself, is to use the free open-source tool TrueCrypt.
With TrueCrypt, you create a single file on your computer's hard drive that is encrypted. If someone looks at that file all they see is random data - there's no way to know what that file contains.
Once you "mount" that file using TrueCrypt, and supply the correct password or pass-phrase to unlock it, the contents of that file appear as another drive on your system.
For example, I might have a file "c:\Windows\secretstuff.tc". There's nothing you can do with that file without TrueCrypt and the password to the file. Since I know the password, I can mount it using TrueCrypt and suddenly a new drive appears - say "P:". That drive then contains all my protected files. I can change them, update them, delete them - whatever. Once I'm done, I can hide them all again by simply unmounting the TrueCrypt drive.
It's both simple and elegant.
And it's not tied to Windows, user accounts or anything else. In fact, you can copy your encrypted file to another machine entirely and mount it with TrueCrypt. Even using other systems such as Linux.
And while any encryption is vulnerable if you pick a bad password, the actual encryption algorithms used by TrueCrypt are "industrial strength" and nearly impossible to crack with current technologies.


text:
During the last two years the Journal of Visualized Experiments has published more than 300 peer-reviewed papers, and is now indexed by PubMed. Who cares about just another of the thousands of science journals?
Good question. JoVE is a video journal, meaning that instead of a printed journal, each "article" is actually a video, typically under 10 minutes or so.
The point is that, for many life sciences experiments, it's difficult to explain the experimental methods in substantial enough detail for the purposes or replication. So here's where JoVE comes in:
JoVE opens a new frontier in scientific publication by promoting efficiency and performance of life science research. Visualization of the temporal component, or the change over time integral to many life science experiments, can now be done.
JoVE allows you to publish experiments in all their dimensions, overcoming the inherent limitations of traditional, static print journals, thereby adding an entirely new parameter to the communication of experimental data and research results.
So, if you want to know how to collect blood from a Horseshoe Crab, you're in luck.
It's an innovative idea and I can see how it would greatly help with the ability to reproduce experimental results. But how will video "articles" play within the world of academia? Will a young up-and-coming researcher get as much credit for this as a printed paper? Jonathan Gitlin of Ars Technica is skeptical, and frankly, so am I.
But I wish them the best, all the same.


text:
The time period when the sun is no more than 6 degrees below the horizon at either sunrise or sunset. The horizon should be clearly defined and the brightest stars should be visible under good atmospheric conditions (i.e. no moonlight, or other lights). One still should be able to carry on ordinary outdoor activities.
The time period when the sun is between 6 and 12 degrees below the horizon at either sunrise or sunset. The horizon is well defined and the outline of objects might be visible without artificial light. Ordinary outdoor activities are not possible at this time without extra illumination.
The time period when the sun is between 12 and 18 degrees below the horizon at either sunrise or sunset. The sun does not contribute to the illumination of the sky before this time in the morning, or after this time in the evening. In the beginning of morning astronomical twilight and at the end of astronomical twilight in the evening, sky illumination is very faint, and might be undetectable.
The time of Civil Sunset minus the time of Civil Sunrise.
The time of Actual Sunset minus the time of Actual Sunrise. The change in length of daylight between today and tomorrow is also listed when available.


text:
|North Male atoll Image credit: By rolando000 CC-BY, via flickr|
1. Manta Point
Mantas are the super-order of cartilaginous fish resembling sharks. They are rays with a peculiar body shape having diffused pectoral fins and a slit gill from the ventral part. These little fishes are good cleaning agents as they remove each and every small parasite and other particles from their neighborhood. Manta point is also called as cleaning station that is in the southeast of North Male Atoll.
2. Banana Reef
This popular reef is a reserve of caves with glass fish and soft corals. Several kinds of sea fish such as angel fish, eagle rays, puffers and others splash in this banana-shaped reef.
Octopus and several kinds of sharks also roam freely in this atoll. Only diving experts can explore this pelagic world as too much caution is required. November-May is considered as the best season for diving as currents may develop producing crystal-clear water.
|Surfing site: Image credit: By Ibrahim Asad's PHotography, CC-BY via flickr|
2. Pasta Point : This consistent break amuses the surfers by transforming small waves into a big swell.
3. Jailbreak : The fastest wave formation with long walls and volume is observed in this break point.
4. Sultans: High peak takeoff waves are spotted in this point lying near to the Tari Village Resort.
5. Male Island Point: A dry reef makes Male Island Point, a unique surfing point.
North Male atoll greeting cardsBuy from Amazon
Related posts in Hubpages:
1. Maldives; the tourist's destination in winter
2. Kerala tourism; green rolling hillocks of Vagamon


text:
Cycloramic murals—building-sized paintings hung circularly for viewing from the inside—were a European innovation of the late nineteenth century. Frenchman Paul Philippoteaux supervised the painting of a cyclorama of the Battle of Gettysburg, which came to this country in 1884 and remains a prominent attraction at the Gettysburg National Military Park.
German artists also produced cycloramas, such as those depicting battles of the Franco-Prussian War. A number of them were recruited to America in 1883 by William Wehner of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, who ran the American Panorama Company, dedicated to cycloramic art. Thirteen artists painted The Battle of Missionary Ridge in 1883-84 and then turned to the Battle of Atlanta as the subject for their next mural. The company's choice of subject was influenced by one patron, the Republican Illinois senator John A. Logan, who ran unsuccessfully for vice president in 1884 and was rumored to be a candidate for the presidential nomination in 1888. A former Union general, Logan commanded the Fifteenth Corps in the Battle of Atlanta and assumed command of the Army of the Tennessee after the death of General James B. McPherson.
In the summer of 1885 the Milwaukee artists came to Atlanta for field study. Twenty years after the war, histories of the battle were in print, but the artists received most of the technical advice from Union and Confederate veterans. Assisting was Theodore Davis, wartime illustrator for Harper's Weekly, who had followed General William T. Sherman's armies. With trench lines outside Atlanta still extant, the artists fixed as the point of reference a site just inside Union lines at the Georgia Railroad, running eastward from the city. From a forty-foot tower they studied the terrain and sketched layouts. After several months on site, they returned to their Milwaukee studio, where, supervised by F. W. Heine and August Lohr, the artists—all specialists in landscapes, figures, and animals—completed the painting.
At its debut in Detroit in February 1887, the work was billed as "Logan's Great Battle" (although the senator had died three months before). The heavy canvases were draped on wooden frames, which were moved and reassembled at Minneapolis, Minnesota, and then Indianapolis, Indiana, where the Cyclorama opened in May 1888. Wehner sold the painting to an Indianapolis art exhibit company, which in turn sold it in 1890 to Paul Atkinson of Madison, Georgia.
Atkinson, already the owner of the Missionary Ridge cyclorama, sent the Atlanta painting to Chattanooga, Tennessee, and brought the former to Atlanta, exhibiting it in a circular building on Edgewood Avenue until February 1892. Missionary Ridge then traveled to Nashville, Tennessee, where it was later destroyed in a hurricane; in its place, The Battle of Atlanta opened in Atlanta on February 22, 1892. Resale to various owners led to its purchase at the Edgewood Avenue exhibition hall by Atlanta businessman George V. Gress, who donated the painting to the city in March 1898 after providing it with housing in Grant Park. Grant Park is a public park established in 1883 and named for Atlantan Lemuel P. Grant, the donor of the park land, who as a Confederate engineer had surveyed for the fortifications around Atlanta.
The painting takes in a wide sweep of the area: the skyline of Atlanta, Kennesaw Mountain, Stone Mountain, and the smoke of a cavalry fight at Decatur. Details of the battle are as if the viewer stood just inside the Fifteenth Corps lines at about 4:30 p.m. on July 22.
The Cyclorama has been housed at Grant Park since the 1890s. In 1921 a new building, designed by Atlanta architect John Francis Downing, took in the painting and, six years later, the locomotive Texas, famous in the Andrews Raid of 1862. In 1934-36, funded by the Works Progress Administration, artists Weis Snell, Joseph Llorens, and Wilbur Kurtz fashioned plaster figures for a diorama as foreground for the painting. Set on a flooring of red clay, the shrubbery, cannon, track, and 128 soldiers (twenty inches to fifty inches tall, to fit in perspective with the scale of the painting), give the painting more realism and extend it thirty feet toward the viewing platform. After Clark Gable visited the Cyclorama in December 1939 while in Atlanta for the premiere of Gone With the Wind, Mayor William B. Hartsfield had Snell make a figure of a Union corpse with a face painted to resemble Gable's Rhett Butler.
Deterioration of the painting and water damage led to an $11 million restoration of the Cyclorama in 1979-81. Under the supervision of Gustav Berger, the canvas was cleaned and treated, and the paint colors were restored. In the diorama the clay was replaced with a fiberglass and plastic flooring by Joseph Hurt (a descendant of Troup Hurt), and the plaster figures were reset. The building was remodeled and equipped with a 184-seat, tiered viewing platform, which rotates slowly as recorded narrative describes the painting. The upstairs museum was also updated, with artifacts given mostly by a former Cyclorama employee. The new Cyclorama reopened in June 1982 and continues to draw visitors from around the world.
The Battle of Atlanta: The Cyclorama, Grant Park, Atlanta, Georgia (Kansas City, Mo.: Terrell Publishing, _PHONE_?; distributed by Thomas Warren Enterprises).
Barry L. Brown and Gordon R. Elwell, Crossroads of Conflict: A Guide to Civil War Sites in Georgia (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2010).
Chip Carter, "Atlanta's Restored Cyclorama," Civil War Times Illustrated, January-February 1991, 18-22.
Harold Holzer and Mark E. Neely Jr., Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory: The Civil War in Art (New York: Orion Books, 1993), esp. ch. 5, "The Theater of the War: Cycloramas and Panoramic Art."
Alma Hill Jamison, "The Cyclorama of the Battle of Atlanta," Atlanta Historical Bulletin 10 (July 1937): 58-75.
Wilbur G. Kurtz, "At the Troup Hurt House," Atlanta Constitution Magazine, January 25, 1931.
Wilbur G. Kurtz, "The Story of the Cyclorama Painting," in The Atlanta Cyclorama of the Battle of Atlanta (Atlanta: City of Atlanta, 1954), 24-28.
Stephen Davis, Marietta
A project of the Georgia Humanities Council, in partnership with the University of Georgia Press, the University System of Georgia/GALILEO, and the Office of the Governor.


text:
Here's a neat new method for your robot to move around. The goal of the project was to create a gearless drive system, but the creator found out his concept had actually been around since the 1930s. The idea didn't create a lot of excitement back then, but with modern electronics and robotics, it looks like the idea may have a second life.
The hemispherical omnidirectional gimballed wheel, or HOG wheel, is a simple rubber hemisphere that spins like a top. When the rubber hits the road, it creates the torque necessary to move the object attached to it in any directions. Based on how the gimballed wheel is placed, change directions with split second speed. Awesome!


text:
NCC maintains and updates a premier food and nutrient database that supports NDSR.
What sets the NDSR Food and Nutrient Database apart from the rest?
- Contains more foods and nutrients than other research quality databases (comparison table).
- Comprehensiveover 18,000 foods of which about 7,500 are brand name products, menu items available at 23 leading restaurants, and an array of ethnic foods.
- More nutrients and other food components than any other research quality food and nutrient database- 174 nutrients, nutrient ratios and other food components.
- Food group serving count system is available to facilitate estimating intake of food groups (e.g., daily servings of fruit).
- Completealmost no missing data entries for nutrient values.
- Currentongoing additions and updates to foods and nutrients in it.
- Foods, Nutrients, Food Groups
- Nutrient Completeness
- Nutrient Information Sources
- Imputation Procedures
- Additions and Updates
- Database Structure


Home / World Economy / IMF/OECD News / IMF: How social unrest can inspire changes in policy
IMF: How social unrest can inspire changes in policy
Protests driven by the pandemic's economic fallout are on the rise, with potentially long-lasting economic consequences.
Protests can be catalysts for political reform and social change. But what impact do they have on the economy?
According to the latest Global Peace Index, the number of riots, general strikes and anti-government demonstrations around the world have increased by a staggering 244 percent in the last decade. Lockdowns and fears of contagion forced a temporary lull. But in virtually every region of the world, demonstrators are making a comeback. Causes range from frustration over governments' handling of the crisis to mounting inequality and corruption—factors that tend to heighten existing tensions and disparities, and have led to social unrest in the aftermath of previous pandemics.
Using the Reported Social Unrest Index (RSUI)—an index developed by IMF staff based on press coverage—we find that the short to medium-term economic costs of social unrest can in fact be quite large, especially in emerging markets and developing economies (we do not study the potential long-term impacts).
A new wave of unrest could affect the recovery
In our working paper, we estimate the macroeconomic impact of social unrest over the period _PHONE_. In addition, we identify social unrest events—events that create an unusually high increase in the RSUI—and classify these into three categories, based on the underlying cause of the trigger: political, socio-economic and mixed.
To give a real-world example, think of the demonstrations that followed former Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto's election in 2012 or Chile's presidential election in 2013—this is a less significant shock equivalent to one standard deviation, which can reduce GDP by about 0.2 percentage points six months after the shock.
On average, GDP remains 1 percentage point below its pre-shock level a year after a major protest. Image: IMF
By comparison, the protests of July 2019 in Hong Kong SAR and the yellow vest protests of 2018 in France—which meet the threshold of social unrest events as defined above—resulted in an increase of 4 standard deviations in the RSUI causing a GDP reduction of about 1 percentage point.
These effects on GDP seem to be driven by sharp contractions in manufacturing and services (sectoral dimension), and consumption (demand dimension). Our findings also suggest that social unrest affects activity by lowering confidence and increasing uncertainty.
Not all countries and events are equal
We also find that the adverse impact of unrest is typically larger in countries with weak institutions and limited policy space. Thus, countries with weak fundamentals pre-pandemic are expected to suffer the most should social discontent turn into unrest.
The economic impact of unrest also differs by the type of event: protests motivated by socio-economic concerns result in sharper GDP contractions compared to those associated mainly with politics/elections. Demonstrations triggered by a combination of both socio-economic and political factors—not unlike what we saw in Tunisia and Thailand earlier this year—have the biggest impact.
Policy matters
Public protests can be an important expression of the need to change policy. Governments need to listen and respond, but also try to anticipate people's needs with policies aimed at giving everyone a fair shot at prosperity. Boosting employment, containing the long-term impact of the crisis and protecting those who have been left behind must remain priorities. To ensure success and avoid strife, recent IMF staff research notes that reforms require a broad social dialogue on the role of the state and how to sustainably finance budget pressures. Otherwise, the economic costs of the pandemic will likely be compounded by those of the ensuing unrest.
Source: World Economic Forum
Recent Videos
Hellenic Shipping News Worldwide Online Daily Newspaper on Hellenic and International Shipping


text:
the seeds):
- Compare Ri with neighbors (Question: should neighbors include or exclude those regions that were already matched?
- If it exists, Rk is best neighbor if smallest D of all neighbors and and D < T.
- Check Rk's neighbors.
- Merge IF Ri is Rk's best neighbor
- remove from candidate region set. (give all "small" regions a chance to merge with best neighbor before growing larger regions)
- update segment values
- next i
3. next t, with all segments returned to candidate region set, until no regions can be merged
4. Force a merge of regions that are too small
TODO: complete references with links.
 Carleer, et al: Assessment of Very High Spatial Resolution Satellite Image Segmentations, 2005 (Evaluates 2 boundary and 2 region based algorithms.)
 Bins, et al: Satellite Imagery Segmentation: A Region Growing Approach, 1996 (Describes approach taken in SPRING software.)
 Cheng et. al.: Color image segmentation: advances and prospect, 2000 (survey of segmentation methods and color spaces)
 G. Meinel, M. Neubert: A Comparison of Segmentation Programs for High Resolution Remote Sensing Data, 20?? (Includes timing to complete segmentation)


Take the 2-minute tour ×
alt text
The image above is from "Wikipedia's entry on AVL trees" which Wikipedia indicates is unbalanced. How is this tree not balanced already? Here's a quote from the article:
The balance factor of a node is the height of its right subtree minus the height of its left subtree and a node with balance factor 1, 0, or -1 is considered balanced. A node with any other balance factor is considered unbalanced and requires rebalancing the tree. The balance factor is either stored directly at each node or computed from the heights of the subtrees.
Both the left and right subtrees have a height of 4. The right subtree of the left tree has a height of 3 which is still only 1 less than 4. Can someone explain what I'm missing?
share|improve this question
add comment
3 Answers
up vote 9 down vote accepted
To be balanced, every node in the tree must, either,
 - have no children, (be a "leaf" node)
 - Have two children.
 - Or, if it has only one child, that child must be a leaf.
 In the chart you post, 9, 54 & 76 violate the last rule.
Properly balanced, the tree would look like:
Root: 23
(23) -> 14 & 67
(14) -> 12 & 17
(12) -> 9
(17) -> 19
(67) -> 50 & 72
(50) -> 54
(72) -> 76
share|improve this answer
That's much clearer! – Kena Oct 23 '08 at 19:01
add comment
Node 76 is unbalanced, for example, because its right subtree is of height 0 and the left is of height 3.
share|improve this answer
I think the point is that a tree is only balanced if all subtrees in it are. – JesperE Oct 23 '08 at 18:23
All leaf/child nodes need to be balanced. – Joe Philllips Oct 23 '08 at 19:18
add comment
Intuitively, it's because it's not as small as possible. e.g., 12 should be the parent of 9 and 14. As it is, 9 has no left sub-tree so it's out of balance. A tree is a hierarchical data structure so a rule like "balanced" often apply to every node and not just the root node.
You're correct the root node is balanced, but not all the nodes of the tree are.
share|improve this answer
add comment
Your Answer


text:
1. I have simplified the dilution method by using a stock glycerine emulsion of the virulent cord, from which the desired dilutions can be readily prepared. The proportion of glycerine should not exceed ⅕ part, if it is desired to retain the full virulence of the emulsion.
2. There is some danger of giving rabies to animals in the dilution immunization treatment, a danger which is not present in the Pasteur method.
3. The dried-cord method does not rest solely upon the principle of dilution, but is based also upon attenuation of the virus.
4. The Pasteur method being entirely free from the element of danger which pertains to the glycerine dilution method and resting upon a sounder experimental basis is the one to be preferred.


text: Live Handed Monsters are monsters that have live hands which allow them to move digits separately. The live hands are usually worked on using animation with the bones on each finger a monster has. They can be rendered in live hand when animation is used. Humanoids, Humans and all others are always live handed because the humans skeleton causes them to move any finger. Live hands are mostly used in animations, human beings and puppets who have live hands, but rod-hand puppets keep the fingers sticked with the hands.


text:
The importance of Anti-Pollution skin strategies
A balancing act for skin health
Maria Lueder – Specht – Qenax AG.
In times of a quickly changing environment due to global industrial
growth, the burden of pollution is growing. A high degree of pollution,
associated with industrialization, has an impact on our skin health
Therefore, to remain a functional barrier for the body, our skin needs
The effects of pollution are widespread, though common factors
include ROS (reactive oxygen species) and RNS (reactive nitrogen
species). These reactive species are known to increase stress and
cause damage to the skin resulting in a weakened defense and
increased risk for infection. Plant polyphenols such as naringin and
chlorogenic acid have been identified as beneficial for the integrity of
this defense. Therefore, in this study we aim to determine whether
Grapefruit and Green Coffee extracts can diminish ROS and RNS
levels and support cellular defences.
You can find the entire article to the following link:
Published on "Monographic Special Issue" H&PC – Active and Hi-tech Ingredients.
Contact us for more informations


text:
Engineering with a mission: 100 years
Building biomedical tests
Where engineering meets biology, the work ranges from diagnosing voice disorders to tracking toxicity in the brain.
As a mechanical engineer, Yuling Yan analyzed machine vibrations to find clues that a bearing or gear might fail. She was in the midst of this research as a faculty member at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, when she met an ear, nose, and throat doctor from Malaysia who had come to the United States for graduate school. Yan and her friend, Kartini Ahmad, chatted about their work, one talking about mechanical systems, the other explaining how our voices work. Through these conversations, Yan realized that the same concepts she used to study mechanical vibration also applied to our vocal cord vibrations.
Yan then turned her engineering mind toward biological questions. Now an associate professor of engineering at SCU, she works with Ahmad and other collaborators, developing new ways to image the structure and movement of human vocal cords.
Biomedical engineers apply the principles of physics, biology, and engineering to solve biomedical problems, often to improve human health. They build human tissue in a dish, design better materials for use in joint replacements, and develop techniques to capture high-resolution pictures of the organs in our bodies. They also bring an engineer's sense of function and efficiency to the innate curiosity of scientists uncovering biological causes of a particular disease.
The growing Department of Bioengineering at Santa Clara reflects the increasing role of bioengineering as part of health care overall. What started as 27 undergraduate students specializing in bioengineering as part of a general engineering degree in 2008 has now expanded into an official department with about 150 students, including graduate students in a new master's program. Yan chairs the department.
Imaging vibrating vocal cords
Yan develops methods to image the vibrations of human vocal cords. She hopes these tools can help doctors diagnose a variety of voice disorders, including tremors that could be an early indication of Parkinson's disease.
Often, damaged vocal cords look normal in pictures, as the problem lies in their function, not structure.
Without special training, doctors may not be able to recognize vocal tremors by listening to a patient speak. Taking pictures of vocal cord tissue may not help them diagnose a problem, either; often, damaged vocal cords look normal in the pictures, as the problem lies in their function, not structure.
Instead, doctors specializing in vocal disorders visualize the vibrations of the vocal cords using a stroboscope. This instrument has a tiny camera with a flashing light on the end, essentially creating a trippy dance-club effect for vocal cords. The flashing strobe lights make the vocal cords' vibration appear in slow motion.
But slow motion is not the same as capturing every one of the 100 to 400 vibrations of our vocal cords each second. So Yan is developing an imaging system using a high-speed camera to capture those true vibrations. The camera peers down a patient's throat like the stroboscope, snapping 2,000 pictures a second. A computer program tracks the movement of the vocal cords in each image and converts that movement into a wave pattern that represents the vibrations.
Buried in that wave pattern are clues to possible voice disorders. These clues include changes in pitch or volume, as well as patterns that tell doctors how the cords open and close. Yan's software provides data archiving and image processing, and it analyzes the vibration patterns, searching for information that might help a doctor diagnose a problem.
"There are a lot of engineering methods involved to take care of this vast amount of data," Yan says. "It doesn't mean anything to a clinician unless you process it, analyze it, and deliver some useful parameters."
This new imaging method is still in development, so it's not widely used in clinics yet. Yan collects high-speed images from patients with voice disorders who visit Krzysztof Izdebski, a doctor in San Francisco who collaborates on the project and serves on the advisory board for SCU's bioengineering department. Now Yan is comparing those images to pictures of normal vibrations from healthy volunteers. The differences between the two sets of vibrations help Yan identify signatures for particular voice disorders.
Prashanth Asuri, an assistant professor who joined the bioengineering department last year, wants to improve human health by understanding what makes us sick, specifically which chemicals harm brain development. He's pulling together methods from past research experience at universities and a startup company to develop toxicity tests using "realistic" chunks of brain tissue—that is, brain tissue re-created outside of the human body that realistically predicts response. If successful, his tests could replace animal testing to identify chemicals that affect brain development.
A preliminary list of chemicals that affect brain development from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency includes lead, nicotine in tobacco, and the artificial sweetener aspartame. Lead, for example, can lead to a shortened attention span as well as impaired memory and language skills. Since wide recognition of these effects in the U.S. in the 1970s, lead has been largely eliminated from gasoline and paint.
But only a small percentage of the thousands of chemicals used in industry have been tested for human neurotoxicity. Even fewer are known to affect developing brain tissue. That's partly because animal testing—the way neurotoxicity has typically been determined—is time consuming and expensive. It also bumps up against ethical objections. As a consequence, representatives of 15 U.S. federal regulatory and research agencies formed a committee known as ICCVAM with a goal to find alternatives to animal testing. And yet there's a recognized need to increase testing of industrial chemicals' effect on human health and the environment; five years ago the European Union's REACH directive went into effect, with more substances being tested each year.
For two years Asuri worked with Solidus Biosciences, creating microarray biochips that encapsulate liver enzymes. Drug makers dose the cells with medicines in development and determine if they damage tissue function.
But those tests, and others in development, use cells programmed to continuously divide—not exactly like the tissue in our bodies. So Asuri plans to develop similar toxicity tests using engineered tissues that resemble those in our bodies: three-dimensional chunks of tissue grown from human neural stem cells.
These stem cells, however, have one special trick. They glow red or green when they reach particular stages of development.
Asuri and his students begin toxicity tests by triggering neuronal development using a few chemical cues. Then they squirt in a potentially toxic chemical.The cells grow enough to glow, and a machine counts the cells based on the brightness of the glow. A decreased cell count means the chemical either killed the cells or halted their development; the test also allows Asuri to identify particular developmental stages affected by the chemicals.
These tests with engineered tissue could help researchers screen several chemicals simultaneously. That means Asuri might be able to test many of the unknown chemicals for toxicity. Neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease may have connections to chemical exposure. If so, Asuri's tests could lead to steps to prevent the neuronal damage.
Asuri develops these tests using known methods in tissue engineering and cell function testing. He's just adapting the methods for a new purpose. "In that sense, I'm an engineer, not a biologist," Asuri says. "I look at what has been done and use that in a way that's readily applicable."
He's also incorporating these tests into a laboratory course for undergraduate students. Thus the next generation of bioengineers begins to develop solutions to medical problems that may affect us as we age.
The engineering work being done today was the stuff of imagination when the School of Engineering started a century ago. Where do we go from here?
Adventures with the Robotics Systems Laboratory by land, sea, and sky. And in orbit.
It took months of space flight for the Curiosity rover to reach Mars. And, to survive the heat of entry, it took a shield that a team led by Robin Beck '77 designed.
Step inside the Patricia A. and Stephen C. Schott Admission and Enrollment Services Building.
It's only a game, right? Not if we're talking soccer and USA vs. Mexico.
Computer engineering major Katie Le '14 becomes the first Bronco to battle in the NCAA women's singles tourney.


text:
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Joint research between Florida Museum of Natural History and Chinese scientists to discover and interpret the world's earliest known flowering fossil is the subject of a PBS NOVA documentary, "First Flower," which debuts at 8 p.m. April 17.
The origin of flowers is one of botany's deepest mysteries, and in the NOVA documentary, Florida Musuem paleobotanist David Dilcher guides viewers through segments of the amazing story of the evolution of flowers.
"There's no doubt about it, flowers are all about sex," said Dilcher, a graduate research professor and paleobotany curator at the Florida Museum and a member of the National Academy of Sciences.
The search for the world's first flower drew Dilcher to a remote Chinese lake where colleague Sun Ge of Jilin University in Changchun, China, discovered a 125 million-year-old fossil that scientists believe is the earliest known flower.
Although the fossil lacked the aesthetic petals associated with modern flowers, Dilcher recognized the plant stalk had seeds enclosed within carpels, which are female reproductive structures found in flowers. This led him to conclude the fossil was in fact an early form of a flower. The fossil was named Archaefructus liaoningensis, which means "ancient fruit from Liaoning Province of northeast China."
Flower production demands an amazing amount of a plant's precious energy, which leads some scientists to question why and how the world's first flowers evolved. Angiosperms, or flowering plants that have male pollen and female ovaries, are thought to have made their first appearance on earth roughly 130 million years ago. Today, they dominate the plant world. Today, bees, moths, hummingbirds and other insects facilitate plant reproduction by spreading pollen, but this is the culmination of a complex relationship that evolved over millions of years and that scientists are still decoding.
"Flowering plants were the first advertisers in the world," Dilcher said. "They put out beautiful colors, colorful patterns, they put out fragrances. And they gave a reward such as nectar or pollen for any insect that would come and visit them."
Flowers go to elaborate lengths to advertise their sexual organs, the female parts and the male parts, Dilcher said.
"If they could attract these mobile pollinators to visit, crawl around, and feed in flowers, pick up pollen on their legs, pick up pollen on their bodies," Dilcher said, "and then fly to another flower some distance away, and repeat this process, they could effectively transfer their male genetic material some distance away to another flower."
Pamela and Doug Soltis, Florida Museum researchers who study plant and flower DNA to better understand evolutionary origins, also are interviewed in "First Flower." The Soltis' work addresses evolutionary origins of flowers and flowering plants, plant speciation and the conservation genetics of endangered plant species in Florida. Doug Soltis also is chair of UF's Department of Botany.
The journal Science featured Sun's and Dilcher's fossil flower research on its cover in 1998 and 2002. Sun is a geologist and director of the paleontology and stratigraphy lab at Jilin University. Dilcher holds professorial appointments and teaches at Jilin University and Nanjing University in China, in addition to teaching at the University of Florida.
Writer: DeLene Beeland
Media contact: Paul Ramey, _EMAIL_
Source: David Dilcher _PHONE_
Source: Sun Ge _PHONE_; until April 12