1.

 1. Live Chat
 Microfluidic Technology
 Dolomite Bio systems employ the principle of microfluidic flow technology?focussing to rapidly encapsulate single cells in millions of aqueous droplets in oil. The droplets are identically sized and, depending on the application, may be 10 – 100 μm in diameter (optionally with beads and reagents).
 Benefits of encapsulating cells in microfluidic droplets
 ? Enables analysis of millions of single cells
 ????????o e.g. more than 105 single-cell libraries/hour
 ? Single-cell reactions become efficient and robust
 ????????o Droplets are small (often 10s to 100s of picolitres), so e.g., effective mRNA concentration is high
 ? Reliable and reproducible performance
 ????????o Precisely-controlled micro-reactor volumes and avoidance of cross-contamination
 ? Droplets can be used as micro-compartments or micro-reactors
 ? Can capture quantitative data from rare cells
 MicrofluidictechnologyFlow focusing
 Droplet production is achieved using two immiscible fluids (aqueous droplets in a fluorocarbon oil carrier phase with bio-compatible surfactant). A flow-focusing method, coupled with extremely smooth pressure driven pumps is used to make monodisperse i.e. <5% CV (coefficient of variation) droplets. Typically, immediately prior to dropletization, two independent aqueous streams (e.g. cells and beads) are combined.
 Use of fluorinated oils and surfactants
 Fluorocarbon oil (rather than for example mineral oil) is used as the carrier phase for droplet production in Dolomite Bio Systems. This is because it is stable, inert, biocompatible and allows gas exchange. As a result, if required, cell viability can be maintained.
 A biocompatible surfactant is added to the fluorinated oil to improve droplet stability,?i.e. to ensure that droplets do not coalesce after formation.
 Introduction of cells and beads into droplets and Poisson distribution
 Cells are loaded into the μEncapsulator System as a 100μl suspension with a?pipette. In the RNA Seq System, cells are loaded into a microcentrifuge tube which is externally agitated. Beads may either be introduced in a similar way to cells or loaded via a sample loop (in the case of dense or fragile beads).
 A suspension of cells and beads will be delivered into droplets with a Poisson distribution. e.g. when aiming to achieve 1 cell per droplet, the actual number of cells per droplet, over 10 droplets, may be 1, 1, 1, 2, 0, 1, 1, 0, 1, 2.
 It is frequently desired to have not more than one cell per droplet to avoid for example mRNA from two cells being captured on one barcoded bead.?This is generally achieved by increasing the dilution, e.g. to 1 cell per 10 droplets, thus minimizing the frequency of two cells in one droplet, e.g. when aiming to achieve 1 cell per 10 droplets, the number of cells per droplets, over 10 droplets, should be 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0.
 Intellectual property for droplet generation
 Dolomite Bio is a licensee of Japan Science and Technology Agency ("JST") under JST's microdroplet generation technology. We are authorised to directly grant sub-licenses under JST's microdroplet generation technologies for R&D purposes, please contact us for other usage.
 The JST family of patents is core to much of micro-droplet technology. By purchasing a JST sub-license from Dolomite Bio, you will be gaining access to:
 WO2002/068104 Patent Family for process for producing emulsion and microcapsules and apparatus thereof, including patents _PHONE_, _PHONE_, _PHONE_, _PHONE_
 WO2005/089921 Patent Family for method and device for producing microdroplets, including patent _PHONE_


Heat Therapy Hot Moist Packs
Heat therapy
How it works
Heat therapy works by improving circulation and blood flow to a particular area due to increased temperature. Increasing the temperature of the afflicted area even slightly can soothe discomfort and increase muscle flexibility. Heat therapy can relax and soothe muscles and heal damaged tissue.
There are two different types of heat therapy: dry heat and moist heat. Both types of heat therapy should aim for "warm" as the ideal temperature instead of "hot."
 - Dry heat (or "conducted heat therapy") includes sources like heating pads, dry heating packs, and even saunas. This heat is easy to apply.
 - Moist heat (or "convection heat") includes sources like steamed towels, moist heating packs, or hot baths. Moist heat may be slightly more effective as well as require less application time for the same results.
Professional heat therapy treatments can also be applied. Heat from an ultrasound, for example, can be used to help pain in tendonitis.
When applying heat therapy, you can choose to use local, regional, or whole body treatment. Local therapy is best for small areas of pain, like one stiff muscle. You could use small heated gel packs or a hot water bottle if you only want to treat an injury locally. Regional treatment is best for more widespread pain or stiffness, and could be achieved with a steamed towel, large heating pad, or heat wraps. Full body treatment would include options like saunas or a hot bath.
When not to use
There are certain cases where heat therapy should not be used. If the area in question is either bruised or swollen (or both), it may be better to use cold therapy. Heat therapy also shouldn't be applied to an area with an open wound.
People with certain pre-existing conditions should not use heat therapy due to higher risk of burns or complications due to heat application. These conditions include:
 - diabetes
 - dermatitis
 - vascular diseases
 - deep vein thrombosis
 - multiple sclerosis (MS)
If you have either heart disease or hypertension, ask your doctor before using heat therapy. If you are pregnant, check with your doctor before using saunas or hot tubs.
Applying heat therapy
Heat therapy is often most beneficial when used for a good amount of time, unlike cold therapy, which needs to be limited.
Minor stiffness or tension can often be relieved with only 15 to 20 minutes of heat therapy.
Moderate to severe pain can benefit from longer sessions of heat therapy like warm bath, lasting between 30 minutes and two hours.
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From Raft Wiki
Jump to: navigation, search
Click here to see information about this file Engine
Allows you to go in different directions and increases your speed.
Metal Ingot.png
Circuit Board.png
Engine is a Navigation item in Raft.
Summary[edit | edit source]
The Engine is acquired through the Blueprint: Engine found on the Vasagatan. After researching the blueprint, players may build and place an engine in order to sail against the wind. Used in combination with the Steering Wheel, the player gets full control of which direction they wish to sail. One Engine can push a raft of up to 100 Foundations. For each set of 100 Foundations over the initial 100, another Engine must be built and run simultaneously in order for them to have enough power to sail the raft. Note that Collection Nets do not count towards number of Foundations.
Adding six Engines to a raft will increase the sailing speed to the maximum possible, while ignoring aforementioned Foundation limitations.
Fuel[edit | edit source]
The Engine runs on Planks or Biofuel. While using Planks, the Engine will burn through a single plank in 36 seconds and a full tank of 17 planks in exactly 600 seconds (10 minutes instead of 612 seconds due to overfill). A single Biofuel is worth 17 planks in Engine runtime if put directly into the Engine and 20 planks if fed from a Tank, but also requires Honey making it a harder fuel to obtain. However, Biofuel can be stored in Biofuel Tanks and connected to the Engine through Fuel Pipes automating the process of filling the Engine with fuel. A Biofuel Tank can be filled with four Biofuel canisters and powers a single Engine for a total of 48 minutes (approximately 2.4 to 3.6 in-game days depending on whether or not the player sleeps).
Stuttering[edit | edit source]
If the Engine is unable to push the Raft, whether if it's anchored or overburdened, it will slow down to a stop while simultaneously stuttering indicating something is wrong. No fuel is used during this time, despite the Engine being on.
Following is a comparison of the running and stuttering Engine:
Show/Hide Videos
 - Too many Foundations. An Engine can push up to 100 foundations. Make sure that the amount of Engines covers the amount of Foundations.
 - The raft is anchored. Make sure no anchors are currently holding the raft in place.
 - One or more Engines lacks fuel. Check fuel level on all Engines.
 - The Engines are going in opposite directions. Check the Engine direction lever and make sure they match.
Speed[edit | edit source]
The Engine follows a few parameters when it comes to deciding the speed of the raft[1].
The first parameter regards sailing speed of the raft when using Engines, which is always valued between 1.5 and 2.5, and can never exceed these numbers. A single Engine will push the raft at a speed of 2, and adding an additional Engine will increase the speed of the raft to 2.5.
The second parameter regards overburdening the raft. As mentioned above, a single Engine can move up to 100 Foundations, however there is a 'Slow Zone' between 101-110 Foundations(per engine) where the Raft will still sail, but at reduced speed. This speed is defined as 1 per engine. If only 1 engine is being used, and it is in the 'Slow Zone', the speed will be set to the minimum of 1.5.
The third and last parameter looks for the relation between number of Foundations and number of Engines. There are basically three Engine speed settings in Raft, disregarding drifting. Slow sailing (1.5), when a single Engine can push the raft but at minimum speed before stopping completely. Medium speed (2), achieved by using a single Engine on a raft under 100 foundations, or by using 2 Engines in the 'Slow Zone'(201-220 Foundations). High speed (2.5), when a raft has multiple Engines which are successfully sailing the raft. Since Engine speed is additive when running multiple Engines at the same time, high speed is always achieved once the raft is successfully sailing with at least 3 engines, but not if the raft is overburdened.
Uses[edit | edit source]
 - Place on the raft and turn on to sail in a desired direction.
 - Use with a Steering Wheel to fully control direction.
Trivia[edit | edit source]
 - The Engine has a fuel capacity valued at 50, while one Biofuel fills a value of 60. As such, pouring Biofuel directly into the Engine's tanks will waste 10 units of fuel. To prevent this, the player must use a Biofuel Tank.
History[edit | edit source]
Early Access
Update 10 Engine added to the game.


text:
Would it really be so difficult to determine how chapter divisions are marked in all surviving ancient books?
The question of chapter divisions and headings in ancient literary and technical texts is a long term interest of mine, as anyone who chooses to look may discover by clicking on the tag at the end of this post. We find, in later medieval texts, that these ancient texts are often divided, not merely into books, but also into chapters, with chapter headings. It does not seem well known or classified, just how often we find this. Chapter divisions and titles are a cinderella subject, largely ignored or treating in passing.
In my last post, I looked at what chapter divisions and titles there were in a renaissance manuscript of Pliny the Elder's Natural History. The NH is an interesting work to investigate, for this subject, since the author states in the preface that book 1 of the work is a list of capituli. So we do know that these items existed in the autograph, whereas we generally have no such certainty in other works.
Capituli, or "subject headings", are perhaps just a list of topics covered, in the order in which they appear in the text. There is no necessity to suppose that the text was formally divided into "chapters", in the manner of a modern work –indeed some of the capituli refer to no more than a handful of lines of text, before the next capitulum appears in the margin, so we might better say "sections" — and we can see that in the Pliny ms. it is not.
So while the English word "chapter" perhaps derives from the Latin capitulum — or does it? Do we know this, and if so, how? — the term is perhaps one that is rather different. Perhaps we need a word study of the appearance of the English word, and how it was originally used, and how it came to mean what it means today. Is it used to translate capitulum in medieval English texts? There is clearly a research project here.
Likewise we ought to locate all uses of the term capituli in ancient literature — and likewise the Greek kephalaia — and from this determine its meaning or meanings, and any change that they underwent during the ancient and medieval period. This might begin with an electronic search, and it really should not take more than a couple of weeks to do.
But finally … we need to look at ancient books themselves, and see just what is in the margins, or gathered at the start of books, or whatever. Do we have chapter titles marked? Are they numbered? Are there collections of them at the start of the book, in a multi-book history? Or is it a case that the early mss just have a list of topics at the start of each book, and that these are mirrored in the body of the work, gradually, by subsequent readers and copyists? Which works have these elements?
It sounds like a large task. But is it? A commenter on my last post pointed out that, in some ways, it is a superficial task. All we have to do is look through the manuscript at a high level. And that may not be so hard to do.
For the number of actual ancient books is not that great. The Codices Latini Antiquiores of E. A. Lowe lists all the fragments of ancient Latin books. The number of codices which are more or else intact is probably not that great. I don't know about Greek mss from antiquity, but surely there is a list somewhere?
Nor does it necessarily involve a lot of travel. The IRHT in France has a huge collection of microfilms of manuscripts. Admittedly this is not nearly as good as colour images — and whether a link is in red ink or black might well be important here — but a couple of weeks work at a microfilm reader in Orleans might well answer many of these questions, and provide a base of data from which some solid conclusions might be drawn. It sounds like a solid piece of work for a PhD thesis, for a student who is prepared to work hard.
I feel tempted myself; but of course I am not an academic, and I don't have the time. Sadly, I fear, I don't have the energy any more either! But the whole question of chapter divisions, titles, etc, is one that simply needs a pioneer to go into it. It's not that hard to do; just that no-one has really attacked it.
I've always thought of the task of working out the history of the chapter titles for endless different literary and technical works was one that would require an army of scholars. Indeed a great manuscript scholar once wrote to me that it would require scholarly collaboration.
But why not simply examine what is in all the surviving ancient codices, up to the 8th century, and publish details of what is to be found therein?
How long would that really take?

source: HuggingFaceFW/fineweb-edu


This dynamic classroom is fully programmable. Kids can change the colors of lights, create games on the 20 screen tv wall, make sounds move around the room and control electronics such as smoke machines and projectors.
The design concept includes organic curves in both the walls and ceiling elements to encourage free movement around the room. It also includes contrasting elements of white modern forms with green walls.


Jack Man Jack Man - 5 months ago 28
MySQL Question
Count by months in MySQL database?
How do you count the total number of entries by month?
id, date
01, 2010-09-28
02, 2010-03-28
03, 2010-09-28
04, 2010-03-28
For example. How could you pick only dates from September and have them count as an output of
Edit: Edited the dates to put them in the right format.
select month(date), count(*)
from yourtable
group by month(date)


text:
Klad'ko Yu. V., Skripal'shсhikova L. N. Methods of Complex Bioindicative Assessment of Life State Patterns of Woody Plants under Industrial Pollutions on Urbanized Territories
UDC 58.01/.07 (571.51) + 712.413
How to cite: Klad'ko Yu. V., Skripal'shсhikova L. N. Methods of complex bioindicative assessment of life state patterns of woody plants under industrial pollutions on urbanized territories // Sibirskij Lesnoj Zurnal (Sib. J. For. Sci.). 2019. N. 6. P. 27–38 (in Russian with English abstract).
© Klad'ko Yu. V., Skripal'shсhikova L. N., 2019
A method of complex bioindicative assessment of life state pattern and sustainability of woody plants in greening growing under industrial pollution in urbanized areas has been developed. A wider set of indicators is used for the assessment in comparison with the well-known methods that point clearly to industrial air pollution impact: the symmetry of the crown, outer damage of the trunk and outer features of the bark and branches, crown density, premature yellowing of foliage, evidence of chemical burns on leaves and needles, evidence of damage to needles or leaves by insects and pathogens. The proposed method was tested on woody plants belonging to 8 species: Scotch pine Pinus sylvestris L., Colorado spruce Picea pungens Engelm., silver birch Betula pendula Roth, Siberian elm Ulmus pumila L., balsam poplar Populus balsamifera L., mountain ash Sorbus aucuparia L., Maack cherri Padus maackii Rupr., and dwarf apple Malus baccata (L.) Borkh., growing in greening of the city of Krasnoyarsk under conditions of technogenic pollution of various composition and intensity. Using the developed methodology, it was found that Scotch pine, silver birch, the Siberian elm and mountain ash were least tolerant to pollution from heavy traffic in comparison to the other species. Scotch pine, Colorado spruce, silver birch, Siberian elm, mountain ash and dwarf apple occurred sensitive to specific emissions from industrial enterprises, and these species might be used as indicators of industrial pollution level caused by specific sources. Balsam poplar and Maack cherri, according to the bioindication rating scale were less sensitive to industrial and vehicle pollution – these tree species can be used to create greenings in heavily polluted areas and industrial city districts and sanitary protection zones around industrial enterprises. The developed method can be recommended for practical application in the field of green construction and environmental monitoring in urbanized areas.

source: openbmb/Ultra-FineWeb


text:
Original French: de ſes carracons, nauires, gualeres, gualiõs, brigãtins, fuſtes,
Modern French: de ses carracons, navires, gualères, gualions, brigantins, fustes,
A carrack or nau was a threeor four-masted sailing ship developed in the 15th century by the Genoese for use in commerce, differing from the Venetians who favoured Galleys. Those ships became part of the illumanauty then widely used by Europe's 15th-century maritime powers. It had a high rounded stern with large aftcastle, forecastle and bowsprit at the stem. It was first used by the Portuguese for oceanic travel, and later by the Spanish, to explore and map the world. It was usually square-rigged on the foremast and mainmast and lateen-rigged on the mizzenmast.
Carracks were ocean-going ships: large enough to be stable in heavy seas, and roomy enough to carry provisions for long voyages. They were the ships in which the Portuguese and the Spanish explored the world in the 15th and 16th centuries. In Genoese the ship was called caracca or nao (ship), in Portuguese nau, while in Spanish carraca or nao. In French it was called a caraque or nef. The name carrack probably derives from the Arab Harraqa, a type of ships that appeared first time along the shores of the Tigris and Euphrates around the 9th century.
As the forerunner of the great ships of the age of sail, the carrack was one of the most influential ship designs in history; while ships became more specialized, the basic design remained unchanged throughout the age of sail.
Jacques Cartier first navigated the Saint Lawrence River in 1535 in the carrack Grande Hermine
A ship of 2000 tons burden. Cf. i. 16.
Small vessels used in the Mediterranean carrying [?] sails and oars.
Grande carraque. De l'italien caraccone.
Petite galère, à voiles et à rames. Du vénitien fusta. Sur ces termes nautiques, voir R.E.R., VIII, p. 156.
1545: Au moys d'octobre suivant les grands carracons que le roy [Françoys premier] avoit faict venir de Gennes en Italie pour la guerre contre l'Anglois arrivèrent sur les vazes de cette ville, chargés de munitions de guerre qui estoient pour l'armée navale de la reconqueste de Boulongne…


text:
What Judaism Means to Me
Gertrude Weil, 1879 - 1971
Weil's commitment to social justice was strongly rooted in her concept of Judaism. She often commented that her religion taught that "justice, mercy, goodness were not to be held in a vacuum, but practiced in our daily lives." Believing Judaism to be "a religion of this world," one that emphasizes the "expression of righteousness in the here and now," she argued that "every...act should be an expression of the God, or goodness, in us." Her work for social reform emerged out of this long Jewish tradition of tikkun olam and prophetic justice.
For decades, Weil was a mainstay of Jewish life in Goldsboro. She taught Sunday School, conducted adult Bible study groups and presided over the Temple Sisterhood. Once, local officials had to reveal that she was the recipient of the town's distinguished citizen's award in order to convince her to attend the ceremonial dinner, held on a Friday evening when she would normally have been at services. As she grew older, Weil became increasingly serious in her own study of Jewish history and religion.
Unlike most Southern Reform Jews, Weil, her mother, and her siblings were strong Zionists. Henrietta Szold, Hadassah's founder, was a personal friend of Mina Weil; Gertrude and Mina were founding members of Goldsboro's Hadassah chapter and Gertrude served as president of both the local and regional groups. She also presided over the North Carolina Association of Jewish Women, sat on the board of the North Carolina Home for the Jewish Aged, worked for the National Federation of Temple Sisterhoods, and helped to raise money for numerous Jewish charities. In the 1930s and 1940s, she and her mother devoted much time and effort to rescuing Jewish refugees from persecution in Europe. In her widespread Jewish activities, Weil demonstrated the same energy and active commitment as she did in her work in the broader community.
- Quotations from Gertrude Weil, "Talk at Beth Or Temple, Sisterhood Sabbath," May 12, 1944, in Gertrude Weil Papers at the North Carolina Office of Archives and History.
- Additional information from Mrs. N.A. Edwards, "In Love with Life," draft of article for American Jewish Times, October 1956, in the North Carolina Collection at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Elna C.G. Grissom, "Jewish Relief and Other Philanthropies of the Weil Family of Goldsboro, North Carolina, _PHONE_," M.A. thesis, Wake Forest University, 1984.


text:
Awareness of bias in algorithms is growing among scholars and users of algorithmic systems. But what can we observe about how users discover and behave around such biases?
We used a cross-platform audit technique that analyzed online ratings of 803 hotels across three hotel rating platforms and found that one site's algorithmic rating system biased ratings, particularly low-to-medium quality hotels, significantly higher than others (up to 37%).
Analyzing reviews of 162 users who independently discovered this bias, we seek to understand if, how, and in what ways users perceive and manage this bias. Users changed the typical ways they used a review on a hotel rating platform to instead discuss the rating system itself and raise other users' awareness of the rating bias. This raising of awareness included practices like efforts to reverse engineer the rating algorithm, efforts to correct the bias, and demonstrations of broken trust.
We conclude with a discussion of how such behavior patterns might inform design approaches that anticipate unexpected bias and provide reliable means for meaningful bias discovery and response.


October 9, 2013
Bell curves, bunnies, and dragons
Keith Ng points me to something that's a bit more technical than we usually cover here on StatsChat, but it was in the New York Times, and it does have redeeming levels of cutesiness: an animation of the central limit theorem using bunnies and dragons
The point made by the video is that the Normal distribution, or 'bell curve', is a good approximation to the distribution of averages even when it is a very poor approximation to the distribution of individual measurements. Averaging knocks all the corners off a distribution, until what is left can be described just by its mean and spread.
The central limit theorem is absolutely vital to statistics, since it (and more advanced versions) say that even if the distribution of your data is complicated, the distribution of the summaries you care about (eg mean or median) is often close to a simple Normal distribution. Lots of scientists don't really appreciate the central limit theorem, and even statisticians often don't realise how well it works. Here is an example that's less cute than the bunnies but more dramatic. The graph shows a probability distribution for individual measurements (top left) and then for averages of 5, 10, or 20 measurements, each with a superimposed bell curve
The individual observations are nowhere near the Normal distribution, but averaging over a sample of even 5 observations gives something much closer to the bell curve, and the average of 10 or 20 observations is almost a perfect fit.
Together with some colleagues in Seattle I wrote a scientific paper about this, primarily so we had something to point to when scientists asked us "But is there a reference?"
 - avatar
 Det Mackey
 These are averages of random samples in the distribution?
 3 years ago Reply
 - avatar
 Thomas Lumley
 Yes. Well, no. Well, yes.
 They are the exact distributions of averages of random samples from the distribution. However, they aren't obtained by actually taking random samples and averaging, but by working out the distribution mathematically.
 3 years ago Reply
Add a comment


Learn how, by changing your subconscious beliefs, you can change your reality. The problem people have with their beliefs is that 99% of them are present at a subconscious level and are often in opposition to their conscious goals. The beliefs we've created, for the most part, are designed to keep us safe. Unfortunately, being safe doesn't mean being happy, healthy, or successful.
Are you too worried of these two uncontrollables: judgment and failure?
In this video, the woman shared how she and her husband were struggling with their business because of their fear of being judged and failing. Through Energetic Magic, she destroyed the belief that she needs to avoid failure and judgment at all costs.


text:
i am having trouble with functions
write a program that outputs inflation rates for two successive years and determines whether the inflation is increasing or decreasing.
Ask the user to input the current price of an item (currPrice), its price one year ago (oneYearPrice) and two years ago (twoYearPrice).
To calculate the inflation rate for a year, subtract the price of the item (for that year) from the price of the item one year ago and then divide the result by the price a year ago.
For example, the current inflation (currInf) would be oneYearPrice subtracted from currPrice and then divided by oneYearPrice. Similarly, last years inflation (prevInf) would be twoYearPrice subtracted from oneYearPrice and than divided by twoYearPrice.
Your program must contain at least the following functions: a function to calculate the results, and a functions to output the results. Use appropriate parameters (function arguments) to pass the information in and out of the functions. (Do not use global variables).
The point of the exercise is to learn more about information passing between functions. Notice that the point assignment for this exercise is purely on function declaration and data exchange among functions.
I have some hints for you:
Your input is the price of an item (let's say the price of a gallon of gas) for the last three years. For example, user will enter the current price of a gallon of regular gas today (currentyear), last year today (lastyear), and two years ago today(twoyearsago).
Once you collect all the input you need in the main() function, you will need to compute the inflation.
Notice that, you will need to compute inflation twice. Inflation from last year to today, and inflation from two years ago to last year. I would write a function called (computeInflation()) that takes two prices of an item as input and computes and returns the inflation. I would need to call computeInflation() function twice, for the first call I send current year and the last year price as input and get last years inflation. The second call I would send the lat year's and two year ago price as input and get the inflation of two years ago. At this point you have two inflation rates in the main() function.
You should have a second function that prints out a nice output. You will need to send the two inflation rates you computed as input. The function would output the inflation rates and also tell us if inflation is on the rise or declining.
need some guidance in fixing up my code.
using namespace std;
int computeInflation(int oneYearPrice, int twoYearPrice);
double computeInflation(double oneYearPrice, double twoYearPrice);
double computeInflation(double oneYearPrice, int twoYearPrice);
double computeInflation(int oneYearPrice, double twoYearPrice);
if ( currInf > prevInf )
cout << "The inflation rate is increasing" << endl;
else if (currInf < prevInf)
cout << "The inflation rate is decreasing" << endl;
cout << "There is no change in the inflation rate" << endl;
cout << "what is the current price" << endl;
cin >> currPrice;
cout << "what is the price of one year ago" << endl;
cin >> oneYearPrice;
cout << "what is the price of two years ago" << endl;
cin >> twoYearPrice;
currInf = (currPrice-oneYearPrice) / (oneYearPrice);
currInf = (currPrice-twoYearPrice) / (twoYearPrice);
cout << "your total tax is $" << currInf << " per month" << endl;


text:
Onion and Corn Rotations May Require Less Nitrogen
Many growers in Colorado's Arkansas River Valley who rotate onions with corn could increase profits and also protect groundwater by applying less nitrogen (N) fertilizer on corn. That's the conclusion of a study conducted by Ardell Halvorson, Mike Bartolo and others. Halvorson works for the USDA–Agricultural Research Service's Soil Plant Nutrient Research Unit in Fort Collins, Colo., and Bartolo is with Colorado State University.
The scientists launched their study in 1998 because high nitrate levels were showing up in the region's groundwater. "We found that onions used only 12% to 15% of the 200 lb. of nitrogen applied to the crop," Halvorson says. "Much of the rest stayed in the soil."
The following year, the researchers grew 239-bu.-per-acre corn without applying any N fertilizer. The corn crop utilized about 24% of the N applied to the onions the previous year. "It required four consecutive corn crops to get the soil nitrogen level back to what would be considered normal," Halvorson says.
Because the area receives only 10" or so of annual rainfall, excess N is not leached out of the soil as rapidly as it would be in higher-rainfall areas, Halvorson notes. But eventually irrigation water carries it into groundwater.
Continuing the study through 2008 confirmed that shallow-rooted onion crops consistently leave large amounts of N in the soil, which can be "scavenged" by corn.
"Guidelines from universities suggest you need to apply 100 lb. to 235 lb. of nitrogen per acre to grow 240-bu. corn," Halvorson says. "Following vegetables, you may not need as much. The secret is to take soil nitrate tests before planting corn and adjust the rate of nitrogen fertilizer based on nitrate in the upper 3' of the soil."
The study also revealed farmers could apply much less N fertilizer on onions if they switched from furrow irrigation (the most common method) to drip irrigation.
"Using drip irrigation, we maximized onion yield with 80 lb. per acre of applied nitrogen," Halvorson says.
"Under furrow irrigation, it required 200 lb. per acre."
- Early Spring 2009


text:
Discuss the importance of the supernatural in Macbeth.
Macbeth is a tragic play portraying the greed and ambition of Macbeth. William Shakespeare uses the supernatural elements to evoke fear in the minds of audience.
The first supernatural element found in this play is the three witches or known as the weird sisters. In Act 1, scene 3, The three witches and all of them introduces as 'The Weird sisters, hand in hand,' to Macbeth and Banquo. The appearance that the witches poses is that of pure evil. In starting of the scene, each of the witches described their wickedness in a proud manner. For example, when the second witch asked where she had been, she replied, "Killing swine". This statement shows how the witches enjoy being devilish arouse horror in the minds of audience.
Moreover, the witches supernatural element reveals when they had their first meeting with Macbeth. "All hail to Thee, Thane of Cowdor, All hail, Macbeth! That shall be the king hereafter.'' This quotation proves that the witches bring out the supernatural power to give prophecy to Macbeth. Their prediction on Macbeth's future becoming the Thane of Cowdor and the king came truemakes then seen as the supernatural element. This supernatural element leads to Macbeth's greed and over-ambitious that contributes to his down fall.
Lady Macbeth also brings out supernatural element when she wanted the royal title for her husband as predicted by the weird sisters. "Come, you spirits/ That tend my mortal thoughts, unsex me, / And fill me from the crown to the toe, top full,/ of direst cruelty. This clearly shows that Lady Macbeth invokes to destroy her female nature and gentleness to make a force of evil. This strengths her resolve to supress her own human nature and to be evil. The supernatural element which brought into her attracts the audience which shows her evilness and the desire for power.
" Is the dagger I see before me,''. Macbeth has a vision of dagger just before he tried to kill...


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how to draw a chinese sky dragon
How to Draw a Chinese Sky Dragon
how to draw a chinese sky dragon step 1
So first draw a circle which will be the head. Then make a big "S" shape which will soon be the body. Afterwards, draw 4 smaller circles, 2 close to the head and 2 close to the rear of the body. These will be the shoulders of the dragon. Finally draw lines from the shoulder circles that outline the position of the legs.
how to draw a chinese sky dragon step 2
Now, draw the basic shape of the head and the eye. Draw the body around the big "S" shape you did in step 1. Then draw the shape of the legs around the lines coming off the shoulder circles that you also drew in step 1. Then finally draw rectangles for the fingers.
how to draw a chinese sky dragon step 3
Now, draw the shape of the nose and don't forget the whiskers coming off it. Outline the mouth with some sort of lips and make the snout wrinkly. Then add the teeth in the mouth and have the tongue coming out of it. Afterwards draw the horns on the back of the head and then put claws on the end of the fingers and toes.
how to draw a chinese sky dragon step 4
First draw the underbelly of the dragon which resembles some kind of armored plates overlapping each other. Then add the sharp row of spines going down the back all the way to the tail. Then move back up to the head and draw the hair on the back of the head, then on the knees and elbows. Finally finish up with the hair on the tail.
how to draw a chinese sky dragon step 5
Now, draw theses swirly things on the elbows and knees. I don't know what they are besides a decorative thing that really isn't necessarily, but looks awesome. Then, draw the scales. Don't draw every single scale, but draw groups of scales and it will generate the effect that you actually had drawn all the scales. Also, make the scales smaller on the face than on the body.
how to draw a chinese sky dragon step 6
Finally, draw all the clouds in. I did this by hand which took almost as long as the scales did. But if there are other ways of putting clouds there, feel free to do whatever you want! I'm not here to judge. Then have fun coloring the dragon any way you like!


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Improving Interpretation of Cardiac Phenotypes and Enhancing Discovery With Expanded Knowledge in the Gene Ontology.
Lovering RC., Roncaglia P., Howe DG., Laulederkind SJF., Khodiyar VK., Berardini TZ., Tweedie S., Foulger RE., Osumi-Sutherland D., Campbell NH., Huntley RP., Talmud PJ., Blake JA., Breckenridge R., Riley PR., Lambiase PD., Elliott PM., Clapp L., Tinker A., Hill DP.
BACKGROUND: A systems biology approach to cardiac physiology requires a comprehensive representation of how coordinated processes operate in the heart, as well as the ability to interpret relevant transcriptomic and proteomic experiments. The Gene Ontology (GO) Consortium provides structured, controlled vocabularies of biological terms that can be used to summarize and analyze functional knowledge for gene products. METHODS AND RESULTS: In this study, we created a computational resource to facilitate genetic studies of cardiac physiology by integrating literature curation with attention to an improved and expanded ontological representation of heart processes in the Gene Ontology. As a result, the Gene Ontology now contains terms that comprehensively describe the roles of proteins in cardiac muscle cell action potential, electrical coupling, and the transmission of the electrical impulse from the sinoatrial node to the ventricles. Evaluating the effectiveness of this approach to inform data analysis demonstrated that Gene Ontology annotations, analyzed within an expanded ontological context of heart processes, can help to identify candidate genes associated with arrhythmic disease risk loci. CONCLUSIONS: We determined that a combination of curation and ontology development for heart-specific genes and processes supports the identification and downstream analysis of genes responsible for the spread of the cardiac action potential through the heart. Annotating these genes and processes in a structured format facilitates data analysis and supports effective retrieval of gene-centric information about cardiac defects.


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In optimal control and variational data assimilation problems with nonlinear time-dependent 3D PDEs, the storage of a full 4D discretization is usually prohibitive. For this reason gradient and quasi-Newton methods working on the reduced functional are often employed. The computation of the reduced gradient by adjoint methods requires one forward (in time) solve of the state equation and one backward solve of the adjoint equation. The state enters into the adjoint equation, such that the state tra jectory needs to be stored, again incurring the storage requirement of a full 4D discretization.
So-called checkpointing techniques have been developed to reduce the storage requirement. The state is stored only at selected time points, from where on short parts of the state trajectory can be recomputed. Sophisticated choice of checkpoints and dynamic reuse of storage results in drastic reductions of storage requirements at the cost of a moderate increase in computing time. From a predictive coding point of view, checkpointing is a lossless compression scheme with an exact but expensive predictor. For this reason, no predictor errors need to be coded.
The aim of this project is to investigate the potential benefit of using inexact but cheap predictors with additional coding of the prediction errors for solving the impulse thermography problem. Since the data is to be used inside a discretized, iterative algorithm, lossy coding is sufficient
For the compression algorithm, three main ingredients are used: prediction, quantization of prediction errors, and entropy coding. First, an approximation to the finite element solution of the state equation at the current time step is constructed. An inexact predictor is used to achieve a reasonable cheap computational complexity. Spatial correlations are exploited using prolongation in mesh hierarchies, while temporal correlations are exploited by differential encoding. As the adjoint equation is integrated backwards in time, no random access is necessary. Uniform quantization of the prediction error, and entropy coding of the quantized values reduces the storage requirement at the price of a loss of information.
The pictures above show a reconstructed solution at a given timestep for a semilinear equation. For the left picture, a maximal quantization error of 0.005 was allowed, leading to a storage requirement of 0.84 bits/vertex. The tolerance for the right picture was 0.05, resulting in 0.25 bits/vertex.
During an iterative optimization scheme, the quantization error tolerance can be chosen adaptively depending on the gradient norm to ensure convergence.
The plots above show the optimization progress and the proposed quantization tolerance for a linear boundary control problem. The convergence behavior is the same for lossy compressed and uncompressed storage. Compression factors range between more than 400 in the beginning to 40 in the final steps of the optimization algorithm.
For the compression of the underlying adaptive multi-resolution meshes, a lossless connectivity compression scheme that exploits the parent-child relationships inherent to the mesh hierarchy was developed. The tree-like hierarchical structure is converted to a binary stream, using the refinement scheme's rules to prune redundant bits. With context-based arithmetic coding and an adapted traversal of the mesh, taking advantage of structural regularities leads to compression ratios which exceed that of state-of-the-art coders by factors of 2 to 7. Sequences of meshes with varying refinement can be compressed exploiting temporal coherence.
For efficient compression of vertex positions and state values, popular wavelet-based coding schemes were adapted to the adaptive cases. Akin to state-of-the-art coders, a zerotree is used to encode the resulting coefficients. Using improved context modeling, the overall geometry data rate was reduced by 7% below those of the successful Progressive
Geometry Compression. More importantly, by exploiting the existing refinement structure, compression factors that are 4 times greater than those of coders that can handle irregular meshes are achieved.
The trajectory compression has been implemented in Kaskade 7, a flexible C++ toolbox for solving PDE problems. The mesh compression has been implemented in JavaView, an interactive Java code for mathematical geometry processing and visualization. Both packages have been combined via the Java Native Interface to allow a fully adaptive solution of optimal control problems with compression of both, solution data and meshes.


7 Health Benefits of Taking Transit to Work
While it may not be realistic in all cases, many people are in a position to ditch their personal vehicle and hop on a bus or subway to get to their jobs (or anywhere, really). While it might be a tough transition at first, there are actually benefits to doing it.
Healthline.com says, "Sitting in a car is probably the least healthy way to commute." While walking or cycling are the best choices, "public transit, it turns out, is a healthier alternative to driving," it adds. Let's look at seven reasons why this is…
1. Daily Driving Detracts from Happiness
HealthLine.com explains further that there's a direct correlation between the amount of time you spend in a car, and your level of happiness. This is because you can start to feel pressure to get to work on time (sometimes fighting traffic) when you drive yourself, it explains.
This doesn't just mean that drivers who sit in traffic longer are less happy during their commute; it appears to apply to their overall happiness. "If you put in a full day at work and then have an extended commute, you don't have a lot of time left to unwind," explains the source.
2. Cars Mean Breathing Emissions
Waiting at red lights or stop-and-go traffic may actually be harming your health more than you realize, according to a 2014 article in the Toronto Star. "There's clearly exposure to all kinds of pollutants, some of which are irritants to the lungs, some of which are not good for your cardiovascular system, some of which are carcinogenic," reads the article.
Emissions can be even worse when you're at a standstill, putting more strain on your lungs, adds the source. You could probably make an argument that you'd breathe in some emissions on a bus, but many cities have dedicated bus lanes that mean less stop and go (not to mention you can blame the bus driver for being late for work, and not yourself for leaving too late).
3. You'll Get More Exercise with Transit
When you take your car to work, your walk is often limited to your front door to your driveway, and then your work parking lot to your desk – maybe a grand total of 100-feet. When you take transit, you often are walking to a transit stop, or going up and down stairs. In fact, "Individuals who use public transportation get over three times the amount of physical activity per day of those who don't," according to TransLoc.com.
So if your brisk walking to the transit mode of choice is 22-minutes or more, you're meeting the daily guidelines set out by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). This can help lower your risk of serious diseases such as vascular diseases, strokes, cancer and even depression, according to the source.
4. Transit Options Benefit Everyone
When you decide to hop on a transit route instead of into your gas-guzzling SUV (that you usually ride to work alone in), you're helping more than yourself– you're benefitting everyone around you by reducing your carbon footprint.
TransLoc.com explains that "pollution is estimated to cause as many deaths per year as traffic accidents," and we'll talk about safety of taking transit vs. driving next. The source notes that newer buses that use alternative fuels actually produce less pollution per passenger mile than cars.
5. Transit Means Less Chance of Being in an Accident
As a message thread on Quora.com details, there are much fewer deaths per passenger mile in a bus than in a car. The source points out this could be due to the fact bus drivers are seasoned professionals, and less likely to be intoxicated behind the wheel.
However, while buses are safer on the road (also consider that a car running into a bus will probably do a lot less damage than another car), we'd be remiss if we didn't mention the source also points out that walking to a transit stop can be inherently dangerous (presumably because a drunk driver in a car could run you over on the way there, among other scenarios).
6. Transit Takers are More Socially Engaged
This may tie back into the first point about losing quality time when you sit in traffic to and from work every day, but TreeHugger.com points out that taking transit means "gaining the chance to engage more actively with one's community and the outdoors."
The source also explains that even when it's less than ideal weather for walking, "a little sunshine and even some rain and snow can do the spirit a load of good." Just make sure you're dressed for the occasion like any other situation, and you should be fine.
7. Transit is Cheaper
TransLoc.com explains that taking the bus (or other form of transit) is also healthy for your wallet. "Car payments, gas prices and parking can be a major budget drain," it explains, but choosing transit could line your pockets with significantly more money annually =–$6,251, to be more exact.
The source points out that having more money may translate into better living conditions and the ability to afford a healthier diet, not to mention getting better medical care (and being able to afford health insurance) according to the source.
Jeff Hayward
Jeff Hayward


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by Dave Herman (dherman at ccs dot neu dot edu)
This library provides some idioms for Typed Scheme.
To use this library, simply require its main module:
(require (planet dherman/types:1))
A singleton type is a type that corresponds to a single value. The following form defines a new distinct value and simultaneously binds a variable to that value and a type variable to its singleton type.
The following example defines a new constant nil and defines its corresponding singleton type Nil:
( [nil : Nil])
A variant type or disjoint union type is a type defined as the union of a fixed set of disjoint subtypes. This is analogous to ML's datatype and Haskell's data. Each variant is either a constant or a structure type.
The following example defines an expression grammar with one constant variant and three structure variants:
[Nil #:constant nil]
[Var ([name : Symbol])]
[Abs ([var : Symbol] [body : Expr])]
[App ([rator : Expr] [rand : Expr])])


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Elk Island National Park of Canada
Phenotypic Differences Between the Bison Subspecies
Historic range of plains and wood bison.© Parks Canada
The differences between plains and wood bison can be separated into two groups; pelage characters and structural characters. Plains bison tend to have pelage characters which are larger and more obvious than those of the wood bison. Whereas plains bison have large chaps, a full beard and neck mane and a well-demarcated cape, wood bison have no chaps, a thin pointy beard, a rudimentary neck mane and a cape that grades smoothly back to the loins. Structurally the highest point of the hump on a plains bison is directly over the front legs while the highest point of the wood bison is well forward of the front legs. There are differences in weights as well with the wood bison being considerably larger than the plains. The Park maintains a bison weight database going back to 1956 and during all that time there is only one record of a plains bison bull weighing more than 2000 pounds (909 kg) while over one-third of the wood bison bulls exceed this weight.
There has been some discussion as to whether the subspecies are simply ecotypes, and that if a wood bison was placed in plains bison habitat, or vice versa, it would assume the traits of the host bison, simply due to the environmental pressures under which it is placed. A large-scale phenotyping study was conducted during the early 1990s where almost every publicly managed bison herd (both plains and woods) was examined for its external phenotypic expression, and it proved that, despite the habitat in which they reside, they maintain the traits which characterize the subspecies. Recent research at the University of Alberta has conclusively proven a genetic difference between the two subspecies.PLAINS BISON
Plains bison bull.© Parks Canada / EI9912310025, 1991/12/31
- The highest point of the hump is directly over the front legs.
- Large thick chaps on the front legs.
- Thick pendulous beard.
- Full neck mane which extends below the chest.
- Sharply demarcated cape line behind the shoulder.
- Thick bonnet of hair between the horns.
- Cape is usually lighter in color than the woods.
- About one-third smaller than a wood bison of similar age.
Wood bison bull.© Parks Canada / EI9912310026, 1991/12/31
- Highest point of the hump is well forward of the front legs.
- Virtually no chaps on the front legs.
- A thin scraggly beard.
- The neck mane is short and does not extend much below the chest.
- The cape grades smoothly back towards the loins with little if any demarcation.
- The forelock lies forward in long strands over the forehead.
- The hair is usually darker, especially on the head.


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Living With Data Literature Review
Living With Data: knowledge, experiences and perceptions of data practices carried out an extensive review of existing empirical research into public understanding and perceptions of data practices which was published on 21 May 2020. The full report, a short accessible summary, and accompanying list of references are all available from this page in the Current Research section of this site.
Interest in how the public perceives 'data practices' has grown recently. The emerging literature on public understanding and perceptions of datafication needed reviewing, to help us identify next steps for research in the field. We needed to synthesise existing evidence, evaluate whether patterns emerge, assess the claims that are made on the basis of existing research, and identify limitations and gaps that future research can address.
Living With Data therefore undertook such a review. We found:
1. People have some knowledge and understanding of data practices. Findings from both quantitative and qualitative studies suggest that people's knowledge about what happens to their data is mixed. Knowledge and understanding of data practices are varied. Some people understand some data practices, and they interpret their understanding in different ways which, in turn, leads to different levels of concern.
2. There is extensive evidence across all literature that people are concerned about data practices. This is an important finding that emerges from a lot of diverse research. Policy-makers and data practitioners need to be willing to address these concerns.
3. But this is not the whole picture: people are not only concerned. They find ways to negotiate, embed or resist data practices in their everyday lives. People often hold contradictory views about data practices, recognising their benefits and feeling concerned about potential harms at the same time. In some contexts, people feel they have some agency around their data, especially personal data that they can easily access, such as health selftracking data.
4. Emotions play an important role in understandings and perceptions of data practices. Qualitative studies recognise the significant role that feelings play in perceptions of data practices. How emotions matter varies across demographic groups. Emotions inform and are informed by reason and rational thinking, so they need to be understood as an important element in public understanding and perceptions of data practices.
5. People trust some sectors with their data more than others. The relationship between trust in institutions in general and trust in institutions' data practices is complicated, and findings are contradictory. For example, people trust the police with their data but they do not trust automated, data-driven decision-making in criminal justice practices. Qualitative research suggests that trust and distrust in data practices are not experienced separately. Trust and distrust are context-dependent, and sometimes trust and distrust coexist. Sometimes, distrust is appropriate, because trust needs to be earned. Research suggests that people believe that better communication and the existence of safeguards, accountability and transparency would make organisations more trustworthy.
6. Some responses to data practices are seen as apathy or acceptance. But responses need tobe understood in a context in which people feel unable to control the flows of their personal data, even if they want to. Some researchers see this as digital resignation, not apathy or acceptance. Using data-driven services does not mean that people accept data practices – we also saw that people are concerned about them and that people hold contradictory views about them. In addition, sometimes people resist data practices, and there are various ways in which they do this.
7. Most research finds dissatisfaction with the current ways in which data is used and managed, and a desire for this to change. A number of characteristics of changed, fairer data practices have been identified. These include:
- Honesty, transparency and genuine dialogue with the public;
- Regulation, enforcing compliance, the existence of safeguards and accountability, and the right to redress;
- Personal control.
As with people's concerns and degrees of trust, contexts of data use influence people's thinking about whether they are fair or not.
8. Because people are concerned about existing data practices, because trust in them is limited, and because people have views about how data practices could be fairer, clearly, change is needed. Views about what needs to change are influenced by research discipline and researcher perspective. Systems-focused literature recommends changes in system design, foregrounding actions that could be taken by technology providers, such as clear communication, privacy by design, and attending to complex privacy and contextual dynamics. Critical academic literature and some policy and practice-oriented grey literature identify governments as the most important enablers of change.
9. Differences matter when it comes to public perceptions of data practices. Not all data
practices are the same, and people experience them from different social positions. Research is beginning to pay attention to differences, but more understanding of them is needed. Differences matter in relation to types of data or contexts of data use and how concern about data practices differs in significance from other concerns that people have. Most importantly, social inequalities play a major role in shaping people's experiences of data practices, and therefore their understanding and perceptions of them.
10. How research is conducted makes a difference to what it finds. Research methods, the questions asked, how findings are interpreted and presented, the disciplinary background and the political orientation of researchers all play a role in shaping findings that emerge and claims that are made in the research we reviewed. Decision-making based on the evidence we have reviewed should be alert to this fact.
Three overarching conclusions emerged:
I. Data matters are human matters. This means that data-related governance
and decision-making needs to be human-centric. It needs to start with the experiences and perceptions of the people who are affected by data practices.
II. Context matters.Who gathers data, what and whose data is gathered, for what purpose and with what effects, influences people's attitudes.
III. Inequalities matter. Social inequalities influence knowledge and understanding, concerns, degree of trust and feelings about data practices.


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Resources Fact Sheets
HISTORY OF THE 102ND INTELLIGENCE WING|
Printable Fact Sheet
The 102nd Fighter Wing was born in the spring of 1921 as the 101st Observation Squadron, Massachusetts National Guard. By November of that year, the squadron was federally recognized.
The squadron secured its own training site on the land filled tidal flats at Jeffries Point, East Boston. This humble field, with its two cinder runways, would later be known as Logan International Airport.
In 1940, the 101st was inducted into federal service and was then moved from Logan Airport to Otis Field at Camp Edwards, Mass. During World War II the unit served under the Ninth Air Force as a reconnaissance unit. After serving in France, the squadron returned to the states in 1945 and was reactivated as a National Guard unit on July 29, 1946.
In 1950, the 102nd was recalled to active duty and assigned to the Air Defense Command. Remaining at home station, the Logan International Airport-based ANG unit stood runway alert throughout the Korean conflict.
When the Berlin wall was built in 1961, the 102nd Tactical Fighter Wing was alerted and by Nov. 1st, 26 of the wing's F-86H aircraft were on the ramp at Phalsbourg Air Base, France. The wing provided close air support to NATO's U.S. Seventh Army.
By August 1962, the wing was released from active duty and returned to Air National Guard control. In August of 1968, the 102nd left its Boston home of over 45 years and became a tenant unit at Otis Air Force Base.
The return to Otis for the 102nd was fitting indeed. The 101st Observation Squadron, forerunner of the 102d Fighter Interceptor Wing, was the original occupant of the Otis Field and was instrumental in its construction on the Camp Edwards property. The original intent of Otis Field was for utilization by National Guard aircraft.
The wing flew the F-84F Thunderstreak until June 1971, when a squadron of F-100D Supersabres was transferred directly from the conflict in Vietnam. After making the transition to the "Hun," a shift in Department of Defense military planning brought still more change to the 102nd and its mission.
Mach 2, F- 106 Delta Darts arrived on the 102nd's parking ramp. On June 10, 1972, the unit officially became the 102nd Air Defense Wing. Upon completion of transition, the wing commenced an air defense alert commitment on a 24-hour, 365-days-a-year basis.
On April 25, 1975, 102nd pilots were scrambled to intercept two Soviet TU95 BEAR D aircraft, 240 nautical miles off the Long Island coastline. Intercepts since that time have included everything from aircraft off course, additional intercepts of Soviet BEAR D aircraft, and aircraft carrying illegal cargo.
The 102nd's conversion to the F-15 marked the first Air National Guard air defense unit to receive the Eagle. The 102nd Fighter Interceptor Wing was redesignated the 102nd Fighter Wing in April 1992.
Examples of the wing's ability to function worldwide include a 1992 deployment of eight pilots, five F-15 Eagles, and 48 maintenance and security personnel, who deployed for five days to Canadian Forces Base, Goose Bay, Labrador, Canada. Another is the humanitarian deployment of 50 personnel from the 102nd Civil Engineering Squadron under field conditions, to the island of Eleuthera in the Bahamas in July 1993 to rebuild school buildings and municipal facilities damaged by Hurricane Andrew in 1992.
More recently, in the years 1991 through 1995 the wing deployed to Panama as part of "Coronet Nighthawk," a drug interdiction operation. From _PHONE_ the wing deployed to Iceland for 45 days of air defense duty. During 1998 Otis Guard members both trained for and performed real-world contingency assignments in Iceland, Canada, Korea, and Europe. In 1999 the wing participated in Operation Northern Watch when it deployed with its F-15 Eagle aircraft to Turkey to patrol and enforce the no-fly zone north of the 36th parallel in northern Iraq. The wing again deployed more than 350 personnel to the Middle East and Europe in 2000 to participate in Operation Southern Watch.
On September 11th, 2001, the wing sprang into action just minutes after the terrorists attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City. More than 600 wing members were mobilized for OPERATION Noble Eagle. The wing began flying around-the-clock combat air patrols missions immediately thereafter, and continued doing so until February 2002. Overall during 2001, wing aircraft flew 2,388 sorties compiling more than 3750 flying hours.
On April 6, 2008 the Fighter Wing was re-designated to an Intelligence Wing. The new intelligence group, designated a Digital Ground Station, will exploit and analyze information sent from Unmanned Aerial Vehicles circling the globe. The new unit will also provide direct, around-the-clock support to combat operations worldwide. An Air Operations Group support¬ing command and control of long-range strikes and cyber operations was activated in October of 2008.
"We are now an integral part of the first team that helps dominate air, space and cyberspace mediums." -Col Anthony Schiavi, 102nd Intelligence Wing Commander


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The Directed Movement of Substances (such As Macromolecules Small Molecules Ions) Into Out of or Within a Cell or Between Cells or Within a Multicellular Organism by Means of Some Agent Such As a Transporter or Pore.
Any Process That Results in a Change in State or Activity of a Cell (in Terms of Movement Secretion Enzyme Production Gene Expression Etc.) As a Result of a Stimulus Indicating Damage to Its DNA From Environmental Insults or Errors During Metabolism.
Interacting Selectively and Non Covalently with a Transition Metal Ions; a Transition Metal Is an Element Whose Atom Has an Incomplete D Subshell of Extranuclear Electrons or Which Gives Rise to a Cation or Cations with an Incomplete D Subshell. Transition Metals Often Have More Than One Valency State. Biologically Relevant Transition Metals Include Vanadium Manganese Iron Copper Cobalt Nickel Molybdenum and Silver.


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- Special Sections
Special to the Times-Record
May is Stroke Awareness Month, and CityCounty Health District and the Center for Tobacco Prevention and Control Policy (the Center) are using the opportunity to underscore how the connection between cigarette smoke and stroke reinforces the need for comprehensive smoke-free policies.
Stroke is the fourth-leading cause of death in the U.S., and people who smoke cigarettes are twice as likely to have a stroke.
In addition to smokers being at risk, those breathing secondhand smoke also suffer at least a 30 percent increased stroke risk, as reported in a recent issue of â€śPreventing Chronic Disease,â€ť published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
According to CDC, both smoking and exposure to secondhand smoke thicken the blood, thus making it more likely to clot.
This can lead to increased plaque buildup in arteries and damage blood vessels leading to the brain, which can cause or worsen a stroke.
â€śThe increased risk of stroke caused by secondhand smoke is very alarming,â€ť said Vicki Voldal Rosenau with the CCHD in Valley City.
â€śSmokers arenâ€™t the only ones harmed by smoking, which is why we work to implement comprehensive smoke-free ordinances.â€ť
The Center, North Dakotaâ€™s comprehensive tobacco prevention program, works with public health units across the state to promote science-based tobacco prevention and comprehensive tobacco-free policies.
Currently, 37 percent of North Dakotans are protected by comprehensive smoke-free laws.
â€śWeâ€™re all working to save lives in our local communities,â€ť Voldal-Rosenau added.
Last year, tobacco use killed 800 North Dakotans prematurely and cost the state over $247 million in healthcare. In fact, smoking is the leading cause of preventable disease in the state, which is the main reason the Center uses only proven CDC Best Practices to promote tobacco prevention statewide.
â€śEveryone knows the deadly connection between smoking and cancer and heart disease, but the increase in strokes is less familiar,â€ť said Voldal-Rosenau.
To learn more about the link between stroke and tobacco smoke, and preventing tobacco use, contact City-County Health District at _PHONE_, or go to _URL_.


text:
Anyone who has ever perused a field guide to birds has no doubt wondered how some of the names originated.
By convention, the person who first describes a species gets to name it. The stories behind the scientific names are complex and steeped in Latin and Greek.
Common names are another story. Some are obviously and accurately descriptive. Red-headed woodpecker, red-winged blackbird, rose-breasted grosbeak, and eastern bluebird come to mind.
Others are onomatopoeic, that is, they sound like the voice of the bird. Chickadees, towhees, bobwhite, bobolink, whip-poor-will and Chuck-will's-widow are all onomatopoeic names.
Many bird names are less obviously descriptive, and some are downright misleading. The red-bellied woodpecker, for example, does not have a red belly. At best, its belly is bathed in a pale rosy wash.
Often understanding common names requires some familiarity with other languages. Pileated woodpecker, for example, refers to the bird's large red crest. In Latin, pilleatus means wearing a pilleus, a felt cap that indicated a slave's status.
The names of two other common woodpeckers, downy and hairy, often perplex beginning birders. The reference is to the bristles that cover the nostrils. A downy's bristles are shorter and appear softer than a hairy's.
Nuthatches derive their name from the Middle English notehache, which refers to their habit of wedging a nut in tree bark and then hammering it with the bill until it cracks.
The peregrine falcon derives its name from the Latin falx, a sharp, curved agricultural tool like a scythe or sickle. It refers to the bird's strongly hooked talons.
Peregrinus is Latin meaning foreign, exotic, or not native. It refers to the wide roaming habits of peregrines. Great horned owl references the bird's large size and the tufts of feathers on the head that resemble horns.
Owl comes from the Anglo-Saxon ule (owl) and the Latin ululo, meaning to cry out. Both words are onomatopoeic of the owl's voice.
Though parrots are found around the world, parrot is from the French perrot, a diminutive form of Pierre (Peter), a pet name for these birds.
And New World trogons are named for their bill. The Greek trogo, meaning to gnaw or nibble, refers to the tooth-like edges on a trogon's bill.
Names of many waterfowl have simple origins. Duck, for example, is from the Anglo-Saxon duce, meaning to duck or dive. Mallard comes from the old French maslard, meaning a wild drake and Anglicized to mallard. And goose comes from the Anglo-Saxon gos.
Still other common names pay tribute to people. Sometimes these people are those who first collected or described the bird. Others are named to honor friends or relatives.
Here are just a few of 92 species of North America birds whose common names honor people.
Wilson's storm petrel, Wilson's plover, Wilson's snipe, Wilson's phalarope, and Wilson's warbler honor Alexander Wilson (_PHONE_), father of America ornithology.
Cassin's auklet, Cassin's kingbird, Cassin's vireo, Cassin's sparrow and Cassin's finch were named for John Cassin (1813-18-69), a Philadelphia ornithologist.
A hawk, a thrush, and a warbler bear the name of William Swainson (_PHONE_), a British naturalist and artist.
Audubon's shearwater and Audubon's oriole honor John James Audubon (_PHONE_), naturalist and artist, the best known painter of American birds.
Harris's hawk and Harris's sparrow were named for Edward Harris (_PHONE_), a patron of J.J. Audubon. Clark's grebe and Clark's nutcracker honor two different men.
The grebe honors J.H. Clark (1830-?) an American surveyor and naturalist. Clarks' nutcracker honors William Clark (_PHONE_), of Lewis and Clark fame.
Lewis's woodpecker was named by Alexander Wilson to honor Meriwether Lewis (_PHONE_), who collected the first specimen on the Lewis and Clark expedition.
Some bird names have strictly personal origins. Lucy's warbler honors Lucy Hunter Baird (_PHONE_) daughter of Spencer Fullerton Baird (_PHONE_), a secretary of the Smithsonian Institution.
Virginia's warbler was named for Mary Virginia Anderson, the wife of William Wallace Anderson (_PHONE_), a Confederate Army surgeon. Anderson collected the first specimen and asked Spenser Fullerton Baird to name the bird after his wife.
The origins of many other common names such as loon, grebe, heron, vireo, and tanager, are less obvious and perhaps fodder for a future column.
(Send questions and comments to Dr. Scott Shalaway, RD 5, Cameron, WV 26033 or by e-mail via my Web site, _URL_.)


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Managing Yourself and Leading Others Level 7 Online Module
Nursing, Medicine, Midwifery, Allied Health Professionals, Ambulance Service, Operating Department, Health and Social Care
To be confirmed
Leadership, Service improvement and innovation
The aim of this module is to support practitioners to develop a critical understanding of efficient and effective leadership in order to manage yourself and lead others. The overall objective of the module is to empower you to lead innovative change and organisational development through the fostering of a sense of shared sense of leadership and responsibility for the success of the organisation and the development of quality services. You will learn about theories of leadership and skills needed for an advanced level of practice.
What will I learn?
By the end of this module you will be able to demonstrate:
- Emerging personal leadership qualities and integrity
- Insightful critical reflection and self-assessment of how personal values, beliefs, qualities and interests influence affect others (reflexivity)
- Effective self-assessment and self-management
- Critical analysis and evaluation of personal/professional and leadership capabilities though reflection on feedback from a range of sources
- Expertise in working with others developing and maintaining effective networks and relationships
- Effective participation in a range of leadership and learning activities which are effectively evidenced
- Evaluation of own development and that of others
How will I learn?
To be confirmed
*Please be advised that course dates and timings may change
Jackie Phipps _EMAIL_


"Turf-ism" can be defined as non-cooperation or conflict between organizations with seemingly common goals or interests. Whether over resources, recognition, or control, turf struggles can threaten coalition vitality. Traditionally, coalition leaders' response to turf struggles has been to ask coalition membership to "leave their hats at the door". However, The Tension of Turf: Making it Work for the Coalition takes a different approach to addressing turf issues.
Turf struggle implies the existence of valuable turf. Especially in the social work and public health arenas, groups have a deep belief in what they do, and they connect that with their core identity. While this passion may lead to turf battles, it is also the reason the group is willing to work with other organizations towards a larger goal. Rather than suppressing struggles, and thereby diminishing the importance of turf, coalition leaders must find ways to incorporate that passion into the overall collaborative effort. The Tension of Turf was developed as a tool to help practitioners working within coalitions to identify, address, and manage turf issues.
Successful coalitions learn to anticipate and validate turf issues as part of solidifying partnerships and gathering their full strength. Tension of Turf offers practical support for skillfully managing the dynamic tension that commonly arises when people collaborate. It helps coalitions derive authentic, constructive power from their varying perspectives, skills, and mandates.
Tension of Turf is the companion tool to our coalition-building guide, Developing Effective Coalitions: An Eight Step Guide.


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Each summer, hundreds of St. Louis kids fend for themselves without adult supervision. Many of these children are home alone during the day without structured activities, nutritious meals or awareness of the risks that come with no adult presence.
Will your child be home alone this summer?
Sign them up for summer camp instead! The Northside Youth and Senior Services Center provides a fun and educational camp for St. Louis children ages 5 to 17 each summer. It's a chance for kids to explore, make new friends, and enjoy fun and educational activities. All for no charge to families.
Children are split into the following age groupings for summer camp:
- 5-8 years old
- 9-12 years old
- 13-17 years old
Camp begins the week after St. Louis public schools let out for the summer and provides six weeks of fun and learning activities for the kids.
Summer Camp Activities
The activities are carefully planned based on a child's age and abilities, working to retain school year learning and provide age appropriate learning experiences. Caring and experienced camp counselors and adult volunteers provide a balance of free play, structured learning, creative development and physical activities.
Types of Activities
Each day is different and exciting, but some examples of typical summer camp activities include the following:
- Computer instruction
- Physical fitness
- Recreational sports
- Outdoor games and activities
- Field trips around St. Louis
- Dance and theatre
Nutritional meals and snacks are provided each day to all children attending camp. No kid goes hungry on our watch!
Summer CampRegistration Closed
We'd love to have your child join us for summer camp! Our summer camp is free and open to all children ages 5-17 in St. Louis and the surrounding areas. Complete the form below and someone from our team will be in touch with additional details and next steps.


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The answer lies in highly efficient, highly reliable, page turning and scanning machines that exemplify the latest in automation science, an emerging field that is the focus of an increasingly influential new journal, the IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering (T-ASE).
What does T-ASE stand for?
T-ASE stands for Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering (journal)
This definition appears frequently and is found in the following Acronym Finder categories:
- Science, medicine, engineering, etc.
- Organizations, NGOs, schools, universities, etc.
We have 8 other meanings of T-ASE in our Acronym Attic
- Hospital Ship
- Auxiliary Cargo (K) and Ammunition (E) Ship, MSC Manned (naval ship type)
- Fast Logistics Ship (US DoD)
- T-Cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia
- T-Cell Acute Lymphoblastic Lymphoma (cancer)
- Trans-4-Aminomethyl-Cyclohexane Carboxylic Acid (anti-fibrinolytic agent)
- Military Sealift Replenishment Oiler
- Gasoline Tanker - Military Sealift Command Manned (also abbreviated TAOG)
- Transactions on Antennas and Propagation (IEEE AP-S)
- Television-Audio Support Activity
- Teamed Architecture Signal Processor
- Aviation Logistics Support Ship - MSC Manned
- Toxic Best Available Control Technology
- Task-Based Exposure Assessment Model (NIOSH)
- The Business Enhancement Business (UK)
- Truncated Binary Exponential Back-Off
- T-1 Bit Error Rate Detector
- Time Bearing Elevation Range Doppler
- Threshold-Bit Error Rate - High (Telabs)
- Threshold-Bit Error Rate - Low (Telabs)


text:
A. This procedure includes guidance on re-polishing eroded
areas in exterior granite.
B. See 01100-07-S for general project guidelines to be
reviewed along with this procedure. These guidelines
cover the following sections:
1. Safety Precautions
2. Historic Structures Precautions
4. Quality Assurance
5. Delivery, Storage and Handling
6. Project/Site Conditions
7. Sequencing and Scheduling
8. General Protection (Surface and Surrounding)
These guidelines should be reviewed prior to performing
this procedure and should be followed, when applicable,
along with recommendations from the Regional Historic
Preservation Officer (RHPO).
A. Product Data: Submit manufacturer's technical data for
each product indicated including recommendations for
their application and use. Include test reports and
certifications substantiating that products comply with
1.03 PROJECT/SITE CONDITIONS
A. Environmental Requirements: Perform work only in dry and
otherwise favorable weather conditions. Protect repaired
stone against freezing or excessively rapid drying for at
least 48 hours after being laid; no masonry shall be laid
when temperature is below 32 degrees F on a rising thermometer or
below 40 degrees F on a falling thermometer.
B. Existing Conditions: Contractor shall take whatever
precautions are necessary to protect the existing
building from damage resulting from work under this
A. Grinder with silicone carbide grinding stones or diamond
B. Aluminum oxide polishing compound
C. Felt pads
D. Clean, soft cloths
E. Clean, potable water
3.01 ERECTION, INSTALLATION, APPLICATION
NOTE: THIS WORK SHALL ONLY BE PERFORMED BY A SKILLED GRANITE
A. Grind granite down until an even plane is achieved.
Feather out to unaffected surface as required to avoid
granite having dished appearance. Use right angle water
feed grinder with successively finer diamond disks (#60
to #3500) or silicon carbide grinding stones (36 to 400
B. Polish to match existing sheet of granite. Use acid free
aluminum oxide polishing compound with felt pad.
CAUTION: POLISHING COMPOUNDS CONTAINING FLUORIC ACID
WILL EVENTUALLY ETCH THE GRANITE SURFACE, RESULTING IN A
DIMINUTION OF GLOSS.


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A team of engineers and astronomers spent two years developing this navigator which identifies stars simply by pointing at them.
Our items are guaranteed for their normal life under standard, non-commercial use.
A team of engineers and astronomers spent two years developing this navigator which identifies stars simply by pointing at them. The innovative tracking system also delineates constellations, planets, and other objects. Simply input the nearest city and the date, then, point the navigator at a star cluster and the screen duplicates what you see and identifies it. Advanced technology locates 43 different constellations (visible planets are Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn) and labels the sky on color-keyed, lighted charts. To find a specific constellation, hold the navigator in front of you and turn in a full circle; a red LED glows when it is located. Then turn the navigator in a circle; when the correct rotation of the constellation is pin pointed, a green LED illuminates. A draw button superimposes the image. With built in electro-magnetic compass. For use in the Northern Hemisphere. Requires four AA and two C batteries. Ages 7 and up. (4 lbs.)


HomeHow toHow to use your Android or iOS device as a webcam -...
How to use your Android or iOS device as a webcam – DroidCam
Use your smartphone as a webcam
The technologies for internet communication have altered our perception of the world. We no longer have to wait for others to reply to our contacts for days or weeks. Webcams are built into almost all PC and Mac laptops, allowing us to conduct video chats and various kinds of recordings that can be shared on social networking sites. However, in some instances, such as when your laptop's built-in camera is damaged or absent, you won't be able to make a webcam movie and will have to search for alternatives. As an alternative, you can use an Android or iOS phone, or a tablet.
In this post, we'll show you how to use an Android or iOS phone as a webcam. You can use your phone as a webcam on video platforms, such as Skype, Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Google Meet. Alternatively, you can record your phone camera in the device recording mode of Bandicam.
We tested a few applications and found DroidCam to be the best option for using a phone as a webcam. DroidCam supports desktop clients for Windows 10 and Linux. However, there is no client for Mac OS. If you are a Mac user, it is recommended to use the IRIUN application that supports Mac OS.
Methods of using DroidCam:
1. How to use your smartphone as a webcam via wi-fi
Step 1. Install and start the DroidCam PC client. Also, connect your computer and phone to the same network by turning on Wi-Fi.
Step 2. Start the phone app and you will see the Wi-fi IP & Port information. If the IP consists of all zeros (, you are not properly connected to a Wi-Fi network.
Step 3. Enter the IP and Port as displayed on the phone. Check the video and audio option and click the 'Start' button.
Now open the software you will be using and verify the camera output by selecting 'DroidCam Source' from the video settings menu. It can be used in a variety of ways. See examples below.
Example 1) For instance, if you are going to use your phone camera in Zoom meetings, select 'DroidCam Source' as a video source.
Example 2) If you want to record your webcam with your smartphone's camera, you can use Bandicam Recorder.
 - Select 'Device recording mode' and 'DroidCam Source' from the settings.
 - If you want to record your voice, please select 'DroidCam Virtual Audio' as a Microphone. (Optional)
2. How to use your Android phone as a webcam using USB
Step 1. With a USB cord, connect a phone to a Windows laptop or PC.
Step 2. Enable USB debugging by going to Settings > Developer Options > Enable USB debugging on your Phone. If a dialogue box appears asking you to 'Allow USB Debugging,' choose OK. Because USB connections are made via Android Debug Bridge (ADB), this step is critical.
Step 3. With USB Debugging turned on, start the DroidCam app on your phone and make sure it's linked to the laptop or computer.
Step 4. On the PC, open the DroidCam Client and choose the 'USB' option. A screen will display devices in a dropdown menu, and port information will appear. When you press the 'Start button, the DroidCam Client will identify your Phone and connect to it immediately.
3. How to use your iPhone as a webcam using USB
USB connections for the iOS app require iTunes to be installed and detect your Apple device when you plug it in.
Step 1. With the USB connection, connect your iPhone to your Windows laptop or PC.
Step 2. Remember that you'll need iTunes installed on your Windows PC to connect via a USB connection. You can get iTunes for free if you don't already have it. It will instantly identify your iPhone once you log in to iTunes.
Step 3. Start the DroidCam Client by selecting the 'USB' option and pressing the 'Start' button.
4. How to connect phone camera with Chrome or Edge
You may also use a web browser to connect to the camera using the DroidCam mobile app.
Step 1. Open DroidCam on your phone and click on your Wi-Fi network.
Step 2. Open Chrome or Edge browser on your PC or laptop and input the details for 'Browser IP Cam Access.'
Turning a Smartphone into a webcam is a simple procedure that may help you enhance the quality of your webcam recordings. DroidCam is a cross-platform, lightweight program with a simple setup procedure, which includes installing the DroidCam application and Client. While the commercial version has more options, the freeware provides WiFi and USB connectivity so that phones may be used in webcam mode.
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Using Multiple SoloVisions
The purpose of this article is to demonstrate how-to setup multiple SoloVisions for use. The SoloVision device was designed with the feature of being able to use each SoloVision device independently. This allows you to take one SoloVision out for a screening, and keep the other SoloVision in the office to perform DynaROM screenings.
Connecting Multiple SoloVisions to One Computer
Each SoloVision has a label on the bottom indicating what type of device it connects to.
When setting up your SoloVisions you will want to remember which SoloVision, connects to which device-type (ScanVision, FlexVision, DynaVision.) This will become important if you ever need to take one SoloVision off the computer and move it to a different one.
Each SoloVision connecting to the computer will need an available USB port for the SoloVision to plug into. The SoloVision device should come with a USB cable used to connect the device to the computer.
If your computer doesn't have enough USB ports you can purchase a USB hub. A USB hub allows you to convert one USB port into several USB ports.
Using Multiple SoloVisions on Different Computers
Each SoloVision has a label on the bottom indicating whether it connects to a ScanVision, FlexVision, or DynaVision device. The SoloVision does NOT need any additional power cables. The only cable that the SoloVision needs is the USB cable that connects the SoloVision to the computer.


text:
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The computer science of changing faces
The gory plot line of the 1997 movie Face/Off staring John Travolta and Nicolas Cage involves what was then the science fiction medical process of a face transplant. Government agent Sean Archer must find a ticking bomb planted by terrorist Caster Troy. To do this he takes on the identity of Troy by having Caster's face surgically transferred onto him so he can infiltrate the terrorist's group in prison. Just to complicate things the real Troy (the baddy) later manages to get hold of Archer's (the goody) face and pretending to be Archer helps his twin brother, Pollox Troy escape from prison. The real Archer is left in prison, looking like the baddy, while Caster, looking like the goody, goes off to destroy all the documents that would prove that the swap ever took place. If he's successful Archer will be left with Caster's Identity to rot in jail. Typical John Woo (the director) action follows with lots of two-handed gun shooting and chases. Eventually it all gets sorted, but it all goes to prove that faces are a key part of our personal identity and that shifting them around can be very confusing.
Meanwhile medical science has progressed to the stage where we can actually successfully transplant a face to help people whose own faces have been disfigured. Computer Scientists are also developing a way to digitally create and transfer faces, (in a less gruesome way) which could open up some fascinating new applications.
The psychology of faces
Humans seem to have a special part of the brain to process faces. Since we are social animals it's obviously important that we are able to recognise friends and family, and to be able to tell from their expressions what kind of mood they are in. Psychologists have studied how we use facial information for years, and have discovered that it's far from easy. Your brain is doing a lot of difficult calculations and using lots of assumptions to make the job easier. For example, when looking at faces we tend to think of them as convex, that is bulging outwards towards us, which of course they normally do. The brain is so convinced that faces are convex that even when we look at the inside of a mask we see a solid face - the hollow face illusion. The way our faces move is also very important. It's been found that if you use motion tracking to transfer the movements from an individual onto a computer generated face, even though that computerised face is genderless (looking as much female as male), observers can tell the gender of the original person from the pattern of movements alone; women and men have different ways of moving their faces.
This idea that we can build faces from component parts is at the heart of the identikit process used to try to reconstruct the face of a criminal in a police investigation. In the original system the witness was given a book filled with different eyes, ears, noses, mouth, hairlines and so on, and from this they selected the parts that the believed were like those of the criminal. It had some success. The problem though is that we tend not to see faces like that. We don't see them as a combination of bits. We see them as whole faces, and so often the identikit pictures created bit by bit didn't really look like the criminal at all. The computer-based E-Fit system tries to overcome this by taking account of some of the psychology of face recognition. By running the process electronically the face building elements stored in the database can be blended together to form a realistic looking face. One problem is that the witness building the face needs to say what isn't quite right with it. That can be difficult. A software system called Evo-Fit, developed in the Psychology Department at the University of Stirling, overcomes this by creating a range of similar faces rather than a single face. The witness selects the ones that are closest to the criminal. That is often easier to do. The system then uses genetic algorithms; a simple model for biological evolution, to breed more similar faces, and step-by-step, the system lets the witness focuses in on the best likeness.
The principle of Principal Components
The Evo-Fit system works by having, not a database full of different ears noses, eyes and so on, but a database containing something more cunning. It contains "Principal Components" of faces.
Principal Components are produced by a statistical technique that helps us represent lots of complicated data in a simplified form. We can think of pictures of faces as being represented as a collection of numbers (after all that's how they are stored as the pixels of a computer screen). A single good quality image can contain many thousands of numbers. If we combine a set of many different face images, the amount of data becomes gigantic, and each new face added will add more muddle to this big set of numbers; all faces are still in there it's just that they are all mixed up. We need some way to reduce this muddle so that we have just a few images that capture as much of the useful 'face stuff' in the full set as possible. That's where statistics comes in.
You may already have come across the idea of standard deviation or variance in maths lessons. These values are calculated from the data you are analysing and indicate how spread out the numbers are. A large variance shows that most of the numbers are spread out. A small variance shows that they are close together. We can use similar mathematical tricks on our set of face images. What we want to do is find a few images that will account for the most variation in the data; after all it is the variations in the data that makes the faces different from each other.
Once we turn the handle on the Principal Component Calculating Machine what we get out is a set of images. The first image (the first "Principal Component") accounts for most of the variation in the data, the second Principal Component accounts for the next highest level of variation and so on. So rather than having to store all the images in the original set we can just store as many Principal Component images as we need (this is called data reduction). What's more we can add and subtract these Principal Component images to let us recreate a good approximation to any of the original faces that we mangled together in the first place (this is called data reconstruction).
If all this maths is a little confusing, think of it this way. You know from art class that you can make any colour by mixing together amounts of red, green and blue paint (the primary colours). Think of the Principal Component images as computer calculated 'primary colours', which you can mix together to 'paint any colour' Ð or in this case make a face. The fact that the Principal Component images are all faces (of a sort) rather than colours means that they have the standard overall arrangement of the face. That means the Evo-Fit software doesn't have a problem of mistakenly adding in a nose where it shouldn't belong. The system just moves through painting new faces with the Principal combinations of the Component images until the best match to the criminal is found.
Let's get moving
We can also apply the Principal Component trick to sets of videos of faces, because videos are just a series of still frames all stacked together. Of course this means the amount of data involved is even bigger, but it can be done. What comes out of the Principal Component Calculating Machine here is not static images but video images. The first Principal Component video accounts for most of the variation in the original set of videos, the second Principal Component video accounts for... and you know the rest. So we can now 'paint' with these videos to create new video sequences, by combining the appropriate Principal Component videos - and that's exactly what computer science researchers at Queen Mary and psychologists at UCL did!
The Digital Face/Off illusion
Suppose we take lots of video of one person, say Caster Troy, talking and laughing in typical baddy style and put this set of videos thorough the Principal Component Calculating Machine. What we have are videos that will let us paint new videos of Caster Troy by combining the components. If we can combine the right set of components we can make his face do whatever we want, even give us a cheery smile.
Now suppose we do the same with goody agent Sean Archer: take lots of videos of him and put this set of videos thorough the Principal Component Calculating Machine. We could now paint new Archer videos. Suppose instead we take a video of Archer pulling a particularly silly face. We can take this single video and work out the mix of Archer Principal Component videos that he uses to do this. In effect we have an instruction list of how to add and subtract the Archer components to make Archer look silly.
Now we take this instruction list from Archer but apply it to combine Caster Troy's' video components instead. The result: a new video where the baddy pulls exactly the same funny face - a face he never pulled in reality! We have taken Archer's facial movements and transplanted them onto Troy's face without a scalpel. The illusion is complete: Archer's face can work Troy's face like a puppet, and there is nothing he can do about it.
Facing up to the future
Apart from applications in espionage, these techniques could be used to allow, for example, actors to impersonate other possibly dead actors, of even let