- 6 min read
Implementing cost-saving strategies on Amazon EC2 with Chaos Engineering
The COVID-19 pandemic has created a state of uncertainty, and many organizations are turning to cost-saving measures as a precaution. In a survey by PwC, 74% of CFOs expect a significant impact on their operations and liquidity. As a result, many organizations are looking to reduce costs wherever possible, and this includes cloud computing.
As cloud computing becomes a more central focus of businesses, so too is optimizing cloud use for costs. On average, more than half of enterprises surveyed by RightScale spend over $1.2 million annually on public cloud platforms, and the top priority for 64% of these organizations is optimizing their existing cloud costs. At the same time, the world is arguably more reliant on cloud computing and online services now than ever before. Making changes to your cloud infrastructure may seem like a risk unless you have a way to verify the impact that your cost-saving measures will have.
In this article, we'll explore several cost optimization measures that you can apply to your cloud infrastructure. We'll focus on Amazon Web Services, specifically Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2). Besides being one of the oldest AWS services and a cornerstone of the AWS platform, it's also one of the most complex and feature-rich. Over time, organizations can accumulate unnecessary infrastructure and hidden costs, such as:
 - More expensive instance types (e.g. on-demand or reserved instances vs. Spot Instances)
 - Underutilized instance capacity
 - Instances that are stopped, but not terminated
 - Unused Elastic Load Balancing (ELB) load balancers
 - Orphaned EBS volumes and snapshots
 - Unattached reserve Elastic IP addresses
Cost optimization is so important to AWS that it's one of the pillars of the AWS Well-Architected Framework. However, finding extraneous costs isn't always easy. For all we know, that one t2.small instance that an ex-employee spun up two years ago is hosting an essential service. Before we can start paring down resources, we need to understand what the impact will be to our applications. We can accomplish this with Chaos Engineering.
Chaos Engineering is the process of deliberately experimenting on a system by injecting measured amounts of harm, with the goal of ultimately improving the system's reliability. In addition to this, we can use Chaos Engineering to help optimize our EC2 costs by proactively testing the impact of cost-optimization measures. This way, we can confidently reduce our spending without impacting our customers.
We'll look at three approaches to reducing our AWS costs through Chaos Engineering:
 - Moving from on-demand or reserved instances to Spot Instances
 - Optimizing the size of our instances by using smaller instance types
 - Finding and terminating unused instances
Moving from on-demand to Spot Instances
By default, new EC2 instances are created as on-demand instances. This means that we're charged a certain hourly rate (per-second for Linux instances) for as long as the instance is running. On-demand instances are useful for running stateful workloads without making a long-term commitment, but if your workloads are stateless or can tolerate shorter run cycles, there's a more cost-effective instance type called a Spot Instance.
A Spot Instance is essentially leftover EC2 capacity that can be used to run temporary instances. Pricing for Spot Instances is significantly lower (as high as 90%) than on-demand prices, making them a much less expensive alternative even compared to reserved instances (RIs). And while RIs present large upfront costs, Spot Instances follow the same on-demand pricing model as on-demand instances.
The drawback is that EC2 can shut down your Spot Instance at any time if it needs to reclaim the computing resources. AWS provides a two-minute warning from the time the instance is reclaimed to when it's stopped, giving you time to safely stop your workloads and transfer data off-instance. Spot prices also change based on demand, so your actual costs may vary over time.
Spot Instances are useful for running workloads that are stateless or can tolerate failure, such as web proxies, CI/CD servers, and even Kubernetes nodes. It's even possible to reserve 1 to 6 hours of uninterrupted compute time. But before we start transitioning workloads to Spot Instances, we should make sure that they can tolerate a sudden shutdown request without an interruption in service or data loss.
Verifying Spot Instance compatibility with Chaos Engineering
Assuming we have an application running in an on-demand instance, we can run an experiment to test its failure tolerance by restarting the instance. An experiment like this works best with workloads that are already distributed or replicated, such as load-balanced web servers.
Using Gremlin, we select our target instance and execute a shutdown attack to simulate a termination request sent by EC2. We then observe our application to see if there was a noticeable impact. If the application continues functioning normally, we can infer that Spot Instances are a viable option and might consider creating a Spot Fleet to maintain a certain level of capacity.
A shutdown attack running in the Gremlin web UI
Reducing instance capacity and utilizing horizontal scaling
AWS EC2 offers an enormous range of instance families and instance types, from tiny t1 instances to enterprise-scale x1 instances. Instance types vary on several factors including CPU architecture, CPU and RAM capacity, storage device throughput, and of course price. Choosing the optimal instance type for your workloads can create significant cost savings.
A common argument for buying oversized instances is to provide a buffer in case of unexpected spikes. While you should maintain a small buffer, there are more cost-effective ways to handle spikes, such as:
Regardless of the method used, we want to make sure that we can respond to increased demand quickly without paying for resources that will sit idle during downtime. We can test this process using Chaos Engineering.
Testing automatic scaling with Chaos Engineering
Let's say we have an EC2 Auto Scaling group with dynamic scaling enabled. We have a scaling policy in place to add a new instance when CPU usage exceeds 80% across the entire group, as shown in the following screenshot. When CPU usage drops to a safe level, we automatically terminate instances to reduce our costs.
An autoscaling group in Amazon EC2
We can test this by using Gremlin to run a CPU attack. We'll target our EC2 instance, execute a CPU attack that utilizes 80% of CPU capacity, then monitor the Auto Scaling group in the AWS console. We should see EC2 provision a new node almost immediately:
An Amazon EC2 autoscaling group launching a new instance
When the attack stops, we'll see EC2 automatically terminate the newly provisioned instance. This shows us that instead of paying for excessive capacity per-node, we can reduce node capacity and use Auto Scaling groups to dynamically scale our workloads up or down as necessary.
Identifying non-essential infrastructure
Over time, organizations tend to accumulate infrastructure that's no longer necessary, but still costs money. Maybe an employee had spun up an instance for testing and forgot to terminate it, or migrated an application to another instance and never documented it. Maybe a configuration management script left behind artifacts, and nobody on the team knows how they got there.
The risk is that some of these instances might actually provide essential services, so simply shutting them down or terminating them could cause an outage. What we can do instead is use Chaos Engineering to test their essentiality by slowing or blocking network traffic to the instances in question and observe the impact on our applications.
Testing instance essentiality with Chaos Engineering
If an instance is providing necessary functionality to our application, then limiting traffic to it should have an immediate and noticeable impact. With Gremlin, we can use a latency attack to slow down network requests to the instance in question and observe the impact that this has on user requests:
Using a latency attack to test EC2 instance essentiality
Here, it helps to have a monitoring solution in place that can time requests to our application. If we notice a sharp increase in response time after starting the latency attack, we can infer that the targeted instance is essential. Otherwise, we can increase the magnitude of the attack by running a blackhole attack, which halts all network traffic; or by running a shutdown attack. If neither of those attacks impacts our applications, we can mark it for termination and eliminate the cost entirely.
As we mentioned at the start of this article, Amazon EC2 is a complex service with a lot of moving parts. This isn't an exhaustive list of cost-management strategies for EC2, but these techniques can drastically reduce the cost of an EC2 deployment. It's more important now than ever to provide customers with reliable service while simultaneously reducing our costs, and Chaos Engineering allows us to do both safely and effectively.
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Ottawa, Ontario – Healthy plants are essential to people and animals, the environment and the economy. Canada is proud to join the United Nations and countries around the world in recognizing today as the first International Day of Plant Health.
This day follows the efforts devoted to the International Year of Plant Health in 2020 in raising awareness on a global scale about the value of our precious plant resources and the need to protect them with increasing vigilance.
Plant pests are a main cause of loss in biodiversity and crop productivity, and invasive species continue to pose a threat to Canadian ecosystems. Insects, plants, snails and slugs that threaten plant health can harm the environment when they spread to new parts of the country or abroad, whether on their own or via cargo, human activity, transportation, extreme weather or other means.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) is on high alert for pests like the spotted lanternfly, which is particularly a threat in eastern Canada along the border with the United States. If introduced to Canada, this striking and colourful invasive insect could cause serious damage to grape, fruit tree and forestry industries. The ongoing infestation in neighbouring Pennsylvania, for example, is an active threat to our Niagara region's famous wine industry.
Actions we take can lead to destroyed ecosystems and immense damage to agriculture, which is why everyone has a role to play. One example is to avoid moving firewood. This simple action can help prevent the spread of emerald ash borer, spongy moth, brown spruce longhorn beetle, Dutch elm disease and other pests to new parts of the country. If you heat your home or cottage with wood or you love to go camping, buy and burn only locally grown or heat-treated firewood. That way, invasive species hiding in or under the bark can't hitch a ride. Another way to help is by planting native or local plants instead of invasive or exotic ones.
Canadians can help by reporting to the CFIA suspected sightings of invasive species new to their area.
Most new findings of invasive pests have been reported by the public, so it's important to know what grows and lives locally.
We can protect plant health for generations to come if we each take action to minimize risks.
In January 2022, the Council of Canadian Academies released Cultivating Diversity, a report commissioned by the CFIA to identify the current and emerging risks to plant health in Canada.
As Canada's National Plant Protection Organization, the CFIA will continue its work with partners domestically and internationally to raise awareness and protect global plant resources.Source : Government of Canada

source: openbmb/Ultra-FineWeb


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Indian and Himalayan Art
Buddha PreachingMade in Bodhgaya, Bihar, India, Asia
Pala-Sena Dynasty (_PHONE_), c. Late 9th to early 10th century
Artist/maker unknown, India
1921-36-13Purchased with the George W.B. Taylor Fund, 1921
LabelThe Buddha here wears a crown, necklace, and earrings to highlight his role as universal sovereign rather than as prince before his renunciation. He holds his hands in the gesture of setting the Wheel of Buddhist Law in motion (dharmachakra mudra). It was with images created during the rule of the Pala dynasty of eastern India (eighth through twelfth century) that this gesture became the standard position by which to depict the Buddha preaching.
Social Tags [?]praying [x] religion [x] religious [x] sculpture [x] unidentified attendant bodhisattvas? [x] [Add Your Own Tags]
* Works in the collection are moved off view for many different reasons. Although gallery locations on the website are updated regularly, there is no guarantee that this object will be on display on the day of your visit.

source: HuggingFaceFW/fineweb-edu


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In celebration of Independence Day, here is Chester, the final movement of American composer William Schuman's 1956 New England Triptych. It's a setting of one of the most famous hymn tunes of William Billings (_PHONE_), America's first choral composer. Originating in Billings' 1770 songbook, The New England Psalm Singer, Chester became a marching song for the Continental Army during the American Revolution.
Schuman's Chester opens with a statement of the simple hymn melody before the music erupts into a spirited, celebratory romp:
Recordings and Additional Independence Day Links
- Schuman: New England Triptych, Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Andrew Litton iTunes
- The Listeners' Club: A Charles Ives Fourth
- The Listeners' Club: The Stars and Stripes Forever: Three Historical Recordings


Saturday, January 30, 2010
Vatican City: Pope Joan?
The client asks the tour guide: "Is that a woman pope?"
No, She is a symbol of Mother Church (wearing an early version of the tiara).
 1. But, in fact, Bernini, when working at the Confession of St. Peter's Basilica, wanted to make a joke to Pope Urban VIII by representing the tradition of Pope Joan on the Barberini's coats of arms in the pedestals of the Baldacchino. He used the mascarons to represent the sequences of a woman's childbirth. You have to start by the first pedestal at the Gospel side and go in the sense of the clock hands around the Baldacchino to see it. As you may know, accroding to the tradition, Pope Joan gave birth to a child in the middle of a cavalcade between the Colosseum and St. John of Lateran. This is at least curious...
 2. *chuckle*
 I was in Salzburg with a friend one day, walking towards a building with a statue of Justitia on the facade, and overheard an American tourist talking about wanting to get a photo of "the lady with the sword". My friend nearly doubled up laughing at her ignorance.
 Where exactly in Vatican City is that Mother Church figure? I don't think I spotted her when I was there...
 3. A similar fresco from the Vatican Museums:
 4. Curiosus, I'd always heard that the 'childbirth' details carved into the decoration of the bases of the columns of the baldacchino were put in as a thank-offering. Evidently, the Pope wished
 to mark his gratitude for the safety of a favorite niece and her newborn child after a very difficult delivery.
 I've wondered what visitors only used to stark, modern parishes
 make of some allegorical artworks. Do they think they represent
 actual persons? A sculpture of a woman nursing several children
 could seem odd in a church until it's explained that it represents Charity... Such an allegory would have been readily understood
 years ago, but the 'language' seems largely lost now.
 5. A Jesuit historian (worked in Jesuit archives for many years, a good Jesuit) showed me the reliefs your talking about Curiosus. He pointed out that Pope Urban upon hearing his favorite niece was with child but the doctors did not expect both the mother and child to survive childbirth, Urban promised God that if both would live he would give to God out of his family's wealth a massive and beautiful baldiccino in the new St. Peters. The depiction of childbirth is in recognition of the miracle of life the caused Urban to commission the baldiccino.
 6. The story about the Pope's niece is right, but Bernini used this also for making the joke. The artist was so inclined to humor as it is seen also in Piazza Navona, where he was in rivalry with Borromini. If you see attentively at the pedestals in St. Peter, the mascarons are just under the tiaras of the coats of arms, like if the heads were crowned by them. This was a very sophisticated and subtle irony, that was very innocent by that time. The story about Pope Joan did not scandalized anybody during centuries. The Ecclesiastical historians started to refute it only in the late XVI century (Onuphrio Panvinio) because the story was used by the Protestants for attacking the Church. But Italians never cared about its true or falsity. As they say: Se non è vero ben trovato, and the whole subject is amusing, as Bernini and probably Urban VIII considered it.


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Next month, New York State will have a completed 20 megawatt flywheel energy storage system connected to its electrical grid to provide frequency regulation and help maintain the stability of the electrical grid.
The system is already up and running at 90% capacity, and the installation of the remaining units to bring it to full capacity is expected to be completed later this month.
We've been following developments, particularly with this project as it has progressed, and we will continue to be interested in seeing how this first large-scale installation performs.
Flywheel energy storage is not so much a battery as it is a compensating mechanism to balance the load on the grid as power plants come on-line or go off-line. Electrical demand varies over the course of a day, and sometimes can rise (or fall) more quickly than power plants are able to respond. Grid storage systems such as this can help ease those transitions, rather than relying on peak power plants running on natural gas or other carbon emitting fuels.
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Browse on keywords: organic matter sludge
Search results on 05/23/13
10166. Anon.. 1991. Sludge fertilizers get new life from waste crisis.. Agrichemical Age, March, 1991 p. 46..
With little or no new land available for expanding existing landfills, cities, counties and industries are turning to recycling as an alternative to waste sludge disposal. Treated sewage sludge is now being used as a natural soil amendment. To be eligible for recycling, all sludge must be treated and stabilized to kill any pathogens and to eliminate odors. Treated sludge provides a good source of nutrients to the soil. To the farmer, treated sludge represents an inexpensive source of nitrogen and organic matter which reduces the need for manufactured fertilizers. The EPA supports and promotes recycling of municipal waste and has set guidelines regulating its treatment and use.


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Missing pulse detector circuit using NE555
An NE555 timer IC connected as shown here can detect a missing pulse or abnormally long period between two consecutive pulses in a train of pulses. Such circuits can be used to detect the intermittent firing of the spark plug of an automobile or to monitor the heart beat of a sick patient.
The signal from the pick up transducer is shaped to form a negative going pulse and is applied to pin 2 of the IC which is connected as a mono stable. As long as the spacing between the pulse is less than the timing interval,the timing cycle is continuously reset by the input pulses and the capacitor is discharged via T1. A decrease in pulse frequency or a missing pulse permits completion of time interval which causes a change in the output level.
Circuit diagram with Parts list.
- Assemble the circuit on a good quality PCB or common board.
- The circuit can be powered from a 9V battery or 9V DC power supply.
- The IC1 NE555 could be mounted on a holder.


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PRO-MELTER RS mark F (formate basis)
Liquid de-icing reagent PRO-MELTER RS mark F – is an effective deicing reagent for runways and aprons. It meets all the strict environmental requirements as well as the requirements for corrosion resistance. PRO-MELTER RS-F can be effectively used on airfield pavements at temperatures up to -34 ° C. In some cases, it is possible to use it at the lower temperatures increasing the application rate.
Having a weather forecast of a possible ice formation or during the beginning of ice formation process PRO-MELTER RS-F is applied on the surface cleaned from snow and ice. Ice formation preventing mode involves regular repetition of the reagent application, corrected by the weather conditions and the state of the band.
Information about corrosive action
Specially developed corrosion inhibitors guarantee the safety of materials used in the aircraft industry and airport constructing industry. Tests are carried out in accordance with SAE AMS 1435.
Information about the environmental impact
PRO-MELTER RS F is fully biodegradable within 14 days
Biodegradation - 97%
Biochemical oxygen demand in 5 days - 0.008 kg / kg
Chemical oxygen demand - 0.112 kg / kg.


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"Unhackable" RFID chip to keep your credit cards safe
Radio frequency identification (RFID) chips have made cashless payments commonplace and opened the way to automatic inventory control. However, they've also made it possible for credit card details and other private information to be stolen wirelessly. To make things a bit more secure, MIT and Texas Instruments are developing an "unhackable" RFID chip that's designed to fend off information-stealing attacks.
Even if information on a chip is covered by supposedly unbreakable encryption, the keys for using that encryption are still very vulnerable – especially in a wireless environment. RFID tags are vulnerable to a number of hacking strategies called side-channel attacks. These involve studying patterns of memory access or fluctuations in power usage as the chip carries out encryption operations and using the information to deduce the password keys.
"The idea in a side-channel attack is that a given execution of the cryptographic algorithm only leaks a slight amount of information," says Chiraag Juvekar, a graduate student in electrical engineering at MIT. "So you need to execute the cryptographic algorithm with the same secret many, many times to get enough leakage to extract a complete secret."
Such automated attacks can have very expensive consequences, but there are already countermeasures against them. Unfortunately, they produce their own vulnerabilities. For example, some RFID chips reject password attempts after a number of failures and others regularly generate a new pair of password keys using random number generators to make them more difficult to guess.
However, the MIT team points out that these leave chips open to "blackout" or "power glitch" attacks. Since RFID chips are powered by the radio beam of the scanning device, the attacker can switch the chip off and on thousands of times before it's able to change its passwords. This also wipes the chip's memory and lets the intruder run the same side-channel attack using the same key without getting locked out or dealing with a new key because the chip can't remember what it was working on.
Texas Instruments has already constructed a number of prototypes of the new chip based on specifications from the MIT team. It overcomes side-channel attacks and power-glitch attacks in particular by providing the chip with an onboard power supply and a non-volatile memory, so it can't get electronic amnesia when switched off.
The team managed this by using ferroelectric crystals, which consists of molecules set in a three-dimensional lattice. The cells in the crystal lattice carry positive and negative electric charges. These are normally aligned in a random pattern, but when an electric field is applied, the cells can be lined up to represent the ones and zeros of binary code. Since the crystals retain their polarization when the field is turned off, they can act as a memory.
MIT says that another property of the crystals is that they can act as a capacitor, which means they can retain an electric charge like a battery that the chip can run on when the scanning beam is off. In this case, the chip has a bank of 3.3 V ferroelectric cells and 571 1.5-V cells. The 3.3 V cells power the chip long enough to carry out whatever computations it was working on when the beam switched off, while the 1.5 V cells act as a non-volatile memory.
The clever bit is that when the chip is switched off and on, the first thing it does is recharge itself, so it can't be drained of power by repeated attacks. It can then complete its last task and if it happens to be installing a new encryption key, that gets priority, so a power-glitch attack won't be effective.
The team says that this added security comes at a cost. The added task of recharging the capacitors and completing computations slows the chip down, but they say that it can still manage 30 readouts per second, which is practical.
"In the age of ubiquitous connectivity, security is one of the paramount challenges we face," says Ahmad Bahai, chief technology officer at Texas Instruments. "Because of this, Texas Instruments sponsored the authentication tag research at MIT that is being presented at ISSCC. We believe this research is an important step toward the goal of a robust, low-cost, low-power authentication protocol for the industrial Internet."
The researchers presented their research at the International Solid-State Circuits Conference in San Francisco.


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Beethoven's last piano sonata is a monument to his conviction that solutions to the problems facing humanity lie ever within our grasp if they can be recognised for what they are and be confronted by models of human transformation. Maynard Solomon has argued that 'masterpieces of art are instilled with a surplus of constantly renewable energy – an energy that provides a motive force for changes in the relations between human beings – because they contain projections of human desires and goals which have not yet been achieved (which indeed may be unrealisable)'. Among Beethoven's instrumental works Op 111 assumes a special position as an 'effigy of (the) ideal' in Schiller's formulation; and every adequate performance must re-enact something of this process, reaching as it does beyond the merely aesthetic dimension to touch the domain of the moral and ethical.
William Kinderman © 2002


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This article is a Stub and needs your help. Please improve it by adding more information.
The title of this article is conjectural. Although this article is based on canonical information, the actual name of this subject is pure conjecture.
The Age of Armageddon was a millennium-long conflict that nearly destroyed Sera. The age almost led the Human race to total destruction, however the Seran people eventually rejected the concept of war and began a Golden Age.


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The N2261A is a Data Logger from Agilent. Data loggers, or data recorders, collect information over time for a variety of purposes. A data logger uses internal memory and sensors to gather and document information on a 24-hour basis. Receive an accurate and comprehensive picture of the environmental conditions you're monitoring as the device logs this information around the clock. Use data logging to measure temperature, humidity, wind speed, solar radiation, soil moisture levels, road traffic, tank levels, and a number of other elements.
- 40 independent relays in one module
- High speed switching in parallel operation
- Built-in relay cycle counters
The Agilent N2261A is a GP relay module, providing 40 independent single-pole-single-throw (SPST) latching relays. Each channel can switch up to 200 V, 1 A, and 60 W or 62.5 VA. With the Agilent N2261A, 10 switching channels can be operated simultaneously, resulting in high throughput for an automatic test system. It can be operated in either SCPI mode or 3488A mode. A pair of signals can be switched together by using a pair of channels on two Agilent N2261A modules. The Agilent N2261A can be operated in single channel break-before-make (BBM) or multiple channels open/close mode.


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The plenary by Harry Kuchah Kuchah at the recently concluded IATEFL conference held at Manchester was on teaching English in difficult circumstances: Challenges, possibilities and future direction. Yes, Harry dwelt at length on the challenges, but what impressed me most is the challenge that he put forward to the blurred ELT perspective that has distracted us over the years. Listening to Harry online during the plenary I wondered what is meant by ELT in difficult circumstances propounded by Michael West in 1960. DIFFICULT CIRCUMSTANCES? From whose point of view?
The definition of 'difficulty' as given by Michael West 55 years back betrays a note of insensitivity to the hopes and aspirations of millions of 'non-native' learners of English globally. "… a class consisting of over 30 pupils ( more usually 40 or even 50), congested on benches ( not sitting at individual or dual desks), accommodated in an unsuitably shaped room, ill-graded, with a teacher who perhaps does not speak English very well or fluently, working in a hot climate." Hot climate, unsuitably shaped room, people not sitting at individual or dual desk'…….Well, these may be 'difficult circumstances' for an English teacher coming to India or Uganda from a country blessed by a cold climate but not for the English teachers who are born and brought up in 'hot climate.'
It is intriguing to note that ELT experts of the west do not consider our ELT world 'ideal'. For them " a huge amount of ELT in the world today takes place in situations that are far from the ideal world of pedagogical excitement and innovative teaching that western ELT researchers and practitioners would like to think they inhabit" (Maley 2001).
The so called 'difficult situations' and the absence of the Eurocentric 'ideal world of pedagogical excitement' are misnomer in the context of teaching English as a global language. Drawing from his experience of teaching very large classes (over 200 teenagers and 100 children) in under-resourced contexts in Cameroon, Kuchah Kuchah demolished the myth of 'difficult situations' and put forward a context specific ELT pedagogy that does not care for the illusory ideal world of the west.
To quote from Harry, "Teachers are indeed confronted with various types of difficulties in their daily work lives and this makes a definition of 'difficulty' very elusive. What is more, the circumstances which one teacher considers favourable, might actually constitute a difficulty for another teacher." Though Harry referred to Michael West's definition of 'difficult circumstances' he did not go by that definition. He defined difficult circumstances as: 'Those circumstances that are outside the control of teachers and learners, but which affect their daily experiences of teaching and learning significantly'. These circumstances are global and are not peculiar to the non-native contexts of English language teaching.
In his plenary speech, Harry examined the pragmatic responses of teachers in otherwise 'difficult circumstances' and advocated a bottom up approach by creating the right enabling environment for teachers incorporating students' and teachers' perspectives.
During his deliberations, Harry was very emphatic in projecting the contextual realities of ELT classrooms beyond the so called 'ideal world'. Large classes, multigrade classes, multiple L1 influences are the norms of ELT classroom in many countries of the world. A class consisting of 30 pupils, sitting at individual desks, accommodated in an air conditioned room, taught by a native speaker working in a cold climate is no more the norm of English language teaching, it is an exception. English, the global language is being learnt by millions of children across the globe in contexts which do not follow the contexts eulogized by Michael West. The democratization of English has turned the table in favor of the pupils who sit in 'an unsuitably shaped room' in a 'hot climate'.
When Harry spoke about learners as partners, he signaled the emergence of a new ELT pedagogy. Learners are resources and resource providers who can define the ELT pedagogy suitable for their specific contexts.
It is nice to know that Harry was instrumental in shaping an unusual bottom-up, context driven approach supported by the teacher association. He asserted that "teachers are more likely to accept pedagogic innovation when it is seen to emanate from, or be endorsed by their peers [and/or students]."
The plenary was highly informative, insightful and interesting from a pedagogic point of view.I was happy to note that Harry made a strong case for looking at ELT from the perspectives of the teachers and the learners who long for English in circumstances which are 'difficult' for people like Michael West. Thank you Harry for advocating and popularizing a 'contextually appropriate ELT pedagogy'. I do hope that this plenary will inspire English teacher teaching English in non-native contexts to be more innovative in using a contextually appropriate ELT pedagogy.


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Career Success in 12 Easy Steps: A Journal is available to purchase at _URL_
Based on lessons learned throughout my worklife as an educator, a communicator, and a small business owner, I have identified 12 steps to success. While the book Career Success in 12 Easy Steps: A Journal focuses on using these 12 steps to achieve career success, you can use these steps to achieve any dream. The 12 Easy Steps are:
Step 1 Wake Up to Your Dreams
Step 2 Build on Your Successes
Step 3 Own Your Competencies
Step 4 Know What Emanates from You
Step 5 Discover What is Relevant for You and Do It
Step 6 Draw from the Breadth and Depth of Your Experiences
Step 7 Engage, Involve, Manage, Lead, and Guide
Step 8 Demystify and Simplify the Complex
Step 9 Discard Anxiety and Embrace Confidence
Step 10 Keep Your Reservoir Full
To see a presentation related to Step 10, take a look at this:
Step 11 Bestow Unto Others
Step 12 And Also Receive
To schedule a keynote address, seminar, or other type of presentation, please contact _EMAIL_. For more information about Judy Shenouda and Shenouda Associates Inc., visit the easescommunication website.


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Reference Type: Electronic Resource
Title: Heating Water on Dairy Farms
Primary Authors: Sanford,Scott
Published: University of Wisconsin Extension ΓÇó Cooperative Extension
Abstract: Heating water accounts for about 25% of the energy used on a dairy farm. Hot water is needed for washing the milking system, bulk tank and parlor equipment and possibly for feeding calves and washing towels. How much water is used and the temperature to which the water is heated directly influences the amount of energy used.
Ag Matters Catalog ID: 361


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Contemporary alien-visitors yarn from the author of Singer From the Sea, 1999, etc. The benevolent alien Pistach contact hardworking Benita Alvarez. They give her a message cube to present to the authorities—and they also give her the mental balance necessary to break free of her detestable personal circumstances. At length the cube, which shows how the Pistach can help humanity prepare to join the galactic federation by solving such intractable problems as crime, poverty, famine, and slavery, reaches the president. He engages Benita as liaison to the aliens. But predator races have also discovered Earth, say the Pistach, and intend to use the planet as a gigantic hunting ground. Certain politicians are willing to cooperate with them in return for power and wealth. Soon, though, the Pistach methods show near-miraculous results. The Pistach derive their ethos from a holy Fresco painted by the hero Canthorel. The pictures tell a story that inspires and impels the Pistach to help other races, even though the pictures are so dirty that the details cannot be discerned. Naturally, it's unthinkable to clean and possibly damage the Fresco. Then the heretic, T'Fees, cleans the Fresco, revealing the truth: the Pistach were conquerors and slavers! Pistach plunges into despair. The Pistach, however, are notably untalented artists, and this fact gives Benita an idea how humans may be able to help the Pistach.
Another consummately skillful, wise, sometimes hilarious, iconoclastic performance, although possibly too relentlessly polemical for some tastes.


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Data communication systems and their performance: proceedings of the IFIP TC6 Fourth International Conference on Data Communication Systems and Their Performance, Barcelona, Spain, 20-22 June 1990
G. Pujolle, Ramon Puigjaner, International Federation for Information Processing. Technical Committee 6
North-Holland, 1991 - Technology & Engineering - 499 pages
The research papers in this volume describe recent, original developments in techniques, tools and applications in the area of communication system performance. Involved in the project are researchers from the world's leading universities, research institutes and companies.
35 pages matching packet delay in this book
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Performance Issues of the DQDB Protocol
Applications of Sample Path to Communication Networks Control
32 other sections not shown
A-Bus access control algorithm analysis analytical application approximation arcs ARQ protocols arrival process assigned assumed bandwidth bit rate buffer overflow bursty bytes cell loss rate cell stream channel child stations Computer consider corresponding cycle D-Bus D-channel Data Communication Systems data packet defined denote destination DQDB equation error evaluation exponentially distributed FDDI FIFO Figure geometric distribution given IEEE IEEE Trans INFOCOM input port input queue interval load Markov chain measurement monitoring node np-customers number of packets obtained optimal output port output queue packet arrival packet delay packet switch paper parameters Poisson process priority probability generating function problem Proc proposed response scheme Publishers B.V. North-Holland queue length queueing system random variables Router sample path Science Publishers B.V. server slot statistical multiplexer Stochastic subscriber circuits Token Ring traffic matrix traffic network transfer transit trunk transmission transmitted virtual circuit waiting


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Former student Pieter Good published in Journal of Geography
The way you learned geography in school may have been wrong.
Countries, defined by often arbitrary borders, and regions comprised of these countries are not always an accurate representation of the similarities and relationships between groups of people, says new research from Pieter Good, a former York College student.
This is especially true in Africa, where the history of European colonialism has carved the continent into a jigsaw puzzle, with little attention paid to the cultural, linguistic, and economic relationships within the population.
Good and colleagues from Ghent University of Belgium have proposed a new model for examining Africa through a regional lens. What is unique about their research is that the regions they proposed are radically different than those defined by predecessors. Good's research asserts that countries should not be grouped into regions based on proximity alone, but that regions should be defined by relationships between people.
Good's research has been published in Journal of Geography, the publication of the National Council for Geographic Education.
To create a more accurate picture of regions in the continent, Good and colleagues ignored country boundary lines and instead focused on airline data. That is, they looked at which cities have a clear relationship based on the movement of people between the locations. Their regionalized map of Africa groups together such far distant cities as Lagos, Nigeria, and Johannesburg, South Africa.
Though they are not close to each other geographically, Lagos and Johannesburg could be grouped together, says Good, as there is a close tie between the two cities, based on the amount of traffic between them.
This view of regionalization is important from an economic perspective, says Good, as many countries in Africa participate in regional economic communities (RECs)—groupings of countries that, through cooperation, seek to gain advantage in an ever-globalizing world (think NAFTA). Good suggests that RECs created by relationships such as the one he and colleagues have highlighted might be more successful than RECs based on geographic proximity alone. Currently, there is no REC agreement that links Nigeria and South Africa. Based on Good and colleagues findings, such a relationship is worth exploring.
In addition to the economic ramifications, this research is also significant for educational purposes. Students of geography need to understand that global relationships are far more complicated than they appear based on a standard map.
"Students need to look deeper than the lines that have been drawn and examine the people and relationships," says Good.
Good completed this research as part of his graduate work at Ghent University in 2010. The son of former missionaries to that area, he currently resides in Belgium. He hopes to find a full time position working in international development.He will soon join the York College faculty as an online instructor of cultural geography.
Good attended York College in 2001-2002 before completing his undergraduate degree in geography at Brandon University in Manitoba, Canada.
See full article: The Regionalization of Africa: Delineating Africa's Subregions Using Airline Data, By Pieter R. Good, Ben Derudder and Frank Witlox.


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Healthnotes Newswire Supplementing with iron has been found to relieve the dry cough caused by some widely used blood pressure-lowering drugs. A double-blind trial,1 published in the August issue of the journal Hypertension, found that iron (ferrous sulfate) supplements were significantly more effective than placebo at relieving the persistent dry cough caused by angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEIs), a class of drugs used to treat hypertension and heart failure. This common and annoying side effect has been reported to occur in 5% to 39% of ACEI users, often leading to discontinuation of the drug.
Researchers at the Samsung Medical Center in Seoul, South Korea, investigated the effects of iron supplementation on 19 adults who had developed a dry cough while taking an ACEI for various reasons. Participants were given either 256 mg of ferrous sulfate (providing approximately 50 mg of elemental iron) once daily in the morning, or a matching placebo for four weeks. Eight of the ten participants in the iron group showed improvement in their cough scores, whereas only one of the nine participants taking the placebo showed improvement. Three participants taking the iron supplements had almost complete resolution of their cough symptoms.
How Does It Work?
So far, researchers have been unable to definitively explain why ACEI therapy causes the dry cough, and until now no intervention short of discontinuing the drug has successfully treated this side effect. Researchers have previously found that ACEI therapy increases the generation of nitric oxide (NO), a chemical that can cause irritation and inflammation in the lungs.2 The authors of the current study propose that the iron supplement might have worked by decreasing the activity in the lungs of an enzyme called nitric oxide synthase (NOS), which generates NO. This activity of iron has been demonstrated previously in humans and animals.3 4
While the results of this trial are encouraging, there are limitations to consider. The number of subjects in the trial was small, and no crossover was performed (i.e., those in the placebo group were not later given the iron supplements to see if they, too, would respond). The researchers also did not determine if there was any change in NO levels with iron supplementation, so they could not confirm whether their theory of how iron works is correct.
Who Should Take Iron?
Ferrous sulfate is the most commonly used form of iron supplement, but it is known to produce intestinal side effects (such as constipation, nausea, and bloating) in many users.5 More seriously, researchers have linked excess iron levels to diabetes,6 cancer,7 increased risk of infection,8 systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE),9 exacerbation of rheumatoid arthritis,10 and Huntingtons disease.11 Excessive storage of iron in the body probably also increases the risk of heart disease.12 13 14 Therefore, iron supplementation is not for everybody, not even for everybody taking ACEI and experiencing dry cough as a result.
Many doctors feel that iron supplements should be reserved for those who have an iron deficiency that has been diagnosed by blood testing. If a patient taking an ACEI (e.g., enalapril, lisinopril, captopril) experiences a persistent dry cough and iron supplementation is not appropriate, a doctor might suggest a different class of drug to treat the hypertension. A qualified healthcare practitioner or pharmacist must always supervise the use of iron or any other supplement that is taken in combination with drugs.References


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"Lec 7 - Hydrostatic Balance" The Atmosphere, the Ocean and Environmental Change (GG 140) The hydrostatic law describes the weight of a fluid overlying a given area, or the pressure at a particular point. It can be used to calculate the approximate atmospheric mass over a particular area, or to calculate the change in pressure over a given change in altitude. A calculation of the pressure difference from the ground to the twelfth floor of Klein Biology Tower is found to agree well with measurements taken at both locations. The hydrostatic law also applies to pressure changes with depth in the ocean. 00:00 - Chapter 1. Recap of Planet Temperature 11:20 - Chapter 2. Hydrostatic Balance 19:15 - Chapter 3. Calculation of CO2 Mass in the Atmosphere 22:08 - Chapter 4. Derivation of the Differential Form of the Hydrostatic Balance Equation 26:05 - Chapter 5. Hydrostatic Law Experiment 35:14 - Chapter 6. Application of Hydrostatic Law Complete course materials are available at the Open Yale Courses website: _URL_ This course was recorded in Fall 2011.
No content is added to this lecture.


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Friday, January 13, 2012
Posted by D. Daniel Sokol
Gaurab Aryal (The Australian National University) and Maria F. Gabrielli (CONICET, Universidad Nacional de Cuyo) are Testing for Collusion in Asymmetric First-Price Auctions.
ABSTRACT: This paper proposes fully nonparametric tests to detect possible collusion in first-price procurement (auctions). The aim of the tests is to detect possible collusion before knowing whether or not bidders are colluding. Thus we do not rely on data on anti-competitive hearing, and in that sense is 'ex-ante'. We propose a two steps (model selection) procedure: First, we use a reduced form test of independence and symmetry to shortlist bidders whose bidding behavior is at-odds with competitive bidding, and Second, the recovered (latent) cost for these bidders must be higher under collusion than under competition, because collusion dwarfs competition, hence detecting collusion boils down to testing if the estimated cost distribution under collusion first order stochastically dominates that under competition. We propose rank based and Kolmogorov-Smirnov (K-S) tests. We implement the tests for Highway Procurement data in California and conclude that there is no evidence of collusion even though the reduced form test supports collusion.


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Hospital care, sometimes called "acute care", is an important part of the health care system. The Government of Canada is responsible for setting and administering national principles or standards for the health care system through the Canada Health Act.
The Canada Health Act establishes the criteria and conditions related to insured health care services - the national standards - that the provinces and territories must meet in order to receive the full federal cash transfer contribution under the transfer mechanism.
Insured hospital services are defined under the Canada Health Act. They include medically necessary in-patient and out-patient services such as:
Provincial and territorial governments are responsible for the provision of hospital care in their jurisdictions. This includes planning, financing, and evaluation. For more information on hospital management in your community, please contact your provincial or territorial health care ministry.
Improving hospital care, especially better integration of hospital care with other extended health care services, is an important part of the current discussion on health care reform in Canada.
In this section, you will find a number of reports focussing on hospital care in general, and the integration of the health care system. Most of these reports are designed for use by federal, provincial and territorial governments in developing and setting policies related to hospital care. Integration of the health care system is an ongoing effort.


Ask A Biologist Podcast. Arizona State University School of Life Sciences Ask A Biologist. _URL_
Chicago Manual of Style
Dr. Biology. "Tiny Matter." Produced by Arizona State University School of Life Sciences Ask A Biologist. Ask A Biologist Podcast. December 16, 2009. Podcast, MP3 audio. _URL_
MLA Style
"Tiny Matter." Ask A Biologist Podcast from Arizona State University School of Life Sciences Ask A Biologist, 16 December, 2009, askabiologist.asu.edu/podcasts/tiny-matter.
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PRI's Environmental News Magazine
Mushroom Packaging
Air Date: Week of March 23, 2012
stream/download this segment as an MP3 file
The mushroom packaging material can be formed into shapes to ship many items, including wine bottles. (Photo: Dana Oxiles)
Americans throw out 19 billion pounds of Styrofoam packing peanuts each year, which sit in landfills for half a millenium. One company in upstate New York is producing alternative packing material out of sustainable ingredients. Host Bruce Gellerman talks to Gavin McIntyre, chief scientist at Ecovative Design, about how to turn mushrooms and agricultural waste into earth-friendly packaging material.
GELLERMAN: Here's a familiar sound:
GELLERMAN: Bubble wrap is fun to pop. And each year we use enough of it to protect stuff being shipped to stretch to the moon and back. That's lot of crackle and pop…
GELELRMAN: and there's a lot of snap from Styrofoam too.
GELLERMAN: We go through 19 billion pounds of Styrofoam a year, and that's just from the peanut–shaped, packing stuff. Bubble wrap and Styrofoam are lightweight and cheap but both are made from petroleum, and once used, they often wind up in landfills forever. That's where the company Ecovative Deisgn comes in. The firm, based in Green Island New York, has cooked up a unique product that gets to the root of the problem. Gavin McIntyre is the company co-founder, and chief scientist.
MCINTYRE: We've actually looked to nature to grow the next generation of materials using a living fungus, what's called a fungal mycelium, which you can think of as mushroom roots, to bind the waste particles together and what you're left with is a material that feels and performs just like foam, but it's 100 percent compostable in your backyard.
GELLERMAN: So, what kind of mushrooms are you using?
MCINTYRE: We use some common medicinal mushrooms that you'd find in Asia, for example, but we only use the mushroom roots, we never actually use the mushroom itself. There are no spores ever in our process.
GELLERMAN: So how did you come up with the idea?
MCINTYRE: The observation came from just examining mycelium growing on woodchips, and these woodchips were bound together quite nicely, and the concept was, okay, you know, these are really growing into these materials, digesting them, but they're also serving as an adhesive.
GELLERMAN: Well, you sent us a couple of samples here and…
GELLERMAN: I've got one right here. Yeah, it feels like foam. It's light.
GELLERMAN: It's kind of brownish white, it's got all these kinds of hairs growing on it (laughs) and it smells woodsy.
MCINTYRE: Yeah, that's a really accurate description of the material because what you'll see in there are that those little fibers, or particles, are actual agricultural waste. What we do is we source all of our raw materials from within 500 miles of our manufacturing facilities and these are waste streams that can't be fed to animals, they can't be burned for energy use, and they just lay fallow in the field.
GELLERMAN: So what's that stuff that you get from the field?
MCINTYRE: So, today we use things such as seed hulls or seed husks. So, for example, if you were to go to a Chinese food restaurant, and order some rice, that rice when it's grown is encapsulated in two little shells and those shells are made predominately of silica, so they can't be burned easily and they don't have any real nutritional value. What we can do is feed them to our fungus, so the fungus digests some of the particles, while binding others together, and what you are left with is a cohesive piece of material.
GELLERMAN: Mushrooms and rice, so add a little soy sauce and you've got a meal!
MCINTYRE: You could! You could eat it, we don't particularly recommend it though!
GELLERMAN: And it works just like polystyrene?
Samples of Ecovative packing material. (Photo: Dana Oxiles)
MCINTYRE: That's exactly right. Today we provide the material as a protective packaging solution, so for heavy objects such as furniture, like tabletops or bookshelves, as well as electronics and home appliances. Any of those custom-made parts that you see fit around a computer monitor for example. So, now, when you get your monitor in the mail you can just pull of the end caps, that were previously made of foam, now they are made out of mushrooms and agricultural waste, and you can throw them right in your backyard, and they're going to be 100 percent home compostable in just 30 days.
GELLERMAN: So, if I got a TV set, and your packaging was around it, I would just throw it around in the compost pile?
MCINTYRE: That's right! The best way to dispose of our material is to break it up into some smaller pieces and you can throw it right in your backyard. It serves as a nice active soil amendment actually because it helps aerate the soil and it provides some nutrition to the soil. But the material is also anaerobically compostable, so if it ends up in your municipal landfill, it is of no burden to the environment, it will just passively break down but it takes a little bit more time.
GELLERMAN: Will it sprout mushrooms?
MCINTYRE: Oh, that's a very good question and the answer is no. So after our growth process we inactivate or basically kill it off. And to do that we dry it out using some standard baking processes. Because if you were to come into our manufacturing facility today what you would see is racks upon racks of these growing materials. It's not a traditional manufacturing facility, we're really closer to a vertical farm.
GELLERMAN: What does your factory smell like?
MCINTYRE: If you would come into our factory today, what you would smell is fairly similar to a mushroom farm. Some of our fungi species that we work with have a very sweet smell, and others really have a very woody smell, like you described earlier. So, our material sort of smells like the cross between a bakery, or a bread factory, and a woodmill.
GELLERMAN: So I've got another sample you sent and this one is hard though - it's got one side hard…
GELLERMAN: What would you use this for?
MCINTYRE: So, we've been developing a construction material over the last few years. And what's interesting about this material is not only it is comparable in insulation characteristics to foam, but it's inherently fire retardant to the point that if you were to hit our material with a blow torch, it won't burn.
GELLERMAN: So you could use this to insulate your house.
A piece of Ecovative insulation, made from mushroom mycelium, is readied for installation in a house. (Photo: Dana Oxiles)
MCINTYRE: That's correct, and we've actually insulated a number of houses as well as a some commercial applications in the American Northeast.
GELLERMAN: Could you make blocks of this stuff and actually do construction with it?
MCINTYRE: Yeah, so construction materials are one of the avenues that we're pursuing today. So it's installed in places in New York as well as in Vermont. And some of the other interesting things that we're working with is, things such as replacements for engineered wood, like the cores that are found in your tabletops. We're also developing materials for the automotive market, so the same performance characteristics that we're getting out of the protective packaging, where it's absorbing and dissipating energy, we're applying those same materials to door panels and bumpers.
GELLERMAN: So, the bottom line, what's the bottom line in terms of cost, how does this stack up against Styrofoam?
MCINTYRE: We sell these materials at either cost parity or below the foam and synthetics that they were using previously.
GELLERMAN: They're cheaper?
MCINTYRE: It's either parity or cheaper today - for a number of reasons. First, we have an open-loop system. So we're just using agricultural waste from anywhere, so if there were ever to be a price constraint on a rice hull, we could easily transition to oat hulls. The other side of this is that we're not dependant upon finite resources, we're not tied in to the petrol market. And finally, all of our manufacturing processes are housed by the organism. It's literally self-assembling, in the dark, at room temperature. So we don't have to have the same kind of complex machinery that's required for expanded foams.
GELLERMAN: Do you have to keep your factory in the dark?
MCINTYRE: We don't have to keep it in the dark, we keep the lights on, but those are only for the humans.
GELLERMAN: (Laughs). Gosh, this is terrific! So what's the downside? There's gotta be a downside to this…
MCINTYRE: So, today, our materials are slightly more dense, so they


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Our Kspace Kimberley teacher resources include creative projects, assignment questions and an online quiz, all linked to the Australian Curriculum.
They were developed for use with our Kids learning space, where videos, photographs and background help provide answers and inspiration for students.
Setting the scene
Kspace takes children to the Kimberley in 1990. The Kimberley is a distinctive landscape of rugged beauty, with a diversity of wildlife and a rich Indigenous history including deep cultural connections that continue today.
Questions children can keep in mind if visiting this scene at the Museum are:
- What animals are seen, and what do they reveal about the location and climate?
- What are some of the features of the landscape?
- Which people do we encounter, and what are they doing? What are their roles and relationship to the region?
Narrative and gameplay
Our free, printable visitor access guide gives a sense of what happens in the game before you visit the Museum. It includes storyboards on the Kimberley narrative and gameplay and a detailed description of the Kspace experience.
This guide is also helpful for students with hearing impairment, learning difficulties or limited mobility, who may need to prepare before they visit.
Primary source study
A stone spearhead from the National Museum's collection helps demonstrate a long Aboriginal tradition and the impact of European settlement on the Kimberley region of Western Australia.
Ten multiple choice questions for students to demonstrate their knowledge of the Kimberley region. The quiz questions and answers are also available in a printable version (PDF 100kb)
Suggested projects for children to make and do.
- Draw a picture or create a diorama of a famous Kimberley feature, such as a gorge, mountain range or waterfall.
- Produce two pictures of the same place, one in the wet season and the other in the dry season.
- Draw a picture of people engaged in an economic or cultural activity in the Kimberley.
- Create a map of the Kimberley showing major rivers, roads, towns and tourist spots.
- Create a map of the Kimberley showing Aboriginal language groups.
- Write and illustrate a tourist brochure for the Kimberley region.
- Make a poster featuring animals found today in the Kimberley. Include at least one amphibian, reptile, mammal and bird, and separate them into introduced and native species.
- Pretend you are a journalist covering the story of Jandamarra. Write an article or record a news broadcast describing a key event or series of events.
- Create a PowerPoint presentation looking at some of the different social and economic activities people undertake in the Kimberley.
Suggested assignments questions encouraging children to think and write.
- What does the term 'caring for country' mean to Indigenous people in Australia?
- Identify and discuss some of the positive and negative effects of agriculture on Indigenous communities in the Kimberley.
- What relevance does the story of Jandamarra have to a wider Australian audience?
- Australia's major cities are mainly in the south. What are some of the limitations to a major population centre in the Kimberley?
- Discuss some of the ideas about how the boab tree came to the Kimberley.
- The Kimberley is home to diverse wildlife but many species are endangered. What are some of the main threats facing these species?
Note: inspiration and answers for online activities, creative projects and written assignments can be found in the Kids learning space


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Brightness Sensation and the Neural Coding of Light Intensity
Robert B. Barlow Jr. Institute for Sensory Research Syracuse University
We can see stars of the 8th magnitude and distinguish objects in bright sunlight: an operating range of more than 10 log units of light intensity. We can detect with exquisite sensitivity small changes in illumination throughout this enormous range ( Hecht, Peskin, & Patt, 1938), but can we judge the absolute level of illumination itself? That is, can the visual system perform as a photometer?
More than 40 years ago Spring and Stiles ( 1948) found that our pupil reflex was graded over at least 8 log units of light intensity. Their measurements were later extended by Alpern and Ohba ( 1972). Using the psychophysical technique of magnitude estimation, Stevens ( 1953) found that observers could scale the brightness of test flashes over about 4 log units of light intensity. Ten years later, Stevens and Stevens ( 1963) showed that the range of dark-adapted observers was at least 7 log units. Mansfield ( 1973), Barlow and Verrillo ( 1976), and Bolanowski ( 1987) confirmed and extended these earlier observations.
Studies of circadian rhythms provide further evidence for the photometric performance of a mammalian visual system. Phase shifts of the circadian rhythm in locomotor activity in hamsters are graded with light intensity over a 4-log unit range ( Takahashi, DeCoursey, Bauman, & Menaker, 1984). A similar intensity -- response relationship exists for the suppression of melatonin in hamsters ( Brainard, Richardson, King, Matthews, & Reiter, 1983). These responses are mediated by information transmitted from the retina to the circadian pacemaker in the suprachias
Questia, a part of Gale, Cengage Learning. _URL_
Publication information: Book title: Ratio Scaling of Psychological Magnitude:In Honor of the Memory of S.S. Stevens. Contributors: Stanley J. Bolanowski Jr - Editor, George A. Gescheider - Editor. Publisher: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Place of publication: Hillsdale, NJ. Publication year: 1991. Page number: 163.
This material is protected by copyright and, with the exception of fair use, may not be further copied, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means.


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Tutorial of Free Awale
The board contains two rows of six holes. Each row (top and bottom) is associated to a player (north and south). Other holes circled in black are not used in the game. They are just used as loft for the captured seeds.
In the initial position of the game, any holes contain four seeds.
To capture more seeds than the opponent.
Players move alternately. It is not authorised to pass his turn.
The game starts with four seeds in every holes (first picture). Take the four seeds of one of your holes and distribute them, counter-clock wise, successively one seed per hole.
For subsequent moves, pick all the seeds in a hole of your side and distributed them. In the following example, the four seeds are distributed on the four successive holes.
It is possible to keep the seeds in your side, for instance by playing a hole with a single seed.
If the hole contains more than twelve seeds, the starting hole is skipped during the distribution. In the following example, the hole initially contains 14 seeds (left) and the twelfth seed is put just after the initial hole. The final position is shown right. Three holes have received two seeds.
If the final hole has two or three seeds after the distribution, their seeds are captured by the player. Examples with two and three seeds captured.
One can capture several successive holes provided that they all have two or three seeds.
The captured holes must be contiguous, in the following example, the last three holes are captured but no more due to the hole which contains 4 seeds.
The maximum number of holes than can be captured is four, other holes are ignored.
If the opponent has no seed, one must play to feed it. In the following position, only the seed with four seeds can be played.
End of game
The game is over when one player cannot play, having no seed. The opponent adds his seeds in the final score.
The game also stops when a position has ever been encountered (cyclic game). Int the following position, the game is cyclic if both players play optimally. Any player keep their seeds in the final score.
A krou is a hole containing more than 12 seeds. Depending on its position, it can attack the opponent line. In this example, the krou has 14 seeds. During the first turn of distribution, the opponent holes are supplied and during the second turn of distribution, the two last holes containing 6 seeds are captured.
To neutralise a krou, it is sometimes possible to make a node (a hole with two seeds). In this example, north can move the single seed (left). The target hole of the krou will contain 2 seeds and therefore 4 seeds after the krou has been distributed. The krou does not capture anything (right).
A fork is a tactic to attack simultaneously two or more holes. In this position, south can play the 5 seeds (left). After this move, the two first holes of north are attacked by respectively the single seed and the hole with four seeds (right).
To squeeze the tail hole
In this position, south moves his last hole (top left). North must give all his seeds (top right). Finally, south can play the two seeds (bottom left), he supplies a seed which will be captured immediately (bottom right).
To move slowly
It is sometimes better to move such that the opponent is not supplied in seeds. This strategy is particularly efficient near the end of the game when few seeds are present. The player who can play two turns more than his opponent without providing seeds will be able to squeeze the tail hole. For instance, in the following position, playing the single seed of head, south can play seven times before to supply provided. If south plays the three seeds, he will supply after two turns.
The variants of rule can be configured in the menu Parameters and Configure rule.
The maximum number of holes that can be captured may be four, five and even six. By default, this number is four.
When more than the authorised maximum number (say four) of holes are attacked, only the last four holes are captured. This is the rule by default. But in a variant, in the same position, the move can be played but nothing is captured.
In the default rule, it is authorised to capture all opponent seeds. Then the game stops. A variant of awale says that the move can be played but nothing is captured.
In some rules, it is forbidden to play a hole which attacks all the opponent holes. The only exception is when this is the only hole that can be played. In this case, the hole is played and the opponent seeds are captured or not, depending on how has been configured the previous variant. In the left position, the hole with four seeds cannot be played, but in the right position, the hole with four holes must be played.
External linksOther rules are available on.


Innovation economics professor Knut Blind tells us why standards are key to surviving in a highly complex 21st-century global economy.
Innovation and standardization might seem polar opposites, but over many years various scholars have noted connections – very close ones, even – between the two. ISOfocus sat down with renowned researcher and professor Knut Blind to discuss the relationship – and "rules of the game" – and provide insights into how this knowledge can be useful to scholars, industrial strategists, policymakers and standards practitioners alike. What he says very much supports the notion that standardization and standards can be used to promote innovation. Here are a few highlights from the interview.
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SALT LAKE CITY, Sept. 27, 2010 – If drivers are yakking on cell phones and don't hear spoken instructions to turn left or right from a passenger or navigation system, they still can get directions from devices that are mounted on the steering wheel and pull skin on the driver's index fingertips left or right, a University of Utah study found.
The researchers say they don't want their results to encourage dangerous and distracted driving by cell phone users. Instead, they hope the study will point to new touch-based directional devices to help motorists and hearing-impaired people drive more safely. The same technology also could help blind pedestrians with a cane that provides directional cues to the person's thumb.
"It has the potential of being a safer way of doing what's already being done – delivering information that people are already getting with in-car GPS navigation systems," says the study's lead author, William Provancher, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Utah.
In addition, Provancher says he is "starting to meet with the Utah Division of Services for the Blind and Visually Impaired to better understand how our technology could help those with vision impairments. It could be used in a walking cane for the blind," with a moving button on the handle providing tactile navigation cues to help the person walk to the corner market, for example.
The system also could help hearing-impaired people get navigation information through their fingertips if they cannot hear a system's computerized voice, says University of Utah psychology Ph.D. student Nate Medeiros-Ward, the study's first author. "We are not saying people should drive and talk on a cell phone and that tactile [touch] navigation cues will keep you out of trouble."
Medeiros-Ward is scheduled to present the findings Tuesday, Sept. 28 in San Francisco during the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society's 54th annual meeting.
The study "doesn't mean it's safe to drive and talk on the cell phone," says co-author David Strayer, a professor of psychology at the University of Utah. "It was a test to show that even in situations where you are distracted by a cell phone, we can still communicate directional information to the driver via the fingertips even though they are 'blind' to everything else."
Provancher, Medeiros-Ward and Strayer conducted the study with Joel Cooper, who earned his psychology Ph.D. at the University of Utah and now works in Texas, and Andrew Doxon, a Utah doctoral student in mechanical engineering. The research was funded by the National Science Foundation and the University of Utah.
'Channels' Carry Information to the Brain
Provancher says the study was based on a "multiple resource model" of how people process information, in which resources are senses such as vision, hearing and touch that provide information to the brain.
"You can only process so much," he says. "The theory is that if you provide information through different channels, you can provide more total information. Our sense of touch is currently an unexplored means of communication in the car."
But does humanity really need yet another way to provide information to drivers who already are blabbering on cell phones, texting, changing CDs or radio stations, looking at or listening to navigation devices and screaming kids – not to mention trying to watch and listen to road conditions?
"The point is, it will help everybody," Provancher says. "We all have visual and audio distractions when driving. Having the steering wheel communicate with you through your fingertips provides more reliable navigation information to the driver."
Provancher says motorists already get some feedback through touch: vibration from missing a gear while shifting or a shimmying steering wheel due to tire problems.
"You can't look at two things at the same time," says Strayer. "You can't look at graphic display of where you should go and look out the windshield. It [touch-based information] is a nicer way to communicate with the driver without interfering with the basic information they typically need to drive safely. They need to look out the window to drive safely. They need to listen to the noise of traffic – sirens, horns and other vehicles. This tactile device provides information to the driver without taking their attention away from seeing and hearing information they need to be a safe driver."
The new study says automakers already use some tactile systems to warn of lane departures by drowsy drivers and monitor blind spots. But these devices generally twist the steering wheel (assisted steering), rather than simply prompting the driver to do so.
Drivers on Cell Phones Often Don't Hear Directions, but Can Feel Them
The study was conducted on a driving simulator that Strayer has used to demonstrate the hazards of driving while talking or texting on a cell phone. Two of Provancher's devices to convey information by touch were attached to the simulator's steering wheel so one came in contact with the index finger on each of the driver's hands.
During driving, each index fingertip rested on a red TrackPoint cap from an IBM ThinkPad computer – those little things that look like the eraser on the end of a pencil. When the drivers were supposed to turn left, the two touch devices gently stretched the skin of the fingertips to the left (counter clockwise); when a right turn was directed, the TrackPoint tugged the skin of the fingertips to the right (clockwise).
Nineteen University of Utah undergraduate students – six women and 13 men – participated in the study by driving the simulator. The screens that surround the driver's seat on three sides displayed a scene in which the driver was in the center lane of three straight freeway lanes, with no other traffic.
Four driving scenarios were used, each lasting six minutes and including, in random order, 12 cues to the driver to move to the right lane and 12 more to move left.
In two scenarios, the simulator drivers did not talk on cell phones and received direction instructions either from the simulator's computer voice or via the fingertip devices on the steering wheel. In the two other scenarios, the drivers talked on cell phones with a person in the laboratory and also received direction instructions, either from the computer voice or from the touch devices on the steering wheel.
Each participant did all four of the scenarios. The results:
- In the two scenarios without cell phones, the drivers' accuracy
in correctly moving left or right was nearly identical for those
who received tactile directions through their fingertips (97.2
percent) or by computerized voice (97.6 percent).
- That changed when the drivers talked on cell phones while operating the simulator. When drivers received fingertip navigation directions while talking, they were accurate 98 percent of the time, but when they received audio cues to turn right or left while talking on a cell phone, they changed lanes correctly only 74 percent of the time.
Strayer says the findings shouldn't be used to encourage cell phone use while driving because even if giving drivers directional information by touch works, "it's not going to help you with the other things you need to do while driving – watching out for pedestrians, noticing traffic lights, all the things you need to pay attention to."
A Touch of Product Development?
Provancher has patents and wants to commercialize his tactile feedback devices for steering wheels and other potential uses.
"If we were approached by an interested automaker, it could be in their production cars in three to five years," he says, noting he already has had preliminary talks with three automakers and a European original equipment manufacturer.
In addition to possible devices for the visionand hearing-impaired, Provancher says the technology could be used in a handheld device to let people feel fingertip-stretch pulses – rather than hear clicks – as they scroll through an iPod music playlist. He also says it might be used as a new way to interact with an MP3 music player in a vehicle, or to control games.
Provancher set the stage for the tactile navigation devices in two research papers this year in the journal Transactions on Haptics, published by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. Haptics is to the sense of touch what optics is to vision.
In one of those studies, Provancher tested a haptic device that stretched the fingertip skin in four horizontal directions (right, left, front, back) and found that relatively faster and larger (one twenty-fifth of an inch) movements conveyed direction information most accurately.
In that study, Provancher also mentioned other possible uses for such devices, including allowing command centers to direct emergency responders and urban soldiers to incident locations, or directing air traffic controllers' attention to important information on a computer screen.


Question: Can Starving Yourself Make You Sick?
Will I lose weight if I stop eating for 3 days?
A short-term weight loss is likely.
But that is where the good news ends.
How can I drop 20 pounds in a week?
Does starving cause weight gain?
What happens if I don't eat?
What are the mental effects of starvation?
Emotional and Cognitive changes: Depression, anxiety, irritability, increased mood fluctuations, intense and negative emotional reactions, decreased enthusiasm, reduced motivation, impaired concentration, problem solving and comprehension, increased rigidity, obsessional thinking and reduced alertness.
How do you tell if you're not eating enough?
Being cold all the time, feeling sluggish, and having mood swings are all signs that you may not be eating enough even if you think you are. Weight loss plateauing, an irregular menstrual cycle, and feeling unwell are also signals that you might not be eating enough.
What are the consequences of starving yourself?
As starvation precedes losses of electrolytes such as calcium, potassium, sodium and magnesium occur. There will be a marked loss of calcium from bones. Patients with Anorexia Nervosa are as much at risk of osteoporosis as women in their 70's and 80's. Overall muscle, liver and gut all shrink very rapidly.
Is it bad to starve yourself?
Starving myself is the best way to lose weight In fact, they can sometimes lead to longer-term weight gain. The main problem is that this type of diet is too hard to maintain. You may also be missing out on essential nutrients as crash diets can be limited in the variety of food consumed.
How many days can you go without food?
Is a 5 day fast safe?
Does starving shrink your stomach?
Why do we lose appetite when sick?
When you're sick, your immune system kicks into high gear. It releases chemicals called cytokines that can make you tired and not eager to eat. It's your body's way of telling you to rest so it can get the energy it needs to fight what's making you ill. But eating a little something can give your immune system a boost.
Is it OK to starve yourself for a day?
What are signs of starvation?
9 Signs That You're Not Eating EnoughLow Energy Levels. Calories are units of energy your body uses to function. … Hair Loss. Losing hair can be very distressing. … Constant Hunger. … Inability to Get Pregnant. … Sleep Issues. … Irritability. … Feeling Cold All the Time. … Constipation.More items…•
Can you get sick from starving?
What happens if you don't eat for a day?


text:
|Oracle® Fusion Applications Extensibility Guide
11g Release 1 (126.96.36.199)
Part Number E16691-02
This chapter describes how you can customize or extend user assistance help in your Oracle Fusion application to match any customizations.
This chapter contains the following sections:
When you customize an Oracle Fusion application, you may find you also need to customize or extend the existing help to match your changes. Oracle Fusion applications provide two different types of help.
Oracle Fusion Applications Help
Embedded static page-level help
This type of help is displayed directly on a page, using attributes of a component. The help text is included in the application.
Tip:Help text is stored in resource bundles, and so can be translated. For more information, see Chapter 16, "Translating Custom Text."
Embedded help includes the following:
Static instruction text: displayed by panel components that normally contain forms or tables. This instruction guides the user in filling out the form or using the table, as shown in Figure 18-2.
In-field help note: displayed by input components and guides the user in entering data into the component. Figure 18-3 shows an in-field note.
Terminology definition: displayed by input components and defines terms used on the page, as shown in Figure 18-4.
Bubble help: displayed when the end user mouses over a button or link component, as shown in Figure 18-5.
Help window: displayed when a user clicks the help icon, as shown in Figure 18-6. This type of help is generally brief context-sensitive help, and can also provide links to help files in Oracle Fusion Applications Help.
In Oracle Fusion Applications Help, you can change the content in existing help windows or you can create new help windows. Within a page of an application, you can customize or create bubble help, static instructions, in-field notes, terminology definitions, and help windows. This help text is stored either as a value for an attribute, or in translatable resource bundles.
Before you customize help, you should be familiar with the Oracle Fusion application architecture that enables customization, as described in Chapter 1, "Customizing and Extending Oracle Fusion Applications." You should also understand the typical workflows for working with customizations, as described in Chapter 2, "Understanding the Customization Development Lifecycle."
You will also need to do the following before you can begin customizing help:
If you will be adding or customizing Oracle Fusion Applications Help, you will need the correct privileges. Please contact your security administrator for details.
Install JDeveloper and set up your development environment. For more information, see "Chapter 2 Setting Up Your Development Environment" of the Oracle Fusion Applications Developer's Guide.
Create a customization application workspace. For more information, see Chapter 10, "Using JDeveloper for Customizations."
Launch JDeveloper in the Oracle Fusion Applications Administrator Customization role.
Select a layer value. When customizing application artifacts in JDeveloper, you first need to select the layer and layer value to work in. You use the Customization Context window to make this selection. For more information about customization layers, see Section 1.2, "Understanding Customization Layers.""
You can customize existing help files in Oracle Fusion Applications Help, or you can extend Oracle Fusion Applications Help by adding custom topics.
Once created, custom help files are distinguished by an icon in search results, and they are displayed at the top of help listings when you navigate.
Task: Customize Oracle Fusion Applications Help Windows
When you have the correct privileges, help windows in Oracle Fusion Applications Help display a Manage Custom Help link, which allows you to change the content and specify in which help windows in the application your custom help will appear, and where it will appear in the help site navigators. For more information, see the "Define Help Configuration" section in the Oracle Fusion Applications Common Implementation Guide.
Task: Add Custom Help Files to Oracle Fusion Applications Help
You can add new custom help files to Oracle Fusion Applications Help. Custom help files will appear like standard help files and can be searched and included in help windows and navigators. For more information, see the "Define Help Configuration" section in the Oracle Fusion Applications Common Implementation Guide.
For bubble help, you can use CRM Application Composer or Oracle Composer to customize or create the help text.
The following components use bubble help.
Task: Customize or Add Bubble Help
The text displayed in bubble help is the value of the component's
shortDesc attribute. Normally, the value resolves to a key in a resource bundle. If your are customizing a CRM application, you can use CRM Application Composer to customize the value of the attribute. For more information, see Section 4.2, "Editing Objects." For other applications, you use Oracle Composer to customize the attribute. For more information, see Section 3.3, "Editing Component Properties in Oracle Composer."
Oracle Fusion Applications embedded help (aside from bubble help) uses two types of ADF Faces help: instruction and definition. Instruction-type help displays static text, either in a specified area on a component (like static instruction help, shown in Figure 18-2), or in a note window, as in-field notes do, shown in Figure 18-3. Definition-type help displays a help icon, and is what terminology definition embedded help uses, as shown in Figure 18-4. When the user mouses over the help icon, the help text displays in a message box. UI components display the instruction and definition help text using the
helpTopicId attribute. For more information about the ADF Faces help framework, see the "Displaying Help for Components" section of the Oracle Fusion Middleware Web User Interface Developer's Guide for Oracle Application Development Framework.
It is important that for the type of help you want to add or customize, you understand which component actually displays the help, and which type of ADF Faces help is being used. Table 18-1 shows the different types of Oracle Fusion Applications embedded help, the corresponding ADF Faces help, and the components that display that type of help.
Table 18-1 Oracle Fusion Applications Help and Corresponding ADF Faces Help and UI Components
|Oracle Fusion Application Help Type||ADF Faces Help Type||Component|
You perform the following tasks in JDeveloper in the Oracle Fusion Applications Administrator Customization role.
Note:You cannot directly customize the existing help text strings. If you want to change text that currently appears, you need to create a new text string and associate the component with that new text.
Task: Add Help Strings to Resource Bundle
Add custom help text strings to an existing custom resource bundle or create a new resource bundle to hold your customized help text (Oracle Fusion applications use XLIFF files for resource bundles). If you create a new resource file, you must register that file with the project. For information about creating and using resource bundles for an Oracle Fusion application, see Section 11.10, "Customizing or Adding Resource Bundles."
The help text must use the following syntax:
: Enter the topic ID. This must contain a unique prefix, the topic name, and the help type, either INSTRUCTION or DEFINITION.
Note:You prefix must unique. You must use this prefix for all your custom help strings.
In this example, MYCUSTHELPis the prefix used to access the XLIFF file. NEWHELPTOPIC is the topic name, and DEFINITION is the type of ADF Faces help.UI components access the help content based on the topic name. Therefore, if you use the same topic name for two different types of help (instruction and definition), then both types of help will be displayed by the UI component.
: Create as a direct child of the
 element and enter the help text.
: Create as a direct child of the
 element and leave it blank. This will hold translated text populated by translation tools.
: Create as a direct child of the
 element and enter a description for the help text.
Example 18-1 shows an example of a resource file that contains two topics.
Example 18-1 XLIFF Resource Bundle
 Credit Card Definition This is the credit card definition text. Credit Card Instructions This is the credit card instruction text.
Task: Associate the Component with the Help Strings
In JDeveloper, select the component to display the help. Associate that component with the
 element in the resource bundle, using the component's
helpTopicID attribute. Ensure that the component supports the type of help (that is, definition or instruction) defined in the trans-unit id. For instructions, see the "How to Access Help Content from a UI Component" section of the Oracle Fusion Middleware Web User Interface Developer's Guide for Oracle Application Development Framework.


MCQs on Organizational change – Leading and managing change
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In order to respond effectively to opportunities and threats, the organisation may need to make changes to its current products, markets or processes.
MCQs on Organizational change
MCQs on Organizational change
In order to respond effectively to opportunities and threats, the organisation may need to make changes to its current products, markets or processes. Here on MCQs.CLUB we have written easy and understandable Multiple-Choice Questions (MCQs) on organizational change that fully cover Practice Test Questions on What is organizational change? Definition and examples, meaning, types, levels, organizational change management, organizational change management and implementing change in an organization with change management strategies, process of organisational change, these also cover MCQs on change management culture. These mcq on organizational change with answers is a complete guide to organizational change and are also useful for business management exams, competitive exams and business management exams.
 1. In order to respond effectively to opportunities and threats, the organisation may need to make changes to its current products, markets or processes. The environment can act as a trigger for change in organisations.
 1. True
 2. False
 1. The exact triggers for change will depend on the context of an organisation and its industry. Identify from the following that could act as change triggers:
 1. Arrival of new entrants into the market, or mergers/acquisitions between existing competitors in the industry.
 2. Changes in level or intensity of competition (prompting a need to gain or protect market share).
 3. New laws or regulations affecting an industry; or changes in government legislation more generally.
 4. All of the above
 1. One useful way of prioritising change triggers – and strategic uncertainties more generally – is in relation to their impact and immediacy. The impact (importance) of a strategic uncertainty is related to:
 1. The extent to which it involves trends or events that will impact the organization
 2. The importance to the organisation of the business units or products affected by the uncertainty/trigger
 3. The number of business units or products potentially affected by the uncertainty; i.e. the scale of the impact on the organization
 4. All of the above
 1. Which of the following is correct?
 1. Once it has identified the opportunities and threats present in its environment, an organisation has to decide how to respond to them, and which of them need to be given the highest priority.
 2. The organisation's response to opportunities and threats could then act as trigger for organisational change.
 3. Both A&B
 4. None
 1. It is very hard to ignore the impact of change on contemporary businesses. Implementing and managing change is often an integral part of strategy implementation.
 1. True
 2. False
 1. Change management can be defined as 'the continuous process of aligning an organisation with its marketplace and doing it more responsively and effectively than competitors'.
 1. True
 2. False
 1. For an organisation to respond to the need for change, it needs a way of planning for, and implementing changes. Organisations may need to make strategic changes for lots of different reasons. For example:
 1. Dealing with changes in the global economy and global markets
 2. Allowing an organisation to grow, either organically or through mergers or acquisition
 3. Restructuring or reorganising the business
 4. Implementing new technologies and business processes
 5. All of the above
 1. Change processes usually begin with a change 'trigger' which can either be external to the organisation or can be internal.
 1. True
 2. False
 1. External Triggers for organization change include:
 1. Changes in the economic cycle (for example, an economic downturn)
 2. New laws or regulations affecting the industry
 3. Stiffer competition from rivals or from new entrants
 4. All of the above
 1. Internal Triggers for organization change include:
 1. A new organisation structure which prompts changes to job responsibilities
 2. Implementation of new technologies or working practices
 3. Relocation of the business to different city or country
 4. All of the above
 1. Which of the following is correct?
 1. Internally generated change is likely to be managed more proactively, creatively and effectively than externally generated change.
 2. For internal change the organisation can control the nature and timing of the change in a way it cannot do when it has to react to external triggers.
 3. Both A&B
 4. None
 1. Which of the following is correct?
 1. A consequence of the delegation and discretion allowed to local managers is that senior management at the top of the firm begin to feel a loss of control – a crisis of control.
 2. A successful escape from the crisis of red tape results in a growth of 'interpersonal collaboration'.
 3. Both A&B
 4. None
 1. Changes may be required to help an organisation overcome a decline in performance. There are a number of factors which may contribute to organisational decline such as:
 1. High cost structures, leading to a decline in competitiveness compared with rivals.
 2. Overtrading, leading to excess pressure on the organisation's cash flow.
 3. Too much diversification, causing a business to move away from, and neglect, its core business.
 4. All of the above
 1. Change can occur at the different levels within an organization such as:
 1. Individuals (involves changing their skills, values, attitudes and behaviours)
 2. Structures and systems (involve changing the formal and informal organisational structures in place)
 3. Organisational climate (involves changing the way people relate to each other in an organisation)
 4. All of the above
 1. Successful change management requires more than simply recognising a change trigger and acting on it. Successful exploitation of a change situation requires:
 1. Knowledge of the circumstances surrounding a situation
 2. Understanding of the interactions in that situation
 3. Awareness of the potential impact of the variables associated with the situation
 4. All of the above
 1. A framework for change might be:
 - Recognition – Identify the problem that needs to be rectified
 - Diagnosis – Break down the problem into component parts
 - Solution – Analyse possible alternatives, select preferred solution and apply preferred solution
 1. The above formula is correct
 2. The above formula is incorrect
 1. According to Lewin steps in organisational change are:
 1. unfreeze
 2. change (or move)
 3. freeze or refreeze
 4. All of the above
 1. Which of the following is correct for "Unfreeze" stage of change?
 1. The unfreeze stage involves making people within an organisation ready to change, making them aware of the need (trigger) for change, and creating a readiness to change among the workforce.
 2. A key part of this stage is weakening the restraining forces that are resisting change, and strengthening the driving forces that are promoting change.
 3. Both A&B
 4. None
 1. Approaches to the unfreeze stage include:
 1. Physically removing individuals from their accustomed routines, sources of information and social relationships.
 2. Consulting team members about proposed changes.
 3. Confronting team members' perceptions and emotions about change. Failure to recognise and deal with emotions only leads to later problems.
 4. All of the above
 1. Which of the following is correct for "Change (or 'move')" stage of change?
 1. The change (or 'move') stage involves learning new concepts and new meanings for existing concepts.
 2. It is important that an organisation encourages the participation and involvement of its staff in this phase so that they do not feel alienated by the change process.
 3. The change (or 'move') stage involves learning new concepts and new meanings for existing concepts. This is the transition stage, by which an organisation moves from its current state to its future state.
 4. All of the above
 1. Change (or 'move') stage is facilitated by:
 1. Identification – encouraging individuals to identify with role models from whom they can learn new behaviour patterns.
 2. Internalisation – placing individuals in a situation in which new behaviours are required for success, so that they have to develop coping behaviours.
 3. Both A&B
 4. None
 1. The refreeze stage involves internalising new concepts and meanings. It focuses on stabilising (refreezing) the new state of affairs, by setting policies to embed new behaviours, and establishing new standards.
 1. The above statement is correct
 2. The above statement is incorrect
 1.