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Rain can be a relaxing event that can make you peaceful as you hear the calming raindrops on your window sill. For many people, the rain can make them cozy and create inner peace in them. For others, the rain symbolism is far different – it can be a symbol of cleansing and clarity.
But there are also some other meanings of rain. It can be used as a symbol of sadness and melancholy, which is especially typical in literature and works of art, as well as movies. It's also a common symbol of romance, as it's used in many romantic movies and romantic literature, especially in those famous scenes where protagonists make love in the rain.
Rain symbolism has many different meanings. It's a very wide-ranging symbolism that can have different implications when used in different settings. Let's take a look at some of the main meanings of rain and how it's used in literature and movies.
Rain Symbolism: 7 Meanings
What are some of the main meanings we connect to rain?
Rain cleanses the dirtiness and pollution physically, but also mentally. This rain symbolism is commonly seen in movies where it's used as a sort of cathartic quality that cleanses one's soul. It acts as this redeeming event that can free one's soul and remove all the bad thoughts and negativity out of one's mind.
But rain is also good for cleansing the air and removing pollution. Have you ever seen how clean the air is after a rainfall? You'll probably be able to see for miles and miles, which was previously not possible.
2. Sadness and Depression
Rain can also undertake a fairly negative role, in that it might inspire feelings of sadness and depression. When it rains, it's dark, which might bring out negativity and empower the negative feelings and thoughts within us.
That's why you might feel the blues when it rains. It's scientifically correct that rain might cause feelings of sadness, and that's why many people don't like rain. This negative meaning of rain is commonly depicted in movies to inspire melancholy and feelings of sadness and depression (more on that later).
Perhaps surprisingly, there's a calming quality of rain, too. When it rains calmly and when there is no wind, it might even be a symbol of calmness. But that's different when a storm comes by and sweeps up everything in front of it.
It forces us to retreat indoors and take a moment to think about ourselves and our surroundings. While some people might not like this, it's a good opportunity for many to take a closer look at their feelings.
Also, rain is often welcome for many trying to fall asleep. It can be calming listening to raindrops fall on the window sill as you're trying to fall asleep or calm down from a stressful day.
Rain is also often an obstacle that prevents someone from achieving a greater goal. It can be quite unpleasant to be outside when it rains, so it prevents us from going outside in the first place.
That's why it's earned its reputation for being a symbol of negativity and as an obstacle. But in movies, for instance, it's used as a symbol to portray a character's mental strength and determination in order to overcome this problem.
5. Rebirth and Growth
Without rain and water, life on earth would be impossible. It's responsible for keeping the life cycle alive, as it helps flowers and species on Earth grow. It provides them with fluids in order to keep alive and keep growing and keep the life cycle going.
Lakes would empty and seas would drain without adequate portions of rain. And when there would be no water on earth, life would be practically impossible. Even though it might be unpleasant when it rains, it's necessary for keeping us alive and for keeping other species alive, too.
Rain creates fertile ground. Back when people had no irrigation systems, they relied heavily on rain to help them grow their crops. But when there was no rain, their crops wouldn't grow, which would result in poverty and famine.
Today, we've developed different systems for growing plants, but rain is still essential for growth and fertility. Some Indian peoples and Egyptians used the rain symbol to portray fertility, and it was often seen as a symbol of good luck which would help them grow more crops and survive more comfortably.
When it rains, the weather changes. There's a well-known saying that says "the sun always shines after the rain", which means that rain is necessary in order for positive change to happen.
We can connect that with almost all our difficulties in life. It might be difficult at the start, but it's absolutely necessary to allow us to change and grow. Without rain, there would be no change.
Rain Symbolism in Literature and Film
Because of its highly symbolic nature, rain is commonly used in literature and films. It can have several different meanings, so let's take a look at some of them.
Rain is often used as a predicting symbol in movies. It can symbolize that the story is about to take a negative turn, or that negative events are about to happen. In movies, rain might start to fall right before a big event, or it might coincide with the event.
It might happen before a traumatic scene in the movie, for instance. Dark clouds are present, and there might be heavy rainfall to inspire feelings of anticipation in viewers.
Rain is commonly present in romance movies, especially where it's used as a symbol of love. This leads to many scenes of "kissing in the rain" and other romance scenes where rain is used as a background event to encourage the feeling of romance.
The list of movies where rain is falling during a romantic scene is wide. Some of the most well-known ones include Spiderman, Breakfast at Tiffany's, The Notebook, Singin' in the Rain, A Cinderella Story, Australia, and several others.
When a character goes through a tough period during a movie, there might be a scene where the character is seen walking through the rain. This rain might symbolize a traumatic event that might have happened to the character, and it's almost an effect that's used to inspire some sympathy for the character.
However, it normally happens that the character is able to withstand the storm and move through the rain. This is used to portray the determined character of the protagonist where the protagonist overcomes the rain.
Have you ever wondered what rain can symbolize? You might have associated with negative feelings only, but rain can have several other meanings. Rain symbolism represents cleansing, calmness, growth and fertility, and even rebirth.
It's also a favorite symbol for moviemakers and literature writers who use rain as a symbol of foreshadowing. It's also commonly present in romantic scenes but also to portray a protagonist's high level of mental strength.
I'm Chris and I run this website – a resource about symbolism, metaphors, idioms, and a whole lot more! Thanks for dropping by.


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Historically, the Piney Woods of southern Mississippi was a region characterized by its impressive stands of native longleaf pine forest. However, extensive logging practices in the early twentieth century contributed to the clear-cutting of nearly all old-growth longleaf pine trees.
In the early lumbering days before the railroads, logs were cut and rafted down rivers and waterways from the inland Piney Woods to mills and ports along the Gulf Coast. With the advent of the railroad in 1885, commercial logging continued full speed ahead as Piney Woods timber was aggressively harvested, and railroad spurs and logging camps canvassed the region. A product of the timber boom, the town of Barth, Mississippi was incorporated in 1917 and already in decline by the late 1920s.
Most sawmills in the area were forced to close in the 1930s due to the widespread clear-cutting of the native virgin yellow pines. Today, large swaths of the Piney Woods are part of DeSoto National Forest. You can learn more about early logging practices by listening to the "Timber Industry" podcast.

source: HuggingFaceFW/fineweb-edu


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The following data is extracted from Genealogy and Biography of Ontario County, New York.
The surname Hayes is the plural form of an ancient word, Hay, or Haw, which means a fence, a hedge or a boundary, also a space enclosed, as a park or field. Its derivation can be traced to many European languages wherein both the primitive and secondary meanings are precisely the same. From this simple root have sprung the names of Hay, Hayes, Haywood or Heywood, Hayland, Greenhays and many others of a similar character. The name of Hayes is to be found both in England and Scotland, but is far more common in the former than it is in the latter country. The New England colonial records of the seventeenth century contain the names of four immigrants of this name : Thomas Hayes, of Milford, Connecticut (1641), descendants of whom removed to Newark, New Jersey; Nathaniel, who was of Norwalk. Connecticut (1651) ; John, of Dover, New Hampshire, who came from Scotland in 1680; and George, of Windsor, Connecticut, who, tradition asserts, was a brother of the preceding John. The Hayes of Canandaigua, New York, who form the principal subject of this article, are descended from the Windsor settler.
(I) George Hayes, who arrived in New England about the year 1680, and probably was about twenty-five years old at the time of his immigration, first settled in Windsor, Connecticut, whence he removed in 1698 to that part of Simsbury, Connecticut, which is now (1911)Granby. In a manuscript record written or dictated by his grandson, Ezekiel Hayes, of New Haven, he is referred to as follows: "Went from Scotland to Derbyshire, England, and lived with his uncle. He was anxious to see London, whither he went. Having received some account of America, he took passage for this country." George Hayes' residence in Simsbury was in the locality known as Salmon Brook, and he died there. September 2, 1725. Although he was not active in public affairs his name frequently appears in the early town records of Simsbury in connection with land transactions, assessments, "minister's rates, " etc., and from these it may be inferred that he was pious, thrifty and in every way a worthy citizen. His first wife, whose Christian name was Sarah and whose surname is illegible on the Windsor records, died early in 1683. and the children of this union died young. At Windsor, August 29, 1683, he married (second) Abigail Dibble, only daughter of Samuel, granddaughter of Thomas, and great-granddaughter of Robert Dibble, who arrived from England in 1635, settling in Dorchester, Massachusetts. Children, born in Windsor: 1. Abigail, August 31. 1684; married Paul Tompkins. 2. Daniel, born April 26, 1686. 3. Sarah, January 22, 1687-8; married John Gosard (or Gozzard), son of Nicholas and Elizabeth Gozzard, of Windsor. 4. Mary, born January 6, 1689-90; married, August 28, 1712, William Rice. 5. Joanna, born October 2. 1692; died after 1780; married James Hillyer, of Simsbury. 6. George. horn March 9, 1695. 7. William, born June 13, 1697, in Simsbury. 8. Samuel, mentioned below. 9. Thankful, born 1700-01 ; married, October 9, 1717, Nathaniel Holcombe. 10. Benjamin, born 1702-03. 11. Dorothy, 1706; married Abraham Dibble, her first cousin.
Source: Genealogy and Biography of Ontario County, New York


Bronze-level articlePolitical Compass
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The Political Compass™ is an online test, made in the UK by a political journalist and a professor of social history.[1][2] It places people's political views on two axes instead of the traditional left-to-right axis.
The compass uses two axis to assign political views, a technique used by the earlier Nolan Chart and Pournelle Chart[wp] as well as a number of other political charts. It uses the same axes (economic freedom and political freedom) as the Nolan chart but with a different configuration. This has led some to view it as an unattributed use of the Nolan Chart.
[edit] The compass
The Political Compass™ uses a two-axis chart, with each test-taker falling between -10 and +10 on each axis.[3]
The X-axis measures economic positions, ranging from the far left, "Communism" (-10) to the far right, "Neo-liberalism" (+10). The labels vary on different versions of the graph, but essentially this range measures how much or little government intrusion in the economy is favored.
The Y-axis measures social positions, from "libertarian"[4]/"anarchism" (0 to -10) to "authoritarian"/"fascism" (0 to +10). This range measures a person's stands on government intrusion in personal or social matters.
[edit] The test
The test consists of 62 propositions in six categories, covering areas such as economics, religion, culture, and what governments should and should not be allowed to do. The respondent can answer each proposition with one of "Strongly agree," "Agree," "Disagree," or "Strongly Disagree."
[edit] Criticism
There have been a number of criticisms of the test, some of them mentioning the test's failure to take into account the political and cultural differences between America and Europe,[5] and noting large discrepancies between the scores actual people get on it and the scores posted for politicians and political parties.[6]
The following is a RationalWiki-specific criticism.
[edit] Writers' anti-neoliberal bias
The political journalist and professor of social history are very much left-wing; they speak a good deal of "neoliberal orthodoxy,"[7] in the same way that Conservapedia might use the phrase "Darwinist orthodoxy."
The test-writers take it upon themselves to chart the political positions of prominent politicians, political parties and governments across the democratic Western world, but the only one of these in which results for different years are compared side-by-side is the case of parties in the UK.[8] This analysis shows that the Conservative and Labour parties' scores are only a hair's breadth away from each other, especially on the economic scale.
The test-writers bemoan this reading, and lay it on Tony Blair quite heavily in that article. It is easy to conclude that when they say, "Voter turnout is highest when ideological differences are most significant," it is probably just code for "We hate Tony Blair." Not to say that Mr. Blair does not deserve this, but there it is.
[edit] Loaded propositions
Although this cannot be known for sure, due to the test-writers' declining to release the scoring details,[9] it is possible that the entire test was rigged simply for the purpose of bashing the UK Labour Party by portraying its position as significantly to the right of the average score attained by respondents on the test.
As evidence of this, there are a number of propositions on the test that present "neoliberalism" and other ideas in a fallacious straw-man fashion, similar to what Conservapedia does, except to a different set of "liberals."
Examples of such loaded propositions are:
Proposition Remarks
If economic globalisation is inevitable, it should primarily serve humanity rather than the interests of trans-national corporations. Supporters of supply side economics have no way to answer this, as they believe that there is no conflict of interest between humanity and large corporations.[10] When this was pointed out to the test-writers, their response was, basically, "Of course there's a conflict of interest. We don't see the problem."[11]
Governments should penalise businesses that mislead the public. Even Ayn Rand believed that the government should punish those who commit acts of fraud.
The businessperson and the manufacturer are more important than the writer and the artist. This and similar propositions fail to make a proper distinction between those who hate art and literature, and those who like it but feel that the State should in no ways be involved with it.
Astrology accurately explains many things. The test-writers indicate that they put this in to gauge a person's belief in "determinism," which they believe is correlated with authoritarianism.[12] But even fundamentalists who believe in determinism would call this proposition what it really is; even Conservapedia, a well-known hotbed of authoritarians and pseudoscience, is not too hot for that pseudoscience.
[edit] Broader problems
The writers insist that the center of the chart must remain fixed and unmoving in order to chart the changes in the political "center of gravity,"[13] possibly over as long a period as 200 years.[14] Yet the test is highly dated, as many of its propositions (e.g, concerns over counter-terrorism and the commercialization of drinking water) would have made no sense 40 years ago, let alone 200, while others (e.g., several about race and ethnicity) would have been answered very differently even by the radical left-wingers of old time.
[edit] Left Libertarian Conflation
The writers seem to conflate libertarianism with cultural liberalism. While it is true that all authoritarians are conservatives the converse is not necessarily true. For eg: A person can be against sex before marriage personally for cultural/religious reasons, yet may not want to push his views on others via government laws.There also seems an implicit assumption made by the writers of this test that all leftists are against a free market. Particularly the left "libertarian" quadrant seems reserved for those who want government control over economy and are socially liberal. This is a progressive viewpoint not a left-libertarian one. Modern market-oriented left-libertarians are staunch supporters of a laisez-faire economic system supporting free trade and property rights that are taken to be "rightist" viewpoints by the writers. Their position is leftist only insofar as they believe that "workers" are exploited by their "bosses" and are deprived of their fruits of their labour. Interestingly the early socialist movement heavily overlapped with the classical liberal movement. The compass works from the unstated assumption that any critique of corporate power is somehow "anti-business" or "anti-market." There is no way for modern-day left libertarians to answer many questions without giving a false impression.
[edit] External links
[edit] Footnotes
 1. The authors explain their nationality
 4. In the European sense, not the American one.
 5. European and American political differences disregarded: [1]
 6. Discrepancies between politicians' and others' scores: [2] [3]
 7. Google search for "neoliberal orthodoxy" on the Political Compass website
 10. Ayn Rand offers this argument that there is not, in a scene in Atlas Shrugged where an industrialist is on trial: "Are we to understand," asked the judge, "that you hold your own interests above the interests of the public?" — "I hold that such a question can never arise except in a society of cannibals." — "What... what do you mean?" — "I hold that there is no clash of interests among men who do not demand the unearned and do not practice human sacrifices." (Yes, Rand is this batshit.)
Personal tools


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ICTCRM Web Phone (WebRTC Agent)
ICTCRM brings another amazing feature for call centers and Agents support! Web Phone.
What is a WebPhone? and How does it help Agents?
A Web phone is WebRTC based phone that allow agents to receive calls only using their browsers, without any additional hardware or software.
ICTCRM offers integrated web phone for agents. Not only can it receive forwarded calls, but also enables agents to perform following actions.
- Load contact details in popup / CRM
- Load campaign script
- Call Transfer
- Set agent status Available / Unavailable
Campaign Dialogue / Scripts
Webphone lets you customize the campaign script/ dialogue. It provides you an option to display campaign script / dialogue for each prospect. Agents can use this functionality by creating campaigns with dialogue. You can create the dialogue by the following way:
1. Create Dialogue
- go to the Message menu,
- Choose Dialogue / Script menu
- Click Create new
Fill out all the fields and and click save
Note: User can make a dynamic / customized dialogue by using Tokens, to add tokens in dialogue please click on Show available tokens
2. Create agent campaign
ICTCRM provides integration of WebPhone in 2 Campaigns. It can be used with Agent and Interactive Campaigns.
To configure these campaigns you need to follow the steps below:
- Contact / CRM URL for popup
Contact / CRM URL for popup
You can utilize the webphone features in Interactive Campaigns and Agent Campaigns.
When using Web Phone, Agent and interactive campaigns can be configured to trigger a Popup on agent screen, the same URL should point some CRM or other contact provider app. URL can be configured in Contact URL field as shown in the following image, further user can also contact tokens to build contact url.
Creating your own Dialouge/Script can be done by a few setps now
Dialogues are specific to agents and interactive campaigns, in these campaigns an option of Dialogue / Script is given under General option section and user can select recently created dialogue here.
User can even access integrated webphone by selecting the desired extension from top Agent Panel dropdown
Set agent status
ICTCRM provides an option to change the status of Agent as well.
You can set the status of the agent by clicking status button. You can set the status either available or leave
Note: Only Available agent can receive forwarded calls
Transfering a call is not an issue now as call can be transfered to the desired extension by clicking the call transfer button and then selecting desired extension
You can view and edit prospect details by clicking on load contact.
Please note that it is different from popup URL. Instead of popup it will redirect current window to ICTCRM's internal contact record where user can edit / update it accordingly.
Keypad / DTMF
Handy keys are provided to the agent for operating webphone.
A List of useable key sequences that agent can use for different purposes is given below:
- For hangup press *0
- For call transfer press #1 and then enter target extension number alternatively (without pressing any key) agent can select target number from transfer drowdown button
- For attended call transfer press #2 followed by the target extension

source: openbmb/Ultra-FineWeb


The Finale: Effect of MSF Presence in Liberia on Peace
Welcome to my last Freshman Monroe post! For the last few weeks, I have been looking to see if the presence of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in conflict zones has an effect on the formation of lasting peace. After reading several books and articles (my findings from each can be found here and here), I decided that I would be able to produce more thorough results if I made the project a case study.
Using Diehl and Druckman's criteria for evalauting peacekeeping operations, I decided to look at MSF presence in Liberia. Liberia had a series of civil wars that lasted from 1997 to 2003. This time frame is important because it means that we know that the peace that has followed since the end of the war is sustainable and relatively long-lasting. To evaluate the effect of MSF presence, I used the Diehl and Druckman's series of questions to see if the operation fulfilling the core peacekeeping goals of violence abatement, conflict containment, and conflict settlement. To answer each question, I tried to find data points that reflected the situation of the nation before, during, and after the conflict to see how various factors changed over time.
Although I began this project with lots of hope, I quickly realized why little is known about peace studies. Little data exists for dangerous conflicts, and it is difficult for researchers to keep track of factors like shooting incidents and the involvement of regional powers when much of the information is hidden by governments interested in only putting out war propaganda. The Liberian Civil War had added difficulty factors because West African culture in some areas is more linked to tribalism than nationalism. This idea means that some fighters in the Liberian Civil War also fought and spread the conflict to neighboring nations like Guinea and Sierra Leone, making the conflicts almost indistinguishable. The only reliable statistics I could find were generally from the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL). MSF rarely published data outside of number of medical treatments provided per year.
With this is mind, my research suggests that MSF played a small but crucial role in the peaceful end to Liberia's civil war. The access to medical care that MSF provided, especially in the capital Monrovia, allowed the country's sick and wounded the chance to recover. Since MSF was one of the only providers of medical care after the war destroyed the country's hospitals, the organization played a critical role in constantly rebuilding and updating the country's medical capacity. All told, MSF medical services likely saved thousands of lives, many of whom may have afterwards served as crusaders for a peaceful end to the civil war.
 1. iechevarria says:
 I think your project is quite interesting, and I was wondering why you think there is so little data available about MSF's activities. Was it the specific timeframe you were looking at, or does MSF not record or make data public in general? Also, what are some examples of data you really would have liked to analyze?
 2. I really enjoyed reading this Elizabeth! It was cool to see how you didn't give up after realizing there was not as much data on the subject as you hoped. You found the data that you could and still used it to answer the questions you hoped to. I also really liked how you went below-the-surface in terms of evaluating components of peace. I never would have thought to look at the role of medical care in creating peace in conflict zones, and I think your findings can be extremely valuable in international affairs going forward.


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The Naga Chili, closely related to the Bhut jolokia, is a chili pepper cultivated in Bangladesh and North East India. It is mostly very similar to Bhut Jolokia, or Ghost Chilli. In the UK it is called Dorset Naga which is originally from Bangladesh. It is one of the hottest known chilli peppers.
Like many varieties of the Chinense species, the Naga Chili is a small to medium shrub with large leaves, small, five-petaled flowers, and blisteringly hot fruit. It differs to the Bhut Jolokia and Bih Jolokia in that the pods are slightly smaller with a pimply ribbed texture as opposed to the smoother flesh of the other two varieties.
The Naga Chili is extremely hot, but has a flavor that is quite unique.
Many specialists say that the Naga Chili is as spicy as Rafi and like the Bhut Jolokia (Ghost Pepper), it has a sweet and slightly tart flavor, followed by slight undertones of woody, smoky flavors. The chili is traditionally used green by the Bangladeshis, often eaten raw as a side dish. It is well suited for BBQ and grilling due to its unique flavor profile.
1. Sow the chilli Seeds:
If you can get your hands on a specialist chilli germinating solution then so much the better, if not, don't worry. Take a standard seed cell tray and fill with a mixture of good quality seed compost and a handful of fine vermiculite to aid drainage. Moisten with water and place in a propagator to warm the soil. Note: If you live in a cold climate you will need an electric propagator as you will have to sow the seeds in late January. Chillies need a long growing season, you cannot wait for the weather to change. Sow the seeds one per cell, cover with compost and keep moist, ensure a regular temperature is maintained.
2. What to do when the chilli seeds have germinated:
This is an important time, if the chilli seeds germinate too quickly,i.e 'shoot up' with a long thin stem then you might be in trouble. Too much heat and not enough height can be problomatic. Make sure the seedlings have plenty of natural light where possible, use alternative heat lamps if need be. If the seedlings seem to be straining towards the light then turn them around and try and expose them to more light, they should grow straight and true. To avoid 'bolting' decrease the heat during the day and increase during the night as the temperature drops, but try and maintain an even temperature.
3. Potting the seedlings on:
Don't be in a rush to transplant the young seedlings into a larger pot, they've got months of growing ahead of them so wait until they are well established in their individual cells. Repeat the process with the warm soil and vermiculite mixture, don't shock the tender seedlings by putting them into cold compost. Use a 7″ plant pot or similar, keep the light source constant and watch out for sudden fluctuations in temperature. If you have a warm greenhouse/conservatory then so much the better. Leave these in their pots for at leat another month or until the roots just begin to show at the bottom of the pot. Keep moist but do not overwater.
4. Potting chillies into their final growing position:
Hopefully you will now have healthy chilli plants in small pots. Now is the time to transfer them into their final growing place. This depend upon your circumstance, it might be a large pot, growbag, polytunnel or outside if you live in a hot climate. Wherever you are the plants need heat, if you live in a cool climate such as England then you will have to grow them under glass. If you live in a country with six months of fine sunshine then plant them outside.
5. How to Pollinate Chillies by hand:
Place a bowl of water by the plants and leave to come to temperature. Take a fine paintbrush and dip in the warm water. Gently dab the flowering heads with the brush to aid pollination, the jolokia's need this more than other chilli varieties, particularly if you are growing under glass.
6. Feeding chilli plants:
Gradually increase the feeding to twice a week as the plants grow, don't worry if the plants dry out a little in between watering. Rough, hot conditions suit the hotter strains of chilli and the strength of the chilli heat will be affected by this. Basically, mother them until they are in their final growing place and then treat them a bit rough. Damp your greenhouse and/or plants down during hot spells.
7. Harvesting your chilli plants:
If you want to increase the yield of your plants then pick some whilst still green, use scissors and cut them cleanly. Leave the rest to mature on the plant, the heat increases with the maturity of the fruit, if the climate is right they will continue to ripen into the winter months.
Hope this is of some use, if you manage to get through the cold spell trouble free then you should be in for a 'home run'. Chillies are fun to grow and rarely prove troublesome.


Main menu (IT)
Travel with Electronic Devices
If you are traveling with portable computing devices including laptop computers, PDAs, tablets and smart phones you need to take proper precautions with your mobile device. A recent study reported that 12,000 laptop computers go missing or are stolen each week at United States airports, 40% of them at security checkpoints. This means that you need to protect any confidential information that might be on the device.
The probability that your portable device will be lost also means that you should ensure that you do not have the only copy of important information on the portable device. Any information generated or collected during your trip should be regularly copied back to a secure location at CSUN or elsewhere. The transfer should be encrypted if the information is confidential. A simple way to do this is to encrypt the information and email the encrypted file to the University email account.
Should your device be lost or stolen, it is good practice to minimize the amount of information that can potentially be disclosed or that needs to be reported.
Before you travel:
 - Determine if you can reduce the information contained on the devices you will bring.
 - Move anything not associated with the trip to a secure archive.
 - Always maintain the most recent version of all operating system and application patches on your devices.
 - Keep your endpoint security tools such as anti-virus and firewalls enabled and up to date.
What To Do If Your Device Is Lost or Stolen
If your device is lost or stolen, Submit a Security Incident Report.
CSUN policy requires that all University-owned laptops be password protected and encrypted. CSUN policy also requires that no Level 1 information be stored on portable devices such as laptops, even if the device is encrypted.
In addition to the requirement for University-owned laptops and personal devices to be encrypted, CSUN has specific data gathering policies intended to protect the confidentiality of PII. Under no circumstances can high risk confidential information about people, such as SSNs, be stored on a laptop.
Security Considerations for International Travelers
There are some additional factors to consider if you are traveling internationally. We highly encourage you to read the following especially if you are traveling to a location known to have an active cyber-criminal community or where you would be subject to surveillance.
May I take my encrypted laptop when traveling internationally?
It depends. Because encryption products can be used for illegal purposes, including terrorist activity, the United States and many of the countries that you may visit may ban or severely regulate the import, export and use of encryption products. So, taking your laptop with encryption software to certain countries without proper authorization could violate U.S. export law or the import regulations of the country to which you are traveling, and could result in your laptop to be confiscated, in fines or in other penalties.
Over the past fifteen years, a group of nations negotiated a set of rules attempting to facilitate traveling with encryption software known as the "Wassenaar Arrangement." One of its provisions allows a traveler to freely enter a participating country with an encrypted device under a "personal use exemption" as long as the traveler does not create, enhance, share, sell or otherwise distribute the encryption technology while visiting.
Please see the Wassenar web site for more information.
What U.S. export regulations do I need to satisfy when leaving the country with my encrypted laptop?
CSUN-owned computers are often loaded with encryption software and are subject to export control regulations under the Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) and its Export Administration Regulations (EAR). The products listed have been granted either an "Encryption Commodities, Software and Technology" (ENC) or "Mass Market" license exception.
This exception allows us to transport or ship a University-owned or personally-owned computer that has one of our approved encryption products installed to any country as long as the computer remains under our effective control, EXCEPT for the following countries defined in the Department of Commerce's Export Administration Regulations.
If you must travel to one of the embargoed countries, you may be able to obtain the appropriate export license, but the process can take, on average, a ninety days for review. The Department of Commerce's Bureau of Industry and Security and the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) within Dept. of Treasury accept applications for licenses to export encryption products and technologies.
If you cannot obtain an export license, see the section below entitled "What can I do if I cannot satisfy encryption export or import control requirements?"
 What countries have encryption import and use restrictions and how can I obtain an import license?
Since export laws can change at any time, please check with the US State Department before traveling internationally to ensure that you have the most up-to-date information. Additional information about international encryption controls can be found at the following websites:
A number of countries have laws that require you to produce a password if requested by law enforcement officials. In some of these countries, refusal to provide the password can result in arrest and time in jail. US Customs occasionally searches laptops when a traveler returns to the country. They have been known to retain laptops for further analysis if a traveler refuses to unlock the system. If at any point on your trip, you are prompted to surrender your password or device to a law enforcement official, please do so. CSUN's criteria for protecting and securing information on devices should never put your own health and safety at risk.
If you need to remotely-access CSUN resources (such as University email) when traveling, change your password prior to the trip and change it again on your return. If your password is compromised, changing it proactively can potentially reduce the window of opportunity of the attacker to exploit the information accessible using your password.
For additional security when you travel, you may want to consider using a temporary mail account on a public mail server such as Gmail or Hotmail. If the mail service allows for multi-factor-authentication, please choose to use the additional authentication criteria.
Temporary devices
Consider if you can use a temporary device for the duration of the trip. Minimize the information contained on the device. On your return, print any files changed or created on the trip and wipe the device completely or restore it to the factory default.
Kiosks and Public Wi-Fi
Never trust public Wi-Fi. Use the Virtual Private Network (VPN) client on your device if available. A VPN connection will encrypt your transmission and ensure it remains confidential when traversing the public network. If your device is a smartphone or tablet that automatically checks your email, consider disabling that feature for the duration of your trip. If you need to use a public or shared resource such as Wi-Fi or a kiosk, we encourage you to refrain from accessing a University resource or e-Commerce site. If you use your username and password on an untrusted workstation or network, they may be intercepted or stolen and the confidentiality and security of any information you access may be exposed.


.
 ?ville db-prop:longitude?long.
 ?ville db-prop:latitude?lat.
 FILTER (?population > 1000)
 treatments = {1: {'normalization': [aln.simply],
 'metric': ald.levenshtein,
 'matrix_normalized': False
 results = ala.alignall(alignset, targetset, 3, treatments=treatments, _TAG_ before
 indexes=(2, 2), _TAG_ which data build the kdtree
 mode='kdtree', _TAG_ mode to use
 uniq=True) _TAG_ only the best results
 Let's explain the code. We have two files, containing a list of cities we want to align, the first column is the identifier, and the second is the name of the city and the last one is location of the city (longitude and latitude), gathered into a single tuple.
 In this example, we want to build a kdtree on the couple (longitude, latitude) to divide our data in few candidates. This clustering is coarse, and is only used to reduce the potential candidats without loosing any more refined possible matchs.
 So, in the next step, we define the treatments to apply. It is the same as before, but we ask for a non-normalized matrix (ie: the real output of the levenshtein distance). Thus, we call the alignall function. indexes is a tuple saying the position of the point on which the kdtree must be built, mode is the mode used to find neighbours [3].
 Finally, uniq ask to the function to return the best candidate (ie: the one having the shortest distance below the given threshold)
 The function outputs a generator yielding tuples where the first element is the identifier of the alignset item and the second is the targetset one (It may take some time before yielding the first tuples, because all the computation must be done…)
 [3]The available modes are kdtree, kmeans and minibatch for numerical data and minhashing for text one.
 Try it online!
 We have also made this little application of Nazca, using Cubicweb. This application provides a user interface for Nazca, helping you to choose what you want to align. You can use sparql or rql queries, as in the previous example, or import your own cvs file [4]. Once you have choosen what you want to align, you can click the Next step button to customize the treatments you want to apply, just as you did before in python! Once done, by clicking the Next step, you start the alignment process. Wait a little bit, and you can either download the results in a csv or rdf file, or directly see the results online choosing the html output.
 [4]Your csv file must be tab-separated for the moment…
 - Openstack, Wheezy and ZFS on Linux
 2012/12/19 by David Douard
 Openstack, Wheezy and ZFS on Linux
 A while ago, I started the install of an OpenStack cluster at Logilab, so our developers can play easily with any kind of environment. We are planning to improve our Apycot automatic testing platform so it can use "elastic power". And so on.
 I first tried a Ubuntu Precise based setup, since at that time, Debian packages were not really usable. The setup never reached a point where it could be relased as production ready, due to the fact I tried a too complex and bleeding edge configuration (involving Quantum, openvswitch, sheepdog)...
 Meanwhile, we went really short of storage capacity. For now, it mainly consists in hard drives distributed in our 19" Dell racks (generally with hardware RAID controllers). So I recently purchased a low-cost storage bay (SuperMicro SC937 with a 6Gb/s JBOD-only HBA) with 18 spinning hard drives and 4 SSDs. This storage bay being driven by ZFS on Linux (tip: the SSD-stored ZIL is a requirement to get decent performances). This storage setup is still under test for now.
 I also went to the last Mini-DebConf in Paris, where Loic Dachary presented the status of the OpenStack packaging effort in Debian. This gave me the will to give a new try to OpenStack using Wheezy and a bit simpler setup. But I could not consider not to use my new ZFS-based storage as a nova volume provider. It is not available for now in OpenStack (there is a backend for Solaris, but not for ZFS on Linux). However, this is Python and in fact, the current ISCSIDriver backend needs very little to make it work with zfs instead of lvm as "elastics" block-volume provider and manager.
 So, I wrote a custom nova volume driver to handle this. As I don't want the nova-volume daemon to run on my ZFS SAN, I wrote this backend mixing the SanISCSIDriver (which manages the storage system via SSH) and the standard ISCSIDriver (which uses standard Linux isci target tools). I'm not very fond of the API of the VolumeDriver (especially the fact that the ISCSIDriver is responsible for 2 roles: managing block-level volumes and exporting block-level volumes). This small design flaw (IMHO) is the reason I had to duplicate some code (not much but...) to implement my ZFSonLinuxISCSIDriver...
 So here is the setup I made:
 My OpenStack Essex "cluster" consists for now in:
 - one control node, running in a "normal" libvirt-controlled virtual machine; it is a Wheezy that runs:
 - nova-api
 - nova-cert
 - nova-network
 - nova-scheduler
 - nova-volume
 - glance
 - postgresql
 - OpenStack dashboard
 - one computing node (Dell R310, Xeon X3480, 32G, Wheezy), which runs:
 - nova-api
 - nova-network
 - nova-compute
 - ZFS-on-Linux SAN (3x raidz1 poools made of 6 1T drives, 2x (mirrored) 32G SLC SDDs, 2x 120G MLC SSDs for cache); for now, the storage is exported to the SAN via one 1G ethernet link.
 OpensStack Essex setup
 I mainly followed the Debian HOWTO to setup my private cloud. I mainly tuned the network settings to match my environement (and the fact my control node lives in a VM, with VLAN stuff handled by the host).
 I easily got a working setup (I must admit that I think my previous experiment with OpenStack helped a lot when dealing with custom configurations... and vocabulary; I'm not sure I would have succeded "easily" following the HOWTO, but hey, it is a functionnal HOWTO, meaning if you do not follow the instructions because you want special tunings, don't blame the HOWTO).
 Compared to the HOWTO, my nova.conf looks like (as of today):
 root_helper=sudo nova-rootwrap
 ## Network config
 # A nova-network on each compute node
 # VLan manger
 # My ip
 # Dmz & metadata things
 ## More general things
 # The RabbitMQ host
 ## Glance
 I had a bit more work to do to make nova-volume work. First, I got hit by this nasty bug #695791 which is trivial to fix... when you know how to fix it (I noticed the bug report after I fixed it by myself).
 Then, as I wanted the volumes to be stored and exported by my shiny new ZFS-on-Linux setup, I had to write my own volume driver, which was quite easy, since it is Python, and the logic to implement was already provided by the ISCSIDriver class on the one hand, and by the SanISCSIDrvier on the other hand. So I ended with this firt implementation. This file should be copied to nova volumes package directory (nova/volume/
 # vim: tabstop=4 shiftwidth=4 softtabstop=4
 # Copyright 2010 United States Government as represented by the
 # Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
 # Copyright 2011 Justin Santa Barbara
 # Copyright 2012 David DOUARD, LOGILAB S.A.
 # All Rights Reserved.
 # a copy of the License at
 # License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations
 # under the License.
 Driver for ZFS-on-Linux-stored volumes.
 This is mainly a custom version of the ISCSIDriver that uses ZFS as
 volume provider, generally accessed over SSH.
 import os
 from nova import exception
 from nova import flags
 from nova import utils
 from nova import log as logging
 from nova.openstack.common import cfg
 from nova.volume.driver import _iscsi_location
 from nova.volume import iscsi
 from nova.volume.san import SanISCSIDriver
 LOG = logging.getLogger(__name__)
 san_opts = [
 help='The ZFS command.'),
 FLAGS = flags.FLAGS
 class ZFSonLinuxISCSIDriver(SanISCSIDriver):
 """Executes commands relating to ZFS-on


text:
|salicylic acid (ˌsælɪˈsɪlɪk)|
|a white crystalline slightly water-soluble substance with a sweet taste and bitter aftertaste, used in the manufacture of aspirin, dyes, and perfumes, and as a fungicide. Formula: C6H4(OH)(COOH)|
|[C19: from salicyl (via French from Latin salix a willow + |
|an extraordinary or unusual thing, person, or event; an exceptional example or instance.|
|a scrap or morsel of food left at a meal.|
salicylic acid sal·i·cyl·ic acid (sāl'ĭ-sĭl'ĭk)
A white crystalline acid used in making aspirin and in the topical treatment of skin conditions such as eczema.
|salicylic acid (sāl'ĭ-sĭl'ĭk) Pronunciation Key
A white, crystalline acid used to make aspirin, to treat certain skin conditions, and to preserve and flavor foods. Salicylic acid is benzoic acid with a hydroxyl group (OH) attached to the carboxyl group (COOH). Chemical formula: C7H6O3.


text: Changes of thermal diffusivity inside femtosecond laser-structured volumes as small as few percent were reliably determined (with standard deviation less than 1%) with miniaturized sensors. An increase of thermal diffusivity of a crystalline high-density polyethylene (HDPE) inflation films by 10–20% from the measured (1.16 ± 0.01) × 10−7 m2 s−1 value in regions not structured by femtosecond laser pulses is considerably larger than that of non-crystalline polymers, 0–3%. The origin of the change of thermal diffusivity are interplay between the laser induced disordering, voids' formation, compaction, and changes in molecular orientation. It is shown that laser structuring can be used to modify thermal and optical properties. The birefringence and infrared spectroscopy with thermal imaging of CH2 vibrations are confirming inter-relation between structural, optical, and thermal properties of the laser-structured crystalline HDPE inflation films. Birefringence modulation as high as Δn ± 1 × 10−3 is achieved with grating structures.


text:
Knowledge and skills for life and work
Pearson is working with the British Council to deliver a new government funded programme called Connecting Classrooms through Global Learning (CCGL).
This new programme supports teachers and school leaders in schools around the world to improve teaching – giving students the knowledge, skills and attitudes they need to make a positive contribution now and in the future.
It helps teachers enhance lessons with global learning themes and gives students a platform to learn about and collaborate with peers in other countries on the big issues that shape our world. Through free professional development for teachers, connections with other schools, and engaging learning resources, the CCGL helps develop students equipped to live and work in a globalised world.
Building a global learning journey
There are a host of learning opportunities on offer to UK schools as part of the CCGL. Whether a school is part of a cluster or applying for individual opportunities, their global learning journey can be tailored to match their school's priorities thanks to the programme's range of flexible elements.
Opportunities available to UK schools
UK schools can apply for access to the following CCGL opportunities as an individual school, a lead school, or as part of a cluster:
- free access to high-quality online and face-to-face professional development for teachers and school leaders - find out more
- classroom activities with partner schools based on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
- an online partner-finding tool to help schools build international connections, as well as guidance and training to get the most from partnerships
- grants for reciprocal visits between partner schools in different countries, either as a cluster of schools or one-to-one school partnership
- grants for lead schools to build and expand a cluster network and develop the skills of an appointed international co-ordinator
- recognition via the relevant level of the International School Award to highlight your achievements in embedding international education in your school.
Learn more on the Connecting Classrooms through Global Learning website
Collaboration and support
Connecting Classrooms through Global Learning can help schools make connections locally and globally. It encourages schools in the UK to work together as clusters, or individually, to develop partnerships with schools in other countries and embed global learning in the classroom.
Being part of a cluster means you are fully supported throughout your global learning journey by becoming part of a new global learning network, where practitioners with a broad range of international expertise share their experiences and advice.
Becoming a lead school brings with it a host of benefits. Lead schools get access grants to build and expand a cluster network, access a range of advanced professional development opportunities for a co-ordinator to further develop their own practice around global learning themes and gain the skills and resources to take a lead role in delivering training to schools in the cluster, host events showcasing their international work to the wider community, and get cover support for the co-ordinator's time.
Learn together, act together
By integrating global themes into their lessons, teachers can engage learners in understanding how to use core and transferable skills, such as critical thinking and citizenship. It can inspire students to apply what they learn in the classroom to help them thrive in the wider world, create positive change and live as responsible global citizens.


Euglena animation
The euglena is unique because it is sort of like a plant and also like an animal. It is pear shaped. It has a whippy tail called a flagellum that allows it to move through the water.
The euglena is different than other protozoans because it has chlorophyll in it, the substance that plants contain to make their own food. The euglena is then able to make its own food like a plant when it is in the sunlight. When it is in darkness, however, it can get food like an animal. It takes in tiny plants and animals much like the ameba and paramecium.
The euglena has a bright red eyespot which is sensitive to light and helps the euglena find light.
The euglena reproduces by fission, splitting lengthwise in two. The flagellum goes with one part and the other part grows a new flagellum.
When it is too hot or cold for a euglena, it forms a protective casing called a cyst around its body that protects it until conditions outside the cyst become better.
Clams - Mollusks Starfish - Echinoderms Chordates Fish Amphibians
Reptiles Birds Mammals Animals Activities Animals Index


How To Avoid Negative Marking In Bank
How To Avoid Negative Marking In Bank Exams [Important Tips]
In this article, we shall discuss and provide some tips to minimize and avoid negative marking in bank exams.
Nowadays almost every competitive bank exam has a system of negative marking in bank exams.
Every candidate has a common question that if there is negative marking in the bank exams then how to minimize it or avoid it.
Negative marking deducted the marks you got from the right question which ultimately impacts your selection in the bank exam.
One wrong answer to the question is equal to 0.25 marks and if candidates give 4 wrong answers then a total 1 mark is deducted from your total marks. This negative marks impacts a candidate very much and many time it decided your selection in the bank exam.
Many candidates loose lot of marks due to this negative marking pattern in bank competitive examinations. Candidates study and practice in such a way that they either minimize or avoid negative marking.
Hence, candidates must improve their accuracy so that they can avoid negative marking in bank exams.
Top Tips to Avoid & Minimize Negative Marks in Bank Exams
The followings are important tips to minimize negative marking in the bank exam.
1. Do not answer questions which you are unsure of:
Candidate must quickly answer all those questions which they are fully confident to solve and then try to solve questions which they left due to low confidence.
If candidates solve easy questions speedily and they will have some time to review unanswered questions.
Candidates can chance of negative marking if they leave the questions which they are not sure but leaving too many questions will hamper their chance of cracking bank exams.
Leaving too many questions unanswered will impact more on your overall marks.
2. Do not guess answer randomly
If a candidate does not know the right answer to the question then he/she should not answer with random guesses.
The blindly answering with random guess will impact their final marks. They must answer the question for which they are 100% confident and sure. This way you can minimize negative marking in bank exam.
3. Carefully read questions
Some time due to overconfidence or getting the easy question, they quickly answer and mark it without reading the question carefully. The candidate may mark the wrong answer due to overconfidence and which will result in getting negative marking.
Hence, it is advised to all candidates to read all questions very carefully and then answer.
4. Attempt easy question first
When candidates are preparing for the exam, they must identify their strength area and weak area.
Once you identify your strength area then you must attempt your strength section first so that you finish quickly major area and in the remaining time you give to tough and unanswered questions.
Attempting easy and your strength area question will boost your confidence which will help in solving tough questions.
5. Go through mock tests and previous year's bank exam question papers
Understanding bank exam pattern is a must requirement to get selected for bank exam.
Apart from general exam paper, you must attempt mock-test and previous year paper to understand frequently asked and important sections.
While solving mock paper and previous year paper, you will come to know your weak area and accordingly you can focus on these weak areas. This will help you in minimizing mistakes and can track your performance.
6. Note down important points
Candidate should start making important point note from day one of bank exam preparations. Candidates can make proper notes of important shortcuts and tricks which will help them in memorizing for a long time.
These notes will also help candidates in quick revision just before the examination and minimizing negative marks as you cannot read entire books at the last minute.
7. Refer to an online resource or take the help of a coaching institute.
Apart from reading books at home, you can also take the help of online resources and coaching centers.
The coaching centers have expert teachers who have to help you with learning shortcuts and tricks. The shortcuts and tricks will be helpful in minimizing your negative marking in the bank exam.
8. Calculate the risk of negative marking
As discussed earlier, candidates must attempt the question for which they are sure. If you cross a desired no. of the sure answer then you can try to take the risk for answering left questions.
While solving the unanswered question, if the answer is not available in the given option then you can take risk of answering a very close answer. For this risk, you must have answered adequately no. of right answered.
9. Avoid last-minute answering
If candidates solve answers in the last minutes of the exam then there are chances of the wrong answer.
Candidates must avoid the last-minute answer.
If the answer is not correct then you will get negative marking which will impact overall marks. Last-minute answering always leads to a mistake.
The well-prepared candidate with confidence for the bank exam needs not to worry about negative marking in the bank exam and take unnecessary stress. Despite this, they need to concentrate on their goal with handwork with smart work.
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Colorized TEM (Transmission Electron Microscopy) micrograph of a cell of Geobacter sulfurreducens (orange) with its pili (yellow) stretching out like arms and immobilizing the uranium (black precipitate). | Image courtesy of Dena Cologgi and Gemma Reguera, Michigan State University
Bacteria may get a bad wrap, but there are certainly benefits to researching the remarkable capabilities of these often misunderstood microorganisms. A team of researchers at Michigan State University, assisted by scientists at the Energy Department's Argonne National Laboratory, has demonstrated exactly how a family of bacteria known as Geobacter use their arms to clean up nuclear waste and other toxic materials.
Geobacter are the junk food connoisseurs of the bacterial kingdom. They have a healthy appetite for all sorts of unhealthy "foods," including uranium and petroleum compounds like oil. And they also have the ability to turn a form of uranium that dissolves easily in water to a form that does not, which makes it much easier to clean up. (In the same way that it's far easier to pluck a sugar cube out of water than dissolved sugar from a packet.)
Scientists have already been using Geobacter to pull waste out of water. The bacteria cleans up contaminated spaces through a process called bioremediation; however, scientists didn't know how the bacteria were conducting their cleanups, at least until recently. In a paper published in the Sept. 6 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the team at Michigan State University, led by Dr. Gemma Reguera, demonstrated that it is the long arms (known as pili) of Geobacter that give them their unique ability to connect to uranium particles and "pull" them out of water. These arms – which can be even longer than the bacteria themselves (imagine having an arm the length of your body… or longer!) – might be better compared to wires, since they can even conduct electricity.
What's more remarkable – as Dr. Reguera's team also showed – is that these electrically-conducting pili actually give Geobacter their ability to clean up uranium. They reach across space, creating an extensive network that allows the bacteria to increase their energy by connecting to multiple uranium particles. The pili also keep the particles of uranium at, well, arm's length, which better protects the bacteria. Equipment at Argonne National Laboratory, Illinois, provided additional insights into how Geobacter works, especially through the use of the lab's bright x-ray facility, the Advanced Photon Source.
Understanding how Geobacter's arms work suggests new possibilities for using the bacteria to clean up larger and perhaps even more contaminated sites in the future.
This work was supported by the Office of Science and in part by the Energy Department's Environmental Remediation Sciences Office, within the Biological and Environmental Research Program. For more information on Energy Department's Office of Science, please go to: _URL_


text:
psql is a terminal-based front-end to PostgreSQL. It enables you to type in queries interactively, issue them to PostgreSQL, and see the query results. Alternatively, input can be from a file. In addition, it provides a number of meta-commands and various shell-like features to facilitate writing scripts and automating a wide variety of tasks.
Print all input lines to standard output as they are read. This is more useful for script processing rather than interactive mode. This is equivalent to setting the variable ECHO to all.
Switches to unaligned output mode. (The default output mode is otherwise aligned.)
Specifies that psql is to execute one command string, command, and then exit. This is useful in shell scripts.
command must be either a command string that is completely parsable by the server (i.e., it contains no psql specific features), or a single backslash command. Thus you cannot mix SQL and psql meta-commands. To achieve that, you could pipe the string into psql, like this: echo "\x \\ select * from foo;" | psql.
If the command string contains multiple SQL commands, they are processed in a single transaction, unless there are explicit BEGIN/COMMIT commands included in the string to divide it into multiple transactions. This is different from the behavior when the same string is fed to psql's standard input.
Specifies the name of the database to connect to. This is equivalent to specifying dbname as the first non-option argument on the command line.
Copy all SQL commands sent to the server to standard output as well. This is equivalent to setting the variable ECHO to queries.
Echo the actual queries generated by \d and other backslash commands. You can use this to study psql's internal operations. This is equivalent to setting the variable ECHO_HIDDEN from within psql.
Use the file filename as the source of commands instead of reading commands interactively. After the file is processed, psql terminates. This is in many ways equivalent to the internal command \i.
If filename is - (hyphen), then standard input is read.
Using this option is subtly different from writing psql < filename. In general, both will do what you expect, but using -f enables some nice features such as error messages with line numbers. There is also a slight chance that using this option will reduce the start-up overhead. On the other hand, the variant using the shell's input redirection is (in theory) guaranteed to yield exactly the same output that you would have gotten had you entered everything by hand.
Use separator as the field separator. This is equivalent to \pset fieldsep or \f.
Specifies the host name of the machine on which the server is running. If the value begins with a slash, it is used as the directory for the Unix-domain socket.
Turn on HTML tabular output. This is equivalent to \pset format html or the \H command.
List all available databases, then exit. Other non-connection options are ignored. This is similar to the internal command \list.
Do not use readline for line editing and do not use the history. This can be useful to turn off tab expansion when cutting and pasting.
Put all query output into file filename. This is equivalent to the command \o.
Specifies the TCP port or the local Unix-domain socket file extension on which the server is listening for connections. Defaults to the value of the PGPORT environment variable or, if not set, to the port specified at compile time, usually 5432.
Allows you to specify printing options in the style of \pset on the command line. Note that here you have to separate name and value with an equal sign instead of a space. Thus to set the output format to LaTeX, you could write -P format=latex.
Specifies that psql should do its work quietly. By default, it prints welcome messages and various informational output. If this option is used, none of this happens. This is useful with the -c option. Within psql you can also set the QUIET variable to achieve the same effect.
Use separator as the record separator. This is equivalent to the \pset recordsep command.
Run in single-step mode. That means the user is prompted before each command is sent to the server, with the option to cancel execution as well. Use this to debug scripts.
Runs in single-line mode where a newline terminates an SQL command, as a semicolon does.
Note: This mode is provided for those who insist on it, but you are not necessarily encouraged to use it. In particular, if you mix SQL and meta-commands on a line the order of execution might not always be clear to the inexperienced user.
Turn off printing of column names and result row count footers, etc. This is equivalent to the \t command.
Allows you to specify options to be placed within the
table tag. See \pset for details.
Forces psql to prompt for the user name and password before connecting to the database.
This option is deprecated, as it is conceptually flawed. (Prompting for a non-default user name and prompting for a password because the server requires it are really two different things.) You are encouraged to look at the -U and -W options instead.
Connect to the database as the user username instead of the default. (You must have permission to do so, of course.)
Perform a variable assignment, like the \set internal command. Note that you must separate name and value, if any, by an equal sign on the command line. To unset a variable, leave off the equal sign. To just set a variable without a value, use the equal sign but leave off the value. These assignments are done during a very early stage of start-up, so variables reserved for internal purposes might get overwritten later.
Print the psql version and exit.
Forces psql to prompt for a password before connecting to a database.
psql should automatically prompt for a password whenever the server requests password authentication. However, currently password request detection is not totally reliable, hence this option to force a prompt. If no password prompt is issued and the server requires password authentication, the connection attempt will fail.
This option will remain set for the entire session, even if you change the database connection with the meta-command \connect.
Turn on the extended table formatting mode. This is equivalent to the command \x.
Do not read the start-up file (neither the system-wide psqlrc file nor the user's ~/.psqlrc file).
Show help about psql command line arguments, and exit.
psql returns 0 to the shell if it finished normally, 1 if a fatal error of its own (out of memory, file not found) occurs, 2 if the connection to the server went bad and the session was not interactive, and 3 if an error occurred in a script and the variable ON_ERROR_STOP was set.
psql is a regular PostgreSQL client application. In order to connect to a database you need to know the name of your target database, the host name and port number of the server and what user name you want to connect as. psql can be told about those parameters via command line options, namely -d, -h, -p, and -U respectively. If an argument is found that does not belong to any option it will be interpreted as the database name (or the user name, if the database name is already given). Not all these options are required; there are useful defaults. If you omit the host name, psql will connect via a Unix-domain socket to a server on the local host, or via TCP/IP to localhost on machines that don't have Unix-domain sockets. The default port number is determined at compile time. Since the database server uses the same default, you will not have to specify the port in most cases. The default user name is your Unix user name, as is the default database name. Note that you can't just connect to any database under any user name. Your database administrator should have informed you about your access rights.
When the defaults aren't quite right, you can save yourself some typing by setting the environment variables PGDATABASE, PGHOST, PGPORT and/or PGUSER to appropriate values. (For additional environment variables, see Section 27.11.) It is also convenient to have a ~/.pgpass file to avoid regularly having to type in passwords. See Section 27.12 for more information.
If the connection could not be made for any reason (e.g., insufficient privileges, server is not running on the targeted host, etc.), psql will return an error and terminate.
In normal operation, psql provides a prompt with the name of the database to which psql is currently connected, followed by the string =>. For example,
$ psql testdb Welcome to psql 8.0.26, the PostgreSQL interactive terminal. Type: \copyright for distribution terms \h for help with SQL commands \? for help with psql commands \g or terminate with semicolon to execute query \q to quit testdb=>
At the prompt, the user may type in SQL commands. Ordinarily, input lines are sent to the server when a command-terminating semicolon is reached. An end of line does not terminate a command. Thus commands can be spread over several lines for clarity. If the command was sent and executed without error, the results of the command are displayed on the screen.
Anything you enter in psql that begins with an unquoted backslash is a psql meta-command that is processed by psql itself. These commands help make psql more useful for administration or scripting. Meta-commands are more commonly called slash or backslash commands.
The format of a psql command is the backslash, followed immediately by a command verb, then


text:
Presentation on theme: "Dynamic Programming In this handout A shortest path example Deterministic Dynamic Programming Inventory example Resource allocation example."— Presentation transcript:
Dynamic Programming In this handout A shortest path example Deterministic Dynamic Programming Inventory example Resource allocation example
Dynamic Programming Dynamic programming is a widely-used mathematical technique for solving problems that can be divided into stages and where decisions are required in each stage. The goal of dynamic programming is to find a combination of decisions that optimizes a certain amount associated with a system.
A typical example: Shortest Path Ben plans to drive from NY to LA Has friends in several cities After 1 day's driving can reach Columbus, Nashville, or Louisville After 2 days of driving can reach Kansas City, Omaha, or Dallas After 3 days of driving can reach Denver or San Antonio After 4 days of driving can reach Los Angeles The actual mileages between cities are given in the figure (next slide) Where should Ben spend each night of the trip to minimize the number of miles traveled?
Shortest Path: network figure New York 1 New York 1 Columbus 2 Columbus 2 Kansas City 5 Kansas City 5 Denver 8 Denver 8 Los Angeles 10 Los Angeles 10 Omaha 6 Omaha 6 Dallas 7 Dallas 7 Nashville 3 Nashville 3 Louisville 4 Louisville 4 San Antonio 9 San Antonio 9 Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3 Stage 4 Stage
Shortest Path problem: Solution The problem is solved recursively by working backward in the network Let c ij be the mileage between cities i and j Let f t (i) be the length of the shortest path from city i to LA (city i is in stage t) Stage 4 computations are obvious: f 4 (8) = 1030 f 4 (9) = 1390
Stage 3 computations Work backward one stage (to stage 3 cities) and find the shortest path to LA from each stage 3 city. To determine f 3 (5), note that the shortest path from city 5 to LA must be one of the following: Path 1: Go from city 5 to city 8 and then take the shortest path from city 8 to city 10. Path 2: Go from city 5 to city 9 and then take the shortest path from city 9 to city 10. Similarly,
Stage 2 computations Work backward one stage (to stage 2 cities) and find the shortest path to LA from each stage 2 city.
Stage 1 computations Now we can find f 1 (1), and the shortest path from NY to LA. Checking back our calculations, the shortest path is 1 – 2 – 5 – 8 – 10 that is, NY – Columbus – Kansas City – Denver – LA with total mileage 2870.
General characteristics of Dynamic Programming The problem structure is divided into stages Each stage has a number of states associated with it Making decisions at one stage transforms one state of the current stage into a state in the next stage. Given the current state, the optimal decision for each of the remaining states does not depend on the previous states or decisions. This is known as the principle of optimality for dynamic programming. The principle of optimality allows to solve the problem stage by stage recursively.
Division into stages The problem is divided into smaller subproblems each of them represented by a stage. The stages are defined in many different ways depending on the context of the problem. If the problem is about long-time development of a system then the stages naturally correspond to time periods. If the goal of the problem is to move some objects from one location to another on a map then partitioning the map into several geographical regions might be the natural division into stages. Generally, if an accomplishment of a certain task can be considered as a multi-step process then each stage can be defined as a step in the process.
States Each stage has a number of states associated with it. Depending what decisions are made in one stage, the system might end up in different states in the next stage. If a geographical region corresponds to a stage then the states associated with it could be some particular locations (cities, warehouses, etc.) in that region. In other situations a state might correspond to amounts of certain resources which are essential for optimizing the system.
Decisions Making decisions at one stage transforms one state of the current stage into a state in the next stage. In a geographical example, it could be a decision to go from one city to another. In resource allocation problems, it might be a decision to create or spend a certain amount of a resource. For example, in the shortest path problem three different decisions are possible to make at the state corresponding to Columbus; these decisions correspond to the three arrows going from Columbus to the three states (cities) of the next stage: Kansas City, Omaha, and Dallas.
Optimal Policy and Principle of Optimality The goal of the solution procedure is to find an optimal policy for the overall problem, i.e., an optimal policy decision at each stage for each of the possible states. Given the current state, the optimal decision for each of the remaining states does not depend on the previous states or decisions. This is known as the principle of optimality for dynamic programming. For example, in the geographical setting the principle works as follows: the optimal route from a current city to the final destination does not depend on the way we got to the city. A system can be formulated as a dynamic programming problem only if the principle of optimality holds for it.
Recursive solution to the problem The principle of optimality allows to solve the problem stage by stage recursively. The solution procedure first finds the optimal policy for the last stage. The solution for the last stage is normally trivial. Then a recursive relationship is established which identifies the optimal policy for stage t, given that stage t+1 has already been solved. When the recursive relationship is used, the solution procedure starts at the end and moves backward stage by stage until it finds the optimal policy starting at the initial stage.
Solving Inventory Problems by DP Main characteristics: 1.Time is broken up into periods. The demands for all periods are known in advance. 2.At the beginning of each period, the firm must determine how many units should be produced. 3.Production and storage capacities are limited. 4.Each period's demand must be met on time from inventory or current production. 5.During any period in which production takes place, a fixed cost of production as well as a variable perunit cost is incurred. 6.The firm's goal is to minimize the total cost of meeting on time the demands.
Inventory Problems: Example Producing airplanes 3 production periods No inventory at the beginning Can produce at most 3 airplanes in each period Can keep at most 2 airplanes in inventory Set-up cost for each period is 10 Determine a production schedule to minimize the total cost (the DP solution on the board). Period123 Demand121 Unit cost354
Resource Allocation Problems Limited resources must be allocated to different activities Each activity has a benefit value which is variable and depends on the amount of the resource assigned to the activity The goal is to determine how to allocate the resources to the activities such that the total benefit is maximized
Resource Allocation Problems: Example A college student has 6 days remaining before final exams begin in his 4 courses He wants allocate the study time as effectively as possible Needs at least 1 day for each course and wants to concentrate on just one course each day. So 1, 2, or 3 days should be allocated to each course He estimates that the alternative allocations for each course would yield the number of grade points shown in the following table: How many days should be allocated to each course? (The DP solution on the board). Courses Days


Phone Number Regulatory FAQ - Twilio
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Phone Number Regulatory FAQ
To use phone numbers compliantly in many countries of the world, both Twilio and our customers must adhere to the local country regulations. Doing so often means that we must provide adequate identity documentation to the local regulator or carrier. If they don't provide this information, there is a high risk the local regulators or carriers will disconnect the phone number.
This list of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) will provide more details about regulations, what you need to do to stay compliant, and why.
FAQ Table of Contents:
General Phone Number Regulatory FAQ
Q: How are phone number regulations changing and why?
A: Many countries around the world have recently been increasing their scrutiny of how their phone numbers are used. This increased scrutiny is driven by various factors, including increased incidents of misuse and abuse of phone numbers, heightened national security concerns, and increased pressure on the supply of numbers.
As a result, various countries are updating their regulations or placing greater emphasis on the enforcement of existing regulations, including those requiring validation of who is actually using the phone number and exactly where that individual or business is located. In short, the intent of these regulations is to verify who is using the number and where they are.
Twilio, our customers, end users, and providers each have a role and a collective obligation to ensure numbers are assigned and used in a manner consistent with the intent of the regulations in the relevant country.
Q: Is this enforcement only impacting Twilio customers? Is it because there's spam and abuse on your platform?
A: No. Twilio does not permit spam or abuse on our platform. Regulatory requirements are due to worldwide enforcement of existing and new regulations as nations seek to have better control over their national communications infrastructures. All communications companies, including Twilio, are subject to these regulations, and providers and end customers ignore such requirements at their peril. End-user phone numbers that do not comply are at risk of being disconnected due to national regulatory action without notice regardless of provider, a gamble to which Twilio does not subject its customers or itself.
Q: Other providers do not require address and identity information for my phone numbers. Why does Twilio?
A: Many countries around the world have recently been increasing their scrutiny of how their phone numbers are used. We strongly believe all providers are being asked—or soon will be asked—to provide the same information Twilio requires. In every country, the regulations apply equally to all phone number providers. Twilio is in no way being singled out.
Q: Which countries are affected? What are the exact requirements?
A: To help you comply with these regulations and minimize the risk of disruption to your phone numbers, Twilio maintains an up-to-date country-by-country guide of phone number regulatory requirements. We urge our customers to provide the necessary information for each country to help ensure their service isn't interrupted or disconnected.
To understand these regulations, it's helpful to keep in mind the objective: Regulators want to know who is using the phone number and where they are located. It is therefore understandable that the regulations focus on the end user, the party actually using the phone number in question to make or receive calls. It also makes sense that regulators want the end user's name, address, proof of address, and/or an identity document, and that all the documents must match. For example, the name on a utility bill submitted as proof of address must exactly match the name on the submitted passport. In some instances, a local address is required, as indicated by country.
Q: I've been told to "map" my phone numbers to addresses and identity documents. What does this mean, and how do I do it?
A: Phone numbers with regulatory requirements need to have certain information or documents associated with them, which is what we call "mapping". It lets us know which phone numbers go with which addresses and identity documents. You can find instructions on how to map a phone number to an address and document here.
Q: Can I reuse documents I've uploaded in Console for previous Regulatory Bundles or do I need to upload them again?
A: Yes, you can utilize identity and supporting documentation that you've already uploaded to create a new Regulatory Bundle. While creating a Regulatory Bundle, look for the option to Select existing individual/business information, eligible options will be presented in a table, choose the desired option and click Select & Save. The same is true for the supporting documentation, when adding supporting documentation, you can click the Select existing supporting document option, and choose the desired document from the table. Please note only documents that meet the regulatory requirements will be presented.
Q: Can I delete Regulatory Bundles?
A: You can delete Regulatory Bundles in Draft status. Please note, deleting a Regulatory Bundle will unassign any Supporting Documents and End-Users you have assigned to the draft Regulatory Bundle. These objects will not be deleted.
Q: Can I delete Supporting Documents?
A: Yes, you can delete Supporting Documents in Draft and Rejected statuses. You will not be able to delete a Supporting Document that is assigned to a Regulatory Bundle. When deleting a Supporting Document, note that Twilio retains data associated with the Supporting Document for legal, anti-fraud, or security purposes in accordance with applicable law. For more information, please visit our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy sections.
Q: Can I delete End-Users?
Yes, you can delete End-Users that are not assigned to Regulatory Bundles. When deleting an End-User, note that Twilio retains data associated with the End-User for legal, anti-fraud, or security purposes in accordance with applicable law. For more information, please visit our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy sections.
Q: How long does it take Twilio to verify documents that have been submitted?
A: We do our best to verify documents submitted within 24 business hours.
Q: What is Twilio doing to make regulatory compliance easier for me?
A: We are investing heavily in automated systems to make compliance easier. We have brought a number of these systems online already and you'll see many improvements in the coming months that will make the process easier and faster. These systems will include intelligently determining and presenting regulatory requirements for each number-set up front, a new user experience, and improved APIs to help guide you through the processes required.
Q: How is Twilio handling privacy?
A: Twilio takes privacy very seriously. Twilio must collect the data requested and we have legitimate interests for doing so, including regulatory obligations and fraud and abuse prevention. Accordingly, the collection of this data is lawful under privacy law. Although we must collect the data, we remain conscious that the data being collected is sensitive and we must treat it accordingly. The data is subject to the requirements of our Binding Corporate Rules - Controller Policy, which provides for application of a GDPR-level of data protection regardless of where the data originates globally. And pursuant to our internal data protection risk impact assessment, the data is subject to more stringent handling requirements commensurate to the sensitivity level. Among other things, these requirements include limiting access to the data to only those staff members who must see it to perform their job functions, conducting privacy and security training with these staff members prior to permitting them to handle the data, and ensuring all data is stored securely.
Q: Where can I find the regulations underpinning Twilio's requirements page?
A: Our requirements are a synthesis of multiple sources and therefore generally cannot be found verbatim in the local regulations. The sources we use are primarily the text of the regulations, direct conversations with regulators, the judgment and interpretation of Twilio's legal counsel, industry best practices, the standards of telephone carriers, and our experience in handling requests by government and law enforcement agencies.
Q: I need to retain my phone number in a country but do not meet the requirements. What should I do?
A: If you cannot meet the requirements for a specific phone number type in a given country, we recommend you look at a different number type for that country. Countries often have multiple phone number types (for example, national vs. local), and different phone number types are set up for different uses and have different requirements. It may be that you are using a current phone number type that isn't appropriate for your situation; for example, local numbers are often meant for people with physical addresses in a specific region of a country. However, there is often another number type in the same country that is well suited to your situation. If that approach doesn't work, then you may have to use a phone number in another country where you meet the requirements. Please email your account rep or _EMAIL_ for assistance, if you cannot find a solution.
Q: I need to retain my current phone numbers in a country where I don't meet the regulatory requirements for any of the phone number types. I've tried everything you've outlined and there is no acceptable alternative. What do I do? What is Twilio doing to help me?
A: We recognize that this is an exceedingly difficult situation for our customers. We want to assure you that we'll allow you to use your current phone numbers for as long as we reasonably can. We will only disconnect your phone numbers if there is no other legal option available.
We are also committed to helping you find a solution in the following ways:
 - We are actively working to enable new number types in some countries.
 - As the opportunities arise, we will advocate for changes to these regulations. We fundamentally believe that every country should offer a phone number type accessible to any international business that provides valuable services to the citizens of that country. We are, however, realistic about timelines. We recognize that the passage of new regulations may take time, and as a result, this approach is likely a longer-term solution.
 - We are working on possible solutions that would make


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- Lift up the coil overhead and examine the interior with a flashlight. Determine if it has a single mark per wrap or just a few marks and determine if the marks appear in a regular line on the inside of the coil. If you have random and frequent marks, this is a sign of marks caused by metal pickup. I will address this problem later.
- If you have marks that are more or less inline inside the coil, there should be a discernible cause for the marks on the block. If there are four equidistant marks than it is obvious that it is the slots that are causing the marks. If the edge of the slots are not rounded with an approximately 1/8" to 3/16" radius, rounding the edges might eliminate the problem. If the slots are rounded and there are still four equidistant marks than it is an over drafting situation which has only two solutions. Draw the wire in two passes or draw it on a larger block to diminish the effect of the overdraft.
- If you have one or two marks that are not in line with the slots than we have to look elsewhere. Draw a few wraps and carefully unwrap the coils to determine where and when the marks appear. If the marks do not appear keep drawing wraps until they do and try and find the source of the marks. Match up the marks as you unwrap the coils with any possible causes. Look for a raised edge on the face due to gripper or chain damage or a defective coating, a raised edge on a post, raised edge on a "come along hole" or gripper pocket, and possibly a sharp edge at the top of the block which should have been rounded with a belt sander same as the slots. If the marks are in the first wrap possibly the die box needs to be adjusted so the wire enters at the draw line and parallel to the floor (a level placed on the drawn wire can determine if an adjustment is necessary).
- In the case of metal pickup which is similar to welding splatter on the face of the block, the problem gets progressively worse. There can be a few different causes for metal pickup, but basically the drawn wire is being ripped apart and sticking to the face of the block. It then builds on itself, causing more wire to be ripped apart and adhere to the block. In order to solve this problem all pickup has to be removed from the block which is most efficiently done by grinding.
- Not enough lubricant. This usually occurs by trying to produce a plating quality wire by minimizing a dry soap as opposed to using grease.
- Taper needs to be adjusted because the wire is too tight.
- Splintery rod
- A sharp edge on the face of the block is shaving the wire, and then the wraps adhere to the block and start the metal pickup.


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In her extensively researched exploration of China in British children's literature, Shih-Wen Chen provides a sustained critique of the reductive dichotomies that have limited insight into the cultural and educative role these fictions played in disseminating ideas and knowledge about China. Chen considers a range of different genres and types of publication--travelogue storybooks, historical novels, adventure stories, and periodicals--to demonstrate the diversity of images of China in the Victorian and Edwardian imagination. Turning a critical eye on popular and prolific writers such as Anne Bowman, William Dalton, Edwin Harcourt Burrage, Bessie Marchant, G.A. Henty, and Charles Gilson, Chen shows how Sino-British relations were influential in the representation of China in children's literature, challenges the notion that nineteenth-century children's literature simply parroted the dominant ideologies of the age, and offers insights into how attitudes towards children's relationship with knowledge changed over the course of the century.
Her book provides a fresh context for understanding how China was constructed in the period from 1851 to 1911 and sheds light on British cultural history and the history and uses of children's literature.


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Minority Business Owners—did you know that the State of Maryland has a program aimed at strengthening and preserving the state's 200,000 minority and women-owned businesses?A Minority Owned Business Enterprise (MBE) is defined as a business that is at least 51% owned, managed, and controlled by a minority person(s) as defined by state and federal laws. This includes members of socially or economically disadvantaged minority groups, such as African Americans, Asian Americans, Hispanic Americans, Native Americans, women, and physically or mentally disabled individuals. Under state law, MBEs also include not-for-profit entities organized to promote the interests of physically or mentally disabled individuals.
Useful web links are listed below.
Governor's Office of Minority AffairsMinority Business Enterprise (MBE) InformationMDOT Certification – MBE/DBE