object, define the connection string, and open the Connection object. However, I then define the command text and assign it to the ctContacts variable, but I do not create a Command object. If your commands don't require Parameter objects (which I describe later in the article) or special property settings, you often don't need to create a Command object. For instance, if you simply want to retrieve a list of contacts from the database and you don't need to pass any parameter values (such as a contact ID) into your SQL statement, you can simply define the command text and not bother creating a Command object.
After I define the command text, I create the Recordset object. When I open the object, I pass two arguments. The first argument is the command text (the ctContacts variable), and the second argument is the Connection object (the conSqlServer variable). After you open the Recordset object, you can access its properties and methods just as you saw in the previous examples.
You can also create a Recordset object without creating Connection or Command objects. Listing 6 shows an example of how this works. In this script, I first define the connection string and assign it to the csSqlServer variable. Next, I define the command text and assign it to the ctContacts variable. After this, I create the Recordset object and use the object's Open method, passing the two variables as arguments to the method—first the connection text and then the connection string. As you can see, this approach is even simpler than the previous approach, and it works well if you plan to include only a single recordset. For example, if you want to retrieve a list of contacts only once and you need to connect to the database only once, then you probably don't need to create a Connection object or Command object. However, if you have multiple recordsets maintaining multiple connections, you should first create the Connection and Command objects.
The Field Object
The examples I've shown you so far have all used the Recordset object's Save method to save the returned data to an.xml file. However, in all likelihood, you'll want to dig a lot deeper into the data than I've done. That's where the Field object comes in.
As you'll recall from Figure 1, the Recordset object includes the Fields collection. This collection is made up of one or more Field objects that each represent a field returned by the command text. For example, if your command text returns data from the FirstName, MiddleName, and LastName columns of the Person.Contact table in the AdventureWorks database, your Recordset object will include three Field objects, one for each of those columns.
Listing 7 provides an example of how you can use the Fields collection to access the Field objects. After I create the Recordset object, I create a FileSystemObject object and a text file to hold my data. I then use a Do Until statement to create a loop. I plan to loop through the result set and insert the data into the text file. The Do Until statement first uses the Recordset object's EOF property to specify when to end the loop. When the loop reaches the end of the result set, it will stop.
Within the loop, I concatenate two Field objects: FirstName and LastName. To retrieve a value for a field, I call the Fields collection (rsContacts.Fields) and specify the name of the first field (FirstName) in parentheses. I follow this with the Value property so I can retrieve the specific value. I do the same thing for the LastName field and concatenate the two values.
After the concatenation, I use the Recordset object's MoveNext method to retrieve the next row in the result set. As a result, for each row, the first and last name will be concatenated and written to the text file.
This, of course, is a simple example of how to access the Field object, but it does demonstrate the basic concepts behind using Field objects and gives you a better sense of the crucial role that the Recordset object plays in ADO. Now let's take a look at another important ADO object—Parameter.
The Parameter Object
The Parameter object is similar to the Field object in that it's part of a collection included in another object. In this case, the Command object contains the Parameters collection, which is made up of one or more Parameter objects. Each Parameter object contains a parameter that you can use for stored procedures and parameterized queries.
Parameters are particularly important when you want to modify data in your data source. Listing 8 shows an example of passing parameter values to a stored procedure that updates a SQL Server table. For the purpose of this example, I created the HumanResources.Vacation table in the AdventureWorks database. Along with the table, I created the UpdateVacationHours stored procedure to update an employee's vacation hours. I used the following T-SQL statements to create the table and the stored procedure:
SELECT e.EmployeeID, c.FirstName, c.MiddleName, c.LastName, e.VacationHours
 INTO HumanResources.Vacation
 FROM Person.Contact c
 INNER JOIN HumanResources.Employee e
 ON c.ContactID = e.ContactID
CREATE PROCEDURE UpdateVacationHours (_USER_ INT, _USER_ INT) AS
 UPDATE HumanResources.Vacation
 SET VacationHours = VacationHours - _USER_
 WHERE EmployeeID = _USER_
Returning to Listing 8, you can see that I first create and open a Connection object, and then I create a Command object. After I create the Command object (which I assign to the cmdVacation variable), I set several properties and create the necessary parameters. First, as you saw in earlier examples, I assign the Connection object to the ActiveConnection property. I then define the CommandText property, which in this case is the name of the stored procedure. Next I set the CommandType property to the adCmdStoredProc constant (which equals 4). As the name indicates, the command type is a stored procedure.
The next step is to add Parameter objects to the Parameters collection. To do this, I use the collection's Append method. The argument that I pass to this method is the Command object's CreateParameter method. The CreateParameter method takes two arguments: the name of the parameter and the adInteger constant (which equals 3). The constant specifies that the parameter should be an integer. For this example, the first parameter is _USER_ and the second is _USER_.
That's all you need to do to create the parameters. However, notice that I also assign initial values to them. To do this, I call the Parameters collection, specify the name of the parameter, and assign it a value of 1. This provides a default value for the parameters, and it allows me to easily test the code.
After I define the parameters, I can execute the command. However, because I'm updating records and not returning a result set, I don't create a Recordset object as I did in earlier examples. Instead, I use the Command object's Execute method (cmdVacation.Execute) to run the stored procedure. As arguments to the method, I first specify the RowsUpdated variable. This will hold the number of records updated when the stored procedure runs. The second argument, which is blank, can hold a Variant array of parameter values, an alternative method for passing parameters to a command. The third argument is the adExecuteNoRecords constant. Including this argument is important because, by default, the Execute method returns a Recordset object when it runs. However, because you don't need this object, you should specify this constant to avoid the additional overhead.
When you run the script, it will call the stored procedure and return the number of rows affected by the update. Not surprisingly, numerous approaches are available for modifying data. For example, you can define command text that uses an EXECUTE statement to call the stored procedure, then pass in the parameter values through variables. Or you can define command text that uses an UPDATE statement rather than calling a stored procedure. ADO also lets you use methods in the Recordset object to update field data, which can then be persisted to the database.
A Place to Start
Although the examples I provided barely skim the surface of ADO, they should provide you with a good foundation to begin working with ADO. Once you understand how to implement the basic components of ADO in your script, you can start digging deeper into each object and try out the various ways to access a data source and work with the data. Again, refer to the MSDN Web site as necessary for details about the objects' properties and methods. And when you're ready, start playing with other ADO objects and see what you can come up with.


text:
Category: Pond Plants
The Red Scarf lotus is a tea cup lotus plant that is very smaller in size compared to the typical hardy lotus plant. This plant has hardy zones of four or higher or less than four with winter protections. The plant has crimson blooms that are reddish pink in color with white centers. Its petals are narrow and located next to the pod giving it a unique look. The flowers open in the mid morning and close in the mid afternoon. Individual flowers can last for three days before their petals can fall.
Newly planted Red Scarf lotus do not always flower during their first year. Full flowering can occur during the early summer season with sunny and warm conditions. The plant can grow up to six inches across, with its leaves growing to ten to twelve inches wide. The Red Scarf lotus plant as a free flowering plant, also produces blooms during its first seasons. It has round bluish green leaves that float on waters. It can grow up to three to four feet tall. This plant can establish well in medium to large ponds.
The unique Red Scarf lotus can performs well when planted in a small to medium sized pond..It can do well in a container since it can be well establish with or without a pond. The plant can be planted in a huge container with a capacity of at least two gallons container. It can do well when planted in a no-hole container. It is considered a true bowl lotus as it can do so well in containers.
The Red Scarf lotus plant can look great in garden beds due to its cupped shaped blossoms in addition to the uniqueness in the flower colors. It is a hardy plant which can tolerate sunny and warm conditions. However, for the plant to establish well, it requires full sun. This type of plant, when planted in a container, can fail to establish if the soil in the container is not well drained. It is important to note that this plant can fail to re-grow if it is placed in cold water as it can return into dormant state.

source: openbmb/Ultra-FineWeb


Avantor Healthcare
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Cleaning Systems
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Biosafety cabinets help protect both users and the surrounding environment when hazardous products are being used. Avantor offers biosafety cabinets that provide clean air in Class I, Class II or Class III controlled environments.
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What's the difference between viral shedding and reinfection with COVID-19?
30 Nov 2020
Over recent weeks and months, we've heard of several COVID cases in which people have tested positive after previously clearing the virus.
Scientists are hopeful being infected with COVID-19 confers immunity for a length of time. But some of these instances have raised concerns about reinfection. Although rare, it seems to be possible.
The other thing which could be at play in many of these cases is "prolonged viral shedding".
Both phenomena are probably more common than we realise. But it's important to understand the differences between the two.
What is viral shedding?
When you're sick with a virus, the cells in your body hosting the infection release infectious virus particles, which you then shed into the environment. This process is called viral shedding.
For SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, shedding primarily occurs when we talk, cough, sneeze, or even exhale. SARS-CoV-2 can be shed in a person's stool, too.
Shedding can continue for several weeks after a person's symptoms have resolved — there's no standard time frame.
Research has identified shedding of infectious SARS-CoV-2 virus particles from up to eight days after symptom onset in hospitalised patients, to up to 70 days after diagnosis in an immunocompromised person.
People begin shedding SARS-CoV-2 before they develop symptoms.Shutterstock
Not all shedding is equal
In the above cases, the viral particles being shed are infectious, which is what we as virologists consider viral shedding to mean. But during COVID-19, the definition of shedding has been broadened to include the shedding of viral genetic material (RNA).
Although RNA constitutes fragments of the virus, these aren't necessarily infectious fragments.
Studies measuring the shedding of viral genetic material from the respiratory tract have reportedshedding typically lasts around 17 days.
Shedding of SARS-CoV-2 genetic material can persist for more than 80 days in the upper respiratory tract, and over 120 days in the stool.
Where people have recovered and then later test positive again — or return a "weak positive" result — the test has picked up viral genetic material. We don't know whether the virus is infectious at this point.
Read more: A man in Hong Kong caught COVID-19 a second time. Here's why that's not surprising (and there's no need to panic)
So, how can you tell?
Currently there's no simple way to determine whether a person is shedding infectious virus, or how much.
The "gold standard" method used to diagnose COVID-19 is the PCR test. PCR tests detect viral genetic material (RNA in the case of SARS-CoV-2) from a patient's swabbed samples.
But they can't determine whether the virus is alive or dead, or, in other words, if the virus is infectious.
The level of infectious SARS-CoV-2 can only be determined using infectivity methods (called assays). These are common in research laboratories, but are not used as diagnostic tests.
Read more: How long are you infectious when you have coronavirus?
Why do some people shed for longer?
There's no evidence to suggest people who shed SARS-CoV-2 genetic material for a long time in their faeces have been sicker with COVID-19. Though some research has found prolonged shedding in the respiratory tract can be linked to more severe disease.
We don't fully understand the factors that make a person a "long shedder", but research into this is ongoing. Certain groups have been associated with prolonged SARS-CoV-2 shedding, including males, children, older adults, and people with compromised immune systems.
There's also speculation factors such as the amount of SARS-CoV-2 which caused the infection (the viral dose), and possibly the viral strain, may play a role.
In the absence of targeted antiviral drugs, shedding can't be stopped. But, by sticking to COVID-safe guidelines such as keeping an adequate distance from others, wearing a face mask, and practising hand hygiene, we can minimise the risks from a person unknowingly shedding infectious virus.
Following COVID-safe measures can protect against viral shedding.Shutterstock
Long viral shedding versus reinfection
Reports of reinfection — in the sense of a new infection, rather than prolonged or intermittent shedding of the same one — have been limited to date. One source collating confirmed reinfection cases indicates there have been just 26 worldwide.
Evidence we have from other coronaviruses suggests the risk of reinfection may be lower in the first 90 days after initial infection.
Some studies on COVID-19, both published and not yet formally published in a peer-reviewed journal, suggest immunity may last for several months. But we need more evidence on this topic, which we will accumulate as time passes.
Where a person does test positive several weeks or months after they've recovered, the difficulty is confirming reinfection. That's because this requires genetic testing of both infections to determine whether they are in fact different.
Given this is time consuming and the technology isn't widely accessible, it's highly likely there are more than 26 cases of reinfection around the world.
Read more: New research suggests immunity to COVID is better than we first thought
Shedding, reinfection and community spread
While the virus appears to be under good control in Australia, prolonged viral shedding and reinfection are probably two of the most important drivers of SARS-CoV-2 community transmission around the world.
Understanding how and for how long people can shed SARS-CoV-2, and which factors increase the risk of viral shedding or reinfection, can help us to improve surveillance and reduce the rate at which the virus spreads.
Read the full article here.
Covid-19 – Johns Hopkins University
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text:
Ethiopia -- Habitat for Humanity Int'l 1
The Housing Need
This shack made of scrap metal and wood in Addis Ababa, is typical of the housing need in Ethiopia.
Habitat for Humanity Ethiopia houses in Debre Berhan affiliate.
Ethiopia is probably best known for its regular bouts of drought and famine and conflict with neighboring Eritrea. Political turmoil and internal fighting have added to the lethal combination of factors that caused millions to starve to death during the 1970's and '80's.
Even now, Ethiopia is one of the ten poorest nations in the world. Over half of the population is illiterate. In spite of its arid climate, the economy relies heavily on agriculture and the country is one of Africa's leading coffee producers. However, many Ethiopians still depend on food aid.
Almost 85% of the houses in Ethiopia are made of mud and stick or thatch walls, which collapse easily. Homes are often cramped, with dirt floors, leaking roofs and no windows or doors, leaving their occupants vulnerable to adverse weather conditions, insects and rodents. Poor ventilation for inside cooking fires is a common cause of respiratory problems. Moreover, a staggering 90% of the population has no access to decent sanitation facilities, and 73% of the population does not have safe drinking water, causing disease to run rampant.
Substandard housing not only has an adverse effect on health, but also on education, job performance and overall quality of life. Most families living in such conditions have little chance of improving their situations without assistance and life is a daily battle for most.
Habitat for Humanity Ethiopia (HFHE)
Habitat for Humanity Ethiopia (HFHE) began construction in 1993 and has since expanded to build houses in 11 communities. Most houses are in urban and semi-urban areas, within a 250 mile radius of the capital city, Addis Ababa. HFHE has attempted to integrate its operations with those of community-based organizations, in order to be more effective in its work.
HFHE's houses vary from 22 to 36 square meters in size and are built from a number of different materials, including stabilized earth blocks, hollow concrete blocks and fired bricks. HFHE also constructs improved traditional style 'chika' houses, which are built mostly of wood, soil, sand and stone. These are very popular because they are the most affordable and are quick and easy to build. All houses have a latrine in a separate block and are built in such a manner that families can add further rooms in the future.
In one initiative in its Dessie affiliate, HFHE has focused its assistance on a particularly disadvantaged and marginalized group; ex-leprosy patients. Several former patients and their families have been integrated into a 'Habitat Village'.
This ongoing project has not only provided decent housing to many people, but it has also opened up income-generating and other opportunities for many in these communities.
Real Life Story
Halima Ali (33), her husband, Shikuri Musa (45) and their children Rahmet Shikuri (9) and Ebrhaim Shikuri (14) used to live in a one-roomed house with no foundations, no windows, a dirt floor and a leaking roof. The place was far too small for the family and had no toilet – they had to use the field. They could not afford anything better on Shikuri's limited income as a horse cart driver.
When asked why they wanted to apply for a Habitat for Humanity house, Halima said: "Most of all, we wanted a toilet. My family is usually sick due to the poor sanitation situation. We are fed up with using the field. The new house is much cleaner and bigger than where we were living before and it has its own toilet! It also has two rooms and its own compound. My previous house was so unhealthy and difficult to live in. The current one is far better. It is not even possible to compare the two.
"Moving to a Habitat for Humanity house has encouraged us to save to improve our circumstances. We also believe now that we can improve our lives by working hard. The impact of this house on our lives is so crucial. We can do nothing to show our gratitude except thank God."
Location: Northeast Africa
Population: 73.8 million
Climate: Tropical monsoons with topographic variations
Economy: Industries include food processing, beverages, textiles, chemicals, metal processing, cement, coffee, beeswax and sugarcane
Government: Federal republic
Religions: Christianity, Islam
Languages: Amharic, Tigrinya, Oromo, Guaragigna, Somali, Arabic, other local languages, English

source: HuggingFaceFW/fineweb-edu


text:
Detective Thomas.Situation puzzles (sometimes called lateral thinking puzzles) are ones where you need to ask lots of yes or no questions to figure out what happened in the situation. These are good puzzles for groups where one person knows the puzzle and answers the questions.
Detective Thomas was called to a crime scene late at night for investigating a murder of a woman.The area was a gloomy area with no lights.The witness was the neighbor of the woman who said he had seen the murder take place with the help of the light of the full moon.
Even though he could clearly see the full moon, Detective Thomas knew that the witness was lying. How?
AnswerDetective Thomas found it out because the murder took place during a lunar eclipse, and there was total darkness. A lunar eclipse takes place during a full moon day and the maximum time a lunar eclipse can last is 3 hours and 40 minutes.
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On Meritocracy
Reihan qualifies the term:
I'm perfectly happy to concede that the idea of meritocracy is "largely mythical," not least because, like all good Hayekians, I'm skeptical of the idea that we can construct a coherent metric for merit or desert; this is part of the case for decentralized markets: it reflects the pluralism of highly complex societies. The argument for decentralized markets is in large part a negative argument: while we can imagine a wide array of schemes for assigning a coherent metric for merit or desert, it is far harder to imagine a scheme that wouldn't unravel under the real-world pressures of evolving tastes, values, and perceived social needs.


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Implementing a memory efficient search tree for a wordlist
, 19 Aug 2005
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This article describes a method of storing a wordlist into a compressed form while providing a relatively quick word lookup functionality.
This article describes a method of storing a wordlist (all the words listed in a dictionary, but without their definitions) into a compressed form while providing a relatively quick word lookup functionality.
Motivation and background
At some point in time, I was implementing a word game on an embedded platform that required players to create valid words out of letters for whom they would get points. The way the game was going required couple of word lookups every second. It was necessary to have some kind of dictionary for validating the words, and we had both size and speed limitations.
The wordlist we started with (and we changed a little later) was about 1 MB in size. While on modern computers that would seem very small, on an embedded platform (as in our case) that was quite a lot.
Few details about the platform we were using: the available memory was a little less than 8 MB, the CPU was not very fast, and moreover it had to take care of a lot of other tasks (graphics, sound and more); all that meaning the lookup routine had to be quite fast. No multilingual support was needed as the game only had an English version.
At the application level, the platform was running a virtual machine that was based on LUA. The LUA language has the concept of tables, which can be used as associative arrays (internally implemented using hash tables), and that seemed at the time as a very appropriate way to implement the wordlist. Using the LUA tables, with the words as key, the lookup function would be really simple, something like:
function Lookup(w)
 if wordlist[w] == nil then
 return false
 return true;
Preliminary tests with a reduced wordlist showed that the lookup speed was indeed fast, and the byte-code representation of the table was about the 1.5 to two times bigger than the size of the wordlist itself.
However, when the almost complete wordlist was used and the program was running, it showed up that a 1 MB table would eat up about 8 MB of memory, that being actually almost the whole memory the system had available. Clearly, there was a problem, and some solution had to be found.
First, some understanding of where the memory was going was required. After some research, it became clear that the problem was because of the memory allocator used by the system and also because of the actual way the tables were implemented in LUA.
First, the memory allocator, was rounding up each allocated block to a size multiple of 4 and it was using two extra pointers internally to manage the memory block (that would be another 8 bytes). So a four letter word would end up using 16 bytes (4 bytes for the letters, 1 byte for the terminating null character, 3 bytes for padding and 8 bytes to hold the allocator's internal pointers). That alone would grow up the memory usage about 4 times in average.
Second, the VM table implementation was done using hash tables, and hash tables inherently waste memory, which in combination with the memory allocator problem resulted in the practical impossibility of using this approach in our situation.
At that time, a decision (primarily due to linguistic reasons) was made to reduce the wordlist, and the new wordlist went to about 600 KB in size – however the problem with the memory usage still remained as the game needed most of the memory of the system to store graphic textures.
The first idea was to put all words each after another in the memory and do a linear search through the list that somehow solved the memory problem but completely ignored the speed aspect of the problem. The search speed was of course horrible, so I started splitting up the list first in 26 lists, each of them containing words starting with the same letter. While that definitely speed up the search, it was still slow, so I started adding a second index, for the second letter in the word, now having 26*26 = 676 tables. That added another speedup, but was still not enough. Soon I realized that a lot of words have a common prefix, or even more, sometimes they only have just 1 or two letters different at the end (words like buzz, buzzed, buzzer, buzzers, buzzes, buzzing). That made me think that a tree structure would be more appropriate for me, so I started implementing one.
A first implementation (search tree)
Consider the following words : abc, abd, abcd, abcde, abcdf, abcdfa, abcdfb, abcdfc.
They can be represented as a tree in the following manner:
When traversing the tree from root downwards, and selecting only one letter per level, words will be formed, and the round characters will mark the end of a valid word.
Notice that the common suffix (abc for example) is actually stored only once, and it's reused for all the words that it forms.
The tree can be implemented (in C++) this way:
struct Node
 char ch;
 bool b_fullword;
 Node * next;
 Node * down;
To add a word to the tree we'll do something like:
Node * d = root;
char * s = lookup_word;
while (! b_done)
 // look horizontally
 while ( ( d->ch!= *s ) && (d->next!= NULL) )
 d = d->next;
 // we verify if we found the letter
 if ( d->ch!= *s )
 // letter not found, we start adding it
 d->next = CreateNode();
 d->next->ch = *s;
 d = d->next;
 AddDown(d, s);
 b_done = 1;
 // letter found, go to next letter
 if (*s == 0)
 // it was the last letter
 d->b_fullword = 1;
 b_done = 1;
 // there are still letters in the word
 if (d->down)
 d = d->down;
 AddDown(d, s);
 b_done = 1;
The AddDown function looks like this:
 while (*s!= 0)
 d->down = CreateNode();
 d->down->ch = *s;
 d = d->down;
 d->b_fullword = 1;
The lookup function will start from the root and look horizontally for the current letter. Once it finds it, it goes down and repeats the procedure, until the string ends, or it cannot find a letter anymore or there is no down link anymore. The routine will have to check if the last node visited terminates a word (b_fullword is true) before returning success.
An analysis of the complexity
Obviously, the search speed will depend on the number of letters in the alphabet and the length of the lookup word. The first is constant, and the second is also limited (in our case we limited the words to 8 letters, but generally speaking the words will have a small limited number of letters). The worst theoretical situation was to traverse 26 nodes 8 times, that being 208 nodes, but on an average a lookup would only do 20 to 40 node traversals, which was reasonable in our case.
The memory requirements however turned out to be quite high. The wordlist we used generated about 150,000 nodes, each of them using 12 bytes of memory (bool type was using 4 bytes on that machine, and the structure was rounded up to 4-byte boundary), and the allocator eating up another 8 bytes for each node we were actually using about 3 MB of memory.
Luckily, the structure is yet far from being optimized, as we can actually reduce the memory usage without penalizing the search speed.
A second implementation (serialized search tree)
The first thing we can do is to actually remove the overhead of the memory allocator, which eats up 8 bytes for each node (our case, some other allocators might use more or less) that represents little less than half of the memory used by the node.
To do this we have to lay out the nodes consecutively in memory, in a preallocated memory chunk, and have the pointers to next and down elements reflect the new node memory position.
Implementation details for doing this are beyond the scope of the article, as there is nothing special about it.
However, memory-wise, we now have 150 K nodes of only 12 bytes now that eats up only 1.8 MB of memory.
A better implementation (serialized search tree, grouped and packed letters)
A quick look over the implementation, and we realize that we waste 4 byes (sizeof (Node*)) for each node in order to hold a pointer to the next horizontal letter, where we could actually have an array of nodes forming a chunk of letter nodes, each of the nodes only having a letter, a full word flag and the down pointer.
Also, the English alphabet uses only 26 letters, and for our scope we did not differentiate between uppercase and lowercase, so we actually needed only 5 bits to store the letters, and 1 bit to store the full word flag, so we can combine them into one byte.
A node would now have 1 byte containing the letter and the flag, and 4 bytes for the down pointer and all the letters on the same level that continue a prefix would be grouped into chunks. The


text:
South Asian earthquake: Relief effort saves lives, stems losses, but reconstruction tasks loom large
In the wake of a successful relief effort that helped to prevent additional casualties in quake-devastated areas, the aid community is facing a new crucial task of restoring livelihoods to hundreds of thousands of people left homeless and destitute by the disaster.
On 8 October 2005, a devastating earthquake struck South Asia killing tens of thousands and leaving many more homeless and in danger as a bitter winter approached. An intensive effort to find, rescue and feed survivors was closely followed by the media around the world due to the sheer scale of the disaster - 73,000 people perishing in Pakistan and 1,300 in India, a crisis that UN Emergency Coordinator Jan Egeland characterized as the "worst logistical nightmare" the world body had faced. Despite the challenges, the concerted international and national effort succeeded in preventing a feared second wave of deaths, massive population movements and breakouts of epidemics as the harsh winter spread across the region. Thanks to the massive relief effort, recorded mortality in the affected areas was no higher than during the previous winter. A nutrition survey showed no major food deficiency compared to the pre-earthquake level.
Today, nearly seven months after the disaster struck, the post-quake efforts are at another crucial junction that deserves close attention by the media and the public. As the recovery effort shifts from relief to reconstruction, UN officials warn that the most difficult part of the job may be only just beginning. Experience from other countries shows that still desperately needed donor support often ebbs once relief phases out. If this were to happen, many quake survivors could face another precarious situation next winter. As the humanitarian community strives for a smooth transition from relief to early recovery and reconstruction, a painstaking task of restoring livelihoods and rebuilding lives should not be allowed to elude media focus.
- As part of the UN-coordinated international response to the quake, more than 500,000 tents were delivered, some 5 million iron sheets were distributed, over 6 million blankets/quilts were provided.
- Safe water was restored to over 700,000 people, and thousands of latrine slabs were installed. Over 1 million children were vaccinated against measles. Countless helicopters flights -- from the Pakistani military, NATO, US, other countries and the UN -- airlifted food and non-food items.
- The Earthquake Reconstruction & Rehabilitation Authority of Pakistan, in collaboration with the UN and several civil society partners, has agreed to the basic framework of an Early Recovery Plan, a set of operational programmes, aimed at supporting the longer-term road to recovery and minimizing the gap between relief and reconstruction, for which an estimated $188 million is required over the next 12 months.
- The major challenges foreseen in the coming months are a successful return process, road accessibility in remote areas, potential landslides, continued assistance for vulnerable people, and ensuring the broadest possible reach of basic services.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION:
United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA):
Raabya Amjad, Tel: + 92 (0) 51 _PHONE_, E-mail: _EMAIL_


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You need to have configured the phpMyAdmin configuration storage for using transformations feature.
To enable transformations, you have to setup the
table and the proper directives. Please see the Configuration on how to do so.
You can apply different transformations to the contents of each column. The transformation will take the content of each column and transform it with certain rules defined in the selected transformation.
Say you have a column 'filename' which contains a filename. Normally you would see in phpMyAdmin only this filename. Using transformations you can transform that filename into a HTML link, so you can click inside of the phpMyAdmin structure on the column's link and will see the file displayed in a new browser window. Using transformation options you can also specify strings to append/prepend to a string or the format you want the output stored in.
For a general overview of all available transformations and their options, you can consult your //transformation_overview.php installation.
For a tutorial on how to effectively use transformations, see our Link section on the official phpMyAdmin homepage.
Go to your tbl_structure.php page (i.e. reached through clicking on the 'Structure' link for a table). There click on "Change" (or change icon) and there you will see three new fields at the end of the line. They are called 'Media type', 'Browser transformation' and 'Transformation options'.
- The field 'Media type' is a drop-down field. Select the Media type that corresponds to the column's contents. Please note that transformations are inactive as long as no Media type is selected.
- The field 'Browser transformation' is a drop-down field. You can choose from a hopefully growing amount of pre-defined transformations. See below for information on how to build your own transformation. There are global transformations and mimetype-bound transformations. Global transformations can be used for any mimetype. They will take the mimetype, if necessary, into regard. Mimetype-bound transformations usually only operate on a certain mimetype. There are transformations which operate on the main mimetype (like 'image'), which will most likely take the subtype into regard, and those who only operate on a specific subtype (like 'image/jpeg'). You can use transformations on mimetypes for which the function was not defined for. There is no security check for you selected the right transformation, so take care of what the output will be like.
- The field 'Transformation options' is a free-type textfield. You have
to enter transform-function specific options here. Usually the
transforms can operate with default options, but it is generally a
good idea to look up the overview to see which options are necessary.
Much like the ENUM/SET-Fields, you have to split up several options
using the format 'a','b','c',…(NOTE THE MISSING BLANKS). This is
because internally the options will be parsed as an array, leaving the
first value the first element in the array, and so forth. If you want
to specify a MIME character set you can define it in the
transformation_options. You have to put that outside of the predefined options of the specific mime-transform, as the last value of
the set. Use the format "'; charset=XXX'". If you use a transform, for
which you can specify 2 options and you want to append a character
set, enter "'first parameter','second parameter','charset=us-ascii'".
You can, however use the defaults for the parameters: "'','','charset
=us-ascii'". The default options can be configured using
All specific transformations for mimetypes are defined through class files in the directory 'libraries/classes/Plugins/Transformations/'. Each of them extends a certain transformation abstract class declared in libraries/classes/Plugins/Transformations/Abs.
They are stored in files to ease up customization and easy adding of new transformations.
Because the user cannot enter own mimetypes, it is kept sure that transformations always work. It makes no sense to apply a transformation to a mimetype the transform-function doesn't know to handle.
There is a file called '
libraries/classes/Plugins/Transformations.php' that provides some
basic functions which can be included by any other transform function.
The file name convention is
Name].php, while the abstract class that it extends has the
[Transformation Name]TransformationsPlugin. All of the
methods that have to be implemented by a transformations plug-in are:
- getMIMEType() and getMIMESubtype() in the main class;
- getName(), getInfo() and applyTransformation() in the abstract class it extends.
The getMIMEType(), getMIMESubtype() and getName() methods return the name of the MIME type, MIME Subtype and transformation accordingly. getInfo() returns the transformation's description and possible options it may receive and applyTransformation() is the method that does the actual work of the transformation plug-in.
Please see the
libraries/classes/Plugins/Transformations/TEMPLATE_ABSTRACT files for adding
your own transformation plug-in. You can also generate a new
transformation plug-in (with or without the abstract transformation
class), by using
The applyTransformation() method always gets passed three variables:
- $buffer - Contains the text inside of the column. This is the text, you want to transform.
- $options - Contains any user-passed options to a transform function as an array.
- $meta - Contains an object with information about your column. The data is drawn from the output of the mysql_fetch_field() function. This means, all object properties described on the manual page are available in this variable and can be used to transform a column accordingly to unsigned/zerofill/not_null/… properties. The $meta->mimetype variable contains the original Media type of the column (i.e. 'text/plain', 'image/jpeg' etc.)


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clearly the most significant challenge facing HR departments in the UAE educational private educational institutions.
Building leadership capability is ranked as the second most significant challenge. Retaining key talent, driving cultural and behavioral change in the institution, increasing workforce productivity, workforce planning, and constrains on headcount were ranked three through seven respectively.
Figure 8 shows the rank order of HR challenges, as perceived by survey respondents. To do this, we asked two open-ended questions.
We asked participants to list five immediate priorities. We then coded the responses and aggregated that data to determine the total number of occurrences for each priority, and put these priorities in rank order.
Aggregate data reveal that the number one immediate priority for HR departments is building leadership capabilities. Driving cultural and behavioral change in the institutions ranked the second place.
Tied for third place are retaining key talent and workforce planning, and increasing workforce productivity is in fifth. Figure 9 illustrates the immediate priorities for HR departments. Data revel that the top five pieces of knowledge that HR professionals think is an understanding of business principles, with Broad HR knowledge is ranked second, with An understanding of employment law and political power are tied for third and fourth, cited by An understanding of the country political system is in the fifth place, with Figure 12 illustrates the distribution of training budgets across this group.
Our findings suggest that HR departments in 35 educational institutions who responded to our survey confirmed the results in the finding section. Institutions rely on HR to strategically groom talent that will help them achieve high performance. Extending beyond a traditional focus on HR administration yields measurable results, improve profits, and enable an organization to grow for a long term.
HR innovation means building on the tactical aspects of the discipline to align with business strategy and transcend the conventional concept of HR. Tasks such as applying benefits programs, salary administration, and development of employees will always carry central importance.
However, by working in a strategic context including the HR role in coaching, connecting, and empowering a new generation, HR can make a direct impact on the bottom line and drive high performance.
Based on the results and findings, the HR departments in the UAE educational institutions did not pass the first contribution of HR in organizations represented in the literature review. As proposed by Dave Ulrich, it is providing information management and basic transactions by processing of new hire documentation, payroll, and benefits enrollment. HR managers need to have some degree of formal authority in order to complete the HR practices and functions and play a strategic role in the educational institutions.
Every institution strives to increase its profits and cut costs.Mello that you will look. Competition thereby produces maximum economic value from the given resources, and uses minimum resources to supply a given demand. This requires that HR develop new ideas and adopt innovation to continuously increase the value of employee output while maintain or reducing the cost per unit.
English ISBN As the latest advanced technologies offer the potential to streamline many HR functions, businesses increasingly are utilizing information technology to design and deliver their HR practices Bell, Won Lee, Yeung, Porter Customers who viewed this item also viewed.
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RESO - Relais pour l'émergence d'une jeunesse sociale
RESO aims to help citizens become more involved in the democracy-building process in Tunisia.
Relais pour l'emergence d'une jeunesse sociale (Relay for the Development of Social Youth, RESO) aims to help citizens become more involved in the democracy-building process in Tunisia. It focuses on capacity building to help provide citizens with the tools to do this.
Image credit: RESO Image credit: RESO
Main activities and achievements
RESO decided to start by focusing on the issue of employability. It aimed to provide assistance and guidance to help young people build their confidence and improve their career opportunities, to. This has included work to:
 - Match qualifications to suit specific employment opportunities
 - Write persuasive CVs and job applications.
 - Provide interview training and help.
Convinced that democratisation and peacebuilding should start at the local and community leveles, RESO has also created a series of five local workshops, or Houmeta (meaning 'our neighbourhood' in Arabic) in order to promote citizens' participation in public life. For this, different training sessions focused on the value and ways in which citizens can contribute to local and public life.
RESO has also begun a project called Kolna Baladeya ('we are all the municipality'), in cooperation with the municipality authorities, to encourage young people to be more interactive and contribute to decision-making processes. This includes work on:
 1. Debating: developing communication skills and participating in debates.
 2. Teamwork: how to build an effective and collaborative team.
 3. Petition: introducinge the rules of petitions in TUnisai and how to get public support for a collective issue.
 4. Public administration: providing information about the different mechanisms of the Tunisian administration and the management of community governance.
 5. Citizen journalism: providing training on how citizen media can commuicate alternative information.
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I was reading the paper on SMA*+, which is very interesting as it implements most improvements I thought of when reading the paper on SMA*. But I have 3 questions that I think are related to my misunderstanding of the cost evaluation of the re-generated nodes.
Can there be some memory saved by not fully expanding a node immediately?
The third paragraph of section 4:
Unlike SMA*, SMA*+ fully expands a node each iteration, instead of adding only one successor to the open list every iteration. While adding one successor at a time may seem more efficient, the overhead required to determine which successor to add, adds unnecessary complexity and decreases performance with minimal memory advantage.
Maybe in this context "minimal" is a euphemism to mean "none" and I'm just arguing semantics here. But if taken literally, I actually don't see a case with a memory gain in adding one successor at a time.
I mean, if the heuristics is admissible, then every successor $n_i$ of a node $b$ has a higher $f$-cost: $f(b) \le f(n_i)$. And since we're expanding $b$, we know it already has the lowest $f$-cost of all the open nodes. Therefore we won't switch to expanding another node, and thus SMA* will always fully expand a node once it started, no matter what.
Or did I miss something that might make the progressive expansion worth it in some cases?
Does SMA* store its children when they are removed?
The SMA*+ paper says in section 4:
The original SMA* makes similar progress by keeping removed nodes in memory, until their parent is removed.
Which is think is surprising. When I read the algorithm in the SMA* paper section 3.1 I see:
Procedure BACKUP(n):
 if n is completed and has a parent then
 f(n) <- least f-cost of all its successors
 if f(n) changed, BACKUP(parent(n)).
I think it means that it stores only the least $f$-cost of all its successors. Not the successor nodes, not even one $f$-cost per successor.
Do I misunderstand the way SMA* recomputes the $f$-cost of the regenerated successor nodes?
Why do we need to set $f(n) \leftarrow max(f(b), g(n) + h(n))$?
In SMA* I thought this was needed because we forgot the actual value of $f(n)$ when pruning it. Therefore we underestimate its value by using $f(b)$ (the cost of its predecessor) which is either set to the minimum $f$-cost of all its pruned successors or its natural value which is also less than the $f$-score of its successors if the heuristic is admissible. Then we use $max$ to ensure the $f$-cost is non-decreasing along the way, which I guess would mean that the heuristic was non-admissible.
But here, in SMA*+, we store the $f$-cost of all the children, so why do we still need this $max$?
Your Answer
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The SEC has proposed Rule 13q-1 and an amendment to Form SD to implement Section 1504 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act relating to disclosure of payments by resource extraction issuers. Rule 13q-1 was initially adopted by the SEC on August 22, 2012, but it was subsequently vacated by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
Section 1504 of the Dodd-Frank Act added Section 13(q) to the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, which directs the SEC to issue rules requiring resource extraction issuers to include in an annual report information relating to any payment made by the issuer, a subsidiary of the issuer, or an entity under the control of the issuer, to a foreign government or the Federal Government for the purpose of the commercial development of oil, natural gas, or minerals. Section 13(q) requires a resource extraction issuer to provide information about the type and total amount of such payments made for each project related to the commercial development of oil, natural gas, or minerals, and the type and total amount of payments made to each government.
In general, the proposed rules would require resource extraction issuers to file a Form SD on an annual basis that includes information about payments related to the commercial development of oil, natural gas, or minerals that are made to governments. The following are the key provisions of the proposed rules:
- The term "resource extraction issuer" would apply to all U.S. companies and foreign companies that are required to file annual reports pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d) of the Exchange Act and are engaged in the commercial development of oil, natural gas, or minerals.
- The term "commercial development of oil, natural gas, or minerals" would mean exploration, extraction, processing, and export, or the acquisition of a license for any such activity, consistent with Section 13(q).
- The term "payment" would mean payments that are made to further the commercial development of oil, natural gas, or minerals, are "not de minimis," and includes taxes, royalties, fees (including license fees), production entitlements, and bonuses, consistent with Section 13(q). The SEC also proposes to include dividends and payments for infrastructure improvements in the definition. In addition, the SEC proposes defining "not de minimis" to mean any payment, whether a single payment or a series of related payments, that equals or exceeds $100,000 during the most recent fiscal year.
- In addition to the payments it makes directly, a resource extraction issuer would be required to disclose payments made by its subsidiaries and other entities under its control. An issuer would disclose those payments that are included in its consolidated financial statements made by entities that are consolidated or proportionately consolidated, as determined by applicable accounting principles.
- The term "project" would be defined. The SEC proposes to define it in a manner similar to the EU Directives, using an approach focused on the legal agreement that forms the basis for payment liabilities with a government. In certain circumstances this definition would also include operational activities governed by multiple legal agreements.
- The term "Federal Government" would mean the United States Federal Government.
- The proposed rules would require a resource extraction issuer to file its payment disclosure on Form SD, on the Commission's Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis, and Retrieval System ("EDGAR"), no later than 150 days after the end of its fiscal year. Form SD would require issuers to include a brief statement directing users to detailed payment information provided in an exhibit.
- Recognizing the discretion granted to the SEC under Section 13(q), the proposed rules would require issuers to disclose the payment information publicly, including the identity of the issuer.
- The proposed rules would not include any express exemptions. Instead, resource extraction issuers could apply for, and the Commission would consider, exemptive relief on a case-by-case basis.
- In light of recent developments in the European Union and Canada, as well as the developments with the U.S. Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative ("USEITI"), Form SD would include a provision by which resource extraction issuers could use a report prepared for foreign regulatory purposes or for USEITI to comply with the proposed rules if the Commission deems the foreign jurisdiction's applicable requirements or the USEITI reporting regime to be substantially similar to the SEC's rules.
- Resource extraction issuers would be required to present the payment disclosure using the eXtensible Business Reporting Language ("XBRL") electronic format and the electronic tags identified in Item 2.01 of Form SD. These tags would include those listed in Section 13(q), as well as tags for the type and total amount of payments made for each project, the type and total amount of payments made to each government, the particular resource that is the subject of commercial development, and the subnational geographic location of the project.
- Resource extraction issuers generally would be required to comply with the rules starting with their fiscal year ending no earlier than one year after the effective date of the adopted rules.
Departing from usual practice, the proposed rule has a two-step comment process. Initial comments are due on January 25, 2016. Reply comments, which may respond only to issues raised in the initial comment period, are due on February 16, 2016. In developing the final rules, the Commission may rely on both new comments and comments that have been received to date, including those that were provided in connection with the prior rules that the Commission issued under Section 13(q).
The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia vacated the original rule for two reasons. First, the SEC misread Section 13(q) to compel the public disclosure of the issuers' reports. Second, the Commission's explanation for not granting an exemption for when disclosure is prohibited by foreign governments was arbitrary and capricious.
As to the first point, The SEC states several factors support this approach. First, the statute requires the SEC to adopt rules that further the interests of international transparency promotion efforts, to the extent practicable. The SEC notes that several existing transparency regimes require public disclosure, including the identity of the issuer, without exception. A public disclosure requirement under Section 13(q) would further the U.S. foreign policy interest in supporting international transparency promotion efforts by enhancing comparability among companies, as it would increase the total number of companies that provide project-level public disclosure.
The SEC also believes it would also be consistent with the objective of ensuring that the United States is a global "leader in creating a new standard for revenue transparency in the extractive industries." In addition, the United States is currently a candidate country under the EITI, which requires candidate countries to provide a framework for public, company-by-company disclosure in the EITI report. Permitting issuers to provide the required payment disclosure on a confidential basis could undermine the efforts of the USEITI to establish a voluntary payment disclosure regime for domestic operations. Moreover, the fact that issuers would be required by these other transparency promotion efforts to disclose publicly substantially the same payment information reduces the likelihood that the payment information would be confidential or that its disclosure would cause competitive harm.
The SEC also believes that neither the statute's text nor legislative history includes any suggestion that the required payment disclosure should be confidential. In fact, the SEC believes the legislative history supports its view that the information submitted under the statute should be publicly disclosed.
With respect to the second point, the SEC states it will consider using its existing authority under the Exchange Act to provide exemptive relief at the request of a resource extraction issuer, if and when warranted. The SEC believes that a case-by-case approach to exemptive relief using its existing authority is preferable to either adopting a blanket exemption for a foreign law prohibition (or for any other reason) or providing no exemptions and no avenue for exemptive relief under this or other circumstances. Among other things, such an approach would permit the SEC to tailor the exemptive relief to the particular facts and circumstances presented such as by permitting alternative disclosure or by phasing out the exemption over an appropriate period of time.


text:
Voter surveys in the March 6, 2012, presidential primaries were conducted for the National Election Pool (The Associated Press, ABC, CBS, CNN, FOX and NBC) by Edison Research. NEP members prepared the questionnaires.
Election day surveys were conducted in the following number of precincts per state:
Georgia: 30 precincts, 1,190 interviews
Massachusetts: 25 precincts, 945 interviews
Ohio: 40 precincts, 1,848 interviews
Oklahoma: 20 precincts, 694 interviews
Tennessee: 30 precincts, 1,769 interviews
Vermont: 20 precincts, 653 interviews
Virginia: 20 precincts, 647 interviews
The polling places are a stratified probability sample of each state, factoring in size and past voting history. The sample is designed so that everyone who voted in the state's primaries Tuesday has a known probability of being included.
At each sampling location an interviewer approached voters at a specified interval -- for example, every fifth voter -- as he or she exited the polling place. The interval helps ensure the randomness of the sample. Voters were asked which primary they had just voted in and were given a paper questionnaire specific to that primary.
In Ohio and Tennessee -- states with expected high incidence of absentee or early voting -- telephone polls also were conducted from Feb. 27 through March 4, screening for people who had already voted or said they were certain to vote before Tuesday. Results from the telephone interviews were blended into the election day samples, weighted to the estimated proportion of early voting among the overall electorate. These surveys included 410 voters in Ohio and 640 in Tennessee.
All samples are approximations. A measure of the approximation is called the sampling error. Sampling error is affected by the design of the sample, the characteristic being measured and the number of people who have the characteristic. If a characteristic is found in roughly the same proportions in all precincts ("non-clustered") the sampling error will be lower. If the characteristic is concentrated in a few precincts the sampling error will be larger. Gender would be a good example of a characteristic with a lower sampling error. Characteristics for minority racial groups will have larger sampling errors.
For these polls, the margin of sampling error for results based on the full sample was plus or minus 5 percentage points in Massachusetts, Oklahoma, Vermont and Virginia, and plus or minus 4 percentage points in Georgia, Ohio and Tennessee.


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What is horseback archery? And where can I do this?
Horseback Archery
There is something magical about archery. The precision at which archers release their arrows to hit the intended targets is a joy to watch. Now, imagine the thrill of seeing an archer shoot targets while riding a horse at high speed. That's horseback archery. However, to excel in this sport, you must have high levels of agility, coordination, balance, and have a good connection with your horse.
Where can I do Horse Archery?
Horseback arching is growing in popularity. In different states, you will find regional competitions for horseback archers. You can always participate in these competitions as they will enable you to interact with other horse archers while gauging your skills against them.
You can also join the Mounted Archery Association of the Americas (MA3), which is the body responsible for the National Ranking Systems of horse archery in the United States. The rankings are based on results garnered from live competitions, and it includes all horse archers in the US, irrespective of their affiliation.
Some of the areas where MA3 competitions are held include;
 - Eagle Point in Oregon
 - Bluff Park farm in Alaska
 - Soldier Follow in Midway, UT
The benefit of joining an association like the MA3 is that you get exposure to different events, competitions, and clinics. The more you participate in these activities, the more you improve your sport and grow as an athlete. You also get the chance to become part of a community that shares a common interest, and you can even create long-lasting friendships with other horse archers.
If you are a pro in horse archery, you can also be selected for major events such as the IHAA and WHAF World Championships, where you get to compete with horse archers from other parts of the world.
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What is horseback archery
The difficulty of Doing Archery on a Horse
Shooting an arrow while standing on the ground requires a lot of precision and accuracy to hit the intended target. Now, can you imagine what it takes to hit a target while on the back of a horse that is galloping at top speed? Indeed, it's not easy. Horseback archers are never stationary when shooting their arrows. This means that the distance from their target keeps on changing, and they must maintain a vision of the target; otherwise, they will lose their focus and shoot aimlessly.
As a horse archer, you also don't have the luxury of looking down at your bow as you nock your arrow on the string. Instead, you must rely on your instincts and touch, which is not easy, especially for a beginner.
Again, there is no arrow rest as you shoot, and it takes lots of practice to master the art of shooting with an arrow that is not steady.
Preparing Your Horse for Horseback Archery
The relationship between a horse archer and their horse is crucial to their success in this sport. Typically, it takes about two years to train a horse for horseback arching properly. This process will involve daily feedings and practice riding to ensure that the horse fully understands and appreciates the sport.
You should also incorporate frequent fun rides and fun shoots so that the horse does not get bored doing the same things over and over again. A change of scenery once in a while will also ensure you and your horse have a happy and healthy relationship. Before your horse adapts to the sport, you will need to be patient with them because learning takes time and consistency.
Additional Skill Required to Excel in Horse Archery
As a horse archer, both hands are used to hold the arrow and the bow. You might ask – how will I control my horse then? Typically, you must learn to gallop your horse and maintain proper balance without using your hands. You will need to master that skill, but the good thing is that with the right training and practice, you will be good to go. Again, this also calls for the need to foster a good relationship with your horse.
Bottom Line
The popularity of horseback archery is growing every day. With more competitions, both regionally and internationally, being organized, the future certainly looks bright for horse archers. If you are aiming to get in this sport, focus on improving your skills, engage in different events and competitions, and you will surely go far.
Graham Mitchell
Graham Mitchell
What started out as a fun summer camp activity, has become a passion of mine over the years. Whether it's target shooting, competitive archery or bow hunting, I hope you find this site to be a valuable resource of archery information.
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text:
What is this?
umockdev is a set of tools and a library to mock hardware devices for programs that handle Linux hardware devices. It also provides tools to record the properties and behaviour of particular devices, and to run a program or test suite under a test bed with the previously recorded devices loaded.
This allows developers of software like gphoto or libmtp to receive these records in bug reports and recreate the problem on their system without having access to the affected hardware, as well as writing regression tests for those that do not need any particular privileges and thus are capable of running in standard
After working on it for several weeks and lots of rumbling on G+, it's now useful and documented enough for the first release 0.1!
umockdev consists of the following parts:
umockdev-record program generates text dumps (conventionally called
*.umockdev) of some specified, or all of the system's devices and their sysfs attributes and udev properties. It can also record ioctls that a particular program sends and receives to/from a device, and store them into a text file (conventionally called
- The libumockdev library provides the
UMockdevTestbed GObject class which builds sysfs and /dev testbeds, provides API to generate devices, attributes, properties, and uevents on the fly, and can load
*.ioctl records into them. It provides VAPI and GI bindings, so you can use it from C, Vala, and any programming language that supports introspection. This is the API that you should use for writing regression tests. You can find the API documentation in
docs/reference in the source directory.
- The libumockdev-preload library intercepts access to /sys, /dev/, the kernel's netlink socket (for uevents) and ioctl() and re-routes them into the sandbox built by libumockdev. You don't interface with this library directly, instead you need to run your test suite or other program that uses libumockdev through the
umockdev-run program builds a sandbox using libumockdev, can load
*.ioctl files into it, and run a program in that sandbox. I. e. it is a CLI interface to libumockdev, which is useful in the "debug a failure with a particular device" use case if you get the text dumps from a bug report. This automatically takes care of using the preload library, i. e. you don't need
umockdev-wrapper with this. You cannot use this program if you need to simulate uevents or change attributes/properties on the fly; for those you need to use libumockdev directly.
Example: Record and replay PtP/MTP USB devices
So how do you use umockdev? For the "debug a problem" use case you usually don't want to write a program that uses libumockdev, but just use the command line tools. Let's capture some runs from libmtp tools, and replay them in a mock environment:
- Connect your digital camera, mobile phone, or other device which supports PtP or MTP, and locate it in lsusb. For example
Bus 001 Device 012: ID 0fce:0166 Sony Ericsson Xperia Mini Pro
- Dump the sysfs device and udev properties:
$ umockdev-record /dev/bus/usb/001/012 > mobile.umockdev
- Now record the dynamic behaviour (i. e. usbfs ioctls) of various operations. You can store multiple different operations in the same file, which will share the common communication between them. For example:
$ umockdev-record --ioctl mobile.ioctl /dev/bus/usb/001/012 mtp-detect
$ umockdev-record --ioctl mobile.ioctl /dev/bus/usb/001/012 mtp-emptyfolders
- Now you can disconnect your device, and run the same operations in a mocked testbed. Please note that
/dev/bus/usb/001/012 merely echoes what is in
mobile.umockdev and it is independent of what is actually in the real /dev directory. You can rename that device in the generated
*.umockdev files and on the command line.
$ umockdev-run --load mobile.umockdev --ioctl /dev/bus/usb/001/012=mobile.ioctl mtp-detect
$ umockdev-run --load mobile.umockdev --ioctl /dev/bus/usb/001/012=mobile.ioctl mtp-emptyfolders
Example: using the library to fake a battery
If you want to write regression tests, it's usually more flexible to use the library instead of calling everything through
umockdev-run. As a simple example, let's pretend we want to write tests for upower.
Batteries, and power supplies in general, are simple devices in the sense that userspace programs such as upower only communicate with them through sysfs and uevents. No /dev nor ioctls are necessary. docs/examples/ has two example programs how to use libumockdev to create a fake battery device, change it to low charge, sending an uevent, and running upower on a local test system D-BUS in the testbed, with watching what happens with
upower --monitor-detail. battery.c shows how to do that with plain GObject in C, battery.py is the equivalent program in Python that uses the GI binding. You can just run the latter like this:
umockdev-wrapper python3 docs/examples/battery.py
and you will see that upowerd (which runs on a temporary local system D-BUS in the test bed) will report a single battery with 75% charge, which gets down to 2.5% a second later.
The gist of it is that you create a test bed with
UMockdevTestbed *testbed = umockdev_testbed_new ();
and add a device with certain sysfs attributes and udev properties with
gchar *sys_bat = umockdev_testbed_add_device (
testbed, "power_supply", "fakeBAT0", NULL,
/* attributes */
/* properties */
You can then e. g. change an attribute and synthesize a "change" uevent with
umockdev_testbed_set_attribute (testbed, sys_bat, "energy_now", "_PHONE_");
umockdev_testbed_uevent (testbed, sys_bat, "change");
With Python or other introspected languages, or in Vala it works the same way, except that it looks a bit leaner due to "proper" object semantics.
I have a packaging branch for Ubuntu and a recipe to do daily builds with the latest upstream code into my daily builds PPA (for 12.10 and raring). I will soon upload it to Raring proper, too.
The current set of features should already get you quite far for a range of devices. I'd love to get feedback from you if you use this for anything useful, in particular how to improve the API, the command line tools, or the text dump format. I'm not really happy with the split between umockdev (sys/dev) and ioctl files and the relatively complicated CLI syntax of
umockdev-record, so any suggestion is welcome.
One use case that I have for myself is to extend the coverage of ioctls for input devices such as touch screens and wacom tablets, so that we can write some tests for gnome-settings-daemon plugins.
I also want to find a way to pass ioctls back to the test suite/calling program instead of having to handle them all in the preload library, which would make it a lot more flexible. However, due to the nature of the ioctl ABI this is not easy.
Where to go to
The code is hosted on github in the umockdev project; this started out as a systemd branch to add this functionality to libudev, but after a discussion with Kay we decided to keep it separate. But I kept it in git anyway, given how popular it is today. For the bzr lovers, Launchpad has an import at lp:umockdev.
Release tarballs will be on Launchpad as well. Please file bugs and enhancement requests in the git hub tracker.
Finally, if you have questions or want to discuss something, you can always find me on IRC (pitti on Freenode or GNOME).
Thanks for your attention and happy testing!


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If a device has stopped functioning or if you are replacing an older device with a newer device, you can remove it from Insteon+. Follow the steps in this article to remove an Insteon device from Insteon+. Removing a device will also remove it from any room, schedules and scenes and cannot be undone.
Delete an Insteon Device from Insteon+
1. Press and hold the set button on the back of Hub Pro until Hub Pro beeps. Press and hold the set button on the back of Hub Pro until Hub Pro beeps again.
2. Press and hold the set button on your old Insteon device until it double beeps.
3. Repeat the process in reverse, starting with your old Insteon device. After several moments, the Insteon device will disappear from Insteon+.
If An Insteon Device Has Not Disappeared from Insteon+
If you have followed the steps to remove an Insteon device from Insteon+ but the removed device continues to show and no longer responds, try the troubleshooting steps below.
Sign out of Insteon+
1. Navigate to Homes and tap Settings
2. Tap Sign Out
Force Quit Insteon+
1. With Insteon+ open on your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch, press and hold the power button until Slide to Power Off appears.
2. Release the power button and press and hold the Home button until Insteon+ disappears.


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In this article, we will talk about the Registry: What is it? How can we use it? How can developers use the Registry in their applications? How can we use the Registry in organizing our Windows user interface?
What is the Registry?
It is a central hierarchical database used in Microsoft Windows 9X, Windows CE, Windows NT, and Windows 2000 used to store information necessary to configure the system for one or more users, applications and hardware devices.
The Registry contains information that Windows continually references during operation, such as profiles for each user, the applications installed on the computer and the types of documents that each can create, property sheet settings for folders and application icons, what hardware exists on the system, and the ports that are being used.
How can we Modify the Registry?
You can modify the registry by using the registry editor (regedit.exe). Open "Start Menu", then choose "Run…" and type "regedit", then you will get the Registry Editor window on the screen. HOWEVER, if you use Registry Editor incorrectly, you can cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system.
What will you Get after Opening the Registry Editor?
You will get a tree view in the left-hand side of the editor which has 5 main nodes as follows:
- HKEY_CURRENT_USER (which we will use)
This contains the root of the configuration information for the user who is currently logged on. The user's folders, screen colors, and Control Panel settings are stored here. This information is associated with the user's profile. This key is sometimes abbreviated as "HKCU."
It contains all the actively loaded user profiles on the computer. HKEY_CURRENT_USER is a sub-key of HKEY_USERS. HKEY_USERS is sometimes abbreviated as "HKU."
It contains configuration information particular to the computer, (for any user). This key is sometimes abbreviated as "HKLM."
Is a sub key of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\software. The information stored here makes sure that the correct program opens when you open a file by using Windows Explorer. To change the settings for the interactive user, changes must be made under HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes instead of under HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT. To change the default settings, changes must be made under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Classes.
This contains information about the hardware profile that is used by the local computer at system startup.
How can you Use the Registry to Save and Load your Application Settings?
If you use any application like Microsoft Notepad and change the font color and size, then change the size of the Notepad, then drag the Notepad to the top-left corner of the screen and close it, what will you get when you open the Notepad the next time? You will get the Notepad with the same font, font size, size and place as the last time you left it. How can this happen? This is because of using the Registry to save the settings of the application when closing it and loading these settings when opening this application again.
To save your application settings, follow these steps while saving:
You must include the namespace
Create your own Registry key:
RegistryKey MyKey = Registry.CurrentUser.CreateSubKey(@"Software\MyApp\");
Set the values you want to add to Registry:
Repeat step 3 for every value you want to add in the Registry.
Don't forget to close your key
- Check that the key is created in the Registry. Open the Registry editor and choose the current user node, then the Software subnode and you will find your "MyApp" folder which contains the keys you set. Also, you can change the values you added by just right clicking on the key you want to change and clicking on'modify'.
To load your application settings which are saved in the Registry, follow these steps:
Create a Registry key:
RegistryKey MyKey = Registry.CurrentUser.OpenSubKey(@"Software\MyApp\");
To get your values from Registry:
Don't forget also to close your key:
How to Use the Registry to Control your Windows Settings?
You can also use Registry to control your Windows functions, including: Accessories, Appearance, Desktop, File System, LogIn and Authentication, Start Menu and TaskBar, Startup and Shutdown, System, Troubleshooting and finally Windows Explorer.
For example, you want to remove the log off and search from the start menu. How can you do that?
It is very simple. You just need to know the path to where the key is located, the name of the key and the value that you will exchange the current value with. The "search" key is located at "CurrentUser\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer\", it's key is called "
NoFind" and finally its value is either
1 for true, (true means that no search button in start menu) and
0 for false, (the search button will be there). The logoff button is at the same path of the search button and its key name is "
StartMenuLogoff" with values also
1 for disabling the logoff button and
0 for enabling it.
This is a code sample for disabling the search and logoff buttons of the start menu:
RegistryKey MyKey = Registry.CurrentUser.CreateSubKey
Then restart (or logoff) your PC and see what happens. What if you want to get them back? Write the same code but replace the two values from
0 then restart again and check what happened.
If you are worried about memorizing the key's path, name and value, do not be, you can find all of them here.
I hope this article has been helpful to those of you who wondered what the registry really is, and I urge those of you who have other tid-bits to leave your comments. For those with further queries, please do not hesitate to ask.
- 27th March, 2007: Initial post


How do you say "the flight is delayed" in Italian?
Here's the answer:
"il volo è in ritardo"
Watch a real native speaker say it:
Here's how it sounds in a textbook:
Fun fact: the hundreds of thousands of people learning Italian with Memrise get this phrase correct 98.06% of the time!
Time to set your textbook on fire, learn "il volo è in ritardo" and other useful phrases that Italian speakers really use!
burning textbook


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Protecting your Interests
Child Support Issues
Circumstances involving Child Support can be extremely upsetting and stressful, especially without legal representation. How child support is determined under the law can be confusing. The federal government plays a significant role in child support, not to mention the large number of laws and agencies that can make it difficult for individuals to manage these issues without professional legal support.
Divorce can be a tense and stressful situation. Our family lawyer can help alleviate your worries by assisting you to better understand the Australian federal and state laws so you are able to proceed with your child support plans.


Owl Class - Stone Age Cave Art
18th September 2020
Owl Class have been getting creative and replicating 'Stone Age Cave Art'. They looked at how people in prehistoric times would have communicated with each other and by drawing around their hands, made effective drawings using charcoal just like what was left behind in the caves. They talked about what each hand might represent. The results were very striking and showed various skills.


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Crossing the Valdichiana: Sinalunga, Torrita di Siena and Trequanda
Red brick villages, fortifications and towers in a mosaic-like landscape
Its colour is its distinctive trait: a red that fades from pink to russet and eventually amaranth in the final hours of sundown. This is due to the bricks that since the year 1000 were used to build the piazzas, the walls and the palazzi of the Valdichiana villages.
directions_car 19 km
Duration: 1 day
SinalungaCredit: TOB
From afar, Sinalunga and Torrita are often mistaken for each other, with their overlapping outlines and landscape. They both appear hidden among the dense vegetation and are tightly entwined upon faint hills. Farmed land surrounds them in the flat terrain, giving the whole landscape its characteristic giant mosaic imprint.
The local artisans draw upon the land's radiance and transform it into products of high artistic value: ranging from certified art reproductions to religious items, such as various types of rosaries in silver and precious stones.
A traditional component which remains strong is clay manufacturing: you can find it in ceramic relief cups with decorations inspired by the countryside and terracotta for outdoor use obtained with plaster casts (pots, lemon vases, flowerpots, amphoras).
You might also be interested in
pan_tool Craft
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Data Intelligence, Business Analytics
As I mentioned in my previous article of "Fuzzy Delphi Method to Design a Strategic Plan", I would like to continue the debate on Distance Method.
But before going to the distance method, let me explain my story as follows:
While I was working on discrepancy between basic and distance method on driving forces, I encountered to a phenomena. Now, let me depict this phenomenon in the framework of a theorem below cited:
Inequality Theorem in Fuzzy Logic
Assume, there is the fuzzy subset A of X where X is a universal set. Then, we define the fuzzy set of A by its membership function (MF=Membership Function) as follows:
MFA: X ------- [0, 1]
It means that a real number MFA (x) in the interval [0, 1] is assigned to each element x where x is a member of X and also the value of MFA (x) at x presents the grade of membership of x in A.
We consider below conditions for the fuzzy set A:
-Fuzzy set A is a convex and normalized fuzzy set in which we can say the fuzzy set A is a fuzzy number.
- Fuzzy set A is a central triangular fuzzy number where we have:
For central triangular fuzzy number A= (a, b, c): MFA (x) = 2(x-a)/c-a If a < x < b
MFA (x) = 2(x-c)/a-c If b < x < c
b = (a + c)/2
Now, we assume the set of S is included all central triangular fuzzy numbers as follows:
S = [Ai], i = 1, 2, 3,…….n
In fact, we have:
You can review the continuation of this article on below link:


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How to use BitMap in Turbo C++
This simple program explain you about how to use BitMap in Turbo C++.
NOTE :Before Running this program you have to copy one file in your "bgi" directory. That file either you have to download from the net or i will provide you. The file name is "SVGA256.BGI". Copy this file at your " tc\bgi\ ". Your tc path. I am not able to attach this file because the file extension is not supported.. If you need this file, i will provide you.
1) You have to use the BitMap structure, there is no need to change anything in this structure. Just copy this structure in one of the.cpp file like "BitMap.cpp".
char type; /* Magic identifier */
unsigned long size; /* File size in bytes */
unsigned short int reserved1, reserved2;
unsigned long offset; /* Offset to image data, bytes */
extern A HEADER,HEADER1;
unsigned long size; /* Header size in bytes */
unsigned long width,height; /* Width and height of image */
unsigned short int planes; /* Number of colour planes */
unsigned short int bits; /* Bits per pixel */
unsigned long compression; /* Compression type */
unsigned long imagesize; /* Image size in bytes */
unsigned long xresolution,yresolution; /* Pixels per meter */
unsigned long ncolours; /* Number of colours */
unsigned long importantcolours; /* Important colours */
extern B INFOHEADER,INFOHEADER1;
2) In the main file i mean the file which contain the "main" function write this code.
// This Global Function is used for the resolution of the bitmap. You can set the return value either 1,2 or 3. For me 3 is the best combination.
int gd = DETECT, md, a;
initgraph(&gd,&md,"c:\\tc\\bgi"); //Path may be different in your computer.
//Suppose you have one show function which read the bitmap from the disk. Then this show function looks like this.
//Here you have to define the path of the bitmap file. Like according to this example i have to open one Board1.bmp file. So write you bitmap file path here.
unsigned char Ch;
File.read((char*)&HEADER,14); //This is the header part of the Bitmap. It always looks like same. Don't change the content hear. The value remains 14 here.
File.read((char*)&INFOHEADER,40); //This is another part of the bitmap, here also the value remains same like 40 here.
unsigned int i;
if(PaletteData)//if memory allocated successfully
//read color data
//Don't change the code here because i have done some shifting here. Its working fine.
outp(0x03c8,0); //tell DAC that data is coming
for(i=0;i<256*3;i++) //send data to SVGA DAC
for(i=0;i


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Study after study has shown the adverse effects that cigarette smoking has on a woman's reproductive system. Especially at risk are the fragile egg cells inside a woman's ovaries known as oocytes. The chemicals found in cigarette smoke can mutate the DNA of these egg cells, leading to reproductive and fertility problems. Besides nicotine, a highly addictive chemical, cigarette smoke contains a number of other dangerous and poisonous chemicals, such as carbon monoxide, formaldehyde, cyanide and arsenic.
Women are born with around 1 million to 2 million oocytes, the egg cells that potentially develop into mature eggs, in their ovaries. These egg cells die off at varying rates throughout a woman's life due to a process called follicular atresia. By the time a women reaches sexual maturity and begins to ovulate, she has roughly 400 eggs that will be released once a month during her reproductive years. A woman will begin menopause when the number of oocytes falls below a certain threshold.
According to a 2007 report by MSNBC, smoking increases a woman's chance of infertility by 60 percent. Women who smoke also increase their chance of a delayed conception of over 1 year by 42 percent. These effects were found in women who smoked only a few cigarettes a day, though women who smoked more had increased trouble getting pregnant and a higher rate of fertility problems. The report also noted that 16 percent of miscarriages are due to smoking.
In a report published in the Biology of Reproduction in 2005, scientists at the University of California, Riverside found that cigarette smoke can disrupt the way eggs are transported. When female hamsters were exposed to cigarette smoke, their eggs were significantly less likely to be transported by the oviduct, or the fallopian tubes. This was because chemicals in the smoke cause the eggs to get stuck in the upper part of the fallopian tubes, making it difficult for the cilia, the hair-like projections that line the interior of the tubes, to move the eggs to the point where fertilization occurs.
Cigarette smoke is a known mutagen, an agent that causes mutations in DNA. DNA mutation occurs when the nucleotide sequence of the DNA is damaged or changed in some way, often due to mutagens. The chemical benzo[a]pyrene (B[a]P) is one of the more potent carcinogenic chemicals in cigarette smoke, one that can cause damage during oocyte cell division and lead to DNA mutation. Unlike sperm, though, oocytes have the ability to repair DNA damage before fertilization.
In 2007, researchers at the Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto discovered that polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), a group of chemicals found in cigarette smoke, accelerate the destruction of oocytes. PAHs are formed when certain types of smoke cause molecules to fragment into unstable arrangements, which then recombine into carcinogenic compounds. While there is some scientific debate over whether women can reproduce more egg cells later in life, early loss of these egg cells can lead to early menopause and infertility. The study also discovered that resveratrol, an antioxidant found in wine and grape skins, has the ability to counteract the adverse effects of PAH on oocytes, but it is only effective in amounts much larger than you could get from consuming grapes or wine.


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The dam is a weir on Cross Bayou. It allows inflow of Black River water into the system, an inflow that once was accomplished naturally but changed when hydrology was altered in the 1970s by agriculture practices, construction of the Catahoula Lake Diversion Canal and development of the Red River Waterway.
The weir and similar structures on Long Branch and Open Mouth Bayous are credited with restoring the lakes complex as a viable sport fishery.
Absence of the Black River water on a regular basis in the system precluded an annual "flushing" of the system.
Wildlife and Fisheries officials are assessing the damage and said repairs will begin as soon as possible. Such work is hampered by the remote location.


Sun, Moon and Stars
Brite Star Store
The Brite Star Kids have a science lesson on the relationship between the Sun, Moon and Stars. A unique assignment gives them a real understanding of the solar system.