Container scanning
Software vulnerabilities are weaknesses that can either cause an accidental system failure or be intentionally exploited.
Container Analysis provides automated and manual vulnerability scanning for containers in Artifact Registry and Container Registry.
On-Demand Scanning
On-demand scanning lets you scan container images locally on your computer or in your registry, using the gcloud tool. This gives you the flexibility to customize your CI/CD pipeline, depending on when you need to access the vulnerability results. See pricing to learn more about the costs associated with scanning container images.
Automated scanning
Container Analysis performs vulnerability scans on container images in Artifact Registry and Container Registry, it monitors the vulnerability information to keep it up to date. This process comprises two main tasks: scanning and continuous analysis.
Container Analysis scans new images when they're uploaded to Artifact Registry or Container Registry. This scan extracts information about the system packages in the container. The images are scanned only once, based on the image's digest. This means that adding or modifying tags won't trigger new scans, only changing the contents of the image will.
Container Analysis only detects packages publicly monitored for security vulnerabilities.
When the scan of an image is completed, the produced vulnerability result is the collection of vulnerability occurrences for that image.
Continuous analysis
Container Analysis creates occurrences for vulnerabilities found when you upload the image. After the initial scan, it continuously monitors the metadata for scanned images in Artifact Registry and Container Registry for new vulnerabilities.
As Container Analysis receives new and updated vulnerability information from vulnerability sources, it updates the metadata of the scanned images to keep it up-to-date, creating new vulnerability occurrences for new notes and deleting vulnerability occurrences that are no longer valid.
Manifest lists
You can also use vulnerability scanning with manifest lists. A manifest list is a list of pointers to manifests for several platforms. They allow a single image to work with multiple architectures or variations of an operating system.
Container Analysis vulnerability scanning only supports Linux amd64 images. If your manifest list points to more than one Linux amd64 image, only the first one will be scanned; if there are no pointers to Linux amd64 images, you won't get any scanning results.
Vulnerability sources
Container scanning supports package vulnerability scanning for Linux distributions and obtains CVE data from the following sources:
Supported versions
Container scanning supports vulnerability scanning for the following OS versions:
 - Debian GNU/Linux - Versions: 9, 10
 - Ubuntu - Versions: 12.04, 12.10, 13.04, 14.04, 14.10, 15.04, 15.10, 16.04, 16.10, 17.04, 17.10, 18.04, 18.10, 20.04, 20.10
 - Alpine Linux - Versions: 3.3, 3.4, 3.5, 3.6, 3.7, 3.8, 3.9, 3.10, 3.11, 3.12, 3.13
 - CentOS - Versions: 6, 7, 8 and minor versions
 - Redhat - Versions: 6, 7, 8 and minor versions
Severity levels for vulnerabilities
Container scanning uses the following severity levels:
 - Critical
 - High
 - Medium
 - Low
 - Minimal
The severity levels are qualitative labels that reflect factors such as exploitability, scope, impact, and maturity of the vulnerability. For example, if a vulnerability enables a remote user to easily access a system and run arbitrary code without authentication or user interaction, that vulnerability would be classified as Critical.
Two types of severity are associated with each vulnerability:
 - Effective severity - The severity level assigned by the Linux distribution. If distribution-specific severity levels are unavailable, Container scanning uses the severity level assigned by the note provider.
 - CVSS score - The Common Vulnerability Scoring System score and associated severity level. Refer to the CVSS 2.0 documentation for details on how CVSS scores are calculated.
For a given vulnerability, the severity derived from a calculated CVSS score might not match the effective severity. Linux distributions that assign severity levels use their own criteria to assess the specific impacts of a vulnerability on their distributions.
Default Container Analysis service account
Container Analysis analyzes your container images using a service account, a special Google account that collects information about your images on your behalf. The email for the Container Analysis service account is service-[PROJECT_NUMBER] This account uses the Container Analysis Service Agent role.
If you enable vulnerability scanning, the Container Scanning API used by this feature also uses a special Google account. The email for that service account is service-[PROJECT_NUMBER] The account uses the Container Scanner Service Agent role.
You can view your project's service accounts via the IAM menu of the Cloud Console.
Container Analysis interfaces
In the Cloud Console, you can view image vulnerabilities and image metadata for containers in Artifact Registry.
You can use the gcloud tool to view vulnerabilities and image metadata.
You can also use the Container Analysis REST API to perform any of these actions. As with other Cloud Platform APIs, you must authenticate access using OAuth2. After you have authenticated, you can use the API to create new notes and occurrences, view vulnerability occurrences, etc.
The Container Analysis API supports both gRPC and REST/JSON. You can make calls to the API either using the client libraries or using cURL for REST/JSON.
Controlling deployment of vulnerable images
Based on the vulnerability information provided by Container Analysis, you can use Binary Authorization to create a vulnerability allowlist as part of you Cloud Build pipeline. If the vulnerabilities violate the policy in the allowlist, the build fails.
You can also integrate Container Analysis with Binary Authorization to create attestations, which can prevent container images with known security issues from running in your deployment environment.
What's next


Convert SQL Table to Redis Cache Structure
When adding a distributed cache like Redis to a solution, it is important to define the data model and sets in a way that enables us to easily fetched from the cache while maintaining a similar structure to our SQL database to minimize the impact on our client applications. The challenge is to define the approach that can work within the technical specifications of the cache, yet it supports our solution.
Review the SQL Data Model
When building a good model on the cache, we need to understand how the data is retrieved from the database from the client applications. We also need to learn how to leverage the Redis key/value structure to facilitate the same data access. We can practice these principles by looking at a data model from devices that measure telemetry information like temperature and noise.
By looking ate entity above, we can notice that we can query the data/measures from this table by using the date (processed) and deviceId dimensions by using a SQL query like the one shown next:
SELECT [telemetryId]
 FROM [dbo].[Telemetry] (nolock)
 WHERE processed > dateadd(MM,-1, getdate())
 AND deviceId = '0ZA-112'
 ORDER BY telemetryId DESC
We can look at the output of this query to help us understand what data needs to be stored in the cache. However, the first question that comes to mind is how do we do this using Redis? To answer that, let's try to understand how the database is structured and then apply those concepts to Redis.
Data Structure on Redis
To build our data structure on Redis, we first start by mapping the database, schema and table names to a Redis Key that we can use to pull the data. For example, our table is in the database device with a table named telemetry. Using that information, we can create a namespace like device.dbo.telemetry. We can use this namespace to construct our Redis key, or if the schema name is not meaningful (i.e. dbo), we can shorten the namespace by removing the schema name part and use this instead: device.telemetry.
Now that we have a good Redis key, the next challenge is the ability to select the record by deviceId. On SQL server, this is done by doing a lookup for the deviceId column as was shown on the previous SQL statement.
The way we can do this on Redis is by appending the deviceId to our existent key. This generates an extended key that includes the deviceId value with this format device.telemetry.deviceId (deviceId is replaced by the value). By setting this key with the unique value, we can now query the cache for the information associated with a specific device.
How do we query by dates?
The next part of the SQL query predicate enables us to select data by using a date. That gets a bit more challenging since a date range does not match the concept of a key, so we cannot just do device.telemetry.deviceId.datetime as this limits the key to a specific date. However, Redis supports the concept of storing a sorted set or list with a specified key and a score number that can be sorted in an ascending way (older dates to most recent dates).
But what do we need a score when we need to fetch the information by date and time? Well, in programming languages, a date time stamp can be represented as a numeric value in milliseconds. This does enable us to convert a DateTime field into a numeric field and use it as a score within Redis by using the following command.
zadd device.telemetry.0ZA-112 1565379958535 "my data here"
By storing data with this numeric value/score, we can query the DateTime numeric value by using this command zrangebyscore (or zrevrangebyscore to reverse the order - descending). This command enables us to select data using a date range similar to how we would do in SQL with a between operator on the where clause. The long numbers are just DateTime values that have been converted using the native JavaScipt Date.getTime() API.
zrangebyscore device.telemetry.0ZA-112 1565379958535 1565379958999
How do we store the rest of the fields/measures?
Now that we have a way to pull data for a specific deviceId and a date range, how do we associate the data with that information? Well, this is done by serializing the rest of the information into a JSON payload and storing it into the cache as a string value. When we add a record to a sorted list with a score, we can associate data with that score as shown next:
zadd device.telemetry.0ZA-112 1565379958535 '{"telemetryId": 2076,"deviceId": "0ZA-112","temperature": 34.000}'
We can now query all the information within a particular DateTime range for a selected deviceId.
Selecting the data from multiple devices and date range:
What if we want to select the telemetry data for all devices within a particular date range? The answer to this requires us to review our approach. When we add the deviceId to the Redis key, we have set a constraint on the sorted list, and we can only query by the deviceId. The command zrangebyscore does not support the use of wildcard character (*). We can, however, change the key and remove the deviceId. This results in a new key with this namespace: device.telemetry.
By removing the deviceId from the key, we can now run the same operations with a date range, and all the devices that processed information within the date range should be selected. If the data is too massive, we can accept the trade-off of memory usage for performance by creating two sorted sets, one with the deviceId and another one without. This really depends on the particular use case. Always keep in mind, this is a cache, and the data should expire within a time constraint.
It looks like we have done a good job of reproducing our SQL data models into Redis structure that can support the same operations that we do on SQL. We have also been able to work within the specifications of the Redis commands to set our data structure in a format that enables us to retrieve the data with similar operations that we support on SQL.
Originally published by ozkary.com
The https library in Nodejs enables us to make https calls to APIs under SSL/TLS protocols (encrypted channels). When there is a communication problem in the channel, the channel is dropped from the server and the ECONNRESET error is raised on the client-side.
In Nodejs, this exception usually has the following exception detail with code source (this changes with new versions).
{ Error: read ECONNRESET
 at TLSWrap.onStreamRead (internal/stream_base_commons.js:111:27)
errno: 'ECONNRESET',
code: 'ECONNRESET', syscall:'read' }
This error is confusing because it is created by the TLSWrap.onStreamRead which may lead us to think that there is a TLS problem in communication. This is often a case when the client support version TLS 1.1 and the server only has a more recent version like TLS 1.3.
Before we start making all kinds of changes, we need to make sure that when we make a request, we do not leave the request open. When a request is made, we must always call the end() method of the ClientRequest object. This method is inherited (extended in TypeScript) from the WritableStream class.
When we make a request and do not call the end method, a socket connection is left open (internal implementation of HTTPS with TLS writable stream). Since there is not an explicit socket connection sending data to the server, the request will just hang, and the server will eventually just reset the connection thus the ECONNRESET exception on the client.
Take a look at this code snippet with the corresponding operations to terminate the request and handle other possible communication errors with the server. Take notice of the timeout and end operations.
So if you see this error, just make sure to end the request. If this is already done, and the error continues to show, we need to know what version of TLS is supported by the client, so the server can accept the connection properly. Review the secureProtocol option on the http.RequestOption options and read about tls.createSecureContext here.
Thanks for reading.
Originally published by ozkary.com


text:
Proposed oil exploration in Virunga's Lake Edward: a fishes' perspective
This quest post by Kevin Smith of the IUCN Global Species Programme responds to Susanne Schmitt's request for information to strengthen the freshwater arguments of WWF's Campaign to keep oil exploration out of the Virunga World Heritage Site. Dr. Susanne Schmitt recently wrote for this blog, describing how WWF are campaigning for SOCO International, who own oil exploration licence for 'Block V' which covers a large part of the Virunga National Park and Lake Edward, to stay outside the park boundaries. WWF have highlighted the high biodiversity value of the lake, and others in the region, but it is often hard to find a central data resource with information on the biodiversity present (other than birds and mammals) – as would be needed in support of any Environmental Impact Assessment conducted.
IUCN, through its work on freshwater biodiversity assessments in Africa (including all species of fishes, molluscs, dragonflies, and crabs), has however, made large amounts of data freely available to help inform decision making processes such as these. Our data can be accessed in a number of ways, from the online ESRI powered 'Freshwater Biodiversity Browser' (Figure 1) which lets the user query any sub-catchment in Africa to identify which species of fish, mollusc, dragonfly, crab or aquatic plant is found within it, or with a smart phone using the ESRI Arc GIS app* (Figure 2). The app is the same as the desktop version but allows field workers to use their location (through gps on the smart phone) to query what freshwater biodiversity may be in the sub-catchment they are standing in. The species data all links back to the IUCN Red List, where you can find out more information on the conservation status of the species, and download the species distribution data.
Figure 1. IUCN Freshwater Biodiversity Browser (African freshwater species so far), allows the user to identify what species (with information on Red List status, utilisation, threats etc) are in every sub-catchment across Africa.
Figure 2. Freshwater Biodiversity Browser, allows the user to identify what species are in the sub-catchment they are located in the field.
Of the approximately 80 fish taxa in Lake Edward and the closely connected Lake George, the majority are from the family Cichlidae (including haplochromines) most of which are found nowhere else in the world (Snoeks 2000) and so are effectively "irreplaceable". Using data from the IUCN Red List assessments along with their range information the distribution of threatened species within the immediate Lake Edward and George basin can be shown (Figure 3). Currently there are no globally threatened fish species within Lake Edward, or within the Block V oil concession area, (at least at the time of the assessments in 2006!). The threatened species of the basin are found in the Ruwenzori river systems or within Lake George and the Kazinga Channel. These species are primarily threatened by pollution from mining activities. However, the high levels of endemicity within Lake Edward cannot be ignored (Figure 2). The species flock of Lake Edward may not yet be threatened, but any impacts in the future to Lake Edward, or its upstream catchment (covering almost the entire 'Block V' area) would more than likely impact those endemic (irreplaceable) species possibly causing them to classified as threatened or even extinct.
Figure 3. The number of threatened freshwater fish species in the immediate Lakes Edward and George basin
Figure 4. The number of freshwater fish species endemic to the immediate Lakes Edward and George basin
The impacts to freshwater biodiversity itself, although very important, is not the only aspect that need to be considered when assessing the likely impacts of development upon freshwater systems. The links between biodiversity and ecosystem services need to be identified and considered, even if this is only possible for the most the obvious services (provisioning e.g. food). There are many other fish species within Lake Edward and its basin that are not endemic but play a crucial role in human livelihoods and food security. A recent IUCN study on the values of freshwater fish of Africa's Albertine Rift (which uses the Red List assessments), found that 60% of fish species within the wider Albertine Rift lakes are important for human use primarily as either food, or for the aquarium trade (Carr et al. 2013). The report also noted that fishing not only provides the cheapest source of animal protein, it is a major source of income for those living near water bodies in Uganda and the DRC (Lakes Albert and Edward), and particularly for the most destitute of people (ADF 2003). However there are indications that fish populations are declining, for example, people living around Lake Edward [in the DRC] have begun cultivating crops to lessen the impact of declining fish stocks (Alinovi et al. 2007).
We therefore need to make informed decisions regarding the future of any development within the Lake Edward basin (not just the Virunga National Park), and this needs to adequately incorporate any potential impacts to biodiversity and human society, it cannot just be based on the profits and dollar 'benefits' from the development. The age old excuse of "but there is no information to do this…" is no longer valid for Africa. However, there are many similar developments planned throughout the world and it is all the more important that such data are made available for the globe's freshwater ecosystems. Unfortunately, it is currently unavailable for more than 50% of the world's wetlands and a lack of funding is hindering efforts to fill this information gap. We can't expect to have sustainable development if there is no baseline information set on freshwater biodiversity. We can broker deals, improve governance structures etc. but all needs to be underpinned by sound information on the biodiversity that enables these ecosystems to function sustainably.
All of IUCN's freshwater biodiversity data (see the Biomatrix), including datasets produced as part of our participation in the Biofresh Project such as global freshwater shrimp assessments, New Zealand freshwater biodiversity assessment, and global freshwater turtle distributions will be included in the Biofresh Freshwater Biodiversity Atlas along with other non-biodiversity freshwater related data.
For more information on IUCNs work on freshwater biodiversity contact – Kevin Smith (_EMAIL_) or William Darwall (_EMAIL_)
*note: search for 'Freshwater Biodiversity Browser' within the ESRI App
ADF (2003) Multinational. Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda. Lakes Edward and Albert Fisheries (LEAF) Pilot Project. Nile Equatorial Lake Subsidiary Action Program (NELSAP). Nile Basin Initiative. Agriculture and Rural Development Department.
Alinovi, L., Hemrich, G. and Russo, L. (2007) Addressing Food Insecurity in Fragile States: Case Studies from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Somalia and Sudan.
Carr, J.A., Outhwaite, W.E., Goodman, G.L., Oldfield, T.E.E. and Foden, W.B. 2013. Vital but vulnerable: Climate change vulnerability and human use of wildlife in Africa's Albertine Rift. Occasional Paper of the IUCN Species Survival Commission No. 48. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland and Cambridge, UK. xii + 224pp.
Snoeks, J. (2000) How well known is the ichthyodiversity of the large East African Lakes? Advances in Ecological Research 31: 553–565.

source: openbmb/Ultra-FineWeb


.: numberless instances — as in the genitive absolute, e. g. αὐτοῦ ἐλθόντος, λαλήσαντος, etc.; or in the accusative with infinitive, εἰς τό εἶναι αὐτούς ἀναπολογήτους, Romans 1:20; or after prepositions, ἐξ αὐτοῦ, ἐν αὐτῷ, etc.; or where it indicates the possessor, πατήρ αὐτοῦ; or a person as the (direct or indirect) object of an active verb, as ἐπιδώσει αὐτῷ, Matthew 7:9; ἀσπάσασθε αὐτήν, Matthew 10:12; ἀφείς αὐτούς, Matthew 26:44; ἦν διανεύων αὐτοῖς, Luke 1:22; οὐκ εἴα αὐτά λαλεῖν, Luke 4:41; σκοτία αὐτό οὐ κατέλαβε, John 1:5. But see αὑτοῦ below. 2. Contrary to Greek usage, in the N. T. even in the nominative it is put for a simple personal pronoun of the third person, where the Greeks say οὗτος or δέ, or use no pronoun at all. This has been convincingly shown by Buttmann, 107ff (93ff); and yet some of the examples adduced by him are not decisive, but either must be or can be referred to the usage illustrated under I:1; — those in which αὐτός is used of Christ, apparently to I:1b. But, in my opinion, the question is settled even by the following: αὐτός, Matthew 14:2; Mark 14:15; Luke 1:22; Luke 15:14; so too in the Sept. (cf. Thiersch, De Pentat. vers. Alex., p. 98); Sirach 49:7; Tobit 6:11; αὐτοί, Mark 2:8 (οὕτως αὐτοί διαλογίζονται in Griesbach); Luke 9:36; Luke 14:1; Luke 22:23; αὐτό, Luke 11:14 ( Tr marginal reading WH omits; Tr text brackets). Whether αὐτῇ and αὐταί also are so used, is doubtful; cf. Buttmann, 109 (95).
3. Sometimes in the oblique cases the pronoun is omitted, being evident from the context: Mark 6:5 (ἐπιθείς, namely, αὐτοῖς); John 3:34 (δίδωσι, namely, αὐτῷ); John 10:29 (δέδωκέ μοι, namely, αὐτούς); Acts 13:3 (ἀπέλυσαν, namely, αὐτούς); Revelation 18:21 (ἔβαλεν, namely, αὐτόν), etc.
4. Not infrequently αὐτός in the oblique cases is added to the verb, although the case belonging to this very verb has preceded: Matthew 8:1 (Καταβάντι δέ αὐτῷ ( L Tr WH genitive absolutely) ἀπό τόν ὄρους ἠκολούθησαν αὐτῷ); Matthew 4:16; Matthew 5:40; Matthew 8:23,28 ( R G); Matthew 9:28; 25:29> (ἀπό (om. by L T Tr WH) τοῦ μή ἔχοντος... ἀπ' αὐτοῦ); Matthew 26:71> ( R G L brackets T); Mark 5:2 ( R G); Mark 9:28> ( R G); John 15:2 (πᾶν κλῆμα... αἴρει αὐτό); Acts 7:21 ( R G); James 4:17; Revelation 2:7; Revelation 6:4 ( L Tr marginal reading brackets); cf. Winer s Grammar, § 22,4a.; Buttmann, 142 (125). Doubtless the writer, while writing the earlier words with the intention of joining them to the leading verb to follow, marked off these very words as a clause by themselves, as if they formed a protasis; and Song of Solomon, when he came to the leading verb, he construed it just as though it were to form an apodosis.
5. By a Hebraism αὐτός is used redundantly in relative sentences: ἧς εἴχετο θυγάτριον αὐτῆς, Mark 7:25; οὗ τῷ μώλωπι αὐτοῦ, 1 Peter 2:24 ( R G T, but Tr marginal reading brackets αὐτοῦ); especially in the Apocalypse: ἥν οὐδείς δύναται κλεῖσαι αὐτήν, Revelation 3:8 (according to the true text); οἷς ἐδόθη αὐτοῖς, Revelation 7:2; add Revelation 7:9; Revelation 13:12; Revelation 17:9; far more often in the Sept.; rare in Greek writings (from Callimachus () epistle 44); cf. Herm. ad Vig., p. 709; ( Buttmann, § 143,1); Winer s Grammar, § 22,4b. where add to the examples Herodian, 8,6, 10 (5 Bekker) οἷς ἐπιφοιτωσι αὐτοῖς τάς λοιπάς πόλεις πύλαι ἀνοιγνυντο. But to this construction must not be referred Matthew 3:12 οὗ τό πτύον ἐν τῇ χειρί αὐτοῦ, nor 1 Peter 2:24 ὅς τάς ἁμαρτίας ἡμῶν αὐτός ἀνήνεγκεν. For in the latter passage αὐτός is in contrast with us, who must otherwise have paid the penalty of our sins; and in the former the sense Isaiah, 'he holds his winnowing-shovel in his hand.'
6. Very often αὐτός is used rather laxly, where the subject or the object to which it must be referred is not expressly indicated, but must be gathered especially from some preceding name of a province or city, or from the context: Matthew 4:23 (περιῆγεν τήν Γαλιλαίαν διδάσκων ἐν ταῖς συναγωγαῖς αὐτῶν, i. e. of the Galilaeans); Acts 8:5 (Σαμαρείας ἐκήρυσσεν αὐτοῖς, i. e. τοῖς Σαμαρείταις); Acts 20:2 (αὐτούς, i. e. the inhabitants τῶν μερῶν ἐκείνων); 2 Corinthians 2:13 (αὐτοῖς, i. e. the Christians of Troas); Matthew 19:2 (ὄχλοι πολλοί καί ἐθεράπευσεν αὐτούς, i. e. their sick); 1 Peter 3:14 (φόβον αὐτῶν, i. e. of those who may be able κακῶσαι you, 1 Peter 3:13); Luke 23:51 (τῇ βουλή αὐτῶν, i. e. of those with whom he had been a βουλευτής); Hebrews 8:8 (αὐτοῖς ( L T WH Tr marginal reading αὐτούς; see μέμφομαι) i. e. τοῖς ἔχουσι τήν διαθήκην τήν προωτην); Luke 2:22 (τοῦ καθαρισμοῦ αὐτῶν. of the purification prescribed by the law of Moses to women in child-bed); John 8:44 (ψεύστης ἐστιν καί πατήρ αὐτοῦ, i. e. of the liar; cf. Baumg.-Crusius and Meyer at the passage). By this rather careless use of the pronoun it camo about that at length αὐτοί alone might be used for ἄνθρωποι: Matthew 8:4; Mark 1:44; Luke 5:14,17 (here T WH Tr marginal reading αὐτόν); cf. Winer s Grammar, § 22,3; Buttmann, § 127,8. 7. Sometimes, in relative sentences consisting of several members, the second member is not joined to the first by the relative ὅς, but by a loose connection proceeds with καί αὐτός; as, Luke 17:31; Acts 3:13 (By ὅν ὑμεῖς παρεδώκατε καί ἠρνήσασθε αὐτόν ( L T WH omit; Tr brackets αὐτόν)); 1 Corinthians 8:6 (ἐξ οὗ τά πάντα καί ἡμεῖς εἰς αὐτόν


text:
Math Mammoth British Money
Ships in 3-5 business days
Math Mammoth British Money is a worktext that covers money-related topics usually encountered during years 2-4. The book contains both textbook explanations and exercises, and is designed to be very easy to teach from, requiring very little teacher preparation. The book starts with year 2 topics, such as counting coins with pence-amounts and easy problems about change. From there, the lessons advance toward year 3, and finally to year 4 topics, such as practising with pound amounts, and figuring out total bills and change.

source: HuggingFaceFW/fineweb-edu


text:
Disclaimer / Privacy
We are hiring!
Difference Between | Descriptive Analysis and Comparisons
Data Transfer System
Asynchronous vs Synchronous
Difference between Asynchronous and Synchronous
Asynchronous and Synchronous are two different methods of transmission synchronization. The major difference between them lies in their transmission methods, i.e. Synchronous transmissions are synchronized by...
Copyright © 2018, Difference Between | Descriptive Analysis and Comparisons


text:
FLOYD COUNTY. Floyd County (E-9) is on U.S. Highway 70 northeast of Lubbock in the High Plains region of the Panhandle. The county is bordered on the north by Swisher and Briscoe counties, on the east by Motley County, on the south by Crosby County, and on the west by Hale County. The center of the county lies at 34°05' north latitude and 101°20' west longitude. Floydada is the county seat and largest town. In addition to U.S. Highway 70 the county's transportation needs are served by U.S. Highway 62, State Highway 207, and the Fort Worth and Denver, the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe, and the Quanah, Acme and Pacific railroads.
Floyd County covers 992 square miles. The mostly flat land is broken on the east by the Caprock and Rolling Plains and on the south by the White River and Blanco Canyon. The elevation ranges from 2,600 to 3,300 feet. The northeast corner has level to undulating soils, with some clayey subsoils. The remainder of the county has nearly flat terrain and alkaline soils with dark loamy surfaces and clayey subsoils. Vegetation is typical of the High Plains, with moderately short to tall grasses and plenty of mesquiteqv. Between 71 and 80 percent of the land in the county is considered prime farmland; about 500,000 acres is considered arable.
The climate is arid and mild, with cool winters and hot summers. Temperatures range in January from an average low of 24° to an average high of 53°, and in July from 67° to 94°. The average annual rainfall is nineteen inches, and the average relative humidity is 73 percent at 6 A.M. and 39 percent at 6 P.M. The average annual snowfall is eleven inches. The growing season averages 213 days per year, with the last freeze in early April and the first freeze in early November.
Evidence of prehistoric hunters has been found in Floyd County, which was part of the vast domain of the Plains Apaches and later of the Comanches. Spanish explorer Francisco Vázquez de Coronado is believed to have come through the area in 1541. Quitaque Peak was a familiar landmark to José P. Tafoya and other Comancheros who came from New Mexico to trade with the warlike "Mongols of the West"; indeed, it marked the southern boundary of the notorious Valley of Tears, so named because white captives were separated among various Indian bands or ransomed there by Comancheros. In August 1841 the Texan-Santa Fe expeditionqv members established Camp Resolution near the junction of Quitaque and Los Lingos creeks, in the county's northeastern part, and there made the fateful decision to split into two groups in a desperate bid to reach their objective.
In 1871 and again in 1874 Col. Ranald S. Mackenzie's Fourth United States Cavalry came through Floyd County in pursuit of the hostile Quahadi Comanches. In their wake came hide hunters operating out of Fort Griffin and Charles Rath's Teepee City. With the Indians and buffalo gone, ranchers entered the area with their free-range cattle outfits. The Baker brothers and O. J. Wiren established the headquarters of the Quitaque (Lazy F) Ranchqv, later owned by Charles Goodnight and for a time part of the JA Ranch, on the banks of Quitaque Creek. The firm of Owens, Marseilles and Duncan grazed both cattle and sheep on its H Bar L (later the TM Bar) Ranch in Blanco Canyon. Other pioneer ranches that had land in Floyd County included the Two-Buckle and the Matador.
On August 21, 1876, the Texas legislature formed Floyd County, named for the Alamo martyr Dolphin Ward Floyd, as one of the fifty-four counties established from the Bexar and Young territories. In 1884 Arthur B. Duncan and his family became the county's first settlers when they located in Blanco Canyon a short distance above Henry Clay (Hank) Smithqv's ranch in Crosby County. Since Floyd County at that time was attached to Donley County for administrative purposes, the Duncans and other settlers who soon followed had to go to Clarendon to file on state lands for homes. In the spring of 1887, Thomas J. Braidfoot and his family located on a section of school land that afterward was platted as the town of Della Plain. There the county's first school was begun late in 1888.
The move to organize Floyd County produced heated rivalry among its developing communities for the honor of being the county seat. Lockney, which became Della Plain's chief rival, was founded in 1889. In the spring of 1890 J. K. Gwynn appeared on the scene as a representative of Carolina V. Price, a Missouri native who owned numerous patented sections in Floyd County. Gwynn had one of the prize sections platted as Floyd City, another candidate for county seat. Lockney combined with Floyd City, and in the organization election on May 28, 1890, Floyd City won by a vote of 55 to 33. The election was subsequently contested in the district court and later in the Supreme Court, but its validity wassustained; Floyd City, renamed Floydada in 1892, remained the seat of local government, with A. B. Duncan serving as the first county judge.
Although Floyd County had a population of 529 by 1890, droughts, financial panics, and grasshopper plagues caused many settlers to vacate the region during the next decade. Some of the communities, including Della Plain and Mayshaw, were abandoned, but Lockney was revived in 1894 with the establishment of Lockney Christian College, which lasted until 1917. A gradual influx of population resulted in a movement to choose a new county seat and build a new courthouse, but in the election of 1912 Floydada was again victorious by a small majority. After that, town and sectional rivalries waned.
The first railroad to build into the county was the Santa Fe, which in 1910 built a branch line from Plainview to Lockney and Floydada. In 1928 the Quanah, Acme and Pacific Railway extended its tracks from McBain, thus connecting Floydada directly with points east and north. At the same time, the Fort Worth and Denver constructed its South Plains line from Estelline and Quitaque to Lockney via Sterley and South Plains. This line, later taken over by Burlington Northern, is noted for the Quitaque Tunnel, a remarkable engineering feat that is now the state's only functioning railway tunnel, located in northeastern Floyd County.
The construction of the railroads brought numerous new settlers to the area. Between 1900 and 1930 the population increased six-fold, growing from 2,020 to 12,409. Many of the new settlers were farmers, lured to the area by abundant land, and during the first three decades of the twentieth century the number of farms in the county grew rapidly. In 1900 there were only 286; by 1930 that figure had grown to 1,671. Corn was the most important crop in the early years, but after 1900 wheat and cotton were both introduced on a commercial scale. By 1930 Floyd County farmers were harvesting more than two million bushels of wheat annually, making the county one of the leaders in the state in wheat culture. Cotton culture also saw impressive growth, particularly after 1920. By 1930 nearly one-fifth of the improved land in the county-71,184 of 490,731 acres-was devoted to cotton. Production increased from 430 bales in 1910 to 42,801 bales in 1926, one of the peak years of the cotton boom.
The 1920s and 1930s saw other important improvements. Tractors began to be used on a large scale, and numerous new roads were laid out and graded. In 1937 paved highways came to Floyd County with the completion of State Highway 28 (now U.S. 70) through Floydada.
During the early 1930s cotton was the leading cash crop. Falling prices, droughts, and boll weevil infestations, however, combined to drive down cotton production in the 1930s. Although the amount of land planted in cotton continued to be quite high, both yields and profits dropped significantly, especially after 1932. In 1936 Floyd County farmers produced only 11,137 bales, only slightly more than a quarter of the peak figure for the mid-1920s.
Because of the rapidly growing population, land prices showed a marked increase during the second and third decade of the twentieth century, and many new farmers found land impossible to buy. The number of tenants and share croppers grew rapidly, particularly in the 1920s, and by 1930 more than half of county farmers-923 of 1,691-were working someone else's land. In contrast to those in many other areas of the state, the overwhelming majority of the tenants were white. The high rate of tenancy had serious results during the Great Depression of the 1930s. As a result of the poor yields and the reluctance of banks to extend credit to financially strained farmers, many of those who made a living from the land, particularly tenants, found themselves displaced. Numerous farmers were forced to give up


text:
A delicate Indonesian silver bracelet in the form of a Naga
Java, 19th/early 20th century, apparently unmarked
Diam. of the opening: 5.5 cm / largest width: 8 cm (possibly enlargeable)
Naga (Sanskrit for serpent) in Hinduism is a mythical half-snake half-human being. They live in the underground Kingdom called Naga-loka, which is filled with resplendent palaces, beautifully ornamented with precious gems. They are guardians of treasure and also associated with water, sea, lakes and rivers. They are potentially dangerous but often beneficial to humans, and only dangerous to the truly evil.


text:
On This Page
Public Health Statement for Vinyl Acetate
This Public Health Statement is the summary chapter from the Toxicological Profile for vinyl acetate. It is one in a series of Public Health Statements about hazardous substances and their health effects. A shorter version, the ToxFAQsTM, is also available. This information is important because this substance may harm you. The effects of exposure to any hazardous substance depend on the dose, the duration, how you are exposed, personal traits and habits, and whether other chemicals are present. For more information, call the ATSDR Information Center at _PHONE_.
This Statement was prepared to give you information about vinyl acetate and to emphasize the human health effects that may result from exposure to it.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has identified 1,177 sites on its National Priorities List (NPL). Vinyl acetate has been found at 3 of these sites. However, we do not know how many of the 1,177 NPL sites have been evaluated for vinyl acetate. As EPA evaluates more sites, the number of sites at which vinyl acetate is found may change. The information is important for you because vinyl acetate may cause harmful health effects and because these sites are potential or actual sources of human exposure to vinyl acetate.
When a chemical is released from a large area, such as an industrial plant, or from a container, such as a drum or bottle, it enters the environment as a chemical emission. This emission, which is also called a release, does not always lead to exposure. You can be exposed to a chemical only when you come into contact with the chemical. You may be exposed to it in the environment by breathing, eating, or drinking substances containing the chemical or from skin contact with it. If you are exposed to a hazardous substance such as vinyl acetate, several factors will determine whether harmful health effects will occur and what the type and severity of those health effects will be. These factor include the dose (how much), the duration (how long), the route or pathway by which you are exposed (breathing, eating, drinking, or skin contact), the other chemicals to which you are exposed, and your individual characteristics such as age, sex, nutritional status, family traits, life style, and state of health.
1.1 What is vinyl acetate?
Vinyl acetate is a clear, colorless liquid. It has a sweet, pleasant, fruity smell, but the odor may be sharp and irritating to some people. You can easily smell vinyl acetate when it is in the air at levels around 0.5 ppm (half a part of vinyl acetate in 1 million parts of air). It readily evaporates into air and dissolves easily in water. Vinyl acetate is flammable and may be ignited by heat, sparks, or flames. Vinyl acetate is used to make other industrial chemicals (such as polyvinyl acetate polymers and ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymers). These other chemicals are used mostly to make glues for the packaging and building industries. They are also used to make paints, textiles, and paper. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has determined that vinyl acetate may be safely used as a coating or a part of a coating that is used in plastic films for food packaging, and as a modifier of food starch.
Vinyl acetate does not occur naturally in the environment. It enters the environment from factories and facilities that make, use, store, or dispose of it. When vinyl acetate is disposed of at waste sites or elsewhere in the environment, it can enter the soil, air, and water. Vinyl acetate will break down in the environment. The half-life (time it takes for 1/2 of the chemical to break down) for vinyl acetate is about 6 hours in air and 7 days in water. We have no information on how long vinyl acetate will stay in soil.
1.2 What happens to vinyl acetate when it enters the environment?
Industrial facilities, accidental spills, contact with products that contain vinyl acetate, and hazardous waste disposal sites are possible sources of exposure to vinyl acetate. The most important way that you can be exposed to vinyl acetate if you live around factories that make, use, store, and dispose of vinyl acetate on site or if you live near waste sites in which vinyl acetate or products that contain vinyl acetate have been disposed, is by breathing air or drinking water that contain it. You can also be exposed to vinyl acetate by skin contact with products that were made with vinyl acetate, such as glues and paints. Exposure can also occur through ingestion of food items that were packaged in plastic films containing vinyl acetate or food items that contain vinyl acetate as a starch modifier. However, exposure to vinyl acetate occurs mostly in the workplace. Workers can breathe in the chemical when they are making it or using it to make other chemicals. Workers can also have skin contact with vinyl acetate solutions. It has been estimated that about 50,000 workers employed at about 5,000 plants are exposed to vinyl acetate in the United States.
Background levels of vinyl acetate in water, soil, or food have not been reported. However, vinyl acetate has been detected in water and soil from hazardous waste sites on the NPL. It has been measured in the air in industrial areas of Houston, Texas at a level of about 0.5 ppm.
1.3 How can vinyl acetate enter and leave my body?
Vinyl acetate can enter your body through your lungs when you breathe air containing it, through your stomach and intestines when you eat food or drink water containing it, or through your skin. Studies in animals show that most of the vinyl acetate taken in through the nose or mouth enters the body almost immediately. We have no information on how fast it will enter your body tissues once it gets on your skin. Based on information obtained from animal studies, once vinyl acetate is taken into your body through your nose or mouth, vinyl acetate or its breakdown products may quickly be distributed throughout the body and removed. Studies in animals indicate that vinyl acetate is quickly broken down. Most of the vinyl acetate taken into your body leaves in your breath within a few days in the form of carbon dioxide. Small amounts of the vinyl acetate taken into your body also leave in your urine and feces as break down products.
1.4 How can vinyl acetate affect my health?
People who were exposed to vinyl acetate in air for short periods complained of irritation to their eyes, nose, and throat. One in nine volunteers who breathed air containing 4 ppm of vinyl acetate for 2 minutes had throat irritation. Several volunteers exposed to 72 ppm of vinyl acetate in air for 30 minutes reported coughing and hoarseness and eye irritation. No health effects were found in workers who were exposed to levels around 10 ppm of vinyl acetate in work room air for an average of 15 years of employment. However, we do not know if health effects would occur in people exposed to low levels for longer periods.
Exposure to high levels (around 1,000 ppm) of vinyl acetate in air for a couple of weeks caused irritation of the eyes, nose, throat, and lungs of laboratory animals. Vinyl acetate at levels around 200 ppm caused irritation to the respiratory tract and nose when it was breathed by rats and mice for up to 2 years. In this same study, damage to the lungs (congestion and increased lung weight) was seen in rats at 200 and 600 ppm and in mice at 600 ppm vinyl acetate. Studies with animals also suggest that breathing vinyl acetate may affect the immune system and nervous system. The extent and way in which vinyl acetate affects these systems is not well understood.
There is no evidence that vinyl acetate causes cancer in humans. Vinyl acetate caused tumors in the noses of rats that breathed 600 ppm for 2 years. The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) has determined that vinyl acetate is possibly carcinogenic to humans (Group 2B).
We have no information on health effects in humans exposed to vinyl acetate in contaminated food or water. Information from animals exposed to vinyl acetate in drinking water suggest that the immune system might be affected at very high levels.
There is no information to show that birth defects or low birth weights occur in humans exposed to vinyl acetate. No birth defects were seen in the offspring of animals that were exposed to vinyl acetate during their pregnancy. Pregnant animals exposed to high levels of vinyl acetate in drinking water or air produced offspring which were smaller in size than normal. These effects to the offspring were seen at the same level that caused reduced weight gain in pregnant animals. This suggests that the smaller size of the offspring may be due to the reduced weight gain in the pregnant animals and may not be a direct effect of vinyl acetate on the developing animal.
People who had a mild (2%) solution of vinyl acetate put on their skin for 48 - 72 hours did not show signs of skin irritation. However, vinyl acetate has caused skin irritation and blisters in workers who accidentally spilled it on their skin. More concentrated solutions of vinyl acetate have caused reddening, blisters, and corrosion to the skin of rabbits. The effects of continual or repeated skin contact with vinyl acetate or products that contain vinyl acetate over a long time are not known.
Exposure to vinyl acetate in air or direct contact with vinyl acetate solutions has caused irritation to the eyes. Several volunteers exposed to 72 ppm of vinyl acetate in air for 30 minutes reported eye irritation that lasted up to


about the clients the Food Bank serves and talks about the incredible volunteers that are the heart and soul of the mission. This is followed by a discussion about hunger issues and food insecurity in the community and the unique approach Bellingham Food Bank is taking. (They have created some amazing partnerships with farmers to ensure that neighbors have fresh food and can choose what they need and want for their families). After breakfast, donors get a tour of the Food Bank and see the impact of their gifts to ensure that no one in their community goes hungry. Donors leave feeling a deep sense of connection with the people they met and are inspired by the scope and impact of the organization.
Important Considerations for Creating Your Own Engagement Strategies
Now that you've seen some examples of outstanding donor engagement strategies, it's time to start creating your own for your donors and potential donors. It's important to remember that these strategies are a step along the path to invite them to increase their gift so that your organization can do even more to meet the needs in the community.
1. Mission Driven: Make it UNIQUE to your organization
As you can see in the above examples, each strategy is specific to the organization's mission and showcases how the organization is meeting a critical need. As you think about your engagement strategies, be creative! You can't replicate another organization's strategy. You have a unique story to share and you need to come up with a unique way to convey it to donors.
2. Keep it simple: Ease of execution
Ideally, your engagement strategies will be things you can replicate on a monthly basis, at least. So you'll want to make sure that they are easy to execute. Don't over-think it. If it's too complicated, you won't do it.
3. Low Cost
These experiences don't need to be expensive. Light refreshments are likely all you'll need. Again, you should be doing these often, so think about your budget in terms of at least 12 meaningful engagement strategies (one per month).
4. Scalable as your major donor base grows
Your strategies should be scalable as your major donor base grows. The more donors you engage the more money you'll raise. So keep this in mind as you create your strategies. When I say scalable, I'm not talking about creating larger engagement experiences. You still need to keep them small enough to be intimate, but you can offer the experiences more often. For example, you might go from hosting one lunch-tour a month with 6-10 donors, to hosting 2 or 3 lunch-tours a month, thereby engaging up to 30 major donors a month. You may have the occasional special one-off experience for donors that can't be scaled, but on balance you want to have something that is simple and flexible in the design so that it can adapt and grow as your donor base grows.
5. Your Board Goes First!
Finally, I recommend that the first group of donors to experience your new engagement strategies be your Board Members. I'm constantly amazed at how many Board Members hunger for an experience that puts them more in touch with the mission. In each of the above examples, the Board Members were the first to participate in these experiences. Some of them had never done it before and said it was one of the most meaningful things they did as board members. It also give the board members confidence that if they invite people from their network to do this, that it will be a great experience.
The success of your major gift program depends on your ability to connect with donors in powerful, memorable and authentic ways. You can now begin to create engagement experiences that bring your mission to life and give donors a chance to see how important their partnership is to advancing your mission in the community. These experiences createthe the depth of relationship needed to inspire donors to increase their giving. However, inspiration is not always sufficient. Many people still need an authentic and direct invitation to give. Engagement strategies create this pathway, allowing us to naturally extend an invitation to people to partner more deeply and direct the flow of their financial gifts to create a more just, healthy, beautiful, equitable, and peaceful world.


text:
The Bigger Picture
Photo and caption by Matt Mahony
As I walked alongside a swift glacial river in Jasper National Park, the stripe in this small rock caught my attention. Its unique shape reminded me of the innate connection between the rocks littering the ground beneath my feet and the towering mountains above. The perspective captured in this photo inspires the realization that this small rock is on its own journey across the surface of the Earth that began a long time ago in the majestic peaks where it originated.
Location: Jasper National Park, Alberta, Canada


text:
CAR tyres rather than exhausts are the main source of a notorious air pollutant that kills thousands every year, warn advisers to the Swedish government.
Jan Ahlbom and Ulf Duus say that wear and tear on tyres releases about 40 000 tonnes of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons across Europe each year. These PAHs, in the form of tiny airborne particles called PM10s, may cause cancer. Scientists also blame PM10s for 10 000 premature deaths in Britain each year from lung and heart disease.
Environmental watchdogs assumed that vehicle exhausts were the main source of PAH pollution. But in a report for the Swedish National Chemicals Inspectorate in Stockholm, Ahlbom and Duus reveal that the beneficial effects of catalytic converters have made tyres the key source of PAHs from traffic.
"This is a new one on us," says Paul Johnston, who heads a chemical analysis unit at the University of Exeter. "The...
To continue reading this article, subscribe to receive access to all of newscientist.com, including 20 years of archive content.


ComFedQuery Test
This test monitors the error statistics in the CCLogging database.
Target of the test : The TP server
Agent deploying the test : An internal agent
Outputs of the test : One set of outputs for every CCLogging database monitored.
Configurable parameters for the test
Parameter Description
Test period
How often should the test be executed
The host for which the test is to be configured.
Refers to the port at which the specified host listens to.
Enter the name of a specific MS SQL instance that is to be monitored. The default value of this parameter is "default". To monitor an MS SQL instance named "CFS", enter this as the value of the Instance parameter.
The IP/host name of the database host.
The port at which the database host listens.
The user name to be used for logging into the database. This user should be authorized to connect to the CCLogging database.
Enter the password for logging into the CClogging database
Confirm Password
Provide a comma-separated list of error message patterns to be monitored in the format, Displayname:messagepattern. Here, the Displayname is just a name that is used to uniquely identify the message pattern, and will be displayed in the monitor interface. The messagepattern is an expression of the form - *expr* or expr or *expr or expr* or *expr1*expr2*... or expr1*expr2, etc. A leading '*' signifies any number of leading characters, while a trailing '*' signifies any number of trailing characters. For example, Error1:*cc_err*,Error2:*login*.
Detailed Diagnosis
To make diagnosis more efficient and accurate, the eG Enterprise system embeds an optional detailed diagnostic capability. With this capability, the eG agents can be configured to run detailed, more elaborate tests as and when specific problems are detected. To enable the detailed diagnosis capability of this test for a particular server, choose the On option against Detailed Diagnosis. To disable the capability, click on the Off option.
The option to selectively enabled/disable the detailed diagnosis capability will be available only if the following conditions are fulfilled:
 - The eG manager license should allow the detailed diagnosis capability
 - Both the bad and normal frequencies configured for the detailed diagnosis measures should not be 0.
Measurements made by the test
Measurement Description Measurement Unit Interpretation
Errors found
Indicates the number of error messages logged into the CCLogging database.
The detailed diagnosis of this measure, if enabled, provides the details of the error messages that were logged into the CCLogging database.


text:
Wilson, A. E., M. F. Chislock, Z. Yang, M. U.G. Barros, and J. F. Roberts. 2018. Pond bank access as an approach for managing toxic cyanobacteria in beef cattle pasture drinking water ponds. Environmental Monitoring and Assessment 190:247.
Forty-one livestock drinking water ponds in Alabama beef cattle pastures during were surveyed during the late summer to generally understand water quality patterns in these important water resources. Since livestock drinking water ponds are prone to excess nutrients that typically lead to eutrophication, which can promote blooms of toxigenic phytoplankton such as cyanobacteria, we also assessed the threat of exposure to the hepatotoxin, microcystin. Eighty percent of the ponds studied contained measurable microcystin, while three of these ponds had concentrations above human drinking water thresholds set by the US Environmental Protection Agency (i.e., 0.3 μg/L). Water quality patterns in the livestock drinking water ponds contrasted sharply with patterns typically observed for temperate freshwater lakes and reservoirs. Namely, we found several non-linear relationships between phytoplankton abundance (measured as chlorophyll) and nutrients or total suspended solids. Livestock had direct access to all the study ponds. Consequently, the proportion of inorganic suspended solids (e.g., sediment) increased with higher concentrations of total suspended solids, which underlies these patterns. Unimodal relationships were also observed between microcystin and phytoplankton abundance or nutrients. Euglenoids were abundant in the four ponds with chlorophyll concentrations > 250 μg/L (and dominated three of these ponds), which could explain why ponds with high chlorophyll concentrations would have low microcystin concentrations. Based on observations made during sampling events and available water quality data, livestock-mediated bioturbation is causing elevated total suspended solids that lead to reduced phytoplankton abundance and microcystin despite high concentrations of nutrients, such as phosphorus and nitrogen. Thus, livestock could be used to manage algal blooms, including toxic secondary metabolites, in their drinking water ponds by allowing them to walk in the ponds to increase turbidity.


File(s) stored somewhere else
BOLD activity during mental rotation and viewpoint-dependent object recognition.
journal contribution
posted on 28.03.2002, 00:00 by Isabel Gauthier, William G. Hayward, Michael J. Tarr, Adam W. Anderson, Pawel Skudlarski, John C. Gore
We measured brain activity during mental rotation and object recognition with objects rotated around three different axes. Activity in the superior parietal lobe (SPL) increased proportionally to viewpoint disparity during mental rotation, but not during object recognition. In contrast, the fusiform gyrus was preferentially recruited in a viewpoint-dependent manner in recognition as compared to mental rotation. In addition, independent of the effect of viewpoint, object recognition was associated with ventral areas and mental rotation with dorsal areas. These results indicate that the similar behavioral effects of viewpoint obtained in these two tasks are based on different neural substrates. Such findings call into question the hypothesis that mental rotation is used to compensate for changes in viewpoint during object recognition.


click here to jump to start of article
Join Our Newsletter
Get latest articles and videos with Jewish inspiration and insights
Why Reincarnation?
Why Reincarnation?
Exploring the mystical underpinnings of this misunderstood concept.
The topic of reincarnation sparks many questions and strong reactions. Sometimes the question is simply, "Is reincarnation really a Jewish concept?"
For many, reincarnation seems to be an idea that belongs to other religions, particularly those from the East, not Judaism.
One reason for this is because you do not see the idea of reincarnation showing up in many mainstream Torah texts over the generations, such as Chumash, Mishnah, and Talmud. One would think that if reincarnation is such a mainstream Jewish concept there would be at least a few references to it in such sources and others like them.
Then again, unlike other religions, Judaism prefers not to mix everyday topics together with its more mystical elements. Though Kabbalah is as mainstream as any other area of Torah knowledge,1 even alluded to in the Talmud (Chagigah 14b), it is as helpful to introduce Kabbalah into everyday Torah learning as it is to discuss details of Quantum Theory with ninth grade physics students.
For the person, however, who has graduated from Chumash to Mishnah to Talmud, and then to the Zohar,2 he will find, among countless other topics, a very detailed discussion about reincarnation, particularly in the Zohar's commentary on Parashas Mishpatim, what reincarnation is, how it works, and why it is necessary in the first place.
For clarification of the Zohar's teachings, the person can turn to Shaar HaGilgulim, or Gate of Reincarnations, or Sefer HaGilgulim, Order of Reincarnations. Both works are the teachings of the greatest Kabbalist of the last 500 years, Rabbi Yitzchak Luria, or "Arizal" for short whose teachings are considered to be authoritative.
Reincarnation is a Jewish concept with a very long Jewish tradition.
So, yes, reincarnation is a Jewish concept, with a very long Jewish tradition. But why the fascination with the topic in the first place?
Sometimes it seems to have to do with staying in touch, at least emotionally, with loved ones who are already gone. People want to know that wherever they are they are doing fine, and might even come back again in another life. They want to know that though they have left this world that life can still go on for them, somewhere else, perhaps. The idea of reincarnation reassures them of that.
For others it has to do more with understanding inexplicable personal tendencies, or curious natures of family members or friends. Sometimes lifes experiences fall short when it comes to explaining unusual events or personality anomalies. Reincarnation can explain a lot of that as well, as we'll see in the next essay.
And yet for others, it is just a general fascination with mystical subjects, a category to which the topic of reincarnation certainly belongs. Who doesn't want to believe that there is more to life than we can see or sense? Who doesn't want to believe that we can have a second chance, and maybe even more, to make amends for past mistakes?
Why is there Reincarnation?
Why is there reincarnation in the first place? Life itself is not unlike the way education works, which is about moving up from level to level as one matures and becomes more intelligent. The educational process that most go through in life is meant to enhance a person's ability to function in the world, to help people to make most of their lives, and to enhance their appreciation of the need to become responsible members of society.
Likewise as a person grows up, his or her spiritual capability also increases and matures, though not automatically. Just as the more one puts into an education the more one gets out of it, similarly the more one "puts" into spiritual growth the more one grows spiritually—the more spiritually empowered the person becomes.
How does that actually work?
The first thing a person needs to know is that Judaism teaches that though we all have one unique soul, each soul is actually comprised of five parts,3 each of which has a specific name: Nefesh, Ruach, Neshamah, Chayah, and Yechidah, loosely translated as: Rest, Spirit, Breath, Life, and Single, names that mean little until one understands how they got them. What matters for now, though, is that they represent the path to spiritual completion, because each level up provides increasingly greater access to higher levels of spiritual capacity.
A good analogy for how this works is computer software. Very often when a person acquires software for his computer he can do so cheaply, or even for free. But there's a catch: upon opening the newly installed software and using it for the first time he may notice that some of the listed functions are grayed-out, indicating that they are not yet available to him. To access those functions he has to pay for the upgrade.
If the person chooses to take the financial plunge and invest more money into the program, very often all he receives back in addition is a numeric key to complete the registration. However, after keying it in, almost magically, the previously grayed-in functions blacken indicating accessibility, instantly making the program more powerful.
But how does only a keyed-in number deliver so much more additional software to its user?
It doesn't. What really happens is that all of the functions, the accessible and the inaccessible ones, are delivered to the computer during the first download. The program, however, was written in such a way as to only make certain functions available to the user until additional information, in this case, a paid-for numeric key, has been provided.
This way the user can see what he is missing and be tempted to pay for the rest of the program. Once he does, and he properly registers the program, permission is then granted, though the computer, to utilize the rest of the software's functions.
At birth every individual has all five levels of soul. We have to if we're going to continuously receive Divine light to keep us going, since the five levels of soul connect us up to the light of God which nourishes our souls and, in turn, keep our bodies alive.4 To be missing a level of soul would be to break the connection between a person and the Source of Life.
Even the Talmud states that, prior to a child's birth, an angel teaches it the entire Torah. The only problem is, the Talmud continues, is that the angel causes the child to forget what he learned right before birth (Niddah 30b). Seems pointless, no?
Not really. There is a big difference between learning something new and only having to recall what was once learned. The Talmud is telling us that education, at least when it comes to Torah, is a process of bringing to the conscious mind what already exists on the level of the subconscious. The learning of Torah gives a person access to higher levels of understanding, and really, and as we'll see later, higher levels of soul.
We are created in God's image to achieve great spiritual accomplishments.
Because at birth, a person only needs the least of the five levels of the soul, the Nefesh, to remain alive and function. There is very little a baby is required to do other than eat and sleep, and for that the Nefesh is sufficient. Indeed, a person could, and many do, live the rest of his or her life on the level of Nefesh alone, though they wouldn't really amount to very much spiritually.
God didn't make man in His image for nothing.5 He did it to allow man to achieve great spiritual accomplishments, to become the very best human being he or she can become, to achieve ultimate fulfillment, in this world, and in the World-to-Come.
Life is about doing exactly this, and ideally, in one lifetime.
It's All about the Journey
Mankind may be capable of great spiritual feats, but life is not always supportive of his efforts to achieve them, and on many occasions, that may be an understatement.
The culprit? It is what we call in Hebrew the yetzer hara, the evil inclination. In the Garden of Eden the yetzer hara was embodied in the snake, the one which convinced Eve to eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil against God's command. Until that time, humans were free of an internal evil inclination and remained perfectly balanced between good and evil.6
That didn't last long, though. As a result of the sin man absorbed the yetzer hara into his being until it became a part of him, the result of which is succinctly summed up by the Torah in the following way:
The intention of man's heart is evil from his youth. (Bereishis 8:21)
Without question, it was a game changer. The yetzer hara, it seems, has its own agenda, seemingly more interested in having a good time materially than becoming more perfect. It doesn't buy into this whole spiritual development thing, and it seems to try to sabotage any attempts to do so every chance it gets.
The yetzer hara can interfere with our ability to climb the soul ladder.
As spiritually troublesome and burdensome as that can be for the person on a quest for personal greatness, it is not accidental. It is the way we are meant to be because that is the way to make sure that any spiritual growth we achieve is the result of choices we make, not automatic or accidental. We were given the gift


text:
A consistent CSG model is one which is made up of solid objects with no dangling surfaces. In rayshade, it is quite easy to construct inconsistent models, which will usually appear incorrect in the final images. In rayshade, CSG is implemented by maintaining the tree structure of the CSG operations. This tree is traversed, and the operators therein applied, on a per-ray basis. It is therefore difficult to verify the consistency of the model ''on the fly.''
One class of CSG problems occur when surfaces of objects being operated upon coincide. For example, when subtracting a box from another box to make a square cup, the result will be wrong if the tops of the two boxes coincide. To correct this, the inner box should be made slightly taller than the outer box. A related problem that must be avoided occurs when two coincident surfaces are assigned different surface properties.
It may seem that the union operator is unnecessary, since listing two objects together in an aggregate results in an image that appears to be the same. While the result of such a short-cut may appear the same on the exterior, the interior of the resulting object will contain extraneous surfaces. The following example show this quite clearly.
difference box -2 0 -3 2 3 3 union /* change to list; note bad internal surfaces */ sphere 2 1 0 0 sphere 2 -1 0 0 end end rotate 1 0 0 -40 rotate 0 0 1 50
The visual evidence of an inconsistent CSG object varies depending upon the operator being used. When subtracting a consistent object from and inconsistent one, the resulting object will appear to be the union of the two objects, but the shading will be incorrect. It will appear to be inside-out in places, while correct in other places. The inside-out sections indicate the areas where the problems occur. Such problems are often caused by polygons with incorrectly specified normals, or by surfaces that exactly coincide (which appear as partial ''Swiss cheese'' objects).
The following example illustrates an attempt to subtract a sphere from a pyramid defined using an incorrectly facing triangle. Note that the resulting image obviously points to which triangle is reversed.
name pyramid list triangle 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 triangle 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 triangle 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 triangle 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 /* wrong order */ end difference object pyramid scale 3 3 3 rotate 0 0 1 45 rotate 1 0 0 -30 translate 0 -3.5 0 sphere 2.4 0 0 0 end
By default, cylinders and cones do not have end caps, and thus are not consistent primitives. One must usually add endcaps by listing the cylinder or cone with (correctly-oriented) endcap discs in an aggregate.


text:
CORVALLIS, Ore. – Tropical herbivorous fish are beginning to expand their range into temperate waters – likely as a result of climate change – and a new international study documents the dramatic impact of the intrusion in the Mediterranean Sea.
Temperate waters are typically dominated by algal "forests" and have naturally low levels and limited diversity of herbivores, the researchers say. But as tropical fish move into these waters, they are consuming much of the plant life and changing the habitat as well as the manner in which different species interact.
Results of the study, which was funded primarily by the Pew Foundation, have just been published in the Journal of Ecology. It builds on a previous study documenting the move of tropical fish species into temperate waters that recently was published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
"The introduction of tropical fish into more temperate regions is troubling and this new study gives a vivid example of what can happen when non-native species occupy a new ecosystem," said Fiona Tomas Nash, a courtesy professor of fisheries and wildlife at Oregon State University and a co-author on both studies.
"We now know that the arrival of tropical fish into temperate areas is occurring on an increasing basis around the world," she added. "This is the first attempt to characterize what impacts these fish are having – and the mechanisms driving these impacts."
In this latest study, an international research team surveyed roughly 1,000 kilometers of coastline in the eastern Mediterranean to study two species of tropical fish called rabbitfish. They were introduced to the region through the Suez Canal and now have become a dominant component of the total fish biomass in the southernmost part of the eastern Mediterranean.
This part of the Mediterranean has two distinct areas – one with warmer regions that attract abundant numbers of rabbitfish, and colder regions where they are very rare or completely absent. Where abundant, their damage has been striking: a 65 percent reduction in canopy algae, a 60 percent reduction in overall benthic biomass (algae and invertebrates) and a 40 percent decrease in the total number of plant and animal species.
"The fear is that if the colder regions warm just a bit through climate change or some other mechanism, rabbitfish will begin moving into those areas as well," Tomas Nash said.
To learn more about how the rabbitfish changed the ecosystem, the researchers videotaped fish feeding in the Mediterranean off Turkey in two areas – one dominated by tropical rabbitfish and the other dominated by native temperate fish. They were surprised by what they found. Native temperate herbivorous fish actually had higher consumption rates than the tropical rabbitfish. "We did not expect to see that," Tomas Nash said.
But while native fish targeted only adult macroalgae, the two species of rabbitfish fed complementarily – one targeted the mature kelps while the other fed almost exclusively on emerging algal "recruits," or juvenile plants.
"The result is that one species denudes the forest and the other prevents it from recovering," said Tomas Nash, who also has a faculty appointment with the Mediterranean Institute for Advanced Studies in Spain.
A study off Japan by collaborators found that the introduction of tropical species there, including rabbitfish and parrotfish, resulted in the loss of kelp forests and the emergence of non-native corals in as little as 20 years.
In the first paper, the researchers outlined how tropical herbivorous fish primarily along west boundary currents are moving into temperate zones, including South Africa, Brazil, the Gulf of Mexico, Australia and Japan, as well as the Mediterranean. Other areas, including the Pacific Northwest of the United States, have not seen sustained spread of tropical species likely due to prevailing currents and because surface waters are too cold due to seasonal upwelling.
The researchers found algal forests in the waters off Greece had not been severely affected because only the rabbitfish that feeds on adult algae is present and in relatively low densities. They have just begun studies of rabbitfish and chub arrivals in Australia.
"The greatest damage that we documented was off Turkey, which may be serving as the proverbial canary in the coal mine," Tomas Nash said. "The barrenness of the underwater habitat is unique and quite striking – it is spread over hundreds of kilometers."


text:
The Christianization Age in Central Europe is a milieu of continuous encounter among peoples from different cultural and ethnical environments and of efforts from the Christian side to evangelize and extend the religion of Christ. Animalization and dehumanization of the Other is part of the Christian narrative from the period. The lecture will present the use of animal metaphors in sources related to the Christianization process in the 10th-11th centuries. The animal as a symbol is ambivalent, it may convey positive as well as negative meanings to evoke to a certain particular human behaviour or attributed characteristics. Religious infidelity, an aspect of the Other's identity and characterization, is a term that comprises a wide spectrum of adversaries to the Christian faith, but also of Christian sinners. The lecture will introduce the nuances among the different cases, as well as future research perspectives.
Dr. Andrea Vanina Neyra is associate researcher at the Multidisciplinary Institute of History and Human Sciences of the National Scientific and Technical Research Council (IMHICIHU-CONICET), professor at the School and Philosophy and Literature at the National University of Buenos Aires (FFyL-UBA) and professor at the School of Humanities at the National University of San Martín (EH-UNSAM). She received her PhD in Medieval History in 2011 from the University of Buenos Aires for a dissertation on Bishop Burchard of Worms's vision of superstitions. Her research and teaching experience focuses on the role of episcopal power, the Christianization process and strategies of evangelization, as well as the perception of the religious adversary in the High and Central Middle Ages in Central Europe. She is the director of the project "Unstable Margins: Conflict Narratives, Identity and Strategies of Delegitimization of Religious Adversaries between Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages" at CONICET.


text:
Correctness by Construction
Correctness by Construction is a radical, effective and economical method of building software with high integrity especially for security-critical and safety-critical applications. It produces software with extremely low defect rates – fewer than 0.1 defects per thousand lines of code – with good productivity – up to around 30 lines of code per day.
At Praxis Critical Systems Anthony Hall and colleagues developed Correctness by Construction to unify a number of ideas:
It brings these strands together into a process framework and a set of principles for developing software intensive systems. It has been applied successfully in several projects such as the MULTOS CA, and is cited by the National Cyber Security Partnership as one of only three methods that are capable of producing software with the low defect rates needed for secure systems.
To learn more about Correctness by Construction, see


text:
HELSINKI (JTA) — For any forthcoming edition of Jewish Trivial Pursuit, the Jewish community of Finland might become a source of inspiration.
Consider just these two stumpers: Which Diaspora community contributed the most volunteers per capita during the Israeli War of Independence? In which front did Jews fight alongside Nazi soldiers in World War II?
Jewish roots in Finland go back only a century and a half. The first Jews to settle permanently in this northern land were retired czarist Russian soldiers granted the right of settlement anywhere in the empire regardless of religion.
Local tradition says this was in 1858. Sixty years later, in December 1917 — following Finland's independence from Russia — the country's Parliament granted their descendants full citizenship.
Finland's Jewish population rose between the two world wars, reaching approximately 2,000 in 1939.
During the 1940 war between Finland and Russia, known here as the Winter War, Finnish Jews fought alongside their countrymen. But most surprising to those unfamiliar with this nation's Jewish community could be the fact that Finnish Jews fought in World War II alongside Germany on the Russian front, as their country allied itself with the Nazis.
Even more unusual, the Finnish government afforded Jews full civil rights throughout the war despite strong pressure from the Nazis. Today's community has a memory of a "field synagogue" built by Finnish soldiers in which they could conduct services alongside SS units.
Most interesting, perhaps, is another local story of a Jewish soldier who defied death to rescue a battalion of SS soldiers pinned down by enemy fire. Offered an Iron Cross he refused, in flawless German.
When a German officer asked where he learned to speak so well, the soldier reportedly answered that he was Jewish, and that since Yiddish was his mother language, it was easy for him to speak German. He then marched out of the deathly silent tent. The Finnish government supported his refusal of the award.
The question of the Finnish government's wartime alliance with the Nazis — the country was never occupied in World War II — is often misunderstood outside of Finland, says Dan Kantor, executive director of the Jewish Community of Helsinki.
"We allied with the Germans because they were the only ones who could help us, who came to help us against Russia," Kantor said.
Far from betraying the country's Jews, the death of 23 Jewish soldiers fighting for independence "was really, in a way, some kind of emancipation," he said.
That perspective is supported by the fact that no Finnish Jew was turned over to the Nazis during the war. Eight Austrian Jewish refugees who fled to Finland during the Holocaust were deported.
During Israel's War of Independence, the 29 Finnish volunteers constituted the highest per capita contribution from any Diaspora community, according to Finland's office of the Jewish Agency for Israel.
After the State of Israel was born, Finland had a high rate of aliyah, which reduced Finland's Jewish population considerably. As a result, the country's third-largest Jewish community, in the city of Tampere, ceased operations in 1981.
An influx of Russian Jews since the collapse of the Soviet Union has helped revitalize the community while again linking it to its Russian roots.
The Jewish day school in Helsinki now serves more than 110 students, up from about 60 in the 1980s. Kantor estimates that at least 75 percent of students have at least one immigrant in their immediate family, primarily Russians and Israelis who live and work in Finland. Besides Finnish and Hebrew, Russian is now the most prevalent language at the school.
The country's 1,500 or so Jews continue to have a strong influence on Finnish life. From Max Jakobson, the former Finnish ambassador to the United Nations and candidate for secretary general in 1971, to Ben Zyskowicz — who in 1979 became the first Jewish member of Parliament — the Jews of Finland are part of a unique and accepting culture.
© JTA. Reproduction of material without written permission is strictly prohibited.


Even though the web application is strong enough, but still 80% of the applications are vulnerable to potential data leakage due to mis-configuration of application.
Prophaze Technologies got expertise in the area of Data Protection and will make sure that the integrity and the trust of application is maintained
Nowadays Networks are constantly evolving and so are the threats faced by them. Threats involve disrupting services or stealing confidential data. Networks have to be constantly monitored for protecting it from such attacks.
Network security analysis requires wide scale human intervention including analysis of anomalous traffic. It involves using a custom software to detect possible attacks and comparing it manually with reports from other organizations. The overall process involves a huge deal of time and effort. Network security analysis happens at a very slow pace thus making it vulnerable to modern attack vectors.
A peer to peer collaborative approach helps in network security in comparison with the traditional methods.An ability to automatically spot anomalies in traffic and share the information using distributed P2P infrastructure provides a better analysis way. The patterns followed by attackers gives information on their goals and motives for attack. Traffic sensors can also help detect anomalies in traffic at various internet locations and thus help make a more targeted mechanism to defeat them.
When such self organizing groups and methods are deployed, there will not be any need for central administration over the network. It helps in reducing the attack detection time and thus provide a better response for handling the threats involved


text:
This is a set of random ideas that just want to jump out of my head and onto the internet. Who knows whether office chair philosophy is any more credible than arm chair philosophy, but you decide, and let me know.
Thursday, November 3, 2016
Semi-dimensional shapes and other curves
I just discovered that shapes with half-integer dimensions have a simple square construction by subdividing by 4. An example is labelled the quadratic type 2 curve (or sometimes Minkowski sausage) with dimension 1.5. However this curve comes in a left and right handed form. Another example I made here:
It is also possible to build 2.5D surfaces, an example is here, however this surface intersects. It is possible to make a non-intersecting surface, which is approximately a 3D version of the above:
And here's a 1.5D curve in 3D space:
A 2.5D curve in 3D space is a bit more of a challenge


Take the 2-minute tour ×
I need to detect the Sun from the space sky.
These are examples of the input images:
I've got such results after Morphologic filtering ( open operation for twice )
Here's the algorithm code of this processing:
// Color to Gray
cvCvtColor(image, gray, CV_RGB2GRAY);
// color threshold
// Morphologic open for 2 times
cvMorphologyEx( gray, dst, NULL, CV_SHAPE_RECT, CV_MOP_OPEN, 2);
Isn't it too heavy processing for such a simple task? And how to find the center of the Sun? If I find white points, than I'll find white points of big Earth ( left top corner on first example image )
Please advise me please my further action to detect the Sun.
Trying algorithm of getting centroid by formula : {x,y} = {M10/M00, M01/M00}
CvMoments moments;
cvMoments(dst, &moments, 1);
double m00, m10, m01;
m00 = cvGetSpatialMoment(&moments, 0,0);
m10 = cvGetSpatialMoment(&moments, 1,0);
m01 = cvGetSpatialMoment(&moments, 0,1);
// calculating centroid
float centroid_x = m10/m00;
float centroid_y = m01/m00;
 cvCircle( image,
 cvPoint(cvRound(centroid_x), cvRound(centroid_y)),
 50, CV_RGB(125,125,0), 4, 8,0);
And where Earth is in the photo, I got such a result:
So, centroid is on the Earth. :(
Trying cvHoughCircles:
CvMemStorage* storage = cvCreateMemStorage(0);
CvSeq* circles = cvHoughCircles(dst, storage, CV_HOUGH_GRADIENT, 12,
 dst->width/2, 255, 100, 0, 35);
if ( circles->total > 0 ) {
 // getting first found circle
 float* circle = (float*)cvGetSeqElem( circles, 0 );
 // Drawing:
 // green center dot
 cvCircle( image, cvPoint(cvRound(circle[0]),cvRound(circle[1])),
 3, CV_RGB(0,255,0), -1, 8, 0 );
 // wrapping red circle
 cvRound(circle[2]), CV_RGB(255,0,0), 3, 8, 0 );
First example: bingo, but the second - no ;(
I've tried different configuration of cvHoughCircles() - couldn't find configuration to fit every my example photo.
matchTemplate approach worked for me ( response of mevatron ). It worked with big number of tests.
share|improve this question
3 Answers 3
up vote 6 down vote accepted
How about trying a simple matchTemplate approach. I used this template image:
enter image description here
And, it detected the 3 out of 3 of the sun images I tried: enter image description here enter image description here enter image description here
This should work due to the fact that circles (in your case the sun) are rotationally invariant, and since you are so far away from the sun it should be roughly scale invariant as well. So, template matching will work quite nicely here.
Finally, here is the code that I used to do this:
_TAG_
_TAG_
_TAG_
_TAG_
using namespace cv;
using namespace std;
int main(int argc, char* argv[])
 /// Load image and template
 string inputName = "sun2.png";
 string outputName = "sun2_detect.png";
 Mat img = imread( inputName, 1 );
 Mat templ = imread( "sun_templ.png", 1 );
 /// Create the result matrix
 int result_cols = img.cols - templ.cols + 1;
 int result_rows = img.rows - templ.rows + 1;
 Mat result( result_cols, result_rows, CV_32FC1 );
 /// Do the Matching and Normalize
 matchTemplate(img, templ, result, CV_TM_CCOEFF);
 Point maxLoc;
 minMaxLoc(result, NULL, NULL, NULL, &maxLoc);
 rectangle(img, maxLoc, Point( maxLoc.x + templ.cols, maxLoc.y + templ.rows ), Scalar(0, 255, 0), 2);
 imshow("img", img);
 imshow("result", result);
 imwrite(outputName, img);
 return 0;
Hope you find that helpful!
share|improve this answer
Actually, the reasons this is working are different from the mentioned ones. For a starter, there is nothing resembling the used template anywhere else in these images. Also, this is much more likely to be several times slower than the initial morphological approach. – mmgp Dec 17 '12 at 23:43
Good points indeed :) However, since I was assuming the space ship is in our solar system, I believe it's safe to say only one Sun will show up :D – mevatron Jan 24 '13 at 15:40
I guess this would fail if any part of the HUD (the pilot user interface) gets on top of the sun. Unless the template matching gives a score on how good the match is, that way you could threshold the top results and it would probably work with some obstructions. – Rui Marques Feb 25 at 16:36
Color Segmentation Approach
Do a color segmentation on the images to identify objects on the black background. You may identify the sun according to its area (given this uniquely identifies it, resp. don't varies largely accross images). A more sophisticated approach could compute image moments, e.g. hu moments of the objects. See this page for these features.
Use a classification algorithm of your choice to do the actual classification of the objects found. The most simple approach is to manually specify thresholds, resp. value ranges that turn out to work for all(most) of your object/image combinations.
You may compute the actual position from the raw moments, as for the circular sun the position is equal to the center of mass
Centroid: {x, y } = { M10/M00, M01/M00 }
Edge Map Approach
Another option would be a circle hough transformation of the edge map, this will hopefully return some candidate circles (by position and radius). You may select the sun-circle according to the radius you expect (if you are lucky there is at most one).
share|improve this answer
I think with image moments it won't work. If there will be only the sun on the screen - than, the center of the Sun is Centroid point. But if Earth takes some screen's part (like in image #1 top left), than this part is "heavier" than Sun and Centroid will be shifted. I've tried with CircleHough, and it doesn't work for all my example photos... – Innuendo Nov 22 '11 at 0:31
I've updated my questions - examples were added – Innuendo Nov 22 '11 at 1:14
A simple addition to your code is to filter out objects based on their size. If you always expect the earth to be much bigger than the sun, or the sun to have almost the same area in each picture, you can filter it by area.
Try Blob detector for this task.
And note that it may be good to apply a morphological opening/closing instead of simple erode or dilate, so your sun will have almost the same area before and after processing.
share|improve this answer
thanx, i think it would be usefull for me, but my openCv build doesn't have blob detector, and I'm novice in C++ (i won't be able to compile the newest version) – Innuendo Nov 22 '11 at 20:40
Take the latest OpenCV from sourceforge sourceforge.net/projects/opencvlibrary And to use it is as simple as the increment operator :) It's already compiled. And.. did you add using namespace cv? How don't you have the blob detector? – sammy Nov 23 '11 at 6:50
Your Answer


The Community for Technology Leaders
RSS Icon
Issue No.06 - Nov.-Dec. (2014 vol.16)
pp: 60-67
Danping Cao, China University of Petroleum, Huadong
Wenyuan Liao, University of Calgary
Waveform tomography, or full waveform inversion (FWI), is in general better than ray tomography; however, a reliable initial model is usually required to ensure success. Here, the authors designed a cascade-like hybrid tomography technology to solve the crosswell seismic inversion problem. The new method is a combination of several widely used tomography technologies, implemented in a sequence, where the cheaper method is used as the initial model feeder for the more expensive method. They start with the Radon-transform-based back-projection method; then the Linear Iterative Reconstruction method, such as selective internal radiation therapy, is adopted to update this initial model; which is further improved by the nonlinear, Gradient-based Eikonal Equation Tomography method. Finally, the velocity model reconstructed from the previous multiple ray tomography methods is used as the initial model for the FWI.
Tomography, Mathematical model, Computational modeling, Numerical models, Seismic measurements, Iterative methods, Subspace constraints,scientific computing, numerical algorithm, inverse problem, back projection, LIR, GEET, FWI, ray tomography, waveform tomography, algorithm design
Danping Cao, Wenyuan Liao, "An Adjoint-Based Hybrid Computational Method for Crosswell Seismic Inversion", Computing in Science & Engineering, vol.16, no. 6, pp. 60-67, Nov.-Dec. 2014, doi:10.1109/MCSE.2014.1
105 ms
(Ver 2.0)
Marketing Automation Platform Marketing Automation Tool


text: This site is a preview of some of the Digital Scholarship Lab's initial experiments using statistical analysis and visualization to uncover meaning in large bodies of documents, in this case newspapers from the Valley of the Shadow Project. The Valley of the Shadow is an archive of documents from two counties in the Shenandoah Valley, one northern (Franklin County, Pennsylvania), the other southern (Augusta County, Virginia) during the Civil War era. The visualizations you can generate with the form below allow you to examine these documents from a variety of perspectives. Some are telescopic, revealing meaningful patterns among thousands of texts. Others are microscopic, letting you delve in into a handful of documents that share some characteristic. All of them aim to be illuminating, allowing you to compare and contrast writings penned by northerners and southerners, by Republicans and Democrats to explore both the political, social, and cultural fault lines that separated Americans from one another as well as the common ground they shared together.


text:
What is Possible, What is Reasonable, What is Best? SMACCGold
A thought provoking discussion on the prickly topic end of life care in critical care. How do we talk about advance care planning? How do we help people prepare for their death and make decisions about interventions when someone is palliative or even when people are really well?
A Meeting of the Tribes: Interprofessional Issues in Critical Care – DASSMACC Berlin 2017
"Meeting of the Tribes" brings together clinicians from a broad range of health professions–including medicine, nursing, social work, and physiotherapy–to explore interprofessional issues in critical care. In addition to their clinical work, panelists have unique perspectives on education, simulation, and resilience in healthcare. In discussing issues related to tribalism and their implications for interprofessional practice, we will explore what it will take to overcome a tribal mentality in the service of improved patient care. In this session, we will strive to: (a) present a snapshot of the status quo, (b) explore key issues and their implications for clinical practice, and (c) envision of future of enhanced interprofessional collaborative practice.
CRITICAL ILLNESS …..Heroes, Victims, Victors, Survivors? DASSMACC Berlin 2017
A powerful panel looking at decision making following head injuries and critical illness from the health professional and scientific viewpoints as well the amazing voice of two consumers who have lived through difficult tragedy and share their thoughts. This panel explores how health professionals can be conflicted around decision making. This panel's strength lies in the consumer voice as they talk about their vulnerability and fears and what was helpful and comforting in the worst days of their lives.


text:
February 6, 2012
Proposal calls for Righteous Gentile day in Poland
Jewish and historical groups in Poland have called for a day to be devoted to Poles who helped Jews during the Holocaust.
The Association of the Children of the Holocaust, the Jan Karski Association, and the Museum of the History of Polish Jews have appealed to Poland's President Bronislaw Komorowski to set aside a tribute day for Poles who aided Jews during the World War II German occupation, Polish Radio reported.
The organizations suggested Sept. 27, the day the Provisional Committee of Aid to Jews was established at the initiative of the Polish underground state. The committee was renamed the Zegota Council of Aid to Jews, and brought together a diverse group of Polish activists from across the political spectrum.
Poland has the world's highest number of individuals that have received the designation of Righteous among the Nations at 6,266.


text:
Together with his research team, Professor Vasilis Ntziachristos from the Helmholtz Zentrum Munich, Germany and the Technical University Munich, Germany developed a new technology to make light audible. The technique, called multi-spectral opto-acoustic tomography (MSOT), combines light and ultrasound to visualize fluorescent proteins that are seated several centimeters deep into living tissue.
The researchers used a genetically modified adult zebra fish which carried fluorescent pigments in its tissue. They illuminated the fish from multiple angles using flashes of laser light that are absorbed by the fluorescent pigments in the fish. The pigments absorb the light, a process that causes slight local increases of temperature, which in turn result in tiny local volume expansions. This happens very quickly and creates small shock waves. In effect, the short laser pulse gives rise to an ultrasound wave that the researchers pick up with an ultrasound microphone. To analyze the resulting acoustic patterns, a computer is attached. The computer uses specially developed mathematical formulas to evaluate and interpret the specific distortions caused by scales, muscles, bones and internal organs to generate a three-dimensional image. In the future this technology may facilitate the examination of tumors or coronary vessels in humans.