text:
If you have a child that is on drugs or dealing with behavioral issues, there are different treatment options available for them. One thing you should consider is wilderness treatment. Below is some information about how this treatment plan works so you can determine if it is right for your child.
The first stage of wilderness treatment is cleansing. Your child is in an unhealthy environment when they are out with their friends that also do drugs. With wilderness treatment, they are brought into the wilderness away from anything that will influence them to do drugs. With many wilderness treatment programs, your child will learn how to eat healthy foods, exercise each day, and taught basic survival skills.
This first stage is important, as it starts your child on the course of learning how to be responsible for their actions. This learning continues throughout their treatment.
Responsibility for Their Actions
The second phase of this treatment plan is learning what the results are of their actions. The counselors will take the children on long hikes, and then teach them how to set up camp once they arrive at the location. The children will be taught how to start a fire without using any kind of matches or lighters, and then how to cook their own food.
- Don't forget about our directory, featuring a list of WTC's in every state, for example Texas.
If your child refuses to learn how to do these things, they will sit out in the cold and/or rain while everyone else is sleeping warm in their tents. They will also have to eat cold food because they didn't learn how to start a fire. This will push them to learn how to do these things so they will not have to go through this the next night.
Your child will be taught social skills by communicating with the other people in their group and their field instructors. They will be expected to talk about their drug problem, what got them started, and how much they are struggling with quitting. Learning how to open up is an important part of any drug treatment program. This allows the counselor to understand what your child is going through, so they can provide them with best type of treatment.
Get Ready to Go Home
When the wilderness training is completed, your child must learn how to take their new learning home with them. Your family may be asked to take some training classes so you can help your child continue their healthy behaviors once they get back home. You may also take some educational classes so you can have a better understanding of how your child is feeling.
The wilderness camp may set your child up with a counselor or other types of support resources once they get home so they can continue their therapy, and not fall back into their old habits.
Now that you have learned how wilderness treatment works, you can compare it to other types of drug treatment programs to help you decide which one is best for your child.


Super Amigos
Super Amigos template.jpg
Florence Nightingale
Florence Nightingale.jpg
Real name: Florence Nightingale
Species: Human
Homeworld: Earth
Universe: Earth-1A
Sex: Female
Height: 5'7
Occupation: Nurse
Base: London, England
Florence Nightingale (_PHONE_) was a British nurse during the Victorian era.
She was considered the founder of modern nursing.
On at least one occasion, Matt Cable called his wife Abby Florence Nightingale because of her tendency to constantly visit a school for autistic children.[1]
Powers and Abilities
Super Powers
Super Friends books
 1. As seen in the comic story:...A Time of Running... (1984).
 2. This comic was reprinted in the Portuguese language in Super Friends # 23 (1987).
External Link
 - This article is about a fictional version of a real person.


BBC News
100 years of Dan-yr-Ogof showcaves in Swansea celebrated
image captionTourists in the early days had to swim through cold water inside Dan-yr-Ogof caves
A cave system and popular tourist attraction in the Swansea Valley is celebrating 100 years since it was discovered by farmers.
The Morgan brothers tracked water which was coming onto their land back to a labyrinth of caves on 21 August, 1912.
Three of the caves were later opened up to the public as Dan-yr-Ogof, the National Showcaves Centre For Wales.
As well as attracting tourists, they were used to store art from Cardiff and Swansea in World War II.
Caves director James Price said the thousands of visitors who explore the caves at Pen-y-cae might be unaware of their history.
He said local farmers the Morgan brothers had set out to find the source of the River Llynfell which flowed through and poured out of a mountain on their land, which lies within the Brecon Beacons National Park.
Equipped with candles, a piece of rope and an old revolver - "because they didn't know what they were going to find" - they went into a cave in the mountainside.
"They never found the source of the river, unfortunately, from their point of view," Mr Price said.
"They followed the river in for 30 or so metres until the river took up the whole of the cave floor.
"And I think they were wet enough and they didn't really know where else to go.
"Just holding on their candles they just looked around and saw a little pathway going upwards so literally they scrambled up that and came out into the cave system that we now know is Dan-yr-Ogof."
image captionIn the early days, a coracle fishing boat was used to explore the caves
They discovered limestone caves which are filled with rock formations such as stalactites and stalagmites in an environment which is around 330 million years old.
But the brothers were prevented from penetrating far into the mountain because of a lake.
They later returned with coracle fishing boats and eventually crossed four lakes before being stopped by a small passage that was too small to crawl through.
Mr Price said the farmers' diaries show they actually started charging a very small entrance fee not long afterwards to take people into the caves.
Using candles to light the way, visitors in those early days were expected to wade, and swim through icy cold water, climb underground cliffs, and negotiate huge boulders covered in slimy mud.
The brothers later opened the caves properly to the public in 1939 - only for World War II to start three to four weeks afterwards.
"What happened was the government closed the caves down and actually had two armed guards stand at the cave entrance throughout the entire period of the war," said Mr Price.
He said ammunition was stored in the cave, along with art and documents from Cardiff and Swansea.
image captionSince their discovery in 1912, over 10 miles of caves have been discovered and three caves are now open to members of the public
Water from the caves was also piped to Swansea when the water mains were damaged by bombs during the blitz on the city.
More to discover
The caves did not reopen to the public until the 1960s because of problems with the country's economy.
But Mr Price said the attraction had been "going strong ever since".
One hundred years on, the caves are still run by descendants of the original cave explorers.
In 1963, a local girl called Eileen Davies, a member of the South Wales Caving Club, eventually managed to crawl through the passage that had stopped the Morgan brothers.
She and others found over 10 miles of caves and cavers believe that there are still more to discover.
"We're very fortunate. Dan-yr-Ogof is unique," added Mr Price.
"It's a fantastic underground environment and that's what the majority of people are coming to see - to appreciate the wonder of nature."
Related Internet Links
 - Dan yr Ogof
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.


text:
SAO PAULO (AP) - Brazil is using an indigenous language for the first in a campaign aimed at curbing violence against women and the spread of HIV.
The program includes folders warning that "violence or fear of violence increase women's vulnerability to HIV infection and other sexually transmitted diseases" because women who fear violence can be forced to have unprotected sex.
To get the message across to indigenous populations, folders and pamphlets were prepared in Tikuna, which is spoken by more than 30,000 Indians in the western tip of Amazonas state. Educational material is being prepared in other indigenous languages as well.
The campaign is a joint effort between Brazil and three United Nations agencies including the Joint United Nations Program on HIV and AIDS (UNAIDS).
"Indigenous groups have the right to this information in their own language," said Pedro Chequer, the UNAIDS director in Brazil.
The campaign using materials in Tikuna was launched after health workers tested about 20,000 Indians for sexually transmitted diseases and found 46 with syphilis and 16 with the virus that causes AIDS, said Dr. Adele Benzaken of the UNAIDS office in Brazil.
The Tikuna Indians live near Brazil's borders with Peru and Colombia, where prostitution and drug trafficking are rife, Benzaken said by telephone.
She said the information regarding HIV among indigenous groups will create a baseline that can be referred to in future years to determine if the incidence of the disease is increasing in that population.

source: HuggingFaceFW/fineweb-edu


text:
Fan Li, Yiming Yang
Learning the structures of large undirected graphs with thousands of nodes from data has been an open challenge. In this paper, we use graphical Gaussian model (GGM) as the underlying model and propose a novel ARD style Wishart prior for the precision matrix of the GGM, which encodes the graph structure we want to learn. With this prior, we can get the MAP estimation of the precision matrix by solving (a modified version of) Lasso regressions and achieve a sparse solution. We use our approach to learn genetic regulatory networks from genome-wide expression microarray data and protein-binding location analysis data. Evaluated on the basis of consistency with the GO annotations, the experiments show that our approach has a much better performance than the clustering-based approaches and BN learning approaches in discovering gene regulatory modules.
Content Area: 12. Machine Learning
Subjects: 12. Machine Learning and Discovery; 15.7 Search
Submitted: May 10, 2005

source: openbmb/Ultra-FineWeb


text:
More on Geostationary Orbits
By Dr. T.S. Kelso
In our last column, we discussed the basics of the geostationary orbit, describing the unique characteristics which make this particular orbit so valuable. In this issue, I would like to cover some operational considerations which can be important when working with satellites in these orbits. In particular, I would like to discuss how to determine the location of a geostationary satellite—relative to the earth's surface and any observer on its surface—and how the sun's position can affect onboard power management and communications.
Locating Geostationary Satellites
Ease of tracking—or, rather the lack of tracking—is one of the primary characteristics of the geostationary orbit which make it so valuable. An observer on the ground can simply point an antenna toward a fixed point in space and then forget it—no tracking is required. However, before the antenna can be pointed, the observer must first determine where the satellite is located.
As we saw in our series on orbital coordinate systems (in the September/October 1995, November/December 1995, and January/February 1996 issues of Satellite Times), the first step to determining the location of a satellite relative to an observer is to determine both the satellite and observer's position in the same coordinate system. For this development, we are going to use the Earth-Centered Fixed (ECF) coordinate system—latitude, longitude, and radius (or altitude)—as our common coordinate system.
As it turns out, one of the common ways of expressing a geostationary satellite's position is to specify its longitude—that is, the longitude on the equator over which the satellite appears to hover. This information can be obtained from various sources including the "Geostationary Satellite Locator Guide" found in every issue of Satellite Times. This guide is generated using the latest two-line element sets and determines each satellite's longitude at its ascending node.
For the satellite to be geostationary, of course, its latitude must be zero and its altitude must be 35,786 kilometers (for this development, we will assume a true geostationary orbit and a spherical earth). Knowing the longitude of the satellite and the latitude and longitude of the observer, we can now determine where to look.
If R is the radius of the earth, r is the geostationary altitude, λ is the satellite's longitude, θ is the observer's longitude, and φ is the observer's latitude, then the satellite and observer's ECF positions are:
and the range vector is the satellite's position minus the observer's position:
To calculate azimuth and elevation, we use the same coordinate transformation described in "Orbital Coordinate Systems, Part II" in the November/December 1995 issue of Satellite Times. As an example, let's calculate the position of Galaxy 4 from Pasadena, California.
Using these values yields an azimuth to the satellite of 148.25°, an elevation of 45.32°, and a range of 37,390 km—values pretty close to the true values.
While this approach can be used to produce good estimates, these are probably not calculations you would want to do by hand (although they can be done fairly easily using a spreadsheet). Plus, if you do not know the satellite's longitude, you will need to start from the satellite's orbital elements, further complicating the process. Of course, you can use a program like TrakStar to calculate the latitude, longitude, and altitude or the look angles (azimuth, elevation, and range) of any satellite (geostationary or otherwise) for any time interval desired using two-line element sets found on the CelesTrak WWW site.
Power Management Issues
Geostationary orbits present some interesting challenges for power management. To understand these challenges, we must first understand a little about the attitude (orientation in space) of geostationary satellites and the position of the geostationary orbit relative to the sun.
All modern geostationary spacecraft use one of two forms of stabilization to maintain their attitude: dual-spin or three-axis stabilization (see Figure 1). With dual-spin stabilization, the satellite takes the shape of a cylinder which rotates about its long axis. This type of satellite has two sections: a spinning section upon which the solar arrays are mounted and a despun section where the communications antennas are mounted. The spinning section provides basic stabilization and can rotate as fast as 100 RPM (in the case of the early GOES satellites). The despun section rotates, too, albeit at a much slower rate of one rotation per orbit (day)—keeping the antennas pointed at the earth and preventing the satellite from going into a flat spin (which is the natural tendency).
Figure 1. Geostationary Spacecraft Attitude Types
With three-axis stabilization, the spacecraft attitude is maintained through the use of momentum wheels or control moment gyros. The body of the spacecraft does rotate once per orbit (day) to keep the antennas pointed at the earth. The solar arrays are mounted on paddles which also rotate once per day to keep them pointed toward the sun.
In both cases, it should be noted that the rotation axis of the satellite is perpendicular to the satellite's orbital plane—which for geostationary orbits is the equatorial plane. We will see why this is important shortly.
As with all satellites, the solar arrays on geostationary satellites are subject to a number factors which can result in significant fluctuations in the amount of power available to onboard systems. To begin with, the position of the satellite relative to the sun varies throughout the year. As the earth goes around its orbit, its distance from the sun changes from a minimum of 0.983 astronomical units (AUs—the mean distance from the earth to the sun is approximately 1 AU or 149,597,870 km) to a maximum of 1.067 AU—a difference of 12,518,000 km. If we consider the energy received from the sun at 1 AU to be 100%, then the energy received varies from 97% to 103%, as shown in Figure 2.
Figure 2. Solar Distance Efficiency
Not only isn't the earth's orbit truly circular, but the plane of the earth's equator does not lie in the plane of the earth's orbit (the ecliptic). Earth's seasons are a direct result of this circumstance. From our vantage on earth, it appears that the sun slowly moves from 23° below the equatorial plane (at the winter solstice) to 23° above the equatorial plane (at the summer solstice) and back again over the course of a year. As seen in Figure 3, our geostationary satellite sees the same thing.
Figure 3. Sun-Earth-Satellite Geometry
The apparent motion of the sun above and below the equatorial plane has two effects. First, it changes the angle of incidence of solar energy received on the solar arrays since they must rotate about an axis perpendicular to the equatorial plane. As a result, the amount of solar energy absorbed by the solar arrays drops off as a factor of cos(δ), where δ is the sun's declination (angle relative to the equatorial plane). If we consider the amount of energy received when the sun's rays are perpendicular to the solar arrays to be 100%, then the energy received drops to less than 92% at the solstices, as shown in Figure 4.
Figure 4. Solar Angle Efficiency
From Figure 3 we can also see that because of this sun-earth geometry, the geostationary orbit is usually outside the cone of the earth's shadow. That is, until around the times of the vernal and autumnal equinoxes (the beginning of spring and fall). At these times, geostationary satellites enter their eclipse season, when they can spend as much as 70 minutes of every day in shadow. These seasons run from the end of February through the middle of April and the beginning of September through the middle of October. The percentage of sunlight received for geostationary satellites is shown in Figure 5. To prepare for eclipse seasons, the satellite operators must ensure that the spacecraft batteries are properly conditioned to pick up the load during each day's eclipse.
Figure 5. Eclipse Efficiency
If we combine the effects of variations in solar distance, solar angle, and eclipses over the course of a year, we get the result in Figure 6. As can be seen in this figure, total solar energy available varies 12%—from a low of 89% to a high of 101%.
Figure 6. Total Annual Efficiency
If we also factor in the effects of degradation on the solar cells and their optical coverings due to the space environment and look at a nominal seven-year satellite lifetime, we get the graph in Figure 7. Typical results show the optical covering degrades about 7% the first year before stabilizing while the solar cells degrade about 3% their first year and 2% each subsequent year. As can be seen from the graph, the power levels drop from a high of 99% overall efficiency to a low of 72%. When designing the spacecraft power subsystem, that means if 7.5 kW of power are required for normal operations, the power subsystem must be designed to provide almost 10kW initially so that available power doesn't drop below the threshold before the end of the planned satellite lifetime.
Figure 7. Total Lifetime Efficiency
In addition to planning for variations in spacecraft power, satellite operators and users also need to plan for communications outages (or degradation) around the eclipse seasons. As the sun sweeps across the sky each day and gradually


text:
|Analysis index||History Topics Index|
The terminology for elliptic integrals and functions has changed during their investigation. What were originally called elliptic functions are now called elliptic integrals and the term elliptic functions reserved for a different idea. We will therefore use modern terminology throughout this article to avoid confusion.
It is important to understand how mathematicians thought differently at different periods. Early algebraists had to prove their formulas by geometry. Similarly early workers with integration considered their problems solved if they could relate an integral to a geometric object.
Many integrals arose from attempts to solve mechanical problems. For example the period of a simple pendulum was found to be related to an integral which expressed arc length but no form could be found in terms of'simple' functions. The same was true for the deflection of a thin elastic bar.
The study of elliptical integrals can be said to start in 1655 when Wallis began to study the arc length of an ellipse. In fact he considered the arc lengths of various cycloids and related these arc lengths to that of the ellipse. Both Wallis and Newton published an infinite series expansion for the arc length of the ellipse.
At this point we should give a definition of an elliptic integral. It is one of the form
∫ r(x, √p(x) )dx
where r(x,y) is a rational function in two variables and p(x) is a polynomial of degree 3 or 4 with no repeated roots.
In 1679 Jacob Bernoulli attempted to find the arc length of a spiral and encountered an example of an elliptic integral.
Jacob Bernoulli, in 1694, made an important step in the theory of elliptic integrals. He examined the shape the an elastic rod will take if compressed at the ends. He showed that the curve satisfied
ds/dt = 1/√(1 - t4)
then introduced the lemniscate curve
(x2+y2)2 = (x2-y2)
whose arc length is given by the integral from 0 to x of
dt/√(1 - t4)
This integral, which is clearly satisfies the above definition so is an elliptic integral, became known as the lemniscate integral.
This is a particularly simple case of an elliptic integral. Notice for example that it is similar in form to the function sin-1(x) which is given by the integral from 0 to x of
dt/√(1 - t2)
The other good features of the lemniscate integral are the fact that it is general enough for many of its properties to be generalised to more general elliptic functions, yet the geometric intuition from the arc length of the lemniscate curve aids understanding.
In the year 1694 Jacob Bernoulli considered another elliptic integral
∫ t2 dt/√(1 - t4)
and conjectured that it could not be expressed in terms of 'known' functions, sin, exp, sin-1.
References (8 books/articles)
Article by: J J O'Connor and E F Robertson
|History Topics Index||Analysis index|
|Main index||Biographies Index
|Famous curves index||Birthplace Maps
|Mathematicians of the day||Anniversaries for the year
|Search Form|| Societies, honours, etc
The URL of this page is:


text:
Word Origin & History
early 13c., from O.Fr. las "a net, noose, string" (Fr. lacs), from V.L. *lacium, from L. laqueum (nom. laqueus) "noose, snare" (It. laccio, Sp. lazo), a trapping and hunting term, probably from Italic base *laq- "to ensnare" (cf. L. lacere "to entice"). The "ornamental net pattern" meaning is first recorded
1555. Sense of "cord for tying" remains in shoelace. To lace coffee, etc., with a dash of liquor (1670s) was originally used of sugar, and comes via the notion of "to ornament or trim." Related: Laced. Laced mutton was "an old word for a whore" [Johnson]. As an adjective, lace-curtain "middle class" (or lower-class with middle-class pretensions) usually is used in reference to Irish-Americans.


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text:
Porcelain fuse cut out 24kV/100A（200A）
1.Using Environment Conditions:
1.1 Product Normal Using Conditions
1.1.1 Product normal temperature: -40℃~+40℃;
1.1.2 Altitude :≤1000M.
1.1.3 Max. Wind speed :≤ 35m/s.
1.1.4 Earthquake intensity: ≤ 8 degree.
1.2 Product is not suitable for following location:
1.2.1 Inflammation or explosive dangerous area.
1.2.2 Intensive shake or shock area.
1.2.3 Conducting electric,chemical gas as well as heavy pollution & salt fog area.
2.1 Mountingthe fuse cutout on the bracket and fix it by bolt.
2.2 Setting the fuse cutout to the suitable position and fix it,making sure it is safe and stable.
2.3 Connecting the conduct wire with upper and lower joint clamp by boltt,it must be connected firmly.
IEC 62217IEC60255 IEC60282


text:
If you have recently noticed signs of dampness around your home, then it is time to take remedial steps before the difficulty becomes too severe to handle. Discoloured walls and presence of mould are the most common signs indicating that damp is present in your home, making it essential to take immediate action by adopting the best damp proofing Northampton method and keep the aesthetic appeal and structural integrity of your property intact.
To ensure complete eradication of damp from your home, there are some steps which need to be followed. The first and foremost step is to identify the type of damp and its extent. Doing this is crucial as the next course of action will depend significantly on the type and severity of damp problem you are facing. Proper diagnosis of the damp problem should be done by an experienced professional, who can help to choose the best method for damp proofing your property and eliminate this issue once and for all.
Primarily damp is classified in three types, namely rising damp, penetrating damp and condensation. Rising damp, as the name suggests, can be seen rising on the walls, as it gradually seeps in through cracks or mortar. Penetrating damp is usually caused due to leaks, which can occur in case of leaking roofs, broken drainpipes etc. Condensation is easy to identify in the form of moisture present on walls and other surfaces. Presence of condensation is easy to understand as it happens due to warm air coming in contact with cold surfaces and turning into water immediately.
Once the type of damp affecting your home has been identified, the next step is determining the definite cause of the problem. It is crucial to find the underlying problem, such as any leakage in pipes or structure of the property and take immediate steps to rectify it, in order to start on the process of restoration. For example, in case it is leakage leading to damp, then replacing broken or damaged pipes is a good idea. After rectifying the underlying cause, you can start taking other steps for restoring the damaged parts of your home.
The last and highly important step is to get in touch with a professional for complete removal of damp from your property. Along with identifying every problem area around your property, they can treat the problem of dampness by taking adequate steps on time and avoid it from affecting your health and life. The steps or methods they use for damp proofing Northampton properties are especially selected keeping in mind the extent of damage caused by this problem. You can completely rely on them, as their well trained and experienced personnel adopt a systematic approach. First they will analyse the entire situation, determine the most effective method for damp proofing and then begin with the process, without causing any inconvenience to you and your family. More importantly, they look for long term solutions, thus making sure that your peace of mind will not be affected by the same problem again in future.


text:
Compton is located in California.
Compton, California has a population of
family-centric than the surrounding county with
30.56% of the households
containing married families with children.
The county average for households married with children is 32.91%.
The median household income in Compton, California is
The median household income for the surrounding county is $38,801
compared to the national median of $50,935.
The median age of people living in Compton is
The average high temperature in July is 78
degrees, with an average low temperature in January of 44.9 degrees.
The average rainfall is approximately 14.5 inches
per year, with 0 inches of snow per year.


text:
Work Status and Its Determinants Among Patients with Ankylosing Spondylitis. A Systematic Literature Review
ANNELIES BOONEN, HENRICA de VET, DÉSIRÉE van der HEIJDE, and SJEF van der LINDEN
ABSTRACT. Objective. To evaluate work status and its determinants among patients with ankylosing spondylitis (AS).
Objective. To evaluate work status and its determinants among patients with ankylosing spondylitis (AS).
Methods. A systematic literature review of original studies published after 1980 in which work status in AS was an outcome. Medline was searched and references of retrieved reports were checked for additional studies.
Results. Sixteen full articles and 2 abstracts were identified, describing work status in 14 patient groups. Employment ranged from 34 to 96% after 45 and 5 years disease duration, respectively, and work disability from 3 to 50% after 18 and 45 years disease duration, respectively. Days of sick leave varied from 12 to 46 days per patient per year among those who had a paid job. Determinants of work status were reported in 9 studies. Age, education, and physical function were shown to be associated with work disability, while peripheral joint disease was associated with sick leave.
Conclusion. Results on work status show considerable variability due to heterogeneity of patient populations studied, but also because of large variation in choices and definitions of endpoints. The absence of data referring to a reference population and failure to adjust results for age and sex are striking. Although standardization in analyzing and reporting data on work status is badly needed, it is clear that work disability and sick leave in AS are substantial. (J Rheumatol 2001;28:1056-62)
Key Indexing Terms:


text:
|Disaster and Development - 2nd edition (Department of Humanitarian Affairs/United Nations Disaster Relief Office - Disaster Management Training Programme - United Nations Development Programme, 1994, 60 p.)|
|PART 3. Assessing the trade-offs in investing in vulnerability reduction|
Two definitions need to be made at this point:
Opportunity cost: the opportunity cost of a resource is the cost of its next best alternative. A person engaged in mopping up a flood would usually be employed in some other job. The opportunity cost of mopping up is the foregone value of the work he or she would otherwise have done. Or seen another way, the funds expected to pay for clean-up should not be spent on something else.
Present value: All things being equal, money available for productive investment now is worth more than money available for productive investment sometime in the future.
An overriding choice facing a government is whether to spend now on preparedness or mitigation or, possibly, spend later on disaster recovery. Usually governments choose a mix of preparedness/mitigation and recovery programs.
The key questions in this choice are:
What are the opportunity costs of investing in preparedness and/or mitigation?
Is the present value of the future loss higher or lower than the cost of investing in preparedness and/or mitigation?
One basic principle affecting the choice is that spending on preparedness and mitigation should be less than the present value of the expected losses which would be averted by the preparedness/mitigation measure.


text:
Haris Andrianakis writes:
One of my latest projects i just finished is a hardware thermal printer driver. This project designed/developed for "Delmac Instruments" as a part of my internship. Thermal printers are used in cash and weighting machines for receipt printing.
What the specific hardware does is to receive ASCII characters, escape sequences in UART and convert them in a printable form to send to printer mechanism for printing. Escape sequences are used to send commands to the printer to change character size, line spacing etc.
Thermal Printers don't use ink as usual printers but they have a head of tiny resistors in a row (about 384) which behave on the paper as dots. Also they use a suitable paper which is thermal sensitive.
By supplying voltage to a single resistor, you heat the resistor and you make the paper burn at the specific point drawing a tiny single dot on the paper. If you supply voltage to a single resistor and you move the paper at the same time by stepping the head motor you will have a tiny width vertical row. This is the basic. (Resistors are refered as elements).
Thermal Printer Driver - [Link]


text:
Eric Partridge was born in New Zealand in 1894 and attended both Queensland and Oxford universities. Among his publications on language are A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, A Dictionary of Clichés, Shakespeare's Bawdy, A Dictionary of the Underworld, Origins: An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, Comic Alphabets, The Gentle Art of Lexicography and A Dictionary of Catchphrases. He died in 1979.
Some of Eric Partridge's books:
The Estate of Eric Partridge


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Are there any commands containing "if", similar to \ifnum, preferably in LaTeX (rathar than TeX)? For example, is there anything like \ifstring? (I am not after \ifstring only, I want to know which options are available, if any).
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See also: LaTeX conditional expression – Leo Liu Jul 13 '11 at 5:10
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4 Answers
up vote 18 down vote accepted
The \if... commands are mostly TeX primitives (with \newif it's possible to define other conditionals).
There is something like \ifstring, but it uses \ifnum; the command \pdfstrcmp takes two strings as argument and compares it, returning -1 if the first precedes the second (in the lexicographic order based on ASCII codes), 0 if the strings are equal and 1 otherwise. The usual ways to exploit it are

In XeTeX there's \strcmp that does the same; loading pdftexcmds one can use \pdf@strcmp with pdftex, xetex and luatex.
In the pseudocodes above "string1" and "string2" can be also macros, which will be expanded similarly to what happens with \edef and at the end (when no more expansions can be performed) the tokens are "detokenized" for the comparison (so \relax becomes a six character string followed by a space; for example \pdfstrcmp{\relax}{\string\relax\space} returns 0).
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Thanks. egreg.. – Regis da Silva Jul 13 '11 at 0:26
_USER_: if I recall correctly, they don't have to expand to characters only: the result of their full expansion is converted to a string (I think, through the same code as \detokenize). – Bruno Le Floch Jul 13 '11 at 0:43
_USER_: I'll correct my answer. – egreg Jul 13 '11 at 7:21
Nitpick regarding the parenthetical remark in the first paragraph: \newif doesn't really make new conditionals. It merely provides a handy way to assign one of the existing conditionals \iffalse and \iftrue to a control sequence. – Harald Hanche-Olsen Jul 13 '11 at 15:38
_USER_: it depends on the point of view. They are new for the programmer, they aren't for TeX, which sees only \iftrue or \iffalse. – egreg Jul 13 '11 at 15:43
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The etoolbox package has a lot conditional commands which goes beyond those TeX primitives. Have a look at the manual you will find they very usefull.
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In particular there is \ifstrequal{str1}{str2}{true}{false}, and many many others. The etoolbox is definitely a must for anyone trying to do any kind of "programatic" work in (La)TeX. – Juan A. Navarro Jul 13 '11 at 8:03
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An alternative is expl3. The basic language layer of LaTeX3 provides several conditionals. To handle strings you can use the function \str_if_eq:nnTF. Next to this conditional expl3 provides also a case function for strings named \prg_case_str:nnn.
\str_if_eq:nnTF has the following syntax:
\str_if_eq:nnTF { } { }
 { }
 { }
\prg_case_str:nnn has the following syntax:
\prg_case_str:nnn { }
 { string case 1 } { code case 1 }
 { string case 2 } { code case 2 }
 { string case n } { code case n }
 { }
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I have been using the xstring package for these kind of situations. See for example Using xstring to check.tex file name.
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Placement Papers: CDAC Manual Testing Question Paper
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How is testing affected by object-oriented designs?
Well-engineered object-oriented design can make it easier to trace from code to internal design to functional design to requirements. While there will be little affect on black box testing (where an understanding of the internal design of the application is unnecessary), white-box testing can be oriented to the application's objects. If the application was well-designed this can simplify test design.
What is Extreme Programming and what's it got to do with testing?
Extreme Programming (XP) is a software development approach for small teams on risk-prone projects with unstable requirements. It was created by Kent Beck who described the approach in his book 'Extreme Programming Explained' (See the Softwareqatest. Com Books page.). Testing ( 'extreme testing' ) is a core aspect of Extreme Programming. Programmers are expected to write unit and functional test code first-before the application is developed. Test code is under source control along with the rest of the code. Customers are expected to be an integral part of the project team and to help develope scenarios for acceptance/black box testing. Acceptance tests are preferably automated, and are modified and rerun for each of the frequent development iterations. QA and test personnel are also required to be an integral part of the project team. Detailed requirements documentation is not used, and frequent re-scheduling, re-estimating, and re-prioritizing is expected. For more info see the XP-related listings in the Softwareqatest. Com 'Other Resources' section.
What is 'Software Quality Assurance'
Software QA involves the entire software development PROCESS-monitoring and improving the process, making sure that any agreed-upon standards and procedures are followed, and ensuring that problems are found and dealt with. It is oriented to 'prevention' (See the Bookstore section's 'Software QA' category for a list of useful books on Software Quality Assurance.).
What is 'Software Testing'
Testing involves operation of a system or application under controlled conditions and evaluating the results (eg, 'if the user is in interface A of the application while using hardware B, and does C, then D should happen' ). The controlled conditions should include both normal and abnormal conditions. Testing should intentionally attempt to make things go wrong to determine if things happen when they shouldn't or things don't happen when they should. It is oriented to 'detection' (See the Bookstore section's 'Software Testing' category for a list of useful books on Software Testing.).
What are some recent major computer system failures caused by software bugs?
A major U. S. Retailer was reportedly hit with a large government fine in October of 2003 due to web site errors that enabled customers to view one anothers'online orders.
News stories in the fall of 2003 stated that a manufacturing company recalled all their transportation products in order to fix a software problem causing instability in certain circumstances. The company found and reported the bug itself and initiated the recall procedure in which a software upgrade fixed the problems.
In August of 2003 a U. S. Court ruled that a lawsuit against a large online brokerage company could proceed; the lawsuit reportedly involved claims that the company was not fixing system problems that sometimes resulted in failed stock trades, based on the experiences of 4 plaintiffs during an 8-month period. A previous lower court's ruling that "… Six miscues out of more than 400 trades does not indicate negligence." was invalidated.
In April of 2003 it was announced that the largest student loan company in the U. S. Made a software error in calculating the monthly payments on 800, 000 loans. Although borrowers were to be notified of an increase in their required payments, the company will still reportedly lose $8 million in interest. The error was uncovered when borrowers began reporting inconsistencies in their bills.
News reports in February of 2003 revealed that the U. S. Treasury Department mailed 50, 000 Social Security checks without any beneficiary names. A spokesperson indicated that the missing names were due to an error in a software change. Replacement checks were subsequently mailed out with the problem corrected, and recipients were then able to cash their Social Security checks.
In March of 2002 it was reported that software bugs in Britain's national tax system resulted in more than 100, 000 erroneous tax overcharges. The problem was partly attibuted to the difficulty of testing the integration of multiple systems.
A newspaper columnist reported in July 2001 that a serious flaw was found in off-the-shelf software that had long been used in systems for tracking certain U. S. Nuclear materials. The same software had been recently donated to another country to be used in tracking their own nuclear materials, and it was not until scientists in that country discovered the problem, and shared the information, that U. S. Officials became aware of the problems.
According to newspaper stories in mid-2001, a major systems development contractor was fired and sued over problems with a large retirement plan management system. According to the reports, the client claimed that system deliveries were late, the software had excessive defects, and it caused other systems to crash.
In January of 2001 newspapers reported that a major European railroad was hit by the aftereffects of the Y2K bug. The company found that many of their newer trains would not run due to their inability to recognize the date 31/12/2000; the trains were started by altering the control system's date settings.
News reports in September of 2000 told of a software vendor settling a lawsuit with a large mortgage lender; the vendor had reportedly delivered an online mortgage processing system that did not meet specifications, was delivered late, and didn't work.
In early 2000, major problems were reported with a new computer system in a large suburban U. S. Public school district with 100, 000 + students; problems included 10, 000 erroneous report cards and students left stranded by failed class registration systems; the district's CIO was fired. The school district decided to reinstate it's original 25-year old system for at least a year until the bugs were worked out of the new system by the software vendors.
In October of 1999 the $125 million NASA Mars Climate Orbiter spacecraft was believed to be lost in space due to a simple data conversion error. It was determined that spacecraft software used certain data in English units that should have been in metric units. Among other tasks, the orbiter was to serve as a communications relay for the Mars Polar Lander mission, which failed for unknown reasons in December 1999. Several investigating panels were convened to determine the process failures that allowed the error to go undetected.
Bugs in software supporting a large commercial high-speed data network affected 70, 000 business customers over a period of 8 days in August of 1999. Among those affected was the electronic trading system of the largest U. S. Futures exchange, which was shut down for most of a week as a result of the outages.
In April of 1999 a software bug caused the failure of a $1.2 billion U. S. Military satellite launch, the costliest unmanned accident in the history of Cape Canaveral launches. The failure was the latest in a string of launch failures, triggering a complete military and industry review of USA space launch programs, including software integration and testing processes. Congressional oversight hearings were requested.
A small town in Illinois in the U. S. Received an unusually large monthly electric bill of $7 million in March of 1999. This was about 700 times larger than its normal bill. It turned out to be due to bugs in new software that had been purchased by the local power company to deal with Y2K software issues.
In early 1999 a major computer game company recalled all copies of a popular new product due to software problems. The company made a public apology for releasing a product before it was ready.


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Sketchpad Resources || Main CIGS Page
Dirichlet Regions for Three Points:
The loci of circle intersections trace the boundaries of three Dirichlet regions, each containing one of the points A, B, C. The Dirichlet region containing A, for example, is the set of points P which are closer to A than to any of the other points B or C. It follows that the boundary between two Dirichlet regions is the set where distances to two of the points A, B, C are equal and less than the third distance. Finally, the corner or vertex is the point where the 3 distances to A, B, and C are equal. We recognize this as the circumcenter of triangle ABC. Since the circles have the same radius. The points on the circles have the same distances to the corresponding centers, so the intersection points of two circles are equidistant from two of the three points A, B, C.
Dirichlet Regions for Four Points
Dirichlet Regions for Five Points
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The NCTR is overseen by a Governing Circle. The Circle includes Survivors and representatives of the University of Manitoba and other partners. The majority of Governing Circle members are First Nations, Inuit and Métis.
The Governing Circle is guided by a Survivors Circle, as well as by Elders and Knowledge Keepers.
Establishing these governance structures were essential to ensuring Survivors and partners are always at the very heart of the NCTR and that the NCTR honours and upholds Indigenous laws and protocols.
For us, as Survivors, it is important that we see the NCTR as our home, where our truths, experiences and lives are validated, honoured and never forgotten. The staff carry the responsibility – both today and tomorrow – to ensure our voices are carried forward in a good way.
~ Eugene Arcand, No. 781, residential school Survivor, and Survivor Circle member, Muskeg Lake Cree Nation
Elders and Knowledge Keepers also play a significant role at the NCTR. From visioning the turtle that sits in front of our building, to the sensitive work of honouring children that never returned home from the residential schools, our work would not be possible without them.
About the Governing Circle
In summer 2014, an 11-person nominating committee selected the first Governing Circle of the NCTR. Governing Circle members:
- Ensure Indigenous people are in control over the materials
- Provide guidance on policies, activities, ceremonies, and protocols
- Provide guidance on ways to increase the Centre's records, materials, and resources and on prospective partners
- Provide support on accessing the Centre's records, materials and resources
Three members of the Governing Circle represent Survivors, their families or ancestors (one First Nation, one Inuit and one Métis) and, at all times, at least four members of the Governing Circle must self-identify as Indigenous. The remaining four members represent the University of Manitoba (UM) and other NCTR partner organizations.
Governing Circle members serve a minimum two-year term, meet quarterly and advise on the NCTR's policies, priorities, activities, ceremonies, protocols and methods. The Governing Circle ensures ongoing Indigenous oversight of the NCTR.
- Meet the NCTR Governing Circle
About the Survivors Circle
Following a national selection process, the NCTR welcomed its first Survivors Circle in 2017. One of their first ceremonial acts was to welcome the TRC's Bentwood Box back to the NCTR after being on display at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights since the TRC's close.
The first Survivors Circle worked closely with staff at the NCTR, providing invaluable expertise and guidance on an array of NCTR actions. Their perspectives were instrumental in the Independent Assessment Process (IAP) records case and development of the enhanced notice program for IAP records. Their direct advocacy efforts resulted in the NCTR's Lessons Learned report and the National Student Memorial Register.
Today, a seven-member Survivors Circle continues to guide the NCTR. These members:
- Ensure that Survivors' voices and perspectives remain central to NCTR programs and policies
- Provide guidance and advice to the NCTR, the Governing Circle, UM and partners on anything important to the broader Survivor community
"It was the Survivors' truth and the power of their statements that changed this country's perception of itself. Having Survivors at the core of the NCTR is essential, not only for respecting the past but also for understanding where we're going." ~ Ry Moran, First Director of the NCTR
- Meet the NCTR Survivors Circle
More Information on Governance
Read our Administrative Agreement (PDF) with the University of Manitoba.
NCTR Annual Reports
NCTR's spirit name – bezhig miigwan, meaning "one feather".
Bezhig miigwan calls upon us to see each Survivor coming to the NCTR as a single eagle feather and to show those Survivors the same respect and attention an eagle feather deserves. It also teaches we are all in this together — we are all one, connected, and it is vital to work together to achieve reconciliation.


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Human, societal and animal welfare and environmental care have traditionally been seen as distinct disciplines. The benefit of breaking down these disciplinary silos is that more effective and comprehensive strategies can be developed to tackle the problems which affect us all – and this is the aim of 'One Welfare'.
Approaching animal welfare and the ethics which govern our treatment of animals through this broader and inter-disciplinary lens can only enhance and improve practice, and help veterinarians act for the benefit of humans and nonhumans alike.
Content on this portal is structured around eight themes. There are two overarching themes – Animal Welfare Science and Animal Ethics, and six other themes devoted to animals used in different contexts.


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Tethered Balloon Aerial Photography
A complement to Kite aerial photography when there isn't significant wind. Like KAP, often done under an entirely different legal regime (especially for commercial work) than UAVs. Prevention of twisting may be done with a picavet, or with multiple control lines.
 High Altitude Balloon
High-Altitude Ballooning (HAB) has become a popular hobby in recent years, as control solutions became easy & inexpensive (the Arduino project and competitors), and GPS functionality got cheaper. Using helium or hydrogen and remarkably little money, people can now experiment with conditions and views far higher than a passenger airplane travels.
A typical loadout might include:
- A 2 meter diameter (5 meter burst) latex balloon.
- A styrofoam cooler to protect against temperature extremes
- An Arduino control board
- A wide angle helmet cam set to video
- A small transmitter with helical antenna for telemetry
- A parachute designed to trigger after the balloon bursts
- A directional antenna on the ground
 High Altitude Glider
There is some interest in the combination of HABing with gliding planes or paragliders. A balloon that lifts a glider may fall into different legal categories than a powered UAV (which may be altitude-limited), but the lines are very blurry and there are significant legal questions of definition.
- The $150 Edge-of-Space Camera: MIT Students Beat NASA On Beer-Money Budget
- United Kingdom High Altitude Society, the dominant wiki in this area, is supplemented by Freenode _TAG_


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Mar. Drugs 2013, 11(6), 2203-2215; doi:10.3390/md11062203
Conopeptides from Cape Verde Conus crotchii
Jorge Neves 1,2, Alexandre Campos 1, Hugo Osório 3,4, Agostinho Antunes 1,5 and Vitor Vasconcelos 1,5,*
CIIMAR/CIMAR—Interdisciplinary Centre of Marine and Environmental Research, Rua dos Bragas 289, Porto 4050-123, Portugal
DECM—Department of Engineering and Sea Science, Cape Verde University, Mindelo CP 163, Cape Verde
Institute of Molecular Pathology and Immunology of the University of Porto, IPATIMUP, Porto 4200-465, Portugal
Faculty of Medicine, University of Porto, Porto 4200-319, Portugal
Faculty of Sciences, University of Porto, Porto 4169-007, Portugal
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed; Tel.: +351-22-_PHONE_; Fax: +351-22-_PHONE_.
Received: 1 April 2013; in revised form: 20 May 2013 / Accepted: 27 May 2013 / Published: 19 June 2013
: Marine Cone snails of the genus Conus contain complex peptide toxins in their venom. Living in tropical habitats, they usually use the powerful venom for self-defense and prey capture. Here, we study Conus crotchii venom duct using a peptide mass-matching approach. The C. crotchii was collected on the Cape Verde archipelago in the Boa Vista Island. The venom was analyzed using matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS). About 488 molecular masses between 700 Da and 3000 Da were searched bymatching with known peptide sequences from UniProtKB protein sequence database. Through this method we were able to identify 12 conopeptides. For validation we considered the error between the experimental molecular mass (monoisotopic) and the calculated mass of less than 0.5 Da. All conopeptides detected belong to the A-, O1-, O2-, O3-, T- and D-superfamilies, which can block Ca2+ channels, inhibit K+ channels and act on nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs). Only a few of the detected peptides have a 100% UniProtKB database similarity, suggesting that several of them could be newly discovered marine drugs.
Conus; cone snails; conopeptide; conotoxin; Cape Verde
1. Introduction
Cone snails (genus Conus) are venomous predators belonging to the Conidae family. There are ~700 Conus species, all carrying complex arrays of peptide toxins in their venom [1]. Conus species normally live in tropical habitats of shallow water, on sand or near coral reefs and may cause lethal paralysis to their prey. Considered aggressive predators, cone snails are usually classified, depending on their prey, into three groups: vermivorous (worm-hunting), molluscivorous (other gastropods-hunting), and piscivorous cone snails (fish-hunting). However, some Conus can feed on hemichordates, bivalve mollusks and echiuroids, but a few species are considered generalist (e.g., C. californicus). Conus can be also dangerous to humans. The fish-hunting species C. geographus, have caused about three dozen fatalities in human poisoning cases [2,3]. The venom bioactive molecules, known as conopeptides or conotoxins (indiscriminate using of this work), are used to capture prey, as self defense from predators or to prevent competition [4,5]. Some authors have estimated that there are 100–200 distinct peptides per species, but recent work suggested that more than 1000 distinct conopeptides may be found per species [6]. These venoms mainly include linear peptides (usually disulfide-rich) and powerfully folded mini-proteins [7], exhibit various neuropharmacological properties with special incidence on ion channels and receptors [8,9]. Therefore, conopeptides have been considered powerful tools in neuroscience, and, for example, in December 2004, the synthetic version of the peptide ω-conotoxin MVIIA (commercial name Prialt®; Elan Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Dublin, Ireland) from C. magus has been approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to treat chronic pain in humans [10,11,12,13]. Despite this achievement, the overall knowledge of Conus venom proteins and peptides is scarce compared to other animal venom-producers (e.g., snakes, scorpions, spiders and sea anemones), thus providing a huge potential for the discovery of new pharmacological drugs [14]. The majority of Conus venom mini-proteins have a sequence length of 12–35 amino acids, normally with a high incidence of post-translational modifications. There are four classifications: (i) disulfide-rich conopeptides (conotoxins), which have two or more disulfides bridges, and disulfide-poor conopeptides, with one or none disulfide bond (conopressins, contryphans, conantokins, and contulakins); (ii) "gene superfamily" scheme that share a highly conserved sequence; (iii) "cysteine framework" scheme sorts them according to the arrangement of cysteines; and (iv) "pharmacological family" scheme reflects the target specificity of each conopeptide [2,9,10,15].
For the analysis of peptides the matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization equipped with a time-of-flight (MALDI TOF/TOF) mass analyzer has been one of the most valuable analytical tools. This technique is relatively easy to perform (user friendly), is reliable and at the same time enables high-throughput sample analyses. Through MALDI-TOF, valuable data is generated [16], which contributes to the rapid discovery and characterization of new Conus marine drugs. The masses of peptides produced can be compared and "matched" to known sequences available on databases (e.g., UniProtKB and ConoServer). This methodology has been used to make available the identity of any protein whose full-length sequence is contained therein. Some peptides were identified within 0.5 Da (Daltons) of the predicted value, which was considered to be a sufficient criterion [17].
In the Cape Verde tropical Atlantic waters, there are 52 described Conus species, representing about 10% of the worldwide species diversity and only three are non-endemics (C. ermineus, C. genuanus, and C. tabidus). However, this high Conus diversity does not exist in other Macaronesian islands [18]. The conopeptides distribution by zoogeographic regions indicates a lack of information regarding the Atlantic Ocean. In this regard, 184 experimentally verified sequences have been reported from the Indo Pacific region and 25 from the Eastern Pacific region [19]. Only seven experimentally verified sequences from the Eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean regions, 22 from the Western Atlantic and Caribbean regions [19], and one conopeptide sequence from South African (with 18 endemic Conus species) have yet been reported [5]. In this study, we characterized the conopeptides from the C. crotchii venom duct using mass-matching approach (error ≤0.5 Da). C. crotchii have a heavy shell, with a greenish ground color, normally with fine spiral dark brown lines. It lives in shallow water (5 meters deep), and was observed only on south of Boa Vista island (Santa Mónica beach). The natural habitat is shown in Figure 1. Usually the C. crotchii length is nearly 30 mm. To our knowledge, this is the first description of conopeptides from the venom of a Cape Verde endemic Conus.
Figure 1. The endemic C. crotchii can be found only on Boa Vista island–Santa Mónica beach.
Marinedrugs 11 02203 g001 1024
2. Results and Discussion
2.1. Peptide Mass Range Distribution
The venom sample was first fractionated by SDS-PAGE (Figure 2A, SDS-PAGE only) and 2DE gel (data not shown). Each protein band was isolated and subjected to reduction, alkylation and trypsin digestion. Peptide samples were subsequently submitted to MALDI-TOF MS analysis, enabling the detection of 488 unique molecular masses, ranging from ~700 Da to ~3000 Da. The same technique was used to characterize C. consors peptides, rendering the detection of similar number of molecular masses (e.g., 550) [20]. The molecular mass distribution of the conopeptides in C. crotchii is shown in Figure 2B. Almost 90% of these masses were between 700 and 1900 Da and only 10% corresponded to large peptides. However, most of the


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- About regional NRM
- My region
- Get involved
- Policies & plans
- Education & careers
Research and science
To manage our natural resources soundly, we rely on scientific information about the condition of our natural resources and the effect on natural systems of the way we manage the land, water and vegetation.
The Department of Natural Resources and Mines, Department of Environment and Heritage Protection, Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, Department of Science, Information Technology, Innovation and the Arts, and the Cooperative Research Centres all play a role in creating the science that underpins the way we manage our natural resources.
State-level evaluations in Queensland
Funded by the Australian Government through the Natural Heritage Trust, state-level evaluations were conducted to investigate the success of regional delivery of NRM objectives in Queensland and bordering northern Australia regions.
State-level investment projects (SIPs)
For truly sustainable natural resource management, some regional activities need to be coordinated and planned at the state level. The state-level activities are known as SIPs.
Last updated 30 July 2012


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There is no doubt that owning a dog is rewarding. Council acknowledges the benefits of dog ownership and encourages dog owners to be responsible for their pet.
Dog owner responsibilities include:
- Annually registering your dog with the City of Palmerston
- Providing adequate food, water and shelter
- Providing exercise and mental stimulation to deter boredom
- Provide a safe environment for the dog with suitable fencing
- Arranging annual vaccinations from your vet
- Preventing heartworm and other intestinal worms
- Controlling external parasites like fleas and ticks
- Seek veterinary advice if the dog is sick or injured
- Desexing the dog if not used for breeding to prevent unwanted litters
- Walking the dog on a lead at all times unless in a designated off-lead area
- Cleaning up after your dog when exercising in a public place
- Providing training for the dog so that it does not become a nuisance to other
For lost or found animals you can also search the RSPCA website. The site also has information on caring for your pets. Find out about caring for your pets, adopting a new pet, making a donation or volunteering at the RSPCA.


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The Tabot Calendar By Peter Meyer This page first published September 27, 2006 CE = Sawwara 30, 75 H.I.M.
Following the coronation of H.I.M. Haile Selassie 1st on November 2nd, 1930 AD, as Emperor of Abyssinia, an offshoot of Christianity emerged, known as Rastafarianism. The term is derived from Ras Tafari, where Tafari was the birth name of Haile Selassie (born on the 23rd of July 1892), and Ras is a title (like Duke) which he was given on the 11th of February 1917. The Tabot creed holds that Haile Selassie 1st is the second coming of the seed of David in power and that the spiritual significance of his crowning is known as the revelation of Jesus Christ which marks the beginning of a new era.
The Tabot calendar was created by Mark Moore, a.k.a. Ras Mahitema Selassie, and was first published in paper form in 1997. (Tabot is short for The Anointed Body of Testimony = Haile Selassie 1st.) As the rules for the calendar had not been fully worked out a representative of Tabot ministries requested me to ascertain exact rules subject to the following requirements:
- A year is divided into 11 months of 30 days each plus a 12th month of 35 days except that:
- Every fourth year an extra day is added at the end of one of the first 11 months.
- New Years Day in this calendar should always fall on November 2nd in the Gregorian Calendar.
In accordance with these requirements I proposed a definition of the Tabot Calendar as follows:
- Years consist of 365 or 366 consecutive days and are numbered 0, 1, 2, 3,...
- A year is divided into 12 contiguous non-overlapping months, numbered 1 through 12.
- A year numbered N is said to be a long year if and only if at least one of the following is true:
- N+3 is divisible by 4 but N+31 is not divisible by 100.
- N+331 is divisible by 400.
- A year which is not a long year is said to be a normal year.
- Months 1 through 3 and months 5 through 11 each have 30 days.
- Month 4 has 30 days in a normal year and 31 days in a long year.
- Month 12 has 35 days.
- The first day of the first month of the first year (year 0) in the Tabot Calendar coincides with November 2nd, 1930 AD, in the Gregorian Calendar.
The months in the Tabot Calendar are named as follows:
1 Anbassa 30 2 Hymanot 30 3 Immanuel 30 4 Ras 30 or 31 5 Ta'Berhan 30 6 Manassa 30 7 Danaffa 30 8 Negest 30 9 Tafari 30 10 Emru 30 11 Sawwara 30 12 Negus & Dejazmatch 35
The days of the week in the Tabot Calendar are named as follows:
- Ergat (the day of Ascension) corresponds to Sunday.
- Tazajenat (the day of Obedience) corresponds to Monday.
- Kedusenant (the day of Holiness) corresponds to Tuesday.
- Ra'ee (the day of Revelation) corresponds to Wednesday.
- Makrab (the day of Provision) corresponds to Thursday.
- Mamlak (the day of Worship) corresponds to Friday.
- Germa (the day of Majesty) corresponds to Saturday.
Here is an example of a month in the Tabot Calendar:
It is part of the definition of the Tabot Calendar that the first day of the first month always occurs on a particular day in November. In fact this is true of all twelve Tabot months. In other words, the first day of a Tabot month always occurs on a particular day of the month in the Gregorian Calendar, as stated below:
Sawwara, the Deliverer
Sawwara 75 H.I.M. begins August 29th, 2006
Erg Taz Ked Ra' Mak Mam Ger 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
The first day of the Tabot month with this number...... always occurs on this day in the Gregorian Calendar: 1 November 2nd 2 December 2nd 3 January 1st 4 January 31st 5 March 2nd 6 April 1st 7 May 1st 8 May 31st 9 June 30th 10 July 30th 11 August 29th 12 September 28th
The following link displays today's date in the Tabot Calendar.
This is also available on the Tabot Ministries website at _URL_.
Calendar Studies Hermetic Systems Home Page


Metals 2014, 4(1), 1-7; doi:10.3390/met4010001
A Concept for the Control of Pore Size in Superalloy Membranes
Joachim Rösler *, Waldemar Krause and Björn Hinze
Institut für Werkstoffe, Technische Universität Braunschweig, Langer Kamp 8, D-38106 Braunschweig, Germany; E-Mails: (W.K.); (B.H.)
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed; E-Mail:; Tel.: +49-_PHONE_; Fax: +49-_PHONE_.
Received: 29 November 2013; in revised form: 19 December 2013 / Accepted: 23 December 2013 /
Published: 9 January 2014
: A new method to adjust the pore size in superalloy membranes is shown, utilizing controlled cooling from solution heat treatment of the solid superalloy. Hereby, the nucleation rate and, thus, the size of the γ'-precipitates can be varied to a large extent. This leads to a corresponding variation in the pore size once the membrane material is produced by directional coarsening of the γ'-phase to an interconnected network and subsequent selective extraction of the γ-phase. Furthermore, it was found that coherent and incoherent γ'-precipitates can be used alike to fabricate superalloy membranes, and yet, result in vastly different pore morphologies. The findings widen the application range of this novel material class.
superalloys; porous materials; nanostructured materials; heat treatment
1. Introduction
Porous metals exhibiting open porosity are of interest for many functional applications, such as filtration or noise attenuation [1,2]. These materials are mainly produced by sintering of powders or fibers [3], coating of polymer sponges [4] or melt infiltration techniques [5]. Resulting pore sizes of these "conventional" porous metals are typically in a range between 10 μm and 100 μm. An alternative manufacturing process was introduced in 2003 [6]. In contrast to the previously mentioned processes, a solid material, namely a Ni-based superalloy is used. It typically contains 50%–70% γ'-precipitates with dimensions of some hundred nanometers in the solution and precipitation heat treated state. Their shape is cubic with the cube faces oriented perpendicular to crystallographic <001> orientations. When the material is exposed to elevated temperatures, say 1000 °C, the precipitates grow preferentially in specific <001> directions due to external or internal stresses, often referred to as directional coarsening or rafting (see e.g., [7,8,9]). Eventually, the γ'-particles connect to a network embedded in the γ-matrix, which itself remains continuous. Thus, a microstructure results where the γ- and γ'-phases form two interpenetrating networks. When sheets of such material are produced and one phase is selectively extracted by an (electro-)chemical process, the other phase remains as a self-supporting structure so that a membrane material with open porosity results [6,10,11,12]. The obtained pore shape is highly elongated as a consequence of the directional coarsening process and the width of these channel-like pores is of the order of some hundred nanometers, i.e., more than an order of magnitude smaller than the pore size achievable in conventional porous metals. Considering this, it is apparent that superalloy membranes widen the range of achievable pore sizes to significantly smaller dimensions. However, it is also apparent that there is currently a gap between the pore size of superalloy membranes and the smallest pore size achievable in conventional porous metals. In order to close this gap, it would be highly beneficial if superalloy membranes, with larger pores well in the micrometer range, could be produced. One approach explored in [12] to achieve this objective is to increase temperature T and/or duration t of the heat treatment during which directional coarsening occurs. However, this approach has limitations: Firstly, coarsening of the very fine initial γ/γ'-microstructure by diffusion is a slow process in superalloys. Secondly, there are upper bounds for t, due to practical considerations, and T, because ultimately the γ'-volume fraction becomes too small for this phase to connect to a 3-dimensional network. Therefore, an alternative concept is explored here, using the cooling rate from the solutioning temperature as key parameter to control the precipitation kinetics of the γ'-phase and, hence, its initial size.
2. Experimental Details
The material investigated here is the single crystalline Ni-based superalloy CMSX-4® [13]. As reference state we use a heat treatment procedure for the production of porous membranes essentially established in [12]. It encompasses solution heat treatment at 1550 K/2 h, 1561 K/3 h, 1569 K/3 h, 1577 K/2 h, 1586 K/2 h, 1589 K/2 h, 1591 K/2 h, 1594 K/2 h followed by air cooling (AC), precipitation heat treatment at 1353 K/4 h/AC and directional coarsening of the microstructure at 1353 K/1000 h. The microstructure in the solution and precipitation heat treated state is depicted in Figure 1a. After directional coarsening, the material was cut by spark erosion to sheets about 2 mm thick and ground to a final thickness of 280 μm to 370 μm to completely remove the surface layer affected by the erosion process. The γ-matrix was then electrochemically extracted using a potential of 1.3 V and an aqueous electrolyte containing 1% ammonium sulfate and 1% citric acid [12,14]. As a result, a membrane material is obtained, consisting of the γ'-phase and pores at the location of the removed γ-phase (Figure 2a). Note that the dendritic microstructure of cast superalloys cannot be homogenized completely [9]. Thus, there are microstructural differences between dendritic and interdendritic regions. Throughout this paper we show images obtained in the secondary dendrite arms to ensure comparability. Furthermore, the normal of all microstructural images, i.e., the normal of the sheets, is oriented in casting direction, which is essentially parallel to the [001] orientation of the single crystal.
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Figure 1. Microstructure in the solution and precipitation heat treated state, as a function of the cooling rate from solution heat treatment (a) air cooling (b) 4 K/min (c) 1 K/min (d) 0.2 K/min [14].
Click here to enlarge figure
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In further experiments, we keep all parameters constant, except for the cooling rate from solution heat treatment. Instead of air cooling, slower cooling at 4 K/min, 1 K/min and 0.2 K/min is selected. Furthermore, cooling from 1594 K is stopped at the precipitation heat treatment temperature of 1353 K followed by a 4 h hold time and air cooling, so that solution and precipitation heat treatment are combined in one cycle. The resulting microstructures after the entire heat treatment cycles are shown in Figure 1b–d. The γ'-particles are significantly larger compared to the reference state and a trend of increasing particle size with decreasing cooling rate is clearly visible. This finding can be understood as follows. It is known, that the precipitation kinetics of γ'-particles in superalloys is very fast [15], so that nuclei are already forming during cooling from the solutioning temperature for all practical purposes. The nucleation rate is strongly dependent on the supercooling below the solvus temperature of the γ'-phase. Fast cooling leads to strong supercooling and, thus, to a high nucleation rate. However, there is little time for particle growth. Consequently, a high density of very fine γ'-particles results. These particles grow during subsequent precipitation heat treatment and the particle density decreases correspondingly. Yet, the particles are still quite small as illustrated in Figure 1a, which is a consequence of the very fine initial microstructure and the fact that particle ripening by diffusion is a slow process in Ni-based superalloys. When the cooling rate from the solutioning temperature is decreased, there is more time for nucleation to occur. Consequently, the amount of supercooling and, thus, the nucleation rate diminishes. Once a particle is formed, it starts to deplete the surround matrix in the γ'-forming elements (i.e., Al, Ti and Ta), thus hampering nucleation in its vicinity. Both effects lead to a lower particle density. At the same time, the particles become bigger because there is more time for growth during cooling and less competition with neighboring particles for the γ'-forming elements. Consequently, the particle size after solution heat treatment increases with decreasing cooling rate and so does the size after precipitation heat treatment (Figure 1).
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Figure 2. Microstructure of the superalloy membranes as a function of the cooling rate from solution heat treatment (a) air cooling (b) 4 K/min (c) 1 K/min (d) 0.2 K/min [14].
Click here to enlarge figure
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Besides the size,


what does your dreams means
Interpretation of dream: Bird*s nest
Bird*s nest
To see an empty bird's nest, denotes gloom and a dull outlook for business. With eggs in the nest, good results will follow all engagements. If young ones are in the nest, it denotes successful journeys and satisfactory dealings. If they are lonely and deserted, sorrow, and folly of yours will cause you anxiety.


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I need to know what are the numbers means when i convert wav file to binary array.. I understand the first ~44 bytes are the header but how can I interpreter the bytes data?? There is some table for this values?
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A bit more detail could be helpful. What do you want to do? What have you tried? – Cedric Reichenbach Apr 12 '13 at 12:59
Please read this : stackoverflow.com/questions/how-to-ask – Aboutblank Apr 12 '13 at 12:59
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closed as not a real question by jlordo, duffymo, Andrew Thompson, nwinkler, Andremoniy Apr 12 '13 at 14:17
1 Answer
up vote 1 down vote accepted
Here is more information on how a WAV file is structured: _URL_
If you are writing your code in Java you have at least the three following ways to read the WAVE file:
 1. using the com.sun.media.sound.WaveFileReader. If you are interested in knowing HOW it's done, then you can just look at the source code to see how it's done.
 2. using the musigcg API. You will be able to read the WAV audio data, and also do pretty stuff like showing the audio data as a picture.
 3. check out this article on reading wave files with Java with a WavFile class included in the article. Since the source is included, again, you will be able to understand how it's done.
I would suggest you to take a look at the WaveFileReader first since it's well known and available in the java jdk for years, but you may do as you like.
Edit: should have done that first, by I just summarized the answers to this this SO question.
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Jalayn thanks for your answer.. The basic manipulations on wav files I already know but i need more info. In general my assignment is to find in audio file the "silent" sections and "plant" there another (short) wav file. Do you have any suggestions how can I find those sections? there need to be some threshold but how to calculate and how recognize where is the "silent"? – David Apr 12 '13 at 19:01
Have you read stackoverflow.com/questions/_PHONE_/…? He suggests that you choose a threshold yourself. Maybe you can put the threshold as a parameter of your application. – Jalayn Apr 12 '13 at 19:09
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text:
Barley's a kind of grass, like wheat, that is a good source of carbohydrates for people. Barley is different from wheat mainly in that it will grow with less rain, so you can grow it more different places. Also, barley doesn't taste as good as wheat. So poor people usually ate more barley, and rich people ate more wheat.
In the grasslands where people liked to live, barley grew wild. People gathered it when it came ripe every spring. They ate barley boiled, like oatmeal, or in soup, or they ground it into flour and made bread. People first began to farm barley (instead of picking it wild) around 11,000 BC in West Asia, possibly because of a climate change that made the world hotter and drier.
Early farmers ate barley like wheat as a boiled porridge, or in soup, and they also made barley bread. But barley is also the grain that people usually used to make beer. People didn't make noodles out of barley.
Because you only ate the seeds from the barley, you had all the rest of the plant left over. The stalks dried into straw. You could weave the straw into mats to sleep on, or give it to animals to sleep on, or make shoes or baskets out of it, or tie it into bunches to thatch your house. The leftover straw was nearly as useful as the seeds.
Barley farming spread south from West Asia to Egypt and North Africa around 8500 BC and to Sudan by about 5000 BC. Barley also spread to Greece and Italy about 7000 BC, and reached northern Europe about 5000 BC, travelling along the Danube and Volga rivers. By about 6000 BC, barley reached India, and it got to China about 3000 BC. (People didn't eat much barley in China, where they ate millet or rice instead, but they used barley to make beer.) By about 1000 BC, people were farming barley in Korea, and by 500 AD Tibetan people were also eating a lot of barley. Barley reached Ethiopia about 500 BC, and West Africa in the Middle Ages. The Dutch brought barley to South Africa in the late 1650s.
Under Roman and Parthian rule, ordinary people lived mainly on barley bread and barley porridge and soup, while rich people ate wheat. But by the Middle Ages, poor people in Northern Europe and Eastern Europe switched to rye bread (not very happily). British settlers brought barley to the Americas in the 1600s AD in order to make beer, but they ate mostly wheat and oats. Spanish traders brought barley to South America, Mexico, and California, but it didn't really catch on. Their bigger contribution was to bring potatoes in the other direction, from South America to Europe. Gradually poor people in Europe switched from barley to potatoes as their main food. Today Europeans and Americans mainly use barley for beer, but in North Africa and Tibet, barley porridge and barley bread are still ordinary food.
Ancient Agriculture: From Foraging to Farming, by Michael and Mary Woods (2000). For middle schoolers, with plenty of information about how farming got started, and how it worked.
Oats, Peas, Beans and Barley Cookbook, by Edyth Young Cottrell (1974).
Famine and Food Supply in the Graeco-Roman World : Responses to Risk and Crisis, by Peter Garnsey (1988). By a leading specialist in Greek and Roman food and farming, and not too hard to read. Especially good on crop failure.
Last Hunters-First Farmers: New Perspectives on the Prehistoric Transition to Agriculture, by T. Douglas Price (1995). Why people started farming.


text:
intakes should be closed before turbidity and acidity levels become excessive; regular monitoring will determine when such levels are reached and indicate when the intakes can be opened again. High turbidity levels are usually manageable if water-treatment filters are cleaned or replaced frequently. Filters can become blocked, however, if turbidity levels become excessive. When turbidity is high, precautionary warnings to "boil water" might be issued to residents because the suspended ash may have decreased the effectiveness of any disinfection or flocculation process.
As the fine ash can remain in suspension for long periods (days to weeks) a coagulation-flocculating agent may need to be added. Alum is found to be the best agent (Hindin, 1981).
To reduce the physical damage to water supply systems, equipment and pumps should be covered when there is an impending ash fall, and the ash should be removed before normal operations resume.
Water tanks and farm water troughs
In addition to potential turbidity and acidity problems, bodies of water close to an erupting volcano with low volume-to-catchment-area ratios may be subject to chemical contamination by leachates, notably fluorine. When ash fall occurs, households with roof water supply should immediately disconnect down pipes connected to a water-supply tank. If ash collects on a roof and down pipes were not disconnected, it is recommnded that the tank water be tested before it is used for potable water. If turbidity remains high, even when tests show the water is non-toxic, the water should be boiled before use. If testing is not available it would be advisable to drain and flush the tank and refill with uncontaminated water.
Farm water troughs are highly vulnerable to contamination and would most probably need to be emptied and refilled after ash falls.
A covered water tank will be safe from direct ash fall contamination, and it may provide valuable water supply during periods ash fall if water use is carefully conserved. Water inflow should be closed before ash lands on the source (the house roof in this case), and the top must be regularly swept/shoveled free of ash to avoid collapse. The inflow should not be opened again until the chemical effect of the ash on water supply is determined safe, or the source is cleared of ash.
Case studies || Ruapehu || Ambrym || Copahue || Mount St. Helens || Mount Spur || Irazú || Soufriere Hills || Hekla ||
Contamination of water supplies has been reported for several historical eruptions. The most common problems resulting from ash fall included unacceptable pH and turbidity levels and higher than usual demand for water. Post ash fall water supply is one of the most significant management issues to be addressed. Hazardous chemical changes in water supplies have been reported in only a few cases.
New Zealand - Ruapehu
The 1945 eruption of Ruapehu volcano produced deposits of several mm thick throughout the North Island of New Zealand, which caused problems for the water supply in the town of Taumarunui (Johnston, 1997). Ash suspended in the Wanganui River, from which the town draws its supply, blocked filters at the supply's intake structure. Pumping was reduced from 90,000 litres/hour to 31,500 litres/hour (Wanganui Herald 26/11/45). Turbidity problems were also experienced in the Whakapapa Village stream-fed water supply, located at the base of the mountain, forcing the Chateau, which was a hospital at the time, to close. Further problems were reported 10 years later when ash that was deposited in 1945 on Mt Ruapehu's snow fields was washed into streams that fed the Whakapapa Village water supply (Houghton and others, 1987).
The 1969 Ruapehu eruption deposited 6-7 mm of ash over an areas that contaminated the water supply of Iwikau Village (located at the Whakapapa Skifield) (Collins, 1978). Water is drawn from the roofs of most of the buildings in the village. The drain pipes were cut after the eruption began, but a number of storage tanks were found to be contaminated. Acidity of the tank water ranged from pH 6 to 4.4, and excessive fluoride concentrations (6.0 ppm) were measured in one tank. Also, Whakapapa Village received 1-6 mm of ash causing the pH of the stream fed water supply to drop to 5.3 and the turbidity to increase markedly. The Taumarunui Borough found for a short period after this eruption that the pH of their water supply dropped to 5.6 pH and turbidity was high.
During the _PHONE_ eruption of Ruapehu volcano ash fell over a wide area of the North Island. Contamination of water supplies was a common concern, and the public was advised to disconnect roof-fed water tanks as a precaution (Johnston and others, 2000). In some cases this proved to be very difficult to accomplish, especially newer enclosed systems. The Department of Conservation disconnected roof-fed water supplies at many of the huts in the Tongariro National Park. Many communities initiated special or enhanced monitoring of their water supplies due to the potential for ash contamination. In some cases extra supplies were stored.
For example, at the Waiouru military base water was stockpiled in jerry cans, rubber bladders and fire engine tanks, and the stream supply was monitored regularly (New Zealand Herald, 27 October 1995). In October 1995 the Rotorua District Council constructed enclosures (costing $120,000) over the Rotorua city and Reporoa spring supplies to mitigate the potential of ash contamination (Johnston, 1997). This was to prove valuable in protecting the supply during the 17 June 1996 ash falls. However, Rotorua almost ran out of water after the ash fall when a resident washed ash into a power transformer. The transformer subsequently exploded, cutting electricity to the town's water pumps. Furthermore, the clean-up efforts of the city's residents almost drained the water supply; the district council imposed a hosing ban until the power supply was restored to the water supply headworks (Daily Post, 19 June 1996). On 17 June 1996 the water supply from the Raymond Dam in the Western Bay of Plenty was disconnected for four hours after the ash falls, while water analysis was carried out. The supply feeds Pukehina, Maketu, Pongakawa and Paengaroa and Te Puke. Some areas were without water for several hours (Bay of Plenty Times, 18 June 1996) but supplies were fully restored by the following day.
Vanuatu - Ambrym
Ambrym Island is a large basaltic shield volcano in Vanuatu. Fine ash falls from an eruption in 1953 led to ash contamination of tank water at Santo 130 km from the volcano (Blong, 1984). In a 1999 study Cronin and Sharp (2002) investigated water supplies from ash-affected areas from two volcanoes (Tanna and Ambrym); only samples from Ambrym were found to have excessive Fluorine levels.
Argentina - Copahue Volcano
Copahue Volcano is a large stratovolcano situated on the border between Argentina and Chile. During eruptions in July 2000, 30-50 mm of ash was deposited in and around Lake Caviahue. Water authorities in the area reported changes in water color from normal deep blue to greyish green. In the days/weeks following the eruption the pH of the lake dropped to 2.1. Ashfall reported 60 km from the volcano caused increased turbidity in streams and changes in pH from a typical pH of 7 to 2.5. Preliminary investigations by Argentina's Provincial Water Division revealed increased iron, fluorine and sulphate levels in water supplies. Ashfall related damage resulted in power outages to water treatment plants and cut off potable water supplies (see Global Volcanism Program, Smithsonian Institution, _URL_
U.S.A. Washington - Mount St. Helens
The 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens produced significant hydrologic and water quality effects in areas affected by ash fall. Ash contamination produced problems for a number of communities with excessive pH and turbidity levels reported in stream-derived water supplies (Blong 1984; Warrick and others, 1981). Samples of ash were found to contain 0.25% water soluble salts, mainly as sulphates and chlorides in the form of sodium salts (Moen and McLuca, 1980). In laboratory experiments distilled water became acidic when placed in contact with fresh ash but returned to normal pH within hours. No excessive chemical concentrations were found in community water supplies in the ash-affected areas.
Increased water demand was experienced in many ash affected communities (Blong 1984; Warrick and others, 1981). For example in Ellensburg, eastern Washington, demand during the first four days exceeded average demand 2.5 times (Warrick and others, 1981).
U.S.A. Alaska - Mount Spur
Anchorage is the largest city in Alaska, located 120 km east of Mount Spurr. The 1959 eruption of Mount Spur deposited 3-6 mm of ash on the city, causing short term pH and turbidity problems with the city's water supply (Wilcox,


Re: Launching perl scripts on systems which do not support #!
gowthamgowtham wrote:
I found this in Programming Perl - 3rd edition. Could not understand how
this works.
What is it supposed to do? Does it work? Have you tried it? How is it supposed
to be run?
I've had a quick look through the book and can find nothing like it. It is
either very esoteric or simply wrong
#!/bin/sh -- # perl, to stop looping
Is this your comment or does it come from the book? If you have changed this
line from
then it will fail as what follows is Perl and nothing else will run it.
if 0;
This is the same as
Even if perl gets to see it, the eval won't happen because of the 'if 0'
statement modifier. In addition:
$@ is a string value. (The error message from the previous call to eval). It is
odd to enclose it in quotes and even odder to add one to it an use the result as
a scalar variable name.
- Who (I mean which program/shell) runs eval 'exec.'?
Perl. But, as I wrote above, I can't see how perl will ever get either to see
the statement (because of the #! line) or execute it (because of the 'if 0'
- What is ${1+"$@"}, looks like this makes up the command line
I explained that before as well. $0 is the command and ${1+"$@"} is its parameter.
arguments to the script?
- What is the purpose of 'if 0;' on a new line?
The newline has no purpose in Perl apart from layout.
'perldoc perlrun' documents that -S switch makes perl search $PATH for the
It doesn't say that, it says it searches the PATH environment variable. There is
no Perl $PATH variable and when you are posting to a Perl group it is important
to make the distinction.
This is either black magic, using shell tricks that I don't know about, or it is
simply wrong.
Please tell where in Programming Perl you have read this.


Evolution Can Help Explain Why We Can't Look Away From Disgusting Movies
Photo: New Line Cinema
Anyone who has seen a movie can identify with a certain reaction to a horribly bloody or gross scene: Gross. But. Can't. Look. Away. A new study in the Journal of Communication tries to get at exactly what's going on here by analyzing viewers' responses to "body envelope violations/death and body products." That is, blood and poop.
The study is available for free online, so check it out if you want the details about how different types of disgusting scenes affected viewers' physiological responses and ability to remember what they were seeing. To me, the overall message here is what's most interesting. As the researchers write: "Disgust... makes us feel bad — but it has functionally evolved over time to compel our attention, thus making it a quality of entertainment messages that may keep audiences engrossed and engaged."
Evolutionary psychology — the idea of connecting aspects of modern human behavior to our evolutionary roots — is a controversial one in some quarters, and in many cases it can be used to over-explain certain behaviors and falsely justify others. ("Men have to be on the prowl, baby! We can't settle down. Evolution says so.")
But here, it makes sense. Back in the day, if one of our ancestors came across a disgusting scene, it was a very important one to pay attention to from a survival standpoint (corpses and blood and poop can all kill you — especially when you don't have antibiotics and other modern medical advances). So the adaptive response would have been (1) Don't go near it!, and (2) Don't ignore it, either — remember this and avoid it in the future. That's a nice explanation for some of the push-pull going on when we sit entranced and horrified as Jason does his thing.