text:
Comparison of Case Processing Under the Young Offenders Act and the First Six Months of the Youth Criminal Justice Act
Factors Affecting Custodial Sentences
As already discussed, the YCJA brought changes to the sentencing regime for youth convicted of criminal offences. A major change is the prohibition against the imposition of a custodial sentence – including deferred custody and supervision – unless the young person has committed a violent offence; the young person has failed to comply with non-custodial sentences; the young person has committed a serious indictable offence and has a history that indicates a pattern of offences; or in exceptional cases where the young person has committed an indictable offence, the aggravating circumstances of the offence are such that it would be impossible to impose a sentence other than custody.
Multivariate analysis was used to determine whether the importance of the factors listed in the last paragraph changed in the two time periods.
The following lists the independent variables included in the model. The factors that attempt to operationalize the criteria for custody in the YCJA are italicized.
- demographic characteristics of young persons: being female, age in years, being of Aboriginal background, and having one or more social or psychological problem
- legal factors relating to prior record: one or more past custody sentence; more than one past conviction for breach of probation
- legal factors relating to current case: number of current charges; one more indictable person conviction; one or more hybrid person conviction; one or more hybrid property conviction; one or more probation breach conviction; one or more bail-related conviction
- legal factor relating to prior record and current case: both three or more prior convictions and an indictable current conviction.
This analysis is not a definitive analysis of factors affecting custody sentences. Rather, the primary interest is to determine the extent to which violent offences, past failure to comply with a non-custodial sentence (probation), and a pattern of offending and a serious current conviction affect the use of custody before and after the YCJA. In a similar way, we want to know whether there were changes in the effects of minor but high frequency hybrid property, probation breaches and bail offences.
The differential effects of the key legal factors before and after the YCJA (Table 33) were as follows:
- Under the YOA, the strongest predictor of custody was more numerous current convictions, followed by a current probation breach conviction.
- Under the YCJA, the strongest predictor was the presence of a pattern of offending plus a serious (indictable) current offence.
- After the law, the less serious, hybrid offences against property and the person showed a negative relationship to custody (i.e., having a conviction for these offence groups decreased the probability of custody).
Toronto and Scarborough :
- In the pre-law sample, having a prior custody sentence, more numerous current convictions and an indictable offence against the person were most influential in the DCSO/custody cases.
- The presence of a pattern of offending plus a serious current offence was by far the most influential factor under the YCJA and the sole statistically significant factor associated with the case.
- Having a prior custody sentence was the strongest predictor under the YOA, although also being of Aboriginal origin, more numerous current convictions and having a pattern of offending plus a serious current offence were also statistically associated with custody.
- Having a prior custody sentence, more numerous current charges, having a current hybrid person conviction and having a pattern of offending/serious current offence predicted custody in 2003. Bail convictions were negatively associated with custody, a finding which is consistent with the intent of the new law. Being Aboriginal and having social/psychological problems also increased the likelihood of custody.
- Having a prior custody sentence, more numerous convictions, and a pattern of offending plus a serious current offence predicted custody under the Young Offenders Act.
- Under the YCJA, a past custody sentence was most influential followed by having a current conviction for breach of probation, a conviction for an indictable offence against the person, and a pattern of offending plus an indictable current conviction.
Vancouver and Surrey :
- More numerous current charges and prior custody were the main significant factors before the law whereas after the Act, having a pattern of offending/serious current offence was the strongest predictor by far. Also significant post-law was being of Aboriginal background, but this finding may not reflect systemic discrimination as much as an indication that there are other factors affecting custody that were not included in the model.
Thus, the changes in the factors appearing to influence Halifax, Toronto/Scarborough and Vancouver/Surrey custody sentences are in keeping with the Youth Criminal Justice Act. The case characteristics predicting custody in Winnipeg and Edmonton were somewhat less consistent with the principles of the Act, although in both time periods in both cities having a pattern of offending and an indictable current offence was statistically associated with custody.
In the sample as a whole, the following changes over time that were consistent with the principles of the YCJA were observed:
- Having a pattern of offending and also serious current offence, as operationalized, was only a weak predictor of custody under the YOA but one of the two strongest predictors in the first six months after proclamation of the YCJA.
- A significant negative relationship between a current conviction for a violation of bail and custody was found under the YCJA but not under the YOA.
- Having a current probation breach conviction increased the likelihood of custody before but not after the new legislation came into effect.
- Serious violent charges – defined as indictable person offences – predicted custody in both periods.
- Having social/psychological problems increased custody usage before but not after the legislation.
The finding that older youth were treated more severely by the court under the YCJA may or may not be consistent with the new legislation depending on one's perspective. This group is usually regarded as more accountable for their actions than younger persons, age can be considered both a "social" and a "legal" factor.
 This last variable was defined in the section that presented the multivariate findings for the factors affecting whether the case involved a finding of guilt.
 Having a past custody sentence could be assumed to be consistent with the YCJA since it is one way of operationalizing a pattern of offending.
- Date modified:


� Dem Ebonics Agin | Main | Halie �
July 26, 2005
The Economics of Racial Profiling
Several years ago I built a simple model of racial profiling to see where it might lead. My original question was basically, if you were a shopkeeper and implemented a racial profiling security strategy, would it work? Specifically, if you alienated your black customers, who were profiled because of black criminals, could you remain profitable. The answer was yes. I've updated the model just a touch since then, but the basics are all the same. Here's the spreadsheet:
In month zero, you observe the first scenario in your store. You are setting up an experiment to determine whether or not to set up a racial profiling system for your new security guard. Your cameras roll and you don't bother any of your patrons. If they steal, they steal. You let them all walk. You have 1000 whites patronize your store. They spend an average of 12 dollars per trip and steal about 72 dollars worth of merchandise. Blacks spend less on average, are a much smaller percentage of the gross income of your store, but according to your observations, steal at double the white ratio. Others spend about on par with whites but less overall than blacks. One of the others rips you off big time, but per capita by racial group this is below both the black and white crime rate.
So on the basis of the rate of crimes committed by race, you decide to profile only the blacks. The results are twofold. The first is that you alienate half of your black customers, still one black gets away with lifting about $5 worth of merchandise. The second is that you reduce overall crime by 40%, and normalize the rate of crimes between blacks and whites. In the end your bottom line is that you have lost only about $65 in revenue, and maintained better than 93% of your customers.
Is that an acceptable loss?
Part of the problem here is that by identifying crime rates by race and observing the difference, you set up a standard by which some crime is justified, in this case, 'white' crime. by such a standard some race is bound to be overly persecuted in this case, 'blacks'. the very act of initiating a crackdown on criminals *by race* even if the statistics 'justify' it, is to set up a differing standard by which individuals are judged in the justice system. this is racist even if this the actions are restricted to the class of known and observed criminals. You end up treating one race of criminals worse than another race of criminals.
In fact, racial profiling is not restricted to a population of criminals. The effects are felt against the general population. In this case you alienate the innocent black general population as well as the criminals. By profiling the black population you are in fact treating all blacks as if they were black criminals, which we have already established are getting a worse deal than white criminals.
However, if you are only concerned with profit, it's clear that you can maintain such a racist policy with a minimal impact on your bottom line.
There are a number of variables which I think should be added to the analysis. Today, I'm not so interested in Korean groceries, which prompted this study, but the War on Terror. It's clear that if we were to apply racial profiling to Arabs boarding airplanes, the situation would be worse in terms of effect on innocents. Firstly, it is a whole lot less likely that an Arab would be hijacking a plane than shoplifting from a store. So the crime ratios would be a lot lower. Similarly, Arab passengers would not have so many convenient alternatives as black shoppers. So the second observation would not be too far different from the first.
Just a little food for thought.
Posted by mbowen at July 26, 2005 12:30 AM
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Here's another observation though: People don't typically die because somebody felt like shoplifting.
A few years ago our local Walgreen's started putting anti-theft things on some of the most-lifted merchandise so that an alarm rings if you take it out the door without its being demagnetized. There was a furor because it was thought that only "black" items were getting those magnetic stickers. But I've set them off more than once when the clerk didn't demagnetize my stuff.
Posted by: Laura at July 26, 2005 05:21 PM


Choose what you want
Before I can post about hybrids I need to post about selective breeding. People have been breeding plants and animals for thousands of years. Before modern science all you had to do was:
 1. Choose two plants or animals that you liked.
 2. Breed them.
 3. Repeat for thousands of years.
The results are amazing.
Look at this before and after shot of the watermelon from James Kennedy:
James Kennedy's wonderful watermelon.
James Kennedy's wonderful watermelon
He has more of these on his website, which I'll definitely be going back to.
The point for your organisation is this:
 1. Know what you want – vision, values, culture
 2. Choose what you want, and keep on selecting for it
 3. Make it explicit – explain what you're doing to your team and others
 4. Iterate for days, months, years.
 5. Be fruitful
A word of caution. the wrong type of selective breeding can cause all sorts of mayhem and monstrosities.
The moral of the story: choose carefully, and be on the lookout for unintended consequences.
I'd love to hear your thoughts and recommended resources...


text:
We prove the following results. (1) If M(P) is the space of maps of the pseudo-arc into itself with the sup metric, then the subset H(P) of maps of the pseudo-arc into itself which are homeomorphisms onto their images is a dense Gs in M(P). (2) Every homeomorphism of the pseudo-arc onto itself is a product of e-homeomorphisms. (3) There exists a nonidentity homeomorphism of the pseudo-arc with an infinite sequence of pth roots. (4) Every map between chainable continua can be lifted to a homeomorphism of pseudo-arcs.
- Chainable continuum
- Space of homeomorphisms

source: openbmb/Ultra-FineWeb


text:
Nurse students' experiences with clinical placement in outpatient unit - a qualitative study
Journal article, Peer reviewed
MetadataShow full item record
Original versionBMC Nursing, 2016, vol. 15.
Background: The recent reforms in the health care sector have changed the requirements for professional nursing competence in the clinical field. The reforms have also required nursing education to consider different areas for clinical placements for their students, and outpatient units in hospitals have been increasingly formalized as clinical learning environments. The complex technologies in some of these units represent a challenge for students who have limited existing knowledge or experience. More focus on outpatient care has also led to fewer opportunities for studying the continuity of a patient's life situation. In order to meet these challenges, structured learning activities with special forms were developed by nursing educators and nurses at outpatient units. The aim of this study was to explore students' experiences of using structured learning activities as unit-specific learning outcomes and targeted reflection during clinical placements in an outpatient unit. Methods: Two focus group interviews were conducted with a total of seven nursing students who had experienced structured learning activities during clinical placements in an outpatient unit. Data were analyzed by means of content analyses. Results: This study shows that preparedness and guidance during placement were imperative for making the week in the outpatient unit meaningful. 'Being prepared', which was one of the categories, incorporated the subcategories 'being able to understand what to do', 'being at the right place at the right time' and 'being alert for new experiences'. The category 'being guided' which incorporated the subcategories 'from uncertainty to more confidence', 'from observer to seeking knowledge' and 'from focusing on technology to seeing the person' showed that the forms guided the students through the placement in the outpatient unit. Discussion: Students take a more active approach to seeking knowledge when given structured learing activities during clinical placement in outpatient unit. Conclusions: This study shows that use of outpatient units for clinical placement in nursing studies has several challenges but also the potential for creating positive experiences for the students.


Your question: What is the meaning of ketone?
What does keytone mean?
What is the meaning of ketone bodies?
Ketone bodies are the water-soluble molecules (acetoacetate, beta-hydroxybutyrate, and the spontaneous breakdown product of acetoacetate, acetone) containing the ketone group that is produced by the liver from fatty acids during periods of low food intake (fasting), carbohydrate restrictive diets, starvation, prolonged …
Is ketone a word?
The word ketone is derived from Aketon, an old German word for 'acetone'. According to the rules of IUPAC nomenclature, ketones are named by changing the suffix -ane of the parent alkane to -anone. The position of the carbonyl group is usually denoted by a number.
What is another name for ketone?
Generally, the common names of ketones consist of the names of the groups attached to the carbonyl group, followed by the word ketone. (Note the similarity to the naming of ethers.) Another name for acetone, then, is dimethyl ketone. The ketone with four carbon atoms is ethyl methyl ketone.
IT IS INTERESTING: Can keto help with joint pain?
What is the fastest way to get rid of ketones?
 2. Test your blood sugar every 3 to 4 hours.
Does drinking water reduce ketones?
What are the 3 ketone bodies?
The three ketone bodies synthesized in the liver from acetyl-CoA are acetoacetate, β-hydroxybutyrate, and acetone. Acetyl-CoA is converted to acetoacetate by two metabolic pathways, and acetoacetate is then metabolized to β-hydroxybutyrate or acetone.
How do you get ketone bodies?
Ketogenesis is the biochemical process through which organisms produce ketone bodies through breakdown of fatty acids and ketogenic amino acids. This process supplies energy under circumstances such as fasting or caloric restriction to certain organs, particularly the brain, heart and skeletal muscle.
What is the role of ketones?
What is Ketone formula?
The simplest ketone is CH₃—C(=O)—CH₃. Its molecular formula is C₃H₆O. From this formula we can say that for "n" carbon atoms we need "2n" hydrogen atoms and an oxygen atom. Hence general formula of ketone is CnH₂nO. Keto group contain a carboxyl group which has two alkyl groups attached to it each on either side.
IT IS INTERESTING: Question: Can ketosis cause hair loss?
What can't you eat on keto?
 - Sweet Potatoes Aren't Okay on Keto, but Cauliflower Is.
Is ketone a Scrabble word?
There are 6 letters in KETONE ( E1K5N1O1T1 )
How do you identify a ketone?
They are named by finding the carbonyl group and identifying it with a location number, if necessary, then adding the suffix "-one." The common name for ketones is determined by naming the alkyl groups attached to the carbonyl (in alphabetical order), then adding 'ketone'.
What is the functional group of ketone?
How do you tell if a compound is a ketone?
Nomenclature of ketones


text:
Look For the Signs: Depression, Suicide, and How To Help
Note: The in-depth information in this section has been compiled
for those who want to learn more about depression. For immediate
help, please see Depression:
Medical, Counseling and Educational Services.
the UC Berkeley News story about the Look For the Signs Campaign.
Look for the Signs: Introduction
Across the nation, depression has become a serious and prevalent
issue among college students. Unfortunately, depression is often
stigmatized, ignored, or untreated. The UC Berkeley campus is
addressing this problem by raising students' awareness of the
signs of depression and what can be done to treat it. We hope
the information in this campaign will help students understand
the seriousness of the issue, recognize the signs of depression,
and encourage them to seek appropriate treatment. In doing so,
we hope to make mental health and wellness a greater priority
for UC Berkeley students and staff, and to promote a positive
and educated outlook toward depression. Next:
What is Clinical Depression?

source: HuggingFaceFW/fineweb-edu


text:
Contact Folders and Groups
Keep your contacts organized by using multiple Folders and Groups.
When to use
If you find yourself digging through contacts just to find some for a specific topic, possibly a neighbourhood group, you can create a folder for just that topic and keep those specific contacts in that folder.
Create a new folder
- Click on your Contacts or People view.
- Click the Folder ribbon and click the New Folder button, then type a name for the folder, i.e. Holiday Cards.
- Notice the new folder appears on the Folder Pane.
Note: A right click on Contacts will produce the same options as the Folder ribbon.
- Moving Contacts to a Folder: pay attention to the lasso on the mouse arrow.
- To move: click and drag a contact onto a folder (lasso on mouse.)
- To copy: Hold Ctrl key and click and drag a contact to a folder (lasso and "+" on mouse.)
Create a new folder group
- On the group folder named "My Contacts".
- Right-click and choose "New Folder Group".
- Type a name and press enter.
- The new Group Folder won't have useable folders until you make some and move them into the group (repeat steps for making folders above.)
- Simply click and drag folders onto the new group folder. Then the collapsible arrows will appear.
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Lesson notes are only available for subscribers.


Lancaster Rose Emblem
Lancaster Rose Meaning
The red rose of Lancaster was worn as a badge which identified someone as belonging to or supporting the House of Lancaster. By wearing the rose a person was displaying their loyalty and allegiance to the family. The emblem of the red rose was adopted during the middle ages and was readily accepted into the symbols of British heraldry.
The emblem was worn not only by the more powerful members of the family but it was also worn by their servants and retainers to show their loyalty to the House of Lancaster.
Lancanshire Rose image
Lancaster Rose flower
Why is the Lancaster Rose Red?
The House of Lancaster got its emblem – the red rose from the badge of Edward I of England which was a gold rose. It was adopted in the 14th century. Today it simply symbolises the Lancashire county.
Lancaster Rose flower Meaning
The emblem for the House of Lancaster was chosen by Edmund, the son of Henry III. The species of rose that Edmund chose was believed to be Rosa Gallica. It was then adopted by the subsequent earls of Lancaster. Although the roses became the symbols of the House of Lancaster and the House of York, neither Houses were believed to have displayed them as their emblem during the War.
The emblem signified loyalty and respect towards the respective Houses.
Lancanshire rose image
Lancanshire rose image
The Red Rose of Lancaster
The emblem of the red rose of Lancaster was sported by supporters of the House of Lancaster, a house which was in rivalry with the House of York, and an equally powerful house whose supporters wore the white rose of York. These families, two of the most powerful houses in England were both trying to lay claim to the English throne.
Both of these noble houses were descended from the Plantagenet House, with their descent being traced back to King Edward III. The family or House of Lancaster was so called as the descendants on that side were descended from the 1st Duke of Lancaster, John Gaunt, and as such adopted the red rose as their emblem.
Lancaster Rose Emblem
Henry Bolingbroke Starts the War of the Roses
The start of the bitter rivalry between the houses of Lancaster and York can be traced back to 1399. This is when Henry Bolingbroke, the then Duke of Lancaster overthrew his cousin King Richard II and claimed the throne. Over the following years three Lancastrian kings held the English throne, these were Henry Bolingbroke who became Henry IV (_PHONE_)
He was the grandson of Edward III and the son of the 1st Duke of Lancaster John of Gaunt. He was followed by his son Henry V (_PHONE_) who was in turn followed by his son Henry VI (_PHONE_). The subsequent war of the roses lasted for decades and saw the deaths of many thousands of people.
The End of the War of the Roses
The War of the Roses was brought to an end with the death of King Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth Field. Richard was the leader of the House of York and was slain on the battlefield by the forces of Henry Tudor, the leader of the Lancaster faction. Henry then claimed the throne for himself. Knowing that his claim on the throne was not as solid as it could have been, he made Elizabeth of York his wife.
Lancaster Rose Emblem
Their marriage not only brought the War of the Roses to an end but also united two of the most powerful noble houses in England. Henry was crowned King Henry VII and went on to found the Tudor dynasty whose emblem is that of the Tudor rose which features the union of the red and white roses of the two houses. Today there is still much rivalry between the counties of York and Lancaster, though the battles today take place in the field of sport.
More Info OnTudor Rose Symbol, Medieval England Mary Rose Longbow, Facts About Mary Rose Ship in Tudor Times
Found info useful?


text:
The review was started by The European Medicines Agency's (EMA) Pharmacovigilance Risk Assessment Committee (PRAC) at its meeting February 4-7 2013.
The French medicines regulatory agency (ANSM) requested this Europe-wide review, after stating that they would suspend the permission to advertise Diane 35 and its generics for the treatment of acne in France over the next 3 months.
They came upon this decision after analyzing reports from a 20-year period taken from the French national pharmacovigilance database that showed that some people taking Diane 35 and its generics developed:
- venous thromboembolism - the forming of blood clots in the veins
- arterial thromboembolism - the forming of blood clots in the arteries
For several years, these drugs have been approved at the level of individual EU Member Sates, and are taken all across Europe. However, each state decides independently and differently on their usage.
They are approved as a form of birth control (contraceptive) in several countries for women with hormone-related issues, such as:
- alopecia - loss of hair
- hirsutism - excessive growth of hair on the face
Scientists are aware of the low risk of developing venous thromboembolism with these medications; the drug comes with a written warning cautioning patients and doctors anyway.
"European legislation requires that there is a coordinated European approach when a Member State takes regulatory action in relation to a medicine that is authorized in more than one country."
Consequently, all existing data on the benefits and risks of these drugs will be assessed by the PRAC so that they can give a recommendation on whether their marketing authorizations should stay as they currently are, be modified, suspended, or repealed.
The PRAC is putting the interest of all patients in the European Union into consideration, and expect that their decision will be made at the 13-16 May 2013 meeting.
The authors concluded:
"Pending the outcome of the PRAC review, women who are currently taking Diane 35 or one of its generics are advised not to stop the medicine. If a woman has concerns, she can discuss them with her doctor."
Written by Sarah Glynn


From Joomla! Documentation
Revision as of 17:36, 22 March 2010 by Doxiki (Talk | contribs)
Replacement filing cabinet.png
[Edit Descripton] Description:JUserHelper
Defined in
Method name Description
addUserToGroup Method to add a user to a group.
removeUserFromGroup Method to remove a user from a group.
setUserGroups Method to set the groups for a user.
activateUser Method to activate a user
getUserId Returns userid if a user exists
getCryptedPassword Formats a password using the current encryption.
getSalt Returns a salt for the appropriate kind of password encryption. Optionally takes a seed and a plaintext password, to extract the seed of an existing password, or for encryption types that use the plaintext in the generation of the salt.
genRandomPassword Generate a random password
getProfile Gets the user profile information
jimport( 'joomla.user.helper' );
[Edit See Also] SeeAlso:JUserHelper


text:
In this article, I present several algorithms to convert a given number in different display formats. Here, "display format" is from a user's point of view, not just converting values into alignment and rounding displays.
Although the code is written in VC++ and has used MFC's CString class exclusively, the algorithms in a general sense can be used in any language. Needless to say, each language and tool would require significant modification to the algorithms themselves apart from coding.
What It Does
Here is list of all functions provided in the sample, with brief descrpitions of all:
- CString ConvertToRoman(int nValue);
Converts the given integer value to a Roman numeral. For example, 1998 will convert to MCMXCVIII. Due to the limited characters used in Roman numerals, the maximum value that can be converted is 3999.
- CString ConvertToWords(UINT nValue);
Translates the given number to more a formal, human-readable format. If the input is 87,422,754, the result is Eighty Seven Million Four Hundred Twenty Two Thousand Seven Hundred Fifty Four. It can process values in the range of UINT, although can be easily extended to any 12-digit value. For higher values, you need to modify it a bit more.
- CString CommaFormat(double nValue,int nDecPlaces=0);
As the function prototype suggests, it converts the passed real number to a proper, comma-separated format. It also accepts numbers where precision is required, which defaults to zero. As an example, 12,600,565.76 would be the result for an input of _PHONE_.75904, with 2 digits of precision required. It does not check for any range and can also process negative values.
- CString ConvertToRank(int nValue);
Transforms the given number to 'rank.' A simple translatation what does is to convert the input value 43 to 43rd. It processes any positive integral value.
- CString ConvertToLetters(int nValue);
Converts the value to a less common display format. It does similar to column naming in spreadsheet packages. It can process in a range of 1 to 702, inclusive. Think about the reason behind this strange value. What it does is to convert 62 to BJ.
I hope that there would be problems with CommaFormat because it processes a double value. Also, ConvertToWords converts in International convention, which is not used in India. Indian convention is unique and is not used except in India (and perhaps its subcontinents). Any reader may request Indian conventional code from me.


blah.*, foo.*, foo.x - foo.y AS blah__z This will nest the z element under the blah element Conformance to DTD/XML-Schema DBStag returns the Data::Stag manpage structures that are equivalent to a simplified subset of XML (and also a simplified subset of lisp S-Expressions). These structures are examples of semi-structured data - a good reference is this book - Data on the Web: From Relations to Semistructured Data and XML Serge Abiteboul, Dan Suciu, Peter Buneman Morgan Kaufmann; 1st edition (January 2000) The schema for the resulting Stag structures can be seen to conform to a schema that is dynamically determined at query-time from the underlying relational schema and from the specification of the query itself. CLASS METHODS connect Usage - $dbh = DBIx::DBStag->connect($DSN); Returns - L Args - see the connect() method in L selectall_stag Usage - $stag = $dbh->selectall_stag($sql); $stag = $dbh->selectall_stag($sql, $nesting_clause); $stag = $dbh->selectall_stag(-template=>$template, -bind=>{%variable_bindinfs}); Returns - L Args - sql string, [nesting string], [bind hashref], [template DBIx::DBStag::SQLTemplate] Executes a query and returns a the Data::Stag manpage structure An optional nesting expression can be passed in to control how the relation is decomposed into a tree. The nesting expression can be XML or an S-Expression; see above for details selectall_xml Usage - $xml = $dbh->selectall_xml($sql); Returns - string Args - See selectall_stag() As selectall_stag(), but the results are transformed into an XML string selectall_sxpr Usage - $sxpr = $dbh->selectall_sxpr($sql); Returns - string Args - See selectall_stag() As selectall_stag(), but the results are transformed into an S-Expression string; see the Data::Stag manpage for more details. selectall_sax Usage - $dbh->selectall_sax(-sql=>$sql, -handler=>$sax_handler); Returns - string Args - sql string, [nesting string], handler SAX As selectall_stag(), but the results are transformed into SAX events [currently this is just a wrapper to selectall_xml but a genuine event generation model will later be used] selectall_rows Usage - $tbl = $dbh->selectall_rows($sql); Returns - arrayref of arrayref Args - See selectall_stag() As selectall_stag(), but the results of the SQL query are left undecomposed and unnested. The resulting structure is just a flat table; the first row is the column headings. This is similar to DBI->selectall_arrayref(). The main reason to use this over the direct DBI method is to take advantage of other stag functionality, such as templates prepare_stag SEMI-PRIVATE METHOD Usage - $prepare_h = $dbh->prepare_stag(-template=>$template); Returns - hashref (see below) Args - See selectall_stag() Returns a hashref { sth=>$sth, exec_args=>\_USER_, cols=>\_USER_, col_aliases_ordered=>\_USER_, alias=>$aliasstruct, nesting=>$nesting }; storenode Usage - $dbh->storenode($stag); Returns - Args - L Recursively stores a tree structure in the database SQL TEMPLATES DBStag comes with its own SQL templating system. This allows you to reuse the same canned SQL or similar SQL qeuries in different contexts. See the DBIx::DBStag::SQLTemplate manpage find_template Usage - $template = $dbh->find_template("my-template-name"); Returns - L Args - str Returns an object representing a canned paramterized SQL query. See the DBIx::DBStag::SQLTemplate manpage for documentation on templates list_templates Usage - $templates = $dbh->list_templates(); Returns - Arrayref of L Args - Returns a list of ALL defined templates - See the DBIx::DBStag::SQLTemplate manpage find_templates_by_schema Usage - $templates = $dbh->find_templates_by_schema($schema_name); Returns - Arrayref of L Args - str Returns a list of templates for a particular schema - See the DBIx::DBStag::SQLTemplate manpage find_templates_by_dbname Usage - $templates = $dbh->find_templates_by_dbname("mydb"); Returns - Arrayref of L Args - db name Returns a list of templates for a particular db Requires resources to be set up (see below) RESOURCES resources_list Usage - $rlist = $dbh->resources_list Returns - arrayref to a hashref Args - none Returns a list of resources; each resource is a hash {name=>"mydbname", type=>"rdb", schema=>"myschema", } SETTING UP RESOURCES The above methods rely on you having a file describing all the relational dbs available to you, and setting the env var DBSTAG_DBIMAP_FILE set (this is a : separated list of paths). This is alpha code - not fully documented, API may change Currently a resources file is a whitespace delimited text file - XML/Sxpr/IText definitions may be available later Here is an example of a resources file: # LOCAL mytestdb rdb Pg:mytestdb schema=test # SYSTEM worldfactbook rdb schema=wfb employees rdb schema=employees The first column is the nickname or logical name of the resource/db. This nickname can be used instead of the full DBI locator path (eg you can just use employees instead of dbi:Pg:dbname=employees; The second column is the resource type - rdb is for relational database. You can use the same file to track other system datasources available to you, but DBStag is only interested in relational dbs. The 3rd column is a way of locating the resource - driver:name@host The 4th column is a ; separated list of tag=value pairs; the most important tag is the schema tag. Multiple dbs may share the same schema, and hence share SQL Templates COMMAND LINE SCRIPTS DBStag is usable without writing any perl, you can use command line scripts and files that utilise tree structures (XML, S-Expressions) -d [-n ] Queries database and writes decomposed relation as XML Can also be used with templates: -d /... -d [-n ] Queries database and writes decomposed relation as HTML with nested tables indicating the nested structures. -d Stores data from a file (Supported formats: XML, Sxpr, IText - see the Data::Stag manpage) in a normalized database. Gets it right most of the time. TODO - metadata help [-l ]* Takes data from a file (Supported formats: XML, Sxpr, IText - see the Data::Stag manpage) and generates a relational schema in the form of SQL CREATE TABLE statements. ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES DBSTAG_TRACE setting this environment will cause all SQL statements to be printed on STDERR BUGS This is alpha software! Probably several bugs. The SQL parsing can be quite particular - sometimes the SQL can be parsed by the DBMS but not by DBStag. The error messages are not always helpful. There are probably a few cases the SQL SELECT parsing grammar cannot deal with. If you want to select from views, you need to hack DBIx::DBSchema (as of v0.21) TODO Use SQL::Translator to make SQL DDL generation less Pg-specific; also for deducing foreign keys (right now foreign keys are guessed by the name of the column, eg table_id) Can we cache the grammar so that startup is not so slow? Improve algorithm so that events are fired rather than building up entire structure in-memory Tie in all DBI attributes accessible by hash, i.e.: $dbh->{...} Error handling WEBSITE AUTHOR Chris Mungall COPYRIGHT Copyright (c) 2004 Chris Mungall This module is free software. You may distribute this module under the same terms as perl itself


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Recently I had occasion to draw a hedgehog tentatively handing his car in for an MOT, as hedgehogs sometimes need to do.
Doodling a hedgehog is simple enough, but how to take a holistic approach to drawing hundreds of spines? There are already a few different art brushes here to give his fur a bit of furriness, but I don't think we want to be drawing an individual path for every spine too. Here's how he looks without them:
At the moment he's a sketch with a calligraphic brush (the black lines), filled shapes for the darker and lighter areas of his body (the brown shades), and some art brushes from Adobe's Artistic_Paintbrush set to give him a bit of fluffyness (hedgehogs aren't entirely spiny after all). So what tools do we have that can create and modify hundreds of objects at once?
The Symbol Sprayer tool!
Most approaches to drawing in Illustrator tend to be quite methodical — you draw in layers of discrete shapes, and people who come to it expecting to sketch and paint like they might in Photoshop can quickly hit brick walls with this approach. To me, the symbol sprayer always seemed a bit incongruous in this environment. What use could there be for something that randomly plasters your artboard in symbols? Well I finally found one. The key here is there is a set of tools behind the basic sprayer for modifying the symbol set (as it's termed) after the fact. But firstly, we need a symbol to work with.
This is just a symmetrical shape with a gradient fill, a couple of millimetres wide in our A4 document. Now we can get spraying.
Go nuts with it. Set the density options (double-click on the tool) as high as they go and cover him. Use the square bracket keys to increase or decrease the size of the brush. Here the spin (rotation) is set to 'User Defined', so it initially appears random. After that it's time for the scruncher.
This drags symbols towards the centre of the brush. Use it to pull any outliers into the large brown area of his back. Spray and scrunch until you have a decent density of spines, and your hedgehog will either have absurdly neat upright spines (if you left Spin as 'Average') or a complete mess (if you set Spin to 'User defined'):
I don't think we can in good conscience leave him like that. Next up is the Symbol Spinner. This tool drags symbols to face the direction of movement of the brush cursor, so you can effectively comb him by dragging the cursor over the symbol set. Note the direction arrows that appear on symbols within the brush area:
Just keep brushing him down until you have a nice neat hedgehog, who might feel a bit more confident about getting his car back:


Legends describe the Fini as a gigantic, gaping maw, usually filled with grasping tendrils that lash out at any living being to approach.
The Fini is said to spawn hordes of grotesque demons to wreak havoc and spread misery. Some tales go further still, claiming that these demons were once people whom the Fini seduced, consumed and then vomited back onto the land, soulless, to attack their own kin.
In the tales, the Fini would often be defeated by heroes wielding powerful necromancy, but there are also many instances where the story was left unfinished, suggesting that writers of the time were too idle and unprofessional to complete their work.
Since the Fini has not appeared in literature for over a thousand years, it is assumed to be nothing more than religious claptrap, invented in the savage years after the Mist when our ancestors were confused and primitive.
The Whisperer in Darkness Wistark


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The Round function can be used to control how numbers are rounded in your reports. By default, numbers will be displayed according to the default formatting you have set up; however the number will not be changed unless you use the Round Function. Continue reading 'Round Function' »
When you configure how numbers display, you select the number of decimal places to show. Crystal Reports then rounds the display value to that decimal position and that is what you see.
But what if you want to display the actual number? If the original number has no decimal places, you want to see that. If the original has three decimal places, you want to see all three.
You can do this using conditional formatting. Continue reading 'How to Display the Actual Number' »
You can quickly round to the nearest decimal place, but what if you need to round to an unusual point? For example, the nearest eighth mile? Or the nearest quarter hour? These activities are often done when calculating time sheets or mileage calculations. Fortunately, it's relatively easy to modify the Round function to handle these odd fractions: Continue reading 'Rounding in Crystal Reports: Rounding to Unusual Amounts' »
By default, Crystal Reports rounds all numbers displayed in your reports, according to the global settings. You can override these settings in a specific field by following these steps: Continue reading 'Rounding in Crystal Reports: Display vs. Function' »
The MonthName function can be used to display the name of the month, when you provide a number between 1 and 12 (1 being January). It is useful for showing the month name in Group titles or labeling groups in charts.
It can be combined with the DatePart function to return the month name of a variable or calculation. Continue reading 'MonthName Function' »
The DayOfWeek function can be used to determine what day of the week a given date falls on, returned as a 1-7. By default, Sunday is assumed to be the first day of the week (1). Continue reading 'DayOfWeek' »
The DateAdd function can be used to add an interval of time to a date. For example, you can quickly calculate a date one week from today. It's very useful for calculating deadlines.
The resulting value will always be correct; it takes into account the number of days in each month, including during leap year.
Continue reading 'DateAdd Function' »
The DateDiff function is used to determine the amount of time between two datetimes. You control the interval used in measuring the different (years, hours, etc.)
The ToText function can be used to convert number, date, boolean, or time values to a string (text). It provides you with controls that let you control how the resulting string looks.
It's mostly used for concatenation (for example, you can create a title for your report that shows the records covered, or a group name that shows the date range included.)
The Picture function lets you provide a template to use when formatting a string. For example, you can force a phone number to appear in the format _PHONE_, or a Social Security number to appear in the format 326-75-3847. Use it in conjunction with the ToText function, and you can also control how a number is displayed. Continue reading 'Picture Function' »


Question by ashwin (19)
How many leg lifts should be done with ankle weights?
Answer by brendalea2121 (206)
You should only do about 12 lifts. Take a break for about a minute and do it again. You should do about three sets with 12 reps each, then move onto your next exercise.
Answer by Rian (52)
There is no set number. The weights vary as does ankle resistance. I would recommend starting from the lighter end to get feel of how comfortable they are then start adding the weight. Remember it is easy to tear a tendon - so go easy and gauge your resistance.
Answer by mjl10 (282)
It depends what weight of ankle weights you are using. If you are using light weights, you should aim for more repetition (15-20 reps). If you are using a heavier weight, you should aim for less repetition (5 reps).
Answer by barkley (951)
Assuming you do not have any medical issues, you should start with a set of 15 leg lifts or until the muscle feels tired. You can increase the number of sets or the amount of weight as you get stronger.
Answer by rabbits123 (85)
not alot, you can pull a muscle/
Answer by alz (2329)
This completely depends on each individual and their ability. I would start with 3 sets of 10, and then see how you feel. If this is too easy, increase the number of reps.
You have 50 words left!


Statistics Dictionary
Select term:
T Score
The term t score has different meanings in different settings:
 - In introductory statistics, t score is often used synonomously with t statistic.
 - In psychometrics, a t score is a type of standard score computed by multiplying a z-score by 10 and adding 50.
 - In bone density tests, a t score compares bone mineral density to a reference mean.
Often, the meaning is clear from the context. In educational research, the psychometric definition generally applies. In papers on osteoporosis, the bone density definition is probably the intended definition.
Sometimes, though, the meaning is not clear. Some statistics texts use the term to mean "t statistic". Others use the psychometric definition.
To avoid confusion, the Stat Trek website avoids the term "t score". It uses "t statistic", instead.
See also: Student's t Distribution


The story of York Barbell all begins with one man, Bob Hoffman. Hoffman first began lifting and making weights in his oil burner factory in York, PA in 1929. The athletic club at that factory quickly took up weightlifting until eventually it would be the main staple of the club. The name was then changed to the York Barbell Club and attracted musclemen from all over the world into the little town of York.
During the 1932 Olympic Games the United States showed an extremely poor performance in weightlifting. Shortly after this Hoffman began promoting weightlifting heavily and began publishing his own magazine on the topic. From this effort stemmed new interest in the sport and the first US victory in weightlifting since 1904 in the 1936 Olympic Games. The winner, it just so happened, was a member of the York Barbell Club.
Two years later Hoffman sold off his interest in the oil burner company and in 1938 York Barbells began its concentration on weightlifting equipment. The interest caused by this company is part of the reason that by the late 40's York was known as "Muscletown."
After over a half-century York Barbell is still the industry standard in weights. The York name appears on more barbells than any other name in the world and is currently the only Olympic certified United States based manufacturer of weights.


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Warm Climate Opens Boreal Forest to Pine Beetles
Temperatures in boreal forests extending across Canada will soon be warm enough to accommodate mountain pine beetles. Until recently, cold winters confined the bark beetles to attacking trees west of the Rocky Mountains and south of the boreal forest. In British Columbia, the tiny insect recently killed over nine million hectares of mature lodgepole pine, and the devastating epidemic continues.
Since 1970, the amount of habitat in BC with optimal temperatures for the bark beetle has expanded by over 75% in response to a roughly 1 °C increase in average annual temperature. This has permitted the beetles to move higher up mountainsides and northward, where they've found plenty of prime pine. Experience in BC shows that the beetles rapidly move into new areas once winter weather allows their survival.
Under the most conservative of climate change forecasts, beetle survival in the boreal forest will no longer be thwarted by cold winters. The forecast is based on a 1% annual increase in atmospheric CO2 causing mean global temperatures to increase 1.7 °C by 2050. Jack pine, a mountain pine beetle host, forms a major component of the boreal forest.
The current infestation in central BC is so massive, that winds blow clouds of beetles across hundreds of kilometres. By 2002, the tree-boring insects had jumped the Rocky Mountains to establish in western Alberta. From there, a band of hybrid lodgepole and jack pines lying between Grande Prairie and Edmonton can take the beetles across western Alberta and into the boreal forest.
Jack pines sprawl from central Alberta and the Northwest Territories to Canada's maritime provinces and the north-central United States. Climatic modelling shows that most of jack pine's range will be beetle-friendly by 2070, and much sooner in central Alberta.
A.L. Carroll, J. Régnière, J.A. Logan, S.W. Taylor, B. Bentz and J.A. Powell. 2006. Impacts of Climate Change on Range Expansion by the Mountain Pine Beetle. Mountain Pine Beetle Initiative Working Paper 2006-14. Natural Resources Canada, Canadian Forest Service, Pacific Forestry Centre. Victoria, BC.


Respect life at the seashore
If you have been at the beach during these hot weeks, you have surely noticed that there are less and less fish in our seas.
Aggressive fishing, warming of the waters, pollution, radiation and amateur fishers armed with ultra-modern tools are persecuting every species in the sea.
Last but not least, it seems that "untouchable" children can do anything without limitation. With their buckets, they imprison small crabs, little fish and everything that moves, and often leave them boiling in the sun.
Jellyfish taken onto the beach are observed shriveling in the heat. At every beach in Japan, there are tons of rules to be followed, but no one forbids such cruel practices — not even the mums who could explain to their children intelligently that it is beautiful and right to observe animals in their own environment, leaving them free without molesting them.
This is especially true nowadays as it appears that we are deliberately destroying every natural resource.
Unfortunately, also here in Japan, the word "children" becomes a free pass for adult incivility. The children surely are not guilty when their family convinces them to turn their interest in other creatures into a deadly desire of possession.
I don't think it is acceptable to grow up thinking that it is OK to hold in your hands the fate of another creature's existence, even if one's intentions are not bad. I urge all the parents to reflect on this and give proper education to their children.
francesco formiconi


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CSU can avoid being a 'chaos box' for cyclists
The Coloradoan: CSU can avoid being a 'chaos box' for cyclists
Sep. 4, 2011
Written by Rick Price, Ph.D.,
One of the bicycle handling and safety drills we do with elementary kids is called the chaos box. It teaches younger children why we have rules of the road.
A chaos box involves the creation of a 30- to 40-foot square or circle on the playground or in the school parking lot. Participants are encouraged to ride anywhere inside the box without putting a foot down or losing their balance. The more kids in the box, the more chaotic it becomes, sometimes to the point of gridlock, which is the whole point.
The chaos box works best with younger kids, since they don't know the rules of the road. Older children or adults know to keep to the right while younger kids haven't yet figured that out. The result with older children and adults is that soon everyone is flowing in a counterclockwise direction around the box because they know to keep to the right.
With the younger kids, a teaching moment occurs when you stop everyone and suggest they try keeping right. Immediately, they find they can continue pedaling without running into one another.
I am reminded of the chaos box when I pedal across the CSU campus this time of year. The entire campus is a gigantic chaos box where the rules of the road are unclear to many. What a teaching and learning opportunity. How can we make the most of this?
With elementary kids, we let chaos reign for a few minutes in the box and then stop everyone and talk about rules of the road, including keeping right, signaling, not tailgating and so on. A chaos box needs a coach or referee.
Getting scofflaw cyclists to stop to hear about rules of the road doesn't work well as they're gone before you can say "excuse me." We need a Plan B to stop cyclists in the CSU chaos box so we can talk to them about rules of the road.
Here's a thought: Two weeks ago, Trevor Hughes reported in the Coloradoan that Molly North, assistant bike coordinator for the city of Fort Collins, took up a position at West Plum and Shields streets to coach campus-bound cyclists on how to use the newly installed bicycle box. Hughes produced a video that may be the perfect example of how we could deploy bicycle ambassadors to educate novice bicyclists on how to ride before they become scofflaws.
Bicycle ambassadors teach bike safety and provide information on rules of the road, best practices and smart cycling procedures. Imagine a cadre of 30 bicycle ambassadors deployed at most of the 39 streets leading onto the CSU campus to share the smart cycling story with new students during the first two weeks of CSU classes.
This is the type of outreach that a bicycle-friendly university should be undertaking. When can we start?


We offer a wide variety of restoration services and work on everything from fine clocks and horological items to engine turning and other antique metal working equipment.
In the arena of clocks and horological items we specialize in period Americana as well as fine European clocks. We approach restoration "sympathetically" and eschew over restoration. Our goal is to leave the object in such a way that our work is imperceptible. We use period materials or materials that are known to be compatible with original components when making parts. When replacing missing parts we use existing holes and mounts. While we reverse the ills of previous bad workmanship we do not attempt to reverse normal wear marks in places where their reversal is not necessary to restore the safe function of the mechanism. When we replace parts we often immolate such wear marks and patinas in order to make the object look whole. We often have materials such as cast brass and special metals and other materials produced in order to stay true to these principles.
We view clocks as dynamic objects that cannot be enjoyed as they were intended by their creator unless the person interacting with it can experience it running. This dynamic quality is a major part of what defines a clock's personality, and it is in our opinion that in order for the clock to truly be "conserved" it must be capable of operating, except in rare instances where the operation of the clock is detrimental to its long term well-being. Clocks were originally made with the idea that they would require periodic maintenance, and the application of such maintenance is part of what is required for it to carry out its intended purpose.
In machine tool reconditioning, customer objectives in using the machine carries heavy consideration. We offer everything from scraping to part replacement, filling and painting. We have learned to imitate many different styles of both scraping and Water of Ayr stone finishes. We have experience in restoring machines and tools made by Holtzappfel, Evans, Gill, Hines, Plant, Lienhard, Neuweiler, Stahl, Field, Hall, Brohen, South Bend, Hardinge, Rivett, Stark, Pratt and Whitney, Derbyshire, Levin, Deckel, Aciera, Sixus, Hauser, and many others.


text:
|Scotch broom|| USDA PLANTS Symbol: CYSC4
U.S. Nativity: Exotic
Habit: Shrub or Subshrub
|Cytisus scoparius (L.) Link|
Jump to: Resources | Images | Distribution Maps | Sources
Taxonomic Rank: Magnoliopsida: Fabales: Fabaceae (Leguminosae)
|Synonym(s): Scottish broom, English broom, scotchbroom|
|Native Range: Central and Southern Europe (REHD, BAIL);|
Scotch broom is a perennial shrub that grows on average from 3.3-9.8 ft. (1-3 m) tall, but can reach to 13 ft. (4 m). Leaves are small, alternate and compound with 3 leaflets. The leaves are often not noticeable, due to the dark green stems. The flowers are bright yellow, resemble sweet pea flowers and occur singly in axils of the leaves. Seed pods are fuzzy on the edges, 1-2 in. (2.5-5 cm) long and will explode when mature. Scotch broom is native to western and central Europe and occurs in coastal areas with mild, wet winters and well-drained soils. It was introduced into the United States as an ornamental in the early 1800s.
|Identification, Biology, Control and Management Resources|
|Selected Images from Invasive.org||View All Images at Invasive.org|
This map is incomplete and is based only on current site and county level reports made by experts and records obtained from USDA Plants Database. For more information, visit _URL_
State(s) Where Reported invasive.
Based on state level agency and organization lists of invasive plants from WeedUS database.
|U.S. National Parks where reported invasive:|
|Redwood National Park (California)|
Yosemite National Park (California)


text:
A redundant set of four orbiter general-purpose computers forms the primary avionics software system; a fifth GPC is used as the backup flight system.
The GPCs interface with the various systems through the orbiter's flight forward and flight aft multiplexers/demultiplexers. The data buses serve as a conduit for signals going to and from the various sensors that provide velocity and attitude information as well as for signals traveling to and from the orbiter propulsion systems, orbiter aerodynamic control surfaces, and displays and controls.
The GN&C system consists of two operational modes: auto and manual (control stick steering). In the automatic mode, the primary avionics software system essentially allows the GPCs to fly the vehicle; the flight crew simply selects the various operational sequences. The flight crew may control the vehicle in the control stick steering mode using hand controls, such as the rotational hand controller, translational hand controller, speed brake/thrust controller and rudder pedals. The translational hand controller is available only for the commander, but both the commander and pilot have a rotational hand controller.
In the control stick steering mode, flight crew commands must still pass through and be issued by the GPCs. There are no direct mechanical links between the flight crew and the orbiter's various propulsion systems or aerodynamic surfaces; the orbiter is an entirely digitally controlled, fly-by-wire vehicle.
During launch and ascent, most of the GN&C commands are directed to gimbal the three space shuttle main engines and solid rocket boosters to maintain thrust vector control through the vehicle's center of gravity at a time when the amount of consumables is changing rapidly. In addition, the GN&C controls SSME throttling for maximum aerodynamic loading of the vehicle during ascent-referred to as max q-and to maintain an acceleration of no greater than 3 g's during the ascent phase. To circularize the orbit and perform on-orbit and deorbit maneuvers, the GN&C commands the orbital maneuvering system engines. At external tank separation, on orbit and during portions of entry, GN&C controls commands to the reaction control system. In atmospheric flight, GN&C controls the orbiter aerodynamic flight control surfaces.
Functions of GN&C software include flight control, guidance, navigation, hardware data processing and flight crew display. Specific function tasks and their associated GN&C hardware vary with each mission phase.
Vehicle control is maintained and in-flight trajectory changes are made during powered flight by firing and gimbaling engines. During atmospheric flight, these functions are performed by deflecting aerosurfaces. Flight control computes and issues the engine fire and gimbal commands and aerosurface deflection commands.
Flight control includes attitude processing, steering, thrust vector control and digital autopilots. Flight control receives vehicle dynamics commands (attitudes, rates and accelerations) from guidance software or flight crew controllers and processes them for conversion to effector commands (engine fire, gimbal or aerosurface). Flight control output commands are based on errors for stability augmentation. The errors are the difference between the commanded attitude, aerosurface position, body rate or body acceleration and the actual attitude, position, rate or acceleration.
Actual attitude is derived from inertial measurement unit angles, aerosurface position is provided by feedback transducers in the aerosurface servoamplifiers, body rates are sensed by rate gyro assemblies, and accelerations are sensed by accelerometer assemblies. In atmospheric flight, flight control adjusts control sensitivity based on air data parameters derived from local pressures sensed by air data probes and performs turn coordination using body attitude angles derived from IMU angles. Thus, GN&C hardware required to support flight control is a function of the mission phase.
The guidance steering commands used by the flight control software are augmented by the guidance software or are manually commanded by the hand controller or speed brake/thrust controller. When flight control software uses the steering commands computed by guidance software, it is termed automatic guidance; when the flight crew is controlling the vehicle by hand, it is called control stick steering. The commands computed by guidance are those required to get from the current state (position and velocity) to a desired state (specified by target conditions, attitude, airspeed and runway centerline). The steering commands consist of translational and rotational angles, rates and accelerations. Guidance receives the current state from navigation software. The desired state or targets are part of the initialized software load and some may be changed manually in flight.
The navigation system maintains an accurate estimate of vehicle position and velocity, referred to as a state vector. From position, attitude and velocity, other parameters (acceleration, angle of attack) are calculated for use in guidance and for display to the crew. The current state vector is mathematically determined from the previous state vector by integrating the equations of motion using vehicle acceleration as sensed by the IMUs and/or computed from gravity and drag models. The alignment of the IMU and, hence, the accuracy of the resulting state vector deteriorate as a function of time. Celestial navigation instruments (star trackers and crewman optical alignment sight) are used to maintain IMU alignment in orbit. For entry, the accuracy of the IMU-derived state vector is, however, insufficient for either guidance or the flight crew to bring the spacecraft to a pinpoint landing. Therefore, data from other navigation sensors-air data system, tactical air navigation, microwave scan beam landing system and radar altimeter-is blended into the state vector at different phases of entry to provide the necessary accuracy. The three IMUs maintain an inertial reference and provide velocity changes until the microwave scan beam landing system is acquired. Navigation-derived air data are needed during entry as inputs to guidance, flight control and flight crew dedicated displays. Such data are provided by tactical air navigation, which supplies range and bearing measurements beginning at 160,000 feet; the air data system provides information at about Mach 3. Tactical air navigation is used until the microwave scan beam landing system is acquired or an altitude of 1,500 feet is reached if MSBLS is not available.
During rendezvous and proximity operations, the onboard navigation system maintains the state vectors of both the orbiter and target vehicle. During close operations (separation of less than 15 miles), these two state vectors must be very accurate in order to maintain an accurate relative state vector. Rendezvous radar measurements (range and range rate) are used for a separation of about 15 miles to 100 feet to provide the necessary relative state vector accuracy. When two vehicles are separated by less than 100 feet, the flight crew relies primarily on visual monitoring (aft and overhead windows and closed-circuit television).
In summary, GN&C hardware sensors used by navigation include IMUs, star trackers, the crewman optical alignment sight, tactical air navigation, air data system, microwave scan beam landing system, radar altimeter and rendezvous radar. The GN&C hardware sensors used by the flight control system are accelerometer assemblies, orbiter rate gyro assemblies, solid rocket booster rate gyro assemblies, controllers and aerosurface servoamplifiers.
A sensor, controller or flight control effector cannot be assigned or rerouted to another MDM during flight, but the MDM it is wired to can be assigned to a different GPC. Each multiple unit of each type of GN&C hardware is hard-wired to a different MDM. For example, there are four accelerometer assemblies on board the orbiter. AA 1 is wired to forward flight MDM 1 and is part of string 1, AA 2 is wired to FF MDM 2 on string 2, AA 3 is wired to FF MDM 3 on string 3, and AA 4 is wired to FF MDM 4 on string 4.
Although flight could be accomplished with only one, three IMUs are installed on the orbiter for redundancy. The IMUs are mounted on the navigation base, which is located inside the crew compartment flight deck forward of the flight deck control and display panels. The navigation base mounting platform is pitched down 10.6 degrees from the orbiter's plus X body axis. The navigation base provides a platform for the IMUs that can be repeatedly mounted with great accuracy, enabling the definition of transformations that relate IMU reference frame measurements to any other reference frame.
The IMU consists of a platform isolated from vehicle rotations by four gimbals. Since the platform does not rotate with the vehicle, its orientation remains fixed, or inertial, in space. The gimbal order from outermost to innermost is outer roll, pitch, inner roll and azimuth. The platform is attached to the azimuth gimbal. The inner roll gimbal is a redundant gimbal used to provide an all-attitude IMU while preventing the possibility of gimbal-lock (a condition that can occur with a three-gimbal system and cause the inertial platform to lose its reference). The outer roll gimbal is driven from error signals generated from disturbances to the inner roll gimbal. Thus, the inner roll gimbal will remain at its null position, orthogonal to the pitch gimbal.
The inertial sensors consist of two gyros, each with two degrees of freedom, that provide platform stabilization. The gyros are used to maintain the platform's inertial orientation by sensing rotations of the platform caused by vehicle-rotation-induced friction at the gimbal pivot points. The gyros output a signal that is proportional to the motion and is used by the gimbal electronics to drive the appropriate gimbals to null the gyro outputs. Thus, the platform remains essentially undisturbed, maintaining its inertial orientation while the gimbals respond to vehicle motion. One gyro-called the vertical gyro-is oriented so its input axes are aligned with the X and Y platform axes; its input axes provide IMU platform roll and pitch stabilization. The second gyro is oriented so that one input axis lies along the platform's Z axis and the other lies


Carved under the capital: incredible underground photos of Crossrail
 - 03 Sep 2013
Engineers working on building 42km of tunnels, up to 40m deep, that will make up the new Crossrail line
Christoffer Rudquist
Crossrail is Europe's biggest infrastructure project. Budgeted at £14.8 billion -- £12 billion of which is going on 42km of tunnels up to 40 metres deep -- the line will stretch from Royal Oak in west London to Plumstead, south-east of the capital. "The scale is immense," says Andy Mitchell, Crossrail programme director. "Over 8,000 people are working across 40 construction sites. Eight tunnel-boring machines will excavate six million tonnes of earth and use a quarter of a million concrete segments." The 1,000-tonne tunnel-boring machines (TBMs), which were made by German firm Herrenknecht in Schwanau, travelled from Rotterdam to Essex by ferry last year.
Each machine is 7.1m across and up to 150m long. Six are earth pressure balance machines for tunnelling through clay; two are slurry machines for the chalk, flint and water found under south-east London.
One of the slurry machines, TBM6, is currently on a 2.6km drive from Plumstead, passing under the Thames to North Woolwich. (Traditionally, each tunnelling machine is given a female nickname; Crossrail held a competition to suggest names: TBM6 is called Mary, after Isambard Kingdom Brunel's wife.) It operates 24 hours a day, every day, and is staffed by a 20-strong gang working 12-hour shifts. Powered by electricity from the national grid, the cutter head rotates three times per minute. The resulting earth is mixed with water to form a chalky milk, which is sent to the surface via pipes, where it is used for land restoration.
The tunnel is then lined with rings composed of seven concrete segments and a concrete keystone. To get the segments and keystones to the front of the machines, they are lowered into the shaft (from which the machine was launched) via a gantry crane, then carried on a small locomotive. The tunnel borer's vacuum-suction erector lifts the segments and keystones into place. Once a ring is installed, hydraulic rams push against it, propelling the machine forward at a rate of around ten rings per day.
Ideally they operate nonstop, but sometimes a halt is unavoidable, usually because cutting tools need changing. "You can do as much desktop analysis as you want," says Gus Scott, project manager for the Plumstead-North Woolwich section. "But until you're down there and find out what condition it's in and how many flints are in it -- on big tunnelling jobs through chalk the flints are what damage the cutter heads -- you can't know how it's going to go."
The front section of the tunnel borer is pressurised, forming an air bubble, which keeps soft ground and water out. Engineers enter the bubble via an airlock to repair the tools. The gang faces risks each day: falling equipment and material, flooding (there is a water alarm), collapsing ground, and fire and gas leaks. Each worker must carry a "self-contained oxygen self-rescuer", a mask and bag that recycles exhaled air.
If stoppages are kept to a minimum TBM6 will be in North Woolwich by the summer of 2014. All the tunnels are due to be completed by the end of 2014, at which point the stations, over-ground sections and fit-out will become the focus. The first trains are due to run in 2018.
Andrew Hankinson has written for The Independent and Esquire


text:
This lab will walk you through various tools in AI Platform Notebooks for exploring your data and prototyping ML models.
What you learn
You'll learn how to:
- Create and customize an AI Platform Notebooks instance
- Track your notebooks code with git, directly integrated into AI Platform Notebooks
- Use the What-If Tool within your notebook
The total cost to run this lab on Google Cloud is about $1. Full details on AI Platform Notebooks pricing can be found here.
2. Create an AI Platform Notebooks instance
You'll need a Google Cloud Platform project with billing enabled to run this codelab. To create a project, follow the instructions here.
Step 2: Enable the Compute Engine API
Navigate to Compute Engine and select Enable if it isn't already enabled. You'll need this to create your notebook instance.
Step 3: Create a notebook instance
Navigate to AI Platform Notebooks section of your Cloud Console and click New Instance. Then select the latest TensorFlow 2 Enterprise instance type without GPUs:
Give your instance a name or use the default. Then we'll explore the customization options. Click the Customize button:
AI Platform Notebooks has many different customization options, including: the region your instance is deployed in, the image type, machine size, number of GPUs, and more. We'll use the defaults for region and environment. For machine configuration, we'll use an n1-standard-8 machine:
We won't add any GPUs, and we'll use the defaults for boot disk, networking, and permission. Select Create to create your instance. This will take a few minutes to complete.
Once the instance has been created you'll see a green checkmark next to it in the Notebooks UI. Select Open JupyterLab to open your instance and start prototyping:
When you open the instance, create a new directory called codelab. This is the directory we'll be working from throughout this lab:
Click into your newly created codelab directory by double-clicking on it and then select Python 3 notebook from the launcher:
Rename the notebook to
demo.ipynb, or whatever name you'd like to give it.
Step 4: Import Python packages
Create a new cell in the notebook and import the libraries we'll be using in this codelab:
import pandas as pd import tensorflow as tf from tensorflow.keras import Sequential from tensorflow.keras.layers import Dense import numpy as np import json from sklearn.model_selection import train_test_split from sklearn.utils import shuffle from google.cloud import bigquery from witwidget.notebook.visualization import WitWidget, WitConfigBuilder
3. Connect BigQuery data to your notebook
BigQuery, Google Cloud's big data warehouse, has made many datasets publicly available for your exploration. AI Platform Notebooks support direct integration with BigQuery without requiring authentication.
For this lab, we'll be using the natality dataset. This contains data on nearly every birth in the US over a 40 year time period, including the birth weight of the child, and demographic information on the baby's parents. We'll be using a subset of the features to predict a baby's birth weight.
Step 1: Download BigQuery data to our notebook
We'll be using the Python client library for BigQuery to download the data into a Pandas DataFrame. The original dataset is 21GB and contains 123M rows. To keep things simple we'll only be using 10,000 rows from the dataset.
Construct the query and preview the resulting DataFrame with the following code. Here we're getting 4 features from the original dataset, along with baby weight (the thing our model will predict). The dataset goes back many years but for this model we'll use only data from after 2000:
query=""" SELECT weight_pounds, is_male, mother_age, plurality, gestation_weeks FROM publicdata.samples.natality WHERE year > 2000 LIMIT 10000 """ df = bigquery.Client().query(query).to_dataframe() df.head()
To get a summary of the numeric features in our dataset, run:
This shows the mean, standard deviation, minimum, and other metrics for our numeric columns. Finally, let's get some data on our boolean column indicating the baby's gender. We can do this with Pandas
Looks like the dataset is nearly balanced 50/50 by gender.
Step 2: Prepare the dataset for training
Now that we've downloaded the dataset to our notebook as a Pandas DataFrame, we can do some pre-processing and split it into training and test sets.
First, let's drop rows with null values from the dataset and shuffle the data:
df = df.dropna() df = shuffle(df, random_state=2)
Next, extract the label column into a separate variable and create a DataFrame with only our features. Since
is_male is a boolean, we'll convert it to an integer so that all inputs to our model are numeric:
labels = df['weight_pounds'] data = df.drop(columns=['weight_pounds']) data['is_male'] = data['is_male'].astype(int)
Now if you preview our dataset by running
data.head(), you should see the four features we'll be using for training.
4. Initialize git
AI Platform Notebooks has a direct integration with git, so that you can do version control directly within your notebook environment. This supports committing code right in the notebook UI, or via the Terminal available in JupyterLab. In this section we'll initialize a git repository in our notebook and make our first commit via the UI.
Step 1: Initialize a git repository
From your codelab directory, select Git and then Init from the top menu bar in JupyterLab:
When it asks if you want to make this directory a Git Repo, select Yes. Then select the Git icon on the left sidebar to see the status of your files and commits:
Step 2: Make your first commit
In this UI, you can add files to a commit, see file diffs (we'll get to that later), and commit your changes. Let's start by committing the notebook file we just added.
Check the box next to your
demo.ipynb notebook file to stage it for the commit (you can ignore the
.ipynb_checkpoints/ directory). Enter a commit message in the text box and then click on the check mark to commit your changes:
Enter your name and email when prompted. Then go back to the History tab to see your first commit:
Note that the screenshots might not match your UI exactly, due to updates since this lab was published.
5. Build and train a TensorFlow model
We'll use the BigQuery natality dataset we've downloaded to our notebook to build a model that predicts baby weight. In this lab we'll be focusing on the notebook tooling, rather than the accuracy of the model itself.
Step 1: Split your data into train and test sets
We'll use the Scikit Learn
train_test_split utility to split our data before building our model:
x,y = data,labels x_train,x_test,y_train,y_test = train_test_split(x,y)
Now we're ready to build our TensorFlow model!
Step 2: Build and train the TensorFlow model
We'll be building this model using the tf.keras
Sequential model API, which lets us define our model as a stack of layers. All the code we need to build our model is here:
model = Sequential([ Dense(64, activation='relu', input_shape=(len(x_train.iloc),)), Dense(32, activation='relu'), Dense(1)] )
Then we'll compile our model so we can train it. Here we'll choose the model's optimizer, loss function, and metrics we'd like the model to log during training. Since this is a regression model (predicting a numerical value), we're using mean squared error instead of accuracy as our metric:
model.compile(optimizer=tf.keras.optimizers.RMSprop(), loss=tf.keras.losses.MeanSquaredError(), metrics=['mae','mse'])
You can use Keras's handy
model.summary() function to see the shape and number of trainable parameters of your model at each layer.
Now we're ready to train our model. All we need to do is call the
fit() method, passing it our training data and labels. Here we'll use the optional validation_split parameter, which will hold a portion of our training data to validate the model at each step. Ideally you want to see training and validation loss both decreasing. But remember that in this example we're more focused on model and notebook tooling rather than model quality:
model.fit(x_train, y_train, epochs=10, validation_split=0.1)
Step 3: Generate predictions on test examples
To see how our model is performing, let's generate some test predictions on the first 10 examples from our test dataset.
num_examples = 10 predictions = model.predict(x_test[:num_examples])
And then we'll iterate over our model's predictions, comparing them to the actual value:
for i in range(num_examples): print('Predicted val: ', predictions[i]) print('Actual val: ',y_test.iloc[i]) print()
Step 4: Use git diff and commit your changes
Now that you've made some changes to the notebook, you can try out the git diff feature available in the Notebooks git UI. The
demo.ipynb notebook should now be under the "Changed" section in the UI. Hover over the filename and click on the diff icon:
With that you should be able to see a diff of your changes, like the following:
This time we'll commit our changes via the command line using Terminal. From the Git menu in the JupyterLab top menu bar, select Git Command in Terminal. If you have the git tab of your left sidebar open while you run


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Important Things to Know About Polyurea Coatings
Polyurea coatings have some unique benefits that have established them far above other types of protective coatings. In this article we are going to examine some of the most important questions that must be answered when considering using polyurea coatings.
What is Polyurea?
Polyurea is an elastomer material procured from step-growth polymerization, which involves combining synthetic resin and reactive isocyanate materials. Thus, the result of an isocyanate part with a resin blend part through the step-growth method of polymerization produces polyurea.
Various formulations of resins and isocyanates can produce the desired setting time, water resistance, pigmentation, flame hindering qualities, and other unique characteristics.
A hybrid coating is a polyurea blended in polyurethane in calculated proportions. The hybrid coating presents specific physical properties of the pure polyurea at a lower price.
How does Aliphatic Polyurea Differ from Aromatic Polyurea?
Polyureas procured from aromatic diisocyanates are distinguished by ultraviolet (UV) light sensitivity. Sunlight exposure or synthetic UV light can cause degeneration of the polyurea's physical properties and color transformations such as darkening and chalkingAromatic polyurea is a low-cost option but is not suitable as a top coat; it can be sufficient for a base coat treatment.
Polyureas procured from aliphatic diisocyanates can resist color change due to sunlight exposure and sustain their physical properties even under UV exposure conditions. They are favored for outdoor applications because they can enhance aesthetics with a glossy look and can be utilized at lower film thicknesses of around 30 mils. However, they are costly when compared to aromatic polyureas due to the complex processing required.
What are the Unique Traits of Polyurea?
No coating system can successfully replace polyurea in all regards, due to its novel physical properties and stability. However, it's surface preparation specifications are quite stringent.
Polyurea preserves wooden, concrete, and steel surfaces and structures from abrasion and corrosion damage. It can help preserve a deteriorating concrete structure and help rehabilitation and keep canals sound. It resists scratches, chemicals, oils, and salts in commercial and industrial floor applications. It can also protect boats and other vessels by protecting from cracking and deterioration.
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Advantages of polyurea coatings include:
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How does Polyurea Compare to other Epoxies?
Compared to epoxy coatings, polyurea is significantly superior in moisture resistance, UV resistance (for aliphatic coatings), abrasion resistance, chemical resistance, temperature resistance, and durability. It also has a quicker cure time.
Compared to polyurethane, polyurea has superior durability, chemical endurance, and moisture resistance.
What Are Some Notable Applications for Polyurea Coatings?
There is numerous application that benefits from polyurea coatings, including the following:
Automotive industry and material administration
The auto industry has used polyurea coatings for more than thirty years. The coating is popular because of its impact resistance and other mechanical properties.
Polyurea provides abrasion protection in mining and construction equipment, and for lining dump that are used for abrasive materials such as coal and metallic ores. It protects conveyors and waves of conveyor systems that transport abrasive coal, stones, and metallic ores.
It rucis also utilized for bed liners and large commercial vehicles and material handling trucks.
Defense and security sectors
Due to their proven impact resistance, ability to absorb explosive energy, durability and quick setting features, polyurea coatings and linings easily find use in the defense and security sectors.
Polyurea's application in the ballistic missile system is well documented. As a military equipment coating, polyurea can adjust and expand with variations in ambient temperature and form a moisture tight seal. Coatings will be free of marks, dents and abrasion destruction, all while ensuring an attractive glossy appearance. A spray coating of polyurea on truck bed liners can decrease vibration and contribute to safety. Coating military buildings with polyurea can minimize damage due to bomb blasts.
Polyurea industrial
Surfaces of steel and concrete bridges
Polyurea is used for the initial coating and as a repair/maintenance coating because of its fast curing capacity, impact resistance, and elongation and tensile strength. Polyurea's structure (molecular chain) makes it an elastomer of high durability. This is the secret of its suitability in construction and other fields.
Polyurea coatings can prevent the collapse of concrete structures by effectively repairing a deteriorating portion of the concrete structure and by providing a protective seal around cracking and deteriorating concrete.
Polyurea Market
What are the Limitations Of Polyurea Coatings?
Polyurea coatings do have some limitations and special considerations.
Because the coating is highly reactive and quick-curing, the setting of the coating without sufficient wetting out time can produce poor adhesion to the substrate. Formulators must ensure total wetting out of the surface before the coating sets. It is a difficult situation.
Aromatic polyurea coatings may react to UV radiation, resulting in color changes and chalking. The aesthetics are negatively affected by UV transmission. For those applications that require a visual appeal, an aliphatic polyurea must be used.
Hot spray applications require specialized and sophisticated spray equipment that are able to produce high pressures and high temperatures. Technicians must be specifically trained for this task.
Formulation, primer selection, and rigorous surface preparation are all critical steps for success.
To learn more about Polyurea or to become a certified ArmorThane polyurea applicator, give us a call or click here to send an inquiry.
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I hate pandas
This report reminded me why I hate pandas.
I mean, why is an animal without the sense to eat anything more nutritionally valuable than bamboo shoots and won't even screw to save its species so uncritically loved by 99% of the world's humans? Pandas are ABSOLUTELY USELESS CREATURES.
Pandas are TOO FUSSY. Only a small number of bamboo species are acceptable dinner to them, and they change their minds all the time. No species with such food faddisms deserves to be exempted from Darwinism.
Pandas are STUPID. Just sitting around expecting the food to come to them? Pandas have a ridiculous sense of entitlement: if they were human, they'd be stars of CCTV and reality shows, and we'd be deriding them as lazy trailer trash. They're the chavs of the animal world.
Pandas DON'T REPRODUCE. You'd think that when breeding seasons are few and far between, they'd at least be able to make the effort for a night or two. But apparently romance is dead in panda country. Few pandas show any interest in sex, and it can't be just because they all look the same. Or are they just too selfish to bring fresh pandas into the world?
And lastly, saving useless pandas TAKES RESOURCES AWAY from creatures who'd be more grateful. Many termite species are in trouble, but – because termites don't look out at you from a fat furry face with big soulful black eyes, nobody cares about termites. And yet termites are AMAZING creatures. Just a few thousand neurons each, yet together they build architecture whose equivalent human scale would be buildings the size of Everest. Termites are incredible. And yet some species are in terminal decline. All because of those bastard pandas.
I hate pandas.
11 thoughts on "I hate pandas
 1. Because of people like you pandas are almost extinct. If everybody had that same additude then there would be no such thing as opptimism your just a self seeking pesmisit who doesnt care about animals. Pandas may not do anything but alot of animals dont do anything. Heres some advice get s job other than bagging on pandas they didnt do anything to you GET OVER YOUR SELF!
 - Not true. A LOT of animals do something. Wolves are constantly on the move, looking for prey and actually taking care of their young unlike some pandas here. Horses, cows, elephants. All those animals DO something! Pigs, ants, birds, fish. A panda is just DUMB. It's people like YOU that waste precious money on stupid pandas. That money could be going to other animals who would use it better! YOU get over yourself! Learn your panda facts! They're NOT WORTH IT. I'm an animal lover and have been all my life. I'm obsessed with animals, but even I know when an animal doesn't deserve to be on this planet.
 2. I totally agree.
 1. Pandas ditch their babies A LOT because they're too stupid and lazy. Hear that panda lovers? THEY'RE HORRIBLE PARENTS!!
 2. They are fat and lazy.
 3. All they do is eat all the time. They have ZERO personality. Why like an animal just for looks?
 4. They waste SOOO much money! Save the tiger! Or whale! C'mon, at least those animals are smart and resourceful! It's like giving money to a fat lazy slob who just burns your money but you give money to him anyway cuz he's cute! In so doing, you're killing the other kid who's super smart and could use ur money to create a small buisness. UGH.
 I WISH ALL PANDAS WERE EXTINCT ALREADY!!! Why are they — how are they — still alive?! They're so frickin DUMB!
 p.s. did you know they can't even count to 3? Dogs and squirrels and etc can. In a lab scientists did, the panda FAILED.
 3. Did you know that pandas are actually CARNIVORES? but they're so LAZY they can't stand to lift a fucking finger to hunt!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thats why they have to eat so fucking much! Ugh i HATE PANDAS!
 4. dO you own a life? discriminating against any animal on your blog is just wrong … what good will this seriously bring to you? grow a dick and suck it.
 5. I agree with most of the negatives regarding the wonderful,cute,adorable,precious Pandas! They are stubborn,bloated,useless creatures; also ill tempered,and to me they always appear dirty around their undercarriages! Ugh!!!
 6. If only we could get people to enjoy polar bears as much as panda's then maybe we could keep a worthwhile creature around.
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Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu Chi Foundation
Jan 18th
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A Generous Poor Old Lady
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After the 76-year old grandma inserted the only 100 Kyat she had into the bamboo bank for good deeds, she danced with joy. This shows that even the very poor can give generously.
During Buddha's time, there was a story about a poor old lady who made an offering to Buddha.
Maha Kasyapa (also known as Kasyapa) always begged for alms from the poor so that the poor could have a chance to receive merit. One day, he met a poor old lady who was very sincere in offering alms but did not have anything to offer. Kasyapa told her, "It is alright to offer a small piece of cloth from the clothing you are wearing. It is still considered as a Dana." The poor old lady immediately tore a small piece of cloth from her old clothing and offered it respectfully to Kasyapa.
When Lord Buddha heard about it, he told his disciples to be appreciative of the thoughtfulness of the poor old lady. Since then, the monk's robe always has a 'patch of cloth' which serves as a reminder of the generous poor old lady.
In Myanmar, there was an identical story.
After Cyclone Nargis hit Myanmar in May 2008, Tzu Chi volunteers went to more than 30 villages in Kyautan and Kunyangon Districts to hand over paddy seeds and fertilizers to the farmers. They told the victims about the story of the bamboo bank and encouraged the villagers to cultivate merits.
By watching the movie, the villagers began to understand how Master Cheng Yen and the 30 housewives had used the bamboo bank to collect money for charity. They knew they could do the same, so they started to make their own bamboo banks.
One day, when Tzu Chi volunteers were distributing relief goods at Ma Yann Bay Village, they also told the story of bamboo bank. Seventy-six year old Daw Duo Chi quickly took out money to donate, as did many other villagers. She said, "My house was destroyed by the cyclone, and I will now be staying with either my children or relatives. I have only 100 Kyat (approximately USD0.30)." She donated what little money she had as she wanted to help others in need. She was indeed very happy after donating; and she sang and danced on the spot, influencing all present to do the same.
In June 2008, Typhoon Fengshen hit the Philippines, affecting 410,000 people and had a death toll of more than 1,000. Tzu Chi provided them with rice and daily necessities and also shared the story of bamboo bank.
When Tzu Chi volunteers conducted the relief distribution at a Catholic College in Aklan, they noticed that the school was damaged by the Typhoon. The priest was very sad and worried. He was very pale and was unshaven. When Tzu Chi volunteers met the priest again after the relief, he was clean-shaven. He said he was encouraged by the story of the bamboo bank, and knew that if everybody worked together, there would be no insurmountable difficulties. He encouraged his followers to emulate the Tzu Chi Way.
By Tan Kim Hion
Jing-Si Aphorism
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text:
Purpose: The use of medical scribes has emerged as a strategy to increase clinic workflow efficiency and reduce physician burnout. While oncology clinics may be ideally suited to scribe integration because of the high burden of documentation, oncology-specific scribe research has been limited. The objective of this study was to determine the effect of scribe integration on clinic workflow efficiency and physician satisfaction and quality of life in outpatient oncology clinics.
Methods: We conducted a retrospective, concurrent qualitative and quantitative analysis of patient visit durations and survey data for 129 attending physicians affiliated with an academic hospital's cancer center between January 2017 and January 2019. Thirty-three physicians were paired with scribes in each physician's individual clinic or clinics.
Results: In terms of clinic efficiency, physicians with scribes had a 12.1% decrease in their overall average patient visit duration compared with their own time before receiving a scribe (P <.0001) and spent significantly less time completing charts at the end of the day (P =.04). Compared with their peers, oncologists with scribes showed a 10%-20% decrease in the duration of all patient visits. Scribes also contributed to patient care, as shown by 90% of physicians surveyed who strongly agreed that they spent less time at the computer and more time with patients; 100% of physicians surveyed strongly agreed that scribes improved their quality of life.
Conclusion: The integration of medical scribes into oncology clinics across several oncologic disciplines has the potential to reduce burnout through increasing physician satisfaction and quality of life, improving patient care, and streamlining clinic workflow.