Apache Commons logo Apache Commons Exec
Building the command line
You have two ways to create the command line to be executed
 - parsing the entire command line string
 - building the command line incrementally
General Considerations
No matter which approach you are using commons-exec does change your command line arguments in the following two cases
 - when the executable contains forward or backward slashes
 - when a command line argument contains an unquoted string
The following executable arguments
will be translated under Windows to
Parsing the entire command line string
Parsing the command line string is easy to use but you might run into problems when tackling complex scenarios. Therefore this functionality was deprecated in the Ant Exec task.
Let's have a look at few examples you would like to stick to parsing entire command line strings
Spaces in command line arguments
Here we would like to invoke a batch file which contains spaces in the path
cmd.exe /C c:\was51\Web Sphere\AppServer\bin\versionInfo.bat
Due to the space in the file name we have to quote the file name either with single or double quotes otherwise it falls apart into two command line arguments c:\was51\Web and Sphere\AppServer\bin\versionInfo.bat.
String line = "cmd.exe /C 'c:\\was51\\Web Sphere\\AppServer\\bin\\versionInfo.bat'";
Building the Command Line Incrementally
This is the recommended approach and caters also for pre-quoted command line argument.
A simple example
Now we would like to build the following command line
runMemorySud.cmd 10 30 -XX:+UseParallelGC -XX:ParallelGCThreads=2
using the following code snippet
CommandLine cmdl = new CommandLine("runMemorySud.cmd");
A complex example
Now let's have a look at the following command line found somewhere in the internet
dotnetfx.exe /q:a /c:"install.exe /l ""\Documents and Settings\myusername\Local Settings\Temp\netfx.log"" /q"
The following code snippet builds the command line using pre-quoted arguments and variable expansion
File file = new File("/Documents and Settings/myusername/Local Settings/Temp/netfx.log");
Map map = new HashMap();
map.put("FILE", file);
cmdl = new CommandLine("dotnetfx.exe");
cmdl.addArgument("/q:a", false);
cmdl.addArgument("/c:\"install.exe /l \"\"${FILE}\"\" /q\"", false);
For the Desperate
When crafting a command line it would be really helpful to see what happens to your command line arguments. The following scripts can be invoked to print your command line arguments for Unix
while [ $# -gt 0 ]
 echo "$1"
and for Windows
IF [%1]==[] GOTO Continue
 _USER_ "%1"


Arduino kit for physic experiments in collaboration with Google.
Arduino science kit physics lab
During my collaboration with Arduino I worked as designer on different projects between exhibition, research and interaction.
Among these one of the last is Arduino Science Kit Physic Lab.
 Science kit is an Arduino product in collaboration with Google. A kit for middle school students, which interfaces with the Google science journal app. The idea is to create a kit that through simple and fun experiments can explain the basic concepts of physics to students. I worked with the Arduino team together, to translate the various experiments into products.
The project has several constraints: materials and number of pieces, experiments and limited budget. The parts are produced in PCB the same materia of the Arduino boards.
The pieces are in minimum numbers to allow a substantial number of experiments but keeping within the budget.
Standard products were then used to allow the assembly of the pieces. I dealt with the translation and interaction with the product and the app, with the prototyping and design part of the kit.
Arduino and Google
UX research
Product design
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a change may affect security. Change requirements are unavoidable but their effects could be limited by anticipating them. Changes requirements can be brought about by changes to the business climate, environment, policies, or new opportunities. During the initial design of a system, requirements and business rules that are susceptible to change should be identified so that they could be segregated from the rest of the code by placing the unstable procedures into a module or assembly. Layers of abstraction should be considered to abstract the stable code from the unstable code. For example, if the database environment is susceptible to change over the next year. Database access procedures should be placed in a separate assembly and a layer of abstraction created to separate code specific for the database environmental with the business rules.
The list of programming pitfalls grows larger as new vulnerabilities are discovered. Staying ahead requires a staying on top of vulnerabilities and changes.
You could never be fully assured that your code is secure from any implementation flaws. Peer review helps uncover any glaring logic flaws and weaknesses. Open design also offers the same benefits but through public scrutiny. There are debates on if open design promotes security through public review or make it easier for attackers to find vulnerabilities to exploit.
.NET environment overview
.NET is a new initiative from Microsoft that changes the software development paradigm [6]. The new paradigm similar to Java focuses on security by creating an abstraction layer that sits between system resources and the program code. The difference between.NET and Java is that.NET also creates a language abstraction in that you could mix various languages that conform to the.NET language specification within an assembly.
The abstraction layer known as the common language runtime (CLR) provides a controlled environment and is responsible for security enforcement through:
 1. Code verification
 2. Role based security
 3. Code access security
 4. Security policy management
 5. Isolated Storage
The CLR treats code as having varying degrees of trust in the system that is dictated by security policies and based on evidence that the CLR collects to determine if the code is trustworthy before executing it. Some of the technology behind the CLR is based on Microsoft's Authenticode Technology. It is designed to identify the publisher of the code to verify that no one has tampered with it.
Code strictly developed for the CLR using a.NET language is known as managed code. Both managed and traditional code forms an assembly which can be in the form of an EXE or DLL. Regardless of the extension of the file, code developed for the.NET environment compiles to Microsoft Intermediary Language (MSIL) by the compiler. The MSIL file needs to be further compiled to native code which is done by the CLR on the fly at runtime along with performing security checks.
.NET applications run in what is like a silo but called an application domain. Application domains are where the.NET applications gets initiated and controlled from. It is at this point that code gets loaded from an assembly and begins execution. The types of hosts that can create an application domain are the IE browser, server host such as ASP.NET; and command shell host. The CLR does a just-in-time (JIT) compile on the managed code sections in the MSIL creating native code that is executed in the domain. Unmanaged code runs outside of the CLR and therefore can still pose a security risk even when it is part of an assembly.
During the JIT compile process of managed code, code verification occurs to ensure type safety, bounds checking which avoids buffer overflows; proper initialization of objects; and, stack frame corruption to avoid attacks that transfer execution to an arbitrary memory location. As you can see the verifications process adds a lot of security without having to program the constraints in. These constraints prevent most types of attacks that occur to code. Unfortunately, when it comes to unmanaged code, the CLR does not do any security checks or policy enforcements. A recent attack to ASP.NET [8] using a buffer overflow in an unmanaged section of code can attest to that.
Role based security allows a developer to build constraints into the application that modifies the flow of code based on the user's role on the system or in the enterprise. The roles can be taken from group membership in the domain or active directory.
Code access security prevents luring attacks when code with a lower set of privileges to call on code with a higher set of privileges and evoke methods that the original code couldn't otherwise. When invoking methods or constructing.NET objects, the CLR will do a stack walk to see if the caller along the call chain has the security privilege to instantiate the object or call on methods. Code access security can also restrict access to unmanaged code within the assembly.
Security policy management defines the set rules that are applied to code groups. The CLR analyses the evidence in the assembly to determine which code group the assembly falls under [7], then applies those rules to the assembly before executing the code. Examples of evidence that the CLR looks for in an assembly include publisher detail, digital signature, location of installation directory, and the type of host that created the application domain.
Isolated storage is a mechanism that allows.NET applications to use a Framework controlled file storage system isolated from the operating system's file system. [16] The isolated storage protects the file structure of the operating system without preventing applications requesting File IO that otherwise would not have the permissions or privileges with the file system.
Although the increased security built into the.NET environment does come with a slight performance penalty, the performance of managed code is very good. However, because a lot of work has been done to secure an environment, a poor security design could still leak sensitive data.
Protecting confidentiality and integrity with.NET
We will take a look at implementing data confidentiality and integrity using the.NET framework's Cryptographic Service namespace using some code samples written in Managed Extensions for C++. The language semantics would be different from other.NET languages, but the interaction of the classes and method calls within the.NET Framework would be the same.
The components of the symmetric cipher are the algorithm, initialization vector, key, and stream. A discussion on the encryption key can not be made without taking about the effective key space, entropy, modes of operation; hashing, and the random number generator.
The.NET Framework base class library or BCL includes four symmetric encryption algorithms:
 1. RC2
 2. DES
 3. 3DES
 4. Rijndael
Each of the algorithms has had public peer review and have all had research papers published on the Internet. The security of each of the algorithms is located in the size and quality of the key. The key being is nothing more than a very large binary number to the encryption algorithm. The strength of an encryption is based on the algorithm and the effective key size.
Each of the symmetric algorithms has different performance and encryption strength properties that are best suited for specific scenarios.
To begin using the cryptographic services found in the.NET Framework we need to reference the namespace.
_TAG_
using namespace System::Security::Cryptography ;
You may ask which of these algorithms is best. The answer as is that it all depends on what you define as best, your business objectives, performance requirements, and the value of your data over time and sensitivity of the information. Although each of these algorithms has had expert peer review and has been extensively tested over time, there is no guarantee of everlasting security. The selection of security mechanism will depend on your adversaries and what are their perceived technical abilities and financial resources.
Lets look at each of the algorithms and when and how to use them.
RC2 was developed in 1987 by Ron Rivest of RSA Securities. RC2 is a block cipher with a variable key and block length. This encryption is used in many commercial products.
To Create an RC2 encryption object from the class:
RC2CryptoServiceProvider * myRC2 = new RC2CryptoServiceProvider();
DES developed by IBM in 1974 and finally adopted by the National Institute of Standards and Technology in 1976. [1] DES uses a 64 bit key, but since the last byte is used for parity, the effect key strength is 56 bits. The DES key is known to be brute forced in a few days. The ideal application for this algorithm is one that needs to be backwards compatible with DES or that the information lifespan becomes worthless in a day. An example of data that would have a short lifespan would be Internet/intranet session tokens.
Here is an example of creating a DES object from the class.
DESCryptoServiceProvider * myDES = new DESCryptoServiceProvider();
The 3DES algorithm is also developed by IBM. [2] 3DES is basically three iterations of DES each iteration with a different key. The sequence would be:
 E ( D ( E (m) ) )
That is: encrypt - decrypt - encrypt. With 3DES you could use either two keys or three keys. The.NET Framework uses a three key version. In a two key version you would have:
Ek1 (Dk2 (Ek1 (m) ) )
In a three key version you would have all keys different:
Ek1 (Dk2 (Ek3 (m) ) )
The key space on 3DES is 168 bits (56 bits x 3) but because of a "Meet in the middle" theoretical attack the effect key size is 112 bits (56 bits x 2). 3DES is slower than DES since it has to go through the extra iterations.
To create a 3DES object from the class.
TripleDESCryptoServiceProvider * myTDes =
 new TripleDESCryptoServiceProvider();
The Rijndael algorithm was developed by Joan Daemen and Vincent Rijmen as a candidate for the U.S. Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) which was selected on October 2,


A craftsman is the Designer, Manufacturer and Salesmen all in one.
Prior to the industrial revolution, a "village smithy" was a staple of every town. A blacksmith is a person who creates products from wrought iron or steel by forging the metal; that is, by using tools to hammer, bend, and cut hot metal. Figure 1. shows a blacksmith at work. Blacksmiths produce products such as gates, grilles, railings, light fixtures, furniture, sculpture, tools, agricultural implements, decorative and religious items, cooking utensils, and weapons. Since the blacksmith designed the product, manufactured the product and sold the product, he knew what problems his cutomeers wanted solved, how to design a solution to the problem and how to manufacture the solution. Figure 1. A blacksmith at work forging a product.
As long at the design, manufacure and sales functions were all carried out by one person no communication problems existed. However, when technology became more complex people began to specialize in different areas of the product design cycle. This gave rise to sales people, manufacturing experts, desing experts and a design process known as "over-the-wall" design.
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an ambassador is to represent the voice of MLOps across the BAA team with the intent to ensure that the AI R&D is leveraging MLOps and spreading awareness across the team.
Roles and responsibilities of the MLOps Ambassador Team
Figure 1: Roles and responsibilities of the MLOps Ambassador Team
Building out a proof of concept to gain hands-on experience with Kubeflow and TFX
We previously wrote about our experience applying TensorFlow to an already-published project in Image Classification of Race Cars. Our next step was to build a proof of concept from the ground-up, leveraging the power of MLOps through an end-to-end Kubeflow-based ML pipeline.
The aim was to build a POC that would serve as a more powerful search tool on the WWT homepage, taking in natural language inputs to output the relevant articles and content for customers and employees navigating the website. As an additional challenge, we decided to leverage Google's language model, BERT-Small (Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers), which has over 110,000 training parameters. This complex combination of Kubeflow on AWS with a BERT-Small model stretched our team's thinking allowed us to deeply understand the pros and cons of this novel environment.
The visual below goes into how MLOps played a role in the entire process, offering increased modularity and a decreased in the amount of compute required, especially during the ingest and data processing step of the pipeline.
building an MLOps pipeline
Figure 2: Kubeflow allowed us to traverse a smooth pipeline from start-to-end
Building out an accessible and comprehensive MLOps training platform
While our role as an AI R&D team is to expand our current day capabilities by stretching the limits of what new tools and technology we operate with, we were aware that a lot of these learnings can dissipate without regularly maintained and updated training resources for the rest of our team to leverage.
Moving to new methods of operation and learning can be significant sources of friction for any data science team and increasingly more so for those with a higher number of operational models and teams. Therefore, we decided that integrating foundational organizational change management (OCM) components to this broader rollout of MLOps within our team would ensure that our gradual shift to these processes would be as streamlined as possible.
The creation of such a training platform and pathway for our data science team was a key push of the MLOps Ambassador group, especially with the organic interest we received from the broader BAA group as we showcased our POC.
Instead of boiling the ocean to collate a set of randomized training material, our process involved creating four personas that we defined as the primary interactors with MLOps tools in any organization.
Four primary personas for training
Figure 3: Four primary personas for training
We then sought to create a set of expected skills and capabilities for each of these personas and mapped each one either to an existing or home-grown training resource, with a lot of learnings extracted from our development of the POC mentioned earlier in this article.
The data science team has been getting to "touch and feel" Kubeflow, KALE and MiniKF to try and get exposure to a variety of tools so that we are prepared as we start to develop a formalized offering.
Our current training platform consists of a Wiki, as well as a resource center available to all members across the BAA team, with relevant links to resources and a recording of all the learning curves, road bumps and learnings our data science team come across as they get hands-on learning with a variety of MLOps platforms. Below is a description of our data-science team's current training efforts, which we hope to continually build and mature.
different training groups and their respective efforts
Figure 4: The different training groups and their respective efforts so far
Considering our development of internal MLOps capabilities, we have been engaged in some exciting business development opportunities with interested clients. This is evidence of the maturing market and our readiness to get ahead of the curve to respond aptly.
Our efforts are to continually develop a formalized MLOps offering to supplement our current analytics and AI offerings, offering the degree of scale that more technologically mature organizations seek.
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Project focus during our time on the AI R&D Ops rotation
Novel application of reinforcement learning
The R&D Operations team collaborates closely with WWT data scientists who are always welcome to work on R&D projects but who, when on rotation, work in pairs on a project chosen by the PSP.
During the past few months, multiple data scientist rotations tackled the same novel project, an exciting new application of reinforcement learning (RL) in the data center networking space. We were particularly excited about the research because of the way this project brings together different areas of WWT expertise, from core IT infrastructure to advanced analytics. The data scientist rotations made excellent progress, iterating through several different RL algorithms and reward matrices to find the most effective combination.
Now the problems to solve are more network engineeringand development-oriented, so the next data scientists on rotation will move on to experiment with different data sets and objectives. But there is more to come on this application of RL, so keep an eye out for future updates.
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New publications
On top of the major project for of the R&D Program over the last three months, the data scientists involved with the program also completed and documented two additional projects from the certified backlog. Their efforts represent the benefit of opening up the slate of projects deemed interesting by the PSP, allowing the data scientists additional opportunity to learn and get a head start on experimenting outside of their project work.
The resulting papers were the first to work through the newly formalized peer review process and are also indicative of the increasing breadth of the R&D community across WWT, as more groups and areas of the company become interested to be involved in the exciting R&D work.
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What's next?
Another highlight of the past few months has been the number of new and exciting technologies coming to market, even in the midst of COVID-19. The R&D team would like to highlight the following technology in particular for its applicability to WWT and our partners.
It's time to admit something. This article was not really written by a person...
It was, in fact, written by several people! Though we are very excited though about the possibility of custom-prompted and artificially generated prose that is indistinguishable from real human-created text, this article truly was written by the authors. As is clear from some lighthearted examples of fake content generated by OpenAI's new language model GPT-3 (here and here), we are closer than ever before to being able to speak to computers and have them answer.
This last and even more advanced model, described in a recently released paper, builds off OpenAI's 2019 success using scale to create a production-ready generalized pretrained text (GPT) response generator. OpenAI's engineers again leveraged an astronomically sized training data set and millions more parameters for the latest edition, and the organization has opened an API access point to their GPT-3 model for experimentation by academic, commercial and individual collaborators.
The AI R&D Program has a surfeit of ideas and use cases ready to tackle with GPT-3's help, so stay tuned for future articles once we have hopefully been granted beta API access!
In the future, the R&D Team will continue to encourage new ideas and experimentation as we solidify the MLOps capability, push forward different RL applications and experiment with new technologies. We are excited to continue bringing more people from across WWT into the program and to establish and expand our external partnerships. The R&D Operations Team will continue developing processes and operations to enable data scientists and engineers to realize and publicize their ideas and ongoing efforts.
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Council, New Hampshire Constitution
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New Hampshire Constitution
Flag of New Hampshire.png
Part First
Part Second:
County Treasurer
The Council part of the New Hampshire Constitution consists of seven articles.
Article 60
Text of Article 60:
Councilors; Mode of Election, Etc.
There shall be biennially elected, by ballot, five councilors, for advising the governor in the executive part of government. The freeholders and other inhabitants in each county, qualified to vote for senators, shall some time in the month of November, give in their votes for one councilor; which votes shall be received, sorted, counted, certified, and returned to the secretary's office, in the same manner as the votes for senators, to be by the secretary laid before the senate and house of representatives on the first Wednesday following the first Tuesday of January.
Amended 1792 twice changing the council from members of the house and senate elected by the house and senate to individuals elected by voters - one in each county; and changing president to governor. Amended 1877 twice substituting biennially for annually and November for March. Amended 1889 substituting January for June. Amended 1984 changing the first Wednesday to the first Wednesday following the first Tuesday.
Article 61
Text of Article 61:
Vacancies, How Filled, if No Choice
And the person having a plurality of votes in any county, shall be considered as duly elected a councilor: But if no person shall have a plurality of votes in any county, the senate and house of representatives shall take the names of the two persons who have the highest number of votes in each county, and not elected, and out of those two shall elect by joint ballot, the councilor wanted for such county, and the qualifications for councilors shall be the same as for senator.
Amended 1912 substituting plurality for majority.
Article 62
Text of Article 62:
Subsequent Vacancies; Governor to Convene; Duties
If any person thus chosen a councilor, shall be elected governor or member of either branch of the legislature, and shall accept the trust; or if any person elected a councilor, shall refuse to accept the office, or in case of the death, resignation, or removal of any councilor out of the state, the governor may issue a precept for the election of a new councilor in that county where such vacancy shall happen and the choice shall be in the same manner as before directed. And the governor shall have full power and authority to convene the council, from time to time, at his discretion; and, with them, or the majority of them, may and shall, from time to time hold a council, for ordering and directing the affairs of the state, according to the laws of the land.
Article 63
Text of Article 63:
Impeachment of Councilors
The members of the council may be impeached by the house, and tried by the senate for bribery, corruption, malpractice, or maladministration.
Amended 1792 changing wording generally and changing mal-conduct to bribery, corruption, malpractice, or maladministration.
Article 64
Text of Article 64:
Secretary to Record Proceedings of Council.
The resolutions and advice of the council shall be recorded by the secretary, in a register, and signed by all members present agreeing thereto; and this record may be called for at any time, by either house of the legislature; and any member of the council may enter his opinion contrary to the resolutions of the majority, with the reasons for such opinion.
Amended 1792 adding phrases: "by the secretary," "agreeing thereto," and "with the reasons for such opinion."
Article 65
Text of Article 65:
Councilor Districts Provided for
The legislature may, if the public good shall hereafter require it, divide the state into five districts, as nearly equal as may be, governing themselves by the number of population, each district to elect a councilor: And, in case of such division, the manner of the choice shall be conformable to the present mode of election in counties.
Amended 1912 substituting population for rateable polls.
Article 66
Text of Article 66:
Elections by Legislature May Be Adjourned from Day to Day; Order Thereof
And, whereas the elections, appointed to be made by this constitution on the first Wednesday of January biennially, by the two houses of the legislature, may not be completed on that day, the said elections may be adjourned from day to day, until the same be completed; and the order of the elections shall be as follows - the vacancies in the senate, if any, shall be first filled up: The governor shall then be elected, provided there shall be no choice of him by the people: And afterwards, the two houses shall proceed to fill up the vacancy, if any, in the council.
Amended 1792 twice changing president to governor and election of the council only if there is a vacancy. Amended 1877 substituting biennially for annually. Amended 1889 substituting January for June.
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Figure 1: Dose response of acute nisoxetine or saline on the re-feeding intake of standard chow. Animals underwent a 24 h food deprivation prior to injections and refeeding. All animals were fed and maintained on standard chow (13% fat, 27% protein). Doses were randomly administered with a week washout between doses. (a) Intake (Kcal) shown is cumulative. # indicates differences ( ) from all other doses. (b) Data expressed as ratio of food intake following saline at the individual time points. Dotted line represents intake from saline injected animals (ratio of 1.0) to illustrate the feeding suppression of nisoxetine. Asterisks indicate significant differences ( ) from 3 mg/kg dose at respective time point.


text:
Designing a JSF Page
The first thing you want to do after getting the page open in the
designer is to expand the palette on the right hand side of the
design by clicking the left arrow on the top of it:
The palette will read the tag libraries out of your build path
and load them so you can utilize the Drag and Drop interactions
with building your web pages.
Some of the more important tag groups to be aware of are as
There are the most common sets of tags you will likely be using
while designing your pages. Let's use these items to Drag and
Drop a login form onto our new page.
First we drag a JSF HTML
form onto the page and update the page text a bit:
Now we want to layout a typical login form with a username,
password and login buttons. To lay these items out nicely, it
sounds like it would be a 3x2 table, but if we want to include space for login error messages, we would likely want a 3x3 table.
In JSF there is a component that will layout it's contents in a table automatically for us, it's called a panelGrid. Let's go ahead and drag a panelGrid into our form and be sure to set the columns value to 3:
The first thing to notice is that when the panelGrid is added, the designer automatically adds 4 sample components to it, to get an idea of how output will work.
For this tutorial, we are going to place the following components in the panelGrid in the given order:
- outputText: "Username:" label
- inputText: username text field (ID=username)
- message: display username error messages (FOR=username)
- outputText: "Password:" label
- inputSecret: password text field (ID=password)
- message: display password error messages (FOR=password)
So we haven't added the buttons yet, but at this point our form is done and properly laid out and looks like this:
It's important to note that the message components will only be rendered when they have messages to display.
Now let's add our buttons. Given the layout of our login form, we may want to left-align the buttons under the input boxes to make the form look nice. If we simply place a single button in each cell (1 under Password, 1 under inputSecret) they are going to be unevenly spaced. However, the way the panelGrid works is to take components added directly to it, and lay them out in a table, cell-by-cell. To be able to group our two buttons together, and place them under the input fields, we will need to use a panelGroup.
The first thing we need to do is add an empty component (we used an empty outputText) to the panelGrid, so it places it under the Password label. Second, we need to add a panelGroup, so it places it under the input fields. Then inside the panelGroup, we will add our two buttons. The result looks like this:
Once that panelGroup is added, we don't have to add another component to be placed under the existing message components. The panelGrid will keep everything laid out correctly.
Now the design portion of our page is done and has given you a good idea of how the designer works. Of course, if you were building a real JSF application, you would need to step back into the page, and using the designer, assign action handlers to the buttons, and value bindings to the input fields to make sure your managed bean was correctly backing the values on this page.
These steps are outside the realm of this tutorial, which was simply intended to introduce you to the new Visual JSF Designer. If you'd like to see how to design a real JSF application, please check out the JSF Tutorial in the MyEclipse help documents or available from the MyEclipse site.

source: HuggingFaceFW/fineweb-edu


- Reykjavik Cars
Should we Expect Polar Nights in Iceland?
Updated: Dec 15, 2020
If you have not been to Iceland before, you probably heard people saying that wintertime in Iceland is basically darkness all day long. Well, the truth is, polar nights in Iceland are not something you should expect. Of course, you might experience some darkness but not for 24 hours. Although there is an exception to this. Those who live in mountainous regions may not see the sun for some days or even months. But this has nothing to do with the sun not rising, it's just that the sun is too low on the horizon and the light is blocked by the mountains.
Besides that region, you do get to see the sunlight for a few hours in most of the other areas of the island. Although this is not what a polar night is! a Polar night is when you have total darkness covering a region for a space of 24 hours non-stop. So countries like Sweden, Finland or Norway, which are closer to the North Pole/Polar Circle, do experience polar nights.
What are the causes of Polar Nights?
The polar night happens when the earth rotates in relation to where the sun is positioned. As the earth rotates on a tilted axis of around 23.5 degrees, it makes the Arctic Circle and the Antarctic Circle to be completely exposed to the sun or be in constant darkness. That, of course, depends on the season. This is where you have a situation of the northernmost and southernmost poles plunged into either a full night or a full day.
Winter Solstice in Iceland
So, when does Iceland experience this so-called Winter Solstice?
The winter solstice occurs on December 22nd this is the time the sun takes the shortest path through the sky. As a result, we have the shortest day of the year and the longest night. In this period the sun rises as late as 11:23 am and sets around 3:30 pm it's just about 4 hours of daylight experience.
Scientifically speaking, "winter solstice" is a term applied to the very moment where one of the Earth's poles has its maximum tilt away from the Sun. However, the term is informally used to refer to the day on which this astronomical event takes place.
If you are visiting Iceland in winter here is something spectacular you need to watch out for:
The Northern Lights in Iceland
Because of the reduced amount of light you have during this period, it is important to have a very organized schedule when visiting Iceland. It can be quite challenging to fit many activities in such a short lapse of daylight. For example, It is basically impossible to rent a car in iceland to take a trip to the Golden Circle. And, later on, head on a whale watching adventure all in one day during the winter. This is why you need to carefully plan your trip so that you can make the most of the few hours of daylight winter has to offer while here.
The good thing about coming to Iceland during winter is that you will have the chance to witness the famous Northern Light spectacle. This is Mother Nature's eye-popping, breathtaking wonder that tourist cannot stop talking about.
The best way to spot the Northern Light is to check the Aurora forecast daily. There is a great app available for this. You can get it right here.
So in reality, Iceland does not get a true Polar Night, Iceland only experience what is referred to as the Midnight sun that comes with a short night or experiences some few hours of daylight.
Jónmessa in Iceland
For the gloomy days, to neverending brightness.
The Jónsmessa, which is the name we use in Iceland for the summer Solstice, is based on the biblical birth of John the Baptist. This term refers both to the Midsummer Night and the biblical event. Jónsmessa is celebrated on the 24th of June.
Tourists are thrilled by the Icelandic folklore and celebrations that are held this day. According to the legend, animals were given free will to do as they desired during Jónsmessa. For instance, cows were able to express themselves in Icelandic language and therefore were able to interact with humans. Seals could easily transform themselves into humans. And if you want to have very good health, just roll naked on the dewy grass! the midnight sun will do the magic. If all you ever want is food and beautiful gifts from the elves, just sit all night at a road intersection. If all of the roads lead to different churches, then your wish will come true!
Well, that's Icelandic folklore...Let's get back to reality, shall we?
Summer Solstice in Iceland
On the Summer solstice, we can say that the sun barely sets. It gets a bit darker but the light is never completely gone. We get approximately 3 hours of glimmer light and then, the sun is back up again.
This is not exclusive to Iceland though. All countries north of the Arctic Circle and south of the Antarctic Circle also experience this natural phenomenon.
Why do we experience the Midnight Sun in Iceland?
The midnight sun is caused when the earth's axis is tilted towards the sun between April and September; That what we all know as summer. That takes place during the months of June, July, and August every year in the Northern Hemisphere.
In Iceland, the winter and summer season is quite different from what you might likely experience in your country. Most countries around the world are not as close to either the North or the South Pole as Iceland is. For those countries, the daylight hours and the nighttime hours are most likely to stay constant all year round. But that is not the case in Iceland, the closer you are to the North or South Pole the more extreme the winter or the summer season is going to be.
What to Do During the Midnight Sun in Iceland?
There are lots of activities tourist can partake during the midnight sun, for instance, going mountain hiking, a trip around the Golden Circle, or you can go whale watching. The possibilities of experiencing some of Iceland's best attraction are just endless. That is why traveling around Iceland during the midnight sun season can be such a great experience. You will experience new things you will not forget for a long time.
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How much did the monks who wrote "Beowulf," change the story to fit Christian views?
Expert Answers
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Think about it this way: The monks were the scribes...the printing press of the time period. Since they were religious, they would change anything they considered not worthy of attention by readers--current or future. This means all dirty jokes, anything vulgar or obscene, and anything they considered too common. So, since they were the recorders of the oral literature of the time (since so many were unable to read and write for themselves, the songs, poems, stories, riddles, jokes, etc. were recorded by the monks), they chose what to write down and keep for posterity and what they would ignore. Much was lost because of this, and it stands to reason that of the written literature we do have, much was changed.
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Geo-Points are points of interest marked by an easy-to-understand information panel to inform the visitors about a geographical, geological, cultural or historical feature in the communities of the Geo-Naturepark region.
The essence of a landscape here in Central Europe is always a result of the historical influences of human activities. The cultural landscape is formed by the interplay between geological processes and land use by humans. Therefore, each landscape bears witness to how man has treated it over the centuries. These features may vary considerably from place to place, also because of the geological diversity.
Many features may not be immediately apparent to the casual visitor. The Geo-Points are an invitation to delve deeper into the exciting correlations, which shed light on and explain the history of the surrounding landscape and the people living there.
Geo-Points according to topics: geology, history, cultural landscape, and nature
Geo-Points sorted A to Z according to the name of the community
Below you will find maps with the position of each Geo-Point and short descriptions in German language. On the information panels however you will find English texts as well.


text:
The making of images allows one to see how very diverse cultures represent the similarities and differences they see in their surroundings. The resulting images correspond to four contrasting views of the world found in the works of the five continents: Animism, naturalism, totemism, and analogism.
This surprising journey through the unexplored domain of representation introduces a selection of different types of works, chosen irrespectively of their space/time categorisations. As the reader turns the pages, they will discover how the most familiar and the most enigmatic images present different ways of experiencing the world.
224 Pages • 24 x 26 cm • 35,50€
Co-published by musée du quai Branly - Jacques Chirac / Somogy 2010

source: openbmb/Ultra-FineWeb


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Contact: Public Information Office
_PHONE_ (phone)
_PHONE_ (fax)
_PHONE_ (TDD)
Rhode Island, which is holding its presidential primaries on March 4, had a 2007 population of 1.1 million. The state has a higher percentage of people with a bachelor's degree or more and a higher median household income than the nation as a whole. About 64 percent of Rhode Island's voting-age citizens cast a ballot in the 2004 general election, not statistically different from the national rate.
These and other statistics about Rhode Island's population on topics ranging from language spoken to commute times can be found in the American FactFinder section of the Census Bureau Web site . More information about the nation's voting record can be found in Voting and Registration in the Election of November 2004 at .
Highlights include the following:
|Selected Characteristics||Rhode Island||U.S.|
|White alone, not Hispanic or Latino||79.6%||66.4%|
|Hispanic or Latino||11.0%||14.8%|
|Median household income||$51,814||$48,451|
|Persons below poverty||11.1%||13.3%|
|Bachelor's degree or higher (age 25+)||29.6%||27.0%|
|Median home value||$295,700||$185,200|


text:
Koala teeth provide insights into dietby Heidi Hall Aug. 22, 2018, 1:00 PM
Paleontologist Larisa DeSantis studies the teeth of ancient and modern mammals to determine how their diets changed across the millennia and, by extension, their responses to climate change.
But the question lingered: Is wear on teeth an indicator of what kangaroos and koalas ate or just how much gritty dust and dirt they consumed?
The Vanderbilt University professor's latest research, published today in the peer-reviewed journal PLOS ONE, confirms the shape of tooth wear best indicates what they were eating, not what was on it.
"We can investigate the teeth in modern animals, begin to understand exactly what they're recording and then take that information – a kind of Rosetta Stone – back into the fossil records and interpret the behavior of fossil animals," said DeSantis, assistant professor of earth and environmental science. "While we eventually aim to look at how diets have changed over long periods of climate change, this study focused on whether these teeth were recording diet or aridity."
DeSantis targeted Australian marsupials for her dental mesowear work because that continent has been drying out over millions of years, making it a rich environment to study how changing climate prompts animal evolution.
For this particular study, she and a team of Vanderbilt graduate and undergraduate students analyzed casts and photographs of teeth from koalas and kangaroos that died over the past few decades to compare with modern climate and dietary data.
The journal article is titled Effects of climate on dental mesowear of koalas and two broadly distributed kangaroos throughout their geographic range, and the research was funded by an NSF CAREER grant.


text:
Before I publish a blog post, I read through my work several times. I first read through it in its word publishing document, then I review it on my blog's editor tool and finally proofread once more on my website in preview mode.
I'm reviewing this blog post extra carefully because a keen eye holiday is coming up: National Proofreading Day is on March 8!
As writers, we don't take proofreading for granted. Whether we proofread our own writing or spot an error instantly in a peer's email, we edit as much as we write.
That's why it's easy for us to understand the importance of this editorial holiday. But what is National Proofreading Day? Why do we celebrate on March 8? And how can we participate in National Proofreading Day?
So, What Is National Proofreading Day?
We celebrate National Proofreading Day every year on March 8 as a way to shine a light on the importance of proofreading your writing. National Proofreading Day promotes reviewing your writing so that you submit or publish mistake-free work.
Even the best grammarians make mistakes. This day is to promote reviewing what you write and recognizing spelling or grammatical mistakes in your work so that you make corrections.
Why Is National Proofreading Day on March 8?
National Proofreading Day exists thanks to Judy Beaver. She created this writing holiday as a way to remember and honor her mother who loved correcting one's spelling and grammar. Judy chose March 8 after her mother's birthday as a fun way to remember her each passing year.
How Can I Participate in National Proofreading Day?
There are many ways that you can partake in National Proofreading Day:
- Proofread everything you write today—and always!
- Offer to proofread a project that your colleague or friend wrote.
- Thank a friend or peer who often proofreads your work.
- Write a thank you card to a teacher who helped you write with correct spelling and grammar.
- Treat yourself to a new book or at least some reading time—and see if you find any grammatical errors.
- Check out the proofreading resources on Judy Beaver's website.
- Share your celebration on social media with _TAG_.
For more ideas on how to participate in National Proofreading Day, visit nationalproofreadingday.com.
How do you plan on celebrating National Proofreading Day? Share your plans below.


text:
A 'Radical Manifesto' For Computer Teaching In English Schools
00_NOP writes "Everybody (or almost everybody) in England agrees that computing teaching to kids in high school is broken. In response the government promised a radical overhaul and a new curriculum. But then last week it was discovered the government had scrapped the bit of the education department that would develop any such curriculum. Not to be deterred, John Naughton, the Cambridge University academic who wrote the Short History of the Future, has now published his own 'radical' manifesto on how computing should be taught."


text:
|Hydroxyethyl starch for cardiovascular surgery: a systematic review of randomized controlled trials
|Shi XY, Zou Z, He XY, Xu HT, Yuan HB, Liu H
This review concluded that, compared with control solutions, perioperative hydroxyethyl starch was comparatively safe in cardiovascular surgery. Data was insufficient to make reliable direct comparisons between different preparations, but hydroxyethyl starch 130kD seemed to cause less blood loss and need for transfusions. As review data came from small trials of unclear quality, the authors' conclusions should be treated with caution.
To evaluate the safety of hydroxyethyl starch used in cardiovascular surgery, and to assess which hydroxyethyl starch preparation was the most acceptable.
PubMed (1980 to December 2010), EMBASE (1974 to December 2010) and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL, Issue 12, 2010) were searched. Search terms were reported. Reference lists of potentially relevant studies were checked. Unpublished studies sought by checking the websites of the US Food and Drug Administration, European Medicines Agency and Fresenius KABI, Germany.
Randomised controlled trials (RCTs) of patients undergoing cardiovascular surgery where hydroxyethyl starch was compared with controls were sought. Eligible trials had to report on blood loss. No restrictions were placed on the type of hydroxyethyl starch administration regime. The primary outcome was blood loss; other outcomes included the need for transfusion, reoperation, renal function, mortality and other complications (pruritus, jaundice, pneumonia, pulmonary oedema, cerebral infarction, heart failure).
The included trials comprised both adults (mean age 44 to 83 years) and children (mean age under one to six years). The interventions used were different hydroxyethyl starch preparations (120 kilo-Dalton (kD), 130kD, 200kD, 264kD, 450kD, and 400kD). Comparators (controls) were albumin, crystalloid, dextran, gelatin, plasma protein fraction, fresh frozen plasma, saline or different hydroxyethyl starch preparations. Some trials included more than two comparison groups. The timing of administration was as priming fluid, volume expander, or both. Methods of measuring blood loss and criteria for blood transfusion varied between trials and (where possible) were reported in the paper.
Two reviewers independently selected studies for inclusion; results were checked by a third reviewer.
Assessment of study quality
Quality was assessed independently by two reviewers using a scoring system based on reporting of items on methods of randomisation, allocation concealment, comparability of baseline characteristics, blinding, drop-outs/withdrawals, and clarity of inclusion criteria. The maximum score was 10. Those trials scoring 5 or below were considered low quality.
Data were extracted to calculate mean differences and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for continuous data, and risk ratios (RR) with 95% confidence intervals for dichotomous data. Authors were contacted for additional information where necessary.
Data were extracted by two reviewers independently. Disagreements were resolved by consulting a third reviewer.
Methods of synthesis
Each of the hydroxyethyl starch preparations was compared separately with each control solution. Standardised mean differences (SMD) with 95% confidence intervals, and pooled risk ratios with 95% confidence intervals, were calculated using a fixed-effect model. If tests for heterogeneity were significant, a random-effects model was used. Heterogeneity was assessed using Χ² and Ι².
Sensitivity analyses were undertaken by excluding those trials that scored 5 or below for quality, and excluding those that had 15 participants or fewer per group. Subgroup analyses investigated the method of administration (priming, volume expander, both together).
Funnel plots were used to assess publication bias.
Results of the review
Fifty-two RCTs (3,234 participants) were included. Trial size ranged from 15 to 235 participants. Twenty-eight trials had fewer than 50 participants. Six trials scored 10 for quality, four trials scored 9, 13 trials scored 8, 10 trials scored 7, six trials scored 6, 11 trials scored 5, and two trials scored 3.
Compared with albumin, there was a reduction in blood loss with hydroxyethyl starch 130kD (SMD -0.54, 95% CI -0.99 to -0.09; random-effects; seven trials), an increase in blood loss with hydroxyethyl starch 450kD (SMD 0.47, 95% CI 0.26 to 0.68; Ι²=23%; seven trials) and hydroxyethyl starch 400kD (SMD 0.87, 95% CI 0.11 to 1.6; one trial), and no statistically significant differences with hydroxyethyl starch 264kD (Ι²=0%; three trials) or hydroxyethyl starch 200kD (Ι²=47%; seven trials).
Compared with gelatin, one trial showed a statistically significant increase in blood loss with hydroxyethyl starch 450kD, but no differences with hydroxyethyl starch 200kD (seven trials) or hydroxyethyl starch 130kD (10 trials).
Compared with crystalloid, there were no statistically significant differences in blood loss with any of the hydroxyethyl starch preparations (results reported in paper).
In sensitivity analyses when low-quality trials were excluded, the results for blood loss with hydroxyethyl starch 200KD were similar to the main analyses, as were the results for the comparison between hydroxyethyl starch 450kD and albumin. When smaller trials were excluded, there was more blood loss with hydroxyethyl starch 200kD compared with gelatin (SMD 0.29, 95% CI 0.01 to 0.56) and less blood loss compared with crystalloid (SMD -0.65, 95% CI -1.26 to -0.03).
There was no statistically significant difference in number of patients who received blood transfusions with hydroxyethyl starch 200kD compared with albumin (four trials), gelatin (four trials), crystalloid (four trials) or dextran (one trial). Compared with albumin, hydroxyethyl starch 450kD was associated with an increased need for blood transfusion (RR 1.77, 95% CI 1.15 to 2.73; three trials).
When comparing hydroxyethyl starch to controls there was no statistically significant difference in mortality (12 trials, Ι²=0%), renal failure (17 trials), reoperation (13 trials) or complications.
There was insufficient data related to hydroxyethyl starch 400 kD, hydroxyethyl starch 264 kD and hydroxyethyl starch 120 kD to undertake any analyses.
Visual inspection of funnel plots showed asymmetry, indicating publication bias for some outcomes.
Compared with controls, perioperative administration of hydroxyethyl starch preparations was comparatively safe in cardiovascular surgery. Data were insufficient to make reliable direct comparisons between different preparations, but hydroxyethyl starch 130kD seemed to cause less blood loss and transfusions and was suitable for use in cardiovascular surgery.
The aims of this review were clearly stated for inclusion criteria. The search covered a number of relevant sources, including searching for unpublished studies. This reduced the likelihood of publication bias, but the authors reported that tests showed some evidence of it. It was not clear whether language restrictions were applied, so it was difficult to assess the possibility of language bias. The methods of the review were aimed at reducing reviewer error or bias.
The quality of the included trials was assessed using a checklist; since only composite scores were reported, it was difficult to assess the reliability of the evidence presented. Additionally, scoring appeared to be based on reporting of items, rather than potential effects (such as reporting of drop-outs, but not percentage who had dropped out). The methods of synthesis were appropriate. Heterogeneity between trials was investigated.
Much of the data came from small trials with unclear quality. Individual comparisons were generally on data including a relatively small number of participants. As the authors stated, direct comparisons between different preparations of hydroxyethyl starch were not possible. Given these factors, the authors' conclusions should be treated with some caution.
Implications of the review for practice and research
Practice: The authors stated that hydroxyethyl starch 130kD was suitable for use in cardiovascular surgery.
Research: The authors did not state any implications for research.
National Nature Science Foundation of China.
Shi XY, Zou Z, He XY, Xu HT, Yuan HB, Liu H. Hydroxyethyl starch for cardiovascular surgery: a systematic review of randomized controlled trials. European Journal of Clinical Pharmacology 2011; 67(8): 767-782
Subject indexing assigned by NLM
Adult; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Blood Loss, Surgical /prevention & Blood Transfusion; Cardiovascular Surgical Procedures /adverse effects /mortality; Child; Child, Preschool; Hemostasis, Surgical /methods; Humans; Hydroxyethyl Starch Derivatives /adverse effects /chemistry /therapeutic use; Infant; Middle Aged; Molecular Weight; Perioperative Care; Plasma Substitutes /adverse effects /therapeutic use; Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic; control
Date bibliographic record published
Date abstract record published
This is a critical abstract of a systematic review that meets the criteria for inclusion on DARE. Each critical abstract contains a brief summary of the review methods, results and


text:
Mollymawks are a type of Albatross that belong to Diomedeidae family and come from the Procellariiformes order, along with Shearwaters, Fulmars, Storm-petrels, and Diving-petrels. They share certain identifying features. First, they have nasal passages that attach to the upper bill called naricorns. Although the nostrils on the Albatross are on the sides of the bill.
The bills of Procellariiformes are also unique in that they are split into between 7 and 9 horny plates. Finally, they produce a stomach oil made up of wax esters and triglycerides that is stored in the proventriculus. This is used against predators as well as an energy rich food source for chicks and for the adults during their long flights. They also have a salt gland that is situated above the nasal passage and helps desalinate their bodies, due to the high amount of ocean water that they imbibe. It excretes a high saline solution from their nose.
In 1998, Robertson and Nunn split this species into two, Thalassarche (bulleri) bulleri, and Thalassarche (bulleri) platei, although the majority of authorities including ITIS, James Clements, BirdLife International, Michael Brooke. have not yet accepted this split


text:
Verification of gene expression differences on a protein level - An IHC study
MetadataShow full item record
Background: Inflammatory bowel disease, a collective term that includes ulcerative colitis and Crohns disease, is an inflammatory disorder that affects the gastrointestinal tract, with symptoms like severe diarrea, pain, fatigue and weight loss. Northern Europe has one of the highest incidence rates of IBD in the world. The pathophysiology is complex, which includes both genetic predisposition, alterations in gut microbiota and disruption of the intestinal. Aims: This thesis is based on research done by Atle van Beelen Granlund, a member of the IBD research group at St. Olav, where the mRNA expression levels of both UC and CD colonic mucosa was explored with whole genome expression sequencing. In this thesis, the purpose was to further investigate the protein expression for some of the genes investigated in Granlunds research; RARα, RARβ, RXRαβγ, HLA-‐II and CD86. Materials and methods: Colonic biopsies from five different patient groups; active UC, active CD, inactive UC, inactive CD and healthy individuals were stained with immunohistochemistry to visualize the protein expression of RARα, RARβ, RXRαβγ, HLA-‐II and CD86. Results: The IHC stain of RARα, RARβ and RXRαβγ showed no significant differences in intensity or coverage in the groups UCA, CDA, UC or CD compared to healthy individuals, except the intensity of the staining in the lamina propria for the RARα antibody. Negative tissue stained positive for the RARβ antibody, and Western Blot with RARβ antibody indicated a low sensitivity. The IHC stain of MHC-‐II showed a higher intensity and coverage in the epithelium in the UCA and CDA biopsies compared to healthy individuals. In the CD86 IHC stain, there was no difference in the intensity, but a qualitative difference was seen, with a stronger basolateral epithelial stain in the UCA and DCA groups compared to healthy individuals. Conclusion: This study failed to show a correlation between mRNA expression levels measured using whole genome gene expression analysis and the protein expression pattern as viewed using IHC of the receptors RARA, RARB and RXRABG. However, we suspect that the antibodies used in the project have a low specificity, leading to this result. We have shown an upregulated protein expression of MHC class II in the intestinal epithelial cells in patients with inflamed IBD compared to normal controls. The MHC class II 5 expression pattern supports the gene expression analysis, and suggests that there is an increase in MHC class II in the colon epithelium during IBD inflammation. The CD86 analysis failed to verify the difference in gene expression levels observed. This might be due to poor specificity of the antibody used. Thus, no conclusions can be drawn on basis of our results on CD86 expression.


Specialization in Christian Initiation
adult pointing to a bible passage while teaching a student
OFW Resources
Especialización en Iniciación Cristiana
Ver Pagina Aqui
This specialization program is 1st for people who are parish Directors of the RCIA and want to deepen and clarify their doubts about the different aspects of the process. 2nd it is for people who have finished their Basic Catechesis and want to specialize in the RCIA process. Upon completion of the program you will receive a certificate for completing the specialization.
Session 1: Conversion and Discernment
Exploring with Candidates their readiness to enter the process Marriage issues other impediments
Session 2: Forming an Initiation team
Sponsor coordinator, catechists (dismissal and extended catechesis), hospitality coordinator, liturgist (priest), liturgical musicians
Session 3: Supervising the formation process
Dismissal and extended catechesis (paragraph 75
Session 4: Celebrating the season of Lent
Rites of Election, Purification and Enlightenment
Session 5: Celebrating the Sacraments of Initiation and follow-up
Mystagogy-Eucharist and Penance


text:
Capacitive sensing technology has changed the way we interact with devices. We no longer use simple pushbuttons or throw switches. Rather, we can touch, slide, and pinch the data itself on a touchscreen to interact with it. The far-off interfaces of the movies are not such science fiction anymore. In fact, they are already being adapted and designed into a variety of applications, including our cars.
Multi-touch all-point sensing is an extension of capacitive sensing that has made it possible for touch technology to become much more intuitive by sensing the presence of multiple fingers simultaneously and being able to recognize gestures. At the heart, any multi-touch all-point system is a capacitive sensor composed of a pair of adjacent electrodes. When a conductive object such as a finger comes in proximity to these electrodes, there is additional capacitance between the electrodes that can be measured with the help of a microcontroller. Alternately, capacitive sensing can also be used for proximity sensing where no contact is required between the sensor and the user's body. This can be achieved by increasing the sensitivity of the sensors.
Types of Touchscreen Layers
Capacitive sensing is increasingly being used to replace mechanical buttons, knobs with touch-sensitive buttons, and sliders for in-car systems like infotainment controls, trunk release, Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning control (HVAC), and Passive Keyless Entry sensors (PKE). The consequent reduction in the number of mechanical components and grooves (which require more complex molds, trap dust, etc.) enhances reliability and reduce system costs.
Touchscreens and trackpads
Touchscreens enable users to directly "touch" the application in a device, thus reducing the dependence on external buttons. Similarly in a trackpad, users can interact with the system using instinctive actions and gestures like touching, tapping, pinching, and dragging. Touchscreens come in one of three main forms: single-touch, multi-touch gesture, and multi-touch all-point.
Single-touch touchscreens were predominantly based on resistive touchscreen technology, locating both the screen and buttons within the same area. The limitations of resistive single-touch touchscreens are the ability to detect only one finger per screen at a time, limited gesture recognition capabilities, and poor performance due to wear-and-tear of the sensors.
These limitations led to the development of projected capacitance technology and multi-touch gesture touchscreens based on it. Multi-touch gesture touchscreens do not depend on pressure to detect user interaction. They are also able to support simultaneous multi-touch recognition and tracking along with gesture detection used to manipulate screen viewing size and orientation of Web page views.


text:
DLDJ-BJ1 Step Motor Training System
The system uses modular control hanging box. with flexible control mode, the power supply,stepper motor drive, signal switch module is mounted on aluminum panel, to change the position of the system according to the experimental needs.
Actuator drive ball screw turn round by a stepping motor, control the car forward more precisely by using a rotary encoder signals.
Students can learn: the principle of stepper motor, shaft drive control, controller and controller wiring, position control of configuration the pulse number, sequence control.
- Total dimension : 600×450×150mm
- Input power : single-phase, three-wire AC 220V±10% 50Hz/60Hz
- Output power : DC 24V safety terminal output
- Capacity : < 500VA


text:
_TAG_ char *getpass(const char *prompt);
_TAG_ char *getpass(const char *prompt);
The getpass() function opens the process's controlling terminal, writes to that device the null-terminated string prompt, disables echoing, reads a string of characters up to the next newline character or EOF, restores the terminal state and closes the terminal.
The getpassphrase() function is identical to getpass(), except that it reads and returns a string of up to 256 characters in length.
Upon successful completion, getpass() returns a pointer to a null-terminated string of at most PASS_MAX bytes that were read from the terminal device. If an error is encountered, the terminal state is restored and a null pointer is returned.
The getpass() and getpassphrase() functions may fail if:
The function was interrupted by a signal.
The process is a member of a background process attempting to read from its controlling terminal, the process is ignoring or blocking the
SIGTTIN signal or the process group is orphaned.
OPEN_MAX file descriptors are currently open in the calling process.
The maximum allowable number of files is currently open in the system.
The process does not have a controlling terminal.
The return value points to static data whose content may be overwritten by each call.
See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:
|ATTRIBUTE TYPE||ATTRIBUTE VALUE|


_URL_://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1604131334907/J01OgXr96.pngAyzom Tech Bloghttps://blog.ayzom.comRSS for NodeTue, 03 Aug 2021 21:12:05 GMT60AWS Cloud has just come up with new feature in Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) that allows you to add your own code to process data retrieved from S3 before returning it to an application
Introduction to AWS S3
Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) is storage for the Internet. It is designed to make web-scale computing easier for developers.
AWS S3 Usecase
Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) allows to easily share files with users, different AWS Services and with multiple applications.
The S3 Object data consumed might not be directly helpful in some cases, as different applications may need some transformation on it before using it.
Some Examples via AWS S3 Documentation: 1) a dataset created by an e-commerce application may include personally identifiable information (PII) that is not needed when the same data is processed for analytics and should be redacted.
2) if the same dataset is used for a marketing campaign, you may need to enrich the data with additional details, such as information from the customer loyalty database.
3) Redacting personally identifiable information for analytics or non-production environments.
4) Converting across data formats, such as converting XML to JSON.
5) Augmenting data with information from other services or databases.
6) Compressing or decompressing files as they are being downloaded.
7) Resizing and watermarking images on the fly using caller-specific details, such as the user who requested the object.
8) Implementing custom authorization rules to access data.
Different ways to get custom S3 Object
1) You either create, store, and maintain additional derivative copies of the data, so that each application has its own custom dataset,
2) You build and manage infrastructure as a proxy layer in front of S3 to intercept and process data as it is requested.
Both above options add complexity and costs, so the S3 team decided to build a better solution.
New Way
S3 Object Lambda works with your existing applications and uses AWS Lambda functions to automatically process and transform your data as it is being retrieved from S3. The Lambda function is invoked inline with a standard S3 GET request, so you don't need to change your application code.
In this way, you can easily present multiple views from the same dataset, and you can update the Lambda functions to modify these views at any time.
How to Start?
 - Create a Lambda Function to transform data for your use case.
 - Create an S3 Object Lambda Access Point from the S3 Management Console.
 - Select the Lambda function that you created above.
 - Provide a supporting S3 Access Point to give S3 Object Lambda access to the original object.
 - Update your application configuration to use the new S3 Object Lambda Access Point to retrieve data from S3.
I will be sharing further Node.js Lambda Demo with S3 Object. Keep watching this space.
More detailed documentation available at: _URL_
_URL_ 31 Mar 2021 06:31:05 GMThttps://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1617172178720/YVi0r31j6.png
AWS Lambda supports multiple languages through the use of runtimes. You choose a runtime when you create a function, and you can change runtimes by updating your function's configuration. The underlying execution environment provides additional libraries and environment variables that you can access from your function code.
As of now, AWS Lambda supports only recent stable Nodejs version.
Node.js 12nodejs12.x
Node.js 10nodejs10.x
But if you visit Official Nodejs, you would see 2 new version with new updates and features.
 1. 14.15.0 - Stable LTS Version
 2. 15.2.0 - Current Version
So, I just forked into Epsagon Repo and created new Node.js 15.2.0 Custom Runtime for AWS Lambda and wrapped the runtime in AWS Lambda Layer to test new features.
Steps to Use:
 1. Create new function with option : provide your own bootstrap on Amazon Linux 2
2. Create index.js file in the lambda code.
const { exec } = require('child_process');
exports.handler = function (event, context) {
 exec('node -v', (error, stdout, stderr) => {
 if (error) {
 console.error('exec error: ${error}');
 console.log('stdout: ${stdout}');
 console.error('stderr: ${stderr}');
3. Attach the give layer or create your own from above Repo.
AWS Layer Version ARN: aws:lambda:us-east-1:741365237744:layer:runtime-nodejs15-2-0:1
4. To use a handler, use the full path as a handler.
Update handler in lambda configuration as: index.handler from hello.handler
Run a Test Event
It could be possible that AWS Team might be optimizing the new version to improve startup time and reduce the billed duration for feasibiliy and cost optimization. Till then, keep testing new features of Node.js.
Repository Link to fork:
Please note that this runtime is only for testing and not recommended for production usage.
Follow me on _URL_ for more updates related to AWS and Javascript.
_URL_ 11 Nov 2020 16:13:50 GMThttps://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1605111207662/mDgYU4oAO.jpeg


more potholes after it rains.
Nevertheless, even Los Angeles, where there is little snow or freezing, has seen a rise in potholes and resultant damage caused by a combination of near record-setting rain, the state's budget problems, and heavy use of roads.
Potholes are dangerous because they can cause a road to become uneven and unwieldy to drive on. It is also easy to miss a pothole in the dark when potholes are less visible.
It is also hard to avoid a pothole during inclement weather. If there is snow, potholes are filled causing them to be hidden from view. Drivers often drive over these potholes at high speeds and are completely taken aback by the initial shock.
Even a shallow pothole can cause damage to your tires and suspension and cause an accident if your car is stalled in a pothole.
Potholes are especially responsible for accidents involving cyclists and motorcyclist. Cases involving motorcycle accidents caused by potholes or road debris can be among the most complex in personal injury law. Unlike most cases involving collisions with other motor vehicles it can be extremely difficult to determine liability when accidents are caused by poorly maintained roads. Source:
Los Angeles has a dangerous pothole and surface crack problem that's costing drivers thousands of dollars every year.
"The bicycling community refers to these (cracks) as valleys of death,"
Fbettercitie0a-20%2F8009%2Fb22b24dd-0598-40f5-b725-0e1e71d9c961&Operation=NoScript"> Widgets


Researchers create billion-year-old bacteria and trace its evolution
November 1, 2011 in Biology / Cell & Microbiology
Evolution: University of Waikato research scientist Dr Jo Hobbs holds the one billion year old Bacillus bacterial enzyme.
(PhysOrg.com) -- University of Waikato researchers have managed to create a billion-year-old bacterial enzyme and then trace its evolution through history, to the modern day.
Associate Professor Vic Arcus and postdoctoral research scientist Dr. Jo Hobbs have used new to make accurate predictions about the size, shape and composition of proteins from ancient.
They then coaxed modern bacteria into making these ancient proteins for them, creating a billion-year-old Bacillus bacteria.
"We've been able to make a billion-year-old protein enzyme that actually works in the lab," says researcher Jo Hobbs.
"The billion-year-old enzyme is from a Precambrian ancestor of a modern bacterium called Bacillus," explains Dr. Arcus.
"To our surprise, the ancient enzyme is very stable at high temperatures and very, very active - seven times more active than a comparable modern enzyme."
"This means that the Bacillus ancestor most probably lived in a hot, inhospitable environment a billion years ago."
Tracing Evolution
Along with the billion-year-old enzyme, the team created enzymes that trace the of the organisms from one billion years ago to the present day.
They tested the optimal operating temperature of each enzyme to get an insight into the changing temperate of the environment of the bacteria over time.
"The optimum temperature of the billion-year-old organism is 70 degrees. But during the evolution of these bacteria, they have adapted to cooling temperatures. Today we find Bacillus bacteria in nearly every possible environment – hot pools, garden soil, cool lakes, even in Antarctica," says Dr Arcus.
"They are the weeds of the bacterial world. Their ability to adapt to a great range of different environments over such long periods of time has been their success on planet Earth."
The team have had their findings published in the Journal of Molecular Biology and Evolution.
Provided by University of Waikato
"Researchers create billion-year-old bacteria and trace its evolution" November 1, 2011 _URL_


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Setting default and initial field values in SharePoint forms
In today's skybow Advent Calendar, again one of the classics: prepopulating values in SharePoint forms, based on current data, user, and context. It is not possible in out-of-the box SharePoint list forms, but it is a very simple task both with skybow Solution Studio and skybow Rich Forms.
Let's try to imagine just one of the possible scenarios: in a SharePoint list, there is a text field called "Location". When a new form of that list is displayed, the "Office" property should be read from current user's profile, and the field "Location" should be set to that value, locked for editing, so that the user cannot change it.
Those are the steps we are going to follow in order to make this work:
- Open the form where the field that should be initially set is located, and select the field
- Click the Expression Builder icon besides the "Initial" value in the "Behavior" tab
- Select the "Office" user profile property, under the "User" context object, and save the expression
- Set the "Enabled" expression on false, to make the field read only.


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world, agricultural areas (e.g., the midwestern United States and farming
regions within other countries like Brazil and Argentina) tend to be at
higher risk for the development of tornadoes because certain weather
patterns that promote good crop yields may also contribute to the
development of tornadoes (10). In addition to geographic factors, the
time of day and the time of year also affect a population's risk from
tornadoes. For example, late afternoon is the time of day when tornadoes are
most likely to occur. Seasonal variation associated with the development of
tornadoes means that the risk from tornadoes to the population at any given
location is not constant throughout the year. In the United States, January
is the month when the fewest tornadoes occur, and May is the month when the
most tornadoes occur (10). Other natural factors that promote the
development of tornadoes include weather phenomena such as hurricanes.
Hurricane Beulah, for example, which struck in 1967, is credited with
spawning 115 tornadoes in the coastal region of Texas (2).


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|Classification and external resources|
Plagiocephaly also known as flat head syndrome, is a condition characterized by an asymmetrical distortion (flattening of one side) of the skull. It is characterized by a flat spot on the back or one side of the head caused by remaining in a supine position for too long.
Plagiocephaly is the word that is used to describe a diagonal asymmetry across the head shape. This word particularly describes a flattening which is to one side at the back of the head and there is often some facial asymmetry. Brachycephaly describes a very wide head shape with a flattening across the whole back of the head.
Slight Plagiocephaly is routinely diagnosed at birth and may be the result of a restrictive intrauterine environment giving a "diamond" shaped head when seen from above. If there is premature union of skull bones, this is more properly called craniosynostosis.
The incidence of plagiocephaly has increased dramatically since the advent of anti-Sudden Infant Death Syndrome recommendations for parents to keep their babies on their backs. Treatments range from a simple repositioning of babies below the age of 5 months to more involved treatment with a helmet for children under the age of 18 months.
Preliminary research indicates that babies with plagiocephaly tend to have learning difficulties later on in school, however these studies are still early, and do not yet represent a scientific consensus. Other more complete studies suggest that there is no evidence to suggest that plagiocephaly is harmful to brain development, vision, or hearing.
The condition will sometimes improve as the baby grows, but in many cases, treatment can significantly improve the shape of a baby's head. Initially, treatment usually takes the form of reducing the pressure on the affected area through repositioning of the baby onto his or her abdomen for extended periods of time throughout the day.
Other treatments include repositioning the child's head throughout the day so that the rounded side of the head is placed dependent against the mattress, repositioning cribs and other areas that infants spend time in so that they will have to look in a different direction to see their parents, or others in the room, repositioning mobiles and other toys for similar reasons, and avoiding extended time sleeping in car-seats (when not in a vehicle), bouncy seats, or other supine seating which is thought to exacerbate the problem. If the child appears to have discomfort or cries when they are repositioned, they may have a problem with the neck. If this is unsuccessful, treatment using a cranial remolding orthosis (baby helmet) can help to correct abnormal head shapes.
These helmets are used to treat deformational plagiocephaly, brachycephaly, scaphocephaly and other head shape deformities in infants 3–18 months of age. For years, infants have been successfully treated with cranial remolding orthoses.
A cranial remolding orthosis (helmet) provides painless total contact over the prominent areas of the skull and leaves voids over the flattened areas to provide a pathway for more symmetrical skull growth. Treatment generally takes 3–4 months, but varies depending on the infant's age and severity of the cranial asymmetry.
See also
- Kadom, Nadja; Sze, Raymond W (2010). "Radiological Reasoning: A Child With Posterior Plagiocephaly". American Journal of Roentgenology (AJR) 194 (3 supp.). doi:10.2214/AJR.07.7121. Retrieved 1 May 2013.
- "Doctor Finds Success In Treating Infants With Flat-Head Syndrome". CBS Los Angeles. Retrieved 1 May 2013.
- Laughlin, James; Luerssen, Thomas G. (2011). "Prevention and Management of Positional Skull Deformities in Infants". Pediatrics (American Academy of Pediatrics) 128 (6): 1236–1241. doi:10.1542/peds.2011-2220. Retrieved 1 May 2013.
- "Plagiocephaly and Brachycephaly" Technology in Motion Plagiocephaly Clinic
- "Plagiocephaly and related cranial deformities" Pediatric Views, April 2010 available online from Children's Hospital Boston accessed May 14, 2010
- "Flat-headed babies may face learning problems". CBC News. December 3, 2010.
- "What is tummy time?". RSLSteeper.
- Persing J, James H, Swanson J, Kattwinkel J (July 2003). "Prevention and management of positional skull deformities in infants. American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Practice and Ambulatory Medicine, Section on Plastic Surgery and Section on Neurological Surgery". Pediatrics 112 (1 Pt 1): 199–202. PMID _PHONE_.


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Does Florida Law Treat Inheritance as a Marital or Non-Marital Asset?
When dividing property during a divorce, the question "Is an inheritance a marital asset in Florida?" may cross your mind. As you may know, any marital assets – the property that you and your spouse own together – will be split during the property division process. But what about inheritance?
Whether an inheritance will be considered a marital asset depends on multiple factors, including whether:
 1. The inheriting spouse kept the inheritance separate;
 2. The inheriting spouse commingled the inheritance with other marital assets; and
 3. The inheritance was left to one or both spouses.
Equitable Distribution and Inheritance
In order to understand whether an inheritance will be "split" between divorcing spouses, you need to know how Florida's equitable distribution process works.
After a divorce, Florida courts divide marital property in a manner that is not only fair but also equitable. However, the process of property division is not necessarily "equal."
Unlike community property states that split all assets acquired during a marriage equally, Florida's family law provides that while the distribution should be fair, courts may adjust that division when adjustment is appropriate for the couple's unique situation.
To do so, courts will review and consider a plethora of factors, including:
 - Each spouse's contributions to the marriage;
 - The duration of the marriage;
 - The financial circumstances of the parties; and
 - Contributions of spouses to each other's career or education, among many other factors.
Is Inheritance a Marital or Non-Marital Asset in a Florida Divorce?
Under Florida law, courts can divide only marital assets and debts. Any assets acquired during the marriage by spouses are considered marital assets (real estate, cars, mortgages, cars, bank accounts, and others).
If the item was acquired only in your name, a Florida court would likely consider it a marital asset. Thus, if you bought a car during the marriage but the vehicle is listed in your name, it may still be considered a marital asset.
But is an inheritance, which you received during the marriage, a marital asset, too? If an inherited home or another asset was put in both spouses' names, the inheritance is considered a marital asset.
Non-marital assets and liabilities are any items acquired by either spouse before the marriage. Generally, gifts and inheritance received during the marriage are also considered non-marital assets, unless the inherited asset was put in both spouses' names.
Also, any income received from non-marital assets and items exchanged for non-marital assets is considered separate property. For example, if you inherited a home in the course of a marriage and decided to rent out that house, any rent money you receive is considered non-marital assets.
Was Inheritance Commingled with Your Marital Assets?
Commingling is mixing or converting the non-marital assets into marital assets during the marriage. This can happen if a spouse does not treat his or her non-marital assets separately and ends up commingling marital with non-marital assets.
As a result, any commingled non-marital assets lose their special status. Thus, if you inherited a home and decided to sell it, and then used that money to purchase marital property or pay joint debts, you have committed what is known as commingling.
However, a knowledgeable Orlando property division attorney may help prove to the court that the commingled non-marital asset should not be treated as a marital asset during your divorce proceedings. Reach out to Donna Hung Law Group to talk about your options. Call at _PHONE_.


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Damiron, Jean Piiilibert
DAMIRON, JEAN PIIILIBERT (_PHONE_), a French writer on philosophy, was born at Belleville in 1794. At nineteen he entered the normal school, where he studied under Burnouf, Villemain, and Cousin. After teaching for several years in provincial towns, he came to Paris, where he lectured on philosophy in various institutions, and finally became professor in the normal school, and titular professor at the Sorbonne. In 1824 he took part with Dubois and Jouffroy in the establishment of the Globe; and he was also a member of the committee of the society which took for its motto Aide-toi, le Ciel t'aidera. In 1833 lie was appointed chevalier of the Legion of Honour, and in 1836 member of the Academy of Moral Sciences. Damiron died at Paris on the 11th January 1862.
The chief works of Damiron, of which the best are his accounts of French philosophers, are the following : - An edition of the Nouveaux Melanges Philosophiques de Jouffroy (1842), with a notice of the author, in which Damiron softened and omitted several expressions used by Jonffroy, which were opposed to the system of education adopted by the Sorbonne, an article which gave rise to a bitter controversy, and to a book by Pierre Leroux, Dc in Mutilation. des Manuscrits de M. Joutrroy (1843) ; Essai sur l'histoire de in philosophic en France an XIX. siecle (1828, 3rd ed. 1834) ; Essai sur l'histoire de la philosophieen Franceau X VII. siecle (1846) ; Menwircg servir pour rhistoire de in philosophic en France au X VIII. siecle (1858-64) ; Cours de philosophic ; De in Providence (1S49, 1850).


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DEBORAH GOUGH writes in the Age:
SCORES of starving and pain-ridden kangaroos have been culled after developing tooth and bone deformities from breathing and ingesting fluoride emissions. Many more are believed to be suffering from growths that will kill them.
The affected kangaroos are living near the Alcoa aluminium smelter in Portland, in the state's south-west, and the Austral Bricks factory at Craigieburn.
Autopsies performed at Melbourne University on 49 kangaroos culled at Alcoa on a single day last year found all but one were suffering from flurosis, which leads to excessive bone growths, or lesions, on joints in the paws, ankles and calves.
It can also cause tooth and jaw deformities that hinder eating and foraging. The Sunday Age has been told more than 200 ill kangaroos living near both affected sites have been culled in recent years, but this figure could not be confirmed.
Read More in the Age


Some rescue: The FBI's dubious war on street girls
The FBI recently announced with great fanfare that it had "rescued" 105 youth and arrested 150 "pimps" for prostitution in 76 cities, including Boston, Denver, and San Francisco. The three-day raid, dubbed "Operation Cross Country," was the largest in a decade-long FBI initiative aimed at what they called the persistent threat of child prostitution. But if you look closely, the FBI's rescues look less like real heroism, and more like a photo op.
First of all, the people rescued weren't small children. They were almost teens, girls and young women, 13 to 17 years old. According to the FBI's lead investigator, virtually all "come from runaway or group homes, and they feel like this [prostitution] is the only way for them to survive on the street."
Second, the girls would almost certainly not characterize what was happening as a "rescue." Images on the video accompanying the FBI's press release showed girls in handcuffs.
For centuries, law enforcement has sought to eliminate prostitution, often incarcerating young women for long terms for "sexual immorality" or "for their own protection." Now, they are being "rescued" and offered services of dubious quality that typically involve social stigma and detention.
In fact, many of these girls have already experienced the woefully inadequate services available to runaway youth. Girls who are on the streets usually have suffered sexual and other violent abuses in their homes and in alternative settings like foster home. The journal Child Maltreatment reports there are some 100,000 substantiated cases a year. Sexual abuse of girls occurs at earlier ages and for longer periods than boys' abuse, and girls' abusers are more likely to be family members. It is no surprise that some run away from home.
Once girls run away, they sometimes turn to teen prostitution in order to survive. The social context that produces teen prostitution and survival sex is a sad mix of broken and dysfunctional families, abused and traumatized youth, defunded social services, adults willing to exploit desperate youth, and privileged older, wealthier men who have absorbed the cultural idea that they should buy sex. It's worth noting that while the FBI proudly reported on rounding up over 100 women, and 100 "pimps" – often men of color – they made no similar mention of any broad effort to arrest the thousands of clients, or "johns" who make the whole system function financially.
Government leaders and police often fail to acknowledge their own complicity in further stigmatizing girls engaged in survival sex. The FBI's multi-city raid involved officers enforcing standard laws related to prostitution or solicitation, meaning that many of these so-called "rescues" involved little more than "rounding up the usual suspects."
Periodic law enforcement raids change none of these realities. Nor do they change the fact that crucial local, state, and federal dollars that used to fund services for girls on the run from abusive families have been devastated by draconian budget cuts. Federal sequestration alone is predicted to bring a 56 percent cumulative reduction in juvenile justice funds that once provided states with vital, community-based services for troubled families and alternative care.
"They (girls) usually get into this because they are running away from something else," Oakland, California, police Lt. Kevin Wiley declared. "It goes way beyond law enforcement to solve this epidemic."
The Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 and its re-authorizations define commercially-sold girls as victims, but most state laws allow for girls under 18 to be charged as prostitutes. Advocacy groups have tried to pass Safe Harbor laws, which mandate that any girl under 18 who has been sexually exploited be treated as a victim, not a criminal and placed in safe treatment facilities that provide medical and mental health services. Only 25% of states have passed such legislation. Even then, "victims" in these states often find their "rescue" home is a shelter or detention facility.
With no system for helping teens put their lives on track, putting handcuffed girls in patrol cars is far from a rescue. It's more like a roundtrip ticket to a visit with a broken detention system, followed by a return to the street.
Meda Chesney-Lind, Ph.D., is Professor of Women's Studies at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, and author of Girls, Delinquency and Juvenile Justice.
Lisa Pasko, Ph.D. is Associate Professor of Sociology and Criminology at the University of Denver and author of The Female Offender
Join the Conversation
 - Stevie
 Why wouldn't 13- 17 year olds be considered children? They're still young people, and the pimps arrested were profiting off of their struggles to survive. That being said, I appreciate the analysis. The FBI gets to play hero while perpetuating oppressive systems, and then are celebrated. Ick.
 - Robin D
 Sooo, a really good article, with a few problems that I see. 1) some of these people were probably actually pimps, but it is also likely that, especially as there were more "pimps" than victims, people providing assistance to youth under 18, close-in-age mentors trying to help their slightly younger friends, etc. 2) they do not really talk about (there is sort of a brief mention) of involuntary and even locked-facility "services." As Crystal DeBoise says, we don't consider locking up DV victims if they keep going back to an abuser.
 I appreciate the critique of Operation Cross Country, as it is terrible for young people (as described in the article and above), it is terrible for trafficking victims of all ages as they will generally just simply be arrested as prostitutes (newsflash, the FBI doesn't actually care), it is terrible for non-pimps trying to help their friends survive when they are suddenly thrown in prison for long stretches and then become a sex offender, and it is terrible for non-coerced adult working sex workers, as they get arrested, and prostitution arrests have ramifications in terms of future job searches, custody, immigration, housing, and other services.


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The latest weapon unleashed to battle California's growing energy demand comes in the form of free software. The State of California Energy Commission's Public Interest Energy Research (PIER) program is responsible for the development of a free software package dubbed the Sensor Placement and Orientation Tool (SPOT). The purpose of this software is to help designers establish correct photosensor placement relative to a given daylighting and electric lighting design.
Daylighting systems, which use natural lighting to supplement electric lighting, are sensitive to photosensor placement and performance. However, until now, there have been no easy-to-use tools to help designers predict performance and determine optimum sensor positioning. Using an Excel worksheet interface, SPOT accounts for variables such as room geometry, surface reflectances, solar orientation, electric lighting layout, and window design to help determine the best location for photosensors. It also helps designers comply with the daylighting requirements in California's Title 24 energy code, which calls for separate controls for daylit areas and offers substantial energy budget credits for automatic daylighting controls.
This software may be downloaded for free at _URL_


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MISR Views Delaware Bay, Chesapeake Bay, and the Appalachian Mountains
Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) images of Delaware Bay, Chesapeake Bay, and the Appalachian Mountains acquired on March 24, 2000 during Terra orbit 1417. The large image on the right was taken by the MISR camera viewing straight down (nadir). The series of smaller images, from top to bottom, respectively, were taken by cameras viewing 70.5 degrees forward, 45.6 degrees forward, 45.6 degrees aftward, and 70.5 degrees aftward of nadir. These images cover the environs of Newark, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, and Richmond. Differences in brightness, color, and contrast as a function of view angle are visible over both land and water. Scientists are using MISR data to monitor changes in clouds, Earth's surface, and pollution particles in the air, and to assess their impact on climate.
Credit: Image Credit: NASA/GSFC/JPL, MISR Science Team.


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The height of the atmospheric boundary layer or mixing layer is an important parameter for understanding the dynamics of the atmosphere and the dispersion of trace gases and air pollution. The height of the mixing layer (MLH) can be retrieved, among other methods, from lidar or ceilometer backscatter data. These instruments use the vertical backscatter lidar signal to infer MLHL, which is feasible because the main sources of aerosols are situated at the surface and vertical gradients are expected going from the aerosol loaded mixing layer close to the ground to the cleaner free atmosphere above. Various lidar/ceilometer algorithms are currently applied, but accounting for MLH temporal development is not always well taken care of. As a result, MLHL retrievals may jump between different atmospheric layers, rather than reliably track true MLH development over time. This hampers the usefulness of MLHL time series for e.g. process studies, model validation/verification and climatology. Here, we introduce a new method "Pathfinder", which applies graph theory to simultaneously evaluate timeframes consistent with scales of MLH dynamics, leading to coherent tracking of MLH. Starting from a grid of gradients in the backscatter profiles, MLH development is followed using Dijkstra's shortest path algorithm (Dijkstra, 1959). Locations of strong gradients are connected under the condition that subsequent points on the path are limited to a restricted vertical range. The search is further guided by rules based on presence of clouds and residual layers. Applied to backscatter lidar data from Cabauw, excellent agreement is found with windprofiler retrievals for a 12-day period in 2008 (R² = 0.90) and visual judgment of lidar data during a full year in 2010 (R² = 0.96). These values compare favourably against other MLHL methods applied to the same lidar data set and corroborate more consistent MLH tracking by Pathfinder.
M de Bruine, A Apituley,, DP Donovan, H Klein Baltink. Pathfinder: Applying graph theory for consistent tracking of daytime mixed layer height with backscatter lidar
Status: submitted, Journal: Atmospheric Measurement Techniques, Year: 2017, doi: doi:10.5194/amt-2016-327