text:
The Commission on Certification for Health Informatics and Information Management (CCHIIM) is an AHIMA commission dedicated to assuring the competency of professionals practicing HIIM. CCHIIM serves the public by establishing, implementing, and enforcing standards and procedures for certification and recertification of HIIM professionals. CCHIIM provides strategic oversight of all AHIMA certification programs. This standing commission of AHIMA is empowered with the sole and independent authority in all matters pertaining to both the initial certification and ongoing recertification (certification maintenance) of HIIM professionals.
Commissioners represent a broad spectrum of health informatics and information management professionals, and must be AHIMA-certified and meet certification, work experience, and leadership requirements in order to serve on the commission.
The Standards is a comprehensive technical guide that provides criteria for the evaluation of tests, testing practices, and the effects of test use. It was developed jointly by the American Psychological Association (APA), the American Educational Research Association (AERA), and the National Council on Measurement in Education (NCME). The guidelines presented in The Standards, by professional consensus, have come to define the necessary components of quality testing.
AHIMA / CCHIIM certification exams are valid, reliable, and legally defensible assessment instruments which measure the competency of potential certificants against a codified and relevant body of health informatics and information management (HIIM) competencies (also referred to as knowledge, skills, and abilities). The subject matter (also referred to as a body of knowledge, or BOK for short) represented by these competencies is further segmented across specific roles and disciplines throughout the HIIM profession as a whole by the requisite levels of depth, breadth, and experiences necessary for successful job performance, as exemplified by each respective AHIMA certification.
CCHIIM EDCs are comprised of experienced, credential-specific subject matter experts, representing HIIM leaders, practitioners, and other relevant stakeholders. EDCs are responsible for the specific oversight and performance of their respective credential's certification examination. EDC responsibilities are codified in the CCHIIM operating code, and typically include recurring review of content relevancy, both item-level and examination-level performance data, and expertise with respect to establishing the cut score for their respective certification examinations.
CCHIIM plans for and conducts comprehensive job analyses for each certification examination, depending how quickly and substantively the competencies assessed by a given certification examination changes. Typically, the frequency of these job analyses is approximately every three to five years. Consistent with best practices, the job analysis process involves a diverse and representative sample of stakeholders, including recently certified professionals and employers / supervisors. These stakeholders assess the criticality of current workplace practices, skills, tasks, and responsibilities, with respect to importance and frequency of performance. The results of the job analysis influence to what extent the competencies are revised for each respective certification examination. Ultimately, the job analysis process is a fundamental quality assurance component of the relevancy, currency, and validity of competencies assessed by each certification examination.
The job analysis serves as the foundation for the examination blueprint. First, the individual competencies are grouped into domains that represent specific and similar areas of content. Next, the percentage weighting of each content domain is determined, in part, through the individual competency statement criticality scores, considered collectively, within each domain. This weighting of domains relative to one another allows the EDCs to determine how much, or to what extent, each domain is assessed (both by the number and difficulty of test items), relative to the other domains. For example, domains with competencies that have higher criticality scores (i.e., more important and / or more frequently performed) typically represent a larger percentage of test items than those domains with lower criticality scores for its respective competencies.
The examination specifications are typically established or revised at the same time as the development of the examination blueprint. The specifications usually include the total number of test items (both scored and non-scored), test item type(s), such as multiple-choice or other, total test duration, scoring methodology, etc.
Items appearing on each certification examination are created, reviewed, revised, and ultimately approved by CCHIIM-authorized item writers and item reviewers. These item writers receive extensive training prior to creating any raw test items. Potential item writers must apply for consideration and receive approval prior to beginning their training in item writing. First, item writers must complete an introductory, online course covering the basics of item writing. After completion of the online course, potential item writers then participate in an interactive, web-based seminar on advanced item writing techniques. Once an item writer completes both the online, introductory course and the interactive, web-based seminar on advanced item writing, they are then allowed access to the secure online item writing platform, where they can begin entering draft items.
Experienced item writers further facilitate item development from this point forward through a continuous, two-step process involving review and revision of draft items for content accuracy (performed by content reviewers) and conformity to the item writing guidelines (performed by guideline reviewers). All potential items must be approved through both steps before being added to the pool of non-scored, or experimental, items within the master item bank. All approved items are assigned to the corresponding certification examination queue for eventual inclusion as a non-scored, experimental item.
All certification examination items begin their testing life as a non-scored, experimental item, often referred to as pre-test items. Each certification exam has a small percentage of predetermined, pre-test items, and the specific number of pre-test items is included within the publicly-available examination blueprint. Only after the performance data demonstrate that any pre-test item meets or exceeds previously established statistical criteria, will an experimental item be considered for inclusion as an operational, or scored item.
Examination performance is periodically reviewed by each respective EDC. As dictated by item performance, continuous and routine revisions occur with respect to removing poorly-performing items and replacing them with effectively-performing pre-test items. More substantive updates or revisions to certification examinations require that subsequent versions are equated to prior versions, and also that multiple, concurrent forms are also equated to one another. Changes to the examination blueprint and / or specifications resulting from a job analysis dictate that that the cut score or performance standard is revisited, and adjusted through a widely-accepted, best-practice methodology, such as the Angoff method, when warranted. Aggregate data for all certification examinations is publicly available to candidates, certificants, and other relevant stakeholders. This aggregate data includes the passing rates of first-time test takers and total number of credentials awarded during the stated period of time.


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Mkhomazi State Forest, KwaZulu Natal
Mkhomazi is situated in the southern section of the Ukhahlamba Drakensberg Park. The Mkhomazi section of the Ukhahlamba Drakensberg Park is one of the most isolated and least explored mountainous areas in KwaZulu Natal. The area is not attached to the main escarpment and comprises of a number of elevated ridges protruding towards the Natal Midlands. Mkhomazi is one of the few areas in the Drakensberg where one can hike for days without seeing another soul. The ideal destination for a wild demanding hike.
Mkhomazi is characterized by numerous high altitude wetlands, deep gorges and rolling prairie-like grasslands. It is home to a variety of wildlife and bird species. Black Wildebeest, Mountain Reedbuck, Grey Rhybuck and Eland are the more commonly seen mammals but Caracal, Serval, Porcupine and Otter are also found in the Area. Some of the more common bird species include Bokmakierie, Golden Breasted Bunting and Stone Chat. Lammergeier, Cape Vulture and Black Eagle are also present but sighted less often.

source: HuggingFaceFW/fineweb-edu


Binary search tree in ascending order, Data Structure & Algorithms
Posted Date: 5/10/2013 1:43:21 AM | Location : United States
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text:
Also known as: The 100-Point Method
Cumulative Voting (CV) Prioritization is a ratio-scale prioritization technique in which the stakeholders taking part in the prioritization process are given a fixed number of prioritization
units which they then
vote (aka distribute) among the items being prioritized (requirements, objectives, goals, stakeholders, features, functions, etc.). The items with the most units assigned to them by the various stakeholders are the highest priority.
Another feature of Cumulative Voting is the option to
weight the votes of some stakeholders by applying a multiplier of some sort. So if you had three primary stakeholders, you could weight the votes of the most important stakeholder (perhaps the one paying for the effort) at a full weight (multiply by 1), weight the votes of the second most important stakeholder a bit less (multiply by.75), and weight the votes of the least important stakeholder even less (multiply by.5).
Cumulative Voting is normally done against ALL items of same level of abstraction at the same time (for example, the entire set of detailed requirements). This means the standard CV process does not scale well as you add more items to be prioritized. To address this issue, the Hierarchical Cumulative Voting (HCV) variant (see separate wiki page) was developed for situations when there are a large number of items to be prioritized.
Hierarchical Cumulative Voting (HCV) - See the separate Hierarchical Cumulative Voting wiki page
See the Prioritization wiki page for a discussion of why to prioritize.
This assumes you have evaluated your prioritization needs and decided that Cumulative Voting is the technique you will use.
Define the exact set of items that will be prioritized and gather them together in a form that allows them to be easily reviewed. All items should be at the same level of abstraction and described sufficiently so that any stakeholder can reasonably understand what it is.
Decide how and where each stakeholders
vote will be recorded? The process selected should allow for each stakeholders
vote to be recorded separately and without visibility into the
votes other stakeholders may make.
Given the number of items being prioritized, decide upon an appropriate number of units to provide each stakeholder to assign with their
votes. It is also a good idea to assign the units a form that has meaning to the stakeholders, such a dollars, man-hours of work,
points, or similar forms.
The amount provided to the stakeholder should be of a sufficient level to allow them to assign a small to moderate amount to most of the items while heavily favoring a few select items. But you also don't want to provide so much that scale becomes meaningless.
For example, if evaluating 25 items, you might provide
$500 dollars of units for stakeholder assignment. This allows for a breakdown such as 5 high-priority items assigned $50 each (for $250 total), 5 medium-priority items at around $30 each ($150 total), and 10 low-priority items at $10 each (the last $100 remaining), 5 items getting no value assigned at all.
Each stakeholder who will be
voting should be taken aside (or otherwise engaged away from other prioritizing stakeholders) and asked to assign all of the units they have been provided to the items being prioritized in such a way as to reflect the way they value each item to relation to all of the others.
Each stakeholder should only be allowed to prioritize each set of items ONCE! And they should do so without knowledge of how others have prioritized the items. Allowing stakeholders to vote more than once on the same items or to know how other stakeholders have voted opens up the opportunity to try and
game the process by adjusting their votes based on the actions of other stakeholders rather than reflecting their own priority.
Once all the stakeholders have
voted, apply any weighting factors that might be needed. Then sum up the votes each item got from all stakeholders. The items with the highest number of adjusted votes are your highest-priority items.
So if you were using CV to prioritize the 3 high-level items above, with 3 stakeholders (Bob, Jane, and Joe) with different priority weights (1.0,.75, and.50), the results may be summed up like this.
|Bob||Jane||Joe||Bob (Adj.)||Jane (Adj.)||Joe (Adj.)||Total|
Taking the weightings into account, HLR2 is the highest priority and is 17.5 more important than HLR1, which is the #2 priority, which is 17.5 more important than HLR3 which is the #3 priority.
The results of a Cumulative Voting process provide a ratio-scale result. Not only do you know which items are the highest priority (they have the most votes), you also know how much more important any one item is than any other by looking at the number of total votes between them.
votesin such a way as to more heavily prioritize particular items of priority; or even cast nearly all of their votes on one or two favorite items, trusting that others will provide a more balanced vote and thus still provide support for items of common interest. This is especially easy if the stakeholder knows the preferences of other stakeholders.
unitsso that stakeholders can provide meaningful votes. If there are 25 items being processed and each stakeholder only gets 100 units, the stakeholders may feel that they cannot really indicate their preferences properly.
votescan be assigned. Put the total number of units they have at the top. Then use a simple Excel function to sum up the votes cast, subtract them from the total assigned, and show how many are left. If you assigned $1000 to vote with on cells B2 through B15, the function would look like: =1000-SUM(B2:B15)&" dollars remaining!"

source: openbmb/Ultra-FineWeb


Pharmacy Times
A Pharmacist's Exclusion from Federal Health Plans
Author: Joseph L. Fink III, BSPharm, JD
When a pharmacist pleads guilty to charges related to controlled substances and is then notified by federal authorities that he will be excluded from participating in federal health programs, can he avoid the consequences of his guilty plea?
When a pharmacist is charged with a number of serious offenses related to controlled substances and enters into an agreement to plead guilty if the state will not oppose a deferred judgment, and subsequently is notified by federal authorities that he will be excluded from participating in federal health programs, can he avoid the onerous collateral consequences of his guilty plea?
A pharmacist who practiced on a part-time basis in a Midwestern state was the subject of a theft warrant. Upon his arrest, the police searched his vehicle and found 57 prescription containers. He initially told the police that he was a pharmacy technician and intended to destroy the medications. His employer had a different story, reporting to the police that the pharmacist did not have permission to remove the medication containers from the pharmacy. All this led to the pharmacist being charged with 3 felony counts of violating the state's controlled substances statutes.
Following negotiations with state prosecutors, the pharmacist entered into a plea agreement: he would plead guilty to 3 felony counts plus 1 misdemeanor if the prosecutors would agree not to oppose his request that the court grant him a deferred judgment. A deferred judgment means that the court will hold off entering a final judgment on the matter if the defendant meets certain stipulated conditions within a specified period of time. Those conditions could include probation, community service, some form of community supervision, or participation in a diversion program or treatment program. The pharmacist was on supervised probation for 2 years and had to undergo random drug testing. Typically, if such conditions are met, the court that originally dealt with the matter may dismiss the case or expunge the record.
Following the handling of the case at the trial court level and the court's approval of the plea agreement, the pharmacist received a letter from the federal government notifying him that he was being excluded "from eligibility to participate in any capacity in the Medicare, Medicaid, and all federal health care programs" as a result of his felony "convictions." The "practical impact of the letter was that the defendant was virtually unemployable as a pharmacist."
The pharmacist in the instant case did fulfill the conditions of probation and returned to the trial court to ask it to vacate the conviction. The trial court denied this request, and the pharmacist took the matter to the state supreme court. One of the arguments advanced on appeal was that he had ineffective assistance of counsel at the trial court level because he was not alerted to the possible collateral consequences of his guilty pleas (ie, exclusion from federal programs due to this state-level conviction).
The state supreme court looked at the relevant state statutes governing post-conviction relief and agreed with the decision of the trial court that the conviction should not be vacated.
The state's highest court presented a protracted and detailed discussion of the law of the state on the matter of post-conviction relief, but of greatest interest to pharmacy audiences is the discussion about collateral consequences. The court noted that "In recent years, there has been a striking growth of what is generally termed 'collateral consequences' that flow from a criminal conviction." Federal law imposes dozens of sanctions on persons with felony drug convictions.
Addressing the issue of effective assistance of counsel, the court noted that "Recent developments in the law of the right to effective assistance of counsel have recognized the need for lawyers representing criminal defendants to advise their clients of the direct collateral consequences of a plea bargain." It pointed to a US Supreme Court case in which an attorney failed to advise his client that entering a guilty plea to controlled substances offenses would result in his deportation, with that failure equating to ineffective assistance of counsel.
The bottom line for the state supreme court, after reviewing a long line of earlier case decisions, was that a guilty plea pursuant to a "deferred judgment" is not a conviction under the law of that state. It noted that some other states did indeed treat deferred judgments as convictions for purposes of post-conviction relief statutes, but that was not how the legislature in their state had approached the matter. As a result, the pharmacist had to live with the deal he had struck with the prosecutors.
Note: The Office of the Inspector General of the US Department of Health and Human Services reported that as of April, 2013, there were in excess of 51,000 individuals excluded from participation in federal health care programs. Such exclusions are typically for a stated period of time (eg, 5 years). The lesson from this case is that a defendant considering a possible plea agreement should discuss with competent counsel all possible ramifications of that action.


Question: English & Literature
Who is Godbee from Olive's Ocean and what is their importance?
In English & Literature | Asked by bookragstutor
Asked from the Olive's Ocean study pack
Godbee from Olive's Ocean is Martha's grandmother. They don't know one another that well so when she goes to visit Godbee, her grandmother suggests that each day they are together that they tell one thing about themselves to each other. Martha agrees and discovers that they have a lot in common. She also appreciates the fact that her grandmother seems to 'get' her and doesn't ridicule the notion that she wants to be a writer. Godbee is a good study of human nature and is easier with the rules than Martha's parents.
MHood2 | 218 days ago


10:34). Figuratively, a yoke of iron (Deut. 28:48) denotes hard service; a rod of iron (Ps. 2:9), a stern government; a pillar of iron (Jer. 1:18), a strong support; a furnace of iron (Deut. 4:20), severe labour; a bar of iron (Job 40:18), strength; fetters of iron (Ps. 107:10), affliction; giving silver for iron (Isa. 60:17), prosperity.
Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary
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Idioms and Phrases with un-ironed
The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary
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text:
T. J. Whitney Learning My Letters Flashcards
The recent controversy over the effectiveness of baby videos has reinforced the importance of parent-child interaction in the learning process. These flashcards by TJ Whitneys' Toys are a wonderful example of an educational activity that parent and child can play together. These cards combine vintage images from the 1950s as a visual reminder of each letter, with a complete sentence using the key word for that letter. The reverse side shows the bold capital letter on a neutral background. These cards can be used for more than regular flash card letter identification. Turn the cards over to the letter-only side to create words, or to put the alphabet in order. Or read the cards together, since the sentences are appropriate for early learners. The cards are made from recycled inner "grayboard" and new outer paper and come in a nicely decorated gift box. The cards are 6 3/4 x 5 1/4".


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Steven Vance recently forwarded me a question about why CTA's rails have been sparking. Unlike MAX trains which get power from an overhead wire system, their trains get power through a third rail system. However, arcing in both kinds of power systems during winter weather is typically caused by ice. Ice building up on the wire (or third rail as the case may be) acts as an electrical insulator, preventing the carbon shoe from making contact with the wire where the ice accumulates. This interruption in the flow of the current from the wire to the pantograph is visible as arcing.
Here's a video of a MAX train pulling into & out of a platform where there was some ice on the catenary, and you can easily see the effect that it has:
To help clear ice from the overhead wire & prevent it from accumulating, a few of the Type 1s (107-112) are equipped with ice cutters which are put into use for major freezing rain/ice events. I don't have a picture of any of them in use (though I'm willing to accept donations!), but they look like a second pantograph and function by heating/scraping ice from the overhead wire. Unlike the pantographs, ice cutters only draw current to heat the elements and not to provide power to the train, so they won't arc the same way the pantographs do in ice. Their function is strictly to clear ice from the wire.
If you'd ever seen one of these cars and wondered why it has two pantographs, wonder no more! It doesn't – one pantograph, one ice cutter.
View from above; the ice cutter is the one closer to the coupled end, the pantograph is the one in contact with the wire closer to the vantage point. Bonus cameo appearance by car 235


Ship's bell
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
Ship's bell on USS Chancellorsville
A ship's bell is used to indicate the time aboard a ship and hence to regulate the sailors' duty watches. The bell itself is usually made of brass or bronze and normally has the ship's name engraved or cast on it.
Timing of duty periods[edit]
Unlike civil clock bells, the strikes of the bell do not accord to the number of the hour. Instead, there are eight bells, one for each half-hour of a four-hour watch. In the age of sailing, watches were timed with a 30-minute hourglass. Bells would be struck every time the glass was turned, and in a pattern of pairs for easier counting, with any odd bells at the end of the sequence.
The classical system was:
Bell from the Titanic
Number of bells Bell pattern Middle
One bell. 0:30 4:30 8:30 12:30 16:30 18:30† 20:30
Two bells.. 1:00 5:00 9:00 13:00 17:00 19:00† 21:00
Three bells... 1:30 5:30 9:30 13:30 17:30 19:30† 21:30
Four bells.... 2:00 6:00 10:00 14:00 18:00 22:00
Five bells..... 2:30 6:30 10:30 14:30 18:30 22:30
Six bells...... 3:00 7:00 11:00 15:00 19:00 23:00
Seven bells....... 3:30 7:30 11:30 15:30 19:30 23:30
Eight bells........ 4:00 8:00 12:00‡ 16:00 20:00 0:00
† British usage after the Nore mutiny[1]
‡ Before the introduction of time zones, noon was not struck by the glass, but when the captain or officer of the deck confirmed local noon by the sun, using a sextant.
An underwater archaeologist with the Lighthouse Archaeological Maritime Program in St. Augustine, Florida, recording the ship's bell discovered on the 18th century "Storm Wreck."
"Eight bells" by Winslow Homer, 1887
At midnight on New Year's Eve sixteen bells would be struck – eight bells for the old year and eight bells for the new.
Most of the crew of a ship would be divided up into between two and four groups called watches. Each watch would take its turn with the essential activities of manning the helm, navigating, trimming sails, and keeping a lookout.
The hours between 16:00 and 20:00 are so arranged because that watch (the "dog watch") was divided into two. The odd number of watches aimed to give each man a different watch each day. It also allows the entire crew of a vessel to eat an evening meal, the normal time being at 1700 with First Dog watchmen eating at 1800.[1]
Some "ship's bell" clocks use a simpler system:
Number of bells Bell pattern Hour (a.m. and p.m.)
One bell. 12:30 4:30 8:30
"Eight bells" can also be a way of saying that a sailor's watch is over, for instance, in his or her obituary, as a nautical euphemism for "finished".
Other uses[edit]
Ship's bells are also used for safety in foggy conditions, their most important modern use.[2] On naval vessels, bells additionally are rung as "boat gongs" for officers and dignitaries coming aboard or leaving the ship, in a number equivalent to the number of sideboys to which the visitor is entitled.
Name of the ship[edit]
Ship's bell of HMS Cavalier
The ship's name is traditionally engraved or cast onto the surface of the bell, often with the year the ship was launched as well. Occasionally (especially on more modern ships) the bell will also carry the name of the shipyard that built the ship. If a ship's name is changed, maritime tradition is that the original bell carrying the original name will remain with the vessel. A ship's bell is a prized possession when a ship is broken up[2] and often provides the only positive means of identification in the case of a shipwreck.
Number of bells[edit]
Most United States Navy ships of the post-World War II era have actually carried two ship's bells: the official bell on deck and a smaller one in the pilot house at the 1MC (public address) station, used when the ship is underway.
Cook and boatswain[edit]
According to seafaring legend, the ship's cooks and boatswain's mates had a duty arrangement to give the cooks more sleep. The boatswain's mates, who worked 24 hours a day on watches, would build the fire in the stove, so the cook could get up a little while later and the fire would be already going so he could begin preparing breakfast. In return, between meals, the cooks would shine the bell, which was traditionally the boatswain's mates' responsibility.
Baptizing children[edit]
Ship's bell as Baptismal font at chapel, Yeo Hall, Royal Military College of Canada
Baby is baptized with holy water from the ship's bell
It is a naval tradition to baptize children using the ship's bell as a baptismal font and to engrave the names of the children on the bell afterwards. Christening information from the bells held by the Canadian Forces Base Esquimalt Museum has been entered into a searchable data archive.[3]
See also[edit]
 1. ^ a b Tony Gray. "Workshop Hints: Ship's Bells". The British Horological Institute. Archived from the original on 9 November 2012. Retrieved 12 June 2011.
 2. ^ a b "Ship's Bell". National Maritime Museum. Archived from the original on 9 December 2008. Retrieved 2008-04-07.
 3. ^ "The Christening Bells Project". CFB Esquimalt Naval & Military Museum. Retrieved 6 November 2012.
External links[edit]


Audio devices (audiodevice.h)
Functions to determine the status of audio devices.
This file defines the audio device service, which reads audio device change events. For example, using the audio device service allows an application to receive notifications when audio should be directed to the HDMI output because an HDMI cable has been plugged in.
You should call the function audiodevice_get_info() to verify that the audio device you want to use exists on the platform. If the specified audio device does not exist, the function returns BPS_FAILURE, *info is not updated, and using the unavailable audio device type or accessing *info may result in program error or termination.
BlackBerry 10.0.0
Last modified: 2014-05-14
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text:
osanders support this effect (McKay et al. 1999)."
"Lasers have been tested in a number of countries. In France, a laser gun was used to disturb cormorants from a night roost (Troilliet pers. comm., cited in Boudewijn and Dirksen 1996). During cloudy weather the method worked well, with most of the birds scared away within 20 minutes, and treatment over consecutive evenings caused the temporary desertion of the roost. Cormorants appeared to be particularly sensitive to laser light. Similar results were obtained at a cormorant night-roost in the region of the Dombes, France. After using a laser gun for two nights, the night-roost was deserted for a week (Broyer 1995, cited in Boudewijn and Dirksen 1996). Successful results were also achieved in America using the laser gun 'Avian Dissuader', costing US$900. The laser treatment cleared roosting crows from the Capitol complex within an hour (State Capitol Bureau 2001). The long-term success is not reported."
"In Britain, laser light was tested against two cormorant night roosts (McKay et al 1999). At one site cormorant numbers were significantly reduced after seven consecutive days use and bird numbers did not return to normal until between 12 and 30 days later. At the other site, the laser gun was less effective with some birds failing to leave the roost. The laser also deterred goosanders though the effect lasted less than one day."
"The laser gun used in this British study was a purpose-built device produced by Desman S.A.R.L. of France and cost £4633 (at 1996 prices). Training in its use by the manufacturer cost another £1056. There were some questions over safety of the device because although the company state that the laser was safe, they also advised that it should not be pointed at humans. The device has been tested for safety at the UK Government's Defence Evaluation and Research Agency (DERA), Farnborough, England and found to be safe if it was not pointed at an unprotected eye within a distance of 155 m (McKay et al. 1999). The safe distance was considerably reduced if viewed with binoculars."
"The use of lasers can be an effective method of bird scaring, although there is some evidence to suggest some birds are laser-resistant (McKay et al. 1999). The equipment is expensive and specialised training is required, adding to the costs. As the effectiveness of the laser decreases with increasing light levels, it is likely to be most effective at dawn and dusk. Its usefulness may therefore be confined to night time roosts and feeding sites at dawn. As it is operated manually user costs at antisocial hours must also be taken into consideration. However, the ability to 'target' specific problem species may be useful at certain sites, such as areas of conservation interest, where disturbance of non-target species may be kept to a minimum."
The 'Avian Dissuader' handheld laser gun is not listed as being available from suppliers within the UK. The 'Avian Dissuader' is available in the USA for $1250.00.
The 'Pro Bird Phazer' handheld laser gun is not listed as being available from suppliers within the UK. The 'Pro Bird Phazer'is available in the USA for $495.00
The following article was taken from the USDA/APHIS/National Wildlife Centre website in respect of the 'Avian Dissuader' laser. The 'Avian Dissuader' was subjected to the Air Force Management and Material Evaluation Programme (MEEP), a long-term test controlled out of Langley Air Force Base, USA. The handheld laser was put to the test in a variety of situations important to the Air Force and its performance resulted in a positive recommendation by MEEP for use inside hangars, outbuildings and other field locations.
Bird/Aircraft strike evaluation at US Naval Air Stations
Under Interagency Agreements with the U.S. Navy, NWRC biologists from Fort Collins, CO, are evaluating bird/aircraft strike hazard problems at Point Mugu and San Clemente Naval Air Stations, CA, and assessing habitat modification management techniques. At both naval air stations, researchers are using a geographic information system (GIS) to record habitat types adjacent to runways and the numbers, species, locations, altitudes and local movements of birds on and near airfields. NWRC researchers also evaluated the use of the Avian Dissuader (a low-power laser hazing device) for dispersing birds at Point Mugu Naval Air Station. For three days, lasers were used to haze waterfowl, turkey vultures, shorebirds, herons, and red-tailed hawks at night. After 2000 hrs (10 PM), the laser was used successfully to haze all waterfowl species except for American coots. Additionally, while great blue herons appeared to be unaffected by the laser, white herons reacted quickly and moved to other locations. None of the species was affected by the daytime use of the laser.
The following is feedback from the Royal Canadian Yacht Club in Toronto. The RCYT has been using the 'Avian Dissuader' on Canada Geese for approximately two years:
"I would like to start by thanking everyone at your organization for your excellent work. For the last 10 years I have worked as a grounds keeper at the Royal Canadian Yacht Club in Toronto, Canada. My job is keeping the club clean and it's a big club - they have tennis courts and lawn bowling ranges, the works. We have had a real problem with Canada Geese for years and the Geese get in everywhere."
"I never usually write letters to companies, but when I started using your laser it changed my working life. I didn't think it would work as good as it does. It's really amazing. The property manger was so happy with the results that he even gave me a little raise. I have never used a tool for bird control that works as good as your laser."
"Please tell everyone at Sea Tech that the grounds crew at the RCYC say their doing a Great Job!"
The following feedback is in relation to use of the 'Pro Bird Phazer' laser:
Colorado 'Rid-a-Critter' said the following of 'Pro Bird Phazer':
"We used it to control _PHONE_ geese at a water treatment plant. We can direct their flight at a distance of 300-400 yards."
John Schaus, Katonah, NY said the following of 'Pro Bird Phazer':
"They work fantastic. It is like you electrify the ground. They have to get off. Unbelievable."
Comments from the Manufacturer/Distributor:
The following comments and FAQ's about 'Avian Dissuader' were taken from the 'Avian Dissuader' website:
"Using the "flashlight" laser model, developed for the military, SEA Tech then tested it in conjunction with the USDA/APHIS/ WS Wildlife Research Center in Sandusky Ohio (testing funded by FAA). The results of that testing, both penned and field, show that the 650nm wavelength "Red" laser is highly effective on most aquatic, wading, and night flying birds. This would include Geese, Ducks, Gulls, Egrets, Herons, Cranes, Plovers, Ibis, Cormorants, Stilts, Crows, Ravens, Mynas, and Vultures, plus others. Sea Tech then developed a laser designed for bird control which is as powerful as the "flashlight" model but has a pistol grip for easy aiming at smaller targets and is substantially less expensive."
"The Avian Dissuader® is handheld and designed to be used between dusk and dawn - primarily to deny the targeted birds their desired roost. Forcing birds to a different overnight roost usually means that they go somewhere else to forage (find food) during the day. Simply point the Dissuader in the general direction of the birds you are targeting."
"If you are working with birds that are sitting in a body of water, start by pointing the laser down at the water. This will cause the beam to reflect off the water and cause a spot to appear. Move that spot out towards the birds in a start/stop indirect manner that would tend to mimic the movements of a predator."
"With birds in a tree, simply point the laser into the tree, starting from the bottom and working up. Move the laser back and forth while you walk around the tree to make sure it is cleared - this is especially important with deciduous trees that contain dense foliage as it provides "hiding places" for the birds."
"The reflection of the beam spot off of foliage, water, or even other birds is what frightens them away. It is not necessary to have the laser beam actually touch the birds to be effective (although there is no harm in this). Once the roost is completely clear, the birds will not normally return that night. Field-testing has shown that 3 to 7 nights of using the laser to deny the desired roost has a substantial impact on subsequent daytime and night-time population."
"How often the laser must be used to control the targeted population depends on species, location, and other dynamics such as alternative roosting sites and/or alternative food sources. Generally though, after introducing the laser for sufficient nights to break the roost, the birds will leave and only send their "scouts" back periodically to see if the roost is now OK. Re-introducing the laser to these "scouts" will


Solved Question Paper of Navodaya Class VI Entrance 2020- English & Hindi Medium
JNVST entrance 2020 question paper
Solved question paper, Answer Keys and Complete solutions of JNVST Class 6 Entrance Examination held on 11.02.2020. Question Paper and Answer Keys are available for English and Hindi Mediums.
JNVST Entrance Exam Instructions to Candidates
The test will be of two-hour duration from 11:30 a.m. to 01:30 p.m. and will have 3 sections with only objective type questions
 - The Test Booklet contains 80 questions serially numbered from 1 to 80.
 - There are 80 questions in all for 100 marks as per the pattern given below. 15 minutes additional time is allowed for reading the instructions
 .navodaya exam pattern
 - Answers are to be marked only in the OMR Answer Sheet. Candidates are required to indicate their answers at an appropriate place on the OMR Answer Sheet. Darken only one circle for each question as per instructions given on Side-1 of the OMR Answer Sheet.
 - All questions are to be attempted. Every question carries equal marks.
 - You must attempt questions of each section because you have to qualify in each section separately
 - No negative marking will be done
 - Navodaya Class 6 Entrance Exam 2020 Question Paper English Medium
Navodaya Question Paper 2020- English Medium
1. If the number B is 10% less than another number 0 and C is 5% more than 150, then B is equal to
2. The sum of HCF and LCM of 45, 60 and 75 is
(A) 330
(B) 960
(C) 915
(D) 630
3. One-fourth of birds of a flock are at a river bank and one-fifth of that flock are in their nest. Remaining 22 birds are wandering in search of food. What is the number of birds which are in their nest?
(A) 40
(C) 10
(B) 18
(D) 8
5. A park is 1500 meters long and 750 meters wide. A cyclist has to take four rounds of this park. How much time will he take at the speed of 4.5 km/h?
(A) 40 hours
(B) 20 hours
(C) 10 hours
(D) 4 hours
6. A square and a rectangle have the same perimeter. If the side of the square is 16 m and the length of the rectangle is 18 m, the breadth of the rectangle is
(A) 14 m
(B) 15 m
(C) 16 m
(D) 17 m
7. What will be the difference between the greatest 6-digit number and the greatest 5-digit number?
(A) 100000
(B) 100001
(C) 99999
(D) 900000
8. What is the difference between the greatest 7-digit number and the smallest 4-digit number?
(A) _PHONE_
(B) _PHONE_
(C) _PHONE_
(D) _PHONE_
JNVST Entrance 2020 complete Question Paper with Answer Keys in PDF format can be downloaded here.
JNVST Entrance Exam 2020 Hindi medium question paper and solutions
Watch the video below to get the complete question paper in Hindi medium together with the solutions. English medium students can also watch the video to get the complete solutions to the paper.
Complete previous year question papers and answer keys of JNVST class 6 Entrance
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Jun 10 - 16, 2010
Have Fork, Will Travel
Chewing the Fat
The secrets of Argentine-style wood grilling and a recipe for chimichurri
By Ari LeVaux
Red, dead and grass-fed
Ari LeVaux
Red, dead and grass-fed
I've always enjoyed casual conversation and rarely been averse to chewing on a nice hunk of fat. But the expression "chew the fat" never resonated with me—until some mochileros showed me the phrase's literal meaning.
Mochilero means backpack, and the mochileros are a tribe of Argentine wanderers who camp their way across some of the finer parts of the landscape, banding together around the evening's fire to drink maté, play guitar and plan the next day's adventures. It was next to one such fire, under a starry night in San Martín, that I understood fat chewing.
A piece of meat had been cooked over wood coals. Red wine was flowing. There was a bowl of salad and a loaf of bread, and we all ate our share. As we lingered in our joyous collective afterglow, I sat there chewing the fat with the mochileros, gnawing on a bone with an attached glob of fatty material. Several times I put my bone back on the grill to heat and re-melt the stuff. The matrix of fat and connective tissue attached to that bone continued to surrender flavor as I chewed.
I imagine language evolved in ancient scenes like this, around the same fires that hardened the spears and cooked the meat of our ancestors, fires that kept the wolves away. They chewed the fat, told stories and planned the next day's adventures.
In addition to stimulating conversation, some anthropologists believe cooking food facilitated human brain development by increasing the efficiency with which calories are extracted from food. Because cooking produces soft, energy-rich foods, fewer calories are spent on digestion, leaving a higher margin of caloric recovery. This supposedly allowed our brains—the most energy-intensive organ we have—to grow.
Though fire was the original stove, today's cooks have largely left it behind. With the loss of fire, we've also lost touch with its feelings and flavors. But fire remains available and at our service, a genie in a bottle that can be conjured anywhere, anytime. And when we do, the experience of tending hot coals takes us to an archetypal place of smoke and ash—which, by the way, we're now told are carcinogenic.
In his cookbook Seven Fires: Grilling the Argentine Way, Argentine chef Francis Mallmann writes: "I adore dissonance in food—two tastes fighting each other. It wakes up your palate and surprises you.... The right amount of burning or charring can be delicious and seductive: a burnt tomato, for example, has a dark crust bordering on bitter, while the inside is soft and gentle in texture and taste."
Applying the right amounts of smoke and fire to your food is a delicate act, and it's easy to overdo. You want these harsh flavors to be team players and not take over.
Some woods burn hot and quick, some have sweet smoke, and some throw a lot of sparks. Hardwoods are generally better for cooking than soft woods. Wood from fruit trees is a safe bet, although chokecherry wood has bitter smoke. Cherry, on the other hand, is one of the best—burning hot without too much flame and producing a sweet smoke. Apple is right up there with cherry. Hickory, alder and mesquite are good, common options. Whichever wood you use, it must be fully dry and cut into manageable chunks.
One common rookie maneuver is to start cooking before the fire completely burns down to coals. This exposes your food to licking flames that can char the food and make the smoke flavors too strong.
Start the wood fire about an hour before you want to cook—any fire pit or charcoal grill will do. Spread the coals evenly under your grill grate and wait for them to develop a layer of white ash.
Your steak should be about an inch and a half thick, at room temperature, and seasoned with salt and pepper. Some meat cooks love their marinades. But I say if you have good meat, you should be able to taste it. If anything, I'll serve my simply cooked meat with a sauce. Lately I've been into chimichurri, an Argentine garlic-and-herb vinaigrette.
Chimichurri is best prepared a day ahead so the flavors can develop. It will continue to age nicely for a few days in the fridge. Applied to fire-cooked meat, the spicy, oily, acidic fragrance of the chimichurri interacts with the lightly charred, crispy, smoky exterior of the meat to create the kind of harmonic dissonance that would make Mallmann cry.
To make chimichurri, dissolve one tablespoon of coarse salt into a cup of water. Chop a head of garlic, a cup of fresh parsley and 1/4 cup fresh or dried oregano (or marjoram), and add it all to a blender. Blend, adding 1/4 cup red wine vinegar and then 1/2 cup olive oil. Finally, blend in the salt water. Transfer to a jar with a tight-fitting lid and keep it in the refrigerator.
When your coals have burned down and you're ready to cook, make sure the grill grate is clean, and oil it with a piece of fat or an oil-soaked paper towel. You should be able to hold your hand at grill level—a distance of two to four inches from the coals—for about two seconds before the heat forces it away. The meat should sizzle when it hits the metal.
After five minutes, lift the steak and rotate 90 degrees—this prevents over-charring. After four more minutes, turn the steak over and repeat the process, turning 90 degrees after five minutes. Then it's two minutes to medium rare.
And it's even better than a burned tomato.
Nonmobile version


text:
In this simulation action potential initiation, action potential properties and the role of axon initial segment Na+ channels are investigated in a realistic model of a layer 5 pyramidal neuron axon initial segment. The main Na+ channel properties were constrained by experimental data and the axon initial segment was reconstructed. Model parameters were constrained by direct recordings at the axon initial segment.
Kole MH, Ilschner SU, Kampa BM, Williams SR, Ruben PC, Stuart GJ (2008) Action potential generation requires a high sodium channel density in the axon initial segment. Nat Neurosci 11:178-86 [PubMed]


The Place
Isle Royale is a remote wilderness island, in one of the planet's most unforgiving lakes, Lake Superior, North America. Isle Royale was born of fire and smoke, from lava that poured from a crack in the earth's crust a billion years ago. She was shaped of ice and water, from glaciers that piled rich sediments in the south and scoured her bare in the north. Today, she is a corrugated series of ridges and valley that follow her long axis. She is mostly green with boreal forest, speckled with blue inland lakes, and rimmed in the dark grey basaltic rocks that separate her from Lake Superior.
Isle Royale has always been isolated. On an easy day, she is separated from the rest of the world by 24 km of icy waters. On many days, she is further protected by fog, ice, wind, waves and storms. Offshore, just beneath the surface, she is littered with the skeletons of no fewer than a dozen ships.
Even our mammalian brethren have found getting to Isle Royale difficult. Of the 50 or so mammal species that live on the mainland, only about 20 mammal species call Isle Royale home. And several that once called it home have since gone extinct – caribou, coyote, sharp-tailed grouse.
Humans have never regularly lived year-round on Isle Royale. For at least three thousand years, Native Americans used Isle Royale for copper and fish, but mostly limited their visits to the summer. Nineteenth century Americans did the same. Today, Isle Royale is used for wilderness recreation, but only in the summer. We have only been fair-weather visitors.
Biogeography is the term scientists use to speak about how it is that the ecology of a place is so very much influenced by the geography of a place. Isle Royale's biogeography is well suited for the goals of the wolf-moose project. A primary goal is to understand how and why the wolf and moose populations on Isle Royale fluctuate over the years.
If by some accident of the Earth's geologic history
Isle Royale had been smaller than it is,
it would be too small to support a wolf population;
Isle Royale had been larger than it is,
it would be too large to effectively study the moose population;
Isle Royale had been further from the mainland than it is,
wolves and moose may never have made it to Isle Royale;
Isle Royale were closer to the mainland than it is,
other species now absence on Isle Royale would be interacting with wolves and moose,
obscuring our ability to focus on just wolves and moose.
Isle Royale is not too close, not too far, not too small, and not too large.
Nature is difficult to understand because it usually includes interactions among so many species. Isle Royale is different. Here, wolves are the only predator of moose, and moose are essentially the only food for wolves. It's very important that some of our observations of nature include places where the relationships are relatively simple. That simplicity is key to understanding more complex places. And if we cannot understand the simple places, it says something about our ability to understand more complex places.
To understand nature it also helps to observe an ecosystem where human impact is limited. On Isle Royale, people do not hunt wolves or moose or cut the forest. It is a very rare place on the planet where wolves, their prey, and the plants that support the prey are all left unharvested by humans. Isle Royale is remarkable, because nature runs wild there.
Because the wolves and moose on Isle Royale are isolated, they are unable to leave. The population fluctuations we observe are not the mere wanderings of wolves and moose to or from the island. Instead, wolf fluctuations result from the birth of pups when they can be supported by the flesh of moose, and wolf deaths that occur when food is scarce. Moose fluctuations result from the birth of calves and survival of adult moose, both of which depend on climate, forest growth, ticks, and wolf predation.


text:
Architects and the design of ordinary single-family houses in the United States: the American Institute of Architects and the Architects' Small House Service Bureau
Metadata[+] Show full item record
The development of the design process for ordinary single-family houses has followed a uniquely American pattern. As early as the beginning of the eighteenth century, pattern books appeared in the colonies and were used as sources for the latest design ideas. Local builders and carpenters adapted these patterns to new buildings, especially single-family houses. Alongside builders, some gentlemen fashioned themselves into amateur architects from reading the variety of architectural pattern books available in the colonies. The purpose of this study is to discover why architects in the United States are not involved in the design of ordinary single-family houses for the majority of people and how it got to be this way. Specifically, primary documents of the American Institute of Architects and the Architects Small House Service Bureau were used to identify the challenges architects faced in the early twentieth century with regard to single-family house design.


NeurIPS 2019
Paper ID:2835
Title:Enhancing the Locality and Breaking the Memory Bottleneck of Transformer on Time Series Forecasting
Reviewer 1
This paper proposes to use causal convolutions to enhance local structure and a log-sparse attention formulation to reduce the memory requirements of Transformers. Moreover, different log-sparse variations are proposed, for example local and restart. The experiments involve exploring different convolutional kernel sizes, the combination of convs and log-sparse, and evaluating the data at different resolutions. Pros: - Addresses key challenges in Transformers, enhancing locality and reducing memory through log-sparse formulation. - The log-sparse formulation is intuitive as dense on recent history and sparser as history is more distant. - The figure illustrations such as Figure 1, 2, and 3 are extremely informative. Cons: - The variations in the log-sparse formulation such as local and restart does not seem to be tested in the experiments. - Perhaps provide some plots for the real data against generated sequences to help readers see the challenges in the dataset (such as how frequently do changes points happen) and qualitatively how well the model is able to capture them.
Reviewer 2
On its own, the paper assigns text space inefficiently. While simulated data is fine (in context) it should not take space from essential Methods description. The baseline method is described in one short and incomplete paragraph, insufficiently described apart from a couple of perfunctory references (one of which, as several other references, is incompletely listed). The architecture window does not suffice and it is left to the reader to piece together how the forecasts are computed from data, end-to-end. Several mentions of 'rolling window' is not a sufficient description of train/validation/test procedure. What was it? Depending on the exact details, the evaluation procedure can result in overfit. What was the loss function used in training (it appears only briefly in the 'training curve' Figure). Results are incomplete. For the M4 dataset in particular (which has a test set), there are known accuracy results in the literature which can be compared with the R_0.5 result. They should be included. There are scant or no details given on how alternative methods (Arima, TRMF, DeepAR) have been set up (lag length, metaparameters) or how the metaparemeters of the proposed method (in particular the kernel size) has been chosen *prior* to any ablation studies Finally, while the stated goal is computational efficiency, not running time is reported, nor the actual software/hdwre architecture that implemented the main method. Minor details, for improved clarity: the methods section is minuscule: less than 10 lines on Page 3. Expand Deep neural networks have been proposed to capture shared information across related time series for accurate forecasting. how were baseline metaparameters (kernel size, h) chosen before ablation study? Figure 5 suggests NN was trained iteratively over the same data ARIMA performs significantly worse than the simpler method (ETS) which suggests seasonality was not used in what software / environment was main method and improvement implement and how fast did these run?
Reviewer 3
The paper is a rather straightforward extension of the well known transformer network for time series forecasting. However, it precisely targets two major limitations of the original algorithm, and the proposed improvements handle them effectively. As a result, it shows a significant improvement over the state-of-the-art methods such as DeepAR, especially for datasets which require long term dependency modeling. The paper is clearly written and the quality is high in all aspects. Readers can understand the benefit of each proposed component, thanks to carefully designed experiments. I think it is a significant contribution for the community, demonstrating the potential of transformer networks for time series forecasting. Some questions: Could you provide the dimension of covariate vectors x for each of the experiments with some details? Which positional encoding scheme was used? Exactly the same as the formula in p6 of the original transformer paper? It seems the performance of the proposed algorithm for electricity-f_1d and traffic-f_1d in Table 3 and 4 do not match. Is the kernel size different? What was the window size for electricity-c and traffic-c experiments? The full history length? Could you provide more details? Would the performance with k = 1 in Table 2 be almost the same as the one of the original transformer network? I assume a sparse attention was used in Table 2, but the performance should be equivalent or better with full attention model according to Table 3. Do you have exact numbers for the original transformer network?


text:
Behavior modification simply means changing, or modifying, behavior. Most commonly, we use the term behavior modification when we are talking about addressing complex or serious behavior problems such as:
All behavior modification cases are handled on a private basis since these types of behaviors cannot be worked on in a group class setting. We schedule a two-hour initial consult during which time we take an in-depth history, evaluate the behavior in action (when appropriate; we will not provoke aggression just so we can see it), and then outline an overall program that includes the following components:
Controlling the environment so that the behavior cannot occur serves several purposes:
Establishes yourself as a Very Influential Person by controlling the dog's access to all the things s/he finds rewarding. In other words, instead of giving things away for free, ask her to do something (e.g., sit, down, a trick, etc.) before you pet, praise, throw the ball, scratch her tummy, or give her a treat. Specific behaviors will also be taught that will augment the overall behavior modification program, e.g., "Leave It!" for cueing the dog to look away from another dog with whom s/he shows aggression. A high level of cue response is often integral to the success of behavior modification programs.
Desensitization/Counterconditioning is a process that utilizes a concept called "classical" or "Pavlovian" conditioning, and it works very well with dogs. By changing your dog's internal emotional feelings about specific things, we can change her behavior in the presence of those things (triggers).
Although we at DogPACT would like to say we simply choose not to use many of the most common aversive methods because we feel they are inhumane, we know that that is often not enough to convince our clients to eschew them.
It is the opinion of many veterinary behaviorists (board-certified vets with advanced studies in behavior) and certified applied animal behaviorists (non-veterinarian PhDs) under whom the trainers of DogPACT have studied that most punishment is contraindicated in behavior modification cases. Specifically avoided are things that can easily raise stress levels or inadvertently make negatives associations. These include:
Not only can pet manners training be accomplished without the use of aversives, it is imperative to avoid their use in behavior modification cases where underlying stress is often what is causing the behavior in the first place. Adding more stress often makes the behavior worse.
In all our consultations, we provide many alternatives to the use of aversives and explain why, in each case, they are not recommended.
Our pricing is specific to the exact issues your dog is experiencing. Please call us at _PHONE_ for pricing information.
©2014 DogPACT. All Rights Reserved. Web Design by Salnick, Inc.


text:
Definition of inexactly
adv. - In a manner not exact or precise; inaccurately. 2
The word "inexactly" uses 9 letters: A C E I L N T X Y.
No direct anagrams for inexactly found in this word list.
Words formed by adding one letter before or after inexactly (in bold), or to aceilntxy in any order:
g - exactingly
All words formed from inexactly by changing one letter
Browse words starting with inexactly by next letter


Avoiding CommandBinding in the XAML Code Behind files
Yesterday I got a very good question from a colleague. Basically we were discussing the M-V-VM pattern and how it makes your XAML code behind much cleaner + your application more testable. The only thing that was annoying him was the fact that he had to do the command binding and delegate the work to the ViewModel. So he asked me, "Is there a way how I can remove the Command Binding from my code behind as well?". What he was referring to, was the hooking of Commands to the ViewModel, which would look something like this
 1: CommandBindings.Add(
 2: new CommandBinding(Commands.Search,
 3: (x, e) => vm.Search(),
 4: (x, e) => e.CanExecute = vm.CanSearch())
 5: );
And the answer is, of course you can! After all, is there something you cannot do with the mighty WPF 😛
So how can we achieve this? We have to create a class that implements the ICommand interface. Here is how the ICommand interface looks like.
 1: public interface ICommand
 2: {
 3: event EventHandler CanExecuteChanged;
 5: bool CanExecute(object parameter);
 7: void Execute(object parameter);
 8: }
Very simple isn't it! Here is the MSDN description of the methods of this interface
Defines the method that determines whether the command can execute in its current state.
Defines the method to be called when the command is invoked.
Occurs when changes occur that affect whether or not the command should execute.
So in the CanExecute we have to put the logic that checks if we can execute the command and in the Execute we put the logic that executes the command…. but what about the CanExecuteChanged event? Well here we have to hook up to the Command System. Here is a simple implementation of the ICommand.
 1: public class SearchCommand : ICommand
 2: {
 3: ViewModel viewModel;
 4: public SearchCommand(ViewModel viewModel)
 5: {
 6: this.viewModel = viewModel;
 7: }
 9: _TAG_ ICommand Members
 11: public bool CanExecute(object parameter)
 12: {
 13: return!String.IsNullOrEmpty(viewModel.SearchText);
 14: }
 16: public event EventHandler CanExecuteChanged
 17: {
 18: add { CommandManager.RequerySuggested += value; }
 19: remove { CommandManager.RequerySuggested -= value; }
 20: }
 22: public void Execute(object parameter)
 23: {
 24: viewModel.MyDataView.Filter = x => ((Person)x).Name.Contains(viewModel.SearchText);
 25: }
 27: _TAG_
 28: }
 As you can see in order to hook up to the WPF command system we have to override the default behavior of the event and register to the CommandManager.RequerySuggested like so
 1: public event EventHandler CanExecuteChanged
 2: {
 3: add { CommandManager.RequerySuggested += value; }
 4: remove { CommandManager.RequerySuggested -= value; }
 5: }
This is very important because by doing so the CanExecute method will be called when ever there is focus changed, user input etc…
Once you have a class that implements the ICommand you can expose that class in your ViewModel and databind to it in the Command property of the control you want to hook up the command to like so
 1: ViewModel property
 2: ///
 3: /// Return an ICommand that can execute the search
 4: ///
 5: public ICommand SearchByNameCommand
 6: {
 7: get { return searchByNameCommand; }
 8: }
 10: XAML to hook to that command
 11:
And that's it… No more command bindings to hook to the Command in the code behind of the XAML file! This is very cool but now I guess the next question would be, so we actually have to create a class and implement an ICommand every time??
Well the answer is HELL NO…. What I do is create a class that does all the stuff for me and then I pass a delegate for the CanExecute and another one for the Execute… as simple as this…
 1: public class SimpleCommand : ICommand
 2: {
 3: public Predicate CanExecuteDelegate { get; set; }
 4: public Action ExecuteDelegate { get; set; }
 6: _TAG_ ICommand Members
 8: public bool CanExecute(object parameter)
 9: {
 10: if (CanExecuteDelegate!= null)
 11: return CanExecuteDelegate(parameter);
 12: return true;// if there is no can execute default to true
 13: }
 15: public event EventHandler CanExecuteChanged
 16: {
 17: add { CommandManager.RequerySuggested += value; }
 18: remove { CommandManager.RequerySuggested -= value; }
 19: }
 21: public void Execute(object parameter)
 22: {
 23: if (ExecuteDelegate!= null)
 24: ExecuteDelegate(parameter);
 25: }
 27: _TAG_
 28: }
and to create a command now is as simple as this…
 1: searchByNameCommand = new SimpleCommand
 2: {
 3: CanExecuteDelegate = x =>!String.IsNullOrEmpty(SearchText),
 4: ExecuteDelegate = x => myDataView.Filter = stateObj => ((Person)stateObj).Name.Contains(SearchText)
 5: };
and yes you could say that it is a 1 line of code 😛 (well a long one maybe 🙂 )… yet of course, you can have as much logic in there as you want!
If you want to see a sample project I created a demo app that you can download here.
kick it on DotNetKicks.com
23 thoughts on "Avoiding CommandBinding in the XAML Code Behind files
 1. This is a nice article Marlon. I saw a very similar approach on a Model View ViewModel video a couple last week.
 My question is, how do you handle input gestures with this technique? How do you do to associate a shortcut to your command?
 2. Jeremy that is really a good question … yet I am not able to answer it today because I never did that… when ever I needed that I relied on the Routed Commands…. a good next post I must say 😛
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 6. Pingback: AttachedCommandBehavior aka ACB « C# Disciples
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 8. Anyone know how to write that CanExecuteChanged EventHandler in Vb.net code?
 public event EventHandler CanExecuteChanged
 {add { CommandManager.RequerySuggested += value; } remove { CommandManager.RequerySuggested -= value; }
 9. Pingback: Behaviour driven development on user interfaces with Automation peer « The Simple Part
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 12. Pingback: sachabarber.net » WPF : Attached Commands
 13. Pingback: WPF ICommand vs RoutedCommand | Grimcoder blog
 14. That CanExecuteChanged implementation bothers me a bit — CommandManager.RequerySuggested is documented as only holding a weak reference to attached handlers. Which suggests that it wouldn't work reliably in this case.
 15. Thanks so much for the great post. It removes most of the junk that we have to create a command binding in WPF. But in real application, the anonymous functions which are used as Predicate and Action are not realistic. Most of the time I have to use a function instead 🙂
 But this is really a nice post. I've learned a lot from this 🙂
 16. Pingback: WPF ICommand vs RoutedCommand | ASK AND ANSWER
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text:
An oniric communicative and anti-boring performance that wishes to highlight one of the main conceptual paranoia nowadays: the rabbit world and its possibilities in our XXI century, its imaginary world endangered and its potential in this XXI century: magic, sex, cartoons, rabbit's foot key ring, or just the basic ingredient in Valencia's paella.
I am greatly busy with these thoughts that I forward with methods I am familiar with: performance art, audiovisual format, ceramic sculpture or photography. I openly expose it so as to get a broader feedback of ideas to develop further this research, this idea concerning such a great matter. Is the pornographic genre (playboy) invading all the conceptual aspect of the rabbit's world* and therefore, would this be the reason that leads to its extinction, leaving all other values aside, such as magic, hunting, cartoons, rabbit's foot key ring and everything that entails?
All my efforts resulted in these projects intend to deduce, envision and if possible neutralize that pornographic advance and preserve that conceptual multivision of the so wonderful "rabbit's world" to which we have so much to recognize, and investigate the interrelationship among its various potential aspects.
* In Spanish, rabbit is "pussy" in slang.


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The Architects of Time: Dambisa Moyo
In an age where time seems scarcer than ever, how should our society and economy best plan for the future? Here, as part of Vanity Fair and UNLIMITED's Architects of Time series, Zambian economist and Dead Aid author Dambisa Moyo talks the perils of short-term thinking in economic planning and political affairs
Dambisa Moyo
THE ECONOMIST Dambisa Moyo photographed by Henry Bourne on Friday 5 May 2017 at Rosewood London
When former Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai was asked in the early 1970s about the impact of the French revolution, he reportedly replied: "Too early to say." This answer has become synonymous with China's famed patient long-term approach to public policy and problem solving – even though it has since transpired that Zhou was in fact referring not to the 1789 revolution, but the 1968 student uprising. In seemingly stark contrast, the Western approach to business, economics and democratic politics has become decidedly short-term, with significant, and deleterious consequences for economic growth and living standards in the longer term.
Consider, first, how short-term horizons have seeped into business. The tenure of Fortune 500 CEOs is becoming ever shorter, from an average of 10 years in 1990 to 6.6 years in 2011 to around 4.4 years today, thereby creating significant volatility in management and a company's corporate strategy. Meanwhile the average time that a company exists has also contracted considerably, according to researcher Dick Foster at Yale University. The average lifespan of a S&P 500 company in 1935, was 90 years; in 2011, it was 18 years, no doubt in part reflecting the rapid creative destruction of companies in the technology sector that go from start-up to acquired at what often seems like warp speed.
And whereas the average length of time a New York Stock Exchange stock is held in a portfolio was seven years in 1970, it was just seven months by 2011. With the advent of technological innovations such as high frequency trading, which enables traders to take advantage of even the smallest of stock moves using computer algorithms, some estimates suggest portfolio managers today hold stocks in their portfolios for as little as just 11 seconds! Of course, such trading volatility can make it challenging for companies to make reliable longer-term assumptions about how and when to finance their business activities.
Watch Dambisa Moyo explain short-termism below:
Increasingly, companies are abandoning or avoiding vagaries of the public stock markets by choosing to remain or become private companies instead. According to the Wilshire 5000 Total Market Index, the number of publicly listed U.S. stocks peaked at a record 7,562 in 1998. As of the end of 2016, there are just over 3,600, having fallen around 50 percent. From a broader societal perspective, fewer public stocks means there are fewer opportunities for state pension funds to invest and generate returns and incomes for retirees.
Furthermore, driven by companies' need to file quarterly reports of their performance, the dominance of short-term thinking in business creates real economic problems. Companies make capital allocation decisions that can hurt corporate investment and the broader economic growth prospects of a country over the longer term. Research by WPP, a global communications firm, shows that in five of the six quarters up to June 2016, money leaving companies was more than the companies retained for reinvestment. Specifically, the share buybacks and dividend payments of companies listed on the S&P 500 exceeded retained earnings (in layman's terms, these are profits withheld by companies and earmarked for investment) by as much as 130 percent—up from around 60 percent in 2009. What this means in practice is that companies are myopic; they choose to pay profits back to shareholders—and keep them happy today—at the expense of company investment for tomorrow. Essentially, companies are scaling back their investments and rejecting the opportunity to make significant capital investments, such as building new factories, to lay foundations for future growth.
Cathedral Wealth: what's the most meaningful thing that you can hand down to the next generation?
Perhaps most significantly, the shift toward planning over shorter time frames among public companies has permeated economic policy, with notable costs to society. According to Stanford University research, company "pressure to meet quarterly earnings targets may be reducing research and development spending and cutting U.S. growth by 0.1 percentage points a year". In contrast, private companies that are not subject to aggressive short-term quarterly reporting cycles are found to invest at nearly 2.5 times the rate of public companies in the same industry. This persistently lower investment rate among America's biggest 350 listed companies may be reducing US growth by an additional 0.2 percentage points a year.
CORRIDORS OF POWER Dambisa Moyo talks to Vanity Fair at the Rosewood London, May 5, 2017. Photograph by Henry Bourne
Democratic politics too is notably characterized by the mismatch between short-term political imperatives (getting elected) and the numerous longer-term economic problems facing economies—notably, underinvestment in education, health care, pensions, and infrastructure. Each of these challenges spans decades, if not generations, and thus redress requires longer-term vision by politicians, beyond the length of their terms of office. Often these economic tradeoffs between consumption today and investment (or vice versa) pits generations—the young versus the old—against each other.
Regular democratic electoral cycles, by their very construct, mean politicians—not unreasonably—focus on pandering and catering to the needs of today's voter, in the hope of garnering votes to win and/or retain political office. The regularity of elections—every two years in the US, plus Presidential elections every four, and Britain with three major polls in the past three years—lends itself to increased political volatility. It leaves policy makers focused on prioritizing and fighting the next election battle, leaving larger-scale economic challenges "kicked down the road" for future generations to deal with.
No doubt, this increased political myopia and uncertainty is exacerbated by the advent of the 24-hour media cycle, and intensified by social media. All day, any day, media cycles invariably force politicians to prioritize political point-scoring, regular commentary, rapid response and political engagement today, over focusing on the major structural challenges that will severely hamper the economy tomorrow.
With the regularity of elections, perhaps it should come as no surprise that the average tenure of a G20 political leader is at a record low, declining from a post-war era of six years in 1946 to just 3.7 years today. Of course, a consequence of enormous political shot-termism and the concomitant political volatility it can bring to bear, is policy inconsistency. This is the idea that government policy and regulation that governs the business environment is constantly changing as new political leaders are elected and policies change, and it creates an ever more uncertain policy frame within which investment and company capital allocation decisions must be made. As uncertainty around what policies may be introduced increases, businesses are less likely to invest in an economy, ultimately to a country's detriment. Moreover, political schisms born of constantly changing and short-term political horizons create political gridlock that itself hurts investment. US infrastructure, to offer but one example, has been graded D+ by a survey of American Civil Engineers, a clear artefact of how short-term political imperatives have trumped the longer-term economic needs of the country.
Are modern economies failing the marshmallow test?
One path to redress the plague of political myopia within the confines of a democratic process is to lengthen and limit the terms in which a politician can hold public office. In Mexico, for example, the President is elected for one term of six years. And in Brazil, senators are elected to nine-year terms. The beauty with capping terms is that politicians are not drawn into competitive politics or desire to fight the next election; instead, they need only focus on the task of delivering economic-enhancing policies and addressing social woes. Meanwhile, embedding longer political time horizons for an incumbent means political horizons better match economic business cycles, which tend to be at least five years.
Of course, longer-term political horizons are not without risk. Once elected, a country could be stuck with a bad or ineffective leader for longer. At a time of slow and slowing global economic growth and mounting economic challenges—from automation and the risk of an emerging jobless underclass, a burgeoning global population, soaring debt, worsening income inequality, natural resource depletion and ever more pressing climate change and environmental concerns, to name a few—the need to get politicians to focus on these long-term economic issues and away from short-term political imperatives is not only important, but urgent.
Is it a matter of time: Discover the full story on UNLIMITED
Credit: Video by Chips Films


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You are presenting to a group of high school students on the dangers of substance abuse.
Create a 12-slide MicrosoftÂ® PowerPointÂ® presentation with graphics and speaker notes on substance-related disorders that includes the following:
Describes treatment options based on theoretical models and current research
Explains the behavioral criteria
Discusses potential causes and incidence rates
Include a minimum of two peer-reviewed sources.


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In our world, the designer is responsible for creating dynamic templates that enable the marketer to send highly personalized messages. These templates can be built using the HTML editor or the Sculpt editor.
To achieve advanced personalization, we developed a template syntax that is based on a custom version of Smarty (a php based template language). We'll just refer to as Smarty from now on. To take advantage of all the personalization possibilities, the designer should be proficient in the Smarty syntax and be able to code templates that use variables, link functions, conditional logic, and data looping.
Dig the Data
Before diving into Smarty, the designer should understand how Cordial stores all data in separate collections. Smarty references these collections when rendering data in a message using Smarty variables.
Here are some recommended articles to get you up to speed on the different data collections:
- Contact Collection - stores data specific to a contact including channels, attributes, list membership and cart items.
- Event (Contact Activities) Collection - stores event data specific to messages (opens, clicks, etc.) or any custom named event.
- Product Collection - stores data from a product catalog.
- Orders Collection - stores order data.
- Supplements Collection - stores additional data (store locations, coupon codes, message content, etc.) that doesn't fit into one of the above collections.
In addition to the above data collections, you can also reference external data (RSS feed, Instagram feed, weather, etc.) when personalizing message content.
Watch the Data Overview video to learn more:
Smart Personalization with Smarty
Once you understand what data is available and how it is stored in Cordial, you are able to access it and render it in a message using Smarty.
Introduction to Smarty
To get an introduction to Smarty, start with this article:
The key takeaways here are:
- Smarty is wrapped in curly braces.
- CSS also uses curly braces, so be sure to escape CSS using the literal tag or you will get errors when trying to save a message.
- Smarty renders when previewing a message or at the time of message send.
- You can select a contact's email address when previewing a message to see a live preview of the personalized content for the selected contact.
- Smarty supports variables, conditional statements, data looping and other functions and modifiers.
Smarty can access the data using variables. Variables can access system data, account data, contact attribute data and more. Here are some articles dedicated to what you can do with Smarty variables:
- Variables Overview - Get an overview of how variables are used in Cordial.
- System Variables - Certain variables are reserved for system values such as email address and message ID.
- Account Variables - Account variables are used for account specific values that can be used for CAN SPAM/CASL compliance in message footers.
- Contact Variables - Used to render contact attribute values for each contact such as first name, address, etc.
- Assigning Variables - Variables can be set in a message and then recalled throughout the message. This is useful for link appends or building complex Smarty logic.
- Date and Timestamp Variables - Used for rendering dates in a message.
- Variable Modifiers - Modifiers are used to change the way variables are rendered, such as date formats, numbers and capitalization.
Cordial's custom version of Smarty adds additional functionality to links beyond just pointing to a web page. Learn about link functions with the articles below:
- Optout Link - Modify the default optout link using Smarty
- Adding Tags to Links - Use link tags to associate links in multiple messages for segmentation and reporting.
- Naming a Tracked Link - Give links a "friendly name" for use in the UI when viewing reports.
- Link Appends - Use Smarty to set up link appends.
- Updating List Membership - Add or remove contacts to a list when they click a link.
- Updating an Attribute - Update a contact attribute when a link is clicked.
Conditionals Statements and Data Looping
In addition to rendering variables and link functions, Smarty is used for conditional if/then statements for rendering dynamic content. You are also able to loop through data arrays and render specific values using foreach statements.
Get Data Arrays
Using smarty, you are able to access data arrays from a collection (i.e. products), filter the results and render them in a message. These are called get data array methods. When you combine these with conditional statements and variables, you've opened the door for highly personalized dynamic content. The following articles give you explanations and examples of the different methods available:
- Get Products - Filter and render products from your product catalog.
- Get Events - Filter and render event data such as "items browsed on a site".
- Get Orders - Filter and render order data in a message.
- Get Supplements - Filter and render supplement data in a message.
- Get JSON - render data from an external source such as an Instagram feed.
HTML Content Includes
Reusable HTML snippets can be saved outside of message content in a content library, and then rendered in multiple message using Smarty:
Sculpt Templates and Blocks
The Sculpt message editor provides an easy way for the marketer to create complex message layouts and content without having to write any HTML using a combination of Sculpt templates and Sculpt blocks.
As the designer, you create a Sculpt template to use as a starting point for messages, as well as a variety of Sculpt blocks that can be dragged into templates during message creation by the marketer. Note that both Sculpt templates and Sculpt blocks support advanced personalization using Smarty.
Before the Sculpt editor is available for message creation, a Sculpt Template must be created and saved in the account. A Sculpt template is the "HTML shell" that can accept Sculpt blocks. Get an overview of Sculpt here, and read more about creating Sculpt templates.
Watch the Sculpt template video to learn more:
Sculpt blocks are created separately from Sculpt templates and live within the Sculpt block library. During message creation, the marketer chooses a Sculpt template as a starting point and then drags in Sculpt blocks to build layouts and customize content.
As the designer, you create the library of Sculpt blocks that the marketer can use for messages. Any element within a Sculpt block (images, colors, fonts, etc.) can be set as editable using variables and then customized using forms that you create. Learn more about Sculpt blocks.
Watch the Sculpt block video to learn more:
Other Helpful Resources
We've put together a list of additional external resources that you may find useful...we did!
- Email boilerplate - The folks at Litmus have put together several responsive email templates to get you started building email code.
- CSS inliner tool - To make sure your HTML and CSS are email friendly, use this CSS inliner tool from Zurb.
- Character converter - If you use special characters in your messages they may need to be converted to their respective HTML entities. This HTML Character Converter will do it for you.
- Rendering tests - Both Litmus and Email on Acid provide great tools to test email rendering.
- Smarty Documentation - _URL_ is the official guide for Smarty. Keep in mind that not all functions and modifiers are supported in Cordial. Check out our full list of supported functions and modifiers here.
- JSON validator - JSONLint is an awesome tool for checking your JSON for errors when making API calls. Sometimes it's just a comma causing the problem!
- HTML, JS and JSON beautifier - jsbeautifier.org will beautify your code and make it easier to read.


Tuesday, November 10, 2015
Passage at Delphi (Book Review)
Passage at Delphi, by A.K. Patch, is historical fiction written with a different spin. I had the opportunity to read it, at no cost to me, for review purposes.
As always, I'll first give you the official synopsis. This is from Amazon, and it's somewhat different from the back cover material:
The lives of history and ancient language professors, Lauren and Zack Fletcher, have been upended in ways neither could imagine in this epic adventure tale that takes readers from sunny San Diego to the stunning vistas of ancient and modern day Greece. The Fletchers carry on their academic lives with relative ease but they are splintered by their contention over career goals and starting a family. Now, unbeknownst to them, they've been drafted to take part in events that will span millennia and decide the course of mankind's future. Lauren and Zack have been propelled into an ancient Greek war, forcing them to confront a past that is both familiar and terrifying. To return home, they must overcome warfare on a massive scale, set aside their recent marital discord, and find within themselves the wisdom to navigate treacherous routes of survival. Dreams will be dashed and others realized as Lauren and Zack negotiate a dangerous dance of cultural wonder, calculated risk, and unintended consequences.
Chapter 1 is set in present-day Delphi, Greece, and it sets up what is to happen. (I was glad that the author included maps of the region, because I didn't know the relative locations in which the story takes place!) Chapter 2, set in present-day San Diego, California, introduces us to Zack and Lauren. By Chapter 8, through a series of events, the couple is transported to ancient (480 B.C.) Delphi. That's the setting for much of the storyline.
The copyright page describes the book this way:
This is a work of fiction based on actual persons in historical context. Other names, characters, events and incidents are either the products of the author's imagination or used in a fictitious manner.
Most of the historical fiction I've read doesn't include real persons interacting with fictional characters. Most also doesn't include time travel, and Passage at Delphi uses time travel both backward and forward.
It's a secular book, and it contains some some profanity, rough language, and uses of the name of God in vain. The occurrences aren't frequent, maybe once every five or ten pages. You can decide whether that's acceptable for you or not.
Thoughts and observations:
 - This was one of those "Just one more chapter before I turn out the light" books for me. (And then, because some of the chapters are very short, "Okay, one more!")
 - I didn't know the history, but narration and dialogue filled that in. I didn't love the way the main characters seemed to explain ancient history to each other. They both knew it, so wouldn't have had to spell it out; however, it serves to inform the reader.
 - While Greek mythology isn't the main part of the book, the god Apollo is a central character in the story.
 - The major theme is foreshadowed in the preface with a reference to a virtue carved into the forecourt of Apollo's temple at Delphi: "Know Thyself." Zack and Lauren encounter many situations that force them to be tested, to uncover their core beliefs, and to make choices about what really matters.
 - The ending begs for a sequel. No surprise, since this is Book I of the author's Apollo Series.
Links for more information:
* If you click through my Amazon affiliate link and complete a purchase, I will receive a small commission. Thanks!
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Let's solve another interval signal mystery!
Last month, we published a post asking SWLing Readers to help Brian (W9IND) identify an elusive interval signal. Turns out, the interval signal belonged to the Voice Mirror of the PTT Habana, Cuba station.
This month, SWLing Post contributor, David Crawford is asking for help to ID another interval signal which likely belongs to a utility station. David writes:
In follow-up to the La Habana utility mystery, here's another one from the same era, 14985 kHz or thereabouts. Somewhere along the line I came to the conclusion that it might be El Salvador, but I don't remember what led to that. The [recording embedded below] isn't my own recording of it.
The tune is composed of individual DTMF tones, and when I was a bored youth I discovered that it could be played on an AT&T desk touch tone phone by pressing two keys at a time to remove the second tone. This one would repeat for hours at a time, interrupted by manually patched telephone calls.
Readers: Can you positively ID this interval signal? If so, please comment!
Spread the radio love
4 thoughts on "Let's solve another interval signal mystery!
 1. Pingback: Dean solves second interval signal mystery | The SWLing Post
 2. Dean Bianco
 Oh, sorry….here is an audio file to verify my claim:
 For whatever reason, I am unable to copy-and-paste the exact url to the audio file, so here's what you do to listen to it:
 1. go to: utilityradio.com
 2. click 'station data'
 3. click 'Europe'
 4. click the 'ear' graphic on the line for Spain
 5. click the 'ear' graphic for CTNE Madrid
 6. click the 'ear' graphic on the third line down the Willi Passmann mid 70's recording.
 7. play!
 3. Dean Bianco
 Hi Everyone,
 Mystery solved!
 This is the "interval signal" (more accurately, a placeholder with a musical station identifier) for the Compañía Telefónica Nacional de España (CTNW) from Madrid, Spain. They were a point-to-point HF radiotelephone terminal that provided overseas telephone and telegraph services in the days before satellites became common. As a young SWL, I would receive all manner of strange musical identifiers for these utility stations. Most of these HF telecommunication services had gone to satellite by the early 1980's. The HF bands were chock-a-block with signals, whether they be broadcast or utility services.
 Glad to help!
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Price Stock Options Using the Binomial Model
The Financial Toolbox™ product provides functions that compute prices, sensitivities, and profits for portfolios of options or other equity derivatives. This example uses the binomial model to price an option. The binomial model assumes that the probability of each possible price over time follows a binomial distribution. That is, prices can move to only two values, one up or one down, over any short time period. Plotting these two values over time is known as building a binomial tree.
This example organizes and displays input and output data using a Microsoft® Excel® worksheet. Spreadsheet Link™ EX functions copy data to a MATLAB® matrix, calculate the prices, and return data to the worksheet.
This example is included in the Spreadsheet Link EX product. To run it:
 1. Start Excel, Spreadsheet Link EX, and MATLAB sessions.
 2. Navigate to the folder matlabroot\toolbox\exlink\.
 3. Open the file ExliSamp.xls
 4. Execute the example as needed.
 Note This example requires Financial Toolbox, Statistics Toolbox™, and Optimization Toolbox™.
 1. Click the Sheet4 tab on ExliSamp.xls to open the worksheet for this example.
 The worksheet contains three named ranges:
 - B4:B10 named bindata. Two cells in bindata contain formulas:
 - B7 contains =5/12
 - B8 contains =1/12
 - B15 named asset_tree.
 - B23 named value_tree.
 2. Make D5 the active cell. Press F2; then press Enter to execute the Spreadsheet Link EX function that copies the asset data to the MATLAB workspace.
 3. Move to D8 and execute the function that computes the binomial prices.
 4. Execute the functions in D11 and D12 to copy the price data to the Excel worksheet.
 The worksheet looks as follows.
 Read the asset price tree as follows:
 - Period 1 shows the up and down prices.
 - Period 2 shows the up-up, up-down, and down-down prices.
 - Period 3 shows the up-up-up, up-up, down-down, and down-down-down prices.
 - And so on.
 Ignore the zeros. The option value tree gives the associated option value for each node in the price tree. The option value is zero for prices significantly above the exercise price. Ignore the zeros that correspond to a zero in the price tree.
 5. Try changing the data in B4:B10, and then executing the Spreadsheet Link EX functions again.
 Note: If you increase the time to maturity (B7) or change the time increment (B8), you may need to enlarge the output tree areas.
 6. When you finish the example, close the figure window.
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Headphone impedanceAlso known as nominal impedance. The impedance is the AC resistance of the coils of loudspeakers and headphones in ohms. Since impedance depends on the frequency, it is always specified at a frequency of one kilohertz.
Polar patternThe polar pattern is the preferred pick-up direction of the microphone. According to the shape of the corresponding measurement plot, there are omni-directional, cardioid, super-cardioid or hyper-cardioid as well as figure-of-eight patterns. for microphone