text: The relationship between painting's surface and its support is one of non-representation's grand themes, involving as it does the incorporation of the space of the world into the space of the painting and vice versa, and in the work of several younger painters it has taken directions and forms for which there is no obvious direct precedent. James Richards' version of the theme, on which he's now been working for a little more than ten years, proceeds from what he describes as a wish to "complicate drawing". One of the principles that join surface and support is line, the weave of the canvas below, drawing above, and Richards' paintings work by making the one simultaneously serve as the other. Thread as support becomes line as movement through space, intensified as both material and movement by the addition of colour or wrapping more yarn around what's already there. Elsewhere paint may be applied so that the surface is supporting the support, as these paintings are not constructed as straightforwardly as they might at first seem to be and there are bits that have been inserted that are not directly connected to the frame. Just as the thread is at once stuff and movement and tension and the other things that line signifies, the paint is both substance and space, a thick surface that is at the same time, since it's always mixed with white, seen as being weightless. The relationship between surface and support is about the convergence between the material and the immaterial, considered as a visual event. By beginning with line as thread rather than inscription Richards has made that convergence visible in a way we haven't seen before.


text:
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source: openbmb/Ultra-FineWeb


text:
Winters in Western New York are generally cloudy, cold and snowy...but are changeable and include frequent thaws and rain as well. Snow covers the ground more often than not from Christmas into early March, but periods of bare ground are not uncommon. Over half of the annual snowfall comes from the "lake-effect" process and is very localized. Lake-effect snow occurs when cold air crosses the relatively warm lake waters and becomes saturated, creating clouds and precipitation downwind. The location of these snowbands is determined by the direction of the wind. Due to the prevailing winds, areas south of Buffalo receive much more lake-effect snow than locations to the north. The lake snow machine can start as early as mid November, peaks in December, then virtually shuts down after Lake Erie freezes in mid to late January. The area does not experience many heavy general (synoptic scale) snows, because large scale storm systems usually pass well to the east.
Spring comes slowly to the Buffalo area. The ice pack on Lake Erie does not usually disappear until mid April and the lake remains chilly through most of May. As the prevailing flow is southwesterly, areas near the lake are often as much as 20 degrees colder than inland locations. Fortunately, the cool lake waters act as a strong stabilizing influence, so areas near the lake shore, including the city of Buffalo, experience more sunshine and fewer thunderstorms than inland areas. The cool air from the lake also retards the growing season, but this diminishes the threat of damaging late spring frosts. The average date of the last frost is near the end of April in the Buffalo metro area, but in mid May well inland.
Summer is pleasant in the Buffalo area. Sunshine is plentiful, temperatures are warm, and humidity levels are moderate. Rainfall is adequate, but it shows an overnight maximum, so it is seldom a problem for outdoor activities. The stabilizing effect of Lake Erie continues to inhibit thunderstorms and enhance sunshine in the immediate Buffalo area through most of July. The lake also modifies the extreme heat that approaches from the Ohio Valley. There usually are periods of uncomfortably warm and humid weather during summer, but an average of only three 90 degree readings makes conditions more bearable than at most other locations. August usually turns a bit more showery and humid as the lake is warmer and loses its stabilizing influence. In fact, a good nighttime thunderstorm or two is often a feature of late summer in Buffalo. Overall though, Buffalo has the sunniest and driest summers of any major city in the Northeast, with enough rain to keep vegetation green and lush.
Autumn on the Niagara Frontier is pleasant, but rather brief. September is usually quite tame, as is much of October. The first frost can be expected in late September over interior sections, but not until mid October in the Buffalo metro area. During some years, the warm Lake Erie water can extend the growing season into early November adjacent to the lake shore. Cold fronts from Canada become common in late October, and as the cold air passes over the warmer Great lakes, cloud cover increases drastically. This heralds the start of the Lake-Effect season. The first measurable snow usually occurs in mid November, but snow cover is sporadic until mid December. However, many of Buffalo's greatest snowstorms have occurred in late November and early December, due to the lake-effect phenomenon.

source: HuggingFaceFW/fineweb-edu


text:
Long-term field observations, with the aid of photo identification and radio-tracking technology, have necessitated the re-evaluation of data on life history parameters gathered from the field. Early studies revolving around manatee genetics have included analyses of allozymes, cytochrome-b, and the d-loop of the mitochondrial control region. However, recent advances in molecular genetic analysis techniques will allow field biologists to ask specific questions to help clarify and define observed relationships between kinship-groups (paternity and maternity) using microsatellites. In addition, important information on manatee behavior, potential reproductive strategies and success, analysis of population genetic structure based on both nuclear and mitochondrial DNA markers, and assessment of critical habitat, such as feeding and wintering grounds, will be amassed to help clarify population parameters. Specifically, the use of microsatellite "fingerprinting" holds great potential for better understanding manatee population biology and genetic structure. This information will be necessary in evaluating current and future management and research strategies.
Future research is directed towards both cytogenetics and molecular sequencing. Chromosome banding studies are planned for utilizing probes for allele marking and identification to recognize specific genes related to disease processes. Studies of mitochondrial DNA haplotype sequencing recently have been completed by researchers at the USGS Sirenia Project and the University of Florida and show distinct populations of West Indian manatees throughout their range. Additional sample analyses from international cooperators are encouraging and continuing. Currently, progress is being made to isolate specific primers (probes) to be used for manatee DNA fingerprinting studies. For the past several years the USGS and FMRI have amassed a collection of samples obtained from both wild and dead manatees in the field and archived for anticipated future analysis. Currently, geneticists are ready to begin examining these samples. In Florida this is a collaborative effort between the USGS, FMRI, UF, Mote Marine Lab, and Wildlife Trust.


text:
Wile et al., Nat Protoc, 2014
Molecular beacons (MBs) are dual-labeled oligonucleotides that fluoresce only in the presence of complementary mRNA. The use of MBs to target specific mRNAs allows sorting of specific cells from a mixed cell population. In contrast to existing approaches that are limited by available surface markers or selectable metabolic characteristics, the MB-based method enables the isolation of a wide variety of cells. For example, the ability to purify specific cell types derived from pluripotent stem cells (PSCs) is important for basic research and therapeutics. In addition to providing a general protocol for MB design, validation and nucleofection into cells, we describe how to isolate a specific cell population from differentiating PSCs. By using this protocol, we have successfully isolated cardiomyocytes differentiated from mouse or human PSCs (hPSCs) with ∼ 97% purity, as confirmed by electrophysiology and immunocytochemistry. After designing MBs, their ordering and validation requires 2 weeks, and the isolation process requires 3 h.


Linear Systems
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Prev: Dynamic Behavior Chapter 5 - Linear Systems Next: State Feedback
Previous chapters have focused on the dynamics of a system with relatively little attention to the inputs and outputs. This chapter gives an introduction to input/output behavior for linear systems and shows how a nonlinear system can be approximated near an equilibrium point by a linear model.
Textbook Contents
Linear Systems (pdf, 16Sep06)
 - 1. Introduction
 - 2. Properties of Linear Systems
 - 3. Stability and Performance
 - 4. Second Order Systems
 - 5. Linearization
 - 6. Further Reading
 - 7. Exercises
Lecture Materials
Supplemental Information
Chapter Summary
This chapter introduces the analysis tools for linear input/output systems.
 1. A linear system is one in which the output is jointly linear in the intitial condition for the system and the input to the system. In particular, a linear system has the property that if we apply an input with zero initial condition, the corresponding output will be, where is the output associated with the input. This propery is called linear superposition.
 2. A differential equation of the form
 is a single-input, single-output (SISO) linear differential equation. Its solution can be written in terms of the matrix exponential
 The solution to the differential equation is given by the convolution equation
 3. A linear system
 is asymptotically stable if and only if all eigenvalues of all have strictly negative real part and is unstable if any eigenvalue of has strictly positive real part. For systems with eigenvalues having zero real-part, stability is determined by using the Jordan normal form associated with the matrix. A system with eigenvalues that have no strickly positive real part is stable if and only if the Jordan block corresponding to each eigenvalue with zero part is a scalar (1x1) block.
 4. The input/output response of a (stable) linear system contains a transient region portion, which eventually decays to zero, and a steady state portion, which persists over time. Two special responses are the step response, which is the output corresponding to an step input applied at and the frequency response, which is the response of the system to a sinusoidal input at a given frequency. The step response is characterized by the following parameters:
 - The steady state value,, of a step response is the final level of the output, assuming it converges.
 - The rise time,, is the amount of time required for the signal to go from 10% of its final value to 90% of its final value.
 - The overshoot,, is the percentage of the infal value by which the signal initially rises above the final value.
 - The settling time,, isthe amount of time required for the signal to stay within 5% of its final value for all future times.
 5. A nonlinear system of the form
 is a single-input, single-output (SISO) nonlinear system. It can be linearized about an equibrium point,, by defining new variables
 The dynamics of the system near the equilibrium point can then be approximated by the linear system
 The equilibrium point for a nonlinear system is locally asymptotically stable if the real part of the eigenvalues of the linearization about that equilibrium point have strictly negative real part.
Frequently Asked Questions
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text:
Trans-boundary and intercultural research in partnership is challenging. This is particularly the case when cooperation takes place between rich and poor countries. This guide is based on 11 principles and 7 key questions. They aim to build research partnerships in the most constructive, balanced and results-oriented manner.
The 11 principles address basic challenges and offer practical guidance. Applying these eleven principles should support the partners in building trust and assuming mutual responsibility. The 7 key questions deal with issues that can hinder or facilitate meaningful cooperation in different contexts. They make it easier to understand the nature and context of the partnership.


text:
CIM Issues #6368
The interplay between events and status measurements should be supported more cleanly
Part 9 Annex C offers an 18 part field to describe a measurement. Annex E offers a 4 part field to describe a status. However the first of the four parts indicates the source, and the last of the four indicates the new status. Quite often a subscriber will want to monitor the status of a condition that an event announces. If it an important condition, the subscriber will want to receive periodic status updates for fear it may have missed a published event. There are many many events and the coverage of measurements doesn't always correspond to it.
It is unnecessarily awkward to relate a measurement status to an event. A change to the design of the standard could make it easier.
Add a new measurementKind of "EventTypeID". Then to publish a measurement of a status than an event is based on, the commodity field would be used to identify the source of the measurement (meter, sensor, EVSE, etc.). We could supply the EndDeviceDomain enumeration in the numerator field, EndDeviceSubdomain in the denominator field, set uom equal to "status", then supply the EndDeviceEventOrAction code as the value of the measurement. This would allow better interplay between measurements and events.
The business of "breaking change" is a good question. Breaking the CIM? Breaking someone's implementation? There are many other standards that use Annex C. Increasing the length to 20 attribute fields could break all of them.


The Financial Express
Developing local coal mine resources
Developing local coal mine resources
The government's decision to develop new coal mines on its own deserves appreciation in the sense that the authorities are going to break the decade-old stalemate over the issue. The coal mines will not be leased out to any foreign or local company or joint venture (JV) partners for exploration.
Innovation of new technologies has created opportunities to develop this earth resource in an eco-friendly manner. Coal is, by far, the cheapest and most abundant source of energy. Unlike natural gas or oil, there is very little chance of coal being scarce as it is plentiful all over the world.
Currently, the country has five coal mines, but coal extraction is limited to only one coal mine at Barapukuria in Dinajpur. It is annually extracting around 1.0 million tonnes of coal, most of which is consumed by the nearby thermal power plant. But a large quantity of coal will be required from next year, when a number of coal-fired power plants start power generation.
The government has a plan to generate around 50 per cent of the country's total electricity from coal. To implement the plan, it needs to generate around 12,000 megawatts (MW) of electricity from coal by 2024, 20,000 MW by 2030, and 30,000 MW by 2041.
Bangladesh has three coal-fired power plants having a total generation capacity of only 524 MW, as against the installed capacity of 17,685 MW. Agreements have been signed to set up more coal-fired power plants to generate around 1,411 MW of electricity by private sector companies.
Bangladesh is reported to have around 2.0 billion tonnes of coal reserves in five coalmines across the country, equivalent to 70 TCF of gas. It is necessary to utilise local coal by using environmentally sound and economically feasible methods.
In expanding its electricity coverage, the government is facing difficulty because of severe shortage of primary energy. In the last decade, the country has been able to add very little to the natural gas reserves. Since the country's industry and power generation is heavily dependent on natural gas, the government is importing LNG to meet the shortfall of gas.
This, obviously, will have a huge impact on the price of gas. With more and more LNG import, the price of electricity produced from natural gas will increase to a level that will no longer be the cheapest option for Bangladesh.
However, there has been no progress in developing local coal mine resources. Bangladesh is blessed with one of the finest quality coal. Not only is it low in sulphur, but a good portion of it is high-value cooking coal. If open-pit mining is employed, more than 90 per cent of the reserves can be extracted. Concerted resistance from environmentalists is preventing open-pit mining of coal..
Since the country's gas reserve is depleting fast, there is a need for taking immediate measures to extract coal from the coalfields to deal with energy shortage.
Although power generation has doubled in the last seven years, about 40 per cent of the population does not have electricity connection as yet. Total electricity generation during the 7th FYP is expected to rise by 12,853MW, according to the government plan.
The government requires, according to energy experts, about $50 billion investment in power and energy sector by 2030 to meet the rising demand. To achieve the power generation target, specific timeframes for commissioning the power plants have to be met by the government. In order to implement the plans, the government should urgently finalise and adopt a long-term energy master plan.
The challenges in the energy sector are enormous and much of these relate to policy and institutional reforms. A strong political will is thus necessary for adoption of domestic coal policy. Efficient power generation strategy is critically dependent on successful implementation of such reforms which are tied to generating primary energy.
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A model of a practical Ruthroff 1:4 balun
Clive Ruthroff described several baluns and ununs in his article 'Some Broad-Band Transformers' published in 1959.
One particular configuration, the 1:4 balun is of particular interest because it underlies many other configurations, and understanding it helps towards understanding the other configurations. Further, this balun or constructs of this balun are widely used, though often not identified as such in descriptions or circuits.
Ruthroff's own explanation, and it seems many of those who came after him deal with the balun by simplification to equivalent circuits at low and high frequencies. Whilst Ruthroff's article predicts insertion loss, it does so for an equivalent circuit that does not include any balun loss elements (eg conductor loss, magnetic core loss).
This article proposes a lossy transmission line model of a practical Ruthroff 1:4 balun that is effective for all frequencies within and immediately adjacent to the pass band. The model is of a two wire transmission line wound around a toroidal ferrite core, and includes:
Such a model can be used for exploring not only variations in design such as different core materials, wire thickness and spacing, number of turns, etc, but exploration of loads other than the nominally matched balanced load.
Equivalent circuit
Ruthroff's equivalent circuit
Fig 1: Ruthroff's equivalent circuit
Fig 1 is Ruthroff's equivalent circuit, Fig 5 from his paper. (The current designations are not used further in this article).
Proposed equivalent circuit
Fig 2 :
Fig 2 shows the proposed equivalent circuit. The transformers T1 and T2 are ideal transformers that are introduced for the purpose of separating the common mode and differential currents. The common mode current is routed through the common mode choke impedance Zc, and the differential current flows in the transmission line TL. The common mode current I3 is the result of components I3/2 which flow into both ends of the left hand winding of T1, and out of both ends of the right hand winding of T2. The differential mode current can be analysed by transmission line equations, and the common mode current can be analysed by lumped component circuit analysis.
Fig 3:
Fig 3 shows the circuit rearranged to eliminate the transformers.
Solution to equivalent circuit
Fig 4:
\[V_1=V_2 cosh(\theta) + I_2Z_0sinh(\theta) \tag{1}\]
\[I_2=\frac{V_1+V_2}{4Zc}+\frac{V_2}{Z_{l_1}} \tag{2}\]
Substituting (2) into (1)...
\[V_1=V_2 cosh(\theta)+\left (\frac{V_1+V_2}{4Z_c}+\frac{V_2}{Z_{l_1}} \right)Z_0 sinh(\theta) \]
Collecting like terms...
\[V_1 \left ( 1-\frac{Z_0}{4Z_c} sinh(\theta) \right )=V_2 \left( cosh(\theta)+ \left ( \frac1{4Z_c}+ \frac1{Z_{l_1}} \right ) Z_0 sinh(\theta) \right )\]
\[\frac{V_2}{V_1}=\frac{1-\frac{Z_0}{4Z_c} sinh(\theta) }{cosh(\theta)+ \left ( \frac1{4Z_c}+ \frac1{Z_{l_1}} \right ) Z_0 sinh(\theta)} \]
Fig 4 is a solution to the proposed equivalent circuit. The quantity θ is the product of γ, the transmission line complex propagation coefficient, and transmission line length. All other currents, voltages, and powers can be derived from the V2/V1 relationship. Note that quantities in Fig 4 may be complex values, and many are frequency dependent.
A worked example
The choke impedance depends on the ferrite core, and its ferrite permeability and loss are frequency dependent.
Fig 5:
Fig 5 shows the characteristics of Fair-rite #43 mix. The choke impedance cannot simply be modelled as a fixed idealised inductor. The model needs to calculate the equivalent series inductive reactance and loss resistance at each frequency of interest. Choke impedance Zc=j*2*π*f*n^2*Alilf*(µ'-jµ'') where Al is inductance for 1 turn at µrilf, and µilf is the initial permeability at low frequency.
Fig 6:
Fig 6 shows the impedance for a 12 turn choke wound on a Fair-rite _PHONE_ (or _PHONE_) #43 core (29mmx19mmx7.5mm). Quantity Z is the magnitude of R+jX.
Another challenge is that transmission line Zo and loss may be influenced by both skin and proximity effect. Skin effect causes the current to flow mainly on the surface of conductors, and proximity effect causes currents in opposite directions to tend to flow mainly on the adjacent surfaces of conductor that are very close together.
Fig 6a:
Fig 6a shows an estimate of Zo based on the log function, the acosh function and a curved derived from Fig 4.23 of Radio Antenna Engineering by Edmund LaPort, 1952. It would appear that LaPort's graph may be a correction to the log function that he gives in the book, and an estimate of the cosh curve. With that consideration, the acosh curve is used in the models.
A proximity resistance correction is calculated using an algorithm from the program line_zin.pas by Reg Edwards (G4FGQ).
Fig 8:
Fig 8 shows a plot of VSWR and loss modelled for a Ruthroff 1:4 balun made with 12 turns of transmission line wound on a Fair-rite _PHONE_ (or _PHONE_) #43 core (29mmx19mmx7.5mm). The transmission line comprises 0.5mm diameter copper conductors spaced 0.6mm centre to centre. Under matched conditions, losses are very low, 2% at worst. Estimating that the core can probably safely dissipate up to 5W, the balun is probably capable of continuous power rating of 250W.
Fig 9:
Fig 9 shows common mode impedance. Common mode impedance is very low, which means that this type of balun does little to impede common mode current, eg on an antenna feed line connected to the balanced port.
References / links
Conclusions are:
Version Date Description
1.01 12/12/2007 Initial.


hiding real directory information from users increases the security of your system. This is probably true but it is generally not a significant security problem. By default, this is off because the real directory path is often very helpful in sorting out problems, and we believe that making the server easier to use and administer is more important than this subtle security enhancement. However, the option is provided here if you do want/need to be paranoid.
The banner is displayed after the user has logged in. Some FTP clients hide this information but most will display it in some way. Typically you use this banner to tell users what they will find in various directories. You can use a special variable %virtual_paths% which the server will replace with a list of aliases that are defined and there real physical paths.
Back to server


(e.g. pictures of cats labelled 'cats' and pictures of other stuff also correctly labelled)
 3. For every piece of training data, feed it into the network
 4. Check whether the network gets it right (given a picture labelled 'cat', is the result of the network also 'cat' or is it 'dog', or something else?)
 5. If not, how wrong was it? Or, how right was it? (What probability or'confidence' did it assign to its guess?)
 6. Nudge the weights a little to increase the probability of the network more confidently getting the answer right
 7. Repeat
Let's visualise this. Let's assume we are training a network to differentiate between cats and dogs. We therefore only need two output neurons — one for each classification. We feed a cat image into the network. For now, imagine that each pixel of the image corresponds to one 'input' (we'll see later how we can improve on this for images). Here, it's assigned a probability of 62% that the image is a dog, and 38% that it's a cat. Ideally, we want it to say this image is 100% cat.
So, we go backwards through the network, nudging the weights and biases to increase the chance that the network would classify this as a cat.
Training the network — the long version
Now let's take a deeper look at how we do this.
How do we know how wrong the network is? We measure the difference between the network's output and the correct output using the 'loss function'.
The loss function is also sometimes called the error function, energy function or cost function. Again, this took me a while to realise, so hopefully that will save you some time!
The best loss function will depend on your data and the intended application. We don't have time to go into details about the different options, but in the spirit of encouraging intuition, a simple example of a loss function could be'mean squared error' — this is what we learnt at school for fitting a line to data points — you try to minimise the squared distance between each of the points and the line:
A loss function is doing a similar thing, but in many, many more dimensions. They can get mathematically complicated, but it's useful just to think of it as the difference between what the network does output and what it should output.
The goal of training is to find the weights and biases that minimise the loss function.
We can plot the loss against the weights. To do this accurately, we would need to be able to visualise tons of dimensions, to account for the many weights and biases in the network. Because I find it difficult to visualise more than three dimensions, let's pretend we only need to find two weight values. We can then use the third dimension for the loss. Before training the network, the weights and biases are randomly initialised so the loss function is likely to be high as the network will get a lot of things wrong. Our aim is to find the lowest point of the loss function, and then see what weight values that corresponds to. It might look something like this:
Image source:
Here, we can easily see where the lowest point is and could happily read off the corresponding weights values. Unfortunately, it's not that easy in reality. The network doesn't have a nice overview of the loss function, it can only know what its current loss is and its current weights and biases are. This is more like how the network sees it:
So how do we help the network find the lowest point?!
Gradient Descent
To find the lowest point, we use a technique called Gradient Descent. Imagine you are standing at the top of a mountain but have a blindfold on. You need to make it down to the bottom but you can't see which way to go. What do you do? You feel around with your foot and find the direction that has the steepest slope, and then take a small step in that direction. You don't want to take too big a step — that could be dangerous — but you also don't want to take too small a step — it will take forever to get down.
So in terms of the network's loss function, we find the direction of the steepest slope downwards, and take a 'small step' by nudging the weights a little in that direction.
At first, the loss function will be high and the network will make incorrect predictions. As the weights are adjusted and the loss function decreases, the network will get better at outputting the right answers. Let's try and visualise this:
As we descend the loss function 'landscape', the predictions of the network improve, as does its confidence.
When reading about neural networks, you'll often come across the term 'backpropagation'. This refers to the algorithm used to perform gradient descent across the multiple layers of the network. The name comes from the fact that we start the process at the output layer, and work towards the input layer, propagating the changes backwards throughout the network. We calculate the gradient of the slope at each layer mathematically by taking the partial derivative of the loss with respect to the weights (if that makes no sense to you right now, don't worry).
The amount we then nudge the weights in that direction is determined by the learning rate — this is the size of our 'step' down the mountain.
Don't panic!
That was quite a lot of technical detail given that I claimed this post was about creating intuition. But it's ok, because there are loads of machine learning libraries that take care of the tricky maths. As long as you have a rough understanding of the overall process, you should know enough to read the documentation and start using these libraries. There are loads of options but one of the most popular at the moment is TensorFlow, Google's open source machine learning library in Python. There are loads of great tutorials to help you get started.
Convolutional Neural Networks
Now let's look at a special type of neural network called a 'Convolutional Neural Network', or ConvNet. Earlier, we visualised a cat image being fed into a neural network, and I said just assume each pixel corresponds to one input.
It turns out, there's a more effective way to handle image data rather than assuming each pixel is independent.
If you think about an image, normally, pixels have a relationship with their neighbours (unless the image is of random noise). If I pick any random pixel of an image, it is quite likely that at least some of its neighbours are close to it in colour. In other words, there is a kind of structure to the image where neighbouring pixels tend to have some correlation.
ConvNets are specifically designed to take advantage of structure in input data. This is why they work so well for image processing and computer vision tasks.
Images are arrays of numbers
Here, I have pixellated an image of a hand-drawn number to illustrate this. In a monochrome image, each pixel has a value. In the example here, white pixels have a value of 1, black pixels have a value of 0, and grey is somewhere in between. The same principle is true of colour images, but instead each pixel is defined by three numbers corresponding to the red, green and blue channels (sometimes there is a fourth number representing the 'alpha' channel which controls transparency).
Because images are just arrays of numbers, we can do maths on them. A particularly useful mathematical operation we can do is called 'convolution'. This involves passing another array of numbers over every pixel of the image, multiplying the overlapping numbers, adding them up, and creating a new array containing the results.
The array of numbers we pass over the image is called a 'kernel filter'. Let's say we have this kernel filter:
Let's imagine convolving this with an image represented by the green array of numbers below. The red array represents the result of this convolution operation.
Image source:
Convolving images in this way allows us to perform lots of 'filter' effects — many might seem familiar from image editing software like PhotoShop — this is exactly what happens when you apply a filter effect to your photos.
Depending on the values in the kernel filter, different results can be achieved.
Above, we see how different filters produce different effects. To blur an image, you essentially take an average of a pixel with its neighbours. To sharpen an image or detect edges, you amplify the pixel and de-weight its neighbours.
A convolutional neuron
Remember our neuron from earlier? It looked something like this:
A convolutional neuron has got a very similar structure:
We have inputs; but instead of each being a single value we now take an array of values. Instead of multiplying the inputs by their own weights, we use the convolution operation with a shared kernel filter. The values within the kernel filter are what we need to work out by training the network. We sum the result with the bias and pass it through an activation function to get our output. With a convolutional neuron, the output is often an array rather than a single value.
What's so great about ConvNets?
ConvNets have been making a splash in many image processing tasks. One example of this is the 'ImageNet Challenge', which asks teams to create algorithms to recognise objects given a labelled training data set.
Results of an algorithm in this challenge might look something like this:
Image source:
As long as the correct object is within the algorithm's top 5 guesses, it's considered to have got it right. Until 2011, a good result in this challenge was around 25% error — so the algorithms would still guess incorrectly a quarter of the time, and a single percentage point was considered a good improvement


text:
Java/M 3 tier system solution
gives an overview of the work being done to investigate the possibility of using Java and
a 3 tier solution for VISTA's CIRN application. The decision to investigate a
three-tier solution is driven by the need for sharing of patient information between
hospitals and non-VA systems.
The idea of sharing information between systems is not a new idea. Ever since serial communication computers have been sharing information (there could be earlier examples, but this is as far back as I go!). When you think of HL7, it is a standardized stream of characters that enable systems to share information. Basically an agreement between to HL7 systems that specify where to expect certain data in a stream of characters.
With the advent of the Object world and acceptance of Delphi within VISTA, a 3-tier solution allows us to take sharing of information to the next level of communication, specifically objects. This leads into Object Request Brokers (basically software that serves up Objects rather than a stream of characters). This of course lead to Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) which defines a standard way that ORBs talk. And of course this leads to spin-offs like a group called CORBAMed that defines standard ways that clinical Objects are used in the same way that HL7 standardized a stream of characters.
What does Objects provide over parsing a streams of characters? Think of an HL7 character stream that may be made up of 1000's of characters and you want the patient's last name. In this stream there are multiple names (Doctor's name, Patient Name, maybe next of kin, etc.). This basically forces you to learn a very lengthy standard to figure out just how to get the patient's name and where it is located. This is an over-simplified example, but it gets the point across (especially for those of you who had to carry the HL7 standard documentation around).
Now in the object world, this could be as simple as: MyCORBAMedObject.getPatientLastName(). That's it. Setting data is just as easy as MyCORBAMedObject.setPatientLastName("Smith"). Much easier to use.
When you also realize that objects support more than characters, like images or sound you begin to realize that a lot more potential and value exists in the object world.
The CIRN project is an initiative within the Department of Veteran's Affairs to integrate patient information within the VA. Historically, patient information was not easily or readily available between VA Medical Centers (VAMCs). The CIRN project allows a VAMC to have access to up-to-date clinical information for a patient. This information is a history of the patients care that may span many VAMCs. This is not a project that "combines" databases, but rather allows sharing of patient information between VA Medical Centers.
Current Data Transportation using an Object Request Broker (ORB)
|The technology being
utilized in this discussion is a three tier solution using a CORBA compliant ORB server as
the middle tier. Please view our Java Links section for more
information on CORBA and our Technical Diagram section for
information on how this three-tier solution works.
Basically, a middle tier separates the client system from the database. This means the client does not care whether the data is coming from a M-System database, SQL Database (MS Access, MS-SQL, etc.) or any other platform.
What this provides the Department of Veteran's Affairs is the following:
|What needs to be done to implement this design?||All the pieces
already exist to implement a three-tier solution all the way from the Client end
(Java/Delphi to the VISTA database using the current Kernel RPC). The work can be
accomplished by pulling all the "pieces" together. Here is a general list
of the parts of the system I designed:
For more technical "stuff", visit Technical Ingredients page that describes some of the Java
classes in more detail.
VISTA Demo utilizing a 3 tier solution
|The following demonstration displays a user session. This is a screen-capture of a "Live" demo using the system here at the Altoona VAMC.|
Making M-Database into ORB objects
|The majority of work in implementing this
architecture is transforming VISTA data into objects that can be used with the ORB
server. To create an ORB object is very similar to the current VISTA Delphi/M
architecture. One must first define the object, write the M-RPC calls to support the
object, and then place the data into the object. Eventually this mapping process
A solution to this problem that has been investigated is to write a Java program that will compile an ORB Object based on a VISTA FileMan file. This FileMan file would operate very much like a FileMan print template. But instead of compiling the template for output to a device, the file would compiled to produce the necessary data-extraction routines, Kernel RPC calls, ORB server routine, and ORB skeleton objects necessary to implement the the ORB object.
This may sound complicated, but it isn't and allows M-programmers not familiar with Java, Delphi, Objects, etc. to create objects required by COTS or VISTA GUI's.
M-Legacy System and Business logic
|A major consideration when designing a
client/server or 3-tier system is the location of the business logic. When an
M-System is not separated, this is not an issue as the User Interfaces (UI's) and business
logic is contained within the M-environment.
However, what happens when you develop a GUI (using Java, Delphi, etc.) that becomes the front-end to your M-system? You will notice that business logic tends to become duplicated causing a maintenance headache.
For example, let's say you are to design a patient registration form that has a prompt "Date of Birth" as one of the prompts. Simple enough...right? Well, not really. As any programmer would ask is "what is a valid date?" Should I allow 100 years, 110 years, 120 years in the past to be entered? (hmmm...). The first act is to "peek" at the legacy system to see how they do it...ahh..the limit is 110 years...my answer...so that gets coded into the GUI. Two weeks later, a change is made on the legacy system to make 120 years a valid date, but they don't notify the GUI programmer...now your GUI is inconsistent with your legacy system. Multiply this one prompt by a large system like VISTA and you have a major problem.
Your goal should be to make your GUI as unintelligent as possible...make it sing the song "If I only had a brain". Code your forms to collect information (not process) and have these forms sent to the legacy system to be accepted or rejected. If the form is rejected by legacy, a message describing the problem is given to the user. Obviously minor logic will still need to be contained in the GUI. For example, date prompts should only allow dates and number prompts should only allow numbers.
The additional two alternatives begin to go outside the scope of this discussion, but are worth mentioning if you goal is to eventually replace your M-System:
The second alternative is to place your business logic on the middle-tier (in this case Java). This becomes much more complex to implement when you consider all the legacy business logic that will have to be converted to your ORB server. This may be an appropriate solution if your overall goal is to eventually move your data to another platform. You will need to make sure your newly converted ORB objects don't access data "the old way" (using RPCs) since you will have to convert these when you drop in your new database. A black box should be considered that can be "switched" to the new database access logic.
A better alternative is to research Object Oriented Databases that have ORBs built into the database. This basically combines the 2nd and 3rd tier into one. You client systems will deal with an object environment and this eliminates the need to create objects on-the-fly from a legacy system as mentioned in the previous sections. You would basically design your objects and then move your legacy data into these objects during time of conversion.
|When considering to Implement a 3-tier
solution, you would assume that it means a major investment in another technology outside
the M-system. By keeping your business logic and data on the M-System and
implementing automated ORB wrappers and basic GUI forms, your major investment still
remains with your M-System and M-professionals.
Also, keep in mind that once you setup your ORB server, you can utilize any CORBA compliant front-end GUI (Delphi for example). It does not have to be a total Java solution. Java on the client end is good if you want your GUI to be compatible with many different platforms (not just Windows).
As with any system, technology should not drive the system requirements. You need to determine your business requirements, and then technology should be researched to determine the best approach. There are other alternatives such as Java->M-System (no ORB server) or you could use Java RMI (Remote Method Invocation). Java RMI is "free" unlike commercial ORB Servers, but it isn't as robust.
|The opinions expressed contained in this section is that of a programmer stuck in a corner with the window-shades pulled down for an extreme period of time and not that of the Department of Veteran's Affairs. Read at your own risk.|
About the author
|Bob Yacobucci has been involved with VISTA and M since 198


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The physics of causality
Causality has been the subject of many genre works and was perhaps most famously discussed in the Wachowskis' Matrix trilogy.
Essentially, causality is the idea that events in the present are caused by events in the past and, in turn, act as causes for what happens in the future. So for example, if event A is a cause of an effect B, then B cannot be a cause of A.
However, theoretical physicists at the University of Vienna and the Université Libre de Bruxelles recently came up with a quantum mechanic theory that says it is possible to conceive situations in which a single event can be both a cause *and* an effect of another one. Although it is still unknown if such situations can be actually found in nature, the sheer possibility that they could exist may have far-reaching implications for the foundations of quantum mechanics, quantum gravity and quantum computing.
According to Caslav Brukner from the University of Vienna, events are ordered in time in everyday life and in classical physics. Meaning, a cause can only influence an effect in its future not in its past.
As a simple example, imagine a person, Alice, walking into a room and finding there a piece of paper. After reading what is written on the paper Alice erases the message and leaves her own message on the piece of paper. Another person, Bob, walks into the same room at some other time and does the same: he reads, erases and re-writes some message on the paper. If Bob enters the room after Alice, he will be able to read what she wrote; however Alice will not have a chance to know Bob's message.
In this case, Alice's writing is the "cause" and what Bob reads the "effect." Each time the two repeat the procedure, only one will be able to read what the other wrote. Even if they don't have watches and don't know who enters the room first, they can deduce it by what they write and read on the paper. For example, Alice might write "Alice was here today," such that if Bob reads the message, he will know that he came to the room after her.
So as long as only the laws of classical physics are allowed, the order of events is fixed: either Bob or Alice is first to enter the room and leave a message for the other person. When quantum mechanics enters into play, however, the picture may change drastically.
According to quantum mechanics, objects can lose their well-defined classical properties, such as e.g. a particle that can be at two different locations at the same time. In quantum physics this is called a "superposition."
But now Brukner and his team say that even the causal order of events could be in such a superposition.
"If - in our example - Alice and Bob have a quantum system instead of an ordinary piece of paper to write their messages on, they can end up in a situation where each of them can read a part of the message written by the other," he explained. "Effectively, one has a superposition of two situations: 'Alice enters the room first and leaves a message before Bob' and 'Bob enters the room first and leaves a message before Alice.'"
Such a superposition, says Ognyan Oreshkov from the Université Libre de Bruxelles, has not been considered in the standard formulation of quantum mechanics since the theory always assumes a definite causal order between events.
"[However], if we believe that quantum mechanics governs all phenomena, it is natural to expect that the order of events could also be indefinite, similarly to the location of a particle or its velocity," noted Fabio Costa from the University of Vienna. "[Of course], the real challenge is finding out where in nature we should look for superpositions of causal orders."


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Danes start celebrations early during festive season
There are a lot of differences between Christmas in Hong Kong and Denmark. Christmas is a very important festival in Denmark, even more important than New Year, and there are a lot of Christmas traditions.
Four weeks before Christmas Eve, the Danes begin to celebrate Christmas by lighting up one of the Advent candles, a traditional decoration put up in Denmark every year before Christmas.
There are four candles and one is lit each weekend. On the last weekend before Christmas, all four candles would have been lit.
The Danes put up Christmas trees with beautiful lights in front of their houses. They also have Advent calendars for children. From the first of December, children get a small present from their parents every day, until December 24.
Meanwhile, teenagers take on the role of julenissens, Santa's helpers in Danish fairytales, and give a classmate a present or greeting card.
On Christmas Eve, the whole family gets together for a big meal. Ris is manden is served for dessert. There will be an almond in one or two servings of the dessert. If you get the almond, you have to hide it. After the meal, the cook, usually the mother, will ask who has the almond, and whoever does will get a small present.
After dinner, the family will sing and dance around the Christmas tree which is illuminated with candles. It is a really warm and happy festival.
Chi-man is an exchange student from Hong Kong


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A History of the Irish Short Story
- Mobipocket eBook
Though the short story is often regarded as central to the Irish canon, this 2009 text was the first comprehensive study of the genre for many years. Heather Ingman traces the development of the modern short story in Ireland from its beginnings in the nineteenth century to the present day. Her study analyses the material circumstances surrounding publication, examining the role of magazines and editors in shaping the form. Ingman incorporates recent critical thinking on the short story, traces international connections, and gives a central part to Irish women's short stories. Each chapter concludes with a detailed analysis of key stories from the period discussed, featuring Joyce, Edna O'Brien and John McGahern, among others. With its comprehensive bibliography and biographies of authors, this volume will be a key work of reference for scholars and students both of Irish fiction and of the modern short story as a genre.


Diabetic patients: Technology's useful to communicate with docs, as long as it's free
SAN FRANCISCO Patients with diabetes may seek information from their physicians outside of scheduled office visits but are not willing to pay for such services, according to a new study presented at the American Osteopathic Association's 115th Osteopathic Medical Conference and Exposition.
Among 300 patients with diabetes, the study authors noted, 42% communicated with their physicians by telephone outside of scheduled office visits and 13% used e-mail. However, 62% of patients said they would not pay to communicate with their physicians outside of scheduled office visits.
"Patients want some way to communicate with their physicians, such as by phone or pager, to ask questions about managing their diabetes or to share information about their condition, such as their blood sugar levels," said study co-author Jay Shubrook, an AOA board-certified osteopathic family physician from Athens, Ohio. "They like the access, but they don't want to pay for it."
The study also found older respondents, who averaged between ages 51 years and 60 years, did not use Twitter or Facebook to communicate with their physician. What's more, only 69% of respondents had Internet access at home. This could be because older adults do not find paying for the Internet a priority compared with their other expenses, including those related to other medical conditions, Shubrook said.
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Penn State's high tunnel facility.
Growing tomatoes generates the greatest revenue per square foot and the quality of tomatoes produced in a high tunnel can be far superior to field grown fruit. However, the increasing numbers of tunnels and early tomatoes will likely reduce the current premium on early tomatoes. Growers should look at diversification to provide a wider range of product offerings and perhaps even give tunnel soils a break from tomato crop after tomato crop.
The controlled environment and season extension characteristics of high tunnels open up all kinds of opportunities for growers seeking to explore alternative production systems. High tunnel tomatoes are often superior to field grown fruit and generate more revenue per square foot than field grown tomatoes. Unfortunately, the constant production of tomatoes in high tunnels (with no rotation) has led to increased incidences of soil borne pathogens like verticillium and fusarium wilt. As a result, growers have been forced to move to grafted plants in order to maintain consistent production in these high tunnels.
Early tomatoes replanted
By planting tomatoes in a heated tunnel, growers in the Mid-Atlantic can install tomato transplants by early to Mid-April (or even earlier) and be harvesting by early June or earlier. If using an early fruiting, determinate variety such as Primo Red, there is the opportunity to remove the initial planting and replant in Mid-July with a variety such as Charger or Finishline for a September, October, November harvest. Indeterminate varieties such as Big Dena work well in an all season system. However, determinate varieties are often looking pretty poor by late summer. Replacing the plants in mid-July provides for fresh plants to carry into the fall while field produced tomatoes are in good supply. Replacement transplants will need to be started in early June for this system. Due to variations in varieties sensitivity to day length, not all tomato varieties will work when mid-summer planted.
Early tomatoes replaced with parthenocarpic cucumbers
This variation on the system noted above simply replaces the early tomatoes with parthenocarpic cucumbers in mid-July. Since the cucumbers develop so quickly as compared to tomatoes, this plant flip can be delayed until late-July or early August while still yielding a substantial crop. Plants and stakes will need to be removed, but drip tape and plastic mulch can be reused. We've had excellent success with cucumbers when planted in the mid to late summer period with harvest occurring into late October in an unheated tunnel. With a bit of heat, there is the strong possibility to carry summer planted cucumbers into mid-November or later. Consider varieties such as Corinto, Lisboa, Picolino, Katrina or Socrates. Plan ahead to manage powdery mildew and botrytis. Cucumbers develop very quickly so this is a very fast turnaround crop to maintain cash flow. Direct plant cucumber seeds 6" apart and train vertically using vine clips and heavy tomato twine. By screening the tunnel with regular window screening, you can prevent cucumber beetles and have higher quality cucumbers by keeping pollinators away.
Green then colored: Two of the challenges with bell peppers are the very low prices during the summer glut of green field bells and the high losses in the field if fruit are left hanging long enough to color fully. Growing bell peppers in a high tunnel beats both of these problems. Green bells will be in full harvest 4-6 weeks prior to field bells and the typical 80-90% packing losses for bells left to color in the field can be reversed to where growers can pack 90% or better of red, yellow or orange peppers from a tunnel. Consider dividing production so that a portion of the plants are harvested as green bells as early as possible while allowing others to hang until fully colored. Then when field green bells begin to show up and prices drop, stop picking them in the tunnel and allow them to color completely. Be proactive in managing our latest bell pepper pest, Broad mites. This pest appears to be gaining ground rapidly and can decimate pepper plants and fruit.
Early tomatoes then greens into fall
Take advantage of the higher prices for early season tomatoes, then flip production to produce greens when the prices for tomatoes start to dip. One of the challenges with replanting tomatoes mid-summer is that you'll probably be removing plants with lots of potentially marketable fruit. If replanting the tunnel with greens instead of tomatoes, you can delay the replant for several weeks and potentially have greens to sell all winter. Transplants can go into the same plastic that the tomatoes came out of or plant into flats filled with potting media that are installed over the beds propped up on concrete blocks for easier harvesting.
Succession plantings of parthenocarpic cucumbers
The quality of cucumbers that come out of high tunnels can be extraordinary as compared to field grown. Once your markets get used to these beautiful cukes, it may be hard for them to accept field grown. Rather than planting an entire tunnel at the same time, consider planting in flights every 2-3 weeks, so that there are always young plants coming into harvest all season. So long as no soil-borne diseases crop up, there is no reason not to remove and replace plants as they senesce naturally during the season. Experience at the Penn State Southeast Agriculture Research and Extension Center (SEAREC / Landisville Farm) over the past three years has shown us that cucumber vines start to naturally senesce after 5-6 weeks of harvesting. We grew the cucumbers in #2000 (3.6 gallon) nursery pots with two plants per pot. As the vines started to collapse, we simply removed the plant roots and all, topped off the pot with fresh potting media, direct seeded and were back in production in 40-45 days.
Day neutral strawberries
By tunnel growing day neutral strawberries, harvest can begin well ahead of the June field season, continue slowly all summer, then rebound in the fall. Consider planting into containers using a high percentage coir potting media or coir planting strips on stepped benches to make the best use of space and reduce stoop labor. Monitor nutrients carefully as coir planted berries will often be calcium challenged. When using any media other than soil, the system is a variation on hydroponic production, so the crop is completely dependent on proper fertigation. Scout often for Spotted Wing Drosophila (SWD) and mites.


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NEW YORK (9/8/10)--Money skills are crucial to the next generation's ability to live responsibly and independently. Will they get all the important personal finance information they need at school this fall? Probably not. But, there's something you can do about it. Prepare yourself and your child for National Money Talk Night (Forbes
Aug. 25). Taking advantage of the back-to-school atmosphere, American Express, with Jean Chatzky, is sponsoring National Money Talk Night, a time for parents and their children to talk about personal finance on Sept. 16. The idea for the night arose from discussions Chatzky, a nationally known personal finance author and media personality, held with American Express, the Jump$tart Coalition and the Council on Economic Education. Chatzky has prepared the tools, information, and even the words you need to have the Money Talk with your child. The information is available for three age groups: middle school, high school and college students. Here's what you do:
* Visit MoneyNightTalk now. Download and view resources so you can get your own questions answered in advance. Pledge to have the Money Talk with your child. Print the talking points appropriate to your child's age group. * Mark Thursday, Sept. 16 on your calendar and ask your teenagers and young adult children to do the same. *On Sept. 16, sit down with your kids and have the Money Talk. You can use the MoneyNightTalk website or personal finance information on your credit union's website during your discussion to help answer your kids' questions.
Take note of the money attitudes and ideas that come out of your discussions. If you don't have children, invite your spouse or significant other to this national event. Use the talking points to help you discuss your financial goals.


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According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, global carbon dioxide emissions from transportation increased 45 percent from 1990 to 2007. By 2030, transportation emissions will increase by approximately another 40 percent. Road emissions dominate transportation sector emissions, with light-duty vehicles accounting for the bulk of emissions globally.
Both our transportation technology and our approach to how we get door-to-door are in urgent need of innovation, and this means that multiple, diverse stakeholders must come together to advance knowledge and develop solutions.
Enabling sustainable transportation requires a holistic approach. It's not just addressing the modes of transportation we use to travel; it's the behavioral, economic and policy framework that comprises our transportation system.
Public/private research partnerships offer a unique opportunity to convene diverse areas of expertise to address sustainable transportation.
Alcoa, one of the world's largest aluminum producers, is taking a convening role to increase sustainability in transportation and other areas through its Alcoa Foundation Advancing Sustainability Research: Innovative Partnerships for Actionable Solutions initiative.
Alcoa Foundation invested US $4 million to support non-proprietary research across five continents, engaging universities, NGOs and research institutions to increase knowledge and develop actionable solutions. Areas of focus for ASR include global sustainability issues such as transportation, climate change, energy consumption and water management. Conducted throughout 2012 and 2013, research will be widely shared to spur development and adoption of best practices.
A key aspect of ASR is fostering the next generation of sustainable innovation --which not only means new knowledge and fresh ideas, but emerging leaders in sustainability. Through projects that engage students in research, ASR and its academic partners are helping to weave sustainability into higher education and integrate the development of sustainable solutions into the way the next generation approaches various disciplines. This has enormous benefits for the students, the organizations they will touch in their careers, and the industries and communities that will benefit from the solutions they help develop.
Two of Alcoa Foundation's academic partners are addressing sustainable transportation through a combination of basic and applied research. The foundation's partnership with The Ohio State University Institute for Materials Research is designing a new class of light vehicle structures with reduced weight, improved fuel efficiency and recyclability at the end of the vehicle's useful life. The project is developing, refining and testing methods of joining aluminum, magnesium, steel and composites. These new designs will increase mileage, passenger safety, vehicle handling and longevity. Researchers are also experimenting with rearrangement of components, to allow for mass customization at reduced cost. Ultimately, the partnership between Alcoa Foundation and OSU will lead to a new class of economically competitive light vehicles with short logistic chains, which can be manufactured in the markets where they are used.
Alcoa Foundation is also supporting SMART (Sustainable Mobility & Accessibility Research & Transformation), a university-wide initiative housed at the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI) and Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning. SMART's research focuses on accelerating implementation of "new mobility" -- integrated, multi-modal, IT-enhanced and sustainable systems of transportation -- to provide safer, more convenient and cost-effective door-to-door trips. The research, which focuses on Beijing and Detroit as the pilot cities, aims to generate sustainable community-wide and regional solutions for mobility and accessibility, leveraging new business models and creating green job opportunities.
More information on these programs and other efforts supporting sustainable innovation is available from the Alcoa Foundation.
Photo of business partners via Shutterstock.com.
Matt Brest will be among the speakers at VERGE DC next week. Joining him in a panel discussion on "Urban Mobility and Sustainable Transportation" will be Susan Zielinski, managing director of SMART, and Glenn Daehn, professor of metallurgical engineering at Ohio State University. More information about VERGE DC is available here.


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Plastic Equivalent Air Depths Table
This chart allows you to quickly calculate what percentage of your total oxygen exposure limits you have consumed on each dive. Time values in this chart are based on the NOAA Oxygen Exposure Time Limits for Working Divers. Fractional percentage values have been rounded to the nearest whole number, with a minimum value of one percent. Susceptibility to decompression sickness and oxygen toxicity can vary from person to person, and from day to day. No dive table, computer or planning device can guarantee (even if used correctly) you will not suffer from one or both of these problems. Therefore, the used must assume all risks associated with the use of this product. This item is made from a flexible, water-proof, plastic.


Meaning of Furtive?
Furtive means sly or surreptitious. It is believed to have been first used in 1480 and is of Latin origin. It was derived from the word furtivus where furt means thief. Synonyms of this word include cloaked and sneaky.
1 Additional Answer Answer for: what does furtive mean
sly; shifty: a furtive manner.
Q&A Related to "Meaning of Furtive?"
Someone who is very furtive is someone who could be considered to be shift or shady, as if they have an ulterior motive of their actions. You can find more information here: http:
furtive means sneaky.
noun The act of proceeding slowly, deliberately, and secretly to escape observation: slinkiness, sneakiness, stealth, stealthiness. See move/halt.
Furtive:1:marked by quiet and caution and secrecy; taking pains to avoid being observed; 2:secret
Explore this Topic
Furtively means acting or being in a furtive manner or way. It is having hidden purposes or motives as you are mysterious, surreptitious and stealth. It is the...
Furtive means, taken, done, used, surreptitiously or by stealth, secret. Tell all your friends...
The word furtive is an adjective meaning a feeling of guilty and nervousness worrying that the discovery would lead to trouble. The synonyms for the term furtive...


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Northallerton lecture by descendant of key figure in US history
12:11pm Sunday 30th December 2012 in News
A DESCENDANT of a man who helped shape America's history, is set to give a talk.
Jeremiah Dixon was responsible for helping create America's Mason-Dixon line, which divided the slave-owning Southern states from abolitionist Northern states during the civil war.
Jeremiah Dixon, from Cockfield, County Durham, was commissioned 250 years ago by King George III to help resolve a dispute over boundary lines between the English colonies of Maryland and Pennsylvania in the US.
Maryland had been founded in 1632 by the Calvert family from Kiplin Hall, North Yorkshire, as a refuge for English Catholics. About 50 years later, neighbouring Pennsylvania was created by the Quaker William Penn and inhabited by the more aggressive Puritans.
Although surveying was in its infancy, accurate boundary measurements were required to prevent continuing argument, so the royal astronomer at the Greenwich Observatory recommended his assistant Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon, from Cockfield to undertake a boundary survey.
It took five years and proved one of the great technological feats of the century.
The boundary became the Mason-Dixon, which defined the boundary of freedom for escaping black slaves and the dividing line between Southern and Northern states in the civil war.
Now one of his direct descendants, John Dixon, is to host a talk entitled Jeremiah Dixon; Revered in America, Forgotten at Home, for Northallerton and District Local History Society.
It will take place at the Sacred Heart Church Hall on Thirsk Road, Northallerton at 7pm on Tuesday, January 8. Non-members are welcome at a nominal admission charge of £2.50, while students under 18 will be admitted free.
Comments are closed on this article.


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||This article includes inline citations, but they are not properly formatted. (April 2013)|
||This article's lead section may not adequately summarize key points of its contents. (February 2013)|
In economics, a positional good is a product or service whose value is at least in part (if not exclusively) a function of its ranking in desirability by others, in comparison to substitutes. The extent to which a good's value depends on such a ranking is referred to as its positionality.
The term was coined by Fred Hirsch in 1976. The broad theme of Hirsch's book, in which he developed his theory of positional goods, was, he told the New York Times, that material growth can "no longer deliver what has long been promised for it - to make everyone middle-class". This important concept explains why, as economic growth improves overall quality of life at any particular level, doing "better" than how your grandparents lived does not translate automatically into doing "well", if there are as many or more people ahead of you in the economic hierarchy. For example, if you are the first in your family to get a college degree, you are doing better. But if you were at the bottom of your class at a weak school, you may find yourself less eligible for a job than your grandfather, who was only a high school graduate. "The value to me of my education - the satisfaction I derive from it - depends upon how much education the man ahead of me in the job line has."
Hirsch's contribution is becoming more notable as the Great Recession multiplies the number of college educated but poorly employed graduates, and probably explains why he would be referenced in a television situation-comedy: "There's an economic concept known as a positional good in which an object is only valued by the possessor because it's not possessed by others. The term was coined in 1976 by economist Fred Hirsch to replace the more colloquial, but less precise neener-neener."
Positional goods often earn economic rents or quasi-rents. Examples of positional goods include high social status, exclusive real estate, a spot in the freshman class of a prestigious university, a reservation at the "hottest" new restaurant, and fame. The measure of satisfaction derived from a positional good depends on how much one has in relation to everyone else.
Competitions for positional goods are zero-sum games because such goods are inherently scarce, at least in the short run. Attempts to acquire them can only benefit one player at the expense of others. By definition, every person cannot be the most educated, the most skilled, or elite, in the same way that every person cannot be a star athlete: all of those terms imply a separation or superiority over other people.
Land (in the economic sense) is similar to positional goods in that it cannot be created, and land rent arises largely because of a parcel's ranking in desirability against other plots. However, land is valued at least in part for its absolute contribution to productivity, which does not derive from its relative ranking. Thus, some economists (such as Hirsch) include 'land' in positional goods, while others (such as Robert H. Frank) only include goods which are valued specifically because of their relative quality.
In general, positional goods cannot be created, only redistributed, while material goods can be created with time and effort. However, most goods have both a positional and a material component. Fast cars may be considered to be inherently scarce because one's perception of a car's speed depends on its relation to other vehicles, but there is still an absolute value attached to satisfaction gained from the speed at which a car can travel; it can be considered as having a positional aspect in that only some cars can be the fastest. Because a car is a complex product made of many other materials, some of which (such as steel) are limited in supply and some which (such as leather) are renewable, they may instead be considered Veblen goods.
Positional externalities
Some economists, such as Robert Frank, argue that positional goods create externalities, or a so-called "arms race" for goods that might boost one's social status relative to others. This phenomenon is clearly wasteful; thus, it is argued, government can improve social welfare by imposing high luxury tax on certain luxury goods to correct for this externality and mitigate the social waste.
However, in some cases it may be less clear that such government intervention is warranted in response to these externalities. For example, government spending may be administered by players are equally motivated by positional goals. Furthermore, in certain cases, such government actions can potentially impede improvements in living standards and innovation. Technological advance itself is possible in part because wealthy individuals are willing to purchase new and untested goods. There is a certain experimentation and risk that accompany luxury goods, and if they are found to be useful they may eventually be mass produced and made affordable to the common person: one era's luxuries are another's commonplace goods. In short, the negative positional externality is often compensated by the public goods of infant industry effects and research and development. Ultimately, any such positive effects of these goods would need to weighed against the negative positional effects to determine the magnitude of any consumption taxes placed on them.
See also
- Fred Hirsch (1977). The Social Limits to Growth, Routledge & Kegan Paul, London. ISBN 0-674-81365-0
- [Fred Hirsch, 46, British Economist; Professor at Warwick] [January 12, 1978]
- [Dilemmas of Liberal Democracies Studies in Fred Hirsch's Social Limits to Growth edited by Adrian Ellis & Krishan Kumar]
- [If everyone stands on tiptoe, no one sees better: Social Limits to Growth Revisited][no page numbers - quoting Hirsch on page 3]
- _URL_ [The Big Bang Theory, Series 3 Episode 15 – The Large Hadron Collision]
- Henry George (1897). The Science of Political Economy.
- Joseph Heath (2002). "Should Productivity Growth be a Social Priority?" Review of Economic Performance and Social Progress, Andrew Sharpe et al., v. 2, pp. 227-42.
- • Robert H. Frank (2008). "consumption externalities," The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, 2nd Edition. Abstract.
- _____ (1997). "The Frame of Reference as a Public Good," Economic Journal, 107(445), pp. _PHONE_.
- _____ (2005). "Positional Externalities Cause Large and Preventable Welfare Losses," American Economic Review, 95(2), pp. 137-141 (close Bookmarks tab & press +).
- Massimiliano Vatiero (2009). "Positional Goods: A Diagrammatic Exposition." Abstract and link.
- Andrew Kashdan and Daniel B. Klein (2006). "Assume the Positional: Comment on Robert Frank," Econ Journal Watch, 3(3), pp. 412-34. Abstract.


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Definitions for key money
This page provides all possible meanings and translations of the word key money
Random House Webster's College Dictionary
advance rent or security required of a new tenant in exchange for the key to an apartment or house.
money paid, usu. secretly, to a landlord, superintendent, or current tenant by a person desiring future occupancy.
Origin of key money:
Key money is one of several forms of payment made to a landlord. The term has various meanings in different parts of the world. It sometimes means money paid to an existing tenant who assigns a lease to a new tenant where the rent is below market. It sometimes means a bribe to a landlord. In other parts of the world, it is used synonymously with normal security deposits, which are used to cover nonpayment of rent and excessive damage to a rental unit.
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person, I'm going to go up and inherit from person its init function and call it. And what am I calling it on? I'm calling it on self, which is pointing to this object, so I've still got it, and then I'm then going to apply the base initialization. And that does exactly what you'd expect, which is just going to create a binding for family name down here. As well as some other things. So this is an example of inheritance. MIT person inherits the init method from person, can get access to by simply referring to it, and I refer to it right there. And it's take the person class, get its init and apply it to my instance plus those things. So I'm just using the same piece of code
Notice the second thing it does. It says inside of self, I'm going to bind the local variable id name to the value of next id name in MIT person. Self is down here, id num, sorry, not id name. I'm going to bind that to the value that I find my going up to here, which is 0, and having done that, I simply increment that value. OK? So what has this done? It says I now have captured in the class, a local variable that I can keep track of. And when I use it, every time I generate an example, let me build another one. I make p 2 another MIT person. OK, I can do things like saying, what is the id number for each of these. First one is 0, second one is 1, which makes sense, right? I'm just incrementing a global variable. Now, things I want you to see about this. Now that I've got a beginning of a hierarchy, I have this notion of inheritance. I can ask a function inside one class to use a function from a class that it can reach by going up the chain. I just did it there. I can ask it to go get values of variables, right, so that looks good. What else do we have in person or MIT person? Well, we can get the id number, we just did. We have a thing to do with this string. Notice it's going to print out something a little different. In fact, there's a kind of funky form there. Which just says, if I want to print it out, I'm gonna create, what this says to do is, I'm gonna create an output template that has that structure to it, but where I see that percent s I'm going to substitute this value for the first one, that value for the second. So if I say, what is p 1? It says ok, MIT person Fred Smith. On the other hand, if I said, what is per, which is that thing I build earlier, it had a different string method, which is just print out person, those pieces.
All right, one last piece to this and we're going to add to it. Suppose I want Fred to say something. Say something to Jane. OK, he said it. Where's the say method? OK, Fred is an instance of an MIT person. where's the say method? Well, there isn't one there, but again, that's where the hierarchy comes in. Fred is this object here, I'm sending it the message say. That turns into going up the chain to this object, which is the class object, and saying find a say method and apply it to that instance. Fudge-knuckle, it ain't here. Don't worry about it, because it says if I can't find one there, I'm going to go up the chain to this method, sorry to this class, and look for a method there. Which there was one, I have a say method. It's going to use that say method. Apply to it. Well, you might say, OK, what happens if it isn't there? Well, that's where, remember I defined person to be an instance of an object, it will go up the chain one last time to the base object in Python to see is there a method there or not. Probably isn't a say method for an object, so at that point it's going to raise an exception or throw an error. But now you again see this idea that the inheritance lets you capture methods.
Now you might say, why not just put a say method inside of MIT person? Well, if you wanted it to do something different, that would be the right thing to do. But the whole notion here's that I'm capturing modularity, I've got base methods up in my base class. If I just want to use them I'm just going to inherit them by following that chain, if you like, basically up the track. OK, so we've got an MIT person, we can use that. Let's add a little bit more to our hierarchy here. I'm going to create, if I can do this right, a specialization of an MIT person, which is an undergraduate. A special kind of MIT person. All right, so if I go back up here, even though my thing is not going to let me do it, let's build an undergraduate. OK, there's the class definition for an undergrad. We're just starting to see some of the pieces, right, so in an undergraduate, where am I here, an undergraduate. OK, it's also got an initialization function. So if I call undergrad, I'm gonna make an undergrad here, again let me go back down here, line ug 2 it's making undergrad, Jane Doe. Now, what happens when I do the initialization here? Notice what goes on. It simply calls the person initialization method. All right, so I'm down here. I'm going to call the person initialization method, what did do? Sorry, the MIT person method, it calls the person method. Just walking up the chain, that's going to do exactly what I did with all the other ones, so I now have a family name and a first name. So I can, for example, say family name and get it back out. All right?
And then, other things that I can do, well I can set what year the person's in, I can figure out what year they're in, there's this unfortunate overflow error if you've hung around too long, but that's not going to happen to you. And I've now got a say method here, so let's look what happens if I ask the undergraduate to say something. OK, it's not a realistic dialogue I know, but, what did this method do? I asked this object to do a say. And notice what it does. It simply passes it back up to MIT person. There's that inheritance again. It's saying, I'm going to have my base say method say something. I'm going to say it to a person, but all I'm going to do because undergraduates in my experience, at least, are always very polite, I'm going to put "Excuse me but" at the front of it. OK, what am I trying to show you here? I know the jokes are awful, but what am I trying to show you here? That I can simply pass up the chain to get it. In fact, what method does the final say here? What class does it come from? Person class, yes, thank you. It goes all the way up to person, right, because MIT person didn't have a say. So I can simply walk up the chain until I find the method I want to have.
Now this is an example of shadowing. Not a great example, but it's a beginning example of shadowing, in that this same method for an undergraduate, shadows the base say method, it happens to call it, but it changes it. It puts "Excuse me but" at the front, before it goes on to do something. Now again, I could have decided here to actually copy what the original say method did, stitch all the other things together. But again, that loses my modularity. I'd really to only have to change it in one place. So by putting my say method up in person, I can add these nuances to it, and it lets me have something that has that variation. If I decide I want to change what say does, I only have to change it in one place. It is in the person class definition, and everything else will follow through for free.
OK, so now I've got an undergrad, right? Let's look at a couple of variations of what happens here. So first of all, I can -- yes?
PROFESSOR 2: Shadowing here is often sometimes called overriding.
PROFESSOR: Yes, thank you, because I'm going to do a pure example of shadowing in a second, John right. Also called overriding. Part of the reason I like the phrase shadow is, if you think about it as looking at it from this direction, you see this version of init before you see the other ones, or you see that version of say, but it is overriding the base say example. OK, so I can say, what does p 1, sorry, yes, what does undergrad look like? And I said wait a minute, MIT person, not undergrad, is that right? Well, where's the str method? I didn't define one in undergrad, so it again tracks up the chain and finds the str method here, so it's OK undergrads are MIT people most the time, so it's perfectly fine.
OK, now, I have built into this also these cmp methods. So I've got two examples. I've


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NASHIK: The three-day science festival that concluded on May 1, saw a huge response by Nashikites from all quarters and a host of scientific creations by students.
The science festival organized by Vidnyan Prabodhini was an exhibition of scientific projects by the students of this Sunday science school. For three days beginning from April 29, students exhibited their science models and projects at Limaye Hall at Sarvajanik Vachnalaya. Amongst the different projects, the plastic bottle boat became very popular and it was tested in swimming pools and in the Godavari river.
The students took three months to make this boat. The bottles were held together with aluminium and copper frames. "Four hundred and eighty empty one-litre mineral water bottles were used for making the boat. It can carry around 200kg weight," said volunteer Sarang Shah. Most of the projects were based on mechanisms, on weather, civil engineering and chemistry. A voltaic cell that can generate electricity from lemon by copper and zinc plates was displayed.
Ice-cream sticks and toothpicks were used to make bridges. The toothpick bridge can bear 30kg weight while the ice-cream bridge can bear around 80-90 kg weight. Scientific puzzles and games were also on display.
Fifty displays on scientists from Charaka to Steven Hawking were exhibited, along with some information about them. Sixty students also displayed their science models and projects.
This is the second such exhibition by the Sunday science school.
Speaking more about the concept of this school, organizer and the brain behind the concept Rupesh Nerkar said, "The Sunday science school began last year with an aim to provide some practical knowledge to the students, explore their scientific imagination and encourage them in their efforts. The concept is that students spend two hours every Sunday throughout the year and get hands-on experience. The projects that are made by them throughout the year are displayed in an exhibition at the end of the year."


5 traits of a successful veterinary school graduate - Veterinary Economics
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5 traits of a successful veterinary school graduate
Diploma's in hand. Tests are passed. Now see if you've got what it takes to dive into practice.
Veterinary-school seniors, you're done—or almost done. Congratulations. You've learned a lot, and now you're ready to inflict it—er, share it with the world.
But before you do, make sure you've got these five important traits of a successful graduate in addition to all the book learning, natural talent, and practice time. They come from Elaine Stirling's The Corporate Storyteller:
1. Responsibility. When you feel frozen and unsure what to do, remember you're a veterinarian now. Clients, bosses, and team members are counting on you to make decisions—whether it's to ask for help, verify information, or make a difficult choice in the heat of the moment.
2. Curiosity. You've just been stuffed full of more medical information than the human brain can hold, but we bet you're still brimming with curiosity about animal physiology, client psychology, and business terminology—or you should be. Never let go of the curiosity that led you to veterinary school. Losing curiosity, the sense that the world always has something new to teach, leads to mental fatigue, passivity, and distraction.
3. Capacity. You won't know the right answer all the time, but courage will give you the capacity to let wrong answers and "I don't know" keep rolling through until the solution pops up. Don't be defensive; let the creative juices flow.
4. Audacity. You need more than a sense of responsibility to make decisions; you need audacity, a brazen willingness to wade into the messy fray of veterinary practice and provide help to pets, their owners, as well as the other members of your practice team.
5. Authority. You need authority, and not just the kind bestowed on you by veterinary schools, licensing boards, and employers. The word authority is related to the words author and self—you're the author in charge of your destiny. Authority can mean holding yourself accountable for your words and actions. To be truly engaged in a job, a career, a patient, or a client is to be ready to make decisions (remember responsibility above?) and to hold yourself accountable as the authority in making them—good or bad, mistake or success.
And always remember, your colleagues are here for you as you develop into the leaders we all know you are.
Now get out there and have fun.
Click here


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(Phys.org) —Mountain forests in the Alps react very differently but noticeably to a warmer climate. Even if the target of limiting the Earth's average temperature increase to 2 degrees were met, this would already prove too much of a challenge for some mountain forests. This is the result of computer simulations by researchers at ETH Zurich. For this reason, the scientists are proposing adaptation measures.
In densely populated Europe, mountain forests are not only areas of recreation for tourists and the local population. Above all, these ecosystems provide essential services for people and for nature. They provide wood, bind the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide and methane, absorb precipitation and form natural protective walls against rockfall, avalanches and other natural hazards. Under the leadership of Harald Bugmann, Professor of Forest Ecology at ETH Zurich, researchers have used computer models to examine the extent to which, and speed at which, services derived from mountain forests are projected to change when the climate heats up. For the first time, climate scenarios were used that show how climate change would affect Switzerland if it were possible to restrict global warming to an increase of 2 degrees above pre-industrial conditions by the year 2100.
Different valleys, different results
The researchers used different climate scenarios to simulate the development of mountain forest ecosystems in two very different Swiss mountain valleys: the development of the dry inner-alpine Saas valley in Upper Valais with an elevation range extending from 600 metres to 4,390 metres above sea level, and of the Dischma valley in the Grisons, which is cooler and damper and has an elevation range of 1,500 to 2,800 metres above sea level. The researchers used three forest models to evaluate a total of five ecosystem services along elevation transects. With the simulations, they examined the impact of the climate scenarios on the following key services derived from mountain forests: the storing of carbon, the influence of vegetation on runoff, the diversity of the forest, wood production and the protective functions the forests provide against avalanches and rockfall.
The climate scenarios used in the simulations are based on non-intervention or low-intervention measures and on a stabilisation scenario. The latter involves halving the current level of greenhouse gas emissions by the year 2050 and meeting the international climate policy objective of curtailing the increase to 2 degrees compared with pre-industrial values by 2100. In addition, a further scenario was used which includes larger monthly fluctuations – for example in precipitation – and thus allows the impact of short-term variability to be examined. Unlike the three other scenarios, this scenario is not based on the mean values of what are referred to as "ensembles" (several model calculations), but on a single regional climate model.
Impact on protective function
The simulations show that certain ecosystem services are reasonably robust to moderate climate change. For example, this applies to the storing of carbon in vegetation biomass at the level of the entire valleys. By contrast, the impact on other services is clear for both valleys, but very different in each case. The Saas valley, which is already dry today, is worst affected. According to the models, its ecosystems will exhibit strong changes even under the 2 degree scenario. "An increase in the global average temperature by more than two degrees would have far-reaching and serious consequences", says Harald Bugmann. According to Bugmann, the extent of the impact would depend on the current climatic and ecological situation, and on the topography of the valleys.
In both the Saas and Dischma valleys, the protective functions that forests provide against rockfall and avalanches would decrease more sharply at low and intermediate elevations depending on the scenario, but would increase at elevations above 2,000 metres above sea level, where higher temperatures would promote forest growth. Depending on the climate scenario, however, in the Saas valley this would just be a temporary trend that would reverse again over time with increasing dryness.
"With our study, we are examining for the first time what an average global warming of two degrees Celsius and more would mean for forest ecosystem services at a regional level", says Ché Elkin, first author of the study and senior research associate to Harald Bugmann. The researchers acknowledge that the complexity of the mountain forest ecosystems makes it difficult to forecast precisely how the vegetation would react to climate change. The results of the simulation are subject to uncertainty and have to be interpreted with caution, they say. However, because even a 2 degree target does not safeguard the current services derived from forest ecosystems in mountain areas, the researchers are of the opinion that adaptation measures are needed, particularly in the parts of the Alps that are already dry. "For example, forest management and thinning at low altitudes could help alleviate drought; but we also have to consider changing species composition, to the extent of bringing in drought-tolerant species that are currently foreign to the region", says Bugmann.
Explore further: Forests could flip from sink to source of CO2: study
Elkin C et al.: A 2°C warmer world is not safe for ecosystem services in the European Alps. Global Change Biology (2013), doi: 10.1111/gcb.12156