Five Testing Opportunities for Digital Marketers
January 27, 2020
Bo Chipman, Senior Vice President, Data Science
Five Testing Opportunities for Digital Marketers
No one debates the benefit of creating personalized, relevant consumer experiences. Consumers expect companies to tailor experiences to their preferences, and they reward companies that deliver.[i] On the flip side, studies show personalization generates positive business outcomes. Companies that personalize[ii]:
 · Reduce acquisition costs by as much as 50%
 · Increase revenues by up to 15%
 · Improve marketing spend efficiency by 10% - 30%
The corporate website is a natural starting point for personalization. For most companies, it serves as a billboard, storefront, service center and more. Given the website's central role in many customer interactions, most marketers understand investing in testing to create a personalized customer experience will pay dividends. However, many companies struggle to create value from testing despite their best efforts. This includes many companies that have invested in best-of-breed testing technology.
In our experience, companies often struggle with testing because they consider it a technology problem when, in fact, a successful testing program relies equally on people and process. We see many companies that do not get the expected return on testing software because they fail to invest in other elements of a robust testing program.
This blog highlights a handful of the challenges we have seen. It's not meant to be exhaustive. Rather, we want to illustrate the importance of people and process using some common examples.
What are some of those challenges? Here are five we see frequently. We welcome other examples from readers. Everyone has a favorite.
1. Access to Development Resources: Adobe Target and other major testing platforms have created flexible user interfaces that make it easy for business users to execute basic tests. However, many tests, including some of the most impactful, require developers who can code in JavaScript. Unfortunately, these resources are often scarce, and their time must be reserved weeks or months in advance. Agile development methodologies do not necessarily translate into agile testing. As a result, marketers do not test, or they focus on low potential tests they can execute themselves.
2. Test Selection: Low potential tests can quickly reduce support for testing since it makes little sense to invest scarce resource on activities that have limited business impact. Access to development resources is a real issue, but in many cases, marketers select tests that have limited potential for other reasons. The primary challenge we see is the absence of a structured process for evaluating and prioritizing tests. They select tests for implementation based on hunches rather than a standard evaluation framework. Without an evaluation framework, marketers may never consider many high potential tests, resulting in missed opportunities.
3. Test Design and Measurement: Even high potential tests will not provide business value if they are not designed and measured correctly. Unfortunately, many companies do not have a process to ensure tests produce meaningful results. Problems happen at all stages of the testing process. Common examples include fuzzy hypotheses, bad test designs, insufficient sample sizes and failure to measure statistical significance. These failures often occur when marketers do not involve trained Data Scientists in testing.
4. Test Governance: Good tests can go bad in implementation. Many things can happen, but one avoidable issue we see often is conflicts between tests. In many companies, multiple groups 'own' different aspects of the website. These groups often pursue their own testing agendas with no formal coordination or communication to ensure the integrity of every test. There is no centralized calendar. Audiences overlap. Experiences vary in unexpected ways. Test results are corrupted.
5. Software Release Governance: Lack of coordination and communication can undermine tests in other ways. Another common example is the absence of robust communication around software releases. Data issues are by far the most common reason tests fail. Those issues often occur because of communication gaps within complex organizations. In many companies, the groups that own tagging and testing operate independently. On more than one occasion, we have seen tests spoiled by well-planned tagging upgrades. The tagging group did everything right in most cases, except notify one key constituent, the team.
Even if you have never experienced the issues outlined above, you have no doubt encountered situations where testing broke down because of people and/or process. Such issues occur because marketers too often assume testing software will solve all their problems. Software can certainly enable testing, but it is insufficient to enable an effective program. High impact testing requires investment in people, process and technology. Marketers that ignore the first two factors often do not get the value they expect from software investments. We will provide additional perspective on resource and process needs in future posts.
[ii] Matt Ariker, Jason Heller, Alejandro Diaz, and Jesko Perrey, "How marketers can personalize at scale," Harvard Business Review, November 23, 2015.


Accountability Coaching Vancouver
To be accountable for one's actions is a crucial element in attaining a goal. You may be reasonably clear with your values, goals, and what your new path looks like. You may have gone so far as mapping out how to achieve the desired goal(s). And that's great! You might not require a coach for creating the right goals and how to achieve them. However, it is worth considering whether you need a personal coach for an alternate reason. Accountability.
How often is it that we make these awesome goals for ourselves… and then… a month or two into it… we give up! It can be so easy to just… give up… or say we tried. That won't get us anywhere. In fact, that particular mindset hinders us from achieving those great life-changing goals. Excuses and blaming are often used as a way to deflect responsibility of one's own actions.
How we make you accountable
During an accountability coaching session, we discover the reasons why you aren't reaching your goals. We will explore your thoughts, feelings, beliefs, and values that may influence the reasons why you have discontinued working towards your goal(s). The solution might be as simple as clearing some time in your schedule or cutting something out. We will uncover it all together, so you can better understand why you may be doing what you're doing, or not doing.
Sometimes, during the process of reaching a goal, circumstances or desires may change. If this is the case, we will ensure that the reasons for the change align with your genuine wishes, and not because of fear or avoidance, etc. It can be tough to face fears, and looking at ourselves in a true light.
Another aspect of accountability is maintenance. If you're trying to make a lasting change by adopting a particular lifestyle such as weight loss for example, it requires a long term shift in how one thinks about food, nutrition, health, and body image. During a coaching session, we might dig deep, helping you discover aspects of yourself you have maybe never faced. This is the type of work that causes major shifts to happen! Then, you'll get equipped with tools you can utilize every day until it becomes habit.
A habit is something you do on a regular daily basis. Examples of habits can include, overeating, taking drugs, swearing, nail biting, over spending, whining, and the list goes on! Alternatively, there are good habits that can be developed such as: going to the gym, positive thinking, brushing your teeth, challenging mental assumptions, identifying emotions, and so forth.
If you aren't intentional about actions and rewards, you can easily develop bad habits. Bad habits lead to sabotage, ill health, and a sense of failure. Good habits lead to better health, happiness, and fulfillment.
Some experts say in order to break a habit it takes at least 21 days. Others suggest it takes much longer. Breaking a habit may depend on several factors that include: duration of established the problem habit, intensity of desire for the new habit, and realizing the consequences of keeping the bad habit.
We don't need to place a timeline on how long it takes to change the habit, everyone is different. As long as you are moving in the right direction and making progress – that, in itself, is a success. It's all a process, a necessary one.
Getting on a new road towards health and fulfillment can be tough if you've been on a very familiar path that you find comfortable. Even though it may be destructive, there are ways of getting through and past the behaviors. A new established behavior needs to be introduced to replace the former habit. Accountability needs to be strong, and maintenance should be built-in for those lasting results.
Realize your own power and potential in an accountability coaching session. Let's work together and get started with a one-on-one session.
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(Phys.org) -- Parasites may increase inequality among baby birds in a brood by making it even harder for smaller, weaker chicks to compete against their bigger brothers and sisters, researchers have discovered.
For birds, it's essential to get a good start in life. The difference in size between new born chicks often increases as they grow up those that start out smaller often never catch up.
Bigger chicks can muscle in on food supplies, taking their smaller sibling's share. And as the runts remain small, they may be more vulnerable to parasites which hinder their development even further. Parasites essentially make the life chances of chicks in the brood more unequal.
Researchers from the University of Edinburgh and the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology found that when nestlings of the European shag were treated with anti-parasite drugs, the smaller nestlings grew faster and better. But surprisingly, the bigger chicks in these coastal broods did worse when dosed with the medicine.
'Our initial expectation was just that the runts would perform better,' says Dr Tom Reed, now at the Netherlands Institute of Ecology, co-author of the report published in PloS one. 'It did come as a surprise that the bigger chicks did worse.'
The researchers considered several explanations. They think that bigger chicks are losing out in treated nests because their parents can only bring back so much food, so that siblings are always competing. When not held back by parasites, the upstart smaller siblings have more chance of taking their fair share of the meals. This means the bigger siblings lose out.
'The way that we've interpreted it is that there's a certain amount of effort that the parents can invest, and when the nests are dosed the little guys are better able to compete,' Reed adds.
This explanation, which emphasises the strong sibling rivalry in birds' nests, is currently just a hypothesis.
'It may otherwise be the case that smaller chicks benefit from anti-parasite treatment because they're diverting less energy to fighting parasites. Alternatively, the older chicks may in some way be negatively affected by the drug,' says Reed.
The team is now carrying out further research to see whether this boost to the runts' begging skills is really what's harming the bigger chicks.
This work's conclusions will contribute to a growing body of knowledge on how parasites from roundworms in the birds' guts to feather lice on their skin affect nestling broods. The group's earlier research on the European shag families, published in Science in 2008, found that when the parents were treated with the drug, the benefits of having healthier, more productive parents largely fell to the male chicks.
'We wanted to see how it affects their ability if you dose the parents,' explains Dr Reed. 'Males are costlier to rear when parents have this limitation reduced, the males benefit more.'
In a lot of bird species, male chicks are bigger, so rearing sons takes more effort. In healthier times the mother can afford to make that extra effort. But when the mother bird herself is sick, she just can't provide that extra attention to her sons.
This research shows that it's the competition between siblings for limited food supplies from their parents that shapes bird family dynamics, and it's not just limited to the European shag. Eagle chicks have been known to attack their siblings, whilst young pelicans have been caught pushing brothers and sisters out of the nest. Sibling rivalry is not just a human problem.
Explore further: City-life changes blackbird personalities, study shows
More information: PLoS One 7(2): e32236, published February 24, 2012, doi:10.1371/journal.pone._PHONE_

source: HuggingFaceFW/fineweb-edu


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Since I know many of BookPage's readers love to read children's and teen books themselves (or with their kids), I wanted to alert you to a couple recent recommendations on BookPage.com:
Editor Lynn Green interviewed both Andrea Pinkney and Jon Katz for issues of Reading Corner (sign up here).
Pinkney wrote Bird in a Box, a middle grade novel that takes place during the Great Depression. The story centers on a group of kids in Brooklyn who are captivated by boxer Joe Louis. Here's a preview of the interview:
Why was Joe Louis such an important figure for African Americans in the 1930s and '40s?
When Joe Louis came onto the boxing scene, he symbolized tremendous hope for African Americans. Joe was boxing at a time when black folks in America were still considered second-class citizens, and when segregation was still a sad reality. But in boxing, one's ability to swing hard in the ring has nothing to do with the color of their skin. Louis's pounding punches showed the world that a black mother's son had superior abilities.On the night Barack Obama won the presidential election, there was an overwhelming pride that welled in the hearts of many people. There was cheering in the streets. Tears of joy came to the faces of grown men. A black man had made momentous progress toward social change. This same pride and elation filled the night of June 22, 1937, when Joe Louis, "the Brown Bomber," became the heavyweight champion of the world.
Is there a specific message you hope young readers will take from this book?
More than anything, I'd like young readers to know that even when it feels like life is giving you a beating, there's always hope around what may at first look like a very dark corner.
Lynn interviewed Jon Katz about picture book Meet the Dogs at Bedlam Farm. Take a look at these main characters:
Why did you decide to write a book for children at this point in your career?
Children are the purest and most intense animal lovers on the earth. They experience animals in a very particular way, unfettered by the many issues adults bring to their attachments. Animals are the beloved and imaginary comforters and soulmates of many children, as psychologists can attest. Kids talk to animals in very touching ways.
Animals are sometimes scary to them, but more often are very loving and never cruel or wounding. Animal fantasies are a seminal part of childhood development. The Bedlam Farm dogs run the gamut for kids—the troubled dog, the love dog, the serious dog, the healing dog. Until I wrote Meet The Dogs Of Bedlam Farm, I didn't quite realize how broad and familiar an emotional range Lenore, Frieda, Izzy and Rose covered.
We hope you enjoy these books. It's always a pleasure to interview authors, especially when they provide such thoughtful answers as Pinkney and Katz.
What children's books are you recommending lately?


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Return to Colorado Governor's Index Return to Colorado State Archives
Photo at Right, Clarence Morley
The Clarence Morley Collection comprises 16 cubic feet of material, most of which spans his term of office from _PHONE_. One cubic foot covers _PHONE_ when Morley was arrested and sent to federal prison for mail fraud. Record series included in the collection are applications and appointments to office, correspondence, the Executive Record, extraditions and requisitions, reports, speeches and messages, newspaper clippings and ephemera, photographs, and a special series "U.S.A. vs. Morley/Mail Fraud Case and Correspondence." Most of the collection is in its original format and is in good condition.
Strengths of the material include documentation concerning the legislation that was introduced during his term, Prohibition, affairs of the various state agencies, and especially the court case surrounding his crime of mail fraud. Documentation concerning the Ku Klux Klan is found indirectly through such items as correspondence with Morley's constituents, speeches and messages, and other records which reflect his political leanings.
Clarence Morley, Governor of Colorado in _PHONE_, was born in Dyersville, Iowa on February 9, 1869. His public schooling in Cedar Falls, Iowa, was interrupted when his family relocated to Trinidad, Colorado in 1890. It was in Trinidad that Morley began his career in law as an official of the District Court. Five years later Morley attended the law school at Denver University. After nineteen years of private practice and serving on the Denver School Board, Morley was elected District Judge of Denver in 1918. He retained this judicial post until his gubernatorial victory in 1925.
Morleys political ascent paralleled an anti-minority, anti-foreign, anti-Jewish, and anti-Catholic sentiment that existed throughout the country during the 1920's. Proponents of these beliefs found many supporters in the Ku Klux Klan, which in Colorado came under the leadership of the charismatic and persuasive John Galen Locke. Locke focused less on the overt violence and racism that characterized many other Klan groups and more on creating one of the strongest political machines that Colorado had thus far seen. As the Denver Post wrote, "..beyond any doubt the KKK is the largest and most cohesive, most efficiently organized political force in the state " Under Lockes control, the Klan secured a variety of political seats and gained advantageous alliances, including one with Ben Stapleton, mayor of Denver. Taking advantage of weak leadership in the Republican Party, the Klan promoted Judge Morley as the partys choice for governor. The primarily conservative voters of Colorado tended to vote for a straight Republican party ticket, and thus also chose the Klan. The Republicans, top-heavy with Klan members, won the 1924 election by a landslide. The Klan instituted Morley as Governor, obtained a majority in the House and Senate, elected the Secretary of State, and secured a Supreme Court Judgeship as well as seven benches on the Denver District Court. John Galen Lockes Ku Klux Klan now seemed to be in control of the Colorado political system.
Morleys administration was exemplified, however, by a growing dichotomy in the Republican Party. There was also considerable opposition from a small group of democrats, led by future governor Billy Adams, that successfully killed almost all Klan sponsored legislation in committee. In 101 days 1,080 bills were introduced under the statehouse dome. Of those bills, only fifteen percent made it as far as the governors pen and only three of those were originally sponsored by Morley. Despite his apparent lack of legislative success, Morley was responsible for ratifying the Colorado River Compact, strengthening prohibition laws, developing a successful inmate labor program, and promoting legislation that allowed the state to carry its own insurance on its public buildings. Thus, while Morley was an active Klansman, his legislative successes had little to do with his special interest group affiliations. His connections to the Klan also failed to make him popular with many Colorado citizens who admonished him for his numerous acts of clemency, and for his development of a police force, that many felt, enforced the prohibition laws too aggressively.
Soon after his administration ended, Morley established C.J. Morley & Company, a stock brokerage firm in Indianapolis, Indiana. After three years in this endeavor, Morley returned to Denver in order to practice law again. His plans were interrupted, however, when he was arrested in 1935 for mail fraud. Specifically, Morleys Indiana investment firm was accused of knowingly sending false statements through the mail in order to defraud their customers. While he was found not guilty in Colorado, the Federal courts indicted him for twenty-one counts of mail fraud and for using his prestige and past public office connections to defraud his customers. Morley was found guilty on these charges, and was sentenced to Leavenworth Prison for five years. After he completed his prison term, Morley moved to Oklahoma City where he died three years later on November 15, 1948.
Atchinson, Carla Joan. Nativism in Colorado Politics: The American Protective Association and the Ku Klux Klan. Willamette University, Unpublished Masters Thesis, 1972.
"Beneath the Hood and the Robe: A Socioeconomic Analysis of K.K.K. Membership in Denver, Co., _PHONE_." Western Historical Quarterly, #11, April 1980, pgs. 181 198.
Carter, Carrol Joe. Adams and the Ku Klux Klan. Alamosa, Co.: Adams State College, Unpublished Thesis, 1980.
Casey, Lee. "When the Klan Controlled Colorado." Rocky Mountain News, 17-19 June 1946.
Chalmers, David M.. Hooded Americanism: The History of the Ku Klux Klan. New York: Franklin Watts, 1951.
Creighton, John. "The Small Town Klan in Colorado." Essays and Monographs in Colorado History. #2, 1983.
Davis, James Harlan. "Colorado Under the Klan." Colorado Magazine, Vol. 42, Spring 1965, pgs. 93 113.
Davis, James Harlan. The Rise of the Ku Klux Klan in Colorado, _PHONE_. Denver, Co.: University of Denver Masters Thesis, 1963.
Higham, John. Strangers in the Land: Patterns of American Nativism _PHONE_. New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 1955.
Goldberg, Robert Allen. Hooded Empire: The Ku Klux Klan in Colorado. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1981.
Jackson, Kenneth T.. The Ku Klux Klan in the City _PHONE_. New York: Oxford University Press, 1967.
"Klan Activity in Greeley During the 1920s." The Greeley Tribune, 16 November 1970, pg. 11A.
Kolmitz, Joy. The Influence of the Ku Klux Klan in Colorado Politics. Boulder, Co.: University of Colorado, Unpublished Masters Thesis, 1962.
Ku Klux Klan Collection, 1920s. Denver, Co.: Denver Public Library Western History Collection.
Ku Klux Klan Collection, 1920s. Denver, Co.: Colorado Historical Society Library.
"Ku Klux Klan in Grand Junction, _PHONE_." Journal of the Western Slope, # 4, Winter 1989, pgs. 6 55.
Lamm, Richard D. Pioneers & Politicians: 10 Colorado Governors in Profile. Boulder, Co.: Pruett Publishing Co., 1984.
Lay, Shawn, ed. The Invisible Empire in the West: Toward a New Appraisal of the Ku Klux Klan of the 1920s. Urbana, Ill.: University of Illinois Press, 1992.
Lindsey, Benjamin. "My Fight with the Ku Klux Klan." Survey Graphic, June 1925.
Marriner, Gerald Lynn. "Klan Politics in Colorado." Journal of the West, January 1976.
Moore, Otto. Judge O. Otto Moore on the Ku Klux Klan in Colorado (videorecording). Denver, Co., Denver Public Library Western History Collection, 1979.
"A New Klan for a New Day: The Ku Klux Klan in Colorado in the 1920s." The Journal of the Western Slope, Winter 1989, Vol. 4, # 1, pg. 4.
Rice, Arnold S. The Ku Klux Klan in American Politics. Washington D.C.: Public Affairs Press, 1962.
"The Rise and Fall of the K.K.K." Denver Post Empire, 21 September 1969, pgs. 14 22.
The Rocky Mountian American, Boulder, Co.: Rocky Mountian American Printing and Publishing Co., 1925. Microfilm format available at the Denver Public Library Western History Collection.
Senter Family Papers _PHONE_. Denver, Co.: Denver Public Library Western History Collection.
Van Cise Collection, 1924. Denver, Co.: Denver Public Library Western History Collection.
Walrod, Stephen T. The Ku Klux Klan in Colorado, _PHONE_. New Jesey: Princeton University, Unpublished Bachlors Thesis, 1970.
Zylstra, Don. "When the Ku Klux Klan Ran Denver." The Denver Post Roundup, 5 Jan. 1958, pgs. 5 7.
The Executive Record contains executive orders; appointments


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Tue, 26 Sep 2006 12:00 CDT
Have you ever wondered what your computer is made of? You may not want to know. An analysis by Greenpeace of the chemicals contained in the components of five types of laptop computer revealed toxic flame-retardants and other harmful chemicals in some of them. In one of the computers, Greenpeace says it found harmful chemicals that the maker has publicly claimed to have eliminated from its products.
The findings highlight the challenges facing environmental regulators as they attempt to police the eradication of harmful chemicals from electronic goods. Failure by the regulators might not only put users at risk, but also mean chemicals might leach into groundwater beneath landfills, or contaminate people working in recycling plants where these machines end their lives.
Greenpeace found the toxic chemicals after analysing just a handful of the many hundreds of components inside each computer. Zeina Al-Hajj of Greenpeace says that the discovery of suspect chemicals in such a limited analysis of electronic goods reveals the magnitude of the task facing regulators as they work to enforce new rules on the use of many chemicals in goods, such as the European Union's Restriction on Hazardous Substances (RoHS) directive.
The laptop analysis was carried out at the Eurofins environmental testing lab in Galten, Denmark, and a Greenpeace lab at the University of Exeter, UK. The labs bought five new laptops made by Acer, Apple, Dell, Hewlett-Packard and Sony in March this year. The computers were then dismantled and analysed using various techniques, including X-ray spectroscopy to detect and quantify the presence of certain chemical elements in 40 components, including cooling fans, taken from each computer.
A selection of these samples were then submitted to combined gas chromatography and mass spectrometry to detect the presence of specific compounds. The analysts found that among the five computers, the Hewlett-Packard laptop had some of the highest levels (see Table) of a number of chemicals, including a substance called decabromodiphenyl ether (decaBDE), a flame retardant that the company claims to have removed from its product line some years ago.
Greenpeace stresses that its analysis is not a reflection on any of the manufacturers' entire product lines - and none of them has broken any law. However, the findings are at odds with information about Hewlett-Packard products that the company has placed on its website, which states: "HP eliminated the use of decaBDE many years ago and has no plans to reinitiate its use."
"That is quite shocking," says Jim Puckett of the UN's Basel Action Network in Seattle, Washington. The network monitors breaches of the Basel convention, which regulates the flow of hazardous waste from industrialised countries to developing nations. With the wide range of substitute chemicals available today, there ought to be alternative choices for manufacturers, he says.
"It's disappointing to see these results," says Zoe McMahon, HP's environmental manager for Europe. The company has not been deliberately misleading its customers, she says, and is taking the matter seriously. "Our policy hasn't changed. Several years ago we restricted a number of flame retardants," she says, including decaBDE. It's too early to say how this substance came to escape HP's testing procedures and end up in the laptop that was analysed but HP is working with its suppliers to investigate Greenpeace's findings, she says.
Apple Computer's MacBook laptop analysed by Greenpeace also contained a permitted flame-retardant, called TBBPA, at levels higher than in any of the other computers, says Kevin Brigden at the Greenpeace lab, who oversaw the testing. Apple Computer chose not to respond to Greenpeace's findings when asked for comment by New Scientist.
TBBPA, decaBDE and other brominated flame retardants (BFRs) were once used in many plastic components in electronic goods, but are now being phased out following concerns over their impact on human health and the environment. "Some BFRs persist in the environment and are able to bio-accumulate," Brigden says. Long-term exposure can interfere with brain development, or the endocrine system. One of the problems with these chemicals is that it is difficult to dispose of them through incineration without releasing highly toxic dioxins into the environment. Only the Sony laptop contained no BFRs (see Table).
Controversially, decaBDE is still permitted under the European Union's RoHS directive. It was originally banned but was reinstated after the makers objected to the EU, saying it was less hazardous than other BDEs. However, since commercial decaBDE contains about 3 per cent nonaBDE, which was banned when RoHS came into force on 1 July, the use of decaBDE will now in practice no longer be possible. None of the machines Greenpeace tested was breaking any law, however, because they were purchased in Europe before 1 July.
RoHS may be a European law, but its influence is being felt around the world. Even in the US, where (except in a few states) BFRs are not banned or regulated, the chemicals banned under RoHS are being phased out, Al-Hajj says.
Up to 50 million tonnes of waste electronic equipment is being dumped every year, so residual toxic chemicals are one of the fastest-growing environmental problems, says Michael Williams of the UN Environment Programme. Even with many such substances now banned, the problem of dealing with millions of tonnes of older equipment will remain.
Greenpeace wants all toxic chemicals removed from e-goods. Peter Guthrie at the Centre for Sustainable Development in Cambridge, UK, says that for this to happen it will be crucial to ensure that manufacturers have to take back their products at the end of their lives. Only then will they be more inclined to switch to safer new materials.
From issue 2570 of New Scientist magazine, 25 September 2006, page 26-27The greener alternatives
For many of the harmful chemicals traditionally used in electronic equipment, there are now a number of safer alternatives, though as Greenpeace found, they are not used as often as they could be.
PVC, a chlorinated plastic, was once used for insulating wiring. But both production of PVC and its eventual disposal can create persistent and highly toxic dioxins, which pose a major health hazard. Alternatives for PVC vary widely depending upon application, but a variety of non-chlorinated alkene-based plastics, such as polyethylene, can replace it in wiring insulation.
Solder used to contain as much as 50 per cent lead, but lead-free solder made up of tin, silver, copper, bismuth and zinc is now widely available. These metals' toxicity and ability to accumulate in the body are far lower than for lead, whose highly toxic effects are the same regardless of whether it is inhaled or ingested. These include irreversible tissue damage, particularly to the developing brain and central nervous system, the kidneys and the reproductive system.
BROMINATED FLAME RETARDANTS
Incorporating BFRs into plastic components is intended to enhance safety by making the material less flammable, but BFRs are now known to be a health risk. They accumulate in biological tissue and have been found in human breast milk, too. Chronic exposure interferes with brain and skeletal development. Animal experiments suggest that this may lead to permanent neurological damage, impairing learning and memory. Other studies have shown that some BFRs can act as endocrine disruptors. The three main classes are polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), hexabromo-cyclododecane (HBDC) and brominated bisphenols, in particular tetrabromo-bisphenol-A (TBBPA). Alternatives for BFRs include non-toxic silicone-based flame retardants, for instance, which are recyclable many times over.
Also known as chromium (vi) or chromate, hexavalent chromium is used in electronics as a corrosion inhibitor. It is highly toxic and a known carcinogen. Replacements include the metal's far less reactive trivalent form or nickel-iron-cobalt alloys.


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escript provides support for running short Erlang programs without having to compile them first and an easy way to retrieve the command line arguments.
escript runs a script written in Erlang.
Here follows an example.
$ cat factorial #!/usr/bin/env escript %% -*- erlang -*- %%! -smp enable -sname factorial -mnesia debug verbose main([String]) -> try \011N = list_to_integer(String), \011F = fac(N), \011io:format("factorial ~w = ~w\ ", [N,F]) catch \011_:_ -> \011 usage() end; main(_) -> usage(). usage() -> io:format("usage: factorial integer\ "), halt(1). fac(0) -> 1; fac(N) -> N * fac(N-1). $ factorial 5 factorial 5 = 120 $ factorial usage: factorial integer $ factorial five usage: factorial integer
The header of the Erlang script in the example differs from a normal Erlang module. The first line is intended to be the interpreter line, which invokes escript. However if you invoke the escript like this
$ escript factorial 5
the contents of the first line does not matter, but it cannot contain Erlang code as it will be ignored.
The second line in the example, contains an optional directive to the Emacs editor which causes it to enter the major mode for editing Erlang source files. If the directive is present it must be located on the second line.
On the third line (or second line depending on the presence of the Emacs directive), it is possible to give arguments to the emulator, such as
%%! -smp enable -sname factorial -mnesia debug verbose
Such an argument line must start with %%! and the rest of the line will interpreted as arguments to the emulator.
If you know the location of the escript executable, the first line can directly give the path to escript. For instance:
As any other kind of scripts, Erlang scripts will not work on Unix platforms if the execution bit for the script file is not set. (Use chmod +x script-name to turn on the execution bit.)
The rest of the Erlang script file may either contain Erlang source code, an inlined beam file or an inlined archive file.
An Erlang script file must always contain the function main/1. When the script is run, the main/1 function will be called with a list of strings representing the arguments given to the script (not changed or interpreted in any way).
If the main/1 function in the script returns successfully, the exit status for the script will be 0. If an exception is generated during execution, a short message will be printed and the script terminated with exit status 127.
To return your own non-zero exit code, call halt(ExitCode); for instance:
Call escript:script_name/0 from your to script to retrieve the pathname of the script (the pathname is usually, but not always, absolute).
If the file contains source code (as in the example above), it will be processed by the preprocessor epp. This means that you for example may use pre-defined macros (such as?MODULE) as well as include directives like the -include_lib directive. For instance, use
to include the record definitions for the records used by the file:read_link_info/1 function.
The script will be checked for syntactic and semantic correctness before being run. If there are warnings (such as unused variables), they will be printed and the script will still be run. If there are errors, they will be printed and the script will not be run and its exit status will be 127.
Both the module declaration and the export declaration of the main/1 function are optional.
By default, the script will be interpreted. You can force it to be compiled by including the following line somewhere in the script file:
Execution of interpreted code is slower than compiled code. If much of the execution takes place in interpreted code it may be worthwhile to compile it, even though the compilation itself will take a little while.
As mentioned earlier, it is possible to have a script which contains precompiled beam code. In a precompiled script, the interpretation of the script header is exactly the same as in a script containing source code. That means that you can make a beam file executable by prepending the file with the lines starting with #! and %%! mentioned above. In a precompiled script, the function main/1 must be exported.
As yet another option it is possible to have an entire Erlang archive in the script. In a archive script, the interpretation of the script header is exactly the same as in a script containing source code. That means that you can make an archive file executable by prepending the file with the lines starting with #! and %%! mentioned above. In an archive script, the function main/1 must be exported. By default the main/1 function in the module with the same name as the basename of the escript file will be invoked. This behavior can be overridden by setting the flag -escript main Module as one of the emulator flags. The Module must be the name of a module which has an exported main/1 function. See code(3) for more information about archives and code loading.
In many cases it is very convenient to have a header in the escript, especially on Unix platforms. But the header is in fact optional. This means that you directly can "execute" an Erlang module, beam file or archive file without adding any header to them. But then you have to invoke the script like this:
$ escript factorial.erl 5 factorial 5 = 120 $ escript factorial.beam 5 factorial 5 = 120 $ escript factorial.zip 5 factorial 5 = 120
- Compile the escript regardless of the value of the mode attribute.
- Debug the escript. Starts the debugger, loads the module containing the main/1 function into the debugger, sets a breakpoint in main/1 and invokes main/1. If the module is precompiled, it must be explicitly compiled with the debug_info option.
- Interpret the escript regardless of the value of the mode attribute.
- Only perform a syntactic and semantic check of the script file. Warnings and errors (if any) are written to the standard output, but the script will not be run. The exit status will be 0 if there were no errors, and 127 otherwise.


text:
|California Walks, our partners and member organizations, have been working to describe the world of walking and pedestrian safety. Together, we have come up with the following talking points and messaging strategies to make the case for healthy, safe, & walkable communities. The categories identified are by no means exhaustive of pedestrian safety and walkability. They are a starting point from which we, as pedestrian advocates, can build, moving forward in creating a safer, healthier, and more accessible pedestrian-friendly California.*The contents of this page draw from our publication: Messaging for Walkability: A Guide for Pedestrian Advocates
[EXPAND Click to expand]
Pedestrians include both those who walk on two feet and those persons who walk or roll using an assistive device, whether it be a baby in a stroller, a youth on skates, or a person using a cane, crutches or wheelchair. Walkability indicates the number of people who can or will be physically active. It is often said that a pedestrian environment walkable for an older adult or someone with a stroller/small child is an evironment is walkable for nearly everyone. This is called universal access.
Walkability refers to how safe, friendly and accessible walking is in a neighborhood or community. Many factors influence walkability. Common factors elements of the built environment include continuous, level sidewalks and pathways; safe, accessible crossings; pedestrian-friendly lighting; suitable vehicle speed; limited number of lanes and street width. Other factors that influence walking and walkability include real and perceived safety from crime, gang activity and aggressive dogs, graffiti and trash, maintenance of trees and greenery, safe access to desired destinations (park, school, grocery, library, post office, etc.), public amenities like benches, drinking fountains, public art, restrooms, and trash cans, among many others.[/EXPAND]

source: openbmb/Ultra-FineWeb


text: The first place to visit along this tour of western Virginia and West Virginia is the Pearl S. Buck Birthplace Museum. The famous writer was the first woman to win both the Nobel and Pulitzer Prizes in literature. See Droop Mountain Battlefield, the site of the largest Civil War battle (November, 1963). Next, travel to the Monongahela National Forest and visit Cranberry Glades, a botanical area home to plants that typically grow only in the Canadian tundra. Continue north to Charleston and tour the state capitol building. The capitol boasts a 300-foot-high dome and is made of steel and smooth limestone. The building was designed by the architect of the U.S. Treasury and U.S. Supreme Court buildings, Cass Gilbert.


text:
How to draw wolf step by step. Learn to draw a gray wolf with easy to follow instruction along with images. Again this time is another wild animal or creature tutorial. In this tutorial, we will draw a gray wolf along with its entire body. The gray wolf or grey wolf is the largest extant member of the dog family of mammals. Its body is very similar to common dog. To practice drawing animals is always a good way to explore different forms of anatomy design because of their diverse anatomy and body structures. If you want to be a well rounded concept artist, especially creature concept artist, studying animal drawing is a must. Since different creatures are different in shapes and forms, I usually observe then break it down into simple shapes. This process makes drawing complex structure a lot simpler and easier.
Wolves live, travel and hunt in packs of 4-7 animals on average. Packs include the mother and father wolves, called the alphas, their pups and several other subordinate or young animals. The alpha female and male are the pack leaders that track and hunt prey, choose den sites and establish the pack's territory. Wolves develop close relationships and strong social bonds. They often demonstrate deep affection for their family and may even sacrifice themselves to protect the family unit.
Below are step by step how to draw a wolf. Step one, I started with big circular shape and one oval shape as its snout. Step two, I drew over previous shapes to established a wolf head. Notice that I located the eyes right on top of the smaller oval shape. Then I add more shapes for ears and neck. Step three, I drew over the ears and neck shapes to add fur like detail. Step four, I then add another geometry shape for its body. Step five, I put fur detail on the body then add rough shapes for four legs. Step six, I finished legs drawing and the rest of the wolf body.


text:
Porphyra Human Consumption
Have you ever wondered why we eat nori? Why this
certain algae? The consumption of Porphyra dates back to 533-544
AD in China. It was even presented annually to the emperor of China
during the Sung dynasty (_PHONE_ AD) as a gift from the Fuijan province.
One of the reasons for eating Porphyra is the lack of cellulose in
the cell wall, making the algae easier for us to eat and digest.
Porphyra contains significant amounts of protein, vitamins and minerals. The vitamin C content of nori, or prepared Porphyra, is greater than in raw oranges. The vitamin A content is comparable to that spinach, along with fairly high amounts of vitamin B in general. The amount of free and proteinaceous amino acids in nori are roughly similar to that of vegetables. Porphyra also contains a high amount of arginine, a basic amino acid which is generally found in animal protein. In nori, the characteristic taste is a result of the coexistence of relatively large amounts of alanine, glutamic acid and glycine. It also contains an abundant amount of taurine which is know to be effective for liver activity, especially in preventing the occurence of gallstone disease and for controlling blood cholesterol levels. Nori also contain relatively high amounts of essential trace elements, such as zinc, which is essential for certain enzyme functions. Manganese, copper and selenium are present in Porphyra and essential for the metabolic processes of organisms.
Nori has always been a staple in the diet of most Asian countries, such as China and Japan. Once collected, nori is washed in freshwater to get rid of the sediments, finely chopped, and spread on frames to dry. Often, nori is toasted and flavored for use in cooking. It is often sprinkled over rice as a flavoring, or used in sushi!
Besides Asian cultures, others have also utilized Porphyra as a food. In Ireland and the Wales, Porphyra is called laver and can be prepared by frying it in fat or as a pinkish jelly, which can be prepared by heating the fronds in a saucepan with minimal water and beating with a fork.
Porphyra does have a few medicinal benefits. It contains a sulfated polysaccharide called porphyran, which is a complex galactan. The physiological activity of porphyran in the animal body isn't clear right now, but studies have indicated some excellent health benefits from it. It may inhibit the growth of certain tumors. Also, when nori powder was mixed with a basic diet at 2% concentration and fed to rats, it preventd a purposely induced carcinogenesis. These results may be have been caused by the sulfation of the polysaccharide, which can enhance the effectiveness of it.
Another substance called porphyosin has been isolated from Porphyra. It appears to exhibit anti-ulcer activity in shay ulcers. However, porphyosin was found to be ineffective against stress ulcers.
The cultivation of Porphyra originates back as far as 300 years ago, when the Japanese utilized a primitve method of using a bundle of bamboo twigs to collect the spores. However, the presence of spores were still at the mercy of nature and annual production flunctuated greatly.
In China, the cultivation of Porphyra dates back to about 200 years ago, when it was pulled right off rocks in early autumn. This was done right before the release of spores so that the spores would have an area for attachment and growth.
Modern cultivation of Porphyra did not occur until the 1960's, as a result of the discovery of the Conchocelis phase of Porphyra. The discovery of the Conchocelis phase allowed scientists to determine how to maximize nori production under controlled conditions, leading to one of the biggest industries in Japan and China.
In China and Japan, there are 7 main species used in commercial cultivation.
© 1999 Lisa Chen. All rights reserved. Use for educational purposes permitted with acknowledgment and notice.


From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
One million (1,000,000) or one thousand thousand, is the natural number after 999,999 and before 1,000,001. The name is derived from Italian, where mille was 1,000, and 1,000,000 became milione, "a large thousand".
In scientific notation, it is written as 1×106 or just 106. Physical quantities can also be expressed using the SI prefix mega-, when dealing with SI units. For example, 1 megawatt equals 1,000,000 watts.
Il Milione is the title of Marco Polo's narration of his travel to China. The name is supposed to come from Polo's nickname after his tales of riches and multitudes.
Examples[change | change source]


You are here
Understanding an explanation
Listen to a professor's explanation to practise and improve your listening skills.
Language level
Pre-intermediate: A2
the last lecture you went to about is solutions subject. I think is not clear because of covid19, we have to learning on online. We sometimes don't hear what teacher says
The last lecture I went to about is Leadership class in IFT, the professor explained so well, he indicated all the aspect of leadership will have and taught us some skills to become a successful leader.
The girl that always wears glasses is the human resources Managent you can ask her all reference with the payment. The guy who is near to the window he is David, he is responsible for IT system, if you have any problem with the laptop please send it a email or just ask for help. The man that is wearing a green hat, he is the marketing director and the the blond girl who is set in the conference room, is Dianna, she is our accounting manager.
gud resources
For the enhancement of my English language learning, I listen to the podcasts from your website. In the last section of each podcast, Tom teaches grammar rules. In the last of them, he talked about using 'can you?'
Last lecture that i went to was my english lesson last wednesday. My teacher have read a text and then she had explained us every word or expression that we haven't understood. she was very clealy and she helps us so much every time.
Sorry what did she mean by " we will go one at a time "
Hello Hevi.m
'one at a time' is another way of saying 'one by one' -- in other words, first one person asks, then another one, then another one, etc.
All the best
The LearnEnglish Team
The last lecture I went to was about the global economy.
I don't thinks that she had explain much clear
the Fibonacci number made of sum of past two numbers
and start from number 1 unlike other sequences which
start by zero because (0+0 = 0) for this reason we have double
1 in the Fibonacci sequence 1, ( 0+1) = 1, ( 1+1) = 2, ( 2 +1 ) = 3,.. 13, 21,34, 55, 89 and so
But one of the most interesting thing in the Fibonacci sequence is the number (1.618 ) the Golden Ratio. it made when we divide any number
of the sequence by its before number after the seventh number in the sequence.e.g. ( 21/13) = 1.6153, (34/21)=1.619, (55/34)= 1.617..
I use fibonacci numbers every day in my business
I don't remember what was the last lucture I went to about. I think it cencerned history because I studied this subject several years ago.


text:
"Early one spring morning, a little seed woke up after her long winter sleep. She yawned and stretched. With a loud CRACK her hard brown jacket fell away. 'Oh!' said the surprised seed. The earth above felt warm."
... this was just the beginning of big changes to come.
The colorful illustrations in this book are made by the author from dyed wool fibers, felted together to create a solid piece of "fabric." She employed a technique known as "dry," or "needle," felting, which requires a small hand tool called a felting needle with barbs along the shaft to catch the fibers as it pierces the surface of the wool and binds them together. Jan describes the experience as "painting with a needle."
Hardcover, 28 beautifully illustrated pages, 8x10 inches, ages 3-5.
Jan Schubert has been a Waldorf early childhood educator for more than twenty years. In a one-room-school house on sixty acres in northern California, she founded and operated a preschool program. She holds a BA in ECE and has taught kindergarten at the Davis Waldorf School (Davis, California), where she currently teaches preschool. Jan also worked in a Lifeways program. She has a lifelong love of handwork and textiles, which is expressed in her visual storytelling and puppetry.


Let it Snow; Why the recent snow, before the record cold set in, was to our benefit.
January 18, 2009, 7:22 pm
Snow provides insulation to the ground by protecting it from the fluctuating air temperatures above; this insulation minimizes the freezing-and-thawing cycle that occurs when the air temperature changes (such as the near-zero temperatures Cape Cod experienced…>


text:
Summer Seminar Series
Throughout the summer we hold a weekly seminar series designed to expose REU students to a broad range of topics. Each session lasts 80-120 minutes and is usually subdivided in two, three, or four subtopics. The series consists primarily of four types of topics: lectures on research skills, panels on graduate life, traditional research talks, and REU student presentations. Because this series is scheduled to extend our regular academic-year seminar series, active participation from our faculty and graduate students is a departmental norm, providing another means through which the REU students are exposed to a dynamic, collaborative research environment.
Research Skills Lectures
At the beginning of the summer, the series focuses on interactive lectures about research skills. The main educational goal of these lectures is to expose students to all the major phases of the research process and to teach them to execute each phase effectively. The phases we emphasize are (expected lecturer in parentheses):
- Reading research papers (Mary Shaw)
- Applying a research method (Jonathan Aldrich)
- Formulating contributions and claims (Joshua Sunshine)
- Validating research claims (Jim Herbsleb)
- Writing a research paper (Claire Le Goues)
- Presenting research results (Christian Kästner)
These lectures are often accompanied by short readings and the lessons are emphasized outside of the seminar via direct mentorship within the context of each student's project.
Graduate Life Panels
Three times during the summer we invite Ph.D. students to be on a panel to discuss a specific element of the Ph.D. program:
- Applying to graduate school
- Adjusting to graduate studies and research
- The thesis process
We find that REU students enjoy hearing directly from graduate students, and internalize the lessons because they come from approximate peers. These panels also catalyze further interaction between graduate and REU students.
In the middle of the summer, the faculty, visiting faculty, and graduate students give traditional research talks. We select these talks to ensure that they are diverse in content, of high quality, and inspirational to undergraduates students. We also select for stylistic diversity. For example:
- The most recent faculty hire gives his or her job talk (Claire Le Goues spoke in 2015).
- A senior faculty member gives a keynote-style talk on the history of a field (David Garlan lectured on the history of software architecture in 2015).
- A student gives a tool demonstration or tutorial style talk.
- A junior faculty member talks about emerging work or a research proposal.
- A student gives a traditional conference-style talk about complete research.
The diversity of style exposes students to a wide swath of research life—from faculty job searching to proposing new research—and from idea formation to maturation.


text:
Published in Proceedings of the 44th International Symposium on Microelectronics: Long Beach, CA, October 9, 2011.
Copyright © 2011 International Microelectronics and Packaging Society.
One of the challenges in an experimental study of solder joint reliability is to determine when cracks occur in a solder joint or when a solder joint fails. Cracks in a real solder joint are difficult to identify using an X-Ray system. Cross-sectioning and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) is a destructive method. A common non-destructive test method is to monitor resistance increase in a solder joint or a daisy-chain. However, no scientific research has been done in establishing the relationship between the crack area of an interconnection and the change in resistance of the interconnection. This paper proposes a method of defining failure criteria as the resistance increase in a solder joint exceeding a threshold. The threshold is determined by k times the range over the natural variation in resistance measured by a measurement system. The natural variation by random cause is judged using X-bar and R charts. The principles of defining failure criteria are to be able to detect failure of solder joints as early as possible with minimum false detection due of measurement system error/variation. An experimental study confirmed that a full crack of an interconnection occurs when the increase of resistance in the interconnection is 10 times the natural variation of resistance change. The results of this study could be used to narrow the definition of failure in consensus standards IPC 9701A, JESD22-B111, and IPC/JEDEC-9702.
Industrial Engineering | Manufacturing


The Imam and the Pastor
27 May 2021, 2:19 PM
Former enemies in an ongoing, deadly Nigerian conflict, Christian Pastor James Wuye and Muslim Imam Muhammad Ashafa reconciled their differences to stand as an example to their community and honor both their faiths' teachings to "love your enemy."
The Imam and the Pastor
In the 1990s, Pastor James Wuye and the Imam Muhammad Ashafa led opposing sides of a deadly conflict in Kaduna, Nigeria.
Each man was deeply rooted in his own faith tradition. Pastor James had felt a strong calling to the Church since graduating high school. Imam Ashafa was the thirteenth generation in his family to become an Imam. Both men felt a passion to unify and energize their faith communities, and to protect them against perceived threats.
As the conflict escalated, both men trained militias to intimidate and even kill members of the opposite side. Crops and livelihoods were destroyed. Families were attacked. The need for revenge on both sides fueled an ever-growing hatred, and the leaders' roles became entrenched. Both suffered heavy losses. Imam Ashafa lost two brothers and his mentor in the conflict. Pastor James, in addition to losing close friends, lost his right hand.
But something incredible happened.
In 1995, during a UNICEF outreach program about child immunization against polio, the two leaders hesitantly agreed to put aside their differences for the sake of the larger community. They realized that their voices, speaking together, could convince more people to protect their children against a common threat. Their agreement was cautious and guarded at first - and then, gradually over the years, they built up the respect and trust necessary to form a partnership.
The two men eventually formed the Interfaith Mediation Centre (which is a URI member group) - an interfaith, grassroots organization that heals rifts between Christians and Muslims throughout Nigeria. With over 10,000 members, they now train former militia members to become peace activists.
Today, Imam Ashafa and Pastor James work together to act as an example to their communities that peace is possible. They teach members of youth militias methods to resolve their conflicts peacefully rather than infinitely escalating violence, and have even led successful efforts to rebuild the churches and mosques that had fallen during their conflict.
Hear it in their own words: Read a 2011 interview Pastor James and Imam Ashafa gave together. Their remarkable story was also featured on Oprah's BELIEF television series in 2015.
Cooperation Circles Involved


Banda District of Uttar Pradesh at a Glance
Lok Sabha Constituencies in Banda district, Uttar Pradesh (MP Constituencies) Banda
MLA Assembly Constituencies in Banda district, Uttar Pradesh Baberu
About Banda District :
This is the easternmost district of Bundelkhand. The division of the district into two has been done by splitting Banda district, tahsil and block-wise. Karwi and Mau Tahsils lying in the eastern and South-eastern direction comprising the Manikpur, Mau, Pahadi, Chitrakut and Ramnagar blocks from the present Chitrakut district
There are four Tahsils namely Banda, Naraini, Baberu and Atarra comprising eight blocks of Badokhar-khurd, Jaspura, Tindwari, Naraini, Mahua, Baberu, Bisanda and Kamasinfrom the present district of Banda.
 There are seventeen thanas namely Kotwali City, Kotwali Dehat, Mataundh, Tindwari, Pailani, Chilla, Naraini, Atarra, Girwa, Kalinjar, Badousa, Bisenda, Baberu, Kamasin, Fhateganj, Jaspura and Marka.
The district largely consists of irregular uplands with outcrops of rocks intermingling with mostly lowlands, frequently under water during rainy sesason. The Baghein river traverse the district from south-west to north-east. The tract lying to the right of the river is intersected by numerous smaller river and rivulets (Nallas), but to its left is a flat expanse, for the most part made up of Mar and Kabar soils, eroded and converted into ravines along the banks of the Ken and the Yamuna and to a lesser extent, the Baghein river and the Gadara Nala.
The general slope of the district is from southwest to north-east, along with the course of Baghein river as mentioned earlier. The district falls into two sharly defined portions= one is upland called Patha, situated on the Vindhyan plateau in the south of Mau anf Karwi tahsils (presently known as Chitrakut district), the other is lowlands of alluvium (presently known as Banda district).
Yamuna flowing north of the district, is the principal river attracting all the drainage of the district. For long this river had a general tendency of cutting the southern bank: this rendered many villages displaced and destructed. A famous village Shaipur near Chilla-ghat the head quarters of Pargana Pailani during Moghul time, is said to have been entirely swallowed by it. Flowing circuitously towards north, south and south-east directions Yamuna is joined by Ken at Chillaghat, Bhahein near Bilas, and Paisuni near Kankota villages. Total length of the river in this tract is 215 km. of this 130 km lies with Banda while the rest 85 km with Chitrakut
 Ken rising is district Damoh, touches Banda near village Bilaharka in Naraini tahsil for about two km and then turns towards Chhatarpur district appearing again in the same tahsil. Then entering Banda tahsil near Utarandi village it flows north-east boarding distt. Hamirpur and then turns eastward to meet Yamuna at Chillghat. On the whole it flows in a deep and well defined channel scoured out by the action of flood-waters which occasionally come down in enormous volumes. The right bank is generally high and steep, scarred with innumerable ravines, but the left bank slopes somewhat more gently, and is subject to a certain amount of fluvial action. From Pailani to its junction eith Yamuna, the Ken is much affected by the stream of the larger river, which blocks occasionally its flow resulting in the swell of river water, submergence of even high-level villages and deposition of valuable silt in elevations which are normally above the flood plains.
Baghein is the second important river of this district. Emanating from a hill near Kohari of Panna district, it enters Banda district at Masauni Bharatpur village (the. Naraini). It flows north-east-ward and at a point separates Banda from the newly created Chitrakut district forming boundaries between Atarra, Baberu and Karrwi tahsils. Continuing north-east it joins Yamuna near Bilas village. It being most capricious in its action, depostis quantities of sand or Kankar shingles, but near its junction with Yamuna it tends to flood a large area of low lying land, if the stream in the Yamuna is sufficient to block its outlet.
The chief tributary of Baghein, the Ranj, joins it at Gurha Kalan (tahsil Naraini) but further east, there are several smaller tributaries from south namely the Madrar, the Barar, the Karehi, the Banganga and the Barua, each of which in turn has tributaries of its own. The barua has been dammed to provide some irrigation through canals
 No lakes or jhils exist in the district. Still there are a few fairly large depressions which always retain water. There are numerous tanks, some of which are of considerable size, such as that at Khar in tahsil Baberu.These have been excavated for the storage of water, many as fimine relief works.
 The hills of the district consists of the part of the Vindhyan plateau which lies in the extreme southern portion of the tahsils Mau and Karwi (now known as the district Chitrakut).The northern flank of the Vindhyas known as Vindhyachal range, starts near the Yamuna in the extreme east of tahsil Mau. It recedes from the Yamuna in a south-westerly direction-gradually rising in elevation, although nowhere abobe 450 metre from the mean sea level. It leaves the district near the scared hills of Anusuiya to reappear of Godhrampur in the south-eastern part of Naraini tahsil. From this point westward to Kalinjar the hills from the border of the district
At a Glance :
S NO. Item Units Year Value
1 Geographical Area
Rural Sq. Km. 2001 4114.20
Urban Sq. Km. 2001 34.87
2 Population
Male In thousand 2001 806.543
Female In thousand 2001 693.710
Total In thousand 2001 1500.253
Rural In thousand 2001 1256.230
Urban In thousand 2001 244.023
Schedule Cast In thousand 2001 326.740
Schedule Tribes In thousand 2001.048
3 No. of Literates
Total In thousand 2001 664.686
Male In thousand 2001 458.330
Female In thousand 2001 206.356
4 No. of Tahsils No. 2002-03 4
5 Development Blocks No. 2002-03 8
6 Nyay Panchayat No. 2002-03 71
7 Gram Sabha No. 2002-03 437
8 No. of village
No. of habitated village No. 1991 653
No. of inhabitated village No. 1991 41
Forest village No. 1991 —
Total village No. 1991 694
9 Town and Cities No. 2002-03 8
10 Municipal Corporation No. 2002-03
11 Nagar Palika Parishad No. 2002-03 2
12 Cantt. Area No. 2001-02
13 Nagar Panchayat No. 2001-02 6
14 Census Town No. 1991 0
15 Police Station
Rural No. 2002-03 10
Urban No. 2002-03 7
16 Bus Station/Bus Stop
Rural No. 2002-03 143
Urban No. 2002-03 7
17 Railway Station/Halt No. 2002-03 7
18 Length of Railway Track
Big Track KM 2002-03 79
Small Track KM 2002-03 0
19 Post Office
Rural No. 2002-03 192
Urban No. 2002-03 16
20 Telegraph Office No. 2001-02 9
21 Telephone Connections No. 2001-02 11193
22 Commerical Branches
Nationalised Banks No. 2002-03 28
Others No. 2002-03 0
23 Rural Bank Branches No. 2002-03 50
24 Co-operative Bank Branches No. 2002-03 11
25 Co-operative Agriculture & Village Development Branches No. 2002-03 3
26 Fair Price Shops
Rural No. 2002-03 612
Urban No. 2002-03 80
27 Bio-gas Plants No. 2001-02 1930
28 Cold Storage No.


All News
Grain Corn Maturity and Yield Estimating
The grain corn crop in Manitoba should have completed the silking stage (R1) and moved on to the blister stage (R2), by now. Generally, the crop is behind "normal" for this time of year, but accumulated crop heat units are on par. It is safe to say that we can use some good rainfalls and high (but not too high) daily and overnight temperatures to move the crop along and enable the plant to fill grain in a timely manner. In 2019, the crop was wanting to start shutting down at this point and plants were very slow to fill grain completely before black layer.
Below is a quick review of the reproductive stages that Manitoba corn producers are currently working with:
Silking Stage (R1)
 - Silks are visible outside the husk
 - Silks are pollinated within 4 – 10 days after tassel emergence. Each silk is attached to an individual ovule, or potential kernel.
 - Pollen lands on a silk and germinates to produce pollen tube, which must grow down the entire length of the silk before fertilization can occur.
 - Good growing conditions are vital for successful silking and pollination.
Corn maturity 01
Figure 1. Corn at Silking Stage (R1)
Blister Stage (R2)
 - Kernels are white on the outside and resemble a blister in shape.
 - Starch is beginning to accumulate and the kernels are starting a period of rapid dry matter accumulation, lasting 30 – 40 days.
Corn maturity 02
Figure 2. Corn at Blistering Stage (R2)
Milk Stage (R3)
 - Kernels are yellow in colour and inner fluid is milky white, due to starch accumulation.
 - Grain filling and dry matter accumulation is still occurring at a rapid rate.
 - Kernel moisture is about 80%.
Corn maturity 03
Figure 3: Measurements for each reproductive stage of corn development and how a killing frost would affect yield at that stage.
Producers and agronomists should be assessing each grain corn field now for yield estimates. Now that pollination is complete, we have an excellent idea of how many kernels have been pollinated, and it looks like this year we did have great pollination, filling cobs to the tip.
The following is taken from Dr. R.L. (Bob) Nielsen on estimating corn grain yield prior to harvest. Dr. Nielsen has some excellent articles on corn production that are worth looking into. (
 1. At each estimation site, measure off a length of a single row equal to 1/1000th acre. For 30-inch (2.5 feet) rows, this equals 17.4 linear feet.
 TIP: For other row spacings, divide 43,560 by the row spacing (in feet) and then divide that result by 1000 (e.g., [43,560 / 2.5] / 1000 = 17.4 ft).
Corn maturity 04
Figure 4. Row length required to measure 1/1000th acre in various row widths – Ontario Grain Farmer (
 1. Count and record the number of ears on the plants in the 1/1000th acre of row that you deem to be harvestable.
 TIP: Do not count dropped ears or those on severely lodged plants unless you are confident that the combine header will be able to retrieve them.
 2. For every 5th ear in the sample row, record the number of complete kernel rows per ear and average number of kernels per row. Then multiply each ear's row number by its number of kernels per row to calculate the total number of kernels for each ear.
 TIPS: Do not sample nubbins or obviously odd ears, unless they fairly represent the sample area. If row number changes from butt to tip (e.g., pinched ears due to stress), estimate an average row number for the ear. Don't count the extreme butt or tip kernels, but rather begin and end where you perceive there are complete "rings" of kernels around the cob. Do not count aborted kernels. If kernel numbers per row are uneven among the rows of an ear, estimate an average value for kernel number per row.
 3. Calculate the average number of kernels per ear by summing the values for all the sampled ears and dividing by the number of ears.
 EXAMPLE: For five sample ears with 480, 500, 450, 600, and 525 kernels per ear, the average number of kernels per ear would equal:
 (480 + 500 + 450 + 600 + 525) divided by 5 = 511
 4. Estimate the yield for each site by multiplying the ear number (Step 2) by the average number of kernels per ear (Step 4) and then dividing that result by a kernel weight "fudge factor". Unless your seed company can provide some insight into kernel weight values for their hybrids, I suggest simply performing separate calculations using "fudge factor" kernel weight values equal to 75, 85, and 95. This range of values probably represents that most commonly experienced in the central Corn Belt.
Corn maturity 05
Figure 5. Grain corn yield estimate formula – Iowa State University (
Example: Let's say you counted 30 harvestable ears at the first thousandth-acre sampling site. Let's also assume that the average number of kernels per ear, based on sampling every 5th ear in the sampling row, was 511. Using "fudge factor" values of 75, 85, and 95; the estimated range in yield for that sampled site would (30 x 511) divided by 75 = 204, or divided by 85 = 180, or divided by 95 = 161 bushels per acre.
Repeat the procedure throughout field as many times as you deem representative. Tally and average the results separately for each "fudge factor" used for the calculations.
Remember that this year we have very uneven uniformity in most corn fields, which will influence the accuracy of any yield estimation technique. The less uniform the field, the greater the number of samples that should be taken to estimate yield for the field.
Article written by Morgan Cott, Agronomy Extension Specialist (Special Crops) with Manitoba Crop Alliance


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For each of the past several years, PHMC has selected a theme to focus research and programming. Our 2008 theme underscores the seventy-fifth anniversary of the New Deal in Pennsylvania.
The historical lessons of the New Deal are many. It was a period during which both state and nation faced extreme economic hardships and people worked together to overcome adversity. Although New Deal projects were funded through national programs, many of them were strongly rooted in local and regional identity. State histories described local points of interest and customs, and the Index of American Design recorded unique regional folk arts. In Pennsylvania, Governor George H. Earle III, a friend of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and an ardent supporter of FDR's New Deal, crafted a series of innovative programs for economic relief which earned it the appellation "Pennsylvania's Little New Deal."
Among the greatest legacies of the New Deal are an appreciation for local history and the significance of the experiences of ordinary individuals. As PHMC commemorates the seventy-fifth anniversary of the New Deal, we celebrate the legions of people--millions across the Commonwealth and the country--who, working shoulder to shoulder, helped bring not only a sense of normalcy, but also one of belonging, to their lives.
Barbara Franco, Executive Director
Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
Download The New Deal Poster
A Common Canvas: Pennsylvania's New Deal Post Office Murals
The poster features the artwork "Steel Industry" by Howard Norton Cook, 1936. This mural currently resides in the United States Post Office & Courthouse, Pittsburgh, Pa., and is provided courtesy of the General Services Administration, Fine Arts Program.


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Isabella (Fanny) Brooks
Isabella and Julius Brooks and their children were the first Jewish family to settle in Utah.
It couldn't have been easy to feel included when they arrived in Salt Lake City in 1864, among all the Mormons. But they stayed and became respected members of the community.
Isabella--or Fanny, as she was known---was largely responsible for her family's growing prominence in the city. Outspoken and energetic, she ran a boarding house and millinery shop and added a personal touch to her customer service.
Julius Gerson Brooks
As a young man, Julius Brooks left his village in Germany, Frankenstein, to live in the United States for five years. When he returned to Frankenstein in 1853, his stories made a big impression on 15-year-old Fanny. Or maybe he himself made the biggest impression.
So she rather brazenly asked if he would take her back to America with him. That conversation ended with a marriage. In 1854 the newlyweds boarded a ship to New York City. Fanny later told her children that she entertained the immigrants on the boat with French and German folksongs that she played on her guitar.
Julius and Fanny joined a wagon train West and had many adventures on their journey.
They spent the winter in Salt Lake City and liked it very much but decided to find their fortune in California. During the next ten years Julius and Fanny tried to make a life in several places.
But in 1864 they decided to return to Salt Lake City.
The small adobe house at Third South and Main Street where the Brookses lived was one of the noisiest spots in town. The home was sandwiched between the stables of the Pony Express Company and a gambling saloon. But they adjusted to the unusual environment.
Fanny cooked breakfast for the bullwhackers (oxen team drivers) from a nearby camp. The children became involved in neighborhood activities and even attended an LDS Sunday School until the first Jewish synagogue was built in 1875. Eveline, the oldest daughter, recalled playing jump-rope with Brigham Young's children.
As the family settled into the community, Fanny decided to establish a boarding house. Julius expanded the dining room to seat up to forty people at a time. They had a successful business with several rental properties--which soon became threatened by political events in the city.
Mormons and non-Mormons had continuing conflicts. In fact, at times non-Mormons feared for their lives. In 1868 Brigham Young forbade Mormons from doing business with non-Mormons. Mormon merchants were advised to place an all-seeing-eye sign with the legend "Holiness to the Lord" on their buildings to indicate their religious affiliation.
The Brooks's Mormon tenants all left. Other non-Mormon merchants began to sell out and leave town.
But the unstoppable Fanny Brooks requested a personal interview with Brigham Young to ask him to buy their property. Young explained that some non-Mormon merchants had come to Salt Lake with the aim of running the town. But Fanny and her family were valuable members of the community. He said, "We would hate to have you leave." He told her not to worry.
Soon, the Brookses had again filled up their rooms with tenants.
From that day on, the church leader remained friendly with the Brookses and supportive of their Jewish faith. As a symbol of his good will he offered to donate land for a Jewish cemetery in 1869.
As a successful businesswoman, Fanny decided to open a millinery shop. Julius purchased the hats for the store, and Fanny managed the accounts and ran the store. They hired Hiram Parson as a clerk because they knew knew that his family of seven children was very poor.
Fanny adopted an attitude of service. She treated customers well because she knew that personal attention would encourage them to come back. Her daughter Eveline recounted a story that demonstrates her mother's professional approach. On one occasion, a lady fussed around the store, unable to find a suitable hat. Julius responded to her by saying, "My dear lady, if I had hats to make ugly ladies look pretty, I would be a millionaire and live in New York." The woman was insulted and about to leave the store when Fanny returned from an errand. She assured the customer that her husband had not been serious and then sold her three hats with the promise that she looked lovely in each.
The Brookses did well with the millinery business. According to Eveline, by the end of the second year the family had earned $40,000 from the shop. In 1879 Julius constructed an elegant European-style shopping mall called the Brooks Arcade.
The couple spent most of their later years traveling in Europe and visiting relatives and friends. In 1885 Julius died in San Remo, Italy. Fanny continued to run her millinery shop in Salt Lake City. As her health deteriorated, however, she made more frequent trips to her home town of Wiesbaden, Germany. She died there on August 21, 1901, leaving behind a unique legacy as a skilled and determined businesswoman and an active Jewish citizen in the early history of Salt Lake City.
Both Julius and Fanny Brooks are buried in the Jewish section of the Salt Lake City Cemetery.
Taken from a History Blazer article by Ivette D. Isom and from Frontier Reminiscences of Eveline Brooks Auerbach, by Eveline Brooks Auerbach (the only surviving child of Julius and Fanny)


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Brief SummaryRead full entry
There is no known cyst stage for Entamoeba gingivalis; trophozoites (the active stage) live in the oral cavity of humans, residing in the gingival pockets near the base of the teeth. They feed on bacteria and other debris. Like some related species found in the large intestines of humans (Entamoeba coli, Ent. hartmanni, Ent. polecki, Endomilax nana, and Iodamoeba buetschlii), they are not considered pathogenic. Trophozoites are transmitted person-to-person orally by kissing or via fomites (such as eating utensils). The trophozoite stage of Ent. gingivalis is morphologically similar to that of Ent. histolytica and the two should be differentiated, as both can be coughed up in sputum specimens (for the latter, when present in pulmonary abscesses). Entamoeba gingivalis has a worldwide distribution.


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Robots that can mimic the exact brush strokes of master painters or calligraphers could recreate their work, a Japanese researcher said Tuesday.
"We have been able to teach this robot to successfully copy the brush strokes of a master of calligraphy," said Seiichiro Katsura, an associate professor of system design engineering at Keio University.
A perfect copy of a work by long-dead artists such as Monet or Picasso is not possible, as the robot needs a living model to imitate, applying the same pressure and making the same gestures, Katsura said.
But the technology could be used in complex surgery or mechanics.
"In Japan, where the population is quickly ageing, there are fears that valuable skills may not be handed down to younger generations," said Katsura.
The robot was on display at Asia's biggest tech fair—the Combined Exhibition of Advanced Technologies (CEATEC) exhibition—which opened on Tuesday at Makuhari, near Tokyo.
Explore further: Smartphones control smart homes at Asia tech fair


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Sweetgum trees (Liquidambar styraciflua) look spectacular in fall when their leaves turn brilliant shades of scarlet, yellow, orange, or purple. The autumn show continues into late fall and early winter, and these stately shade trees are worth planting just to enjoy this fall color. Birds, chipmunks, and squirrels love sweetgum trees, which provide them with food, shelter, and nesting sites.
What is a Sweetgum Tree?
Sweetgums are straight, tall trees with a single trunk that reaches a height of 75 feet (23 m.) or more. These handsome trees have a pyramidal canopy when young that becomes rounded with age. They make excellent lawn or shade trees in large landscapes. Sweet gum tree leaves have five to seven pointed lobes, and their shape will remind you of a star. Mature leaves are 4 to 7 inches (10 to 18 cm.) wide. Their fall color lasts much longer than most other trees. The downside to growing a sweetgum tree is the seed pods. Children call them gumballs or stickerballs, and it's rare to find a child with a sweetgum growing nearby that hasn't had an unpleasant experience with the spiky pods. Adults despise them as well because they can roll underfoot and cause a fall, especially on paved surfaces.
Sweetgum Tree Info
Although sweetgum trees are often planted as street trees, they have shallow roots that can lift sidewalks and curbs. If you plan to plant a sweetgum, keep it at least 10 feet (3 m.) from pavements and foundations to avoid damage. The falling gumballs that are a hazard on pavements are another reason to keep them away from sidewalks and driveways. Sweetgum trees are considered pioneer trees. These are trees that can become invasive in an area because they take root easily from seeds and grow quickly, often excluding all other plants in the area. It's best to plant them in maintained areas where you'll be cleaning up the seed pods.
How to Grow Sweetgum Trees
Sweetgums need a location in full sun or partial shade. They grow in almost any soil, from sandy to clay and from acid to slightly alkaline. They have a lot of shallow roots, but they also have some deep roots that prefer moist, deep soil. They tolerate winters in USDA plant hardiness zones 5 through 9. Water sweetgum trees regularly until they are well-established and growing. Once the trees mature, they tolerate occasional drought as well as periodic flooding. Mature trees need very little care.
Caring for Sweet Gum Trees
Once established, sweetgums need very little care. You don't need to fertilize them every year, although they appreciate some general purpose fertilizer or compost every few years. The trees are drought tolerant and don't need to be watered once mature. Although they don't need much direct care, they add quite a bit to your fall landscape maintenance. They drop an abundance of leaves that need raking, and gumballs fall from the tree over a period of months. Because of the hazard they present and the potential to take root, you'll want to keep them swept up.
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Begonia Watering: How To Water Begonias (And When To Leave Them Alone!)
Improving the way you hydrate your begonias can have a major impact on their life expectancy and flowering quality. We explain how to get better at begonia watering
By Tonya Barnett Published
Support Your Area's Pollinators By Using Keystone Plants
An understanding of keystone plants is not just a great way to make sure your garden is as enticing as possible to pollinators – it's critical for the future of key species. We show you how to raise your eco-awareness
By Teo Spengler Published


From Latin volūbilis (rolling), from volvō (I roll).
voluble (comparative more voluble, superlative most voluble)
 1. (of a person or a manner of speaking) Fluent or having a ready flow of speech; garrulous or loquacious; tonguey.
 - circa 1595, William Shakespeare, Love's Labour's Lost, act 3, sc. 1:
 A most acute juvenal; voluble and free of grace!
 - 1853, Charlotte Brontë, Villette, ch. 19:
 - 1904, Jack London, The Sea Wolf, ch. 26:
 2. (of thoughts, feelings, or something that is expressed) Expressed readily or at length and in a fluent manner.
 - 1886, William Dean Howells, The Minister's Charge, ch. 6:
 [H]e heard the voice of the drunken woman, now sober, poured out in voluble remorse, and in voluble promise of amendment for the future, to every one who passed, if they would let her off easy.
 - 1910, H. H. Munro, "The Reticence of Lady Anne" in Reginald in Russia and Other Sketches:
 As a rule Lady Anne's displeasure became articulate and markedly voluble after four minutes of introductory muteness.
 - 1922, James Joyce, Ulysses, Episode 9:
 In the daylit corridor he talked with voluble pains of zeal.
 3. Easily rolling or turning; having a fluid, undulating motion.
 - 1935, Leonard Barnes, Zulu Paraclete: A Sentimental Record, Peter Davies, p. 22:
 Seen from the west, their sky-line gallops away north and south like a sea-serpent in voluble motion.
 4. (botany) Twisting and turning like a vine.
Related termsEdit
voluble m, f (plural volubles)
 1. Easily turned around
 2. Of inconstant character
 3. voluble (sense 4)
Last modified on 10 January 2014, at 19:43


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A strong knowledge of sound economic principles is not only important in the
twenty-first century global marketplace, it is essential for the maintenance of a free
society. Are Michigan high school students being taught what they need to know in order to
succeed and prosper?
This review of 16 of the most commonly used economics textbooks in Michigan high schools uses 12 criteria-including issues of trade, taxation, and the role of government-to evaluate which texts are and are not effective at presenting students with a balanced and accurate perspective on the modern market economy. Each text is graded, from A to F, on its ability to clearly instruct students in the "economic way of thinking."
An abridged 27-page written copy of the report may be ordered normally, or the full reviews of each textbook may be downloaded at no charge via _URL_.


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Africanized Honey Bees On the Move - Lesson Plans
University of Arizona. Africanized Honey Bee Education Project.
Lesson Plans for Grades K-3, 4-6, 7-8, and 9-12
Lakes Worm Watch - Games and Activities
University of Minnesota - Duluth. Great Lakes Worm
Gypsy Moth Classroom Activities
University of Wisconsin - River Falls. Agricultural Education Department.
Includes Teacher and Student Guidelines and a Gypsy Moth PowerPoint Presentation


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Components of Our SCADA Solution
- Assess current SCADA system.
- Review key constraints to determine whether new platform is required.
- Involve SCADA partners to select new platform.
- Create strategic roadmap for SCADA optimization or migration.
- Manage the change (MOC) to minimize disruption.
- Provide staff augmentation to support safe operations during the transition.
- Introduce policies for high-performance HMI style guide and design.
- Set up a fully-compliant HMI.
- Drive down costs by optimizing system behaviors.
- Integrate pipeline SCADA with HMI displays in control room.
- Define SCADA architecture, network topology, and information dataflow.
- Incorporate security measures.
- Access to scalable GeoScada platform (formerly ClearSCADA).
- Fit SCADA to your operation's size, personnel, and unique culture.
- Complete alignment with API 1165.
- Ensure that workload is evenly distributed, and evaluate workload by shift or controller.
- Decide when to add additional consoles.
- Use workload data for annual reporting.
The EnerSys Natural Compliance Philosophy
Regulatory compliance is best achieved when it is in the natural outflow of the actions, attitudes, behavior, and culture of your operation. Consider our philosophy to help your operation achieve natural compliance.


Re: Hilbert envelope bandwidth
Dear Eckard Blumschein:
Here are my answers to some of your questions.
'Who introduced the term Hilbert envelope?'
The name Hilbert envelope was given by Dennis Gabor. The Hilbert
transform was introduced into electrical
 engineering literatures by Yuk Wing Lee around 1930. Actually 'Lee had
a difficult time convincing the
senior MIT faculty at his doctoral defense of the validity of the
relation. Ultimately it was Wiener's
endorsement of the concept that allowed the work to pass and Lee to
receive his degree. (See Therrien's 2002
article in IEEE Signal Processing Magazine.)
'How to get it? Will it work in ASR?'
To get the Hilbert envelope, the Hilbert operator in the time domain or
halfway rectifier followed by low pass
filtering would normally be used. A more interesting and practical way
is to model the envelope by an
all-pole model.
Linear prediction in spectral domain (LPSD), a duality of linear
prediction, was developed by Kumaresan
and Rao (JASA 1999). In the mean time, Athineos and Ellis (ASRU 2003),
following the idea of temporal
noise shaping, proposed frequency-domain linear prediction (FDLP) and
applied it successfully to ASR first.
Even more improvement of recognition accuracy was demonstrated in their
most recent paper (Athineos,
Hermansky and Ellis in ICSLP-04), where linear predictive temporal
patterns (LP-TRAP) were introduced.
'Is it important for speech perception?'
In order to understand the relative importance of temporal Hilbert
envelope and fine structure, Smith,
Delgutte, and Oxenham (letter to nature, 2002) performed the famous
chimaeric sounds experiments
and concluded that the envelope is most important for speech perception
with increasing number of filters.
However, some of the technical issues in the design of the experiments
make their conclusion quite dubious.
Any comments are welcome.
Yadong Wang
Yadong Wang, Postdoctoral Fellow
Cognitive Neuroscience of Language Lab
Dept. of Linguistics
1401 Marie Mount Hall
University of Maryland
College Park MD 20742
-----Original Message-----
Dear Yadong Wang,
Perhaps, I am not the only one here who would like to understand how
Hilbert envelope differs from temporal envelope and what "temporally
flattened" does mean. I am aware of Dan Ellis and others who calculate
squared Hilbert envelope as squared magnitude of the analytic signal in
order to depict hearing as determined by envelope and fine structure
within a number of frequency bands. Smith, Delgutte, and Oxenham (letter
to nature 2002) even spoke of an 'alternative signal decomposition by
Hilbert slowly varying envelope and rapidly varying fine time
structure'. Who introduced the term Hilbert envelope?
I respect those who create new tools. However, I cannot confirm that so
many confusing redundancy in theory is really justified. Let's tear down
a lot of unnecessary sophistication after restricting to either really
elapsed time or time to come after a given point. In other words, let's
abandon the wrong belief that complex calculus must be immediately
merged with frequency analysis. Complex modulator envelopes, as demanded
by Atlas, Li, and Thompson at ICASSP 2004, are only then necessary
prerequisites of unambiguous demultiplication if Fourier transform is
used instead of cosine transform. Isn't it absurd to declare the
modulating signal non-negative but operate with unreal negative
Incidentally, misconception concerning band-limitation is widespread in
science. It even led to'measurement' of signals propagating with
superluminal speed.
Eckard Blumschein


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In order to eliminate waste, duplications of services and to allow the individual wealth and prosperity the Federal Government shall maintain:
1.) National Defence
The Federal Government shall maintain a defence force to protect Canadian sovereignty from foreign threats.
2.) Maintaining Law & Order
- Enacting laws consistent with the Canadian Constitution and the Charter of Rights & Freedoms
- Protecting individuals from theft, fraud and force in it's various forms
- Providing protection for personal property rights
- Maintain a court system to remedy criminal complaints and civil disputes
- Maintain a police force to enforce the items listed above
3.) Inter Provincial Matters
The Federal Government shall act as a mediator between disputes or overlap of jurisdiction between provinces. The Federal Government shall not impose it's will on inter Provincial matters where existing Provincial regulations exist.
4.) International Relations
The Federal Government shall represent Canadian interests abroad but not interfere in the internal matters of other countries.
All other matters (CPP, EI, grants, subsidies etc.) should all be transferd to the Provinces and / or local authorities.


Moth Wiki
Moth Dark WithContrast.jpg
Mythimna, colloquially known as Moth, is a tidally locked world. Its one half lies in permanent daylight, its other half in endless night.
A vast and ancient world, Moth is home to many landscapes and cultures.
It is believed that, hundreds of thousands of years ago, Moth would spin around its axis, and day would follow night. An unknown event caused the world to fall still. Since then, the people of Moth have evolved separately on the daylit and dark sides; the two peoples have had almost no contact since.
Mythimna is commonely called Moth since its continents resemble the duskmoth, a breed of moth with one white wing, one black wing.
A map of Moth can be viewed here.
For full details, see Timandra.
Timandra, colloquially known as Dayside, is the sunlit half of Moth. Timandra contains many vast, varied landscapes: sub-arctic pine forests, temperate plains, deserts, rainforests, savanas, and more. It is home to eight kingdoms, each with their own language, culture, and history. Living in eternal sunlight, most Timandrians fear and hate Eloria, the land of darkness and secrets.
For full details, see Eloria.
Eloria, colloquially known as Nightside, is the dark half of Moth. Permanently dark, Eloria is a vast, barren land lacking plantlife. However, it is home to ancient, sprawling civilizations whose people have evolved to survive in the dark. Elorians have large eyes -- roughly the size and shape of chicken eggs -- pale skin, white hair, and large ears. They enjoy a diet of meat and mushrooms. Several kingdoms rule Eloria, sometimes clashing violently. For thousands of years, Eloria has had no contact with Timandra, a land Elorians perceive as hellish and full of demons.


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While all institutions aim to increase retention and degree completion, actually doing so is difficult. Universities are complex organizations; often times, organizational structure impedes the ability to introduce the dynamic, systemic changes required to lift these outcomes. Students also face a growing number of personal obstacles, like family responsibilities, rising debt and uncertain economic conditions. In the face of these challenges, universities must embrace shared efforts that cross departments and divisions to achieve results.
DePaul's organizational commitment to retention and degree completion was demonstrated by the introduction of the Executive Retention Group (referred to as XRG) in April 2008. Under the executive leadership of Enrollment Management and Marketing (EMM) and Academic Affairs, XRG quickly adopted a conceptual framework, the "4 Ps of Student Retention," to guide DePaul's overall approach to institution-wide retention research and programs.
The 4 Ps framework outlines a strategic approach to retention that starts with attention to the profile of the students admitted, focuses on ways to facilitate their progress toward degree completion, improves the process of navigating this complex institution and ensures that all students' experiences in and out of the classroom fulfill the promise of a DePaul education.
The resulting effect of DePaul's retention efforts is significant. The four-year graduation rate is the highest ever at 59 percent. The six-year graduation rate, an institutional record 73 percent, exceeds the graduation rate that would be statistically predicted given the academic and demographic profile of DePaul's student population. The first-year retention rate, gradually increasing over the last 15 years, is 84 percent.
To learn more about the 4 Ps and DePaul's retention efforts, visit our Student Retention website or contact Brady Johnson.
EMM Initiatives Using the 4 Ps
EMM has played a pivotal role in fostering the 4 Ps success. Examples of EMM initiatives include:
- Introduction of noncognitive variables and test-optional admission (profile).
- Comprehensive institutional research to understand the most important variables in progress toward degree (progress).
- The introduction of DePaul Central to streamline the most fundamental enrollment transactions (process).
- Robust and innovative career services that ensure all students have opportunities that help them bridge their academic and career interests (promise).


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Wired Magazine is fascinated by the idea that seed pods can open up after they've been detached from the plant, i.e. after the tissue is "dead." It seems to me that lots of seed pods that open do so after they're "dead" but what do I know, I'm neither a botanist nor a reporter for Wired.
The article uses a Delosperma seed pod as an example of the "rare" phenomenon of dead plant "origami." Since succulents' cell structures can store lots of water, this example's seed pod can unfurl, i.e. open, when the rains come.
Seed capsule from the ice plant Delosperma nakurense in the hydrated, unfolded state. (M. J. Harrington).
Now, what about the fact that these unopened seed pods, or "fruit", are edible and often eaten by the birds?
link via PATSP.