- linux manpages
String::Print − printf alternative
 ### Functional interface
 use String::Print qw/printi printp/, %config;
 # interpolation of arrays and hashes
 printi 'age {years}', years => 12;
 printi 'price−list: {prices%.2f}', prices => \_USER_, _join => "+";
 printi 'dump: {hash}', hash => \%config;
 # same with positional parameters
 printp 'age %d", 12;
 printp 'price−list: %.2f', \_USER_;
 printp 'dump: %s', \%settings;
 ### Object Oriented interface
 use String::Print 'oo'; # import nothing
 my $f = String::Print−>new(%config);
 # same, called directly
 $f−>printi('age {years}', years => 12);
 $f−>printp('age %d', 12);
 ### via Log::Report's __* functions
 use Log::Report::Optional;
 print __x"age {years}", years => 12;
This module inserts values into (translated) strings. It provides "printf" and "sprintf" alternatives via both an object oriented and a functional interface.
Read in the " DETAILS" chapter below, why this module provides a better alternative for "printf()". Also, some extended examples can be found there. Take a look at them first, when you start using this module!
The Object Oriented interface
See functions printi(), sprinti(), printp(), and sprintp(): you can also call them as method.
 use String::Print 'oo';
 $f−>printi($format, _USER_);
 # exactly the same functionality:
 use String::Print 'printi', %config;
 printi $format, _USER_;
The Object Oriented interface wins when you need the same configuration in multiple source files, or when you need different configurations within one program. In these cases, the hassle of explicitly using the object has some benefits.
 −Option −−Default
 modifiers [ qr/^%\S+/ = \&format_printf]>
 serializers
modifiers => ARRAY
Add one or more modifier handlers to power of the formatter. They will get preference over the predefined modifiers, but lower than the modifiers passed to "print[ip]" itself.
serializers => HASH|ARRAY
How to serialize data elements.
 my $f = String::Print−>new
 ( modifiers => [ EUR => sub {sprintf "%5.2f e", $_[0]} ]
 , serializers => [ UNDEF => sub {'−'} ]
 $f−>printi("price: {p EUR}", p => 3.1415); # price: XX3.14 e
 $f−>printi("count: {c}", c => undef); # count: −
$obj−>addModifiers( PAIRS )
The PAIRS are a combination of an selector and a CODE which processes the value when the modifier matches. The selector is a string or (preferred) a regular expression. Later modifiers with the same name overrule earlier definitions. You may also specify an ARRAY of modifiers per "print".
See section "Interpolation: Modifiers" about the details.
The functional interface creates a hidden object. You may import any of these functions explicitly, or all together by not specifying the names.
( [$fh], $format, PAIRS|HASH )
Calls sprinti() to fill the data in PAIRS or HASH in $format, and then sends it to the $fh (by default the selected file)
 open my $fh, '>', $file;
 printi $fh,...
 printi \*STDERR,...
printp( [$fh], $format, PAIRS|HASH )
sprinti($format, PAIRS|HASH)
The $format refers to some string, maybe the result of a translation.
The PAIRS (which may be passed as LIST or HASH ) contains a mixture of special and normal variables to be filled in. The names of the special variables (the options) start with an underscore ("_").
 −Option −−Default
 _append undef
 _count undef
 _join ', '
 _prepend undef
_append => STRING|OBJECT
Text as STRING appended after $format, without interpolation.
_count => INTEGER
Result of the translation process: when Log::Report subroutine __xn is are used for count-sensitive translation. Those function may add more specials to the parameter list.
_join => STRING
Which STRING to use when an ARRAY is being filled-in as parameter.
_prepend => STRING|OBJECT
Text as STRING prepended before $format, without interpolation. This may also be an OBJECT which gets stringified, but variables not filled-in.
sprintp($format, LIST, PAIRS )
Where sprinti() uses named parameters −−especially useful when the strings need translation-- this function stays close to the standard "sprintf()". All features of POSIX formats are supported. This should say enough: you can use "%3$0#5.*d", if you like.
It may be useful to know that the positional $format is rewritten and then fed into sprinti(). Be careful with the length of the LIST: superfluous parameter PAIRS are passed along to "sprinti()", and should only contain "specials".
example: of the rewrite
 # positional parameters
 my $x = sprintp "dumpfiles: %s\n", \_USER_
 , _join => ':';
 # is rewriten into, and then processed as
 my $x = sprinti "dumpfiles: {filenames}\n"
 , filenames => \_USER_, _join => ':';
Why use "printi()", not "printf()"?
The "printf()" function is provided by Perl's CORE ; you do not need to install any module to use it. Why would you use consider using this module?
"printf()" uses positional parameters, where printi() uses names to refer to the values to be filled-in. Especially in a set-up with translations, where the format strings get extracted into PO-files, it is much clearer to use names. This is also a disadvantage of printp()
pluggable serializers
"printi()" supports serialization for specific data-types: how to interpolate "undef", HASHes, etc.
pluggable modifiers
Especially useful in context of translations, the FORMAT string may contain (language specific) helpers to insert the values correctly.
correct use of utf8
Sized string formatting in "printf()" is broken: it takes your string as bytes, not Perl strings (which may be utf8). In unicode, one "character" may use many bytes. Also, some characters are displayed double wide, for instance in Chinese. The printi() implementation will use Unicode::GCString for correct behavior.
Three components
To fill-in a FORMAT, three clearly separated components play a role:
1. modifiers
How to change the provided values, for instance to hide locale differences.
2. serializer
How to represent (the modified) the values correctly, for instance "undef" and ARRAYs.
3. conversion
The standard UNIX format rules, like %d. One conversion rule has been added 'S', which provides unicode correct behavior.
 # sprinti() replaces "{$key$modifiers$conversion}" by
 # sprintp() replaces "%pos{$modifiers}$conversion" by
 printi "price: {price X %−10s}", price => $cost;
 printp "price: %−10{X}s", $cost;
 $conversion = column width %−10s
 $serializer = show float as string
 $modifier = X to local currency
 $value = $cost (in X)
Interpolation: Serialization
The 'interpolation' functions have named VARIABLES to be filled-in, but also additional OPTIONS. To distinguish between the OPTIONS and VARIABLES (both a list of key-value pairs), the keys of the OPTIONS start with an underscore "_". As result of this, please avoid the use of keys which start with an underscore in variable names. On the other hand, you are allowed to interpolate OPTION values in your strings.
There is no way of checking beforehand whether you have provided all values to be interpolated in the translated string. When you refer to value which is missing, it will be interpreted as "undef".
When a value is passed as CODE reference, that function will get called to return the value to be filled in. For interpolating, the following rules apply:
Simple scalar values are interpolated "as is"
Takes the value where the scalar reference points to.
All members will be interpolated with ",X" between the elements. Alternatively (maybe nicer), you can pass an interpolation parameter via the "_join" OPTION.
By default, HASHes are interpolated with sorted keys,
 $key => $value, $key2 => $value2,...
There is no quoting on the keys or values (yet). Usually, this will produce an ugly result anyway.
With the "serialization" parameter, you can overrule the interpolation of above defaults, but also add rules for your own objects. By default, objects get stringified.
 serialization => [ $myclass => \&name_in_reverse ]
 sub name_in_reverse($$$)
 { my ($formatter, $object, $args) = _USER_;
 # the $args are all parameters to be filled−in
 scalar reverse $object−>name;
Interpolation: Modifiers
Modifiers are used to change the value to be inserted, before the characters get interpolated in the line


text:
scores. The Pearson scoring system is, in essence, similar to many high school or college grading systems in that a score of 90 to 100 is considered an A, a score from 80 to 89 is considered a B, and so forth. In the example shown in Image 6, accountants would likely be justified in using only the first two rows of data for regression purposes, but not the third row (in Excel's row 5).
Using the PEARSON function, we can analyse each line item within our 48-month data set of historical values as follows. Before starting this process, we should establish the lowest Pearson score we are willing to accept. For example, we might deem that any line item scoring less than a 60% Pearson score is unsuitable for regression purposes. For those line items scoring below this predetermined threshold, a projection method other than regression will need to be used to project those budget line items. To calculate the Pearson score for our Dynamics GP data, in a new column we enter the formula =ABS(PEARSON (E2:BL2,$E$1:$BL$1)) next to the first row of data (cell BZ2 in this example) and copy the formula downward (as suggested in Image 7). (Note: A negative Pearson score of say, -95% is still a high score; the negative value simply means the data is trending downward instead of upward. Therefore, I've included the ABSOLUTE (ABS) function in this formula to force any negative Pearson scores to display as positive Pearson scores, which makes the resulting scores easier to format conditionally.
Image 7: Pearson scores for the historical data
Our next step is to highlight the Pearson scores and apply conditional formatting to make the subpar scores easier to identify, as follows. Start by selecting the Pearson scores in column BZ, and then from the Home tab, select Conditional Formatting, Highlight Cell Rules, Less Than, enter.60 (or 60%) in the Format cells that are LESS THAN box, and press OK. As a result, those rows of data with inadequate Pearson scores are highlighted in translucent red (or pink, you could say) in Image 7.
6. Replace budget line item amounts that have inadequate Pearson scores. Once the Pearson scores have been calculated for each line item, you should replace the regression-based projections for those line items with subpar Pearson scores (less than 60% in this example) and insert new values using an alternative projection method, such as using an appropriate inflation index.
In addition, it is wise to document and colour-code this alternative projection method. We then repeat this process for each line item as necessary and, upon completion, we have our initial 2018 rounded, seasonalised budget based on a combination of regression, inflation, and contract-pricing projection methods. Note that at this juncture you should expect your budget projections to be based on a variety of projection methods. For example, your 200-line-item expense budget might end up consisting of 30 line items based on contract values, 40 line items based on inflated 2017 values, and the remaining 130 line items based on regression calculations.
7. Forecast balance sheet. No budget would be complete without including a cash flow forecast. To project cash flow for 2018, we would need to forecast the 2018 balance sheet line items. Many balance sheet line items are relatively easy to project. As examples, land is usually a fixed amount, property and equipment values can be easily projected based on depreciation schedules, and loans payable amounts can be easily projected based on amortisation schedules. However, forecasting other line items, such as accounts receivable, inventory, and accounts payable balances, is trickier, though it can be done using historical financial statement ratios, as follows.
Let's assume that we have calculated the average number of days in accounts receivable, inventory, and accounts payable from our 2017 actual financials as 42, 62, and 28 days, respectively. Let's further assume that these amounts remain consistent enough throughout the year for us to rely on them for projection purposes. In this case, we can then use our 2018 budgeted income statement, along with these number-of-days ratio calculations to project balance sheet line items, as follows:
a. Accounts receivable. To project accounts receivable balances for 2018, we divide total budgeted net sales for January 2018 ($2,006,400 in this example) by 365 days, and multiply by 42 days to derive $230,873.42. Next, we apply rounding to produce a January 2018 accounts receivable budget value of $230,900 in this example. (Because Dynamics GP displays the sales amounts as negative values, we must adjust our formula by multiplying the product by —1 to produce a positive value.) We then copy this formula across to calculate the budgeted accounts receivable values for each month in 2018, as shown in Image 8.
Image 8: Balance sheet projections
b. Inventory. To project inventory balances for 2018, we divide total budgeted net cost of goods sold for January ($288,300 in this example) by 365 days, and multiply by 62 days to derive $48,971.51. Next, we apply rounding to produce a January 2018 inventory budget value of $49,000 and then copy this formula across to calculate the budgeted inventory values for each month in 2018, as shown in Image 8.
c. Accounts payable. To project accounts payable for 2018, we divide total budgeted net expenses for those January line items typically paid on account ($1,483,150 in this example) by 365 days, and multiply by 28 days to derive $113,776. (For consistency, make sure the line items selected are the same line items used to calculate the days in payables.) Next, we apply rounding to produce a January 2018 accounts payable budget value of $113,800 and then copy this formula across to calculate the budgeted accounts payable values for each month in 2018, as pictured in Image 8.
Next, we populate the remaining budgeted balance sheet line items, and then calculate the change in each balance sheet line item for each month. Finally, we can calculate January 2018's projected ending cash balance, as follows. Starting with January 2018's beginning cash balance ($234,600 in this example), we add net income/(loss) (—$77,600 in this example), add back depreciation and amortisation ($35,400 in this example), and add or subtract the month-to-month changes in the applicable balance sheet line items (a net amount of —$34,700 in this example) to project an ending cash balance of $157,700 for January 2018. This $157,700 ending cash balance becomes the beginning cash balance for February, and the calculations are repeated for each additional month to create ending cash balances for each month in 2018, as shown in Image 8.
At this point, we have created an initial preliminary budget for 2018. While this may seem to be a completed budget to you, to management it's merely a starting point that most certainly requires further review and refinements before finalising. For example, management may want to add new line items for purchasing new furnishings, equipment, or a new accounting system. The bosses may also want to expand or tighten the marketing budget, increase sales expectations, or implement an employee training initiative. In other words, further refinements should be expected.
8. Use the budget. There is little point in going through the time and effort to create a budget if you're not going to follow it or periodically compare it to actual results. To properly utilise a budget, management should:
- Consult the budget. Refer to the budget throughout the year when approving significant expenditures, and ensure that spending does not exceed budgeted amounts, unless the president, board, or management approves such overages.
- Compare budget values to actual values. This should be done on a monthly basis. Specifically, income statement and balance sheet line items should be compared to budgeted values, cash balances should be compared to cash flow forecasts, and key financial ratios should be compared to expected financial ratios.
- Flag significant deviations from the budget. For example, management should flag those items that vary by more than 10%, or by more than $10,000, for further scrutiny (or some other threshold that you deem appropriate). You should analyse those significant deviations in detail and document reasons for those variances.
- Take corrective measures, as necessary. In case errors are discovered, management should enter adjusting journal entries to correct those errors or communicate with vendors to resolve duplicate bills or payments. If fraud is detected, management should take steps to identify and possibly remove the fraudsters, recover monies, and prevent future frauds. If significant variances are found to be caused by flawed budget projections, then management should learn from the past budgeting mistakes and employ more reliable methods for projecting those same line items when preparing future budgets.
Regardless of which budgeting methods you use, even the best budgets are just educated estimates derived from the best available information at hand, with experience and reason applied. Despite this "iffy" nature of the budgeting process, most accountants believe it's better to embrace budgeting because budgets represent more than mere restrictions on spending; well-prepared budgets can serve a much greater purpose. Proper budgets represent thoughtful plans of action to help guide organisations toward their financial goals. Budgets also represent the first line of defence against fraud, because it's virtually impossible to perpetrate a fraud for long periods when the proper budgeting and review process is employed (short of massive collusion

source: openbmb/Ultra-FineWeb


Crj 560 criminological theory | Criminal homework help
Order a Similar Paper HERE Order a Different Paper HERE
CRJ 560 Criminological Theory
Research Paper Assignment
In order to allow you to demonstrate your grasp of theory and the applicability of theory to policy and future research, each of you will draft a 7-9 page research paper. The other purpose is for you to have the opportunity to engage with a theoretical perspective of interest to you in more detail. Finally, this project serves to advance your research, analytical, and writing skills. There are five components to the assignment. Discuss the points below in the order listed, and separate the sections using headings. You must pick a theory for which there is significant research testing it, or you will not be able to complete the assignment. Quotes are restricted in your paper to one short quote per page, i.e. four lines. Any quote included must only be something that is suitable to quoting. When explaining concepts, you must paraphrase, as I need to ensure that you understand the material.
Be mindful of your audience. It is not me. Your audience might be policy makers or supervisors in a criminal justice agency or advocates who work with offenders to help them in their rehabilitation.
1. Introduction: Identify the theory and the theorist(s). Next, discuss the origins of the theory you chose (e.g., historical events, earlier theories that influenced its development, background of the theorist(s) that influenced its development). The information in this section means that you must pick a single theory (not a theoretical school) and that includes identifying the theorist(s). You cannot say that you focused on control theory when there is more than one control theory. Whose control theory is your focus, and what is the name of that theory?
2. Theoretical Provisions: Discuss the causal arguments of the theory you chose (i.e. what are the provisions used to explain crime?).
3. Theoretical Testing: Describe and analyze the empirical/scholarly/peer-reviewed studies that researchers used to test the causal arguments of your theory, and discuss your responses to the following questions. The bulk of your sources should be tests of your chosen theory, such that they allow you to address this section. All of those sources must be addressed in this section in a literature review format rather than a discussion of each source individually.
a. What types of offenses did researchers testing your chosen theory examine?
b. What conclusions did the authors draw about the ability of your chosen theory to explain, in whole or in part, the types of offenses examined? Specifically, did they find the theory offered a viable explanation for the commission of these offenses, or did they find the theory was ineffective in explaining the commission of these offenses?
c. What was the basis of the conclusions that the researchers drew?
d. What limitations did the researchers note about their studies, and what did you find to be limitations?
e. Based on your assessment of the studies testing your chosen theory, how valuable do you find your chosen theory for explaining crime generally, a specific category of crime (e.g., violent/personal) or a specific type of crime (e.g., terrorism, robbery, murder, theft)?
4. Future Research: Based on the points you raised in the second content area, address what you see as general issues that future research needs to examine. Address the following questions in doing so.
a. What offense(s) would you study if you conducted a study testing this theory? Consider what you noted in section 3e.
b. What would you hypothesize about the offense(s) given the provisions of your chosen theory?
5. Conclusion: Summarize the main points and then discuss at least one policy recommendation that you would advocate to address the offense(s) you discussed in section 3e. Remember that you must ground the recommendation(s) in the provisions of your chosen theory.
You need to use a minimum of eight sources. Preferably, all of the sources should involve a test of your chosen theory, but at minimum, six of the sources must be a test of the theory. If you cannot find that many sources for your paper that meet that requirement, then you need to pick a new theory that allows you to meet this requirement. You should obtain academic research articles like those assigned for the course and if the theorists wrote a book solely on the theory, you can use that book in your research [e.g. Travis Hirschi's Causes of Crime; Steven Messner and Richard Rosenfeld's Crime and the American Dream; John Braithwaite's Reintegrative Shaming]. No textbook is an acceptable source. All in-text citations and reference list citations, as usual must be in APA format. Use the library website to find appropriate sources. Sources must be from 2000-the present unless a source is a landmark document. Check with me if you are unsure about whether you have a landmark source.


Collection 2523 - Wilbur F. Sanders papers, _PHONE_
Creator: Sanders, Wilbur Fisk, _PHONE_
Provenance Note: Letters, photographs, and newspaper clippings collected by Wilbur F. Sanders were donated to Special Collections by Richard Francis, Venice, California, on May 19, 2009.
Historical Note: Wilbur Fisk Sanders was born in Leon, New York on May 2, 1834. He began his career as a school teacher in New York and Ohio where, in 1856, he completed his training as an attorney. Sanders served as a first lieutenant in the Sixty-fourth Ohio Volunteer Infantry during the early years of the Civil War and, in 1863, joined the rush to the gold fields of Bannack and Virginia City in what would later become Montana Territory. He was active during the vigilante activity of 1864, and afterwards practiced law in Virginia City and Helena. In addition to his interests in mining and stock raising, Sanders also embarked on a political career in the new territory and was defeated in four separate elections for the territorial delegate to the U. S. Congress. Sanders had better luck running for the territorial legislature where he served as a delegate from 1873 to1879. After Montana achieved statehood, Sanders was elected as a Republican to the United States Senate and served from January 1, 1890, to March 3, 1893, but was unsuccessful in his bid for reelection. He married Harriet P. Fenn on October 27, 1858 and the couple had at least three sons, James, Wilbur, and Louis. Louis P. Sanders (_PHONE_) attended Harvard University, served with the First Montana Infantry Volunteers as an officer during the Spanish-American War and also became an attorney. Wilbur Fisk Sanders died in Helena on July 7, 1905.
Content Description Note: The Wilbur F. Sanders papers consist of letters and cards received by him in response to an invitation for the sliver wedding anniversary celebration of Harriet and Wilbur Sanders on October 27, 1883. Respondents include James Fergus, William A. Clark, Benjamin F. Potts, and Davis Willson. The letters and cards had been mounted on highly acidic black paper with corresponding typed transcriptions placed in proximity to the originals, but they have been removed from these mountings due to preservation concerns. As a result, the response letters and cards have been placed in odd numbered folders 1-13 and even numbered folders contain the transcriptions found in the preceding folder. The collection also includes a scrapbook of mounted newspaper clippings pertaining to the anniversary observance, Sanders' political activities, and obituaries of Sanders and members of his extended family. Five photographs of Wilbur F. Sanders, Louis P. Sanders and Sidney Edgerton complete this collection.
Box 1
1. Letters and cards, correspondents A-E
2. Transcriptions of folder 1
3. Letters and cards, correspondents F-K
4. Transcriptions of folder 3
5. Letters and cards, correspondents M-S
6. Transcriptions of folder 5
7 Letters and cards, correspondents T-W
8. Transcriptions of folder 7
9. Letters and cards, various names
10. Transcriptions of folder 9
11 Letters and cards, various names
12.Transcriptions of folder 11
13 Calling cards with no transcriptions
14. Scrapbook
15. Loose clippings
16. Photographs #1-5
 #1. Wilbur Fisk Sanders, photograph by Matthew Brady, ca. 1868 [removed to oversize storage]
 #2. Sidney Edgerton, ca. 1865
 #3. Louis P. Sanders in woman's costume for Harvard's Hasty Pudding Review, ca. 1880s
 #4. Louis P. Sanders in military uniform, 1898
 #5. Louis P. Sanders, ca. 1900s
Updated: 9/4/09


text:
Anarchism and Education: A Philosophical PerspectiveJanuary 1st, 2009
Judith Suissa's provocative book, Anarchism and Education: A Philosophical Perspective invites us to use our imaginations to think very critically about what kind of society we would like to have, what education would look like in this society and what kind of educational activities might help to facilitate the realisation of this ideal society (p. 5). She argues that the anarchist perspective does not take any existing social or political framework for granted and focuses instead on envisioning what an ideal social order could be like. While such an approach has often been dismissed as utopian, Suissa takes the view that before we begin to philosophise about education we ought to 'question the very political framework within which we are operating' (p. 3).
We do not currently sell titles online. Please either visit our store or call _PHONE_ to make a purchase by phone.

source: HuggingFaceFW/fineweb-edu


Chapter 11: Referee Personas
A Referee Persona (RP) is any persona – alien, bot, or anthropomorph – that is not run by a player. Anything not run by a player must be brought to life by the referee. Any entity the ref controls is essentially an referee persona of one type or another and only the degree of the referee's involvement varies. The referee is responsible for controlling the planetary denizens that wander about on uncharted planets and she is also responsible for portraying the personas that may join the expedition in their campaign. The difference in preparation of these two examples is enormous yet they both fall under the category of referee personas.
Referee Role-Playing
It is the responsibility of the ref to role-play referee personas to the best of her ability. For example, intelligent aliens must seem and act intelligently; nomads will never sleep in a bed if it can be avoided; anti-knites must be absolutely ruthless, sparing no personas in their righteous path; aliens must be alien in personality as well as structure; robots do not have facial expressions or body language.Presenting these sorts of character identities is the responsibility of the ref. Referees must be as diligent in ensuring the uniqueness of the various personas as they are in ensuring the originality of their scenarios. They must be prepared for a form of controlled schizophrenia as it may be necessary to switch from one referee persona to another in an instant.
Referees cannot expect of themselves repeated brilliant performances of wholly unique personas nor will the player always notice or appreciate such displays. The players are there to role-play and have fun and the referee is there to role-play and have fun too. It is also the referee's job to ensure that precious game time is shared between the personas and the referee personas. To be more blunt, referees have to be egotistical attention seekers (or they wouldn't be referees) and they must ensure that they don't take over the show and bore the rest of the players. (Enough of this referee-player pseudo-psychological investigation!)
Regardless of the involvement of a referee with her referee persona (RP), she cannot afford to get attached to her personas like the players do. Referee personas may serve no purpose other than cannon fodder; they may depart the scenario at any time either violently or by choosing a separate path from the expedition. Often referee personas will simply be dispatched by paranoid players. Regardless of the importance of a referee persona, the referee must be ready to part with them at any moment because they will always end up on the referee persona scrap heap.
Generating a Referee Persona
An RP includes all the components a persona does plus a few more. An RP is expected to have experience levels and a collection of toys. A simple system is given to randomly determine an RP's type, attributes, class, level, personality, etc. The system is outlined in the Referee Persona Checklist. Most often the ref will have some idea of what kind of an RP is desired. This system can be used to flesh out some (or all) of the information which the ref has not already decided on.
Referee Persona Checklist
Table 11.1 Referee Persona Checklist
Make sure you get every element of your randomly created referee persona.
1)Create an origin, presence and goal.
2)Alien, Anthro, or Bot?
2-1)Jump to Alien Subchapter
2-2)Jump to Anthro Subchapter
2-3)Jump to Robot Subchapter
3)Determine Class.
4)Determine Level.
5)Generate Combat Table.
6)Determine Equipment.
7)Generate some qualities.
8)Calculate combat ration (CR).
9)Name the RP.
1) Origin, Presence, and Goal
As previously stated, referee personas can have a wide degree of involvement in a campaign or with an expedition. All referee personas must have an origin, presence, and goal. The origin of an RP should explain where it came from and why it things the way it does. The presence of the RP will dictate how and why it interacts with the expedition. The goal of an RP is what it wants from the campaign, dictating what it will do with the expedition and when it will part company.
For 95% of the RPs the expedition will encounter, the Trinity of the RP (origin, presence, and goal) will be pre-determined. Referee personas such as innocent civilians and animals will have simplistic origins such as migrating through the area or on their way to work. Their presence might be riding on the subway or rummaging through the bushes. Their goal may be to find some berries to eat or to get to work on time. If the expedition frequently intervenes in the lives of such unimportant referee personas, the referee need have no more prepared than usual.
If the referee persona is a more important one the referee must create a more detailed origin, presence, and goal. Let's consider a young man from the farming district of his impoverished planet (origin) is willing to hire on for the expedition as a porter (presence) if they will take him off planet (goal). Another referee persona could be a very hungry alien that just jumped out of a tree (origin) and is ferociously attacking the expedition (presence) because the alien's hungry and the expedition members look like something good to eat (goal).
Other RPs may have much more complex origins, presences, and goals. Vishna Shraloor is a referee persona with death field generation (a mental mutation). She matured not knowing that this lethal power was within her. She grew up through a series of profound personal tragedies: the death of her parents, the death of teachers, the death of mourning relatives, the death of her playmates, the death of social workers, and the death of foster parents. Many of these deaths may have been caused by her misunderstood mental ability. That is her sad origin.
Vishna's presence is one of a lonely unhappy persona who constantly associates with people she does not like because the people around her tend to die frequently. Her profession is that of an orbital satellite repair person, a solitary job for certain. She has chosen to hang around with the expedition because she does not particularly like them much. This is her presence.
Ms. Shraloor's goals are varied. She would like to destroy the society that has rejected her so totally and she sees the expedition's mentality as something that she can exploit to this end. If an expedition member should happen to befriend her, show her the nature of her mutation, and nurse her through the subsequent guilt, she may follow another path and desire to help the society that continued to reach out to her despite their extreme risk. These are her potential goals.
This chapter provides no guidelines on preparing an origin or goal for the referee's personas but it does help with the presence of the referee personas. In fact, this chapter could be considered a guide on how to prepare a referee persona's presence. If the ref knows that she needs RPs but has no origins or goals, then it might help to create the persona presence first. This is an excellent procedure for sparking the imagination or solidifying a watery idea.
Table 11.2 Referee Persona Origin
Is she from away or far away?
Die Roll (1d100)Origin of RP
01Off Planet
02-10Very Far away
11-30Far away
91-95At home
96-99Knows expedition
00Ref's Own Table
Die RollOrigin of RP
Table 11.3 Referee Persona Presence
What is the referee persona's frame of reference to the expedition. Friend or foe?
Die Roll (1d100)Presence of RP
01There to help
02-10Going about own business
11-30Following expedition
31-90Wants to interact
91-95Wants to harm
96-99Wants to kill
00Ref's Own Table
Die RollPresence of RP
Table 11.4 Referee Persona Goal
May be internalized or externalized.
Die Roll (1d100)Goal of RP
01Reorder the universe
02-10Provide for family
11-30Provide for self
31-90Make it to tomorrow
91-95Find meaning for self
96-99Find love and understanding.
00Ref's Own Table
Die RollGoal of RP
2) Determine Referee Persona Type
The type of referee persona chosen by the referee should be predetermined by the nature of the story being told in the campaign. This should also dictate the depth of persona development required. There are three persona types that the referee can choose from. As a rule, the most frequently chosen will be that of an anthropomorph. EXP is a humanocentric game and the rules are best suited for play by upright, bipedal, anthropomorph personas. The other two referee persona types are aliens and robots. Highly developed alien and robot personas will be extremely rare, but this depends on the ref's milieu. The referee should know exactly what type of persona she wants and the RP creation system should be used to flesh out this precast persona. If, and only if, the referee is completely and utterly stumped should she refer to the Referee Persona Type table.
Table 11.5 Referee Persona Race
Generate your referee persona race here if you are completely stuck.
Die Roll (1d100)Persona Race
00Ref's Own Table
Die RollPersona Race
2-1) Alien Referee Personas
When creating an alien referee persona encounter the referee must keep in mind that she is likely creating an entire alien species. Aliens don't merely exist


text:
Webinar: Using mass cytometry, imaging, and machine learning to understand malignant brain tumor biology
Rebecca Ihrie, PhD
A central goal in single-cell cancer research is to identify phenotypically distinct cells that have prognostic significance for patients. This need is acute in brain tumor glioblastoma, where changes in gene sequence, copy number or transcript expression can define patient or cell subgroups, but these subgroups are not associated with large differences in clinical outcomes.
Rebecca Ihrie, PhD, will present recent work using suspension mass cytometry (used in CyTOF® instruments) and Imaging Mass Cytometry™ to
She will also discuss ongoing work using these approaches to understand how tumor contact with a brain stem cell niche may alter the properties of cancer and immune cells in these tumors and impact patient survival.
In this webinar, sponsored by Fluidigm, attendees will learn about
For Research Use Only. Not for use in diagnostic procedures.


text:
Scattered Corn with Hoe SHSND# D0566American Indians began raising crops in the region now known as North Dakota about 900 years ago. The seeds and the knowledge for cultivating corn, squash, sunflowers, and beans probably came from the Navajo, Hopi, and Pueblo regions of the Southwest. Over time, the varieties of vegetables were adapted to the cold, dry climate of the northern Great Plains. The tribes primarily engaged in horticulture were the Hidatsa and Mandan and somewhat later the Arikara. (Hidatsa, p. 23)
Each woman was assigned a garden plot for her family in the river bottoms along the Missouri or one of its tributaries. Buffalo Bird Woman recalled that the largest garden her family had was 180 yards by 90 yards. Usually a family began with a smaller plot and expanded it for several years. (Buffalo, p. 24) Garden plots were often fenced to prevent animal (deer, bison, horses) depredation.
Corn cultivation began early in the spring when the Goose Society (an adult women's society) welcomed the corn spirits from the South with a ceremony of song and dance. First the sunflowers were planted, then the corn. (Independence, p. 33)


University of Technology-Iraq Engineering and Technology Journal _PHONE_ 32 3 2014 03 28 Robust PI-PD Controller Design for Magnetic Levitation System تصميم المسيطر التناسبي التكامليالتناسبي التفاضلي المتين للسيطرة على منظومة التعليق المغناطيسي 667 680 92151 EN Hazem I. Ali Journal Article 2014 03 01 This paper presents a design of robust PI-PD position controller for Magnetic Levitation Ball system. The Magnetic Levitation system considered in this work is taken as a ferromagnetic ball suspended in a voltage controlled magnetic field. The Magnetic Levitation system is unstable, because electromagnetic force is very sensitive and there is a noise that creates acceleration forces on the steel ball resulting the instability due to existence of positive poles causing the steel ball to move into the unbalanced region. The robust controller is aimed to keep a steel ball suspended in the air in the desired position by maintaining the balance between the magnetic force and ball's weight. The Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) method is used to tune the gains of the PI-PD controller. The simulation and experimental results show the effectiveness of the designed controller.


16.1 Introduction
Diskfun is a part of Chebfun for computing with 2D scalar and vector-valued functions on the unit disk. Conceptually, it is an extension of Chebfun2 to the polar setting, designed to accurately and efficiently perform over 100 operations. These include differentiation, integration, vector calculus, and rootfinding, among many other things. Diskfun was developed in tandem with Spherefun, and the two are algorithmically closely related. For complete details on the algorithms of both of these classes, see [Townsend, Wilber & Wright, 2016], [Wilber, Townsend & Wright, 2016]. Later, Ballfun was also created, for computing with functions in a spherical ball, as described in chapter 20.
To get started, we simply call the Diskfun constructor. In this example, we consider a Gaussian function.
LW = 'Linewidth'; MS = 'Markersize'; FS = 'Fontsize';
g = diskfun(@(x,y) exp(-10*((x-.3).^2+y.^2)));
plot(g), view(3)
When working with functions on the disk, it is sometimes convenient to express them in terms of polar coordinates. Given a function $f(x,y)$ expressed in Cartesian coordinates, we apply the following transformation of variables: \begin{equation} x = \rho\cos\theta, \qquad y=\rho\sin\theta, \qquad (\theta, \rho) \in [-\pi, \pi] \times [0, 1]. \end{equation} This gives $f(\theta, \rho)$, where $\theta$ is the angular variable and $\rho$ is the radial variable.
To construct g using polar coordinates, we include the flag 'polar'. The result using either coordinate system is the same up to machine precision:
f = diskfun(@(t, r) exp(-10*((r.*cos(t)-.3).^2+(r.*sin(t)).^2)), 'polar');
ans =
The object we have constructed is called a diskfun, with a lower case 'd'. We can find out more about a diskfun by printing it to the command line.
f =
 diskfun object
 domain rank vertical scale
 unit disk 19 1
The output describes the numerical rank of $f$, as well an approximation of the maximum absolute value of $f$ (the vertical scale).
To evaluate a diskfun, we can use either Cartesian (the default) or polar coordinates (with the 'polar' flag):
[ f(sqrt(2)/4, sqrt(2)/4) f(pi/4,1/2, 'polar') ]
ans =
 0.278404647671088 0.278404647671088
We can also evaluate a univariate slice of $f$, in either the radial or angular coordinate. The result is returned as a chebfun, either as a nonperiodic or periodic function, respectively. Here, we plot three angular slices at the fixed radii $\rho = 1/4$, $1/3$, and $1/2$.
c = f( :, [1/4 1/3 1/2], 'polar');
plot(c(:,1), 'r', c(:,2), 'k', c(:,3), 'b')
title( 'Three angular slices of a diskfun' )
Whenever possible, we interpret commands with respect to the function in Cartesian coordinates. So, for example, the command diag returns the radial slice $f(x,x)$ as a nonperiodic chebfun, and trace is the integral of $f(x,x)$ over its domain, $[-1, 1]$. (These are admittedly rather artificial operations.)
d = diag( f );
plot( d )
title( 'The diagonal slice of f' )
trace_f = trace( f )
int_d = sum( d )
trace_f =
int_d =
Like the rest of Chebfun, Diskfun is designed to perform operations at close to machine precision, and using Diskfun requires no special knowledge about the underlying algorithms or discretization procedures.
16.2 Basic operations
A suite of commands are available in Diskfun, and here we describe only a few. A complete listing can be found by typing methods diskfun in the MATLAB command line.
We start by adding, subtracting, and multiplying diskfuns together:
g = diskfun(@(th, r) -40*(cos(((sin(pi*r).*cos(th)...
 + sin(2*pi*r).*sin(th)))/4))+39.5, 'polar');
f = diskfun( @(x,y) cos(15*((x-.2).^2+(y-.2).^2))...
plot( g )
title( 'g' ), axis off, snapnow
plot( f )
title( 'f' ), axis off, snapnow
h = g + f;
title( 'g + f' ), axis off, snapnow
h = g - f;
plot( h )
title( 'g - f' ), axis off, snapnow
h = g.*f;
plot( h )
title( 'g x f' ), axis off
In addition to algebraic operations, we can also solve unconstrained global optimization problems. In this example, we use the command max2 to plot $f$ along with its maximum value.
[val, loc] = max2( f )
plot( f ), hold on, axis off, colorbar
plot3(loc(1), loc(2), val, 'k.', MS, 20), hold off
val =
loc =
 0.200000005872459 0.200000000131672
There are many ways to visualize a function on the disk. For example, here is a contour plot of $g$, with the zero contours displayed in black:
contour(g, 'Linewidth', 1.2), hold on, axis off
contour(g, [0 0], '-k', 'Linewidth', 2), hold off
The roots of a function (1D contours) can also be found explicitly. Following the pattern of Chebfun2, the contours are stored as complex-valued chebfuns.
r = roots(g);
plot(g), colorbar, hold on
plot(r,'k',LW,2), axis off, hold off
One can also perform calculus on diskfuns. For instance, the integral of the function $g(x,y) = -x^2 - 3xy-(y-1)^2$ over the unit disk can be computed using the sum2 command. We know that the exact answer is $-3\pi/2$.
f = diskfun(@(x,y) -x.^2 - 3*x.*y-(y-1).^2);
intf = sum2(f)
tru = -3*pi/2
intf =
tru =
Differentiation on the disk with respect to the radial variable $\rho$ can lead to singularities, even for smooth functions. For example, the function $f( \theta, \rho) = \rho \sin(\theta)$ is smooth on the disk, but $\partial f/ \partial \rho = \sin(\theta)$ has a singularity at $\rho = 0$. For this reason, differentiation in Diskfun is only done with respect to the Cartesian coordinates, $x$ and $y$.
Here, we examine a pair of harmonic conjugate functions, $u$ and $v$. We can use Diskfun to check that they satisfy the Cauchy-Riemann equations, and that $\nabla^2u = \nabla^2v = 0$. Geometrically, this implies that the contour lines of $u$ and $v$ intersect at right angles.
u = diskfun(@(t,r) r.^3.*cos(3*t), 'polar');
v = diskfun(@(t,r) r.^3.*sin(3*t), 'polar');
norm(diffy(u) + diffx(v)) % Check u_y =- v_x
norm(diffx(u) - diffy(v)) % Check u_x = v_y
ans =
ans =
ans =
ans =
contour(u, 20, 'b'), hold on
contour(v, 20,'m'), axis off, hold off
title( 'Contour lines for u and v' )
For the next example, we consider the eigenfunctions of the Laplace operator in polar coordinates. As the analogue of the the spherical harmonics, they are a natural basis for functions on the disk.
They can be accessed in Diskfun with the diskfun.harmonic command.
Here, we examine the derivatives of the cylindrical harmonic function $u = a J_4(\omega_{41}\rho) \cos(4 \theta)$. The function $J_4$ is a Bessel function with parameter 4, $\omega_{41}$ is the first positive root of $J_4$, and $a$ is a normalization constant (see Ch. 9, [Churchill & Brown, 1978]). We construct $u$ in Diskfun as follows:
u = diskfun.harmonic(4, 1);
plot(u), axis off
Here are the first derivatives of $u$:
plot(diffx(u)), axis off
title('du/dx'), snapnow
plot(diffy(u)), axis off
Due to the rotational symmetry of $u$, $u_x$ is equivalent to the rotation of


TY - JOUR T1 - Family-Companion: analyse, visualise, browse, query and share your homology clusters JF - bioRxiv DO - 10.1101/266742 SP - 266742 AU - Cottret, Ludovic AU - Briand, Martial AU - Rancurel, Corinne AU - Carrere, Sébastien Y1 - 2018/01/01 UR - _URL_ N2 - Identifying homology groups in predicted proteomes from different biological sources allows biologists to address questions as diverse as inferring species-specific proteins or retracing the phylogeny of gene families. Nowadays, command-line software exists to infer homology clusters. However, computing and interpreting homology groups with this software remains challenging for biologists and requires computational skills.We propose Family-Companion, a web server dedicated to the computation, the analysis and the exploration of homology clusters. Family-Companion aims to fill the gap between analytic software and databases presenting orthologous groups based on a set of public data. It offers a user-friendly interface to launch or upload precomputed homology cluster analysis, to explore and share the results with other users. The exploration of the results is highly facilitated by interactive solutions to visualize proteome intersections via Venn diagrams, phylogenetic trees, multiple alignments, and also by querying the results by blast or by keywords.Family-Companion is available at _URL_ with a demo dataset and a set of video tutorials. Source code and installation protocol can be found at _URL_ A container-based package simplifies the installation of the web-suite. ER -


What is a Videophone?
Brendan McGuigan
A videophone is a form of remote communication which allows the user to transfer not only a voice signal, but also a visual video signal. The concept has been around since the 1960s, but has never caught on with the general public to the extent phone that manufacturers expected it to. The concept of a videophone is a vivid one in the public's mind, and is represented in virtually every depiction of a technological future -- from the Jetsons to modern science fiction movies. The idea of the videophone seems reasonable enough; given that people like hearing one another's voices while communicating, they would further enjoy seeing whom they are speaking to in real time. In practice, however, slow frame rates, expensive technology, and a lack of universality have all helped keep the videophone from becoming a pervasive method of communication.
In a way, webcams are a type of videophone.
In a way, webcams are a type of videophone.
While true videophone technology is meant to run through high-speed lines and offer excellent frame rates, when the videophone first made its real introduction to the general public, it was limited to existing phone lines and their severely limited bandwidth. This limited a videophone to a frame rate of 15 frames per second, which when coupled with jumps in picture from line noise made speaking via videophone a highly unpleasant experience. Better videophone technology has also historically been just beyond the price most consumers were willing to pay for a new, bug-ridden technology. A videophone could easily cost five to ten times as much as a decent cordless telephone, a price many people were unable to justify spending. In recent years, the cost of a videophone has gone down substantially, but it appears new technologies such as webcams may already be rendering the videophone obsolete.
Given its difficulty in gaining acceptance, the videophone has had another major setback in the market. As with many emerging technologies, early users found they had no one to interface with using their videophone. Since a critical mass of consumers wasn't reached quickly enough, many of those who initially purchased a videophone opted not to replace it once it wore out, since a user would often have only one or two friends who also had a videophone they could call.
One area in which the videophone has enjoyed a relatively high amount of popularity is in the business world. Using high-speed lines, many businesses use videophones as a matter of course to conduct remote meetings. Many make use of conference call capabilities to allow entire boards to meet without having to fly to the same location.
With the advent of high-speed Internet connections and extremely cheap digital video cameras, also known as webcams, the concept of the videophone is making a comeback, albeit in a slightly different form. Using many voice over IP (VoIP) technologies, users can speak to friends or clients while using their webcam. The idea is essentially the same as that of a videophone, except that instead of being an integrated hardware package running over existing phone networks, the technology interfaces with an existing computer and Internet network.
You might also Like
Readers Also Love
Discussion Comments
We recently replaced our home phone with a Videophone. We can now see & talk to my brother in Dallas and my parents in Montreal. This is especially great for my parents to be able to see their grandchildren. I hope this technology is here to stay.
Post your comments
Forgot password?


text:
Northern Lights may be blamed for Satnav cockups and GPS devices failures according to researchers from the University of Bath; adding to the already long list of potential excuses which also includes electric storms and dodgy onboard software.
The natural phenomenon, known as Aurora Borealis, apparently causes Satellite Navigation systems go berserk due to the fact that satellite signals, on which SatNav are reliant, are interrupted when passing through the Northern lights thereby causing the devices to display wrong readings.
The results, which were unveiled by scientists from the University of Bath, could have a major impact in the way satnav devices are designed and could prevent incidents where automated GPS navigation is critical.
Aurora Borealis is caused by particles that carry electric charges of up to 10 million megawatts hitting the Earth's atmosphere and causing the spectacular lights that have puzzled so many for so long.
"Anywhere that the aurora is visible, it will cause disruption [to the GPS system]," Professor Cathryn Mitchell, who headed the research process, told The Daily Telegraph
"Although most people in the UK can't see the aurora when it is happening, because of cloud or ambient light, it can still affect the GPS signal. We have just passed a minimum in activity but we are due to hit a maximum in 2012, which is when we would expect to see most disruption."
The paper have been published in the American Geophysical Union's International Journal of Space Weather.


How to create electromagnetic interference?
The ballast creates a magnetic field all around it. The arc in the tube creates an electric field all around the arc. Both, together, will cover a huge spectrum of noise.
I had to fight that several years ago and could only work with an Arduino when the light was OFF!
EMI generator kits:
Yes, there are also YouTube videos on bomb making, and how to commit suicide, don't be so faceasus.
Noise is AC, get over it.
Hi _USER_;
in my younger days to generate noise on radios and annoy friends (or would they be enemies), I used a simple square wave generator.
The square wave is formed by the sum of the harmonics of a basic frequency, and so it contains a lot of different frequencies.
RV mineirin
We used the old fashioned mechanical buzzer, the one with a clapper and bell. You can also create something by taking an old relay and wiring the coil through the NC contact. When it powers on the contact will open, the relay shuts off, the NC contact connects again and the relay energizes. A short piece of wire will give you lots of noise.
1 Like
That is a great idea. How long will the relay survive this?
In the very early days of my electronics career in the late 60s wh had a machine for testing the susceptibility for interference. By today's standards it is a safety nightmare.
A quarter horsepower mains motor was connected to the live connector of a mains plug and a hole was drilled in the plug exposing the neutral connector.
Then a rat tail file with a wooden handle was placed onto the neutral mains connector through the hole and the wire on the other end of the motor was striped up and down the file. This caused a few sparks but mainly turned the motor on and off generating the interference.
The thinking was that if the industrial controller we were making could withstand this it was good.
Note no numbers to back this up, but that was the state of play in those days.
Not exactly a safe procedure.
1 Like
You said "Between the arc and the magnetic flux from the ballast" in your first post. Do you mean the arduino (or the long input wire) has to be places between the lamp and the ballast? Or was that just a figure of speech?
Will this work if I for example PWM a 1A LED light? I've done high amp square waves before and my speakers never picked up any noise. I haven't investigated it's effect on arduino inputs tho.
This is what I did (link in my first post). I was using a ~30cm alligator clip. The relay started doing its oscillation thing but I got no noise on the arduino.
Well it seems from the replies that my linear wall adapter is actually my best option. Just plugging it in creates a crazy amount of noise. There's no sparks tho. It actually has a transparent case and I don't see no sparks inside, and none on the prongs either.
And I bet at the time you considered it a perfectly reasonable way to test.
I think "affordable" might be more appropriate!
Well actually to be honest it scare the shit out of me.
1 Like
That depends on the relay and how long you run it. I have been using an old klunker for years but it only gets a few hours now and then. I forgot to mention, take the bell of the buzzer thing they last a long time.


text:
With IPsec enabled, all network traffic between nodes on the OVN-Kubernetes Container Network Interface (CNI) cluster network travels through an encrypted tunnel.
IPsec is disabled by default.
IPsec encryption can be enabled only during cluster installation and cannot be disabled after it is enabled. For installation documentation, refer to Selecting a cluster installation method and preparing it for users.
With IPsec enabled, only the following network traffic flows between pods are encrypted:
Traffic between pods on different nodes on the cluster network
Traffic from a pod on the host network to a pod on the cluster network
The following traffic flows are not encrypted:
Traffic between pods on the same node on the cluster network
Traffic between pods on the host network
Traffic from a pod on the cluster network to a pod on the host network
The encrypted and unencrypted flows are illustrated in the following diagram:
The encrypt cipher used is
AES-GCM-16-256. The integrity check value (ICV) is
16 bytes. The key length is
The IPsec tunnel mode used is Transport mode, a mode that encrypts end-to-end communication.
The Cluster Network Operator (CNO) generates a self-signed X.509 certificate authority (CA) that is used by IPsec for encryption. Certificate signing requests (CSRs) from each node are automatically fulfilled by the CNO.
The CA is valid for 10 years. The individual node certificates are valid for 5 years and are automatically rotated after 4 1/2 years elapse.


text:
La Flaca, a weekly known for its scathing ridicule of political, military and church leaders, was one of the first Spanish periodicals to include double-page color lithographs. In "Pobre España" politicians and military figures are shown as scavenging birds that pick at the ravaged and limp personification of Spain. The insatiable vultures recall the eagle that persecuted Prometheus and pecked at his liver after Zeus bound him to a rock. The birds embody the power struggle and social unrest that characterized the decade following la gloriosa – the 1868 revolution that overthrew the Spanish monarch Isabella II and resulted in the Third Carlist War.
Unless otherwise specified on this page, this work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.


City Lockdown Survival and Preparation
Getting put under lockdown is certainly no fun, but can also be very unsettling, and can seriously cramp what survival plans you may have for dealing with the event that caused the lockdown in the first place.
A city, state or nationwide lockdown will order civilians to shelter in place for the duration of the event, weeks, months or possibly even half a year or longer in order to hopefully buy time for governments to get a handle on a bad situation.
Once the call goes out for a mandatory lockdown it will be you, your family and what supplies you have managed together already for the duration until it is lifted. Maybe you'll be allowed to go out for more supplies at certain times, but possibly not at all.
Lockdowns can be somewhat permissive or extraordinarily strict. Do you know what you will do about being placed under lockdown? Do you know how you will survive and maintain your sanity as well as your survival plan if it goes on for weeks or months at a stretch?
It is possible to survive and even thrive under lockdown conditions, and in today's article we will be providing you with information, context and tips for making it through one intact.
Why Are Lockdown Orders Issued?
Most people think that lockdowns are issued only in case of epidemics, pandemics and certain terrorist threats, but they can actually be issued at the state or federal level for all manner of incident control and pre-incident safety.
At any level, a lockdown will always include a shelter-in-place mandate, and sometimes they will include curfews or other "temporary suspension of rights and civil privileges. It is hard to make the case that they are rights at all if they can be temporarily suspended, huh? Never mind that for now.
Far and away the most common cause for lockdowns is in response to the spread or release of harmful chemicals or some kind of pathogen.
It is much more difficult for any biological, be it bacterial or viral, to spread rapidly and exponentially among citizens if mass gatherings and free movement is halted.
By reducing the number of potential vectors for the virus or bacteria the spread is slowed, buying time for medical professionals, and disease control specialists to respond.
In a similar vein, a chemical weapon attack or an accidental chemical spill resulting from an industrial or transportation accident will be another reason to keep citizens buttoned up tight in their homes.
Your average residential home is in no way air-tight, but it does afford some chemical resistance if citizens are prepared and take the correct steps to keep the chemicals from getting into the inside air.
It should go without saying that you are afforded more safety inside a structure than you would be in the open-air with potentially lethal vapors and contaminants drifting invisibly towards you.
Another, sad, common reason for the issuing of lockdown in the event of a terror attack, or received intelligence indicating that a terror attack is imminent.
The reasoning goes that the less people are grouping together forming big, juicy targets for terrorists who want to sow mayhem, fear and panic. Then there is less likelihood that an attack will occur, and if it does occur the casualties will be limited.
One must also consider the tactical situation: if a city is experiencing typical road and foot traffic that will make it much easier for the terrorists to blend in while they infiltrate or attempt to exfiltrate after the attack.
If traffic is stopped and the streets are clear, anyone who is moving around in the open will be far easier to spot, meaning that hopefully the terrorists will be bagged.
There is one more nefarious reason why governments may issue lockdown orders to citizens and it is to protect themselves from unhappy citizenry.
When citizens get angry enough with the job that their government is doing and start agitating, protesting, demonstrating and even rioting for change, governments that have grown tyrannical may try to stuff a cork in it by issuing a lockdown order.
The reasoning is that such an order will make it illegal for citizens to be in the streets at any given time, and if someone is caught in the streets after an order is issued they might be arrested under the false pretenses of "safety".
Safety for the government, of course, not for the citizens…
What Happens When a Lockdown is Issued?
In any form, a lockdown will bring the typical comings and goings of civilians as well as the gears of commerce to a grinding halt. Citizens that are not allowed to leave their homes cannot fulfill their functions in society as consumers and as labor providers.
That means no shopping, no one manning the cash registers, no one picking up the trash, driving the buses or anything else unless the government deems as essential to the continuation of society in relation to the crisis.
That is a highly contentious and debatable point, but that is how it goes.
If everyone is bottled up safe and sound in their homes, it does indeed make the government's job easier whatever their purposes are. Government vehicles and government personnel can move around unhindered with clear avenues of approach and departure.
Anyone who is not in uniform, and is spotted moving around under a lockdown order is automatically suspicious and easy to spot.
Aside from whatever personnel are allowed to be operating while a lockdown is in effect, you can expect towns and cities to take on that eerie, deserted look that is so popular in horror movies: no buses, no taxis, hardly any traffic of any kind, barren sidewalks and dark, shuttered storefronts.
But no matter how sound of the reasoning of the government is, no matter how pressing the crisis, the suspension of commerce in totality or nearly so is always highly deleterious to the economy.
Citizens will not be able to access goods, services and other hallmarks of commerce in anything like the frequency they are accustomed to. Many small businesses that closed for anything longer than a month or so will probably not reopen.
Citizens who are not working at those businesses (that are closed) are probably not making any kind of income, or at the very least enough to pay their bills, including leases, mortgages etc.
During a lockdown your movement may be limited to certain hours, limited to movement for certain purposes or constrained entirely.
If you get caught out and about moving after curfew or for a non-permitted reason you could face punishment in the form of a fine, or even incarceration.
Governments that are running amok with power and looking to suppress their citizens are notorious for shooting people who are moving around during lockdowns.
The most civilized nations including all of those in the first world will typically tolerate short-duration lockdowns if they are done in pursuit of the civic good, things like an imminent terror alert, during a pandemic or epidemic, or in response to an industrial accident.
Unfortunately, most people are just not okay being trapped at home with just themselves or with their family for company, and will quickly succumb to cabin fever.
Additionally, people start agitating severely as soon as the economy starts tanking in response to a prolonged lockdown.
Recent Major Lockdowns
Lockdowns are not a theoretical exercise. They happen regularly on the small scale at the local level in response to various threats and happen less frequently but still often enough at the city level, even nationally.
The 20th and 21st centuries have seen their fair shares of major lockdowns, and below you can catch the highlights on a few of them.
Worldwide Viral Pandemic Lockdown, 2020
A virus that jumped from animal to man originating in China raced from localized outbreak to worldwide conflagration in the first quarter of 2020. Entire nations from Italy to the U.S. locked down entirely in an effort to halt the contagion.
Business closed, hospitals faced shortages of necessary supplies and implements and mass shortages of home goods and commodities like toilet paper rocked the world. Gatherings were banned, travel restricted, maintain distance, the works.
International agencies and national disease control specialists worked round the clock to ascertain the extent, effects and spread of the virus. A coordinated, rapid response of this magnitude is rarely seen, and people took notice.
When the initial reports came out, many people, including governments, did not act with the decisiveness they probably should have, and the virus spread geometrically in a matter of just a few weeks.
In no time, the same authorities who were downplaying the virus and the citizens who were largely ignoring it found themselves smacked in the face with an arguably necessary total lockdown: go home, stay home, and leave only for groceries or health care.
The results were predictable: major shortages resulting from runs on commodities, fear-motivated mass purchasing of guns and ammo, a surge in interest in preparedness and subsequent fear-mongering.
It remains to be seen what the long-term effects of this unprecedented global lockdown will be.
Brussels, Belgium Lockdown, November 2015
An expansive citywide lockdown was initiated in Brussels, Belgium back in 2015 in anticipation of a suspected terrorist attack, one that was due to occur very shortly after the infamous ISIS attack on Paris earlier that November.
The lockdown was done in support of public safety, and an extraordinarily expansive manhunt for a terrorist operative, himself a member of the terror cell that pulled off the Paris attack.
Not since wartime had a lockdown of this magnitude been instituted in Belgium, and the thoroughness of the government response was massively disruptive to the city, and to the civilians living inside it.
For five days citizens were confined to their homes, banned from gathering in public and living in a city that was virtually stilled and muted.
Schools, businesses and many other public and private institutions were shuttered for the duration. Public transportation, including buses, trams and subways, was halted.
In the aftermath, citizens described an eerie city that was seemingly traveled only by armored vehicles and squadrons of uniformed, paramilitary police.
Even


text:
|Home Culture Books Work Every Good Endeavor|
Books on Work: Every Good Endeavor
A colleague and I were talking about the value of work—why we perceive some work as more important or "worthy" than other work, and how that spills over to the perception that some people are more valuable than others.
"We all share the same inherent value," I said. "Whether we're the CEO or the janitor, we each have the same inherent value."
"Oh, I don't believe that," my colleague said. "Some people are clearly more valuable than others."
"To be sure, we have different skills and levels of skills and talents," I said. "But we share the same inherent value. Don't confuse the talent and skill with the worth of the person."
She still disagreed. The notion was too strong an assault on what she had been taught in school and by her own experience.
The fact is, we are all indeed created equal—equal in the sense that God sees each of us as inherently worthy and valuable, and in the same way—because He created us.
And, as Tim Keller points out in Every Good Endeavor: Connecting Your Work to God's Work, He created us to work. Work was part of creation. It was there at the beginning. And it was one of those things that God saw as good. God created work. More to the point—He modeled work in the very act of creation.
It's a startling thought: God created work as an integral part of the human experience.
And if God sees each of us as inherently valuable, then He sees the work we do as inherently valuable. No matter if it's neurosurgery, driving a truck, preaching a sermon, working a production line, teaching high school English, nursing a baby, growing soybeans, selling women's shoes, or writing stories for the newspaper. We all have different levels of skills and talents—but that does not mean that God differentiates as to our worth as His creation.
It also means all work is important.
"This revolutionary way of looking at work," Keller says, "gives all work a common and exalted purpose: to honor God by loving your neighbors and serving them through your work."
Work is an act of service and serving, Keller says. But he goes deeper than that. The statement I found particularly startling was how Keller added to the description: Work is an act of love.
I had to come to a full stop and consider that statement.
My work is an act of love. My work—and how I do my work—is an act of love shown to colleagues, people who work for me, my boss, his boss, my customers, and all of the people I interact with every day. And it is an expression of my love for God.
Keller goes even deeper. If I understand my work as an act of love, and respond accordingly, I can change the culture; not only that, I can create the culture. By loving God in my work, I can create culture.
My work and how I do it is salt and light. It can influence and create. And it doesn't matter what my salary level is, or my job grade, or my title. It is part of my inherent worth.
My colleague continued the conversation, demanding to know why I believed what I was saying.
"We are each made in God's image," I said. "That's why we share the same inherent value. That image includes the work we do, and the value of the work we do. What the work actually is doesn't matter, unless it's something that falls outside what God would define as good and useful work."
She stared at me for a moment, and then she nodded.
"What you're saying is strange," she said.
"It's counter-cultural," I said.
We're going to be discussing Every Good Endeavor on Monday mornings in February. I hope you'll join us as we dive deep into calling and vocation. Next Monday, Tim Watson leads us in Part Two: Our Problems with Work (chapers 5-8). If you posted at your blog on the introduction this week, leave us your link in the comments. If not, jump into the discussion anyway! We would love to hear your thoughts. In March we'll be discussing David Platt's new book Follow Me. Get your copy now if you want to join in on that discussion.
Subscribe for free to receive email encouragements about your work—once a week, once a day, or both!
Most Popular Posts
Most Emailed Posts
Daily Reflection From Laity Lodge
Wake Up, O Lord!
Psalm 44:23-24 comes in the context of an extended lament, in which the psalmist accuses God of mistreating his people, even though they have not broken his covenant (v. 17). The lament concludes... Read More +


text:
New report detailing the barriers which are blocking real, authorized development and growth in the recognized Bedouin villages, and recommendations for overcoming these barriers
The spatial layout of Bedouin villages reflects their organic development within the geo-political realities that influenced them over time. Although there are differences between the villages and even within them, all have common features of spatial distribution arising from their shared principles of traditional social organization. These principles include a social order that emphasizes the centrality of the family, its land ownership, gender separation, and maintaining privacy in its various aspects.
Of the Bedouin villages in the Negev, only 12 (one of them just recently in 2014) have been recognized by the government. The government planning process for the recognized villages has largely ignored their spatial reality and its logic. In practice, only 128 residential building permits were issued in only two villages. A decade after the establishment of the Abu Basma Regional Council, the development of infrastructure in its villages is minimal. Thousands of homes (built without permits) and many of the public buildings are not connected to basic infrastructure such as electricity and water, and in most cases, there are no roads to them.
The State must internalize that the transition from non-formalized settlements to regulated localities must be gradual, so as not to undermine the foundations of Bedouin society. This understanding must precipitate the necessary flexibility of planning concepts, of the general approach of the authorities, and of planning and development policy. Israeli society stands to benefit from the strengthening and development of the Bedouin villages, provided that this development occurs at a rate and in a manner appropriate to their residents.
Read the summary of the report here
Read the full report (in Hebrew) here


text:
Where and When?
Flunstellas are thoughts that appear floating with a life of their own in social spaces, such as cafes, libraries, schools, hospitals and shops. Not everyone can see them, of all age groups children, teenagers and older people seem to see them the most. Often people have claimed to have seen them after intense emotional experiences.
What do they look like?
There are many different breeds and species of Flunstellas, each with different shapes, colors, markings and sizes. Some glow, some fade and some display information as text, pictures or moving images.
How do they move?
They move around in a variety of different ways, some smoothly, some aggressively, some choosing to just hover at a particular point. They are highly social, they have been seen following each other and flocking in groups and attacking each other. They seem to be able to sense what is happening around them, acting differently when close to different people, objects and other thoughts. They don't seem to be intelligent in themselves, in fact individually they seem quite dumb.


text:
International conference: Nordic Museum Histories
What are the approaches to understanding museum history? Join us to explores answers to this question through presentations and discussions focusing on current studies of museum history in the Nordic countries of Europe.
31. januar 2018 kl. 9.00-16.30
See slides from the conference:
- Peter Aronsson: The making of nations and museums: Nordic national museums in a European context
- Peter van Mensch: Profession or occupation? Fifty years' discussion about the training of museum workers
- Camilla Mordhorst: Reimagining the museum through its history
- Mattias Ekman: The first century of nordic museology: Memory and epistemology in the early modern Kunstkammer
- Mattias Bäckström: To animate the past for the benefit of the present: Ideal realism as concept and technique at museums of cultural history (not available - see Bäckströms website)
Learn more about the conference theme here.


life!
— Ghost Kirby • Kirby Fighters Deluxe
In a team battle, fight on as Ghost Kirby after you're defeated! Attack your foes to return to life!
— Ghost Kirby • Kirby Fighters Deluxe
When you're defeated, fight on as a ghost! If you can land a hit on an enemy, you'll be revived!
— Being a Ghost • Kirby Fighters 2
In Other Languages
Names, etymology and in other regions
Language Name Definition, etymology and notes
Japanese ゴースト Translates to Ghost.
English Ghost
Simplified Chinese 幽灵 Translates to Ghost.
German Geist Translates to Ghost.
French Fantôme Translates to Ghost.
Italian Fantasma Translates to Ghost.
Spanish Fantasma Translates to Ghost.
Hearbell.png This section contains unused content that was cut, altered or otherwise does not appear in-game.
 - When a bubble item is sent to Ghost Kirby's mouth, he will inflate and drop on the ground and remain motionless until the item is either swallowed or discarded; this happens with the UFO ability as well.
 - Although not seen as a Copy Ability, Kirby is seen in a ghost costume in the Kirby: Right Back at Ya! episode Scare Tactics - Part II.
 - This is one of the few abilities to change the appearance of Kirby's hands. Others include Animal, where Kirby's hands have claws, UFO, where his hands disappear entirely, Burning, where his hands catch flame, and ESP, where his hands hold psychic energy.
 - While not appearing in Kirby Battle Royale, a ghost enemy appears in the Coin Clash Battle Mode. Players that are captured by the ghost pass it off to other players by performing a dash move, similarly to how the Ghost ability uses Tackle.
 - Applying the effects of Ghost manually to enemies normally not controllable reveals that movesets for these enemies (including mid-bosses, Gordo, Shotzo and the Squeaks) were included but went unused.[1]
Concept Artwork
Sprites & Model


text:
.
Compared with GVF based ACM, when the initial active contour stops deformation, our method continues to scan the active contour and search for the false part. Then, magnetic force field around the false part is computed, and the new external force field is generated. Thus, the active contour has opportunities to be adjusted for more times until there is no false part. Therefore, computing cost of our method is higher than these existing ACMs. However, our method performs faster than the magnetostatic ACM. The magnetostatic ACM calculates magnetic force of every point in active contour and updates the external force field for each deformation, while our method calculates the magnetic force field only when the false active contour appears. Our method updates the external force field only if needed, which makes its computational efficiency better than that of magnetostatic ACM.
4.3. Results on Real Images
Our improved GVF based ACM are tested on some real images of objects with complex boundaries, for example, fish, plane, fire, shell, as shown in Figure 9, and the initial active contours successfully converge to the deep concavities after a number of iterations. Then, our method is used to process medical data including MRI and ultrasound images, as illustrated in Figure 10. The active contours move to image edges correctly, and the object boundaries are extracted with high precision. From the 2nd to 4th rows, the 1st and 2nd columns are regions of interest and the 3rd column are initial active contours, while the 4th column are correctly converged active contours.
GVF based ACM has the large capture range due to its external force field, but it has difficulty to converge the active contour to deep concavities of object boundary. In this paper, we proposed an improved method for GVF with the help of magnetic force field from magnetostatic ACM. Our method uses global information to calculate the basic GVF external force field to adjust the initial active contour and then uses local information to determine the false part of active contour and calculate the magnetic force field for the false contour. The new external force field is obtained through addition of GVF external force field and magnetic force field and is used to drive the active contour to converge again. These operations are repeated until there is no false part of the stopped active contour. The key techniques of our method include a new algorithm to determine the false part of active contour and a new algorithm to update the external force field.
Based on a lot of experiments, the new method has been tested and analyzed. Compared with the existing ACMs, our method has better performance for edge extraction, even for boundaries with very deep concavities. Our method also has higher computational efficiency than magnetostatic ACM.
Conflict of Interests
The authors declare that there is no conflict of interests regarding the publication of this paper.
This work was supported by National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program no. 2011CB707904), Science and Technology Bureau of Suzhou Municipality (no. SH201115), Science and Technology Bureau of Wuhan Municipality (no. 201150124001), Natural Science Foundation of Hubei Province of China, Natural Science Fund of China (no. 61272276), and R&D Special Fund for Public Welfare (no. GYHY201106047).
- B. C. Lucas, Y. Otake, M. Armand, and R. H. Taylor, "An active contour method for bone cement reconstruction from C-arm X-ray images," IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging, vol. 31, no. 4, pp. 860–869, 2012.
- J. Zhao, G. Liang, Z. Yuan, and D. Zhang, "A new method of breakpoint connection using curve features for contour vectorization," Electronics and Electrical Engineering, vol. 18, no. 9, pp. 79–82, 2012.
- W. Kim and C. Kim, "Active contours driven by the salient edge energy model," IEEE Transactions on Image Processing, vol. 22, no. 4, pp. 1667–1673, 2013.
- M. Kass, A. Witkin, and D. Terzopoulos, "Snakes: active contour models," International Journal of Computer Vision, vol. 1, no. 4, pp. 321–331, 1988.
- K. W. Sum and P. Y. S. Cheung, "Boundary vector field for parametric active contours," Pattern Recognition, vol. 40, no. 6, pp. 1635–1645, 2007.
- L. D. Cohen and I. Cohen, "Finite-element methods for active contour models and balloons for 2-D and 3-D images," IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, vol. 15, no. 11, pp. 1131–1147, 1993.
- C. Xu and J. L. Prince, "Snakes, shapes, and gradient vector flow," IEEE Transactions on Image Processing, vol. 7, no. 3, pp. 359–369, 1998.
- T. McInerney and D. Terzopoulos, "T-snakes: topology adaptive snakes," Medical Image Analysis, vol. 4, no. 2, pp. 73–91, 2000.
- R. Malladi, J. A. Sethian, and B. C. Vemuri, "Shape modeling with front propagation: a level set approach," IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, vol. 17, no. 2, pp. 158–175, 1995.
- L. A. Vese and T. F. Chan, "A multiphase level set framework for image segmentation using the Mumford and Shah model," International Journal of Computer Vision, vol. 50, no. 3, pp. 271–293, 2002.
- V. Caselles, R. Kimmel, and G. Sapiro, "Geodesic active contours," International Journal of Computer Vision, vol. 22, no. 1, pp. 61–79, 1997.
- X. Xie and M. Mirmehdi, "MAC: magnetostatic active contour model," IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, vol. 30, no. 4, pp. 632–646, 2008.
- T. Wang, I. Cheng, and A. Basu, "Fluid vector flow and applications in brain tumor segmentation," IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering, vol. 56, no. 3, pp. 781–789, 2009.
- C. Li, C. Xu, C. Gui, and M. D. Fox, "Level set evolution without re-initialization: a new variational formulation," in Proceedings of the IEEE Computer Society Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR '05), pp. 430–436, June 2005.
- L. He, Z. Peng, B. Everding et al., "A comparative study of deformable contour methods on medical image segmentation," Image and Vision Computing, vol. 26, no. 2, pp. 141–163, 2008.
- B. Olstad and A. H. Torp, "Encoding of a priori information in active contour models," IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, vol. 18, no. 9, pp. 863–872, 1996.
- B. Li and S. T. Acton, "Vector field convolution for image segmentation using snakes," in Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Image Processing (ICIP '06), pp. 1637–1640, October 2006.
- O. Juan, R. Keriven, and G. Postelnicu, "Stochastic motion and the level set method in computer vision: stochastic active contours," International Journal of Computer Vision, vol. 69, no. 1, pp. 7–25, 2006.
- N. Paragios and R. Deriche, "Geodesic active regions and level set methods for supervised texture segmentation," International Journal of Computer Vision, vol. 46, no. 3, pp. 223–247, 2002.
- D. Tschumperlé, "Fast anisotropic smoothing of multi-valued images using curvature-preserving PDE's," International Journal of Computer Vision, vol. 68, no. 1, pp. 65–82, 2006.
- C. Xu and J. L. Prince, "Generalized gradient vector flow external forces for active contours," Signal Processing, vol. 71, no. 2, pp. 131–139, 1998.
- B. Chen, J. Zhao, E. Dong, J. Chen, Y. Zhao, and Z. Yuan, "An improved GVF snake model using magnetostatic theory," in Computer, Informatics, Cybernetics and Applications, vol. 107 of Lecture Notes in Electrical Engineering, pp. 431–440, 2012.
Copyright © 2013 Jianhui Zhao et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.


text:
Here are some thumbnails of the content on the Premium page:
"Tiny" Printable books:
My Animals Fruit I'll Take You For a Ride
Here is an Egg I'm Scared Ho Paura (Italian)
Insects Ready for School We Love Christmas
Blank tiny book Assembly Instructions
Holiday Reading Fun Sheets:
Car Bingo (Grade 1 up) Alphabet Tic-Tac-Toe, Hangman (Grade 1-4)
Short vowels sentences; or-ar-er (Grade 1-3)
CHRISTMAS ACTIVITY SHEETS (Grade K-1) :
Printable Reading Board Games for Christmas and Easter:
New December 2012: I made a new game and very simple activity sheets to send home with my youngest students over the holidays. They are in 'colour-in' format, for extra fun!
Printable Easter Fun reading worksheets (Grade K-2):
Easter-themed Reading Practice stories (Grade 1-3):
Access to all these sheets (for private/educational use) is available to site supportersjust donate $5 or more and you'll get the key to open the Private Access pageand you'll help to keep the site going for all!
December, 2012 - These Memory games are lots of fun and an excellent way to encourage children to develop focus, memory and word recognition skills!
These are the card sets you can print off if you donate to the sitePets Picture & Word cards:
Pets Word Cards:
Farm Animals Picture Cards:
Baby Farm Animals Picture Cards:
Zoo Animals Picture Cards:
Zoo Animals Word Cards:
Australian Animals Picture Cards:
Australian Butterflies Cards: Butterfly Card Backs:
Flowers Cards: Horses Cards:
Extra Card Backs:
If you would like to access these resources, see the Donations page for a secure Paypal option:) If you only want one or two of the printable sheets, and don't want or can't afford to donate, contact me (Contact Us link in ribbon below) and I'll send you a link for the item.


text:
Loading the player...
Autism & the Senses (excerpt)John Foxe, Ph.D., describes his lab's efforts to unravel how and why children with autism integrate information from the senses differently. Dr. Foxe is director of research at Einstein's Children's Evaluation and Rehabilitation Center andprofessor of pediatrics and of neuroscience. Hosted by Gordon Earle, associate dean for communications and public affairs. Watch full interview. (January 11, 2013)
Einstein On: Alzheimer's disease, Dr. Richard Lipton (1 of 3): Advances in Diagnosis & Treatment (13:58)
Science Talk: Novel Brain Imaging Technique Explains Why Concussions Affect People Differently (2:15)


text:
Sep 27, 2002
Power Chips to boost geothermal power and car engines
Power Chips of Gibraltar has announced that its Power Chips devices could help geothermal power plants become both more productive and widespread. The chips use quantum mechanical electron tunnelling to convert heat into electricity.
"We are actively seeking partners to bring this product to market," said Sean Kilgrow of Power Chips. "We look forward to working with members of the geothermal community to make this clean, renewable power source the preferred choice of power production in the geothermal industry."
Geothermal power plants convert the thermal energy from water and/or steam heated by the high temperatures beneath the surface of the earth into electrical power. Power Chips claims that its devices could make lower temperature geothermal resources a viable target for exploration. The company also says that the Power Chips could enhance output and reduce the cost per kilowatt at existing plants.
Power Chips devices convert heat into electricity by the thermotunnelling effect, which uses quantum mechanical electron tunnelling phenomena. High energy (or hot) electrons travel between electrodes that are spaced less than 20 nm apart to create a useable electric current.
The devices could also see applications in car engines - Power Chips claims that they may be able to increase an engine's effective power output by 75%. Typically, less than 15% of the energy in a litre of petrol reaches the wheels of a car, with most of the rest becoming heat.
According to the company, putting a panel of Power Chips against the radiator of a car could generate 8.7 kW of electrical energy, while devices wrapped around the exhaust pipe could produce 68 kW. That could allow designers to focus more of the engine's power on mechanical output rather than generating electricity for ancillary systems, such as air-conditioning or entertainment.
"If Power Chips devices realize their potential, they will be able to replace the alternator, power all auxiliary loads electrically (including climate control) and add significant shaft power to an automobile with an electric-assist drivetrain," Power Chips said in a recent paper. "The devices are designed to achieve this goal for less than $20 per kilowatt capacity, which is highly competitive with all alternator systems, but with no additional fuel cost for the energy generated."
Power Chips is a majority-owned subsidiary of Borealis Exploration Limited. Fellow Borealis subsidiary Cool Chips plans to use devices employing quantum mechanical electron tunnelling in cooling systems.
About the author
Liz Kalaugher is editor of nanotechweb.org.


text:
Research In Action
Research In Action
When my oldest child became a "walker," a student who no longer qualified for school bus transportation due to how close his family lived to the local school, I became much more concerned about the safety of crossing streets without me. This task depends on multiple developmental factors, including a child's ability to assess the speed of incoming traffic, to predict how long it would take to cross given a certain walking speed, and to judge how large the gap needs to be to reach the other side of the street with time to spare.
Needless to say, crossing the street became something we practiced very frequently until I felt that I could trust my son's judgment.
Since I am not far removed from this experience, I was excited to come across a recent study that assessed the impact of how parents coach their children while crossing virtual roadways. Specifically, the study aimed to explore the impact of a child's age on the way parents and children talked about and moved through a virtual intersection and examined whether the timing of a child's movement through the intersection could be predicted by differences in parent-child communication.
What They Did
Over 60 parent-child dyads (with children ages 6, 8, 10, and 12 years) were presented with an immersive virtual environment simulating a traffic roadway. They were instructed to wait for the first car to pass and then to attempt to cross the road without being hit by a car. They were also instructed to decide together when they thought it was safe to cross.
Crossing performance was measured by:
- the number of seconds in the gap selected for crossing
- timing of movement that included synchronization of road entry by parent and child, the timing of gap entry, the road-crossing time, and the amount of time to spare (how large the gap needs to be to reach the other side of the street with time to spare)
Communication between parent and child was measured by:
- the total number of gaps suggested and opposed by each dyad member during each trial
- use of an anticipatory gap selection strategy (defined as some reference to an upcoming gap) versus immediate gap selection (crossing without warning)
- frequency of post-crossing feedback and perception of risk of crossing by each dyad member
What They Found
- The subject population was 78% European American, 14% Asian, 3% African American, and 1.5% Hispanic.
- Most parents had a 4-year college degree or more (~70%).
- Children suggested gaps more frequently than parents overall, particularly among 8-, 10-, and 12-year-olds.
- Parents in dyads with 6- and 8-year olds were more likely to oppose gaps than children.
- As children became older, parents were:
- less likely to use anticipatory gap strategies
- less likely to have chosen the gap
- As children became older, they were:
- more likely to use anticipatory gap strategies
- more likely to have chosen the gap
- Dyads with 12-year-olds took more of the larger gaps and fewer of the smaller gaps than dyads with 6- or 8-year-olds
- After reaching the other side of the roadway, parents and children discussed the outcome of the crossing during only 19% of trials
- Children's use of an anticipatory gap selection strategy was associated with a 0.11 second increase in gap size, but parent use of an anticipatory gap strategy did not predict gap size.
- Parent use of an anticipatory gap section was associated with 0.08 second reduction in children's timing of entry and 0.13 second increase in children's time to spare relative to the approaching vehicle.
What This Means
It makes sense that parents more frequently suggest and also oppose the gaps when with younger children. It also makes sense that parents more frequently use an anticipatory gap selection strategy when with younger kids (whereas children themselves more frequently used an anticipatory gap selection strategy at older ages).
Using the anticipatory gap selection strategy predicted more precise timing of entry, as well as time to spare by children, which I think is a key point and potential recommendation to discuss with families when discussing pedestrian safety. Understanding how these results compare to the real-world environment, as well as among a more racially/ethnically diverse population, would help to apply findings to a more general population.