Elasticsearch GraphDB Connector
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The main features of the GraphDB Connectors are:
 - maintaining an index that is always in sync with the data stored in GraphDB
 - multiple independent instances per repository
 - the entities for synchronisation are defined by:
 - a list of fields (on the Elasticsearch side) and property chains (on the GraphDB side), the values of which are to be synchronised
 - a list of the rdf:type of the entities for synchronisation
 - a list of languages for synchronisation (the default is all languages)
 - additional filtering by property and value
 - full-text search using native Elasticsearch queries
 - snippet extraction: highlighting of search terms in the search result
 - faceted search
 - sorting by any preconfigured field
 - paging of results using offset and limit
Each feature is described in detail below.
Sample data
All examples use sample data describing five fictitious wines: Yoyowine, Franvino, Noirette, Blanquito and Rozova, as well as the grape varieties needed to make these wines. The minimum ruleset level needed in GraphDB is RDFS.
All interactions with the Elasticsearch GraphDB Connector are done through SPARQL queries.
There are three types of SPARQL queries:
 - INSERT - for creating and deleting connectors
 - SELECT - for listing connectors and querying connector configuration parameters
 - INSERT/SELECT - for storing and querying data as part of the normal GraphDB data workflow
In general, this corresponds to INSERT adds or modifies data and SELECT queries existing data.
Each connector implementation defines its own URI prefix to distinguish it from other connectors. For the Elasticsearch GraphDB Connector this is *_URL_ Each command or predicate that is executed by the connector uses this prefix, e.g. for creating a connector for Elasticsearch.
Individual instances of a connector are distinguished by unique names that are also URIs. They have their own prefix to avoid clashing with any of the command predicates. For Elasticsearch, the instance prefix is _URL_
Creating a connector
Creating a connector is done by sending a SPARQL query with the following configuration data:
 - the name of the connector (e.g. my_index)
 - classes to synchronise
 - properties to synchronise
What we recommend
Use the GraphDB Connectors management interface provided by the GraphDB Workbench. It lets you create the configuration easily and then create the connector directly or copy the configuration and execute it elsewhere.
The create command is triggered by a SPARQL INSERT with the createConnector predicate, e.g. this creates a connector called my_index that will synchronise the wines from the sample data above:
Note that one of the fields has "sort": true. This will be explained further when discussing sorting below.
The above command creates a new Elasticsearch connector that connects to the Elasticsearch instance accessible at port 9500 on the localhost as specified by the "elasticsearchUrl" key.
The "types" key defines the RDF type of the entities to synchronise and, in the example, it is only entities of the type (and its subtypes). The "fields" key defines the mapping from RDF to Elasticsearch. The basic building block is the property chain, i.e. a sequence of RDF properties where the object of each property is the subject of the following property. In the example, we map three bits of information - the wine's grape, the sugar content, and the year. Each chain is assigned a short and convenient field name: "grape", "sugar", and "year". The field names are later used in the queries.
Grape is an example of a property chain composed of more than one property. First, we take the wine's madeFromGrape property the object of which is an instance of type Grape, and then we take the rdfs:label of this instance. Sugar and year are both composed of a single property that links the value directly to the wine.
Dropping a connector
 - Name of the connector
Listing available connectors
Listing connectors returns all previously created connectors. It is a SELECT query with the listConnectors predicate:
?cntUri is bound to the prefixed URI of the connector that was used during creation, e.g. , while?cntStr is bound to a string, representing the part after the prefix, e.g. "my_index".
Status check
?cntUri is bound to the connector prefixed URI, while?cntStatus is a string representation of the status of the connector represented by this URI. The status is key-value based.
Adding, updating and deleting data
From the user's point of view, all synchronisation happens transparently without using any additional predicates or naming a specific store explicitly, i.e. the user simply execute standard SPARQL INSERT/DELETE queries. This is achieved by intercepting all changes in the plugin and determining which abstract documents need to be updated.
Querying data
Once a connector has been created, it should be possible to query data from it through SPARQL. For each matching abstract document, the connector returns the document's subject. In its simplest form, querying is achieved by using a SELECT and providing the Elasticsearch query as the object of the :query predicate:
Note that you must use the field names you chose when you created the connector. It is valid to have field names identical to the property URIs but then you have to make sure you escape any special characters according to what Elasticsearch expects.
First, we get an instance of the requested connector by using the RDF notation "X a Y" (= X rdf:type Y), where X is a variable and Y is a connector. X is bound to an instance of this connector. Then, we assign a query to this instance by using the system predicate :query. Finally we request the matching entities through the :entities predicate.
It is also possible to provide per query search options by using one or more option predicates. The option predicates are described in further detail below.
Combining Elasticsearch results with GraphDB data
The bound?entity can be used in other SPARQL triples in order to build complex queries that fetch additional data from GraphDB. For example, to see the actual grapes in the matching wines as well as the year they were made:
The result looks like this:
?entity?grape?sugar
:Yoyowine :CabernetSauvignon 2013
:Franvino :Merlo 2012
:Franvino :CabernetFranc 2012
Note that :Franvino is returned twice because it is made from two different grapes, both of which are returned.
Entity match score
It is possible to access the match score returned by Elasticsearch with the :score predicate. As each entity has its own score, the predicate must come at the entity level. For example:
The result looks like this but the actual score might be different as it depends on the specific Elasticsearch version:
?entity?score
:Yoyowine 0.9442660212516785
:Franvino 0.7554128170013428
It is important to specify the fields we want to facet by using the facetFields predicate. Its value must be a simple comma-delimited list of field names. In order to get the faceted results, we have to use the facets predicate and as each facet has three components (name, value and count), the facets predicate will bind a blank node, which in turn can be used to access the individual values for each component through the predicates facetName, facetValue, and facetCount.
The resulting bindings look like in the table below:
facetName facetValue facetCount
year 2012 3
year 2013 2
sugar dry 3
sugar medium 2
We can easily see that there are three wines produced in 2012 and two in 2013. We also see that three of the wines are dry, while two are medium. However, it is not necessarily true that the three wines produced in 2012 are the same as the three dry wines as each facet is computed independently.
It is possible to sort the entities returned by a connector query according to one or more fields. In order to be able to use a certain field for sorting, you have to specify this at the time of creating the connector instance. Sorting is achieved by the orderBy predicate the value of which must be a comma-delimited list of fields. Each field may be prefixed with a minus to indicate sorting in descending order. For example:
The result will contain wines produced in 2013, sorted according to their sugar content in a descending order:
By default, entities are sorted according to their matching score in a descending order.
Note that if you join the entity from the connector query to other triples stored in GraphDB, GraphDB might scramble the order. To remedy this, use ORDER BY from SPARQL.
Limit and offset
Limit and offset are supported on the Elasticsearch side of the query. This is achieved through the predicates limit and offset. Consider this example in which we specify an offset of 1 and a limit of 1:
The result will contain a single wine, Franvino, as it would be second in the list, if we executed the query without the limit and offset:
Note that the specific order in which GraphDB returns the


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Common Chickweed
Did You Know?
A few facts:
 - Can be used as a salad green or an herb
 - Has several medicinal purposes
 - Grows most actively in the late winter
How to get rid of Common Chickweed:
 - Remove easily by hand-weeding or hoeing
 - Treat with herbicides
A Hated Weed, Yet Delicious Wild Vegetable
Common chickweed (Stellaria media) is typically considered to be a winter annual that is prevalent in most temperate regions, but it sometimes grows as a biennial or short-lived perennial and has adapted to other regions of the world. The seeds usually germinate in fall, followed by smaller extents of germination in spring and summer, and can remain viable in the soil up to 30 years. Common chickweed usually prefers moist and fertile soils with near neutral pH values, but it can grow under a wide range of environmental conditions. It is a member of the Caryophyllaceae (pink) family.
Common Chickweed Identification
A single plant of common chickweed can produce up to 30,000 seeds that are stored in capsules. Chickweed likely got its name because it was a preferred feed for chickens and other birds.
Common chickweed usually has a low growing habit and tends to spread making them appear like mats or patches. That mat-like growth habit helps keep soil covered especially during winter months to reduce erosion. It has a slender stem and leaves that are both smooth and shiny, unlike those of mouse-ear chickweed (Cerastium fontanum), a related species, which are characterized by fine hairs on both surfaces. Both chickweed species produce tiny star-shaped white flowers with five petals. The petals of common chickweed are deeply lobed, giving them the appearance of 10 petals, while those of mouse-ear chickweed have shallower lobes.
As a weed, common chickweed can outcompete or interfere with lawns and gardens and could be a serious pest in certain small grains, such as wheat and barley. In pastures or hayfields, it can form mats, shading out the desirable species from establishing early. It also can serve as a host plant for certain insect pests, such as the Western tarnished plant bug, and for diseases, such as Tomato spotted wilt virus.
Common Chickweed Uses
Although common chickweed is considered a pest in lawns and gardens, it is an edible plant. Its tender leaves can be readily used as a salad green or boiled as a potherb. It can be used as a famine food, especially during late winter months when it actively grows. However, if grazed in large quantities, it can cause problems related to nitrate toxicity to livestock.
Common chickweed is used as a medicinal herb due to its cooling and anti-inflammatory properties, and salves made from the stem or leaves are used to treat common skin ailments. Tinctures made from the plant were used to treat bladder, kidney and urinary tract ailments. Many other ailments are said to be cured by common chickweed due to the secondary metabolites, such as flavonoids, saponins, vitamin C and linolenic acids, present in it. Some herbalists even considered "chickweed water as an old wives' remedy for obesity!"
Controls for Common Chickweed
Common chickweed can be easily hand-weeded or hoed during the early stages of growth by taking advantage of their shallow root system before they become dense mats. In cool-season lawns, effective pre-emergent herbicides include isoxaben (Gallery), pendimethalin (Pendulum) or oxadiazon (Ronstar).
In established landscape plantings and ornamentals, apart from the above herbicides, those that contain indaziflam (Marengo), prodiamine (Barricade) or metolachlor (Pennant Magnum) are effective before it germinates. After germination, it is susceptible to selective herbicides, such as dicamba, triclopyr and mecoprop, during early stages in lawns. In landscapes or other plantings, careful directed application of glyphosate, glufosinate (Finale), diquat (Reward) or pelargonic acid (Scythe) is effective.
Author: Rakesh Chandran, WVU Extension Weed Science Specialist
Last Reviewed: June 2020


text:
Dear Parent or Guardian:
In accordance with ESEA Section 1111(h)(6) PARENTS RIGHT-TO-KNOW, the Hutto Independent School District is notifying every parent of a student in a Title I school that you have the right and may request information regarding the professional qualifications of your child's classroom teacher. This information regarding the professional qualifications of your child's classroom teachers include, at a minimum, the following:
1. Whether the teacher has met State qualification and licensing criteria for the grade levels and subject areas in which the teacher provides instruction.
2. Whether the teacher is teaching under emergency or other provisional status through which State qualification or licensing criteria have been waived.
3. The baccalaureate degree major of the teacher and any other graduate certification or degree held by the teacher, and the field of discipline of the certification or degree.
4. Whether the child is provided services by paraprofessionals and, if so, their qualifications.
If at any time your child has been taught for 4 or more consecutive weeks by a teacher who is not certified, the school will notify you.
If you have questions, please feel free to contact your school at the following phone number: _PHONE_.
Hutto Elementary School
_PHONE_
Together, we inspire success for all!

source: openbmb/Ultra-FineWeb


text:
Now i came to know why my precise loops alwayz showed a random behaviour.
Actually i used to call timeGetTime() to do timing control.
But it seems because of the granularity of the system timer can be as high as 10-15
milliseconds, meaning that timeGetTime() is only accurate to 10-15 milliseconds.
There are multiple approaches which we can use for time control, some of them are :
It stands for "Read Time Stamp Counter." This assembly instruction returns
an unsigned 64-bit integer reading on the processor's internal high-precision
In order to get the frequency of the timer (how much the timer return
value will increment in 1 second), you can read the registry for the machine's
bool GetPentiumClockEstimateFromRegistry(unsigned __int64 *frequency)
*frequency = 0;
rc = RegOpenKeyEx(
if (rc == ERROR_SUCCESS)
cbBuffer = sizeof (DWORD);
rc = RegQueryValueEx
if (rc == ERROR_SUCCESS)
*frequency = freq_mhz*1024*1024;
return (*frequency > 0);
double GetPentiumTimeAsDouble(unsigned __int64 frequency)
// returns < 0 on failure; otherwise, returns current cpu time, in seconds.
// warning: watch out for wraparound!
// get high-precision time:
unsigned __int64 high_perf_time;
unsigned __int64 *dest = &high_perf_time;
_emit 0xf // these two bytes form the 'rdtsc' asm instruction,
_emit 0x31 // available on Pentium I and later.
mov esi, dest
mov [esi ], eax // lower 32 bits of tsc
mov [esi+4], edx // upper 32 bits of tsc
__int64 time_s = (__int64)(high_perf_time / frequency);
__int64 time_fract = (__int64)(high_perf_time % frequency);
double ret = (time_s % (60*60*24*7)) + (double)time_fract/(double)((__int64)frequency);
QueryPerformanceFrequency & QueryPerformanceCounter:
QueryPerformanceFrequency returns the amount that the counter will increment over 1 second; QueryPerformanceCounter
returns a LARGE_INTEGER (a 64-bit *signed* integer) that is the current value of the counter.
This approach is accurate upto 10 micro seconds.
If we call timeBeginPeriod(1) at the beginning of our program (and timeEndPeriod(1) at the end), timeGetTime() will usually become
accurate to 1-2 milliseconds.
Sleep() sleeps for goes hand-in-hand with the granularity of timeGetTime(), so after calling timeBeginPeriod(1) once, Sleep(1)
will actually sleep for 1-2 milliseconds, Sleep(2) for 2-3, and so on (instead of sleeping in increments as high as 10-15 ms).
For simple timing, both timeGetTime and QueryPerformanceCounter work well, and QueryPerformanceCounter is obviously more accurate.
Part of this post is coming Ryan M. Geiss's post.


text:
Electronic speckle pattern interferometry fringe patterns usually have poor contrast so it is important to enhance fringe contrast for the extraction of phase from a single fringe pattern. We present new enhancement methods based on differential equations (called DE enhancement methods) to electronic speckle pattern interferometry fringes. The DE enhancement methods transform the image processing to solve differential equations. With the proposed methods, the visibility of the correlation speckle fringe patterns can be improved significantly. We tested the proposed methods on computer-simulated speckle correlation fringes and experimentally obtained fringes, and we compared the new method with other contrast enhancement techniques. The experimental results illustrate the performance of this approach.
© 2006 Optical Society of AmericaFull Article | PDF Article
Chen Tang, Fang Zhang, Botao Li, and Haiqing Yan
Appl. Opt. 45(28) 7392-7400 (2006)
Chen Tang, Wenjing Lu, Song Chen, Zhen Zhang, Botao Li, Wenping Wang, and Lin Han
Appl. Opt. 46(30) 7475-7484 (2007)
Chen Tang, Lin Han, Hongwei Ren, Dongjian Zhou, Yiming Chang, Xiaohang Wang, and Xiaolong Cui
Opt. Lett. 33(19) 2179-2181 (2008)


Feature to generate Config File in PSLab Android application
In this blog, I will explain the feature to generate "Config File" in PSLab Android Application
What is a Config File?
The main aim of this feature is to make PSLab board a self data logger, which would read user-defined configs from a config file stored on SD card connected to PSLab board and based on instrument, parameters and time interval stored in config file PSLab board would automatically log those values.
Now as the first step of this feature, an option is added to PSLab Android application, where user can create a config file. User can select an instrument, parameters associated with that instrument and time interval. With this feature, user can easily generate a config file which can later be used by PSLab board for logging.
User Interface
The option to generate a config file is given in the side navigation menu on the main screen.
(Figure 1: Generate Config file menu)
Once the user selects the "Generate Config File" option, the user will be directed to the following screen where user can create a config file with intended parameters
(Figure 2: Generate Config File UI)
As can be seen in the screenshot above the user can select instruments for which the config file needs to be created from a drop-down menu. User can specify the time interval, for which the data should be logged by the PSLab board. Based on the instrument selected by the user corresponding parameters will be shown at the bottom. User can select whichever parameters are required and click on "CREATE CONFIG FILE" button and a config file will be saved on device local storage.
A config file for Oscilloscope with 25-sec interval and CH1, CH2 and CH3 parameters would look something like below,
(Figure 3: Sample config File )
When a user clicks on Create Config File button, First we check whether the user has provided a time interval, if not a toast message appears to let the user know that time interval is missing. This is done using the following lines of code,
createConfigFileBtn.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener() {
 public void onClick(View v) {
 interval = intervalEditText.getText().toString();
 if (interval.length() == 0) {
 Toast.makeText(CreateConfigActivity.this, getResources().getString(R.string.no_interval_message), Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
Once the user sets the time interval and selects the parameters, the following lines of code generates a string array containing params selected by the user.
ArrayList selectedParamsList = new ArrayList<>();
for (int i = 0; i < paramsListContainer.getChildCount(); i ++) {
 CheckBox checkBox = (CheckBox) paramsListContainer.getChildAt(i);
 if (checkBox.isChecked()) {
After we have the list of selected parameters we call the following function to create the config file
private void createConfigFile(ArrayList params) {
 String instrumentName = instrumentsList.get(selectedItem);
 String fileName = "pslab_config.txt";
 String basepath = Environment.getExternalStorageDirectory().getAbsolutePath();
 File baseDirectory = new File(basepath + File.separator + CSVLogger.CSV_DIRECTORY);
 if (!baseDirectory.exists()) {
 try {
 } catch (Exception e) {
 File configFile = new File(basepath + File.separator + CSVLogger.CSV_DIRECTORY + File.separator + fileName);
 if (!configFile.exists()) {
 try {
 } catch (IOException e) {
 try {
 FileWriter writer = new FileWriter(configFile);
 writer.write("instrument: " + instrumentName + "\n");
 writer.write("interval: " + interval + " " + intervalUnit + "\n");
 String param = String.join(",", params);
 writer.write("params: " + param);
 CustomSnackBar.showSnackBar(rootView, getString(R.string.file_created_success_message), null, null, Snackbar.LENGTH_SHORT);
 } catch (IOException e) {
 CustomSnackBar.showSnackBar(rootView, getString(R.string.file_created_fail_message), null, null, Snackbar.LENGTH_SHORT);
In the first part of this function, we check whether there exists a PSLab directory in the local storage of the device, if not the directory is created. After that, we create a file named "pslab_config.txt". After that, we use FileWriter to write data to the file.
In a nutshell with this feature user can create config files easily. The following GIF demonstrated this functionality.
(Figure 4: GIF of the functionality)
Tags: PSLab, Android, GSoC 19, Config File, data logger
Continue Reading Feature to generate Config File in PSLab Android application
Gas sensor (MQ-135) support In PSLab Android application
Along with lots of sensors provided in the PSLab Android application, recently support for a new sensor – MQ-135 gas sensor has been added to the app. In this blog, I will discuss what is this gas sensor and how to use it with PSLab Android application
MQ-135 Gas sensor
The MQ-135 gas sensors are used in air quality control equipment and are suitable for detecting or measuring of NH3, NOx, Alcohol, Benzene, Smoke, CO2.
The Pin layout of MQ-135 sensor
(Figure 1: MQ-135 pin layout)
How to Connect MQ-135 to PSLab Board
The following diagram shows how a user can connect MQ-135 sensor to a PSLab Board.
(Figure 2: MQ-135 and PSLab connections)
As can be seen in the diagram above connect Voltage pin of MQ-135 sensor to one of the VDD pins on the PSLab board. Connect the Ground pin of MQ-135 sensor to one of GND pins on the PSLab board. And connect Analog Output pin to CH1 pin on the PSLab board. Once these connections are made user can connect PSLab board to their mobile phone and start reading data using Gas Sensor instrument in PSLab Android application
Gas Sensor Instrument in PSLab Android Application
To provide users an interface to read values collected by MQ-135 sensor connected to PSLAb board, a new instrument screen has been added to the PSLab Android application. The UI of the screen is shown below,
(Figure 3: Gas Sensor instrument UI)
As can be seen, the user is provided with a circular meter, a text box and a graph, all of which indicates the amount of different gases sensed by MQ-135 in PPM (parts per million) unit. The data is collected by very simple lines of codes. Since we are connecting Analog Output of MQ-135 to CH1 on PSLab board, we need to read the voltage at CH1 pin. Which would be in the range of 0 – input voltage (which is 3.3V in our case). To convert the voltage values to PPM, we map these output voltages to a range of 0 – 1024. This is done by following lines of code.
double volt = scienceLab.getVoltage("CH1", 1);
double ppmValue = (volt / 3.3) * 1024.0;
As provided in all the other instruments in PSLab Android application, Gas Sensor also has data logging and importing feature. User can record the data and store it as a CSV file and import previously recorded data into the PSLab application easily.
So in conclusion, now users can utilize and experiment with MQ-135 sensor effortlessly using PSLab Android application.
A working demo of this feature can be seen in the following video
Tags: PSLab, Android, GSoC 19, Sensors, Gas Sensor, MQ-135
Continue Reading Gas sensor (MQ-135) support In PSLab Android application
Two flavors of PSLab Android App to support Google Maps (in Play Store flavor) and Open Street maps (in Fdroid flavor)
What are the flavors of an App? And why are they needed in PSLab Android App?
While working on the PSLab Android Project, I ran into the need to create different variants of the app with different dependencies. In this blog, I have tried to explain the process of creating various flavors of the app in the easiest way possible.
Android Allows Developers to create different variants of the same app with the same code base but having some functionalities different across the variants. These functionalities may include some special/pro features, some different dependencies, etc. Such variants are called flavors of the App. Most common flavors are Paid and Free version of the app.
In the PSLab Android Application, we needed to generate flavors, when we required to use Google Maps in the App. The app is also published on the Fdroid, which doesn't allow dependencies of Google Maps. Hence 2 flavors of the app have been created,
 1. Play Store Flavor (With Google Maps)
 2. F-Droid Flavor (With Open Street Maps)
Declaring Flavors in the build.gradle File
In order to create flavors of the app, first, we need to declare flavors in the Gradle file. In PSLab Android app we are creating 2 flavors, which are declared in the build.gradle file as under
flavorDimensions 'default'
productFlavors {
 fdroid {
 dimension = 'default'
 playstore {
 dimension = 'default'
flavorDimensions is used to package flavors if there are many flavors for an App. Since we have only two flavors fdroid and playstore, hence we are using single dimension default for both the flavors. Once this has been added to the build.gradle file we need to sync the gradle.
After the Sync is complete, if we open


text:
ObservationsWhile the study of gesture and music is a relatively new field, the observation of movement has a long and varied history. Dancers, who are by definition specialists in movement, have developed and continue to develop ways of observing and recording movement for reasons such as artistic expression and exploration, health, education and preservation of complex choreographies for future dancers. The means of observing movement translates to fields other than dance because most of what we accomplish each day is through some form of movement, whether it is to dance a choreography, play a musical instrument, wash dishes or type on a computer. Even though each of these activities is different, the means of accomplishing it is the same: use of the human body. Because of this, any movement of the human body can be examined using a system that has evolved for observing, recording, and developing movement.
Laban-Bartenieff Movement Fundamentals (LBF) describes movement on many levels in order to come close to a rich and accurate description of not only where the movement takes place in the body and in space, but how the movement occurs. In order to do this there are three key assumptions:
- the whole body is connected,
- all parts are in relation to one and other,
- a change in one part affects the whole.
All three of these assumptions are linked through the idea that any movement in one part of the body will affect the whole body.
LBF describes movement through the four inter-related categories of Space, Effort, Shape and Body. Within these categories, there are various attributes. By observing one movement using the different categories and attributes, we can begin to observe the relationship between parts of the body and use of the body. The combination of these different observations give a means of finding a complete description of a single movement. The method of observation presented here is not the complete system as this is beyond the scope of this project and full training in LBF observation requires dedication and time to complete. However, a basic understanding of fundamental concepts can be learned and used to facilitate observation by people without formal movement training. For the purposes of simplification for non-trained observers, specific attributes were chosen by certified LBF practitioner Valerie Dean in order to address the most essential aspects of observation as it applies to musicians. The goal is to provide a starting point for observing movement for observers with no formal training in movement.
Examples of the use of LBF in the analysis of clarinetists' movements can be found in the links section of this site.
- L. Campbell, M.-J. Chagnon, and M. M. Wanderley. On the use of Laban-Bartenieff techniques to describe ancillary gestures of clarinetists. Research Report. Input Devices and Music Interaction Laboratory (PDF document, 584 kbytes) Copyright: McGill University, 2005.
- L. Campbell. The Observation of Movement. Report MUMT 609 Music, Media and Technology Seminar, Winter 2005. Input Devices and Music Interaction Laboratory (PDF document, 432 kbytes) Copyright: McGill University 2005.
Text by Louise Campbell

source: HuggingFaceFW/fineweb-edu


text:
Pages: 303 - 310
Abstract: Microparticles of native selenium were detected in weathered sideritic mudstones of the Veřovice Formation (Aptian) of the Silesian Unit (Outer Western Carpatians, NE part of the Czech Republic). This mineral forms small needle-like crystals with lengths of up to 20 µm, and is confined to fissures in sideritic mudstones covered by goethite or rarely also by hydrated Mn-oxide minerals. The oxidized sideritic mudstones show zonal structure and resemble the initial stage of the formation of the so-called rattle stones. From the superposition of phase diagrams of selenium and Fe-oxyhydroxides, Fe apparently occupies a large field in which Se(0) and FeOOH and/or Fe(OH)3 can co-exist. The reduction of selenites or selenates by pyrite or by any other phase, capable of charge transfer, is likely to have been responsible for the formation of microparticles of native selenium. The crucial factor controlling the origin of these particles is the extremely low solubility of Se(0). The source of Se is not obvious. It can be released in trace concentrations during the weathering of pyrite. Sediments of the Veřovice Formation correspond to the anoxic event OAE1b and accumulation of siderophile elements in similar sediments is very probable. A probable mechanism for the origin of Se microcrystals is gradual crystallization from solution.
Keywords: Western Carpathians, Lower Cretaceous, sideritic mudstones, native seleniumDownload PDF document Show Text Version


what people believed in the 1500s? Not even we do; and sure there have been wildmen depicted.
 1. how do u know u r 1/8 troll, what does that mean,
 4. Oh I believe it, I've printed photos of Troll's skulls before on this blog and remarked that some families have a tradition of interbreeding with trolls. We also have historical records of what people believed in the 1500s, and with comparable beliefs all over europe. You are seklling Bigfoots short: there is more than one sort of Bigfoots and they have different cultural levels. I did specifically mention the example of the Chuchuunaa. And certainly you should understand that an American keyboard does not feature Swedish chharacters for typing!
 1. so do trolls understood in the traditional more dangerous sense, not exist or are just not common, i read kn another blog that there is evidence of them and it is closely guarded


text:
Course Category: Business Analysis
Course Duration: 3 Days
Hours: 21 PDUs (Professional Development Units)
This course is HRDF SBL Khas Approved
IREBs (International Requirements Engineering Board) Certified Professional for Requirements Engineering certification is a standardized qualification for requirements engineers and business analysts.
IREB's role is to support a single, universally accepted, international qualification scheme, aimed at requirements engineering for professionals, by providing the core syllabi and by setting guidelines for accreditation and examination.
IREB offers three qualifications on Requirements Engineering namely Foundation Level (CPRE-AL), Advanced Level (CPRE-AL) and Expert Level (CPRE-EL). Attaining each level certification is a mandatory requirement to graduate to the next level.
What is International Requirements Engineering Board (IREB)?
The CPRE Certification is earned through passing a multiple choice examination.
CPRF-FL comprises of basic knowledge of eliciting, analyzing, specifying, documenting, validating and managing requirements.
A person with a CPRE FL certificate is expected to:
- Be familiar with the terminology of requirements engineering, business analysis and requirements management.
- Understand the basic techniques and methods of requirements engineering and their application.
- Be familiar with the most established notations for requirements. There are more than 10000 professionals who have achieved the CPRE certification worldwide.
Why Certified Professional for Requirements Engineering (CPRE) Certification (FL)?
The International Requirements Engineering Board (IREB) is the sponsor of the international certification program entitled Certified Professional for Requirements Engineering (CPRE). The board maintains the syllabus, test contents and governs the associated processes and rules.
IREB was founded in October 2006 as a legal entity based in Germany.
More information on IREB can be viewed at _URL_
Benefits to the Employer
- Improved performance
- Attract and retain high calibre staff
- Formal training and qualification provided
The foundation level certification exam has no pre-requisites.
Who should attend
- Business and Systems Analysts
- Developers who need to specify requirements
- Team Leaders
- Project Managers
- Software Engineers &
- Software Managers
Training and Exam Duration
Training: 3 days
The course material shall be issued on the first day of the course during registration.
Exam: 75 minutes duration
45 multiple choice questions.
The questions are of differing difficulty and therefore assigned differing amounts of points. The exam is closed-book, i.e. no materials are allowed to be used. The candidate must achieve at least than 60% of the total score possible.
Result, Certificate & Recertification
The candidate will receive the exam results and the certificates from MSTB.
There is no requirement to maintain the certification or seek a recertification.
The credential certificate is valid for life.
- What are requirement?
- Evolution of requirements
- The four major activities of RE
- System, System Context and Boundaries
- Determining System and Context Boundaries
- Sources of Requirements
- Categorization of Requirements according to the Kano Model
- Elicitation Techniques
- Structuring Documents
- Documentation Style Alternatives
- Document Structure
- Using Requirements Documents
- Quality Criteria for Requirements Documents
- Quality Criteria for Requirements
- Language Effects
- Constructing Requirements using a Template
- Goal Models
- Use Case Models
- Three Modelling Views
- Structural Requirements Models
- Functional Requirements Models
Behavioural Requirements Models
- Basics for Checking Requirements
- Basics of Reconciling Conflicting Requirements
- Checking Requirements Quality
- Principles for Checking Requirements
- Techniques for Checking Requirements
- Techniques for Reconciling Conflicting Requirements
- Adding Attributes to Requirements
- Creating Views of Requirements
- Prioritizing Requirements
- Tracing Requirements
- Requirements Versioning
- Managing Change Requests
- Types of Tools
- Tool Introduction
- Tool Evaluation
Processworks is a Recognized Training Provider of International Requirements Engineering Board (IREB)
Processworks is an IIBA Endorsed Education Provider.


Take the 2-minute tour ×
My general premise is that I want to investigate the transformations between two distinct sets of vertices on n-dimensional manifolds by:
 - Minimalizing the change in the fundamental shape of the vertices (I want a convex polytope to stay a convex polytope).
 - Describing the dynamics of the transformation. (Possible applications to theoretical physics)
 - Finding constraint conditions on what can and cannot occur when the space in which the transformation is occurring is not "regular". This includes not-everywhere-differentiable manifolds, singularities, and other pathological cases.
Well, what an ambitious project. But in any case I have made some progress for the n-dimensional case with n-vertices where the space is "regular" and I haven't introduced advanced mathematics yet. I'm mostly playing around in configuration space for vertices in euclidean space or something similar.
I have defined a functional in configuration space that gives the length of all possible paths in configuration space between two distinct sets of vertices in $\mathbb{R^n}$ as follows:
$$T = \int\limits_{\lambda_{1}}^{\lambda_{2}} \sqrt{\sum_{I=1}^{n} \sum_{i=1}^{d} \left(\frac{d}{d\lambda}\left(\sum_{j=1}^{d} s(\lambda)R_{j}^{i}(\lambda)(q_{I}^{j}(\lambda) + a^{j}(\lambda))\right)\right)^2} d\lambda$$
Where $\lambda_{1}$ and $\lambda_{2}$ correspond to the start-point and end-point of the transformation. The members of the gauge group are $s$ (dilatation), $R$ (rotation), and $a$ (translation). $q_{I}^{j}$ corresponds to a point in configuration space representing $I$ vertices and it lives in $j$ dimensions. ($i$ is also a dimension index)
You can think of the equation as finding the straight line between two points (in configuration space) given all of the varied paths when you solve for constraint conditions in the Euler-Lagrange equation (recall): $$\frac{\partial{f}}{\partial{x}} - \frac{d}{d \lambda} \left(\frac{\partial{f}}{\partial{\dot{x}}}\right) = 0$$ This is represented in the figure below when the space has no curvature.
Transformative Norm Equation
Hopefully, you have a general idea about what I'm talking about, this is at about page 5 in the paper where this is introduced, there is a lot of background that I'm not going to discuss. I've constructed an explicit example with tetrahedra where a tetrahedron is approximated to another tetrahedron in a minimalized manner. Here's a figure I made: Tetrahedral Approximation that may help you understand what I'm trying to work with... in any case I'll ask my questions now.
[Optional for the intrigued reader]:
How can I begin to generalize this geodesic equation so that it can comment on spaces with different metrics, or irregular behaviour? As an example of what I am trying to reach for, I would be interested in seeing how a set of vertices could geodesically traverse a singularity in a smooth 2-manifold, and if I could define a general functional for any behaviour on any manifold (I would attempt to restrict it to 2-dimensions to start) eventually. There are two main types of singularities I would be interested in investigating, the first would be the "black hole type" in which a diffeomorphism in the manifold causes "a hole at the bottom". This means that there would be an exponential increase in curvature around the vicinity of the singularity, and I want to find out how a set of vertices deals with those imposed conditions. The other would be for a 2-manifold with no curvature and I know that for a particular configuration of vertices, with the geodesic (based on the equation above) lying along a certain line. If I create a hole (simply remove a point in the same way you can create a hole in a single-variable piecewise defined real function), what happens to the geodesic? How can I encode this information, so it either pushes right through the hole somehow, or defines a new path around it?
Main Question: For a functional (assuming I could derive one) that gives the path from a distinct set of vertices to another in an n-dimensional smooth manifold with shape preserving characteristics. When a singularity is introduced into the manifold, will the geodesic equation:
 - Somehow push through the singularity/ignore it is present.
 - Define an alternate path around the singularity (this is what I hope, so I can investigate further with applications to black hole dynamics)
 - Become undefined and nothing useful results
share|improve this question
It has to depend on whether the functional you're minimizing diverges in a good way (gets arbitrarily large) or a bad way (gets arbitrarily small) as a path taken by a configuration point approaches the singularity, and (in the latter case) on whether the divergence is tame enough to be integrated over. – mjqxxxx Dec 16 '11 at 22:10
Have you worked explicitly with an example where this happens? I simply need to figure out a way to define that functional and then see how it behaves? There are no general theorems or results in Singularity Theory or maybe Catastrophe Theory that comment on this sort of thing? – Samuel Reid Dec 19 '11 at 3:07
You make reference to a paper where this is defined more clearly, but I can't find a link to it. In your discussion of deleting point in your Riemannian manifold and then looking for geodesics, what mjqxxxx says is correct: the behaviour is very sensitive to the way your metric degenerates near the singularity. For instance, if you take $\mathbb{R}^2$ and delete a point, but keep the flat metric, geodesics are still straight lines, and you will have a family of geodesics that run in to the singularity in finite time. If you take instead a metric that looks like a [...] – Sam Lisi Dec 22 '11 at 12:45
[...] hyperbolic cusp near the singular point, and then the flat metric outside of a compact region, you will have a complete manifold and the geodesic between any two points will avoid your singularity. – Sam Lisi Dec 22 '11 at 12:45
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text:
I've seen this flower in bloom for some time now, but only after the arrival of my now favorite field guide, [see references at the end of this post] did I even try to identify it.
It is Lantana camara, a plant known to and named by Linneaus himself. He gave it the genus name Lantana, which is an ancient Latin name for a Verbena species (L. camara is in the Verbena family). The species name camara is a South American common name for the plant, so Linneaus must also have known where the plant came from.
Two questions about this plant: 1) why are there both yellow and red flowers in the flowerhead, and 2) is it a weed or a wildflower?
First, more description:
The flowerheads are dome-shaped, made up of many individual flowers, which are tubular and have 4 petals. The buds are in the center of the flowerhead, the young open flowers are yellow, and the old flowers are red. I'll come back to these colors later.
The plant is a shrub with hairy square stems that may or may not have thorns. This one does:
The leaves are toothed and opposite, a lighter green color below.
What does this plant smell like? My field guide describes the odor as pungent, but I've seen many, many descriptions of the aroma. I first saw the smell described on the web as cat pee. I didn't think it smelled like that, so I began looking for other descriptions. At one site I found different individuals describing the odor as, respectively, "citrus-sage, spicy, [an objectionable] mixture of mint and camphor with a touch of onion, horrible, chicken droppings, none."
This is an amazing list – it makes me wonder whether the soil where it grows doesn't have something to do with the smell. Personally, I found the smell fairly strong but not unpleasant, falling somewhere between the citrus-sage description and spicy. The Brooklyn Botanic Garden recommends including L. camara in a "fragrance garden!"
Now, is it a wildflower or a weed? The eternal question. Here in Central (and northern South) America, where L. camara is native, it can be enjoyed for its own sake. It has been cultivated for more than 300 years so obviously has an esthetic appeal. But L. camara is listed in the Global Invasive Species Database because it can be invasive outside Central and northern South American. In Australia, it is listed as a "Weed of National Significance."
The Global Invasive Species Database does list many uses for L. camara including as a herbal medicine (research in India shows that leaf extracts have antimicrobial, fungicidal, insecticidal, and nematicidal activity.) The shrubs benefit bird species and the flower is a "…major nectar source for many species of butterflies and moths."
L. camara has been described as an excellent hummingbird shrub that seems even more attractive to butterflies. Which brings me back to the red and yellow colors. My field guide says that the "…old, deep-orange flowers, which persist for some time, provide landing surfaces for butterflies, deter nectar-robbing Trigona bees from accessing the bases of the newer, inner flowers…" This sentence is tantalizing. Nectar-robbing bees?
Further searching on the web turned up an article called "Nectar Robbing and Pollination of Lantana camara (Verbenaceae)" [see references at the end of this post]. It turns out that 1) several flowers in the inflorescence open each day, usually about dawn, 2) newly opened flowers are yellow and start to change color after about 9 hours and the color continues to deepen as the flowers age, 3) yellow flowers contain pollen and nectar but by the time they are red-orange, they have "negligible pollen and no nectar," and 4) the stingless bee Trigona fulviventris bites holes in the bases of the stamens of L. camara and robs nectar without performing pollination.
The authors learned that with orange and reddish-orange flowers present, the yellow flowers are not robbed as often as they are in the absence of those flowers. Butterflies are the pollinators of L. camara, and the authors suggest that the flower has evolved to feed both its robber and its pollinators.
I haven't found any studies yet about hummingbirds and L. camara. Here in Panama, birds (flycatchers, honey-creepers, and tanagers) have been seen eating the berries (this according to my field guide), but no word on hummingbirds and nectar or pollination. Many sites that sell garden plants list L. camara as a plant that attracts hummingbirds, but I notice that the Kemper Center for Home Gardening at the Missouri Botanical Garden has not checked the "attracts hummingbirds" box but has checked the "attracts butterflies" box.
Now, at least, I know to keep a close watch on this attractive wildflower/weed. I've seen a moth on it, but no bees, butterflies, or hummingbirds. Time to go take a deeper look.
Favorite field guide: Zuchowski, Willow. 2005. A Guide to Tropical Plants of Costa Rica. Zona Tropical, Miami, 529 pp.
Article in Biotropica: Barrows, E.M. 1976. Nectar Robbing and Pollination of Lantana camara (Verbenaceae). Biotropica, Vol. 8, No. 2, pp. 132-135. doi:10.2307/_PHONE_.
- Annuals give gardens a welcome splash of color (seattletimes.nwsource.com)


text:
Heat transfer in the boundary layer flow of a Casson fluid over a permeable shrinking sheet with viscous dissipation
In this paper the dual solutions in the flow of a Casson fluid over a porous shrinking surface are numerically discussed. Viscous dissipation in the heat transfer analysis is presented. Appropriate similarity transformations are used to convert governing nonlinear partial differential equations of flow and heat transfer into the system of nonlinear ordinary differential equations. The shooting technique with the Runge-Kutta method is employed to solve the resulting equations. Graphical results for dimensionless velocity and temperature are reported and examined very carefully. The study reveals that the existence of dual solutions is possible for some range of the suction parameter. For both solutions, the momentum boundary layer thickness decreases with the Casson fluid parameter. The thermal boundary layer thickness decreases with the Prandtl number and increases with the Eckert number (in both solutions). Further, the thermal boundary layer thickness decreases with increasing values of wall mass suction for the first solution, whereas it increases with increasing values of the mass suction parameter for the second solution.


text:
High heat flow under Deccan Traps causes uplift of Western India
doi:10.1038/nindia.2009.87 Published online 23 March 2009
The Earth's curst under western India is unusually hot and is in 'a state of continuous uplift', according to geologists of the National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI) in Hyderabad. They believe this discovery may help explain the occurrence of devastating earthquakes in the peninsular India witnessed in recent years.
Major earthquakes in the Indian subcontinent are the result of stresses built up due to the collision of the Indian plate with the Asian plate that gave rise to the Himalayas. These earthquakes had taken place along the plate boundary. The peninsular shield is supposed to be relatively seismically quiet. However it has witnessed several damaging earthquakes in Koyna (1967), Latur-Killari (1993), Jabalpur (1997) and Bhuj (2001). Despite a large number of investigations, the cause of their occurrence is unclear. Some scientists believe that Koyna earthquakes are induced by a nearby reservoir while others believe them to be of tectonic origin.
Now a detailed study including the characterization of the rocks sandwiched between the 'Deccan Traps' and the earth's crust in Latur and Koyna regions has shed new light on the origin of 'intraplate' earthquakes, the NGRI scientists report1.
The Deccan Traps refer to the pile of volcanic rocks, 1 to 2 kilometres thick, that covered nearly half a million square kilometre area of central and western India following one of the largest eruptions on Earth 65 million years ago. What underlies this volcanic rock cover had remained an enigma and the NGRI team set out to crack it in the hope of looking for clues for earthquakes in the peninsular India.
"It has been assumed all these years that these volcanics are resting over granitic-gneissic crust but our study has overthrown this notion," Gopalakrishnarao Parthasarathy of NGRI, one of the authors of the paper told Nature India. Granitic gneiss (pronounced 'nise') is an igneous rock and is formed from water-rich magma. But the NGRI findings indicate that the basement rock is not granitic but 'granulite' (a deeper rock) with very low water content and rich in carbondioxide (CO2) containing as much as two grams of CO2 for every 100 grams of the mineral grains. Granulites are formed at temperatures around 700°C and pressure range 6-12 kilobars corresponding to a depth of 30km in the earth's inetrior.
The NGRI study was an attempt to examine and compare the prevailing geologic and tectonic structure of Latur and Koyna regions by analyzing active and passive seismic, gravity, heat flow and magneto-telluric (MT) data. (MT is an electromagnetic method used to map the spatial variation of the Earth's resistivity by measuring naturally occurring electric and magnetic fields at the Earth's surface).
This multi-disciplinary study revealed, for the first time, the presence of high density 'granulite' rocks just below the Deccan volcanic cover, the researchers claim. "This implies that almost entire thickness of the granitic-gneissic upper crust in this part of India has been eroded even before the eruption of Deccan volcanism took place," the authors say. "This inference strengthens our belief that this region may have been in a state of continuous uplift and erosion during pre-Deccan trap eruptive period and the uplift probably continues even now," they say. Such an evolutionary process can alone bring the earth's crust below the Deccan Traps to significantly shallower levels, the scientists report. This has been confirmed by borehole investigations in which a sediment thickness of only 6–8 metres was found between the crystalline basement rock (earth crust) and overlying Deccan volcanics.
What can cause such massive uplifts of the earth's crust? The researchers say their calculations indicate a high input of heat flow (29–36 milli Watts per square meter) from the mantle below both Latur as well as Koyna. "Such high input of heat from the mantle is unheard of," says Om Prakash Pandey, a heat flow expert and first author. "High input of subcrustal heat signifies that the overlying crustal column is subjected to a much higher temperature than comparable terrains elsewhere."
According the researchers, stresses caused due to ongoing uplift and high input of heat flow from the mantle is continuously accumulating in this part of the Earth's crust beneath the Deccan Traps within which earthquakes tend to nucleate. "Such localised stresses act over and above those generated by collision of Indian sub-continent with Eurasia, and thus "have added an entirely new dimension to our understanding of the occurrence of intraplate earthquakes within a stable continental region."
- Pandey, O. P. et al. Upwarped high velocity mafic crust, Subsurface Tectonics and causes of intra plate Latur-Killari (M 6.2) and Koyna (M 6.3) earthquakes, India – A comparative study, J. Asian Earth Sci. 34, 781-795 (2009)


text:
All students doing any nationally recognised training, need to have a Unique Student Identifier (USI). The Unique Student Identifier or USI is a reference number made up of 10 numbers and letters that:
- Creates a secure online record of your recognised training and qualifications gained in Australia, even from different training organisations
- Will give you access to your training records and transcripts
- Can be accessed online, anytime and anywhere
- Is free and easy to create and stays with you for life
Your USI must be provided to and verified by MPAQ before a student can be issued with, or receive, a statement of attainment.
If you already have a USI, this must be provided to MPAQ during enrolment, upon completing the enrolment form, consent is requested for MPAQ to apply for a USI on your behalf. If a USI is created by MPAQ on your behalf you will be notified of this via email or SMS from the USI Registry.
MPAQ requires one of the following documents below to create and/or verify your USI:
- Australian Driver's Licence
- Australian Passport
- Australian Visa (with non-Australian passport)
- Australian Birth Certificate
If you don't have one of the above documents you can use one of the following:
- Medicare Card
- Certificate of Registration by Descent
- Citizenship Certificate
The personal details on the enrolment form must match your Identification. When creating the USI, it will be created as per the information displayed on the Identification. If the details on the enrolment form and USI do not match MPAQ will be unable to verify the USI. MPAQ is not able to Issue your qualification or certificate without your USI being verified first.
The following details are used to create your USI:
- First Name and Family Name
- Date of Birth
- Country of Birth
- Town/City of Birth
- Mobile Number and/or email address.


Data Sharing using Web Services Working Group
Meg Staton (Hardwood Genetics, Chair); Jill Wegrzyn (TreeGenes); Emily Grau (TreeGenes); Andrew Farmer (NCGR); Marcela Karey Tello-Ruiz (Gramene); Justin Elser (Gramene); Sylva Donaldson, Cyril Pommier (URGI), Monica Poelchau (i5k), EthyCannon (PeanutBase), Peter Selby (BrAPI)
 - Identify the current methods of data exchange within and across AgBioData databases
 - Explore community opinions on data sharing needs and priorities
 - Identify a set of partners with interest and throughput to actually implement some concrete examples
 - Develop a set of recommended best practices for data exchange
 - Promote best practices for data exchange


text: After the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development, reproductive health programs responded to women's experiences of sexual and reproductive illness. However, there has been no commensurate systematic attempt to understand men's health issues. This study was designed to examine how men from a Nigerian ethnic group (i.e., the Igbo, formerly called the Ibo or Ebo) perceive masculinity and its impact on their sexual and other health needs. Qualitative data were generated and content analyses of the results were carried out. Participants indicated that there is a shift from traditional to non-traditional attitudes and practices among men in the area from which the sample was drawn. Factors responsible for this shift include education, religion, migration patterns, the influence of mass media and globalization. The men reported awareness of sexual and other health needs in the context of their experience of masculinity. Implications of findings for future research and advocacy are discussed.


text:
A town in Grand isle county was founded by Ira Allen in the year 1781. Located on a peninsula extending into Lake Champlain has a population of about 1,952.
It was basically grown around an European settlement with some french connection. With a non-island location, some of the nearby places includes Elim Point, Point Roberts etc.
The demographic consists of a population density of over 66 people per sq. mile. As usual the majority are whites, with around 97% white, 0.15% Asian, 1.95% Native Americans and many more.
A major part of the population is engaged in various types of primary activities, like agriculture and other smaller service industries. Per capita income of the people is around the figure of $16,285. Though there are no significant historical places but the breathtaking natural beauty is sure to garner envy.


text:
pairs contained in $insert_hash. Values will be automatically qualified according to column datatypes so don't pre-qualify them. For date values, the canonical format is assumed (see qualify()) unless $date_format is specified.
This method is useful because it automagically qualifies each insert value using qualify(). Also, if the table has an integral primary key, and the corresponding key in $insert_hash was not given, a value for will be generated.
MySQL users: This assumes the primary key was declared with AUTO_INCREMENT, so no extra work is done except to pass the newly generated value back in $rv.
Oracle users: The situation described above assumes an Oracle sequence object named SEQ_$table_name has been created. This is the conventional naming scheme so that this feature can be taken advantage of in most cases. E.g., if inserting into table MEMBER, an associated SEQUENCE object named SEQ_MEMBER must also exist. See
In short, you generally don't have to supply a table's primary key if that primary key is a sequenced ID column.
Return the generated pk ID value or -1.2 if there wasn't a value generated (e.g. if the table has a multi-column pk) If there was no data to insert, -1.1 is returned. Return undef if error.
$row = $io->fetch($id_val_or_id_hash,[$key_name]);
Return a row in hashref form (COLUMN_NAME => value pairs). All date values are returned in the canonical format (see DBIx::IO::GenLib).
The row to be fetched is identified depending on the datatype of $id_val_or_id_hash.
If $id_val_or_id_hash is a scalar, the value is used in conjunction with $key_name. $key_name defaults to the table's primary key. If $id_val_or_id_hash is a hash ref it is interpreted as column => value pairs to be AND'ed together in a WHERE clause.
This method assumes that key(s) given form a unique key, so only 1 row is returned.
Oracle users: LOB columns won't be retreived because they aren't supported in DBD::Oracle (as of v1.19). LONG columns seem to work fine though so if you can get away with using a LONG over a LOB, do that. $DBIx::IO::GenLib::LONG_READ_LENGTH gives the limit size of a long that will be returned. If the table is a concrete table (rather than a view, for instance) ROWID will be included as a column with ROWID datatype. You may find this useful for updates and deletes (See also DBIx::IO::GenLib for a ROWID column name constant).
Return undef if error. Return 0 if no row was found.
$rv = $io->delete_by_id($id_value,[$key_name]);
Delete a row where $key_name = $id_value. $key_name defaults to the primary key.
Returns the number of rows deleted or false if error (0 is represented as '0E0' which is true). A maximum of 1 row can be deleted here, it is up to you to make sure that the given key is unique, otherwise unexpected results can occur. See also delete_all().
$rv = delete_all($id_hash);
Delete all rows that satisfy $id_hash, where $id_hash is a hash of COLUMN => value pairs that will be AND'ed together for the WHERE clause of the DELETE statement.
Returns the number of rows affected or false if error (0 is represented as '0E0' which is true). Return -1 if $id_hash is empty or not a reference.
$rv = $io->update_hash($update_hash,$id_val_or_id_hash,[$date_format],[$hint]);
Update a row with name value pairs contained in $update_hash, a hashref of COLUMN_NAME => new_value pairs. Values will be automatically qualified according to column datatypes so don't pre-qualify them. For date values, the canonical format is assumed unless $date_format is specified (see qualify()).
The row(s) to be updated are identified depending on the datatype of $id_val_or_id_hash.
If $id_val_or_id_hash is a scalar, the value is used as the primary key. If $id_val_or_id_hash is a hash ref it is interpreted as COLUMN_NAME => value pairs to be AND'ed together in a WHERE clause.
This method supports driver-specific SQL hints contained in $hint.
Return the number of rows affected or false if error (0 is represented as '0E0' which is true). Return -1 if there was no data to update.
No known bugs.
Reed Sandberg,
Copyright (C) 2000-2008 Reed Sandberg
This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.
The full text of the license can be found in the LICENSE file included with this module.


How can I check if a candidate has cheated?
We use various methods to determine if a candidate has potentially cheated and will show you alerts on the candidate's individual results page.
Since your candidates will be completing your assessment online, in a non-controlled environment, it's important to make sure none of them are using outside assistance for an unfair advantage.
You can find anti-cheating alerts on each individual candidate's results page. We track your candidates' actions during the assessment in four key ways.
 1. Filled out only once from IP address: Using the IP address, we check if candidates fill out the assessment only once (with a public link to the assessment, candidates could use multiple email addresses to take repeated attempts at the assessment).
 2. Webcam enabled: we take a snapshot of the candidate every 30 seconds using their camera or webcam. We do this to verify that your candidate is the only one taking the assessment. You can review these pictures with the slider on the results page.
 3. Full-screen mode always active: this ensures a candidate does not exit the test to find answers or help online.
 4. Mouse always in assessment window: this ensures a candidate does not use a second screen to find answers or help.
Note that this example shows a candidate with a high indication of cheating behavior.
We ask the permission of candidates to take these pictures before they start the assessment. For privacy reasons, the webcam snapshots are removed from our servers 6 months after they have been recorded. Read this article and our Privacy Policy to learn about how we deal with privacy and GDPR.


text:
70% Smaller PNG Files
CodeKit can reduce PNG file sizes by about 70% with virtually no change in image quality—it's straight-up witchcraft.
To do this, CodeKit uses a tool called PNGQuant, which is written by Kornel Lesiński. Kornel also develops the industry-standard Mac App, ImageOptim. He was kind enough to license PNGQuant to me so that you get the same state-of-the-art optimizer in CodeKit.
The Image Inspector
Select one or more PNG images in CodeKit and you'll see the Image Inspector:
If you don't see this section of the Image Inspector, make sure you've selected only PNG images.
The primary option is which optimizer to run. CodeKit contains two:
- PNGQuant (default)
Which Optimizer Should I Use?
PNGQuant is the right choice 98% of the time. However, it may produce "banding" in images with subtle gradients like fog or clouds. For these images, consider OptiPNG.
OptiPNG is 100% lossless and works by deleting extra metadata and then recompressing your image file. However, since modern image-editing apps already write really efficient PNGs, you'll typically see only about 5% reductions with OptiPNG.
Below 85%, you may start to see "noise" in the optimized image. However, for images containing mostly solid blocks of colors (such as UI elements, screenshots, etc.) setting a lower value can reduce file sizes by 90% or more without any loss in visual quality. (Note: this value does not apply to OptiPNG, which is always 100% lossless.)
A Note About "Initial Size"
This is how large an image was the first time CodeKit ever saw it. The value never changes. So, if you start with a small image (say, 50x50 px) and then replace it with a bigger one (say, 5000x5000 px), it's possible that the current size may be larger than the initial size, even after optimization. In this case, the initial size isn't really accurate because it was set when a smaller file occupied the path.
Output Path & Action
These options apply to files of all types. They are explained in Setting Output Paths & Actions.
Normally, CodeKit will not copy or process a file if its output path is the same as its input path. The exception to this is images.


text:
Collection: 22 In 9 Notes
Handpan is the term commonly used for a new generation of musical instruments, belonging to the family of steel pans and meaning steel pan played by hand.
- 9 Note Design - 1 center note(D3) and 9 tone fields
- Tone: Fundamental + Octave Overtone + Fifth Overtone
- The upper part has 9 sounds, the center point is the basic sound, and the remaining 8 sounds are distributed around.
- The bottom center has a hole for the bass "GU" which can be used for tuning.


text:
Purpose：This study was designed to identify the effects of carrying bag positions (None, left hand, right hand,left shoulder, right shoulder) on static balance.
Methods：Fourteen healthy adult females participated in the this study. The exclusion criteria were orthopedic or neurologic disease, predominant left side. Measurements were performed initial effects. Results were evaluated by OSI, APSI, and MLSI in the biodex stability system.
Results：There are among the three assessments (overall stability index(OSI), antero-posterior stability index (APSI), medio-lateral stability index(MLSI) significants difference for the carrying bags positions (None bag, left hand, right hand, left shoulder, right shoulder)(p<.05). The post-hoc test revealed a significant difference between none bag and both left hand and left shoulder in the OSI, APSI, MLSI (p<.05). Also, comparing the carrying positions significant difference between right hand and both left hand and left shoulder in the MLSI (p<.05).
Conclusion：The results suggest that none dominant side with carrying bag improve more imbalance than none bag and right hand of dominant with carrying bag improve more balance than non dominant side. When comparing the four carrying bag conditions, right hand was more effective than another conditions in static balance.


μW) = (E(μV)2)/R)/(1,000,000)
and, if you know R to be 50 Ω, you can use:
P(μW) = (E(μV)2)/(50,000,000)
The term dBm means decibels related to a milliwatt, so, you can either convert the value in microwatts to milliwatts by dividing it by 1000, then use the formula:
dBm = 10log10(P(mW)) where P = the actual power in milliwatts, or, to do it all in one motion, you can use the formula:
dBm = –30 + 10log10(P(μW)) with P in microwatts or
dBm = 30 + 10log10(P(W)) with P in watts.
From QST February 1999
I am looking, like most hams, for points of comparison when I read QST Product Reviews...
Q Dan Marriott, VE7CTN, asks, "I am looking, like most hams, for points of comparison when I read QST Product Reviews. And, while I think I understand what some of the tests mean, their labels or abbreviations are not always intuitive.For example, when evaluating receive performance I see references to MDS, IMD, IMD dynamic range, blocking dynamic range, third-order products and third-order intercept points. Can you clarify?"
These terms, and many others, are described in great detail in the ARRL Handbook's Test Procedures and Projects chapter. A collection of QST articles that explain the Product Review process and tests can be downloaded from the ARRL Web page at Here is a very brief summary that will get you started.
The MDS (minimum discernible signal, or "noise floor") is a measure of receiver sensitivity. It describes the amount of receiver input noise. A receiver should be able to just detect a real signal at the level of the noise floor, thus the term, minimum discernible signal. MDS is usually expressed in dBm—decibels relative to a milliwatt. A typical receiver might have an MDS of –135 dBm, or 135 dB less than a milliwatt. That is an extremely small amount of signal power. The MDS numbers give you a reasonable idea of a receiver's sensitivity. Useful SSB sensitivity usually falls in a range of about –120 dBm to –135 dBm.
Intermodulation distortion (IMD), whether transmit or receive, is the mixing of two frequencies to produce additional frequencies. Recall that the chief property of a mixer is to produce sum and difference frequencies by mixing signals from the input with those from the local oscillator. Living in an imperfect world as we do, electronic circuits are not perfectly linear so additional mixing takes place between these original frequencies and the ones that are intended to appear.
Assume that your original frequencies are F1 and F2 with the difference between them being N Hz. The combination of all the above mentioned mixing creates undesirable signals at 2F1 – F2 and 2F2 – F1 (among others—these are just the ones that usually affect transmitter or receiver performance). These end up appearing at N Hz above and below F1 and F2. They are known as third order products. There are other signals that appear as well (on a transmit IMD graph, you typically see third, fifth, seventh and ninth-order products or more), but these are not as high in amplitude as the third-order ones.
How does this affect real-world operating? On receive, if your radio is tuned to 14.020 MHz and two strong signals appear at 14.040 and 14.060 MHz, assuming nothing else is on the band, you will get a false signal appearing on 14.020 where you are tuned. Under test conditions, the two off-channel signals are identical in strength, at a level that gives an IMD response equal to the MDS level. The difference in strength between the on-channel signal "ghost" and the two off-channel signals is the IMD dynamic range, expressed in dB.
This test indicates the general intermodulation behavior of a receiver. If, for instance, you were slugging it out with the DX crowd trying to work a rare one, you would have signals of many different strengths appearing at many different frequencies inside and outside the passband of your receiver's filters. When the signals are strong enough, intermixing will produce false signals within the receiver's passband. The higher the IMD dynamic range of your receiver, the weaker (and less annoying!) these false signals will be. Typical receivers will have an IMD dynamic range of from 80 to about 105 dB.
Blocking dynamic range is basically a measure of how strong an off-channel signal must be to produce either an increase in noise in the receiver passband or a decrease in receiver gain, otherwise known as "desense." In ARRL Lab tests we use a signal that is 20 kHz away from where the receiver is tuned. A signal within the normal operating amplitude of the receiver is added on frequency and then the level of the off-channel signal is increased until the on-channel signal decreases by 1 dB (blocking is occurring) or the output increases by 1 dB because of receiver noise. (In this case, the measurement is reported as being "noise limited.") The difference between the off-channel signal and the receiver's noise floor (MDS) is the blocking dynamic range expressed in dB. Again, different combinations of frequencies and signal strengths will produce different blocking behavior, but a higher blocking dynamic range number at 20 kHz indicates better general blocking performance. Typical receivers will have a blocking dynamic range of from 90 to over 150 dB.
Third-order intercept is related, of course, to two-tone, third order IMD. One characteristic of third-order products is that they increase/decrease three times faster than the on-channel products (if the input tones are of equal level). These responses can be plotted on a graph, but the two lines never actually intersect because the receiver always goes into gain compression well before that could happen. So, as signals keep getting stronger, both the on-channel and third-order responses "roll off." Third-order intercept is the theoretical point at which these two lines would cross. It gives a relative indication of a receiver's strong signal performance.
If two receivers have the same IMD dynamic range and one has an MDS of –125 dBm and the other –135 dBm, the third-order intercept of the –125 one will be higher. Read that again. Yes, the radio that doesn't hear as well will give a higher third-order intercept point. That doesn't mean that you want to always look for a lower third-order intercept point. Third-order intercept should always be evaluated in conjunction with MDS and dynamic range—they are all related.
From QST February 1999
Can you help me better understand the nature of the audio/speech circuit in my Kenwood TS-140S transceiver?...
Q Jeff Lawson, KD1WZ, asks, "Can you help me better understand the nature of the audio/speech circuit in my Kenwood TS-140S transceiver? My concern is that I am not getting full output when operating SSB. The ALC and power meters indicate that the rig is operating properly, but during tests with another station my signal is reported to be almost an S unit stronger when I whistle as opposed to when I am just speaking. Why would there be a difference?"
A The ALC (automatic level control) in your transceiver generates a control voltage to ensure that the peak RF output does not exceed its ratings. It does so by responding to the voltage peaks in the input signal (whether it is human voice or a whistle.) When you're watching your rig's ALC meter, you are observing the action of the gain limiting control. The meter is displaying the amount of feedback voltage that is reducing the gain of the transmitter. The ideal situation is to have as much gain as you can without limiting, or with only a tiny bit of limiting. So, the proper way to adjust your mike gain is to set it so that the ALC indicator shows just a little ALC action on your voice peaks.
The ratio between peak and average power in any signal is dependent on the nature of the signal. A whistle is almost a pure sine wave, and its peak and average power are nearly the same. A human voice, however, has a waveform that has a fairly high peak-to-average ratio. Since your radio's wattmeter indicates full output power for both speech and whistles, it is a peak-reading wattmeter. Many wattmeters read average power, not peak power. Those wattmeters would indicate less power when you are speaking than when you are whistling.
On the receiving end, the S meter is actually measuring the receiver's AGC (automatic gain control) voltage. A good receiver will generate an AGC voltage from the signal peaks, but this may not always show on the S meter, which may indicate average power, or somewhere in between. If your transmitter's ALC settings are correct and your transmitter indicates full output power on voice signals, you should rely on that, not on the uncalibrated, unknown performance of a receiver S meter.
A good explanation about power is found in the article "Power—Watt's It All About?" by Mike Gruber, WA1SVF (now W1MG), May 1995 QST.
From QST February 1999
Is there software available that will allow me to copy...
Q Is there software available that will allow me to copy ACARS packet transmissions using my PC's sound card as the analog-to-digital converter?
A For those


text:
CHALLENGES FACED" BY REGULAR TEACHERS, IN TEACHING WITH SPELLING PROBLEMS IN SOME SELECTED SCHOOLS IN TOMBEL
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This research investigated "Challenges faced by regular teachers in some selected schools in Tombel." The main research question of the study was, do regular teachers face problems in teaching children with spelling problems? The research design used in the work was the descriptive survey research design while the study consisted of only pupils with spelling problems from Government school Tombel Group One and Two, catholic school Tombel, Government School Ngapand Presbyterian School Tombel. The population size of teachers who answered the questionnaires concerning the pupils was 50.10 per school. The closed ended questionnaire was used and the major findings revealed that teachers face challenges in teaching children with spelling problems as/ home background is a major cause of spelling problems, likewise teachers teaching methods also is a cause of spelling problems again, children are also unable to discriminate certain sound and words. Inattentiveness is also a cause of spelling problems in pupils.
Education process develops an individual intellectually, emotionally, spiritual and physically so that all may become fully participating members of the community (Tambo 2003). Children face spelling problems at the elementary level which makes them unable to read and spell at the upper level. We shall also discuss some of the challenges faced by regular teachers in teaching children with spelling problems in the write up accordingly.
1.1 Background To The Study
A teacher is on who impacts knowledge to a learner. If they do not enjoy what they are doing, the students will be able to tell. They also must enjoy being around their students. A teacher who cares for their students is going to help that individual succeed in their life in the future. Teachers are of various categories namely regular teachers and special teachers. The former are the normal teachers while the latter are those who have been trained to handle special needs. As for the regular teachers they teach using didactic materials, teaching methods and try to solve problems of special needs children even though they have not had a training on special education. Therefore, they would obviously face problems in teaching children with spelling problems which would be seen in the write up. And the sound is straight forward as each letter or letter combination almost always represents one certain sound. The way in which letters are arranged in sequence to produce the pronunciation of a word is referred as spelling or orthography. In some languages, the correspondence between the letter.
White Smoke (2002), the way in which letters are arranged in sequence to produce the pronunciation of a word is referred to as spelling or orthography. In some languages, such as Spanish, the correspondence between the letter and the sound is fairly straight forward as each letter or letter combination almost always represents one certain sound. For example, compare the Spanish maleta with its English equivalent suitcase. The pronunciation of the vowels a and e in the former remains relatively constant across words, whereas that of u, i, a, and e in the latter is far from being stable across the English vocabulary, the largest and richest of all languages.
During the rather complex history of English, the language has been subjected to numerous influences that resulted in it actually becoming a mixture of other languages, benefiting from abundant contributions to its vocabulary, but also blending different spelling systems. These contribute to the irregular and sometimes incredibly inconsistent and confusing spelling of the written language, which in turn interacts with a varied and sometimes unpredictable pronunciation. In order to master English spelling, one needs to learn a great many spelling rules and be aware of the numerous possible letter combinations.
One of the most notorious inconsistencies among letter-sound correspondences is represented in the various sounds of the letter combination ough. Robert A. Heinlein in his novel The Door into summer came up with the following sentence to demonstrate this: "Though the tough cough and hiccough plough him through." Though is pronounced as slow, tough as huff, and cough rhymes with off. Hiccough is pronounced as cup, plough as how, and through rhymes with you. Such spelling inconsistencies were ridiculed by playwright George Bernard Shaw, who suggested that the word fish should be spelled ghoti, as gh would stand for f (laugh), o for i (woman in the plural as pronounced /wimin/) and ti would replace sh (as in nation).
However still, despite the bad reputation English spelling suffers from, hundreds of millions of English learners all over the world have managed to overcome it as they strive to improve their knowledge of the undisputed international language, used daily on millions of Internet sites – all in English. A perfect tool to help you in the process of mastering English spelling is the White Smoke online grammar and English writing software, which relies on cutting edge artificial intelligence algorithms that provide contextual proofreading any text you write in any application.
When the Anglo-Saxons started arriving at the British Isles around the 5th century AD, the Germanic roots of their language gradually created the core of Old English vocabulary, similar to modern German words, such as father, mother, daughter, son, under, hand, house, and cow. These were originally spelled and pronounced differently, but were transformed due to later linguistic changes. Additional contact with the language of the indigenous Celts and ongoing word borrowing from Latin speaking merchants, Roman conquerors and Christian monks have resulted in more words that integrated different spelling systems (street, plant, altar, kitchen, butter, wine).
The Viking invasions of the 9th century brought an influx of spelling conventions from Old Norse, which in addition to contributing words such as want, take and sky also caused the Old English word schirt to be written as both shirt and skirt, with the meaning of the two later diverging to denote two different pieces of clothing. Middle English saw a dramatic influence on English spelling with a torrent of Norman-French words coming into use starting from the 11th century. It is estimated that about 40% of currently used English words are derived from French, which has obviously brought with it yet additional spelling conventions (not changed for reasons of prestige), and word roots and suffixes that formed longer English words than before (parliament, justice, ornament, pleasure, establishment, foundation etc.)
Printing was at its early stages and there was still no set spelling standard, which would only later be canonized in dictionaries and language manuals. Divergent spellings for the same word occurred very often, sometimes even in the same sentence. This resulted, for instance, in the letter o bearing three different pronunciations in l ove, grove, and prove; the consonant digraph th replacing older letters; and o sounding like u in come, son and love.
From the 15th century onwards, the phonological phenomenon known as the Great Vowel Shift caused numerous vowel pronunciations to change into those more familiar to us today and thus marked the transition into Early Modern English. The spelling, however, remained as it was and still represented the Middle English pronunciation, adding another dimension to the bewildering English spelling saga.
Instead of initiating a full realignment of English spelling according to commonly accepted conventions, the expansion of printing has actually fossilized both old and new irregularities with remnants from all the language sources, which by then had been contributing to the ever-growing English vocabulary. The additional silent "magic" e, common to many words in English, followed these developments, in addition to the ough conundrum, illustrated above.
The English Renaissance of the 16th century boosted a renewed interest in classical Greek and Latin, bringing in a new wave of borrowed words, either with their original spelling (a now silent b in debt to resemble the Latin debitum, s in island as in Latin insula instead of Norse igland) or anglicised along the lines of the new spelling practices. This again amounted to yet further spelling diversity in words such as democracy, theory, physics, and rhythm from Greek (y in the middle of a word indicates Greek origin); medicine, library, recipe, conviction, and index from Latin.
The rise in education, printing and reading; English replacing Latin in church services; upward social mobility, and increased communication among the different parts of English society were some of the initial steps to finally start bringing order to the English spelling chaos, which by now had been set in print.
The publication of the first significant English dictionary by Samuel Johnson in 1755 and others that followed, the publication of the King James Bible in 1611, and the literary works of William Shakespeare mark the onset of Modern English. As written communication was becoming more prevalent, there was less leeway for spelling deviance. The British economy and naval trade prospered, allowing for culture and science to flourish, ever contributing to the development and enrichment of the printed lexicon. The 19th century revolutionized science and technology and gave rise to even more words, prefixes and suffixes from classical languages (cholesterol, telegraph, telephone, cyanide, and philanthropist).
The British colonization of America and other imperialist ventures around the globe allowed English to literally usurp a great deal of languages for more and more words that still keep spicing up English orthography with spelling irregularities. A major development following the global expansion of English is the spelling differences between British and American English, initially instigated by the publication of Noah Webster's American Dictionary in 1828.
Words are constantly being added to the English language and are transcribed using the Roman alphabet (mustang, algebra, bungalow, samurai, and voodoo, to


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Let $A=k[[t]]$ Let $B$ a flat $A$-finite algebra which is etale and Galois at the generic point.
Then by Artin lemma 3.12 (ii) in his IHES paper on approximation, we know that there exists an integer $c$ such that:
if we have an other $A$-finite flat algebra generically étale and Galois $B'$ such that $B/\pi^{c}\cong B'/\pi^{c}$ implies $B\cong B'$.
Can we be more precise about the value of $c$ for exemple how can we relate it to $B$?
Moreover, can we get a isomorphism $\phi: B\cong B'$ which lifts the isomorphism mod $\pi^{c}$?
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text:
Beauty tips of brighten face with ice cubes:-
An ice cube can soothe pimples, sunburns, and skin inflammation. It reduces redness and swelling and numbs the pain. A face massage with ice cubes can brighten your complexion by boosting circulation. Ice cubes with milk or cucumber can even exfoliate your skin. To relieve puffy eyes, make green tea ice cubes for instant relief. Ice cubes can also prevent wrinkles by tightening the skin. It'll also create a smoother surface for makeup.
Fair,glowing spotless toned skin with ice cubes:-
A standout amongst the most well known employments of ice solid shapes is for contracting skin inflammation. A pimple is little damage, all things considered. Ice can quiet redness and swelling, particularly on the off chance that you have cystic skin inflammation. It can even assuage torment similarly it numbs wounds. In any case, recollect that pimples are touchy and furthermore loaded with microscopic organisms. So be cautious while applying an ice 3D square on the face for skin inflammation.


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Blogs » Acting for Film; Part 5 - Managing the Transitions
Acting for Film; Part 5 - Managing the Transitions
 Genius happens in the transitions. Going from one thing to another, particularly in an artistic design, almost defies the time/space relationship within which the performing arts claim their existence.
 Understanding a script's structure relies on the actor's ability to answer three sentences:
 What does my character want?
 What's preventing them from getting what they want?
 When does what they want change?
 We discussed the very active aspects of a script's structure, resulting in the answers to the first two questions, (objectives and obstacles) in earlier entries. Each action is a building block within the structure of a script. The objective is the gas that drives the engine of your actions. The obstacle is the element which creates the conflict engendering a dynamic framework for the playing of your action.
 The third question introduces a challenge to the authentic rendering of your action. In our previous example of the "Knight in Shining Armor," whose objective it is to save the damsel in distress from the evil dragon, there is a sense of force with the character's objective (saving the damsel in distress) and a sense of variety created by the obstacle (the evil dragon). The variety created by the obstacle lies in the different strategies and tactics the character uses to overcome the obstacle. But what happens once the dragon has been defeated and the damsel in distress is removed from the castle? In typical cases, this would be the end of act two of an industry standard screenplay. There's still an entire act.
 If you're not playing an objective against an obstacle, what are you doing? You're making an adjustment; you're in transition. The trick is to do this as efficiently and believably as possible.
 Once the hero safely removes the damsel in distress from the evil dragon's castle he then moves on to another objective with accompanying obstacle. Perhaps, he "travels over hazardous territory to return the damsel to her homeland." There is a processing period in the action when he moves from one objective to the other. The actor must be aware of precisely when this occurs so that there is no lag in the sustained action. The actor's ability to manage these transitions separates the good actors from the great actors. When they say that great acting can't be taught, this is what they're talking about.
 Playing an objective against an obstacle is at the very core of the craft of acting. It's instinctual but to a certain extend it's also measurable. It lasts for a sustained period of time and can be charted in the script. The transition from one objective to another happens so quickly and requires such deftness that there's really no craft involved, only ability.
 In the process of completing his new objective, "travel over hazardous territory to return the damsel to her homeland," the knight may fall in love with the damsel and his objective may change to "overcome my lowly station to win the love of the woman of my dreams." But how does this happen in the internal workings of the character and in the structure of the script? Is there an event which creates this change? Does it happen over time? Does the knight's growing love for the damsel serve as an obstacle at first? Does it begin as one of the elements of the "hazardous territory?" At what precise moment does it cease to be an obstacle and become his objective?
 The actor can only prepare themselves by identifying where the transitions takes place and then devote their industry, in trial and error, to find the most playable way to manage the transitions. Sometimes it just takes genius.
 The three questions that lead the actor to the overall structure of the action in a script set up the actor for the moment to moment playing of the action. There is a simple chain that must be followed in order for the action to be well crafted rather than random. We'll take a close look at this crucial building block to film acting in a later entry.


Separated for 1,000 years, two Viking warriors from the same family were reunited today at Denmark's National Museum, as DNA analysis helps shed light on the Vikings' movements across Europe.
One of the Vikings died in England in his 20s in the 11th century, from injuries to the head. He was buried in a mass grave in Oxford.
The other died in Denmark in his 50s, his skeleton bearing traces of blows that suggest he took part in battles.
DNA mapping of skeletons from the Viking era - from the eighth to the 12th century - enabled archaeologists to determine by chance that the two were related.
"This is a big discovery because now you can trace movements across space and time through a family," museum archeologist Jeanette Varberg told AFP.
Two of her colleagues spent more than two hours today piecing together the skeleton of the man in his 20s, from the remains freshly arrived from Oxford.
The 150 bones have been lent to the Danish museum by the Oxfordshire Museum in Britain for three years.
The historical consensus is that Danish Vikings invaded Scotland and England from the late eighth century.
The younger of the two men "may have been cut down in a Viking raid, but there is also a theory that they (the skeletons in the mass grave) were victims of a royal decree by English King Ethelred the Second, who commanded in 1002 that all Danes in England should be killed," Ms Varberg said.
It is very rare to find skeletons that are related, though it is easier to determine the relationships for royals, according to Ms Varberg.
While the two were confirmed to be relatives, it is impossible to determine their exact link.
They may have been half-brothers, or a grandfather and grandson, or an uncle and nephew.
"It's very difficult to tell if they lived in the same age or they differ maybe by a generation, because you have no material in the grave that can give a precise dating. So you have a margin of 50 years plus or minus," Ms Varberg said.