Ask your average trainer/coach how many muscles there are in the body, or in trainer/coach parlance how many muscle groups exist and they will give you the circulated 'correct' answer which is:
 - biceps, triceps, deltoids, lats & other back muscles, abs, quadriceps, hamstrings, glutes and calves
In total, they will typically identify 9 muscle groups or approximately 40 individual muscles if you account for both sides of the body and the fact that muscle groups are comprised of distinct muscles (e.g. quad = 4, hence quadriceps means that 4 individual muscles make up the muscle group).
Ask a bodybuilder and the 'correct' answer is even simpler: when working out at the gym since there is only… arms day, chest day, back day, and once in awhile leg day that must mean there are 4 muscle groups.
Ask your average masters swimmer, cyclist, runner or multisport athlete and they don't even think about muscles because they don't do strength training… all that matters to them are heart rate [HR] zones, power zones and/or pace times… muscles… who cares about muscles.
Ask Google how many muscles there are in the body and you will end up with a varied response but a response that starts at no less than 600 or so muscles, and depending on how discrete you want to be when counting muscles you may get an answer closer to 800 muscles. Point being… it ain't the 40 muscles or whatever the number the typical trainer/coach or bodybuilder gives.
Wait a minute… 600+ muscles? Where? What do they do? Did evolution have nothing to do for a millennia and spent its time screwing around creating random muscles or are all these muscles actually important? Evolution wastes notime and nothing; evolution especially does not waste energy so screwing around, randomly creating muscles is simply stupid talking. Seriously… think about it… do you really think you have hundreds of muscles in your body that are ornamental?
Yet this is exactly what the typical trainer/coach believes and the fact that strength training for most trainers & coaches hasn't changed in 40 years only proves the point. Most trainers and coaches still rely on the same old circuit of machines that came at the start of the fitness craze in the '80s (to clarify… that's the 1980s that I am referring to). Ask a trainer or coach today for 'core' work and they will give you ab exercises circa 1990, or if they are tech savvy they will show you the latest 'core' work they found on Youtube (typically performed by a former gymnast who makes single arm push ups look like a sissy warm up rendering the video pointless to anyone who isn't a gymnast or doesn't have plans on becoming a gymnast).
If sport is the demonstration of physiological and psychological mastery of the body, shouldn't that mean that the starting point for trainers & coaches should be knowing all muscles, what role they play in the function of the body and how they contribute to peak performance? Seems reasonable. But leave it to the unand under-educated who are too eager to actually get an education & experience, because all that matters is short cutting their way to being able to 'coach' asap… so let's swipe all that stuff away as if its irrelevant. Indeed…its all irrelevant until you strain or sprain a ligament, a tendon, a muscle, or are in such chronic pain during or after training or racing that the simple thought of sport makes you sick, or like in unfortunate cases… you end up as the athlete in a local 10k, 1/2 marathon or triathlon suffering a heart attack because your coach encouraged you to "go for it", "give 100%", and of course… because its either "PR or ER" (and sometimes the ER – i.e. emergency room – does in fact happen).
In the end, when you work with those who have taken short cuts to get where they have gotten, all that they can do is offer you short cuts to where you hope to get. Problem is there are no short cuts… anywhere. The long way is the right way, hence it is the shortest way to your goals, to your peak potential and consistent peak performances in sport, and in life.
Stephen Hawking
Today, we are overwhelmed by trainers & coaches who call themselves experts… all deluded to the nth degree by their illusion of knowledge. Trainers, coaches and DIY athletes who have taken a weekend course, who have completed an 'epic' event over the past weekend, or whatever they deem qualifies them as 'knowledgeable' enough to spew advice on how to train for any event. The stupidity that reigns in sport is beyond belief.
Meanwhile, for those that take the time to become educated and experienced… in 1st year of the Rehabilitation Medicine degree – which is the prerequisite for the Physiotherapy National Exam (PNE) and becoming a registered physio – a full cadaver dissection is required to truly learn not only the muscles of the body, but how those muscles actually exist in the body, under the skin, in and around all the other tissues. A full course is required to truly understand how muscles connect to tendons, to other muscles and finally to bones making the entire musculoskeletal system functional. Thats not the end of it though, in addition to studying the muscles, all the nerves, the arteries and veins supplying each muscle and how all those tissues travel through the arms and legs to reach their destination is part of the curriculum. It still doesn't end there… then there is all the connective tissue including the structure and layout of the bones and the joints they form. In courses that follow, physiotherapists have to learn how to test muscles, nerves and connective tissue discretely to isolate which one was and which ones aren't injured, and then how to restore normal function.
Physiotherapists use this education to rehab injured athletes, but the best of the best work with physiotherapists from the start. To avoid injury and the time off from training and racing, top athletes who are pursuing their potential know that the way to start is the right way… training the body to develop symmetrically to achieve peak efficiency in movement, to obtain mastery of movement, so that injuries and down time are avoided at all costs.
Meanwhile, trainers and coaches think that after a 2hr session on 'injury prevention & rehab' they actually know all that there is to know about injury prevention & rehab. After all, if you walk out from the session with a 'pre-hab' routine for your athletes you must be a bonafide expert, n'est pas?
This is what passes as acceptable education & experience for typical trainers & coaches, and worst… most think that this level of knowledge is all there is.
That is how dumb-ed down human anatomy has become.
This is how dumb-ed down strength training has become.
This is how dumb-ed down training for sport has become.
What level of performance do you want to experience? If you seek to experience your fullest potential, there are no short cuts, so stop working with short cut experts and take the time to find someone who has invested in becoming educated and experienced to the point that they truly can guide you to an Olympian experience.
Article at (click on the title to link):
The Outer Line: 'Did I Just Bonk?' – signals no cyclist should ignore
There are some signals which might suggest that you should take a more serious look at your health, rather than simply "soldiering on" in silence.
How is it that we have taken exercise to the point that pushing and pushing and pushing ourselves til we give ourselves heart issues has become near normal? How is it that athletes both young (as young as 15) and old are all suffering from a wide variety of heart health issues? Is it really a stretch of the imagination when you have spin class instructors & CrossFit instructors all constantly screaming "go hard"? Enlarged hearts, arrythmias, silent heart attacks or full blown heart attacks are written up consistently in the sports media, but then are written off as statistical outliers and swept aside as quickly as possible. Why? Because those who are pushing us to train in such a manner that we end up inflamed, in pain, injured, ill or worse, dealing with a self inflicted disease do not have anywhere near the education or the experience in order to be 'advising' anyone on anything dealing with their health. Trainers, coaches and the entire industry surrounding them have tried to distance themselves from health referring to themselves as the fitness industry and fitness experts…as if one thing hasn't got anything to do with the other. Exactly… this is what you get when the uneducated and the inexperienced short cut the system in order to profit themselves, saying screw you to everyone that they hurt in the process. But… my trainer/my coach is passionate about training, about sport, about me achieving my goals… great… if they are that passionate how about they start by getting themselves the education and the experience through apprenticeship needed in order to be useful.
Imagine this scenario…
Imagine needing surgery to solve a medical crisis; upon meeting your surgeon you learn that they only completed a couple weekend courses and have never actually completed medical school, nor observed or performed the surgery that you need and that they are supposed to perform on you. In their defense they exclaim that they are passionate about helping people and equally passionate about helping people be healthy… and besides, they really seem to a "nice" person. So, how excited are you to be under the care of this "surgeon"? Does passion and being a


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PEAT HYPERTHERMIA THERAPY (PHTD) THERAPY
Why you would use this therapy?
The answer to that is why would you not want to use this therapy?
PHDT is a passive therapy which means you don't do anything but relax while receiving it. It is carried out using a rare and amazing peat mud that has been formed over tens of thousands of years. The result is a substance infused with a rich collection of flora, minerals, trace elements and organic substances such as amino acids, volatile oils, waxes and resins, vitamins, enzymes and natural antibiotics. Amazingly, the mud just drops off when the treatment is completed in the bath, leaving your skin fantastically soft.
- Natural passive detoxification of deep tissue and fat cells
- Increased circulation promoting regeneration
- Reduced inflammation of the whole body
- Enhanced immune system
- Passive lymphatic stimulation
- Aids removal of chemicals and heavy metals.
- Decreases stress
- Relieves pain
- Soothes aching muscles
- Promotes hormone balance
- Enhances damaged tissue repair
- Safe and effective passive treatment
- Not tested on animals
Safe, natural and effective treatment
Peat Hyperthermia Detox Therapy is a highly beneficial treatment that can be used for a variety of conditions as it aids the elimination of highly damaging toxins and waste products from the body's cells and tissues, resulting in improvement of overall cell and organ function and an increased ability of the body to heal itself.
Supports the following symptoms:
- Back pain
- Benign Prostatic Hypertrophy
- Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
- Chronic Gout
- Gynaecological Disorders
- Metabolic Disorders
- Muscle Tension
- Acute Hypertension
- Open wounds
- Pre-existing high fever
The following, if not under medical supervision:
- Diabetes mellitus
- Respiratory insufficiency
- Neurological disorders
- Orthopaedic Disorders
- Post-operative rehabilitation
- Premenstrual syndrome
- Rheumatic Arthritis
- Skin care
- Stress relief
- Viral Infections
- Weight loss
Dr Zayd Ratansi
Dr Ratansi is a well known Canadian Naturopath who has truly large clinics in Vancouver and Palm Springs. His research into this amazing therapy is thoroughly comprehensive and he has for the last ten years been achieving remarkable results at his clinics using the Peat Hyperthermia Detox Therapy and Oxygen combined with nutrients.
What to Expect when having PHDT at the Natural Wellbeing Detox Clinic:
- Elanra Air Optimisation will be in process in the clinic from when you arrive.
- You will be required to fill out a questionnaire unless you are already receiving treatment at the clinic.
- You will be given a Green Smoothie to drink.
- Followed by a natural supplement called Cellogie. This special supplement is processed in a manner that mimics snowflakes. Under the correct humidity and pressure the crystals come together and attach and integrate themselves into one central sphere. This method means that Cellogie requires no insipients or capsule coating to hold it together. Like snowflakes it just dissolves in the mouth allowing fast assimilation and absorption. There are two parts: the grey ball is designed to increase cellular protection and assist the detoxification, the brown ball to increase the intake of natural micronutrients such as vitamins and trace minerals and aid circulation. It is 100% natural.
- You receive an Electrolyte drink to replace any minerals you may lose during the treatment.
- Your temperature and pulse will be monitored before, during and after treatment.
- You will prepare for and enter the mud bath which you will be in for between 8-12 minutes until your appropriate body temperature is achieved.
- You will then transfer to a couch where you will be swathed in layers of bedding.
- Water will available during your treatment.
- The Avalon LED face mask will be placed over your eyes, but not touching, to enhance the treatment and remains on for 20 minutes.
- You will be left to perspire after this for a period suitable to your treatment.
- You dry yourself but do not shower and you should remain away from draughts for this period. In winter please bring adequate warm clothing for use when leaving the clinic.
- You will be given a further Green Smoothie to drink before leaving. These are made using an Infinity Blender.
- Should you require information on this or any other health-promoting equipment used during your therapy please ask your practioner.
- You should shower between one hour and three hours after treatment to remove any residual toxins remaining on your body.
Heat Hyperthermia Therapists
Both therapists trained with Dr Zayd Ratansi and received his Peat Hyperthermia Detox Therapy Diploma.
- Ann Knott ND
- Brian James
If you have a preference for a female or male therapist this can be accommodated at your request.

source: openbmb/Ultra-FineWeb


How to Create a RAM Drive in Linux
Shutterstock/ Suncheli Project
In case you are wondering, RAM Drives and tmpfs instances are not the same. This article will explain the difference and show you how to create a RAM drive in Linux using the command line. Setup a fast RAM drive in minutes!
What Is a RAM Drive?
The RAM chips in your computer can be used to hold a virtual drive. This drive is then not stored on the hard disk but in RAM. Not only will the speed of this virtual disk be significantly faster the a normal disk (and especially when compared with an older type spinning disk, as the physical movement of parts inside a spinning disk cause additional delays), RAM chips do not wear as fast as disks, and again especially and all the more so with older type physical drives.
Sounds too good to be true? Well, there is indeed a caveat; if you accidentally reboot your computer, or if it crashes, your data is all gone. RAM (Random Access Memory), the memory chips in your computer, require constant power in order to retain their information. RAM storage is considered volatile.
In other words, RAM drives lend themselves to temporary applications or to specific optimizations. For example, when we use testing servers to test software, we set up a RAM drive to let the many concurrent tests go quicker. And, even if the server were to lose power, not much would be lost; we would simply start another test run.
Another application is pre-loading often accessed data into a RAM drive. For example, if you have a server that constantly accesses a given read-only database (read-write may be more complex if the data needs to be kept), which normally resides on disk, then you could copy the read-only database to RAM automatically (with some automated scripting on sever startup for example, or with a cron job), and then let the database server use that data.
In other words, one can summarize two primary use cases, one being caching (like our R/O database example), the other being "invaluable" data storage (like our testing example). You can then take one step further (a third use case if you will) and sync data back to disk at given intervals. For example, with the testing example, which also includes writes to the RAM storage, one could write the summary and/or test data back to disk (permanent storage) at the end of every test completion.
Another caveat with RAM drives is that they are limited to the size of memory in your system and likely less than that as you need other memory to run the operating system and other software.
Sizing a RAM drive to more than – let's say an arbitrary 80-85% of system memory – may be asking for problems. Of course, if you have 256GB of RAM in your server, then even 90% allotted for a RAM drive would still leave more than 25GB for the operating system and applications. With only 4GB, a 90% allotment to RAM would leave 0.4GB (400MB), which is quite likely going to cause issues. It thus depends, to some extent, what the total memory of the machine is and how much will be needed for other software.
A RAM drive furthermore does not work the same as tmpfs allocation/instance.
RAM Drive vs tmpfs instance
A tmpfs can also be but does not have to be, stored in your computer's RAM chips. The common /dev/shm tmpfs mapping automatically set up with the installation of most if not all Linux operating systems is handy but does not function the same as a RAM drive.
The difference between the two is that a RAM drive (the term rigid comes to mind) is 100% store in actual RAM chips, whereas tmpfs is stored into the Linux Kernel memory pool, which may include things like swap space, which is regularly located on disk. Whilst the kernel would likely optimize all access to the pool, it still gives the possibility of data being written either to physical RAM or physical DISK. And, if it goes to disk, it will be slower.
Creating a RAM Drive
Creating a RAM drive is relatively straightforward. You can create a little script called, with the following code:
if [ "$(mount | grep -o "/mnt/ram")"!= "/mnt/ram" ]; then
 sudo mkdir -p /mnt/ram
 sudo mount -t ramfs -o size=1g ramfs /mnt/ram
 sudo chown -R $(whoami):$(whoami) /mnt/ram
mount | grep ram
And another script, with the following code:
sudo umount /mnt/ram
Let's have a look at the first script. First, we indicate we want to Bash as our command interpreter with the Shebang symbol (#!). If you would like to learn more about Shebang, have a look at Bash Automation & Scripting Basics, our 3 part article on Bash automation and scripting.
After this, we check if we already have a mount under /mnt/ram (the directory we will be using to mount our ram drive in), by using a grep-only (grep -o) of /mnt/ram in the full 'currently mounted' list, as displayed by mount. If the same is not found, then we proceed with three sudo commands. All three require sudo, though for various reasons.
The first command requires sudo as it makes a directory possibly of root and at least in /mnt, which are privileged/protected directories. The next command, our actual RAM disk mount, and creation, requires sudo as mounting is a privileged operation. We set the size to 1GB by using size=1g. We also indicate we want a ramfs type drive (-t ramfs) coming from the ramfs device (as indicated by the second ramfs), and we finally list the mount point as /mnt/ram.
In the third sudo-enabled command, we change the owner of the /mnt/ram directory (now our RAM drive, our ramfs mount point) to the current user and the current user's own group by using the whoami command twice. You may like to change this to the specific and/or the specific group that will be using the ramdrive or to a wider group if more users will be using the ramdrive.
After this, we finalize our conditional if.. fi command and do a final call to mount with a grep for ram to make sure the script reports back as to what was already mounted in terms of RAM, or what was mounted just now as the script executed. This is a handy/quick verification that the script was successful when executed.
Our secondary script,, unmounts the RAM-based drive with mount point /mnt/ram, i.e. the ramfs drive we just created. WARNING: executing this immediately drop/deletes all data stored in volatile memory and remounting the RAMFS drive will not bring this back; it will simply create a brand new but empty RAM drive. Please be forewarned!
Wrapping up
In this article, we discussed RAM/ramfs (the same thing) drives and tmpfs instances/allocations. We then created a 1GB ramfs drive under /mnt/ram using a small script to mount or RAM drive.
If you like to continue reading on Linux, have a look at our Screen Recording in Linux with SimpleScreenRecorder or Bits, Bytes and Binary or From 0 to F: Hexadecimal articles!
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For generations, the second born child of the Lion King has always been the leader of the Lion Guard; a team of animals whose duty is to protect the Pride Lands and the Circle of Life. Another reason why the second-born child of the Lion King is the leader of the Lion Guard is because they possess the Roar of the Elders; an intensely powerful roar that is bestowed on them by the Great Lions of the Past.
The first lion to be bestowed the power of the Roar was Askari, the second born son of one of the previous Lion Kings.
Generations later, Askari's descendant, Scar was leader of the Lion Guard and was blessed with the power of the Roar, however, after Scar after got bitten by a cobra, the venom in his body started to corrupt him, making him more prone to anger and irrational impulses as he let the power go to his head to the point where he believed he was worthier of being king than his older brother, Mufasa. He tried to get his Lion Guard to help him overthrow Mufasa and take the throne. When the rest of the Lion Guard refused, Scar destroyed them using the Roar. However, because he used the Roar for evil, Scar lost it and the abilities it gave him forever, resulting in him becoming weakened and even more determined to kill Mufasa and become king himself.
When Mufasa became king, he only had one child named Simba. Because of this, many Pride Landers believed that the Roar and the Lion Guard were gone forever. However, after overthrowing his uncle and becoming king, Simba had two children: Kiara and Kion. Being the second-born, Kion inherited the Roar and assembled the new Lion Guard, but vowed not to use it for evil as his great-uncle did.
During his final battle against the ghost of Scar, Kion is bitten and poisoned by Ushari. The venom inside Kion caused him to constantly lose control of the Roar, leading the Lion Guard to go on a journey to the Tree of Life. Once healed, Kion realized the Roar doesn't determine his identity and is willing to let it go. This willingness made Kion qualified to learn how to master the Roar completely. Under Askari's spirit's guidance, Kion trained his Roar and it became far more powerful than before, allowing him to swiftly defeat Makucha's army and help him and his friends in taking a shorter route to the Pride Lands.
When Kion and his friends are back to the Pride Lands, conflict arise between them and Vitani and her team over who should be the Lion Guard. The two teams decided to settle it through a competition. However, in the final round between Kion and Vitani, Kion decides to relinquish his role to Vitani after she proved herself worthy by bravely challenging him without needing the Roar. Kion bestowed Vitani with the Roar, allowing her to use it. Askari then appeared and stated that Kion had truly mastered the Roar. Kion demonstrated his mastery of the Roar by using it to lift Pride Rock. He then decided to use the Roar to protect the Tree of Life together with his friends, becoming its protector and King, and finally returning the Roar to its true home and proper place in the Circle of Life.
List of Known Powers and Abilities
- Sonic Roar: When the leader of the Lion Guard uses the Roar of the Elders, deceased lions roar along with him/her, instilling real power in their Roar. With this roar, he/she has flattened plains, held floods back and torn down rock-slides. The Roar is so powerful that it can actually kill the user's opponents if they willed it, such as when Scar used it to destroy his own Lion Guard when they refused to help him overthrow Mufasa.
- Mark of the Guard: Whoever the leader of the Lion Guard chooses to become part of his/her team, he/she marks them with a roaring lion head, symbolizing their positions as members of the Lion Guard, when the leader of the Lion Guard inherits the Roar of the Elders; a lion head automatically appears on his/her left shoulder. The leader can also bestow their own tittle as the Fiercest and the Roar of the Elders to another lion to be their successor, this also cause all the other marks on the Predecessor's Lion Guard to disappear and normally cause the original leader to loose the Roar. However since Kion mastered the Roar he was able to keep it.
- Precision: In "Never Roar Again", it is revealed that the Roar can be used to hit precise targets. For example, when Makuu and his float took Nala hostage, she encouraged Kion to use the Roar. When he did, instead of using the Roar on everything, he controlled it to only take out the crocodiles holding Nala before turning on Makuu and the rest of the float.
- Soul/Spiritual Summoning: The Roar can also be used to summon the lion spirits of the past like Mufasa. However, when used out of anger, the Roar is capable of summoning the evil lion spirits from their afterlife, though the effect won't work unless a bakora staff is engulfed in a fire and roared upon by the user. In "The Rise of Scar", Kion was tricked into summoning Scar over a volcano when he uses the Roar raging against Janja threatening of his family. After evil spirits are summoned, they are capable of acting on their own accord, not needing to be called on by the user.
- Atmokinesis: The Roar is also capable of manipulating the weather to the user's wishes.
- Hyetokinesiss: In "Lions of the Outlands", when Zira told Kion to use his roar on a cloud, it produced a rain cloud over Jasiri's watering hole. He uses this same feature again "Swept Away", "Battle for the Pride Lands", and "Journey to the Pride Lands". However, these rains only last for a short while. While the Roar can produce rain when the user roars at clouds, the rains are very brief, but can be powerful enough to create floods.
- Aerokinesis: In "Triumph of the Roar", it is revealed that the Roar can create a whirlwind attacks like producing tiny twisters to pick up objects.to lift objects from the ground. Kion used this ability to help carry Beshte and Bunga in order to defeat Makucha's army's biggest assault. In the next episode, he uses it to transport Bunga, Beshte, Jasiri, Janja, and himself across a dried ravine.
- Electrogenesis: In "Triumph of the Roar", Kion uses the Roar to summon a bolt of lightning to free Makini and the Night Pride from inside the Tree of Life after Beshte failed to push a large boulder aside himself. Near the end of "Journey to the Pride Lands", lightning creates a hole in a huge stone dam not far from the Pride Lands.
- Geokinesis: In addition to causing earthquakes, the Roar can create pillars and rifts in the earth. Kion was also able to lift Pride Rock with no difficulty. If blasted on a volcano, it will cause an eruption that will cause mass destruction in the process.
- Evil Deeds: If the leader of the Lion Guard ever uses the Roar of the Elders for evil, he/she will lose this power permanently.
- Rage: If the leader of the Lion Guard ever uses the Roar of the Elders in anger, he/she will temporarily lose control of the Roar and he/she could unintentionally hurt or even kill someone, as well as accidentally summon evil lion spirits.
- Accidental Natural Disasters: If the Roar is used in anger or not it can cause natural disasters by accident, like volcanic eruptions or earthquakes. In "The Accidental Avalanche", Kion accidentally started an avalanche while using the Roar on a mountain.
- Duration: The Roar of the Elders can't last long when used prolong, which could exhaust the user as seen in "Journey to the Pride Lands" when Kion tried to hold water in place for how long using the Roar.
- The first mention of this ability was in the book Hear Me Roar!.
- According to the Disney Life app, the Roar can be heard up to five miles away. (That is the same distance as a regular roar by a fully grown lion.)
- When Kion uses the Roar, he always tells everyone to get behind him as to avoid hurting them.
- "David Oyelowo to Voice 'Scar in Disney Jr's Animated Series THE LION GUARD". BroadWayWorld.com (June 23, 2017).


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You heard right. It seems that unusual species names aren't limited to scientists' favorite rock stars or Star Wars figures—now Internet search engines are in the game. Entomologist Brian Fisher named a new species of ant, Proceratium google, in honor of the mapping program Google Earth. Fisher, who chairs the entomology department at the California Academy of
Sciences, was impressed with the support he got from the Google Earth team when he was integrating the online warehouse of ant data, AntWeb, with the search functions of Google Earth. Now scientists can plot ant habitats in three dimensions or search for ant species by location. For the record, P. google lives in Madagascar and feasts exclusively on spider eggs. Get more ant facts at antweb.org.
Five amazing, clean technologies that will set us free, in this month's energy-focused issue. Also: how to build a better bomb detector, the robotic toys that are raising your children, a human catapult, the world's smallest arcade, and much more.

source: HuggingFaceFW/fineweb-edu


text:
- Project plans
- Project activities
- Legislation and standards
- Industry context
Last edited 27 Mar 2017
Building performance metrics
The mere act of assessing the operation of things tends to lead to improvements in performance. This is a useful by-product of any intervention. When it comes to building performance, assessments need to combine the physical and the behavioural, for example energy consumption and occupant satisfaction. The combination is vital. The I3CON research project seeks to go beyond the performance of individual factors and look at the total delivered value of the building to the customer.
Performance metrics for the operation and maintenance of buildings have not been agreed by either the construction industry or its clients. People tend to select those that are most appropriate for their situation.
So what does an organisation need to know to allow it to make informed property decisions? There are many metrics that need to be available about a facility before strategic property decisions can be made, such as life-cycle costs, functionality and lease agreements.
 Choosing the right metrics
There is always a need in building operation and maintenance to provide a clear and compelling case for resources. Interventions must also be able to benefit an organisation's corporate objectives. For example, organisations need to be convinced that proactive maintenance is in its best interest, and that the measurements (the metrics) verify that maintenance makes sense from a business perspective.
In March 2009, BSRIA held a focus group meeting to develop a set of metrics in consultation with industry stakeholders. The focus group considered the inter-relationship between measuring the performance of a building as an asset and measuring the value or effect of that measured attribute on the organisation. The aim was to identify the important metrics, as well as to gain an initial understanding of how building performance measurements varied according to the use of a building.
Inevitably, the user group's range of perspectives made it difficult to draw firm conclusions from one meeting. However, the results were developed into an initial set of operating and management metrics. These were then tested by other industry representatives through a second workshop and a telephone survey.
The resulting metrics were grouped into seven key indicators:
- Building running costs.
- Reliability of the building and resilience to failure.
- Flexibility of the internal space.
- Building and systems complexity.
- Productivity of occupants.
- Contribution to corporate image.
- Environmental impact.
A telephone survey was undertaken to test these metrics on a larger sample of 28 building operators. Respondents were categorised into types of properties that they operated. The majority of operators (63 per cent) were running office buildings; 18 per cent were running manufacturing plants, and 7 per cent were running University properties.
When the respondents were asked which metrics they already use, the results were slightly different from those they thought important. There is a tendency to record the metrics that are easy to assess. Metrics that are difficult to assess, such as productivity, are rarely used.
Figure 1: The use of building performance metrics reported by the BSRIA survey. The results from the three building sectors have been aggregated to show the ranking of the metrics (hence the accumulated percentage axis). Each metric is, of itself, a percentage score of the ratio between use and importance.
BSRIA took the ratings for importance and frequency of use to generate a ratio of importance to use for each metric. This highlighted metrics that are not currently used but regarded as valuable in the future.
Of course, facilities managers do not all occupy similar premises or have the same needs. Hence the individual results for manufacturing, universities and offices are separated out in Figure1. This reveals that the three environmental measures are used by all of the universities, but to a lesser degree by manufacturing firms. Less than 40 per cent of respondents in offices were using environmental metrics.
The least used measures which are not important to the universities and only of small importance to the offices and manufacturing groups are business impact from disruption, lifecycle costs, flexibility of support systems, remaining liability costs and occupant productivity.
The metric of total facilities management (FM) costs is used by a good percentage of the respondents in each group, although some universities and manufacturing respondents did not regarded the metric as an appropriate measure for their facilities.
While the survey results were interesting, the number of responses was too small for detailed analysis. The results are nonetheless a good indication that different performance metrics are needed for different types of building.
- Headline indicator
- Suggested metrics
- Building running costs
- Total facilities management cost per m2, workstation, or employee
- Building cost/business revenue ratio
- Lifecycle cost per m2, expressed as equivalent annual cost
- Remaining liability (£)
- Reliability of the building and resilience to failure
- Availability against plan
- Planned/reactive ratios
- The effect of disruption on a business
- Ease of maintenance for a range of typical maintenance activities
- Time to reinstate
- Flexibility of the internal space
- Time and cost to move a single member of staff/office/room, and reconfigure a group of desks
- Utilisation of space
- Flexibility of support systems
- Complexity of the building and its systems
- FM perception
- User perception
- Productivity of occupants
- Sick days/full-time equivalent
- Contribution to personal productivity
- Contribution to corporate image
- Design Quality Indicator (DQI) assessment – particularly the functionality and impact measures
- Desirability of location
- Environmental impact
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Aug. 5, 2009 Divers who held their breath for several minutes had elevated levels of a protein that can signal brain damage, according to a new study from the Journal of Applied Physiology. However, the appearance of the protein, S100B, was transient and leaves open the question of whether lengthy apnea (breath-holding) can damage the brain over the long term.
"The results indicate that prolonged, voluntary apnea affects the integrity of the central nervous system, and may have cumulative effects," the Swedish researchers said. The release of S100B into the blood suggests that holding one's breath for a long time disrupts the blood-brain barrier, they said.
The concern is that repetitive exposures to severe hypoxia (lowered oxygen supply), such as that experienced by individuals training and competing in static apnea diving events, could cause neurological damage over time. The researchers recommended further research on free divers that would begin early in their careers and follow them for years to monitor their neurological function.
The study is "Increased serum levels of the brain damage marker S100B after apnea in trained breath-hold divers: a study including respiratory and cardiovascular observations." The researchers are Johan P.A. Andersson, Mats H. Linér and Henrik Jönsson, of Lund University in Sweden. The American Physiological Society published the study.
Free diving is a tradition
There is a tradition of breath-hold diving in Japan and some other parts of the world that goes back hundreds of years, although the occupation has been dying out. These divers harvest seaweed, shellfish and other growth from the sea bottom, diving dozens of times per day. Some divers routinely dive to depths of 90 feet on a single breath while others dive in the 15-30 foot range.
More recently, breath-hold diving has become a competitive sport. Competitive events include how long divers can remain underwater, how far they can swim underwater and how deep they can dive. Participants must undergo intense training to increase their lung capacity while learning crucial safety measures.
Breath-hold diving often leads to hypoxia, elevated blood pressure, slowed heartbeat and other physiological changes. However, whether the sport causes any long-term damage to the brain has remained a point of contention. Studies have produced conflicting results.
The authors of this study see cause for concern, noting that in six international competitions between 1998 and 2004, 10% of the contestants in the static apnea events were disqualified after they lost either motor control or consciousness. In this event, participants float face down on the water for as long as possible without coming up for air. The world record for the event is 11 minutes 35 seconds. Divers at international competitions routinely hold their breath 4-7 minutes.
"Whether such hypoxic episodes are associated with a risk for brain damage in these athletes remains to be established," the researchers said. "Studying the changes in established biochemical markers of brain damage after such performances offers the possibility to address this question."
Breath hold experiment
Nine competitive breath-hold divers (eight men and one woman) took part in this study, along with six individuals who had limited experience with breath-hold diving. The nine competitive divers formed the experimental group, while the non-divers acted as the controls
The researchers told the participants to lie on their backs on a cot and hold their breath for as long as possible. The conditions were dry, but mimicked a static apnea dive in which the divers float face down holding their breath. The divers used whatever preparatory techniques they customarily use in competition, such as hyperventilating, insufflation (filling the lungs with as much air as possible) and breath-holding warm-ups.
The researchers took arterial blood samples from a catheter inserted into the artery that runs through the wrist. They took samples before the breath hold, at the end of the breath hold and at fixed intervals for the two hours following the end of the breath hold. The researchers also measured arterial blood gases. They did the same measurements on the individuals in the control group, but the controls rested on their backs for the entire experiment, without performing the breath hold or the warm-ups.
Among the findings of this experiment:
- The average breath-hold time was 5 minutes 35 seconds. The longest was 6 minutes 43 seconds and the shortest was 4 minutes 41 seconds.
- The marker for brain damage, S100B, rose in seven of the nine divers.
- The controls showed no change in S100B
- On average, S100B rose 37% within 10 minutes after the apnea ended.
- S100B levels returned to normal within two hours for all the participants.
- The divers showed signs of asphyxia, that is, blood oxygen levels fell, while carbon dioxide levels rose.
The S100B levels, while elevated, were well below levels associated with brain injury. In brain-injured patients, the presence of S100B in the blood can increase by several hundred percent.
In addition, the elevation of S100B was more transient in the divers, compared to people who suffered brain injury. The divers had a quick return to normal, while S100B levels peak in 24 hours in brain-injured patients.
The transient nature of the increase in S100B among the divers probably indicates the blood-brain barrier has been compromised, allowing the protein to escape from the fluid in the brain into the circulation. The blood-brain barrier controls what passes between the brain and the circulation. S100B would normally remain in the brain.
Other sports have also been associated with a similar transient increase in S100B, the researchers noted, including boxing, headings in soccer, running and long-distance swimming. One study also reported that individuals suffering sleep apnea had elevated levels of S100B in the morning, although another study indicated there had been no change in S100B overnight.
Other social bookmarking and sharing tools:
- Johan P. A. Andersson, Mats H. Liner, and Henrik Jonsson. Increased serum levels of the brain damage marker S100B after apnea in trained breath-hold divers: a study including respiratory and cardiovascular observations. J Appl Physiol, Jul 2009 DOI: 10.1152/japplphysiol.91434.2008
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.


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WHAT IS THE VCW?
VCW-Value Creation Wheel is a real-life problem-solving framework, which helps individuals and the key decision makers of organizations, governments, and societies to find customized and consensual solutions for their problems and challenges.
The VCW-Value Creation Wheel helps to identify and solve problems by providing a step-by-step dynamic process for creating value for society and all the stakeholders involved in the value chain (e.g., customers, employees, suppliers, distributors, investors, and shareholders).
The DIANA theoretical framework provides a holistic approach to problem-solving, which supports scientific, technological, managerial, and societal advancements trough a wide range of scientific methodologies and managerial approaches.
The TIAGO practical tool appears as a chameleon framework, completely customized to each specific case and problem, being supported by DIANA's accumulated knowledge over two decades.
WHERE HAS THE VCW BEEN APPLIED?
For more than two decades, the VCW has been applied as a problem-solving tool in companies across different sectors (from start-ups to Fortune 500 companies), public policy projects (from rebranding of cities to creation of innovation cities), individual challenges (e.g. from finding a job to the best place to live), and over 20 schools across different countries specialized in different fields (e.g., business, medical, biotech, engineering and technology, law, and science schools). The VCW is used in over 20 countries for teaching, research, coaching, and consultancy purposes. The VCW and its components received coverage from leading international media (e.g., Time, Wall Street Journal) and scientific publications (e.g., Harvard Business Publishing, Journal of Business Research, JIBS, Springer), and are taught in leading universities across the globe (e.g., Babson College, City University of Hong Kong, Korea University, MIT, Nova University of Lisbon, Vienna University).
WHY THE VCW?
Since no solution is perfect by itself, the VCW has been developed as a meta-framework, capable of integrating and complementing any existing framework, model, tool and/or theory across any field as well as allowing co-creation and partnering with any organization and individual. The VCW has been growing following values of co-creation, collaboration, collective wisdom, cooperation, equal opportunities, open-network, partnership and sharing, supported by principles of innovation,problem-solving, and global value creation. These two decades of collaborative research and open-projects, led to the robustness of the VCW and its current stage of development. To continue on the same path, all non-paid VCW projects conducted within an academic context continue to follow the principles of open-innovation, non-confidentiality, and co-creation.
To learn more about the VCW and two decades of cooperation with companies, executives, scientists, and universities across the world please read Lages, Luis Filipe (2016), "VCW-Value Creation Wheel: Innovation, technology, business, and society", Journal of Business Research, 69(11), 4849-4855.
HOW TO MAKE YOUR TEAM MEETINGS MORE PRODUCTIVE? START WITH A VCWsprint
A VCWsprint should be developed before any team meeting as well as before any VCW project. The VCWsprint takes about 30 to 60 minutes, depending on the size of the team, their know-how about the VCW methodology, complexity of the problem/challenge to be solved, the context, and the number of VCWsprint steps necessary (can be from 1 to 10 steps).
The VCWsprint is composed by a maximun of 10 sequential steps described as follows:
- VCW Phase 1: by KDMs
- Context: Why do you have this problem? Definition of problem/challenge (2m-5m)
- VCW Phase 2: individual
- Brainwriting of ideas/solutions followed by internet search for ideas/solutions (8m-14m)
- Brainwriting of criteria/filters (4m-10m)
- VCW Phase 3: by KDMs with or without the team
- Select key ideas/solutions (2m-4m)
- Select key criteria/filters (2m-4m)
- Rank key filters (2m-4m)
- VCW Phase 4: by everybody
- Value Creation Funnel (5m-10m)
- Concept/protoype (2m-4m)
- VCW Phase 5: by KDMs
- 3Ms: Menpower, Minute, Money (2m-4m)
- Decision about future application of VCW Meta-Framework: Go or NoGo? (1m)
WHICH SERVICES ARE OFFERED BY THE VCW?
The VCW offers courses, training, masterclasses and workshops for universities, executives, companies, organizations, primary schools, trade associations, partnerships between different organizations, event organizers, and NGOs. These workshops are customized and developed by the VCW for team building activities and help organizations and individuals to solve their own problems/challenges.
Additionally, the VCW helps to create VCW Innovation Ecosystems inside those organizations which desire to develop a systematized innovation process (watch example). This VCW Innovation Ecosystem is built on three fundamental layers:
- The VCW Governance Model that establishes the main responsibilities and functions for the innovation management challenges.
- The VCW Framework, which has five phases: 1) Identification of the problem to be solved. 2) Generation of solutions and filters. 3) Selection of main ideas and ranking of the "must have" and "nice to have" filters. 4) The VCF-Value Creation Funnel, followed by the development of concepts and prototypes. 5) The final decision phase, in which the implementation model for the final solution(s) is developed.
- The Network of Partners / Stakeholders, fundamental to increase the potential of the VCW framework. Through co-creation with all the stakeholders involved in the value chain (e.g., customers, employees, suppliers, distributors, investors, and shareholders), it becomes possible to solve the different problems/challenges in a consensual manner.
To explore additional VCW Services visit _URL_.
HOW DIFFERENT IS THE VCW FROM EXISTING TOOLS & FRAMEWORKS?
The VCW creates value by offering unique solutions:
1) The VCW discovers customized, consensual and implementable solutions (Go/No-Go), which are co-created and supported by the key decision makers and a wide range of stakeholders:
- Finds consensus concerning the problem/challenge to address, filters/criteria and ideas/solutions,
- Finds the right bridge between a wide range of individuals:
- different key decision makers,
- diferent internal and external stakeholders,
- supporters and divergent thinkers (e.g. devil's advocate, skeptical people, laggards, late-adopters, children and/or elderly people),
2) The VCW simplifies and saves resources in the problem-solving process through:
- Involving since the begining of the process the key decision makers on critical steps:
- defining the problem/challenge, 3Ms, diagnosis & KPIs,
- analysing solutions and filters,
- Purifying, organizing, separating, selecting and prioritizing:
- Ideas/solutions: i.e. direct answers to the challenge/problem to be solved (phase typically often supported by creativity)
- Filters/criteria: i.e. choice criteria related to the selection of the ideas/solutions to solve the challenge/problem (phase typically supported by rationality).
- Conducting individual VCWsprints & combining multiple VCWsprints.
- Managing the 3Ms (Manpower, Minute, Money).
- Achieving efficiency and effectiveness (e.g., predicting future mistakes/failures, continuous improvement, optimizing resources, improving productivity)
3) The VCW solves complex challenges and a wide range of paradoxes.
- The VCW has been used to solve high complex challenges, such as:
- paradox of choice,
- limited or lack of choice,
- paradox market-pull versus tech-push,
- paradox global versus local.
The VCW has unique attributes:
1) The VCW is a meta-framework which is simultaneously structured and agile, rational and creative, and does not impose pre-established solutions or frameworks.
- Follows a structured-agile MAP approach (Maximize, Analyze, Prioritize),
- Does not impose or invalidate any idea/solution, filter/criteria or framework,
- The VCW can partner with any organization and/or individual,
- The VCW integrates and/or complements any existing solutions, established theories, tools or frameworks (e.g., organizational tools, 5Whys, situational analysis, RELQUAL, brainwriting, brainstorming, bank of ideas, design thinking, scorecards, BCG Matriz, McKinsey matrix, McRisk Assessment Matrix, SERPVAL, strategic triangle, SCAMPER, business model, business plan, financial plan, KPIs).
- Complements and integrates different parts of any business puzzle, such as:
- an idea/solution and an opportunity/need,
- a value proposition and a business model,
- the different parts ofa marketing plan.
- Allows VCWsprints and frequent re-runs to revisit past steps.
2) The VCW is a transversal problem-solving framework, which can be applied to a wide range of problems/challenges across individuals, organizations, industries and countries.
3) Every VCW project is supported by theory and practice across different fields. The VCW varies along three dimensions of width, lenght and height regarding:
- Theory: DIANADefine, Increase, Assess, Narrow, Act
- Practice: TIAGOTap, Induce, Analyse, Ground, Operate
The variation along these three dimensions


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The 1314 Windows PC Software Tool provides comprehensive and intuitive PC based programming, monitoring and system diagnostics for all Curtis programmable motor speed controllers and control systems.
The 1314 Windows PC Software Tool is intended for use by vehicle OEMs, dealers, and service engineers. It provides a powerful Windows interface for adjusting settings, troubleshooting, and recording the parameters of any Curtis speed controller or auxiliary device.
- View and adjust controller programmable parameters.
- Real-time monitoring of system variables such as voltage, temperature, and current.
- Saves all data – parameter values, monitor values, history logs etc., in a single file.
- Edit, rename, export or print files online or offline.
- Clone data between controllers.
- View active fault codes and system timers.
- View and clear controller fault history log.
- Online help and automatic update function (with active internet connection).
The minimum requirements for the PC Hardware are:
- Processor Pentium III 833MHz
- Windows® XP/Vista/7
- 512MB memory (1024 recommended)
- USB port


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- Abstract: We present Optimal Completion Distillation (OCD), a training procedure for optimizing sequence to sequence models based on edit distance. OCD is efficient, has no hyper-parameters of its own, and does not require pre-training or joint optimization with conditional log-likelihood. Given a partial sequence generated by the model, we first identify the set of optimal suffixes that minimize the total edit distance, using an efficient dynamic programming algorithm. Then, for each position of the generated sequence, we use a target distribution which puts equal probability on the first token of all the optimal suffixes. OCD achieves the state-of-the-art performance on end-to-end speech recognition, on both Wall Street Journal and Librispeech datasets, achieving $9.3\%$ WER and $4.5\%$ WER, respectively.
- Keywords: Sequence Learning, Edit Distance, Speech Recognition, Deep Reinforcement Learning
- TL;DR: Optimal Completion Distillation (OCD) is a training procedure for optimizing sequence to sequence models based on edit distance which achieves state-of-the-art on end-to-end Speech Recognition tasks.


Microsurge Electrical Pollution (Dirty Electricity)
IBE 221.2
MEP is a ubiquitous problem in modern civilization. It is present everywhere, both inside and outside the home. Major polluters are utility power, switch mode power supplies (electronics), AMI meters (due to conducted high-frequency pulsed radiation), fluorescent lights (including CFLs), variable speed motors (many "smart" appliances), inverters (especially solar and cell antennas), and ground current (especially rural areas). It is a highly erratic electric field.
Topics include a brief history of micro surge electrical pollution (MEP), four distinct points of view, and microsurge electrical pollution's etiology, health effects, measurement methods, mitigation.
This course conveys 15 Building Biology Continuing Education Units (CEUs).
Tuition: $115.00
Download a free preview of this course.


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Author tests directly in browser with FuncIt
Write, run, and debug tests in the browser.
Writing and debugging tests is super easy with FuncUnit. Just open a test page with your favorite browser and turn on the debugger.
Or, use FuncIT, the FuncUnit IDE, to record your actions and write test code for you!
Use familiar jQuery like syntax
Do you like short, terse, flexible tests? How about chaining?
FuncUnit's API is just like jQuery's. If you know jQuery, you already know FuncUnit's API.
Run in any browser or automate it with Selenium
FuncUnit supports all modern browsers. You can run your tests in IE 6+, FF 2+, Safari 4+, Opera 9+, Chrome, on PC, Mac, and Linux.
FuncUnit also allows your tests to be run with Selenium. That way You can have completely automated test suite.
- Functional Testing - Test complex behavior like drag-drop.
- High Fidelity - Create identical events that a mouse and keyboard create. Run tests in a real browser.
- Automated - Test multiple browsers from the command line.
- Easy to Write - Write, run, and debug tests in the browser, without configuring a server or other tool. Write tests in a familiar jQuery-style API.
- Free - It's open source! Save yourself $5,000 for similar solutions.
- Multi-system - Runs in IE 6+, FF 2+, Safari 4+, Opera 9+, Chrome, on PC, Mac, and Linux.
See an example
The following tests that an AutoSuggest returns 5 results.
See it in action! (Make sure you turn off your popup blocker!).
Read more in the documentation.


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Fishermen and scientists working together to improve information about discards in the Dutch flatfish fisheries. Collaboration between scientists and fishermen within self-sampling projects will improve fisheries catch data, include more fishers' knowledge and improve communication and understanding between the two sectors. This in turn will help fisheries managers fine-tune their policy.
Our Progress So Far
Self-sampling is a new form of research cooperation which has been developed between the Dutch fishing industry and IMARES since 2009. Self-sampling is used as a method of gathering catch data on fishing vessels, wherein:
- fishermen collect samples of their catch
- the samples are then processed by either fishermen or scientists
- the processed samples are analysed by scientists.
Because self-sampling is much cheaper than paying onboard observers, it results in many more samples, spread across a wider geographic range.
Our case study takes a closer look at three of these self-sampling programmes. The first is the self-sampling fleet providing data for the data collection regulation of the EU (approximately 21 fishing vessels); the self-sampling for monitoring the effects of the pulse-fishery (appr.20 fishing vessels) and the self-sampling in the TR gears (appr. 52 fishing vessels). The three programmes have a different set-up with different goals as well as with different methods of self-sampling.
To find out how we're progressing with our work, click on the links below.
|24 Months On: Update from the Dutch case study|
24 Months On: Marloes Kraan gives an update of the GAP2 case study in the Netherlands.
|18 Months on: Progress Update on Dutch Case Study|
Work continues on improving the selectivity of demersal fishing gear to catch less discards.
|One Year On: Progress Update on Dutch Case Study|
Progress update on Dutch case study investigating self-sampling and discards, one year into the GAP2 project.
Netherlands DenkTank to be consultative group for the Dutch discards case-study.
Over the next few months, we plan to
- Organise meetings between the scientists and fishermen involved in the self-sampling projects to discuss the results of the programmes, the method of self-sampling, the research cooperation, and the underlying knowledge of both scientists and fishermen on the topic of discards and stock assessments. We are planning for these meetings to be held in the second half of 2012 and first half of 2013.
- Write a self-samplings guidebook.
- Hold further interviews with scientists and fishers about the cooperation and the F-project and write an article on the basis of the intern's report.
- Start to make progress on addressing the discards research questions posed by the Discards Think Tank.
Case study coordinator
- A social scientist, Marloes is a researcher at the Institute for Marine Resources and Ecosystem Studies (IMARES).
- Marloes is interested in making fisheries research more trans-disciplinary, interactive governance in fisheries and making social science more useful to fisheries policy.
- To find out more, visit _URL_
- Email: _EMAIL_
Case Study Researcher
- Holding an MSc in Fisheries Biology, Josien's interests range from discard monitoring to exploring innovative ways of working with industry.
- Josien is a science Officer at the European Fisheries and Aquaculture Research Organisation and a project leader of cooperation projects at IMARES, Wageningen University.
- Project leader cooperation projects
- Email: _EMAIL_
Dr Paula den Hartog
Case Study Partner Organisation
- Head of Fisheries and Trade at the Dutch Fish Product Board
- Holding a PhD in in Behavioural Ecology, Paula is passionate about stakeholder involvement in fisheries management.
The optimal process of self-sampling in fisheries -lessons learned from the NetherlandsPresentation given by Marloes Kraan, Josien Steenbergen, Edwin van Helmond on 9th May 2012 at the World Fisheries Congress


stand by letter of credit (sloc)
Stand By Letter of Credit (SLOC): what to know about it
NewsJune 13, 2021
What is Stand By Letter of Credit
When we talk about Stand-by Letter of Credit (SLOC), we refer to a pledge of payment, born in the common law system (in particular, USA), but now generally used in all country.
SLOC is a particular type of documentary credit, a simpler one with all its characteristics, but used like a sort of contract of guarantee.
From the point of view of the Italian jurisdiction, SLOC belongs to the area of the atypical new guarantee, like, for example, the patronage letter.
Those tools are "atypical", because even if they share similarities with some Italian institutions, they still cannot be compared or identified with none of existing classic institution.
SLOC is usually used in international business, especially for international supply contracts, when the goods must be transported by air: goods and documents are sent together, and there is no need to keep the goods in storage waiting for the documents (that usually happens with documentary credit).
Stand By Letter: how it works
Usually, a documentary credit works this way: the bank (issuing bank), by request of the applicant, promises to make a payment to a subject (the recipient), when it receives the documents regarding the credit.
With the stand-by letter, instead, the documents are presented only if the principal has not fulfilled his duty. So, among the documents necessary there always are the statement of non-fulfillment of the applicant, the invoice, and the document of transport.
In the first case, the documentary credit is used like a payment; in the second, the SLOCs it is a guarantee.
Taking as example the supplying contract, the scheme is the following: the exporter sends the goods and documents, sure that he will we paid one way or another, by the importer o by the bank if the importer does not pay. Then, if that happens, the exporter asks to the issuing bank to pay him, using the letter of credit.
There are some limitations of responsibility for the issuing bank, concerning the authenticity of the documents, and the verification of the identity of who is demanding the payment.
Types of Stand By Letter
There are some different types of SLOCs. All SLOCs, as seen, implicate the permanent obligation of the issuing bank to pay on demand of the recipient in case that the applicant cannot.
That scheme is the one of the performance standby, but is also the structure of the advance payment standby and of the bid bond standby.
The first one guarantee the payment of a down payment, while the second is used to guarantee the execution of a contract after the approval of the bid.
The duty of payment is binding from the date of issue; the only conditions are the submission of the documents and the statement by the recipient that he has not been paid.
Legislation about Stand By Letter
Even though SLOCs are very common and utilized all around the world, they have not a very standard regulation.
SLOCs are regulated by International Standby Practice (ISP) 98 of ICC, but those regulations are not very common, because ICC rules about documentary credit are more likable to be used, even in case of SLOC.
This happens, mostly in the civil law system, because, as said before, those instruments don't fit the canonic institution, and civil law country (as Italy) prefer to trat them the same way they use for the most similar yet existing instrument.
There is also a UNCITRAL (United Nations Commission on International Trade Law) convention of 2000 about SLOC which is anyway not effective in none of G20 members (Italy neither).
Even in the USA, were SLOCs are born, the regulation in this subject only talks about "letters of credit", without mentioning the "standby" characteristic (this may depend by the fact that SLOCs were born to bypass the USA prohibition for the banks to give accessories guarantee).
So, until all the countries will agree on the regulation to apply to the SLOCs, the principal international regulation stays in the practices.
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Farmers See Abnormal Ear Development This Season
If you saw abnormal corn ear development in your fields this year, you weren't alone. We've received a number of reports and questions from farmers across the Midwest who saw various corn ear abnormalities – including curved, bent and twisted ears.
Bent ears develop when variations in kernel set occur on one side of the corn ear versus the other. Various nutrient deficiencies and drought typically contribute to the problem.
Under nitrogen stress or drought we can see kernel abortion down one side of the ear and not the other side, causing the ear to bend when the kernels on the good side continue to grow and develop. The thing I look for is kernel abortion on the tip or coming down one side of the ear.
If the tip of the corn ear is curved and only partially filled up, the issue may be a boron deficiency. Twisted corn ears or irregular kernel rows can indicate insufficient phosphorus. Pull an ear leaf tissue test and a soil sample to rule out a boron or phosphorus deficiency.
For more information on abnormal corn ear development and the factors that contribute to it, check out the excellent information and poster of examples provided by the Ohio State University at the following link.
This blog is provided as an interactive way for you to have your questions answered by our Farm Journal Agronomists. E-mail your nitrogen, soil fertility, soil density, planter set up, scouting, and other questions to _EMAIL_.


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Walruses in Greenland
The walrus with its large body and highly distinctive tusks is easily recognisable. Its tusks can grow up to 50 centimetres (20 inches) in length and are used by the walrus as a useful tool, for example when hauling itself up onto an ice floe. The tusks are also used in self-defence when killer whales or polar bears attack the walrus, which can be up to 3 metres (10 feet) in length and weigh 1000 kg (2,200 lbs).
Where to find walruses
Walruses are seen on land and along the coast throughout East Greenland, in particular between 63° and 81° N. In North Greenland the Davis Strait, Baffin Bay and the Thule district are the best places to see walruses. In West Greenland - where the walrus does not venture onto land - they can be seen from Sisimiut and north towards the Thule district. Considering that Greenland's coastline is more than 44,000 km (27,500 miles) in length, walruses are relatively few in number.
Forage for food
Walruses generally stay close to the edge of the sea ice or on drifting ice floes where the depth of the sea is less than 100 metres (330 feet). Here it can dive to pick up mussels and molluscs, which make up its chief sources of nutrition, and it is thought that it uses its tusks to scrape the seabed looking for food.
Hunting for walruses
For the Inuits the walrus has always been an important animal to hunt, and one which was also particularly dangerous to meet in a kayak. Its beautiful tusks have afforded it respect in Greenlandic myths and legends, but also almost cost it its existence due to intensive hunting by foreign companies which began as early as the 17th century.
In 1952 the walrus became a fully protected species, and since that time populations have gradually recovered. Today quota-based hunting of the walrus takes place in Greenland's hunting districts, and the export of souvenir products from the walrus requires a CITES certificate, which can be obtained from tourist offices or in souvenir shops.


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- THE MAGAZINE
- WEB EXCLUSIVES
The Lasercheck is a surface roughness gage from Optical Dimensions LLC (Lake Forest, CA) that uses a laser beam to capture hundreds of data points in seconds in a handheld application or in an automated production process. Laser-check works by positioning the 1-pound measurement head above the surface of the part to be measured. The Lasercheck head rides one-tenth of an inch from the surface of the part, separated from the surface by a removable "shim" plate in a handheld operation and by the part fixturing in an automated line.
Inside the head is a laser diode that bounces a laser beam off the surface of the part. Surface imperfections cause the light to scatter. The scattered light is "seen" by an array of 35 detectors, or small sensors, that are arranged inside the 3- by 1.4- by 1.75-inch head. The reflection is converted to a series of voltages that are recalculated by an onboard computer to determine a raw surface roughness number. The roughness figure is factored into a calibration equation that determines the surface roughness (Ra) of the part.
"The laser beam itself is small," said J. Glenn Valliant, co-owner of Optical Dimensions. "On a smooth surface, only one or two sensors would detect a reflection. As surfaces become rougher and rougher, the reflection is no longer a well-preserved laser beam. It is scattered light and more of the sensors illuminate."
The laser, which Valliant said can work on any material or color, inspects a 1- by 5-millimeter area at a time and returns an average of the area. The system measures a range of roughness between 1 microinch and 120 microinches. If the surface is farther out of specification than that, the changes in scattered light will lose resolution, which is an indication of the surface Ra.
Optical Dimensions developed the Lasercheck for K.J. Law Engineers Inc. (Novi, MI), a supplier of automatic gage and nondestructive test systems. A K.J. Law customer wanted a tool to check the finish on a disc brake rotor, said Ken Law Sr., founder and chairman of K.J. Law. In an automated measuring station, the Lasercheck can be linked to other measuring devices into what K.J. Law calls a surface finish profiling system.
In a mass production environment, fast measurements are required and lasers can take up to 70 readings per second, with the potential for 100 readings per second, said Valliant. Speed is important because, "if a company makes 30,000 to 40,000 parts a day and it takes 10 to 20 seconds to make one measurement, then you can't inspect every part," he said. "They have to take a part off the line every few hours to inspect it and if the process has drifted out of specification in between those Arial, you've got a bin full of bad parts," said Valliant.
The Lasercheck is made for the factory floor, said Valliant. It has no moving parts and can be dropped without breaking. It is vibration resistant because it does not make direct contact with the part. In tests, pounding the table on which the part rested did not affect the measurements that the Lasercheck took. Also, because the laser takes nearly instantaneous measurements and averages the data, small movements of the part caused by vibration have little or no effect on the overall data.
In an automated version, the Lasercheck's measurement heads are moved in and out of the part on a slide mechanism or by an air or hydraulic cylinder. "The part has to be staged, held in an accurate and positive position," said Law. "For a brake rotor, two heads measure the top and bottom and move in and out to scan different diameters around the surface of the part."
The part does need to be cleaned to enhance accuracy. In hand applications, wiping it with a cloth is usually sufficient. "In an automatic application, we use pressurized air to remove the grime and fluids that build up," said Valliant.
The $9,600 instrument can take staticor encoder-based measurements on multiple radii while either or both the instrument and part are in motion. The Lasercheck features an embedded computer and digital input and output serial ports. Measurements can be saved in the control unit and output to a computer, to be saved to any location on a computer network. Data formats include graphical Lasercheck file format and ASCII file format for direct input to commercial statistical process control and spreadsheet software packages.
The unit can be interfaced to existing K.J. Law equipment via RS232 serial communication, RS485 serial communication, 4-20 milliamp current loop and a 0 to 10 volt analog output.
The Lasercheck also features a read, hold and return on request program. A number of readings can be taken and held until requested by the gage. Therefore, one or more lasers can measure simultaneously with other devices, such as eddy current testers, without slowing cycle rates.
"We do automatic gaging of all dimensions on these parts, such as disc brakes, rotors, crankshafts and bearings," said Law. "The Lasercheck integrates to the machine and our gages. It also integrates to our gaging electronic controllers that compute the gaging dimensions and sorts the parts according to the tolerances."


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Moner Alo is a clinic run by Dr. Rituparna Dasgupta, a renowned psychiatrist in Kolkata. The clinic was unable to manage patient calls and appointments. Moner Alo also was unable track patient's calls or book appointments after office hours. All this combined with multiple office numbers was making it difficult to manage the clinic.
Healthcare industry is considered as one of the most noble sector. But, with the increase in ease of communication, patients demand more efficient interaction with the doctors. Therefore, it is important to install a management system which can help hospitals and clinics not miss out on the calls from their patients.
Using a call management system Moner Alo wanted to achieve the following goals:
- Have a single number catering to every call requirement.
- Keep a track of all the appointments.
- Stay 24×7 available, even after clinic hours and ensure timely response.
MyOperator provided Moner Alo with a Virtual number. This enabled them to manage their calls and reach back to them to confirm and reschedule patient appointments. Also, the extension numbers and voicemail facility helped patients connect with doctors in case of emergency.
Moner Alo enjoyed the following benefits:
- Ensured customer availability after office hours.
- Tracked and ensured timely follow up with patient calls.
- No appointments were missed.
Availability of call recordings, tracing of place from which the call is made is good. Reminders about renewals and console is very good. Overall very good experience.


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On Unix, the connection capture component performing the SFTP conversion is installed from a separate installation package
ssh-tectia-capture. For installation instructions, see Chapter 2.
On Unix, the FTP-SFTP conversion activation requires defining the filter rules for SFTP conversion in the Connection Broker configuration and then running the
The FTP-SFTP conversion settings are defined in the Connection Broker configuration file. The following example configuration converts any FTP connections to port 21 on any host to SFTP, and allows falling back to plain text transfer mode in case the secure connection cannot be established. The user name and the destination host name are taken from the application that initiates the connection.

With the above configuration, you can start an FTP session for example to host address
ftp.example.org with FTP-SFTP conversion enabled by running the following command:
$ ssh-capture ftp ftp.example.org
The SSH Tectia ConnectSecure has an option to allow plaintext FTP used if the secure SFTP connection cannot be established. You can enable fallback to plaintext FTP in the configuration file as shown above and then by adding option
--fallback to the command:
$ ssh-capture -F ftp ftp.example.org
When allowing fallback to plaintext with setting
fallback-to-plain="yes", always specify the port unambiquously in the configuration. Otherwise, the connection to a plaintext FTP server may fail in passive mode file transfer.
To start a bash shell session with FTP-SFTP conversion enabled for all commands, run the following command:
$ ssh-capture bash
Note that there are limitations on capturing suid applications. For more information, see the Note about capture restrictions.


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Next: My Tiles are Cracking in the Corners
My tiles are wearing out
Tiles are well known for their durability and wear resistance. But, we need to always remember that tiles are not indestructible. If mistreated, or subjected to harsh conditions, or wrongly selected for purpose, the glaze on a ceramic tile will scratch or it can wear.
There needs to be an understanding of the difference between 'wearing' and'scratching.' Wearing is where the glazed surface is thinning and eventually actually work through. Scratching is damage to the surface from a harder substance that scratches the glaze. Heavy scratching can actually dull the surface of a glazed tile. It is damage to the surface, but it is not actually wearing through. Much like granite in a heavy traffic area will dull off from scratching, but is not worn.
The best way to avoid tiles becoming worn is to get good advice when selecting them. This way, tiles that are suited to the area can be chosen and that includes for reasons such as colour, ease of cleaning, durability, and resistance to wear.
The other way is to keep the floor clean and free from sand and abrasive dirt. This is especially important at doorways to the outside of a home or building. Abrasive grit is brought in under shoes and if there is a doormat, this grit is removed and left on the doormat. Even gravel (which can be equally as hard as granite) can be trapped under a shoe and then trodden onto the tiled surface.
What can cause the problem?
- Absense of doormats at doorways to the outside of a home. These remove grit and sand from shoes which can be very abrasive on tiled surfaces. Think of sandpaper, which can actually just be sand trapped on the paper, yet is highly abrasive.
- Incorrectly specified tiles that are not suited to the traffic conditions of an area. Always heed the advice of the Beaumont Tiles consultant and explain clearly the conditions to which the tiles will be subject.
- Keep your tiles clean. A clean tile won't have a film of accumulated grinding dirt on the surface.
- Avoid the use of unnecessary chemicals, especially acid based ones and the use of hard cleaning implements such as steel wool. These too will deteriorate the surface of a tile.
So what can I do now?
Once the glaze on tiles has worn, it can't be rejuvenated in any way.
Likewise, damage by harsh scratching cannot be reversed.
Scratched tiles will continue to perform as a tile should. But, once a tile surface has worn through, and the protective glazed surface is gone, the tile will need to be replaced.


Optimal Chebyshev FIR Filters
As we've seen above, the defining characteristic of FIR filters optimal in the Chebyshev sense is that they minimize the maximum frequency-response error-magnitude over the frequency axis. In other terms, an optimal Chebyshev FIR filter is optimal in the minimax sense: The filter coefficients are chosen to minimize the worst-case error (maximum weighted error-magnitude ripple) over all frequencies. This also means it is optimal in the $ L-infinity$ sense because, as noted above, the $ L-infinity$ norm of a weighted frequency-response error $ E(\omega) = W(\omega) [ H(\omega) -
D(\omega)]$ is the maximum magnitude over all frequencies:
$\displaystyle \left\Vert\,E\,\right\Vert _\infty \eqsp \max_{-\pi \leq \omega < \pi} \left\vert E(\omega)\right\vert$ (5.32)
Thus, we can say that an optimal Chebyshev filter minimizes the $ L-infinity$ norm of the (possibly weighted) frequency-response error. The $ L-infinity$ norm is also called the uniform norm. While the optimal Chebyshev FIR filter is unique, in principle, there is no guarantee that any particular numerical algorithm can find it.
The optimal Chebyshev FIR filter can often be found effectively using the Remez multiple exchange algorithm (typically called the Parks-McClellan algorithm when applied to FIR filter design) [176,224,66]. This was illustrated in §4.6.4 above. The Parks-McClellan/Remez algorithm also appears to be the most efficient known method for designing optimal Chebyshev FIR filters (as compared with, say linear programming methods using matlab's linprog as in §3.13). This algorithm is available in Matlab's Signal Processing Toolbox as firpm() (remez() in (Linux) Octave).5.13There is also a version of the Remez exchange algorithm for complex FIR filters. See §4.10.7 below for a few details.
The Remez multiple exchange algorithm has its limitations, however. In particular, convergence of the FIR filter coefficients is unlikely for FIR filters longer than a few hundred taps or so.
Optimal Chebyshev FIR filters are normally designed to be linear phase [263] so that the desired frequency response $ D(\omega)$ can be taken to be real (i.e., first a zero-phase FIR filter is designed). The design of linear-phase FIR filters in the frequency domain can therefore be characterized as real polynomial approximation on the unit circle [229,258].
In optimal Chebyshev filter designs, the error exhibits an equiripple characteristic--that is, if the desired response is $ D(\omega)$ and the ripple magnitude is $ \epsilon$, then the frequency response of the optimal FIR filter (in the unweighted case, i.e., $ W(\omega)=1$ for all $ \omega$ ) will oscillate between $ D(\omega)+\epsilon$ and $ D(\omega)-\epsilon$ as $ \omega$ increases. The powerful alternation theorem characterizes optimal Chebyshev solutions in terms of the alternating error peaks. Essentially, if one finds sufficiently many for the given FIR filter order, then you have found the unique optimal Chebyshev solution [224]. Another remarkable result is that the Remez multiple exchange converges monotonically to the unique optimal Chebyshev solution (in the absence of numerical round-off errors).
Fine online introductions to the theory and practice of Chebyshev-optimal FIR filter design are given in [32,283].
The window method4.5) and Remez-exchange method together span many practical FIR filter design needs, from ''quick and dirty'' to essentially ideal FIR filters (in terms of conventional specifications).


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- 1 How do you make a balsamic vinegar fruit fly trap?
- 2 What is the fastest way to get rid of fruit flies?
- 3 Can you use normal vinegar to get rid of fruit flies?
- 4 Do fruit flies dissolve in vinegar?
- 5 What is the best homemade fruit fly trap?
- 6 How do I get rid of fruit flies without apple cider vinegar?
- 7 How do you get rid of fruit flies once and for all?
- 8 Why do I have fruit flies all of a sudden?
- 9 What do fruit flies hate?
- 10 Why are the fruit flies not going into the vinegar?
- 11 How long does it take to kill fruit flies with apple cider vinegar?
- 12 What is the best spray for fruit flies?
- 13 Does dish soap attract fruit flies?
- 14 How long do fruit flies live?
- 15 Do fruit flies lay eggs in vinegar?
How do you make a balsamic vinegar fruit fly trap?
- small bowl.
- 2-3 Tablespoons of apple cider vinegar balsamic vinegar and wine work well too, but who wants to waste wine on flies; hehe)
- plastic cling wrap.
What is the fastest way to get rid of fruit flies?
Fill a microwave-safe bowl with apple cider vinegar and a few drops of dish soap. Microwave the bowl so the mixture becomes even more aromatic. Leave the bowl out uncovered as fruit fly bait. The soap will reduce the surface tension, causing any fruit fly that lands on the surface to drown.
Can you use normal vinegar to get rid of fruit flies?
White vinegar can also be used in a pinch. Simply grab a bowl or glass, then fill it up with apple cider vinegar. Cover it up with plastic wrap, then use a rubber band to secure it. Make small holes in the top of the plastic wrap and walk away.
Do fruit flies dissolve in vinegar?
Fruit flies especially think vinegar is good—particularly apple cider vinegar, says Hedges. The fruit flies will be able to get in, but they'll have a hard time escaping, says Hedges. Eventually, you'll kill them when they fall into the vinegar, conk out, and drown, he says.
What is the best homemade fruit fly trap?
5 Best DIY Fruit Fly Traps
- Apple Cider Vinegar Bottle Trap. Pour about a quarter cup of apple cider vinegar into an empty bottle and cover the opening with plastic wrap.
- Beer Trap. Pour about a half-cup of beer (old or fresh) in a mason jar with a lid.
- Wine Bottle Trap.
- Fresh Basil.
- Apple Cider Vinegar and Dish Soap Trap.
How do I get rid of fruit flies without apple cider vinegar?
Like vinegar, fruit flies love the smell of wine. Try leaving out an open bottle with a little leftover liquid — the skinny neck will keep the flies trapped. The Old Farmer's Almanac also recommends using stale beer to attract fruit flies to a DIY trap. Add a couple of drops of dish soap to either for surer success.
How do you get rid of fruit flies once and for all?
Follow these 5 simple steps to rid your home of fruit flies, once and for all.
- Wipe down surfaces that are potential breeding grounds. Wipe down all cabinet surfaces thoroughly.
- Clean the drains in your kitchen.
- Set traps.
- Monitor traps and drains.
- Keep the drains clean and set traps.
Why do I have fruit flies all of a sudden?
How Did I Get Fruit Flies? Fruit flies often infest homes with ripe, rotting, or decayed fruit and produce. They also enjoy fermented items such as beer, liquor, and wine. Fruit flies also may breed and develop in drains, garbage disposals, trash cans, and mop buckets.
What do fruit flies hate?
Deter Them With Scents. Fruit flies can't stand the smell of basil, peppermint, eucalyptus, lemongrass, lavender and clove. If you've had a fruit fly problem in the past, try placing these fragrant herbs in muslin sacks or tea bags and hanging them around the house.
Why are the fruit flies not going into the vinegar?
Vinegar fruit flies trap Fruit flies are attracted to the scent of apple cider vinegar – earning them the common nickname ' vinegar flies ' – and can't resist flying into a container with the stuff. Once they're in, they can't get out. You can also add a piece of overripe fruit to make it more attractive to flies.
How long does it take to kill fruit flies with apple cider vinegar?
Within less than a minute fruit flies were flying over to investigate the sickly sweet smell of the apple cider vinegar. We left the two traps out for 24 hours (roughly how long it took for the fruit fly horde to vanish).
What is the best spray for fruit flies?
Fruit Fly Control – Insecticide Aerosols. (Pyrethrin spray ) can be used as a quick kill; reducing populations of flying insects. Use a pyrethrin space spray such as Stryker 54, CB 80 Pyrethrin Aerosol, or PT 565. You can use pyrethrins in an automatic dispenser that dispenses every 15 minutes..
Does dish soap attract fruit flies?
In a small bowl or cup, mix together water with a couple drops of dish soap and a tablespoon or two of cider vinegar. The vinegar will attract the fruit flies, while the dish soap will break the surface tension on the liquid so they will fall in and drown in the water.
How long do fruit flies live?
How Long Do Fruit Flies Live? The average natural life span of fruit fly adults in optimal temperatures is 40 to 50 days. Female fruit flies are capable of mating and laying several batches of eggs in that time, allowing the fruit fly population in a home to multiply quickly.
Do fruit flies lay eggs in vinegar?
Dispose any questionable pieces to avoid female fruit flies from laying their eggs on these surfaces. 3. Use apple cider vinegar. The vinegar will attract the fruit flies, and once they're inside, they won't be able to escape the plastic wrap barrier.


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Land, resources and self-government agreements combine land claim and self-government into a single agreement. These agreements describe certain Aboriginal and Treaty rights in relation to land, resources and self-government. In addition to bringing clarity to Aboriginal ownership of land and resources, these agreements define the jurisdictions, authorities and responsibilities of Aboriginal Governments.
Self-government agreements are intended to implement the Aboriginal party's inherent right to self government. As such, self-government agreements describe the structure of Aboriginal government(s), at potentially both the community and regional levels, and describe the powers and responsibilities of the self-government(s).
Land and resources agreements (sometimes referred to as land claim agreements) provide clarity and certainty in relation to Aboriginal and Treaty rights over land and resources. These agreements bring clarity with respect to the Aboriginal party's ownership title of land and resources, cash compensation, royalties from resource development, harvesting rights and rights to participate in the regulation of the land, water, and environment.
The Aboriginal governments in the process of negotiating land, resources and self-government agreements are:


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There are lots of ways to look at the universe. Scientists take pictures that show minute details and beautiful colors. They split light into its individual wavelengths to learn details about an object's composition and motion. And they look at forms of energy that are invisible to the human eye. Each technique adds to our understanding of how the universe works. [bring music up]
Roberto Morales-Manzanares has found another way to "look" at the universe: with music. He worked with scientists to create software that creates music from raw data. The scientists were developing a NASA mission called STEREO -- two spacecraft that study the Sun from different angles to produce a 3D view.
Scientists were already converting data into sound. [fade music out, sun sounds in.] This example shows the flow of the solar wind -- a stream of charged particles from the Sun. The sounds allow scientists to "feel" the Sun's rhythms. [cross-fade solar wind to music]
But the STEREO scientists wanted another way to appreciate the sound -- and a way to engage the public in their work. So four years ago, they turned to Morales, a musician and a graduate student at UC Berkeley.
Not only did he develop the music-generating software, he created his own piece from data captured by another Sun-watching satellite. It's called "Turning Point." It provides a new way to look at the universe -- through music. [bring up music to end]
Script by Damond Benningfield, Copyright 2008
For more skywatching tips, astronomy news, and much more, read StarDate magazine.


Wire Housings & Plugs
PCB connector housings provide a receptacle for connectors when they are mounted onto a printed circuit board. PCB connectors are used to link different printed circuit boards to one another, or to allow a cable to be connected to a PCB.
How do PCB connector housings work?
PCB connector housings are molded according to the type of PCB connector they are designed to fit. The connector is mounted on to the PCB using the PCB connector housing, and the housing provides some level of protection for the connection. PCB connector housings also include space for the PCB connector contacts, to allow the current of electricity to flow.
Types of PCB connector housings
The main way in which PCB connector housings differ is in the number of contacts they accommodate. This can range from just one contact to over 100. They can also be made from a range of materials, depending on the level of protection required for the connector.


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How to Draw a Pickup Truck, Pickup Truck
Artist: MichaelY / March 5, 2013
How to Draw a Pickup Truck, Pickup Truck
Step 1.
There are many different types of pickup trucks and it's important to determine which type is appropriate for your illustration. Here are a few different examples to show the range of body types. You wouldn't want to draw a massive, modern, 4X4 truck
Step 2.
A lot of people make the mistake of assuming that a pickup truck is just a car with a truck bed in the back rather than back seats. This is hardly the case (except for some vintage models). Here is a side by side comparison of a car and pickup truck.
Step 3.
To draw a pickup truck, let's begin by laying down our basic guide lines. These lines do not have to be perfect, and they should be drawn very lightly with a 2H or harder pencil so that they are easily erasable later on. Draw a rectangular cube shape
Step 4.
Drawing vehicles of any kind can be very difficult for most people. It is important to remember is that, when looking at a vehicle straight on, both sides of a vehicle are identical to one another. They mirror each other. Keeping that fact in mind, l
Step 5.
Next, draw the grill of the truck just behind the mounted lights. The grill should be fairly simple, with just a few bars stretching across the width of the grill, rather than a bunch of crisscrossed lines. On either side of the grill, draw the prima
Step 6.
Next, let's draw the basic contours of the truck's body. Draw the top of the hood first, which will end near the base of out wedged cube guide. When drawing the base of the vehicle, be sure to draw the wheel wells. It is important to know the proper
Step 7.
Then draw the basic contours of the upper part of the cab by using the wedge cube guide lines for reference. Notice how even though the basic shape of the vehicle is very "squarish," the body has many rounded and curved contours to it.
Step 8.
Let's move on to drawing the windows. You can add more detail by including weather-stripping to the side window. Also leave a small triangle of plastic for the side mirror to mount to in the next step.
Step 9.
Add more feature such as the windshield wipers side mirrors. Be sure to draw the passenger side mirror peaking up from the far edge of the truck. Draw the door handle and gas cap. These features make the image more believable and lifelike.
Step 10.
Add in some decorative grooves down the sides of the truck and around the wheel wells. Also draw the door of the truck while you're at it. Be sure that the door properly molds to the shape of the truck's body.
Step 11.
Drawing the tires can by rather tricky. To do it properly, draw squares in the location of the tires. The tops of the squares should start in the middle of the wheel wells and extend well beyond the base of the vehicle. Then draw an X from corner to
Step 12.
To draw the actual circle, draw the lines of the circle through the points where the inner X meets the sides and tops of the squares. This will create properly proportionate circles, but they are not yet three dimensional.
Step 13.
To make the circles three dimensional enough to look like tires, use the above methods to create a partner circle next to your original circle. Then, draw a line from the top edge of the first circle, to the top edge of the new circle, as seen here w
Step 14.
Then darken the proper lines and erase all unneeded lines. You should now have disk or cylindrical shaped objects which resemble the basic shape of tires. You can use the same method to draw the front, passenger side tire. However, this third tire wi
Step 15.
Add more detail to the tires be added tread. Make the tread as simple or as complex as you'd like. Larger groove in the tread suggests that the vehicle is used for off-roading. Very smooth treads suggests that the tires are worn and the vehicle has b
Step 16.
Finish the wheels by drawing the rims. The lug bolts mount in the center of the tire and the arms of the rims reach out and hold the tire. Don't forget to add in mud-flaps while you're at it.
Step 17.
We are almost done, but we need to draw the front and rear axles peaking down from underside of the truck. These don't have to be super detailed, since we will shade them in the next step. Without them, however, the truck looks unfinished and less
Step 18.
Next, shade in the wheel wells, the axels, and the third tire. This gives the image a sense of depth and perspective. You can add additional shading if you wish, but be sure to establish a light source.
Step 19.
Finally, ink your image using either a brush and ink, or Micron markers. Use a ruler and, if available, a flex curve. Be sure not to ink any unneeded guide lines or sketch marks. After the ink has dried, erase your pencil marks. You should now have a
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Final goods Definition
In economics Final goods are goods that are ultimately consumed rather than used in the production of another good. For example, a car sold to a consumer is a final good; the components such as tires sold to the car manufacturer are not; they are intermediate goods used to make the final good.
When used in measures of national income and output the term Final goods only includes new goods. For instance, the GDP excludes items counted in an earlier year to prevent double counting of production based on resales of the same item second and third hand.
Consumer goods are exactly the same as final goods, but with the subtle difference that they are specifically intended for the mass market. For instance, consumer goods do not include investment assets, like precious antiques, even though these items are final goods.