How to Measure the Uncertainty of Stock Prices around Earnings Announcement Days?
Stock prices often respond drastically to the information firms release to the market on quarterly earnings announcement dates (EADs) (see Figure 1). For instance, almost 20% of Google's total annual volatility is accumulated on EADs. Estimating the stock market risk ex ante (before the news release) is difficult as each of these announcements is unique. Our paper proposes a new way of measuring the uncertainty of stock returns around EADs using option price data.
The economic reason for the importance of EADs is related to the large amount of valuation relevant information and past company performance that is released to the market. Since this information is not known to investors before the earnings release, stock market uncertainty around EADs is particularly large. The main contribution of the paper is to develop a theoretical framework and practical estimators which capture the uncertainty around Earnings Announcement Days. We develop an option pricing theory which provides academics and practitioner alike with a new tool to study the risk around corporate events such as EADs.
After developing and introducing a new EAD uncertainty measure, we study how it may help forecasting stock market risk around EADs. First, we find that our measure produces accurate risk predictions and improves over widely used risk measures such as the dispersion in analyst forecasts. Second, our measure is robust and very easy to implement and is therefore straightforward to be applied in practice without the need for complicated mathematical or computational machinery. Fourth, we show that our proposed model taking into account EADs improves option pricing performance of between 15-20%.


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The Lord Commander is a rank found in several of the Seven Kingdoms' institutions. It is a combination of "Lord", meaning that the person holding the title is of noble birth, or at the very least knighted, and "Commander", indicating a position of authority and leadership. The term may refer to:
- The Lord Commander of the Kingsguard, the elite group of seven knights whose duty it is to protect the King and the royal family. The Kingsguard's current Lord Commander is Ser Jaime Lannister. He took over the role when Ser Barristan Selmy was dismissed. Ser Duncan the Tall was Lord Commander when Selmy rose to prominence.
- The Lord Commander of the Night's Watch, the order responsible for defending the Wall. The last Lord Commander was Jeor Mormont, former Lord of Bear Island. Following Mormont's death, the position is vacant.
The leader of the City Watch of the Seven Kingdoms' various cities is called a "Lord Commander" when of noble birth, or a "Commander" when not. Janos Slynt was merely a "Commander" due to his lack of noble birth, but was later elevated to the nobility as Lord of Harrenhal in gratitude for his service to King Joffrey in betraying Eddard Stark.
In contrast, the leader of the Kingsguard is always called "Lord Commander", though this might simply be because most knights tend to be noble-born. Even if a commoner is knighted for bravery on the battelfield but was not born noble - as was the case with Ser Duncan the Tall, who was born in the slums of Flea Bottom but later became Lord Commander - being knighted technically promotes a commoner into a "noble". Members of the Kingsguard are supposed to exclusively be knights, and thus even a common-born member such as Ser Duncan would be called "Lord" Commander on the grounds that he is at least a knight. The City Watch only runs into this difference because unlike the Kingsguard, non-knights and commoners can join it and rise to command positions.
Sandor Clegane's appointment to the Kingsguard was considered controversial because he wasn't even a knight, which was explicitly against the rules of the order. The Lannisters did offer to knight Sandor, but he simply refused, because he always considered allegedly honorable knights to be hypocrites. Ultimately, Sandor abandoned the Lannisters and the Kingsguard during the Battle of the Blackwater anyway.
Members of the Night's Watch officially abandon all previous allegiances when they take the oath to join the order, leaving no distinction between members who were formerly common-born or noble-born. The leader of the Night's Watch is therefore always called "Lord Commander", even if they were bastard-born or common-born, and were never "lords" in the first place. The Lord Commander frequently is of noble birth, but this is simply because nobles tend to receive better combat training from their castle's master-at-arms before they arrive at the Wall. As a result noble-born men who join the Watch tend to rise more quickly through the ranks to become officers, but this is just a general trend and not an official rule. Many bastard-born or even common-born members of the Watch have risen to command castle-garrisons along the Wall during its millennia-long history, and there are multiple historical examples of common-born men who were elected Lord Commander. Noble-born men who join the Watch are typically younger sons who would never have inherited their fathers' lands and titles, and were never the "Lord" of a castle and territory ("Lord" with a capital L: technically all members of the nobility are called "my lord" even though they are not a "Lord" of anything). Lord Commander Jeor Mormont was a very rare case, as he was the actual Lord of Bear Island and head of House Mormont before he voluntarily abdicated in order to join the Watch. Jeor did this because Northern Houses tend to have greater respect for the Night's Watch, and House Mormont in particular because their lands are so close to the Wall. However, Jeor Mormont was an exceptional case: a man gets what he earns at the Wall, regardless of his past, and most often the "Lord Commander" was never a "Lord", and frequently was never even noble-born.
|Former Lords Commander:|
|Castles of the Watch:|

source: openbmb/Ultra-FineWeb


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Relevance to Underserved Issue
The Health and Rehabilitative Services (HRSA) professional shortage area guidelines (HPSA) provide the criteria needed to determine locations that are underserved.
Summary of Key Information
- Purpose of the Guidelines
To provide criteria for identifying areas that have a deficit of mental health providers.
- Program Authority
The Public Health Service Act section 332 amended by public law 101-597 requires the Secretary of Health of HHS to establish, by regulation, criteria for the designation of HPSAs. Program RequirementsThe program requires that the core mental health providers who may offer mental health services consist of psychiatrists, clinical psychologists, clinical social workers, psychiatric nurse specialists and marriage and family therapists.
- Identified Need for Providers
HRSA has defined three types of shortage designations consisting of
- Geographic area
- Population based
- Facility based
Criteria necessary to be designated as a mental health shortage area under these categories:
A. Geographic Area Based Manpower Shortage Designations
- The geographic area is a rational area for the delivery of mental health services.
- One of the following conditions exists in the area:
- The population ratio to core psychiatrists and/or non-physician mental health professionals is disproportionate using HRSA defined ratios as defined in the summary table below.
- The area has unusually high needs for mental health services (i.e., poverty, children, elderly, high amount of substance abuse and alcoholism) and the ratio of population to core mental health clinicians is disproportionate to meet this need.
Contiguous area considerations: Mental health professionals near the areas that are being identified as HPSAs will be considered extremely far away, over-utilized or unavailable to the HPSAs if they meet the following criteria: (1) it is more than 40 minutes from the main population center of the area being considered, (2) if the core mental health professionals in that area are overutilized and con not be expected to fill the void (3) there is a cultural, language or geographical barrier and/or because of residency restrictions.
B. Population Based Manpower Shortage Designations
- Population groups in specific service areas are deemed as shortage areas if access barriers prevent the population group from using mental health services.
- The ratio of the number of individuals per population group is disproportionate to the number of full-time equivalent (FTE) mental health professionals or FTE psychiatrists.
C. Facility Based Manpower Shortage Designations
Types of facilities that fall under this designation include: federal and state correctional institutions, state and county mental hospitals, community mental health centers and other public or nonprofit private facilities.
Facilities can be deemed manpower shortage areas based on HRSA defined criteria that take into account variables such as the ratio of mental health professional to the defined population, average length of stay, average daily inpatient census, etc.
Summary Table, Guidelines for Mental Health Care Designation
(Adobe document, will open in a new window.)

source: HuggingFaceFW/fineweb-edu


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Camera Calibration for Light Fields and Camera Arrays
Camera calibration, crucial for computer vision tasks, often relies on planar calibration targets to calibrate the camera parameters. This work explores a planar, fractal, self-identifying calibration pattern, which provides a high density of calibration points for a large range of magnification factors. An evaluation on ground truth data shows that the target provides very high accuracy over a wide range of conditions.
Fractal Calibration Target
The size of the calibration markers also play a key role in the accuracy of the localization. If too few calibration points are available per view, then calibration quality suffers due to over fitting. However, if the calibration markers become too small, it becomes impossible to properly detect them. As the optimal size depends on the camera magnification, it is not possible to create a pattern with a single optimal density.
Our solution is the adoption of a fractal scheme which operates on multiple scales of calibration points. This scheme allows to use features which are within some fixed bound of the maximum calibration point density for the given magnification, please see Figure. 1. In addition the target is self-identifying and quite robust under a range of imaging conditions.
 A Fractal Calibration Pattern for Improved Camera Calibration Hendrik Siedelmann, Maximilian Diebold, Marcel Gutsche, Hamza Aziz-Ahmad, Bernd Jähne
Forum Bildverarbeitung, 2016[paper]


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Article4 min read
How important is it for employees to belong?
Adobe stock_130586800 photo
Hannah Price
Culture Amp, Writer
Everyone knows how it feels to not belong somewhere; at a party, at a restaurant, in a neighborhood. It makes you feel uncomfortable and insecure. It's certainly something you try to avoid.
Yet, belonging in the workplace isn't something we often discuss. Even though employees who don't feel like they belong are less engaged and less productive.
In this article we delve into why it's essential to foster a sense of belonging in today's workplace, and we have three steps on how to get started.
Don't have time to read this article right now?
Download 6 Ways to Foster Belonging in the Workplace
Note: For our purposes, belonging is defined as the feeling of security and support when there is a sense of acceptance, inclusion, and identity for a member of a certain group or place.
Belonging = Engagement
In life outside of work, it's quite easy to avoid situations in which you don't feel like you belong. You cultivate a life that doesn't include them.
If you find yourself at an event where you don't feel comfortable, you generally don't have to wait long until you can politely excuse yourself.
The same cannot be said for the workplace. If you don't feel comfortable at work, it's a lot harder to simply pick up and move on. It can take months of diligent applications and interviews to land another job, and the whole process takes energy and time; which a lot of people don't have.
All of this means that people get stuck in workplaces that don't work for them. For five days of every week, they diligently wake up to their alarm and commute to a place where they will spend most of their waking hours feeling uncomfortable and out-of-place.
Not only is this a terrible situation for the individual, it's not good for the company either.
In a 2018 survey, Culture Amp and Paradigm measured employee experience across seven factors of diversity, belonging, and inclusion. We found that belonging factors are most strongly and consistently correlated with employee engagement.
In fact, the one single metric that consistently and universally tied to a person's workplace commitment, motivation, and pride was a sense of belonging.
Regardless of an employee's gender, ethnicity, age or sexual orientation, they are more likely to be engaged if they feel like they belong. (If you're interested, here is the report for more information.)
Why belonging will only grow in importance
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the correlation between belonging and engagement was particularly high for historically underrepresented groups. This is something employers cannot ignore.
The workforce is becoming more diverse year on year. From our survey, we discovered that Straight White Men make up 46% of people exiting the workforce but only 34% of the people entering the workforce.
This growing diversity means there's potential for more unique perspectives, fresh ideas, and a hotbed for innovation. But none of that will happen if these underrepresented groups don't feel like they belong.
Only when people feel like they belong and they're psychologically safe will they freely share ideas and confidently speak out. Alternatively, if they don't feel these things, they're more likely to leave and take their ideas on to the next place.
Is it possible to foster a sense of belonging?
The reason why one person feels a sense of belonging at their workplace can differ from that of their colleague, depending on personal traits, if they're from an underrepresented group, and which group that is.
However, there is significant evidence (outside the workplace) that setting the scene for belonging can impact whether or not a person feels they belong, and even how successful they are. Thus, incorporating belonging should be part of any diversity and inclusion strategy.
3 ways to help people feel like they belong
After completing our research, survey and report, Culture Amp developed actionable tips for effectively fostering belonging in the workplace. In brief, these are:
 1. Survey. Ensure you are using employee surveys to discover your weaknesses and strengths. Tracking belonging and inclusion is a must.
 2. Social. Explore opportunities to encourage social bonds through team structures and group problem-solving.
 3. Trust. Encourage trusting relationships through structured employee programs and mentorships.
If you want more details on these tips and three bonus tips, check out our ebook on 6 ways to foster belonging. This ebook also delves deeper into the topic of belonging and the factors we've discussed in this article.
If companies want to build a robust and healthy business, they cannot afford to ignore the element of belonging. Not only does it affect employee wellness and happiness, it affects engagement, motivation, and retention. All of which impacts the bottom-line.
Start building a diverse workplace today
Get your free Diversity and Inclusion Starter Kit
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Sociocultural values related to salmon and herring and their linkages to fisheries governance are explored in a comparative study. The aim is to understand why and how salmon and herring are important for different stakeholder groups, and to investigate how these values could inform the development of governance practices that are both sustainable and legitimate.
The cultural importance of Baltic salmon is strong in the Baltic Sea region, especially in its Northern parts. Salmon fishing is a constant topic of political debates, and public spending is targeted to salmon habitat restoration. By contrast, the value of Baltic herring seems to be mostly economic. Human consumption of herring has decreased especially in the Northern parts of the Baltic Sea, but it still has more nutritional importance in the Eastern parts. In BONUS GOHERR project, the social and cultural values affecting these trends will be identified and compared by interviewing stakeholders from Finland, Sweden, Denmark and Estonia. Further, possibilities to take these values into account in the development of ecosystem-based governance will be examined. Also the political, legal and organizational prerequisites for integrated governance will be assessed.
1. Understand the sociocultural value and use of Baltic salmon and herring;
2. Apply these understandings to assess the political prerequisites for successful integrated fisheries governance; and
3. Explicate what kind of institutional and attitudinal flexibility is needed for integrated governance.
More information in Workspace.


Unemployment benefits in Austria
Austria provides a comprehensive system of social security and welfare schemes. Unemployment insurance is managed by the public employment service (AMS), which is also responsible for measures of active labor market policy. In this article, you will learn when you have a right to receive unemployment benefits, how much you are receiving and how long as well as some other details about unemployment benefits in Austria.
When I can get unemployment benefits in Austria and what are the requirements?
In the event of losing a job or becoming jobless, you may be eligible for unemployment benefits (Arbeitslosengeld). The main requirement is that you have completed a minimum period of insurance which means that you were employed in Austria for at least 52 weeks during the last 24 months, or 26 weeks within the last 12 months if you are below the age of 25 years. If you are entitled to unemployment benefits, you must be unemployed, able and willing to work (to accept suitable employment), be at the disposal of the public employment service (AMS), and not have exhausted your entitlement.
The purpose of unemployment benefits is to secure your livelihood while you are seeking employment. After you exhaust your entitlement to unemployment benefits, you may be eligible for unemployment assistance if your disposable family income is not sufficient to meet your essential needs.
How much is the unemployment benefit in Austria, how can I get it and what is the duration?
Unemployment benefit in Austria equals 55% of your daily net income (it could theoretically go up to 80% in case of your entitlement to family allowances). Daily net income is calculated based on your average past earnings.
The duration of getting unemployment benefits in Austria is at least 20 weeks. The exact duration depends on the period of your previous employment (paid unemployment insurance) and your age. The duration of unemployment benefit increases to longer than 20 weeks according to the following rules:
Unemployment benefit durationThe period of being previously insured (employed) and person's age
30 weeks3 years within the last 5 years
39 weeks6 years within the last 10 years and has reached the age of 40
52 weeks9 years within the last 15 years and had reached the age of 50
Once you become unemployed, you have to register with the Labour Market Service (AMS) and claim unemployment benefits. While you are receiving the benefit, you are required to report to the Labour Market Service (AMS) at the agreed times to discuss your search for employment with your personal officer.
You must also immediately inform the Labour Market Service, without being asked, of any changes in your personal circumstances or those of your family members which may affect your entitlement to a benefit. These include taking up employment or other changes in your income situation.
Unemployment benefit is paid from the date of application. However, if you have resigned from your job without good reason, benefit is suspended for four weeks.
While you are unemployed, the Labour Market Service pays sickness and pension insurance contributions on your behalf. In addition, you are insured against certain accidents.
Unemployment assistance amounts to 92% of your most recent unemployment benefit payment. If the unemployment benefit (without family supplements) is below the compensatory supplement reference level for single persons, unemployment allowance amounts to 95% of unemployment benefit. Moreover, the age and family situation of the unemployed person as well as their financial circumstances (their income or that of the spouse, cohabiting or registered partner living in their household) are taken into account when calculating the amount of unemployment assistance. Under certain conditions, various expenses (e.g. those incurred through an illness, purchase of property etc.) will also be taken into account.
In case of short-term entitlement to unemployment benefit, there might be a certain reduction after six months. Unemployment assistance is granted for an unlimited period of time, but only for one year at a time.
You must claim unemployment assistance in person from the competent Labour Market Service (AMS). It is recommended that you apply before your entitlement to unemployment benefit expires. If you have an eAMS account, you can also submit your application online.
Whenever you have to fulfil certain conditions before being able to claim an Austrian social security benefit, the authorities will also take into account any insurance periods you have completed in other countries. This applies to EU Member States and to Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Iceland. No insurance period you have completed in Austria will be affected if you work or are insured in one of these countries.
Can I earn something in addition to the employment benefit?
It is possible to earn unemployment benefits in addition to this. The additional earnings limit is the insignificance limit of 405.98 euros (as of 2015).
All employment must be reported to the AMS. If you are found doing an unregistered job, it is assumed that your earnings are above the marginal earnings threshold and you lose your unemployment benefit for the duration of this unreported employment and you must expect a refund of the unemployment benefit of at least 4 weeks.
For third country nationals
There are only five countries where bilateral agreements on social security include unemployment benefits: Bosnia & Herzegovina, Israel, Republic of Macedonia, North Montenegro and Serbia. Please note that in most cases the agreement only settles addition of insurance periods to determine the qualifying periods. Details at the Main Association of Social Security Institutions (Hauptverband der österreichischen Sozialversicherungsträger): _URL_ (in German).
Guaranteed Minimum Resources
Guaranteed minimum benefits (Mindestsicherung) are provided for persons who have no reasonable funds to pay for their living costs or those of their family members. Guaranteed minimum benefits are intended to support individuals who can no longer pay for their living costs on their own. An amount stipulated every year corresponds to costs for covering the required costs of food, clothing, body care, heating and electricity, furnishings and other personal needs such as appropriate social and cultural involvement as well as housing needs. Guaranteed minimum resources benefits are only available when no other sufficient financial means (such as income, social security benefits, etc.) or assets are available.
EU and EEA (European Economic Area) nationals, respectively, are only unrestrictedly entitled to guaranteed minimum resources if they are in Austria as employees or have lived here for more than five years. Nationals of third countries are only eligible to receive guaranteed minimum resources if they have been legally residing in Austria for more than five years. The amount of the guaranteed minimum resources will be determined individually by each federal province.
Important terms and explanations:
You are willing to work if you are prepared to take up suitable employment.
Work foundation is a special employment training scheme, organised together with one or more companies concerned, which provides skills training at an early stage of unemployment or in situations where a large group of people are likely to become unemployed because of staff reductions.
Your eAMS account is your personal access point to the Austrian Labour Market Service (AMS). An eAMS account allows you to access your personal AMS data and to use AMS's online services.
Maximum assessment base is a calculated maximum value which can be used as the basis for calculation of unemployment benefit.
Habitual residence – The term 'habitual residence' is defined under EU law (please see the EU Regulation on the coordination of social security systems). In practice, it means the place where you have your centre of interests.
Leave your thoughts
"By expats for expats"


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This topic lists several restrictions on hash index definitions. For complete details about hash index syntax, see Teradata Vantage™ - SQL Data Definition Language Syntax and Examples, B035-1144.
Restrictions for NoPI Tables
You cannot create a hash index on a NoPI table.
Restrictions on Number of Hash Indexes Defined Per Base Table
The maximum number of secondary, hash, and join indexes that can be defined for a table is 32, in any combination. This includes the system-defined unique secondary indexes used to implement PRIMARY KEY and UNIQUE constraints.
Each composite NUSI that specifies an ORDER BY clause counts as 2 consecutive indexes in this calculation (see Value-Ordered NUSIs and Range Conditions). You cannot define hash, or any other, indexes on global temporary trace tables (see Teradata Vantage™ - SQL Data Definition Language Detailed Topics, B035-1184).
- table_1 has 32 secondary indexes and no hash or join indexes.
- table_2 has 16 secondary indexes, no hash indexes, and 16 join indexes.
- table_3 has 10 secondary indexes, 10 hash indexes, and 12 join indexes.
- table_4 has no secondary or hash indexes, but has 32 join indexes.
Each of these combinations is valid, but they all operate at the boundaries of the defined limits.
Note that if any of the secondary indexes defined on tables 1, 2, or 3 is a NUPI defined with an ORDER BY clause, the defined limits are exceeded, and the last index you attempt to create on the table will fail. Because each NUPI defined with an ORDER BY clause counts as 2 consecutive indexes in the count against the maximum of 32 per table, you could define only 8 of them on table_2, for example, if you also defined 16 join indexes on the table.
Restrictions on Number of Columns Per Referenced Base Table
The maximum number of columns that can be specified in a hash index is 64.
Restrictions on the Use of the System-Derived PARTITION[_TAG_ n] Column in a Hash Index Definition
You cannot use the system-derived PARTITION[_TAG_ n] column in the definition of a hash index.
Restriction on Number of Hash Indexes Selected Per Base Table
The Optimizer can use several hash indexes for a single query, selecting one or more multitable join indexes as well as additional hash indexes for its join plan. The hash indexes selected depend on the structure of the query, and the Optimizer might not choose all applicable hash indexes for the plan. Always examine your EXPLAIN reports to determine which hash indexes are used for the query plans generated for your queries. If a hash index you think should have been used by a query was not included in the query plan, try restructuring the query and then EXPLAIN it once again.
The join planning process selects a multitable join index to replace any individual table in a query when the substitution further optimizes the query plan. For each such table replaced in the join plan by a multitable join index, as many as two additional hash indexes can also be added if their inclusion reduces the size of the relation to be processed, provides a better distribution, or offers additional covering.
The limit on the number of hash indexes substituted per individual table in a query is enforced to limit the number of possible combinations and permutations of table joins in the Optimizer search space during its join planning phase. The rule helps to ensure that the optimization is worth the effort: in other words, that the time spent generating the query plan does not exceed the accrued performance enhancement.


Articles Posted in Violent crimes
When a person is charged with a crime in Florida, the State is generally precluded from introducing collateral evidence of other crimes. In other words, the State cannot produce evidence of uncharged crimes that the defendant allegedly committed as evidence of the defendant's guilt. There are certain situations in which collateral crime evidence is admissible, however, as demonstrated in a recent Florida appellate court case, in which the defendant was charged with kidnapping. If you are a resident of Sarasota charged with kidnapping or another violent crime, it is in your best interest to speak with a knowledgeable Sarasota violent crime defense attorney to discuss the evidence that the State may be permitted to introduce against you at trial.
Evidence Produced at the Defendant's Trial
The defendant was charged with eight crimes, including sexual battery, unlawful imprisonment, rape, and kidnapping. The case proceeded to trial, during which the State introduced evidence of crimes with which the defendant was not charged but that the State alleged he committed. The defendant was convicted, after which he appealed, arguing the trial court erred in permitting the State to introduce collateral crime evidence.
Collateral Crime Evidence in Florida Criminal Matters
On appeal, the defendant argued that the State introduced evidence of the defendant's alleged collateral crimes to impugn his character and that allowing such evidence denied him of the right to a fair trial. Specifically, during the trial, the defendant's alleged victim, who was his former girlfriend, testified that the defendant tortured her for hours. The defendant argued that such testimony was improper because it introduced evidence of acts that were not part of the crimes with which the defendant was charged.
Continue Reading ›
If you are charged with a violent crime there are a variety of defenses you can set forth to try to avoid a conviction, including self-defense and mistake. A Florida appellate court recently held, however, that evidence of medical malpractice is not a valid defense to a second-degree murder charge, in a case in which the victim died from a gunshot wound. If you are charged with a violent crime in Sarasota it is critical to engage a knowledgeable Sarasota violent crime defense attorney to determine what defenses to set forth to give you a strong chance of a favorable result.
Facts Regarding the Alleged Crime and Medical Treatment
Allegedly, the defendant was walking down the street when the victim approached him in a car and rolled down the window. The defendant argued with the victim, and then allegedly punched and shot the victim. The victim drove to a nearby gas station where he collapsed. The victim was transported to a hospital where he ultimately died from his injuries. The defendant was charged with second-degree murder. At the trial, the defendant sought to cross-examine the medical examiner regarding possible intervening causes of the victim's death, including medical malpractice, but the court prohibited the line of questioning. The jury found the defendant guilty, after which the defendant appealed.
Florida Standard for Admitting Evidence in Criminal Trials
On appeal, the defendant argued the trial court erred in refusing to allow him to question the medical examiner regarding medical malpractice. The court rejected the defendant's argument, stating that under Florida law, a defendant cannot escape a penalty for an act that causes a victim's death by arguing the death could have been prevented by certain medical treatment. Rather, if the wound inflicted by the defendant is life-threatening, evidence of improper medical treatment or the harm caused by such treatment will not help the defendant avoid a conviction. In other words, when a defendant fatally wounds a victim, regardless of whether the medical care rendered to treat the wound is malpractice or merely constitutes sub-optimal medical care, the care will not constitute a superseding or intervening cause of the victim's death.
Continue Reading ›
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An artificial intelligence model developed by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich (ETH Zurich) can forecast the binding configuration of two proteins.
The Equidock machine learning model targets rigid body docking, which transpires when two proteins bind by rotating or translating in three-dimensional (3D) space.
The model converts the proteins' 3D structures into 3D graphs that can be processed by the neural network; nodes in the graph represent individual amino acids, and geometric knowledge helps Equidock understand how objects can change when rotated or translated.
The model identifies protein atoms most likely to interact and form chemical bonds, then integrates the proteins into a complex.
Equidock could predict the final protein complex in one to five seconds, compared to four software models that required 10 to 60 minutes or more.
From MIT News
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Abstracts Copyright © 2022 SmithBucklin, Washington, DC, USA
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Modelling Behavioural Requirements and Alignment with Verification in the Embedded Industry
Paper i proceeding, 2017
Formalising requirements has the potential to solve problems arising from deficiencies in natural language descriptions. While behavioural requirements are rarely described formally in industry, increasing complexity and new safety standards have renewed the interest in formal specifications. The goal of this paper is to explore how behavioural requirements for embedded systems can be formalised and aligned with verification tasks. Over the course of a 2.5-year project with industry, we modelled existing requirements from a safety-critical automotive software function in several iterations. Taking practical limitations and stakeholder preferences into account, we explored the use of models on different abstraction levels. The final model was used to generate test cases and was evaluated in three interviews with relevant industry practitioners. We conclude that models on a high level of abstraction are most suitable for industrial requirements engineering, especially when they need to be interpreted by other stakeholders.
Test Case Generation
Empirical Software Engineering


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Why is sugar solution a mixture?
Water is a solvent and sugar is the solute. When sugar is added to water, a solution is formed as the sugar crystals dissolve. The sugar particles are still there in solution, however, they are evenly mixed. They have not changed into something different. A mixture is when two or more different substances are mixed but not chemically combined. However, a mixture can be separated again by physical means. Evaporation is one easy method to separate the sugar from the water. If one boils this solution, only the water will evaporate out of the mixture at 100 degrees Celsius. The water will change to gas and the solid sugar will remain behind. Eventually, the sugar will recrystallize when the particles cool.


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that different liquids can have different weights and densities.
You will need:
Two raw egg
1) Place one egg
in a jar and cover with vinegar.
2) Place the
other egg in a jar filled with water. Observe over the course of a
Leave it and check it out in about a week. Just let it soak away in
the vinegar. After a week, the egg should be see through but still
pretty much egg-shaped. The vinegar completely dissolves away the
shell (which is mostly calcium), leaving the membrane intact.
Vinegar is, in
fact an acid - acetic acid to be exact. It's the same stuff found
in tomato ketchup amd brown sauce. That's why a coin will become nice
and shiny what placed in either of these sauces.
Some of the vinegar
actually enters the membrane of the egg, and since this vinegar takes
up more space, the membrane stretches to accommodate it. This is why
the egg can look a little bigger. If you shake the egg, you can see
the yolk sloshing around in the white. If the membrane tears, the
contents will spill out just the same as with any raw egg.
If you do this with a hard boiled egg, the shell will dissolve in
the same way, and you will be left with a rubbery egg that should
actually bounce (if not dropped from too great a height!).
Try soaking a chicken bone in vinegar for several days to a week.
If the bone is fresh enough, you should be able to bend it; even tie
a knot in it. This is because most of the calcium has been dissolved,
leaving behind other less rigid parts of the bone.
1. Balancing Clown | 2. Oily Divers! | 3. Flying Counters | 4. Dancing Snake | 5. Chromatography | 6. Bubbles
7. Slime | 8. Balloon Rockets | 9. Under Pressure | 10. Surface Tension 1 | 11. Surface Tension 2 | 12. Surface Tension 3
13. Find your 'Blind Spot' | 14. Two eyes are better than one! | 15. Some optical illusions
16. and 17. More Balancing | 18. Dissolve an egg in vinegar! | 19. Egg Float | 20. Some Paper Airplanes


copy the complete content of the named variables, this is not so in the case of a capture. When I change sinthelastexample, thecontentofcap changes too, because when parameters to a routine are variables, they are also interpolated in the moment the routine is called, not when it's defined.
Properties and Traits
scope declarator, scopes
my $var;
our $var;
Assignment and Binding
my _USER_ = [1,2],[3,4];
Since every variable in Perl 6 is a reference, programmers can use binding to get 2 variables that point to the same memory location.
$original = 5;
$original = 3;
say $mirror; # prints 3
$original =:= $mirror # true, because they're bound together
$original === $mirror # also true, because content and type are equal
Special Variables
are listed in Index B. To understand their secondary sigil click here.


Managing Social Content to Maximize Value and Minimize Risk
The use of social business applications can lead to improved collaboration, knowledge sharing and innovation across your organization. It also creates a new set of content management challenges. How can you incorporate knowledge and information generated in interactions into business processes and put it to work for the larger organization? How can you quickly and cost-effectively find information needed for legal or regulatory proceedings? The social content management strategy you put in place can make all the difference in the ultimate long-term value you receive and risks you face from social solutions. In this AIIM white paper, you will learn about the roles of content publishing systems and content management systems in social business strategies and steps you can take to help ensure that your social business efforts are as successful as possible.
Sponsor: IBM


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The ADT CHEETEH is a computational model simulating the response of a human target to Active Denial Technology (ADT). ADT is a counterpersonnel, nonlethal weapon system developed for military use. ADT subjects a target to pulses of focused 95-GHz electromagnetic energy. This diffuses approximately 400 microns into the target's skin, producing no skin damage (within a known range of doses) while still causing a burning sensation strong enough to repel the target. ADT CHEETEH estimates the physical output of the ADT system and its effect on the target's physiology, cognition, and behavior. Each model run completes in a few minutes on a standard laptop computer and quantifies the ADT system's main measure of effectiveness (repel or not) as well as its intermediate measures of performance (dose on target, temperature and damage in skin, perceived pain level, etc.).
The author has also published a paper relating to this topic. To view, click here


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OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to describe the normative development of the electrophysiological response to auditory and visual novelty in children living in rural Kenya. METHODS: We examined event-related potentials (ERPs) elicited by novel auditory and visual stimuli in 178 normally-developing children aged 4-12 years (86 boys, mean 6.7 years, SD 1.8 years and 92 girls, mean 6.6 years, SD 1.5 years) who were living in rural Kenya. RESULTS: The latency of early components (auditory P1 and visual N170) decreased with age and their amplitudes also tended to decrease with age. The changes in longer-latency components (Auditory N2, P3a and visual Nc, P3a) were more modality-specific; the N2 amplitude to novel stimuli decreased with age and the auditory P3a increased in both latency and amplitude with age. The Nc amplitude decreased with age while visual P3a amplitude tended to increase, though not linearly. CONCLUSIONS: The changes in the timing and magnitude of early-latency ERPs likely reflect brain maturational processes. The age-related changes to auditory stimuli generally occurred later than those to visual stimuli suggesting that visual processing matures faster than auditory processing. SIGNIFICANCE: ERPs may be used to assess children's cognitive development in rural areas of Africa.
Original publication
Journal article
Clin Neurophysiol
Publication Date
564 - 576
Acoustic Stimulation, Age Factors, Brain Mapping, Child, Child Development, Child, Preschool, Electroencephalography, Evoked Potentials, Auditory, Evoked Potentials, Visual, Female, Humans, Kenya, Male, Photic Stimulation, Reaction Time


Integral Biomathics: Tracing the Road to Reality
October 9, 2012
author |
year published |
This book is about a new approach to biology (and physics, of course!). Its subtitle suggests a perpetual movement and interplay between two elusive aspects of modern science — reality/matter and potentiality/mind, between physics and biology — both captured and triggered by mathematics — to understand and explain emergence, development and life all the way up to consciousness. B
ut what is the real/potential difference between living and non-living matter? How does time in potentiality differ from time in reality? What we need to understand these differences is an integrative approach. This book contemplates how to encircle life to obtain a formal system, equivalent to the ones in physics. Integral Biomathics attempts to explore the interplay between reality and potentiality.


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New solar thermal project - what a gas!
Australian scientists have combined solar energy and natural gas in a novel process capable of producing large-scale energy to power the country's future industrial and domestic needs.
The Solar Thermal Project uses a parabolic dish to harness the heat of the Sun, causing methane to react and form a gas that can hold more energy than methane alone.
The project has just won the 2002 Institution of Engineers Australia Award in Engineering Excellence (Environmental category).
"The process is a means of capturing solar energy in a form you can then distribute," said project leader Dr Greg Duffy at CSIRO Energy Technology. "You can store it in a mechanical form as re-formed gases to use onsite, or distribute it via pipes for use later on."
The reaction occurs in a solar thermal concentration dish designed and constructed by Solar Systems Pty Ltd. The dish is lined with mirrors that focus the Sun's rays onto a reactor. This has the time of day and the date programmed in it, so it can track the Sun's movements continually.
The dish is in the shape of a parabola, so the rays are reflected up to the focus of the dish, eight metres away. The reactor is in the focus point, operating in 800-850 degrees centigrade.
The dish needs sun to operate. "We are relying on solar radiation," said Dr Duffy. The best days are cloudless winter days when humidity is low and the sky is clear.
The reactor is a standard type of reactor used in chemical processes – not a nuclear reactor despite being situated at Lucas Heights. It is packed with a catalyst to set off the reactions.
Water and natural gas (methane) are pumped up separately to the reactor. As the water heats up, it creates steam which reacts with methane to produce a high energy gas called'synthesis gas' or syngas.
The methane is converted into CO and H2 in the reaction. "These product gases have between 25 per cent and 40 per cent more energy content than the methane we put into the process in the first place," said Dr Duffy.
For example, a gigajoule of energy as methane will go through the process and come out as 1.3 gigajoules of energy.
The demonstration facility at Lucas Heights produces gas with up to 40 per cent of its energy value as embodied solar energy. It is the only one of its kind in Australia and among just a few in the world.
Dr Duffy anticipates that initially the high energy gas will be blended with regular gas and not require adaptation of appliances or pipelines. But if syngas is used alone, then appliances will have to be converted.
The exciting aspect of the process is the potential to create energy that can be burnt with zero emissions. "By decarbonising the fuel, you end up with hydrogen before you burn it," he said.
"It is relatively simple to remove the CO2, leaving the H2 behind. You can take the CO2 and sequester it."
The engineers hope soon to attract the interest of the Government – on both a State and Federal level – or gas producers to create a more commercial-sized demonstration. This makes economic sense. For example, if the dishes were built on a larger scale, their cost would come down exponentially.
In the longer term, Dr Duffy envisages larger solar thermal installations adjacent to gas producing wells.


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On World Sparrow Day, move to monitor common birdsMarch 19th, 2012 - 10:32 pm ICT by IANS
Mumbai, March 19 (IANS) A unique public participation initiative to monitor common birds in the country will be launched Tuesday, to coincide with "World Sparrow Day", an official said here Monday.
The "Common Bird Monitoring Program", a pioneer project and first of its kind in India, will monitor and carry out detailed mapping of 18 common bird species found across the country with direct public participation, said Nature Forever Society chief Mohammed Dilawar.
The birds like house sparrows, house crow, rock pigeon, rose-ringed parakeets, Ashy Prinia and Hoopoes shall be monitored, mapped and counted around the country as well the entire Indian Subcontinent, including Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, Dilawar told media persons.
"The data collected will help map the presence/absence, population/distribution of these common birds since there is currently no scientific data available on these common species in India," Dilawar explained.
The initiative is supported by a corporate house, the Jaypee Group Executive Chairman Manoj Gaur and Jaypee Group's IT arm, JILIT's Director Sunita Joshi - the latter has taken care of the technology to design the program.
This data, over a period of time would be statistically analysed for launching conservation efforts, he said.
"The knowledge about the status, population and distribution of common birds will help in timely conservation measures that can save these birds from extinction, and help create conservation interest among the masses," said Dilawar.
Similar programmes are continuing in many western countries, some more than 100 years old, with the Christmas Bird Count in the US running since 1900.
These bird monitoring acts as an early warning system to initiate remedial measures to save species from extinction before it is too late, he said referring to the critically-endangered status of the vulture, which was once common in India, and proper monitoring could have checked its decline.
Dilawar said that citizens can register and spend 15 minutes daily to monitor the 18 birds for the project from their homes, windows or any other location and make notings and enter their data daily, weekly or monthly or annually.
- India's first common bird monitoring system launched - Mar 20, 2012
- House sparrow is Delhi's state bird (With Images) - Aug 14, 2012
- Are house sparrows being driven away? (March 20 is World Sparrow Day) - Mar 19, 2012
- Bird watchers to revive house sparrow chirping in Shimla (March 20 is World Sparrow Day) - Mar 20, 2011
- Donate binoculars, promote eco-awareness - Sep 02, 2011
- Sparrow decline indicates serious environmental change: Experts - May 09, 2012
- This year celebrate 'Sparrow Holi' - Mar 20, 2011
- Maharashtra man enters Limca Book of Records (With Images) - Jun 09, 2011
- Concern for sparrows on spiritual leader's 100th birthday - Jan 24, 2011
- Pong wetlands hosting over 100,000 feathered guests (Feb 2 is World Wetlands Day) - Feb 02, 2012
- Himachal to count its feathered guests this month - Jan 29, 2012
- Know the bird and count it too - at Pong wetlands - Jan 25, 2011
- Where have sparrows gone? Time Hero to find out (With Images) - Sep 17, 2009
- Birds, animals up for adoption in Haryana - Jan 06, 2011
- Growing number of Cambodia vultures offer hope for endangered scavengers - Sep 06, 2010
Tags: christmas bird count, common birds, conservation efforts, conservation interest, conservation measures, crow rock, early warning system, executive chairman, gaur, group executive, house sparrows, indian subcontinent, media persons, parakeets, pioneer project, population distribution, public participation, remedial measures, rock pigeon, sunita


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Height: 85.000 cm
Bear or Goose house
From: Kayang, British Columbia (Haida)
Date: AD 1890s
The Haida people live on the Northwest coast of North America. They used to build wooden houses for their whole clan (extended family) to live in during the wet winter months. Totem poles, memorials to important chiefs, would be raised outside many houses. These can still be seen today, carved with stories about the clan of the owner.
This is a model of one of these houses, belonging to either the Bear or the Goose clan. The pole tells the story of a man who proved that he could hunt by catching a whale. You can see the man and the whale near the bottom of the pole.


Question: Why Do Clowns Have Red Noses?
What does the clown emoji mean?
Clown Face was approved as part of Unicode 9.0 in 2016 and added to Emoji 3.0 in 2016..
Who was the first clown ever?
What does being called a clown mean?
1 : farmer, countryman. 2 : a rude ill-bred person : boor. 3a : a fool, jester, or comedian in an entertainment (such as a play) specifically : a grotesquely dressed comedy performer in a circus. b : a person who habitually jokes and plays the buffoon.
When did clowns become scary?
1981Clown sightings First reported in 1981 in Brookline, Massachusetts, children said that men dressed up as clowns had attempted to lure them into a van. The panic spread throughout the US in the Midwest and Northeast.
Why are many clowns referred to as Joey's?
Grimaldi's popularity changed the balance of the evening's entertainment, so that the first, relatively serious, section of the pantomime soon dwindled to "little more than a pretext for determining the characters who were to be transformed into those of the harlequinade." He became so dominant in the harlequinade that …
What does Jester mean?
noun. a person who is given to witticisms, jokes, and pranks. a professional fool or clown, especially at a medieval court.
Why do we wear red noses on Red Nose Day?
The basic answer to this is because Comic Relief runs a charity night every other year called Red Nose Day. These red noses are therefore a symbol to celebrate this event. … They were on the hunt for a charity symbol that was bold and fun but also simple – and it had to be something you could wear.
Who runs Red Nose Day?
Red Nose Day in the United States is a program of Comic Relief US, a U.S. 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Comic Relief US harnesses the power of entertainment to drive positive change to help those who need it most in America and around the world.
Who is the most famous clown ever?
Here's a look at pop culture's most famous clowns.Ronald McDonald.Bozo the Clown.Krusty the Clown.Pennywise the Dancing Clown, a.k.a. It.The Joker.Twisty the Clown.John Wayne Gacy, a.k.a. Pogo the Clown, a.k.a. The Killer Clown.Happy Slappy.More items…•
Who was the first female clown?
Silvia Christoff, "The World's Only Female Clown (1867); and Ada Isaacs (1869) were the toast of Europe for over a decade. By the end of the 19th century, women were proving that they could indeed tell a joke.
Why do clowns wear white makeup?
WHITE-FACE CLOWNS The use of white-face dates back to comic actors featured in ancient Greek plays. In these seminal theatrical extravaganzas, white-face enabled performers to project facial expressions to the back rows of cavernous amphitheatres.
What do clowns wear on their nose?
While Belling's story frames the iconic clown image as a happy accident, many regard the tale as more legend than truth. The exact origin of the clown nose is uncertain, but its role in pop culture is much more assured. Clowns and their signature red noses are as much a symbol of the circus as the tents themselves.
What is a female clown called?
cluntWhat do you call a female clown? A. A clunt.
How did Red Nose Day start?
Red Nose Day history Comic Relief was launched live on Noel Edmonds' Late, Late Breakfast Show on BBC1, on Christmas Day 1985 from a refugee camp in Sudan. … On 8 February 1988, Lenny Henry went to Ethiopia and celebrated the very first Red Nose Day Telethon. Over 150 celebrities and comedians participated.
Who is on Red Nose Day 2020?
The fun kicks off on NBC at 8/7c with a spectacularly over-the-top "Celebrity Escape Room," featuring Ben Stiller, Jack Black, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, and Adam Scott.
What are sad clowns called?
The defining characteristic of Pierrot is his naïveté: he is seen as a fool, often the butt of pranks, yet nonetheless trusting. … Much of that mythic quality ("I'm Pierrot," said David Bowie: "I'm Everyman") still adheres to the "sad clown" of the postmodern era.
Is Joker a clown?
Joker is 100% a clown. … He's a clown in clown makeup wearing a clown costume.
Why do clowns wear makeup?
He asked visitors to put a hand to each cheek, feeling the individual movements of the facial muscles while talking, smiling, or frowning. These micro movements help convey expressions, he explained, and the paint is meant to highlight them. It's different for everyone, as is finding one's "inner clown."
What does the red clown nose mean?
(CNN) You've probably noticed a lot of photos lately of celebrities wearing red clown noses. It's all part of an effort to bring attention to "Red Nose Day," which started in Britain in 1988 to raise money for poverty-stricken children in the UK and Africa.
What is the origin of clowns?
Origin. The clown character developed out of the zanni rustic fool characters of the early modern commedia dell'arte, which were themselves directly based on the rustic fool characters of ancient Greek and Roman theatre. … The harlequinade developed in England in the 17th century, inspired by the commedia dell'arte.
What are the 4 types of clowns?
6 commentsThere are 4 types of clown the whiteface clown,tramp clown,auguste clown and the character clown. It would be easier for people like me who are looking for information if the character clown was included. … There are 4 types of clown the whiteface clown,tramp clown,auguste clown and the character clown.


Sweet pea flower pollination, SEM
Sweet pea flower pollination, SEM
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Caption: Sweet pea pollination. Coloured scanning electron micrograph (SEM) of pollen grains (yellow) on the stigma (green) of a sweet pea flower (Lathyrus odoratus). The pollen grains, which contain male genetic material, have become trapped by the stigma's papillae (hair-like structures, green). The stigma is part of the female reproductive structure (pistil), which is formed from one or more carpels. Each carpel consists of a stigma, a style and an ovary (not seen). If the female sex cells (ovules) in the ovary become fertilised by the pollen grains' male sex cells, the carpel may ripen to produce a fruit containing seeds. Magnification: x170 at 6x7cm size.
Keywords: botany, carpel, coloured, female, flower, grains, lathyrus odoratus, nature, papilla, papillae, pistil, plant, plants, pollen grain, pollination, reproduction, reproductive, scanning electron micrograph, sem, stigma, structure, sweet pea


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If family has celiac
Persons who have relatives with celiac disease
are more likely to get celiac disease (it's hereditary).
The disease occurs more often in certain ethnic/racial groups because more people in those groups carry the hla-dq2 and hla-dq8 genes that "cause" celiac disease. The genes are more common in persons from northern/western europe, but are uncommon in western pacific rim populations (china/japan).


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What makes people to undertake research? This question is of fundamental importance. The possible motives for doing research may either be one or more of the following:
1. Desire to get a research degree along with its consequential benefits.
2. Desire to face the challenge in solving the unsolved problems, i.e., concern over practical problems initiates research.
3. Desire to get the intellectual joy of doing some creative work.
4. Desire to serve the research community.
5. Desire to earn respect.
However, this is not an exhaustive list of factors motivating people to undertake research studies. Many more factors, such as directives of government, employment conditions, curiosity about new things, social thinking and awakening, etc may well motivate, or at times compel, people to perform research operations.


Why Your Microgreens Smell or Have Mold & 6 Easy Fixes
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Moldy Microgreens
Are you experiencing a foul odor coming from your microgreens that you can't quite ignore? This smell not only makes for an unpleasant growing experience but if you are a commercial microgreens grower, then the microgreens can't be sold to customers. What a waste of microgreens!
So, why do the microgreens smell? Many reasons could be causing the microgreens to be smelling foul. Some of the reasons are root or stem rot, mold, humidity and temperature issues, and chemicals. All these problems relate to each other, and it's vital to eliminate any possible cause for the production of healthy and tasty microgreens.
Here are six surefire ways to get your microgreens healthy and smelling great in no time:
 1. Lower the seed density.
 2. Avoid overwatering.
 3. Water from the right angles.
 4. Optimize the temperature and humidity.
 5. Eliminate mold.
 6. Sanitize the growing medium.
The main culprits of smelly microgreens are usually mistakes gardeners make that go unnoticed. In this article, we will discuss six practical ways to prevent microgreens from smelling and we will find out more about what makes them smell bad in the first place.
Practical Fixes to Smelly Microgreens
Smelly microgreens are a nuisance and they also bring huge losses in profit. To avoid growing smelly microgreens, here are the fixes you can implement:
1. Lower the Seed Density
If seeds are tightly clustered together, air deficiency and poor drainage occur. Some of the plants could grow, but they'll end up being too congested. This could prompt root rot, which gives off terrible odors.
If you are having trouble with determining how much seed to put into your container, take a look at this great article from Home Microgreens – Seed Calculator.
2. Avoid Overwatering
Overwatering leads to the deficiency of oxygen and prompts root rot. But how much water is enough?
It's simple. The soil or other growing media should be moist, not wet. Experiment with different moderate amounts to determine the most favorable levels. Use this Soil Moisture Sensor from our Best Garden Tools page to determine the optimal amount in a specific growing area.
Simply check the microgreen plants every day and water if necessary. A good water sprayer or a self-watering system might also help if you are still struggling. Check out our True Leaf Market Products page for some helpful links to affordable options!
3. Water from the Correct Angles
While it's okay to water from the top when the seeds haven't germinated, that's not always the case for sprouted microgreens.
If microgreens have some leaves, start spraying water from the bottom. If plants are sprayed from the top, the dense stems will trap moisture and cause musty smells, which can escalate to plant rot.
4. Optimize Temperature and Humidity
In order to optimize temperature and humidity for microgreens, think about how this is accomplished in the home.
Humidification for plants occurs when they are watered. However, it is recommended to use a dehumidifier and an air fan to control humidity levels and promote aeration. Many microgreen farmers fail to optimize humidity and temperature, and it costs them big time. Be ahead of the game and grow fresh, smell-free microgreens.
5. Eliminate Mold
If mold is noticed that is making microgreens smelly, eradicate it before it spreads. Here are two ways to get rid of mold on microgreens:
 1. Make a weak mixture of water, white vinegar, and hydrogen peroxide to spray onto the plants.
 2. Place the microgreens in sunlight. Mold will dry up and die.
See how to remove and avoid mold from microgreens by following this advice from Urban Farmer Curtis Stone:
HOW TO: Avoid and Remedy Mould On Microgreens
6. Sanitize the Growing Medium
Microgreens might take in chemicals that lead to smells. To avoid this, ensure that the components of the growing medium are well researched.
Most organic microgreen growing pads are expensive. However, they are worth the price since they produce healthy, tasty greens with little issues when growing.
Also, use food-safe plastics to ensure no chemicals like lead from PVC are absorbed by microgreens to influence their smell.
Isaiah 41:10
Why Your Microgreens Smell
Now that you're aware of how to stop microgreens from smelling bad, it's important to understand what causes microgreens to smell. Depending on set up, the microgreens could be experiencing any of the following issues.
Root or Stem Rot
Damping Off Seedlings
Root and stem rot can be caused by heat stress, high humidity and lack of ventilation. All these factors go hand in hand because high temperatures plus high relative humidity without consistent airflow lead to air deficiency.
Sometimes, root rot is also caused by damping-off — a disease that's more prevalent in wet conditions.
If a swampy smell is noticed, then inspect the set up immediately. Roots or stems will begin rotting if the issue is not remedied quickly. If this happens, then the entire batch of microgreens will need to be thrown away because they are no longer safe to consume.
Check plants' stems and roots for discoloration if rotting is suspected. However, if microgreens' roots and stems seem to be turning into somewhat thin, thread-like structures, then they have rotted.
Do the microgreens smell like a poorly ventilated basement? This can mean that mold has begun growing. Mold is an enemy to humans everywhere. If it can degrade a strong ceiling, imagine the harm it can cause to microgreen plants.
Mold development in microgreens can be caused by excess humidity plus inadequate aeration. To prevent mold growth, ensure optimal humidity, temperature, and ventilation for microgreen growing.
But could mold be mistaken for root hairs? People make this mistake all the time. They end up throwing away perfectly healthy microgreens because they think root hairs are mold.
Here's how to distinguish mold from root hairs:
 - Mold affects parts of the batch while root hairs are even throughout the entire batch.
 - Mold appears towards the top while root hairs only appear at the bottom of the stem.
 - When water is poured on them, root hairs jump a bit while mold does not.
High Humidity Plus High Temperatures
Many novice microgreen growers think that a sauna effect, like that of a greenhouse, is the best way to grow microgreens. However, this is not true, and this could be the reason microgreens are smelling.
While ideal temperatures and humidity for growing different microgreens are somewhat particular to the specific species, 64 °F to 75 °F in temperature plus 40% to 60% relative humidity is favorable for most microgreens.
High humidity swells the plants and brings a musty odor to them. If it stays like that for a long time, fungal infections will occur that can worsen to root rot.
The cause of smelly microgreens could be that the growing medium used was made with chemicals of which the gardener wasn't aware. Furthermore, it could be the plastic pots in which plants are growing that include harmful chemicals. Either way, the chemicals might be causing microgreens to smell.
The medium in which plants are grown is really important. Always buy seeds, substrates, and plastics from certified sellers. They may be slightly more expensive than the non-certified ones, but it's worth the investment to be safe. Not to mention, buying from non-certified sellers is illegal and customers can be held liable by the law.
In Conclusion…
Microgreens are not like the mature plants grown in an open farm or greenhouse. They are delicate and susceptible to the slightest pathogens and harsh conditions. This may bring up undesirable smells in them.
Now that you understand what might be causing your microgreens to smell, you can use the above fixes to curb them and also learn to avoid them for good.
If you would like to get started growing microgreens or need a boost in your supplies, we highly recommend checking out our affiliate at True Leaf Market. They have microgreen seeds, supplies, starter kits, and anything else you can think of to make your production a success!
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Corey Leichty
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Partial probability distribution
A concept that's useful for some of my research: a partial probability distribution.
That's a Q that defines Q(A∣B) for some but not all A and B (with Q(A)=Q(A∣Ω) for Ω being the whole set of outcomes).
This Q is a partial probability distribution iff there exists a probability distribution P that is equal to Q wherever Q is defined. Call this P a full extension of Q.
Suppose that Q(C∣D) is not defined. We can, however, say that Q(C∣D)=x is a logical implication of Q if all full extension P has P(C∣D)=x.
Eg: Q(A), Q(B), Q(A∪B) will logically imply the value of Q(A∩B).
This is a special case of a crisp infradistribution: Q(A|B)=t is equivalent to Q(A∩B)=tQ(B), a linear equation in Q, so the set of all Q's satisfying it is convex closed.
Thanks! That's useful to know.
Sounds like a special case of crisp infradistributions (ie, all partial probability distributions have a unique associated crisp infradistribution)Given some Q, we can consider the (nonempty) set of probability distributions equal to Q where Q is defined. This set is convex (clearly, a mixture of two probability distributions which agree with Q about the probability of an event will also agree with Q about the probability of an event).Convex (compact) sets of probability distributions = crisp infradistributions.


NASA to send self-charging robotic bees to space
NASA is sending some self-charging 'robotic bees' up to the space station to help astronauts, basically a collaboration between humans and robots.
NASA to send self-charging robotic bees to space
NASA recently announced its plans to send robotic bees, dubbed Astrobee, to the International Space Station (ISS) which will fly alongside the astronauts and help scientists develop and 'test technologies for use in zero-gravity' and 'help the astronauts do their routine chores'.
The 1sq.ft, compact, cube-shaped flying robots consist an array of cameras and sensors for navigation, crew monitoring, sampling activities, logistics managements and such other routine tasks.
It also features a touchscreen, speaker and a microphone, along with a mechanical arm that enables it to handle cargo or running experiments.
NASA wish to use Astrobees in order to learn more about how humans interact with robots over extended time periods and in close proximity. Also, Astrobees is a key for future missions to the moon and beyond.
Also, the Astrobees' cameras will give on-ground controllers the ability to fly around the space station and inspect the surroundings.
The space agency said, "They can see and hear the station activities through the free-flyers' microphone and cameras, monitor and conduct experiments, or oversee routine chores by remote control, almost like being there."
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1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Mocha Stone
MOCHA STONE, a name applied to chalcedony with dendritic markings, said to have been obtained originally from Mocha in Arabia. The markings which sometimes simulate with curious fidelity the form of miniature trees and shrubs, are caused by the infiltration of solutions carrying iron and manganese, which are deposited as thin films of oxide along the cracks of the stone, producing black, brown or red dendrites, effectively disposed on a ground of grey or white chalcedony. Most of the Mocha stones of commerce are obtained from India, where they are found among the agate-pebbles resulting from the disintegration of the trap rocks of the Deccan. In recent years the formation of dendrites has been artificially effected at the agate-works of Oberstein, so as to imitate the true Mocha stones.


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Organic matter and crude protein digestibility predicted from nitrogen and fibre fractionation of festulolium hybrids
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The objectives of the experiment were to study nitrogen fractions of the Cornell Net Carbohydrate and Protein System (CNCPS) and digestibility of organic matter (OMD) and crude protein (CPD) along with the possibilities for predicting OMD and CPD based on chemical composition and CNCPS nitrogen fractions. Thirty samples of festulolium hybrids (fescue hybrids and ryegrass hybrids) commonly used and certified in the Czech Republic were analyzed for chemical composition, brutto energy, and nitrogen fractions, these fractions being A (non-protein nitrogen), B1 (rapidly degradable protein), B2 (intermediately degradable protein), B3 (slowly degradable protein), and C (unavailable protein). OMD and CPD were determined by near-infrared reflectance spectroscopy. Nitrogen fractions showed similar mean values for both analyzed groups of festulolium hybrids. Mean rapidly, intermediately, and slowly soluble fractions (B1, B2, and B3, respectively) were 29.2, 30.7, and 33.7 g/kg of dry matter (DM) for fescue hybrids and 21.7, 33.5, and 31.9 g/kg of DM for ryegrass hybrids. There was a trend for fraction B2 to decrease with advancing maturity in relation to neutral detergent insoluble protein value. The mean content of bound fraction C was 10.4 g/kg of DM for fescue hybrids and 7.3 g/kg of DM for ryegrass hybrids. Three groups of hybrids were evaluated statistically: fescue (I), ryegrass (II), and combined fescue/ryegrass (III). Better regression equations were found for fescue/ryegrass hybrids. High degrees of CPD determination were identified with predictors of individual nitrogen fractions (R2 = 0.975; P > 0.0001). OMD was described in regressions only using nitrogen fractions A and B1 (R2 = 0.500; P > 0.0001).
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Now you can use MeaningCloud's text analytics without leaving your Google spreadsheet
Do you need to categorize verbatims of your customer surveys or analyze sentiment about your products on Twitter in the fastest and easiest way?
In that case, forget about learning new tools or having to program to connect to text analytics APIs.
The new MeaningCloud add-on for Google Sheets enables you to do semantic analysis from the comfort of your spreadsheet, without the need for programming or advanced analytical knowledge.
If you can use a spreadsheet you can already do text analytics
Simply paste the texts to analyze in a column of your Google spreadsheet, use the menu options of our add-on and the result of the analysis will appear as additional columns within the sheet, so you can use them in calculations, filters, aggregations and visualizations like any other structured data, in a user experience fully integrated into Google Sheets.
(Would you rather use Microsoft Excel? No problem. MeaningCloud also has an add-in for this product.)
The add-on for Google Sheets currently provides access to the following MeaningCloud functions, all of which can be configured by the user:
- Topics Extraction: identifies appearances of named entities, abstract concepts, money amounts, and time and quantity expressions.
- Text Classification: categorizes the text thematically, assigning one or several categories from a predefined taxonomy.
- Sentiment Analysis: identifies the polarity both at the document level and at the aspect (entity or concept that appears in it) level.
- Language Identification: identifies the language in which the text is written, from a list of more than 160.
- Text Clustering: groups texts by similarity and discovers meaningful topics in a collection.
And, in addition, the add-on for Google Sheets is totally free.
This new integration adds to our add-in for Microsoft Excel, our extension for RapidMiner, our app for Zapier, and our plug-in for GATE to make MeaningCloud the easiest to integrate text analytics tool in the market.
Now you can analyze your texts from within your spreadsheet with MeaningCloud for Google Sheets!
And soon we will launch new integrations. Stay tuned to this channel.


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The following calibration devices are available:
- Calibration swing arm
- White light source (mounted at calibration swing arm)
- Diode source (mounted at calibration swing arm)
The following options make sense for controlling the calibration devices:
- The intuitive location because the OSS TCS subsystem is responsible for swing arms in general.
- All instruments are able to use the calibration devices via TCS.
- The TCS software engineers are forced to write low-level device drivers
- The Arbitrator provides a central interface for accessing the calibration devices. It is possible to have a ICE interface to maximize accessibility.
- The Arbitrator coordinates the calibration devices.
- The arbitrator uses proven low-level device drivers.
- The Argos workstation with the Arbitrator needs to be powered up.
- It is mandatory that one Arbitrator runs for every telescope side.
Calibration Subsystem CAL
- The calibration subsystem CAL will have a similar state machine like the other subsystems like LAS and LGSW.
- The calibration subsystem can provide via an ICE interface access to the devices for other instruments.
- No Argos Arbitrator is mandatory.
- The other instruments must get to know the subsystem state machine.
- The Argos software engineers will spend a lot of time to write this subsystem.
- It is required that the Argos workstations are powered up.
Direct Access To The Devices
- No supervisor program is necessary, i.e. no programming work for Argos software engineers. Other instrument groups can find the manuals for writing low-level drivers on this wiki.
- Every instrument group is forced to develop low-level drivers by their own.


text: P'achakuna takes you on a journey in the heart of the Andes together with your most loyal friend — your llama. The game includes both black and white llamas, with you controlling one color and your opponent the other. White llamas move only through the green valleys, while black llamas scale the barren mountains. Whatever the color, however, you want to visit mountain villages to deliver the dye that they desire, ideally collecting dye for yourself along the way. In P'achakuna, each player starts with one llama of their color in the center of the board in the white village, with a white dye loaded on its back. The board is composed of hexagonal tiles that are either half valley/half mountain, two-thirds valley/one-third mountain, or vice versa. The tiles are extremely thick so that you can grab the mountain section of the tile and pluck it from the board. Six villages sit on the perimeter of the game board, each corresponding to one of the primary or secondary colors. Each village has a random demand tile in it that shows two colors, one in high demand and one in low demand; neither of these colors can match the color of the village. On a turn, you may first rotate one unoccupied tile; by paying two dye resources from your personal supply, you can rotate a second tile. You then must move each of your llamas at least one space, but you can move them further if you desire and if the terrain allows them to do this. You rotate tiles to create long paths of valley or mountain so that ideally your llamas can travel far with each move. If you move a llama into a village, you trade the dye on that llama. If the dye you carry isn't in demand in that village, you simply trade that dye for the dye from the village, say, green for yellow. If the dye is in demand, then you add 1-2 dye of that delivered color to your personal supply (depending on whether the demand is low or high), then you place a dye matching the color of that village on your llama. If you collect a color in your personal supply and don't have it in your scoring track, you can place it in your scoring track. No matter what, you replace the demand tile in that village, making sure the color of that village isn't on the demand tile. During a turn in a village, you can hand in four dye from your personal supply to acquire a new llama that is then placed in that village with a dye from that village on its back. Each llama moves on your turn, and you can have at most three llamas. As soon as you have one dye of each of the seven colors on your scoring track, you win. To hold the demand tiles, the game includes a handmade fabric bag from Bolivia and Peru, which supports the local community.


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To describe the learning curve and provide an estimate of the accuracy of physicians' US examinations (US skills) and self-confidence when examining umbilical catheter tip placement" Kaae et al (2019).
BACKGROUND: The training required for accurate assessment of umbilical catheter placement by ultrasonography (US) is unknown.
OBJECTIVE: To describe the learning curve and provide an estimate of the accuracy of physicians' US examinations (US skills) and self-confidence when examining umbilical catheter tip placement.
METHODS: Twenty-one physicians with minimal experience in US completed a 1.5-hour eLearning module. Ten piglets with catheters inserted in the umbilical vessels were used as training objects. Following eLearning each physician performed up to twelve 10-min US examinations of the piglets. Expert examinations were reference standards. Sensitivity and specificity of physicians' skills in detecting catheter tip placement by US was used to describe the learning curve. Self-confidence was reported by Likert scale after each examination.
RESULTS: Physicians' detection of a correctly placed and misplaced umbilical artery catheter tip increased by an odds ratio of 1.6 (95% CI: 1.1, 2.3) and 3.6 (95% CI: 1.7, 7.8) per examination performed. A sensitivity of 0.97 (95% CI: 0.80, 0.99) and specificity of 0.95 (95% CI: 0.84, 0.99) was reached after 6 examinations. For the venous catheter, US skills in detecting a misplaced catheter tip increased with an odds ratio of 2.4 (95% CI: 1.2, 4.8) per US examination. Overall, performance and self-confidence plateaus were reached after 6 examinations.
CONCLUSION: We found steep learning curves for targeted US examination of umbilical catheter placement. eLearning followed by 6 examinations was found to be adequate training to perform with a sufficiently high accuracy and self-confidence to allow for point-of-care use.
You may also be interested in…
Kaae, R., Kyng, K.J., Frederiksen, C.A., Sloth, E., Rosthøj, S., Kerrn-Jespersen, S., Eika, B., Sørensen, J.L. and Henriksen, T.B. (2019) Learning Curves for Training in Ultrasonography-Based Examination of Umbilical Catheter Placement: A Piglet Study. Neonatology. October 29th. doi: 10.1159/000503176..


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Looking for the Next American Hyrax? Thursday, June 28, 2012
Audience-loving animals express multiple traits through their songs, say TAU researchers
If popular karaoke bars and the long audition lines for American Idol demonstrate anything, it's that people like to express themselves through song — and the bigger the audience, the better. Now researchers at Tel Aviv University have found the same trait in small, rodent-like mammals called hyraxes, indigenous to Africa and the Middle East.
According to Prof. Eli Geffen and PhD candidate Amiyaal Ilany of TAU's Department of Zoology, hyrax vocalizations or "songs" go a long way towards communicating the singer's unique identity. Each one has unique songs that communicate a variety of information such as the singer's age, social rank, hormone levels, and size. And preliminary data suggests that the hyraxes prefer to sing when they have a more alert audience, taking the opportunity to promote themselves.
Understanding the function of the hyrax song will shed new light on animal communications, says Prof. Geffen, who notes that while birds are well known in the animal kingdom for singing, more complex vocalizations are rare in mammals. It's a model for learning how animals emit and receive signals, and what they understand from these communication channels, adds Ilany.
Their research, done in collaboration with Dr. Lee Koren of the University of Calgary and Adi Barocas of the University of Wyoming, and has been published in a number of journals including PLoS ONE and Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology.
A wealth of information is encoded in a hyrax song, which can continue for five to 10 minutes at a time.Identity, age, hormone levels, or social rank have the capacity to alter the songs, explain the researchers, who have been studying the same hyrax population for the last 13 years at the Ein Gedi nature reserve near the Dead Sea. "The long duration is a major strength of this project because we now know a lot about each individual animal," explains Ilany, including the details of their birth, life history, and social standing. "We can recognize this information encoded in song because we know them that well."
Using vocalization to signify identity is not without precedent. Many animals have the ability to identify another individual member of the same species by sound, say the researchers, because vocal sounds are unique to the individual that makes them. Flamingo mothers returning to the colony recognize their chicks by sound, for example. And of course humans can, too —recognizing the voice on the other end of the telephone before the caller introduces himself.
Beyond the information that is being communicated in the song itself, the function, context, and reception of the song are also significant. Singing hyraxes, who are almost exclusively male, are more likely to sing when they have an alert audience to listen to them. Prof. Geffen believes that perhaps the hyraxes use singing as a tool to promote themselves and facilitate communication with the other hyraxes.
Call and response?
In some cases, another male hyrax will respond with a song of its own, says Ilany. The researchers are now working to discover exactly what prompts this two-way communication. They are in the process of conducting "playback" experiments in which recorded hyrax songs are played to groups of hyraxes to see if different messages elicit different listener responses. For example, is a song that communicates a high social ranking more likely to get a response? The researchers are also testing the success of these self-advertisements by measuring whether hyraxes that sing in specific ways have higher success rates in finding mates and siring offspring.
There are still many questions left to answer, say the researchers, noting that many research groups around the world are attempting to decode animal communication systems. Eventually the aim is to create a "big picture" of how vocal communication works in this system, says Prof. Geffen, whose research has already gone a long way towards understanding communication in the animal world.
For more biology and evolution news from Tel Aviv University, click here.


text: 台灣經濟發展過程中，進口替代及中間財有重要之地位在，因此本文選定中間財來衡量進口替代之效果。 本研究採用Hsu（2006）之Chenery及Full-information衡量公式來衡量進口替代效果。兩衡量公式結果皆顯示台灣中間財產業於民國70、73、90年有進口替代現象產生，主要原因在於部門影響，而引發其為主因可追究於紡織業、化工原料業、塑膠業、石油煉製品業所致。進一步探討中間財產業下之石化業的進口替代現象，化工原料業及石油煉製品業引發的效果最為顯著，肇因於石化原料的國內需求增加使得其增產，增產原因來自於中油及台塑這兩家公司的石化原料擴產所致。中油及台塑這兩家公司對台灣石化業及中間財之進口替代現象，有極大之重要性在，而政府所給予的協助也不可抹滅。 Abstract: In the development of Taiwan economy progressing, the import substitution and the intermediate goods industry have the important involvement; therefore this study designated the intermediate goods industry weighs effect of the import substitution. This study uses Hsu (2006) Chenery and Full-information weight formula weighs the import substitution. The results of these two weights formulas all illustrate there are import substitution in the Taiwan intermediate goods industry in 1981、1984、2001 periods. The main reason lies in the effects of the sectors, and the initiating principal factor to be possible to investigate to the textile industry, the industrial chemicals industry, the plastic industry and the petroleum products industry. Further discussions of the intermediate goods industry import substitution phenomenon indicate the initiation effect of the petrochemical industry, the industrial chemicals industry and the petroleum products industry are most remarkable. The causal reason is that the increasing of the petrified raw material domestic demand makes the production increase. Moreover the reason of increasing production comes from the expansion of Chinese Petroleum Corporation and Formosa Plastics Group petrified raw material produces. Chinese Petroleum Corporation and Formosa Plastics Group both have the enormous importance to the import substitution phenomenon of the intermediate goods industry in Taiwan petrochemical industry, and the assistance from the government puts a lot of support on it.


text: Isabel Lopez was chosen as the Faculty Focus Friday employee for elementary schools. Ms. Lopez is a 2nd and 3rd grade Special Education teacher at Winchester Elementary School. Her teaching practices are vital to the learning of our special education students. Ms. Lopez is known for her fair, consistent, and caring demeanor that she demonstrates to all students. She is truly a dedicated educator and is passionate about helping students grow and learn each and every day. Thank you Ms. Lopez for your dedication and continued efforts to improve the lives of the students at Winchester!


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Silverlight for Windows PhoneThis member has a SecurityCriticalAttribute attribute on Silverlight for Windows Phone, because the attribute was present in Silverlight 3. This attribute restricts this member to internal use. Application code that uses this member throws a MethodAccessException.
For a list of the operating systems and browsers that are supported by Silverlight, see Supported Operating Systems and Browsers.


Strategic Direction V: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
The College of Pharmacy will build and promote a supportive, inclusive, and connected community through awareness and education, reflection and affirmation of individuals, and continuously improving organizational effectiveness through the lens of diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Strategic Goal 1: Programs/Curriculum/Research
Design academic programs, research, and service initiatives that develop awareness of and competence in principles of diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Strategic Goal 2: Recruit, Retain, and Develop
Recruit, retain, and develop a college community that is culturally reflective of the community that UGA serves and displays a commitment to racial justice, gender equity, and the inclusion of all people regardless of identity, ability, or beliefs.
Strategic Goal 3: Student Community
Attract and retain a student body who represent and value a culture that respects all races, ethnicities, genders, abilities, ages, sexual orientations, nationalities, and religions.
Strategic Goal 4: Systemic Change
Evaluate systems, processes, and partnerships through the lens of equity, ethics, and social justice to improve, or deconstruct, systems that do not provide equitable and fair access for all stakeholders of the UGA COP.
Connect with the UGA College of Pharmacy


Cat and Dog Fur Trim
Voice for Animals is against the use of any animal for fur. However, the dog and cat fur issue has strongly captured attention in both the US and in Canada. Every year, around Valentine's Day, Edmonton and other cities across Canada hold a fur protest to raise awareness about this issue.
Most people are unaware that each year over 2 million dogs and cats, sometimes former pets, are brutally slaughtered for the fur trade, mostly in China, Taiwan and the Philippines. Undercover investigations have revealed that cat and dog skins are used to make trim for a variety of products which are shipped all over the world, including Canada.
The investigations have also revealed that the animals are kept in horrendous conditions, such as in unsanitary, cold, cramped and damp cages. Some were beaten, stabbed or strangled before being brutally butchered; some have been skinned alive. Consumers are unaware of this brutal cruelty because the fur-trimmed clothing (including, jackets, hats and gloves), toys, figurines and novelty items they purchase may be trimmed, dyed and processed to look like faux fur; many have also been deliberately mislabeled as "rabbit" or "fox" or other species.
The United States, Australia and the European Union have banned this cruelty. Incredibly, Canada has not enacted legislation banning the import and sale of cat and dog fur; it currently remains legal to import and sell cat and dog fur here! As well, Canada has no legislation that would make the labeling of fur products mandatory. The Canadian Textile and Labelling Act does not require that animal pelts or hides be labeled, so consumers are being deceived about the fur products they buy! Help stop this horrible cruelty and deception.
1. Support Bill C-296 which, if passed, will ban the import and sale of cat and dog fur and will make the labeling of fur products mandatory in Canada.
Download, print and help collect signatures for The Associations for the Protection of Fur-Bearing Animals' petition (_URL_) to ban the import and sale of all cat and dog fur in Canada and to ensure that all fur products have a label indicating species of origin.
2. Contact your local Member of Parliament and the Prime Minister.
3. Help raise awareness about this issue by ordering and distributing the leaflet: Could you be wearing dog or cat fur? from _URL_ to local junior/high schools, colleges, universities and organizations.
4. Expose the brutality of the fur industry by writing letters to the editor. As well, post links to our website and to
_URL_ on your Facebook page and on other social media.
5. Obtain permission to set up aninformation table/booth at an event. Have leaflets, petitions and other information on it for distribution. Purchase and show the video "Silent Screams" at the event.
6. No animal should be butchered for
their fur. Say NO! to all fur and fur trim products!
Fur Overview
In 1987, Edmonton animal rights activists decided something had to be done about the cruel fur industry. At that time, sales of fur were high and wearing furs was considered prestigious by many. After years of picketing along "fur row" - Jasper Ave. between 103 and 104 St., our efforts started to show results.
The following chart shows the decline in the fur industry in Edmonton since 1988.
Date No. of Retail Fur Stores No. Wholesale & Manuf.
1988 18 9
1991 17 10
1994 13 6
1997 9 6
2000 7 4
2004 3 1
2008 2 1
2013 2 0
The federal government has been very supportive of the fur industry in Canada there have been huge subsidies to the industry paid for by Canadian taxpayers. Attempts to get legislation to protect fur bearing animals have proved futile.
We are therefore focusing on educating the public about the cruelty of the fur industry. By showing pictures of the suffering that both trapped and farmed animals endure and appealing to people's sense of compassion, we hope to put an end to this industry.
Our current campaign against the fur industry is called "Before and After". We want to impress on people that the animals used in the making of fur coats and fur trim are beautiful, sentient creatures that literally have their skin ripped off their back.
Before and After:
The three most common types of traps are:
1. Steel-jaw leg hold traps
2. Conibear or body gripping traps
3. Spring trap
Fur Facts:
Trapping - did you know:
 - Steel-jaw leg hold traps cause excruciating pain, crushing the leg of the animal and often tearing flesh and breaking bones
 - Trapped animals suffer in traps for hours or even days
 - They endure pain, hunger, thirst and exposure to the elements
 - The trapper returns to kill them by crushing their neck or chest or bludgeoning them to death
 - One in four animals caught in a leg hold trap will chew off their limb to escapeFor every animal trapped for its fur another 4 "trash" animals are caught and killed
 - A coat made from a trapped animal uses 3 times as much energy to produce as a synthetic fur coat
Farming - did you know:
 - Animals spend their entire lives confined to tiny, filthy cages
 - The animals are driven to many kinds of abnormal behaviour such as frenetic, repetitive movements, cannibalism and self-mutilation
 - They are killed by anal or vaginal electrocution, neck snapping and gassing, often with inappropriate gas that doesn't always kill the animal and it is skinned while still alive
 - A factory farmed fur coat takes 15 times as much energy to produce as a synthetic fur coat
2017 Voice for Animals Society


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We measured retinal image quality in astigmatic eyes, using the double-pass technique. We analyzed the influence of the amount of astigmatism and changes in axis of astigmatism on the eye's optical performance. Different amounts of astigmatism were obtained by variation of the cylindrical power of a lens situated in front of the eye, between 0.25-diopter (D) overcorrection and 1-D undercorrection at intervals of 0.25 D. Changes in the axis of astigmatism were obtained by rotation of the lens, which neutralizes the astigmatism in an angle of ±10° at 5° intervals. The results show the decrease in retinal image quality and the increase in the degree of image astigmatism obtained when the amount of astigmatism increases or the angle between the lens and the eye axis is other than zero. In general, the largest variations correspond to when the astigmatism changes from 0 to 0.25 D or when the axis changes from 0° to ±5°. The reduction in optical performance is smaller in living eyes than in an eye model or in an artificial eye. The aberrations present in the living eye reduce the relative loss of retinal image quality introduced by astigmatism.
© 1998 Optical Society of America
[Optical Society of America ]
(_PHONE_) Vision, color, and visual optics : Vision system - noninvasive assessment
(_PHONE_) Vision, color, and visual optics : Physiological optics
(_PHONE_) Vision, color, and visual optics : Vision
Jaume Pujol, Montserrat Arjona, Josep Arasa, and Victoria Badia, "Influence of amount and changes in axis of astigmatism on retinal image quality," J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 15, 2514-2521 (1998)