Sri Lanka Ship Causes Environmental Disaster
A burning ship off the coast off Sri Lanka has leaked hazardous chemicals into the eco system, causing an environmental disaster. The ship in question, the X-Press Pearl, has been branded 'the toxic ship' by the BBC due to the devastating impact that the incident has caused.
Why is the Sri Lanka ship disaster so harmful?
This environmental disaster has been regarded one of the worst in Sri Lankan history, and now most of the ship has settled at the bottom of the Indian Ocean. This makes matters worse, as the ship's cargo contained 25 tonnes of many harmful chemicals, such as methanol, nitric acid and sodium methoxide. The ship was also carrying 28 containers of raw materials that can be used to make plastic bags. These chemicals and other materials can be incredibly harmful to both humans and wildlife, and many fish and other marine animals have been found lifeless on the beaches of Sri Lanka.
The impact on marine life
The impact that this event has had on marine wildlife has been catastrophic. Fish, birds and turtles have been found on the beaches with microplastics in their systems. The plastic pellets that are used to make plastic bags are reportedly the most harmful to the marine life, as they can be fatal.
A coordinator at the Pearl Protectors, which is an organisation dedicated to protecting marine life in Sri Lanka, Muditha Katuwawala, has said that what happened here was very close to a "nuclear disaster", thus illustrating just how devastating this disaster is. It has been reported that the country may not recover from this for years, or even decades to come.
Loss of livelihood
Fisherman have also been banned from going any closer than a 50-mile radius of the incident. This has negatively impacted their lives as their livelihood and income have disappeared almost overnight.
Fishing has been banned despite the huge clean-up operation that is underway, as well as the many law enforcement officers and firemen that have been tackling Sri Lanka's biggest environmental disaster.
Could it have been avoided?
It is said that the fire was caused by a leak of nitric acid, a substance that the ship was carrying. This has been argued to have been caused by the nitric acid not being stored correctly, or not handled correctly. This leak was discovered at Qatar's Hamad Port, and the ship in question, X-Press Pearl, had requested to discharge the dangerous container, but Hamad Port denied this request, claiming that it didn't have the manpower, which is hard to believe as this port is state-of-the-art and well-resourced.
The X-Press Pearl later also requested to discharge of the leaking container at Hazira Port in Gujarat. This request was also denied due to the same reasons.
Had either one of these ports allowed the X-Press Pearl permission to unload, then this environmental disaster may never had happened.
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Tartini Square (Slovene: Tartinijev trg, Italian: Piazza Tartini) is the largest and main square in the town of Piran, Slovenia. It was named after violinist and composer Giuseppe Tartini, of whom a monument was made in 1896.
The square was once an inner dock for smaller vessels such as fishing boats, and was located outside of the first city walls. In the Middle Ages (MA), the dock became surrounded by important buildings and palaces, because of which it became an important site of the town. However, because of sewage which ended up there, the officials decided to bury the dock and set up a real square there in 1894. Around the newly created platform various new buildings appeared, of which the only one that still has the original exterior is the Gothic house named Benečanka.
The sculptor of the 1896 bronze monument to Tartini was Antonio Dal Zòtto.
From 1909 to 1912, a trolleybus path was made which connected Piran to the train station in Lucija where the Parenzana railway was made, which connected Trieste and Poreč with various other towns. After 1912, the trolleybus was replaced by the more efficient tram, which was operational until 1953 when it was abolished. After the tram railways were put away, a huge renovation of the square occurred, when an ellipse platform was formed out of white stone, designed by architect Boris Podrecca.
In recent years there have been some changes to reduce the number of personal vehicles within the square, in favor of tourism, so during the main season (July 1 to September 1) no vehicles are allowed to park within the square; instead they have to park in the town's car park in Fornače. There is also a line of free mini-buses which drive from Piran to various other coastal towns in the main season.
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source: openbmb/Ultra-FineWeb


Determine and monitor the docking state and type
Android devices can be docked into several different kinds of docks. These include car or home docks and digital versus analog docks. The dock-state is typically closely linked to the charging state as many docks provide power to docked devices.
How the dock-state of the phone affects your update rate depends on your app. You may choose to increase the update frequency of a sports center app when it's in the desktop dock, or disable your updates completely if the device is car docked. Conversely, you may choose to maximize your updates while car docked if your background service is updating traffic conditions.
The dock state is also broadcast as a sticky Intent, allowing you to query if the device is docked or not, and if so, in which kind of dock.
Determine the current docking state
The dock-state details are included as an extra in a sticky broadcast of the ACTION_DOCK_EVENT action. Because it's sticky, you can simply call registerReceiver(), passing in null as the broadcast receiver. The following snippet shows how to complete this process:
val dockStatus: Intent? = IntentFilter(Intent.ACTION_DOCK_EVENT).let { ifilter ->
 context.registerReceiver(null, ifilter)
IntentFilter ifilter = new IntentFilter(Intent.ACTION_DOCK_EVENT);
Intent dockStatus = context.registerReceiver(null, ifilter);
You can extract the current docking status from the EXTRA_DOCK_STATE extra:
val dockState: Int = dockStatus?.getIntExtra(EXTRA_DOCK_STATE, -1)?: -1
val isDocked: Boolean = dockState!= Intent.EXTRA_DOCK_STATE_UNDOCKED
int dockState = dockStatus.getIntExtra(EXTRA_DOCK_STATE, -1);
boolean isDocked = dockState!= Intent.EXTRA_DOCK_STATE_UNDOCKED;
Determine the current dock type
If a device is docked, it can be docked in any one of four different type of dock:
 - Car
 - Desk
 - Low-End (Analog) Desk
 - High-End (Digital) Desk
Note that the latter two options were only introduced to Android in API level 11, so it's good practice to check for all three where you are only interested in the type of dock rather than it being digital or analog specifically:
val isCar: Boolean = dockState == EXTRA_DOCK_STATE_CAR
val isDesk: Boolean = dockState == EXTRA_DOCK_STATE_DESK
 || dockState == EXTRA_DOCK_STATE_LE_DESK
 || dockState == EXTRA_DOCK_STATE_HE_DESK
boolean isCar = dockState == EXTRA_DOCK_STATE_CAR;
boolean isDesk = dockState == EXTRA_DOCK_STATE_DESK ||
 dockState == EXTRA_DOCK_STATE_LE_DESK ||
 dockState == EXTRA_DOCK_STATE_HE_DESK;


Sugar Maple
What tree is the Vermont state tree?
The sugar maple is the Vermont state tree. The leaves on the sugar maple turn red and yellow in the fall. These trees add to Vermont's beautiful fall foliage(leaves on a tree or plant). This is also the tree that produces the sap for making maple syrup and maple sugar.
For hundreds of years, people have gathered the sap in the early spring. The sap is boiled to remove the water. In the past, most of the sap was used to make maple sugar. Now a lot of the sap is used to make maple syrup.
Thinking About History
Historians ask questions to think deeply about history.
Why do you think Vermonters made more maple sugar than maple syrup 150 years ago? Which was easier to cook with? Which was easier to keep from spoiling?
Vermont Historical Society. "Sugar Maple." Vermont History Explorer. Accessed April 12, 2021.
Did you know means?


text:
Software apps and online services
Hand tools and fabrication machines
A simple power bank - keep alive module. As the name is already suggesting, this module keeps power banks from auto turn off, when the load current is too low.
The power banks usually monitor the current drawn from the usb, in order to find out if the connected mobile phone is charged, and if it is, turn off the output. This feature is good for usual purposes, or DIY circuits which draw a current above 100 milliamps; but not for tiny circuits with a supply current lower than 100mA.
This simple 555 based circuit, is an astable multivibrator with a period of ~5 seconds and a duty cycle of just 2%. So every 5 seconds, it turns on and connects a 100mA load accross powerbank for just 100ms. So the average power consumption of the module itself is quite low.
A schottky diode and a buffer cap, provide uninterrupted supply for the actual load.


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E How to Complete Installation Prerequisite Tasks Manually
This appendix provides instructions for how to complete configuration tasks manually that Cluster Verification Utility (CVU) and the installer (OUI) normally complete during installation. Use this appendix as a guide if you cannot use the fixup script.
This appendix contains the following information:
E.1 Configuring SSH Manually on All Cluster Nodes
Passwordless SSH configuration is a mandatory installation requirement. SSH is used during installation to configure cluster member nodes, and SSH is used after installation by configuration assistants, Oracle Enterprise Manager, OPatch, and other features.
Automatic Passwordless SSH configuration using OUI creates RSA encryption keys on all nodes of the cluster. If you have system restrictions that require you to set up SSH manually, such as using DSA keys, then use this procedure as a guide to set up passwordless SSH.
In the examples that follow, the Oracle software owner listed is the grid user.
If SSH is not available, then OUI attempts to use rsh and rcp instead. However, these services are disabled by default on most Linux systems.
The supported version of SSH for Linux distributions is OpenSSH.
This section contains the following:
E.1.1 Checking Existing SSH Configuration on the System
To determine if SSH is running, enter the following command:
$ pgrep sshd
If SSH is running, then the response to this command is one or more process ID numbers. In the home directory of the installation software owner (grid, oracle), use the command ls -al to ensure that the.ssh directory is owned and writable only by the user.
You need either an RSA or a DSA key for the SSH protocol. RSA is used with the SSH 1.5 protocol, while DSA is the default for the SSH 2.0 protocol. With OpenSSH, you can use either RSA or DSA. The instructions that follow are for SSH1. If you have an SSH2 installation, and you cannot use SSH1, then refer to your SSH distribution documentation to configure SSH1 compatibility or to configure SSH2 with DSA.
E.1.2 Configuring SSH on Cluster Nodes
To configure SSH, you must first create RSA or DSA keys on each cluster node, and then copy all the keys generated on all cluster node members into an authorized keys file that is identical on each node. Note that the SSH files must be readable only by root and by the software installation user (oracle, grid), as SSH ignores a private key file if it is accessible by others. In the examples that follow, the DSA key is used.
You must configure SSH separately for each Oracle software installation owner that you intend to use for installation.
To configure SSH, complete the following:
E.1.2.1 Create SSH Directory, and Create SSH Keys On Each Node
Complete the following steps on each node:
 1. Log in as the software owner (in this example, the grid user).
 2. To ensure that you are logged in as grid, and to verify that the user ID matches the expected user ID you have assigned to the grid user, enter the commands id and id grid. Ensure that Oracle user group and user and the user terminal window process you are using have group and user IDs are identical. For example:
 $ id
 uid=502(grid) gid=501(oinstall) groups=501(oinstall),502(grid,asmadmin,asmdba)
 $ id grid
 3. If necessary, create the.ssh directory in the grid user's home directory, and set permissions on it to ensure that only the oracle user has read and write permissions:
 $ mkdir ~/.ssh
 $ chmod 700 ~/.ssh
 SSH configuration will fail if the permissions are not set to 700.
 4. Enter the following command:
 $ /usr/bin/ssh-keygen -t dsa
 At the prompts, accept the default location for the key file (press Enter).
 SSH with passphrase is not supported for Oracle Clusterware 11g release 2 and later releases.
 This command writes the DSA public key to the ~/.ssh/ file and the private key to the ~/.ssh/id_dsa file.
 Never distribute the private key to anyone not authorized to perform Oracle software installations.
 5. Repeat steps 1 through 4 on each node that you intend to make a member of the cluster, using the DSA key.
E.1.2.2 Add All Keys to a Common authorized_keys File
Complete the following steps:
 1. On the local node, change directories to the.ssh directory in the Oracle Grid Infrastructure owner's home directory (typically, either grid or oracle).
 Then, add the DSA key to the authorized_keys file using the following commands:
 $ cat >> authorized_keys
 $ ls
 In the ssh directory, you should see the keys that you have created, and the file authorized_keys.
 2. On the local node, use SCP (Secure Copy) or SFTP (Secure FTP) to copy the authorized_keys file to the oracle user.ssh directory on a remote node. The following example is with SCP, on a node called node2, with the Oracle Grid Infrastructure owner grid, where the grid user path is /home/grid:
 [_EMAIL_]$ scp authorized_keys node2:/home/grid/.ssh/
 You are prompted to accept a DSA key. Enter Yes, and you see that the node you are copying to is added to the known_hosts file.
 When prompted, provide the password for the grid user, which should be the same on all nodes in the cluster. The authorized_keys file is copied to the remote node.
 Your output should be similar to the following, where xxx represents parts of a valid IP address:
 The authenticity of host 'node2 ( can't be established.
 DSA key fingerprint is 7e:60:60:ae:40:40:d1:a6:f7:4e:zz:me:a7:48:ae:f6:7e.
 Warning: Permanently added 'node1,' (dsa) to the list
 of known hosts
 grid@node2's password:
 authorized_keys 100% 828 7.5MB/s 00:00
 3. Using SSH, log in to the node where you copied the authorized_keys file. Then change to the.ssh directory, and using the cat command, add the DSA keys for the second node to the authorized_keys file, clicking Enter when you are prompted for a password, so that passwordless SSH is set up:
 [_EMAIL_]$ ssh node2
 [grid@node2 grid]$ cd.ssh
 [grid@node2 ssh]$ cat >> authorized_keys
 Repeat steps 2 and 3 from each node to each other member node in the cluster.
 When you have added keys from each cluster node member to the authorized_keys file on the last node you want to have as a cluster node member, then use scp to copy the authorized_keys file with the keys from all nodes back to each cluster node member, overwriting the existing version on the other nodes.
 To confirm that you have all nodes in the authorized_keys file, enter the command more authorized_keys, and determine if there is a DSA key for each member node. The file lists the type of key (ssh-dsa), followed by the key, and then followed by the user and server. For example:
 ssh-dsa AAAABBBB... = grid@node1
 The grid user's /.ssh/authorized_keys file on every node must contain the contents from all of the /.ssh/ files that you generated on all cluster nodes.
E.1.3 Enabling SSH User Equivalency on Cluster Nodes
After you have copied the authorized_keys file that contains all keys to each node in the cluster, complete the following procedure, in the order listed. In this example, the Oracle Grid Infrastructure software owner is named grid:
 1. On the system where you want to run OUI, log in as the grid user.
 2. Use the following command syntax, where hostname1, hostname2, and so on, are the public host names (alias and fully qualified domain name) of nodes in the cluster to run SSH from the local node to each node, including from the local node to itself, and from each node to each other node:
 [grid@nodename]$ ssh hostname1 date
 [grid@nodename]$ ssh hostname2 date
 For example:
 [grid@node1 grid]$ ssh node1 date
 The authenticity of host 'node1 (' can't be established.
 DSA key fingerprint is 7z:60:60:zz:48:48:z1:a0:f7:4e.
 Warning: Permanently added 'node1,' (DSA) to the list of
 known hosts.
 Mon Dec 4 11:08:13 PST 2006
 [grid@node1 grid]$ ssh date
 The authenticity of host'(' can't be
 Warning: Permanently added ',' (DSA) to the


Let say you have measured a Sharpe Ratio of $S^*$. What is the simplest way (ie no fancy distributions) to do a hypothesis that this is different from $0$?
So $H_0: \text{ The sharpe ratio is equal to 0}$ and $H_1: \text{ The sharpe ratio is greater than 0}$.
So given $S^*$, $\mathbb{P}( Y = S^* ) \geq 0.05$
But what should the $Y$ be? I read somewhere online that it could the non centered t distribution, but I am not sure whether this could be centered to the standard t test distribution. Moreover, I would also like to consider the normal distribution and as the sample used to create the statistic should be greater than 30, the t test to normal approxaimtion should apply.
Can someone please help me with the details here?
The answer above is not correct.
Let's go by parts:
Denote the mean of returns $\mu$. Denote the standard deviation of returns: $\sigma$.
Therefore the sharpe ratio is:
$$ SR = \frac{\mu-r_f}{\sigma} $$
The corresponding standard errors are:
$$ se(\hat{mu}) = \frac{\sigma}{\sqrt{t}}$$ $$ se(\hat{\sigma}) = \frac{\sqrt{2} \sigma^2}{\sqrt{T}}$$ $$ se(\hat{SR}) = \frac{\sqrt{1+SR^2/2}}{\sqrt{T}}$$
So the t-stat for the sharpe ratio is:
$$ t-stat(\hat{SR})= \frac{\hat{SR}}{se(\hat{SR})}$$
 - $\begingroup$ Take your point about sample vs population sigma, _USER_. But still respectfully disagree ;-) Will edit mine below, to elaborate. $\endgroup$ – demully Jun 15 '20 at 14:51
 - 1
 $\begingroup$ Adding a reference for clarity: _URL_-content/uploads/2017/06/… $\endgroup$ – phdstudent Jun 15 '20 at 19:58
 - $\begingroup$ thanks - interesting paper, need to Monte Carlo to work on how the inconsistency happens. $\endgroup$ – demully Jun 15 '20 at 22:32
 - $\begingroup$ OK, it's clear gaming this that variation in realised sigmas do have an effect on SR. Assuming of course the concept of a true population volatility/variance is a meaningful concept (one for another day). This can be material testing for non-zero Sharpes. This said, it remains a tautology that if (Mu-Rf)>0 then Sharpe>0. So there's a paradox in the special case of a test for zero, if one's confidence in a positive numerator is any different to one's confidence in a positive ratio (given a positive denominator, by definition). That makes no sense at all. Tx for interesting food for thought! $\endgroup$ – demully Jun 15 '20 at 23:49
 - $\begingroup$ The questions is whether (Mu-Rf) is statistically different from zero to start with! $\endgroup$ – phdstudent Jun 16 '20 at 10:24
Your Answer


Home > Arts & Culture
Art lecture explores levels of hell
by Mike O'Brien, Oregon Daily Emerald, March 12, 2008
Lecture concerns 10 Chinese which depict scenes from experiences in the afterlife
Portland, OR (USA) -- Have you ever wondered what happens when you die? In seventh century China, everyone went to hell. Ten times. While their loved ones watched.
<< Buddhist scrolls depicting the ten layers of hell often show scenes of torture and suffering. K.E. Brashier, an associate professor of Chinese religion and humanities at Reed College, will lecture Wednesday night about the morality behind the scrolls in the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art. Media Credit: Dave Martinez
"When somebody dies, they would ask for the scrolls to be hung up, usually close to the coffin," said K.E. Brashier, associate professor of religion and humanities at Reed College in a phone interview from Portland. "You'd be able to chart the afterlife process of this deceased person, so through rebirth, they have to go through 10 levels of hell."
Nearly 1,500 years ago, the Jade Emperor was said to have ordered the execution of a river dragon, who asked Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty to try to save him. Though Taizong tried, he failed and the dragon was beheaded.
Furious, the dragon dragged Taizong, who was in a delirious and dream-like state, to the hell courts to pay for his betrayal. Taizong's charges were cleared, but he had seen unspeakable horrors in hell and was told to record them all for posterity.
Taizong's Hell Scrolls were karmic; before being reincarnated, people had to pass through the levels of hell to pay for their lives' sins. Despite the subject matter's severity, the Hell Scrolls are comic book-like in appearance, colorfully depicted with ink on paper. A set from the 19th century is hanging in the University's Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art for "Marketplace Morality - Chinese Hell Scrolls," a lecture to be given tonight by Brashier, who is working on an educational project and database regarding the scrolls.
"It's interesting to be able to view other people's ideas of paradise and hell, and how they relate to the Buddhist religion," said JMSA Director of Communication Erick Hoffman.
Charles Lachman, an associate professor in the department of art history specializing in Chinese Buddhist art, said the Hell Scrolls are interesting because they're so macabre.
"There's some fantastic hell images from the 19th century and they're very beautiful paintings even though they depict horrible things," he said, noting the scrolls' contrast.
Lachman's favorite scroll is the 10th, which represents the final level of hell. Sinners' sentences end as they are granted rebirth, their memories erased of the horrors they have endured. It's his favorite because there are several different versions and not just one definitive design.
"These weren't viewed as individual, unique things, so in that sense, they're different from a lot of other kinds of art," he said.
In the fourth scroll, the Hell of King Wu Guan, those who had exhibited two-faced behavior were pushed off the bridge of no return by spear-wielding demons with ox heads. In the Hell of King Bian Cheng, women of ill repute were banished to the pool of blood and filth; however, good deeds, such as releasing an animal intended for slaughter, were rewarded.
Brashier compares people in previous centuries' fascination with the scrolls to the modern interest in horror movies.
"They're so gross and disgusting but you can't not look at them," he said.
He also finds them interesting as a theologian. He said seeing what offenses were punishable by torture, such as gossiping and cheating weights at the marketplace, can teach someone a lot about ancient Buddhism and its values.
"I would describe (the scrolls) as an educational experience on the afterlife in the sense that you can imagine a mother taking her child in and giving that child sort of a morality play," he said. "It's not just art, it's meant to be education in its own right."
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- Istituto di Biologia e Patologia Molecolari
The Institute of Molecular Biology and Pathology (IBPM) develops research in fundamental biology, with biotechnological applications in biomedicine, the environment and agrifood using interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary approaches.
IBPM laboratories are hosted within the University of Rome La Sapienza
MISSION The IBPM develops research in the following areas:
- Structural bases of protein and nucleic acid function, particularly in regulation of the expression of genes and genomes, of structural and regulatory proteins, and of molecules involved in the immune response;
- Molecular mechanisms of evolution and differentiation in animal and plants and biotechnological and biomedical applications;
- Design, synthesis, biosynthesis, purification and characterization of biologically active molecules: development of innovative chemical and molecular methods; characterization of their mechanisms of action; implications in human health.


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G_banking {lattice}
Calculates banking slope
banking(dx, dy)
dx, dy
vector of consecutive x, y differences.
banking is the banking function used when aspect = "xy" in high level Trellis functions. It is usually not very meaningful except with xyplot. It considers the absolute slopes (based on dx and dy) and returns a value which when adjusted by the panel scale limits will make the median of the above absolute slopes correspond to a 45 degree line.
This function was inspired by the discussion of banking in the documentation for Trellis Graphics available at Bell Labs' website (see Lattice), but is most likely identical to an algorithm described by Cleveland et al (see below). It is not clear (to the author) whether this is the algorithm used in S-PLUS. Alternative banking rules, implemented as a similar function, can be used as a drop-in replacement by suitably modifying lattice.options("banking").
Cleveland, William S. and McGill, Marylyn E. and McGill, Robert (1988) "The Shape Parameter of a Two-variable Graph", Journal of the American Statistical Association, 83, 289--300.
See Also
Lattice, xyplot
## with and without banking
plot <- xyplot(sunspot.year ~ 1700:1988, xlab = "", type = "l",
 scales = list(x = list(alternating = 2)),
 main = "Yearly Sunspots")
print(plot, position = c(0,.3, 1,.9), more = TRUE)
print(update(plot, aspect = "xy", main = "", xlab = "Year"),
 position = c(0, 0, 1,.3))
## cut-and-stack plot (see also xyplot.ts)
xyplot(sunspot.year ~ time(sunspot.year) | equal.count(time(sunspot.year)),
 xlab = "", type = "l", aspect = "xy", strip = FALSE,
 scales = list(x = list(alternating = 2, relation = "sliced")),
 as.table = TRUE, main = "Yearly Sunspots")
Deepayan Sarkar


text:
The WeCAN Early Intervention Programme (EIP) provides a comprehensive range of child services to support families and their children with autism aged 6 years and below. These services are autism-specific and specially tailored to meet the individual needs of the families and their children.
These child services include:
- Autism Intervention for Children
- Training for Families and Carers
- Transition Planning for Child
- Information and Referral
The WeCAN EIP follows the ARC(S) Intervention Focus Areas Pyramid
Intervention typically begins with the base of the pyramid (in a 1:2 context supported by teacher and carers) and works upwards towards social relationships (in a small group learning context)
Teachers will work closely with the parents on goal setting and implementation on a regular basis.
Every child who enters the programme begins a journey with us. The programme endeavours to provide the appropriate support to help each child move from one sign post to the next in this intervention journey.
The first step of the intervention journey begins with assessment of the child's learning needs.
Children are first assessed in the following areas:
- Interests / motivators
- Learning needs and styles
- Work habits
- Functional social and communication skills
- Risk Factors
Information from all sources is referenced to develop the most suitable individualised plan for the child.
Regardless of the level of entry, every child typically begins with a period of paired intervention (two children with one adult). They start in a smaller intervention room, focusing on basic intervention goals. Children are individually assessed and monitored on individualised goals.
Levels of Learning
There are three (3) main learning levels:
At this level, the focus is on areas of:
- Basic Compliance and Work Habits
- Engagement and Self-Regulation
- Functional Communication Using Conventional Means
Intervention at this level aims to prepare the child be ready for learning. We work on the skills in areas of child engagement and "learning to learn". This is done through intensive adult-led learning activities in direct teaching conducted in pairs. Parents and caregivers are actively involved in the intervention at this stage.
Typically, an individual session will be 1 hour and 30 minutes and cover the following:
- Arrival / Departure routines
- Work with teacher
- Circle time
- Art and Craft
- Independent work
- Play with Adult
- Parent training
At this level, our intervention focuses on teaching skills that help children become more independent and effective communicators.
Areas of focus include:
- Social Communication
- Group Learning
Children at this level learn in a group size of between 4-6 children with a minimum of two teachers.
Children may participate in a combination of different curriculum teaching focus areas during the course of each session. These include:
- Arrival / Departure
- Circle Time
- Play (Indoor and Outdoor)
- Art and Craft
- Table Activities
At this level, our intervention focuses on preparing our children for a social learning context. The children are in a ratio of between 6-8 children with at least two teachers.
Areas of focus include:
- Larger group learning
- Social Skills
- Problem Solving
Transition Planning and Preparation
Children in the WeCAN Early Intervention Programme (EIP) are served until the year they turn six (6). From day one when they join our programme, we pro-actively prepare parents and children for their post EIP placements which could be a mainstream setting, a special education school or a privately-run programme. Each child's journey in intervention will be different, and reflect the wide variety in learning needs and abilities.
At the end of every term, we review our children's progress on their individual goals and discuss with parents about the next steps of intervention. The recommendations could involve an extension of learning in achieved goal areas, a change in focus due to developing areas of learning needs or a move to a different group and classroom size to focus on learning in a different social context.
At the start of the year the child turns five (5), we will engage with parents in transition discussion and planning. Transition options are discussed and parents are guided on the steps for placement assessments.
Children at this stage will also learn transition skills that are relevant to them and these could include:
- School routines
- Managing test and exams
- Group learning
- Independent skills


The Client Fun Activities
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1. Movie Night
Watch the movie after the book has been read. Bring popcorn and drinks for a total movie night experience. Compare the movie to the book.
2. Map It
Map a route from Memphis, Tennesee to New Orleans, Louisiana. Take lots of back roads and plan your stops for gas and meals carefully.
3. Mafia Name
Select your own mafia name, like the intimidating Barry the Blade from The Client. Explain to the class why you selected that particular name for yourself.
4. Stereotypes
Discuss the stereotypes...
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Robert Mikos (UC Davis-Law) and Cindy Kam (UC Davis-Political Science) have posted Do Citizens Care About Federalism? An Experimental Test on SSRN. The article describes the authors' empirical study which they say demonstrates that citizen preferences for federalism (state-centered authority and autonomy) play a role in shaping public opinion in policy debates. Specifically, they claim that when political elites advance federalism values it can weaken public support for federal action within a sphere where citizens have a preference for state-based control. Because issues of federalism often lie at the heart of corporate law debates, this research is relevant to corporate policy debates on the legitimacy of federal action regulating corporations. Here is the abstract:
The ongoing debate over the political safeguards of federalism has essentially ignored the role that citizens might play in restraining federal power. Scholars have assumed that citizens care only about policy outcomes and will invariably support congressional legislation that satisfies their substantive policy preferences, no matter the cost to state powers. Scholars thus typically turn to institutions — the courts or institutional features of the political process — to cabin congressional authority. We argue that ignoring citizens is a mistake. We propose a new theory of the political safeguards of federalism in which citizens help to safeguard state authority. We also test our theory using evidence from a nationally representative survey experiment that focuses on the timely issue of physician-assisted suicide. We find that citizens are not single-mindedly interested in policy outcomes; trust in state governments and federalism beliefs, on the urging of political elites, reduce their willingness to support a federal ban on physician-assisted suicide.


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Since the 1930s, women have had an important role in documenting, preserving and celebrating Florida's diverse cultural heritage. March is Women's History Month, and in this podcast we will recognize and give voice to some of these women.
We begin with Eatonville native Zora Neale Hurston, who documented turpentine workers in Cross City, Florida as part of the Works Progress Administration's Federal Writers' Project. Through her essay "Turpentine," and field recordings, Hurston captured unique, first-hand accounts of day-to-day life in the turpentine camps, and the traditions that were an integral part of the workers' culture.
During the same time Zora Neale Hurston was conducting fieldwork in Florida, Sarah Gertrude Knott founded both the National Folk Festival and the National Folk Festival Association in 1934; among the earliest advisors for these endeavors was Ms. Hurston. In 1952, under contract from the Stephen Foster Memorial Commission, Knott organized the first Florida Folk Festival and formed the Florida Folk Festival Association. She also served as director of the first two Florida Folk Festivals in 1953 and 1954.
Succeeding Sarah Gertrude Knott as director of the Florida Folk Festival from _PHONE_ was "Cousin" Thelma Boltin from Gainesville. In addition to sharing her gifts as a storyteller, organizer and emcee, Cousin Thelma—a title earned from her familial rapport with festival participants—scouted the state for folk artists to recruit for the festival. With the help of Barbara Beauchamp, Boltin established the Florida Folk Festival in White Springs as a valuable institution for sharing and celebrating the state's varied traditions.
The success of the Florida Folk Festival brought the Stephen Foster Memorial Center a grant from the National Endowment of the Arts, and the Florida Folklife Program was instituted in 1976. Dr. Peggy Bulger was Florida's first State Folklorist, founding and administering the Florida Folklife Program from _PHONE_. She created a large body of fieldwork which laid the foundations for the Florida Folklife Collection, and instituted valuable outreach programs such as apprenticeships, educational videos and publications, workshops and exhibits. Dr. Bulger went on to serve as the Senior Program Officer for the Southern Arts Federation, and later as director of the Library of Congress' American Folklife Center.
With the establishment of the Florida Folklife Program came significant contributions from many other women. Working alongside Peggy Bulger was Brenda McCallum, who was instrumental in documenting and establishing contacts in Florida's communities. She also played an important role in developing the Florida Folklife Program Archive, and today the American Folklore Society awards a prize in her honor to institutions and individuals working with folklife collections. Tina Bucuvalas served as the State Folklorist from _PHONE_, though her work in the Florida Folklife Program dates back to 1986 with the Miami-Dade Folklife Survey. She currently serves as Curator of Arts and Historical Resources for the City of Tarpon Springs, and recently edited The Florida Folklife Reader.
The list of women who have been integral to the research, documentation and teaching of Florida's folk traditions continues with Lillian Saunders, Merri Belland, Doris Dyen, Nancy Nusz, Riki Saltzman, Jan Rosenberg, Debbie Fant, Andrea Graham, Laurie Sommers, Mary Anne McDonald, Teresa Hollingsworth, and Betsy Peterson. As part of the Florida Folklife Collection, the recordings in this podcast provide a unique look into to some of the methods, philosophies and motivations behind the work of folklorists.
This podcast features songs, stories, speeches and interviews from Zora Neale Hurston, Sarah Gertrude Knott, Thelma Boltin, Peggy Bulger, and Doris Dyen.

source: HuggingFaceFW/fineweb-edu


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Curriculum Resource Center
The Teacher Curriculum Center (TCC), located in the basement of Twilight Hall, Room B-12, is a facility open to teacher education students, liberal arts students, and K-12 teachers and administrators. Access privileges can be obtained by contacting the Director of Education Studies, Gregg Humphrey.
The resources in the Teacher Curriculum Center have been acquired through generous support from Middlebury College, Middlebury College Education Studies, the Middlebury College Library, Goals 2000 grants, and the Addison Central Supervisory Union.
The Teacher Curriculum Center contains books, videos, journals, and other resource materials on state and national standards, teacher education, educational reform and leadership, assessment, multicultural education, curriculum and instruction, language and literacy education, special education, educational foundations, philosophy, educational psychology, and educational technology.
The TCC also contains teacher guides, professional development videos, science and mathematics kits and materials, and art education supplies. The TCC maintains two networked computers, two printers (Epson Stylus Color 777, networked HP LaserJet 4050N), and two scanners.


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Prehistory (Early Humankind)
WideHorizon Education Resources
The Lascaux Caves: We start with a story retelling the discovery of the Lascaux Caves in France. The narrative tells of a group of young boys and their dog who, on an expedition in the local woods, discover the caves with the wonderful prehistoric paintings.
The value of stories: The paintings of prehistoric people are introduced in the context of a narrative. This helps students to enter into the wonder and excitement of such a discovery. Students are led to appreciate the splendor of the prehistoric paintings. They also learn how the paintings have increased our knowledge of the prehistoric world.
Readability level: The readability level of the story in the WER Unit allows students to work with ease when using the narrative to work on the assignments. The assignments develop historical literacy, language skills, and critical thinking skills.
Outline Web: Why did Cro-Magnons create the cave paintings?Have your students organize the answers to this question into a graphic overview. This and many more activities for students can be found in Module 2, Lesson 2 of the WER Unit Prehistory.
Have your students:
a) use their imagination and prior knowledge to answer the question,"Why were the paintings created?";
b) organize their suggested reasons into categories such as artistic, educational, social, and economic;
c) examine the story The Lascaux Caves for theme, setting, characters and plot;
d) write a similar story about the discovery of the caves at Altamira in Spain.
Sources: The WER story The Lascaux Caves is is based upon two articles published in The Illustrated London News. The first article, Lascaux Discovered (author unknown), was published on February 28, 1942, and the second, The Wall Paintings of the Lascaux Caves by Alan Brodrick, was published on April 12, 1947.
WideHorizon Education Resources-Prehistory/Early Humankind
Module 1: Understanding the Past
Module 2: Cro-Magnons and Neolithic Farmers
Example of content from Module 2 Lesson 2 Students are introduced to the cave paintings of Cro-Magnons through a story describing the discovery of the paintings in the Lascaux caves. The story is linked to a Guided Reading assignment that develops literacy and critical thinking skills, and encourages students to write creatively. Stories in all the Modules have controlled readability levels and Guided Reading assignments are linked to the stories.
Language Arts: Students study the theme, setting, characters and plot of the story. They also pay particular attention to the dialogue and compare direct and indirect quotation.
Creative Writing: Students create a similar story based on given facts about the discovery of cave paintings at Altamira.
Critical Thinking Skills: Students are given an outline web and are asked to provide possible explanations of why Cro-Magnons painted cave walls.
Prehistory/Early Humankind (2 Modules) includes 5 stories with readability levels, 3 guided reading assignments, 1 readers theatre, 13 activity sheets, 2 assignments targeted for monitoring and assessment, 1 map activity, 13 illustrated information sheets, 10 blackline masters, 2 review exercises, 2 colored reproductions, 10 teacher lesson guideline sheets, 2 monitoring and assessment guideline sheets.
WideHorizon Education Resources (WER) material is in two formats. Firstly as a Starter Pack. Secondly as a Classroom Pack. Both Packs include a Teacher Guide containing all the material from the MLA Teaching Packs, with occasional refinements for the USA market. The ONLY difference between a Starter Pack and a Classroom Pack is that the Starter Pack contains just one Student Reference Book (SRB) while a Classroom Pack contains 35 (thirty-five) SRBs. The Starter Pack is available as a pdf (no postage or processing fee). A physical copy (postage/processing fees apply) can be provided at additional cost. Classroom Packs are ONLY available as physical copies and only for USA teachers. All physical copies are in USA and cost of sending abroad is prohibitive but please contact MLA if you have any queries (contact details at bottom of page).
WideHorizon Education Resources (WER) Teaching Packs are designed to appeal to the heart, head and hands. Original material is the Mollet Learning Academy (MLA) Teaching Packs (written initially for New Zealand teachers). On request from USA teachers, monitoring and assessment procedures were added and renamed WER Teaching Packs to distinguish them from MLA Teaching Packs.
Early Humankind, Ancient Israelites, Ancient India, Ancient China – USA $59.95
Mesopotamia, Ancient Egypt, Ancient Kush, Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome USA $79.95
Early Humankind, Ancient Israelites, Ancient India, Ancient China – USA $199.95
Mesopotamia, Ancient Egypt, Ancient Kush, Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome
Set of Nine Starter Packs – USA $599.95
Set of Nine Classroom Packs – USA $1999.95
Set of 10 non-consumable SRBs – Prehistory, Israelites, India, China – USA $59.95
Set of 10 non-consumable SRBs – Egypt, Kush, Greece, Rome – USA $79.95
Set of 10 non-consumable SRBs – Mesopotamia – USA $89.95
7% S&H applies unless other arrangements made – thanks.
Dr. David Mollet _EMAIL_
NZ: h 09-_PHONE_ m _PHONE_, 41 Hilling St, Titirangi, Auckland 0604
USA: _PHONE_, 6656 Reservoir Lane, San Diego, CA 92115 (Skype waldorfedu)
1) The material was initially written for New Zealand teachers but on request from USA teachers, monitoring and assessment procedures were added. To view this material please visit _URL_
WideHorizon Education Resources (WER) _URL_ Waldorf Education Resources (WER) _URL_
2) MLA is also involved in researching on an international basis, what works and what doesn't work. Most of the research results can be seen at _URL_ while a draft of a book The Task for New Zealand Education is at _URL_
3) Blogs at _URL_
4) Business Plan at _URL_
5) Papyrus _URL_
If you wish to subscribe to MLA Newsletter please do so at _URL_ and take care, David
1. The MLA approach to education believes in developing the creative and imaginative side of the student in harmony with the intellectual and cognitive. To achieve this, MLA Teaching Packs make stories and drama an integral part of the lessons and involve students through storytelling, art, simulations, drama, craft, discussion and creation of a personal record.
3. Click here if you wish to access free lesson on papyrus (enter Papyrus in Subject line – any information you supply is treated in complete confidence).
4. Click here for Mollet Learning Academy (MLA) Teaching Packs.
5. Click here to find out about Kush. Kush is Africa's oldest interior civilization. Do your students, particularly African-American, have the opportunity to study this part of their cultural heritage?
6. Click here for articles and research reports.
7. Click here to check out evaluations of pilots carried out in schools in San Diego and to read what teachers think about our lessons/newsletters.
"These resource packs contain unbound, ready-to-use reproducible masters, that are varied, simple, and appealing to students. The interactive strategies suggested are suitable for independent, small-group, and whole-class assignments."
(Grade 6 Course Models – California State Department of Education)
8. Click here to check out evaluation of WER Unit Kush by USA leading authority.
9. Information on workshops/presentations for introducing the MLA approach into public schools available at _URL_
10. For an explanation of the philosophy behind the writing of these packs click _URL_
11. Click _URL_ for details of on-line courses accredited by San Diego State University.


How To Breakdown Stuck Tractor Tire?
How do you break down a tractor tire?
Use a sledgehammer or crowbar to break the bead of the tire. If you have a large tractor tire, use a sledgehammer to strike the tire just above the edge of the rim where they connect to break the bead. Continue hitting the tire around the entire circumference of the rim to break the seal completely.
How do you break a stubborn tire bead?
Basically what you do is just leave a a couple psi of air in the tires, and lay the wheel on its side, and step on the tire with your foot. It is a tight fit, but use your body weight to break the bead. This works, done it several times.
How much does it cost to change a tractor tire?
Can I cut a tire off a rim?
The tire is held to the rim by an area called the bead. The sidewall in between the bead and tread surface is relatively weak on steel belted radial tires. You can cut though it with a the drywall knife pictured. You will however need a saw blade or cutoff wheel for the bead wires.
You might be interested: Question: How To Adjust A Carburetor For An International Tractor?
How do you take a tire off a rim at home?
Can I change my own tractor tire?
Can you use fix a flat on tractor tires?
How do I know if my tractor tire has a tube?
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- Free Essays, Term Papers, Research Papers and Book Reports
Impact of National Culture on Human Resource Management
By: • June 24, 2012 • Case Study • 3,486 Words (14 Pages) • 1,620 Views
Page 1 of 14
Table of Contents
National culture and rewards related preferences 10
The role of value orientation 11
Distributive justice 11
Socially healthy pay and pay differentials 11
Performance-related pay (PRP) 12
Financial involvement 12
Employee benefits 12
Selection and Recruitment 13
Training 13
Motivation and reward system 14
Diversity at workplace 15
Merits and demerits of diversity at workplace 15
The main aim of the study is to analyze the impact of national culture on human resource management. When considered in a cross-cultural context, the human resource strategies vary a lot. Hofstede's work is most prevalent in cross-cultural management studies. So his dimensions in national culture are used in the analysis of India and US. This study defines how pay, motivation and the reward system are influenced by the culture. The cross-cultural merits and demerits are mentioned in this report. This report also concentrates on national culture influences on human resource management. This report shows that the national culture influence on human resource management practices. Therefore, this report says that the human resource practices are bounded by culture, values of the society.
Human Resource Management (HRM) is highly influenced by culture. Many aspects of HRM are different in different countries. When studying about the impact of culture on HRM it is necessary to see what is meant by culture. Culture is a complicated concept among the researchers. In anthropological and sociological terms, culture refers to the values and attributes of the community the people belong. "Hofstede defines culture as the collective programming of the mind based on a broad tendency to prefer certain states of affairs over others" (Tayeb 2008). Tayeb defined culture as historically evolved values, attributes and meaning which are learned and shared by the members of the community and which influence their way of life. All researchers give different meanings to culture. It is different between nations. HRM can be influenced by culture. Some HRM functions like recruitment, pay, reward system, training, and development are underpinned by associated culture values.
Personnel management is a traditional administrative function. They are maintenance oriented. These are usually performed by the personnel department in an organization. They will react, respond only when problems arise. The main motivators of PM are compensations, rewards, job simplification and so on. PM is criticized in many ways. Employees are viewed as 'economic animal' who can be motivated through the manipulation of reward system. The power is playing in many organizations.the managers want the employees to do what they want. Attention is little paid to the views of the employee. (Tayeb 2008)
HRM is an American invention in early 1980s. it was practiced in some companies and the positive record adapted it many companies. Then it came to European countries. The effective HRM leads to higher productivity and higher performance. HRM also deals with personnel functions buts they are planned and implemented with regard to the companies' strategies. (Tayeb 2008)
According to Porter, The strategic role of HRM is to support activities of the organization. HRM is different from personnel management in three ways. (Tayeb 2008)
Firstly, Personnel management focuses on the management and the sub-ordinates and HRM focus on the entire management team.
Secondly, the line managers have the main role in HRM and to achieve profit by coordinating resources. But this is not in case for the personnel management.
Thirdly, the aspect of the HRM is the management of organizational culture and the personnel management has no role in this.
In 1980's Hofstede found the five dimensions of national culture that can be used to illustrate the different values in different native cultures of different countries. These dimensions can be used to illustrate how people in a different culture act and how they behave in work related factors.
These dimensions are power distance, uncertainty avoidance, individualism/collectivism, and masculinity/femininity.
Figure 1: Hofstede's Model of Cultural Differences
Hofstede's study has been criticized in many ways but it is very useful to know the cross-cultural framework. It is very helpful for someone who is entering into the new business or employment. All should be aware of the different cultural differences. Each country has its own culture and this cultural difference can influence workplace value and business communication.
Power distance:
If power distance score is higher, that means there are unfair relationships between the superiors and the subordinates. It also shows the inequalities of power and wealth are allowed in the societies. Power distance is high in countries like India and France. Their employees have to show respect to the higher authorities. The decision making is centralized. That means managers will not include the employees while taking decisions about their appraisals. In countries like Australia and Israel, there is a low inequality culture. Employees feel free to consult with the managers in whatever situations they are. They do not feel it as a disrespectful manner. They have the flexibility in their work. Here decision making takes place in the presence of the employees. (Henderson 2008).
India indicates a high power-distance score that shows the high level of inequality of power and wealth within the society. The people accept this as a cultural norm. The score of India is 77 and the world average is 56.5. US indicates a low power distance of 40 that shows they have greater equality of power. (
Uncertainty Avoidance [UA]:
The extent to which how easily the culture corporate with the changes. If UA is high, it creates a rule-oriented society. If UA is low the society is less rule-oriented and they are highly tolerance to variety of opinions and also they take greater risk. France has high uncertainty avoidance score, when compared with the lower U.S. score. Americans do not displace or dismiss any employee whose work is unsatisfactory; they consider it as a gain in efficiency. But the French need for continuing relationships with long-time members of the company, whose trusted presence reduces uncertainty. Countries like Japan and Greece have high UA. The employees in companies in these countries are attracted to long term commitment. Companies in countries like Denmark Hong Kong, the people are not able to corporate with the changes very easily and they find things in a sensible way rather than following theories. They will try to find out the need for change and work accordingly. People do not want to work in a stable work atmosphere. (Henderson 2008).
India is having a low ranking in UA. The culture is more open to unstructured ideas and situations. The dimension score is 40 when compared to world average which has 65. This dimension score is high for US. They have 46. That means they have less rules and greater level of tolerance. (
Individualism / Collectivism:
It is the extent to which the culture encourages the individual. Countries like USA, UK they have individualist culture. They give importance to individual achievement. Here the aim is to be a good leader. People work only the normal hours and they want to get paid if they work overtime. They do not consider the relation to overlap with the private relation. Where individualism is high people are expected to take care of themselves and their family. Countries like Iran and Peru they have collectivist cultures. The entire organization works like one family. They support each other. Their aim is to be a good member of the organization. They
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text: The non-linear free vibration behavior of functionally graded (FG) orthotropic cylindrical shell interacting with the two-parameter elastic foundation is investigated. The major goal of this research was to obtain a solution for the non-linear frequencies associated with the problem outlined above. The dynamic stability and compatibility equations of FG orthotropic cylindrical shells surrounded by an elastic foundation are derived within the first order shear deformation theory (FSDT) and von Karman strain displacement relationships, and then superposition and Galerkin methods are adopted to convert the above equations into a nonlinear ordinary differential equation. The expression for non-linear frequency of FG orthotropic cylindrical shell surrounded by an elastic foundation within the FSDT is obtained using the homotopy perturbation method (HPM). In particular, similar expression in the framework of the classical shell theory (CST) is obtained, also. The results are compared and validated with the results available in the literature. Finally, the calculation and presentation of the effect of many parameters included in the analysis conclude the goals to be reached in the study. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.


LABIFOL MOVICAL has been designed to provide calcium by means of natural complexing agents, 100% recognisable by the plant.
The plant recognizes the Ca complex as its own and transports it through the sap more quickly. Calcium is more active and a higher concentration is produced in fruits.
Therefore, a spectacular improvement in post-harvest behaviour is obtained, reducing physiopathies such as bitter-pit, tomato pests and rots. Resistance to handling is also improved.


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Critical thinking, technology and mock conventions
Instructional simulations give students an opportunity to have a deeper understanding of learning through the process of conducing the simulation.
What's the key element that differentiates instructional simulation from other teaching methods? The specification of a conceptual structure within which students interact and experience - firsthand - the relationships between concepts.
Electing a President: An Instructional Simulation
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools and GenerationNation are partnering to offer curriculum and other educational resources giving students the opportunity to learn about political conventions by taking part in the process - and then sharing photos, videos and other content so everyone can see civics in action!
In this mock convention instructional simulation, students take on the role of a delegate to a political convention, and run a model convention. Students learn various aspects of the election process, and how each step is interdependent.
Students, schools, families and youth programs have the opportunity to document their civic learning activities - such as the mock convention - and sharing with GenerationNation via social media.
More than Democrat and Republican
During Campaign 2012, there are nine political conventions taking place throughout the United States. Additionally, there could be many candidates from parties on the November 2012 ballot, and the possibility of another 4 independent candidates (without party affiliation). This is why it is important for students to understand the presidential election process.
Critical thinking and creative thinking
This simulation of political conventions involves both critical thinking and creative thinking:
- Critical thinking is analytical, objective and selective. When students think critically, they make choices based on researched information and from personal experiences.
- Creative thinking is generative, subjective and expansive. When students think creatively, they are open to and generate new ideas.
- Each way of thinking is helpful as students' process information and demonstrates their understanding by producing a product that conveys that understanding.
Don Mitchell, Social Studies Specialist in the Department of Humanities in Curriculum and Instruction at Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools


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Several recent reports of "swimmers itch" have occurred as a result of swimming or wading in shallow areas with very warm water temperatures. Individuals with compromised immune systems, other health issues and children may want to avoid water contact at warm and shallow beaches — particularly North Nets, South Nets and Long Beach.
An advisory is a warning to swimmers but it is not a beach closure and all public beaches at Pyramid Lake remain open. During an advisory, a beach is posted with warning signs when the water contains levels of bacteria that indicate there may be an increased risk of developing minor skin, eye, ear, nose and throat infections and stomach disorders. Anyone who chooses to swim during an advisory is asked to avoid dunking their head in, or swallowing the water.
Anyone swimming should take additional precautions, including drying off vigorously with a towel, showering shortly after swimming and avoiding the ingestion of lake water. If visitors to Pyramid Lake do experience symptoms of "swimmers itch" they are encouraged to report it to the tribe by calling _PHONE_.


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The Canada Science and Technology Museums Corporation (CSTMC), in partnership with a number of organizations across the country, invites all Canadians to explore the relationship between energy, the Canadian economy and the environment.
This multi-year initiative will reach Canadians across the country through a range of activities including exhibitions, distance learning programs, school programs and kits, virtual exhibitions, social media programming, and lectures and workshops.
Explore this site, join the discussion, and learn how you can make a difference.
Winner of many prestigious awards and an official selection at countless prominent festivals, Dr. Scott Tinker's engaging and thought-provoking film, Switch, is coming to Canada! Let's Talk Energy, in partnership with museums, science centres, universities, colleges and local groups will be presenting screenings of Switch across the country. Most screenings will be followed by a discussion exploring Canada's energy future. Join the conversation on-line, too -- share your thoughts on the film, on energy-related challenges and opportunities, and on the conversations across Canada!
Click HERE to learn about upcoming screenings near you.
SCEnaRios is a project in which students aged 15-18 working with various science centres and museums around the world collaborate to focus on a global issue and develop solutions through research and discussion. The Canadian team is coordinated by the Canada Science and Technology Museums Corporation and has been paired with youth from the United States and Denmark on the topic of sustainable energy.
A final video presenting their vision for the future of global energy and highlights from their field-trips will be seen as part of the June 19th at 1pm web discussion at the Rio Summit.
Whether you're a curious student, armchair scientist, industry expert or internet junky, there's always something to learn about energy. As a leader in online learning, Coursera has partnered with the Georgia Institute of Technology to offer Energy 101—a free, online course designed to inform and educate broadly on the topic of energy. As a college level course, Energy 101 offers a comprehensible look at a complex and multi-facetted subject. Over the course of 9 weeks Dr. Sam Shelton will provide insight into the social, physical, economic and technological forces driving energy production, distribution, and consumption. Watch the following video for a brief introduction by Dr. Shelton and click on the link below to enrol today.
Click here to see the course


Fuel Gas
Fuel gas is commonly used in the power generating industry as an energy source for turbines. Before the fuel gas is burned in the turbines it needs to be treated to ensure the removal of solid, liquid and gas contaminants. A fuel gas conditioning system commonly consists of the following components: a pre-heater, a pressure regulation valve, two high efficiency coalescing filter elements and a super heater.
The pre-heater is used to prevent the formation of hydrate due to a pressure and temperature drop across the pressure regulator.
The pressure regulating valve is then used to maintain a constant gas pressure to the turbine in the event that the gas supply pressure exceeds an acceptable level.
The coalescing filter is used to remove the solids and liquids. The system will commonly include two such filters so that one can be replaced without shutting down the fuel gas conditioning system
Finally a superheater is used to ensure that superheated gas enters the turbine at the correct temperature.
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Jacob Teller
Jacob Teller was born in 1655. He was a younger son of New Netherland pioneers Willem and his first wife, Margaret Donchesen (Duncan) Teller. His parents were of Scottish origins and came to Beverwyck before Jacob was born.
Jacob grew up in a large family at his father's residences in Albany, Schenectady, and New York.
In October 1683, he married Christina Wessels at the New York Dutch church. By 1694, two children had been christened in New York. At the time of his marriage, he was called a young man from Albany.
In 1692, Jacob Teller was identified in the Albany city records as a trader who owned rum. However, he seems to have lived in New York.
In August 1696, he filed a will stating that he was sick but of perfect memory. It passed probate the following April. In September 1698, his widow filed her will. Jacob Teller was dead in his early forties!
biography in-progress
the people of colonial Albany Sources: The life of Jacob Teller is CAP biography number 6611. This sketch is derived chiefly from family and community-based resources.
first posted: 6/30/06


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Foxhunting: What limits fox numbers in Britain?
The major recorded cause of fox mortality in Britain is collision with vehicles, followed by culling. However, fox control appears to limit fox numbers only at a local level and all the studies that have looked at the effect of over-winter culling on fox densities the following spring have found culling to be ineffective in reducing the breeding population.
Two field studies, in Scotland and in Wales respectively, found that the more foxes were killed in winter, the higher the number of foxes tended to be in the following spring. Thus over-winter culling seems to be counter-productive, attracting immigrant foxes from surrounding areas. Recently, a modelling study confirmed the results of these two field studies.
A modelling study
A study used computer simulations to model the impact of different culling practices on fox numbers in a large region (1,600 km2). Of four methods of fox control (hunting with hounds, winter shooting, culling at the den and fertility control) the most effective at reducing fox populations was found to be culling at the den, which eliminates the mother with her cubs and winter shooting, which removes dispersing individuals. Both methods however, were effective only at very high culling levels (>80%), which are unfeasible for large areas. None of the methods was very effective at reducing fox numbers because immigrating foxes from other areas quickly replaced dead foxes.
Question & Answer
TopIf road collisions and culling do not, what limits fox numbers?
Foxes are organised in social groups that defend a territory against other foxes. The size of these territories is related to the availability of food both in space (how dispersed the food is) and time (according to annual/seasonal variations). As a consequence, the size of territories varies from 0.1 km2 in urban environments to 40 km2 or more in upland regions.
So, at a local level the numbers of foxes present is related to the amount and availability of food. At a local level, disease outbreaks are also likely to be an important factor in regulating fox numbers. At a national level however, food availability is unlikely to limit fox numbers. It is likely that social factors have the largest effect on regulating fox numbers at a national level.
- Baker, P.J. & Harris, S. (2006) Does culling reduce fox (Vulpes vulpes) density in commercial forests in Wales? European Journal of Wildlife Research 52, 99-108.
- Baker, P., Harris, S. & White, P.C.L. (2006) After the hunt - the future for foxes in Britain. International Fund for Animal Welfare, London.
- Heydon, M.J. & Reynolds, J.C. (2000) Fox (Vulpes vulpes) management in three contrasting regions of Britain, in relation to agricultural and sporting interests. Journal of Zoology 251, 237-252.
- Hewson, R. (1986) Distribution and density of fox breeding dens and the effects of management. Journal of Applied Ecology 23, 531-538.
- Pye-Smith, C. (1997) Fox-hunting - beyond the propaganda. Wildlife Network, Oakham, Rutland.
- Reynolds, J.C., Goddard, H.N. & Brockless, M.H. (1993) The impact of local fox (Vulpes vulpes) removal on fox populations at two sites in southern England. Gibier Faune Sauvage 10, 319-334.
- Rushton, S.P., Shirley, D.F., Macdonald, D.W. & Reynolds, J.C. (2006) Effects of culling fox populations at the landscape scale: a spatially explicit population modeling approach. Journal of Wildlife Management 70, _PHONE_.


FMS SKIN - Best Carbon Peel Laser Treatment In Kondapur Hyderabad | Do-Follow Social Bookmarking
FMS, CARBON LASER PEEL TREATMENT, offers you with the Carbon Laser Peel which evens skin tone and reduces the pigmentation, fine lines and acne scars. Several treatment sessions are beneficial, but results can be seen from the first treatment session itself.
In Acne prone skin, carbon peels has 2 more benefits; It reduces the P. Acnes bacteria responsible for acne and it also shrinks sebaceous glands (oil producing glands), resulting in less oil production and lesser acne breakouts. Treatments can be performed on any part of the body, including the back and chest.
How the Carbon Laser Peel works?
A layer of liquid carbon is applied to the skin. The lotion enhances the work of laser. Carbon particles penetrates deep into the pores. The laser energy breaks up pigment, that is then carried away by your body. It also heats the skin causing the skin to contract while at the same time stimulating the building of collagen.
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text:
Image-based navigation improves the positioning of the humeral component in total elbow arthroplasty
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HYPOTHESIS: Implant alignment in total elbow arthroplasty (TEA) is a challenging and error-prone process using conventional techniques. Identification of the flexion-extension (FE) axis is further complicated for situations of bone loss. This study evaluated the accuracy of humeral component alignment in TEA. We hypothesized that an image-based navigation system would improve humeral component positioning, with navigational errors less than or approaching 2.0 mm and 2.0 degrees. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Implantation of a modified commercial TEA humeral component was performed with and without navigation on 11 cadaveric distal humeri. Navigated alignment was based on positioning the humeral component with the aid of a computed tomography (CT)-based preoperative plan registered to landmarks on the distal humerus. Alignment was performed under 2 scenarios of bone quality: (1) an intact distal humerus, and (2) a distal humerus without articular landmarks. RESULTS: Navigation significantly improved implant alignment accuracy (P <.001). Navigated implant alignment was 1.2 +/- 0.3 mm in translation and 1.3 degrees +/- 0.3 degrees in rotation for the intact scenario. For the bone loss scenario, navigated alignment error was 1.1 +/- 0.5 mm and 2.0 degrees +/- 1.3 degrees. Non-navigated alignment was 3.1 +/- 1.3 mm and 5.0 degrees +/- 3.8 degrees for the intact scenario and 3.0 +/- 1.6 mm and 12.2 degrees +/- 3.3 degrees for the bone loss scenario. DISCUSSION: Image-based navigation improves the accuracy and reproducibility of humeral component placement in TEA. Implant alignment errors for the navigated alignments were below the target of 2.0 degrees and 2 mm that is considered standard for most navigation systems. Non-navigated implant alignment error was significantly greater for the bone loss scenario compared with the intact scenario. CONCLUSIONS: Implant malalignment may increase the likelihood of early implant wear, instability, and loosening. Improved implant positioning will likely lead to fewer complications and greater prosthesis longevity.
has subject area


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|Year : 2021 | Volume
| Issue : 1 | Page : 3-11
Gross alpha and gross beta radioactivity measurements in groundwater from Nasarawa North district Nasarawa state Nigeria
Samuel Odumu Ogana John1, Timothy Chidozie Akpa2, Rose Ada Onoja3
1 Department of Physics, Nasarawa State University, Keffi, Nigeria
2 Department of Physics, Nasarawa State University, Keffi; Department of Radiological Safety, Nigerian Nuclear Regulatory Authority, Abuja, Nigeria
3 Centre for Energy Research and Training, Radiation Biophysics Section, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria
|Date of Submission||15-May-2020|
|Date of Decision||03-Jun-2020|
|Date of Acceptance||26-Jan-2021|
|Date of Web Publication||07-Jun-2021|
Samuel Odumu Ogana John
Department of Physics, Nasarawa State University, PMB 1022, Keffi
Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None
Gross alpha and gross beta radioactivity in 40 groundwater (borehole and well water) samples from Akwanga, Wamba and N/Eggon Areas of Nasarawa North District, Nasarawa State Nigeria was measured using the low background MPC2000B DP model Gross Alpha/Beta counter (ORTEC®-Protean Instrument Corporation). The values of gross alpha activity in this study were observed to be less than those of gross beta activity. The average activity values of gross alpha and gross beta obtained were 0.25 ± 0.04 Bq/L and 2.23 ± 0.09 Bq/L for Akwanga, 0.19 ± 0.03 Bq/L and 1.62 ± 0.08 Bq/L for Wamba and 0.30 ± 0.05 Bq/L and 3.00 ± 0.14 Bq/L for N/Eggon areas, respectively. The results are found to be below the World Health Organization guideline levels for drinking water quality of 0.5 Bq/L for gross alpha but 45% of the samples slightly exceeded the 1.0 Bq/L for gross beta. This implied that the groundwater in the study area is radiologically safe for consumption and may not pose any significant health hazards to humans by way of ingestion. The groundwater from the study area is also safe for drinking as the total dissolved solids average values were below the contamination limit for palatable drinking water guideline level of 1000 mg/L. However, a radionuclide-specific test and a regular monitoring program of the environment are hereby suggested.
Keywords: Gross alpha, gross beta, groundwater, radioactivity, total dissolved solids
|How to cite this article:|
John SO, Akpa TC, Onoja RA. Gross alpha and gross beta radioactivity measurements in groundwater from Nasarawa North district Nasarawa state Nigeria. Radiat Prot Environ 2021;44:3-11
|How to cite this URL:|
John SO, Akpa TC, Onoja RA. Gross alpha and gross beta radioactivity measurements in groundwater from Nasarawa North district Nasarawa state Nigeria. Radiat Prot Environ [serial online] 2021 [cited 2022 Oct 6];44:3-11. Available from: _URL_
| Introduction|| |
Safe drinking water is essential to life as air, food, and sunlight. Humans consider water safe for consumption when both the physical, chemical, microbiological, and radiological properties are well defined. Various factors such as mining, milling, and processing of uranium ores and mineral sands, solid mineral drillings, industrial disposal of waste, and sewage into environment and rivers; use of fertilizer by farmers contributes to the contamination of safe drinking water due to human activities., The presence of naturally occurring radionuclides of terrestrial origin such as uranium and thorium decay series and potassium nondecay series in rocks, soils and groundwater, in variable concentrations, contaminates drinking water and lowers its quality. These radioactive materials are alpha and beta emitters, which can deposit large amount of energy into humans on ingestion through drinking water and accumulate for long time, cause radiation exposure.,,, The principal health concern associated with regulated radionuclide in drinking water include: Radon gas increases the risk of lung cancer; uranium increases toxicity risk to the kidneys and radium increases ones risk of bone cancers and cancers of the head sinuses.,,
The assessment of groundwater resources for radioactivity levels is performed by measuring gross alpha and gross beta activity concentrations for routine monitoring. In water, gross alpha emanates from 238U decay series whereas gross beta is from both 232Th decay series and 40K. For radiation safety and protection, the World Health Organization (WHO) recommend that gross alpha and gross beta activity screening be first performed, thereafter, radionuclide-specific analysis be done only if measured gross values exceed guidelines for drinking water of 0.5 Bq/L and 1.0 Bq/L, respectively. Many countries of the world have adopted the established gross alpha and gross beta guideline levels by the WHO so that the consumption of groundwater would not result in exposure to high radiation dose.
The purpose of this study is to evaluate the gross alpha and gross beta radioactivity concentration levels as the radiological component of safe drinking water in Nasarawa North District (NND), particularly Akwanga, Wamba, and N/Eggon areas, respectively, of Nasarawa State, Nigeria. Although several studies on radioactivity levels in groundwater have been reported in Nigeria,,,, Nasarawa State tagged as "Home of Solid Minerals" has only few studies reported on environmental radioactivity, most of which are on background radiation. This study therefore, would provide baseline data and information on the radiological quality of drinking water in NND of Nasarawa State, Nigeria.
| Materials and Methods|| |
In this study, the nuclear analytical technique used is the ISO 9696 and ISO 9697, and Protean Instrument Corporation MPC2000B DP model desktop lightweight Gross alpha/beta counter, with serial number 08172140 by Ortec _PHONE_ USA. A dual phosphor, gas flow proportional detector with 80 μg/cm3 entrance window and a 5.715 cm diameter, located at the Centre for Energy Research and Training, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria Nigeria. The gas flow control uses two flow rates – low for rest mode and high for counting mode. An anti-coincident guard counter is incorporated into the counting system for eliminating the influence of high-energy cosmic radiation and part of the ambient gamma ray that could enter the measuring environment. Hence, the only contribution to the counting would be from impurities in the chamber construction material. The chamber is covered with 10 cm Lead and has inside dimensions of 48 cm × 28 cm × 10.5 cm. The counting modes are Alpha plus beta; Alpha only; Beta only. The detector is controlled through a keyboard and a liquid crystal display, which displays alpha and beta numeric and graphical information, thereby does not require computer for set up.
The study area is the NND of Nasarawa state Nigeria, located on Longitudes 8° 25' 00"N to 9° 25' 00"N and Latitudes 8° 25' 00"E to 9°55' 00"E, covering a total area of about 3360 Km2 (comprising of Akwanga, Wamba and Nasarawa Eggon LGAs), as illustrated in [Figure 1]. It comprises of the Mada Younger Granite Ring Complex of Nigeria, from Akwanga Sheet 209NE and Wamba Sheet 210SW. The area composed of biotite granite, gneiss, older granite, and rhyolite among others. The Mapped area was arbitrarily divided into 20 grids of 2 cm × 1.8 cm, each grid has according to scale an area of 1.5 Km2, as shown in [Figure 1]. A total of 40 sampling locations were earmarked by simple random process. The Global Positioning System (GPS), GARMIN GPSmap76CS (S/N 10R-022508) USA was used to note the location of sample in terms of geographical coordinate.
Forty samples of both borehole and well water were collected in 2 L polyethylene bottles, acidified by adding a few drops (~ 20 ml) of ultra-pure nitric acid (60%) to pH ~ 2 to minimize precipitation and absorption of radionuclide to walls of container and tightly sealed then labeled. The sample containers were initially rinsed thrice with distilled water and the water collected, to minimize contamination. The samples were kept in the laboratory for preparation and measurement.
Sample preparation and measurement
The 2 L water samples collected were slowly evaporated in an open 500 ml Pyrex beakers on an electric hot plate in the fume cupboard (at a temperature <100°C) without boiling until it reduces to about 50 ml in the beaker. It was then transferred into a weighed evaporating dish and placed under the infrared lamp to evaporate to dryness. The residues were placed in desiccators for cooling to room temperature while preventing from moisture absorbing. A known weighed residue of 0.077 g was transferred into a cleaned standard planchet of diameter approximately 5.1 cm (2 in) using a spatula


Haze thickens around Sumatra
Jakarta: Authorities are warning ships travelling through Indonesia need to be highly vigilant as severe haze envelopes large parts of Sumatra.
The extreme pollution of the past fortnight has seen some ports in the area take extreme measures to ensure safety.
At Palembang port, for instance, odd dates are assigned for outgoing vessels and even dates for incoming vessels.
The Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) recorded 170 hot spots in South Sumatra on Monday, which was the highest number in Sumatra. Dense haze from forest fires in the province has spread to Jambi, Lampung, Riau, West Sumatra, Aceh and North Sumatra. [14/10/14]
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Volleyball Drill Demonstration
4 or less players for maximum number of touch.
1-Coach Through the ball with rebound
2- First players in the queue must run to the ball and pass it to the player on the left side (near the border of the field)
3- player near the border catchs the ball and put it back in the basket
Coaching points
1- Run fast to the ball
2- body mustn't move prior to touch the ball
3- right foot in front
4- Shoulder facing the target player
Coach through 40 balls for passing
then forty ball for setting.
First rotation counterclockwise, then after 40 ball counterclokwise.
Depending on the age this could be:
- Catch and throws
- Catch and Set
- Self Setting and Setting
- Self Pass and Pass
- Setting
- Passing
Created by guillaume, Volleyball Parent, France
YOUTH :Body toward the target5 DrillsVolleyball Drills Coaching


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Your municipality withdraws 10,000 gallons per day from an aquifer that originally held 1,000,000 gallons. The recharge rate to the aquifer is 2,000 gallons per day. How long will it take before the aquifer is depleted?
You have to make an equation that relates the amount of water (w) in the aquafier to time (t).
Start with the original amount:
Now, we know that every day ten thousand gallons are taken out so we have:
And we also know that every day two thousand gallons are added so we have:
To find when the water runs out, set the equation equal to 0 and solve for t:
So, the water will run out after 125 days.


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The Albuquerque-Bernalillo County Air Quality Control Board (Air Board) authority was established by the New Mexico State Legislature in 1967 when the Legislature adopted the Air Quality Control Act (State Air Act) authorizing the City of Albuquerque and Bernalillo County to adopt ordinances providing for the creation of the Air Board.
The City and the County adopted parallel ordinances, creating the Air Board shortly after the Air Act was adopted. The primary function of the Air Board is to ensure that provisions of the United States Clean Air Act are implemented. According to the State Air Act, the Board shall "adopt, promulgate, publish, amend and repeal regulations consistent with the [State Air Act] to attain and maintain national ambient air quality standards and prevent or abate air pollution, including regulations prescribing air standards, within the geographic area of the local board's jurisdiction or any part thereof."
The Air Board consists of seven voting members who volunteer and are appointed to serve on the Board. Four members are appointed by the Mayor of the City of Albuquerque, with the advice and consent of the City Council, and three members are appointed by the Bernalillo County Commission. There are also two non-voting members who are representatives from the City's Environmental Planning Commission and the County Planning Commission respectively. Members of the Air Board shall be appointed for three-year terms. No member shall serve more than two consecutive terms at a time.
A rulemaking hearing before the Air Board is a hearing to adopt, amend or repeal a board rule, regulation or standard. Procedures for this type of hearing are delineated in. Rulemaking procedures do NOT apply to adjudicatory actions.
An adjudicatory hearing before the Air Board is one in which the Board makes a final, binding determination that directly affects the legal rights of Air Quality permit applicants, permittees or other persons who participated in a permitting action before the Department and who are adversely affected by the permitting action. Procedures for this type of hearing are delineated in. Adjudicatory procedures do NOT apply to rulemaking actions.
All hearing records, including exhibits and hearing transcripts, are available from the City of Albuquerque Environmental Health Department in the Control Strategies Section of the Air Quality Division, which serves as the administrative agency for the Air Board. Please e-mail _EMAIL_ for any information.
The regulations contained herein have been adopted by the Air Board. These regulations apply to private and public sources of air pollution in Bernalillo County, New Mexico. The Air Board's jurisdiction does not include tribal lands (excepting 20.11.3 NMAC). Regulations are adopted by the Air Board after a public hearing is advertised and held in accordance with State law. Adopted regulations are filed with the New Mexico State Records Center, and are codified into the New Mexico Administrative Code (NMAC).
Note that these regulations are updated periodically and new regulations are adopted occasionally. Air quality regulations that apply to New Mexico counties other than Bernalillo County are adopted by the New Mexico Environmental Improvement Board.
The New Mexico Environment Department's Air Quality Bureau in Santa Fe can be contacted for more information about the non-Bernalillo County regulations.
To contact the Air Board please call Margaret Nieto, Secretary to the Air Quality Control Board at _PHONE_ or email _EMAIL_.
Air Board Meetings are usually held on the second Wednesday of each month, at 5:30pm, in the Vincent E. Griego Chambers, Albuquerque-Bernalillo County Government Center, One Civic Plaza.


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The topics in this section discuss the creation and management of managed threads, how to pass data to managed threads and get results back, and how to destroy threads and handle a ThreadAbortException.
Discusses and demonstrates the creation of managed threads, including how to pass data to new threads and how to get data back.
Discusses the ramifications of pausing and resuming managed threads.
Discusses the ramifications of destroying managed threads, and how to handle a ThreadAbortException.
Discusses thread priorities and how they affect thread scheduling.
Provides reference documentation for the Thread class, which represents a managed thread, whether it came from unmanaged code or was created in a managed application.
Provides reference documentation for the ThreadStart delegate that represents parameterless thread procedures.
Provides an easy way to pass data to a thread procedure, although without strong typing.
Provides an introduction to managed threading.


text:
The C-BD Diascopic Brightfield/Darkfield stand introduced with the Nikon SMZ1500 uses a seven-sided toroidal mirror to substantially reduce stray light. Use this interactive Flash tutorial to explore how mirror shape affects the amount of light entering the objective in darkfield stereoscopic microscopy.
To operate the tutorial, use the slider bar to morph the mirror assembly between a standard cylindrical reflection mirror and the new Nikon toroidal mirror. Stray light reflected from the cylindrical mirror ordinarily causes a decrease in contrast when using short-working distance objectives under darkfield diascopic illumination, because a considerable amount of light enters the objective front lens. When using a toroidal mirror, direct light is shielded from entering the objective.
Brian O. Flynn and Michael W. Davidson - National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, 1800 East Paul Dirac Dr., The Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida, 32310.


Technical Manual of the Ceylan-Traces Layer
Copyright (C) 2010-2021 Olivier Boudeville
about (dash) traces (at) esperide (dot) com
Creation date:
Sunday, August 15, 2010
Lastly updated:
Monday, February 8, 2021
Work in progress
Users and maintainers of the Traces layer.
The role of the Traces layer (part of the Ceylan project) is to provide Erlang applications with advanced trace services, so that the user can efficiently log, browse and search through detailed runtime messages that may be emitted concurrently (i.e. in a parallel, distributed way) by all kinds of processes.
We present here a short overview of these services, to introduce them to newcomers. The next level of information is to read the corresponding source files, which are intensely commented and generally straightforward.
This layer is in charge of providing Erlang programs with the means of emitting, collecting, storing and browsing applicative traces (i.e. logs - not related in any way to Erlang tracing).
This means that both user-originating traces (that your code emits thanks the Traces API) and standard Erlang logs are routed and centralised in a single view whose purpose is to help monitoring your application(s) as a whole.
For that, various types of components have been designed and implemented, such as a trace aggregator, emitter, listener, supervisor, bridge, etc.
They collectively constitute the Traces layer, whose only prerequisites (besides Erlang itself, of course) are the WOOPER layer (for object-oriented primitives) and the Myriad layer (for many lower-level services; itself a prerequisite of WOOPER).
The project repository is located here.
The main purpose of this Traces layer is thus to provide adequate traces (i.e. advanced logs) for distributed systems (a rather critical feature in order to debug in these difficult contexts), and to ease their study and browsing. A few backends are available for that, from the direct reading of basic (text) trace files to considerably more user-friendly solutions, such as the generation of PDF reports or the use of our more advanced trace format, which can be read notably by commercial tools such as LogMX [1].
[1]The Ceylan-Traces layer defined a trace format of its own, supported by our Java-based parser for LogMX. For what it is worth, LogMX is the only non-free, commercial tool on which we rely, as we find it quite convenient. Devising an interface to any other log browsing tool of interest is certainly a rather reasonable option. Pull requests welcome!
Finally, an effort has been made to lessen the runtime impact of this service when it is enabled, and to pretty remove it as a whole (hence with no runtime overhead) when disabled (through flexible build options).
Trace Severities
Traces now relies on the same conventions as the ones of the newer standard logging facility in Erlang/OTP, logger, which itself obeys the Syslog protocol, as defined in RFC 5424.
There are eight built-in levels for trace channels, of increasing severity:
Trace Severity Mapped Priority
debug 7
info 6
notice 5
warning 4
error 3
critical 2
alert 1
emergency 0
Starting from warning onward (thus included), these severities are considered as error-like, and as such will never be disabled and will be echoed on the console as well.
There is also an addition trace severity, void, that designates traces that shall be muted in all cases.
Its purpose is to provide another means of muting/unmuting some traces, instead of commenting out/uncommenting said traces.
Trace Content
This section is not of interest for Traces users, it is only useful if wanting to integrate other tools or simply to have a look under the hood.
The traces corresponding to an execution are represented as an wallclock-time ordered stream of trace messages.
These traces are possibly exchanged over the network or stored in a file, whose extension is conventionally.traces.
For example the traces for a test named my_foobar_test are typically stored in a my_foobar_test.traces file, generated by the trace aggregator in the directory from which the corresponding test was launched.
Following data is associated to a given trace:
 1. technical identifier of the emitter, as a string (ex: <9097.51.0> for the PID of a distributed Erlang process)
 2. name of the emitter (ex: "Instance tracker")
 3. dotted categorization of the emitter (ex: "Core.Tracker.Instances"); here for example the emitter is an element of the service in charge of the instances, which itself belongs to the tracker services, which themselves belong to the (even more general) core services
 4. application-level timestamp (ex: operation count, relative tick, absolute timestep, or any complex, application-specific timestamp, etc.), possibly none, or undefined if not applicable (ex: a simulation that would not be started yet)
 5. wall-clock timestamp, in the "Year/Month/Day Hour:Minute:Second" format (ex: "2016/6/10 15:43:31"); this is an emitter-side timestamp (hence not related to the wallclock time known of the trace aggregator)
 6. emitter location, as a string (ex: the name of the Erlang node, possibly including the name of the application use case, of the user and of the host; ex:
 7. dotted categorization of the trace message itself (ex: MyApp.MyTopic.MyTheme)
 8. severity of the trace message (mapped to an integer level, as discussed above)
 9. the trace message itself, an arbitrary text of arbitrary length
Trace Emission
The following header is to be included so that an Erlang process can send traces:
or, better, in an OTP-compliant fashion:
This process can be a standalone module (ex: a test or an application launcher, see trace_management_test.erl) or, more frequently, it might correspond to a WOOPER (active or passive) instance, in which case it shall inherit, directly or not, from class_TraceEmitter (see class_TestTraceEmitter.erl for a complete example of it).
Traces can also be emitted thanks to Myriad's trace_bridge. This is especially useful when developing lower-level libraries that can depend on Myriad, but may introduce extra runtime dependencies such as WOOPER and Traces only optionally. Using that bridge, the traces will by default go through Myriad's low level trace_utils, unless Traces is available, in which case its default trace aggregator will be used.
Such a bridge is also useful whenever spawning processes that have not direct trace emitter state of their own, yet may at least in some cases send traces; the bridge allows them to use a designated trace emitter as a relay.
From member methods
Then sending-primitives can be used, such as:
?info("Hello world!")
?info_fmt("The value ~B is the answer.",[MyValue])
Many API variations exist (see class_TraceEmitter.hrl), to account for the various trace content, contexts, etc., but?S(Message) and?S_fmt(MessageFormat,MessageValues), for S corresponding to a trace severity (ex: S being notice), are by far the most frequently used.
From constructors
Note that for example?debug(Message) is a macro that (if Traces is enabled) expands (literally) to:
As a result, the availability of a State variable in the scope of this macro is expected. Moreover, this WOOPER state variable shall be the one of a class_TraceEmitter instance (either directly or, more probably, through inheritance).
This is not a problem in the most common case, when using traces in member methods (as by design they should be offering such a State), yet in constructors the initial state (i.e. the State variable directly fed to the construct operator of this class) is generally not the one of a trace emitter already (it is a blank state).
As a result, an instance will not be able to send traces until the completion of its own class_TraceEmitter constructor, and then it shall rely on that resulting state (for example named TraceState). Sending a trace of severity S from that point should be done using a send_S macro (ex:?send_debug(TraceState,Message)) - so that an appropriate state is used.
An example of some class Foobar inheriting directly from TraceEmitter will be clearer:
construct(State,TraceEmitterName) ->
 TraceState = class_TraceEmitter:construct(State,TraceEmitterName),
 % Cannot use here?info("Hello!), as it would use 'State',
 % which is not a trace emitter yet! So:
Trace Categorisation
In addition to browsing the produced traces per emitter, origin, theme, wallclock or applicative timestamps, etc. it is often useful to be able to sort them per emitter categorisation, such a categorisation allowing to encompass multiple emitter instances of multiple emitter types.
Categories are arbitrary, and are to be nested from the most general ones to the least (a bit like directories), knowing that subcategories are to be delimited by a dot character, like in: Art.Painting.Hopper. As a consequence, any string can account for a category, keeping in mind dots have a specific meaning.
Hierarchical categorisation allows to select more easily a scope of interest for the traces to be browsed.
For example, should birds, cats and dogs be involved, introducing following


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Irradiation of birefringent chromosomal spindle fibres in crane-fly spermatocytes in metaphase I or anaphase I produces an area of reduced birefringence (ARB) on the fibre. This ARB moves poleward and is lost at the pole. Ultrastructural and immunofluorescence analysis of ARBs obtained by irradiation with monochromatic ultraviolet light of wavelength 260 nm shows that the microtubules in the irradiated area are depolymerized, though the rest of the spindle appears unaffected. The area of microtubule depolymerization moves poleward with the ARB, and once the ARB reaches the pole the irradiated half-spindle appears normal. The motion of the ARB, therefore, appears to be due to the behaviour of the sheared microtubules in the chromosomal spindle fibre. The relative stability of the sheared microtubules shows that chromosomal fibre microtubules are not dynamically unstable, as are microtubules under certain conditions in vitro. However, ARB motion may be due to a moderated version of dynamic instability. Possible models for ARB motion are discussed.
- © 1988 by Company of Biologists