text:
All submissions for this problem are available.
You are given an undirected graph G = (V, E) containing N nodes and M edges. The nodes are numbered from 1 to N. A subset C of V is a vertex cover if for every edge (u, v) ∈ E, at least one of u and v belong to C. Note that C = V is always a vertex cover.
Consider a partition of V into two sets A and B. It is said to be a valid partition, if the following two conditions are satisfied: A should be a vertex cover. And for each i such that 1 ≤ i ≤ n/2, nodes 2*i and 2*i - 1 don't belong to the same set (i.e. one belongs to set A and the other to set B).
Determine if a valid partition exists. If it exists, provide an example of one valid partition.
- The first line of the input contains a single integer T denoting the number of test cases. The description of T test cases follows.
- The first line of each test case contains two space-separated integers N and M denoting the number of nodes and number of edges in the graph respectively.
- Each of the following M lines contains two space-separated integers u and v denoting an edge between nodes u and v.
- For each test case, print a line containing the string "possible" (without quotes) if a solution exists or "impossible" otherwise.
- If a solution exists, print a second line containing a binary string. The i-th character of this string should be '0' if vertex i is in set B or '1' if it is in set A.
- 1 ≤ T ≤ 105
- 1 ≤ N ≤ 2 · 105
- 0 ≤ M ≤ 2 · 105
- 1 ≤ u, v ≤ N
- 1 ≤ sum of N over all test cases ≤ 106
- 1 ≤ sum of M over all test cases ≤ 106
Input: 2 3 2 1 2 2 3 4 5 1 3 2 4 1 4 1 2 2 3 Output: possible 011 impossible
Example case 1: We can put nodes numbered 2 and 3 in set A and node 1 in set B. Note that this is a valid partition because set A is a vertex cover; also, nodes numbered 1 and 2 belong to different sets.
Example case 2: There exists no partition which satisfies the conditions.
|Tags||2-sat, acm17chn, chn17rol, graphs, medium, triveni|
|Time Limit:||3 sec|
|Source Limit:||50000 Bytes|
|Languages:||C, CPP14, JAVA, PYTH, PYTH 3.6, PYPY, kotlin, PYP3|
Fetching successful submissions
If you are still having problems, see a sample solution here.


Football fouls more likely to be given when play heads left
A simple perceptual bias could influence football referees' judgements about whether a foul occurred or not. That's according to Alexander Kranjec and colleagues, who had 12 football players at the University of Pennsylvania look for half a second each at 268 static images of one player tackling another and decide whether a foul had been committed. Unbeknown to the participants, 134 of the pictures were simply mirror opposites of the other 134.
Kranjec's team said their finding has implications for refereeing. The most popular system, known as the 'left diagonal refereeing system' (see picture), in which the referee runs a diagonal axis between the two left-hand corners of the pitch, results in the referee witnessing tackles in both goal areas primarily from a right-to-left perspective, thus making judgments of fouls in these areas more likely – an advantage to attackers. This is okay because it applies to both teams. What's important, Kranjec and colleagues warn, is that the referee doesn't switch to a 'right diagonal system' half-way through a match, potentially penalising a losing side that needs to attack yet no longer enjoys the benefits of this perceptual bias when playing in offensive areas.
'These results … suggest that the effects of a low-level perceptual mechanisms could alter a decision, change the result of a game and perhaps, the fortunes of nations,' the researchers said.
ResearchBlogging.orgKranjec A, Lehet M, Bromberger B, & Chatterjee A (2010). A sinister bias for calling fouls in soccer. PloS one, 5 (7) PMID: 20628648
7 thoughts on "Football fouls more likely to be given when play heads left"
 1. The researchers think this anomaly may have to do with our bias (at least in cultures that read from right to left) for rightward motion.
 I believe you meant to say left to right, right to left would be reading…well left.
 2. This may also help to explain why some fouls are so hotly contested while others are not. Aside from all the obvious reasons why fans object to any foul their side receives, they may truly see a different play than the ref does. If the fans of the team objecting the ref's call on a particular play have the opposite perspective from the referee, they might see it as more or less offensive than the ref (depending, of course, on whether it's their team or the opponents receiving the call.)
 3. I do not know if a sampling of 12 soccer players is an adequate sample size for the results to be valid…
Comments are closed.


text:
| < November >
|Normal Max/ High Temperature
|Min/ Low Temperature
|Number of Wet Days (probability of rain on a day)
|Average Sunlight per day
|Average Daylight per day
|Sunny (Cloudy) Daylight Hours
|Sun altitude at solar noon on the 21st day.
- The average temperature in Rome in November is quite mild at 11.4 °C (52.52 °F).
- Afternoons can be very mild with average high temperatures reaching 16.7 °C (62.1 °F).
- Overnight temperatures are generally cool with an average low of 6.1 °C (43 °F).
- The mean daily temperature variation/ range in November is 10.6 °C (19.1 °F).
- The weather in November is not exactly dry with rain at times. Some 120.2mm (4.7in) of fluid is transfered across on average 10 days.
- The blue above Rome is somewhat dreary having an average of a mere 3:58 of dazzling sunshine daily.
- The shortest day is 9:21 long and the longest day is 10:17 long with an average length of 9:46.
- There are approximately 5:37 per day when bright sunshine is absent due to cloud, haze or the sun being too low on the horizon to register.
- It is sunny approximately 41.3% of daylight hours and cloudy 58.7% of daylight hours.
Check the distance to and compare the Rome November averages with somewhere beginning with:
A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z | All
Weather Trend Graph for November in Rome, Italy
Navigate to November Weather in Locations Surrounding Rome:

source: openbmb/Ultra-FineWeb


text:
Grant program funds a new kind of welding education
April 15, 2008
A new grant program promotes education for the welding technician. The program focuses more on welding theory behind the various processes--and less on hands-on training.
Students at Lorain County Community College get hands-on training. A new grant program has allowed the school to expand its offerings to include more classroom work covering the science behind welding processes.
Welding's complexity stands out in metal fabricating, and learning it doesn't happen overnight. It takes repetition and concentration. It takes an understanding of metallurgy and chemistry, as well as knowledge of good joint and product design. It takes management and organizational skills that, combined with welding knowledge, can make the best use of welding technology.
But can one person do it all?
Few can, and that fact lies at the heart of the skilled-labor shortage in welding, according to sources. As a trade, welding requires three personalities: the hands-on welder, the manager who knows how to get the most out of a welding operation, and the engineer who develops processes and products that make the best use of welding.
Community colleges train welders on specific processes and procedures as needed by local industry. Institutions such as The Ohio State University, LeTourneau University, and the Colorado School of Mines offer higher education in welding engineering. But what about the middle manager, the welding technician who knows the processes enough to manage a group of hands-on welders, work with automated equipment, and, at the same time, communicate welding knowledge and organizational ideas to engineers and upper management, people who may or may not have a background in welding? According to sources, this kind of welding technician holds qualifications that industry covets, but many have years of experience and stand at retirement's doorstep. Who will fill their ranks?
Some are attempting to answer that question by rethinking traditional welding education, which has focused on one of two areas: the hands-on approach, championed by community colleges and technical schools, and theory taught by undergraduate and graduate programs. Few, however, offer both.
Exceptions do exist. Schools like Ferris State University, Big Rapids, Mich., offer students hands-on training of manual, semiautomatic, and robotic processes along with theory as part of two-year Welding Technology Associate in Applied Science degree and four-year Welding Engineering Technology Bachelor of Science degree programs. The trouble is, there aren't enough Ferris States.
A student performs gas tungsten arc welding at Lorain County Community College. Weld Ed program organizers emphasize that such hands-on training can't be replaced.
"The world needs more Ernie Leverts," said Ken Smith of Lorain County Community College, Elyria, Ohio.
Levert, a Lockheed Martin welding engineer and past president of the American Welding Society, graduated from a vocational high school, spent time in the Navy as a hands-on welder, then went on to Ohio State to earn his welding engineering degree. Levert and others like him represent the exception, Smith said. Typically, hands-on welding attracts those who enjoy hands-on work, while engineering draws those who enjoy theoretical thinking. What the industry needs, Smith said, is someone who can see eye to eye with both.
With this in mind, Smith and representatives from the American Welding Society, Ferris State, Texas State Technical College, the Pennsylvania College of Technology, and elsewhere started the National Center for Welding Education and Training—Weld Ed for short—funded by the National Science Foundation. Lorain CCC has become the program's organizational hub, with Smith as principal investigator and project coordinator, but the program is open to schools across the country. Weld Ed's aim: Make available more courses that include weld theory, metallurgy, and process knowledge and facilitate an idea exchange between participating schools through teacher workshops, conferences, and online Webcasts.
"This four-year project, which started in July 2007, is designed to increase the number of welding technicians in the United States," said Jeff Carney, Weld Ed adviser and welding engineering technology department chair at Ferris State University. "The role of the community college is to provide skilled training for local industry, and they've done that very well. But industry is asking for a little bit more." Industry not only needs that hands-on welder, but also those who can multitask, perform quality assurance, and apply welding theory to an overall operation, he said.
"You have a traditional challenge in getting engineers and hands-on-oriented people to see eye to eye, and you never will," Smith said. "I'm not just talking welding; I'm talking all disciplines. I've got a degree in industrial technology. I see practicality needs to be there, but at the same time I see the need for theory. I'm the proverbial'man in the middle.' I can see both sides, and here we're trying to figure out a practical approach [to meet industry needs]."
The program focuses on educating someone who's not necessarily a hands-on welder, not a welding engineer, but a little of both. Organizers hope that graduates will go on to land jobs as weld technicians who manage welding operations, be it a bank of automated robot cells, a group of hands-on welders, or a mix of the two.
There's a practical side too. Welding labs cost money, and ones with robots cost even more. When school administrators choose between spending money on desktop computers and investing in welding power sources, computers usually win. With Weld Ed focusing on classroom work, instructors can teach more about welding processes, spread awareness, and perhaps spark more curiosity and interest—for less money.
"We wanted a curriculum from which you could teach welding ideas and concepts without the need for an expensive lab," Smith said. "[Weld Ed] courses will teach students about different welding processes, about heat flow and chemistry, and other physical properties [of the process] without ever having to strike an arc."
Smith admitted that "there has been resistance [from some]. We're not saying welders never need to have hands-on experiences. In fact, [this program will not] produce skilled welders. But they will have the practical background, they will understand the metallurgy and scientific side of things. They will be able to troubleshoot robotic welding and enhance welding setups."
He added that while the hands-on welder focuses on what happens between the welding gun and workpiece, the Weld Ed program's technician looks at an entire operation, focuses on work flow and procedures, and finds ways to discover more efficiency.
A welding technician or manager would have enough process knowledge to manage a group of hands-on welders and, at the same time, communicate welding knowledge and ideas to upper management. Source: Hobart Institute of Welding Technology.
Technology has greatly altered the welding profession. While automation is seen as something manufacturing couldn't do without, it has thrown a wrench into the career path of some, Smith explained. Many who got into welding years ago because they enjoy hands-on work have seen such work become automated. Sure, they may adapt, learn robot programming, and continue to draw a paycheck, but their passion still may lie in striking an arc.
"Today's industry is shifting to the automated world," Smith said, "and it is in that automated world where the term technician comes into play."
Weld Ed hopes to find those students who can develop a passion for such hands-off work and learn more theory to get the most out of welding workcells. From the start, these students will want to be that technician who maximizes efficiencies of welding technology.
Sources are quick to point out that the Weld Ed program doesn't diminish the need for hands-on welding. "The world still needs production welders … and we need skilled welders who can meet specific industry codes and requirements," Carney said. The skilled-labor shortage exists at all levels of the welding profession.
What the Weld Ed program does do, Carney explained, is tap into an emerging labor force demographic: "If you asked a welding teacher who's been teaching for 30 years about the level of mechanical aptitude today versus 20 years ago, most would say [that students 20 years ago] had more." This doesn't mean students are less intelligent or motivated; they just grew up in a different environment. A generation ago kids grew up working on cars and learned to enjoy what hands-on work could accomplish. Today cars use a computer for diagnostics—no hands-on problem-solving required. For the hands-on person, where's the fun in that?
But computers can't automate everything, and if anything they have brought demand for critical thinking to the footlights. According to sources, Weld Ed organizers hope to nurture those critical-thinking skills for the next generation's weld shop.
A new class at the Hobart Institute of Welding Technology, Troy, Ohio, may be a harbinger of welding education. The course teaches welders who are moving into supervisory roles, and it culminates with an exam that grants the American Welding Society designation of CWS, or certified welding supervisor.
A Hobart Institute of Welding Technology class prepares for the AWS certified welding supervisor exam.
"It is similar to the certified welding inspector exam," said Hobart Institute President Andre Odermatt, "but with more of an emphasis on productivity and quality improvement."
Unlike courses funded by the Weld Ed program, the Hobart course primarily serves seasoned welders, some of whom already have a CWI designation under their belts. But both Weld Ed and Hobart programs focus on applying more welding science and process knowledge to make operations better and more efficient.
Odermatt explained that many welders advance to the supervisory ranks without any additional training, even though such positions demand starkly different thinking. A welder's work focuses on what happens between the welding gun and workpiece; a supervisor must focus on

source: HuggingFaceFW/fineweb-edu


text:
The souring of normally sweet production systems is a significant problem which can have implications to continued oilfield operations. Such problems are commonly approached by gathering of field sample and laboratory analysis or by simple test kits. This series in Hot Topics describes an alternative approach which includes the use of specialized field sampling and analysis procedures and portable equipment that can be moved from site to site. The current article provides an overview and introduction to how MIC growth can be studied and evaluated.
The souring of normally sweet production systems is a significant
problem. It can have implications in terms of
- reduced quality of produced hydrocarbons relative,
- the reduced productivity of wells,
- increased corrosivity of produced fluids.
In cases where remedial action is not taken, it can also have
implications relative to the potential for sulfide stress cracking
and selection of materials for downhole, flowlines and surface
facilities. Therefore, it is important to be able to properly
characterize field situations and make accurate recommendations
for remedial actions to minimize the impact of souring and to
prevent the occurrence of similar occurrences in other related
In an assessment of reservoir souring, field analysis provides
an important technical basis for engineering decision making through
their supporting scientific evidence. Such tests can yield information
useful in determining the sources and the potential severity of
souring and the selection and confirmation of successful remedial
actions. Some of the significant questions that can be addressed
through field investigation are indicated below:
- Is the souring a direct consequence of bacterial action?
- Were the bacteria introduced by the water injection system?
- Are the bacteria naturally occurring in the reservoir?
- Can the bacteria survive and grow under reservoir conditions?
- How adaptable are they to varying field conditions?
- Are there sufficient nutrients to sustain bacterial growth
in the system?
- What is the potential for controlling MIC and bacterial growth?
Field souring is often studied by either of two approaches:
- field sampling followed by transportation of the samples to
the laboratory for analysis, or
- analysis directly in the field using simplified field test
In many cases, the field sampling/laboratory approach is difficult
due to the remote nature of many onshore and offshore production
and injection facilities and the inability to transport, maintain
and analyze cultures. Additionally, most simple field tests lack
the sensitivity required to properly assess, characterize and
differentiate marginal cases.
Issues discussed in this series include:
- Description of MIC systems and methods of field investigation
- Specialized procedures and equipment for field or in-plant
investigation of souring, scaling, corrosion, fouling and bacterial
action in water handling systems. This includes a survey of planktonic
micro-organisms and bio-films as well as measurements of total
- A case study to validate this field testing capability
- Analysis of data obtained for characterization of reservoir
souring in petroleum production operations


bookspacePhoto of readerbook club kits
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No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency LARGE PRINT
by McCall Smith, Alexander
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1. Family life and African culture are very important to Mma Ramotswe. How do her descriptions and discussions of these areas provide insight into her character?
2. When Mma Ramotswe decides to become a detective, she purchases a manual to help her learn the business. The manual advises her to rely on hunches to solve her cases. How does this advice shape "The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency"?
3. Many contemporary mystery and detective novels have a detective solving one major crime, usually a murder. How is "The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency" different from other mysteries you've read?
4. Early in her life Mma Ramotswe marries Note and the marriage ends badly. How does this experience impact her job as a detective? Does it give her insight into how others act and what might motivate them?
5. "The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency" features Mma Ramotswe, a female detective from Botswana. How does the author, whose life is very different from that of Mma Ramotswe's, capture her character?
6. "The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency" includes many detailed descriptions of African life, and especially features life in Mma Ramotswe's beloved Botswana. Were you familiar with what life might be like in Botswana before you read this novel?
7. Were you surprised by Mma Ramotswe's response to Mr. J L B Maketoni's proposal?
Additional discussion questions from: Reading Group Guides
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Hennepin County Government Hennepin


text: Complexity of interconnect is increasing due to technology advancement in VLSI. Delay, power consumption, and number of repeaters is increasing due to increase in the complexity of interconnect. Design of repeaters is a critical issue. Thus repeater should dissipate less power, produce less delay and should be able to able to operate at higher frequencies. If device operate in sub-threshold region, then average power dissipation is less than the devices operating in super-threshold region. The simulation results shown in the paper indicates that the LVSB bias repeater circuit operates at medium frequency range with better power-delay product as compared with the conventional repeater in sub-threshold region.


When adding custom xFlow sensors, custom IPFIX, or custom Packet Sniffer sensors, you have the option to provide a Channel Definition using the following syntax (one entry per channel):
 - The must be 1 or a higher number, and it must be unique for the sensor. This means that each channel definition must have a unique ID.
 - The is linked to the historic data.
 i_round_redAs soon as you change the ID, you lose the history for this particular channel that the ID was linked to.
 - One rule can span multiple lines.
 - The is the channel's display name.
 - PRTG automatically adds one channel named Other. This channel counts all traffic for which you have not defined a specific channel.
The syntax is identical to the one described in the Filter Rules for xFlow, IPFIX, and Packet Sniffer Sensors section. Because data is accounted to the first match, make sure that you start with the most specific rule at the top and get less specific to the bottom.
i_round_redWe recommend that you write the rules list in an external editor first and then paste it into the Channel Definition field of the sensor in PRTG. If the rules contain an error, the entries are removed after adding them.
i_round_blueYou cannot delete channels of a sensor, even if you remove a channel from the channel definition. You also cannot change the display name of channels using the channel definition of custom xFlow sensors. Renaming is only possible via channel settings.
General example:
Protocol[TCP] and
Channel definition example for differentiating by protocol:
i_square_blueKNOWLEDGE BASE
Advanced Topics


text:
Thank you for attending the first virtual AJ Summit 2021
The AJ Summit 2021 focused on how architects and their industry colleagues can respond to the climate emergency by embracing the whole-life carbon agenda and the principles of the circular economy. The CPD accredited event presented an exceptional opportunity to learn how to incorporate climate-responsible working methods into your everyday practice.
Over 1000 architecture practices have signed up to Architects Declare, acknowledging the enormous transformation required by the construction industry to tackle the looming threat of climate change. These practices have pledged to create an industry that has a more positive impact on the world around us. But what happens next? How can we realistically work towards this?
AJ Summit presented an exceptional opportunity for architects to learn how to incorporate climate-responsible working methods into everyday practice.
AJ Summit 2019 Highlights


A subcontract is a legal agreement to do part of a larger job. A worker or small company usually signs a subcontract with a larger company.
As a verb, subcontract means to hire a person or company to complete part of a job. An example might be a construction company that's been employed to build a house deciding to subcontract all the plumbing and electrical work out. In other words, they are paid for the entire job, and then they pay a plumber and an electrician to do specific parts of the job.
Definitions of subcontract
 1. noun
 a contract assigning to another party some obligations of a prior contract
 see moresee less
 type of:
 2. verb
 arrange for work to be done by others
 synonyms: farm out, job
 see moresee less
 type of:
 employ, engage, hire
 engage or hire for work
 3. verb
 work under a subcontract; engage in a subcontract
 see moresee less
 type of:
 do work, work
 be employed
Word Family


Question: English & Literature
How does Sam try to educate them and what lessons does he teach?
sam from master harold and the boys what lessons does he teach hally and willie
In English & Literature | Asked by jebosley
Asked from the Master Harold...and the Boys study pack
Best Answer
First of all, Sam is a black man, he has no real education except from what he has learned from Hally. But Sam is curious and has a strong personnality.
For willie, I'd say he is litteraly trying to teach him how to dance, That'd be the first thing you'd see but deeper, there's also the No-collision world part where they say that life is a sort of dance without music to guide them, maybe he's trying to open their minds. Don't forget about the violence willie imposes on his girlfriend and how Sam tells him what to do.
For Hally there are many things he has been teaching him, first when they talk about the men of magnitude. They both give the men they'd "like to be like" or they admire, and they talk about religion. But I think that Sam isn't directly giving a lesson in that part buut more likely in the end. When they get in a fight, maybe to make Hally realize that he is wrong acting and saying horribles things about his father, and then being mean to willie to hurt Sam.
I don't think that's all of it, but it's quite a start, sorry for the mistakes I might have made, I'm not english and my english isn't that good :/
Hope I helped :]
(guest) | 2142 days ago
No answers yet
Do you know the answer to this question? Help out jebosley by answering it!


Common terms used in knife-making.
Damascus (Pattern-welded) Steel
Steel made with a wavy surface pattern produced by hammer-welding strips of steel and iron followed by repeated heating and forging, used chiefly for knife and sword blades. Such items were often marketed, but not necessarily made, in Damascus during the medieval period. Forms or styles of Pattern-welded steel include: Cable, Chainsaw, Roller Chain, Band Saw.
Masur Birch
Masur Birch is not a particular species of birch, but is rather a grain figure that is most commonly seen in Downy Birch and Silver Birch. It is also sometimes known as Karelian Birch—with Karelia being a region between Finland and Russia. Once surmised to have been caused by the boring larvae of a certain beetle, Masur Birch in Norway has been shown to be hereditary, classifying the name of the variant as Betula pendula var. Carelica. Regardless of the exact cause and makeup of the peculiar grain pattern, the resulting figure and appearance is very similar to burl wood or birdseye maple, though of a different origin. Masur Birch is commonly used for turned objects, decorative veneer, knife handles, and other small specialty items.
The unfinished stock of metal of a knife blade from which the knife maker forges into a knife.
Wootz Steel
A steel made anciently in India by crude methods in small crucibles according to the oldest known process for making fused steel.


text:
Welding Fundamentals and Processes
Arc Welding Process Control
This article provides an overview of the methods used to control aspects of the arc welding process and research associated with the development of closed-loop feedback control of the process. Successful implementation of a closed-loop feedback control system requires sensing, modeling, and control. The article describes the commonly applied sensing techniques for arc welding control: arc sensing and nonimaging and imaging optics. It reviews the physics-based, empirically-derived, and neural network models for arc welding control. The article also discusses the research and development activities that attempt to extend the commercial, welding process controllers, namely, adaptive control, intelligent control, multivariable control, and distributed, hierarchical control.
Daniel A. Hartman, George E. Cook, R. Bruce Madigan, David R. DeLapp, 2011. "Arc Welding Process Control", Welding Fundamentals and Processes, T. Lienert, T. Siewert, S. Babu, V. Acoff
Download citation file:
ASM Reference Publications Catalog
The new Fall / Winter 2019-2020 Catalog features more than 200 new and upcoming releases and our popular best-selling titles. Save now with prepublication pricing and set sales.


text:
- Ground Calcium Carbonate
- Precipitated Calcium Carbonates (PCC)
- Talc Powder
- Micro Talc
- Hydrated Lime
- Calcium Stearate
- Magnesium Stearate
- Zinc Stearate
Calcium Stearate is a carboxylate calcium compound, categorized as calcium soap or ordinary called calcium soap, because of its slippery properties and physical properties like soap.
Calcum Stearate is produced by reacting stearic acid with calcium oxide in certain temperature and with a certain duration of time.
Calcium Stearate is smooth and slippery to the touch, insoluble in water and can not even mix with water or waterproof / waterproof, very stable in conditions high temperature, serves as a lubricant, stabilizer and thickener in various processes.
In the manufacturing industry, Calcium Stearate is widely used as a raw material for manufactures various types of products and applications
Here are some functions and uses of Calcium Stearate in several industries;
# Foods, Pharmaceuticals & Cosmetic Industries: Calcium stearate, is the calcium salt of acid stearate derived from vegetable fats and oils, with the chemical formula Ca(C18H35O2)2. is synthetic material that can be used as a surface conditioner, anti-caking agent, release agent, lubricants, binders, emulsifiers and thickeners in foods with the European food additive number E470a. It can also be used in cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, pharmaceuticals and other applications.
Calcium Stearate is used in cosmetic, pharmaceutical, food and other chemical formulations as an anti-caking agent due to its lubricating and water-repellent properties. Calcium Stearate is used for prevent the product from absorbing moisture and stickiness as well as increase the plasticity. Addition Calcium stearate also provides a more even product yield.
# Rubber Industries: in the Rubber Industry, Calcium Stearate is used as a filler and as an anti-caking agent to prevent rubber coagulation/clumping and to release the final product from the mould.
# Plastic Industries: Calcium Stearate is an excellent solid lubricant for use in the process of injection and extrusion of various types of plastic. Calcium Stearate also functions as a stabilizer and to obtain better transparency properties, good color resistance, good long-term stability and provides resistance to weather conditions.
In the manufacture of PVC, Calcium Stearate or Calcium Stearate neutralizes hydrochloric acid, HCl, which can be released from the PVC melting process, so that it can extend the lifetime of the PVC.
Calcium Stearate is used in the following types of plastics, namely;
Acrylonitrile Butadiene… (ABS)
Poly Vinyl Chloride (PVC)
Sheet and bulk molding (SMC/BMC)
Calcium Stearate as a Separating Agent for Rubber, Plastics and Ceramics
Unlike other separators, calcium stearate has a high melting point, so it can used like graphite which acts as a dry lubricant.
Some industries that use calcium stearate as a separator are:
Metal Industry, Rubber Industry, Plastic Industry, and Ceramics
Water Repellent Agent on Construction Materials
Small addition of calcium stearate in solids or emulsions in small proportions, between 1% and 6% to cement, significantly improves the water-repellent properties of the mixture.
In this way, in addition to producing the impermeability of the mixture, the addition of calcium stearate also avoid the appearance of the effect of flowering / efflorescence.
In the precast industry, calcium stearate emulsion is widely used, while the powder form is used in the manufacture of mortar and putty.


AU Biomaterials Design Lab:Protocols/Autoclave
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< AU Biomaterials Design Lab:Protocols
Revision as of 13:28, 18 August 2011 by Kathryn Muratore (Talk | contribs)
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An autoclave is a piece of equipment that is used for sterilization. In this lab, we primarily use the autoclave to prepare broth and flasks for bacterial protein expression. The autoclave that we use is located in Beeghly 314. There are directions posted on the wall in this room for proper use of the autoclave. We follow the directions for "Wet Samples".
 - Make certain that there is enough water in the reservoir before you begin.
 1. Turn the power on
 2. Turn the black knob to fill. This fills the chamber with water.
 3. Let water continue to fill the chamber until it reaches the line at the front of the chamber.
 4. Turn the black knob to STE (short for "sterilize").
 5. Load your media into the autoclave chamber. (Note: 2 2.8L Fernbach Flasks can be loaded into the chamber)
 6. Close the autoclave door and seal it shut.
 7. Set the temperature knob just to the right of 121F.
 8. Turn the timer knob to 50 minutes.
 9. After the 50 minutes have elapsed, wait 30 minutes until the pressure drops back to atmospheric pressure.
 10. Turn the black knob to Off.
 11. Use gloves to unload your sterilized material.
Personal tools


text:
10 m Kit Birdline Pro Solar Box
The BirdLine Pro is a revolutionizing bird control hi-tech solution. It consists of two main
parts: a solar box and a BirdLine stripe. The solar box generates harmless electric pulses
to the BirdLine stripe that result in scaring the birds away and back to nature.
Kit 2" -33 feet+ Solar Box Control
Transparent and invisible to the eye, and does not interfere with the design of the structure
HDPE-UV stabilized transparent pressure strips of 0.16 feet wide packed into 33 feet.
Easy and simple for everyone to use and install on balconies, roofs or windows to keep unwelcome guests away
The voltage across the pressure strip is not dangerous and does not harm humans or animals. The voltage is supplied by a small 12 V lithium-ion battery using induction current coil technology that when touched emits a shock that is painful but harmless.
The 33 feet birdline pro pressure strip kit is composed of 33 feet pressure strip, connectors and a solar box.
The HDPE-UV stabilized transparent pressure strips on which conductive strips are sewn. The pressure strip is designed to withstand extreme weather conditions and be in service for many years.
The birdline pro solar box is controlled by a smart electric processor. The processor controls the structure, intensity and frequency of the pulse, as well as its automatically adaptation to varying conditions such as humidity, day and night, etc.
The pulse rate varies randomly such that it teaches the pigeons and birds to stay away. Pigeons and birds have episodic-like memory for locations. The pulse conditions the pigeon to deter from returning to that area by classifying it as hostile and unpleasant.
The kit is suitable for all of types of surfaces such as awnings, window sills and balconies.
- Luxurious design that fits any surface.
- Exclusively manufactured by Magnor in
33 feet Birdline Pro strip
4 quick connectors
4 bridging cables


People's Power Assemblies
The purpose of the Tear Down the Walls National Gathering is to create spaces for cross-movement strategies and networking. We want this to be an action oriented conference that will create substantial progress toward building a stronger, more unified movement for transformational change in the US. To that end we are incorporating six 2 and a 1/2 hour People's Power Assemblies throughout the weekend which are designed to produce cross-movement strategies and at least one [inter]nationally coordinated day of local action that all the groups involved agree to build together.
Topics for People's Power Assemblies
 1. US Imperialism and Anti-Militarism
 2. Drug War and Drug War Prisoners
 3. Immigration and Border Militarization
 4. Economic Justice
 5. Ecology and Empire
 6. Anti-Repression and Prison-Industrial Complex
*We recognize that there is substantial overlap even among these six issues. Capitalism with its need to create mechanisms for criminalization and social control is an even deeper root than these six cross-movement issues.


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I'm looking for a key/value store meeting the following requirements:
 1. Open Source
 2. C API (C++ okay too)
 3. ACID
 4. Some level of crash recovery
 5. High [storage] capacity per file
 6. Both key and value are arbitrary binary data
 7. Embedded (like DBM, SQLite, et al.)
GDBM looks particularly attractive. Per the fact that the datum struct uses int dsize; clearly key and value sizes are limited to 2GB, which is fine. However, my problem with GDBM is that I can't find any documentation on the limit to the database file sizes. For example, Berkeley DB provides database files up to 256TB. If this is large enough, then GDBM would be perfect.
Does anyone know the GDBM file size cap? Failing that (or if it's too small) what other suggestions can you make? Does such a beast exist?
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1 Answer 1
up vote 1 down vote accepted
If you're using GDBM on a 32-bit (i386) system, the maximum database size is 2GB. If you're using it on a 64-bit system and you compile your app 64-bit, then the maximum database size should be limited by your filesystem.
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Can anyone confirm this? – Chris Jan 22 '10 at 16:43
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Three of Earth (Pentacles)
Arcane Glyphs Tarot.
It is very difficult to learn and notice the parts of the Page of Earth (Pentacles). That is Two, Three and Four of Earth (Pentacles). These parts are fully active from the first day of man, unlike other functions, which the person must learn and develop.
Three of Earth (Pentacles) - Arcane Glyphs Tarot
Three of Earth (Pentacles) is active 24 hours a day, just like the Two of Earth (Pentacles). The difference is that the Three of Earth (Pentacles) is more busy with physical system maintenance.
It is a monotonous activity, not in-depth tests and treatments. That is, the Three of Earth (Pentacles) perform an automatic check and repair of the system.
In the event of a more unusual problem, the Three of Earth (Pentacles) do not know and can not handle.
In these cases, the problem is addressed by other parts responsible for it.
Because the operations of the Three of Earth (Pentacles) are entirely mechanical and do not require attention and intervention, intervention in this function, or an attempt to bring attention to this function, can cause damage. If a person succeeds for some reason to change something in this function, he should change all the other parts associated with this function. Otherwise, there will be damage.
The Three of Earth (Pentacles) also represent people, who usually focus on what is related to the physical world.
They will deal with what is related to their physical bodies, healthy food, healthy living, energy-saving, and so on. Usually, their lives will be filled with rutin and simplicity.
The Three of of Earth (Pentacles) enjoys health care, and may even try to persuade and influence others to act like him.
Sometimes the Three of Earth (Pentacles) tends to exaggerate his health pursuits, and it can manifest itself in various forms, sometimes even hypochondria.
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text: The Internet technology encourages electronic commerce between people and/or organizations that are physically distributed in different locations, which makes it difficult to trust each other. The existing work of electronic trades have proposed protocols and mechanisms with mediation by Trusted Third Parties (TTP), on the assumption that the third parties could be trusted without reservation by each party on a trade. Such an assumption, however, is sometimes not applicable to businesses via the Internet where various parties are trading each other, and it is not practical to give infinite trust to the parties regardless of the scale or period of trades. This paper proposes the degree of trust which limits the amount of money or goods that can be sent at one time according to the risk of the parties on trades. Each of risk limits is assumed to be determined through information from credit facilities or by the decision of each party. Then we discuss the feasibility of transactions within given credit limits and propose algorithms to judge the feasibility.


My general question is when should one use OLS and when binomial regression when the outcome is count data with a fixed upper limit. When the upper limit is large (like 1000) and most values are around 500, residuals can still be almost exactly normally distributed. However, when the number of trials is very low (like 3) normality assumption obviously cannot hold.
Is there a rule of thumb for the minimum number of trials such that OLS can be used (of course normality of residuals still should be checked)? Furthermore, if normality of residuals is approximately normal with OLS, what is the downside of using binomial regression?
In our case, we have a few different data sets where the outcomes are always (integer) scores on different tests. The score indicates how many exercises could a subject solve from the given test. The maximum scores can vary between different tests although they measure the same thing. There are tests with a maximum of 3 points, and tests with a maximum of 30. I guess with 30 points OLS might work, but not with 3. Should we just analyze everything with binomial (of course again, we need to check the assumptions)
Bonus question: If we fit OLS and binomial regression to the dataset with max 30 points, and one of the coefficients is significant for the OLS estimate but not significant for the binomial one, how can we interpret this?
 - $\begingroup$ You need to give us more details! What is the integer scores, that does not sound like counts? Assuming they are binomial counts, why not use logistic regression, which has NO normality assumption? There is little to gain by using OLS, when assumptions are not met... $\endgroup$ – kjetil b halvorsen Jun 4 at 22:00
 - $\begingroup$ That would also be my guess. However, we are reanalyzing articles and they all used OLS for tests where sometimes the maximum score was 5 or 10. The score indicates how many exercises could a subject solve from the given test. $\endgroup$ – zerz Jun 5 at 8:22
 - $\begingroup$ Please add that new nfo as an edit to the post! Post should preferably be self-contained, and not everybody reads comments. $\endgroup$ – kjetil b halvorsen Jun 5 at 23:09
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Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.


SE difference
SE difference
Can the overall standard error of difference (given in the.pvs file for
predicted means) be used for pair wise comparison of means to determine the
significance of the differences between the levels of a fixed effect and if
so how?? Is there a need to estimate SE of difference for each pair under
comparison by taking into consideration the number of records for each level.
Thanks in advance
Dr.Kishore C. Prayaga
CSIRO Livestock Industries
Locked bag 1
NSW 2350 Australia
Ph: (02) 6776 1379 / (02) 6776 1420
Fax: (02) 6776 1371
Asreml mailinglist archive:


text:
with the normal local-label mechanism. Such a label can't be
non-local because it would interfere with subsequent definitions of,
and references to, local labels; and it can't be local because the
macro that defined it wouldn't know the label's full name. NASM
therefore introduces a third type of label, which is probably only
useful in macro definitions: if a label begins with the special prefix
'..@', then it does nothing to the local label mechanism. So you could
label1: ; a non-local label
.local: ; this is really label1.local
..@foo: ; this is a special symbol
label2: ; another non-local label
.local: ; this is really label2.local
jmp..@foo ; this will jump three lines up
Chapter 4: The NASM Preprocessor
NASM contains a powerful macro processor, which supports conditional
assembly, multi-level file inclusion, two forms of macro (single-line
and multi-line), and a 'context stack' mechanism for extra macro power.
Preprocessor directives all begin with a '%' sign.
The preprocessor collapses all lines which end with a backslash (\)
character into a single line. Thus:
%define THIS_VERY_LONG_MACRO_NAME_IS_DEFINED_TO \
will work like a single-line macro without the backslash-newline
4.1.1. The Normal Way: '%define'
Single-line macros are defined using the '%define' preprocessor
directive. The definitions work in a similar way to C; so you can do
%define ctrl 0x1F &
%define param(a,b) ((a)+(a)*(b))
mov byte [param(2,ebx)], ctrl 'D'
which will expand to
mov byte [(2)+(2)*(ebx)], 0x1F & 'D'
When the expansion of a single-line macro contains tokens which
invoke another macro, the expansion is performed at invocation time,
not at definition time. Thus the code
%define a(x) 1+b(x)
%define b(x) 2*x
will evaluate in the expected way to 'mov ax,1+2*8', even though the
macro 'b' wasn't defined at the time of definition of 'a'.
Macros defined with '%define' are case sensitive: after '%define foo
bar', only 'foo' will expand to 'bar': 'Foo' or 'FOO' will not. By
using '%idefin!"e' instead of '%define' (the 'i' stands for
'insensitive') you can define all the case variants of a macro at once,
so that '%idefine foo bar' would cause 'foo', 'Foo', 'FOO', 'fOO' and
so on all to expand to 'bar'.
There is a mechanism which detects when a macro call has occurred as
a result of a previous expansion of the same macro, to guard against
circular references and infinite loops. If this happens, the
preprocessor will only expand the first occurrence of the macro. Hence,
if you code
%define a(x) 1+a(x)
the macro 'a(3)' will expand once, becoming '1+a(3)', and will then
expand no further. This behaviour can be useful: see *Note Section 8.1::
for an example of its use.
You can overload single-line macros: if you write
%define foo(x) 1+x
%define foo(x,y) 1+x*y
the preprocessor will be able to handle both types of macro call, by
counting the parameters you pass; so 'foo(3)' will become '1+3' whereas
'foo(ebx,2)' will become '1+ebx*2'. However, if you define
%define foo bar
then no other definition of 'foo' will be accepted: a macro with no
parameters prohibits the definition of the same name as a macro _with_
parameters, and vice versa.
This doesn't prevent single-line macros being _redefined_: you can
perfectly well define a macro with
%define foo bar
and then re-define it later in the same source file with
%define foo baz
Then everywhere the macro 'foo' is invoked, it will be expanded
according to the most recent definition. This is particularly useful
when defining single-line macros with '%assign' (see *Note Section
4.4. Conditional Assembly
Similarly to the C preprocessor, NASM allows sections of a source
file to be assembled only if certain conditions are met. The general
syntax of this feature looks like this:
; some code which only appears if is met
; only appears if is not met but is
; this appears if neither nor was met
The '%else' clause is optional, as is the '%elif' clause. You can
have more than one '%elif' clause as well.
4.4.1. '%ifdef': Testing Single-Line Macro Existence
Beginning a conditional-assembly block with the line '%ifdef MACRO'
will assemble the subsequent code if, and only if, a single-line macro
called 'MACRO' is defined. If not, then the '%elif' and '%else' blocks
(if any) will be processed instead.
For example, when debugging a program, you might want to write code
; perform some function
writefile 2,"Function performed successfully",13,10
; go and do something else
Then you could use the command-line option '-dDEBUG' to create a
version of the program which produced debugging messages, and remove the
option to generate the final release version of the program.
You can test for a macro _not_ being defined by using '%ifndef'
instead of '%ifdef'. You can also test for macro definitions in '%elif'
blocks by using '%elifdef' and '%elifndef'.
4.4.2. 'ifmacro': Testing Multi-Line Macro Existence
The '%ifmacro' directive operates in the same way as the '%ifdef'
directive, except that it checks for the existence of a multi-line
For example, you may be working with a large project and not have
control over the macros in a library. You may want to create a macro
with one name if it doesn't already exist, and another name if one with
that name does exist.
The '%ifmacro' is considered true if defining a macro with the given
name and number of arguments would cause a definitions conflict. For
%ifmacro MyMacro 1-3
%error "MyMacro 1-3" causes a conflict with an existing macro.
%macro MyMacro 1-3
; insert code to define the macro
4.4.4. '%if': Testing Arbitrary Numeric Expressions
The conditional-assembly construct '%if expr' will cause the
subsequent code to be assembled if and only if the value of the numeric
expression 'expr' is non-zero. An example of the use of this feature is
in deciding when to break out of a '%rep' preprocessor loop: see *Note
Section 4.5:: for a detailed example.
The expression given to '%if', and its counterpart '%elif', is a
critical expression (see *Note Section 3.8::).
'%if' extends the normal NASM expression syntax, by providing a set
of relational operators which are not normally available in
expressions. The operators '=', '<', '>', '<=', '>=' and '<>' test
equality, less-than, greater-than, less-or-equal, greater-or-equal and
not-equal respectively. The C-like forms '==' and '!=' are supported as
alternative forms of '=' and '<>'. In addition, lowpriority logical
operators '&&', '^^' and '||' are provided, supplying logical AND,
logical XOR and logical OR. These work like the C logical operators
(although C has no logical XOR), in that they always return either 0 or
1, and treat any non-zero input as 1 (so that '^^', for example,
returns 1 if exactly one of its inputs is zero, and 0 otherwise). The
relational operators also return 1 for true and 0 for false.
4.5. Preprocessor Loops: '%rep'
NASM's 'TIMES' prefix, though useful, cannot be used to invoke a
multi-line macro multiple times, because it is processed by NASM after
macros have already been expanded. Therefore NASM provides another form
of loop, this time at the preprocessor level: '%rep'.
The directives '%rep' and '%endrep' ('%rep' takes a numeric
argument, which can be an expression; '%endrep' takes no arguments) can
be used to enclose a chunk of code, which is then replicated as many
times as specified by the preprocessor:
%assign i 0
inc word [table+2*i]
%assign i i+1
This will generate a sequence of 64 'INC' instructions, incrementing
every word of memory from '[table]' to '[table+126]'.
For more complex termination conditions, or to break out of a repeat
loop part way along, you can use the '%exitrep' directive to terminate
the loop, like this:
%assign i 0
%assign j 1
%if j > 65535
%assign k j+i
%assign i j
%assign j k
fib_number equ ($-fibonacci)/2
This produces a list of all


text:
November 22, 2010 | CUNY Lecture Series, Graduate Center
Two Cuban revolutionaries, Félix Varela and José Martí, would find both prosperity and purpose in New York City during the 1800s. "They were drawn to Gotham because of its tolerance for political expression," says Carmen Boullosa, a Distinguished Lecturer at City College, "and by the possibility of winning moral and financial support." Varela, a Catholic priest who fled a death sentence by the Spanish crown, went on to publish a Spanish-language newspaper in New York that advocated the independence of Cuba and the abolition of slavery, and Martí, a beloved poet and essayist, became a national hero of the Cubans. Boullosa explores the historical and cultural connections of the Spanish-speaking world with New York City during the past two centuries, in a panel moderated by Mike Wallace and presented by the Gotham Center for New York City History at the CUNY Graduate Center.
Listen Now >>


text:
Released January 29, 2021.
Roughly 220 million tons of MSW are landfilled each year, across 1,500 MSW landfills (MSWLFs). One metric for the cost of disposal is the gate rate or tipping fee, i.e. the amount charged per ton for disposal at the landfill. EREF routinely surveys active MSWLFs across the U.S. to estimate the average MSWLF tipping fee nationally, regionally and on a state-by-state basis. The primary goal of the study is to track changes in MSWLF tip fee, and explore the relationship between tip fee and MSW management practices.
Results from this study will provide insight into the following types of questions:
- What is the average MSWLF tipping fee, and how does it vary across the U.S.?
- Are MSWLF tip fees increasing or decreasing each year?
- How does tip fee correlate to other MSW management practices (e.g. WTE, recycling)?
Interested in previous years' data?
January 2016 Analysis
April 2017 Analysis
April 2018 Analysis (Rev. ed.)
April 2019 Analysis


1. What Is a Delaware Holding Company?
2. Holding Company Controversy
3. Requirements for Delaware Holding Companies
4. How to Start a Delaware Holding Company
Updated July 13, 2020:
The Delaware holding company requirements are very important for parent and holding companies to follow. A parent company can form a holding company in the state of Delaware to hold certain assets of the larger company. If the requirements are not followed properly, the parent company can face lawsuits or even have their holding company shut down.
What Is a Delaware Holding Company?
Holding companies in Delaware were formed because of the state income tax law, which made it possible for foreign companies (those not formed in the state of Delaware) to be partially tax-exempt.
The tax code of Delaware states that corporations that operate within the state boarders only to maintain and manage their investments, intangible property, or trusts that are registered with the Investment Company Act of 1940 as investment companies may be exempt from corporate taxation.
Due to this taxation treatment for such companies, businesses began setting up corporations in Delaware that would act as sort of tax-exempt boxes to put their intangible assets in, called holding companies. These intangible assets or investments include things such as:
 - Stocks
 - Bonds
 - Notes
 - Patents
 - Patent applications
 - Trademarks
 - Trade names
 - Trade secrets
Delaware holding companies are frequently used to hold different types of intellectual property as well as investments. These companies are subsidiaries of larger companies that own the rights to any of the assets held there. The parent company gets licenses for access to those assets, which gives royalties back to the subsidiary company. The fees paid for the licensure are tax deductible. Therefore, using a holding company doesn't add much cost to the operations of the parent company.
Holding Company Controversy
Some states take issue with the idea of holding companies because they see it as a loss of tax revenue that should be theirs. Certain states have actually sued multinational companies such as Victoria's Secret, Radio Shack, and Home Depot in an effort to recover the taxes they missed out on.
Holding companies do offer companies an opportunity to save money, but they can also lead to audits and lawsuits. The states that allow holding companies don't usually have a problem with the practice. However, the states where the companies are primarily doing business sometimes feel they are being cheated out of tax dollars.
The audits and lawsuits the state pursues against holding companies are usually meant to prove that the holding company is only set up to avoid paying taxes. They attempt to prove that the holding company doesn't conduct any business in the state in which it is formed but simply hides assets from taxation.
Requirements for Delaware Holding Companies
Holding companies formed in Delaware must be careful to meet all the necessary requirements to help avoid audits and legal issues. It is essential that the holding company maintains a separate identity from the parent company and a status of good standing with the SOS (Secretary of State). Some of these critical requirements include:
 - Not allowing the holding company to conduct any business beyond simply managing intangible assets.
 - Not allowing the holding company to purchase any property that isn't necessary to manage the parent company's assets.
 - Keeping the holding company up-to-date with all fees and filing requirements with the state.
 - Keeping up with all debt payments required of the holding company.
 - Maintaining the right amount of capital in the holding company necessary to manage the parent company's assets.
 - Maintaining a separate legal identity from any owners or members of the holding company.
 - Maintaining separate records and bank accounts from other companies, including its parent company.
 - Filing separate tax returns from those of the parent company.
Delaware holding companies should also be sure to keep up with all the basic requirements for corporations, like holding annual meetings, filing documents with the state, etc.
How to Start a Delaware Holding Company
To start a holding company in the state of Delaware, you'll follow the basic steps for starting an LLC or corporation in the state. The business's main address should be within the state borders. All Delaware holding companies must adhere to state laws regarding their:
 - Formation
 - Operation
 - Taxation
 - Contracts.
The best way to start and maintain a successful Delaware holding company is to get counsel from an experienced business lawyer.


text:
EducationBoard of DirectorsHuman ServicesNonprofit Member
Essential Families provides crucial services to "below and slightly above poverty families" in a 23-county service area in and around Kansas City.
Essential Families stands apart by:
1. Filling a gap using mental healthcare to provide highly secure Virtual Mental Healthcare, similar to the Employee Assistance Plan (EAP) model mental wellness program, for individuals and families. No waiting list.
2. Providing Virtual Parental Education support to households just above the poverty line, a demographic that is too often left behind in government-funded programs. That cohort encompasses a population of nearly 300,000 people just in the Kansas City area alone.
3. Serving as a "Google" like portal for local essential family resources needed to stabilize and sustain families to be productive citizens in their communities.
4. Providing 24/7 virtual ACCESS to children and family needs, such as: Parental Education, Food, Clothing, Shelter, and Mental Healthcare, available on broadband internet in any city, or rural community. Free laptop, and computer training are included.
Essential Families is also on the cutting edge of donor transparency. Through Artificial Intelligence (AI), and extensive relational database, Essential Families provides "real-time" data to donors, funders about how their dollars are being used.


text:
traffic flow; discontinuous Galerkin method; junctions; numerical flux
We deal with the simulation of traffic flow on networks. On individual roads we use standard macroscopic traffic models. The discontinuous Galerkin method in space and explicit Euler method in time is used for the numerical solution. We apply limiters to keep the density in an admissible interval as well as prevent spurious oscillations in the numerical solution. To solve traffic networks, we construct suitable numerical fluxes at junctions. Numerical experiments are presented.


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How would you go around creating a reusable weapon class? I can't really wrap my head around creating a class, which will work for both melee and ranged weapons.
Example given, that you have a knife, an RPG, and you have an ordinary pistol. How would you go around creating a class all three can inherit from?
share|improve this question
Think about what they have in common and what is dfferent for each of them. That's the first step. – Maik Semder Sep 14 '11 at 14:07
3 Answers 3
up vote 5 down vote accepted
The same way you design any inheritance structure: You think about what all weapons, without exception, have in common. Obviously, damage comes to mind. Attack rate. Remember that you don't have to (and should not!) cramp everything into the base class. You put into a class what you need it (and all child classes) to do, no more and no less.
Next step, you could make 2 classes, MeleeWeapon and RangedWeapon, which both inherit from Weapon. Maybe that split is necessary because a MeleeWeapon has no range, and/or only a RangedWeapon uses ammunition. Then you repeat the above process for each of those classes, until you have all classes you need.
At every branch, you should also consider if you really need to split into 2 or more classes. For example, melee weapons could also have a meaningful range, such as spear vs. dagger, or your ranged weapons could have infinite ammo. That totally depends on your game design and cannot be generalized.
share|improve this answer
Thank you very much, I have some quick drafts for some classes now :) – meth0d_ Sep 14 '11 at 15:14
-1, while your first paragraph I agree with, the rest of your answer trends towards the very outmoded and out-of-favor inheritance-heavy approach to design. – Josh Petrie Sep 14 '11 at 15:24
Just want to add that every weapon has a range. If a melee weapon would have a range of less or equal 0 it would not hit anything! – Marco Sep 14 '11 at 16:13
_USER_ An example where 0 range works: In a grid based system, the range represents how many squares away the target can be. 0 squares away is adjacent. 1 square away is any adjacent to the adjacent squares, and etc. What "0" means is a design specific question, and can be a valid value for range. – normanthesquid Sep 14 '11 at 17:39
_USER_ yes, I see, special cases. To Hackworth: It's not off-topic, since you were giving a statement in your answer and I thought that it would not be right; That's the matter with comments. Anyways, I still think that a range has to be defined (0 is also a value) to check any collisions with any entity. However, my understanding of range might actually differ from yours, so we should just stop discussing here. – Marco Sep 14 '11 at 18:18
To add to Hackworth's answer, with regard to damage and attack rate, in an RPG there are also modifiers to abilities. A heavy weapon may actually reduce your strength or dexterity, and give you negative modifiers. However, instead of thinking about having all weapons inheriting your modifiers, create a Modifier interface and implementation that has getters/setters for those modifiers. Now your Weapon interface should have a getter/setter for your Modifier object. This favors composition over inheritance when it makes sense.
share|improve this answer
It should certainly be possible to create a single class that represents all weapons equally well -- and this is ideal, because allowing yourself to fall into the trap of creating many subclasses for each weapon type is cumbersome. Composition(*) should be favored over inheritance.
The big challenges are going to be
 1. Enumerating the set of data and behavior that you expect of all classifications of weapon.
 2. Determining how to abstract that data and behavior into a data-oriented approach.
"Range" is a good example -- both swords and guns both have a range. You can either elect to use a simple system when a range of 0 just means "melee" or you can use a real-world measurement so as to (as suggested by another poster), gives daggers a shorter reach than a polearm.
Behavior can be handled by scripting(**). You could have an "on-activated" script object that was invoked when the weapon was used or swung -- the script for a melee weapon would look at the range, and the location of the actor using the weapon and perhaps compute the set of targets in an semi-circle in front of the actor and apply damage to each. Conversely the script for a gun might do a raycast from the actor, limited by the range.
(*) This does not strictly imply that you have to rely on "component oriented" systems to effectively avoid going crazy with inheritance.
(**) Either via scripts loaded from another language, like Lua, or by pointing the weapon at a C++ "Script" class which you do create subclasses of. The latter is obviously easier, but lacks some of the benefits of a scripting system as it requires recompilation, for example.
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Your Answer


The Vapnik–Chervonenkis (VC)-dimension formula for neural networks ranges from $O(E)$ to $O(E^2)$, with $O(E^2V^2)$ in the worst case, where $E$ is the number of edges and $V$ is the number of nodes. The number of training samples needed to have a strong guarantee of generalization is linear with the VC-dimension.
This means that for a network with billions of edges, as in the case of successful deep learning models, the training dataset needs billions of training samples in the best case, to quadrillions in the worst case. The largest training sets currently have about a hundred billion samples. Since there is not enough training data, it is unlikely deep learning models are generalizing. Instead, they are overfitting the training data. This means the models will not perform well on data that is dissimilar to the training data, which is an undesirable property for machine learning.
Given the inability of deep learning to generalize, according to VC dimensional analysis, why are deep learning results so hyped? Merely having a high accuracy on some dataset does not mean much in itself. Is there something special about deep learning architectures that reduces the VC-dimension significantly?
If you do not think the VC-dimension analysis is relevant, please provide evidence/explanation that deep learning is generalizing and is not overfitting. I.e. does it have good recall AND precision, or just good recall? 100% recall is trivial to achieve, as is 100% precision. Getting both close to 100% is very difficult.
As a contrary example, here is evidence that deep learning is overfitting. An overfit model is easy to fool since it has incorporated deterministic/stochastic noise. See the following image for an example of overfitting.
Example of underfitting, fitting, and overfitting.
Also, see lower ranked answers to this question to understand the problems with an overfit model despite good accuracy on test data.
Some have responded that regularization solves the problem of a large VC dimension. See this question for further discussion.
 - $\begingroup$ Comments are not for extended discussion; this conversation has been moved to chat. $\endgroup$ – D.W. May 15 '17 at 3:37
 - 8
 $\begingroup$ I don't think questions why is something "hyped" are good. The answer is "because people". People take interest in things because of plethora of reasons, including marketing. $\endgroup$ – luk32 May 16 '17 at 13:49
 - 3
 $\begingroup$ Deep learning works in practice. It might be overfiting. It might be completely unjustified. It might be learning secrets of the universe from an eldritch deity. But the hype is coming from practioners who are suddenly able to write 30 lines on code and teach a camera to scan signatures and match them with stored ones to validate bank transactions. Or tag unknown people in photographs. Etc. Maybe you've heard the line "it's not an insult if its true"? Well it's not hype if it works. There are lots of problems it doesn't work on and excessive popular hype. But it works in real life application. $\endgroup$ – Stella Biderman Jun 27 '19 at 15:51
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 $\begingroup$ _USER_ The fact that adversarial examples exist is somewhat to the side of generalization. I can train a neural network on 10k data points and then test it on 100k data points and it'll do amazingly. That is generalization. The fact that we can deliberately concoct adversarial examples doesn't mean that the network doesn't work any more than the fact that we can concoct optical illusions doesn't mean that your vision doesn't work. Your entire question is predicated on the idea that neural networks don't generalize. But it's an empirical fact that they do. $\endgroup$ – Stella Biderman Jun 27 '19 at 20:07
 - 1
 $\begingroup$ _USER_ You are conflating good out-of-sample accuracy with generalization. While generalization implies the former, the former does not imply the latter. One example I've heard about is when a neural network "learned" to distinguish criminals from non-criminals by memorizing the white background of the prison photos. While the NN had great accuracy on out-of-sample dataset, it did not learn some general principle about criminal facial features. This is why we can concoct such absurd adversarial examples for NNs, because the NN is identifying 'cat' with incidental features. $\endgroup$ – yters Jun 30 '19 at 20:39
"If the map and the terrain disagree, trust the terrain."
It's not really understood why deep learning works as well as it does, but certainly old concepts from learning theory such as VC dimensions appear not to be very helpful.
The matter is hotly debated, see e.g.:
Regarding the issue of adversarial examples, the problem was discovered in:
It is further developed in:
There is a lot of follow-on work.
Update March 2020. A new hypothesis that appears to explain some of the mismatch between clear over-parameterisation of modern (feed-forward) NNs and good recognition performance is Frankle and Carbin's Lottery Ticket Hypothesis from 2018:
The claim is that a "randomly-initialised, dense [feed-forward] neural network contains a subnetwork that is initialised such that when trained in isolation it can match the test accuracy of the original network after training for at most the same number of iterations." Regarding the original question, the Lottery Ticket Hypothesis might be understood as saying that:
 - Training by stochastic gradient descent searches for small subnetworks that work well and deemphasises the rest of the overparameterised network's learning capacity.
 - The bigger the original network, the more likely it is to contain a small subnetwork with good performance on the task at hand.
This has found empirical support, e.g. in
and theoretical support in:
As far as I'm aware, it has not yet been possible to generalise the Lottery Ticket Hypothesis to recurrent NNs.
Update March 2021. The original 2016 paper Understanding Deep Learning Requires Rethinking Generalization has been updated. Here is the new version:
C. Zhang, S. Bengio, M. Hardt, B. Recht, O. Vinyals, Understanding Deep Learning (Still) Requires Rethinking Generalization.
 - $\begingroup$ When you say "There is a lot of follow-on work" are you referring to the last 2014 paper? The first two papers you mention are fairly recent. Could you update with the papers you're referring to?. $\endgroup$ – VF1 Jun 17 '17 at 18:55
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 $\begingroup$ Strong +1 for "If the map and the terrain disagree, trust the terrain." The models work extremely well in practice regardless of if the math says they should. From a scientific POV, this happens all the time and if anything makes problems more interesting. Nobody read Razborov and Rudich's work on Natural Proofs and went "well, I guess P vs NP isn't an interesting question after all." They went and figured out that it might be possible to use algebraic geometry to do complexity theory. From the point of view of science, problems that transcend our understanding are better, not worse. $\endgroup$ – Stella Biderman Jun 27 '19 at 15:45
 - $\begingroup$ Thank your for this nice reference list and (+1) for the quote. I would like to update and add this discussion: _URL_ $\endgroup$ – stackExchangeUser Jul 9 at 13:30
 - $\begingroup$ _USER_ Feel free to add the references. $\endgroup$ – Martin Berger Jul 11 at 20:33
"Given the inability of Deep Learning to generalize, according to VC dimensional analysis [...]"
No, that's not what VC dimensional analysis says. VC dimensional analysis gives some sufficient conditions under which generalization is guaranteed. But the converse ain't necessarily so. Even if you fail to meet those conditions, the ML method still might generalize.
Put another way: deep learning works better than VC dimensional analysis would lead you to expect (better than VC analysis "predicts"). That's a shortcoming of VC dimensional analysis, not a shortcoming of deep learning. It doesn't imply that deep learning is flawed. Rather, it means that we don't know why deep learning works as well as it does -- and VC analysis is unable to provide any useful insights.
High VC dimension does not imply that deep learning can be fooled. High VC dimension doesn't guarantee anything at all about whether it can be fooled in practical situations. VC dimension provides a unidirectional, worst-case bound: if you meet these conditions, then good things happen, but if you don't meet these conditions, we don't know what will happen (maybe good things will still happen anyway, if nature behaves better than the worst possible case; VC analysis doesn't promise that good things can't/won't happen).
It could be that the VC dimension of the model space is large (it includes very complex patterns as possible), but nature is explained by simple patterns, and the ML algorithm learns the simple pattern present in nature (e.g., because of regularization)


EDSE 213A at San Jose State University
Curriculum, Instruction and Transition
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The professor is very knowledgeable, accessible, and approachable. The course consists of weekly sessions that are less than the 2 hours they are supposed to be. The sessions are both lecture and activity based. There are several projects in this class. Most of them are individual, but there is a large group project due at the end of the semester. The individual projects include: creating a backward lesson plan, observing and analyzing and IEP meeting,and visiting a program that serves disabled students,conducting an interview of the staff, and writing an paper about that experience. The group project is basically individual as well;3-4 students create 10 weeks of curriculum each and just put it together to make one year. The grading system is fair and just and constructive as well.


text:
Develop methodologies, data, and indicators to advance the use of physical accounts of material throughput in the U.S. economy as a tool for formulating national environmental policies.
Materials Flow Accounts track the physical flows of natural resources through the U.S. economy including the mass mobilized during extraction, production, fabrication, use, recycling, and final disposal, and accounting for losses to the environment at each stage. The World Resources Institute is committed to the notion that Materials Flow Accounts (MFA) hold great promise for providing a sound basis to coordinate environmental and economic policy formulation across national governments. In its current phase, the Material Flow Analysis project at WRI will compile and analyze the Materials Flows Accounts of the United States and encourage the government and other institutions to use these data and indicators in policy formulation.
Starting in the Fall of 2002, the WRI project began building a Materials Flow Accounts database for the US in cooperation with several US agencies. This phase of the project represents both a formalization of WRI's past MFA work as well as an opportunity to refine the methodology. Our goal is to improve MFA data compilation and analysis in a way that it can be implemented by agencies of the U.S. government.
The MFA project emphasizes three main approaches to achieve the desired outcome for this phase: (i) Developing the latest and best MFA data and indicators for the U.S., (ii) analyzing data and critical indicators, and (iii) gaining adoption of national level Materials Flow Accounts and associated indicators by the U.S. government. Though distinct, these approaches reinforce one another by relying on the same data and data formats while using different tools for analysis. As an example, our work on MFA can support the goals of the Office of Solid Waste at USEPA through several applications including:
- To test the material flow account approach to priority substances for more effective national chemicals policy,
- To generate national waste estimates that extend beyond the regulatory universe, and
- To furnish a framework for relating reductions in municipal waste streams with overall waste streams.
Because institutional cooperation lies at the heart of this effort, the MFA project aims to identify institutional challenges within the government and work to lower the barriers to implementing this activity at the federal level. The project involves actively engaging key federal agencies, and maintaining close connections with other relevant institutions abroad drawing on our extensive international contacts.
- Centre of Environmental Science, Leiden University (CML)
- Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ)
- Institute for Interdisciplinary Studies of Austrian Universities (IFF)
- National Institute for Environmental Studies (NIES)
- National Research Council, National Materials Advisory Board (NMAB)
- OECD Environmental Performance, Indicators and Outlooks
- US Department of Commerce, Bureau of Economic Analysis (DOC/BEA)
- US Department of Energy, Energy Information Administration (DOE/EIA)
- US Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Air and Radiation
- US Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Environmental Information (EPA/OEI)
- US Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Research and Development
- US Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Solid Waste
- US Geological Survey, Minerals Information
- Wuppertal Institute (WI)


text:
Simply put, in a perfectly waterproof-breathable environment, you would not shiver or sweat. The fabric is smart enough to stay dry. The hitch: The more waterproof a fabric is, the more it sacrifices breathability, and vice versa. The optimal balance between the two is the Holy Grail of technical performance fabrics.
"Waterproof" and "breathable" are relative terms. "You're waterproof and so is a submarine," says Kurt Gray, a fabric-technology expert. "The difference is by degrees." For instance, a fabric might keep you dry in a downpour but get soaked the second you kneel on a wet surface. But it's still considered waterproof.
Waterproof-breathable is achieved by either laminating or coating a thin membrane onto the inside of a fabric. "Coatings are like painting a wall," Gray explains, "and laminates are like wallpaper." Laminates (like Gore-Tex) are generally more uniform but can make fabrics stiff and heavy. Coatings are less uniform, but can achieve a higher level of breathability and make for softer fabrics.
Waterproof-breathables have a Durable Water Repellent (DWR) finish. The DWR causes moisture outside the fabric to bead up and roll off. While the DWR can impair breathability, it also, ironically, is key to helping the garment maintain its breathability in wet conditions: Without a DWR, even a waterproof fabric can become saturated, trapping moisture inside. Since a DWR keeps the fabric dry, it helps moisture escape, too.¿b.c.
Dressing smart: Even the newest, techiest fabrics have their limitations. To overcome them, consider:
Fit: With waterproof-breathable technologies, the closer to the body, the better. It has to do with physics¿the pressure gradient¿and how far the moisture has to travel before it reaches the surface of the fabric, where it can evaporate. If your clothing is too loose, your sweat will condense inside.
Layering: What you wear under your shell has a huge impact on the shell's performance. You want undergarments that wick moisture from your skin and an insulating layer that can transport moisture. If you wear a cotton T-shirt and a sweatshirt, they'll soak up your perspiration, making your high-tech shell as effective as the nylon windbreaker you wore in eighth grade.
Features: You can still sweat in a breathable garment, even with wicking layers underneath. And when you overload a garment's vapor-transmission capability, venting is key. Look for pit zips and mesh-lined venting pockets, and make sure they're placed where your pack straps won't cover them.


Saxon Arch
Saxon archThe Saxon Arch is believed to be the oldest surviving within the City. It stands in the west end of the nave, a reminder of the foundation of the church in the second half of the 7th century.
Roman tiles are set into the arch which is without a keystone and is large for the period, suggesting a larger church building on this site.
The full extent of the arch was revealed in 1940, when the bomb blast which destroyed the medieval church blew down the wall which was covering it. Saxon artefacts, including the base and part of the top of a wheelhead cross fell out of the nave pillars, and can now be seen in the Undercroft Museum.
Return to previous page and continue the tour


text:
Objective: This study examined the association of proximal femur shape with ipsilateral medial and lateral compartment knee osteoarthritis (OA). Design: Radiographs were obtained from the NIH-funded Osteoarthritis Initiative (OAI). Cases of isolated radiographic lateral compartment knee OA were defined on baseline radiographs as Kellgren/Lawrence (K/L) Grade≥2 and joint space narrowing (JSN)>0 in the lateral compartment and JSN=0 in the medial compartment; isolated medial compartment knee OA had K/L≥2 and JSN>0 medially with JSN=0 inthe lateral compartment. Controls had K/L<2 and JSN=0 in both compartments. Controls were frequency matched to cases by sex and 10-year age intervals. We characterized the shape of the proximal femurs on radiographs using Active Shape Modeling (ASM) and determined the association of proximal femur shape with knee OA using logistic regression. Results: There were 168 lateral compartment knee OA cases (mean body mass index (BMI) 29.72±5.26), 169 medial compartment knee OA cases (mean BMI 29.68±4.83) and 168 controls (mean BMI 26.87±4.2). Thirteen modes were derived for femur shape which described 95.5% of the total variance in proximal femur shape in the population. Modes 6, 8 and 12 were associated with prevalent lateral compartment knee OA. Medial compartment knee OA was associated with proximal femur modes 1, 5, 8, and 12. Conclusions: Prevalent lateral and medial compartment knee OA are associated with different ipsilateral proximal femur shapes. Additional studies are needed to better define how the shape of the proximal femur influences compartment-specific knee OA.
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Biomedical Engineering
- Orthopedics and Sports Medicine


General Topics
Tips and How-To
The recondition command helps restore solid state drive performance by rewriting free space on the drive in very large chunks.
Most solid state drives respond to this treatment by cleaning up and defragmenting themselves. Some top-quality enterprise grade drives do not need reconditioning, such as the OWC Mercury Extreme.
DiskTester can operate on any volume, including the boot volume, but the more free space on the drive, the more efficient the process, so get rid of extra junk before reconditioning.
See Running DiskTester recondition, below. Before testing:
Graphing the results
Graph the results using the supplied spreadsheet.
Iteration summary
DiskTester emits a summary of each iteration when done, even if you stop it before all iterations are done. With iterations equivalent to 3-8 times the full capacity of the SSD (eg 384GB to 1GB for a 128GB SSD), this can provide useful insight as to the effectiveness of the reconditioning process.
This graph shows the behavior (or not) with each iteration. Remember, if there is minimal free space, more iterations are required. Generally speaking total writes of 4-6X the drive capacity are needed; the amount of free contiguous space determines how many iterations are needed.
In the graph below, the green line shows a 53% improvement in average write speed from the first iteration to the 8th one, as well as a 73% improvement in minimum write speed. There is some further improvement to the 9th iteration, then it oscillates around 100MB/sec. The maximum speed of around 170MB/sec has remained stable, and minimum speed has gained as well, so overall performance is much higher after reconditioning.
Click to view larger size
Single iteration
Shown below is a graph for the write speed of a popular brand 128GB SSD for which marketing materials claim a write speed of 190MB/sec, but averages only 60MB/sec! It has seen only light use. And that's for the best case scenario of huge transfer sizes. This write performance is well below that of a even a slow hard drive, as well as being extremely variable.
Consider graphing the first iteration and the last one, then compare the two.
First iteration over poor-performing 128GB SSD
First iteration over 128GB SSD
Shown below is the 4th iteration. Consistency is better, and write speed is up to 80.3MB/sec, still disappointing, but a 34% improvement over the first iteration.
4th iteration over 128GB SSD
The 8th iteration picks up more speed, averaging about 93MB/sec. This brand SSD doesn't take a hint all that well, but at least it's steadily improving.
8th iteration over 128GB SSD
There is some improvement with more iterations, but not a lot. The drive has stabilized around 100MB/sec writes, a bit more than half its claimed write speed. That is why you want an SSD that offers long-term high performance, like the OWC Mercury Extreme.
8th iteration over 128GB SSD
Running DiskTester recondition
Using DiskTester.app, choose Recondition SSD.
Reconditioning is a "good enough" process. You can stop it anytime you like, restart it later, etc. Observe the average speed, and when acceptable, stop the process.
DiskTester also monitors the results, and will stop when the average speed does not improve significantly.
Because of the nature of SSDs, results with partially full drives can go fast/slow/fast/etc until the entire capacity has been covered. The drive isn't really getting faster or slower per se, it's that different portions of it are being accessed. It's a little confusing!
DiskTester recondition
Command line usage
Simple. There are no options, only the drive name to recondition.
Specify the volume to be reconditioned. Reconditioning a hard drive is pointless.
disktester recondition XBoot
Next page: fill-volume


text:
interested in the morphology
of the folk tale
, Propp used the formalist approach
(breaking sentences down into elements called morpheme
s) to analyse by analogy
the folk tales.
Propp used for his investigations the Russian folk tale (he studied more than 450 tales), and he defined 31 generic themes.
Moreover, Propp tried to identify the rules by which these morphemes are combined, and found that some of them came in pairs, and that the order in which are shown seems constant.
Vladimir Propp, along with Joseph Campbell and Jorge Luis Borges, among others, has been inspired by Carl Jung's theory of the collective unconscious. The study of "master plots" in universal literature shows similar patterns between different cultures and, the most important, demonstrates how we can easily identify with any kind of world literature.


text:
One of the many holdovers from the days of DOS in Windows 2000 is drive lettering. Windows 2000 generally handles...
drive lettering automatically and seamlessly, but there may arise a situation where you need to change the drive letter of the boot drive to something other than its default setting.
Because there are many dependencies throughout the system on the boot drive letter, this is not a trivial operation and it can render your system unbootable if you are not careful. For that reason, before you perform this kind of surgery, you should make a full system and System State backup in case something does go wrong. Also, have a utility that can perform mass search-and-replace operations in the Registry, such as Resplendent Registrar on hand.
- Log in as Administrator and run REGEDT32.
- Open the key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices.
- Select Permissions from the Security menu and make a note of the existing settings, as you will be changing them back when you are done.
- Make sure Administrators have Full Control over the selected key and click OK.
- Close REGEDT32 and open REGEDIT (not REGEDT32!)
- Go back to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices and find the drive whose letter you want to change. If you want to change C:, look for "\DosDevices\C:".
- Select the key in question and rename it to an unused drive letter, such as "\DosDevices\Z:". If Z: is in use, obviously, don't use that.
- Find the drive letter you want to swap in and edit that to match the first drive letter. For instance, if you were changing C: to D:, change "\DosDevices\D:" to "\Dos\Devices\C:\
- Rename the "Z:" or other temporary drive letter you used to the name of the 2nd drive. Again, as above, if you were swapping C: and D:, set "\DosDevices\Z:" to "\DosDevices\D:".
- Close REGEDIT, reopen REGEDT32, and reset the permissions on the key as before.
- Go to the key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\Current Version\Winlogon\ and look for a REG_SZ subkey named Userinit. It will most likely be set to "C:\Winnt\System32\userinit.exe" if you were using C: as your boot drive before. Change it to match the new drive lettering. (Note: You can also simply replace the full pathname to the application with "userinit.exe", which will cause Windows to search for the application using the standard search order. Microsoft recommends this approach.)
- Optional: Use a global search-and-replace on the Registry to change any application paths specified in the Registry that may break because of the drive letter reassignment.
Serdar Yegulalp is the editor of the Windows 2000 Power Users Newsletter.


text:
- 1 What is dieffenbachia
- 2 Properties of dieffenbachia
What is dieffenbachia
Characterístics of dieffenbachia (Dieffenbachia ssp.)
Scientific noun: Dieffenbachia ssp.
Common noun: Dieffenbachia
Family: Arum family – Araceae
Habitat: Tropical plant that can be found as a cultivated indoor plant.
- Calcium oxalate
Active parts: The juice of the plant, especially in its stems and in the petioles of the leaves.
What is dieffenbachia like?
It is a perennial tropical plant up to 2,5 m.
Erect stems, thick and fleshy with big leaves ending in pointed apex; largely petiolated, marbled with white or yellow.
Flowers in spadix surrounded by a sheath-like leaf; small, white-greenish..
It rarely flourishes when it is cultivated, only sometimes at the beginning of spring when the plant is well grown-up.
Properties of dieffenbachia
Uses of dieffenbachia
- As a toxin to poison the arrows:: The juice of the plant has been used by the native Amazonian people to be part of the preparations with which they poisoned the arrows.
- As a gardening plant : The dieffenbachia is an ornamental plant that is used fundamentally like an indoor plant. (See gardening details)
- As a medicinal plant: Some research is being done to test this plant as an anti-cancer medicine. It is thought that dieffenbachia derivatives can prevent the development of cancer cells.
- As a magical plant: Brasilian people use to include dieffenbachia among those herbs that are considered adequate to expell bad influences
Toxicity of dieffenbachia
Toxicity is medium. The toxicity of this plant is due to its content in calcium oxalates. (Theories exist on the presence of other components, as proteolytic enzymes that propitiate the histamine production)
Its sap is irritating because of the presence of oxalates that appears in form of crystals that damages the skin tissues by contact, when injecting this component.
Calcium oxalate has, also, emetic, irritating and inflammatory properties and it is, together with calcium, one of the main reasons for the production of kidney stones. Calcium and magnesium oxalates are two of the main components of poisonous plants.
Equally the ingestion of this plant produces irritation and inflammation of gastric mucous and it can damage the kidneys, the arteries, or the stomach of those who eat it.
|Being such a habitual plant in our homes, it is advised to be wise in its manipulation. It is convenient to use gloves when one has to cut a leaf and we should care to take it away from the reach of the small children to avoid any possible accident.|
Side effects of dieffenbachia
Poisoning with this plant shows the following symptoms:
- Applied externally: Dermatitis in the skin, with reddening, itchiness or burning pain. More serious symptoms can appear such as bladders or ulcers. In contact with the eyes, it produces irritation and transitory lost of vision.
- When its juice is ingested: It can produce vomits or diarrhea and even big inflammations of the digestive tract, especially in the mouth, the throat and the lips.
Among the most habitual symptoms we found: Swallowing difficulty, salivation, lost of sensibility with tingling sensation in the tongue, itchiness or ulcerations in the lips.
Consequences of eating dieffenbachia
A big ingestion of the plant, something which is not very habitual, can end up producing breathing difficulty. The quick action of the toxins of this plant usually propitiates its spitting what prevents the patient to continue chewing it.
The accidents are usually more common in children who chew the leaves, which produces a quick irritation with inflammation of the mucous membranes and a great salivation.
Although there have been describe some severe cases, it usually gives rise to very painful local inflammations that don't usually affect to the circulatory system or respiratory tract.
How to treat dieffenbachia poisoning?
Dieffenbachia poisoning requires the following medical treatment:
- Mouth rinsing with plenty of water to eliminate the small pieces of the plant that could still remain in the mouth.
- Demulcents to alleviate the irritation and soothe the membranes.
- Immediate medical care with antihistamines and analgesics has to be applied.
Is dieffenbachia toxic to animals?
It is a plant whose ingestion is toxic for domestic animals. There have been registered many cases of intoxication with mortal result in dogs, cats, rabbits and canaries that ate it.
Symptoms in animals are similar to those produced on people.
Species of dieffenchabias
There are about 30 different species approximately. Among all, we would mention the following ones:
More information about plants.
30 November, 2020


cocorahsCoCoRaHS is an acronym for the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow Network. CoCoRaHS is a unique, non-profit, community-based network of volunteers of all ages and backgrounds working together to measure and map precipitation (rain, hail and snow). By using low-cost measurement tools, stressing training and education, and utilizing an interactive Web-site, its aim is to provide the highest quality data for natural resource, education and research applications. This is a community project. Everyone can help, young, old, and in-between. The only requirements to join are an enthusiasm for watching and reporting weather conditions and a desire to learn more about how weather can effect and impact our lives.
imagesEach time a rain, hail or snow storm crosses your area, volunteers take measurements of precipitation from as many locations as possible. These precipitation reports are then recorded at the web site The data are then displayed and organized for many of the end users to analyze and apply to daily situations ranging from water resource analysis and severe storm warnings to neighbors comparing how much rain fell in their backyards.
Visit for more information.


text:
A white paper produced by the European Commission in Brussels suggests radical changes to the way value added tax is applied to purchases which, if agreed, could see the cost of food shopping increase by up to 20 percent.
In December 2011, the European Commission (EC) released a consultation document in the form of a white paper suggesting a new system for value added tax (VAT – technically a sales tax) across European Union member states. The press release accompanying the publication of that white paper suggests that :
Broadening tax bases and limiting the use of reduced rates could generate new revenue for Member States without the need for rate increases. The standard VAT rate could even be reduced in some Member States, without any impact on revenue, if exemptions and reductions were removed.
Currently in the UK unprocessed food stuffs such as raw meat, vegetables, flour, nuts (in their shells), pulses and some bakery products such as cake and certain breads, including McVitie's Jaffa Cakes which were the subject of a landmark VAT ruling in 1991, are zero-rated. Processed foods such as ready-made meals, snack-type foods such as potato crisps and roasted peanuts, ice cream and hot take-away meals are subject to the standard rate of VAT which is currently 20 percent.
But, all that could change if Brussels gets its way. Currently, only the Republic of Ireland, Malta and the UK offer a zero-rate on certain foodstuffs – all other member states charge at least some VAT – the next lowest being Italy at 3 percent and the highest is Denmark with a VAT rate of 25 percent on all foodstuffs.
The UK's food inflation rate is already one of the highest within the EU and families are finding budgets are being stretched more and more in these uncertain economic times. If this new directive to scrap the zero-rate VAT on raw foodstuffs is implemented within the UK, food poverty within the country is likely to increase in direct proportion.