text:
III. ANALYSIS OF THE TYPES OF MEASURES BEING USED AT THE SECTOR LEVEL INTEGRATE ENVIRONMENTAL CONSIDERATIONS INTO THE DECISION-MAKING PROCESSES
The main measures currently being implemented by the minerals sector to integrate environmental considerations into the decision-making processes are: (a) the Environmental Planning Act; (b) the Environmental Contaminants Act; (c) the Water Resources Act; (d) the Dumping of Wastes at Sea Act; and (e) the Mining and Petroleum Acts. This section provides an evaluation of the effectiveness of each measure, as perceived by government officials responsible for implementation, as well as the constraints associated with applying the measures. Proposed changes for streamlining and integrating the regulatory systems into one environmental regulation framework are also discussed.


Most Shared
Weather Alert
LOCAL 12 - Search Results
Social Media Used to Send Positive Message: _TAG_
BETHEL, Ohio (Adam Clements) -- Social Media can be a source of negativity and vicious bullying.
But now tri-state schools hope to use that same social media to spread positive messages to students. Local 12's Adam Clements gives us a look at a special initiative from the coalition for a drug free greater Cincinnati called, Your Live, Your Choice."
Ten years ago, if you got caught in class with a cell phone it usually meant a one way ticket to the principals office. In today's tech savvy world things like iPads and cell phones are actually encouraged, when they can be used for good.
Principal Susen Arn says it's a perfect way to reach her students in a language they can all understand.
Each day students at Bethel Tate High School will be given a message like this one, Be yourself, an original is worth more than a copy. They're encouraged to share that message on Facebook and twitter with the hashtag, _TAG_
Topics range from drugs and alcohol to how the students treat one another. A school administrator can only preach positivity so much. Susen says when her students hear the message from their peers, that's when she knows it's working.
Students who repost the positive message with the hashtag _TAG_ can actually win cash prizes. The program lasts through next Friday.
Watch video HERE
Advertise with us!


text:
Authors: BİLAL ÖZTÜRK, ALPER DOĞAN, BANU BİTLİS BAKIR, ALP SALMAN
Abstract: This study presents the molluscan species diversity along the Turkish coasts. The compilation of the available references revealed a total of 1065 species belonging to 7 classes (Caudofoveata, Solenogastres, Polyplacophora, Gastropoda, Bivalvia, Scaphopoda, and Cephalopoda). Most of the reported species belong to the class Gastropoda (706 species), followed by Bivalvia (279 species), Cephalopoda (50 species), Polyplacophora (17 species), Scaphopoda (10 species), Caudofoveata (2 species), and Solenogastres (1 species). Among the coasts of Turkey, the highest number of molluscan species was recorded from the Aegean Sea (825 species), followed by the Levantine Sea (807 species), Sea of Marmara (537 species), and the Black Sea (155 species). Of the 1065 mollusc taxa, 118 species are alien ones that originated outside the Mediterranean Sea. Among the listed species, Timoclea roemeriana (Bivalvia), and Sepiola ligulata and Abraliopsis morisii (both from Cephalopoda) are new records for the Turkish mollusc fauna, 11 species of the classes Polyplacophora, Gastropoda, and Bivalvia (Leptochiton boettgeri, Cerithium protractum, Similiphora similior, Cerithiopsis diadema, Rissoa guerinii, Crepidula moulinsii, Crepidula unguiformis, Bela zenetouae, Doto coronata, Lima marioni, and Limaria loscombi) are new reports for the Levantine coast of Turkey, and 2 gastropod species (Acirsa subdecussata and Monotygma lauta) are new reports for the Aegean coast of Turkey. Among the listed taxa, 27 species have been classified in the IUCN Red List or Barcelona/Bern Conventions.
Keywords: Mollusca, species diversity, alien species, protected species, coasts of Turkey
Full Text: PDF

source: openbmb/Ultra-FineWeb


text:
There is a need for a harmonised tool for sustainable resource management in Europe. The United Nations Framework Classification for Resources (UNFC) is a system that may be used for this purpose. In MINTELL4EU we aim to demonstrate if geological surveys will be able to apply UNFC, and to show if the application of UNFC will provide better harmonization of mineral resource data nationally and across Europe.
Late October 2020, MINTELL4EU had a digital workshop where eight case studies on UNFC were presented and discussed.
The findings from the workshop indicated some possibilities and challenges:
- The presented case studies showed that geological surveys can do UNFC on Raw Materials
- We are still at a starting point at establishing a more harmonised system and stricter guidelines are required. The partners in MINTELL4EU have different levels of experience in UNFC and the approach and methods on UNFC varies between the countries.
- There is a need to compare the case studies and the surveys approach to identify obstacles, data gaps and harmonization issues.
- Data availability is an issue as non-accessible data can result in less precision, and this must be taken into account when aggregating data. In addition, not all geological surveys have the responsibility or data availability to be able to classify the E- and F-axis in UNFC.
- There is a need to work on the visualisation of UNFC.


"It's me" vs "It is I"
by Mark Israel (freely adapted from an article by Roger Lustig)
 [This is a fast-access FAQ excerpt.]
 Fowler says: "me is technically wrong in It wasn't me etc.;
but the phrase being of its very nature colloquial, such a lapse is
of no importance".
 The rule for what he and others consider technically right is
*not* (as is commonly misstated) that the nominative should *always*
be used after "to be". Rather, it is that "to be" should link two
noun phrases of the same case, whether this be nominative or
 I believe that he is I. Who do you believe that he is?
 I believe him to be me. Whom do you believe him to be?
According to the traditional grammar being used here, "to be" is not
a transitive verb, but a *copulative* verb. When you say that A is
B, you don't imply that A, by being B, is doing something to B.
(After all, B is also doing it to A.) Other verbs considered
copulative are "to become", "to remain", "to seem", and "to look".
 Sometimes in English, though, "to be" does seem to have the
force of a transitive verb; e.g., in Gelett Burgess's:
 I never saw a Purple Cow,
 I never hope to see one;
 But I can tell you, anyhow,
 I'd rather see than be one.
The occurrence of "It's me", etc., is no doubt partly due to this
perceived transitive force. In the French C'est moi, often cited
as analogous, moi is not in the accusative, but a special form
known as the "disjunctive", used for emphasis. If etre were a
transitive verb in French, C'est moi would be Ce m'est.
 In languages such as German and Latin that inflect between the
nominative and the accusative, B in "A is B" is nominative just like
A. In English, no nouns and only a few personal pronouns ("I",
"we", "thou", "he", "she", "they" and "who") inflect between the
nominative and the accusative. In other words, we've gotten out of
the habit, for the most part.
 Also, in English we derive meaning from word position, far more
than one would in Latin, somewhat more than in German, even. In
those languages, one can rearrange sentences drastically for
rhetorical or other purposes without confusion (heh) because
inflections (endings, etc.) tell you how the words relate to one
another. In English, "The dog ate the cat" and "The cat ate the
dog" are utterly different in meaning, and if we wish to have the
former meaning with "cat" prior to "dog" in the sentence, we have to
say "The cat was eaten by the dog" (change of voice) or "It is the
cat that the dog ate." In German, one can reverse the meaning by
inflecting the word (or its article): Der Hund frass die Katze
and Den Hund frass die Katze reverse the meaning of who ate whom.
In Latin, things are even more flexible: almost any word order will
 Feles edit canem
 Feles canem edit
 Canem edit feles
 Canem feles edit
 Edit canem feles
 Edit feles canem
all mean the same, the choice of word order being made perhaps for
rhetorical or poetic purpose.
 English is pretty much the opposite of that: hardly any
inflection, great emphasis on order. As a result, things have
gotten a little irregular with the personal pronouns. And there's
uncertainty as to how to use them; the usual rules aren't there,
because the usual word needs no rules, being the same for nominative
and accusative.
 The final factor is the traditional use of Latin grammatical
concepts to teach English grammar. This historical quirk dates to
the 17th century, and has never quite left us. From this we get the
Latin-derived rule, which Fowler still acknowledges. And we *do*
follow that rule to some extent: "Who are they?" (not "Who are
them?" or "Whom are they?") "We are they!" (in response to the
preceding) "It is I who am at fault." "That's the man who
he is."
 But not always. "It is me" is attested since the 16th Century.
(Speakers who would substitute "me" for "I" in the "It is I who am
at fault" example would also sacrifice the agreement of person, and
substitute "is" for "am".)


text:
1.Bring the fun of you DIY.
2.More Funny and educational for kids.
3.Light and safe plastic easy take for kids.
4.Just need an AA battery power(not include).
5.Educational Development: assembling the learning process through immense interest.
6. Able to feel the joy of feeling constantly conquest and accomplishment.
7.With teaching video of the page, more easy to play with your kids.
8.Can greatly improve the limits of creative thinking ability.
Name: 4 in 1 Self-assembled Transformation Robot
Package Size: 32*20*7cm
Package Weight: 369g
Power: One AA battery power(not include)
Color: Grass Green
Finish Type: Trailer/ Cricket/ Beast/ Robot
Manual: Click here
1x 4 in 1 Self-assembled Transformation Robot Set


text:
For Immediate Release: April 19, 2007
Contact: Division of Media Relations
CDC Launches New Home Page and other Web Site Improvements
Usable Layout, New Search Engine and New Features Help People More Easily Find Information and Resources
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) today unveiled a new look for the home page and major topic pages of its Web site. The changes are designed to make it easier for people to find health information and resources quickly. The CDC Web site address is _URL_.
The redesigned site has an improved layout, a more powerful search engine, and other features to help people locate needed health and science information more efficiently. The CDC Web site averages nine million visits a month, with an average of 37 million pages viewed monthly.
"The new CDC.gov home page is our first big step toward a truly interactive web gateway for people seeking personalized information about health issues," said Dr. Julie Gerberding, director of the CDC. "We want all our customers—not just health professionals and scientists, but also parents, students, businesses, and other stakeholders - to get the information they need from CDC where they want it, when they want it, and how they want it."
Among new features on the home page:
- Health and safety information is now grouped in broad, easy-to-browse topic areas. For example, clicking on "Life Stages and Populations" takes visitors to a page with sections including pregnancy, women's health, men's health, minority health, and more (_URL_
- Additional new features provide better access to data and statistics, recent news, tools and resources, and new publications.
- A new Google-based search engine provides more relevant search results.
- An interactive features area at the top of the new home page highlights a number of current issues, events and health topics with relevant photographs or videos. This feature enables CDC to better display health recommendations, guidelines and upcoming events.
- A "Top 20 at CDC.gov" section allows visitors to quickly view a list of the most popular health topics, and access each directly from the home page.
CDC's new Web site improvements were guided by Internet industry studies, analyses of CDC Web site visits, information about how visitors use the CDC Web site and research conducted with a wide range of CDC.gov users. In the user studies, CDC employees, members of the public and individuals from groups that frequently use the CDC Web site (e.g., health professionals) were brought in to test the previous CDC.gov site to identify problem areas and to test different home page designs and potential features.
"The CDC's new home page and Web site improvements were guided by extensive research with people who use it," said Jay Bernhardt, PhD, MPH, director of the National Center for Health Marketing (NCHM), the Center leading CDC's e-health and new media innovations. "We want it to be easy for people to find the health information they are seeking. We believe the millions of people who come to CDC's Web site will be pleased with these changes, and the many innovations we have planned for the months ahead."
Bernhardt pointed out that not every page on the CDC Web site has been changed yet. And he said that additional upgrades will be made in coming months.
For more information and a tutorial about the changes to the CDC Web site, visitors can take a virtual tour at _URL_ Additional information and images can also be found at _URL_
- Historical Document: April 19, 2007
- Content source: Office of the Associate Director for Communication
- Notice: Links to non-governmental sites do not necessarily represent the views of the CDC.
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
1600 Clifton Rd
Atlanta, GA 30333
TTY: _PHONE_
- Contact CDC-INFO

source: HuggingFaceFW/fineweb-edu


text:
The first-ever 3D analysis of a material known as "Zwischgold" has unveiled its composition, along with how medieval metalworkers used it as a gilding material thousands of years ago.
The study was conducted by physicist Dr. Benjamin Watts and his team at the Paul Scherrer Institute in Switzerland.
What is Zwischgold?
Zwischgold is a blend of both silver and gold, formed into a foil that was commonly used as a coating, or gilding material for medieval objects and paintings. It's not uncommon to find Zwischgold adorning artifacts from the medieval period. The surface layer of gold used on top of the silver base is ultra-thin – more than 2,300 times thinner than a human hair – meaning it would have been cheaper to use than pure gold.
Artisans from this period would have had to be master craftsmen, and more technologically advanced than we previously had thought.
"It is incredible how someone with only hand tools was able to craft such nanoscale material," says Watts. "Although Zwischgold was frequently used in the Middle Ages, very little was known about this material up to now."
A Unique Study
This new study has its origins in finding ways to preserve Zwischgold-gilded objects, given how easily the material corrodes after prolonged exposure to oxygen. Researchers used samples from a 15th-century altar that was likely constructed around 1420, which had been used within a mountain chapel in the Swiss Alps for centuries. The altar features the Virgin Mary, holding baby Jesus in her arms. Samples, supplied by the Basel Historical Museum, were taken from Mary's robe.
The team then leveraged a new 3D diffractive imaging technique called ptychographic X-ray computed tomography (PXCT). The scan helped to further reveal the chemical composition of Zwischgold without compromising its structure in the process.
The imaging allowed the research team to observe the degree of adhesion, the thickness of both the gold and silver layers, and how evenly distributed the thin gold layer was applied to its silver base.
"Many people had assumed that technology in the Middle Ages was not particularly advanced," notes Qing Wu, a member of Watts' team and lead author of the research paper. "On the contrary: this was not the Dark Ages, but a period when metallurgy and gilding techniques were incredibly well developed."
While no documentation has yet been discovered as to how Zwischgold was produced and applied to objects, these new 3D scans give scientists and art historians insight into how it was likely done.
Silver and gold were hammered into foils separately and meticulously, with the gold foil being hammered to a much thinner degree. Once the two metals were hammered out, they would have been combined and worked on in tandem.
"This required special beating tools and pouches with various inserts made of different materials into which the foils were inserted. This was a fairly complicated procedure that required highly skilled specialists," says Wu.
The results of the PXCT scans will be used to further future studies, and to help conservators understand, preserve, and restore these uniquely gilded objects.


text:
A variation of the pointed cross, the heraldic
dagger is a common sign
in printed texts.
In typography the sign, along with and, is used as a sign for note, i.e. an amendment to the main text.
In botany the dagger means poisonous, in chess, check! In timetables it is sometimes used for Sunday or holiday. In genealogy it is used for deceased or dead. In dictionaries it can indicate an obsolete word, and again in botany it may mean a once cultivated but now wild growing plant.
This sign is the second in series of reference marks and as such called obelisk or obelus. See reference marks in the word index for the other signs.
The dagger is also sometimes used preceding a death date, that is meaning dead or died.


Some questions and answers about the costs of the 3D Rendering services
Find out answers to the questions about costs for Businessrender 3D Rendering services
Is it possible to exclude some options from the minimal packages?
Yes, if they are marked up as "optional". But anyway, you can request them at any time during making a job.
Unfortunately, it's not possible to exclude non-optional details, for example, request only one view, if the package contains two or more views.
What can reduce the final cost of 3D renderings?
Using some solutions can reduce our workload, therefore reduce the cost and time of making 3D Renderings (please keep in mind the final cost cannot be lower than the cost of the corresponded minimal package):
 - Skipping 3D modeling of details which might be considered as not important.
 - Replacing some objects with similar 3D models taken from our library, or 3D stock platforms such as TurboSquid, 3DSky, etc.
Is it possible to get 3D Renderings cheaper than minimal package costs?
Unfortunately, it's not possible to get 3D renderings cheaper than the costs of the minimal packages.
Is it possible to reduce the cost by requesting the services partially? For example, by making only 3D models or scenes without making 3D renderings and/or postproduction?
Unfortunately, we don't provide our services this way. Especially we don't provide the service such as making 3D models and scenes without 3D rendering and/or postproduction. Therefore, it's not possible to reduce the cost of our services this way.
What else might affect the cost of 3D Renderings?
 - A complexity of 3D Rendered objects.
The more is the complexity of rendered objects, the higher is the cost.
 - Image resolution and number of views.
Depending on the project type, up to 2-5 views with image resolution up to 2500x2500 pixels might be included in the initial cost of 3D Renderings. More images and Images with a higher resolution might increase the total cost of 3D renderings.
 - Amount of revisions.
Usually, we include up to free 10 minor revisions in the initial 3D rendering packages. With more revisions, the cost of 3D renderings will grow up.
 - Signing NDA.
If you want to keep private 3D renderings for your project within some period of time or forever, it's possible to sign the non-disclosure agreement. It's possible due to platforms Guru or Peopleperhour. In this case, the cost of 3D renderings will be increased. Please note, in some cases, we're not able to sign NDA. Please contact us to get more details.
 - Providing source files.
If you need to have source working files we can provide them for additional costs.
 - Your other requests which require additional efforts from us.
In some cases, we can go out of the standards of traditional 3D renderings and provide you more. It might grow the cost of 3D Renderings up.
Have other questions?
Feel free to visit the FAQ page or Contact us.


text:
Experience ease and simplicity in taking pH, µS/cm, ppm (mg/L), and temperature measurements with this pH/EC/TDS waterproof meter, which is ideal for hydroponics, greenhouses, farming, and groundwater applications.
Due to the built-in temperature sensor, conductivity readings are automatically compensated for temperature changes. The temperature coefficient is fixed at 2%/°C.
No probe changes are required when switching your measured parameter between pH, conductivity, and TDS. These multiparameter meters reduce the number of instruments required for daily water quality analysis.
The specially engineered pH/EC/TDS and temperature probe utilizes a fiber junction and gel electrolyte which provide a fast response and reduced contamination. This combination makes the meter particularly designed to withstand harsh environments such as fertilizer solutions.


text:
History of Westfield, Indiana
The history of Westfield, Indiana commenced when the city was officially founded in 1834 by Quakers who had emigrated to Central Indiana from North Carolina. It was not until January of 2008, however, that the town was officially incorporated as a city.
Today, Westfield is one of the fastest growing towns in the United States, along with several other such cities in Hamilton County, Indiana. At a distance of only about ten miles from the northern edge of Indianapolis, Westfield has benefited enormously from its location over the generations.
It is largely accepted that Westfield was one of the sites on the all-important Westfield Underground Railroad during the Civil War. Both the Quaker Friends Church and the Wesleyan Methodist Church supported the anti-slavery causes and activities of that era.
Nearby Carmel's Hamilton County Convention and Visitors Bureau has recently pitched in to help Westfield develop a new museum, which already houses lots of interesting and nostalgic memorabilia. The Westfield Washington Historical Society and Museum is inside the old Fire Station and Town Hall on Union Street. There, visitors can view, among other historical items, the very first motorized fire truck in Westfield. There are also tours available of some of the homes and businesses purported to have been safe houses along the famous Underground Railroad.


AI4ALL is an Oakland, CA-based nonprofit working to increase diversity and inclusion in artificial intelligence. We educate the next generation of diverse AI leaders, expand on and promote beneficial AI, and build AI awareness so that everyone impacted will be informed consumers and have the opportunity to benefit from AI technology. Our vision is for AI to be developed by a broad group of thinkers and doers advancing AI for humanity's benefit. We create pipelines for underrepresented talent through education and mentorship programs around the U.S. and Canada that give high school students early exposure to AI for social good.


text:
Skip to Main Content
Wireless power transmission (WPT) through microwave beams represents a key technology for the long distance transfer of energy in the absence of a traditional electrical network. Its importance is demonstrated by the increasing research and industrial activities concerned with the design, manufacturing, and prototyping of efficient WPT systems. In this framework, several design methodologies are being investigated for the synthesis of transmitting antenna arrays able to maximize the power beaming efficiency of WPT systems. In this contribution, the state-of-the-art design techniques for WPT arrays are reviewed, and some of the latest advances in this field are discussed.


text:
Betsy Ross Day - January 2
- Wednesday, January 02, 2013
JANUARY 2nd is Betsy Ross Day. Born a day earlier, January 1, 1752, into the Quaker "Griscom" family in Philadelphia, she was 8th of 17 children. Apprenticed as a seamstress, Betsy fell in love with upholsterer John Ross, son of an Episcopal rector at Christ Church and nephew of George Ross, signer of the Declaration of Independence. As Quakers forbade interdenominational marriage, John and Betsy eloped, being married by New Jersey Governor William Franklin, Ben Franklin's son. Attending Christ's Church with Jefferson, Hamilton and Franklin, the Ross' pew number 12 was near George Washington's. During the Revolution, John Ross died when a munitions depot he was guarding blew up. Shortly after, in June 1776, General Washington reportedly asked Betsy Ross to sew the American Flag. In 1777, Betsy married sea captain Joseph Ashburn at the Old Swedes Church. That winter, the British forcibly quartered in their home. Joseph Ashburn sailed to the West Indies for war supplies but was captured and sent to Old Mill Prison, where he died in 1782. Another prisoner, John Claypoole, brought news of his death to Betsy, and in May of 1783, John Claypoole married Betsy at Christ Church and together they had 5 children.
Recently on American Minute with Bill Federer
Have something to say about this article? Leave your comment via Facebook below!
Listen to Your Favorite Pastors
Add Crosswalk.com content to your siteBrowse available content


text: A water transfer project has been ongoing since 2002 to alleviate severe phytoplankton aggregation in Lake Taihu. This study aimed to quantify the effectiveness of the water transfer project on alleviation of phytoplankton aggregation in Lake Taihu on a short-term scale. In this study, a spatially distributed hydrodynamic-phytoplankton model was used to predict the short-term (3–4 days) changes in phytoplankton distribution (represented by chlorophyll a) in Lake Taihu. Four simulations with different water transfer strategies were carried out based on this model. During the water transfer period, phytoplankton aggregation was alleviated in some areas, suggesting that the water transfer project has the potential to alleviate algal blooms on a short-term scale. However, the effectiveness of the water transfer project on alleviating severe algal blooms was strongly affected by other environmental factors (e.g. wind conditions, chlorophyll a distribution, and the amount and quality of the transfer water). This study demonstrates the success of the hydrodynamic-phytoplankton model in evaluating the contribution of the water transfer project to alleviation of phytoplankton aggregation. These evaluation results could assist managers in decision-making before conducting a water transfer plan in Lake Taihu.


text:
AHCC is a accumulation of chemicals taken from fungus.
AHCC is acclimated for blight and alarmist damage.
There isn't abundant advice to apperceive how AHCC ability work. Some advisers anticipate it ability access the action of "natural analgesic cells" in humans who accept cancer. Animal analysis suggests it ability aswell be able to assure the alarmist adjoin assertive poisonous chemicals and anticipate diabetes.
How does AHCC work?


text:
Psychology and Brain Sciences | Choice Behavior
P648 | 27440 | Busemeyer, J.
Choice is the behavioral interface between the brain and the
environment, and consequently, understanding this basic process is
fundamental to all fields of human activity. This course will begin
with what is considered the optimal way of making choices – expected
utility theory -- which prescribes how to combine beliefs with
values. The synthesis expected utility with Bayesian inference
produces the well known signal detection model of decision making.
However, the signal detection model is a static model, and its
dynamic extension is known as the random walk or diffusion model of
decision making. Random walk/diffusion models have been used to
model decisions ranging from sensation, perception, memory,
categorization, and even consumer preferences. Artificial neural
network models of choice can be viewed as nonlinear extensions of
diffusion models. This course will link together all of these
theories, describe how to use these models to explain data, and
review empirical for and against these theories.


Take the 2-minute tour ×
I'm developing a simple particle system that should be able to perform on mobile devices (iOS, Andorid). My plan was to use GL_POINT_SPRITE/GL_PROGRAM_POINT_SIZE method because of it's efficiency (GL_POINTS are enough), but after some experimenting, I found myself in a trouble. Sprite size is limited (to usually 64 pixels). I'm calculating size using this formula
gl_PointSize = in_point_size * some_factor / distance_to_camera
to make particle sizes proportional to distance to camera. But at some point, when camera is close enough, problem with size limitation emerges and whole system starts looking unrealistic. Is there a way to avoid this problem?
If no, what's alternative? I was thinking of manually generating billboard quad for each particle. Now, I have some questions about that approach.
I guess minimum geometry data would be four vertices per particle and index array to make quads from these vertices (with GL_TRIANGLE_STRIP). Additionally, for each vertex I need a color and texture coordinate. I would put all that in an interleaved vertex array. But as you can see, there is much redundancy. All vertices of same particle share same color value, and four texture coordinates are same for all particles. Because of how glDrawArrays/Elements works, I see no way to optimise this. Do you know of a better approach on how to organise per-particle data?
Should I use buffers or vertex arrays, or there is no difference because each time I have to update all particles' data.
About particles simulation... Where to do it? On CPU or on a vertex processors? Something tells me that mobile's CPU would do it faster than it's vertex unit (at least today in 2012 :).
So, any advice on how to make a simple and efficient particle system without particle size limitation, for mobile device, would be appreciated.
(animation of camera passing through particles should be realistic)
share|improve this question
add comment
2 Answers
up vote 1 down vote accepted
Instancing isn't available in ES2 but ultimately it would provide the best approach.
In the absence of instancing there are a few other ways you can optimize the data. You know that the index array data is not going to change even if the vertex array data does, so the index array can become a static array. The same can apply to texture coords (assuming that you don't have an atlas of particle textures) so they can be also shifted into a static VBO, which would - of course - need to be non-interleaved. That effectively leaves position and colour as being the only dynamic per-vertex data that needs updating, with colour being the only attribute that is duplicated (and if you're using 4 unsigned bytes for colour then the duplication isn't so onerous).
None of this is perfect and you've correctly identified reasons to be unsure of it. However, before you go ripping things apart it would pay to benchmark and see if using duplicate data actually is a problem. This can fly in the face of instinct, but it's often the case that pulling tricks to reduce memory usage ends up having overall negative consequences for performance. Accepting extra memory usage and accepting some duplication of data - even if it does seem instinctively "wrong" - can frequently turn out to be the most optimal approach.
share|improve this answer
In this case using index buffers is just additional overhead. Each of the 4 vertices is only visited exactly once in drawing the quad. The post I linked does describe how to do hardware instancing on an ES 2 GPU – bobobobo Sep 30 '12 at 0:00
Thank you for suggestions. I've implemented particle system this way and it looks it could be good enough for now. Unfortunately I am unable to test it on device for a few days, but I'll be back with results when I get them. – Srđan Oct 2 '12 at 11:10
That hardware instancing implementation passes a modelview matrix per-vertex - an index buffer is utterly trivial overhead by comparison. Using an index buffer will also let you join multiple sprites together in a single draw call, which you can't do without one. Proper instancing - using glVertexAttribDivisor - is the kind of instancing I refer to, and that will give the best combination of low overhead and high performance. – Jimmy Shelter Oct 2 '12 at 15:10
add comment
Yeah, I would say go with a 4-vertex triangle stripped quad.
If you are drawing large numbers of these triangle strips using the same color, and the same set of texture coordinates, you could do 1 of 2 things:
1) Send the 4 vertices for each object and store the color and texcoords in uniforms
2) "Hardware instancing"
share|improve this answer
+1. OP should also be aware that point sprites have another problem -- each sprite clips out when its centre reaches the edge of the viewport, i.e. too soon. So useless for most applications. – Nick Wiggill Sep 29 '12 at 21:51
Thank you very much for this. That's what I actually needed in first place, but didn't know it is possible. For now I have system as described by mh01 bellow, but this is probably going to be an update. Thanks. – Srđan Oct 2 '12 at 11:14
add comment
Your Answer


text:
Stop feeling frustrated with the seemingly never-ending drinking or drug-related calls.
Create a positive relationship between your students and the campus police department.
When officers use motivational interviewing (MI) on patrol they can engage students in a positive and collaborative conversation about the student's high-risk substance misuse. This mini-course will share personal experiences and stories of police officers using MI on patrol. The course will highlight the four primary benefits of using MI on patrol and how officers can implement community policing with a proven student-centered approach.
What you'll get:
- Six modules
- pdf resources
- Next steps to keep building your MI skills!


Return to Blog
All You Need to Know About Network Packet Brokers
by Profitap | May 15, 2018 | Network Security, Network Packet Brokers, Network Monitoring
The last decade experienced an overwhelming increase in network size, bandwidth, and traffic. IT companies were, therefore, forced to adapt by developing the next-generation of security and network monitoring tools. This new wave of tools exposed a greater need for advanced network visibility, one that traditional data center monitoring devices couldn't handle anymore.
And so, in 2012, Network Packet Brokers were developed. Known also as "data access switches", "tool aggregators", "monitoring switches" or "matrix switches", they are "devices that facilitate monitoring and security technologies to see the traffic which is required for those solutions to work more effectively", according to Gartner.
Network Packet Broker
NPBs are often required in more complex networks, with increasing speeds that need in-depth and improved network monitoring for a superior network security.
But what exactly is an NPB doing? This powerful device filters specific network traffic in order to optimize the security and traffic flow. More accurately, it receives the network traffic from multiple SPAN ports and/or network TAPs, then filters the data by interest and sends it to the related network analysis and security tools. Efficient and precise.
When do you need a Network Packet Broker?
Most of the time, network engineers complain that their in-line security tools don't receive all the required data, causing blind spots to appear in the network. This can finally lead to wasted resources, redundant costs and a higher possibility of being hacked.
These issues can be solved by using a NPB's capabilities of applying specific filters and rules before forwarding the traffic from network access tools to various network security, performance management, and other monitoring tools. Also, this device can aggregate traffic from multiple input ports to a single output port and vice-versa. See the illustration below to see how an advanced network visibility platform looks like.
Also, if you want to know more about the main differences between some of the most popular network monitoring tools out there, check this article.
 Network Packet Broker Illustration
A NPB helps you to optimize your network security, performance management, and other monitoring tools. That also means an increased network efficiency while decreasing your costs.
What should you expect from an NPB?
Intelligent Filtering
First and foremost, the NPB needs to have the ability to filter specific network traffic to specific monitoring tools, so that it can efficiently optimize traffic flow. This characteristic helps network engineers to filter on actionable data only, which allows the network tools to analyze much more efficiently.
Its filtering abilities can not only improve efficiency when it comes to traffic flow but can also help in speeding up incident analysis and in reducing response times. This is because it provide network engineers the flexibility to direct that traffic exactly how they need.
Load Balancing
The ability to take the incoming traffic and effectively distributing it to different multiple appliances is another feature that an advanced packet broker has to perform. This feature enhances network security, increases the productivity of your security and monitoring tools, and makes life much easier for network admins.
Intuitive and easy to use GUI
Your preferred NPB should include a configuration interface - graphical user interface (GUI) or command line interface (CLI) for real-time management, like adjustments of packet flow, port mapping and paths. If the NPB is not easy to configure, manage and use, you can't take advantage of its full capabilities.
Intelligent Packet Aggregation
By aggregating multiple packet streams into a large one, your device should create a single unified stream that can be routed to a monitoring tool. This increases your monitoring tools' efficiency.
Packet Broker Costs
One thing to keep in mind when on the market for this advanced monitoring device is the cost. Both long term and short term costs can change significantly, based on whether there are different port licenses available and if the Packet Broker accepts any SFP module or only proprietary SFP's.
To sum up, an efficient NPB should provide all these feature, as well as true link layer visibility and microburst buffering, all while maintaining high availability and resiliency.
In addition to the functionalities mentioned above, our X2-Series Network Packet Brokers also offer the following extensive set of features, such as such as packet slicing, GTP IP filtering, ERSPAN tunneling & de-tunneling, GTP correlation, packet deduplication and timestamping. It also includes X2-Manager - a web-based interface that allows users to configure and monitor the behavior of their device.
Interested to learn more about our X2-Series Network Packet Brokers? Click the button!
Discover our XX and X2-Series Network Packet Brokers


text:
Where The Fun Never Stops
EPISODE #104 – "WHERE THE FUN NEVER STOPS"SAFETY EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVE – PLAY AND PLAYGROUND SAFETY PRO-SOCIAL EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVE – RESPECTING OTHERS The Danger Rangers teach viewers and kids playing dangerously in the playground a lesson in play and playground safety. When Manderbill, the mad duck, places prizes in the playground in order to make children play extra-wildly so that he can harness their excess energy, he puts the children in peril. During the Danger Rangers' investigation of this situation, they are initially captured by Manderbill, but later manage to escape and save the kids with the help of the Junior Danger Rangers. Kids and viewers learn the importance of playing according to playground rules; remaining under adult supervision; staying in designated areas, and avoiding the street; not staying out after dark; using equipment only as intended; being careful, taking turns and not pushing or shoving; not getting in front of others when they are on the slide or swings; keeping shoes and socks on in the sandbox; and respecting and not taking advantage of others.
Copyright 2011 iActive Learning, LLC All Rights Reserved


text:
Some Properties of Plain Carbon Steels Containing Uranium
Medium and low carbon steels, modified with uranium, were studied in order to evaluate the influence of uranium on forgeability, mechanical properties, response to heat treatment and microstructure. Uranium contents ranged up to 0.70 per cent. The medium carbon steels are hot short if the uranium content exceeds about 0.35 per cent. More uranium can be tolerated in low carbon steels. The hot shortness is caused by the formation of intergranular phase UFe1.
austenite, heat treating, induction furnace, Physical Metallurgy of Uranium, uranium carbide, Carbon, Carbon steel, metals, Phase, steel, Steels, Structure, Temperature, uranium


text:
[Use of essential oil of peppermint (Mentha piperita) in the complex treatment of patients with infiltrative pulmonary tuberculosis].
Virol J. 2009 Jan 20;6:8. PMID: _PHONE_
The paper describes the effects of peppermint (Mentha piperita) essential oil inhaled by patients with infiltrative pulmonary tuberculosis in the penitentiary system. This procedure is shown to be most effective in infiltrative pulmonary tuberculosis in the phase of resorption of infiltrates and/or closure of decay cavities. The efficiency is determined by the rapid positive changes in a tuberculous process, which appear as a rapider regression of tuberculous inflammation, causing small residual changes. This procedure may be used to prevent recurrences and exacerbations of pulmonary tuberculosis.


text:
MC:P163 Papers of Henry Bensley Wells (_PHONE_)
Henry Bensley Wells (always called Ben in these letters) was born in 1891 and attended Winchester College before coming to Magdalen as a Commoner in 1909–1913, where he got a Third in History. He coxed the Magdalen College First Eight in 1911–1913, the Blues boat in 1911–1914, and a Leander Eight which won the Olympic Regatta at Stockholm in 1912. After serving in the First World War, he became a barrister, and then a County Court Judge in 1934. He died in 1967.
The letters were given to the College archives by the recipient's son, John Wells, himself an Old Member of Magdalen (C. 1946–1949), in May 2001 as Accession No. 01/108. The photograph album and photographs were donated by his sons John (mentioned above) and David Wells (C.1949-52) in the late 1980s and accessioned as 89/2.
The collection has been divided into the following series:


text:
Media professionals interested in reporting on university-related stories are encouraged to visit the media newsroom.
November 20, 2012
By Megan Akers
The University of Nevada, Reno's Child and Family Research Center recently collaborated with the Nevada Museum of Art to host the "More Than a Playground" Early Childhood Symposium. The two-day event, which was held earlier this month, helped demonstrate research conducted by the center's children and further explored the Reggio Emilia style of teaching.
The Reggio Emilia learning approach emphasizes teaching children through the use of objects and experiences to develop their problem-solving and critical-thinking skills. Children enrolled in the center's Infant/Toddler, Preschool and Kindergarten/First Grade programs frequently use the historic Quadrangle on campus as a learning environment. The children, aged infants to first-grade, have been conducting "research" throughout their explorations of the Quad. This research was displayed through a temporary art installation on the Quad created by the children, teachers, families and University School of the Arts' faculty.
Leah Sanders, administrative faculty, mentor and coach for the College of Education's Child and Family Research Center, facilitated the exhibition.
"The art installation is a reflection of the University's youngest students' interest of what is on the Quad, as well as the teacher's knowledge of what's appropriate to teach the age group," Sanders said. "We present the children with a challenge, such as measuring their favorite tree, and then they solve the problem from their point of view."
The installation featured 11 interactive projects based on the children's frequent visits to the Quad and their interactions and research with and involving the Quad. One project on display was "Building a Castle," done by 2-year olds. The children were presented with the challenge of re-creating the University's Morrill Hall as a castle. They used various tools such as cardboard and paint to create a physical example of their interpretation of Morrill Hall. This particular display demonstrated the ability teachers have to encourage children's analytical skills and imagination.
"We look at our children as competent, able to do research," Sanders said. "The research the children have done on the Quad is beyond just playing, even though that is how they approach it. We are trying make visible the ways children think, create, imagine and invent. Our community partner is the Nevada Museum of Art. "
Additional projects on display included "Sounds of Music," in which 4-year-olds used elements of nature to create sounds, and "Improvisational Dance," where kindergartners and first-graders created dances based on their observations of natural objects on the Quad.
After the art installation, members of the community joined classroom and museum educators from across the nation at the Nevada Museum of Art for a symposium. The symposium explored new and innovative ways to incorporate art and object-centered teaching and process-thinking into experiences for early learners and children. Lella Gandini, Reggio Children liaison in the United States, and Betsey Bowers, deputy director of the Smithsonian's Institution's Early Enrichment Center in Washington D.C., were featured as keynote speakers. Three Reno Early Childhood teachers, Megan Grimes (Washoe County School District), Jentry Hammond and Tracy Casbarro (Child and Family Research Center), also presented classroom work.
Participants learned more about early childhood classrooms and education in the environments of museums. They also had the opportunity to experiment with how different points of view affect their interactions with their surrounding environments.
The symposium, which organizers considered a huge success, created interactive campus community relationships that Sanders hopes to continue.
"We are continuing to partner with Colin Robertson, the Charles N. Mathewson Curator of Education, for the Museum, to create something different in museum experiences for children and their families."
For more information, contact the Child and Family Research Center's Director Sherry Waugh at _PHONE_.
Megan Akers is a student writer for University Media Relations.


text:
Trailers may be attached insofar as
- the permitted total mass of the trailer does not exceed 750 kg or
- the permitted total mass of the combination amounts to no more than 3,500 kg.
The minimum age for obtaining a Class B driving license is 18 or, in the case of accompanied driving, 17. Possession of a different class is not required. The driving license is valid for 15 years, whereas the permission to drive is unlimited. Every new driving license-holder receives this for a two-year trial period..
Training may commence six months before reaching the minimum age. The theoretical test may be taken at the earliest three months before the respective birthday, the practical test at the earliest one month before the respective birthday.
Legally prescribed minimum extent of theoretical instruction:
- 14 double lessons, each of 90 minutes; 12 units of basic instruction + two units of class-specific instruction.
Legally prescribed minimum extent of practical special driving units:
- 5 lessons each lasting at least 45 minutes on primary or country roads and
- 4 lessons each lasting at least 45 minutes on motorways or similar roads and
- 3 lessons each lasting at least 45 minutes in twilight or at night.


text:
Data set ID:
Woody encroachment threatens the loss of remaining grasslands. Clonal shrubs are of particular concern because of their ability to resprout after disturbance, spread vegetatively, and share resources among interconnected stems. These traits contribute to the encroachment of deep-rooted clonal shrubs in tallgrass prairie. In this study, we investigated how leaf physiological traits differ among interconnected stems within a dominant encroaching shrub in tallgrass prairie, Cornus drummondii.


Chen Jingrun–Do You Really Know About the Giant (1)
Quantum Han's Forum
This time, let's talk about math; exactly speaking, a mathematician.
My favorite things in this world are math and physics. Today, I cannot wait to share with you some stories of Chen Jingrun, considered by many to be one of the greatest Chinese mathematicians.
What makes me a little outraged is that most people, including many Chinese people, who have heard of his name, think of him as a nerd who knows nothing except math. Why do people think like that? I have been wondering about this and learning about his stories, and I still cannot discover the cause. Perhaps because of the distortion of some of his stories during the Cultural Revolution? Probably most people cannot understand why a person can be so passionate, enduring, persistent, patient, frugal, and kind. Probably they cannot understand what motivated him to dedicate his whole lifetime to only one conundrum-The Goldbach Conjecture, one…
View original post 1,176 more words
Author: mathtuition88
Leave a Reply
You are commenting using your account. Log Out / Change )
Google photo
Twitter picture
Facebook photo
Connecting to %s


text:
Constrained Conditional Model
A Constrained Conditional Model (CCM) is a machine learning and inference framework that refers to augmenting the learning of conditional (probabilistic or discriminative) models with declarative constraints (written, for example, using a first-order representation) as a way to support decisions in an expressive output space while maintaining modularity and tractability of training and inference.
Models of this kind have recently attracted much attention within the NLP community. Formulating problems as constrained optimization problems over the output of learned models has several advantages. It allows one to focus on the modeling of problems by providing the opportunity to incorporate domain-specific knowledge as global constraints using a first order language. Using this declarative framework frees the developer from low level feature engineering while capturing the problem's domain-specific properties and guarantying exact inference. From a machine learning perspective it allows decoupling the stage of model generation (learning) from that of the constrained inference stage, thus helping to simplify the learning stage while improving the quality of the solutions.
Making decisions in many learning domains (such as natural language processing and computer vision problems) often involve assigning values to sets of interdependent variables where the expressive dependency structure can influence, or even dictate, what assignments are possible. These settings are applicable to Structured Learning problems such as semantic role labeling but also for cases that require making use of multiple pre-learned components, such as summarization, textual entailment and question answering. In all these cases, it is natural to formulate the decision problem as a constrained optimization problem, with an objective function that is composed of learned models, subject to domain or problem specific constraints.
Constrained Conditional Models is a learning and inference framework that augments the learning of conditional (probabilistic or discriminative) models with declarative constraints (written, for example, using a first-order representation) as a way to support decisions in an expressive output space while maintaining modularity and tractability of training and inference. In most applications of this framework in NLP, following, Integer Linear Programming (ILP) was used as the inference framework, although other algorithms can be used for that purpose.
Learning Local VS. Global Models
The objective function used by CCMs can be decomposed and learned in several ways, ranging from a complete joint training of the model along with the constraints to completely decoupling between the learning and the inference stage. In the latter case, several local models are learned independently and the dependency between these models is considered only at decision time via a global decision process. The advantages of each approach are discussed in, which studies the two training paradigms: (1) local models: L+I (learning+inference) and (2) global model: IBT (Inference based training), and shows both theoretically and experimentally that while IBT (joint training) is best in the limit, under some conditions (basically, "good" components") L+I can generalize better.
Minimally Supervised CCM
CCM can help reduce supervision by using domain knowledge (expressed as constraints) to drive learning. These setting were studied in and. These works introduce semi-supervised Constraints Driven Learning (CODL) and show that by incorporating domain knowledge the performance of the learned model improves significantly.
Learning over Latent Representations
CCMs were also applied to latent learning frameworks, where the learning problem is defined over a latent representation layer. Since the notion of a correct representation is inherently ill-defined no gold-labeled data regarding the representation decision is available to the learner. Identifying the correct (or optimal) learning representation is viewed as a structured prediction process and therefore modeled as a CCM. This problem was studied by several papers, in both supervised and unsupervised settings and in all cases showed that explicitly modeling the interdependencies between representation decisions via constraints results in an improved performance.
CCM for Natural Language Processing Applications
The advantages of the CCM declarative formulation and the availability of off-the-shelf solvers have led to a large variety of natural language processing tasks being formulated within framework, including semantic role labeling, syntactic parsing, coreference resolution, summarization, transliteration and joint information extraction.
Most of these works use an Integer Linear Programming solver to solve the decision problem. Although theoretically solving an Integer Linear Program is exponential in the size of the decision problem in practice using state-of-the-art solvers and sophisticated formulations large scale problems can be solved efficiently.
- CCM Tutorial Integer Linear Programming in NLP – Constrained Conditional Models, NAACL-2010
- CCM Software Learning Based Java
- University of Illinois Cognitive Computation Group
- Workshop on Integer Linear Programming for Natural Language Processing, NAACL-2009
- Dan Roth and Wen-tau Yih, "A Linear Programming Formulation for Global Inference in Natural Language Tasks." CoNLL, (2004).
- Vasin Punyakanok and Dan Roth and Wen-Tau Yih and Dav Zimak, "Learning and Inference over Constrained Output." IJCAI, (2005).
- Ming-Wei Chang and Lev Ratinov and Dan Roth, "Guiding Semi-Supervision with Constraint-Driven Learning." ACL, (2007).
- Ming-Wei Chang and Lev Ratinov and Dan Roth, "Constraints as Prior Knowledge." ICML Workshop on Prior Knowledge for Text and Language Processing}, (2008).
- Ming-Wei Chang and Dan Goldwasser and Dan Roth and Vivek Srikumar, " Discriminative Learning over Constrained Latent Representations." NAACL, (2010).
- Ming-Wei Chang Dan Goldwasser Dan Roth and Yuancheng Tu, "Unsupervised Constraint Driven Learning For Transliteration Discovery." NAACL, (2009).
- Vasin Punyakanok, Dan Roth, Wen-tau Yih and Dav Zimak, "Semantic Role Labeling via Integer Linear Programming Inference." COLING, (2004).
- Sagae, K. and Miyao, Y. and Tsujii, J., "HPSG Parsing with Shallow Dependency Constraints." ACL, (2007).
- P. Denis and J. Baldridge, "Joint Determination of Anaphoricity and Coreference Resolution using Integer Programming." NAACL-HLT, (2007).
- J. Clarke and M. Lapata, "Global Inference for Sentence Compression: An Integer Linear Programming Approach." Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research (JAIR), (2008).
- D. Goldwasser and D. Roth, "Transliteration as Constrained Optimization." EMNLP, (2008).
- D. Roth and W. Yih}, [_URL_ "Global Inference for Entity and Relation Identification via a Linear Programming Formulation."] Introduction to Statistical Relational Learning,MIT Press, (2007).
- André F. T. Martins, Noah A. Smith, and Eric P. Xing, "Concise Integer Linear Programming Formulations for Dependency Parsing." ACL, (2009).


Baton Rouge, Louisiana
7 Day Forecast
Follow our weather team on social media
Giant, toxic snails invading more parishes
Related Story
DENHAM SPRINGS - Big, slimy, and toxic—the apple snail is likely taking over a lake near you.
"They probably floated around with flood waters. Hurricane Isaac moved them, the 2016 floods moved them, and I have a feeling this current flood will expand them into some areas that might not have them," said Rob Bourgeois, Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Aquatic Invasive Species Coordinator.
Originally introduced as a pet for aquariums in 2006, the snail can now be found in 28 parishes across the state. Being in Louisiana you might look at these and see a delicacy ready to be cooked in butter, but Bourgeois says not so fast.
"I wouldn't recommend it because of the difficulty in making sure the parasite is gone. There are some recipes out there if you're bold and want to try it. I personally wouldn't," he said.
The snails contain a parasite that has the potential to be deadly in people. The same goes for their eggs.
"Looks like pink bubblegum with little dots in it."
Not only are they toxic, they're destroying the ecosystem with their voracious appetite for aquatic vegetation.
"Without vegetation, you don't have food for baby fish and other animals in the water. It also affects duck hunters by removing the vegetation that ducks like to come and feed on."
Which is why Wildlife and Fisheries is asking you destroy their eggs if you see them.
"You can scrape the eggs off of the surface of where it's at, typically it's on a cypress knee or a bulkhead. When it falls in the water it will drown and other fish will eat it and get rid of it. just be careful, again you don't want to splash that in your face. wash your hands after doing it."
Desktop News
7 Days


text:
Maximum Sample Size: 20×20 cm² (typically 1 standard wafer size)
Maximum Sample Height: 1 mm
The PCD (Photo-Conductance Decay) technique is used to determine carrier lifetime. It does not require contacts and is nondestructive.
Microwave detected PhotoConductance Decay (µ-PCD) Carrier lifetime measurement is a useful technology for incoming wafer inspection, quality control and process monitoring in wafer manufacturing as well as in solar cell manufacturing. The microwave induced photoconductive decay method is the most common way of measuring minority carrier lifetime in silicon. This method excels due to its reliability, good reproducibility and the short measurement time that permits of making lifetime maps with high resolution.
The photoconductance decay method is used to measure the minority charge carrier lifetime. It relies on the measurement of the excess conductance right after a very short light pulse (laser). µ-PCD detects the photoconductivity by measuring the reflection of a microwave at the sample surface.
Contactez-nous pour obtenir plus d'informations à propos de nos offres


text:
"A participatory research using short film to start conversations about sexual violence among adolescents in order to reduce stigma towards the victims."
A film was chosen to raise the problem of stigma toward adolescent victims of sexual violence. The storyline was based on the experiences of adolescents in an urban community in Jakarta and the community's perception of the problem. The short film was used as a research instrument because it is an art form that the young researchers' assessed as the best medium to deliver their message. During the closed screening, the film was successful in raising the issue of exploitation, and in creating a discussion on the complexity of solutions for sexual violence. The short film was also used as a discussion starter for women community members (Ibu-Ibu PKK) and female adolescents, to express their opinions and ideas, which were then formulated for stakeholders' recommendations.
The purpose of the research was to provide direction/education to communities on how to respond to cases of sexual violence; to provide recommendations on how communities can create a safe space for everyone so that there is no more sexual violence.


text:
June 12, 2009
The role of the skin on our fingertips, palm and soles of the feet is to grip other objects, and they all have characteristic "friction" ridges. Nevertheless, very little research has been carried out about how well fingers perform, how friction is achieved and why we have soft fingerpads with fingerprints at all. Recent research carried out in the laboratory of the University of Manchester suggests that finger skin has frictional properties rather like rubber.
|Why do we have fingerprints?
The most likely possible answers are:
1) Fingerprints may increase friction on rough materials;
New British research indicates that the first option can be deleted from the list. Researcher Dr. Roland Ennos explains his findings below:
"I have been thinking about this for years and, having played around with it for a bit, realised that skin is rubbery so the ridges in fingerprints might actually reduce grip.
Our experiments – using a plastic cup, weights and strips of Perspex (acrylic glass) to develop a simple machine in the lab – proved me right.
The experiment was so simple, this discovery could have been made 100 years ago; but scientists make assumptions and tend to look at complicated things instead.
We are now testing that theory and two others, that fingerprints improve grip on rough surfaces and that they increase sensitivity.
There are potential spin-offs for this work. For example some people who suffer nerve damage that prevents sweating have slippery fingers and cannot grip: we could develop something to treat that."
LEARN MORE ABOUT FINGERPRINTS:


Those male parts can be troublesome…
About 20 years ago, horticulturist and author Thomas Ogren became interested in allergy-free gardening because his wife suffered from allergies and asthma. He has since discovered that many "dioecious male" trees trigger severe allergies (most people don't realize that some plants are male, some are female, and many are bisexual). Pollen is the main culprit.
Ogren suggests that the allergy problem is increasing because male trees, which do not produce fruit, seeds, messy flowers or old seedpods, are being planted by the millions.
Understanding sex of plants helps limit garden's allergy sources
I'm going to have to revise my old credo: "If it's got tires or dioecious male parts, it's gonna give you trouble…"


text:
Deuterated compounds – in which a drug molecule's carbon-hydrogen bond is replaced with a carbon deuterium bond to extend the drug's half-life – continue to show promise in potentially boosting the bioavailability and safety of some drugs.
The deuterated compound market has attracted many new companies looking to develop and patent deuterated versions of various existing, non-deuterated therapeutic compounds—known as the "Deuterium Switch."
What is a Deuterated Drug?
A deuterated drug is a small molecule with medicinal activity. It is made by replacing one or more of the hydrogen atoms contained in the drug molecule with deuterium – a hydrogen isotope whose nucleus contains one neutron and one proton. As deuterium and hydrogen have nearly the same physical properties, deuterium substitution is the smallest structural change that can be made to a molecule.
To Deuterate or Not to Deuterate – That's the Regulatory Question
Developers of deuterium switch compounds must show significant clinical benefits over existing non-deuterated versions to justify why they should replace existing or less expensive therapies. However, such a switch can:
- Take advantage of the clinical knowledge concerning the non-deuterated version of the compound
- Benefit from new patent protections
- Result in improved therapies and patient outcomes.
Did you know that most large pharmaceutical companies today also claim deuterated versions of new molecules in their patent applications?
Benefits of Deuterated Versions of Drugs
Deuterated versions of existing drugs can benefit from improved pharmacokinetic or toxicological properties. Because of the kinetic isotope effect, which is the change in rate of a chemical reaction when one of the atoms in the reactants is substituted with one of the isotopes, drugs that contain deuterium may have significantly lower metabolism rates. As the C-D bond is ten times stronger than the C-H bond, it is much more resistant to chemical or enzymatic cleavage and the difficulty of breaking the bond can decrease the rate of metabolism. Lower metabolism rates give deuterated drugs a longer half-life, making them take much longer to be eliminated from the body. This reduced metabolism can extend a drug's desired effects, diminish its undesirable effects, and allow less frequent dosing. The replacement may also lower toxicity by reducing toxic metabolite formation.
A major potential advantage of deuterated compounds is the possibility of faster, more efficient, less costly clinical trials, because of the extensive testing the non-deuterated versions have previously undergone. The main reasons compounds fail during clinical trials are lack of efficacy, poor pharmacokinetics or toxicity. With deuterated drugs, efficacy is not in question – allowing the research to focus on pharmacokinetics and toxicity. Deuterated versions of drugs might also be able to obtain FDA approval via a 505(b)(2) NDA filing, a faster, less expensive route.
Manufacturing Deuterium Exchanged APIs
With our expertise in deuteration technology, Neuland Labs uses a synthetic approach where deuterium-enriched material is combined with the drug to produce deuterated drugs. Another approach, called an exchange approach, uses a catalyst to produce a deuterated molecule.
The most popular process for sourcing deuterium for drugs is extracting D2O from regular water via the Girdler sulfide (also known as the Geib-Spevack) process, which uses a temperature difference and hydrogen sulfide to enrich deuterium in water by up to 20%.
Deuterated Molecules Advance in Clinical Trials
While Deuteration has been around literally for decades, I mentioned in an article last year at PharmTech (Pharma APIs: It's Still a Small World) that most deuterium chemistry efforts are currently in the pre-formulation stage.
Those deuterated compounds that have advanced are generally performing well in clinical trials. In July, a deuterated drug reached Phase III testing for the first time, in a study to treat Huntington's disease. Known as deutetrabenazine, the drug was found to reduce the disease symptoms and the frequency of administration, and it is currently being considered for approval by the FDA.
Recently, another investigational new drug targeting nonalcoholic steatohepatitis & adrenomyeloneuropathy (a deuterium-stabilized [R]-enantiomer of pioglitazone) recently completed FDA review and appears headed towards a Phase 1 study.
Growing Opportunity for Deuterated Drugs
The current market value of companies specializing in this technology suggests that the value of "deuterium switching" could be more than a $1 billion, and that the greatest discoveries in the field have yet to occur.


Documentation Center
 - Trial Software
 - Product Updates
Simple Gear
Simple gear of base and follower wheels with adjustable gear ratio and friction losses
The Simple Gear block represents a gearbox that constrains the two connected driveline axes, base (B) and follower (F), to corotate with a fixed ratio that you specify. You can choose whether the follower axis rotates in the same or opposite direction as the base axis. If they rotate in the same direction, ωF and ωB have the same sign. If they rotate in opposite directions, ωF and ωB have opposite signs. For model details, see Simple Gear Model.
B and F are rotational conserving ports representing, respectively, the base and follower gear wheels.
Dialog Box and Parameters
Follower (F) to base (B) teeth ratio (NF/NB)
Fixed ratio gFB of the follower axis to the base axis. The gear ratio must be strictly positive. The default is 2.
Output shaft rotates
Direction of motion of the follower (output) driveshaft relative to the motion of the base (input) driveshaft. The default is In opposite direction to input shaft.
Meshing Losses
Friction model
List of friction models at various precision levels for estimating power losses due to meshing.
 - No meshing losses - Suitable for HIL simulation — Neglect friction between gear cogs. Meshing is ideal.
 - Constant efficiency — Reduce torque transfer by a constant efficiency factor. This factor falls in the range 0 < η ≤ 1 and is independent of load. Selecting this option exposes additional parameters.
 Constant efficiency
 - Load-dependent efficiency — Reduce torque transfer by a variable efficiency factor. This factor falls in the range 0 < η < 1 and varies with the torque load. Selecting this option exposes additional parameters.
 Load-Dependent Efficiency
Viscous Losses
Viscous friction coefficients at base (B) and follower (F)
Two-element array with the viscous friction coefficients in effect at the base and follower shafts. The default array, [0 0], corresponds to zero viscous losses.
Simple Gear Model
Ideal Gear Constraint and Gear Ratio
Simple Gear imposes one kinematic constraint on the two connected axes:
rFωF = rBωB.
The follower-base gear ratio gFB = rF/rB = NF/NB. N is the number of teeth on each gear. The two degrees of freedom reduce to one independent degree of freedom.
The torque transfer is:
gFBτB + τFτloss = 0,
with τloss = 0 in the ideal case.
Nonideal Gear Constraint and Losses
In the nonideal case, τloss ≠ 0. For general considerations on nonideal gear modeling, see Model Gears with Losses.
In a nonideal gear pair (B,F), the angular velocity, gear radii, and gear teeth constraints are unchanged. But the transferred torque and power are reduced by:
 - Coulomb friction between teeth surfaces on gears B and F, characterized by efficiency η
 - Viscous coupling of driveshafts with bearings, parametrized by viscous friction coefficients μ
τloss = τCoul·tanh(4ωout/ωth) + μωout, τCoul = |τF|·(1 – η).
The hyperbolic tangent regularizes the sign change in the Coulomb friction torque when the angular velocity changes sign.
Power FlowPower Loss ConditionOutput Driveshaft ωout
ForwardωBτB > ωFτFFollower, ωF
ReverseωBτB < ωFτFBase, ωB
Constant Efficiency
In the constant efficiency case, η is constant, independent of load or power transferred.
Load-Dependent Efficiency
In the load-dependent efficiency case, η depends on the load or power transferred across the gears. For either power flow, τCoul = gFBτidle + kτF. k is a proportionality constant. η is related to τCoul in the standard, preceding form but becomes dependent on load:
η = τF/[gFBτidle + (k + 1)τF].
 - Gears are rigid. They do not deform.
 - Coulomb friction slows down simulation. See Adjust Model Fidelity.
The sdl_simple_gearsdl_simple_gear example model gives a basic example of a simple gear.
The sdl_backlashsdl_backlash example model illustrates a gear with backlash.
The sdl_gearbox_efficiencysdl_gearbox_efficiency example model measures the efficiency of a nonideal simple gear by comparing output to input power.
See Also
Related Examples
Was this topic helpful?


Illustration for article titled How to Find a Stud Without a Stud Finder
We've all been there at some point: anxiously trying to find a wall stud while you're in the process of hanging a picture, shelf or TV mount. Most stud finders are inconsistent at best, and I've found the more I learn about how houses are built, the easier it is to find a stud through logic instead of equipment. In lieu of buying yet another tool, here are a few tips for finding a stud without any fancy equipment.
1. Understand wall construction
Photo: Construction Projects ( (Flickr)
Every house is different, but there are a few things you can count on. More modern stick-framed houses (anything built after 1920 or so) is likely built with 2×4 or 2×6 studs. Here are some things you should know about how walls are framed.
 - Studs are generally spaced between 16″- 24″ on center (which means from the middle of one stud, to the middle of one next to it.) 16″ is the most common dimension though.
 - You will also find studs on either side of a window or door, but their placement is determined by the floor plans so they won't typically have the 16″ spacing
 - Most electrical boxes (switches or outlets) are attached to a stud on one side.
 - The actual dimensions of a 2×4 lumber vary based on the date the house (or the particular wall of the house in question) was built. For example, between _PHONE_ rough cut 2×4's were most common and were actually 2″ by 4″, for the most part. Houses built between _PHONE_ might have 2x4s that are 1-⅝" by 3-⅝", more modern 2x4s are actually 1-½ by 3-½ (all of which matters if you're trying to measure from the center of one stud to the next.)
 - Trim (crown molding, baseboard, and shoe molding) is generally nailed to a stud.
2. Look at the trim
Since the baseboard should be attached to the studs, look to see if you can spot where it might have been nailed. These holes—dimples—are generally filled with caulk and painted, but you may be able to spot one to identify the location of a stud. If you find one, try measuring in 16″ increments to locate the additional studs.
3. Use the switch
Photo: Rebecca Landis ( (Flickr)
If you don't have any luck checking out the trim, look for switches or outlets, knowing that at least one side of an electrical box will be mounted on a stud. Personally I'm not great at doing the "knock test" on the wall, but I can usually detect from tapping which side of the outlet is attached to the stud. Then you can measure about 3/4″ away from the outlet on the stud side and use that as the starting point to determine the 16″ intervals.
4. Measure from the corner
Photo: garann ( (Flickr)
With studs generally 16″ on center, you can also do calculations from a corner of the room. This method can be a little iffy, because all rooms aren't built in numbers divisible by 16″ so you are likely to have a stud that is less than 16″ from one corner. Try the "knock test" near the corner to see if you can determine where the shorter stud-spacing might have been added. This only really works if you're measuring a corner off the exterior of the house, but there may be a situation where this helps (and it's certainly better than blindly drilling a dozen holes in your wall, hoping to hit a stud.)
Also, one of the very best ideas I had when building the addition on my last house was to take pictures of every wall in every room after they were framed in but before we hung the drywall. Those reference photos came in handy more times than I can count after the drywall was up.
This story was originally published on 9/18/14 and was updated on 6/6/19.
Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here
* Copy This Password *
* Type Or Paste Password Here *
11,580 Spam Comments Blocked so far by Spam Free Wordpress


text:
Lenz House & Garden
After the Harmonists
David Lenz HouseThe David Lenz House is an example of a Harmonist family home. It illustrates construction techniques and Harmonist daily life.
Construction: The house is a typical Harmonist single-family frame dwelling in Indiana. The green-painted addition is not original. Upstairs the floors are original. Windows have been enlarged except those on the west side which are accurate, but not original. Standardized 8-panel windows were used.
In the corner of the large bedroom the construction and insulation is exposed. Walls were insulated with sun-dried bricks. Kiln-hardened bricks were used for exterior construction on brick structures. Sway braces were used in the corners of the buildings. The bricks would not have been exposed but the walls would have been plastered and whitewashed. Slashes on the timber created a rough surface so the plaster would adhere. Ceilings were insulated with "Dutch biscuits" placed between the joists in the ceilings.
Because they took almost everything with them to Economy, most furniture in the house is typical of the period, but not original Harmonist. Harmonists did not make much furniture, but they did make chairs to sell. They brought some furniture with them from Pennsylvania. Much of it was bought from the Shakers with whom they traded extensively.
Entry Hall: Copy of a door lock used by the Harmonists.
Meal bin - used for storing sacks of flour and cornmeal.
Kitchen: Stove manufactured in Pittsburgh, 9-plate, cast iron; stoves were one of the things the Harmonists did not make. They used stoves instead of fireplaces; the stoves could easily be moved from cabins to permanent houses. The stove was used for light cooking; baking was done in outdoor ovens, roasting and large-scale cooking in communal kitchens. The stoves were wood-burning; coal was used after the Harmonists left.
Dry sink: Pine and poplar, ca. 1820 from Pennsylvania; the nearest well was near today's "Poet's House."
Common or Living Room: Harmonist table; the top is one "slice" of a tree; pewter plates; reproductions of Harmonist pottery; designs are not exclusively Harmonist.
Blanket chest: Pine, feather-painted; stocking stretcher.
Sugar chest: Made of poplar to resist insects.
Wool or skein winder: Early 19th c., of oak; a mechanism would pop when a certain amount of wool (a skein) had been wound.
Fireplace: Not used by Harmonists, a later renovation.
Second floor: These rooms were not a particular person's bedroom, but were merely "sleeping chambers."
Small Sleeping Chamber with Shaker single bed.
Large Sleeping Chamber with reproduction single-rope beds: red paint would have been this bright. An original Harmonist bed can be seen in the Workingsmen's Institute Museum.
German Chest 1817, hand-painted. According to Old Economy records, these were the only possession that members of the community were allowed to own. Women often had small decorated sewing boxes for their personal items.
History: The house was built ca. _PHONE_ by the Harmonists and occupied by the David Lenz family. Lenz was a farmer and lawyer, though he is not recorded as having done any legal work for the Society. Lenz came from Germany to Harmony, PA. He and his wife Christina had three sons (David, Christian, and Jonathan) by 1807. Christina died in 1815, therefore only David Lenz and his sons lived in the Lenz House. Lenz's three brothers also moved to New Harmony; Daniel, Israel and Jakob. David probably died just before the Harmonists' departure from Indiana in 1825. His son Jonathan became a trustee of the Economy Society.
During the Owen-Maclure period, John Beal lived here for a short time before building his own house in 1829. In 1828 Thomas Mumford, a carpenter joined the Owen-Maclure community. He married Louisa Maentel and bought the Lenz House. Louisa's father, the painter Jacob Maentel, lived his last years in this house, and some of his paints were found in the attic. The heirs of Thomas Mumford donated the House to the National Society of Colonial Dames of America. In 1958 this organization moved the house to its present location and restored it. It opened to the public the following year. It is now leased, with its contents, to Historic New Harmony.
Communal Bake Oven: This oven is not original Harmonist, but was constructed in 1980. There were several ovens at regular intervals in town; each family had a specific day of the week assigned when they could use the oven. On this day the housewife baked enough bread and pastries to last the week. A fire would be built inside the oven; when it was very hot, the fire and ashes were removed, and the oven cleaned with a rag on a pole. The housewife tested the heat by holding her hand in the oven. The oven held 10 loves of bread. It is used for school programs.
Partial inventory of Plants in Lenz Garden:
Return to Top of Page


Galactolipid biosurfactant recovery from green agri-waste
Biosurfactants are a sustainable, environmentally friendly alternative to surfactants produced from petrochemical feed stock by synthetic routes. The most common biosurfactants in commercial production are from microbial sources and include gycolipids such as rhamnolipids and sophorolipids amongst others. These have found application, in particular, in the detergent industries. However, their use in other consumer product industries has been held back because they are either not available at large volume, or in the case of rhamnolipids are produced by organisms that are opportunistic pathogens.
Glycolipids are found in all green plants, and in particular as galactolipids in the thylakoid membrane of the choloroplast. If these galactolipids can be recovered from plant green material at sufficient scale they could be an alternative source of biosurfactants. Galactolipids would be of particular interest to the food industry as they are found naturally in flour, and have been shown to have advantageous functionality in improving the quality of baked cakes and bread.
In this project the aim is to take green plant waste (this could, for example, be leaves from agricultural production, or grass clippings) to establish a lab scale separation and purification protocol(s), to determine the potential yield of galactolipids, and if sufficient yields are achieved to determine some physicochemical properties of the biosurfactants. Functional properties of interest include emulsification, foaming, surface/interfacial tension, cmc and surface rheological properties.
Supervisor name:
Stephen Euston
Supervisor and Deputy email addresses:
Project location:
John Muir Building room G24
Deputy name:
Lydia Campbell/Derek Stewart


text:
SERVICES FOR HEALTHCARE
Healthcare never stops; it goes on in the weekends, on holidays, every day, 24/7. Healthcare professionals need to be available 24/7, which means that the mobile devices they work with and the wireless networks also have to function 24/7. The Enterprise Mobility Management services of Dalosy ensures this continuity by:
- Non-stop monitoring of your mobile devices and preventing (or directly solving) errors on the devices.
- Maintaining your wristband and label printers
- Non-stop monitoring of your wireless networks
Due to the use of new technology in the Healthcare sector, it becomes more important to have internet connection anywhere and anytime. Medications are kept at the right temperature by use of Wireless Temperature Monitoring, confused or dementia patients are being tagged to prevent them from wandering and patient information can be accessed and updated right at the spot. These are some wonderful technologies, however they are useless if the wireless connection breaks down. Dalosy ensures continuity of your organization.


text:
Dr. Evie Malaia, EURIAS fellow
Event reference time representation in grammar: sign languages and spoken languages
Evie Malaia is the guest speaker at this ACLC seminar. Abstract and title are NOW available.
Human languages base sentence structure on predicates, often corresponding to perceptually-available events. Temporal boundary of an event, identified as linguistic feature verbal telicity, is critical for lexicon-grammar interface in sentence-building: it affects transitivity, (un)accusativity, and number and type of argument roles of the verb. The talk will illustrate two paths of grammaticalization - transformation of perceptual parameters of event boundaries into linguistic features - in Croatian Sign Language and American Sign Language. We will also consider neural (EEG and fMRI) data, which indicates that once temporal reference is grammaticalized in the language, it becomes critical for memory management during online language processing.
Spuistraat 134 | 1012 VB AmsterdamGo to detailpage
+31 (0)20 _PHONE_


text: Allowance & Chores Bot makes it easy to keep track of your family's allowances and chores. With Allowance & Chores Bot, children won't lose or misplace paper money and you won't have to keep track of allowances and chores by hand. If your family has more than one device, Allowance & Chores Bot will automatically keep your whole family's allowances and chores in sync. Unlike other allowance and chore apps, Allowance & Chores Bot does not require any third-party service or special setup to sync all your family's devices. With Allowance & Chores Bot you can create a daily, weekly, or monthly allowance for each child. Each chore can be a one time chore, or repeated on a daily, weekly, or monthly schedule. Each chore can be configured so completion is required for the child's periodic allowance, or the chore can be configured as an extra reward in addition to their allowance. With Allowance & Chores Bot, you can approve or unapprove all allowance and chore payments for up to 30 days. Kids see how much they have saved and when and how much they've spent. The Allowance Graph lets your kids watch their allowance savings grow. Kids can see what chores need to be done and check them off when completed. Kids can receive chore reminders without having to open the app. Allowance & Chores Bot gives you everything you need to manage your children's allowances and chores and teach them about saving money, spending money, and earning money. Features: * Automatic sync between multiple devices - no setup required, just login with the same email and password. * Set up daily, weekly, or monthly allowances. * Choose whether allowances accrue automatically or only after parental approval. * Keep track of how much money children have saved. * Deduct money from a child's account when they spend money. * Easily withhold any number of future allowance payments as punishment. * Supports many international currencies. * Supports several pretend currencies like Points, Smiley Faces, Federation Credits & more. * Assign chores with a daily, weekly, or monthly schedule. * Give rewards for good behavior or good grades. * Allowance Graph lets you see a 30 day history of savings, spending, and chore activity. * Receive notifications when each chore is done, and when approvals are waiting. * Receive reminders when you forget to approve an allowance or chore payment. * Photos can be added to each chore to help kids understand what needs to be done. * Pre-readers can have things like chore names, chore descriptions, allowance amounts and savings amounts read to them by the app. * Approve or unapprove allowance and chore payments for up to 30 days. * Optional parental passcode stops kids from making changes without permission. * Optional child passcode allows children to block siblings from having access their account information. * Works on iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch.


Do You Have a Leadership Team or a Leadership Committee? – Growth and Profit
Lead Magnet
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur adipiscing
Do You Have a Leadership Team or a Leadership Committee?
Do You Have a Leadership Team or a Leadership Committee?
By Andrew Cooke | February 22, 2013
Do You Have a Leadership Team or a Leadership Committee?
The differences and the impacts of leadership by team and by committees.
by Andrew Cooke, Growth & Profit Solutions
Teams or Committees?
Many CEOs and senior leaders in companies with which I have worked with often believe, in all sincerity, that they have a leadership team or executive team which works together to help focus and drive the business.
This, in my experience, is rarely the case. More often than it is not a leadership or executive team, but a committee. This is true for all levels of the business, but becomes increasingly more frequent the further you go up the hierarchy.
It is important to understand whether you have a leadership team or a leadership committee? The impact of each is considerable and quite different. Many problems that you may be experiencing with your leadership team have, at their root, the fact that the leadership team is actually a leadership committee.
Let me explain by looking at teams and committees in turn:
For the purpose of this article I define a team as a group of individuals who are working together, towards a common goal or goals, in which they will either succeed or fail to do so together. There is a strong common purpose, common understanding and real alignment to which all members of the team are committed.
A team that is well-aligned and works well together only does so because there is a high level of trust. As such the team sets its own goals, and all the members share resources, information and insights. There is open and frank communication between the members, with members prepared to challenge each other in order to resolve issues and achieve the desired outcomes. Honesty and candor underpin the team allowing alternatives to be discussed and decisions taken only after healthy and robust debate.
Here a group of people come together because of their title or role or function (and in a role as a representative of a given area or function), and agree to work together as long as it is individually beneficial, but at any time they can withhold information, resources, or not comply; also they can be rewarded differentially i.e. I win, you lose. The individuals participate rather than promise an outcome or a result.
There is a lack of trust and there is no common purpose or any alignment, or it is very weak if there is any. The focus of the committee tends not to be on achieving the outcomes, but on tasks and following process. Political battles and turf wars breakout as committee members jockey for position. They can withhold resources and information from others in doing so, and people will work or collaborate with others only so far as doing so helps their individual interests. In a committee people can win at the expense of the others. This means decisions are made on a sub-optimal basis and, although they can advance one area's interests, may do so even though it causes damage to the business itself.
Which Do You Have – Teams or Committees?
So how do you know which you have? Chance is that you probably already have a pretty good idea, but sometimes the group may be in a "grey area". In these instances, I suggest you apply the five criteria:
Andrew Cooke's Five Golden Keys for Evaluating Groups
Look at the questions in the following areas. If the answers tend to favour the group over the individual you have a team, if it is the individual over the group then you have a committee.
 1. Individual and Group Intention – how would you describe the individual intentions for each group member and the group overall? Are they prepared to put the interest of others ahead of their own in advancing the group's interests? Are the group's interests shared or do they vary from each individual?
 2. Effectiveness – is the group and the members focused on doing the right things? Are there a clearly shared and understood set of priorities and outcomes? Is the group delivering progress towards the defined outcomes, or is progress being achieved in a multiple and conflicting directions against outcomes which may or may not be those which were defined initially? Are members participating or working to deliver outcomes.
 3. Communication –what kind of discussions and debate is there between group members? Do they focus on the issue at hand or the personalities involved? How well do they share with others what they are doing and why? Do they have a shared and common understanding which they can consistently and clearly articulate?
 4. Relationships – are they cooperative and collaborative, or is it case of acting in the individual's self-interest? Is the nature of the relationship long-term, strategic and aligned; or are the relationships short-term and transactional in their focus?
 5. Power – is power perceived by the group and its members to be vested in the group itself, and thus all members are subordinate to the group; or is it perceived to be vested in certain individuals for who the group's interests are subordinate to theirs?
Do you have a leadership team or a leadership committee? Think carefully before you answer. If your team is exhibiting signs of dysfunction then it is likely that you have group that is a committee or has strong leanings to some of the characteristics of a committee than a team.
Consider one of the dysfunctional teams you either have been on or are a part of now. Is your team a committee in disguise as a team? If so, can you apply this distinction to diagnose the problem and get your team on track?
Enhanced by Zemanta
Leave a Reply 0 comments
Leave a Reply:
sixteen − 2 =


text:
Part of Lesson Plan: Financial Planning NEFE Lesson 4 - Roadblocks and Your Financial Plan
Activity Overview / Details
Time: 1 and 1/2 class periods
Have students pair up to create a skit on handling roadblocks that might come up. Each student is to tell their partner a possible roadblock that they have thought of. Their partner is to come up with solutions or changes that the other could/should make and together create a skit (not less than 1 minute or more than 2 minutes each) on how they would explain their ideas and/or solution to their partner.
Teachers can put roadblocks on pieces of paper and put them in a container for those students that have a hard time thinking of one. Give student teams 5 to 8 minutes minutes to discuss the situation and then begin.


Can others tell how drunk you are?
Jill Margo
Jill MargoHealth editor
After drinking too much, your assessment of your level of intoxication will likely be inaccurate but now, a new study has shown sober observers won't be able to tell how drunk you are either.
Like you, they will underestimate your level of intoxication which is potentially dangerous, particularly in situations where you might be driving and they might be your passengers.
"Even professionals who regularly interact with alcohol-intoxicated people can be surprisingly poor at correctly identifying the presence and level of intoxication," says Dr Monds. AP Photo/Lewis Joly
The study was conducted on students in New Zealand during the University of Otago's orientation week, a period with social events typified by alcohol use.
That they were talking and walking into concerts, and were apparently functional, meant none had drunk to the point of being paralytic.
"We assume we know what alcohol intoxication looks like because it's so common," says co-leader of the study, Dr Lauren Monds, an academic fellow in the speciality of addiction medicine at Sydney University.
But in the study, it came as surprise to see how sober observers underestimated the level of intoxication they were seeing directly in front of them.
Dr Lauren Monds, an academic fellow in the speciality of Addiction medicine at Sydney University.
"Our results mean we need to be careful assuming that we can accurately spot when someone has had too much alcohol and that they may actually be worse off than we realise."
This is important for staff in multiple occupations, such as police, doctors and bartenders, who rely on their observational skills to detect intoxication,
The study, published in the journal Drug and Alcohol Review, found both drinkers and observers were relatively accurate at lower levels of consumption.
At high levels, other studies have suggested people underestimate their own intoxication because they have become cognitively impaired and can't work out what's really happening to them.
"But that doesn't hold for observers, in our study, who were not intoxicated and were not cognitively impaired. We need to start thinking about other explanations for why they can't accurately detect intoxication in others, at the highest levels," she says.
One possibility is that there was a kind of "ceiling effect" in this group. After a certain level of high intoxication there are no further signs to indicate someone was more severely intoxicated.
This effect could be at work in the space between appearing functional while intoxicated, before crossing into insensibility and an obvious drunken stupor.
This is a tentative explanation that needs more research, Dr Monds says.
The study, which involved about 400 students and was co-led by Dr Benjamin Riordan, Postdoctoral Research Fellow at La Trobe University, Melbourne, suggested there may also be cultural differences at work and differences in people's ability to tolerate alcohol.
Perceptions of intoxication were measured against blood alcohol levels and showed that if you've had one or two drinks you are probably reasonably accurate at guessing if you'd be over the limit.
However, once your blood alcohol levels get to about two or three times the legal drinking limit, you and your friends probably underestimate how drunk you really are.
A previous study found police significantly underestimated the blood alcohol level at both low and high levels of intoxication. Another study in emergency settings found clinicians missed 23 per cent of alcohol-intoxicated presentations.
Bias was often at work. Clinicians were significantly more likely falsely to suspect patients looking dishevelled or of low socioeconomic status, of intoxication.
The authors say experience or training may not always be enough to overcome these inaccuracies. An added complication is that many signs commonly associated with intoxication, such as slurred speech or poor motor coordination, can be present in sober people with other issues.