Israeli Startup Shakes Up Fashion Industry with Sustainable, Digital Thread Dyeing
JANUARY 7, 2020
With many people choosing to move towards a more sustainable lifestyle, one industry has stayed largely behind in its methods. The fashion industry, which produces 20 percent of the world's wastewater through textile dyeing, is the second-largest water pollution contributor in the world. Traditional thread dyeing uses 70 liters of water for one kilogram of thread.
This summer, 32 major clothing companies and fashion brands including H&M, Burberry, and Chanel signed a pact promising to take action to reduce their negative impact on the environment. By eliminating single-use plastics, reusing old clothing, sourcing sustainably grown agriculture, and using less water, the goal is for the fashion industry to have a net-zero carbon footprint by 2050. While a commendable step, the pact is not legally binding and difficult to enforce. A more specific and dependable change is needed.
Twine, a young Israeli startup specializing in digital thread dyeing, is taking a major step in the right direction to revolutionize the textile dyeing process. Based in Petah Tikvah, the company has come up with a way to dye thread using new technology that will not give off CO2 (carbon dioxide) emissions or produce wastewater.
Twine developed the TS-1800, the world's first digital thread dyer that is just 2 meters by 1.5 meters in size and does the job in minutes, eliminating the need for manual labor as well as its risks. The device does not use any water and saves on logistics by bringing the dyeing process in-house to manufacturers, designers, and apparel producers.
"Our Twine Digital Thread Dyeing system unleashes the power of thread, at the touch of a button. The fast-paced digital transformation of the textile industry is challenging both for production and its environmental impact. We are excited to bring solutions that will have much needed and crucial economic, social and sustainability benefits," said Twine co-founder Alon Moshe in an April statement unveiling the system.
To use the system, one would need to load raw white thread, select the desired shade and light, and begin the process. The thread is dyed using Twine's digital inks mixed in precise amounts for the desired color and then dried in a drying chamber. It is then applied with a lubricant and emerges ready-to-use in minutes for sewing, knitting, and embroidery. The choice is between millions of colors and shades as well as color gradients, Twine says.
The startup says its disruptive technology is revolutionizing the thread, fabric and garment industries by "eliminating the long, messy, cumbersome conventional bulk dyeing of thread that is common practice today."
Fashion industry practices have not really been updated since the Industrial Revolution, and factories are still producing copious amounts of wastewater, releasing toxins, and in some cases exploiting workers, Twine's founders, Alon Moshe and Erez Moshe, noted. For environmental, ethical, and economic reasons, they felt a radical change was needed and set up Twine in 2015 with a growing team of professionals with deep experience across a variety of disciplines, including physics, nanomaterials, AI, and mechanics.
Twine also developed a color matching app called SnapMatch, that allows designers to place a calibration card on a color sample, upload it to Twine's cloud-based data system which compares the color on the calibration card to the desired color and uses an algorithm to create an exact color match, the startup's marketing manager, Adi Mandel, explains.
This algorithm is then sent to the machine to begin the process. By perfecting the color of the thread this way, Twine says it allows designers to worry less about the time and money wasted on errors and imperfections, eliminating the need for wasted samples of the wrong color that would either be stored or disposed of. This method also does away with the back and forth travel of the samples, which can take weeks, drive up costs, and has a large carbon footprint. Typically, samples are sent back and forth between western countries and countries in South and East Asia at least two to three times. Mandel says Twine's quick dyeing process uses zero water instead of submerging thread into a pot of dyed water. There are no fumes being emitted and only electricity is needed to run the machine."
Not only are there environmental benefits to this dyeing process, but companies can also count on accuracy, Mandel explains: by using an algorithm instead of manually dyeing material, the process allows for gradient and customizable designs, and colors for customers can be made much more efficiently. Twine is in the process of beta testing with Delta Galil, an Israeli textile company that works with major brands like Victoria's Secret, Calvin Klein, and Nike.
Last year, Twine raised a strategic investment round, reported at $22 million, co-led by New Era Capital Partners and Maverick Ventures Israel, with strategic investors COATS group, a British multinational and the largest manufacturer and distributor of sewing thread and supplies, and HP Tech Ventures, joining the financing.
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text:
This panel displays information about the current performance of your FortiNAC, and has the following tabs: Hardware, Software, and CPU Usage.
You can modify the thresholds used to determine when % Used displays as Warning (the colored bar is yellow) or Critical (the colored bar is red) in both the Hardware and Software tabs. By default, the threshold for Warning is 85% and Critical is 95%. To modify the thresholds, click on the colored bar and enter the new thresholds. Threshold changes are global and affect all users.

source: openbmb/Ultra-FineWeb


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TheDraw is a text editor for MS DOS to create ANSI and animations as well as ASCII art. The editor is especially useful to create or modify files in ANSI format and text documents, which use the graphical characters of the IBM ASCII code pages, because they are not supported by Microsoft Windows anymore. The first version of the editor was developed in 1986 by Ian E. Davis of TheSoft Programming Services. The last public version of the editor was version 4.63, which was released in October 1993.
TheDraw was one of the first ANSI editors that supported ANSIs longer than 25 rows. The limit in the latest available version is still 100 rows. Other editors, such as ACiDDraw are able to support ANSIs larger than 100 lines for a single ANSI/ASCII (ACiDDraw supports 1,000 lines). The animation mode is limited to 50 lines (rows). The column width can be extended from the standard 80 characters to 160, but this also reduces the row limit down to 50.
Compatibility with Microsoft Windows
The program runs stably in a DOS Window on Windows XP and allows the user to maintain mouse control. Used with Windows Vista however, TheDraw performs with less predictable results. It works with DOSBox.
Significant features
Some of the features of the editor include:
- Mouse support to select blocks of text within the editor (even under Windows in window and full-screen mode)
- For the selected area/block exist a number of unique functions
- Fill function to change the color of a whole section of the text
- Copy/Move and Paste function to copy/move entire blocks of text within the document.
- Erase function that clears the selected area of any characters without the surrounding characters changing position.
- Replace function to replace the content of the selected area with the content of the TheDraw "clipboard".
- Load/Save function to save only the selected area or load an ANSI/ASCII from the hard disk into the selected area (replace).
- Font manager to create/modify and organize ASCII and ANSI fonts to be used within the editor
- Additional file formats in addition to ANSI (.ANS) and text (.ASC).
- The proprietary PCBoard (.PCB) and Wildcat! BBS (.BBS) file formats.
- The AVATAR (.AVT) file standard defined by FidoNet.
- Save files for various programming languages, including Assembly (.ASM), C (.H) and Turbo Pascal (.PAS).
- Ability to save ANSIs as.COM binary,.BIN and object code (.OBJ).
- Other supported formats: BSave (.BSV) and backup files (.BAK)
- Comprehensive help screens
- Preset transition animations to wipe or change the image
- ANSI animation support (creation and modification)
- The "Draw Mode" used automatically the appropriate character from the currently selected set to draw lines and corners by simply using the cursor keys (up/down/left/right)
- The default character sets can be modified and extended
See also
- Chambers, M. (1994) Running a perfect BBS, Que. ISBN 978-1-56529-919-1.

source: HuggingFaceFW/fineweb-edu


of a value, it also has another use: since "Find" returns the default value for the type T to indicate "not found", you need to use Exists for predicates that might match null or zero, such as: bool containsEven = list.Exists(delegate(int x) { return (x % 2) == 0; }); TrueForAll(Predicate<T>): Similar to Exists, but determines whether the predicate is satisfied by all elements of the list. For example, this line of code might run some tests and see if they all pass: if (tests.TrueForAll(delegate(Test t) { t.Run(); return t.SuccessCode == 0; }) FindAll(Predicate<T>): Creates a new list containing all elements satisfying a predicate. In functional languages this is sometimes called select or filter, as we're "filtering out" the parts of the list not satisfying the predicate. Here's an example which, in a single line, gets a list of all processes using more than k threads: List<Process> x = new List<Process>(Process.GetProcesses()).FindAll( delegate(Process p) { return p.Threads.Count > k; }); FindIndex(Predicate<T>): Just like Find, except that instead of returning the first value that satisfies the predicate, it returns its index in the list. For example, this expression yields the index of the first alphabetical character in a string: new List(s.ToCharArray()).FindIndex(Char.IsLetter) FindLastIndex(Predicate<T>): Same as FindIndex, except that it finds the last occurrence satisfying the predicate. ForEach(Predicate<T>): Simply executes the given delegate on each member of the list. Although just using a foreach loop is cleaner than using ForEach with an anonymous delegate, ForEach is still handy if you already have a named delegate, as in this example that deletes all the files in the current directory: new List<string>(Directory.GetFiles(Directory.GetCurrentDirectory())).ForEach(File.Delete); ConvertAll(Predicate<T>): Perhaps the most powerful of the delegate-based List methods, ConvertAll feeds each element of the list through a conversion function, producing a new list. In functional languages this is often called map because, like a mathematical function, it "maps" one set to another. Here's a simple example which produces a list of strings that are the lowercased versions of the strings in the original input list: list.ConvertAll(delegate(string s) { return s.ToLower(); }); What's more, besides being individually useful, complex transformations can be achieved by chaining these methods together in clever ways. For example, here's two lines of code that produce a list of all files larger than a given size in a given directory: static List<string> GetBigFiles(string directory, int bigLength) { List<string> paths = new List<string>(Directory.GetFiles(directory)); return paths.ConvertAll<FileStream>( File.OpenRead ).FindAll( delegate(FileStream f) { return f.Length >= bigLength; } ).ConvertAll<string>( delegate(FileStream f) { return f.Name; } ); } The first ConvertAll opens all the files by using the static library method "File.OpenRead" as the converter. The FindAll filters out just the FileStream objects corresponding to large files. The final ConvertAll extracts the filenames from each stream. Each of these "list filters" is independently reusable. At first this way of programming may seem unusual or cumbersome, but just compare the size of the above method to a procedural implementation. Don't forget also that you can write your own methods taking delegates to reap more benefits from anonymous delegates. A frequently useful application is for error handling and debugging code. Suppose you find yourself writing several methods that all look like this: void foo() { Debug.Write("entering foo()"); try { // Do some stuff } catch (Exception e) { // Do some stuff throw; } Debug.Write("exiting foo()"); } It's not clear how to factor out the two "Do some stuff" parts, since they're nested right in the middle of the method. Once again, anonymous delegates are the answer. We can write a method like this taking delegates for the parts that get filled in: delegate void DoAction(); delegate bool ProcessException(Exception e); void DebugInvoke(string name, DoAction action, ProcessException processException) { Debug.Write("entering " + name); try { a(); } catch (Exception e) { if (processException(e)) { throw; } } Debug.Write("exiting " + name); } Now we can mix-and-match try bodies and catch bodies at will, and get the tracing for free: void foo(int x, int y) { int z = 0; DebugInvoke("addFoo", delegate() { z = x + y; }, OverflowHandler); DebugInvoke("addBar", delegate() { z = z + x; }, delegate(Exception e) { Debug.Assert(false); return true; }); DebugInvoke("addBaz", delegate() { y = z + z; }, OverflowHandler); } static bool OverflowHandler(Exception e) { if (e is OverflowException) { Debug.Write("Encountered overflow"); return true; } return false; } Unfortunately, anonymous delegate syntax, while much more concise than the alternative, is still a bit verbose, requiring not only the word "delegate" but full argument lists. One of the goals of the next version of C# is to encourage the use of these functional idioms, partly by introducing a new closure syntax that will take advantage of type inference to overcome this syntactic overhead. Just remember to keep this rule of thumb in mind: if you're iterating over a list, and the body of the foreach is pretty small, chances are you don't need to. See if you can do the same thing more concisely and with less risk using a combination of the above methods and anonymous delegates (and amaze your coworkers). I hope you found this article helpful.MSDNArchive large numbers with quadratic sieveToday I'm going to talk about how the quadratic sieve factoring algorithm works, giving a comprehensive description assuming knowledge of only basic university-level mathematics. The foundation of the most popular public-key cryptography algorithm in use today, RSA, rests on the difficulty of factoring large integers. When keys are generated, efficient algorithms are used to generate two very large prime numbers and multiply them together. The person who generated the keys knows these two numbers, but everyone else only knows the product. The product contains enough information to encrypt a message to the person; the two primes allow the recipient to decrypt it. There is no known way to decrypt it without using the primes, but by factoring, we can extract the two prime factors from the product and break the encryption. At the time that RSA was invented in 1977, factoring integers with as few as 80 decimal digits was intractable; all known algorithms were either too slow or required the number to have a special form. This made even small, 256-bit keys relatively secure. The first major breakthrough was quadratic sieve, a relatively simple factoring algorithm invented by Carl Pomerance in 1981, which can factor numbers up to 100 digits and more. It's still the best known method for numbers under 110 digits or so; for larger numbers, the general number field sieve (GNFS) is now used. However, the general number field sieve is extremely complicated, and requires extensive explanation and background for even the most basic implementation. However, GNFS is based on the same fundamental ideas as quadratic sieve, so if factoring the largest numbers in the world is your goal, this is the place to start. We'll begin by addressing a few problems that at first glance have nothing to do with factoring, then assemble them into a working algorithm. I won't be motivating them first, but trust me - they're important. Finding a subset of integers whose product is a square Suppose I give you a set of integers and I ask you to find a subset of those integers whose product is a square, if one exists. For example, given the set {10, 24, 35, 52, 54, 78}, the product 24×52×78 is 97344 = 3122. The brute-force solution, trying every subset, is too expensive because there


How to Fix a GPU Overheating (Is your Temperature Safe?)
Fixing a overheating GPU
What is the average GPU temperature?
The average GPU temperate of a laptop is 167°F (75°C). At this temperature, you won't need to worry about your GPU overheating.
What is the normal GPU temperature for a laptop?
The normal GPU temperature for a laptop when it is in use is generally between 149°F (65°C) and 185°F (85°C). In the idle state, the optimal temperature is lower and ranges between 95°F and 131°F (35°-55°C).
When the GPU operates at a normal or a slightly colder temperature, you'll often be able to achieve consistent performance from your laptop.
A slightly colder temperature is always better for the GPU than an above-normal temperature.
If the temperature of your GPU is very high, the performance may not be consistent. You may be able to start fine but are likely to experience decreased performance over time. In some cases, system stability will also be at stake.
What is a safe GPU temperature for a laptop?
The safe GPU temperature for a laptop is between 176°F (80°C) and 194°F (90°C). When the temperature increases beyond this range, the performance will go down. It's recommended that the GPU temperature does not exceed 201° to 221°F (94°-105°C).
What is the normal GPU temperature under load?
The normal GPU temperature under load for a laptop is between 158°F and 167°F (7075°C). Some users prefer their GPU to have a lower temperature range of 122°F (50°C) to 140°F (60°C).
For a desktop, the normal temperature is usually lower than that of a laptop. Experienced users prefer this temperature to be between 140°F (60°C) and 167°F (75°C).
What is the normal GPU temperature when gaming?
The normal GPU temperature when playing medium-resolution games for four to five hours is between 140°F (60°C) and 149°F (65°C). For high-resolution games, the temperature will be slightly higher and can range from 149°- 158°F).
If you're in a cold country, it's ideal for your system to have a normal GPU temperature between 127.4°F (53°C) and 140°F (60°C) while gaming.
What causes the GPU to heat up?
The GPU tends to get hot because of heavy loads, airflow issues, GPU cooler failure, or a system cooling failure.
 - Heavy loads
 - Airflow issues
 - GPU cooler failure
 - System cooling failure
Heavy loads
The CPU is generally idle when the computer is used to carry out normal tasks such as sending e-mails, processing a Word document, or working on a spreadsheet calculation.
However, when one or more intensive tasks are carried out such as executing a financial model or using design software to create a 3D image, the load on the CPU increases considerably and it has to work more actively making it hotter. Overclocking the CPU also contributes to an increase in heat.
Airflow issues
Sometimes, dust accumulates on the case, ports, and inlets of the CPU. This will obstruct the smooth flow of air that keeps the CPU cool.
When the dust and dirt are blown out using compressed air, normal airflow resumes and the CPU will not get hot.
CPU cooler failure
The fan in the CPU cooling assembly may be faulty or could have become defective. If so, it will stop spinning. Having the fan replaced should help. Sometimes, there may be a loose contact in the CPU cooler that can be fixed by removing and reattaching it.
System cooling failure
If either the fan present in the power supply or the case fan stops functioning, the CPU cooler starts working overtime to stop the CPU from getting overheated.
However, this results in hot air circulation that can cause some components in the CPU to get fried. Getting the defective fan and affected components replaced should help.
How to reduce GPU temperature of a laptop
You can reduce the GPU temperature of the laptop by opting for a raised surface, using a cooling pad, using a better thermal paste, or by removing the accumulated dust inside. Some other ways include replacing a faulty fan, downgrading the GPU clock, or a GPU driver rollback.
 1. Keep your laptop slightly lifted off the table. You can keep a book or just about anything under the laptop. However, you must take care not to block the inlets while you do this.
 2. Consider using a cooling pad. It is worth considering a pad with large fans as they have more airflow and are quieter.
 3. Replace the thermal paste on the GPU. The rise in GPU temperature may be due to drying out of this paste on your graphics card. You'll need a lint-free cotton swab or cloth or microfiber, replacement thermal compound, screwdriver, and isopropyl alcohol to do the replacement. This process takes only about five minutes to get done.
 4. Remove the screws from the GPU using the screwdriver. Apply some isopropyl alcohol on the microfiber cloth and clean both the GPU base and fan. Apply some thermal paste and close the cover of the GPU. Tighten the screws back in a criss-cross pattern and install the GPU back in place.
 5. Remove the dust accumulated on the GPU. This may be one reason why the temperature is high. You can do this using a screwdriver, baby wipes, and compressed air can.
 6. Remove any dust on the outside of the GPU and unscrew it from its position. Twist the cooler gently and take it apart. Don't pull the graphics card and fan apart.
 7. Disconnect the fan, turn it downward and remove the dust using compressed air. Clean the fan and graphics card using the screw and baby wipes. Assemble the card after everything has dried up.
 8. Plug the fan back and install it in position. Screw everything back in place.
 9. The graphics card may have a defective or malfunctioning fan that spins very slowly or doesn't spin at all. A replacement is the only solution.
 10. You can consider lowering or downgrading the GPU clock by using the overclocking tools of your graphics card. This is a temporary solution to lower the GPU temperature until you figure out the actual reason and resolve it. Once you have fixed the problem, you can reset the GPU clock to its original setting.
 11. Check whether the video driver of the graphics card has been updated. In some cases, an update tends to raise the graphics card temperature to a high level. If so, do a rollback to the previous stable version. It's to be noted that there might be instances where you may have to delete the graphics card driver or update it.
Why is my GPU overheating all of a sudden?
Your GPU may be heating all of a sudden because of dust in the heatsink, bad contact between heatsink and GPU, a graphic driver update, or a GPU fan problem.
Alternatively, the position of the Wi-Fi card or a GPU bitcoin mining malware can trigger the problem.
 - Dust in heatsink
 - Bad contact between heatsink and GPU
 - Graphic driver update
 - GPU fan problem
Dust in the heatsink
One way to find this out is to put your hand behind the heatsink and check for hot air coming out of the holes near the ports at the rear. If there is no air at all, the heatsink may be blocked.
Blowing a can of compressed air over the heatsink can help cool down the temperature of the GPU.
Bad contact between heatsink and GPU
You may consider reseating the heatsink. The thermal paste between the graphics chip and heatsink could have come off or dried up. Remember to remove traces of the old paste before doing a reapplication.
Graphic driver update
The graphics driver may have automatically got updated to a newer version. Sometimes, it happens that a version update heats the GPU for no reason at all. This is especially true in Windows systems. A rollback to the previous version will often solve the problem in such cases.
GPU fan problem
You can use a utility tool like MSI Afterburner and adjust the speed of the GPU fans. Alternatively, you may consider increasing the number of fans. If the fan doesn't spin at all, it may be faulty and will need a replacement. Use this chance to clean the dust from the fans.
Laptop GPU temperature is too high
Your laptop GPU temperature is often too high due to dust accumulation on the heatsink, a dried-up thermal compound, or incorrect fan settings.
 - Dust accumulation on the heatsink.
 - Dried up thermal compound.
 - Improper fan settings.
 1. Use compressed air to blow out the dust and dirt on the heatsink. This will remove the dirt blocking the air vents as well. You can also use this chance to check if the heatsink is seated properly on the chips.
 2. Dismantle the laptop and do a thermal paste replacement. Make sure that you remove any remains of the old paste before adding the new one.
 3. Adjust the fan speed settings using third-party tools like MSI Afterburner. If a fan doesn't spin at all, you must do a replacement as it's likely to be defective. This tool also helps in setting a power limit for the graphics card at a lower temperature.
 4. Get a gel pack fitted inside the laptop cooler. This will ensure that the GPU temperature does not get very high.
 5. Link the CPU and VGA cooling through the same cooling fan


text:
News Content Perspective of TV One and Metro TV in Seeing Indonesia Government Policy
In the new order era, media is chained and regarded as a mouthpiece of New Order government. After 17 years the fall of the New Order regime, some of the media in Indonesia still can never escape from the intervention, particularly media owners. This research aims to determine the differences of political perspective of two television media toward the government. The research used qualitative method which relies on secondary data through documentation. The results indicate that the political orientation of the media owners had intervened the media perspective against the government. Media cannot be an objective watchdog of the government, because the news on the televisions is subjective. The media, such as TV One and Metro TV, have different agenda and perspective. The setting of a resource as well as the communications attitude of the TV One host shows its role as a government watchdog. Metro TV has a different attitude; there is tendency to be more cooperative and accommodating with government and the policies of President Joko Widodo.
Margynata Kurnia Putra, Yusa Djuyandi and La Mani


text:
Assembly: Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Graphics (in microsoft.xna.framework.graphics.dll)
In the XNA Framework, all two-dimensional (2D) images are represented by a range of memory called a surface. Within a surface, each element holds a color value representing a small section of the image, called a pixel. An image's detail level is defined by the number of pixels needed to represent the image and the number of bits needed for the image's color spectrum. For example, an image that is 800 pixels wide by 600 pixels high with 32 bits of color for each pixel (written as 800 x 600 x 32) is more detailed than an image that is 640 pixels wide by 480 pixels tall with 16 bits of color for each pixel (written as 640 x 480 x 16). Likewise, the more detailed image requires a larger surface to store the data. For an 800 x 600 x 32 image, the surface's array dimensions are 800 x 600, and each element holds a 32-bit value to represent its color.
All formats are listed from left to right, most-significant bit to least-significant bit. For example, ARGB formats are ordered from the most-significant bit channel A (alpha), to the least-significant bit channel B (blue). When traversing surface data, the data is stored in memory from least-significant bit to most-significant bit, which means that the channel order in memory is from least-significant bit (blue) to most-significant bit (alpha).
The default value for formats that contain undefined channels (Rg32, Alpha8, and so on) is 1. The only exception is the Alpha8 format, which is initialized to 000 for the three color channels.


text:
The Monmouth-Roseville School District is committing to improving the literacy of Spanish-speaking students over the next few years.
The district will add a second bi-lingual kindergarten class next fall.
Superintendent Paul Woehlke said the goal is to help Latino students with both their Spanish and English language skills.
He said, "Both (classrooms) will be teaching literacy in Spanish to the Hispanic students so they learn their native language literacy first. And research says that's the better approach to a bi-lingual program."


Adipose Tissue-Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells Improve Revascularization Outcomes to Restore Renal Function in Swine Atherosclerotic Renal Artery Stenosis
Reno-protective strategies are needed to improve renal outcomes in patients with atherosclerotic renal artery stenosis (ARAS). Adipose tissue-derived mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) can promote renal regeneration, but their potential for attenuating cellular injury and restoring kidney repair in ARAS has not been explored. We hypothesized that replenishment of MSC as an adjunct to percutaneous transluminal renal angioplasty (PTRA) would restore renal cellular integrity and improve renal function in ARAS pigs. Four groups of pigs (n = 7 each) were studied after 16 weeks of ARAS, ARAS 4 weeks after PTRA and stenting with or without adjunct intrarenal delivery of MSC (10 × 106 cells), and controls. Stenotic kidney blood flow (renal blood flow [RBF]) and glomerular filtration rate (GFR) were measured using multidetector computer tomography (CT). Renal microvascular architecture (micro-CT), fibrosis, inflammation, and oxidative stress were evaluated ex vivo. Four weeks after successful PTRA, mean arterial pressure fell to a similar level in all revascularized groups. Stenotic kidney GFR and RBF remained decreased in ARAS (p =.01 and p =.02) and ARAS + PTRA (p =.02 and p =.03) compared with normal but rose to normal levels in ARAS + PTRA + MSC (p =.34 and p =.46 vs. normal). Interstitial fibrosis, inflammation, microvascular rarefaction, and oxidative stress were attenuated only in PTRA + MSC-treated pigs. A single intrarenal delivery of MSC in conjunction with renal revascularization restored renal hemodynamics and function and decreased inflammation, apoptosis, oxidative stress, microvascular loss, and fibrosis. This study suggests a unique and novel therapeutic potential for MSC in restoring renal function when combined with PTRA in chronic experimental renovascular disease. STEM CELLS 2012;30:1030–1041
Published on 02-14-2015


square wave input to lvdt and what are the demodulation techniques for square wave?
If it is an + square wave just add a diode and a cap.
If it is an AC square wave add a bridge rectifier and a smaller cap.
LVDTs NEED sinewave excitation if you want a chance of linear outputs.
The standard methods usually use a phase-sensitive detector, but Analog Devices do the AD598, which does the excitation and demodulation for you.
iceng2 years ago
The linear variable differential transformer
generates a voltage proportional to displacement of an iron rod
this makes the device a great electronic measuring stick for motion
like a water tank or a plant growth or a sub conscious smile.


text:
- Purchase/rental options available:
This article examines the formation of the rules and regulations for the Qing administration, beginning with the establishment of the six boards in 1631 and ending with the publication of the first Da Qing huidian, or administrative code, in 1690. It charts the administrative problems that arose during the early Qing, and how state-makers turned to the Ming Huidian for answers but consistently found it unable to provide solutions to Qing-specific problems. In response, Qing officials called for the compilation of a Qing Huidian that would account for the emergent Qing-specific administrative structure and apparatus. The article shows that the Qing Hudian was not merely a copy of the Ming document of the same name; rather, it was a compilation of the regulations that developed in response to administrative and political problems over a sixty-year period, and did so in tandem with the emergence of the Qing state. The article further argues that the Qing had administrative law. The intent behind the regulations of the Huidian was to lay out enforceable procedural requirements that regulated administrative activity, as well as to set binding rules about the organizational structure of the state and the relations among actors and internal agencies.


text:
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To draw off (a liquid) by a gradual process: drained water from the sink.
- v. To cause liquid to go out from; empty: drained the bathtub; drain the pond.
- v. To draw off the surface water of: The Mississippi River drains a vast area.
- v. To drink all the contents of: drained the cup.
- v. To deplete gradually, especially to the point of complete exhaustion. See Synonyms at deplete.
- v. To fatigue or spend emotionally or physically: The day's events completely drained me of all strength.
- v. To flow off or out: Gasoline drained slowly from the tilted can.
- v. To become empty by the drawing off of liquid: watched the tub slowly drain.
- v. To discharge surface or excess water: The Niagara River drains into Lake Ontario. When flooded, the swamp drains northward.
- v. To become gradually depleted; dwindle: felt his enthusiasm draining.
- n. A pipe or channel by which liquid is drawn off.
- n. Medicine A device, such as a tube, inserted into the opening of a wound or body cavity to facilitate discharge of fluid or purulent material.
- n. The act or process of draining.
- n. A gradual outflow or loss; consumption or depletion: the drain of young talent by emigration.
- n. Something that causes a gradual loss: interruptions that are a drain on my patience.
- idiom. down the drain To or into the condition of being wasted or lost: All of our best laid plans are down the drain.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To draw off gradually, as a liquid; remove or convey away by degrees, as through conduits, by filtration, or by any comparable process: as, to drain water from land, wine from the lees, or blood from the body; to drain away the specie of a country.
- To free, clear, or deprive by degrees, as of a liquid; empty or exhaust gradually: as, to drain land of water (the most familiar use of the word); to drain a vessel of its contents; to drain a country of its resources.
- To flow off gradually.
- To be gradually emptied, as of a liquid: as, the cask slowly drains.
- n. The act of draining or drawing off, or of emptying by drawing off; gradual or continuous outflow, withdrawal, or expenditure.
- n. That which drains, or by means of which draining is immediately effected.
- n. Specifically— A passage, pipe, or open channel for the removal of water or other liquid; especially, a pipe or channel for removing the surplus water from soils. Drains may be open ditches or sunken pipes or conduits. Those for wet lands are so made as to permit the percolation into them of water from the adjacent soil, as by the use in a covered conduit of porous earthen pipes or tiles, or of a filling of small stones, of an open cut where there is a sufficient slope, etc. See sewer.
- n. The trench in which the melted metal flows from a furnace to the molds
- n. In surgery, a hollow sound or canula used to draw off purulent matter from a deep seated abscess.
- n. Pl. The grain from the mash-tub: distinctively called brewers' drains.
- n. In ship-building, a large pipe which runs through or above the double bottom of a war-ship and is connected with the principal pumps to remove water from the various compartments. The main drain is from 12 to 15 inches in diameter, has openings into the large compartments controlled by valves, and is intended to pump out the water in case of damage by grounding, collision, etc. The secondary or auxiliary drain is also connected with all the large compartments and is used for all ordinary pumping.
- n. A conduit allowing liquid to flow out of an otherwise contained volume.
- n. Something consuming resources and providing nothing in return.
- n. vulgar An act of urination.
- n. electronics The name of one terminal of a field effect transistor (FET).
- v. intransitive To lose liquid.
- v. transitive, ergative To cause liquid to flow out of.
- v. transitive, ergative To convert a perennially wet place into a dry one.
- v. transitive To deplete of energy or resources.
- v. intransitive, pinball To fall off the bottom of the playfield.
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To draw off by degrees; to cause to flow gradually out or off; hence, to cause the exhaustion of.
- v. To exhaust of liquid contents by drawing them off; to make gradually dry or empty; to remove surface water, as from streets, by gutters, etc.; to deprive of moisture; hence, to exhaust; to empty of wealth, resources, or the like.
- v. To filter.
- v. To flow gradually.
- v. To become emptied of liquor by flowing or dropping.
- n. The act of draining, or of drawing off; gradual and continuous outflow or withdrawal.
- n. That means of which anything is drained; a channel; a trench; a water course; a sewer; a sink.
- n. engraving The grain from the mashing tub.
- v. empty of liquid; drain the liquid from
- v. flow off gradually
- n. a pipe through which liquid is carried away
- n. emptying something accomplished by allowing liquid to run out of it
- v. deplete of resources
- v. make weak
- n. tube inserted into a body cavity (as during surgery) to remove unwanted material
- n. a gradual depletion of energy or resources
- Middle English dreinen (verb) from Old English drēahnian ("to drain, strain, filter"), from Proto-Germanic *draug- ("dry"), akin to Old English drūgian ("to dry up"), drūgaþ ("dryness, drought"), Old English drȳge ("dry"). More at dry (Wiktionary)
- Middle English dreinen, to strain, drain, from Old English drēahnian. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
"Brain drain is still claiming Canadian doctors, but not our doctorals."
"She noted that the more typical "brain drain" is to the US, as Canadian professionals leave for greater income potential."
"If there is brain drain from a particular country, it can scarcely develop."
"That a slip-slide into banality leads to forum brain drain is a sort of Catch-22 given."
"The brain drain is not the consequence of some sort of collective despair."
"Hong Kong's brain drain is both a myth and a reality -- a myth in that its proportions tend to be wildly exaggerated, and in that its existence is attributed to a largely imaginary state of panic supposedly to be found in Hong Kong."
"Highly educated women's abandonment of the workplace is not an extension of the centuries of upper-class arm candy; it's a sex-specific brain drain from the future rulers of the society...."
"Ainalem puts it this way: One potential solution to Africa's brain drain is virtual participation."
"America's loss may be India's gain, analysts say, pointing to a'reverse brain drain' that may see India reaping benefits for years to come."
"Watch the water drain from the roof of the greenhouses."
These user-created lists contain the word 'drain'.
The path of least resistance, watercourses, plumbing....
words describing slow action or movement
( open list, randomness, descriptive )
includes words of the "Prodcom list"
Words that make me think of Vampire: The Requiem
Grateful credit to _URL_
Very basic words for ESL students.
Words from 2009 'Watchmen' film.
Words that mean drink.
Looking for tweets for drain.


Do you use gunpowder or not?
It seems that the default setting for most fantasy campaigns is "no gunpowder". Certainly amongst the older crowd (such as myself), that is something that was ingrained into us at an early age, when we read these words in the 1st edition Dungeon Masters Guide:
Unless you desire to have gunpowder muddying the waters in your fantasy world, it is strongly urged that BOOT HILL firearms be confined to specific areas, and when gunpowder is brought into the fantasy world it becomes inert junk — ergo, no clever alchemist can duplicate it. Likewise, dynamite and similar explosives become inert.
Certainly I didn't want to "muddy the waters" of my early campaigns, and dutifully kept guns out of the picture for many years. Gygax reiterated the sentiment in later years as well.
But I have to wonder if that's really a necessity (or even a good thing), since gunpowder was such an integral part of warfare in the Middle Ages in Europe. The Chinese had gunpowder weapons in the 11th century (or possibly earlier), and the Moors were using cannon against the Christians in Spain in the 13th century. The English had cannon by the 14th, and by the later years of the century they were mounted on wheels and could be (relatively) easily moved from battle to battle.
"Hand cannons" (I love that name) came relatively soon thereafter, but Europe didn't see the first things that would be identifiable as modern-looking guns until the development of the arquebus in the 15th century. Still within the upper range of the "quasi-medieval" time period that most fantasy RPGs seem to embrace.
Personally, I am stricken with an image of dwarven armies with sections of handgonners, and I don't think having arquebusiers unbalances a game any more than squares of pikemen or lines of halberdiers.
I put the question to the floor. Have you ever included gunpowder and handgonnes in your fantasy RPG? With what sort of success (or failure)?
Written by
23 thoughts on "Do you use gunpowder or not?
 1. For me, it's a simple matter of not liking to mix science with magic.
 Living in a world based upon science, I don't turn to it for my escapism.
 No gunpowder in my Gaming World.
 2. Gunpowder was part of The fantasy Trip by default, but I don't remember us using it. I think it was because none of the characters could afford it, though.
 I think the real problem with gunpowder is that it starts arguments about how effective it should be rules-wise.
 3. I did consider it when I started our current game; but I ended up choosing to keep it sword and bow-focused. This did pay dividends when they chose to follow the doors to other worlds, and faced off against opponents with "magic weapons" (9mm handguns) in San Francisco.
 I think they're still carrying one around. It usually doesn't work. I'm not sure if they've figured out that when the flashlight works, then the handgun will work as well.
 4. Gunpowder, to my understanding, basically negates armor, which is a problem in a Medieval-ish game.
 Given the length of time to reload an ancient firearm and their inaccuracy and untrustworthiness, perhaps a firearm could be treated like a magic item.
 You have to prep it, roll to see if it activates, then the target gets a saving throw. Higher level warriors can reload quicker and have a better chance of successful firing.
 5. As a rule, no. Gunpowder just never "felt" right in D&D to me and my campaign. Later on I've grown a bit softer to the idea and will be working on exceptions for devoted followers of Murlynd. It's a concept I'm still trying to flesh out…
 PS – the gun powder rules for Pathfinder do seem well balanced for that system if you are interested in looking to other sources.
 6. I could see permitting hand-cannons in ACKS, with d10 damage (compared to a heavy crossbow's d8), rate of fire 1, -1 to initiative due to reloading and general awkwardness, and range comparable to a crossbow. I would tend to handwave the natural innacuracy of the device balancing out its effectiveness in piercing armor, for no net attack modifiers.
 And honestly, since Domains at War has rules for petards and the hoisting thereof, such a weapon might not be amiss.
 7. When we started out, we took Gary's admonition to heart, but then along came Dragon #60 (and later, Dragon #70), and some of us really wanted to try them out. Since then it's been a matter of worldbuilding as to whether or not to have them. I tend to avoid guns, but then I tend toward Iron Age settings. Plus, they never included the weapon vs. AC tables for those, and I tended to use that rule (if I were to use them today, I'd include a bonus chart that made all armor types better than AC10 equal to AC9, with magic bonuses improving AC as normal, and maybe an extra bonus point of AC for shields).
 Fantasy Wargaming has handguns (since it covers up to the late 15th century), and so do a few other games (TFT was noted above, RQ3 had them in Land of Ninja, and so forth), and we used them in those as needed.
 I'm intrigued by the idea of a caplock-based firearms technology in a fantasy world, but I think that setting is going to see some work by me in traditional fiction first (not least so I can see how it will be different than Stephen King's Mid-World). In fact, that's my goal for NaNoWriMo this year.
 8. Actually, gunpowder does not entirely negate armour, though it will make it at least much heavier (or no heavier but of very high quality, well tempered steel, and thus fantastically expensive). Some armour was heavy enough to withstand pointblank pistol fire – one account from either the ECW or 30 Yrs War had a cuirassier firing his wheellock directly into an enemy's helmet, and not even stunning the latter. It was probably a very thick and heavy helmet, though.
 I have no serious issue with using gunpowder – it is technically default even for OD&D, as some stats are given both in Chainmail and Greyhawk. As long as one realizes that a gun's punching power does not necessarily mean more killing power (i.e. "damage") you should do all right.
 Note that allowing reliable repeating weapons, such as revolvers, effectively renders medieval style weapons useless.
 9. First off, I don't generally include gunpowder. But the things you use gunpowder for, you can get away with using crossbows, catapults, and Fireballs. So no great loss.
 Second, gunpowder doesn't make armor useless. The earliest black powder firearms were inaccurate, slow, and weak compared to a trained archer. But gun technology improved faster than armor tech, so that gradually by the 17th century armor phased out. We used metal cuirasses and helmets as late as WW2, which at medium range could withstand SMG fire. The main problem is that as guns get better, the armor you need to remain safe becomes heavier, until it's too expensive and too much a liability.
 Keep guns to muzzle-loading, single-shot, ball and powder guns and you're perfectly fine.
 Chainmail rules for firearms suggest an arquebusier kills any normal man he hits, which means it always deals the equivalent of 6 HP of damage. You could also say roll twice and keep the better damage, or even d6+3 perhaps. Guns don't need to be more deadly than getting stabbed with a sword.
 However, I think the problem I normally have with gunpowder is that players inevitably stockpile it to use as an explosive. Mythbusters' tests with black powder suggest its explosive potential is pretty limited unless it's in a keg, and even then it's not going to blow a hole in a castle wall. You're better off firing a cannon at the castle! But try telling your hopeful, bright-eyed players that.
 Also, what happens when an M-U, disappointed with the performance of the party's single-shot black powder guns, uses magic to improve the metallurgy and propellant, and enchants the gun to fire from a pouch much like a bow would auto-load from an enchanted quiver?
 Like ninjas, it seems like if you include guns in D&D the game becomes about guns.
 10. I have early gunpowder weapons (matchlocks) in my game. However gunpowder is an alchemical product and currently only made in a far-away country, making it rare and expensive.
 11. My world is perpetually on the edge of wide spread use of gunpowder. There are pockets of it in use, but it is not widespread.
 The general feeling in my world that gunpowder is dangerous and unpredictable.
 12. Sometimes I've allowed it, sometimes not. It really comes down to if you like it or not, any other justification for or against guns is mostly bunk. Many of the technical arguments against guns in fantasy are easily countered by comparing them to things


Are you Flying after Diving?
It is recommended that you do not fly immediately after diving.
When a diver breathes compressed air from a scuba tank, the surrounding pressure causes the nitrogen to enter the body which is then stored in the tissues. The longer and deeper the dive, the more nitrogen is absorbed.
Using a safe ascent rate (the speed at which you go up towards the surface) allows the nitrogen to leave the tissues safely after a dive.
When you leave the water, you will begin to off-gas (get rid of excess nitrogen by exhalation). The longer you stay on the surface (ie. not under water but at sea level / one atmosphere of pressure) the more you continue to off-gas until you are rid of any nitrogen.
Going to altitude or flying very soon after diving is the same as ascending too quickly from a dive because the pressure surrounding you decreases. Which means any residual nitrogen still dissolved in your bloodstream may come out of solution as bubbles if the pressure reduction is not slow enough for your body to off-gas safely. These bubbles are what causes Decompression Sickness.
Staying at ground level before flying is akin to doing an in-water decompression stop (waiting at a prescribed depth for a length of time to allow off-gassing). Deeper and longer dives mean there will be more residual nitrogen in your body, thus requiring a longer surface interval before flying.
How long should I wait before flying?
The time you should wait depends on the diving you have done.
The Divers Alert Network (a non-profit medical and research organisation dedicated to the safety and health of recreational scuba divers) recommends a surface interval of 24 hours or more before flying after diving.
This allows for any unexpected problems such as loss of cabin pressure during a flight.
Alternatively, you can follow the minimum guidelines established by DAN and the Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society for flying in commercial pressurised aircraft (Sheffield and Vann 2004):
- A single dive within the no-decompression limits: 12 hours
- Repetitive dives of multiple days of diving: 18 hours
- Decompression dives (planned or unplanned): substantially greater than 18 hours
It is important to remember:
- Planning conservatively is a good way to stay out of trouble.
- Recommended pre-flight surface intervals do not guarantee avoidance of DCS. Longer surface intervals will reduce DCS risk further.
- These guidelines apply to divers who have not experienced any DCS symptoms. If you have experienced DCS symptoms, you should be medically evaluated, if possible, before flying.
- If you are diving on holiday your insurance policy may include a restriction and your holiday dive centre or liveaboard may enforce it but ultimately it is your responsibility.
If you are diving with Red Duck Diving, you must inform us if you are flying in the 48 hours following your dive.


text:
Federico Cargnelutti has a helpful post to his site today for the unit testing/TDD crowd about checking the retuned value from a stub of an object in your tests. He's using the built-in mocking framework here, not something like Mockery.
State verification is used to ensure that after a method is run, the returned value of the SUT is as expected. Of course, you may need to use Stubs on a test double or a real object to tell the object to return a value in response to a given message. [...] In PHP, for example, you dynamically type the return value within the body of the method. This means that PHP mocking libraries cannot check the type of the return value and provide guarantees about what is being verified. This leads to the awkward situation where a refactoring may change the SUT behaviour and leave a stub broken but with passing tests.
He gives an example of a few classes - a Presenter and Collaborator - and a test that mocks out the Collaborator instance, calling a "getStories" method on it. He shows a situation where all tests pass in the initial version, but after some changes to the return type, a test that should fail doesn't. His solution for the issue revolves around DocBlock annotations and the Return Value instead of the built-in mock object return method.


Last updated 15 February 2019
24-hour suspension
An immediate 24-hour suspension from driving applies to any person charged with driving while under the influence of alcohol or a drug or over the legal alcohol limit, or who has failed to provide a specimen of breath or blood for analysis (s 80(22AA) Transport Operations (Road Use Management) Act 1995 (Qld) (TORUM Act)). It is an offence to drive during this period of the suspension (s 80(22D) TORUM Act). A notice to that effect will be served upon the person, together with a notice to appear or summons to appear in court. A person will very rarely be arrested for drink-driving offences unless a more serious offence is also being charged. However, a person cannot resist being detained or transported to a police station or hospital for the purpose of a breath or blood test.
A licence may also be suspended in some instances where a person accumulates a certain number of demerit points (e.g. for an offence of speeding more than 40 km per hour over the limit (pt 1112 Transport Operations (Road Use Management—Driver Licensing) Regulation 2010 (Qld)) or under the State Penalties Enforcement Act 1999 (Qld) for non-payment of fines).
Suspension until charge is finalised
In some circumstances, a person's licence is suspended immediately upon being charged with an offence, and the suspension continues until the charge has been finalised by the court or the court issues a replacement licence (s 79B TORUM Act). This applies where the person is charged with:
 - driving a motor vehicle while under the influence of alcohol and an analysis certificate has been given to the person (does not apply to under the influence of a drug)
 - failing to provide a specimen of breath, blood or saliva
 - driving while over the no-alcohol limit, over the general alcohol limit or while a relevant drug is present, and that charge has arisen either after the person has earlier been charged with any one of those offences and the earlier charge has not been finalised, or while the person is the holder of a replacement licence issued under s 79E of the TORUM Act
 - dangerous operation of a vehicle while adversely affected by alcohol.
A notice of the suspension must be given to the person (s 79D TORUM Act). It is an offence of unlicensed driving to drive while the licence is suspended, and a conviction for this offence results in disqualification from holding a licence for a minimum of two years (s 78(3)(i) TORUM Act).
When a driver is convicted of a drink driving offence, they are automatically disqualified from holding or obtaining a driver licence.
The period of disqualification in any given case will be decided by the court within the statutory minimums and maximums. The factors that the court will look at include the blood alcohol concentration, the manner of driving, any mitigating factors as to the context for the driving, the person's character and previous driving record, the person's need for a licence and the danger to other road users.
Section 187 of the Penalties and Sentences Act 1992 (Qld) provides power for the court to order disqualification of a licence where an offender is convicted of any offence in connection with or arising out of the driving of a motor vehicle. This will occur if the court is satisfied that the person should be prohibited from driving in the interests of the public, having regard to the nature of the offence or the circumstances in which it was committed. Even if a person has been acquitted of such an offence, either on indictment or summarily, the trial judge or magistrate may still order disqualification if they consider it is in the public interest (ss 89–90 TORUM Act).
When a court disqualifies a person from driving, every driver licence held by that person is deemed to be cancelled from the date of disqualification (s 127 TORUM Act). Once the disqualification period has ended, that person must apply for a new licence or licences to drive at the Department of Transport and Main Roads (Transport Department). It is an offence to apply for a licence when still disqualified.
It is an offence, pursuant to s 126 of the TORUM Act, to possess without a lawful excuse a cancelled or suspended licence (maximum penalty is 40 penalty units ($5222) or six months imprisonment).
A licence may also be cancelled administratively by an accumulation of demerit points. Cancellation means that the licence is completely invalid and the person must apply again for a new licence when the cancellation period expires.
Absolute disqualification and applying for removal of disqualification
In some circumstances, a person may be disqualified absolutely from driving or for a specified period of time longer than two years. This does not mean that the person may never again obtain a driver licence or even that the person must wait the entire period where it exceeds two years. At any time after two years from the date of disqualification (whether it be an absolute disqualification of some other period of disqualification in excess of two years), they may apply for the removal of the disqualification to any court of similar jurisdiction to the court which ordered the disqualification (s 131(2) TORUM Act).
The court has a wide discretion in the matter, but it is required to have regard to the character of the applicant, their conduct since the disqualification, the nature of the offence and any other circumstances of the case including the person's traffic history. These issues must be addressed by affidavit material, filed and served by the applicant in support of the application, and the witnesses must be available for cross-examination by police if required. Police must be given notice of an application in order to also make relevant enquiries. If the court refuses the application, the person cannot re-apply for at least one year. A Removal of Disqualification kit can be obtained at the courts or from the Legal Aid Queensland offices or website.
Cumulative disqualifications
The disqualification is cumulative with any other disqualifications for other offences of this type that were committed at a different time (s 90B TORUM Act), and where the person is disqualified from driving for any of the following offences:
 - drink or drug driving
 - failure to provide a specimen for analysis
 - driving in breach of the conditions of a restricted licence or a replacement licence
 - dangerous operation while adversely affected by an intoxicating substance.
Further, if any other offence (e.g. drink or drug driving offence, fail-to-provide offence or a dangerous operation while adversely affected offence) occurs when a person is unlicensed or disqualified, then any disqualification imposed for the unlicensed or disqualified driving offence must also be made cumulative with the disqualification for this other offence (s 90C TORUM Act).


text:
If you have kids, you know that when they lose their baby teeth, they expect a visit from the tooth fairy. The question is how much money will be left for them under their pillow? We have decided to leave you with some advice on that question, but also what to teach your kids once they get that money. Our credit counseling belief is that kids should learn about good financial habits when they're young. This advice for parents will help your kids appreciate money, and set them up for success in the future.
Everyone has a different idea of how much to give their kids for losing their baby teeth. A recent survey by Delta Dental (largest dental insurer in the US) found the average amount left is $3.70. Before that, the average was $4.50 in 2017.
2. Decisions, Decisions…
Once your kids get the money for their teeth, what will they do with it? Most kids would spend it right away on candy, a toy, etc. This would be a great opportunity to teach them about doing something different! You could tell them about saving it and gaining more money over time. You can also teach them about giving to charity, and the importance of helping those in need. Depending on your financial status, you might be able to show them what investing is. All these suggestions are vital because children may not know or think about these things until they are already teens or adults. The earlier they understand these fundamentals, the better it will stick when they grow older.
Final Advice for Parents
The Tooth Fairy is a myth we created to tell kids about the importance of brushing and flossing their teeth, but it can be an opportunity to gain financial literacy as well. It allows us to teach children money lessons that will last them a lifetime. The Tooth Fairy can give money, but only you can give your kids the skills and knowledge to master money.
To learn more about managing your money, please call ACCC at _PHONE_ today!
If you're struggling to pay off debt, ACCC can help. Sign up for a free credit counseling session today.


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Topic: 4D Visualization
Replies: 9 Last Post: Apr 8, 1994 10:36 AM
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Evelyn Sander
Posts: 187
Registered: 12/3/04
4D Part 3: Minimal Surfaces
Posted: May 27, 1993 10:49 AM
Given a fixed boundary in nD, what n-1 dimensional
hypersurface with this boundary has the minimum area?
This is the question to answer in the field of minimal
surfaces, studied by Ken Brakke and John Sullivan of the
Geometry Center. In three dimensions, this question
becomes: given a boundary in 3D, such as a loop or shape
made out of wire, what is the surface with minimum area
with this wire as its boundary? The answer should be quite
familiar to everyone; the soap film formed by dipping a
wire frame in soap solution gives a surface of minimum
area with that boundary.
Sometimes these surfaces are unexpected. For example, a
tetrahedral frame makes a soap film with planes starting
at each edge, all meeting at a point in the center, whereas
a cubic frame makes a soap film with surfaces headed
towards the center but which meet at an interior square
with rounded edges. (Many science museums have soap
bubbles and frames for people to play. It is also not
difficult to make solution and wire frames.)
Although it is easy to obtain minimal surfaces, they are
mathematically difficult to describe. Even for the
simple case of a cubic boundary, there is no known
mathematical equation which describes the soap film.
Even after gaining an understanding of the mathematics,
researchers always are going back to soap films.
"Whenever I get stuck, I take out the wire frames and soap
solution again," says Brakke.
Sullivan looks at n-1 dimensional minimal
hypersurfaces in nD, where n is arbitrary. He observes
that there are hypersurfaces which are locally minimal
but not necessarily globally minimal; in other words,
two different surfaces spanning a given boundary may
have the property that each minimizes area with respect
to perturbations in a small neighborhood of each point of
the surface. For example, in 3D, given two parallel
circles as a boundary wire, one can get two different soap
films: namely, a flat disk inside each circle
separately, and a catenoid connecting the two circles.
The catenoid surface is the shape you get if you form a
surface of rotation using the St. Louis Arch, rotating
around a line above it and in its same plane.
Sullivan finds general conditions to determine which of
the locally minimal surfaces actually has the minimum
area. His conditions apply any arbitrary dimension, so
he does not actually have to work specifically with
problems in 4D.
Brakke looks at higher dimensional singularities in
minimal surfaces. Singularities are just the possible
ways in which a surface could be lacking in smoothness.
For example, in the tetrahedral boundary case, the
planes starting at the edges intersect three at a time
along lines toward the center. These lines are singular.
Also, the planes all meet at a singular point in the
The two singularities above are both mathematical cones
on some geometric object, where the cone on an object is
defined as all the lines connecting that object to the
origin. The first singularity was three planes meeting
along a line at 120 degrees. This is the cone on the
vertices of a triangle extended into 3D. The second
singularity was six planes meeting at a point. This is the
cone on a tetrahedral wire frame.
Jean Taylor proved the two types of singularities
described are the only possibilities in three
dimensions. See the article on Taylor's work in the
May/June issue of The Sciences. Thus Brakke is trying to
classify singularities for minimal hypersurfaces in
higher dimensions.
Since each dimension builds on the singularities of the
previous dimensions, Brakke concentrates his work
specifically on 4D. He has been successful; using his
program Surface Evolver to help guess possible surfaces
with singularities, then checking his guesses
analytically, Brakke proved that the 3D cone on the 2D
hypercube frame in 4D is a minimal surface. In fact, in all
dimensions higher than three the n-1 dimensional cone on
the n-2 dimensional hypercube frame is a minimal surface
with a singularity.
The new singularity, along with singularities obtained
by extending 3D surfaces to 4D hypersurfaces, is almost
the whole story in the 4D case. Brian White proved that all
possible singularities occur on flat sided cones in 4D;
the result is specific to 4D and not true in 5D. Based on
White's result, Brakke was able to show that there were
only a finite number of cases of singularities in 4D minimal
surfaces; for all but the simplex frame, hypercube frame, and one other
case, he proved that these surfaces were not minimal.
Brakke is currently trying to prove or disprove this last
case; this would complete the 4D classification.
Brakke says that even after his work in 4D, he is unable to
really visualize it. His responded with skepticism to
the idea that anyone can visualize 4D. He said, "Give them
a test. Show them a bunch of projections of similar 4D
objects and ask them which are pictures of the same
object. Show them one'side' of a 4D object, and have them
describe the other'side.' I think you'll find that
nobody can really visualize 4D. The best they can do is try
to understand a few theorems and see that the objects
obeys these theorems."
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What is the best way to determine if a variable in bash is empty ("")?
I have heard that it is recommended that I do if [ "x$variable" = "x" ]
Is that the correct way? (there must be something more straightforward)
share|improve this question
12 Answers 12
up vote 387 down vote accepted
This will return true if a variable is unset or set to the empty string ("").
if [ -z "$VAR" ];
share|improve this answer
Does that include if a variable IS SET to a value of ""? – Brent May 12 '09 at 18:25
Yes it does... "-z" tests for a zero-length string. – David Z May 13 '09 at 2:40
if [! -z "$VAR" ]; – Aaron Copley Jul 22 '13 at 17:26
the inverse of -z is -n if [ -n "$VAR" ]; – Felipe Alvarez Oct 9 '13 at 5:59
The double quotes ensure that the variable doesn't get split. A simple $var on a command line will be split by its whitespace into a list of parameters, while "$var" will always be only one parameter. Quoting variables often is a good practice and stops you from tripping up on filenames containing whitespace (among other things). Example: after doing a="x --help", try cat $a - it will give you the help page for cat. Then try cat "$a" - it will (usually) say cat: x --help: No such file or directory. In short, quote early and quote often and you will almost never regret it. – Score_Under Jul 15 '14 at 13:40
In Bash, when you're not concerned with portability to shells that don't support it, you should always use the double-bracket syntax:
Any of the following:
if [[ -z $variable ]]
if [[ -z "$variable" ]]
if [[! $variable ]]
if [[! "$variable" ]]
In Bash, using double square brackets, the quotes aren't necessary. You can simplify the test for a variable that does contain a value to:
if [[ $variable ]]
This syntax is compatible with ksh (at least ksh93, anyway). It does not work in pure POSIX or older Bourne shells such as sh or dash.
See my answer here and BashFAQ/031 for more information about the differences between double and single square brackets.
You can test to see if a variable is specifically unset (as distinct from an empty string):
if [[ -z ${variable+x} ]]
where the "x" is arbitrary.
If you want to know whether a variable is null but not unset:
if [[ -z $variable && ${variable+x} ]]
share|improve this answer
That if [[ $variable ]] worked fine for me, and didn't even need the set -u that was required by one of the other proposed solutions. – Teemu Leisti Sep 14 '12 at 15:14
I think this is better than the accepted answer. – qed Apr 5 '13 at 10:00
Why are you recommending a non-portable feature when doing so gives no benefit? – Alastair Irvine Nov 24 '14 at 8:16
_USER_: I mention portability in the first sentence of my answer, the question title and body contain the word "Bash" and the question is tagged bash, and the double bracket structure provides clear advantages in many ways. And I don't recommend mixing bracket styles for reasons of consistency and maintainability. If you need maximum, lowest common denominator portability, use sh instead of Bash. If you need the increased capabilities that it provides, use Bash and use it fully. – Dennis Williamson Nov 24 '14 at 13:59
You should add if! [[ $variable ]] and if! [[ "$variable" ]] to be complete. – BinaryZebra Sep 1 at 21:12
A variable in bash (and any POSIX-compatible shell) can be in one of three states:
 - unset
 - set to the empty string
 - set to a non-empty string
Most of the time you only need to know if a variable is set to a non-empty string, but occasionally it's important to distinguish between unset and set to the empty string.
The following are examples of how you can test the various possibilities, and it works in bash or any POSIX-compatible shell:
if [ -z "${VAR}" ]; then
 echo "VAR is unset or set to the empty string"
if [ -z "${VAR+set}" ]; then
 echo "VAR is unset"
if [ -z "${VAR-unset}" ]; then
 echo "VAR is set to the empty string"
if [ -n "${VAR}" ]; then
 echo "VAR is set to a non-empty string"
if [ -n "${VAR+set}" ]; then
 echo "VAR is set, possibly to the empty string"
if [ -n "${VAR-unset}" ]; then
 echo "VAR is either unset or set to a non-empty string"
Here is the same thing but in handy table form:
 VAR is: | unset | empty | non-empty |
| [ -z "${VAR}" ] | true | true | false |
| [ -z "${VAR+set}" ] | true | false | false |
| [ -z "${VAR-unset}" ] | false | true | false |
| [ -n "${VAR}" ] | false | false | true |
| [ -n "${VAR+set}" ] | false | true | true |
| [ -n "${VAR-unset}" ] | true | false | true |
The ${VAR+foo} construct expands to the empty string if VAR is unset or to foo if VAR is set to anything (including the empty string).
The ${VAR-foo} construct expands to the value of VAR if set (including set to the empty string) and foo if unset. This is useful for providing user-overridable defaults (e.g., ${COLOR-red} says to use red unless the variable COLOR has been set to something).
The reason why [ x"${VAR}" = x ] is often recommended for testing whether a variable is either unset or set to the empty string is because some implementations of the [ command (also known as test) are buggy. If VAR is set to something like -n, then some implementations will do the wrong thing when given [ "${VAR}" = "" ] because the first argument to [ is erroneously interpreted as the -n operator, not a string.
share|improve this answer
Testing for a variable set to the empty string can also be done using [ -z "${VAR-set}" ]. – nwellnhof May 17 '13 at 17:56
_USER_: Thanks! I updated my answer to use the briefer syntax. – Richard Hansen May 18 '13 at 18:00
What is the difference between the first and last construct? They both correspond to "VAR is either unset or set to a non-empty string". – Faheem Mitha Jul 22 '13 at 8:53
_USER_: The difference is "empty string" vs. "non-empty string". – Richard Hansen Jul 22 '13 at 16:51
_USER_: Thanks, that's a useful addition. – Faheem Mitha Jul 22 '13 at 17:18
If you're interested in distinguishing the cases of set-empty versus unset status, look at the -u option for bash:
$ set -u
$ echo $BAR
bash: BAR: unbound variable
$ [ -z "$BAR" ] && echo true
bash: BAR: unbound variable
$ BAR=""
$ echo $BAR
share|improve this answer
-z is a the best way.
Another options I've used is to set a variable, but it can be overridden by another variable eg
export PORT=${MY_PORT:-5432}
If the $MY_PORT variable is empty, then PORT gets set to 5432, otherwise PORT is set to the value of MY_PORT. Note the syntax include the colon and dash.
share|improve this answer
Accidentally found this today, and it was exactly what I wanted. Thanks! I have to tolerate set -o nounset in some scripts. – opello Feb 16 '12 at 23:58
An alternate I've seen to [ -z "$foo" ] is the following, however I'm not sure why people use this method, anyone know?
[ "x${foo}" = "x" ]
Anyway if you're disallowing unset variables (either by set -u or set -o nounset), then you'll run into trouble with both of those methods. There's a simple fix to this:
[ -z "${foo:-}" ]
Note: this will leave your variable undef.
share|improve this answer
There's a comment about the alternative to -z at Basically, it isn't meant to be an alternative to -z. Rather, it handles cases where $foo could expand to something beginning with a metacharacter that [ or test would be confused by. Putting an arbitrary non-metacharacter at the beginning eliminates that possibility. – James Sneeringer Dec 9 '11 at 19


Dry Ducks
Many waterfowl enthusiasts only hunt ducks over water and don't feel their experience is the same without a set up on the wetlands to foster and sustain their love for ducks and geese. In the Pacific and Central Flyways, hunting the agricultural fields the birds use to feed in, is a unique experience that can generate incredible sights and sounds without having to wiggle into waders.
Any avid duck hunter notices when birds are in the sky. I'm always on the lookout for birds and pay attention to what I see throughout the fall. The key to setting up a successful field shoot is to find concentrations of birds staging along their migration route.
Maps are a great tool for locating large staging wetlands that will draw and hold large numbers of birds. Being familiar with my hunting area, I already know the best wetlands to watch and focus my spotting efforts. Google Earth is a great tool, allowing you to find productive wetlands with suitable habitat to hold birds.
Spotting an area consists of travelling to the wetlands that hold birds and following them out to where they are feeding. It can often mean chasing the birds for miles, but if you lose one flock, there will be others to follow. Watching the direction of flight of the first flocks leaving will provide your starting point. Fields used for feeding will have birds circling and landing for several hours in the morning and evening. Getting permission to hunt is a critical link to success.
The Field
Paying attention to what the birds are doing in the field will ensure you are in the right spot when you set up. Ducks have an incredible sense for finding the best areas of a field where there is grain spillage and other great feeding opportunities. You want to pinpoint the exact location where birds are feeding, as they will return to that spot the next time they come out to feed. Being a couple of hundred metres off the spot, often means birds won't decoy without some coaxing, so set up where the birds want to feed, to ensure they center your decoy spread and finish close enough to see every detail in their feathers.
There are key crops in different regions that ducks have developed an appetite for, and they continue to change as producers find new and profitable grains and seeds to grow. Barley has been a long-time favourite, but field peas are attracting lots of hungry ducks. If you aren't sure what the ducks are eating, take the time to dissect the crops of harvested birds to figure out their favorites.
Watch for Content Birds
Ducks are cautious creatures and they like the security of open spaces. The best shoots will have birds landing in the middle of big fields. If birds are pushing fence lines or roads, there is a good chance that they are bouncing around trying to find the best feeding locations. Watching bouncing birds until they settle down into a prime feeding location will always provide the best shooting opportunities—being patient is worth the time investment.
Often hundreds, if not thousands of ducks, will concentrate in good feeding fields. The longer they feed in one location, the larger their numbers can grow. To make your decoy spread look realistic, and provide birds with confidence to come in, you have to have enough bodies on the ground.
I start with six to eight dozen decoys and haven't found there is such a thing as too many. Safety in numbers is a confidence builder for birds returning to a field and if you have a good spread of decoys, the birds often wing straight in to join the party.
Ducks will decoy well into Canada goose decoys so don't worry if you don't have a good spread of duck decoys, just use the honker spread.
If there are hundreds of birds in arriving flights, you must give them enough room to land as a flock, or they will bounce to find a spot to land without running into each other. When birds are flaring, you have set the landing area too tight.
In a blind with a decoy
Excited birds, wanting to feed, make a considerable amount of noise. To make your decoy spread convincible, you must have calls to make it realistic. Try to imagine how strange it would be for a duck to come to a field, where their buddies are usually chuckling and quacking, only to be greeted with silence? I'm sure alarm bells go off in their tiny brains at something that seems completely unbelievable.
You can spend a considerable amount of time spotting and setting up, and if you aren't well hidden, all your efforts will be in vain. Even if ducks are used to coming to a field, foreign objects or the faces or outlines of hunters will send them elsewhere.
Layout blinds have become the norm for hunting fields and covering the hides with natural vegetation and straw from the field will help you to blend in even further. In areas where birds are hunted heavily, ducks often get wise to layouts, so changing your approach may be the ticket to success. Bale or willow blinds were extremely popular in years past and if you switch back to a historical blind if birds are wary, it can make all the difference in the world. Stay flexible and let the birds dictate what makes them comfortable.
Hunters with Ducks


DuPont and ADM launch bioplastic pilot plant
Article by Amanda Doyle
DUPONT and ADM have announced the opening of a pilot plant in that will be the world's first production facility for bio-based furan dicarboxylic methyl ester (FDME), which can be used to make a lightweight plastic.
The two companies developed a method for producing the long sought-after molecule FDME from fructose derived from corn starch in 2016. They have now moved to the pilot phase with the opening of a pilot plant in Illinois, US, which is expected to produce 60 t/y of FDME.
The DuPont and ADM facility. Credit: DuPont
FDME is a molecule that can be used to create chemicals and materials, including plastic. One of the first FDME-based molecules under development is polytrimethylene furandicarboxylate (PTF), a polymer that can be used to make more sustainable plastic bottles. PTF has a gas barrier that is 10-15 times higher than the commonly-used plastic polyethylene terephthalate (PET). This increases the shelf life of the product and reduces the amount of plastic needed to keep the CO2 in the drinks. PTF is produced using a more environmentally friendly method compared to PET, which is usually derived from petrochemicals.
"We're confident FDME is both the more sustainable option and the better-for-business option," said Michael Saltzberg, global business director for biomaterials at DuPont Industrial Biosciences. "This molecule, and its numerous applications, will be high-performing, cost-effective and better for the environment."
Article by Amanda Doyle
Staff Reporter, The Chemical Engineer
Recent Editions


Stitch Maps 2.53
An accessible and comprehensive application that can help you merge multiple sections of a scanned image into a whole, using intuitive tools
Stitch Maps is a straightforward application designed to help you create large maps by merging together multiple scanned segments.
It's a tool created to be efficient and practical. You get this from the comprehensive interface it displays and its intuitive button layout that makes it easy to access all its features and functions.
To be able to stitch a map together, all you need are some well scanned pieces. Stitch Maps uses a map matrix approach. This means that you have to insert the images in the exact order and places they need to be in so you can obtain an accurate map.
You can load the images all at once, in a sequence of rows or columns. The scans can be in alphabetical order or in a certain pattern. Once you select the appropriate images, the application automatically loads them. Source images can also be added by simply double clicking on an empty matrix field and manually selecting the one you want. Depending on the shape and size of the map you need to obtain, you can set a custom number for the rows and columns.
Putting the entire map together is an easy task that only gets easier with time. After the images are loaded, you can adjust the overall map so it's perfectly aligned. Stitch Maps allows you to rotate the map at fixed or predefined angles and crop it.
To merge the scans into a single large map, the application uses special algorithms that are guaranteed to generate a correct map. It enables you to perform the stitch by self-searching, defining the search band, joining points on first horizontal / vertical stitches and manually moving the map.
In closing, the application has a lot to offer and can definitely help you create large and accurate maps from scanned sections in a simple and effective manner.
Reviewed by, last updated on December 12th, 2013
file size:
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developed by:
Petr Bezdecka
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C: \ Multimedia \ Graphic \ Graphic Others
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Stitch Maps - With the help of Stitch Maps you can easily add scanned maps and join them together.Stitch Maps - From this window users will be able to create a new matrix, upload various files and connect them.Stitch Maps - From the Files tab you can select the maps format and choose the output folders.Stitch MapsStitch MapsStitch MapsStitch MapsStitch Maps
Application description
Stitch Maps is a useful application that can provide you with the ability to connect scanned maps.The maps should be a...
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Через какое время после подключения я могу гадить (и почему)?
Exact Answer: Usually within an hour
Plugging refers to the insertion of a foreign object in the rectum of an individual. This is usually done to relieve the individual from a persistent condition of constipation. Medically, sometimes drugs are administered to a patient through the anal canal. However, plugging can also be used by addicts as a method of carrying drugs in the rectum.
Similarly, plugging of the anal passage is also used as a stimulating event to elicit pleasure. Thus, plugging is also a part of anal sex routines. However, in all these different types of plugging events, the ejection of fecal matter becomes important, both before and after the act.
How Long After Plugging Can I Poop?
The time frame of какать after being plugged is dependent on a number of factors. The most important factor is the rationale for using the plugging process. Usually, using anal plugs as sex toys does not lead to pooping afterward. There is no known time frame that correlates the two activities.
When anal plugs are used to help reduce constipation, again the data is uncertain because not many people use anal plugging to solve this issue. Enemas, on the other hand, are more common ways of plugging than others. They consist of a tube and a bag containing the solution.
In most medical scenarios, plugging helps in alleviating constipation. In such cases, enemas are inserted into the patient. Thus, the patient's rectum is plugged with an enema. This helps ease the bowel movement of the individual in question.
Usually, after an enema is administered to the individual, the solution starts working within an hour. The patient can expect to begin pooping from 5 minutes to an hour of the dosage being administered. It is also important to cognize that pooping after an enema happens over a period of time. The patient may then need to use the restroom multiple times after the process begins.
It is important to remember that enemas are used to clean the rectum and anus. Their usage might be medically indicated, however, people also use enemas before anal sex. When plugging the anus with addictive substancesan act that is illegalthe patient in question is administer a laxative by the doctor to release the drugs. In such cases, the time frame of pooping is again within an hour.
В итоге:
Plugging MethodTime Taken To Poop Afterwards
Клизма5 minutes to an hour
Anal PlugsUnknown
Why Does It Take So Long To Poop After Plugging?
Medically, plugging the anal canal is not a frequently undertaken activity. Doctors generally refrain from administering enemas to patients unless their usage is absolutely indicated in the medical history, existing conditions, and symptoms of the patient. There are several risks associated with the use of enemas that deters medical professionals from prescribing them to patients with mild to moderate issues of constipation.
Через какое время после сдачи крови я могу заниматься спортом (и почему)?
An enema usually takes from 5 minutes to an hour to begin working in the body of a patient because each bowel canal is different. Moreover, each fecal impaction is also different. The water-based solution of chemicals in the enema fills up the rectum of the patient when the plug of the tube is inserted and the bag is pumped. This causes the rectum to stretch and expand, thus, solving the issue of constipation.
For some patients, this can be a fast process. While for others, it may take a little longer. There are very rarely reported cases of anal enemas not working at all. An enema will work in a similar way when it is used to prepare the canal for anal sex. The solution will clean out the anus and the rectum of the individual. Again, the time frame remains the same, just the purpose changes.
Anal plugs are essentially used to stop anal leakages. They also help will constipation and easing pooping in patients. However, the time taken to initiate pooping in people is unknown. Doctors suggest that the presence of a foreign object in the anal canal usually initiates the desire to expel fecal matter.
Plugging is a term used to indicate a variegated list of actions. In a general sense, it applies to the insertion of foreign material like an enema or anal/butt plug into the rectum of the individual in question. Sometimes these objects are needed to counter and alleviate a medical condition, while at other times, they may simply be used to elicit pleasure.
Nonetheless, in most instances the individual who has been plugged poops within an hour of the insertion of the enema or the plug. Sometimes, this time frame may be altered, but more often than not, it remains hinged around this overall average.
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 2. _URL_


Project Tatirano, Madagascar
This Entry has been submitted.
Project Tatirano, Madagascar: Developing a culture of rainwater harvesting to improve clean water supply
Fort Dauphin, Madagascar
Year Founded:
Organization type:
nonprofit/ngo/citizen sector
Project Stage:
$10,000 - $50,000
Project Summary
Elevator Pitch
Tatirano, meaning "to collect water" in Malagasy, is piloting rainwater harvesting (RWH) on a rural village school roof as a means of providing clean drinking water to the students. It is demonstrating to the community a simple, affordable and replicable technique of obtaining clean water from rain.
What if thousands of lives AND 5 hours a day could be saved simply by collecting rain?
About Project
Problem: What problem is this project trying to address?
11.7 million people in Madagascar do not have clean drinking water resulting in 4,000 childhood deaths due to diarrhoea each year. In the southeast (SE), communities rely on often broken and dirty wells and contaminated rivers whilst > 81% of the population live on < $1.90 per day (the international poverty line) and state capacity is non-existent after years of instability.
Solution: What is the proposed solution? Please be specific!
To construct, monitor and evaluate a pilot system to collect and store rainwater from a school roof in a rural village called Sainte Luce for students' drinking water. The simplicity of the system is conducive to household replication and thus eventually establishing a RWH culture in the region. This will provide a water source of improved quality at the homestead and alleviate pressure on existing sources, whilst also saving time not collecting water from faraway sources. The second phase will involve the design of a household setup in a kit that can be purchased by families to retrofit on their palm frond-built roofs. Funding will be sourced for the scale-up to provide means-tested subsidies on the kits to reach the poorest families.
Impact: How does it Work
In Ambandrika, all water sources available to the community have a high count of faecal coliforms. One of the two wells is broken and the other is under severe demand, whilst the 2nd and 3rd choice forest streams are hours away. The average time taken per day to collect water for the 1st, 2nd and 3rd choices are 21 minutes, 3 hours 44 minutes and 6 hours 10 minutes respectively. The region receives approximately 1500 mm of rainfall annually yet RWH is not common practice. Between 2001 - 2004 a project in Kusa, Kenya facilitated the construction of 311 tanks through subsidies that allow people, especially women, time to pursue entrepreneurial and educational activities. There is HUGE potential to replicate this success in SE Madagascar.
The current project provides clean drinking water for 143 school children plus the 4 teachers and the directress of the school. The school children will receive a water bottle for each of them to be able to take clean water home as well as enjoying it at the school. Five minutes following the completion of the guttering on one side (and having previously installed the clean, pre-galvanised metal roofing) it rained at a medium intensity and water streamed off the end in huge volumes. So significant was this rainfall event that people stopped collecting water from the bacteria laden well water 18 m at the other end of the building and started queuing to collect water from the roof. Whilst the completed system will only be used by the school for the students, this immediate behavioural change strongly suggests a massive potential impact in facilitating households to have their own systems.
In 5 years everyone in Sainte Luce (2500+ people) could have access to 100% of their clean drinking water needs through RWH systems; in 10 – 15 years the successful replication of the model across the region, by instilling a culture of RWH, could reach more than 250,000 people. This ambitious yet possible target would be achieved by training and supporting local committees to install systems using locally available materials. These groups will use their new skills to provide a service to others, enabling a positive multiplier effect towards health, socio-economic and developmental benefits.
External funding will partially subsidise early scale up plans until widespread confidence in the approach is achieved, after which households will fund the systems themselves. Local investment will instil ownership and responsibility, ensuring sustainability of both the performance of systems and RWH installation/consultancy as a profitable profession; training in installing and maintaining RWH systems could create new employment opportunities.
RWH has been completely neglected by the few organisations operating in SE Madagascar. Collaborations with experienced regional specialists (such as SEED Madagascar and Azafady NGO), will enable sharing of expertise and resources to ensure effective and efficient implementation. Existing water provision projects focus mainly on wells; although effective to a degree, many of these are easily broken or contaminated. The simplicity of RWH encourages system longevity and local involvement through avoiding intimidatingly complex ideas in both installation and maintenance.
Founding Story
In 2011, aged 18, Harry volunteered in a remote rural village in SE Madagascar on a conservation programme and washed in smelly red well water. One night Harry unwittingly left his empty bucket outside in the rain and awoke to a quarter-full bucket of what seemed to be the clearest water he had ever seen – cue light bulb moment! The region receives huge volumes of rain annually yet nobody collects it for drinking. Harry designed a pilot RWH scheme for the school building in the village for his undergraduate thesis and after receiving great interest from the village chief and elders, decided to seek funding and begin the daunting task of instilling a RWH culture in Madagascar!
The project is managed by Harry and supported by a regional specialist development and conservation charity called SEED Madagascar (formerly Azafady UK) and a local Malagasy NGO called Azafady. As the project moves past the pilot phase and secures funding for the scale up, a second full-time member of the team will be sought in order to expand Project Tatirano's scope and reach more people with clean drinking water.


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*for Drawings please visit the i4HD Product Page
What meter scale do I need?
Analog meter scales are available to meet the specific tension range of your application. Specify the tension at time or order and the meter scale will be made to fit that range.
Can I use a digital meter with it?
The i4HD is available with either an analog or digital meter.
Can I use foil gauge or strain gauge load cells with this amplifier?
Yes. The i4 HD works with either type of load cell.
Do you offer an amplifier with push button calibration?
What is the load cell excitation voltage for this indicator?
How do I calibrate this Indicator?
Follow the A4 Calibration Instructions for easy calibration.
How do I test output?
Any digital multimeter can be used.
How do I install this amplifier?
The amplifier is already installed in the I4HD.
How do I determine what calibration weight to use if it needs to be 10% of full scale?
Multiply the full scale of the analog meter by 0.1 or divide it by 10.


The Congress in Uruguay has passed a bill allowing adoption by gay and lesbian couples to adopt children.
The legislation is expected to pass in the Senate, where the ruling party has a majority.
The Senate will vote on the bill next month.
In December 2007, Uruguay's parliament passed legislation to recognise same-sex civil unions.
The country of 3.6m people was the first nation in South America to grant such protections, although some cities and regions throughout the continent have made similar legal provisions.
The Congress passed legislation creating a civil union registry for same-sex and unmarried heterosexual couples who have lived together for at least five years.
In May Uruguay lifted a ban on gays serving in its military.
The ban was imposed under the 1973-85 military dictatorship. Under it, people with "open sexual deviations", which includes homosexuality, were banned from entering the military academies.
The ban also included homosexuality among the "mental illnesses and disorders" that legally made a person unsuitable to join the armed forces.
Gay adoption has been opposed by the Roman Catholic Church in Uruguay.
Archbishop of Montevideo Nicolas Cotugno told the Catholic News Agency:
"The adoption of children by homosexual couples is not a question of religion, philosophy or sociology. It has to do with respect for human nature itself.
"To accept the adoption of children by homosexual couples is to go against human nature itself, and consequently, it is to go against the fundamental rights of the human being as a person."