text:
Vericel Corp (VCEL) Q4 2018 Earnings Conference Call Transcript
By Motley Fool Transcribers – Updated Apr 15, 2019 at 2:54PM
NASDAQ: VCEL
Vericel
VCEL earnings call for the period ending December 31, 2018.
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Vericel Corp (VCEL -0.21%)
Q4 2018 Earnings Conference Call
Feb. 26, 2019, 8:30 a.m. ET
Prepared Remarks
Call Participants
See all our earnings call transcripts.
Prepared Remarks:
Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Vericel Corporation Fourth Quarter 2018 Earnings Call. (Operator Instructions) As a reminder, this call will be recorded.
I would now like to introduce your host for today's conference, Gerard Michel. Please go ahead, sir.
Gerard J. Michel -- Chief Financial Officer and Vice President of Corporate Development
Thank you, operator and good morning everyone. Welcome to Vericel's fourth quarter 2018 conference call to discuss our financial results.
Before we begin, let me remind you that on today's call, we will be making forward-looking statements covered under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, and all of our projections and forward-looking statements represent our judgments as of today. These statements may involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ from expectations and that are described more fully in our filings with the SEC, which are also available on our website.
In addition, any forward-looking statements represent our views only as of today and should not be relied upon as representing our views as of any subsequent date.
With us on today's call are Nick Colangelo, Vericel's President and Chief Executive Officer; and Dan Orlando, our Chief Operating Officer.
I will now turn the call over to Nick.
Dominick C. Colangelo -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Thank you, Gerard, and good morning everyone. Our fourth quarter results reflect a very strong finish to a great year for the company in 2018. Net product revenues increased 41% compared to the fourth quarter of 2017 marking the seventh consecutive quarter with record revenues for the reported quarter, and we delivered 45% net product revenue growth for the full year. Our growth was driven largely by the continued strong uptake for MACI, which had revenue growth of 56% for the quarter and 54% for the full year.
This strong revenue growth generated significant improvements in profitability and operating cash flow for both the quarter and the year. Gross margins in the fourth quarter increased to 72% of net revenues and we delivered net income of $5.2 million or $0.11 per share on a fully diluted basis. We also generated positive full-year adjusted EBITDA for the first time in the company's history. In light of the significant expansion of the targeted addressable market or TAM. Our continued commercial investments in the lack of any near-term competitive product entrance, we expect strong growth for MACI to continue in 2019.
We also believe that this revenue growth will lead to strong profit growth given our low marginal product costs in the significant operating margin leverage in our business model. As announced earlier today, we expect total net product revenues for 2019 to be in the range of $108 million to $112 million that approximately 80% of margin revenues over 2018 will contribute to incremental gross profit and that approximately 50% of marginal revenues over 2018 will contribute to adjusted EBITDA.
Gerard will provide further details regarding our financial guidance for 2019. We're obviously very pleased with our commercial and financial performance for the fourth quarter and the full year, the underlying drivers of near and mid-term revenue growth for MACI that we've seen to date are consistent with the larger TAM that we discussed last quarter.
And I'll now turn the call over to Dan to provide more detail regarding our commercial performance and activities.
Daniel R. Orlando -- Chief Operating Officer
Thank you, Nick. I'll start by welcoming the new sales representatives, who recently joined Vericel and are now in training. On April 1, they'll move into their new territories, increasing our MACI sales force by 20% to 48 representatives. The sales force expansion is a direct reflection of our confidence in the market research that substantiated the increased MACI TAM and confirmed the continued strong adoption of MACI by both previous advocate and new adopters.
As we look back at the previous MACI sales force expansion, which were implemented at the same time at year end 2017 and 2018. We find that the biopsy rate increased significantly in the expansion territories in the first year and that the expansion territories led the nation in percentage increase in implants, the following year. We expect this dynamic to be repeated. With this expansion as well and we will continue to closely assess our sales force sizing as we balance the vital sales representative insurgent relationships with the desire to best serve the potential 60,000 annual patients, who could benefit from MACI.
Given that 2018 is its first full year on the market, MACI is still early in its life cycle. So we maintain focus on continued growth and expanding the targeted and trained surgeon population, which is now over 900 surgeons and we are continuously improving our payer medical policies to best reflect the full indications for MACI, which in turn reduces case approval times.
In addition to these HCP and payer efforts, we're also focus on several patient-focused marketing initiatives to increase the biopsy to implant ratio and drive MACI demand. We are launching a MACI ambassador program that will highlight compelling patient success stories and integrating this program into our celebrity spokesperson campaign, which together will form the cornerstone of our social media brand engagement efforts. We also will be launching a number of physical therapist focused initiatives to enhance MACI rehabilitation resources and build our network of advocates and opinion leaders within this important patient-focused community.
I'll now shift gears to Epicel, which had a good year in its own right. Although, it's hard to measure on a quarterly basis due to the variable incidents and burn injury. Epicel remains strong when looking at the performance over the full year. And although, a new entrant has entered the lower TBSA burn market, Epicel remains the only FDA-approved permanent skin replacement for the treatment of adult and pediatric patients with large total body surface area burned. Epicel's clinical utility in the severe burn population was further reinforced by the recent landmark publication in the Journal of burn care and research, which reported outcomes data from 954 burned patients treated with Epicel, compared to a standard of care treatment and over 177,000 patients in the National Burn Registry over the same period of time.
The data demonstrated that patients treated with Epicel, a third of whom are children had an 85% survival rate, which was significantly greater than the comparative population. This demonstrated improvement in survival rates for severely burned patients treated with Epicel certainly will help as an important tool as we target new burn centers that have not yet utilized Epicel. Wrapping up, I'd like to thank our commercial and operating teams for their outstanding performance in 2018.
I'll now turn the call over to Gerard to review our fourth quarter 2018 financial results, and the updated financial guidance.
Thanks, Dan. We reported total net product revenues of $31.3 million for the fourth quarter of 2018, an increase of 41% over the quarter of 2017. Total net revenues for the quarter included $25.1 million of MACI and $6.2 million of Epicel net revenue, compared to $16.1 million of MACI and $6.1 million of Epicel net revenues, respectively in the fourth quarter of 2017. This represents revenue growth of 56% and 2% for MACI and Epicel respectively.
Our full year 2018, net product revenues were $90.9 million or approximately $900,000 above the top end of our updated revenue guidance, which represent a full-year product revenue growth of 54% and 23% for MACI and Epicel respectively versus 2017. Please note the 2017 product revenues and comparisons exclude $1.2 million in revenue related to the company's license agreement with ICT. Gross margins for the fourth quarter of 2018 improved to 72% versus 64% in the fourth quarter of 2017 and for the full year increased to 64% versus 53% in 2017.
Total operating expenses for fourth quarter of 2018 were $16.7 million, compared to $13.8 million for the same period in 2017. The increase was primarily due to $1.4 million in service fees paid the MACI pharmacy distributors, an incremental $1.2 million in employee-related expenses associated with the expanded MACI sales force, and an incremental $500,000 in stock-based compensation expense. Non-GAAP adjusted EBITDA was $7.7 million for the fourth quarter compared to $2.2 million in the fourth quarter of 2017 for details reconciling non-GAAP measures to the table in this morning's press release.
Vericel's net income for the quarter ended December 31, 2018 was $5.2 million or $0.11 per share on a fully diluted basis compared to approximately $300,000 or $0.01 per share for the fourth quarter of 2017. As of December 31, 2018, the company had $82.9 million in cash and short-term investments compared to $26.9 million in cash at December 31st, 2017. We ended the year with a very clean balance sheet having a retiring all outstanding debt in the fourth quarter, and with all but approximately 27,000 warrants have either converted or expired.
We announced earlier this morning that we expect the total net product revenues for the full year 2019 to be in the range of $108 million and $112 million. We expect the majority of revenue growth for the year to be generated by MACI with Epicel growth in the single digits. We expect revenue growth to continue to drive increased margins. In 2019, we expect the marginal cost of goods for MACI and Epicel to be approximately 20% resulting in about 80% of marginal revenue over 2018 revenues to contribute to gross profit likewise given our premium products and concentrated call points. We expect approximately 50% of marginal revenue over 2018 revenues to contribute to adjusted EBITDA. Quarterly seasonality, which impacts both revenues and margins is expected to follow the same pattern as 2018.
That completes my financial review. Now I'll turn the call over to Nick.
Thanks, Gerard. Our business continues to perform very well and the company is in a strong position to execute on both our operating and strategic business plans. We look forward to sharing our progress with you throughout 2019. That concludes our prepared remarks.
And now I'd like the operator to open the call to your questions.
Thank you. (Operator Instructions) And our first question comes from Chad Messer with Needham. Your line is now open.
Chad Messer -- Needham -- Analyst
Great. Good morning and thanks for taking my question. The question is actually on your sort of, cost of goods and margins. At an annual level, the sort of guidance you've given about your marginal revenue makes sense and is tracked very well, but it's a lot harder to figure out what's going on, on a quarterly basis. So revenues, the breakdown of revenue across the quarters at seasonality looks very different on the cost line. Just wondering, if there's something about your fixed versus variable cost structure that explains that. So I can try to understand it a little better for the future.
Sure. Good to hear you, Chad. The -- it tracks actually fairly well. If you just kind of follow the following framework. And I'll give an example for let's say Q2 of 2019. If you took the midpoint of our guidance, which would yield $23 million in net revenue. We did $19 million in Q2 of 2018. It just the midpoint of that -- the incremental revenue is about $4 million, all right? So, I'm assuming you follow the same seasonality for the 21% as I said, take the midpoint of our guidance that would yield $23 million in revenue for this year. Incremental $23 million over $19 million is $4 million, OK? We would expect 80% of that $4 million to hit the incremental growth gross margin lines, so you'd have $3.2 million above what we did last year, which is about $11.3 million in gross margin.
So it's just 80% of the margin, the marginal revenue over the same quarter prior year and it works the same way for adjusted EBITDA, you'd use 50% and sort of 80% of the revenue. So it should track pretty closely and it did track pretty closely, and did track pretty closely this year -- this past year 2018 according to that framework.
I could give you some counter examples, I won't do it on this call, maybe that's something we can take offline. But, thank you.
Yeah. All right.
Thank you. And our next question comes from Ryan in Zimmerman with BTIG. Your line is now open.
Ryan Benjamin Zimmerman -- BTIG -- Analyst
Great, thanks for taking the question, guys. Congrats on the strong end to the year. So I want to talk about your guidance for a minute here and just you're growing in line with the Street's expectations, but maybe you could just speak to how you view the drivers of your growth in '19 and what some of the levers are that give you confidence in not just meeting those expectations, but then potentially beating them? And I have the follow-up.
Sure. Ryan. As you know, we're giving guidance is as much of an art as a science. In terms of the growth drivers, what gives us confidence is, Dan's team is seeing good healthy biopsy growth, still coming in line with what we'd expect with our models, the conversion rates stay steady as they have, I think up and down a 0.5 percentage point here and there, may be slightly up. But, if conversion rate stays steady, we should see -- and the new doctors continue to send in biopsies as new doctors did last year, we've got about maybe 60% or 70% of our model -- the revenue for 2019, kind of in the bag.
Now, in the bag means people behave the way they used to. Then, there's a certain number of new docs we need to get on board and behave like new docs did last year. So, our model is, again, we look at biopsy trends, we look at conversion trends, we look at new doc start trends, and we project to what extent do we think that will continue. I mean, it's prudent to have new docs tail off a little bit on a percentage basis. You can't continue to grow at the same percentage year-on-year out. So, obviously, you see our percentage growth has tampered a bit versus what we actually did in '18. Similarly, we make the same assumption for '20 and we're not giving guidance to that, but we wouldn't expect exactly the same percentage growth over '18 and '19 that we'll see '20 over '19. So, we're probably not backed down a couple of percentage points. So, I give you a bit to chew on there. Does that answer your question?
Yeah. No, it's very helpful color and I appreciate the thought process behind it. And then, I have two questions. One, just can you speak qualitatively, I know you're not speaking to biopsy trends quantitatively but can you speak qualitatively the biopsy trends in the early part of the year? And then, my last question is, you did mention competitive entrants in the burn market. Maybe help us understand how that's either butting up against that Epicel or how you see it interacting with Epicel? Thank you.
Sure. On the biopsy fronts, I think what I'll say is, it is trending per our expectations and it's trending in a manner it gives us comfort to issue the guidance we just gave this morning, which is probably a great non-answer for you, Ryan, but the best I can give you right now. And in terms of Epicel new entrants, Dan, can you comment on that?
So, the ReCell is the new entrant and it's indicated for partial thickness and full thickness along with I'll call, I guess support up to 50% TBSA. Now, Epicel, as you know is normally used in a patient that's burned well beyond 50%, only maybe about 10% or so of this utility is used in patients burned under 50% TBSA. So, there's really not a lot of cross-talk or crossover when we're discussing with physician for the use of ReCell and Epicel. There could be some patients where they're extensively burned in some areas of their body where they're being treated with Epicel and maybe on some peripheral surfaces are treated with ReCell but that's yet to be determined. It's still fairly early. We haven't seen a lot of that.
Great. Thank you, Dan.
Thank you. And our next question comes from Jeffrey Cohen with Ladenburg Thalmann. Your line is now open.
Jeffrey Cohen -- Ladenburg Thalmann -- Analyst
Hi, Gerard, Nick and Dan. Can you hear me OK?
Yes, we can.
Good morning. So Q4 I guess top line a bit of a blow out, can you talk a little bit about the seasonality and the pull-through as far as procedures, is it a one-time in nature, where these were newer biopsies that were being converted or not. And what kind of pull-through should we expect in seasonality for '19?
Well, I'll start Jeff and then turn it over to Gerard. As I think you know, our fourth quarter is always the strongest quarter for MACI and a strong quarter for Epicel generally as well. So on total -- total revenue basis fourth quarter is always our strongest quarter and that's probably been increasing a bit over the past couple of years. We'll continue to see even more strength in the fourth quarter. So that's just sort of the normal dynamic for the company. And Gerard, if you want to give more details on today's percentages.
Sure. Yeah. So, and this year combining MACI and Epicel, the seasonality was and I'll just give the numbers 20%, 21%, 25% and 34%. People can do the math on their own, but hopefully I did that correctly. The one reason that the fourth quarter in the last couple of years is getting larger is any growing -- whenever you have growth, if you're breaking things down by a seasonal buckets, you're going to see the later quarters look larger than they would in a flat revenue scenario. So that's another factor pushing things into the fourth quarter.
As I said before, I think, for those of you modeling '19, I would recommend using those seasonality percentage that's our best estimate of what's going to happen this year as well. But in terms of (inaudible) I think it's the same drill that Dan and his team will be doing for the last few years.
Yeah, as far as the timing of biopsies and things there's no shift in dynamics there.
Okay, got it. And secondly, can you talk a little bit about any data, which you expect as far as your studies, podium presentations around any significant conferences up coming in the coming quarter or two?
Sure. So, we do not have any specific company sponsored data that will be released anytime soon. We do have an ongoing pediatric trial that is well under way, our sites are up and running and patients are being recruited. So, that's probably the next big significant investment for MACI on the clinical front. There are a number of investigator-initiated observations that will be presented this year and in the coming years. So, their own personal data on say patients and populations with patella, things like that are published. So, you will see data but it will mostly come from independent investigator-initiated result.
Okay, got it. And then lastly from me, can you discuss a little bit about your commercial expansion and how that may relate to your M&A appetite going forward? Do you feel like currently, with the more recent understanding of the TAM out there, you've got plenty on your plate to address with only arguably 1% market share? Or is it that you're looking for other products, which may fit well into the space?
Yeah, I think, our position on that Jeff has not changed. We don't view sort of, the business development activities and sort of in line activities as mutually exclusive. So Dan and his team will continue, I'm confident to execute on the commercial front with our current products. At the same time Gerard and his team will continue to look for opportunities as we've discussed before to support our two commercial franchises either in sports medicine or burn care or potentially looking at other cell therapy vertical, so our position on that has been relatively constant.
And again, from our perspective, we do have a pretty high hurdle, right? We certainly understand the value drivers for the company. We have two great products that are the only FDA-approved products in their class. And so, anything else when you bring in needs to have a similar profile and those are the types of opportunities we spend time looking at.
Okay, got it. Thanks for taking the questions. Nice readout.
Thank you. And our next question comes from Kevin DeGeeter with Oppenheimer. Your line is now open.
Kevin DeGeeter -- Oppenheimer -- Analyst
Hey, good morning guys. Congrats on a really, really nice quarter and some nice growth. A few things, with regard to surgeons trained, I think you called out over 900 in the quarter. Can you just provide us a little bit of context, how to think about the assumptions within 2000 guidance with regard to newly trained surgeons versus going deeper in terms of penetration with surgeons, who are already trained on MACI?
So, Kevin, we trained 500 in 2016, so that was about -- 2017, excuse me, as we launched MACI, we trained 400 last year. So, that's where we sit at over 900 now today. We expect to continue to invest there as much as we have previously. We've got large meetings as we've already attended this year with considerable training opportunities and we've got a few here in the coming weeks. So, we'll continue that investment. With the sales force expansion, we get more time in front of physicians who are now aware of MACI. So, we expect that to help drive our surgeon training as well. But I think you'll see a continued decline in the rate of new physicians being trained. But, we will continue this to make that investment.
I think, what's most important is that we offer the (inaudible) because we found that at some physicians want to train online. They want to do it at their convenience, so they're own home or office, others who want to attend cadaver lab and touch and feel the product first. So, it just depends on the physicians' appetite, and we make sure that we create those appropriate opportunities.
Okay. And then, a separate question kind of going back to one of today's themes as financial guidance. The guidance seems to imply MACI growth 27%, 30% somewhere in that general range, if my math is correct. And that's as a percentage of growth is significant step down from what we saw both in the fourth quarter and 2018. How do we think about -- with through the course of 2019, the relative pacing of growth recognizing, you're not giving Q1 guidance but if some -- pretty meaningful percentage wise, deceleration to think about, is it -- should we think about its somewhat linear through the year or being more kind of second half of the year for that step down.
Kevin, I think -- I think the best way to think about is -- in your models, come up with the full year number for '19 whatever -- whatever you think it should be based on our guidance in your own analysis. And then in terms of -- see the seasonality for that total number, the midpoint of that guidance I think would be roughly $110 million. In terms of seasonality, I would use the same seasonality that we saw this year for both products 20%, 21%, 25% and then 34% and then we gave you our sense of Epicel, we think single digit growth there. So you can back into MACI from that I think.
Fair enough. And then just lastly, one for me. With regard to insurance coverage, which has always been healthy for MACI, but specifically in terms of any evolving language with some of the coverage policies for covering the patella or sort of, other sort of sub populations for MACI, (inaudible) or expect any change through '19 in terms of specific language with regard to coverage for MACI policy decisions and how does that sort of factor into potential puts and takes on that guidance for 19?
Unidentified Speaker --
So, Kevin, I think we've -- mentioned before as you suggest that MACI has strong coverage and access across the board, right all the top plans cover MACI, Dan and his team did a great job in getting that access probably within six to eight months after launch when -- as we announced, but a year ago in the third quarter when guided updated its medical policy to include MACI, so all the plans cover MACI. There were some plans that didn't cover patella right out of the gate, just because as you know MACI's label is much more expensive than for Carticel, so easy way to update plans was just to see MACI is not investigational but it really reflected the Carticel policy.
So throughout the year, Dan and his team have been working on updating those few plans that still have not formally added patella. We announced last quarter that Cigna had updated their policy to include the patella. So there's really only a couple left that we want to try to knock out. But even so, with those plans, the patella cases are still approved. They just end up being approved on a case by case basis. And we just want to make things as smooth as possible and have all policies reflect the breadth of the MACI label.
Great. Thanks for taking my questions.
Thank you. And our last question comes from Danielle Antalffy with SBB Leerink. Your line is now open.
Danielle Antalffy -- SBB Leerink -- Analyst
Thanks so much. Good morning, guys. Thanks for taking the question. I have two. First, I was wondering if you could talk about how high volume centers are growing versus low volume centers, I guess what I'm trying to get at is where you're seeing the most growth, is it on newer centers coming onboard or is it actually existing centers that are already using it, but are using it a lot more? And then I have one follow-up.
Danielle, thanks for the question. So, we've assessed that and certainly that is one of the factors we consider in the sales force expansion sizing, territory alignments and things like that. And in our models, it's been about 50-50 growth coming from, I don't want to call it necessarily small centers, but it's centers that have not traditionally used Carticel or MACI, and 50% from centers that are expanding their use. And you know the names of the largest centers. Those has been a big growth driver for us early on here as well.
Okay. And then, just a follow-up question, Gerard, just something I think you -- I think it was you that referenced, not really yet seeing a meaningful change in the biopsy conversion rate? Tell me if I got that wrong. But, just curious, I mean, I know with this direct to patient initiative, I feel like that's something that could move over time. A few questions there. Why hasn't it moved the needle yet, if in fact it has? Number one. And number two, when can we see that start to move the needle? Do you have the right initiatives in place to do so? Will we see you guys have to take a broader approach or a different approach to really move that? Thanks so much.
All right. So, for the conversion rate, I mean, I think, we've seen them tick up as we said before slightly. So, I don't want to -- they're definitely not going down, let me put it that way. But we certainly haven't seen a multi-percentage increase in it today. Maybe we've had a 1% tick up, and it takes a bit of time before we can confidently say that's trend.
In terms of changing that conversion rate. There are a lot of components to it. And you have to start with why isn't the conversion happening. A lot of patients just do chondroplasty, they feel better, if they go on their way. One way that, change that is to try to reach out to the patients, and that's what Dan's team is doing. But, we have to -- we're not going to call the patients a day after surgery. That's probably not a good idea. And Dan, go ahead...
Yeah. I would just say, Danielle, we've spoken to this before, we have a strong program now to capture patient consent and that's really the start of biopsy -- improving the biopsy the conversion ratio because with that consent we can then start to communicate with the patient. We've invested last year and making sure that has an easy opportunity for the patient. We've increased the volume of that and it's a steady increase, just like we're seeing a steady increase in biopsies. We're seeing an increase in the percentage of patients where we capture consent.
Second piece of that is just how do we speak to the patients? So, we have our launch materials for rehab and et cetera. We have -- this year, we are reassessing all of our patient materials and how we speak to it. An example is something like weight bearing. What does that mean, when you translate that to a patient, how quickly can I walk? What kind of work can I do over weeks to months? And what kind of activities can I engage in, such as driving and things that are important to a patient as they get back to activity? So, we're changing the way we speak to patients and the timing of when we speak to them. So, we've got metrics as to when we engage with the patients versus when they have follow-up with their physician.
The piece that I spoke to you during the call here, we now have a strong group of patients who have had success with MACI because of the experience over the last couple years. Now, we're capturing some of that in our new patient ambassador program and we're marrying that with the Dara Torres campaign, so that when patients go on to maci.com, they'll see the aspirational Olympic athlete and they'll see a patient that looks maybe a little bit more like them, and they can connect there and see highlights on rehab.
The next piece of that that we're initiating is working with physical therapists who have now successfully treated patients and moved them through rehab quicker than they had prior with Carticel. And that's an important rate limiter for biopsy to implant in the patients' mind when they are considering -- excuse me, MACI.
So, it's like I ran through my three children right there. So, Danielle, we're really confident that we're on the right track. We have seen early signs of improvement in conversion ratio and we're confident that these further investments will reap the results as well.
In terms of modeling, Danielle, we view increasing the conversion rate a multiyear effort. We view that as a second leg of growth after we have probably done far more penetration into the surgeon base, got more business for those individual surgeons. So this is kind of a multiyear effort. I don't expect to change dramatically over quarters, this can change over years. So, I think our predominant growth is going to come in the near to medium term from more docs, more biopsies and then longer term higher conversion rate.
Yeah, that's fair. That's very helpful. Thank you so much, guys.
Thank you. And that does conclude today's question-and-answer session. I would now like to turn the call back to Mr. Nick Colangelo for any further remarks.
Okay. Well, thank you, and thanks for your questions and continued interest in Vericel. We're obviously excited about the opportunities ahead and look forward to reporting on our progress on our next call. Have a great day.
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for participating in today's conference. This does conclude today's program. You may all disconnect. Everyone, have a great day.
Call participants:
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VCEL
Vericel (VCEL) Q2 2022 Earnings Call Transcript


text:
package metrics

import (
	"testing"

	dto "github.com/prometheus/client_model/go"

	apimachineryversion "k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/version"
)

type testCustomCollector struct {
	BaseStableCollector
}

var (
	currentVersion = apimachineryversion.Info{
		Major:      "1",
		Minor:      "17",
		GitVersion: "v1.17.0-alpha-1.12345",
	}
	alphaDesc = NewDesc("metric_alpha", "alpha metric", []string{"name"}, nil,
		ALPHA, "")
	stableDesc = NewDesc("metric_stable", "stable metrics", []string{"name"}, nil,
		STABLE, "")
	deprecatedDesc = NewDesc("metric_deprecated", "stable deprecated metrics", []string{"name"}, nil,
		STABLE, "1.17.0")
	hiddenDesc = NewDesc("metric_hidden", "stable hidden metrics", []string{"name"}, nil,
		STABLE, "1.16.0")
)

func (tc *testCustomCollector) DescribeWithStability(ch chan<- *Desc) {
	ch <- alphaDesc
	ch <- stableDesc
	ch <- deprecatedDesc
	ch <- hiddenDesc
}

func (tc *testCustomCollector) CollectWithStability(ch chan<- Metric) {
	ch <- NewLazyConstMetric(
		alphaDesc,
		GaugeValue,
		1,
		"value",
	)
	ch <- NewLazyConstMetric(
		stableDesc,
		GaugeValue,
		1,
		"value",
	)
	ch <- NewLazyConstMetric(
		deprecatedDesc,
		GaugeValue,
		1,
		"value",
	)
	ch <- NewLazyConstMetric(
		hiddenDesc,
		GaugeValue,
		1,
		"value",
	)

}

func getMetric(metrics []*dto.MetricFamily, fqName string) *dto.MetricFamily {
	for _, m := range metrics {
		if *m.Name == fqName {
			return m
		}
	}

	return nil
}

func TestBaseCustomCollector(t *testing.T) {
	var tests = []struct {
		name         string
		d            *Desc
		shouldHidden bool
		expectedHelp string
	}{
		{
			name:         "alpha metric should contains stability metadata",
			d:            alphaDesc,
			shouldHidden: false,
			expectedHelp: "[ALPHA] alpha metric",
		},
		{
			name:         "stable metric should contains stability metadata",
			d:            stableDesc,
			shouldHidden: false,
			expectedHelp: "[STABLE] stable metrics",
		},
		{
			name:         "deprecated metric should contains stability metadata",
			d:            deprecatedDesc,
			shouldHidden: false,
			expectedHelp: "[STABLE] (Deprecated since 1.17.0) stable deprecated metrics",
		},
		{
			name:         "hidden metric should be ignored",
			d:            hiddenDesc,
			shouldHidden: true,
			expectedHelp: "[STABLE] stable hidden metrics",
		},
	}

	registry := newKubeRegistry(currentVersion)
	customCollector := &testCustomCollector{}

	if err := registry.CustomRegister(customCollector); err != nil {
		t.Fatalf("register collector failed with err: %v", err)
	}

	metrics, err := registry.Gather()
	if err != nil {
		t.Fatalf("failed to get metrics from collector, %v", err)
	}

	for _, test := range tests {
		tc := test
		t.Run(tc.name, func(t *testing.T) {
			m := getMetric(metrics, tc.d.fqName)
			if m == nil {
				if !tc.shouldHidden {
					t.Fatalf("Want metric: %s", tc.d.fqName)
				}
			} else {
				if m.GetHelp() != tc.expectedHelp {
					t.Fatalf("Metric(%s) HELP(%s) not contains: %s", tc.d.fqName, *m.Help, tc.expectedHelp)
				}
			}

		})
	}
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Home/Pakistan/Punjab: Agreement to install water meters and receive monthly bills
Punjab: Agreement to install water meters and receive monthly bills
Asad Malik Send an email 1 week ago
The Punjab government has finalized a two-year-old plan to install water meters in the province to curb water wastage and increase revenue, and in this regard Water and Sanitation Agency (WASA) Lahore has entered into an agreement with a Chinese company. Is.
According to officials, WASA has entered into an agreement with a Chinese company to install 7.5 million water meters under a public-private partnership.
According to the agreement, Chinese companies will invest Rs 9.29 billion and WASA's share in the project will be Rs 2.13 billion.
Wasa Lahore has sent a letter of intent to a consortium of Chinese companies to install meters in two years at a cost of Rs 12 billion.
According to WASA Vice Chairman Imtiaz Sheikh, the Chinese consortium finalized by the company includes Wan Yaling Water Metering, Zheng Xu Zheng Lang Company and China Energy Engineering Company.
Citizens return to Lahore, the capital of Pakistan's Punjab province, on July 5, 2020, after refilling a filling point. (Photo: AFP)
Under the PPP project, Chinese companies will be required to set up a local assembly plant. A factory for water metering will be set up in six months.
Chinese companies will also be required to set up special purpose companies. The return period of investment in PPP mode will be 10 years and water metering in the city will be completed within two years from this month.
The private company will be empowered to install water meters and collect the cost of bill collection.
What is the purpose of installing water meter?
Punjab Chief Minister Usman Bazdar in a statement said that since the coming of our government, unnecessary use of WASA tube wells and working hours have been reduced. Fees and licenses are subject to private tube wells. Water recycling policies have been introduced as per the court guidelines and other unconventional measures including underground water tanks have been initiated.
According to the Punjab Chief Minister, these measures are being taken because the ground water level in the province has decreased rapidly as per the report from 1980 to 2020.
According to the data released by the Chief Minister, the ground water level in 1980 was up to 5,700 meters.
Now that the level has dropped sharply to 23,000 meters in 2020, which is dangerous, water use needs to be reduced to prevent it, so steps are being taken.
(Chief Minister's Secretariat)
Vice Chairman Wasa Imtiaz Sheikh while talking to Independent Urdu said that the aim of the government is to stop the declining level of clean ground water for which in the first phase we have installed water meters on 7.5 lakh water connections from Lahore. Has started
According to him, the first five marlas, 10 marlas or one kanal, ie depending on the area, the houses are being billed annually.
But now meters will be installed to measure per gallon of water like electricity per unit, for which the government will give 40 per cent subsidy while 60 per cent will be collected from consumers in installments with bills.
According to Imtiaz Sheikh, the way people use electricity carefully for fear of losing units, now they will not waste water and the government will have revenue.
He said that the meters would be installed only where there are already official water connections from WASA while it would not be applicable to those who install their own water treatment plants or their motors.
Public reaction to water meters
Jamaluddin, the owner of a service station in Lahore, while talking to Independent Urdu, said that it is true that the ground water level is decreasing but water is essential for life.
Clean water is definitely lost during car washing but there is no other solution. The government had instructed us to recycle the used water and use it again and again but how can we install such expensive plants? This problem can be solved only by providing recycled tap water to the service stations.
Sadiq Khan, owner of a company that sells drinking water after treatment, told Independent Urdu: "Hundreds of people in the city have set up water treatment plants, most of which get water from government connections. If water meters are installed, water will become more expensive.
This section includes related reference points (Related Nodes field)
"The government should formulate a formula to give discounts to those who sell clean water so that clean drinking water is available to the common man at the same price as before."
Farman Ali, a resident of Wahdat Colony, said he owns a five-marla house in which he lives with his four children, wife and parents.
That's enough money for a need like water. The government should stop people who waste water through awareness campaigns.
"Now, if the water bill also starts coming on a monthly basis like electricity and gas, then the poor man is already earning two meals a day with difficulty. How will he pay the bill?"
The government has not been able to provide clean drinking water to every citizen. Inflation has become so high that taxes on electricity, gas and houses have been increased.
He says that even the bill for sewerage is collected, the provision of facilities is very slow, even the sanitation system in the streets is not improved and the water supply system is rotten. The method has been worked out.
He demanded that water was needed from house to house and water was not available in many areas.
It should be noted that in the first phase, the government has prepared a plan to install water meters in Lahore and other cities of the province.
Asad Malik
Asad is a journalist at UsamaSpeaks.com and he deals with Pakistan News, India News, and Lottery Sambad. Asad is a very professional and authentic news journalist.
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Улица Кри́шьяня Ва́лдемара (, улица имени Кришьяниса Валдемарcа) — название улиц в городах Латвии:

 Улица Кришьяня Валдемара (Валдемарпилс) — улица в Валдемарпилсе
 Улица Кришьяня Валдемара (Валмиера) — улица в Валмиере
 Улица Кришьяня Валдемара (Вентспилс) — улица в Вентспилсе
 Улица Кришьяня Валдемара (Даугавпилс) — улица в Даугавпилсе
 Улица Кришьяня Валдемара (Добеле) — улица в Добеле
 Улица Кришьяня Валдемара (Ливаны) — улица в Ливанах
 Улица Кришьяня Валдемара (Лиепая) — улица в Лиепае
 Улица Кришьяня Валдемара (Резекне) — улица в Резекне
 Улица Кришьяня Валдемара (Рига) — улица в Риге
 Улица Кришьяня Валдемара (Сигулда) — улица в Сигулде
 Улица Кришьяня Валдемара (Талси) — улица в Талси
 Улица Кришьяня Валдемара (Цесис) — улица в Цесисе
 Улица Кришьяня Валдемара (Энгуре) — улица в Энгуре
 Улица Кришьяня Валдемара (Юрмала) — улица в Юрмале

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
ABLIC Inc. Receives Best Paper Award
– CLEAN-Boost® Technology Recognized Around the World for its Potential for Semi-permanent Power –
CHIBA, Japan–(BUSINESS WIRE)–ABLIC Inc. (President: Nobumasa Ishiai, head office: Chiba City, Chiba Prefecture, hereinafter "ABLIC") received the Best Paper Award for a paper presented at the IEEE S3S Conference (*1) held October 14th– 16th in San Jose, California, USA.
The paper entitled "150-nW (*2) FD-SOI Intermittent Startup Circuit for Micropower Energy Harvesting Sensor" that we presented was the result of a joint research with Ritsumeikan University describing our startup circuit, a key device using ABLIC's CLEAN-Boost® (*3) technology that enables efficient use of energy from a low-voltage and low-power generator (Energy Harvester).
We presented the concept that the usage of minuscule environmental energy generated by water drops or bacteria would expand possibilities to secure power for all IoT devices on a semi-permanent basis in the future.
Mr. Minoru Sudo, CEO office in ABLIC commented as follows:
"During the 3-day conference, a total of about 100 papers were presented. I was greatly honored and delighted that ABLIC's only technology in the world was singled out and recognized as the best paper at such a renowned international conference.
We will strive to move ahead even more now that the ABLIC's technology we have just presented is positioned to become known not only among technical experts, but also among the public. Full-scale commercial use of CLEAN-Boost® technology would lead to greater ease of use and a more environmentally-friendly society."
(*1) IEEE S3S Conference : https://www.ieee.org/conferences/index.html
(*2) A nW (nanowatt) is a billionth of a watt
(*3) CLEAN-Boost®
CLEAN-Boost® is a technology unique to ABLIC that boosts and stores minuscule amounts of environmental energy, until now considered unusable. It is also suitable for energy harvesting, enabling wireless transmission and much more. Originally a locker size quartz-clock structure, it has been shrunk to wrist watch size, enabling accurate reading of time with minimal energy. It is based on the low-consumption, low-energy concepts stemming from CMOS IC technical development.
In Japan, we have commenced sales of "a Battery-less Leakage Sensor" (jointly developed with Taisei Corporation) and a CLEAN-Boost® experimental kit with use of CLEAN-Boost® technology. Having received this award, it is expected to play a greater role in this new technology.
CLEAN-Boost® core technology is the result of joint development with Ritsumeikan University.
[Website]
https://www.ablic.com/
ABLIC Inc.
Masae Onuma
E-mail: pr@ablic.com
https://krs.bz/ablic/m/pr_inquiry_en
Previous NTT Research and Technical University of Munich (TUM) Enter Joint Research Agreement to Collaborate on Technologies to Affect the Future of Patient Care
Next Sequans' Monarch Selected by Inseego for New IoT Tracker Now Available to Consumers in Australia via Telstra


Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea soars in London!
"GRIPPING! One of the most visually engaging and creatively dynamic presentations to grace the stage in ages!"
First review for Kidoons/WYRD Production of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea, now onstage at the Grand Theatre in London, ON until March 26 2016.
Directed by Rick Miller (BOOM), Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea is a re-imagining of the Jules Verne undersea adventure classic. Board the Nautilus with the mysterious Captain Nemo as he explores the depths of the ocean, the heights of technology and the edge of madness. Rediscover a sense of wonder at human ingenuity in this eye-popping, multi-media experience. A commission of the TORONTO 2015 arts and cultural festival PANAMANIA.
"So compelling and engaging you can't take your eyes off the stage"


Take gifitng to the next level with this really pretty silk box, filled with a selection of 36 of our finest Belgian, luxury and classic truffles, pralines and an assortment of real almond marzipan in seasonal colours and designs. This box can be used as a jewellery box, long after the truffles remain a lingering memory.
Total Net weight: 412 grams.


The Community Supper is an evening meal served at Gethsemane Lutheran Church, Baldwin on the first Tuesday of every month. The meal is free and open to the public.
Local congregations and businesses take turns serving the meal. Please watch for more information about when it's our turn to serve and how you can help.


text:
Central Valley Meat Co., Inc.
Establishment Number M6063A
Establishment Title/Name Central Valley Meat Co., Inc.
Grant Date Jun 14, 2021
Address 10431 8 3/4 Ave.
Activities Meat Processing, Meat Slaughter
Central Valley Meat Co., Inc. Recalls Ground Beef Products Due to Possible Salmonella Dublin Contamination
EDITORS NOTE: FSIS and our public health partners, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and state public health officials, are investigating a Salmonella Dublin outbreak. Please note that FSIS is continuing to investigate illnesses associated with this outbreak and their sources and...
34,222 pounds
057-2013 Marginal - Class III Product Contamination
Recall Notification Report 057-2013
Tue, 10/01/2013 - Mon, 03/23/2015
Arkansas, Nebraska, North Carolina
WASHINGTON, Oct. 1, 2013 Central Valley Meat Company, a Hanford, Calif., establishment, is recalling approximately 89,720 pounds of ground beef that may contain small pieces of plastic, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) announced today. The following FSIS-regulated products are...
40-lb. cases containing 10-lb. chubs of "Fine Ground Beef."
California Firm Recalls Ground Beef Products That May Contain Foreign Materials
Thu, 09/19/2013 - Tue, 03/24/2015
Arkansas, California, Montana, Texas
WASHINGTON, Sept. 19, 2013 Central Valley Meat Company, a Hanford, Calif., establishment, is recalling 58,240 pounds of ground beef that may contain small pieces of plastic, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) announced today. The products subject to recall include...


text:
FORTE (Fast On-Orbit Recording of Transient Events) / P94-1
Gravity, Magnetic and Geodynamic measurements
Gravity and Magnetic Fields
Mission status Mission complete
End of life date 3 years
Measurement domain Atmosphere, Gravity and Magnetic Fields
Measurement category Gravity, Magnetic and Geodynamic measurements, Lightning Detection
Instruments OLS
Instrument type Magnetic field, Atmospheric chemistry, Gravity instruments, Lightning sensors
FORTE is a US DOE-sponsored (Department of Energy) spacecraft designed and built by the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) and by Sandia National Laboratories (SNL). The spacecraft features an advanced radio frequency (RF) impulse detection and characterization experiment. The prime objective is the measurement of electromagnetic pulses (EMP), primarily due to lightning, within a noise environment dominated by continuous wave (CW) carriers, such as TV and FM stations. The goal is to develop an understanding of the correlation between the optical flash and the VHF (30-300 MHz) emissions from lightning. Lightning is the main source of electromagnetic transients in this frequency range (nuclear weapon detonations produce also RF transients). 1) 2)
FORTE also conducts ionospheric physics experiments. The effects of large scale structures within the ionosphere are being studied [such as traveling ionospheric disturbances and horizontal gradients in the total electron content (TEC) on the propagation of broad bandwidth signals.
The spacecraft, developed in partnership by LANL and COI (Composite Optics Incorporated), features a lightweight all-composite octagonal frame structure (of 42 kg). The primary structure consists of six major structural components: three structural trusses and three structural instrument decks, along with 24 solar array substrate (SAS) panels (Figure 2). The principles behind this unique spacecraft design are simplicity, modularity, and interchangeability. 3) 4) 5) 6) 7) 8) 9)
The three structural frame trusses are termed the lower, mid, and upper cages. They are all fabricated from flat stock graphite/epoxy (Gr/E). The lower and mid cages are identical to each other. Rectangular frame subassemblies comprise these two cages. The upper cage assembly is constructed using trapezoidal frame subassemblies. Eight frame subassemblies are bonded together to form each of the three octagonal cages.
The three decks are termed the lower, mid, and upper decks. The lower and mid decks are structurally similar to each other and will be used to mount most of the payload and bus components required for the FORTE mission. The upper deck closes out the structure. All three decks are fabricated from aluminum honeycomb sandwichbonded between Gr/E skins. The bus structure has a size of ~2 m x 0.8 m in diameter. A nearly 12 m long RF antenna mast is deployed from the bottom of the satellite in the nadir direction. The spacecraft has a total mass of 236 kg.
Figure 1: Artist's rendition of the deployed FORTE spacecraft (image credit: SNL, LANL)
The spacecraft bus is composed of the following subsystems: 1) CDMS (Command and Data Management Subsystem), 2) ACDS (Attitude Control and Determination Subsystem), 3) EPS (Electric Power Subsystem), 4) SSR (Solid State Recorder), 5) telemetry subsystem, 6) spacecraft event timing system and 7) space frame.
• The CDMS consists of four modules: 1) the SCP (Spacecraft Process Controller) utilizing the Honeywell 1750A processor, 2) a SCC (Serial Communication Card) of LANL, 3) a DAC (Data Acquisition Card) of LANL, and 4) a HSF (High Speed Formatter) of SNL. The SCC, DAC and HSF modules communicate with the Honeywell 1750A processor using the Honeywell PBIO bus and other satellite instruments using a variety of custom and standard electrical interfaces. The SCP is a Honeywell VHSIC MIL-STD-1750A microprocessor, providing 1 MIPS of computing power and 64K words of programming space, half of which is used for code and half for data storage.
• FORTE is a momentum-biased, gravity-gradient stabilized spacecraft (nadir-pointing). Active stabilization is achieved by reading sensors (magnetometers and Earth horizon sensor), applying attitude control algorithms resident in the spacecraft processor, then driving actuators (magnetic field coils and single pitch axis momentum wheel) at a rate of 1 Hz.
ADCS is composed of three main components: 1) the scanwheel, 2) magnetometers, and 3) magnetic torque rods. The scanwheel is used to provide both rotational inertia that helps to stabilize the satellite in roll and yaw, as well as modify pitch. In addition, the scanwheel has a horizon sensor which, due to the rotation of the wheel, sweeps out a 270º partial cone centered in the nadir direction with an 8º opening angle looking out the side of the spacecraft at an angle of 45º from nadir. The horizon sensor is used to accurately determine the position of the Earth's CO2 emission layer at the horizon relative to the spacecraft's attitude in order to determine the satellite's pitch and roll attitude information. Three two-axis magnetometers are mounted parallel to the spacecraft; they measure the Earth's magnetic field flux along two different axes.
Figure 2: The spacecraft structural bus components with decks and frames (image credit: LANL)
• EPS is composed of 1) solar panels (silicon cells), 2) NiCd batteries (2 x 7.5 Ah), and 3) the PCU (Power Control Unit) and charging system developed by SNL. The body-mounted solar panels provide a daily average of 55 W with a peak of 325 W of power.
• The SSR (Solid State Recorder) has a capacity of 16 MByte.
• RF communications: The spacecraft is being operated in store&forward fashion, 3 communication links are provided:
- UHF (1/4 wave monopole) transmitter which broadcasts realtime SOH (State-of-Health) data which is used during the satellite contact to verify the realtime health of the system and commanding
- S-Band (bifilar helix) transmitter to transmit either the high speed science data or the stored SOH data. The S-band transmitter has a variable downlink rate from 16 kbit/s to 2 Mbit/s in 8 steps in case of link margin problems.
- VHF (1/4 wave monopole) receiver at 2048 bit/s for the command uplink.
Satellite operations are conducted from LANL and SNL in Albuquerque, New Mexico, as well as from the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, Alaska. 10)
A Pegasus XL air-launch (L-1011 aircraft) took place on Aug. 29, 1997 from VAFB (Vandenberg Air Force Base), CA. The FORTE launch vehicle and launch services were provided by the US Air Force Space Test Program (STP).
Near-circular orbit of 830 km x 800 km altitude, inclination = 70º, orbital period of about 100 minutes.
In 2010, the FORTE spacecraft is still in operation in its 13th year after launch. The spacecraft had a design life of 3 years. 11)
• During the mission, frequent multi-sensor lightning observations were conducted from the FORTE and TRMM satellites. This involved the LIS (Lightning Imaging Sensor) of the TRMM spacecraft (launch Nov. 27, 1997) along with the OLS and VHF radio receiver on FORTE. The multi-sensor, multi-phenomenology observations of lightning from space using the FORTE and TRMM spacecraft provided a surprisingly detailed picture of lightning phenomenology on both stroke (pulse) and flash time scales. Collectively, the sensors provide the capability to detect, locate, measure, analyze and classify lightning on a global basis and provide good argument for outfitting future satellite-based global lightning monitors with optical imaging and VHF sensors. 12)
• In 2001 after nearly 4 years of on-orbit operations, FORTÉ continues to be an extremely reliable satellite, which has encountered only a few real problems since launch (Ref. 4).
• Antenna deployment after launch: The deployment of the primary antenna was expected to generate significant disturbance torques, and there was a concern that the ACDS system might not be able to maintain control authority over the spacecraft attitude. However, the antenna deployed flawlessly and the torques were significantly less than expected.
In addition to providing the test experiment for the programmatic mission, FORTE has provided new understandings of lightning events as well as a more complete understanding of the relationship between optical and RF lightning events.
The FORTE payload consists of a suite of instruments, each individually useful, and together very useful, for the study of lightning (simultaneous observation of optical and RF emissions of lightning activity in the electromagnetically noisy environment of near-Earth space).
Figure 3: Partial block diagram of subsystem interconnections for the Forte small satellite (image credit: LANL)
The observation of "lightning events" by an RF system (VHF radio receiver) and by an OLS (Optical Lightning Subsystem) requires an EC (Event Classifier) as part of the FORTE payload. In addition, the on-board data acquisition system must have the capability to be triggered by an RF trigger, an optical trigger, or by the FPC (Flight Payload Controller). The EC is connected to the FPC (Flight Payload Controller). The FPC triggers the EC only when it is needed by enabling power to the EC. 13)
EC (Event Classifier)
The EC is an experiment to determine the feasibility of telemetry reduction by onboard classification. The EC provides on-orbit characterization of impulsive RF events which satisfy the trigger criteria (extensive digital signal processing is involved). FORTE features a 10 m pseudo-log-periodic boom antenna coupled to a DSP (Digital Signal Processor) to capture the VHF (30-300 MHz) electromagnetic transients. 14) 15)
Figure 4: Functional block diagram of the FORTE Event Classifier (image credit: LANL)
The EC, a DSP of TI (SMJ3320C30), executes neural network-based classification schemes. Communicating only with the FPC, the EC receives raw data and returns analysis reports via a 16-bit parallel port, it receives commands uplinks and state-of-health reports via a serial port.
There are three steps to EC demonstration testing: 1) Processing and classification algorithms are applied to digitized waveforms downlinked by the FORTE payload through the ground station to desktop computers. 2) Testing of promising algorithms in the FORTE engineering unit on the ground. 3) After successful ground testing, the EC is then commanded to perform the same analysis in space.
Successful demonstration of onboard event classification by the EC establishes confidence limits of classifications and enables follow-on missions to eliminate the costly data downlink and ground analysis steps.
RF (Radio Frequency) System
The RF system consists of the RF antennas and the RF receiver system.
The RF antennas are the most prominent feature on the spacecraft. The antenna mast is about 11 m in length, with the largest transverse elements in the antennas being about 5 m in diameter. There are two independent, log periodic array (LPA) monopole antennas in this structure, mounted on the bottom of the spacecraft, arranged in a turnstile configuration. The antennas have a common support structure, but are electrically isolated, making them sensitive to the orthogonal linear polarizations.
The RF system, a VHF radio receiver, was developed and built by LANL. The RF system provides the following features: 16) 17) 18) 19) 20)
- Three broad bandwidth RF receivers covering the frequency range from 30 - 300 MHz (VHF). A multi-band coincidence trigger with perpetual recording of power background in all 16 trigger subbands (each 1 MHz wide).
- High-speed, low power digitizers (300 Msamples/s)
- Broad bandwidth, dual polarization-selective VHF antenna
- Extensive on-board signal processing (adaptive discrimination, signal categorization by attributes)
The RF system derives its signals from either of two active monopoles, or alternatively from two mutually orthogonal, multi-element, passive, moderate-gain log-periodic antennas on nadir-directed deployed monopoles, or alternatively from two mutually orthogonal, multi-element, passive, moderate-gain log-periodic antennas on a nadir-directed deployed boom.
Both the RF System and the OLS (Optical Lightning Subsystem) are configurable for signal-triggered or for time-triggered digitization. There are also options for cross-triggering of PDD (Photodiode Detector) and LLS and for cross-triggering of PDD and the RF payload. With 160 MByte, there is ample memory on board for thousands of events to be stored and then downloaded. The downloading is done up to several times per day, at both Sandia and the University of Alaska.
OLS (Optical Lightning System)
OLS is an experimental lightning detection system was developed and built by SNL. The objective is to record optical flashes and radio frequency emissions generated by lightning storms to correlate lightning flash rates with precipitation rates. The OLS instrument consists of two units:
• LLS (Lightning Location System), a narrow-band detector system (777.6 nm ± 0.5 nm) which employs a CCD imager with a ground resolution of 10 x 10 km (FOV = 80º, 500 frames/s)
• A fast time-response broadband PDD (Photodiode Detector) for the recording of individual light curves. 21) 22) 23) 24) 25)
Photodiode/photometer systems are characterized by excellent temporal resolution (e.g. 10-100 µs) and generally poor spatial resolution (100-1000 km). Conversely, CCD imagers are primarily utilized to provide accurate geolocation and 2-D imagery of lightning events. They are characterized by excellent spatial resolution (1-10 km), low temporal resolution (1-10 ms), and a lack of waveform information.
The PDD employs an unfiltered, single element silicon photodiode with a sensing area of 1 cm2. It is responsive to wavelengths of 400-1100 nm, with a peak response near 850 nm. A sunshade of 15 cm length provides a circular FOV of 80º (the total footprint is about 1200 km in diameter)to match that of LLS. The PDD measures the intensity of the incoming light and triggers on impulse events, thus providing a means to record the light-intensity time history. The PDD employs 12 bit sampling covering a dynamic range of more than four orders of magnitude.
Two 128 x 128 pixel CCD (segmented array) detectors image the lightning; the input is the bright narrowband-filtered line emission centered at 777.4 nm wavelength.. In the "autonomous mode" operation, the instrument produces 1.92 ms long waveforms with 15 µs time resolution. The high temporal resolution of the PDD (about 15 µs) and the high spatial resolution of the LLS imager (about 10 km) combine to give a detailed satellite-based picture of both the spatial and temporal evolution of terrestrial lightning on both stroke (pulse) and flash timescales. OLS augments the RF system to develop high performance lightning discriminator/locator capability.
Detector type
CCD array
Effective array size
80º which amounts to ~1200 km footprint diameter
Spectral response
0.1 nm FWHM filter (centered on 777.4 nm)
Geolocation accuracy
1-2 pixels (1 pixel ~ 10 km x 10 km)
Integration time
Anti-glint feature
If any pixel lights up for more than 2 consecutive sample periods, entire event is ignored
- Pixel event mode, threshold trigger
- Full frame (imaging) mode
- Background mode
Table 1: LLS specifications of the OLS instrument
Single-element silicon photodiode
Detector size
1 cm2
0.4 - 1.1 µm
Responsivity
0.489 A/W @ 0.9 µm; (0.3325 A/W avg.)
67 kHz ( 15 µs resolution)
1.92 ms (6.75 ms in LLS slave mode)
Dead Time (between records)
2.5 - 3 ms (2.4 ms in LLS slave mode)
Trigger modes
- Autonomous, threshold triggered
- Slaved to LLS
- Slaved to VHF receiver
Table 2: PDD specifications of the OLS instrument
The OLS has 2 MB of local memory, which is sufficient to store all the data for up to 12 hours, depending upon the threshold chosen and the activity of the thunderstorms. This data is held in OLS memory until commanded to be downlinked.
1) T. C. Thompson, C. I. Grastataro, B. G. Smith, G. Krumweide, G. Tremblay, "Development of an All-Composite Spacecraft Bus for Small Satellite Programs,". Proceedings of the 8th Annual AIAA/USU Conference on Small Satellites, Logan, UT, USA, Aug. 29-Sept. 1, 1994, URL: http://nis-www.lanl.gov/nis-projects/forte/doc-archive/external_docs/LA-UR-94-2897/LA-UR-94-2897.pdf
2) K. K. Ruud, et al., "FORTE Hardware-in-Loop Simulation," Proceedings of the 11th Annual AIAA/USU Conference on Small Satellites, Logan, UT, USA, Sept. 15-18, 1997, pp. 1-9
3) C. I. Grastataro, T. A. Butler, B. G. Smith, T. C. Thompson, "Development of a Composite Satellite Structure for FORTE," Proceedings of the Tenth International Conference on Composite Materials, Whistler, British Columbia, Canada, Aug. 14-18, 1995, Report No: LA-UR-95-1016, URL: http://nis-www.lanl.gov/nis-projects/forte/doc-archive/external_docs/LA-UR-95-1016/LA-UR-95-1016.pdf
4) D. Roussel-Dupre, P. Klingner, L. Carlson, R. Dingler, R.; D. Esch-Mosher, A. R. Jacobson, "Four Years of Operations and Results with FORTE," the Space 2001 Conference, August, 28-30, 2001, LA-UR-01-2955, AIAA 2001-4627, URL: http://www.forte.lanl.gov/science/publications/2001/Roussel_Dupre_2001_1_Four.pdf
5) http://www.forte.lanl.gov/index.shtml
6) J. R. Maly, K. A. Bender, S. C. Pendleton, "Complex Stiffness Measurement of Vibration-Damped Structural Elements," International ModalAnalysis Conference, IMAC-XVIII, San Antonio, Texas, Feb.7-10, 2000
7) G. A. Tremblay, E. J. Boyce, T. N. Pham, "Demonstrated technology for affordable, high performance polymer composite spacecraft structures," Space Programs and Technologies Conference, Huntsville, AL, Sept. 24-26, 1996
8) FORTE: The All-Composite Satellite,", Composites/Plastics, Sept. 15, 1997, http://composite.about.com/library/weekly/aa091697.htm
9) http://composite.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http://nis-www.lanl.gov/nis-projects/forte/index.html
10) "FORTE First Satellite to be Controlled From Sandia Labs," URL: http://www.sandia.gov/media/forte.htm
11) Information provided by Michael Cai of LANL
12) W. L. Boeck, D. M. Suszcynsky, T. E. Light, A. R. Jacobsen, H. J. Christian, S. J. Goodman, D. E. Buechler, J. L. L. Guillen, "A demonstration of the capabilities of multisatellite observations of oceanic lightning," IEEE Journal of Geophysical Research, Vol. 109, 2004
13) K. R. Moore, P.C. Blain, S. D. Briles, R. G. Jones, "Classification of rf transients in space using digital signal processing and neural network techniques,". Applications and Science of Neural Networks, Proceedings SPIE, Vol. 2492, pp. 995-1006, 1995, URL: http://composite.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http://nis-www.lanl.gov/nis-projects/forte/index.html
14) S. Briles, K. Moore, R. Jones, P. Blain, P. Klingner, D. Neagley, M. Caffrey, K. Henneke, W. Spurgen., "Innovative Use of DSP Technology in Space: FORTE Event Classifier,".1998, URL: http://nis-www.lanl.gov/nis-projects/forte/doc-archive/external_docs/icspat29139/icspat2.pdf
15) http://www.rasr.lanl.gov/PowerAware/Publications/files/Nov01_PACC_PI_IAT.ppt
16) K. R. Moore, J. F. Wilkerson, et al., "A Space-based Classification System for RF Transients". Proceedings of the International Workshop on Artificial Intelligence in Solar-Terrestrial Physics, Lund, Sweden, p. 205, 1993
17) A. R. Jacobson, S. O. Knox, et al., "FORTE observations of lightning radio-frequency signatures: Capabilities and basic results," Radio Science, Vol. 34, 1999, pp. 337-354
18) D. M. Suszcynsky, M. W. Kirkland, A. R. Jacobson, R. C. Franz, S. O. Knox, J. L. L. Guillen, J. L. Green, "FORTE observations of simultaneous VHF and optical emissions from lightning: Basic phenomenology," Journal of Geophysical Research, Vol. 105, No D2, Jan. 27, 2000, pp. 2191-2201
19) http://www.forte.lanl.gov/science/index.shtml
20) http://www.forte.lanl.gov/science/WVpublications.shtml#satelliteoperation
21) M. W. Kirkland, D. M. Suszcynsky, J. L. L. Guillen, J. L. Green, "Optical observations of terrestrial lightning by the FORTE satellite photodiode detector," Journal of Geophysical Research, Vol. 106, No D24, pp. 33,499 –33,509, Dec. 27, 2001, URL: http://www.agu.org/pubs/sample_articles/ae/2000JD000190/pdf/2000JD000190.pdf
22) D. M. Suszcynsky, M. Kirkland, P. Argo, R. Franz, A. R. Jacobson, S. Knox, J. L. Guillen, J. Green, R. Spalding, "Thunderstorm and Lightning Studies using FORTE Optical Lightning System (FORTE/OLS)," 11th International Conference on Atmospheric Electricity, June 7-11, 1999, Guntersville, AL, USA, URL: http://www.osti.gov/bridge/servlets/purl/7428-PmZymk/webviewable/7428.pdf
23) D. M. Suszcynsky, T. E. Light S. Davis, J. L. Green, et al., "Coordinated Observations of Optical Lightning from Space Using the FORTE Photodiode Detector and Imager," Reg. LA-UR-00-341,
24) M. W. Kirkland, D. M. Suszcynsky, R. Franz, J. L. L. Guillen, J. L. Green, R. E. Spalding,, "Observations of terrestrial lightning at optical wavelengths by the photodiode detector on the FORTE satellite," Rep. LA-UR-98-4098, LANL, 1998, URL: http://forte.lanl.gov/science/publications/1998/Kirkland_1998_1_Observations.pdf
25) D. M. Suszcynsky, M. W. Kirkland, T. E. Light, J. L. L. Guillen, J. L. Green, "Coordinated Observations of Optical Lightning from Space Using the FORTE/OLS Photodiode Detector And CCD Imager," AGU 1999 Fall Meeting, San Francisco, CA, Dec. 13-17, 1999


As I have mentioned in my previous post on writing essays (FCE), check lists work really well with students as they helped them to stay focus and complete the task correctly. So, I have decided to make some more check lists.
Ask students to have the check lists right in front of them when writing the tasks and to make sure that they go through the check lists.
Collect essays and mark them.
When giving the essays back encourage students to add missing points from the check lists.
Before correcting the essay get students to swap letters.
Hand-out a new check lists handout and get students to read and tick the points used in the task.
Students get their writings back and add any missing point.
Teacher collects writing and marks them.
Divide your letter into short paragraphs.
Write about a different idea in each paragraph.
1st paragraph: Greet your friend in the introduction.
2nd paragraph: Refer to your reason for writing.
3rd paragraph: Focus on the exam questions (for example: describe the event and say what people did).
4thparagraph: Say why this event was important for your country.
5thparagraph: Ask your friend to write back.
5thparagraph: Finish your letter in an informal way.
It's really nice to hear from you.
I'd love to help you with/ tell you more about.
I thought you might be interested to hear….
I'm going to tell you about….
As far as I know…..
If you have found this blogpost useful make sure to download the checklist on the essay too.
Click here for the checklist. More substantial post are coming up soon and if you'd like to check them out you can follow the blog😊😊😀.
How to use this idea: Get students to cut down and then stick the caterpillar in their notebooks. Then, get them to write a word and a sentence using the words from the caterpillar (as seen in the example).
This is what my students have made! Isn't cute?
How to play: write the following questions in different cards and cut them down. Place them in a box. Student A draws a questions and tries to guess how Student B would have answered the question. Student A and B write the answer down and show their answers with the count of 3. If the answers match they get a point.
1. What's my favourite colour?
2. What are the place I would like to visit?
3. What's my favourite food?
4. What's the food I hate the most?
5. How many minutes do I take to get dressed?
6. What are the things I carry with me all the time?
7. What my favourite subject at school?
8. What my worst subject at school?
9. What annoys me the most?
10. What's my favourite sport?
11. What's the craziest thing I have done?
12. What do I usually have for breakfast?
13. What my favourite song at the moment?
14. Where am I going on holiday this Christmas/Easter?
15. What's my favourite TV show?
16. What do I do in my free time?
17. What's my favourite kind of sweet?
18. Which is my favourite type of film? Horror, Comedy, Action etc..
19. If I could meet anyone, who would it be?
20. What would I do if I won the lottery?
21. What's my favourite kind of sandwich?
22. What's my favourite hobby?
23. How do I spend my free time?
After finishing the game we worked on fluency. So I asked my students to answer the questions, expand their answers and I recorded them. In that way, I had the chance to listen to the audio again and correct some basic mistakes. To avoid making them feel embarrassed I gave them the corrections in handouts and we practised again. This activity is great for students preparing for exams.
Click here to download the handout with the questions.
Hey everyone. It's been so many years I wanted to read this book and I've finally started it this week. So here are my notes on Chapter one and some ideas on how to go about it.
Some others are not fully fixed but can be filled with a limited number of partner-words.
Types to take into consideration.
Almost fixed expressions, which permits minimal variation It's/That's not my fault.
Spoken sentences with a simple slot: Could you pass…….. please?
Expressions with a slot which must be filled with a particular kind of slot-filler. Hello. Nice to see you. I haven't seen you + time expression with for or since.
Sentence heads which can be completed in many ways. What was really interesting/ surprising/annoying was. . . .
More extended frames such as those for a formal letter or the opening paragraphs of an academic paper. For example, There are broadly speaking two views of. . . .
Preparing learners to get maximum benefits from text.
My reaction and how to go about it.
I decided to set the next academic goal and implement this approach in my teaching. First I will draw my students' attention to chunks and also find ways to help learners achieve the three highlighted above (A) talk about what is probable in English and not what is possible (B) organize their notebooks (C) and get maximum benefits from texts.
Encourage learners to write down chunks and avoid writing single words. Example: Instead of writing down the word 'lack', write 'lack of' and common words that follow 'lack of food', lack of money' e.t.c.
The lexical Notebook should be personalised, learners should free to write down lexis that are particularly helpful to them.
Train students to use a dictionary and look up more expressions related with the target word. For example, as seen in Oxford Advance Dictionary, Idioms with lack – not for want/ lack of trying.
Ask them to formulate their own example, it can be personal or something they made up.
Get them to find more examples at home (using the web) or write down more examples.
Take notes when students are speaking; write down common expressions students usually translate from their L1 but don't sound natural in English.
To encourage them do that I adapted the 'Thought-Speech-Bubble from the book (as seen in page 82).
Start of with a discussion related to the topic, a debate or a role play. Write down interesting words,expression or collocations on the whiteboard. Students schematic knowledge will be activate and students learn from one another.
After reading, get students notice patterns, collocations and expression and WRITE them down in their notebook.
Another activity is 'Find the expression that means…..' from the reading texts. In this activity ss work on synonyms and scan the texts to find the answer.
– What was the word you recorded for……?
– Can you put three expression you put in your notebook last week?


We all know disaster can strike at any time. And there are many different types of disaster that can cause the lights to go out–which is why you need to be prepared to live off the grid.
It could be a direct attack on the power grid or it could be a pandemic that slowly decreases the population to the point that there is no one left to run the power grid. Whatever the scenario, there are ways to prepare so that you and your family will still be able to enjoy the use of power–even if you have to live outdoors.
Yet, going off the grid doesn't always have to be permanent. There are circumstances in which it is a long-term situation and circumstances in which it is a short-term problem. But even if you are off the grid because you are on the move between locations, everything you choose to use must be part of your bug out bag.
Now, before we get into what you need for living off-the-grid, let's take a look at how the grid can go down.
A natural disaster can take out the power grid no matter where you live. If you live on the west coast, earthquakes are a serious concern. To the south and east hurricanes can wreak havoc. Even in the north, where winter reigns for half the year, a severe ice storm can knock out power for days–even weeks.
Fortunately, when a natural disaster strikes, it is generally confined to a specific region. This is something we can bounce back from. Life will go on. But you still need to be prepared for a bare minimum of two weeks off the grid.
A strong electromagnetic storm coming from the sun can knock out entire power grids for days or weeks at a time. This happened in 1998, causing the entire province of Quebec, Canada to go dark for nine hours.
The same effect can come from an electromagnetic pulse (EMP). An EMP can come in the form of an attack in which a nuclear bomb is detonated a few miles above the earth's surface. It will render all electronic devices and the power grid unusable across hundreds–even thousands–of miles.
Another form of attack on the power grid is a cyber attack. Consider the Sony hack, which is believed to have been done by North Korea. A hack like this on the U.S. power grid could severely disable the grid, causing widespread damage.
Any disaster that might significantly reduce the human population could affect the power grid. Prime among these is a pandemic. If a large percentage of the population was to become sick and/or die, there might not be enough people left to keep the power grid running.
The grid may have gone down temporarily or you might be on the move and not able to plug into the grid. The key here is that you are not permanently removed from the grid. Instead, you are without power for a matter of hours or days.
● Flashlight: Have extra flashlights on hand to ensure you always have light. Be sure to also have extra batteries.
● Headlamp: You should have this in addition to a flashlight. It leaves your hands free to work. Make sure the headlamp is water resistant. And again, be sure to have extra batteries on hand.
● Candles: Candles offer a good source of light and they throw off some heat, as well. Have a supply of candles you can burn to see in the dark.
● Lantern: Using oil lamps or kerosene lanterns is a great way to provide yourself with light when the grid is unavailable.
Pro Tip: Use devices/flashlights that take all AA or all AAA batteries. This way, you can carry just one battery type for all your electronics.
● Camp fire: Cooking over the open fire is a great way to survive when there is no power. It will also help keep you warm. Just be sure it is safe to do so and that the fire will not alert passersby that you are there.
● Camp stove: A camp stove is a great way to cook when there is no electricity. Just be sure you have extra fuel on hand.
● Rocket stove or other portable stove: Small, portable stoves are ideal when you are on the move. These stoves can fit in your bug out bag and are highly effective and efficient.
● Camp fire: Again, a camp fire will keep you warm and allow you to cook and boil water.
● Wood stove: It's Ideal if you are in a permanent location and can have a wood stove installed. This will keep you warm and will also allow you to cook. Plus, wood is always available. Avoid pellet stoves as you can run out of fuel over the long-term and not be able to replenish.
● Portable heater: A propane or kerosene heater is ideal when it comes to heating small spaces. Note that it will be easier to find fuel for a propane heater if you don't have access to power and heat for an extended period of time. Most backyards have a barbecue with a propane tank attached to it.
Pro Tip: Always have a fire starter kit and another way to start a fire in your bug out bag. You should have at least two ways to start a fire with you at all times.
If you will be off the grid temporarily, then you will still want to charge and use your devices with a portable solar charger. When they are charged, you can still access files on your computer. You can still watch movies or listen to music to pass the time. You can still use your smartphone to communicate if there is service.
● Use devices that take batteries.
● Use a portable solar charger to charge your devices. Ideally, the charger should be foldable for easy transportation and have ports to charge smartphones and tablets.
When you go off the grid for an extended period of time, you will still need to be able to produce light, cook your food, stay warm, and use your devices. However, you will need longer-term solutions to the problem.
Most of the solutions listed above will also work when off the grid for the long-term. You can still use flashlights, camp stoves, fires, and wood stoves. However, it is ideal to have a way to generate and store electricity for ongoing use. With this in mind, here are some additional tips when living off the grid for weeks, months, or indefinitely.
● Rechargeable batteries: Rather than keeping dozens of packs of batteries on hand, use rechargeable batteries.
● Battery charger: You'll need a battery charger to charge those batteries. Get a charger that charges both AA and AAA batteries. You can get one that plugs into a standard outlet or one that charges via a USB port. If you get a charger with a digital display, you can see how much charge your batteries are holding.
● Solar power generator: This is key if you are going to be off the grid for an extended period of time. This will allow you to charge devices and batteries and keep everything running smoothly. Plus, a solar power generator won't make a lot of noise the way a gas generator does. This will help you avoid drawing attention to yourself. If you plan to power a computer, you will need about 12 V of battery power.
● High-capacity power bank: You will want to store the power produced by your generator. The key is to find a power bank that can charge devices and be charged at the same time.
Pro Tip: No matter which portable solar charger or solar power generator you choose, make sure it's compatible with your power bank so you are constantly storing power whenever sunlight is available. Also, make sure the power bank doesn't require unplugging and re-plugging if the sun goes away and comes back out. It should automatically start recharging your power bank.
There is always the potential that there will be no cell phone service in an emergency situation. Yet, communication is critical because you need to know what is happening in the world. For this reason, you will need another way to communicate with the outside world when you cell phone is not an option.
The best two options for communication are the CB radio and HAM radio. Despite what many people think, these radios are not quite the same. HAM radio users must be licensed and HAM radios have a greater range than CB radios. Both are useful when off the grid, but HAM is more useful.
Regardless of whether you are off the grid for a short period of time or the long-term, you need to be prepared. Being off the grid might be as simple as being in transit to your bug out location. It could be bugging in with the grid down. It could be being on the move, either in a vehicle or on foot, either temporarily or permanently.
If you prepare based on the information given above, you will be able to stay connected to the world and safe when off the grid. This will give you peace of mind regardless of the situation at hand.
Did we miss something? Please, tell us your thoughts and ideas for off-the-grid in the comments section below.