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Seeing Double with Weta Digital's Gemini Man
© 2019 Paramount Pictures. All Rights Reserved
Creating digital humans with Nuke and Katana
As we've touched on before, de-aging is becoming more widely used within the VFX industry. With more than five films using the technique last year alone, one that stood out amongst the many was Weta Digital's Gemini Man.
Their goal was to "finally cross the uncanny valley and bring to screen a totally emotive digital human", Guy Williams, VFX Supervisor for Gemini Man, tells us. While we have seen digital reincarnations in films before, Junior—Will Smith's digital counterpart—is one of a kind, as up until now no studio has attempted to create a wholly digital human cast in a leading role.
We caught up with Scott Chambers, Compositing Supervisor, Alessandro Saponi, CG Supervisor, and Guy Williams at Weta Digital, to explore how they created a living, breathing and acting digital human in the form of Junior.
Creating a digital Will
The team at Weta Digital knew creating a realistic digital human was the key to the film being a success—Junior would be centre stage, with nothing to hide behind. So they started with the tech they already had and used it to create their first version of digital Will, saving scrutiny for later. From this, they could start to figure out what didn't look or feel right, decide on the best way to fix these different aspects, before implementing them into Junior.
"Some of the things we tackled were a new system for creating and simulating the pores on a character's face," Guy tells us. "A new representation of the human eye, how it sits in the eye socket, proper representation of skin as a volume of light absorbing pigments, instead of a surface with simple textures and light scattering, and full integration of spectral light, surface and volume math in our system."
They repeated this countless times, until Junior finally started to take form.
While the project was already unique due to the aforementioned digital human, it wasn't the only obstacle the team had to crack. Gemini Man was also shot at a high frame rate, which proved to be impactful in various ways.
It had more obvious impacts like an increase in the render time by 40x, meaning the team had to find efficient and creative ways of getting approval without blowing their entire budget on a render wall. There were also more subtle impacts, like the team having to send thousands of frames for review which on a normal show may take five minutes, but on Gemini Man sometimes took almost half a day.
"Then, of course, there was paint and rotoscoping. We knew they would take a hit but it shocked us how much more time the high frame rate (and extra resolution and native stereo) added to the time to prepare the plates for compositing. In the end, it came down to very talented people leaning into the challenge and getting it done," Guy Williams tells us.
Thankfully, the team at Weta Digital had Nuke on side to help with all their compositing needs which proved to be a saving grace, especially on such a complex and unique project such as Gemini Man.
"Nuke is the first port of call for cutting edge work," Scott Chambers explains. "We were not only working in 4k, 120 fps but also in stereo which made for high precision compositing. Nuke rose to the challenge by being memory efficient and scalable—at all resolutions and frame rates."
The team found that a large part of the compositing work for Gemini Man consisted of manipulating, repairing and often creating backgrounds from scratch. This was largely due to the use of stand-in performers, head rigs and, on occasion, bluescreens.
"The projection suite of tools in Nuke was invaluable to help us manage this work—not only in compositing but also our sister departments, Digital Matte Painting and Paint and Rotoscoping," Chambers continues. "The ability to jump in and out of 2D textures, to camera projections while at the same time keeping quality and detail was a breeze for us with Nuke."
Nuke also played a significant role in creating Junior, the team leveraging its toolset to assist in their pursuit of digital human excellence. Chambers tells us: "Nuke was integral to the fine detail work we had to complete. From subtle black level adjustments, rotoscoping and paint live manipulations in the comp—Nuke was able to scale effortlessly between brute force broad strokes and dainty, delicate refinement."
Lighting the scene
However, it wasn't just Foundry's Nuke that helped the team create Gemini Man. Katana also stepped up to the mark, playing a fundamental role in the more complex lighting set-ups.
"With Katana, we were able to block the lighting across the shot very quickly in a coherent way, just as a DP on set would have done," Alessandro Saponi tells us. "We were able to go back on individual shots and refine the lighting and the shading in a non-destructive way. This helped us to not only work on the shots but also to keep an eye on the progression of the entire sequence where Junior had a very complex range of emotions . . . The constant refining of the lighting and shading, via the exposed palette control, gave us the possibility to refine the entire sequence in the most minute details, producing an excellent result."
What's more, Katana allowed for the very complex set-ups to be condensed in a single node, with the right parameters exposed. This enables the team at Weta Digital to work in a more user-friendly way, alongside giving the Senior Technical Directors more flexibility to create tools themselves.
"We built the skin and blood compression and procedural wrinkles set up as part of the lighting template. The tools were able to check for production data in the database and turn themselves on or off, plus they could set any parameters in accordance with the production tags. This helped not only the TDs and the production team, but it also aided the render budget management."
"With Katana, we were able to build a solid template for the lighters, either on a Show or Sequence level," Saponi continues. "With that, the artists were able to be productive and were able to present the shots in dailies very quickly. This also allowed leads to intervene by adding render quality adjustments as required without having to interrupt the lighter's work."
Reaching the uncanny
All in all, making Junior took over two years. The team worked tirelessly to ensure Gemini Man was a success in their efforts to effectively cross the uncanny valley, using Nuke and Katana to aid in their conquest.
"Nuke was our sole package used for all of the compositing work on the show. We've used Nuke for some time at Weta Digital and have grown to rely on it for all of our compositing needs. It ties in well with our pipeline," Guy Williams tells us.
"Same goes for Katana, which was used extensively on the show. All scene construction and lighting was done in Katana and Mari was used to paint the (very) high resolution texture maps for the young Will Smith."
"We would struggle to do the show without these packages. I can't even think of a stronger candidate to replace Nuke for compositing. It is just made right to allow us to build our pipeline tightly into it," Guy continues. "As for Katana, its flexible nature allowed us to leverage the success of one shot across an entire sequence easily. That allows us to spend more time making it look good and less trying to get it through the system."
Be like Guy: free up time and unlock creativity today
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Feature Films Compositing Look Development Lighting Foundry Tools
Crafting chasms and creature chases in Jumanji: The Next Level
Cooking up a slow turkey with The Mill, Mari and Nuke
Look development, lighting and texturing on Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse


The Institute of Psychology offers a complete study programme for psychology including bachelor, master, and PhD degree. Besides that, several other study programmes are supported.
As a consequence to the high number of students there exist rather strict regulations on the registration to courses and to exams. These rules are explained in detail on the pages under student services.
Please note that most of these pages are available in german language only since (i) mastery of german is a prerequisite for being admitted as a student anyway and (ii) much of the information provided has a somewhat legal character and only the german version is binding.


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Michael Hicks: Indiana's hospital monopolies
By MICHAEL HICKS
Thursday, December 17, 2020 11:38 AM
MUNCIE – Summary: Our hospital monopolies are financially damaging to Indiana's economy and Hoosier families. Last Sunday night I sat in front of the TV a few extra minutes basking in the Colts victory. Much to my delight, the venerable "60 Minutes" teaser announced they'd profile the civil anti-trust case of Sutter Health in Sacramento California.
This reporting should be interesting to Hoosiers and their elected leaders. Here's why.
Since the Affordable Care Act was passed, healthcare systems in the United States have been rapidly acquiring independent hospitals. They have also bought up physician practices and specialty care clinics. This potentially limits patient choice of hospitals and monopolizes the stream of patients flowing into their facilities. Hospitals in the U.S. have also structured contracts that force bundles of services on employers.
Anyone who had a good American history course in high school might remember that these are textbook examples of those business practices that were prohibited by Gilded Age Anti-Trust laws. The landmark case was U.S. v. Standard Oil, which set the stage for modern anti-trust.
Today, you can replace 'oil company' with 'hospital system,' 'independent oil producer' with 'physician office' and a tuxedoed John D. Rockefeller with a smiling CEO/physician in a lab coat, and you have much of today's healthcare markets. It is a problem ripe for litigation.
Almost one year ago, Sutter Health was sued by the State of California for anti-trust violations like those listed above. Sutter settled the case an hour or so before stepping foot into the courtroom. They agreed to pay $575 million to the State of California, submit to a special pricing oversight for the next ten years and end their anti-trust practices. They got off lightly.
What should surprise and anger Hoosiers is that much of Indiana suffers healthcare markets that are more monopolized market areas than Sacramento. In fact, close to one-half of Indiana's healthcare markets as defined by the Affordable Care Act are more monopolized than the one in which California brought suit against Sutter Health. There are a lot more issues that should trouble us.
California residents pay 16.2% of their incomes for healthcare, while Hoosiers pay 20.8%. Since 2000, California residents saw their cost share of health spending grow by only about half the rate that of Indiana families. Today Indiana's hospital monopolies are financially damaging to Indiana's economy and Hoosier families.
The "60 Minutes" story also highlighted the vast cost differences that exist between hospitals in the highly monopolized and more competitive regions of California. Their example was on a childbirth, which is twice as expensive in the Sutter Health region as in a nearby city. That prompted me to check the data for Indiana.
I chose my community because I live near a hospital in one of the most monopolized healthcare markets in the United States. As it turns out, a normal delivery at my local hospital in Muncie was priced at $19,488. The closest hospitals outside this healthcare market was in Anderson. The prices for the same procedure were $7,386. The closest hospital inside the same healthcare market charged $21,305 for the same procedure, and of course that was part of the same not-for-profit healthcare company.
Now, just to be clear, these aren't my data. The hospital pricing data are those submitted by these hospitals to the federal government. Nor are the monopolization data sets mine; they come from a study funded by the IHA to discredit my work. Oddly enough, the IHA-funded study actually reported levels of monopolization that are above the U.S. Department of Justice threshold to trigger anti-trust intervention in every single Indiana healthcare market. It is also worth noting that in 2018 and 2019 Sutter Health was less profitable than Indiana's top four largest hospital chains. As a painful reminder, all of these hospital chains are not-for-profit firms.
Of course, the defenders of hospital monopolies will argue that the price differences have real causes. They'll say operating costs are different, or they'll sponsor some public health researcher to claim there are vast differences between the behavioral health characteristics in these two places. They will claim that these factors account for a normal delivery in Muncie to be a bit more than twice the cost of Anderson. After all, John D. Rockefeller made the same arguments.
Now, I'm sure this column will prompt another round of op-ed pieces by monopoly apologists complaining about my biases and general ignorance of economics. Again, that is right out of John D. Rockefeller's playbook, and if you are going to run a successful monopoly, he provided a superb example.
Of course, I should remain silent about the upcoming attacks and whining letters to my employer. After all, I'm unlikely to be a good judge of my own shortcomings. But, I will say this much in defense of the dozens of hospital monopoly studies. When it comes to hospital pricing and profits, you may believe either what they tell you in newspapers, or what they tell the IRS and other federal agencies; you cannot believe both.
Oh, and there's one more interesting twist on the Sutter Health case and its implication for hospital monopolies around the country. California's attorney general, Xavier Becerra, who brought suit against Sutter Health, has been nominated to head the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I am so looking forward to 2021.
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Time to inoculate General Assembly complex from COVID threat
This year's Indiana General Assembly is conducting the "peoples' business" in unprecedented fashion during the COVID-19 pandemic. Its plate is full with issues ranging from the governor's emergency powers, to teacher pay, redistricting and forging the biennial budget. Thus far, only State Sen. Vaneta Becker is in quarantine due to COVID exposure, but Speaker Todd Huston and Senate President Rod Bray have suggested that disruptions are quite possible due to the pandemic. There have been accounts of a lack of widespread masking at the Statehouse, as well as a lack of enforcement. This problem can be quickly and resolutely solved if Huston, Bray and the Indiana Department of Health make arrangements to have the entire day-to-day General Assembly complex - legislators, staff, lobbyists, press - inoculated as soon as possible. This should not be viewed as the powerful jumping the line; this needs to happen to ensure the peoples' business is conducted in a safe and timely fashion. - Brian A. Howey, publisher.
HPI Power 50: Crisis shapes 2021 list
By BRIAN A. HOWEY
and MARK SCHOEFF JR.
INDIANAPOLIS – After two decades of publishing Power 50 lists in the first week of January, this one comes in a true crisis atmosphere. As we watched in horror the U.S. Capitol being overrun by supporters of President Trump on Wednesday, the COVID-19 pandemic has killed more than 8,000 Hoosiers and 350,000 Americans, shutting down our state and nation for nearly two months last spring. While vaccines are coming, there will be a distinct BC (Before COVID) and AC delineations as this epic story comes to a close. It gripped like a vise key figures, from Gov. Eric Holcomb to Vice President Pence. It delayed an election, closed schools and restaurants, reordered the way we do business and buy things, and will set in motion ramifications that we can't truly understand (like the virus itself) at this point in time. There's another crisis at hand. It's our society's civics deficit, fueled by apathy that transcends our schools and societal engagement, and allowed to fester by a news media in atrophy. That three members of the Indiana congressional delegation – U.S. Sen. Mike Braun and Reps. Jim Banks and Jackie Walorski – signed on to a protest this week, induced by losing President Donald Trump to "investigate" widespread vote fraud that doesn't exist, is another indicator of the risks a polarized and undisciplined political spectrum brings to the fragile American democratic experience.
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Q: optuna lightgbm integration runs endlessly I'm using optuna.integration.lightgbm.train and adapting this example with my data, which has about 1M rows in the training set and 700K in the validation set.
But I have been waiting for more than 20 hours and the process does not finish after a while, I notice It has started to overfit since the validation metric (ROC AUC) is very close to.999
Sample code:
params = {
    "objective": "binary",
    "metric": "auc",
    "verbosity":1,
    "boosting_type": "gbdt",
}

model = lgb.train(
    params,
    dtrain,
    valid_sets=[dtrain, dval],
    callbacks=[early_stopping(3), log_evaluation(3)],
    show_progress_bar = True,
    time_budget = 1,
    early_stopping_rounds = 2
)

How can I speed up this and/or set the number of rounds it should run?

A: I'm having trouble too.  Some suggestions: 1) add a pruner to callbacks something like:
pruning_callback = optuna.integration.LightGBMPruningCallback( trial, metric = "binary_logloss", valid_name = "valid_0" )
lgb.train(
, callbacks = [ pruning_callback, early_stopping(100), log_evaluation(100 )]
)

*don't use lgb.train() but instead use

model = LGBMClassifier( objective="binary", **param_grid, n_jobs = -1 )
model.fit()

Also, I can't get early_stopping( min_delta = 0.01 ) to work. ( parameter not recognized ) but this would help ( if I got it working )

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Q: related categories - database design I'm looking for a little database design advice...
I have a spreadsheet with a few columns in it. Column 1 being a list of categories and the rest being related categories(to the category in column 1). I'm trying to figure out what the best way to setup the tables would be... My thought so far is to have a table that just lists the categories then have a table with 2 columns that holds the id of the category and the id of a related category.... Would this be the best way to do this? Any better ideas?

A: A self referencing table (parentId to childId) is how most people implement a hierarchical structure like the one you are describing.

A: m:n relations should always (maybe there are exceptions) be made with extra table for relations. So it should be the most flexible solution

A: Your way is the best.  Academics would call it resolving a reflexive many-to-many relationship with an associative entity, but it's nothing more than what you described.


One group of Zambians who is suffering a little less than the rest during this time of drought is the street kids.
Above: Audrey proudly stands in front of her school at the University of Zambia.
Nineteen year-old Armstrong lives with his mother and sister in a rented two-room cinder block box of a house.


text:
Vrinnevisjukhuset är ett länssjukhus i Norrköping som grundades 1988 och drivs av Region Östergötland. Sjukhuset har omkring 310 vårdplatser och cirka 2 200 anställda. Det samarbetar även med Medicinska fakulteten vid Linköpings universitet, samt övriga vårdcentraler och sjukhus i regionen.

Referenser

Noter

Region Östergötland
Norrköping
Länsdelssjukhus
Sjukhus i Östergötlands län

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
5 Most Popular Websites for Free Online Games in 2023
Home»Gaming»5 Most Popular Websites for Free Online Games in 2023
I've spent time playing games on websites online to ensure quality, check for ads and see what's available for free. All the types of games are online (computer browser) and mobile (phone/tablet browser). After that, I've listed the 5 Most Popular Websites for Free Online Games in 2022.
1. Crazy Game
Crazy Games is a great website to check out if you're looking for online games. There's a huge selection of games for you!
The best thing about Crazy Games is that you can play without interruptions from intrusive ads. You'll see ad banners on the page, but you won't have any video advertisement pop-ups. Not only that, you can access Crazy Games on any device and have a perfect mobile experience. I'm sure you'll enjoy playing it!
No intrusive ads (just ad banners on the page)
You can play online or on your phone without having to download anything.
You can't create an account to track progress or add friends.
2. Free Online Games (FOG)
Free Online Games (FOG) allows you to play games for free on your computer and your mobile device without downloading any apps. The most popular games on this website seem to be more action-oriented. Anyway, you can browse the games by category under the "More Games" tab.
During the time I spent on FOG, I saw a few ads for other games on the site as well as video advertisements during breaks in gameplay. But you could enable the ad blocker to stop it.
It's optional for you to create an account to keep track of your progress and rank on high-score boards.
Mobile versions of games are available without having to download apps
Big variety of games and categories
Few ads
You have to disable your ad blocker to play
3. Agame
Agame offers thousands of online games including single-player and multiplayer modes. You can play all of the games for free without having to create an account, but expect to see a few advertisements. You had to watch as many as three video advertisements (10-30 seconds each) before playing some games.
If you want to create an account, you can. With an account, you can invite friends and add other members playing online together.
Several video advertisements before you play
Not all games run smoothly in mobile browsers.
4. Armor Games
Armor Games is another great resource for finding free online games in categories especially MMO (Massively Multiplayer Online), strategy, adventure and action.
Most of the games that you've found online at Armor Games are also available as apps for iOS and Android devices, which means you can download them to your mobile device and continue playing away from the computer. You will also find a lot of unique and interesting games created by Armor Games and independent developers.
You can create a free account on the website to keep track of your high scores and favorite games, but the account isn't necessary to play.
Few to no ads
Many games are also available as apps.
Lack of classic games
5. MSN Games
MSN Games is also known as Zone.com, and it offers single-player and multiplayer games in a variety of categories.
While I was browsing the games, I found that some full versions were available for free while other games were available only as free trials or pay-to-play options. You can click the "Free online" tab to filter your results.
Unfortunately, the format wasn't the best for a phone. On a tablet or a device with a bigger screen, the games would have run much more smoothly.
No video ads
Big selection of classic and new games
No account required
Some games are only available as free trials or pay-to-play.
The mobile website may not be formatted correctly for your device.
Play Tetris Addicting Game for Free
Bejeweled Addicting Puzzle Game
Free Online 'Casual' and Brain Teasing Computer Games
Free XBox Live Arcade Classic Games Online - Frogger,…
Grand Theft Auto V (GTAV): Premium Edition Free Full Game…
Cedega Reviews
XNA Game Studio Express 1.0 Officially Released for Free…
Upload, Share or Download Free Mobile Games, Ringtones,…
By TS|2023-01-29T19:22:58-08:00Modified: January 29, 2023August 23rd, 2022|Categories: Gaming|Tags: gaming, online games|0 Comments
About the Author: TS
TS is a computer science graduate from an established university. He is a technology writer for Tech Journey with background in software programming and has been involved in various design, development and implementation of enterprise projects.


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Q: Can Azure Service Bus be exposed both as public as well as private end point? I have a requirement where one of our customers wants to interact with our service bus through a VPN. So, I figured out that the VPN can be set up and enable a private endpoint in the service bus which can be linked to the same virtual network as the VPN virtual network. By doing this the customer can talk to the Azure Service Bus through the VPN connection(please correct me if this is also not possible). But, doing so will shut the communication to the Azure Service bus via the internet which the other customers are already using. Is there a way to satisfy both customers in Azure?

A: The short answer is that you can run both public network access and private endpoint at the same time. This goes for other PaaS services as well.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/service-bus-messaging/private-link-service
If you Disable the public network access, then you restrict all traffic to the service bus namespace over private endpoint only.
You should use Selected networks for optimal security, so other people can still continue to use it.
Private Endpoint should be seen as how externals can communicate to the PaaS service. Many Azure services are dependent on the public endpoint thus disabling that will break functionality.
NB: The service bus namespace must be Premium.


text:
Downtown Dining
Cary Parks
The Solar Farm on the Parking Deck
September 7, 2011 /1 Comment/in Environment, Featured /by Leslie Huffman
Story by Leslie Huffman, photo by Hal Goodtree.
Cary, NC – Back in 2007, the North Carolina General Assembly implemented the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Portfolio Standard (REPS). Under this law, investor-owned utility companies in North Carolina (like Duke Energy) are required to meet 12.5% of their electrical needs through renewable energy sources.
Now, Cary is forging ahead with an innovative plan for a solar farm on a parking deck.
Following this legislative action, the Town of Cary investigated the possibility of installing renewable energy generation equipment, specifically a photovoltaic (PV) solar energy system, on various locations on Town properties. The initial sites were selected based on available space, suitability for the efficient collection of solar energy, and future expansion plans.
Recently the Town of Cary committed to a partnership with FLS Energy, a solar systems installer out of Asheville, to install and operate solar panels on Town of Cary property. FLS Energy will first install solar PV equipment on the Town Hall Campus Parking Deck and Roof Structures.
The second installation of the PV solar systems will be located at the South Cary Water Reclamation Facility. This project is currently under design and is anticipated to begin construction in early 2012 with installation of Phase I completed in a little over a year.
Creating Revenue for the Town
The power generated will be returned to the distribution grid as a renewable source of energy. The estimated Phase I installation capacity will be approximately 2.265 megawatts of solar energy and offset 2.2 tons of greenhouse gas emissions annually. This is enough energy to power 217 homes which should increase with each subsequent installation.
"We will have one of the largest publicly housed solar power system in the state," said Steve Brown, Town of Cary Public Works & Utilities Director. "Being able to partner with FLS Energy gives us the ability to create revenue for the Town while generating more renewable energy."
Once Phase I is complete, the Town, along with FLS Energy, will evaluate the possibility of further installations to be located at the North Cary Water Reclamation Facility, the Cary/Apex Water Treatment Facility and the Garmon Operations Center on James Jackson Avenue.
The partnership with FLS Energy, not only saves the Town of Cary the cost of installation and maintenance, but will generate income for the Town by leasing the Cary properties at the Town Hall Campus Parking Deck and South Cary Water Reclamation facility to FLS.
Over the lease period, there will be no direct cost to the Town of Cary. FLS Energy will install, operate and maintain the system. FLS Energy will pay the Town approximately $0.02 per watt of installed capacity. Based on the anticipated capacity of the system and this lease rate, the Town will generate as much as $45,000 per year in general revenue for use of the lease sites.
The Town will lease these sites to FLS Energy for at least 6 years and up to 20 years. At that time, the value of the project to the Town of Cary will be considered. The Town will evaluate the performance of the system throughout its life cycle and make a recommendation to the purchase of the equipment, or termination of the contract, at a later date. After approximately six years, the Town will have the option to purchase the equipment at a depreciated amount.
Tags: energy, Environment, Solar Power, town of Cary
https://carycitizenarchive.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/cary-solar-farm.jpg 270 480 Leslie Huffman https://carycitizenarchive.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/cc-archive-logo-450-v3.png Leslie Huffman2011-09-07 17:00:062019-12-07 17:01:27The Solar Farm on the Parking Deck
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Panthers Beat: The Panthers and Personal Happiness Events: Remembering 9/11 Through Music


text:
Study Smarter, Not Harder With These Tech Tips
By Best Buy August 18, 2017
Studying is studying whether you're a second-grader or a second-year grad student. It's sometimes boring and often time consuming, and for most students it's an essential part of doing well in school.
But, it can be much easier.
Agent Noelle St. Andrew, from Richfield, Minnesota, juggles work, her personal life and school. She has come up with some tips to help students of any age study smarter, not harder.
Here's what she recommends.
'Write' it down
Writing things down has been shown to help you remember them better.
"Stylus-ready devices like the Surface Pro, iPad Pro, Spectre and Yoga allow you to use Windows Ink," Noelle says. "You can be reading something then quickly stop to take notes. It even converts your notes to text."
The devices are lightweight for students' bags, too.
"I've had my Yoga for five years. It's so easy to transport," she said.
Tune out distractions
Noelle struggled when she started her degree program. "When I tried to study, I was constantly having to tell my dog to be quiet or stop doing something," she said. "It was distracting."
Now, Noelle studies at a desk away from distractions. She also recommends wireless over-ear headphones by Bose, JBL or Sony, to tune out racket while keeping cords out of the way.
"Wireless headphones let you move up to 30 feet away from the device you're playing music on," Noelle says. "They're great for when you need to get a snack from the kitchen."
When you have a lot of studying to do, every minute counts. And voice assistants like Google Home and Amazon Echo help save time.
"I use Google Home all the time," Noelle says. "When I'm studying, I ask it simple questions and get quick answers. It's pretty helpful."
Voice assistants also connect to smart devices to play music, set reminders (for that upcoming test!) and more.
Bright, clean lighting helps maintain alertness, which is critical for studying. But natural lighting isn't an option at night or in a windowless room.
"I use the Philips Hue Ambiance Starter Kit, which changes colors when I need it to," Noelle says.
The cool, bright daylight setting is ideal for illuminating study spaces, while the warm, white setting relaxes eyes before bedtime.
Philips Hue lights also have adjustable brightness and can be controlled through a smart device or voice assistant, making them convenient to use.
Sign up for back to school deals at BestBuy.com/StudentDeals, and find more back to school tech at BestBuy.com or by chatting with an expert Blue Shirt at your nearest Best Buy store.


At Smoot Law Office, P.C., we work hard to meet your legal needs, no matter what. While we provide a wide range of essential legal services for businesses and individuals, we continue to focus in the areas of: Commercial Debt Collection, Business Litigation, Real Estate and Estate Planning.
We can help your business. Sometimes just letting a debtor know we have become involved is enough to compel payment. If not, we can use tools such as attachments, injunctions, mechanic's liens and material man's liens to attach property and compel payment.
If court action is required, we will do everything we can to obtain a favorable judgment for you. We also have experience enforcing judgments. An unsatisfied judgment is a blemish on anyone's credit report, and often that will compel satisfaction of the judgment. However, when it does not, we will use every tool at our disposal to enforce the court's judgment and compel payment.
If your business is struggling with outstanding debt collection, contact us at once. Let us worry about collection so you can focus on serving your customers.
A substantial portion of our business litigation practice is dedicated to representing clients embroiled in disputes over franchise agreements and product manufacture agreements and distribution agreements.
Because we have experience representing clients in these selected areas and we work with clients to negotiate terms and design franchise and product manufacture and distribution agreements; we have the knowledge and experience to give you the advantage in any dispute. If you are worried your dispute may be headed for litigation, let us go to work for you. Contact us at anytime to discuss your situation.


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Veterans at Under the Hood respond to Obama's withdraw annoucement
published by Aaron Hughes on 06/26/11 12:41pm
Local Killeen news covers IVAW members Scott Kimball and Aaron Hughes respond to Obamas address to the country at Under the Hood GI Outreach Center.
Local soldiers and vets mixed on Afghanistan withdrawal
We talked to Fort Hood soldiers and veterans Wednesday night to get their reaction to President Obama's troop withdrawal plans in Afghanistan.
Opinions were very mixed, from the timetable - to the mental health issues that many deployed soldiers are battling today in Afghanistan.
There was some applause to the President's speech and some eyebrows raised from the crowd at Buffalo Wild Wings in Killeen. Soldiers and vets alike say they are relieved to know troops are coming home, but for those that have been deployed with delayed end dates, they say they are not believing the end is here yet.
One ranking service member at Fort Hood who withheld his name says, "I've waited for this message for 10 years. Finally I got it and I'm happy!"
This soldier that has deployed to the region three times says he is happy that troops are coming home. Some vets also told us they were happy to hear that the withdrawal will be spread through 2014. Retired U.S. Army member, Robert Fleming says, "It's pretty good to do a gradual thing because it helps with the stability of everything."
But several veterans that deployed to Iraq and are now part of Iraq Veterans Against the War say President Obama should not wait to bring all troops home now. "The back of the military has been broken," says Scott Kimble, who served in the Army. "It's time to bring our troops home so the people in the military can heal."
Former National Guard member, Aaron Hughes says, "Why does one more mother have to go with losing her son or daughter? Why?"
While there is an end in sight for the war in Afghanistan, many veterans say the battle is far from over. "For us, the battles are just beginning," says Hughes, "and that's why we need to get all these service members home now, because until we get them all home, that battle is just gonna be prolonged."
Several active duty service members talked with us off camera and the common thread is that they want troops safe at home, but only with the knowledge from top military advisors that it will not jeopardize safety here or in Afghanistan.
Reported by: Britney Glaser/Photographer: Carlos Ramirez
IVAW Not Endorsing 'Open Carry March on Washington'
May 8, 2013 Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) neither endorses nor is affiliated with Adam Kokesh's 'Open Carry March on Washington' planned for July 4th. This event is in direct conflict with our Resolution That IVAW...
Wounded Iraq Vet Prepares to Die, Saying He's Ready to Go'
Wounded Iraq Vet Prepares to Die, Saying He's 'Ready to Go' By SHUSHANNAH WALSHE | ABC OTUS News – 10 hours ago ABC OTUS News - Wounded Iraq Vet Prepares to Die, Saying He's 'Ready to Go' (ABC News...
Dying Operation Iraqi Freedom Veteran writes to former President Bush and Vice-President Cheney
An Iraq War veteran who joined the U.S. Army two days after 9/11 has written a powerful open letter to former President George W. Bush and ex-Vice President Dick Cheney accusing them of war crimes, "plunder" and "the murder...
Dying Operation Iraqi Freedom Veteran writes to former President Bush and Vice-President Chenney
Organizer Maggie Martin is interviewed about our work at Fort Hood, 11 years into America's longest war.
This article by Sarah Lazare published by War Times on September 9th 2012 features an interview with IVAW organizer Maggie Martin and offers insight into our powerful organizing work at Fort Hood. Please read and share the...
IVAW Members and documentary On the Bridge featured on NPR: Worldview
Director Olivier Morel and Iraq Veterans Against the War member Vincent Emanuele featured on Worldview and discuss war, trauma and living 'On The Bridge.'A decade ago, French filmmaker Olivier Morel traveled across...


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Q: Cannot access Apache server from Android phone I have a WAMP server running on my Windows 7 PC. I wish to access it from my Android phone's browser.
Example: A HTML page on my server (localhost/example.html) should be accessible on the Android phone's web browser (192.168.1.xx/example.html)

*

*Both the devices are in the same range of IPs 192.168.1.xx

*The httpd.conf for my Apache contains Listen 80

*It is accessible from other PCs on the same network (Home LAN)

*Windows Firewall is turned off.

EDIT : Whoa! it works from my office WLAN. Can anyone explain what might be the reason for that?

A: I am using IIS on my windows 7 and I am calling a page from my Android phone succesfuly. Url is like this:
http://192.168.1.xx/example.html
I lived in the same issue and I turned off any firewall on my windows 7 and I gave acces Everyone to my virtual directory's physical folder now it is ok...


In this workshop we will explore the main reasons why a Business Plan should be prepared.
Why write a business proposal/plan?
* Vital information in opening and maintaining your business.
A plan should consist of basic elements and here are a couple..
We look forward to seeing you for a fun filled packed hour of learning how to prepare a Business Plan.
In this workshop, participants learn the how & why to complete a cash flow for their business.
More importantly, this session will speak to the why & how to use the cash flow statement to successfully lead your business.


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Los Angeles Theater Review: THE CHANTEUSE AND THE DEVIL'S MUSE
by Harvey Perr on September 22, 2011
in Theater-Los Angeles
David J's The Chanteuse and the Devil's Muse is not so much a play as it is an art installation. But, as an art installation, it has a terrible beauty and some moments of bizarre theatrical innovations that linger in the memory.
While it purports to be an investigation of the Black Dahlia murder, the unsolved Los Angeles crime that has mesmerized America since the late forties, it is content to serve up its revelations in terms of startling images rather than in-depth exploration. The body of the victim, Elizabeth Short, severed in half, becomes a dance macabre in which the torso and the lower part of the body, separated from each other, dance in concert. Butoh artist Vangeline performs hypnotic doll-like movements with scarily electrifying results. An extended sequence which brings to us the penultimate scene from Robert Aldrich's apocalyptic film noir version of Mickey Spillane's Kiss Me Deadly will drive you home eager to see the entire film. The noirish mood is further enhanced by some scenes wherein Detective Lt. Frank Jemison (Douglas Dickerman) questions blues singer Madi Comfort (Daniele Watts), a possible mistress of suspect George Hodel; these scenes are the only real connection to theater and, if they had been developed, could have made for strong stuff, since Dickerman and Watts are certainly the right actors. Watts's limpid portrait of Comfort, slow and emotionally inscrutable, looking as if she's either nursing a cold or has just snorted some heroin, tells us more about the woman than the writing does, and her torch song is so smoky, one wants to hear even more.
Indeed, the entire piece has been developed around a song cycle originally written by David J (of Bauhaus and Love and Rockets) in collaboration with Ego Plum (of Ebola Music Orchestra) and which they perform, largely in silhouette, behind a makeshift screen, accompanied by violinist Ysanne Spevack; it is clearly the raison d'etre behind The Chanteuse and the Devil's Muse and has its own eerie intensity.
Do all the pieces come together? Not really, but the brief evening is as tantalizing as it is self-conscious, and its peculiarities do make some sort of impact.
harveyperr @ stageandcinema.com
The Chanteuse and the Devil's Muse
at the Bootleg had to close early for financial reasons
there is one (1) final performance on November 16 at another theater, as previously scheduled in the event Theatrefication.
For more information regarding The Chanteuse and the Devil's Muse at Theatrefication on November 12, please visit http://www.theatrefication.com.
For question concerning tickets purchased thru Bootleg for the cancelled shows, please contact jessica @ bootlegtheater.org
or visit http://www.bootlegtheater.org/theater.html


Harold Holzer's latest book, Monument Man: The Life and Art of Daniel Chester French, is now available. It is the first full-length, lavishly illustrated biography of the sculptor of the statue at the Lincoln Memorial.
Harold delivers the annual oration at the Gettysburg National Soldiers' Cemetery on November 19, 2017—to mark the 154th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address. Photo: Henry Ballone.
Harold addressing the January 24, 2016 HistoryMiami symposium on "Abraham Lincoln and Immigration."
Harold is on Twitter! Follow Harold for insights on Lincoln, updates on appearances, and general musings and behind-the-scenes photos.
Holzer shows us an activist Lincoln through journalists who covered him from his start through to the night of his assassination when one reporter ran to the box where Lincoln was shot and emerged to write the story covered with blood. In a wholly original way, Holzer shows us politicized newspaper editors battling for power, and a masterly president using the press to speak directly to the people and shape the nation.
Read reviews in The New York Times and The Washington Post.


#SoWeightless is Lakme's new Product and Its Brand Ambassador!
For the media launch and shoot of Lakme's new foundation product, the Lakme 9to5 Weightless Mousse Foundation, the brand wanted a spectacle that would bring to life the product tagline "#SoWeightless". And what does that better than a gravity-defying vertical dance performance on the face of a building?
CAB Experiences, the event agency, brought down the international act "Bandaloop", pioneers in the area of vertical dance performances, who have truly stunning body of work, from the US to do just that on the Four Seasons Hotel in Mumbai on Jan 9. Given our expertise in executing vertical feats (our own or arranging for someone else to do it) Natura was brought on board to handle the rigging for Shraddha Kapoor, Lakme's brand ambassador, who would also be part of the performance.
Of course, stringing Ms. Kapoor up (pardon the pun) was not our only role for this spectacle. After all, without the relevant banners, these are just people dancing on the side of a building and no one knows why! So, we also rigged two 4x100ft banners on the building, which could be easily raised and lowered on the building with a motor (we think they added a certain something to the performance *wink*).
The end result of all our work, and Bandaloop's of course, was a breathtaking feat of ethereal choreography and aerial brilliance, topped off beautifully with Shraddha as the crowning touch. Now that's how you do weightless!


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Fleet charging with green energy: complete package from Envision Digital and Lumenaza paves the way to a climate-neutral company
The two software companies Envision Digital Germany and Lumenaza announced the expansion of their offering specifically for fleets today. Envision Digital is a specialist for AIoT-based complete solutions for charging electric vehicles (EVs) as well as a pioneer of climate neutrality through smart energy management, while Lumenaza is a software as a service platform operator for the green, decentralized energy world. The complete package "Charging by EnOS" makes the changeover easy for companies and employees. The package consists of a charging box suitable for a charging location at the office site or at the front door, installation services by in-house electricians, a green electricity tariff that matches the vehicle and driving behaviour, and an integrated and automated billing and reporting tool.
Climate-friendly e-mobility through green electricity
The new coalition in Germany aims to put 15 million all-electric vehicles on the road by 2030. To achieve this, the electrification of fleets is an important lever: according to the statistics database Statista, commercial owners accounted for around 63 percent of new passenger car registrations in 2020. In order to accelerate sustainable electrification, Envision Digital and Lumenaza believe that integrated solutions that allow charging with green electricity of verifiable origin are needed. This need is met by the complete package "Charging by EnOS".
The advantages: the all-round package works independently of manufacturers, the electricity comes 100 per cent from renewable energies in Germany, and the fiscally complex accounting is simplified via the tool. At the same time, companies can monitor and reduce their CO2 balance and thus contribute to climate neutrality.
Easy charging with 100 per cent green electricity of verifiable origin
Only those who charge with 100 per cent green electricity are totally climate-friendly on the road. To enable EV drivers to charge with 100 per cent green electricity from verifiable sources, Envision Digital and Lumenaza have been working together since 2020. Envision Digital ensures that the right charging box is chosen and guarantees installation and maintenance by in-house installers. Lumenaza delivers smart tariffs and electricity of green origin. What started as an offer just for private individuals is now being expanded for the business environment.
Drazen Nikolic, Managing Director of Envision Digital in Germany, says: "Envision Digital sees itself as a technology partner on the road to climate neutrality. Together with Lumenaza's energy and software expertise, we can join forces and leverage synergies. We are pleased to work with Lumenaza to advance the transformation of the mobility and energy sector that is so necessary for climate protection, and to offer companies and private individuals a solution that guarantees that they can set up their mobility in a climate-friendly way."
Christian Chudoba, CEO and founder of Lumenaza, adds: "Our partnership with Envision Digital will act as an important driver in the advancement of the electrification of mobility. Together, we are making green e-mobility accessible to end-customers. This requires simple and transparent offers for companies and end-users. Our modular and scalable energy as a service platform, combined with Envision Digital's smart charging solutions, provides companies with easy-to-use electricity products. Our approach makes this contribution to climate protection truly measurable.
About Envision Digital:
Envision Digital is one of the world's leading greentech companies. The software company focuses on the digital transformation of the energy industry with the aim of using energy more efficiently and thus making an essential contribution to a sustainable future. At the core of this is the company's own Energy Operating System EnOS, a software based on Artificial Intelligence of Things (AIoT) for the intelligent management of energy. Around EnOS, Envision Digital offers a wide range of services in the field of electromobility for private individuals and companies, for smart buildings and smart cities.
With "Charging by EnOS", the company supplies an all-in-one package for private charging stations and company fleets in the electromobility segment. The package includes the intelligent charging box, professional installation and an attractive green electricity tariff including smart meter. The "Charging by EnOS" charging solution can be expanded into a comprehensive AIoT solution in the private and business environment.
German Envision Digital is a subsidiary of Envision Digital, headquartered in Singapore, which employs around 500 people in twelve offices worldwide.
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Located a 15-minute walk from Lourdes Sanctuary and Notre-Dame Basilica, Hotel Le Milan offers a 24-hour front desk, a terrace and free WiFi access. Viewing the city, each room here includes a balcony, a desk and a private bathroom with a shower and free toiletries. Restaurants and bars are located nearby. Other facilities offered at the property include a shared lounge with a TV and a lift. The hotel is just 600 metres from Lourdes Train Station. Free public parking is available at a nearby location.


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Archive for the 'Sharp Thompson Berwick Pratt' Tag
Vancouver Community College – Dunsmuir Street
The Downtown campus of the Vancouver Community College started life as the Vancouver Vocational Institute, designed by a leading local architectural firm of the day, Sharp Thompson Berwick and Pratt. It was one of the earliest examples of the International Style in Vancouver, and the Pender Street façade is still looking much as when Bob Berwick designed it in 1948.
Here on Dunsmuir Street the façade of the building is quite different from our 1974 'before' image. A 1983 expansion added a new larger structure, and reclad the street wall with reflective glazing. Today the whole building is a heritage structure, although it's unlikely that redevelopment of this heavily altered element would raise many objections.
The Community College was built on the site of the 1892 High School, which in turn was re-purposed as the city's Art School in the 1930s.
Image source: City of Vancouver Archives CVA 778-68
Posted October 12, 2017 by ChangingCity in Altered, Downtown
Tagged with Sharp Thompson Berwick Pratt, Vancouver Community College
YWCA – Burrard and Dunsmuir (2)
We saw an earlier version of a YWCA building in this location in an earlier post. This later building was much bigger; and didn't really last very long. We think our picture dates from the late 1970s or possibly early '80s. The low-rise part of the building here dated back to 1951 and was designed by Sharp, Thompson, Berwick, Pratt, while the residential tower was added over a podium with a pool and gym, designed by Vladimir Plavsic & Associates and completed in 1969. In 1995 there was replacement YWCA hotel on Beatty Street, and a new YWCA (designed in-house by Bentall's Charles Bentall Architects) on Hornby Street. Two years later the old YWCA building seen here was imploded.
After a few years delay the site became part of Bentall Five, a new office tower built in two phases – the top 11 floors were completed in 2007, three years after the first 22 (when sufficient tenants had been found to make the additional space a viable scheme). To enable the phased construction to occur, a staging area had to be retained, and that's where Musson Cattell Mackey's Cactus Club Café was built once their design for the office tower was complete.
Posted August 28, 2017 by ChangingCity in Downtown, Gone
Tagged with Sharp Thompson Berwick Pratt, Vladimir Plavsic
Bank of Ottawa – West Hastings Street
Here's the Bank of Ottawa on the corner of Seymour and West Hastings in 1912. The new eight storey building was designed by W Marbury Somervell, but probably slightly changed by Somervell and Putnam (as it has a 1911 building permit in their name). It cost $225,000, and pictures of the construction show a reinforced concrete frame rather than all steel. The building bears a very strong resemblance to the BC Securities Building which is three blocks away and completed a year later to HS Griffith's design.
The speed that construction could be completed on commercial buildings can be seen from the Contract Record report of September 1910. Work was just starting on the building site, clearing the existing buildings and excavating the basement, and it was expected the whole thing would be complete by May 1911, with occupancy coming a month later. There were 16 offices per floor above the banking floor, and the quality of the building was obviously aimed at all the other office buildings competing for tenants "The entrance to the vestibule and lobby will be handsomely done in marble, while the floors above will be trimmed throughout in birch and finished with mahogany. Other features of this latest addition to Vancouver's tall buildings will be a vacuum heating system throughout, hot and cold water in all the offices, the Durham plumbing system, mail chute equipment, vacuum cleaning system for all the offices, and commodious toilet rooms on every floor." The successful contracting bid came from McDonald and Wilson who started work in October 1910 and as far as we know completed on time.
In 1919 the Bank of Ottawa were merged with the Bank of Nova Scotia, and it stayed a branch of the new owners for over 30 years. In 1956 noted local architects Sharp, Thompson, Berwick and Pratt were given the design job of enlarging the bank building. The new project stripped the old building to its frame, replaced the small tobacco store with the billiards room behind (The Maple Leaf Club in 1946) that was next door and the restaurant with rooms over beyond that, and created a simple new office building which was nearly twice the size of the original. A more recent building upgrade in 1987 added an elegant projecting metal cornice to the building.
Posted August 14, 2012 by ChangingCity in Altered, Downtown
Tagged with Bank of Ottawa, Sharp Thompson Berwick Pratt, W Marbury Somervell


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China, US start trade talks ahead of March tariff deadline
By The Associated Press February 13, 2019 at 7:03pm
BEIJING (AP) — U.S. and Chinese negotiators began trade talks Thursday that President Donald Trump says will help decide whether he escalates a fight over Beijing's technology ambitions by raising tariffs on $200 billion of imports from China.
Businesspeople and economists say the two days of talks are unlikely to resolve the battle that threatens to drag on weakening global economic growth. They say Chinese negotiators are trying to persuade Trump they are making enough progress to postpone a March 2 deadline for the duty increase.
The chief American envoy, Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, and his Chinese counterpart, Vice Premier Liu He, shook hands at the start of the meeting at a government guesthouse but said nothing to reporters.
There are few signs of movement on the thorniest issue: Washington's demand that Beijing scale back plans for government-led creation of global competitors in robotics and other technologies. China's trading partners say those violate Beijing's market-opening obligations and some American officials worry they might erode U.S. industrial leadership.
Trump agreed in December to postpone more tariff hikes while the two sides negotiate. That expires March 1. The following day, a 10 percent tariff imposed in July on $200 billion of Chinese imports would rise to 25 percent.
On Tuesday, Trump said while he is not inclined to extend the deadline, he might let it "slide for a little while" if talks go well. Earlier, the White House called March 2 a "hard deadline."
Business groups see the decision by the top trade envoys, Lighthizer and Liu, to take part in person as a sign the negotiations are making progress. Thursday was their second meeting following negotiations last month in Washington.
The U.S. delegation also included Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and David Malpass, a Treasury undersecretary who is Trump's nominee for World Bank president.
Companies on both sides have been battered by Washington's tariffs and retaliatory duties imposed by Chinese President Xi Jinping's government. The stakes are rising as global economic growth cools.
Trump hiked tariffs on Chinese goods over complaints Beijing steals or pressures companies to hand over technology. The dispute has spread to include Chinese industry development, cyberspying and the countries' lopsided trade balance.
Chinese leaders have offered to narrow their multibillion-dollar trade surplus with the United States. But they balk at making major changes in development plans they see as a path to prosperity and more global influence.
Chinese officials reject complaints that foreign companies are required to hand over technology. But business groups and foreign governments point to rules they say compel companies to disclose trade secrets or share technology with state-owned partners.
Chinese officials also are balking at U.S. pressure to accept an enforcement mechanism to monitor whether Beijing carries out its promises.
Beijing has tried to deflect pressure by emphasizing China's growth as an export market. It has announced changes over the past year to open finance and other fields, including allowing full foreign ownership in its auto industry for the first time.
GOP Congressman Who Voted to Impeach Trump Announces Retirement
Regulators have announced plans to improve protection of foreign patents and copyrights.
It is unclear whether that will satisfy Washington and other governments that complain the system is rigged to extract technology from foreign companies and to use official industrial standards to shield Chinese enterprises from competition.
AP journalists Christopher Bodeen and Emily Wang contributed to this report.
The Western Journal has not reviewed this Associated Press story prior to publication. Therefore, it may contain editorial bias or may in some other way not meet our normal editorial standards. It is provided to our readers as a service from The Western Journal.
WJ Wire
The Associated Press is an independent, not-for-profit news cooperative headquartered in New York City. Their teams in over 100 countries tell the world's stories, from breaking news to investigative reporting. They provide content and services to help engage audiences worldwide, working with companies of all types, from broadcasters to brands.
The Associated Press was the first private sector organization in the U.S. to operate on a national scale. Over the past 170 years, they have been first to inform the world of many of history's most important moments, from the assassination of Abraham Lincoln and the bombing of Pearl Harbor to the fall of the Shah of Iran and the death of Pope John Paul.
Today, they operate in 263 locations in more than 100 countries relaying breaking news, covering war and conflict and producing enterprise reports that tell the world's stories.
NFL Player Arrested for Allegedly Attacking Police Officer While Nude
Airlines Warn This Week's 5G Launch Will Have Catastrophic Impact: 'The Nation's Commerce Will Grind to a Halt'
Study Finds Additional Booster Shot Provides Limited Defense Against Omicron
US Makes Major 'False Flag' Accusation Against Russia


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Humana (NYSE:HUM) said Monday lead director Kurt Hilzinger will become chairman when Michael McCallister retires at the end of the year.
The move, designed to give Humana's new executive team ample time to adapt to sweeping health-care policy changes, will reduce the health insurer's board from 11 to ten people.
"I have full confidence that he will continue to ensure corporate governance and accountability to our shareholders remain at the forefront for our directors," McCallister said, who has served as chairman since August 2010.
Louisville, Ky.-based Humana said the swap will take place on December 31.
Hilzinger has been a member of Humana's board since July 2003 and was elected as lead director in August 2010. He has served as a Partner at Court Square Capital Partners since November 2007.
Shares of Humana were flat recently, trading around $99.93. They have risen close to 46% since January, when McCallister handed the reins of CEO to Bruce Broussard after a decade at the helm.


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Drive elite success and deliver and promote world-class knowledge and facilities.
Grow elite success and keep Queensland winning
Enhance sport performance excellence and success by ensuring talented Queenslanders are supported through:
quality coach and athlete pathways
investment in high performance programs, services, knowledge and partnerships.
Deliver opportunities and support for high performance athletes to connect and inspire communities.
Invest in and encourage innovative approaches to human performance to benefit and support physical activity for the broader community through:
collaborative research, innovation and technology development
communication, exchange and translation of knowledge.
Invest in the redevelopment of the Queensland Sport and Athletics Centre as part of a sport ecosystem to support performance innovation and excellence.
Provide world-class fan experiences through major sports and entertainment facilities
Invest in existing Stadiums Queensland venues to ensure they meet industry and community standards and expectations and can continue to attract world-class events that provide quality spectator and fan experiences.
Establish a cross-agency decision-making framework to form an integral component of planning and investing in sport and other major events around Queensland.
Encourage targeted investment to strengthen event infrastructure across the state and build the capacity and capability to host large events in regional areas.
Invest in public infrastructure that benefits the broader visitor economy, and improves community experience, including precincts of importance and sport infrastructure.
Success looks like
growing impact of the Queensland sport and active recreation industries
enhanced systems for high performance success
a knowledge ecosystem supporting innovation and success
major sport facilities providing a great fan experience and are successful in attracting events.
Email sportrecstrategy@hpw.qld.gov.au.
Register for updates.
Case study: From Kingaroy to Olympic glory
Taliqua Clancy was the first Indigenous beach volleyballer to compete at an Olympic Games when she took to the sand at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games.
Growing up in the landlocked regional town of Kingaroy, more than 200 kilometres from a beach, she began playing indoor volleyball, but also competed in netball, touch football, swimming and cross country.
At the age of 16, Taliqua's talent was identified at a school sport competition. She received a scholarship for the Queensland Academy of Sport Volleyball program and moved to the city. Here she was exposed to beach volleyball for the first time and thrived under the direction of her coaches and fellow athletes before moving into the national program.
Making her Commonwealth Games debut on the Gold Coast in 2018, Taliqua claimed the silver medal. She is also a regular on the podium throughout the Beach Volleyball World Tour circuit.


Centre de Sciences Nucléaires et de Sciences de la Matière (CSNSM) - Ultra-Carbonaceous Antarctic Micrometeorites reveal a new type of cometary material.
Accueil > In the headlines > Ultra-Carbonaceous Antarctic Micrometeorites reveal a new type of cometary material.
Finally… excitement in Rutherfordium !
Congratulations to Martin for Best Oral Presentation Award at the 2018 Spring E-MRS international conference !
Ultra-Carbonaceous Antarctic Micrometeorites reveal a new type of cometary material.
A multidisciplinary team involving researchers from the IAS, CSNSM and SOLEIL SMIS/beam line, has characterized in the laboratory the organic component from exceptional organic-rich interplanetary dust particles, i.e. Ultra-Carbonaceous Antarctic MicroMeteorites (UCAMMs).
Interplanetary dust particles travel across the solar system and represent the largest mass flux of extraterrestrial material falling on Earth as micrometeorites, with sizes up to a few hundreds of micron. The UCAMMs characterized in this work were recovered from Antarctic snow at the vicinity of the Concordia Station . UCAMMs represent a small fraction of the micrometeorite flux but contain large amounts of organic matter with characteristics differing from other type of extraterrestrial material.
In this work, the authors performed the first systematic survey of height UCAMMs by means of synchrotron infrared microspectroscopy (µ-FTIR), visible Raman spectroscopy and electron microprobe analyses. The results reveal an organic component with a low aliphatic CH versus aromatic C=C ratio. This UCAMMs organic component is nitrogen-rich and oxygen-poor compared to carbonaceous chondrites and IDPs. The µ-FTIR spectra are in agreement with the presence of ketone or aldehyde functional groups and some spectra show both IR and Raman nitrile signature. The spectra are compatible with the presence of C-N bondings in the carbonaceous network, and are significantly different from that reported in organic matter extracted from meteorite. Finally, the silicate-to-carbon ratio in UCAMMs is well below that reported in both IDPs and meteorites.
This comprehensive set of results indicates that the formation of this specific organic compound occurs via physicochemical mechanisms taking place in a cold, nitrogen rich environment, exposed to energetic radiations (photons, cosmic rays), like the surface of icy parent bodies in the outer solar system. Both the C/Si and N/C abundance ratios measured in this work are the highest observed in solar system solids. This peculiar composition of UCAMMs provides an additional hint of the presence of a heliocentric positive gradient in the C/Si and N/C abundance ratios in the solar system protoplanetary disc evolution.
The UCAMMs provides new insight on the composition of the surface of small icy bodies well above the Neptune orbit, and participate to a better understanding of the origin of interplanetary organic matter.
This experimental research is detailed in a recent article published in Astronomy and Astrophysics and highlighted by this journal.
This work was funded by national programmes (PNP, PCMI), the centre national d'études spatiales (CNES), the ANR, the DIM-ACAV, Paris-Saclay University and the CNRS. The micrometeorite collect at the Concordia Antarctic station was financially and logistically supported by the IPEV.
 The Concordia Station is operated by the french and italian polar institut (IPEV and PNRA).


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Home › Campaign News › It's a beautiful spring day in Huntington!
This morning – Parkview Huntington Hospital, a top 100 nationally recognized health care provider – Healthy Steps event this morning!
This afternoon – Habitat for Humanity Community Build – helping families achieve the dream of home ownership!
This evening – YFC Auction and fish fry at Hiers Park – getting teenagers connected with their faith.
And all day long – Flowers!
A great day to live, work, play, connect, and be a citizen of Huntington.
‹ Historic Erie Rail Trail bridge nearly completed!


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However, it is safe and highly respected. Its office is situated in Cyprus, it is actually reinforced by the national financial regulatory activity which has been given the sustenance and certificate to function in the market. The broker has a primary class program that has been regulated for the monetary transactions as well as for the personal data security at the same time. The firm holds the XTrade which is also available in over a hundred and forty locations with their program that includes the Europe.
There are 2 kinds of accounts in XTrade. One is the Standard account which requires the members to deposit around $100. However, the Premium account mandates around $1,000 to open up. When it comes to the features XTrade is very much like in terms of trading since it is forthright and there are no unwanted fees required. The buy & sell costs on the other hand in terms of the obtainable tools are shown on the primary sheet of the place and to be of help to the new traders to comprehend the interchange procedure thus showed some samples of different trades that are given. Aside from the standard trading type of account, there is a preparation version that is obtainable for the novice traders who are just dipping their feet off in the CFD trading or even more veteran traders who are actually wanting to try out some new methods in trading.
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Q: Improving dV/dt turn-on immunity of a mosfet without increasing turn-off time I'm designing a solid state battery disconnect switch and I want to improve the mosfets' turn-on immunity (high dV/dt on Vds) without impacting the turn-off time. I don't really care about the turn-on time, it can be 100x slower than turn-off time, no problem.
I came up with this solution:

C1 obviously improves the immunity and D1 should leave the turn-off time the same. Did I miss something? is there a better way to do this?
NB: mosfet's datasheet is available here and the driver's datasheet is here. I'll use a +/- 12 V symmetric supply and the driver will drive 10 mosfets in parallel.

A: I simulated your circuit using a similar FET with a transient suppressor added, switching a 'short circuit' drawing 1000 amps from a 50 V battery with 10 nH of wiring inductance. It 'worked' in that it had no effect on the switch-off time or power dissipated during the transition. However in this scenario the transition is slowed down by Miller effect, so (assuming adequate transient suppression) you should not have to worry about Dv/Dt causing the MOSFET to turn on again.
So when might Dv/Dt be a problem? One possibility could be if the battery is plugged in while the FET driver is not powered. In this case there could be a fast rising Drain voltage with only weak resistance pulling the Gate down. But would this cause the FET to turn on? Looking at the MOSFET's capacitance graph we see that Gate-Drain capacitance is ~800 pF at 50 V, while Gate-Source capacitance is ~12 nF. That corresponds to a division ratio of 16:1, so 50 V on the Drain could produce ~3.1V on the Gate. As the threshold voltage is between 2 and 4 V the FET might partially turn on for a few microseconds.
By adding extra capacitance to the Gate your circuit increases the capacitive division ratio which makes the power-on transient Gate voltage lower, (hopefully) ensuring that the FET stays turned off when an external voltage is applied.

A: Your MOSFET driver 1EDI has excellent description !
"The 1EDI EiceDRIVER™ Compact is a general purpose MOSFET gate driver.
....
The separated rail-to-rail driver outputs simplify gate resistor selection, save an external high current bypass diode and enhance dV/dt control."
So You can control On and Off time simply by selecting two resistors:
 Ron from Out+(ON) to Q1gate and
 Roff from Out-(OFF) to Q1gate;
There is no need of any other components!
time on = Ron.Ciss;
time of = Roff*Ciss;
{FDBL86361-F085 Ciss Input Capacitance VDS = 40 V, VGS = 0 V, f = 1 MHz − 12800 − pF}
Aprox. calculations for single MOSFET:
Ron=100R; Ciss=13nF=12e-9F; Ton=1.3e-6s = 1.3uS
Roff=10R; Ciss=13nF=12e-9F; Toff=1.3e-7s = 130ns
If you will drive 10 mosfets in parallel then Ciss will increase 10 times.
About driver supply: It is better to use bipolar to "prevent a dynamic turn on of the MOSFET".
P.S.  If you want to decrease dV/dt simply add an inductance to the load in series. (with all the consequences)

A: Besides your suggestion, there is something else you can do in order to reduce the unwanted gate voltage rise due to the parasitic leakage current.
Consider the following circuit:
The mosfet is permanently grounded through the resistor R1 and a square wave with a slew rate of 100n is applied to its drain.
How it works: the leakage current is mostly a function of the parasitic capacitance and the slew rate dV/dt of the drain voltage. Thus, once the drain voltage starts to increase, part of it is coupled through the capacitor C2 and used to turn on the BJts. Due to their high speed, a few bipolars are connected in a cascade fashion in order to increase even more their gain. For a short moment, the gate of the mosfet is shorted and the parasitic capacitance is discharged.
In the waveform you see the effect of not using the circuit (C2 ~ 1p) and with a coupling capacitor (10n). Using this approach the gate voltage dropped by half. I must say that I never saw something like that in any application. The slew rate used in the simulation is extremely high (fast), and probably does not represent a real load.
P.S.: I did not consider any side effect of this proposal.

A: I used the solution I gave in the question with:
C1 = 100 nF (min 90.7 nF calculated with Crss = 1.7 nF, Vds = 64 V and Vgsth = 1.2 V)
R1 = 47 k (value not critical, BoM reuse)
D1 = STPS1L30
Also be warned the inductive voltage spike at turn-off is actually a significant problem contrary to what I thought, you must do something about it if your application is similar to mine. NB: TVS/zener diodes aren't good enough if your working voltage is 64 V and the mosfets have a Vdss of only 80 V.

A: Why not simply increase the switch-on resistance by adding R3?

simulate this circuit – Schematic created using CircuitLab


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Big Data Enterprise and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory
i-REAP
IoT-enabled Real-time Energy Analytics Platform (i-REAP) for commercial buildings
Summary and project details on I-REAP.
i-REAP will develop a one-step solution to measure, predict and optimize energy consumption in commercial buildings utilising the latest in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Internet-of-Things (IoT) based hardware, to develop a complete "whole building approach" to driving down costs of improving thermal efficiency in existing buildings.
It will develop an affordable solution that will provide a personalised and optimal energy consumption regime. It will contribute to fast-forwarding the adoption of AI and IoT for energy savings and help the Building Sector to move from 'reactive' approaches to 'predictive' ones developing guidelines for ideal retrofitting actions and low carbon heating.
£1.5 million
Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (DBEIS)
Teropta Ltd
Costain Ltd
The adoption of thermal efficiency measures has been slow, and the use of low carbon measures for existing buildings accounts for only 1.6% of all the heat used in buildings (UK's Committee on Climate Change 2016). Main barriers are the lack of awareness of the benefits and financial constraints. This project will develop a whole building approach to drive down costs of improving thermal efficiency in existing buildings. It will produce an affordable solution to provide a personalised and optimal energy consumption regime. It will contribute to fast-forward the adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Internet-of-Things (IoT) solutions for energy savings and help the sector to move from 'reactive' approaches to 'predictive' ones.
An IoT-enabled Real-time Energy Analytics Platform (i-REAP) for commercial buildings will be developed as a one-stop solution to measure, predict and optimise energy consumption. i-REAP will leverage the characteristics of each building to optimise heating/cooling operations and develop guidelines for ideal retrofitting actions and low carbon heating technologies. The following are the attributes of i-REAP:
Measure: i-REAP will use off-the-shelf IoT-sensors to capture real-time changes in temperature, energy consumption, and user occupancy. Then, it will integrate the data acquired with historic and current weather data, heating/cooling equipment specifications, architectural designs, and building fabric characteristics.
Predict: Using the compiled data, i-REAP will leverage Machine Learning techniques (e.g. deep neural networks, long short-term memory neural networks) to predict future energy consumption patterns 24 hours a day and 365 days a year.
Optimise: Novel evolutionary and deterministic optimisation models will use the predicted energy consumption patterns to optimise and control the operation of the heating and cooling equipment. For example, the energy demand for heating units could be dynamically adjusted based on weather changes and the number of users at any given time in the building.
Ideal retrofitting and low carbon heating technologies: Once i-REAP system has been running for a time, it will have the necessary data to identify which elements of the building fabric are responsible for the greatest thermal losses. This data will be used to develop a guideline for optimal retrofitting of the specific building. i-REAP will also identify the most beneficial low carbon heating technologies given the specific context of the building.
The combination of IoT and AI will facilitate the development of truly predictive energy consumption models, prescriptive operation plans, and personalised retrofitting and low carbon technologies guidelines, which are not currently available in the market. The main outputs include:
i-REAP application is the interface in which the user can check the status of the IoT-devices (sensors, processors, controls, etc.), view the predicted energy demands, monitor, and adjust the heating/cooling operations, and track the achieved energy savings.
i-REAP personalised simulation audit platform, which will run what-if scenarios to determine which parts of the building fabric will improve thermal efficiency the most if retrofitted. It will also identify which low carbon heating technologies are the most effective.
List of current projects for Big Data, Enterprise and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (Big-DEAL).
News and media coverage for Big-DEAL (Big Data Enterprise and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory).
Details of Big-DEAL's past and completed projects.
Contact details for Big-DEAL.


Elsie M. Cecrle of Lincoln, passed away at Legacy Terrace in Lincoln on Sunday, May 4. Memorial services will be conducted from the St. Wenceslaus Catholic Church in Milligan at 10:30 a.m. Friday. Private graveside services at the Bohemian National Cemetery. Rosary service at 10 a.m. Friday prior to the funeral mass. No public visitation, cremation. Memorials in care of the family. A complete obituary will appear in The Nebraska Signal.


Stephen Curry will be the first Golden State Warriors player to start in the NBA All-Star Game since Latrell Sprewell in 1995. Sprewell didn't have to wear a red sleeved jersey, though.
Curry's All-Star attire is already available for purchase in the NBA store, and it is interesting looking, to say the least.
The 100 percent polyester jerseys are made by Adidas and will set you back $59.95.
They should ship in time for the All-Star Game on February 16 in New Orleans.
Not a huge fan of the jersey, but always a fan of Steph!


Published 04/19/2019 07:18:56 am at 04/19/2019 07:18:56 am in Spring Lock Coupling.
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