When you're thinking of purchasing your first home theatre system or consider upgrading, where do you start? Usually the speakers, but what size speakers do you need? Selecting the correct speaker size is important for many reasons, usually you go in the retail store, look around and if you're lucky somebody will come up to you and ask if you need any help, then you're relying on there SALES skills to sell something that you hope is what you need.
The correct speaker package for home theatre room is important for a number of reasons, in our opion are all equal. Starting with a speaker package that is too big for the room – there are limits and guide lines that need to be followed, if the sales guy walks you to the biggest speakers they have on display and talks you into them, and your room size for argument sake is 5m x 4m, there are a few problems, firstly you'll never be able to use the speaker to their full potential, the sound pressure levels that they can produce would deafen a person in a small room, not the mention they'll be taking up too much room and also usually bigger means more money, so you'd be wasting money there well on large speakers, although you can spend a lot of money on small speakers, if things were equal, the same amounts of money was spent on the right set of speakers (smaller speaker), you would be purchasing high performance award winning speakers for the same value as regular large speakers.
The opposite is try as well, if the speaker package you purchased is too small, you'll always have the system turned up to full all the time, the room will not fill up with sound properly and you'll never feel immersed in the movie, if this is the case the life span of small speakers will decrease due to extreme wear and tere. In this case your budget needs to be extended regardless, even purchasing a larger amplifier to accommodate the extra power required to drive the larger speakers. To get the most out of floor standing speaker (larger speakers), there is a different way to wire them up, nearly all sales people and most installers do not know about the appropriate way, so do some research, ask the questions and be careful of installers that are unsure of your basic questions.
As a conclusion, to size up your home theatre room properly, a technician should come out to you and see the room first, to consultant with you and talk about options you'll have, talking to a sales person only in the showroom can result in mistakes being make and we've seen this on many occasions which only after the installation, regrets are made.


text:
(Lawāmi' al-Burhān wa qawāti al-bayān fī ma'āni al-Qur'ān, Muḥammad b. Ḥasan al-Mu'īnī), (d. 537/1143)
critical ed. Safar Hasanov
Because the Holy Qur'an was revealed as an Arabic book, Qur'anic exegeses with an emphasis on linguistic aspects were needed in order to provide correct understanding of the wordings of the Qur'an especially after the conversion of the people from non-Arab communities to Islam. Such exegeses which usually had titles such as "Ma'āni al-Qur'ân", "Gharīb al-Qur'an" and "I'rāb al-Qur'ān" examined the verses of the Qur'an from linguistic, grammar, syntax, morphological, and rhetorical aspects. Some paid more attention to grammar, some others to linguistics, while some others to both.
Abu al-Faẓāil al-Mu'inī's (d. 537/1143) Lawāmi' al-burḥān wa qawāṭi' al-bayān fī ma'āni al-Qur'ân is an exegesis from the genre of ma'āni al-Qur'an which paid attention to lingusitical aspects. Even though it is a brief work, it provides many valuable information related to the original meanings of the phrases found in the Qur'an as well as the views of the earlier scholars regarding the meanings of the words of the Qur'an. It also consists of theological, legal, and Sufi information.
İstanbul: Publications of the Presidency of Religious Affairs, 2019
36, 568 pgs. (I.Vol.)
624 pgs. (II.Vol.)
978-605-7519-73-3 (Set)
978-605-7519-69-6 (I. Vol.)
978-605-7519-74-0 (II. Vol.)
Click for the Arabic title page, content and preface
Click for the Turkish title page, content and preface

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Humans, Scientists, Starfleet cadets,
Starfleet lieutenants
Starfleet personnel (23rd century)
Starbase 47 personnel
Vanguard residents
2230s births
Humans (23rd century)
Humans (24th century)
Vault personnel
Carol Marcus
This page details Carol Marcus in the primary universe; for Carol Marcus in the mirror universe see Carol Marcus (mirror); for the Carol Marcus in the Kelvin timeline created by Nero's temporal incursion see Carol Marcus (Kelvin timeline).
This character is a member of the Kirk family.
"Can I cook or can't I?"
—Carol Marcus boasting about her scientific achievements to James T. Kirk, 2285[src]
Doctor Carol Marcus in 2285
United Federation of Planets,
formerly Starfleet
June Marcus
David Marcus (son)
molecular biologist/geneticist
Previous Assignment:
science officer, USS Eagle
Insignia:
Lieutenant Carol Marcus in 2260
Dr. Carol Marcus was a female Human who was one of the Federation's leading molecular biologists of the 23rd century.
Starfleet career Edit
In the early 2250s, Marcus attended Starfleet Academy alongside James T. Kirk and Gary Mitchell. During their time at the Academy, Marcus became romantically involved with Kirk, but their relationship came to an end in 2254, when he cheated in the Kobayashi Maru scenario and abused her trust.
By 2260, Marcus had graduated from the Academy and achieved the rank of lieutenant. Despite commendations for her superb work as a scientist, Marcus also earned several reprimands for minor insubordination and an unwillingness to follow orders.
In 2260, Lt. Marcus was assigned to the USS Eagle, under the command of Captain Botwin. Also serving aboard at this time was Commander Kirk, who was serving as Botwin's first officer. For the first few months they managed to avoid contact with each other, but Botwin ordered Kirk to try and set Marcus straight and make sure she became an excellent Starfleet officer. Over the next few months, the pair got reacquainted and once again became romantically involved.
The relationship came to an end following the Eagle's mission to Caperna IV, where Marcus' ignorance of an order from Commander Kirk led to a landing party becoming endangered. Thankfully, all members of the party returned safely to the Eagle and Marcus was placed on report by Kirk. Shortly after, Marcus resigned from Starfleet after discovering that she was pregnant with Kirk's child. (TOS comic: "Star-Crossed")
In 2261, Marcus was working for Kraden Interplanetary Research. (TOS novel: Inception)
That year, Marcus gave birth to a son, David. (ST reference: Chronology)
Scientist Edit
Considered an expert in molecular biology, bio-protein development, cell mutation and radiation, she was offered many posts in the Federation, but kept being refusing to get involved in projects with potential military applications. (TOS video game: 25th Anniversary)
In 2266, she was assigned by the Federation Council to the meta-genome project at Starbase 47 as a civilian overseer. It was here, realizing the potential of the meta-genome, that Marcus first envisioned developing a technology that could create entire star-systems from scratch. (VAN novel: Reap the Whirlwind)
David and Carol in 2267.
In 2267, Carol and her son David then attended Sam Kirk's funeral, though she did not want her son to meet his father. (TOS - Year Four: The Enterprise Experiment comic: "Part 3")
In the year 2268, approximately halfway through the USS Enterprise's five-year mission (on stardate 3998.6), Carol Marcus and her seven-year-old son David were involved in a Klingon attack upon the Federation colony world of Beta Canzandia, where a terraforming research project was underway, supervised by Dr. Marcus. Carol and her son barely managed to escape alive, thanks to the intervention of the USS Enterprise and its first officer, Commander Spock. (TOS novel: Faces of Fire)
By another account, in 2268 she had transferred to the ARK-7 space station to continue work with Dr. Anthony Cheever, eventually developing a device called the cradle, which contained scores of microscopic life forms. Her team also accidentally created a virus during the course of their research which was deadly to Vulcanoid life forms. Thinking that the station was creating a weapon to be used by the Federation to commit genocide against the Romulan people, a Romulan force led by Centurion Preax boarded the station and took Doctor Marcus and Cheever prisoners. The crew of the USS Enterprise arrived to investigate the situation. Upon boarding the station Spock was infected with the virus, which made him seriously ill. Dr. Leonard McCoy worked rapidly to find a cure for the virus, curing Spock and the Romulans on board the station, and freeing the captives. Satisfied that the creation of the virus was an accident, the Romulans left Federation space peacefully. (TOS video game: 25th Anniversary)
Apparently using the knowledge gained from the meta-genome project, Dr. Marcus invented the Genesis device and in 2284, received Federation support for the project. Project Genesis was classified as top-secret and housed at the Regula I space station located near the Mutara Nebula. (TOS movie, novelization & comic adaptation: Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan)
The Genesis Disaster Edit
In 2285, the Reliant discovered the planet Ceti Alpha V whereupon the ship was commandeered by the infamous Augment Khan Noonien Singh who learned of the vessels mission. He attempted to get more information on Project Genesis from his nemesis, Admiral James T. Kirk but was thwarted in his plan. He later traveled to the Regula facility where he was looking for the Genesis device and killed many of the station's personnel. Using a mind controlled Pavel Chekov, he learned of the prototype being located in a bunker on Regula and used the transporter to beam the device onto the Reliant. However, Admiral Kirk attempted to stop him and during the skirmish between the two, the Genesis device was detonated which killed Khan in the Mutara Nebula. The resulting explosion resulted in the formation of the Genesis Planet due to the energy matrix within the Genesis device. (TOS movie, novelization & comic adaptation: The Wrath of Khan)
Later Life Edit
Following the Project Genesis disaster in 2285, Marcus was forced to live the rest of her life under tight security, lest her top-secret knowledge of Genesis fall into unfriendly hands.
She lived a secluded life on the world of Pacifica, under the constant watch of Starfleet security officers. She was allowed to leave her exile whenever she wanted, but seldom did as she was required to bring along an entourage of bodyguards to protect her from any enemy who might desire the Genesis information. (TNG novel: The Genesis Wave, Book One)
In 2293, early in the year, Marcus was critically wounded during a Klingon attack upon the Federation colony world of Kudao; a weapons-test for General Chang's prototype Bird-of-Prey capable of firing while cloaked. Near the end of the year, attended Kirk's memorial service that was held on the grounds of Starfleet Academy. Also in attendance were former crewmembers of the USS Enterprise and some of his other old "acquaintances". (TOS novelization: Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country; TOS novel: The Fire and the Rose)
In 2310, Marcus, along with Dr. Gillian Taylor and Captain Uhura of the USS Hermes, planned to test an experimental Genesis Device on Pacifica. However, Marcus and Taylor encountered intelligent life in Pacifica's ocean and the plan was abandoned. (TOS short story: "The Hero of My Own Life")
In 2375, she was kidnapped by a race of shape-shifting Moss Creatures who tricked her into revealing the secrets of the Genesis Device. The moss-creatures used the Genesis technology to re-form entire sections of space for re-settlement. Marcus was killed in the explosion of the moss-creatures headquarters. She willingly stayed behind so that no other race could gain the knowledge of Genesis from her. (TNG novels: The Genesis Wave, Book One, The Genesis Wave, Book Two)
Alternate timeline Edit
In an alternate timeline in which John Frederick Paxton destroyed Starfleet Command and ended the talks for the Coalition of Planets in 2155, Carol Kirk married Commander James T. Kirk, the first officer of the UESS Enterprise, in 2255. They had a son named David Samuel Kirk, who was born in 2261.
In 2264, she and David were killed when their transport vessel, the Galileo, was travelling to an interstellar symposium on molecular biology proposed by the Vulcan government. Upon the sight of a human vessel crossing the border of the Interstellar Coalition, the ship was destroyed by the Coalition vessel ICV Vanik when its Vulcan captain T'Prynn claimed that the human transport was not responding to hails. This led to her husband developing a deep resentment towards Vulcans. (TOS - Myriad Universes novel: A Less Perfect Union)
USS Eagle (NCC-956) personnel
Botwin • Khenarc Claness • Gerardi • Sherev Idisha • Turath Ivos • James T. Kirk • Igrilan Kor • Carol Marcus • Pierre Ratelle
Template:Vault personnel
TOS comic: "Star-Crossed"
TOS comic: "Loved Not Wisely..."
TOS novel: Inception
VAN novel: Reap the Whirlwind
TOS video game: 25th Anniversary
TOS comic: "A Bright Particular Star"
TOS movie, novelization & comic adaptation: Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
TOS - Crucible novel: The Fire and the Rose
TOS short story: "The Hero of My Own Life"
TNG novels: The Genesis Wave, Book One, The Genesis Wave, Book Two
Carol Marcus article at Memory Alpha, the wiki for canon Star Trek.
Retrieved from "https://memory-beta.fandom.com/wiki/Carol_Marcus?oldid=616794"
Starfleet cadets


text:
In General•December 3, 2021•3 Minutes
Manchester United Beat Arsenal, Ronaldo's 801 Career Goals And Why VAR Allow Smith-Rowe's Goal
Manchester United beat Arsenal at Old Trafford as Ronaldo hit a brace in a 5-goal thriller. Manchester United were lucky, while Arsenal's woes against the big teams continue.
After West Ham drew yesterday, the gunners were in a position to claim the 4th position but fumbled against the Red Devil. Though the game started well for Arsenal, the game ended in a defeat.
In the 13th minute, Smith-Rowe scored a controversial goal after David De Gea was accidentally stepped on by Fred. VAR saw nothing wrong with the clash, and awarded the goal.
It remained 1-0 until the 44th minute when Fred laid a one-time pass to Fernández to make it 1-1 and that rounded-up the first half.
Ronaldo celebrating against Arsenal
At the restart, Man Utd grabbed the second goal in the 52nd minute as Rashford's low cross found Ronaldo who put it past Ramsdale to make it 2-1. However, Arsenal quickly fired back in the 54th minute as Ødegaard fired past De Gea to make it 2-2.
In the 68th minute, Ødegaard became the villain as he gave away a penalty which was cooly converted by Ronaldo to make it 3-2. Arsenal had the chance to equalize but Aubameyang scuffled their late chance to make it 3-3.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhnBJlUNglU
Ronaldo's brace takes him to 801 career goals after spells in Sporting Lisbon, Manchester United, Real Madrid, Juventus and Portugal. The 5 time Balon D'or winner is arguably the best player to ever grace the football field.
Why VAR allowed Smith-Rowe's goal against Manchester United?
Smith-Rowe versus Manchester United
The Manchester United players broke one of the golden rules of football; always play to the whistle. If Atkinson had sounded his whistle immediately after the infringement happened, the goal might not have stood. However, Man United players stopped and waited for a free kick which was not sounded by Atkinson. Also since the infringement was from a Manchester United player, there was no reason to not award the goal.
Manchester United remain 7th on the league table, but are now 2 points behind Arsenal, and 12 points behind the league leaders, Chelsea.
Read Article: NBA: Phoenix Suns Defeat The Golden State Warriors To Extend Winning Streak


text:
Dan Riedel joins TPH Detroit coaching staff
September 27, 2018///Colleen Lynch
Total Package Hockey is proud to announce that Dan Riedel has joined the TPH Detroit staff as a player development coach and mentor at the Center of Excellence.
Riedel has playing experience at the NAHL, USHL, NCAA, ECHL, IHL and CHL level. A Rochester Hills native, Riedel played for Ferris State University for two seasons following his NAHL/USHL junior career. He was named First Team All-CCHA in 2005-06.
Following his time in Big Rapids, he played professionally for five seasons before returning to his home state. Since, Riedel has worked as a scout for the USHL's Cedar Rapids RoughRiders and the OHL's Windsor Spitfires and as head coach of the Oakland Jr. Grizzlies 16U team.
With OJG, he has found considerable coaching success – multiple National Championship tournament appearances, 29 players being selected in the USHL Draft, nine in the OHL Draft, and 18 players making Division 1 college commitments. Three have made USA Hockey's National Team Development Program – Drew DeRidder, Josh Norris and Joey Cassetti – and two have been drafted by NHL organizations – Norris and Brandon Halverson.
"We are very excited to have Dan Riedel join our staff at the Center of Excellence in Detroit," said Dwayne Norris, director of hockey for the Bloomfield-based school. "I have had the privilege of working with Dan in a youth hockey capacity, and seeing how he treats and helps his players, we know he will be a valuable asset for our student-athletes."
ABOUT TPH: Founded in 2001, Total Package Hockey is a hockey service provider with the vision to become the world leader in positively impacting the lives of student-athletes through the game of hockey. TPH prides itself on operating at a standard that exceeds expectations of players, families, coaches, advisors and all other entities of the hockey world, one choice at a time. Our staff is committed to providing positive, energetic, hands-on instruction and mentorship, in an effort to develop each individual on and off the ice. If each individual develops as a player, athlete and person, he or she will be better prepared to advance to the highest levels of junior, collegiate and professional hockey, while learning the skills necessary for success in the ultimate game: the game of life.
For more information about TPH, click here
For more information about the TPH Center of Excellence, click here


text:
Centro Das Artes ' Casa Das Mudas
Paulo David creates a cliffside plateau, carved with a labyrinth of spaces at Casa das mudas Centro das Artes in coastal Madeira, Portugal
David Cohn
The Casa das Mudas Centro das Artes, on the Portuguese Island of Madeira, crowns a basalt promontory 600 feet above the Atlantic, but from its entry atop the precipice, the building disappears.
The Clinic at Clarke Quay Singapore
At Singapore's The Clinic, dramatic lighting by Concrete and avoKinetix transports club kids to new highs
Ruth Altchek
In Singapore, where seemingly innocuous gum chewing is prosecutable, a nightclub with an explicit drug theme seems impossible.
The Leslie L. Dan Pharmacy Building
For the Leslie L. Dan Pharmacy Building, Claude Engle bathes floating pills in an array of trippy colors
Tim McKeough
At the Leslie L. Dan Pharmacy Building at the University of Toronto, Foster + Partners has turned contextual design on its head.
Sabine-to-Bagby Promenade, Houston
L'Observatoire International transforms a neglected stretch of Houston's Buffalo Bayou into Moon River
Until recently, Houston's meandering Buffalo Bayou river had been a camera-ready place—if you were using a long-range lens.
Suzhou Museum by I. M. Pei
Jiangsu Province, People's Republic of China
Robert Ivy, FAIA FAIA
I. M. Pei returns to his family's hometown in China and designs the Suzhou Museum for a sensitive, historic site.
The Institute of Contemporary Art by Diller Scofidio + Renfro
After punching holes in the fundamental concept of museums, Diller Scofidio + Renfro actually creates one: a new building for Boston's Institute of Contemporary art
Provincetown Art Association and Museum
Machado and Silvetti challenge and benefit a historic seaside community with the Provincetown art association and Museum
John Gendall
To those who have visited Provincetown, Massachusetts, it would be hard to imagine a 20,000-square-foot institutional building rising up in the middle of that quaint, New England seaside town.
Wayne Lyman Morse United States Courthouse
In Eugene, Oregon, Morphosis creates a U.S. Courthouse that provides common ground for people with different points of view
At a time when Americans are deeply divided about the role of government and whether judges should interpret or apply the law, courthouse architecture has become a potential battlefield.
Janelia Farm Research Campus, Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Rafael Viñoly burrows into the earth to create the Janelia Farm Research campus for the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in Virginia
The more successful buildings by Rafael Viñoly, FAIA, display distinct athletic gestures—from the smoothly arcing roof of the 1994 Lehman College Physical Education Facility in New York to the exuberant, glass-barrel-vaulted roof of the Kimmel Center for Performing Arts in Philadelphia.
Kanner Studio
Architect Stephen Kanner converts an airplane-parts factory into the new Kanner Studio in Santa Monica
Success has been bittersweet for Stephen Kanner, FAIA. Expanding Kanner Architects meant that Kanner, the third-generation principal of the firm, would have to move out of the Los Angeles office where he had worked since joining his father, Charles, in 1982.


Below are the three companies in the Specialty Chemicals industry with the lowest price to book ratios. Often companies with the lowest ratio present the greatest value to investors.
Flotek Inds ranks lowest with a a price to book ratio of 0.70. Following is Platform Special with a a price to book ratio of 1.13. Ashland Global H ranks third lowest with a a price to book ratio of 1.42.
Rayonier Adv follows with a a price to book ratio of 1.46, and Minerals Tech rounds out the bottom five with a a price to book ratio of 1.72.


text:
class GuideDatabase : public SingleTableDatabase
{
   GuideDatabase(const QString &location);
   void addResult(const QByteArray &result, const QString& key);
   QByteArray result(const QString &key);
};

class Guide
{
public:
    Guide(const QString &basePath, Visitor *visitor);

    void visitAll();

    // pass-fail mode

    // database
    void dbOpoen();
    QByteArray dbFindResultBefore(const QByteArray &sha1, const QString &key);

};

#endif // GUIDE_H

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Reiki is a Japanese word representing Universal Life Energy, which is basically using and tapping into the energy that is around us all the time. Reiki is a form of energetic healing that dates back thousands of years, and is documented in some of our world's most historic and important documents and books, although is only described in these texts, not named. The term "Reiki" is the name given to this energetic healing in the late 19th century. This system was born out of the experience and dedication of Dr. Mikao Usui of Kyoto, Japan, a Japanese educator and faith healer. Dr. Usui was not a "traditional" doctor, however he dedicated his life to healing other people's bodies and minds, so "Dr." is a most deserving title.
Over the course of thousands of years, and the persecution of many who practiced things such as faith healing and/or "mysterious enchantments", energetic healing systems have been pretty much wiped out — until the 20th Century. As far as the "Dark Ages" is concerned, for energetic healing, the dark ages spans a much longer time frame! For thousands of years, the earth has existed in a very low vibrational level, thereby meaning that all things extra-sensory have been shunned and all but forgotten. Dr. Usui responded to a challenge from a student who questioned the doctrine of faith healing in the texts referred to above. He began a 7 year quest for the healing as described in texts such as the Bible and other historic doctrines and undertook an extensive study of the healing phenomena of history's greatest spiritual healers.
Dr. Usui found some information he sought in Sanskrit, a formula in symbols of how Buddha did healing. Unable to apply the formula and symbols, he underwent a vision quest on the holy mountain of Kor-yama where he fasted, meditated and followed the directions in the formula for twenty-one days. The symbols appeared to him on the last day, enveloped in light, and he left the mountain knowing how to heal. For the seven years that followed, he devoted himself to healing, and began teaching Reiki to others. Before his transition in 1930, Dr. Usui gave the Master attunement to sixteen teachers, one of whom was Dr. Chujiro Hayashi, who also happened to be a commander in the Imperial Navy of Japan. Dr. Hayashi became the Reiki Grand Master after Dr. Usui's passing.
Dr. Hayashi went on to develop the Usui system of healing. He opened a Reiki clinic in Tokyo and kept detailed records of the treatments given. This information evolved into the standard had positions and the system of three degrees (and their attunement processes) as we know them today. Prior to his death in 1941, Dr. Hayashi passed Reiki to Madame Hawayo Takata.
Madame Takata, a Japanese-American widow from Hawaii, came to Hayashi's Reiki clinic with cancer. "Voices" before her operation told her the operation was not necessary. After asking her doctor if there was any other way to deal with her problem, he told her of the clinic. Her illness was healed by a series of Reiki treatments and she asked to be taught Reiki. It was explained that Reiki was Japanese and that it was intended to stay in Japan; it could not be taught to an outsider. This did not stop Madame Takata. She was persistent and eventually Dr. Hayaski initiated his wife and Hawayo Takata into First and Second Degree Reiki.
Hawayo brought Reiki to Hawaii around 1937 and Dr. Hayaski then came to help establish Reiki healing in Hawaii with her. In 1938, knowing that Wold War II was coming and having concern that Reiki might be lost if it stayed solely in Japan, Hayaski recognized Takata as his successor and initiated her as a Reiki Grand Master. She was the thirteenth and last Reiki Master Dr. Hayashi initiated. After forty years of practicing Reiki healing, Madame Takata passed the Master's knowledge on to her granddaughter, Phyllis Furumoto in 1979 before her death in 1980. Phyllis is the only Reiki Grand Master and is still practicing today. To see the history of my Reiki lineage, please see the Reiki Lineage Portion of this site!
There are several lineages recognized throughout the year stemming from these early Reiki attunements and teachings. All are fully valid, they just follow a different path to get to you! If you meet someone who say they practice a specific type of Reiki, trust that their form of healing is just as valid as anyone else's. Please also beware of those who will try to tell you otherwise. Having an open heart, mind and channel is the most important thing to remember, and those who discriminate against others for following a path provided to them that is not their own are very short-sighted, and may be short-sighted about other things as well. There are still those who believe that the Reiki "from Japan" (currently) is the only Reiki worth discussing! Personally, I believe that the differences other Reiki Masters see in themselves is the old, low vibration and learned protection practiced for thousands of years. This low vibration is slowly melting away, so if you are a Reiki Master and are reading this now, I fully welcome and respect you as a rightful member in the Reiki "community"! I am always looking to meet others who practice and teach Reiki, so please go to the 'Contact Me' page and contact me!
Reiki is meant for and can be practiced by anyone, and I for one respect the dedication that the people who brought Reiki to our modern world and thank them from the bottom of my heart. As the five Reiki principles state: 1) Just for today, I will live the attitude of gratitude, 2) Just for today, I will not worry, 3) Just for today, I will not anger, 4) Just for today, I will do my work honestly, 5) Just for today, I will show love and respect for every living thing. Anyone who truly believes in and practices these (as all Reiki practioners should) is someone I want to have in MY life!
De plus en plus assidu à tes news, je regarde de près cette technique qui consiste au premier contact par téléphone et donc par sms. Mais comment expliquer la film quand harry rencontre sally résumé spontanéité et non le coup préparé et donc pas du tout personnel à cette personne? Merci encore une fois konsti pour tout ton travail.


Welcome to Purdy Drive, located in a sought after neighborhood, you will find this well maintained home exactly where you will want to raise your family. Just a hop, skip & jump to the Schools, Highway & Downtown. Presented with pride of ownership, this home offers a great amount of living space throughout, with a terrific yard for the kids to play. The living room is spacious & accented by a gorgeous ornamental fireplace, large window & gleaming hardwood floors. The eat in kitchen offers updated white cabinetry with built in pantry cupboards providing oodles of space & it's just steps to the dining room. On the upper level you will find 3 terrific sized bedrooms & full bath. The lower level offers a terrific family room with wood stove, a half bath & office or play room. The basement level offers even more space. Homes like this don't come along often. Come take a look to see if it's the one for you.


text:
\section{Introduction}

The AC Optimal Power Flow (ACOPF) problem lies at the heart of power systems computation. In recent years, a number of convex relaxations have been proposed with the intention of solving this NP-hard problem to global optimality \cite{qc_mpc_17,qc}.
These efforts led to efficient formulations and solution algorithms that can close the optimality gap on 95\% of instances found in the literature. In this work, we focus on the remaining 5\%.
We are particularly interested in pushing the reach of methods that do not require domain partitioning and spatial branching on continuous variables. We are concurrently pursuing other research directions based on our recent work \cite{lu2018tight} that rely on adaptive domain partitioning but this will not be covered here.

Our contributions are summarized below:
\begin{itemize}
    \item A new semidefinite programming-based bound tightening algorithm using determinant constraints \cite{polysdp}.
    \item Valid cut generation based on the Reformulation-Linearization Technique \cite{RLT}.

    \item The first open-source parallel multi-machine and multi-threaded implementation of the contributions above.
\end{itemize}

In Section \ref{sec:ACOPF}, we introduce the extended ACOPF problem formulation including line charging, bus shunts and transformers.
In Section \ref{sec:SDP} we discuss Semidefinite Programming (SDP) relaxations of the ACOPF problem along with valid cut generation.
In Section \ref{sec:SDP-BT}, we introduce the new SDP-based bound tightening (SDP-BT) algorithm and in the last section we present our numerical experiments.

\section{ACOPF}
\label{sec:ACOPF}

\subsection{Notations}
\label{sec:notation}
\vspace{10pt}
\resizebox{0.5\textwidth}{!}{%
\begin{tabular}{ll}
{\bf Grid Parameters:}\\
\vspace{0.2cm}
$\bm S^g_i = (\bm p^g_i, \bm q^g_i)$  	&Complex, active and reactive power generation at node $i$\\
$\bm S^d_{i} = (\bm p^d_i, \bm q^d_i)$  	&Complex, active and reactive power demand at node $i$ \\
$\bm c_{0i}, \bm c_{1i}, \bm c_{2i}$  			&Generation cost coefficients at node $i$ \\
$\bm t_{ij}$  				&Thermal limit along line $(i,j)$ \\
$\bm Y_{ij}$  				& Complex admittance of line $(i,j)$ $\bm Y_{ij}=\bm g_{ij}+ \bm i \bm b_{ij}$ \\
$\bm Y^c_{ij}$  				&Line charging admittance of line $(i,j)$  \\
$\bm Y^s_{i}$  				&Bus shunt admittance of bus $i$  \\
$\ubar{\bm S}^g_i, \bar{\bm S}^g_i$  	&$\ubar{\bm p}^g_i+\bm i \ubar{\bm q}^g_i, \bar{\bm p}^g_i+\bm i \bar{\bm q}^g_i $ \\
$\ubar{\bm v}_i, \bar{\bm v}_i$  	&Voltage magnitude bounds at node $i$\\
$\ubar{\bm \theta}_{ij} \ge -\pi/2, \bar{\bm \theta}_{ij} \le \pi/2$  &Phase angle difference bounds along line $(i,j)$\vspace{0.2cm}\\
{\bf Grid Variables:}\\
\vspace{0.2cm}
$S_{ij}= ( p_{ij}, q_{ij})$  	&Complex, active and reactive power flow from $i$ to $j$ \\
$V_{i}$  				&Complex voltage at node $i$\\
$I_{ij}$  				&Complex current flowing from $i$ to $j$ at end $i$\\
$l_{ij}$  				&Squared magnitude of current flowing from $i$ to $j$ at end $i$\\
$W_{ij}$    				& Lifted voltage product $V_iV_j^*$ \\
{\bf Other notations:}\\
\vspace{0.2cm}
$\bm {\mathcal G} = (N.E)$ 				&Graph with nodes $N$ and edges $E$\\
$\mathcal{R}(.)$     		& Real component of complex number\\
$\mathcal{I}(.)$     		& Imaginary component of complex number\\
${V}^*$     		& Conjugate of complex number\\
$|V|^2$     		& Square Magnitude of complex number $|V|^2 = \mathcal{R}(V)^2 + \mathcal{I}(V)^2$\\
$\ubar{\bm x}$ , $\bar{\bm x}$       &Lower and upper bounds on $x$\\
\end{tabular}
}

\vspace{11pt}
\subsection{Formulation} \label{sec:formulation}
The extended ACOPF problem is presented in Model \ref{model:ext_ac_opf}.
Note that complex inequalities correspond to component-wise constraints on the respective real and imaginary parts.

 \begin{model}[!h]
	\caption{Extended ACOPF}
	\label{model:ext_ac_opf}
	{\scriptsize
	\begin{subequations}
		\vspace{-0.2cm}
		\begin{align}
		& \mbox{\bf minimize: } \nonumber \\
		& \sum\limits_{i \in N} \bm c_{0i} + \bm c_{1i}\mathcal{R}(S^g_i) + \left(\bm c_{2i}\mathcal{R}(S^g_i)\right)^2 \nonumber\\
		%
		& \mbox{\bf subject to: } \nonumber  \\
		%
		& S_{ij} = (\bm Y^*_{ij}+ \bm Y^{\bm c^*}_{ij})\frac{| V_i |^2}{| \bm T_{ij}|^2}-\bm Y^*_{ij}\frac{V_iV^*_j}{\bm T_{ij}}  ,\quad \forall (i,j) \in E \label{eq:expsij} \\
			& S_{ji} = (\bm Y^*_{ij}+\bm Y^{c^*}_{ij})| V_j |^2-\bm Y^*_{ij}\frac{V_i^*V_j}{\bm T^*_{ij}} ,\quad \forall (i,j) \in E \label{eq:expsji}\\
            & S_i^g - \bm{S}_i^d -\bm{Y^s}_i| V_i |^2= \displaystyle\sum_{(i,j),(j,i) \in E} S_{ij} ,\quad \forall i \in N, \label{eq:exkcls}\\
            &\ubar{\bm v}_i \leq | V_i | \leq \bar{\bm v}_i ,\quad \forall i \in N, \label{eq:exvbounds}\\
		    &\ubar{\bm \theta}_{ij} \mathcal{I}(V_iV^*_j) \leq \mathcal{R}(V_iV^*_j) \leq \bar{\bm \theta}_{ij} \mathcal{I}(V_iV^*_j) ,\quad \forall (i,j) \in E, \label{eq:exanglediff} \\
            &\ubar{\bm S}_i^g \leq S^g_i \leq \bar{\bm S}_i^g ,\quad \forall i \in N, \label{eq:exsbounds} \\
            &| S_{ij} |^2 \leq \bm t_{ij} ,\quad \forall (i,j), (j,i) \in E. \label{eq:exthermal}
		\end{align}
	\end{subequations}
	}
\end{model}
\section{Convex Relaxations}\label{sec:SDP}
\subsection{The Lasserre Hierarchy} Model \ref{model:ext_ac_opf} is a particular instance of a polynomial optimization problem. In \cite{Lasserre2001}, Lasserre proposed a general purpose approach to approximate the optimal value of such problems via solving a sequence of SDPs of increasing size. The SDP relaxation of quadratic optimization problems (Shor relaxation \cite{Shor1987}, or \cite{Low} in the context of ACOPF) can be understood as the first level of this hierarchy. On higher levels, more lifted variables are introduced and arranged in matrices which are constrained to be positive semi-definite. Lasserre proved that under mild assumptions, this hierarchy of SDP relaxations converges towards the optimal value of the polynomial optimization problem. However, going higher in the hierarchy requires solving SDPs with increasingly large matrix variables. As a consequence, the computational cost becomes prohibitive when the number of polynomial variables increases or when the level of the hierarchy is large. Techniques using chordal sparsity \cite{Waki06sparse} can help extend the reach of such methods, especially for higher levels of the hierarchy.
In the ACOPF context, \cite{JMPG2015_opf_hierarchy} have shown that the second level Lasserre Hierarchy succeeds in finding the global optimum of the ACOPF in many cases.

\subsection{The Determinant Hierarchy}
For a given level of the Lasserre Hierarchy, based on the determinant constraints introduced in \cite{polysdp}, one can define a series of convex relaxations that converge to the corresponding hierarchy level. These relaxations represent the different levels of the Determinant Hierarchy. For a given submatrix of size $k$, one can derive a set of determinant constraints defining level $k$ of the Determinant Hierarchy as depicted in Figure \ref{fig:det_hierarchy}.
\begin{figure}[h]
    \centering
    \includegraphics[width=0.50\textwidth]{Det_Hierarchy_edited.pdf}
    \caption{The Determinant Hierarchy.}
    \label{fig:det_hierarchy}
\end{figure}

In the Determinant Hierarchy, one can trade-off computational efficiency and relaxation strength. In our numerical experiments, we show that the Level 3 Determinant Hierarchy is sufficient to capture the strength of the Level 1 Lasserre Hierarchy on all tested benchmarks. Note that the Level 2 Determinant Hierarchy corresponds to the SOCP relaxation introduced by Jabr \cite{Jabr}.

In order to formulate the various convex relaxations, we introduce the Hermitian matrix $W$ where each entry $W_{ij}$ corresponds to the product $V_iV_j^{*}$ appearing in the non-convex Model \ref{model:ext_ac_opf}.
The Level n Determinant Hierarchy is presented in Model \ref{model:sdp_opf}:
\begin{model}[!h]
	\caption{Det-SDP}
	\label{model:sdp_opf}
	{\scriptsize
	\begin{subequations}
		\vspace{-0.2cm}
		\begin{align}
		& \mbox{\bf minimize: } \nonumber \\
		& \sum\limits_{i \in N} \bm c_{0i} + \bm c_{1i}\mathcal{R}(S^g_i) + \left(\bm c_{2i}\mathcal{R}(S^g_i)\right)^2 \nonumber\\
		%
		& \mbox{\bf subject to: } \nonumber  \\
		%
		& S_{ij} = (\bm Y^*_{ij}+ \bm Y^{\bm c^*}_{ij})\frac{W_{ii}}{| \bm T_{ij}|^2}-\bm Y^*_{ij}\frac{W_{ij}}{\bm T_{ij}}  ,\quad \forall (i,j) \in E \label{eq:sdp_pf_from} \\
		& S_{ji} = (\bm Y^*_{ij}+\bm Y^{c^*}_{ij})W_{jj}-\bm Y^*_{ij}\frac{W_{ij}^*}{\bm T^*_{ij}} ,\quad \forall (i,j) \in E \label{eq:sdp_pf_to}\\

        & S_i^g - \bm{S}_i^d -\bm{Y^s}_i W_{ii} = \displaystyle\sum_{(i,j),  (j,i) \in E} S_{ij} ,\quad \forall i \in N, \label{eq:sdpkcls}\\

		& \mathcal{I}(W_{ij})\tan \ubar{\bm \theta}_{ij} \le \mathcal{R}(W_{ij}) \le \mathcal{I}(W_{ij}) \tan \bar{\bm \theta}_{ij},\quad \forall{(i,j) \in {E}}, \label{eq:sdp_angle}\\
        &\ubar{\bm v}^2_i \leq |W_{ii}| \leq \bar{\bm v}^2_i ,\quad \forall i \in N, \label{eq:sdpvbounds}\\
        &\bar{\bm v}_i\bar{\bm v}_j \cos \ubar{\bm \theta}_{ij} \leq \mathcal{R}(W_{ij}) \leq \bar{\bm v}_i\bar{\bm v}_j ,\quad \forall (i,j) \in E, \label{eq:sdpRwijbounds}\\
        &-\bar{\bm v}_i\bar{\bm v}_j \leq \mathcal{I}(W_{ij}) \leq \bar{\bm v}_i\bar{\bm v}_j ,\quad \forall (i,j) \in E, \label{eq:sdpIwijbounds}\\

        & \textrm{det}(W_s) \geq 0 \quad \forall W_s \subseteq W_c \in T({\mathcal G}),  \label{eq:psd_poly}\\
        &\eqref{eq:exsbounds},\eqref{eq:exthermal}.\notag
		\end{align}
	\end{subequations}
	}
\end{model}

where $\mathbf{conv}(f(x)=0)$ represents the automatic convexification of $f(x)=0$ implemented in \href{https://github.com/coin-or/Gravity}{Gravity} \cite{Gravity}, based on expanding the complex products, splitting the constraints into real and imaginary parts, adding convex sides of the equation to the model and using McCormick envelopes \cite{McCormick1976} for convexifying bilinear terms.

Given a tree decomposition $T({\mathcal G})$ of ${\mathcal G}$, $W_c$ is the submatrix of $W$ formed by selecting the rows and columns corresponding to nodes appearing in clique $C$ of $T({\mathcal G})$.
$W_s$ represent the exponentially many principal minors corresponding to submatrices of $W_c$ (details can be found in \cite{polysdp}).

\subsection{Using the Reformulation Linearization Technique (RLT)}
 The inequalities developed in this work build on previous efforts in \cite{current_lit}. Several studies, e.g.,  \cite{current_lit, qc_mpc_17}, use relationships between the current magnitude and the power flows to strengthen existing ACOPF relaxations. We present a strengthened version of these valid cuts based on the Reformulation Linearization Technique (RLT) \cite{RLT} (see last paragraph).

Consider the current $I_{ij} \in \mathcal{C}$ which flows from bus $i$ into edge $(i,j)$.
$I_{ij}$ can be expressed as a linear function of the difference in voltages between adjacent buses and can be used to describe power flows:
 \begin{subequations}
 \begin{align}
& I_{ij}=(\bm Y_{ij}+\bm{Y^c}_{ij})V_i/\bm{T}_{ij}-\bm Y_{ij}V_j ,\quad \forall (i,j) \in E \label{eq:current_ext}\\
& S_{ij} =V_{i}I_{ij}^*/\bm T_{ij} ,\quad \forall (i,j) \in E \label{eq:power_ext}
 \end{align}
 \end{subequations}

Using the RLT approach, we multiply constraints \eqref{eq:current_ext} and \eqref{eq:power_ext} with their conjugate to obtain the following equations:
\begin{subequations}
\begin{align}
 &I_{ij}I_{ij}^*| \bm T_{ij}| ^2=|(\bm Y_{ij}+\bm{Y^c}_{ij})|^2 V_{i}V_i^* -\bm{Y}^*_{ij}(\bm{Y}_{ij}+\bm{Y^c}_{ij})\bm{T}^*_{ij}V_{i}V_j^*\nonumber \\
&\;-\bm{Y}_{ij}(\bm{Y}_{ij} +\bm{Y^c}_{ij})^*\bm{T}_{ij}V_{i}^*V_j +| \bm{Y}_{ij} \bm{T}_{ij}| ^2V_{j}V_j^*,\label{eq:ext_lij_nc}\\
 &| \bm T_{ij}|^2 S_{ij}S_{ij}^* = {I}_{ij}{I}_{ij}^*V_iV_i^*, \quad \forall (i,j) \in E \label{eq:ext_lWij_nc}
\end{align}
\end{subequations}
which we then lift to get the following linear RLT constraints:
\begin{subequations}
\begin{align}
 &l_{ij}| \bm T_{ij}| ^2=|(\bm Y_{ij}+\bm{Y^c}_{ij})|^2 W_{ii} -\bm{Y}^*_{ij}(\bm{Y}_{ij}+\bm{Y^c}_{ij})\bm{T}^*_{ij}W_{ij}\nonumber \\
&\;-\bm{Y}_{ij}(\bm{Y}_{ij} +\bm{Y^c}_{ij})^*\bm{T}_{ij}W_{ij}^*+| \bm{Y}_{ij} \bm{T}_{ij}| ^2W_{jj},\quad \forall (i,j) \in E \label{eq:ext_lij}\\
 &\widehat{lW}_{ij} =  | \bm T_{ij}|^2 (\widehat{p}_{ij}+\widehat{q}_{ij}), \quad \forall (i,j) \in E \label{eq:ext_lWij}
\end{align}
\end{subequations}
where lifted variables $\widehat{p}_{ij}$, $\widehat{q}_{ij}$, and $\widehat{lW}_{ij}$ represent quadratic terms ${p}^2_{ij}$, ${q}^2_{ij}$ and product $l_{ij}W_{ii}$, respectively.
Similarly, we use the expressions for $I_{ji}$ and $S_{ji}$:
 \begin{subequations}
 \begin{align}
& I_{ji}=(\bm Y_{ij}+\bm{Y^c}_{ij})V_j-\bm Y_{ij}V_j/\bm{T}_{ij} ,\quad \forall (i,j) \in E \label{eq:ext_Iji}\\
& S_{ji} =V_{j}I_{ji}^* ,\quad \forall (i,j) \in E\label{eq:ext_Sji}
 \end{align}
 \end{subequations}
 to derive the following RLT cuts:
\begin{subequations}
\begin{align}
 l_{ji}| \bm T_{ij}|^2&=|(\bm Y_{ij}+\bm{Y^c}_{ij}) \bm T_{ij}|^2 W_{jj}-\bm Y_{ij}(\bm Y_{ij}+\bm{Y^c}_{ij})^*\bm T_{ij}^*W_{ij} \nonumber \\
&-\bm Y^*_{ij}(\bm Y_{ij}+\bm{Y^c}_{ij})\bm{T}_{ij}W_{ij}^*+| \bm{Y}_{ij}|^2 W_{ii} \forall (i,j) \in E, \label{eq:ext_lji}\\
  \widehat{lW}_{ji} &= \widehat{p}_{ji}+\widehat{q}_{ji} ,\quad \forall (i,j) \in E, \label{eq:ext_lWji}
\end{align}
\end{subequations}
Note that products we lifted in \eqref{eq:ext_lij}-\eqref{eq:ext_lWji} also appear in other constraints (e.g., the thermal limits constraints).
Indeed, \eqref{eq:exthermal} may be reformulated using the lifted variables $\widehat{p}_{ij}$ and $\widehat{q}_{ij}$ appearing in the RLT cuts to yield:
\begin{align*}
& \widehat{p}_{ij}+\widehat{q}_{ij} \le \bm t_{ij} \quad \forall (i,j);(j,i) \in E
\end{align*}
This linking strengthens the RLT cuts and helps reduce the gap at the root node (pre-bound tightening) on a number of open instances.

The convex relaxation for the extended ACOPF problem is given in Model \ref{model:ext_sdp_current}:

\begin{model}[!h]
	\caption{Det-SDP with RLT}
	\label{model:ext_sdp_current}
	{\scriptsize
	\begin{subequations}
		\vspace{-0.2cm}
		\begin{align}
		& \mbox{\bf minimize: } \nonumber \\
		& \sum\limits_{i \in N} \bm c_{0i} + \bm c_{1i}\mathcal{R}(S^g_i) + \left(\bm c_{2i}\mathcal{R}(S^g_i)\right)^2\\
		%
		& \mbox{\bf subject to: } \nonumber  \\
		& \widehat{p}_{ij}+\widehat{q}_{ij} \le \bm t_{ij} \quad \forall (i,j);(j,i) \in E \label{eq:lifted_therm}\\
		& {\mathcal Mc}\left(\widehat{Wl}_{ij},W_{ii}, l_{ij}\right) ,\quad  \forall (i,j);(j,i) \in E\label{eq:Mc}\\
		& {\mathcal Sec}\left(\widehat{p}_{ij},p_{ij}\right),\;{\mathcal Sec}\left(\widehat{q}_{ij},q_{ij}\right) ,\quad  \forall (i,j);(j,i) \in E\label{eq:Sec}\\
		&\eqref{eq:exsbounds},\eqref{eq:sdp_pf_from}-\eqref{eq:psd_poly},\eqref{eq:ext_lij}-\eqref{eq:ext_lWij},\eqref{eq:ext_lji}-\eqref{eq:ext_lWji},\eqref{lub}.\notag
		\end{align}
	\end{subequations}
	}
\end{model}

where ${\mathcal Sec}(y, x)$ denotes the convex envelope of the set $S=\left\{(y,x) \in \mathbf{R}^2: y=x^2, ~\ubar{\bm x} \le x \le  \bar{\bm x}\right\}$ defined by the secant inequality $y-x(\ubar{\bm x}+\bar{\bm x})+\ubar{\bm x}\bar{\bm x} \le 0$, and the quadratic constraint $y \ge x^2$.
Note that the quality of the McCormick relaxation ${\mathcal Mc}\left(\widehat{Wl}_{ij},W_{ij}, l_{ij}\right)$ strongly depends on the tightness of the lower and upper bounds on the original variables. As suggested in \cite{qc_mpc_17} we can use the following initial bounds on $l_{ij}$ and $l_{ji}$:
\begin{align}
    &  0 \le l_{ij} \le \bm{t}_{ij}/\ubar{\bm v}^2_i \quad \forall (i,j);(j,i) \in E \label{lub}
\end{align}

\section{Semidefinite Programming-based Bound Tightening (SDP-BT)} \label{sec:SDP-BT}

\subsection{Optimality-Based Bound Tightening (OBBT)}\label{sec:obbt}
OBBT \cite{Zamora, Gleixner} is a fundamental technique used in global optimization algorithms.
The algorithm is used to tighten lower and upper bounds for each variable $x_i$ that appears in a given convex relaxation of the original problem. On the one hand, tighter bounds reduce the domain to be explored for global optimization. On the other hand, the quality of convex relaxations critically depends on the tightness of the bounds. This can lead to a positive cycle where the bounds get smaller which leads to tighter relaxations which in turn can reduce the bounds, until a fixed-point is reached. Details about the properties of this algorithm can be found in \cite{CP2015}.
The domain of variable $x_i$ may be reduced by solving a minimization (resp. maximization) OBBT-subproblem which identifies $\ubar{x}_i$ (resp. $\bar{x}_i$), the lowest (resp. highest) value of $x_i$ such that the objective function $f$ is upper bounded by $\bar{f}$, the objective value at a given feasible solution.
OBBT algorithms tailored to the ACOPF have been developed in \cite{acopf_obbt}. More recently, \cite{lu2018tight,Bynum19, KDS2018minors} looked at the QC-based \cite{qc_mpc_17}-\cite{qc} OBBT.
\subsection{SDP-based Bound Tightening (SDP-BT)}
The pair of subproblems corresponding to a variable $x_i$ in Model \ref{model:ext_sdp_current} is shown in Model \ref{model:sdp_current_obbt}

\begin{model}[ht]
	\caption{SDP-BT subproblem}
	\label{model:sdp_current_obbt}
	{\scriptsize
	\begin{subequations}
		\vspace{-0.2cm}
		\begin{align}
		& \mbox{\bf min/max: } \nonumber \\
		&  x_i\nonumber\\
		%
		& \mbox{\bf subject to: } \nonumber  \\
		%
		& \sum\limits_{i \in N} \bm c_{0i} + \bm c_{1i}\mathcal{R}(S^g_i) + \left(\bm c_{2i}\mathcal{R}(S^g_i)\right)^2 \le \bar{f},\label{eq:obj_ub}\\
		&\eqref{eq:exsbounds},\eqref{eq:sdp_pf_from}-\eqref{eq:psd_poly},\eqref{eq:ext_lij}-\eqref{eq:ext_lWij},\eqref{eq:ext_lji}-\eqref{eq:ext_lWji},\eqref{eq:lifted_therm}-\eqref{eq:Sec},\eqref{lub}.\notag
		\end{align}
	\end{subequations}
	}
\end{model}

Each SDP-BT subproblem (shown in Model \ref{model:sdp_current_obbt}) is nonlinear but defines a convex feasible region \cite{polysdp}. Note that unlike previous approaches (such as \cite{obbt_Coffrin}), we use a tight relaxation in each bound tightening subproblem using the Determinant Hierarchy discussed previously.

The determinant-cuts representation can leverage scalable nonlinear optimization tools such as Ipopt \cite{Ipopt}, leading to tight and computationally efficient models to be used in SDP-BT.

In each major iteration $k$ of SDP-BT, minimization and maximization sub-problems $M_i$ (based on Model \ref{model:sdp_current_obbt}) are solved for a variable $x_i$ until its domain satisfies conditions \eqref{C1}-\eqref{C2}:
\begin{gather}
\left(\left|\bar {x}_i^{(k)}-\bar {x}_i^{(k-1)}\right| \le {\epsilon_d} \textrm{ AND } \left| \ubar {x}_i^{(k)}-\ubar {x}_i^{(k-1)}\right| \le {\epsilon_d} \right)\label{C1} \\ \textrm{OR} \nonumber \\\left| \bar {x}_i^{(k)}-\ubar {x}_i^{(k)} \right| \le {\epsilon_d} \label{C2},
\end{gather}
where $\epsilon_d >0$.
Variables are grouped into batches that run on separate machines and corresponding bounds are dynamically updated.

The overall algorithm is presented in Algorithm \ref{obbt_algo}, where $gap$ is defined as $(\bar{f}-\ubar{f})/\bar{f}$.

\begin{algorithm}{}
\begin{algorithmic}[1]
\State Set SDP-BT convergence tolerances $\epsilon_d$ and $\epsilon_o$, maximum number of iterations $\bm {K}$ and total number of threads $\bm{T}$.
\State $k$ = 0, $end$ = false, $\mathcal{M} = \emptyset$ and $x_i(close)$ = \textrm{false}, $\forall i \in \{1,\ldots, n\}$, $gap = 100$.
\State Solve initial relaxation, get $\ubar{f}$ and update $gap$ \label{step_gap}
\While {($gap \ge \epsilon_o \textrm{ OR } end = \textrm{false}) \textrm{ AND } k \le \bm {K}$}
\State $end$ = true
\For {$i \in \{1,\ldots, n\}$}
    \If {$x_i(close)$ = \textrm{false}}
        \State Add $M_i$ to $\mathcal{M}$
        \If {$\textrm{size}(\mathcal{M})=\bm{T}$}
            \State Run all $\mathcal{M}$ models in parallel
            \State update variable bounds on ${x}_j \in M_j$

            \For {$M_j \in \mathcal{M}$}
                \If{\eqref{C1}-\eqref{C2} holds for $x_j$}
                \State $x_j(close)$ = true
                \Else
                     \State $end$ = false
                     \EndIf
                        \EndFor
            \State $\mathcal{M} = \emptyset$
        \EndIf
        \EndIf
\EndFor
\State $k=k+1$, Compute new $\ubar{f}$ and update $gap$
\EndWhile
\end{algorithmic}
\caption{SDP-BT}
\label{obbt_algo}
\end{algorithm}

\section{Numerical experiments}
\label{sec:numeric}
In this section we test the convex relaxations developed in this work on case studies from benchmark libraries \cite{pglib} and \cite{nesta}. First, in section \ref{sec:casestudy9}, we consider a small test case from \cite{nesta} that exhibits a large optimality gap and highlights the importance of combining RLT cuts with the Determinant Hierarchy.

In section \ref{sec:pglib}, we show the results of our approach on all problems having up to 300 nodes in PGLIB 19.05 \cite{pglib}.

Finally, in section \ref{sec:nesta3}, we compare the performance of SDP-BT with the gaps reported in \cite{KDS2018minors} on NESTA 0.3.

For the first level of the Lasserre Hierarchy we use the Julia package PowerModels.jl \cite{powermodels} which implements the standard SDP relaxation strengthened by lifted non-linear cuts (LNC) introduced in \cite{LNC}. For the second level we use our own preliminary Julia implementation which expands SumOfSquares.jl \cite{SumOfSquares} to use chordal sparsity. In both cases, we use version 8 of Mosek \cite{mosek} with standard parameter setting to solve the resulting SDPs.

Our implementation of the Lasserre Hierarchy is a general purpose tool, i.e., it is not tailored for the ACOPF problem. In particular, we do not increase the level selectively as done in \cite{MH2015_selective_hierarchy}. We also emphasize that we do not change the objective function, nor the input data (e.g., changing values of low impedance lines) when formulating the relaxations.
Finally, we note that our implementation of the Lasserre Hierarchy uses the following lifting: $\tilde{V}\tilde{V}^T$ where $\tilde{V}_\alpha = (\mathcal{R}V_{\alpha_1}\mathcal{I}V_{\alpha_2})$ for $\alpha \in \{(i,j) \mid i+j \leq 2\}$. We refer to \cite{CM2018_complex_hierarchy} for a detailed discussion on the comparison to the lifting used for the other implementations in this paper.

 Algorithm\,\ref{obbt_algo} is implemented in C++ within Gravity \cite{Gravity} and linked to Intel's Message Passing Interface (MPI) library 19.0.4. All optimization problems are solved using Ipopt \cite{Ipopt}, with the linear solver Ma27 \cite{HSL}, using an absolute constraint satisfaction tolerance of 1e-6. To solve this parallel implementation, we use 12 machines with 12 threads each. The maximum time per instance is set to 6 hours. The optimality tolerance of the SDP-BT algorithm, $\bm{\epsilon_o}$ is set to 1\% and the domain tolerance $\bm{\epsilon_d}$ is set to 1e-3.
 The code is open-source and can be accessed at \url{https://github.com/coin-or/Gravity/tree/master/examples/Optimization/NonLinear/Power}.

\subsection{Case study: case 9}\label{sec:casestudy9}
In this section, we discuss nesta\_case9\_bgm\_\_nco \cite{Bukhsh} referred to as case9, and depicted in \figureautorefname{ \ref{fig:case9}}.
This instance has 4 locally optimal solutions \cite{Bukhsh} and an SDP (Lasserre Hierarchy Level 1) optimality gap of 10.84\% \cite{polysdp}.

The underlying graph contains only one cycle and thus disconnecting any edge of the cycle yields a tree.
For the tree produced by omitting edge $(4,9)$ (dotted edge in \figureautorefname{ \ref{fig:case9}}), the root-node optimality gap using the first level of the Lasserre Hierarchy is 5.33 \%.  We refer to this instance as case9\_tree.

We first study the effect of the SDP determinant constraints and the valid RLT cuts on the SDP-BT algorithm. We compare a version of SDP-BT excluding the RLT cuts, a version using the SOCP relaxation \cite{Jabr} including the RLT cuts and the proposed version based on Model \ref{model:ext_sdp_current}. These are also compared to the Lasserre Hierarchy Levels 1 and 2. Results are summarized in Table~\ref{tab:case9}. The large gaps obtained by adding only the RLT cuts or only the SDP cuts highlight the importance of combining both for strengthening convex relaxations of the ACOPF problem.
\subsection{Why combine RLT with SDP cuts?}
Let us consider the simple case of the RLT equation \eqref{eq:ext_lij} in the absence of line charging and transformer parameters.
\begin{align}
l_{ij} =(g_{ij}^2+b^2_{ij}) (W_{ii}+W_{jj}-2\mathcal{R}(W_{ij}))
\end{align}
Note that this is only a scaled version of the real power loss on an edge,
\begin{align}
p_{ij}+p_{ji} =g_{ij} (W_{ii}+W_{jj}-2\mathcal{R}(W_{ij}))
\end{align}
Thus, an upper bound on $l_{ij}$ implies an upper bound on the power loss.
Conversely, the determinant constraints provide a lower bound on the loss. This is easy to see at level 2 of the Determinant Hierarchy with the second order cone constraint,
\begin{align}
W_{ii}W_{jj} \ge (\mathcal{R}(W)_{ij})^2+(\mathcal{I}(W)_{ij})^2.
\end{align}
Using the inequality of arithmetic and geometric means:
\begin{align}
(W_{ii}+W_{jj})^2/4 \ge W_{ii}W_{jj} \ge \mathcal{R}(W)_{ij}^2\\
\implies W_{ii}+W_{jj} - 2\mathcal{R}(W_{ij}) \ge 0.
\end{align}
We conjecture that higher order determinant constraints further tighten the lower bounds on the power loss and that performing bound tightening triggers a positive cycle where the relaxation gets stronger and the bounds get smaller in an alternating fashion.

\begin{figure}
    \centering
    \includegraphics[width=0.43\textwidth]{Picture1.png}
    \caption{Case 9}
    \label{fig:case9}
\end{figure}

\begin{table}
\centering
\begin{tabular}{|c|rr|rr|}
\hline
 &    \multicolumn{2}{c|}{case9}   & \multicolumn{2}{c|}{case9\_tree} \\
 & gap & time & gap &time\\
\hline
OBBT \& RLT &  10.20 & 10.27 & 0.66 & 6.00\\
OBBT \& SDP no RLT & 10.82 & 8.07 & 5.33 & 6.89\\
OBBT \& SDP \& RLT (SDP-BT) & \bf 0.44 & \bf 10.19 & \bf 0.66 & \bf 6.03\\
\hline
\end{tabular}
\vspace{0.25cm}
\caption{Optimality gaps and computation time for different relaxations on case9 and case9\_tree.\label{tab:case9}}
\end{table}

\subsection{PGLIB 19.05} \label{sec:pglib}

We run Algorithm\,\ref{obbt_algo} on all instances in \cite{pglib} having less than 300 buses.
The results from the numerical experiments are shown in Table \ref{tab: results_pglib} where instances with an initial gap $>1\%$ are highlighted in {\bf bold}. For each case we report the root gap before calling SDP-BT, the final gap after running SDP-BT, as well as the number of iterations and the total wall clock time (in seconds) of the algorithm (T.L. indicating that we hit the time limit).
We also report the level 1 and 2 Lasserre Hierarchy gaps (gap1 and gap2) as well as the corresponding total wall-clock time. Note that level 1 Lasserre Hierarchy relaxation includes the lifted nonlinear cuts (LNC) introduced in \cite{LNC}. Missing entries correspond to instances where the code ran out of memory. Starred entries refer to Mosek reporting unknown primal and dual status.
The SDP-BT algorithm manages to decrease the optimality gap to less than 1\% {\bf on all tested instances}.
The root node gap from Model \ref{model:ext_sdp_current} is tight and closes the gap in 38 out of 48 instances.
It is  worth mentioning that the number of iterations taken by the SDP-BT algorithm is typically small, taking only one iteration to converge on all but 2 instances.

\subsection{NESTA 0.3 \cite{KDS2018minors}}
\label{sec:nesta3}
In this section, we present an extensive comparison of SDP-BT's performance, on all instances having less than 300 nodes with state-of-the-art results published in \cite{KDS2018minors}.
The results are reported in Table \ref{tab:nesta3}. In the last four columns, we report optimality gaps and computation times for both the root node relaxation (including OBBT + cut generation) and the Branch\&Cut algorithm developed in \cite{KDS2018minors}. The SDP-BT algorithm closes the gap on 55 out of 57 instances, outperforming the root node relaxation reported in \cite{KDS2018minors} on all instances and closing 4 instances more than the Branch\&Cut algorithm.

\section{Conclusion and Future Work}

Parallelizing global optimization algorithms is not a trivial task. The SDP-BT algorithm and the underlying code we present here relies solely on open-source tools and can take full advantage of computational clusters using state-of-the-art MPI libraries. In our experiments, we showcase the performance of SDP-BT on a small cluster of 10 machines, closing the gap on a number of open test cases from the literature.

Several avenues for further investigation remain. The level 2 Lasserre Hierarchy, which involves the solution of large SDPs, may be solved efficiently using the Determinant Hierarchy presented here.
We are also looking at generating outer-approximation cuts that would lead to linear Determinant Hierarchies. Finally, we are working on integrating our contributions into an adaptive variable partitioning algorithm \cite{amp} which will allow us to tackle larger instances.
\input{results_table.tex}

\bibliographystyle{IEEEtran}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaArXiv


Acouple of years ago, I couldn't sleep, so I got up and turned on the telly, on which Channel 4 was showing something weird and wobbly that caught my eye. Had it been any other hour, I would surely have zapped ahead to a more legible offering, but you know how it is with late-night television. It takes you somewhere else. So, I found myself staying till the end with something called The Invasion of Thunderbolt Pagoda, directed by someone called Ira Cohen.


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Home / World / Canada's China envoy wants to leave post after a two-year stint
Canada's China envoy wants to leave post after a two-year stint
Dominic Barton helped secure the freedom of two Canadian detainees despite icy relations between Beijing and Ottawa
Dominic Barton's departure, which will take effect on December 31, leaves a crucial diplomatic post.
Twitter/@OKWesternWheel
Reuters | Ottawa | Published 07.12.21, 02:23 AM
Canada's ambassador to China said on Monday he would soon leave his post after a two-year assignment where he helped secure the freedom of two Canadian detainees despite icy relations between Beijing and Ottawa.
Dominic Barton's departure, which will take effect on December 31, leaves a crucial diplomatic post open at a time when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government is rethinking its China policy.
Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor spent almost three years in detention before being freed in September. The two were jailed shortly after Canadian police picked up a top Huawei Technologies executive on a US warrant. Trudeau said Canada was "better positioned to manage this relationship and achieve our objectives".
Canada China Dominic Barton Justin Trudeau


It has been ages since I posted a "Kitchen Heals Soul" post but I was determined to be more productive as a blogger this weekend so I have a cupcake recipe for you!
I saw these pineapple flowers at Emma's blog Food Coma and thought they looked very pretty. I admit I thought they'd be easier to make. Actually it was not difficult per se but they take a lot of time to dry and keep their shape. I made a basic cupcake recipe (see here, minus the Raffaellos) with a cream cheese frosting. You can find the instructions on how to make the pineapple flowers either on Food Coma or Martha Stewart.
ooo they are so cute!!!! they look delicious!!!
LOVE! Perfect presentation again ;) Love how the pineapple flowers actually look like those tulips! So light and airy, love it!
They look so perfect and yummy!


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American Mass Murder: A Toxic Cultural Brew
By Mark Levine
One of the recurring questions in Michael Moore's 2002 documentary Bowling for Columbine is why Canada, America's "friendly" neighbor to the north, has among the highest rates and ease of gun ownership in the world, yet has much lower rates of gun violence than the United States. Moore travels to several major southern Canadian cities asking random citizens and local law enforcement officials their opinions. His conclusion, and one of the most powerful arguments of the movie, is that it's not the mere existence of guns, but the socio-economic, cultural and political context in which guns exist, that are primary determinants of the levels and kinds of gun violence in a society.
Mark Levine is Professor of history at UC Irvine, Distinguished Visiting Professor at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Lund University, a Contributing Editor at Tikkun Magazine, and author of numerous books, including the just published Struggle and Survival in Palestine/Israel, co-edited with Gershon Shafir (UC Press). This article was circulated by Rabbi Michael Lerner of the Network of Spiritual Progressives.
According to Moore's interviewees, Americans are both pumped full of fear by their political elites and media, and too quick to assume that violence is the appropriate response to a dispute. "They're afraid more easily," one person explained. "They don't stop and think," said another, assessing Americans' supposed proclivity to shoot first and ask questions later.
Such views might help explain the shooting of Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman and other more spontaneous acts of gun violence. But James Eagan Holmes, the alleged Aurora killer, apparently spent months methodically planning his crime. He didn't just "snap" and go on a killing spree in response to a perceived threat or insult.
What's more, there seems to have been no political, ideological or economic motive behind his actions. He is not a member of an oppressed group seeking revenge against the dominant society; nor is he some 1970s-style bourgeois radical (or the fin-de-siecle al-Qa'eda equivalent) acting in perceived solidarity with the oppressed masses. However terrorised were his victims, the shooting is not an act of political terrorism.
Whatever psychological diagnosis ultimately gets pinned ot him, Holmes and the act that will forever define him—as he hoped it would—were the products of a peculiarly American set of cultural experiences, values and motivation, which hold the key to understanding how and the United States seems to produce such a disproportionate number of people who engage in acts of seemingly senseless mass murder.
Locating the Violence
Americans are certainly no more prone to extreme violence than other cultures. In Syria today the leadership and tens of thousands of government soldiers have little compunction about kill many times the number of people Holmes killed every day merely to retain their political and economic power. The same can be said of most dictators, and many of the violent movements who oppose them.
War, civil conflict, and the violence routinely deployed by those in power to remain so have produced unspeakable brutality in the last half century, from Latin America across the global south to Southeast Asia. The four years of World War II produced three times the number killed in all the violent conflicts since. As a recent collection of family photos of SS guards, "Laughing at Auschwitz," documents, people engaged in the most unspeakable horrors can lead seemingly "normal" lives, celebrating Christmas with family, drinking with friends and co-workers at the world's most infamous charnel house as if it was an automobile plant (http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/laughing-at-auschwitz-leisure-photos-of-camp-guards-shock-germans-a-507175.html).
The point being, the human proclivity towards unfathomable cruelty and violence knows no racial, national, religious or historical boundaries. But most of the violence described above was motivated by some sort of comprehensible political, ideological or economic motivation and thus "rational," even if we might oppose the reasons used to justify it.
One of the paradoxes of the modern world is precisely that we try to carve out boundaries between legitimate or at least politically and morally comprehensible—and more to the point, sanctioned or at least excusable—violence from violence that is "totally beyond the pale of any acceptable human conduct," as one of the most famous lines from Apocalypse Now puts it.
Cinematic anti-heroes like Apocalypse Now's Colonel Kurtz, or The Joker from Christopher Nolan's Batman (as whom James Holmes allegedly dressed during his rampage) are powerful precisely because they call into question the supposed boundary between legitimate, comprehensible and even sanctioned violence that is understood as necessary to achieving and maintaining social and political order, and nihilistic, "irrational" violence that threatens it. We judge them insane and terminate them with "extreme prejudice" not because their violence is so qualitatively different from that sanctioned by the state, but rather because it is so uncomfortably close.
Is there any wonder that many post-9/11 mass murderers, including Holmes, dressed in military style clothing, as if they're acting out a first-person shooter game in real life. How sane is it to create a culture that is so caught up in war that a staggering 7 percent of GDP, $1 trillion, is spent on it even as tens of thousands of people—that's several thousands times the number Holmes killed—die each year from lack of affordable health care and the country's infrastructure rots? And where the structural violence of an economic system based on rank greed and amorality is fully supported by at least half the population?
It's not surprising that people who suffer from some form of mental illness or psycho-social disorders resort to military-style violence when they finally break from whatever bonds still connect them to society. It's literally programmed into our cultural DNA, today more than ever before. In fact, it's surprising that it doesn't happen more often.
Certainly the methodical murder of so many people seems insane to "normal" people, exponentially more so to the victims. But how different do the members of an Afghan wedding party whose loved ones have just been blown to smitherines by a US drone feel? How about the parents of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi children who died during the sanctions regime? Can they make any more sense of that than we can of this?
Are Americans as a society ultimately that much more sane than James Holmes? How many innocent civilians die each year in its name? And not just in foreign conflict. Two days after Holmes' massacre 14 people, most probably "illegal" migrant laborers from Mexico and other Central American countries, where killed when the pick-up truck into which they were crowded careened off a road and crashed into a tree (http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-texas-crash-13-dead-20120723,0,2632784.story).
Can a country that so depends on cheap foreign labor yet criminalizes and dehumanizes them, spends billions of dollars to build walls to (sort of) keep them out, and forces them to risk—and so often, lose—their lives merely to get to their jobs be considered sane or even morally competent? If you look at rates of obesity, prescription addictions, or the willingness to continue with policies that manifestly harm the majority of people supporting them, is the country not committing a collective crime against itself and the world around it?
Thriving on Chaos
Or do people like Holmes serve as a wake-up call to the society-wide psychological disturbance of the equilibrium between empathy and unchecked individualism and selfishness, the two contradictory impulses which have, depending on their balance, produced and destroyed countless civilizations before ours? Indeed, the American success story has depended more than most on a strategy of creative destruction, of encouraging the kind of reckless risk-taking and disregard for consequences that are at the heart of entrepreneurial capitalism.
America's history as a settler colonial enterprise turned global empire, whose expansion and development depended on the murder and dispossession of millions of native people and the enslavement of even more Africans, has made it one of the greatest examples of the benefits and consequences of the impulse to creative destruction. When it has been tempered by a concern for the common good, it enabled an unprecedented level of prosperity across society; when it is bereft of any concern for society at large, it produces precisely the predicament in which the US presently finds itself.
"Thriving on Chaos" is how business management guru Tom Peters described this strategy twenty-five years ago, as neoliberalism was being cemented as the official political and economic ideology of the United States. Those who care to look can easily see the consequences of such chaos on workers, communities, and ecologies around the world. But for those who, like Holmes—or his fictional doppleganger The Joker—can't turn chaos into "legitimate" profit or power, it can easily become its own end—the creativity becomes a means towards destruction, rather than the other way around.
And here is where we can return to Moore's primary point in Bowling for Columbine: The reason gun violence is so much higher in the US compared with its northern neighbor is precisely because Canadians are still willing to take care of their own, to provide adequate health care and other social services for the poor and working classes, to make the fuller dignity of people's life of equal value to the pursuit of profit by the few.
Ironically, Moore's argument is not that different than that of the gun lobby, which argues that issues like poverty, alcohol and drug abuse and endemic violence in the inner city are responsible for the epidemic of gun violence, not the mere availability of guns (http://www.americanfirearms.org/statistics.php#15). If society "tackle[s] these issues… you'll solve, to a large degree, the problems of violence in society. But they go ignored."
Of course, as far as we know James Holmes was not the product of the inner city, or of an abusive, dysfunctional or even criminal environment. He's just a person who traveled the terrible path from slightly strange to insane, and because he lived in a culture where guns are readily available and gratuitous and amoral violence suffuses and is even celebrated across the culture, his insanity and complete disregard for others was expressed through mass violence.
In so doing, he offered Americans a glimpse of the darkest recesses of the cultural and economic logic of their society. Guns might kill people, and getting rid of them would certainly reduce the death toll. But as long as Americans suffuse their culture with violence at almost every level, there is no chance for meaningful gun reform, and young men like James Eagan Holmes will continue to turn their private mental illness into an occasion for cinematic murder and mayhem.


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The Genome Newsletter
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Your Health Is Personal
Summer/Fall 2014
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Difficult Decisions
Prenatal genetic testing spurs laws to provide information during pregnancy on Down syndrome.
By Arthur Caplan
There is a lot of excitement about genetic testing in the media these days. The marketing of direct-to-consumer testing is at a fever pitch. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has already begun approving some consumer-initiated genetic testing. Lots of people are eager to get their genome mapped so they can see which genetic risks they face and devise a strategy to manage them.
Some believe that direct-to-consumer genetic testing ought to be encouraged so that everyone can understand the role genes play in his or her health. If you are an educated, well-insured young adult who is good at managing major health risks through a prudent lifestyle, that enthusiasm might be justified. But that kind of unfettered excitement is unjustified for those who smoke, overeat, drink too much, abuse drugs, drive recklessly, forgo vaccinations, engage in risky sex, and don't exercise. Those people are in need of a lifestyle overhaul — not genetic testing for secondary risks.
Still, there is another, less-hyped area of life where genetic testing will likely soon explode into widespread use — and that's in reproduction. For all the attention being paid to testing for risk factors in adults, new technology makes it nearly certain that fetuses and their parents will soon be at the vortex of genetic testing. And that is going to lead to enormous ethical and legal controversies.
A friend of mine has been trying to have a child for many years. She is 38 and single. She is not interested in adoption, and she does not want to remain childless. According to the experts at the clinic she has been going to, her fertility is in rapid decline. So, not too long ago, using donor sperm, she got pregnant. She was thrilled, but she knew that as an older mom she faced a higher chance of having a child with Down syndrome. She was not willing to bear a child with that genetic makeup.
She is hardly alone. In the U.S., between 60 and 90 percent of all pregnancies in which Down syndrome is diagnosed end in abortion. The number is as high or higher in the U.K.
Most doctors think that anyone over 35 should consider testing for Down syndrome, and despite the risks and burdens of current testing, many women do. This testing produces consequences.
My friend's ultrasound showed a likelihood of Down syndrome, which was later confirmed by an amniocentesis she received 18 weeks into the pregnancy. The results of the test were slow in coming back. She had an abortion at 23 weeks, just on the edge of fetal viability. The experience left her distraught and mentally devastated. She can barely talk about what happened.
The horrible experience my friend went through will soon be a thing of the past. New technology uses a blood sample from an expectant mother to analyze small portions of fetal DNA that are present in the bloodstream to determine whether a fetus has Down syndrome. It can also provide information on other chromosomal traits, such as gender and the presence of an extra chromosome.
Cell-free testing is not yet approved by the FDA as a diagnostic test, but the results of a recent large, prospective, multicenter, blinded study demonstrated that cell-free DNA testing for risk assessment of Down syndrome outperformed current first trimester initial screening in the general pregnancy population. This means that testing will soon become more refined and more routine, not just for high-risk women but for all pregnant women. A test relying on a blood draw that can be done very early in pregnancy, as early as nine weeks, will be far less risky and burdensome for pregnant women. Late abortions could be greatly reduced. Indeed, the time is not far off when such testing is likely to become the standard of care for any pregnancy.
So, this is all good news, right? No, not entirely. There is a good deal of pushback these days against abortion as a moral response to Down syndrome. Some, like a Missouri state senator, are even hoping to ban abortions prompted by a diagnosis of Down syndrome, calling it discriminatory. That discomfort signals trouble for cell-free testing for Down syndrome and many other forms of genetic testing in the reproductive area.
Rates of abortion associated with a diagnosis of Down syndrome have been high for many decades. The recognition of this trend has led some families and supporters of people with Down syndrome to succeed in enacting the Down Syndrome Information Actin 14 states.
Pennsylvania's version of this act, known as Chloe's Law, was enacted in 2014.It is named after 12-year-old Chloe Kondrich, who has Down syndrome.
Chloe's dad, Kurt, was horrified to learn that the vast majority of mothers choose abortion if they learn their fetus is at risk for Down syndrome. As a result, he pushed the Pennsylvania legislature to enact a law that requires the Department of Health to make available "up-to-date, evidence-based information about Down syndrome that has been reviewed by medical experts and national Down syndrome organizations," including information on treatment options as well as "support services, hotlines specific to Down syndrome, relevant resource centers, clearinghouses, and national and local Down syndrome organizations."
Legislation like Chloe's Law overturns the long-standing foundational and ethical norm of genetic testing and counseling, which has been neutrality in the provision of information. Whether the high rate of abortion after diagnosis is due to a lack of information or a reflection of patient values is not clear. However, federal and state laws mandating that a positive spin about Down syndrome be provided to parents seeking testing opens the door to what is sure to become a very heated debate about the mandatory nature of counseling and its content. As genetic testing becomes easier and safer to do using cell-free fetal DNA testing, questions will arise about who should counsel and how they should counsel when it comes to describing disabilities and differences.
Chloe's Law seeks to shift the default of genetic counseling on Down syndrome to a more pronatalist stance.
Chloe's Law is hardly value neutral. It is deliberately positive about Down syndrome. It, and similar legislation enacted in other states, seeks to spin the message given by doctors and counselors about Down syndrome in a positive direction. Kids with Down syndrome may have issues, the law concedes, but medical advances, devoted parenting, and societal support can overcome them. The associations that helped create these laws are made up of parents who chose to have a child with Down syndrome, and they are eager to fight for resources, opportunities, and recognition for their children. They are also keen to share stories of the positive effect their children have had on their lives and on those around them.
Chloe's Law seeks to shift the default of genetic counseling on Down syndrome to a more pronatalist stance. It is the first of what will certainly be other efforts to insist that those involved in genetic testing, screening, and counseling move away from nominal ethical neutrality to a more disability-friendly, accepting, and normative message.
As cell-free genetic testing expands, the counseling that accompanies it will not always be done by genetic counselors; there are simply too few of them. In addition, by using more advanced versions of this technique, more conditions, traits, and differences will become detectable, thereby opening the door to the question of who will say what and with what ethical valence about why certain conditions are being tested for, what a positive test result means, and what risk means in the context of deciding.
For those keen to see genetic testing expand, there are huge lessons from initiatives like Chloe's Law. What is identified as a "risk," who frames the message about test results, what constitutes a "fair" message, who gives the information and with what legal force are still to be determined. But genetic testing will not remain immune from broader social and political forces, especially when reproductive testing is likely to lead the way toward mass genetic testing.
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Largely because of the plummeting price and thickness of touch screens, these devices are increasingly ubiquitous. One of the latest trends is touch screen laptops, spearheaded by Surface devices and the recently announced Chromebook Pixel. In this post I'll dive into some experiements around this new form factor. The main goal is to try to convince myself that this form factor makes sense for reasons other than economic ones.
In exploring the interaction design angle of these new devices, I came across a couple of what I think are a couple of interesting ideas that I'd like to share with you: responsive input and simultaneous interactions using both mouse/trackpad and touchscreen. I wrote some demos that illustrate these ideas. A touchscreen laptop is required for these demos to work properly.
Auto scaling in response to input type.
Hopefully this gives you a better sense of what I mean by responsive input and simultaneous touch and mouse interactions.
As a regular laptop with trackpad (or external mouse) and keyboard.
As a touch tablet with a keyboard.
Touch has no hover state.
Touch is less precise than mouse and requires bigger targets.
Touch requires that you are closer to the screen.
Ideally, you want to provide optimal experiences for both cases. For the mouse case, this means taking advantage of hover states and a finer pointer. For the touch case, this means ensuring that touch targets are big enough to be tapped, not relying on hover at all.
Immediately transform to the mouse-style UI as soon as the input mode changes (simplest, but can cause transitions to fire too rapidly between the two modes, which may be jarring).
Transform only after some period of not using the other input mode (eg. go to touch mode only if the user is actively using touch, and not touching the mouse at all).
Transform based on some external criteria, like whether or not the screen is docked to a mouse, or based on input from sensors other than mouse/touchscreen.
The first approach is problematic in that your first touch transforms the page. If this transformation causes your target to move away from it's initial position, you will miss it entirely. This can be mitigated by having intelligent resizing which does not affect anything directly under the touch point, but may result in a lopsidedly zoomed interface.
The second approach is problematic since the mode switching will happen automatically after some period of inactivity, which may be jarring. The last approach is either obvious (eg. mouse removed), or an area of research (eg. predicting when the user will touch based on camera).
I wrote a demo of auto scaling in response to input type. If you use the mouse, click targets will decrease in size. If you use your finger, touch targets increase in size. (Of course, this will only work on a touchscreen laptop).
In the above section, I described an automatic way to switch between touch and mouse mode However, there is a middle ground between the two: multimodal interactions that involve both touchscreen and mouse/trackpad. Simultaneous bimodal interaction is already common. For example, using mouse and keyboard simultaneously makes a very efficient interface for FPS games, with the movement via the WASD keys, and mouse-look.
One experiment involves using the mouse or trackpad as a navigation device and using the touch screen as a way to input positional data. This is illustrated through Google maps. You pan and zoom the map using mouse events, and place markers on the map using the touch screen. Try out this demonstration of mouse-to-map and touch-to-mark (again, this requires a touchscreen laptop).
Move it by simply dragging it around on the screen with touch.
Rotate by selecting the object on the touchscreen, and then performing a mousemove (either by moving a mouse or dragging one finger on a trackpad). The rotation happens around the point where you touched the object, which acts as a fulcrum.
Scale it in the same fashion as rotation (selecting object and transformation origin with the touchscreen), except with a two-finger drag on the trackpad, or using the mousewheel if a mouse is attached.
With no selection, the canvas itself can be zoomed and panned with the mouse/trackpad directly. Try out this multimodal transform demo (requires touchscreen laptop).
Like any brave new world, the one of multimodal input has its own set of challenges.
It's currently impossible to distinguish a touch laptop from any other touch screen. Notably, this means that you should never assume that touch support implies no mouse support. In practice, make sure that you always bind to mouse events. If you also have touch event handlers, just use event.preventDefault() there to ensure that you aren't handling one event in multiple handlers. If you're interested in this, follow the discussion at http://crbug.com/174553.
As a generalization of the above, there is currently no way to determine which kinds of input are available in the browser. A fully fledged Input Availability API might seem like overkill, but there are already some cases beyond touch laptops that are relevant. For example, detecting the presence of a physical keyboard would be very useful. Further, detecting hardware features like an attached camera and microphone could fall into the same bucket rather than relying on exception handling from APIs like getUserMedia. Lastly, having such an API would allow websites to react dynamically to changes in input (eg. a tablet gets docked to a physical keyboard, or a mouse is attached).
The final missing piece is that dealing with two different event models (mouse and touch) is definitely clunky. I have already written extensively about pointer events and a pointer event polyfill. In this particular case, pointer events would be great, because although they provide a consolidated model for input, it's very easy and natural to distinguish between the two modalities.
These experiments are all available on github.
Do you have thoughts or demos around new types of interactions using touch laptops? Please share them below.


As pet owners, we all want to bring our beloved pets with us anywhere we go. Unfortunately, not every place is pet friendly and we have to leave poor Fido at home. But luckily, there are a few restaurants, beaches and parks that allow our four-legged friends to join us here in South Jersey!
Zoe's Beachfront Eatery is located on Beach and Stockton Place, Cape May, NJ. You and your furry friend are welcome on the outdoor patio where there is lots of space and can enjoy delicious food and the nice ocean breeze. Check them out here!
According to Fun New Jersey, Robin's Nest Restaurant is a fine dining restaurant that offers an outdoor patio for people and their pooches. Enjoy the stream side seating along with the vegan and gluten-free menu options! Robin's Nest Restaurant is located at 2 Washington St, Mount Holly, NJ. Check them out, here!
The Absecon Lighthouse is extremely pet friendly and allows dogs on their two acre lawn and museum as long as they are leashed. What is even better is that parking and admission to the Keeper's House Museum, Exhibits, Gift Shop, and Grounds are free! The lighthouse does have climbing fees which can be seen on their website along with hours of operation. It's located at 31 S. Rhode Island Ave, Atlantic City, NJ.
Enjoy the beautiful views here at the Barnegat Lighthouse! According to new-jersey-leisure-guide.com, four-legged friends are allowed on the park and beaches from August 16 to April 14. Dogs must be licensed, well-behaved, leashed, and owners must be able to have full control of their dogs and clean up after them. The lighthouse is located at Broadway and the Bay Barnegat Light, NJ. For more information, check out their website.
Come shop, dine, and take a stroll on Sunset Beach! All three stores are pet friendly, the Grill provides a pet friendly lower deck for dining, and pets are allowed on the beach from September 16th to March 30th (must be leashed and cleaned up after). The shops and beach are located at 502 Sunset Blvd, Cape May Point, NJ. Check out their website.
The Wildwood Dog Beach is not only a perfect summer spot, but an all year round place to go with your furry companion! You can't miss it since it has a 25 foot high fire hydrant sculpture. What's great is that the beach provides fresh water and doggie clean-up bags. Hours of operation are every day from 6am to dusk, and dogs must remain on their leashes. This dog beach is located at 487 E. Poplar Ave, Wildwood, NJ. For more information, check them out here!
Bring Fido over to the Cape May Dog Park to mingle with other four-legged friends! License fees are as follows: $20 for seasonal, and $10 for weekly. Applications can be printed from the website or picked up at the Cape May City Clerk's Office along with the park tags. The dog park is located at 705 Lafayette Street, Cape May, NJ. For a complete list of rules and more information, visit their website.
If you're looking to enjoy nature with your precious pooch, bring them to the Island Beach State Park! Enjoy the many trails the state park has to offer. Dogs must be kept on a leash that is no more than 6 feet long, and they are not allowed on the beach during the summer season, or the Spizzle Creek Bird Blind Trail at any time of the year. It is advised to check your beloved pet for ticks after walking on the trails. The park is located at Route 35, Seaside Park, NJ. Check them out here!
This blog was written by Maria Alonzo, a Summer 2017 intern at Townsquare Media South Jersey.


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HomeSheridan EventsSheridan commemorates National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women
Sheridan commemorates National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women
2019-12-11 Shinead Persaud-Orotal Sheridan Events 0
By Shinead Persaud-Orotal and Raymond Cabbab
Sheridan commemorated the 30th annual National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women to honour 14 women whose lives were lost as a result of gender-based violence.
Sarah McLachlan's "I Will Remember You" was performed and speakers addressed a crowd in Sheridan Trafalgar campus' SCAET building Friday, December 6 at 10 a.m. Afterward, a portrait of each woman who died in the massacre was placed in Trafalgar's peace garden and white roses were placed in front of them.
A white rose is placed by the portrait of one of the women who lost their lives in the massacre. Photo courtesy of Sheridan College.
The day is in memory of 14 female engineering students who were murdered at Polytechnique de Montréal on December 6, 1989. In 1991, Canada's parliament declared December 6 to be National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women to remember the victims and bring awareness to all violence against women.
Dr. Jane Ngobia, Vice president of inclusive communities at Sheridan College was one of the speakers and says they have committed to ending violence in all its forms:
"We need to show our solidarity and echo our voice as an institution that says gender-based violence has no place in our community and in the communities around us . . . We have policies, we have an office, we have education, we have resources, and we have support for anyone experiencing any form of sexual violence."
Sheridan President Dr. Janet Morrison said she was a third-year undergraduate when the massacre happened. Morrison believes that we gather as a community to remember and to remind ourselves of our obligations to do what needs to be done to eradicate gender-based violence across campuses, both individually and collectively.
"I think Sheridan continues to lead on this front, but there's still lots to be done. Our dare to care work, the staffing that's now available in our gender-based violence office is certainly moving us in the right direction. But we together as students, as faculty and staff need to recommit every day to deciding that this type of violence, any type of violence just isn't okay here," said Morrison.
Jane Ngobia (left, red scarf), Janet Morrison (middle-left, all black), and two other speakers watch as roses are placed in front of the portraits
The day falls within the 16 days of activism against gender-based violence, an international campaign that was launched and is coordinated by the Center for Women's Global Leadership. The campaign aims to bring awareness to violence against women and reflect on what people can do in their communities to end it. It runs annually from November 25 to December 10.
Former Sheridan student Eve Krogman attended the event in 2016 and has experienced violence herself.
Eve Krogman placing a white rose at the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women at Sheridan in 2016. Photo courtesy Eve Krogman.
"It's always been important to have a strong support system of people who will listen, care, and fight alongside me for justice, remembrance, and safety," Krogman says.
A plaque in Sheridan's peace garden lists the name of all 14 women who died in the Polytechnique Montréal shooting in honour of their memory.
National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women
Go QLess and skip the line!
'Our decisions can impact the health of everyone around us': Expert warns antibiotic misuse spreads powerful superbugs


Pencil and wash drawing by Thomas and William Daniell of a sculpture of Visnu and Lakshmi at Agori (U.P.), dated 12 and 13 January, 1790. Inscribed on front in pencil: 'Vishnou & his Wife Latchemi'; also notes.
This relief depicts Vishnu and Lakshmi; the god holds in his four hands a lotus, a conch, a staff and a wheel. The figures in the compartments on the exterior represent the major avataras or incarnations of Vishnu.


Networking group led by Prof. Kang G. Shin has been exploring cutting-edge newtork technolgoies, including PHY/MAC layer design, wired Internet, wireless sensor networks, wireless mesh and mobile networks, and cognitive radio networks. This group has the distinction of producing many notable researchers in the networking field. The group currently consists of 4 graduate students (all in Ph.D track) and 2 postdoctoral research fellows, and holds regular group meeting every week. Through technical presentations and paper reading in group meetings, group members actively interact with each other and expose themselves to various state-of-art areas in networking research.


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Klopp raves: €27m goal-machine who rejected Liverpool is an 'incredible' player. Try again?
In August, the The Independent claimed that Borussia Dortmund had 'accepted' a £15m Liverpool bid for Henrikh Mkhitaryan, who rejected a move to Anfield back in 2013. At that time, the presence of Jurgen Klopp swung things in Dortmund's favour, and it's clear that Klopp still holds the Armenian in very high regard.
In a new interview that appears in the newly-released ebook 'Reading The Game', Klopp raved:
"There is no doubt in my mind that he is one of the most talented players in the world. He possesses an incredible combination of speed and technique. There's very, very few you can say that about".
Mkhitaryan - who cost Dortmund €27m - didn't live up to this lofty billing last season, but this year, he's on fire for Dortmund:
* 27 goals/assists in 21 games.
* Goal/assist every 65 minutes.
Absolutely stunning contribution so far, and seeing these figures merely underlines the comparatively abject underperformance of Lallana, Coutinho, Firmino, and Milner.
Klopp may have signed 'unbelievable' Mkhitaryan, but he didn't get the best out of him, and it could be argued that the German's incessant demand for physically draining running/pressing actually *restricted* Mkhitaryan's ability to perform.
Excessive injury problems were a key feature of Klopp's reign at Dortmund, and Mkhitaryan - who had a superb injury record prior to his move - also succumbed to a series of issues that disrupted his momentum.
In a recent interview, Mkhitaryan specifically praised current Dortmund boss Thomas Tuchel for unleashing his potential, and seemed to suggest that he'd had more influence on his performance than Klopp:
"[Thomas] Tuchel has influenced me positively and I want to prove to everyone that I am a good player. I want to make the BVB fans happy. I never felt that it was a mistake to come here".
Dortmund recently branded the Liverpool transfer rumours as nonsense, but given Klopp's obvious admiration, the Reds are bound to be linked with Mkhitaryan once again at some point.
27 goals/assists in 21 games? Why can't any of Liverpool's attacking midfielders ever achieve stats like that?