text:
BIONTech breaks ground for manufacturing site in Rwanda
BioNTainers. © BioBTech SE
BioNTech SE has announced it is going to ship the first containers for mRNA malaria vaccine production from this year's end toKigall.
According to BioNtech, the facility will be initially equipped with two BioNTainers, and is expected to employ about 100 staff by 2024. However, the Mainz-headquartered company will start clinical trials with seversal malaria vaccine candidates llater this year. Africa currently makes around 90% of the US$80 bn malaria vaccine market. However, climate change might change this, with both Plasmodium and its host moving polewards.
The Rwandan facility will be equipped to manufacture a range of mRNA-based vaccines targeted to the needs of the African Union member states, which could conceivably include the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine and BioNtech's investigational malaria and tuberculosis vaccines. The estimated initial annual capacity of e. g. the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine will be about 50 million doses. Manufacturing in the BioNTainers in Rwanda is expected to commence approximately 12 to 18 months after their installation. BioNTech is hiring a head of quality assurance for Rwanda.
On the occasion of the start of construction Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, said: "Today, we are laying the foundations for the first mRNA vaccine production facility in Africa, in Kigali. We are turning a simple but ground-breaking idea into reality, in record time. The 'Vaccine Equity for Africa' project is a milestone – not only in the fight against COVID-19. This project represents the immense potential of African and European cooperation. Our partnership will bring vaccine manufacturing in Africa to the next level."
BioNtech expects together with African partners to set up additional factories in Senegal and South Africa. The initial site will become a node in a decentralized and robust African end-to-end manufacturing network. All vaccines to be manufactured in the network will be dedicated to people residing in member states of the African Union.
At the Malaria and Neglected Tropical Diseases Summit, held in Kigali occurring in parallel to Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), Ugur Sahin introduced the Ccompany's program aiming at the development of a highly effective malaria vaccine based on BioNTech's mRNA platform.
Phase II study data for CIS43LS, a monoclonal antibody developed at the NIH that targets Plasmodium sporozoites, are underway. CIS43LS was the first treatment able to prevent infection in over 80% of 40 patients vaccinated in a Phase 1 trial. However, information on whether BioNTech's malaria vaccine pipeline included mRNA encoding the appropriate antigen triggering CIS43LS in the body was not available.
Rewind Therapeutics extends Series A financing
The company, founded by CD3 (Leuven, Belgium) and Axxam S.p.A. (Milan), did not want to reveal the exact amount added to the €15.2m in its 2018...
ExeVir receives EIB risk finance for multiple COVID-19 nanobody
With the resurgence of COVID-19 in China, ExeVir BIO sees commercial potential in the future treatment of immunocompromised people, who make up 3%...
Ethris inks €15m deal with Indian Ciplas
The investment is aimed at establishing a long-term strategic partnership until the end of Q1/2023 between Cipla and Ethris for the development of...
Cradle BV bags €5.4m in seed financing
Cradle BV has raised $5.4m to push a machine-learning model-based platform that helps scientists to design and program cells much faster in order to...
Novadip Biosciences SA raises €40m
Belgian regenerative medicine specialist Novadip Biosciences has raised €40m to push clinical development of its two investigational adipose stem...


text:
Q: How much current is flowing through this circuit? Here's a circuit connecting 4 LEDs with 22 Ohm resistor. According to my calculation, I'm supposed to get 45 mA flowing.
Battery is 9 V. Voltage drop of each LED is 2 V. Resistor is 22 Ohm.
\$(9 - 4 \cdot 2)\ /\ 22 = 0.045 \$ or 45 mA.
However, if you look at the multimeter, it says 1 mA? I'm really confused.
I'm a total beginner, so I appreciate any help.

A: Nominal voltages can vary a lot from actual, and both batteries and diodes show this tendency strongly.
The 1.5V nominal voltage on a dry cell is for a fresh cell that's not being asked to deliver much current.  Ask for more current, and you'll get less voltage out of the cell.  45mA is a lot to ask from a 9V battery, so it's undoubtedly delivering less.
Similarly, the 2V drop across a diode will vary with the individual diode characteristics and with temperature.
The rule of thumb for dry cells is that you haven't gotten all the energy out of them until they're running at around 1V to 0.9V per cell -- that works out to designing your circuit to work with a battery voltage from 9V down to 6V, or even 5.4V.  That, in turn, means that you should design for two LEDs in series, with an appropriate current-limiting resistor -- and expect that your intensity will drop considerably from a fresh battery down to a dead one.

A: You seem to be expecting 2 V for each of the four LEDs but you appear to have four different colours and that means you will have four different forward voltage drops.

Figure 1. Current and voltage relationship for various LED colours. Source: LEDnique.
If you draw a horizontal line the graph above at the current you are reading you can add up the Vf of each of your LEDs and see if it matches your readings. Notice that blue has a much higher Vf than red.
Note on use of multimeter: You are reading 1.3 mA on the 200 mA range. Your precision will not be good. It's the correct way to start but once you've established the magnitude of the current you can step down to the next range (20 mA) and get more precision, etc.

A: If you use in your calculations 22 ohm + internal resistance of the battery you will get 1.3mA

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


You'll find special obstacles that women aging inside of a world which has a continual not to mention insatiable desire when it comes to youthful appearance coupled with good looks have got to struggle constantly to beat. Regardless of the alternative of cosmetic plastic surgery, Botox treatment as well as a ton of high-priced facial rejuvenation products, only a few females are actually happy with the effects from their anti-aging labors. Their particular frustrations tend to be compounded via the huge selection of retailed beauty products on sale at every turn. Whether you are within the food store, the pharmacy, in the local mall, turning through a fashion publication or waiting to get your hair done, everywhere you go includes a showcase of perfectly wrapped serums and salves, that promise to provide baby soft as well as wrinkle free skin but only if you'll purchase them and apply them routinely. It can be hard to actually discern the difference between the items which are able to deliver upon their own promises, and those which possess little aside from stunning product packaging and a dazzling advertising campaign to aid them. Furthermore, most of these products possess a hefty cost. As a result, it does not take long for a woman to accrue quite a charge for lotions as well as potions that she's frequently doubtful give advantages really worth their excessive asking price.
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text:
Latest ITER Newsline
Cryostat thermal shield | A "strong back" for a fragile component
The lower cylinder thermal shield is a large silver-plated component, circular in shape and five metres tall, which fits inside the depression in the cryostat b [...]
Diagnostic shielding | B4C ceramic bricks prove their worth
A number of materials can effectively shield diagnostic equipment from the neutron flux coming from the plasma. To find the best one, the diagnostics team at IT [...]
Image of the week | The cryostat top lid, batch after batch
Batch after batch, the elements for the top lid of the ITER cryostat keep arriving from India. As of today, 7 out of the 12 required segments have been delivere [...]
Cooling water system | The tanks within a tank
Deep inside the bowels of the Tokamak Building, the entrance to one of most spectacular rooms of the whole installation resembles that of a broom cupboard. [...]
ITER assembly | Last major assembly contract signed
One year after finalizing two major machine assembly contracts, the ITER Organization has chosen the contractors who will carry out assembly and installation ac [...]
See archived entries
ITER NEWSLINE -
Read the latest published articles
Safeguarding ITER inventions
Robert Arnoux
The issue of intellectual property is a serious one that has implications way beyond ITER. The IP Board is scheduled to meet every six weeks and will convene for as long as the ITER Project exists.
In the course of ITER's life, many things will be invented: new processes and innovative materials will be developed; unprecedented concepts and exotic tools will most certainly be elaborated. "We are building a device that is at the cutting edge of technology," says David Campbell (Directorate for Plasma Operation) and Chair of the newly-established Intellectual Property (IP) Board. "People will invent ... and their inventions will need to be protected."
The issue is a very serious one that has implications way beyond ITER. When fusion reactors are built the potential value generated by inventions and technological breakthroughs will be considerable.
In conformity with the Rules on Intellectual Property Management and Dissemination of Information that were adopted at the fifth meeting of the ITER Council in November 2009, an "IP Board" was established this week to assess "all aspects of intellectual property protection within the ITER Organization."
One of the founding principles of ITER is that knowledge acquired within the project is freely shared between the contributing Members. "We have to make sure that knowledge generated within ITER can be exploited effectively by the Members in their fusion development programs," says David Campbell.
While intellectual property on inventions or breakthrough technologies is pretty clear-cut, the notion of "background intellectual property" is more delicate to address. "Background intellectual property," explains the IP Board Chair, "is, for example, intellectual property that belongs to a company or institution, that is then used in fabricating an ITER component and that we need to access in order for instance to maintain the component during ITER operation. The project will most likely involve a lot of background intellectual property and we have to ensure that an adaquate protection system creates trust between us, the Domestic Agencies and industry."
The IP Board is scheduled to meet every six weeks and will convene for as long as the ITER Project exists. One item on its current agenda is designing a reward system to compensate "ITER inventors" who generate potential value; another is promoting the intellectual property training program, so that people recognize intellectual property when they see it, says David.
return to the latest published articles

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Q: Duda con diferencia al crear tablas, desde el diseñador sql server y desde codigo t-sql He creado una tabla con T-SQL
CREATE TABLE Persona2
(
    Id int IDENTITY(1,1) Primary Key,
    Nombres varchar(100) NULL,
    Apellidos varchar(100) NULL,
    Fecha_Nacimiento date NULL,
    Balance numeric(18, 2) NULL,
    Id_Persona_Tipo int NULL,
    Id_Estatus tinyint NULL
)

Despues genere un script de esa misma tabla y me genero el siguiente codigo.
USE [CRUD_MVC]
GO
/****** Object:  Table [dbo].[Persona2]    Script Date: 22/02/2020 03:59:15 p. m. ******/
SET ANSI_NULLS ON
GO
SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER ON
GO
CREATE TABLE [dbo].[Persona2](
    [Id] [int] IDENTITY(1,1) NOT NULL,
    [Nombres] [varchar](100) NULL,
    [Apellidos] [varchar](100) NULL,
    [Fecha_Nacimiento] [date] NULL,
    [Balance] [numeric](18, 2) NULL,
    [Id_Persona_Tipo] [int] NULL,
    [Id_Estatus] [tinyint] NULL,
PRIMARY KEY CLUSTERED
(
    [Id] ASC
)WITH (PAD_INDEX = OFF, STATISTICS_NORECOMPUTE = OFF, IGNORE_DUP_KEY = OFF, ALLOW_ROW_LOCKS = ON, ALLOW_PAGE_LOCKS = ON) ON [PRIMARY]
) ON [PRIMARY]
GO

Despues cree una tabla desde el diseñador de SQL Server con las mismas caracteristicas.
Despues genere el script
USE [CRUD_MVC]
GO
/****** Object:  Table [dbo].[Persona3]    Script Date: 22/02/2020 04:24:50 p. m. ******/
SET ANSI_NULLS ON
GO
SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER ON
GO
CREATE TABLE [dbo].[Persona3](
    [Id] [int] IDENTITY(1,1) NOT NULL,
    [Nombres] [varchar](100) NULL,
    [Apellidos] [varchar](100) NULL,
    [Fecha_Nacimiento] [date] NULL,
    [Balance] [numeric](18, 2) NULL,
    [Id_Persona_Tipo] [int] NULL,
    [Id_Estatus] [tinyint] NULL,
 CONSTRAINT [PK_Persona3] PRIMARY KEY CLUSTERED
(
    [Id] ASC
)WITH (PAD_INDEX = OFF, STATISTICS_NORECOMPUTE = OFF, IGNORE_DUP_KEY = OFF, ALLOW_ROW_LOCKS = ON, ALLOW_PAGE_LOCKS = ON) ON [PRIMARY]
) ON [PRIMARY]
GO

Despues compare ambos scripts generados y me di cuenta de una ligera diferencia en ambos casos, quisiera saber a que se debe esto.

A: La diferencia es que en la primera sintaxis no se indica el nombre del índice creado.
PRIMARY KEY CLUSTERED
(
    [Id] ASC
)

Mientras que en la segunda es explícita.
CONSTRAINT [PK_Persona3] PRIMARY KEY CLUSTERED

En la primera, SQL Server creará la clave primaria asignándole un nombre escogido por él, del tipo PK__Persona2__3214EC07DCE7C37B, mientras que en el segundo caso ya se especifica que el nombre será PK_Persona3


Waterloo was founded in 1839 as the seventh, but final, capital of Texas. Shortly thereafter, Waterloo was renamed to Austin, as Stephen F. Austin is to Texas what George Washington is to the United States.
For a while, Austin was a quiet capital, better known as a college town with the University of Texas founded in 1883 and St. Edward's University in 1885. The city was founded with around 500 residents, half of whom fled the city when the government recessed or school was not in session. But once the capital boomed, it boomed! The secret was out - Austin was cool.
In the early 1900s the city's population was around 22,000 residents versus a 656,000 population as of 2000. Nowadays, statistics state that over 100 people move to Austin each and every day. And that trend does not seem to be slowing down or changing any time soon.
But what about those that were here before the boom? The oldies-but-goodies. The "founders" if you will. Well, I'm lucky enough to have married into an "old" Austin family. Most, if not all, of my husband's family and friends went to the same elementary school together, rooted for one of the only high schools in the city (go Maroons!), and matriculated to the University of Texas, or "UT". For years they'd go to the same Austin stalwarts, not just to eat, but also to gather, see other friends and family, and dine on what was (and for some joints still is) quintessential classic Austin grub.
"It's been there since I was in high school, the old Austin High, the one on 11th and Rio Grande, so the little barbeque place has been there forever.
It's not your "all you can eat", "how do you like your brisket" kind of a place. They sell sandwiches, which taste like my childhood because I had one nearly every day during high school. Hell, I remember one day in particular when we were taking the short walk back to campus and people were crying in the streets and every student was talking about the President being shot. That was the day JFK was assassinated. That's how old this place is.
"Before the Salt Lick was "THE SALT LICK,"(the venerable, if you haven't been here you haven't experienced the true way barbeque was meant to be served, weekend retreat) it was a family run business with little else than a barbeque pit. We came upon the restaurant, if you could call it that - it was a small wooden structure off the highway and were invited to take a seat. Basically, there was a screened in porch and a few chairs and tables set out front for dinners. My buddy and I saddled up and were given heaping helpings of fire smoked perfection.
It wasn't a totally unique occurrence for local folks in small towns to sell barbeque or other meals from their very own homes, but the food was never this good and my thoughts on barbeque were never the same." - a 60-something UT grad, Texas born and bred, and Austin proud. He takes "Hook 'em horns" to another level, be mindful if you ever find him on game day.
"It wasn't my first experience, because I was told I had been going there since I was 2 years old, but it was my most memorable. Back then there were more buildings and fewer parking lots next to Cisco's. The area had a land of the time-forgot attitude of older post-war two-story buildings (before that was certainly cool or unique). I was probably 9 years old and upon entering I knew that I was somewhere special.
The smell alone is so unique, so characteristic of everything that is classic and good. It's almost like experiencing your first UT game and watching the team come out of the tunnel to the Longhorn band. It's the closest food can come to making me have that kind of a flood of emotion -the biscuits, the tortillas, those unique eggs (what were those again, I need to remember Migas I recall saying to myself).


If your text is of the plain vanilla variety (using Times, Arial and other similar fonts), then there should be no font-related problems in the typesetting of your book. However (and here note that this is a Western publisher speaking), if you use any non-standard text like that listed below, then you will need to start talking seriously with your editor – indeed, you should have done this months ago.
Text with diacritics or special accents (Vietnamese, for instance, uses multiple accents over a single Latin character).
Non-Latin script (e.g. Cyrillic, Arabic and Chinese).
Mathematical and scientific symbols (many based on Greek letters).
Formulas (often a complex arrangement of super- and sub-scripted Greek letters and other symbols and markers that must be precisely placed but still run into the main text).
The big danger is that everything turns to custard in the conversion process (an issue I shall return to in a few days time). This can be a result of incompatibility between fonts and/or between computer operating systems, something I have discussed in an earlier post.
Moreover, just because you got this Chinese font free with Word, it doesn't mean that it can be used by your publisher without paying a heft price; this issue, too, I have explored elsewhere.
And finally there is the issue of readability (something I have also written about earlier and enraged a few people as a result); I would argue that every insertion of special text creates a 'speed bump' in the smooth reading of your text.
Please think very hard before using such special text and, if you must use it, then consult with your production editor at an early stage.
When is it OK to use diacritics?
After such a long litany of bitching about diacritical marks, it would be reasonable to conclude that I (and most publishers) am opposed to their use in all instances. Not at all, but everything has its place.
So when is it OK to use diacritical marks? The short answer is, that depends. The long answer? Here is my take on the issue – but first a personal comment. In this blog, my idea has been to make general observations applicable to all authors working in the humanities and social sciences (and hopefully to many others, too). Unconsciously, though, I am carrying a lot of 'baggage'. For instance, my experience is largely limited to English-language publishing (though located in a non-English country) and my comments on diacritical marks are framed by this. Sorry if my assumptions come across as grossly ethnocentric.
The English language does not include diacritics (though it does have a few accents and other marks). Hence words and names determined to be English (and therefore included in an English dictionary) should not have diacritical marks. The result is that name describing the body of Muslim legal scholars that once was rendered in text as ulamā now appears plainly as the English word 'ulema'. Similarly, although orthographically it may be more correct to render Japan's capital city as Tōkyō, the correct name in English is Tokyo; this is what copy-editors will demand that is used.
The main argument in favour of this approach is not so much that the English word is more correct (though there are a lot of purse-lipped editors who would take this line) but rather that keeping to common usage promotes quicker comprehension. Common usage is one of the three C's of all good writing discussed in our book.
Nor does this mean that foreign words and names cannot appear in English-language text, of course, or that they should drop their diacritical marks if they do. For instance, it would be plainly wrong and ridiculous to render ulamā as ulema in a block of transliterated Arabic text. Likewise, if a Japanese book title rendered in rōmaji includes the city name Tokyo, obviously the diacritics should be retained (i.e. Tōkyō should be used).
Of course it is another matter how many such foreign words and names should appear in your text, hence my earlier comments on clutter and other readability issues.
As is implied from the above discussion on language, location matters; the latitude in content and usage granted by editors for text set off from the main running text (in notes, references, block quotes, etc.) is far wider than what is acceptable in the main text itself. Again, this is influenced by considerations of readability (and the perception of many editors that notes and references, especially, are less important; they are often distractions ignored by the wiser reader). But ultimately here there can be no hard and fast rules; other factors like context and common sense should come into play here (see below).
In a similar way, the correct understanding of foreign terms often needs diacritics to be present.
That said, meeting such needs can be handled intelligently. For instance, it is often possible to properly present a foreign word or name on its first appearance (with diacritics, non-Latin script or whatever) but thereafter use it in simplified form or even adopt an English equivalent. Readability is thus enhanced without loss of meaning. This approach may not always be possible but the key thing is to be aware of – and treat wisely – the divergent demands of scholarship and audience. Here, as is often the case, a pinch of common sense makes all the difference.
It should almost go without saying that what you are looking to publish and for whom it is intended are important considerations. John Whalen-Bridge of the National University of Singapore suggests that we definitely think about this context.
Just where you are looking to be published – by which press/journal – is another important factor. Like it or not, some presses stick rigidly to conventions that made sense fifty years ago in the age of hot-metal type but today look simply hidebound and conservative. If using diacritics is imperative for you and it is simply impossible to get round a publisher's hostility to these, then I suggest you find a more suitable press. No press is irreplaceable.
In many of the points discussed above, the actual context can have an overriding influence. Rather than labour the point here, I would simply observe that hard and fast rules are nice to have but the actual situation needs to be considered on each occasion (and a healthy dose of common sense added to the analysis).
Ultimately, then, the use of diacritics is a difficult issue and one that calls for a skillful balancing act – how to stay perfectly true to one's scholarship without unduly limiting one's audience … or running out of publishers. Perhaps it is appropriate, then, that the next issue I am tackling is that of self-publishing. That discussion has in fact already started.
Readability is an issue with the use of fonts and diacritical marks (as discussed in my previous post) but it is not the only issue. Font compatibility is also important.
There are thousands of different fonts out there. By all means choose fonts that you like but be aware that a document with uncommon fonts when opened by someone else may be unreadable or convert to a common font with strange results. The safe move is to choose standard fonts like Times, Arial and Helvetica or those that are Unicode compliant.
Text with diacriticals or special accents (Vietnamese, for instance, uses multiple accents over a single Latin character).
In their case, standard fonts cannot be used.
Part of the problem here is due to incompatibilities between computer operating systems. Much of the publishing world is Mac based (because of the high quality results and stability possible in this environment) while most authors work in the Windows world. This can have consequences, as happened with a prize-winning study that we published some years ago.
On paper, the text was reasonably clean and the author wrote beautifully. Yes, the text was full of Vietnamese diacritical marks but – notwithstanding my earlier post dealing with readability – it read like a dream. However, when we began typesetting the book, the whole project turned into nightmare. Basically, the author had used two Windows-only fonts for the diacritics, one for capital letters, the other for lower case. When we converted the text over onto the Mac, much of it turned to junk. And unfortunately different garbage symbols (like the delta sign) had one value if the original letter was upper case and an entirely different one if lower case. It took 3-4 weeks to sort out the mess and even then a handful of errors slipped through the two rounds of proofing. Luckily, the author was a dream to work with and – as noted – the book went on to win a major prize in its field.
This is not the only such hassle with fonts and diacritical marks I have experienced. No, over the years, I have gone through quite a few – far too many – nightmares with font conversions. All have involved diacritics.
Hopefully, I face fewer potential nightmares in the future as, in general, diacritics and non-Latin script are less of a problem today than previously. This is due to general acceptance of the Unicode standard for font mapping and the rise of Open Type fonts based on this standard. The common Unicode standard gives each character form its own unique identifier which allows easy swapping between fonts, so it is imperative that any font you use is Unicode compliant.
There are also wider issues with non-Latin script such as the input method and the direction of input, as will be discussed in a later post. In addition, unfortunately, not all fonts are compliant (to the best of my knowledge, for instance, no Unicode standard has been adopted yet for Lao script).
Notwithstanding these advances, many publishers still refuse to accept works with diacritics and non-Latin script due to the added production cost and general hassle, while others refuse to have non-Latin script in the main text but allow it to appear in a separate glossary that can be typeset separately from the bulk of the book. If it is necessary to include such special characters in your book, then the ability and willingness of a publisher to handle them must influence whom you approach with your script, and you may be asked to find significant sums of money to finance the extra typesetting costs that your choice causes.
Personally, I am quite open to the use of diacritics but there are limits. Essentially, the result of my bad experiences with non-standard fonts and psychotic diacritical marks is such that today I am only interested in working with fonts that are Unicode compliant and preferably Open Type fonts.
As far as I am concerned, then, it is not enough to say that "this font is standard in the [Microsoft] Office package, so what's the problem?" If the font turns to garbage when the manuscript is converted on the typesetter's machine, then to me and to most other publishers that's what the font is, garbage.
Should such a problem happen with your text, then, if the text in question is a manuscript on offer to a publisher (rather than one already accepted), immediately you have an added barrier to getting accepted; your manuscript looks like it could be a hassle to produce – better, thinks the publisher, to flag this one away.
Time perhaps to rethink your use of fonts and/or diacritics?
Readability is a huge topic, something that I shall return to at a later date (soon, I hope). Today, however, I shall focus on the role that fonts and diacritical marks play in the readability of a work.
Essentially, readability consists of two elements. Language and the other literary factors are the ones most often focused on by authors – and without doubt they are important. But almost equally important is the layout, especially the font used, characters per line and leading (line spacing), because readers are discouraged by something that confuses the eye or otherwise is difficult to read. Scholarship that is worn lightly combined with a reader-friendly layout can be crucial elements in the success of a book.
Fonts play an important role here. Some fonts are easier than others to read. Serif fonts (with 'feet') like Times are far easier to read in running text than sans-serif fonts (without 'feet') like Arial and Helvetica. Serif fonts are best for body text, while sans-serif are often used for headings because of the greater visual impact. As an author, you will have little control over the fonts chosen by your publisher (or their typesetter). But before you can get published, you have to 'sell' your manuscript to the publisher. Here its visual attractiveness is important, much more than you may think. Remember, then, that when preparing your manuscript, you choose font sizes that enhance its readability and acceptability. The standard is 12-point Times, boring perhaps but eminently usable.
A complication here is the need for (or use of) diacritical marks. Obviously, there are situations – many situations – where an author feels s/he must use diacritical marks (or non-Latin script, for that matter) to properly define a term or render an accurate description.
Unfortunately, like it or not, diacritical marks add clutter to a text (so too do italicized text and footnotes, while arguably end notes and cross-references – which draw the reader away to another page – are even worse). The heavy use of any or all of these slows down the reading speed (hence why I often call them 'speed bumps') and reduces the readability of a text.
For a reference work, perhaps this doesn't matter (as for example was the case with the Catalogue of Arabic Manuscripts that we published a couple of years ago). But for a monograph reaching for a broader audience, readability is definitely an issue. By definition, not all of its readers will be specialists in the field(s) addressed by the book. They need to be encouraged to open the book and get absorbed by its contents. Encountering a thicket of italicized foreign terms garnished with diacriticals (often right from the beginning of the work) is no encouragement.
So what, you may ask, does it matter? Yes, it does, actually. Today, readability is not an issue that can be ignored. While it is true that some presses can – and still do – publish works solely for the 50 or so specialists in a field, such presses are in trouble today and besides actually they are not doing any favours to the author with such a limited approach.
However, readability is not the only issue arising from the use of fonts and diacritical marks. In my next two posts I shall move on to explore the related issues of font compatibility and font licensing.
In the last few days I have got into a bit of hot water on the H-BUDDHIST discussion list by making a hasty, ill-worded comment about diacritical marks. The reaction has forced me to write a more considered response to the list and it is on the basis of this that I now write a series of posts dealing with the wider topic of fonts and diacritical marks.
When is it OK to use diacritical marks?


text:
Crescencio III (¿? – 1012), noble romano, hijo de Crescencio II y miembro de la familia Crescenzi, participó en 1001 en un levantamiento que provocó la huida del emperador Otón III, que entonces residía en Roma, y del papa Silvestre II, que como primer papa de nacionalidad francesa no contaba con la simpatía de la nobleza y el pueblo romano.

Tras esta expulsión, Crescencio III asume el poder en Roma y, desde el 1002, pasa a ostentar los títulos de cónsul y patricio romano.

Tras la muerte de Otón III, Crescencio permite el retorno del papa Silvestre II el cual permanecerá durante todo su pontificado, al igual que los tres siguientes Papas, Juan XVII, Juan XVIII y Sergio IV, bajo el dominio de Crescencio.

Crescencio III fallece en 1012 y con el desaparece la dinastía de los Crescencios de la historia de Roma.

Bibliografía
Giovanni Pietro Crescenzi, La corona della nobiltà d'Italia, 1639, dove riporta quanto affermato da GiovaPietro Scriniano nella sua Storia dei romani.

Enlaces externos
http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/crescenzio_%28Dizionario-Biografico%29/

Nobles de Italia del siglo XI
Políticos de Italia del siglo XI
Nacidos en Roma

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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Any football fans on here?
My team (broncos) picked at 20 and got the O-lineman we desperately needed. How do you feel about your team's picks so far?
Ted Thompson is cultivating picks.
You guys got some needed secondary help. Also looks like you guys are fishing to find that new RB of the future.
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Q: I was planning on touring on my own. Bad idea? Also, I'm taking Japanese lessons at the moment, is there much point?
A: For a first time over, we actually encourage artists to do a solo tour. That way you can come over, see what it's like here, and if it's all good then build on what you've started and come back with a larger setup.
As for Japanese lessons, yes, definitely learn whatever you can. The Japanese are very appreciative when they see that a foreigner has made an effort to learn their language.
Q: Do you do distribution?
A: We seldom do distribution, but if we do, it's only for our roster artists that regularly perform in Japan. Otherwise, we have contacts that we refer artists to that may or may not be interested. Very few Japanese distributors are interested in artists with no name recognition here, so it's generally a case by case type of situation.
Q: I am very interested in touring. Could you please tell me more about additional costs or commissions for tour managers, sound engineers, hotel and transport?
A: Listed on the "services" page are tour packages for artists that cover a range of different types of tours. The prices listed include all of the services applicable to a tour of that type, so there are no additional fees required. If you don't see the specific type of tour you're interested in or if you have other questions, please contact us.
Q: How much is the average remuneration per show? Is it a flat rate of the door?
A: Commonly, live houses pay artists from 40-60% of the door based on the number of people that when asked at the door say that they've come to see that specific artist (that percentage is after you've brought in a minimum of 10 people). So there could be 80 people in the room, but if you only brought 11, then you get credit for 1 person. Cafes, jazz clubs, and bars usually offer 50-60% from the first person that comes in.
Q: I'll want to bring a band with me but they would have to be compensated. I understand that there isn't much money to be made for a first tour, but will we make enough to cover our expenses, and who pays for the transportation and hotel fees? Would their be a minimum guarantee for performances, at least $2000.00 per night.
A: Unfortunately for artists that aren't well known in Japan, unless you can get a short term contract (3 months-1yr.) with an agency or theme park, neither promoters nor venues will offer a guarantee and pay travel & hotel expenses. This means that the artist must shoulder the financial burden until they develop a following large enough to support a tour.The reason we started our services is because as a general rule, promoters that work with overseas artists require that they have regular annual in store cd sales in excess of 4,000 units in Japan or an equivilent number of online sales. But, we've changed the dynamics of that equation such that any artist can tour here if they can afford the expenses. For a fee we give artists a chance to perform in Japan and market themselves in a way that can potentially help them to one day get big sales and move to the next level.
Q: Our band has 2 members that are fluent in Japanese, in fact 1 member is Japanese. Would it be ok to tour without a tour manager?
A: In order for things to go smoothly we require artists to use our tour manager service. Artists often come to Japan and are able to get to shows on their own and get through the night ok, but we have a reputation and responsibility with each of the venues that we work with and can not afford to have them jeopardized by artists that may not understand the importance of the relationships that we have spent years to build. We ask for your understanding on this point.


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text:
Are natural languages turing complete? [closed]
Closed. This question needs details or clarity. It is not currently accepting answers.
Want to improve this question? Add details and clarify the problem by editing this post.
Closed 11 months ago.
Motivated by: Is there a linguistics equivalent to Turing completeness?
Can be natural languages be considered turing complete? Surely on the day to day basis there is a lot of ambiguity that mainly stems from assumptions and pre-build knowledge but given a full context of a language why can't we claim that it is turing complete? That is with a complex enough set of rules we can generate semantically and structurally valid sentences.
computational-linguistics
IordanisIordanis
"That is with a complex enough set of rules we can generate semantically and structurally valid sentences." ← that's not my understanding of what Turing completeness means... – LjL Feb 20 '20 at 23:59
This question is conflating some issues and terms, thereby accruing some terrible answers. Could you go through en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chomsky_hierarchy to help formulate the question better? – prash♦ Feb 23 '20 at 5:24
It is not known whether natural languages are Turing complete. This can only be determined by examining a formalized model for natural language, but there is none available. Chomsky proposed such a formalized model, Transformational Generative Grammar, and it was proven by Peters & Ritchie that this model is Turing complete, so if TGG were a correct theory, the answer to your question would be yes. But, so far as I know, no linguists currently believe that the Chomskian formalization of TGG is correct. But there might be another formalization of TGG that is relevant to this issue. So, even assuming TGG is a good theory, this doesn't really settle the issue.
There are competitor theories to TGG, but usually they are not formalized. An exception is GPSG (Generalized Phrase Structure Grammar), which proposes CFPSG (Context Free Phrase Structure Grammar) as a model, which is known not to be Turing complete. So, if we were to accept GPSG as an adequate model for natural language, the answer to your question would be No, natural language is not Turing complete.
Greg LeeGreg Lee
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No, natural languages aren't Turing complete in the same way onions are not. Quoting Wikipedia:
A computational system that can compute every Turing-computable function is called Turing-complete (or Turing-powerful).
A natural language is, very loosely speaking, a system of interpersonal communication among a group of people. It is not a computational system. Just think about how much sense it makes to ask "Can the Spanish language compute the n'th digit of pi, given n?" Whoever does the computation is a Spanish-speaking person (or maybe a computer system with Spanish messages), but not the language.
jickjick
I would argue that Spanish language can compute the n'th digit of PI, given n", just the fact you formulated the problem and you can then formulate a solution using English or Spanish that would make it turing complete for that task. E.g. you can give instructions on how to do that in Spanish/English. – Iordanis Feb 20 '20 at 22:29
The problem is that "Turing completeness" is a technical term with a precise meaning. English, being a natural language, doesn't even have a precise definition, so answering whether English is Turing complete requires making a lot of assumptions which are at best tangential to the nature of English as a natural language. – jick Feb 20 '20 at 23:09
@jick Your view is very reminiscent of the argument made by C.F. Hockett in his little book State of the Art. He contrasts the game of professional baseball with an elaborate rule book to settle disputes with "sandlot" baseball, the pick-up game played by young people in a neighborhood, with informal rules and understandings that vary a lot from time to time and disputes are handled ad hoc. He says human language more closely resembles sandlot baseball. TGG is not an appropriate theory, because it takes language to be like professional baseball. – Greg Lee Feb 21 '20 at 13:45
this answer is beating a strawman, loosely speaking, and committing a referential fallacy, like, A computer-network is a system of communication among a group of computers ...; Non-Sequitur: ...It is not a computational system? – vectory Feb 22 '20 at 12:23
Following your logic, programming languages too can not be Turing-complete. The Python language does not do any computation, an interpreter does. – potestasity Feb 25 '20 at 15:14
Natural languages are known to be (mildly) context sensitive at best. That being said, some formal models tend to overgenerate, such as TGG mentioned above. Note that constraint-based formalisms, even though they are based on context-free grammars, may be Turing complete. LFG is a case in point, its equational specifications make it formally much stronger than CFG (indicating that it's not a good model).
AtamiriAtamiri
I think the question is not about Turing completeness but about completeness in another sense: using a human language we can express a lot of formal ideas and theories given enough space.
At the same time, the animals while having complicated signal systems, cannot use their language to express complicated ideas.
It is speculated that prehistoric human languages were in this sense like the languages of animals, people could signal threats, call attention, may be express some more complicated things but their languages were too weak to express general concepts.
Similarly, people who speak different languages can communicate to a certain degree but cannot express more complicated things. And learning language in this situation may require pointing at real things or pictures when articulating, i.e. to use the means of communication outside the languages.
I encountered some claims that there are some isolated human languages which are not complete in this sense, that is it is impossible to communicate general ideas using them, but I am not sure.
That said, even well developed human languages have their limitations. They can communicate only formal ideas and cannot communicate qualia like smells, and even to communicate color the other party has to have had phsysical experience with that color. You cannot communicate what is yellow color to a creature or person who is color-blind, even if they know English very well.
AnixxAnixx
The question already links to the earlier question about general completeness; this one is surely asking about actual Turing completeness. – curiousdannii Feb 23 '20 at 3:11
Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged computational-linguistics or ask your own question.
Is there a linguistics equivalent to Turing completeness?
What are the fundamental differences between Natural Language Processing and Computational Linguistics?
IDE for context free grammars for natural languages?
Can parsing be classified to some complexity class (e.g. NP-complete)?
What determines how natural a word sounds in a language?
Are there natural languages that do not obey Zipf's law?
What are the main differences between machine learning and classic approaches to natural language processing problems?
What are the various approaches to detect whether a sentence is complete or not?


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Ahmed Zaki Yamani, Who Helped Lead 1973 Oil Embargo, Dies
February 23, 2021 Admin5 News 0
Sheikh Ahmed Zaki Yamani, the former Saudi Arabian energy minister who helped direct the 1973 oil embargo and was later kidnapped by Carlos the Jackal, has died. He was 90.
He passed away in London and will be buried in Islam's holiest city of Mecca, state-run Ekhbariya TV reported.
Yamani, along with counterparts in other Arab oil exporters and Iran, managed a series of production cuts in 1973 and halted supplies to the U.S. and other Western countries. The embargo, which caused an international crisis after oil prices spiked, was a response to Washington's support for Israel in the Yom Kippur war against Egypt and Syria. It coincided with successful efforts by petrostates to wrest control of their resources from international companies and marked Saudi Arabia's emergence as a leading power in the oil world.
Harvard-educated Yamani, who spoke English and French as well as Arabic, was dismissed by King Fahd in 1986, by which time crude prices had dropped to record lows. He had held the position for 24 years, making him the longest-serving oil minister in OPEC.
He was "the leading light in OPEC during his eventful years as oil minister," OPEC Secretary-General Mohammad Barkindo said to Bloomberg. "He was a very patient listener at our meetings. But once he spoke, every one paid attention with pin-drop silence. He was charismatic, with eloquence, yet humble and deeply religious."
He was also famous for comments that now look prescient as oil producers contemplate the transition away from fossil fuels. "The Stone Age didn't end for lack of stone, and the Oil Age will end long before the world runs out of oil," he said.
Realizing that charging too much for crude could dislodge it as the world's main source of fuel, Yamani sought to balance Saudi Arabia's desire for steady income with pressure from nations such as Libya and Venezuela to ratchet up prices.
As of February 2021, oil is still in abundant supply and Saudi Arabia is the world's largest exporter. But governments and companies are ramping up investments in cleaner energies such as solar, wind and hydrogen to prevent global warming. BP Plc said last year that demand for oil may have already peaked.
Yamani represented four Saudi kings at the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, a position that made him the nation's most powerful commoner. During the 1970s, the group's members tightened their hold over domestic resources and increased their take of profit from crude sales at the expense of foreign companies, most of them American and European, that had developed the assets.
"The 1970s were the years of real progress," Alirio Parra, Venezuela's oil minister in the early 1990s and who died in 2018, said. "That was the period when OPEC and the producing countries gained control over the industry. We have to give credit, where credit is due, to one man — Ahmed Zaki Yamani."
Hostage Drama
On Dec. 21, 1975, Yamani was among the 11 OPEC ministers taken hostage in Vienna, where the cartel is based, by Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, the Venezuelan terrorist better known as Carlos the Jackal.
"Carlos and me, we were talking, joking and so on," Yamani told Al Jazeera television in 2013. "I mean, he was very kind to me, but he told me he was going to kill me."
Yamani and Jamshid Amouzegar, his Iranian counterpart, were the last hostages to be released in Algiers, Algeria, where they'd been flown.
Back home, Yamani oversaw the nationalization of what was to become the state oil company, Saudi Aramco. U.S. firms had been running production in the kingdom since Standard Oil of California signed the first concession in May 1933. The Saudi government bought 25% of the local company in 1972 and increased its holding to 60% the next year. It took total control of Saudi Aramco in 1980.
Aramco's now listed on the Riyadh stock exchange and has the largest market capitalization of any firm, bar Apple Inc.
By the 1980s, OPEC's policies had helped push major oil importers such as the U.S. and Europe to become more energy-efficient and to search for new sources of hydrocarbons.
"I was against increasing the price of oil, and they attacked me for that," Yamani told Al Jazeera, referring to other OPEC members. "When you raise the price of oil, you enable the oil companies to use the extra money to explore for oil, and this is what happened in the North Sea, in Mexico and elsewhere. So the level of production outside OPEC took place, competing with the price of OPEC."
After completing his tenure, Yamani founded the London-based Centre for Global Energy Studies, which provided analysis and consulting services for around 25 years from 1990.
Born on June 30, 1930 in Mecca, Yamani attended both secular and Islamic schools. He graduated from Cairo's King Fuad I University in 1951 before earning two master's degrees in law, one from New York University in 1955 and another from Harvard University in 1956.
Returning to Saudi Arabia, he founded the country's first law firm and worked as a legal adviser to the kingdom on taxes as well as oil and minerals. He became oil minister in 1962. The following year, he set up the University of Petroleum and Minerals in the eastern city of Dhahran.
In 1982 he founded Investcorp, a private equity group based in Bahrain, along with others including Mana Saeed Al-Otaiba, who was oil minister of the United Arab Emirates at the time, and Iraqi financier Nemir Kirdar. Investcorp became the largest firm of its kind in the Middle East, with assets of around $35 billion, and backed companies including Tiffany & Co. and Gucci Ltd
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text:
"The Switzerland of Thailand" Forestry Conservation Project
The goal is to help conserve Khao Yai National park; a massive reserve covering part of four provinces in Thailand.
And this week, I was up for the Forestry Conservation project in central Thailand, planting trees and digging holes. I was a bit scared.
Forestry Conservation project means doing field work in a protected park, while surrounded by mountain views. The goal is to help conserve Khao Yai National park; a massive reserve covering part of four provinces in Thailand. Deforestation hasn't happened here since the 90's and it's key to keep it that way. In my head, I had built the idea that we were going to break our backs working in the burning sun for 8 hours every day. Yeah, that wasn't true.
On Monday, nine of us headed to the location, with a swimming break at a waterfall for lunch. We found that the Greenway Forest View resort (nice name huh) is located in the lush surroundings of Wang Nam Khiao. I'm talking smack in the middle of a bunch of mountains. Better yet: it's build on top of a sloping hill overlooking the entire valley. It's a large property with bedrooms hidden between the trees here and there. I stepped over the gardener's lazy labrador, who was guarding my building and checked out my room. There's a book about Buddhism on my desk and another about basic meditation. Nice. I go to sleep with my curtains open and as soon as I wake up in the morning, the mountains are staring at me. I can get used to this.
Little did I know, this was a preview of what we were going to see on other days. The coordinator called the region "the Switzerland of Thailand" and I did feel like I was in Southern Europe a few times. There's so much more to Thailand than beaches. The government allows some farms to exist here, so it's not only green that you see. Most mountains are partly a shade of red from the soil they have here. You can check out tractors defying gravity by riding up a hill in basically full vertical position. Madness. You don't need to get your kicks on a racetrack when you can become a Thai farmer.
Off to work! First day, we were a bit unlucky. It had rained a lot during the night, which meant the road to the rangers' post would be muddy and a bit unsafe to drive on. It's not a big deal, because we would be planting fruit trees around the area of the resort instead. It's July in Thailand, which is the start of the rainy season. The name implies that's it's pouring down all day, but that doesn't happen often. If it does rain, it's generally a short shower in the afternoon, so you just work around it. Most days are dry with a few clouds. I don't mind it, because it keeps the temperature down, but granted: you can be unlucky.
The other days were better. In the morning, we'd drive up to one of the ranger's posts, located on a hill. Girls, wear your sports bra, because it's a short yet bumpy ride. One side of the outpost shows red farmland as far as the eye can see. The other side is hilly terrain where you can spot gaurs (also known as the Indian bison). It's where you start the day, end it and have a picnic lunch in between. The ranger pulled out a large telescope to zoom in on a baby gaur drinking from it's mother. While driving back later that day, we found a large specimen walking in front of our truck. Badass.
Most field work is done around this same area. You'd walk up a neighboring hill with a mango tree in each hand. It's a simple job: dig a hole, plant a tree, tie a stick next to it and come back a few years later to see a forest. Whenever you're tired, you're encouraged to take a break. This is Thailand, remember? Have some water, relax. The workout that I was so afraid of, turned out to be very manageable. The task never took too long. Another job was to cut out grass, weeds and small trees on the campground. It doesn't make you tired, just a little sweaty from humidity at times. We made the place all pretty for new visitors to set up camp.
My favorite task was making a salt lick. A what now? A salt lick. It's a patch of soil filled with minerals. Wild animals come here to munch away to supplement their diets with nutrients and get all nice and healthy. We hiked up past two lakes to a few spots that bulls often go to. The ranger explained that the bulls can smell the salt from a distance. First, you chop away with your tools on the patch of dirt, making sure the soil is loose. We stood in a circle, chopping away in a rhythm like railroad workers, trying not to hit each other with our tools. Which was funny, hence I liked it. Meanwhile, a second group was crumbling up a block of sodium into small pieces. You mix that into the soil with tons of salt and boom; a salt lick is born.
On the final day, we planted our last tree (I named it Carolien) and did several activities. Besides the regular picnic lunch, we visited a mushroom farm and a pretty stellar viewpoint in the area. My favorite activity was the jungle trek. Yes, lazy old me loved it. The ranger got us lost, so I now have mud in places it shouldn't be. The one hour trek ended up being about 2.5 hours, but I was pretty pleased with that. Adventuuuure! The hike wasn't insanely difficult, but mostly about maneuvering past rocks, tree roots and not getting your shoe stuck in the swamp. Most participants grabbed a stick to walk around like Nordic walkers gone extreme, using it to push back bushes so that the rest could pass easily. Everyone made sure to warn the people in the back which bush was sharp or where there was a slippery area. It turned into somewhat of a team building activity. I vowed to cut off my hair after getting it stuck in a bush seven times, but there's was always someone behind me willing to untangle me.
CAROLIEN (Netherlands)
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Although it looks like an http URL, it is a verticle identifier with a factory bound to the https prefix (http also supported).
The service identifier is made up of the suffix to form an http URL or the archive that contains the service, followed by a double colon :: and a service name.
The service name is used to find the service descriptor file inside the artifact which is named by the service name with a .json extension. This is explained in the Service Verticle Factory documentation.
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The client supports basic authentication via the vertx.httpServiceFactory.authUsername and vertx.httpServiceFactory.authPassword system properties.
Authentication is done only for services (i.e basic authentication will not be done for key servers) and only using an https connection.
The http client can be configured to support a proxy server with the vertx.httpServiceFactory.proxyHost and vertx.httpServiceFactory.proxyPort system properties.
If you need more proxy configuration such as support for SOCKS or proxy authentication, you can use specify them in the vertx.httpServiceFactory.httpClientOptions instead.
Signed artifacts signatures are verifed using a public key, public key are retrieved from a public key server.
When the property is not set, the default public key server is the SKS OpenPGP Public Key Server server used and the uri template used is : http://pool.sks-keyservers.net:11371/pks/lookup?op=get&options=mr&search=0x%016X this server will server public key resources with the application/pgp-keys media type.
The Json format sent by Keybase.io is also support. Keybase.io can be used as a public key server with https://keybase.io/_/api/1.0/key/fetch.json?pgp_key_ids=%016X URI template.
verify : the service file is verified when there is a corresponding .asc signature file, otherwise it is not verified. If the signature cannot be verified, the deployment fails.
mandatory: the service file must have a corresponding .asc signature file and the signature must be verified.
The default validation policy is_verify_*.
The default cache directory .vertx can be set to a specific location with the vertx.httpServiceFactory.cacheDir system property.
Bintray is a distribution platform that can be used for hosting files.
optionally edit the package and check the GPG sign uploaded files using Bintray's public /private key pair.
Of course you can use your own keys for signing the files.


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Paint my nails. Why is this always on my to-do list?! Also you know when I say "paint" I mean "do-the-best-you-can with the brush and your nail and know the rest will wash off in the shower tomorrow" (note: close up photo above, pre-shower).
Make that pico de gallo dip to pack in the cooler for everyone. Also pack wine. Don't forget the wine.
Clean our apartment? I think because I know we're leaving in just a few weeks my mindset is like "what's the point?!" So it's been a wreck for days. Sorry C.
Go to the gym. Which more accurately means get my hour in of "Keeping Up With The Kardashians" on the elliptical.
Decide how to say goodbye to Mississippi. My heart was in knots about it because I didn't know how to be ready to leave, you know? So my ever so wise email chain slash counselor of a bestie told me I need to let myself grieve this place. Writing notes to my people, making lists of what we loved here, taking photos of our favorite spots; something to mark this season and how the Lord's been faithful. I think they call it closure? LOL can't with myself rn.
Jun 1 On turning 25.
May 3 When change is hard.


text:
Toward a priori noise characterization for real-time edge-aware denoising in fluoroscopic devices
Emilio Andreozzi, Antonio Fratini, Daniele Esposito, Mario Cesarelli, Paolo Bifulco*
Mechanical, Biomedical & Design
Background: Low-dose X-ray images have become increasingly popular in the last decades, due to the need to guarantee the lowest reasonable patient's exposure. Dose reduction causes a substantial increase of quantum noise, which needs to be suitably suppressed. In particular, real-time denoising is required to support common interventional fluoroscopy procedures. The knowledge of noise statistics provides precious information that helps to improve denoising performances, thus making noise estimation a crucial task for effective denoising strategies. Noise statistics depend on different factors, but are mainly influenced by the X-ray tube settings, which may vary even within the same procedure. This complicates real-time denoising, because noise estimation should be repeated after any changes in tube settings, which would be hardly feasible in practice. This work investigates the feasibility of an a priori characterization of noise for a single fluoroscopic device, which would obviate the need for inferring noise statics prior to each new images acquisition. The noise estimation algorithm used in this study was tested in silico to assess its accuracy and reliability. Then, real sequences were acquired by imaging two different X-ray phantoms via a commercial fluoroscopic device at various X-ray tube settings. Finally, noise estimation was performed to assess the matching of noise statistics inferred from two different sequences, acquired independently in the same operating conditions. Results: The noise estimation algorithm proved capable of retrieving noise statistics, regardless of the particular imaged scene, also achieving good results even by using only 10 frames (mean percentage error lower than 2%). The tests performed on the real fluoroscopic sequences confirmed that the estimated noise statistics are independent of the particular informational content of the scene from which they have been inferred, as they turned out to be consistent in sequences of the two different phantoms acquired independently with the same X-ray tube settings. Conclusions: The encouraging results suggest that an a priori characterization of noise for a single fluoroscopic device is feasible and could improve the actual implementation of real-time denoising strategies that take advantage of noise statistics to improve the trade-off between noise reduction and details preservation.
BioMedical Engineering OnLine
© The Author(s) 2021. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing,
adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the
source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this
article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not
included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted
use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/
licenses/by/4.0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies
to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.
Edge-aware denoising
Noise characterization
Noise estimation
Poisson noise
Quantum noise
Real-time denoising
10.1186/s12938-021-00874-8Licence: CC BY
Toward a priori noise characterization
© The Author(s) 2021. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.
https://biomedical-engineering-online.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12938-021-00874-8
Dive into the research topics of 'Toward a priori noise characterization for real-time edge-aware denoising in fluoroscopic devices'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.
Noise Medicine & Life Sciences 100%
X ray tubes Engineering & Materials Science 88%
Statistics Engineering & Materials Science 81%
X-Ray Chemistry 65%
Quantum Noise Chemistry 46%
Andreozzi, E., Fratini, A., Esposito, D., Cesarelli, M., & Bifulco, P. (2021). Toward a priori noise characterization for real-time edge-aware denoising in fluoroscopic devices. BioMedical Engineering OnLine, 20(1), [36]. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12938-021-00874-8
Andreozzi, Emilio ; Fratini, Antonio ; Esposito, Daniele ; Cesarelli, Mario ; Bifulco, Paolo. / Toward a priori noise characterization for real-time edge-aware denoising in fluoroscopic devices. In: BioMedical Engineering OnLine. 2021 ; Vol. 20, No. 1.
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title = "Toward a priori noise characterization for real-time edge-aware denoising in fluoroscopic devices",
abstract = "Background: Low-dose X-ray images have become increasingly popular in the last decades, due to the need to guarantee the lowest reasonable patient{\textquoteright}s exposure. Dose reduction causes a substantial increase of quantum noise, which needs to be suitably suppressed. In particular, real-time denoising is required to support common interventional fluoroscopy procedures. The knowledge of noise statistics provides precious information that helps to improve denoising performances, thus making noise estimation a crucial task for effective denoising strategies. Noise statistics depend on different factors, but are mainly influenced by the X-ray tube settings, which may vary even within the same procedure. This complicates real-time denoising, because noise estimation should be repeated after any changes in tube settings, which would be hardly feasible in practice. This work investigates the feasibility of an a priori characterization of noise for a single fluoroscopic device, which would obviate the need for inferring noise statics prior to each new images acquisition. The noise estimation algorithm used in this study was tested in silico to assess its accuracy and reliability. Then, real sequences were acquired by imaging two different X-ray phantoms via a commercial fluoroscopic device at various X-ray tube settings. Finally, noise estimation was performed to assess the matching of noise statistics inferred from two different sequences, acquired independently in the same operating conditions. Results: The noise estimation algorithm proved capable of retrieving noise statistics, regardless of the particular imaged scene, also achieving good results even by using only 10 frames (mean percentage error lower than 2%). The tests performed on the real fluoroscopic sequences confirmed that the estimated noise statistics are independent of the particular informational content of the scene from which they have been inferred, as they turned out to be consistent in sequences of the two different phantoms acquired independently with the same X-ray tube settings. Conclusions: The encouraging results suggest that an a priori characterization of noise for a single fluoroscopic device is feasible and could improve the actual implementation of real-time denoising strategies that take advantage of noise statistics to improve the trade-off between noise reduction and details preservation.",
keywords = "Edge-aware denoising, Fluoroscopy, Noise characterization, Noise estimation, Poisson noise, Quantum noise, Real-time denoising, X-ray imaging",
author = "Emilio Andreozzi and Antonio Fratini and Daniele Esposito and Mario Cesarelli and Paolo Bifulco",
note = "{\textcopyright} The Author(s) 2021. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article{\textquoteright}s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article{\textquoteright}s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by/4.0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.",
journal = "BioMedical Engineering OnLine",
publisher = "BioMed Central",
Andreozzi, E, Fratini, A, Esposito, D, Cesarelli, M & Bifulco, P 2021, 'Toward a priori noise characterization for real-time edge-aware denoising in fluoroscopic devices', BioMedical Engineering OnLine, vol. 20, no. 1, 36. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12938-021-00874-8
Toward a priori noise characterization for real-time edge-aware denoising in fluoroscopic devices. / Andreozzi, Emilio; Fratini, Antonio; Esposito, Daniele; Cesarelli, Mario; Bifulco, Paolo.
In: BioMedical Engineering OnLine, Vol. 20, No. 1, 36, 07.04.2021.
T1 - Toward a priori noise characterization for real-time edge-aware denoising in fluoroscopic devices
AU - Andreozzi, Emilio
AU - Fratini, Antonio
AU - Esposito, Daniele
AU - Cesarelli, Mario
AU - Bifulco, Paolo
N1 - © The Author(s) 2021. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by/4.0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.
N2 - Background: Low-dose X-ray images have become increasingly popular in the last decades, due to the need to guarantee the lowest reasonable patient's exposure. Dose reduction causes a substantial increase of quantum noise, which needs to be suitably suppressed. In particular, real-time denoising is required to support common interventional fluoroscopy procedures. The knowledge of noise statistics provides precious information that helps to improve denoising performances, thus making noise estimation a crucial task for effective denoising strategies. Noise statistics depend on different factors, but are mainly influenced by the X-ray tube settings, which may vary even within the same procedure. This complicates real-time denoising, because noise estimation should be repeated after any changes in tube settings, which would be hardly feasible in practice. This work investigates the feasibility of an a priori characterization of noise for a single fluoroscopic device, which would obviate the need for inferring noise statics prior to each new images acquisition. The noise estimation algorithm used in this study was tested in silico to assess its accuracy and reliability. Then, real sequences were acquired by imaging two different X-ray phantoms via a commercial fluoroscopic device at various X-ray tube settings. Finally, noise estimation was performed to assess the matching of noise statistics inferred from two different sequences, acquired independently in the same operating conditions. Results: The noise estimation algorithm proved capable of retrieving noise statistics, regardless of the particular imaged scene, also achieving good results even by using only 10 frames (mean percentage error lower than 2%). The tests performed on the real fluoroscopic sequences confirmed that the estimated noise statistics are independent of the particular informational content of the scene from which they have been inferred, as they turned out to be consistent in sequences of the two different phantoms acquired independently with the same X-ray tube settings. Conclusions: The encouraging results suggest that an a priori characterization of noise for a single fluoroscopic device is feasible and could improve the actual implementation of real-time denoising strategies that take advantage of noise statistics to improve the trade-off between noise reduction and details preservation.
AB - Background: Low-dose X-ray images have become increasingly popular in the last decades, due to the need to guarantee the lowest reasonable patient's exposure. Dose reduction causes a substantial increase of quantum noise, which needs to be suitably suppressed. In particular, real-time denoising is required to support common interventional fluoroscopy procedures. The knowledge of noise statistics provides precious information that helps to improve denoising performances, thus making noise estimation a crucial task for effective denoising strategies. Noise statistics depend on different factors, but are mainly influenced by the X-ray tube settings, which may vary even within the same procedure. This complicates real-time denoising, because noise estimation should be repeated after any changes in tube settings, which would be hardly feasible in practice. This work investigates the feasibility of an a priori characterization of noise for a single fluoroscopic device, which would obviate the need for inferring noise statics prior to each new images acquisition. The noise estimation algorithm used in this study was tested in silico to assess its accuracy and reliability. Then, real sequences were acquired by imaging two different X-ray phantoms via a commercial fluoroscopic device at various X-ray tube settings. Finally, noise estimation was performed to assess the matching of noise statistics inferred from two different sequences, acquired independently in the same operating conditions. Results: The noise estimation algorithm proved capable of retrieving noise statistics, regardless of the particular imaged scene, also achieving good results even by using only 10 frames (mean percentage error lower than 2%). The tests performed on the real fluoroscopic sequences confirmed that the estimated noise statistics are independent of the particular informational content of the scene from which they have been inferred, as they turned out to be consistent in sequences of the two different phantoms acquired independently with the same X-ray tube settings. Conclusions: The encouraging results suggest that an a priori characterization of noise for a single fluoroscopic device is feasible and could improve the actual implementation of real-time denoising strategies that take advantage of noise statistics to improve the trade-off between noise reduction and details preservation.
KW - Edge-aware denoising
KW - Fluoroscopy
KW - Noise characterization
KW - Noise estimation
KW - Poisson noise
KW - Quantum noise
KW - Real-time denoising
KW - X-ray imaging
UR - https://biomedical-engineering-online.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12938-021-00874-8
JO - BioMedical Engineering OnLine
JF - BioMedical Engineering OnLine
Andreozzi E, Fratini A, Esposito D, Cesarelli M, Bifulco P. Toward a priori noise characterization for real-time edge-aware denoising in fluoroscopic devices. BioMedical Engineering OnLine. 2021 Apr 7;20(1). 36. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12938-021-00874-8


The ministry of corporate affairs (MCA), in its submission before the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), has revealed details of its finding on several instances of misreporting of income, dubious transactions, conflict of interest, ever-greening of loans and rampant personal enrichment of key employees, including Ravi Parthasarathy, Hari Sankaran, and Arun Kumar Saha, besides others.
The MCA, quoting interim report from the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) says, "IL&FS and its main subsidiaries had the same set of persons as controlling officials who have been at the helm of the affairs for a long period. As part of the governance structure, the board of directors of all key IL&FS group companies had constituted committee of directors (CoD), which was empowered to take decisions pertaining to the operations of that respective entity. The CoD of important subsidiaries comprised of managing directors (MDs), joint MDs, and executive directors (EDs) of IL&FS to deal with all on-going operational matters, including credits and investments."
"....the set of officials of the holding company, were the decision makers and 'the controlling will and mind' for most of the other group companies, especially at the direct subsidiary level or companies having substantial operations, and the IL&FS Employee Welfare Trust. These other group companies practically acted as departments of their respective holding companies, rather than functioning as separate legal/ business entities.
The interest of the holding companies were held supreme, many a times at the cost of their subsidiaries, joint ventures or associates," the report from SFIO says.
In the interim report, the SFIO had stated,"...it is evident that IL&FS procured funds from the market through short-term instruments and invested in its group companies by way of giving long-term loans and advances, which was prejudicial to the interest of IL&FS, in terms of financial solvency. During these distressed times, IL&FS and its key subsidiaries such as IL&FS Financial Services Ltd (IFIN) and IL&FS Transportation Network Ltd (ITNL) were contained to raise short-term market funding through commercial papers or inter corporate deposits based on its bogus and fictitious but good credit rating and these short-term loans were passed to its project special purpose vehicles (SPVs) or group companies, for helping them service their debt obligations, management fully aware, thereby hid and avoided possible defaults resulting into increasing indebtedness on a standalone basis."
"This is virtually an act of fraud causing indebtness of IL&FS to over Rs91,000 crore. This indebtness is deliberate, wilful, fraudulent act of directors who were the mind controlling the affairs of IL&FS with intention to defraud creditors, who too had failed in their due diligence. An increasing level of indebtness of IL&FS, year after year, was sufficient red flat for the creditors to prevent further loans and advances. Such discriminator acts of lenders have provided long rope to the directors in control of affairs to put IL&FS in coma," the report added.
Since the submission by MCA is widely available with the media and is widely circulated, we are putting it out in public interest.
If you have comments and feedback and want to connect anonymously, click here.
The government on Monday sought attachment of properties of a few more directors of debt-ridden Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services (IL&FS). The counsel for the ministry sought to freeze all assets, securities, lockers, bank accounts of Ravi Parthasarathy and Hari Shankaran.
Top executives from IL&FS group who were made parties to the case include Vibhav Kapoor, Pradeep Puri, K Ramchand, S Rangarajan, RC Bawa and Mukund Sapre. The government is also seeking attachment of movable and immovable properties of these top executives of IL&FS group.
During the hearing, the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) agreed to make these executives as parties to the case and allowed the company application to make all of them respondents in the case.
Earlier, the ministry of corporate affairs (MCA) filed its interim report on the IL&FS case, naming several high-profile individuals and 302 group companies as respondents. The MCA, in its report mentioned that 39 companies that were listed as part of IL&FS have ceased to be group companies and Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) is probing the matter.
The counsel for the government told the Tribunal that interim probe shows manner in which fund diversion took place at IL&FS. While Kapoor was the chief investment officer of IL&FS, Ramchand was the managing director (MD) of IL&FS Transportation Network. Rangarajan was the MD and chief executive (CEO) of IL&FS Securities, Sapre was the executive director of IL&FS Transportation Networks Ltd (ITNL), while Bawa was the MD of IL&FS Financial Services. Puri, an officer from the Indian Administrative Services (IAS) was the chairman of IL&FS Water Ltd.
Last week, IL&FS initiated the process to sell its renewable energy business and has invited expression of interest (EoI) proposals from prospective buyers. IL&FS's assets from the renewable energy business put on the block include, operating wind power generating plants with aggregate capacity of 873.5MW, and its under-construction wind power generating plants with aggregate capacity of 104MW. Its asset management services for the wind power generating plant, business division that carries out project development and implementation of wind power plants will also be sold.
Last month, several lenders of IL&FS had opposed the 90-day moratorium over loans taken by the debt-laden group and its subsidiaries. Lenders also requested the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) to allow them not to classify IL&FS accounts as non-performing assets (NPAs) in case of defaults.
However, there was no decision and the NCLAT fixed 17th December as next date of hearing.
During October, the NCLAT had stayed all proceedings against IL&FS group and its 348 group companies till further orders, over an urgent petition moved by the government.
Earlier, the ministry of corporate affairs had approached the appellate tribunal after the Mumbai bench of NCLT turned down its plea to grant 90-day moratorium over the loans taken by IL&FS and its subsidiaries. On 1 October 2018, the NCLT suspended the board of IL&FS on the government's plea and authorised reconstitution of the board by appointing seven directors two days later.
Are Ravi Parthasarathy and his cronies in India? Also, why haven't they spoken on this issue even once yet?
Debt-laden Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services (IL&FS) has initiated the process to sell its renewable energy business and has invited expression of interest (EoI) proposals from prospective buyers.
IL&FS's assets from the renewable energy business put on the block include, operating wind power generating plants with aggregate capacity of 873.5MW, and its under-construction wind power generating plants with aggregate capacity of 104MW. Its asset management services for the wind power generating plant, business division that carries out project development and implementation of wind power plants will also be sold.
IL&FS is also selling its businesses relating to project development and implementation of solar power generating plants and projects under development of approximately 300MW capacity solar power plants for corporates, the group said in a release.
As per the statement, the proposed stake sale may be carried out as a basket or individually or any combination.
"In order to ascertain market interest and to examine feasibility of maximisation of value in an orderly and transparent manner, the Board, acting on behalf of its relevant subsidiaries, has today initiated the process of exploring the sale of controlling stake(s) held by IL&FS Group in renewable energy assets or businesses...," the company said in the statement.
The decision is based on the report prepared by the new board of IL&FS which was submitted to the ministry of corporate affairs and, in turn, to the national company law tribunal (NCLT).
IL&FS's board has appointed Arpwood Capital Pvt Ltd and JM Financial Ltd as financial & transaction advisors, along with Alvarez & Marsal as resolution consultants.
Earlier this week, the debt-ridden group had said that it has received over a dozen EoI towards acquiring its stake in IL&FS Securities Services Ltd (ISSL) and ISSL Settlement and Transaction Services Ltd (ISTSL).
IL&FS had started the asset monetisation process a fortnight ago, towards developing a resolution plan for the IL&FS Group. The last date for receipt of EoI was 23 November 2018.
On 24th November, corporate affairs secretary Injeti Srinivas said that following an 'overwhelming response' to buy units of the debt-ridden company, State-appointed will soon put on sale another 8 to 10 subsidiaries.
IL&FS group had a debt of more than Rs91,000 crore at the end of March 2018.


The rounded stubby embossed bottles come packaged in heavy wooden boxes.
Earthy, floral nose with cherry, vanilla, chocolate and butterscotch aromas.
Integrated fruity palate with rich buttery oak and a touch of vanilla.
Oaky flavours growth through the long slightly smoky finish.


Traditional style receives an upscale makeover with the Patience Thermostatic Valve trim kit. A vintage design combined with the durability of a cast brass body and lever handles make the valve trim a lasting update for your shower. The on/off functionality of the top handle and the temperature control of the bottom handle allow you to set your shower to a constant temperature for daily use.