With the latest expansion of Eve Online called "Into the Abyss" a new type of PVE experience is introduced, called "Abyssal deadspace". Abyssal deadpsace is a new kind of solo PVE site designed to be very challenging, but also offers new and unique rewards for players that manage to complete these new sites. One of those new and unique rewards include Mutaplasmids.
Mutaplasmids are new items that transform ordinary modules into Abyssal modules. A transformed module has a small chance to have dramatically better stats and a high chance to have significantly worse stats. Transformed modules with dramatically better stats will be very valuable and can be used by the player or sold on the market for a potentially very high price. Mutaplasmids themselves come in three categories and can be traded on the item market.
Are Mutaplasmids similar to loot boxes?
Mutaplasmids drop as random loot in the new PVE sites only and can not be bought directly from CCP (e.g. in the NES). However, its safe to assume that many players will sell their Mutaplasmids on the in-game market instead of consuming them their selves (same as deadspace modules today are farmed and sold on the in-game market). Thus there most likely will be a sufficient supply of Mutaplasmids on the market for other players to buy.
Mutaplasmids can be bought with the in-game currency ISK on the in-game market and ISK can be bought with real money (through PLEX). This is similar to buying first buying "gold coins" with real money and in other games and then buying the loot box with gold coins.
The process of applying the mutaplasmid to receive an Abyssal module is solely based on chance and does not require any skill.
The process has a low chance of producing an item of very high value (e.g. > 1B ISK) and a high chance of producing an item of small value. This is similar to loot boxes, where only very few contain high value items.
The process can be repeated over and over again, just by buying more mutaplasmids and standard mods from the in-game market. This is similar to opening multiple loot boxes in a row.
What are the risks of loot boxes for CCP?
Loot boxes are a hot and controversial topic in the gaming industry at the moment. Many consider them as gambling, while publishers argue that they are not. Nonetheless government agencies all over the world have started to investigate this topic. Their concern is that loot boxes might be just as potentially harmful as classic gambling (e.g. slot machines) and that they might therefore violate gambling laws.
The authorities in the Netherlands have already concluded that loot box mechanics of four popular AAA game violate the gambling law and are requesting the published to change their games or be banned from the market. Authorities in Belgium have gone one step further and recommend criminal charges against the publishers of many well known AAA games, which contain loot box mechanics.
CCP is potentially facing investigations and criminal charges from government authorities for violating gambling laws. Local authorities might ban Eve Online if it refuses to make requested changes or to acquire required gambling licenses. The fact that Eve Online is rated as PG-13 exposed the gambling mechanic potentially to minors. This further increases the legal risk and potential fines if found guilty. E.g. the fines and jail sentences for violating gambling laws are doubled if minors are involved.
Why is CCP doing this?
It is well known in the gaming industry that loot box mechanics create additional revenue in games. Research companies like Juniper Research predict the games market to grow in the next years largely due to "increasing prevalence of loot boxes". Those additional revenues typically comes from a small amount of wealthy players (often called "whales") that get addicted to opening loot boxes and spend a significant amount of real money in the process. So CCP is apparently trying to create an additional income source for their "cash cow" Eve Online.
In addition they are also concerns by many in the community that Abyssal modules could have very negative consequences for the current game balance, by extending existing extremes (e.g. speed and point range of a Garmur) resulting in completely overpowered ships for people than can afford it.
Why CCP has decided to introduce a loot box mechanic into their game despite the known risks and at a time when the gaming industry appears to be moving away from loot boxes due to its controversial nature, one can only speculate.
What action could CCP take?
The safest action for CCP would obviously be to remove the mutaplasmids mechanic from the game altogether.
However, there might be an alternative that would allow CCP to keep the mechanic in the game while also mostly eliminating the potentially problematic aspects mutaplasmids. CCP could remove the ability to trade mutaplasmids to other players. Thus it would no longer be possible to just sit in a trading hub and just buy and gamble with Mutaplasmids. Instead a player would need to successfully run the Abyssal Deadspace sites successfully themselves to get a mutaplasmid.
Q. Many mechanics in Eve include a randomness (e.g. loot drop), so based on the logic of this article everything in Eve would be a loot box.
A. No. Eve Online at its core a game of skill and most game mechanics require skill at playing the game to be successful (e.g. you need to complete a PVE site to get that loot drop). That is very different from someone just sitting in a trade hub and buying mutaplasmids all day to role Abyssal mods. That does not require any skill, just ISK.
Q. Its similar to T2 invention, which also is based on RNG.
if it works you always get the same result, e.g. an BPC with the same stats as apposed to an Abyssal mod, which will have different stats every time.
T2 invention is not random at all, instead the process has a fixed success probability. If you have done T2 invention you know that this basically just adds costs to the process, because you have to run more than X inventions to get X BPCs.
A. Its true that you need to convert your real money into ISK first. But that is no different from other games that require you to first buy "gold coins", which then allows you to buy loot boxes.
Q. Its not a loot box, because you don't buy mutaplasmids directly from CCP, but from other players.
A. Actually, the market mechanics and all game items are 100% owned by CCP, so technically you always buy from CCP. But even if you were not, it does not really make any difference for the gambler if he buys his supply directly from CCP or through a market that is provided and enabled by CCP. It is the mechanic that enables the gambling (mutaplasmids) that is problematic in my opinion.
…You've never played EVE Online or have any idea how it's economy works, do you?
These aren't loot boxes. Christ almighty.
You are are wrong on both account.
And I never said they were loot boxes in a literal sense. But in my view the mechanics works similar and might therefore be just as problematic as loot boxes.
1: You are very wrong. $ becomes Plex. Plex becomes Isk. Isk becomes plasmids. Anything that can be sold, can be bought for real money through $~>Plex~>Isk conversion. The seller might not get real money, but the buyer paid with real money.
2: SOMEONE has to pve farm them. the buyer does not. the buyer pays his money and pulls the lever. He may win, he may not. Thus it is a gamble.
Your negativity suggests to me that you and the game playing public would be better off once you GTFO.
Your comment suggest to me that you are the kind of person that does not tolerate any dissenting opinion. Good luck to you in your echo chamber.
Pretty clear the the author either doesn't play the game or is extremely bias considering variations of lootboxes have existed for years and this is just another iteration of them. RNG loot boxes literally already exist.
You are wrong on your first account. I actually play the game a lot (which you can easily derive from all the blog articles about Eve).
But yes, I think loot boxes are problematic in games and there especially have no place in a game like Eve Online. You may call it "biased", I call it an opinion, which btw. more and more people in the gaming industry seam to share. e.g. the new Battlefield 5 is advertising its new game by saying they do not have loot boxes.
well, it WOULD be a real problem if those "loot boxes" changed anything when it's not, let me explain.
first, a great difference between "loot boxes" and mutaplasmid is that a loot box does not need any material where mutaplasmid do.
So if ppl "sit all day to roll" then the consumption of base line object will rise, therefore allowing the industry to bloom.
Second, another difference is that mutaplasmid only change the stat of the object, not the ability of the owner to use it properly.
I agree with you on the "EvE is skill based" but personnally what I think is that it's a PLAYER"s skill based game.
Skills in game never have been the true limitation, since you can buy characters on the bazaar, you always can buy the pilot you need, or inject what you need, buy all the best equipment in the world and get blown up by a vet who know what he is doing.
Yes you can buy isk for $ but you have been able to do so since years, so people with money to spend on it already do so.
"At worst" it will allow ppl to get more money, but money is already broken, a B isn't much now, you can gather one in a matter of hours.
To summarize, I'm clearly not sure that it will impact the game much.
I agree with most of your points and when I say "eve is skill based" I indeed mean player skill as in playing the game, not characters skill.
You points are mainly about the impact of Abyssal mods on balance and the game meta, whereas my article is mainly about how the new Mutaplasmid mechanic has similar characteristics and consequently the same potential problems as loot boxes.
Regarding the impact on game meta and balance I think its has mainly negative effects. Everything which is OP today will be enhanced (w.g. the Garmur becomes even faster and can point even further, a super tanky Loki becomes even harder to kill), which will be a huge challenge for balance.
Also, if Abyssal mods become prevalent (which I think is likely) it will become mandatory for any elite PVP group to use Abyssal mods in order to stay competitive, even in fleets. (e.g. your fleet Lachesis will need an Abyssal point for that extra range). This makes an already very complex fitting system even more complex, but with the twist that they wont be any definite fits anymore. Instead of "get mod x" for your fit, it will be "get an Abyssal mod which has at least property x, y, z"). So the fitting system will become even more complex and harder to understand and master, which is not a good thing for the game.
Of course I am assuming that Abyssal mods will become prevalent in Eve. My hope in the beginning was, that they will be niche like officer mods. But if you look at the current Abyssal mod market in Jita just a few days after release and the relatively low prices for mods with excellent stats it does not look like it.
I think there is not enough time to determine if it's going to be a thing or not.
When you see the loss, I think that AD will become less "farmed" in the future.
therefore decrease the mutaplasmid inflow.
And once again, all systems, when scaled up, need to remain simple. When you have 2000 players fighting with standardised doctrine, you can't rely on a random thing.


When you hear about someone moving to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia deep down in your heart you will eventually pity them. They don't realize that there are many benefits to working in Saudi Arabia. In this article, I have explained 8 benefits of living in Saudi Arabia.
Today's post will enlighten the minds of the misguided fellows from around the world, who even before stepping into the Kingdom has made their mindset against it. There are many reasons which make me love the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and I have tried to cover them below.
The first benefit of living in Saudi Arabia is an easy lifestyle. If you ask someone for outside of Saudi Arabia, they would generally describe the place as something that is still like the 1450s, with people in robes and traveling through the desert under the scorching sun and their only companion is their camel.
Like the good old tales about how the people quench thirst and can only see a mirage of a lake with cold water and shelter, now the tables have turned. You will not only find everything you need but also enjoy the life of a King without being one or maybe a prince.
One of the biggest Saudi Arabia benefits is that you can buy almost any branded item at a discounted price. Once in the Kingdom, you will eventually begin to love the idea of the nation being tax-free. This way you can make purchases without totally emptying your pockets.
Apart from that, you will also eventually get used to the sales that go on around the year either in the form of winter sales, summer sales, and mid-year sales and so on. You can ideally shop for your whole family without spending much.
Here you will generally forget that you have bills to pay since electricity, gas, and water are so cheap which is a great benefit of living in Saudi Arabia. If you are an expatriate paying bills is the least of your worries since all of it is taken care of the company, you work for. We have published a detailed article about the cost of living in Saudi Arabia.
Many people, when talking about Saudi Arabia benefits, forget to mention the quantity of food given by restaurants. Most of the times, it is enough for 2 people to eat.
If you talk about the benefits of working in Saudi Arabia, perhaps this is the biggest benefits. I have lived in many countries in the world. Let me tell you one thing, the amount of money you can save in Saudi Arabia cannot be compared with any other part of the world. You live an easy lifestyle and enjoy your life within the limits.
If you are a Muslim, the biggest benefit of living in Saudi Arabia is that you can frequently visit Makkah and Madina for which people from around the world wish for.
Especially if you are living in Jeddah, it becomes very easy. Makkah is just on a drive of 80Km from Jeddah and Madina is also not too far.
Despite the hot climate throughout the whole year with a minimum temperature of 40 degrees during the summer, all buildings and vehicles will obviously have air conditioners working 24/7.
Saudi Arabia is in the Middle East due to which it is easier for residents of the country to travel to many countries around the world which is a great benefit of living in Saudi Arabia. Travelling has become very cheap and fast and you can carry on with all you want within hours.


Reverend John Lowell, 1704-1767, was the first Pastor of Newburyport, Mass. He was the son of Ebenezer Lowell and Elizabeth Shailer, and graduated from Harvard University in 1721.
A one page letter from Reverend Lowell to Joshua Brackett (doctor) of Portsmouth (possibly Greenland) New Hampshire. In the letter of March 13, 1758 Reverend Lowell describes the late arrival of spring and rumors concerning British troop movements during the French and Indian War. There is a typed transcript that accompanies the letter.
John Lowell Letter, March 13, 1758, MS 13, Milne Special Collections and Archives, University of New Hampshire Library, Durham, NH, USA.


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The Award System. A while ago I was invited to choose, from a list of winners of a certain literary prize, "the three best works of American fiction of the last sixty years." The three works that got the most votes from the invited voters would be announced as the three Best American Novels since 1950.
I've judged literary competitions or juried literary prizes pretty often. Every time I did it the responsibility seemed heavier, and so did my conscience. At first, this simple choice from a list seemed like it might be fun to do. But I found I couldn't do it at all. The list was strong in well-known names and had some fine books on it, but it wasn't the best sixty American novels since 1950. It was just a list of award winners, some excellent, many mediocre.
I wrote the director of the event explaining my inability to participate, and got back a kind and unreproachful letter. It was both reassuring and troubling to find that he understood my feelings. He asked, off the record, if I ignored the prescribed list of prize winners and picked any three American novels as my choice of the best of the last sixty years, could I do that?
I had to think hard, and I had to say no.
I found that I don't believe there are three "best" works of American (or any) fiction of the last sixty years. Or ten "best." Or a hundred. Several hundred? That's more like it.
There are a whole lot of good writers and good novels. Yes, OK, there's even more mediocre and bad fiction. So what?
Some good novels are outstandingly good. And I have my favorites, sure. All of us do. That means that they're my best, or your best, but "the best"?
Maybe within one narrow genre, or a few years, a general agreement on the favorites might show up: but within a few years the results would probably be quite different.
Not long ago, in a vast poll of British novel-readers, The Lord of the Rings came out on top. I was delighted — the vote was such a lovely smack in the eye for trendy snobs and ignorant pedants. But I didn't believe for a moment that it meant The Lord of the Rings was the best English novel ever written. That would be incredibly naïve.
Yet it is what the award system, the "best" system, asks us to believe.
Voting is the dangerous but essential tool of democracy. In art, voting is dangerous without being essential. Often it's not even appropriate. In art, even given a carefully selected jury of peers, there's no way to guarantee that a vote reflects informed, unprejudiced judgment not influenced by fashion, faction, or mere personal quirk. Anybody who's juried an award, or just argued about a book, knows that.
Novels and stories that a whole lot of readers, plus honest and serious teachers and critics, have continued to hold in esteem for over six decades are surely beginning to deserve the status of "excellent" or even that slippery and over-used adjective "great". But there are so many different kinds of fiction, so many standards by which to judge a novel, so many ways in which one work may excel another — Whose judgment is so widely and deeply and disinterestedly informed that they can presume to say which handful of them are "the best"?
And what have you lost?
To say Don Quixote is the best Spanish novel is another way to say it's the greatest Spanish novel. And when you've said it either way, where has it got you? Better to ask, as a good scholar, critic, teacher, asks: why and how is Don Quixote excellent? Why can every Spaniard quote from it? Why is it read and loved after 500 years? Those are real questions, useful questions, that can help lead a reader into and through the book.
Scholars, critics, and teachers who know how to ask and answer these questions are capable of making serious choices, of establishing a canon of literature. The danger they run in doing so is that they and others almost invariably believe their choice to be complete and immutable.
All canons of art are overly restrictive. And all of them are out of date before they are declared.
Used with great caution and suspicion, a literary canon, a list-of-the-best, may have some use in guiding and informing inexperienced readers, but I think probably it's far more useful as a target of intelligent argument and dissent.
Literary awards are useless for guiding and informing and don't even make good targets. In declaring a book as "the best," a literary award serves that book. It does not serve literature. On the contrary, it does literature a considerable disservice.
The Idea of The Best. There really may be a best mouse trap or salad spinner, at least till a better one's invented or the technology is improved. And certain inventions are more important than others. But what would be the sense or use in saying something or other is "the best" technological invention of the last year, or decade, or century? It's a nice parlor game, but it has almost no intellectual or practical value.
Similarly, in art you might be able to pick one work as the best from a set of similar works of the same general period in the same genre. But, applied to a huge set, such as all the American novels of sixty years — or even one year — "the best" is a meaningless concept. You cannot usefully compare the excellence of oranges, eggplants, knives, hats, French poodles, and dreams.
The idea of "the best" is most comfortable in the sphere of measurable competitive activities — sports. Elsewhere it enforces a competitive attitude that is profoundly out of place.
She got her way, and we chose our one winner. But I left depressed and discouraged. Seabiscuit or Secretariat ran faster than the other horses, they won. A jury didn't pick them out as "the best." When you have a jury, it's not a horserace. It's a choice. And it may very well be quite arbitrary.
Awards are supposed to spur competitive excellence. But despite the theories of (almost universally male) critics and psychologists, the practice of art is not inherently a competitive activity. It can be made into one, of course. Male or cultural competitiveness often makes it into one. But I do not believe and see no evidence to prove that the passion to do something you have a gift for doing is originally driven by the need to excel or even to show off. Most people who have a gift work extremely hard at it, if they are able to, because the work is intensely, immediately, and reliably rewarding. You have to make a living, but art is very seldom a practical way of doing so. Most artists are in it for the satisfaction of knowing they're doing, literally, the best thing they can do. In that sense of doing one's best, and only in that sense, "the best" means something in art. To consider art as a competition to be "the best" is to miss the point.
The Use of Literary Awards. I'm not saying literary awards should be done away with, or that they have no use at all — only that we shouldn't take them as meaningful literary judgments.
There have been literary competitions ever since ancient Greece, and though they tend like all competitions to select the predictable, to favor work by men over work by women, and to become ingrown or corrupt, still they serve as spurs to artists who want or need spurring to do their best.
Competitions and awards arouse interest in the audience, even if it's the kind of interest appropriate to a horse race — witness the hysteria of betting on some of the "big" literary awards — which brings much-needed money to artists and those who support or invest in their work. This is a service principally to the business of art, but also to its vitality in the culture.
And to an author, early in a career, an award can be a true and needed validation — a beautiful reward, like the Boss sings about. The first literary prizes I won, the Nebula and the Hugo, were beautiful rewards to me. They gave me strength by justifying both my trust in my readers and my trust in myself as a writer. They come from the science fiction community: one is awarded by writers, the other by readers. They are of value almost solely within that community. They are ignored or actively despised by those who institute themselves the guardians of capital-L Literature.
Waste, Injustice, Ungenerosity. When it comes to capital-Literature, the prizes I've juried, awarded, or been awarded have left me increasingly uneasy about the arbitrariness and injustice of the choice and the arbitrary need to pick a single winner. Particularly with the "major" national prizes, the pleasure of award and recognition, given or received, is damaged and diminished by knowledge of how the system plays into the prejudice and exclusivism of a literary establishment or coterie, and the advertising machinery of the bookselling business. Praise becomes fame becomes commodification and so on round.
The "majorness" of the "major" awards is itself almost entirely arbitrary and factitious. Why has everybody heard of "the PEN/Faulkner," while the other PEN awards go unknown and unnoticed? Are the jurors of one PEN prize somehow of ineffably higher calibre than the jurors of the others?
At least we know who they are. The jurors who pick the MacArthur "Genius" Awards are so ineffable, or so anxious about their corruptibility, or so afraid of the vengeance of disappointed non-geniuses, that they accept permanent anonymity. I think this is wrong. In fact I think it's despicable. Anonymous judgment is a slap in the face of responsibility.
Then there is the waste factor. Of course a good book deserves recognition, but the one-winner-takes-all award ensures that the also-rans — all the good books on the shortlist — are pretty much dumped — forgotten. To name one winner is to create a whole slew of losers. Why? What good is that?
How mean, how ungenerous we are! I wish that, instead of picking one and dumping all the rest, we celebrated our writers continually and in droves.
I'd have some trust and interest in literary prizes like that. For Soulfulness — for Sitting Up and Begging Nicely — for Passion Well Expressed – for Excellent Use of Semi-Colons — for Being the Only Novel About Elderly Female Entomologists in Love….
You think literature would suffer, if prizes were given so freely? You think sharing praise diminishes its worth? You think good books are written in order to win huge advances and one-a-year prizes? Maybe so. I think not. I think the desire to excel in competition, whether for prizes or for money, is likely to produce a mediocre and predictable novel on a trendy topic in a mode recognised as "safe" by the sales department of a large commercial publisher.
I think good novels are written by writers who want to write this novel, their novel, which is like no other. And which is therefore unpredictable, unsafe, and unlikely to win a prize. Given time and chance and a little publicity, of course, it may keep winning readers for years and years to come. But most corporation-owned publishers could care less for the years to come. Bottom line this month is all that matters.
Book Groups as the Opposite of Awards. I don't mean Oprah or commercial ventures, I mean the kind of reading group organised by private people among their friends and acquaintances, that have become common in the last twenty years or so. These groups often consist of modest people who don't trust their own taste and therefore accept too meekly the publicised judgment of PR departments and award-givers. The book club that always picks the newest best seller or Big Prize winner for next month isn't doing much for literature, although the cookies or the wine and cheese may be terrific.
But a lot of book-club members have been reading all their lives. Reading people tend to be a bit balky, independent, resistant to being told what they ought to read, inclined to go off and discover it for themselves. There are a lot of book groups doing quite serious independent reading and discussion. I wonder if they aren't doing more to preserve and celebrate literature than all the national awards and lists of Bests.
And how about all the Internet sites and blogs that discuss books read? Some of them are awfully naïve — some of them are awesomely knowledgeable.
There are various ways to sneak around the fences and monuments erected by the Guardians of Literature and the Awarders of Awards in order to get to where we can find out and talk about what's actually going on in literature. Maybe readers of this blog can suggest some other sneaky routes.
Ursula K. Le Guin is a founding member of Book View Cafe. One of her recent books is Out Here: Poems and Images from Steens Mountain Country, co-authored with photographer Roger Dorband.
She contributed an original poem, "In England in the Fifties," to Book View Cafe's anthology Breaking Waves, which benefits the Gulf Coast Oil Spill Fund.
Yes–a thousand times yes! I've always believed you can't quantify artistic quality–if something is powerful and moving to a thousand people, that's no less meaningful than if it's powerful and moving to a million people. To say otherwise is to say that speaking to your soul means less if you are part of a minority.
I have to echo Joe's "yes" and add a resounding "huzzah"! I'd love for these lists to become (if needed at all) lists of memorable works.
One of the favorite interview questions at my day job is "what's your favorite movie?" – I mean, how does one answer that? It's an impossible question. I love hundreds and hundreds of movies (or books, or whatever) in so many different ways and for a variety of reasons. I can easily list those that were memorable or re-watchable, but "favorite"? It's like asking which of your children is the best.
Ursula, have you seen this?
This is 42 different kinds of awesome, probably more.
The hell with awards, let's go write something!
To be pedantic, I think Lord of the Rings was voted the best English book of the century, not all time.
"Would you shoot every horse in the race except the winner?" Brilliant question, and well put.
When it comes to the Tiptree, I'm keeping track of which of the stories/novels I've read. Whether they were winners, short list, honor list, or long list.
I think there's value in 'niche' awards. And in having more than one award. There's more than one award for glbtqia sf/f for example, and it helps you find good/interesting books to check all those lists.
I think free-form awards (a la pet show) are a fantastic idea.
I love this article not just as writer, but as a dance teacher. Dance competitions have become increasingly prevalent in the dance world – and a major source of income for dance studios (one studio near me brags that its parents spend upwards of $5,000 a year on costumes).
But I've always felt extremely uncomfortable with the idea of judging dance, not just the merits of the choreography, but the costumes, the make-up, the music selection, because to me dance is supposed to be Art. The way writing is Art. And to put its merits to the vote of a jury – with trophies, and prizes – encourages, to me, the wrong view of art. As if we're trying to validate our art form by assigning some sort of external value and judgement to it.
I absolutely believe that artists can (and should) make money off their work, but I also believe that encouraging them to strive for certain awards or monetary prizes can influences= their art in unhealthy ways – the same way that a dance coach picks red lipstick and sequins because Judge A is known to favor it.
I love the multiple award notion – what better way to find the unique aspect of each book than ask its reviewers to sum it up in such an award-line. It would be a wonderfully quirky addition to something like GoodReads, if you allowed the reviewers to nominate and vote on the award to give to the book – instant tagline (provided you banned award names that went against the spirit of the exercise such as 'best book EVER!!!", of course).
I read all these posts with increasing relief, an opening of heart, lessening of tension in neck and back, and growing gratitude. Thank you, Mme Le Guin, for this generous and good hearted lift of mind and spirit at the start of the year. Thank you.
But then think about a poor reader who wants to spend his quality time reading a book. How can he optimize price to value ratio if you remove all these awards? And without optimization, will the growth and progress curve rise constantly as it definitely should?
K-k, your question seems to be rooted in the assumption that there is such a thing as a definitive best book. A poor reader who wants to spend his or her quality time reading a book should choose the most intriguing book from several very good choices.
LeGuin's point isn't, I believe, that we shouldn't honor any books (or artists or performances). Rather, she seems to be saying that all the books on the shortlist are generally of very high quality, one is not, in fact, empirically better than the others, and so it does your poor reader a disservice to claim that one is.
Sorry for the confusion – I thought I was quite openly ironic (or perhaps even sarcastic). I will write a bit longer explanation in several days to avoid derailing the discussion. Briefly speaking, I find the "award business issue" tightly related to the problem of the growth obsession discussed by UKL in her "Clinging Desperately to a Metaphor" post (19 September 2011).
What I find perhaps even more interesting than the main story is the tone of posts commenting the article. Apparently, there are many people who love Tolkien's story but hate his writings! I wonder how much this phenomenon is related to the success of Peter Jackson's movie, and how much of it derives from an on-going change of the role literature plays in modern life.


9 authors are involved in the Fall in Love sale.
Major Kate Winston is a decorated officer with a promising career until she wakes up naked in the arms a strange woman with no memory of how she got there.
Alexia is from another planet sent by the elders to kill Major Winston to put off the foreseen destruction of their planet by Earth's mistakes.
From the backwoods of Pennsylvania to New York City to Alexia's home world, the novel weaves a tale of emotional intrigue as two women from different words struggle with their desires, and life and death decisions.
Stay tuned for more lesfic goodness next week!
This entry was posted in Lesfic Roundup and tagged Barbara Winkes, Bella Books, Bold Strokes Books, Brey Willows, Clare Ashton, Diva Magazine, E. A. Kafkalas, Em Stevens, Freedom to Love, Fury's Choice, Giveaways, Isabella, Jae, Kitty Kat's Book Review Blog, Les Reveur, LGBTQ Book Reviews, Love Bytes, Mary's Angel, Miranda MacLeod, Perfect Rhythm, Ronica Black, Rook Takes Queen, S. M. Lowry, Telling Lies Online, The Exodus Strategy, The Gate, The Lesbian Review, The Lesbrary, The Romantic Reader Blog. Bookmark the permalink.


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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


SEGA has finally officially confirmed the PC version of Sonic Generations with a press release. The game will be released only in digital form for PCs, but all the features of the console version, including stereoscopic 3D, achievements and leaderboard will be available in Steam .
LONDON & SAN FRANCISCO – 8 th October, 2011 – SEGA ® Europe Ltd. and SEGA ® of America, Inc. are delighted to confirm that Sonic Generations ™ will be released on PC and available via SEGA's partners for PC digital download in November this year. Sonic Generations ™ is the ultimate celebration of 20 years of Sonic the Hedgehog and sees SEGA's iconic mascot racing through a brand new adventure as both the much loved classic 1991 character, and the modern day video game hero he has become today.
Sonic Generations ™ for PC digital includes Steamworks features such as Steam Cloud, which allows save files to be stored on Steam's servers so you can resume your game progress from any PC. As with the other console platforms, Sonic Generations ™ will be available to play in full stereoscopic 3D and will contain Achievements and online leaderboards.
Sonic Generations™ will be available via PC digital download as well as Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and PlayStation ® 3 computer entertainment system on 4 th November 2011.
Also, there are new screenshots of the console/PC version, and Silver the Hedgehog is confirmed as a rival. See them in the full version.
Update : SEGA 's blog made it clear that Europe will get a boxed version of the game for PC , but a little later in November.
Sonic Generations is coming November 2011 for X360, PS3, PC , and 3DS.
Has SEGA finally decided to officially confirm the PC version? If the mention of the platform won't be removed in a couple of minutes, then yes, especially counting the game is to be released soon. Otherwise, it's looks like a trolling of fans.
Update: Removed. But the PC version is more likely to exist, too much evidence.
Обновление 2: in the Steam registry, where a beta version of Sonic Generations was mentioned once, an information about preorder bonuses appeared. The first variant includes all Steam Sonic games, while second only has original Sonic the Hedgehog для Mega Drive.
Похоже, анонс не за горами. Также на Direct2Drive принимают предзаказы игры в цифровом виде за $26.95 , хотя описание перепутали с 3DS версией.
It seems that the announcement is not far off. Also Direct2Drive is taking preorders for the game in digital form for $26.95 , although the description is confused with 3DS version.
We'll get the hard, core facts out of the way first. Sonic Generations is coming in two different configurations – a high definition version will ship on PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 with nine different environments – each with a Classic and Modern level spanning all the major Sonic releases.
Sonic Generations is set to launch for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC and 3DS in November.
It turns out that Sonic Generations is still coming to PC? If so, then the company should hurry up with the announcement, because November is fast approaching.
IGN has published a new Sonic Generations trailer. It shows Crisis City, Rooftop Run and Planet Wisp.
British website CVG has published full Classic Sonic walkthrough of Sky Sanctuary. Also there is a video of Green Hill, but there is nothing new to see.
The tracklist of History of the 1st Stage has appeared at the Japanese site of Sonic Generations. Each edition willl have 12 tracks. There is 4-minute sample for them, which consists of a few tracks from the album. They are marked italic in the list. You can see the tracklist in the full version.
The Japanese site of Sonic Generations has published 12 new screenshots . They show Speed Highway from console version and Radical Highway from 3DS version.
Click "Read More" to see the screenshots.
well, I'm not dead... but I've stopped working on the project for the time being. I hope to return to it at some point though.
It's a pity, but remember that only a few fan projects survive till the final version. Also, there is some chance that pelikan13 will continue to work on the game some time later.
German website GamePro has published a preview of Sonic Generations. Besides text version there is a video, showing a lot of interesting things. You can see Classic Sonic gameplay in Sky Sanctuary and Hub Worlds. Also it's possible to notice that The Mad Convoy Race remix plays during escape from the truck in City Escape as Modern Sonic.
You can notice Spinner , the badnik appeared only in Sonic Unleashed and Sonic Colors , in one of them. How could he get at level from Sonic Heroes?


Fabels, are decorative animal heads made out of second hand material and garments that have been sourced by Lauri Tjallinks, the owner and designer of Fabels and they look ahhmazing in a children's room! The kids adore them and were intrigued when they arrived.
Wanting to delve a little more into this fabulous world, I hunted down Lauri ( pardon the pun, I promise I am vegetarian!) to ask her a few pertinent questions about her fabulous new brand, how it all started and what the future might hold for Fabels out of Vintage.
I adore the concept of "Fabels", that you are creating a new life out of old clothing or fabric. More so that you re-use the care labels and the cotton you use to stitch the fable together is also made from recycled PET bottles. Everything from start to finish is recycled. Where did your love of vintage fabric and re/upcycling come from? Why is this so important to you as a person and as a business?
When I was a young girl my mother would often take me to thrift shops. So it become a lifestyle for me. I wear second hand clothing and my home is full of old furniture. I often saw beautiful fabrics, but the clothes were old fashioned. This is how it actually started.
Why do I have to buy new fabric when there is already so much we can use and give it a second life. I think we have to save the world and look for other options than just creating new materials.
Why did you decide on designing animals? And what was the first animal that you created?
I've been always a big animal-lover. From the dog in the street to the bird up in the tree. I become a vegetarian when I was 6 years old. I don't use leather and other materials which come from animals. I find it hard to see how some people treat animals. I think we need to have more respect for all the living creatures on this planet. With my designs, I hope to pass this idea on to the next generation. The first 'Fabel' I made was a bunny. At that time I had a big french lob in my little house. She was my inspiration.
The animal designs are simple yet it is the simplicity that makes the designs so striking and using the same fabric throughout each piece reinforces this effect, how long does it take you to make one Fabel?
Just the sewing takes around 2 hours. Then I have to photograph the designs, edit the photo's, making cards (every Fabel has his own little label which tells what piece of clothing it used to be) So in total, it will take a lot longer.
What is the process surrounding a fabel? Do you find the fabric/clothing first and then decide on the design or the other way around?
It all start with a piece of fabric. I carefully select the clothes in the thrift stores. Is the colour right? What is the material? How much fabric do I need? Sometimes people send in they own clothes. Clothes that used to be worn by a loved one, or a favorite jumper they can't throw away but don't wear anymore. They tell me which animal they like the most. Then I make a special customised one for them.
You graduated 4 years ago from one of the most prestigious art schools in the Netherlands, Willem de Kooning Academie, majoring in Lifestyle and Design, what creative and artistic journey have you been through to get to where you are now?
I graduated with a collection of headpieces made of dead city birds. These birds got killed by fault of the human being. I used their feathers to create an artistic headpiece. After graduating I started selling the headpieces to shops.
But I could not make a living out of it. When I became pregnant I started sewing stuffed animals out of my own clothes for my baby boy. I received so many great comments from friends and family, that I decided to give it a go and make my own label out of it.
You have said you have been surprised by the response to Fabels so far, why is that? Have you only used Instagram to sell your wares or have you been showing at local markets as well?
A friend of mine opened a shop in the town I live. The first 2 pieces decorated the wall in their beautiful shop in the centre of the city. At the grand opening they already sold both pieces. After restocking this shop, other shops came to me and also wanted to sell Fabels. So first it was local, after that I created a web shop. Now when I also use Facebook and Instagram it is going worldwide!
What is your 5 year vision for Fabels, any other ideas/designs in the pipeline?
At the moment I'm busy with designing new Fabel-animals. In the future I hope I still make all the pieces by hand. Maybe I open my own studio where people/children can meet and I teach them how to make their own Fabel.
I was so enamored with the Fabels that I really wanted to give them a proper little home on our playroom wall. I think the DIY cork boards are perfect for them as the colours make the fabels pop out !
I am not sure what I love more the gorgeous simplicity of the Fabels, that Lauri has created or the eco friendly principles behind her beautiful label and the creation of each Fabel. We need more and more designers thinking this way and reducing our over abundance of waste.
I cannot wait to see what new Fabels and ideas Lauri has in store. I love the sound of learning to create my own fabel under her guidance, especially if it was in her native country, the Netherlands!
You can purchase your own Fabel here at Fabels out of vintage or in Australia at Dutch Warehouse.
Styling: denim rhino Fabel and denim bunny Fabel by Fabels out of Vintage. Feathers by The Inspired Paddock. Cork boards designed by Kids Gifts and Toys.


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Story time is a preschool program using the 7 days 7 ways principles from Very Ready to Read. Designed for 4 – 5 year old children.
A weekly, wacky adventure on Wednesdays @ your Library! (Ages 5 -12) Seating limited. Arrive early!
Opening Day! Summer Reading for ALL ages!
Foamy, fizzy, sizzling fun! See what happens when chemicals collide. A weekly, wacky adventure on Wednesdays @ your Library! (Ages 5 -12) Seating limited. Arrive early!
Last day to Register for the Tooele Tri and still receive a Race Shirt!
Today is the last day to register for the Tooele Tri: Kids and Sprint Triathlon and still receive a race shirt. CLICK HERE for more information or to register.


text:
\section{Introduction}
 The only microscopic theory which is
capable of describing both the statistics and dynamics in a
comprehensive way is the Green's function approach developed in
different varieties for equilibrium and nonequilibrium problems and
for zero and finite temperatures. The initial emphasis in
application of Green's function techniques was to understand the
properties of normal condensed matter systems, superconductors, and
superfluids.

Microscopic models used for a description of quantum interacting
many-body systems involve spectral functions which play a central
role in the formalism. Spectral functions are fundamental in
describing the nuclear correlations, electrons correlations in
metals and semiconductors, and in many other equilibrium and
nonequilibrium properties. The most general approach to the problem
is based on the real-time Green's function formalism of Martin and
Schwinger, further developed by Kadanoff and Baym \cite{1}. Keldysh
\cite{2} developed a diagram version of the theory for
nonequilibrium systems equivalent to the  Kadanoff-Baym (KB)
approach. The KB equations were used in several contributions to
this evolving field with applications to nuclear matter \cite{3}, to
one- and two-band semiconductors \cite{4,5}, to electron plasmas
\cite{6}--\cite{8}, etc. The various approximations of the KB
equations differ essentially by the reduction schemes of the
two-time Green's functions to the reduced equilibrium density matrix
and to the quasiparticle distributions. There are several papers on
spectral functions published during the past years using different
methods and approximations \cite{9}--\cite{13}. The nonequilibrium
extension of the KB formalism has been recovered within the
quasiparticle approach to kinetic equation for weakly interacting
particles and referred to as a modified KB $Ansatz$
\cite{22}--\cite{24}.

In a variety of works beginning with \cite{1}, the spectral function
was approximated by a delta function of energy peaked at the
quasiparticle energy. Such a simple approximation falls short of
describing many important features of the systems under
consideration. Improved spectral functions were necessary and some
variants were offered in \cite{11,12,23}. The extended quasiparticle
(EQP) approximation was introduced and it was shown to remedy some
of the faults of the simpler quasiparticle (QP) approximation . Thus
the EQP approximation was a considerable improvement of the
formalism and it was used to compare the zero-temperature case of
the KB approach with Brueckner theory of nuclear matter
\cite{11,12}. The EQP approximation can be modified slightly while
maintaining its simplicity and renormalization property. One
possible modification of EQP was offered in \cite{12}, but it was
not even mentioned among possible forms of spectral functions in
\cite{13}.

Further development of the KB theory was performed in several
different directions. Numerical solutions of the KB equations were
presented in \cite{14}. The extended quasiparticle picture which was
first offered in \cite{15}, was developed for small scattering rates
in \cite{16}--\cite{18}. The separation of pole and off-pole parts
of a spectral function was discussed in detail in \cite{17}. The
nonlocal quasiparticle kinetic equation for the momentum-, space-,
and time-dependent distribution function, which has the form of a
Boltzmann equation with the quasiparticle energy, was derived in
\cite{18}. The generalization of the KB equations to the case of
arbitrary initial correlation was performed in \cite{19}.
Correlation effects related to the collision integral were shown to
cause a damping of the spectral function \cite{20}. However, for the
present analysis (see below), like in some other cases \cite{21}, a
detailed self-consistent microscopic treatment of the correlation
effects on the spectral function can be avoided.

Besides other applications, the spectral function was used for the
derivation of the kinetic equation of the phenomenological Landau
normal Fermi liquid theory. The initial derivation of this equation
was produced by Kadanoff and Baym on the basis of the quasiparticle
approximation for the spectral function and was continued by some
followers who used the extended quasiparticle approximation. In both
cases, the second Poisson bracket in the right side of the KB
generalized kinetic equation could not be eliminated in a lawful
mathematical way. This was the reason of the narrowing of the
temperature range of validity of Landau's equation.

This paper is devoted to the explanation of the successfulness of
the phenomenological Landau theory of normal Fermi liquid and its
applicability far beyond its temperature range of validity
established on the basis of quasiparticle and extended quasiparticle
$Ans\ddot{a}tze$ for the spectral function. We offer another
approximation for the spectral function which possesses the
advantage typical for QP and EQP approximations but has an
additional property to satisfy exactly the KB equation for the
spectral function in the case of slightly nonequilibrium systems. It
makes this form of the spectral function preferable in the
nonequilibrium systems and opens certain opportunities for the
widening of the range of validity of Landau Fermi-liquid kinetic
equation.

The following section contains a concise presentation of the
necessary formulas of the KB theory for both equilibrium and
slightly nonequilibrium systems which will be used in Sec. $3$ for a
comparison of three different approximations for the spectral
function. Section $4$ contains the analysis of the question that
what approximation for a spectral functions suits better to the
strict results of Kadanoff and Baym for the nonequilibrium case and
deals with the Landau kinetic equation for the quasiparticles in the
normal Fermi liquid which is proved to be valid in a wider
temperature region than it was considered in the initial derivation
on the basis of the KB formalism. In Sec. $5$ a discussion and
summary  are presented.

\section{Main formulas of the KB formalism}

We will introduce the main results of the KB theory for fermion
systems \cite{1} keeping in mind the questions which will be
discussed below. The KB formalism leads to the following general
expression for the one-particle spectral function $a(\vec{p}\omega)$
of a system in equilibrium:
\begin{equation}
a(\vec{p}\omega)=\frac{\Gamma(\vec{p}\omega)}{[\omega-E^{HF}(\vec{p})-
\text{Re}\ \sigma_c(\vec{p}\omega)]^2+
\frac{\Gamma^2(\vec{p}\omega)}{4}},
\end{equation}
where $E^{HF}(\vec{p})$ is a one-particle energy in the Hartree-Fock
approximation. Real and imaginary $(\Gamma)$ parts of the
correlation self-energy function $\sigma_c$ are related to each
other through the Hilbert transform,
\begin{equation}
\text{Re}\
\sigma_c(\vec{p}\omega)=P\int_{-\infty}^{\infty}\frac{d\omega^{'}}{2\pi}
\frac{\Gamma(\vec{p}\omega^{'})}{\omega-\omega^{'}} .
\end{equation}
Here, $P$ refers to a principal value integration.

The spectral function satisfies the exact sum rule:
\begin{equation}
\int_{-\infty}^{\infty}\frac{d\omega}{2\pi}a(\vec{p}\omega)=1,
\end{equation}
for all the values of $\vec{p}$. This result follows directly from
the commutator relations for field operators and can serve as a
keystone for the checking of the validity of all approximations for
the spectral function (1).

In the Hartree-Fock approximation, when the correlation self-energy
function $\text{Re}\ \sigma_c(\vec{p}\omega)=0$, the spectral
function turns to be a delta function of the Hartree-Fock energy:
\begin{equation}
a_{HF}(\vec{p}\omega)=2\pi\delta[\omega-E^{HF}(\vec{p})],
\end{equation}
and the sum rule (3) is trivially satisfied identically for any
value of $\sigma^{HF}(\vec{p})$. The simplest approximation in the
case when $\text{Re}\ \sigma_c(\vec{p}\omega)\neq0$ is the so called
(QP) approximation:
\begin{equation}
a_{QP}=2\pi Z(\vec{p})\delta(\omega-E(\vec{p})) ,
\end{equation}
where $E(\vec{p})$ is the solution of the equation:
\begin{equation}
E(\vec{p})=E^{HF}(\vec{p})+\text{Re}\ \sigma_c[\vec{p},E(\vec{p})],
\end{equation}
and the renormalizing factor $Z(\vec{p})$ is given by the expression
\begin{equation}
Z^{-1}(\vec{p})=1-\frac{\partial \text{Re}\
\sigma_c(\vec{p}\omega)}{\partial{\omega}}\Big|_{\omega=E(\vec{p})}.
\end{equation}
In the QP approximation, the sum rule (3) reads
\begin{equation}
\int_{-\infty}^{\infty}\frac{d\omega}{2\pi}a_{QP}(\vec{p}\omega)=Z(\vec{p}).
\end{equation}
A severe drawback with $a_{QP}$ is that it normalizes to
$Z(\vec{p})$ rather than to 1 as in Eq. (3). We will see below how
this deficiency is removed by the extended quasiparticle
approximation \cite{11}--\cite{13} and by other more advanced
approximations.

In the case of slowly varying in space and time disturbances, after
the transition to Wigner coordinates,
\begin{equation}
\vec{R}=\frac{1}{2}(\vec{r_1}+\vec{r_{1^{'}}}),\ \hspace{.1cm}
\vec{r}=\vec{r_1}-\vec{r_{1^{'}}} \hspace{.2cm},\ \hspace{.4cm}
T=\frac{1}{2}(t_1+t_{1^{'}}),\ \hspace{.1cm}t=t_1-t_{1^{'}},
\end{equation}
and the performance of the Fourier transform with respect to
$\vec{r},t,$ all the quantities entering the theory are considered
to be the functions of $\vec{p},\omega,\vec{R},T,$ for example,
$$a=a(\vec{p}\omega;\vec{R}T).$$
If we take into account only the first derivatives with respect to
slowly varying quantities $\vec{R}$ and $T$ in the KB equations for
the correlation functions, we come to the following equation for the
spectral function $a(\vec{p}\omega;\vec{R}T)$ \cite{1}:
\begin{equation*}
[\omega-E^{HF}(\vec{p};\vec{R}T)-\text{Re}\
\sigma_c(\vec{p}\omega;\vec{R}T),a(\vec{p}\omega;\vec{R}T)]
\end{equation*}
\begin{equation}
+[\text{Re
}g(\vec{p}\omega;\vec{R}T),\Gamma(\vec{p}\omega;\vec{R}T)]=0,
\end{equation}
and to the generalized KB kinetic equation for the correlation
function $g^<(\vec{p}\omega;\vec{R}T)$:
\begin{equation*}
[\omega-E^{HF}(\vec{p};\vec{R}T)-\text{Re}\
\sigma_c(\vec{p}\omega;\vec{R}T),g^<(\vec{p}\omega;\vec{R}T)]
\end{equation*}
\begin{equation}
+[\text{Re }\
g(\vec{p}\omega;\vec{R}T),\sigma^<(\vec{p}\omega;\vec{R}T)]=
(\sigma^<g^>-\sigma^>g^<)(\vec{p}\omega;\vec{R}T).
\end{equation}
Here, $[A,B]$ is the so called generalized Poisson bracket, defined
by the expression:
\begin{equation}
[A,B]=\frac{\partial{A}}{\partial{\omega}}\frac{\partial{B}}{\partial{T}}-
\frac{\partial{A}}{\partial{T}}\frac{\partial{B}}{\partial{}\omega}-
\nabla_{\vec{p}}A\ .\ \nabla_{\vec{R}}B+\nabla_{\vec{R}}A\ .\
\nabla_{\vec{p}}B,
\end{equation}
$E^{HF}$ and $\text{Re}\ \sigma_c$ include the interaction with the
external field $U(\vec{R}T)$. The exact solution of Eq. (10) is
given by the expression
\begin{equation}
g(\vec{p}z;\vec{R}T)=[z-E^{HF}(\vec{p};\vec{R}T)-\text{Re}\
\sigma_c(\vec{p}z;\vec{R}T)]^{-1},
\end{equation}
where all the functions, such as $a(\vec{p}\omega;\vec{R}T)$,
$\text{Re}\ g(\vec{p}\omega;\vec{R}T)$, etc., are determined by the
same formulas as in the equilibrium case with all entering
quantities depending on $\vec{p},\omega,\vec{R},T$. For example,
\begin{equation*}
\text{Re}\
\sigma_c(\vec{p}\omega;\vec{R}T)=P\int_{-\infty}^{\infty}\frac{d\omega^{'}}{2\pi}
\frac{\Gamma(\vec{p}\omega^{'}; \vec{R}T)}{\omega-\omega^{'}}.
\end{equation*}
In fact, the solution (13) gives almost the same evaluation of the
spectral function $a$ as in the equilibrium case:
\begin{equation*}
a(\vec{p}\omega;\vec{R}T)=\frac{\Gamma(\vec{p}\omega;\vec{R}T)}{[\omega-E^{HF}
(\vec{p};\vec{R}T)-\text{Re }\
\sigma_c(\vec{p}\omega;\vec{R}T)]^2+\frac{\Gamma^2(\vec{p}\omega;\vec{R}T)}{4}}.
\end{equation*}

 Since the solution (13) is of exactly the same form
as the equilibrium solution, it must reduce to the equilibrium
solution as $T\longrightarrow{-\infty}$. Thus, it satisfies the
initial condition on the equation of motion. This result means that
the approximation for the nonequilibrium spectral function can be
written in the same form as in the equilibrium case.

  Equation (11) provides an exact description of the response to
slowly varying disturbance. All the quantities appearing in this
equation may be expressed in terms of the correlation functions
$g^<$ and $g^>$. In particular, $\sigma^<$ and $\sigma^>$ are
defined by a Green's function approximation that gives the
self-energy in terms of $g^<$ and $g^>$.

\section{Approximations for the spectral function}

We will consider three different approximations for the spectral
function which we will call $Ansatz$ 1, $Ansatz$ 2, and $Ansatz$ 3
correspondingly. Thus, we have
\begin{eqnarray}
\text{$Ansatz$\ 1}:\quad&  a_{EQP} = 2\pi
Z(\vec{p})\delta(\omega-E)+P\frac{\Gamma(\omega)}{(\omega-E)^2}; \\
\text{$Ansatz$ 2}:\quad &  a_{iQP}=2\pi Z(\vec{p})\delta(\omega-E)+
Z(\vec{p})P\frac{\Gamma(\omega)}{(\omega-E)^2};\\
\text{$Ansatz$ 3}:\quad & a_{i}=2\pi
Z(\vec{p})\delta(\omega-E)+Z^2(\vec{p})
P\frac{\Gamma(\omega)}{(\omega-E)^2}.
\end{eqnarray}
Here, $E$ is determined by Eq. (6).

The $Ansatz$ 1 corresponds to the extended quasiparticle
approximation which was introduced, discussed, and used for
numerical calculation in \cite{11}--\cite{13}. The first  form of
this $Ansatz$ was offered in \cite{25}. The $Ansatz$ 2 as it was
already mentioned above, offered in \cite{12}, but not discussed and
was never used for the numerical calculation and was not even
mentioned in \cite{13}. A little bit different in technical details
but the same in principle way of introducing the $Asatz$ 1 was
offered in \cite{23}. We would like to emphasize that the forms (14)
and (15) of the spectral function were constructed in
\cite{11}--\cite{13}, \cite{23} on the basis of the general
expression (1) and were obtained by means of the Taylor expansion in
powers of $\Gamma$ in the frame of different approximations. In
reality, there does not exist a mathematically strict correct form
for the expansion of (1) in power series of $\Gamma({\omega})$ which
starts with the delta function when $\Gamma({\omega})=0$. Thus,
expression (14) and (15) should be considered as some true-like
approximate forms, as it is recognized in \cite{23}, which have
better qualities compared with the quasiparticle $Ansatz$ (5). In
particular, Eqs. (14) and (15) obey the sum rule (3) (see below).
Neither can be obtained in a strict way the improved $Ansatz$ 3 $
a_i$ offered by us. The origin of the possibility of such $Ansatz$
on equal terms with expressions (14) and (15) can be shown on the
basis of the following consideration.

We start with a well known relation of the Fourier transform in the
case of a constant value of $c$:
\begin{equation}
\int_{-\infty}^{\infty}e^{-|t|c}e^{\imath{tx}}dt=\frac{2c}{c^2+x^2}\hspace{.1cm}
 ,\hspace{.5cm} c>0.
\end{equation}
Expanding the first exponent in the left side of Eq. (17) in Taylor
series, we get
\begin{equation}
\frac{2c}{c^2+x^2}=\int_{-\infty}^{\infty}\Big(1-c|t|+\frac{{c^2t^2}}{2!}-...\Big)
e^{\imath{tx}}dt.
\end{equation}
Now we use the formulas equivalent to those represented in
\cite{26}--\cite{28}:
\begin{eqnarray}
\int_{-\infty}^{\infty}t^{(2n)}e^{\imath{tx}}dt&=&
2\pi (-\imath)^{2n}\delta^{(2n)}(x) ,\hspace{.5cm} n=0,1,2,... \\
\int_{-\infty}^{\infty}|t|^{(2n+1)}e^{\imath{tx}}dt &=&
-2\sin\Big((2n+1)\frac{\pi}{2}\Big)(2n+1)!\frac{1}{|x|^{2n+2}},\\
\nonumber\hspace{.1cm}n=0,1,2,...\ .
\end{eqnarray}
If the quantity $\Gamma{(\omega)}$ in Eq. (1) is constant, then the
expression (18) would lead to a strict correct expansion of spectral
function $a(\omega)$ in terms of the power series of $\Gamma$.
However, $\Gamma{(\omega)}$ cannot be constant due to the dispersion
relation (2). In the case of $\Gamma{(\omega)}$ depending on
$\omega$, one can rely only on the first two terms of the expansion:
the delta function independent of $\Gamma{(\omega)}$ and the term
proportional to $\Gamma{(\omega)}$. Then one should notice that the
quantity $x$ in Eq. (17) or (18) corresponds to
$\omega-E^{HF}(\vec{p})-\text{Re}\ \sigma_c(\vec{p}\omega)$ in the
formula (1). Taking into account the relation (6), it becomes clear
with the precision to the second derivative $\frac{\partial^2\
\text{Re}\ {\sigma_c}}{\partial{\omega^2}}$, the term of the
expansion (18) proportional to  $\Gamma{(\omega)}$ involves $Z^2(p)$
in the numerator, and we come to the formula (16). Indeed, in the
mentioned approximation we have
\begin{equation*}
\omega-E^{HF}(\vec{p})-\text{Re }\
\sigma_c(\vec{p}\omega)=Z^{-1}(\vec{p})[\omega-E(\vec{p})].
\end{equation*}

 Now we should compare the expressions (14)-(16) on
the basis of strict results obtained in the KB theory. We will check
the correspondence of these expressions to the sum rule (3),  the
second sum rule on the basis of energy considerations and to Eq.
(10) which determines the spectral function in the case of slowly
varying in space and time disturbances. We start with the sum rule
(3). Substitute $Ansatz$ 1 given by Eq. (14) to Eq. (3) and we get
\begin{equation}
\int_{-\infty}^{\infty}\frac{d\omega}{2\pi}a_{EQP}=Z(\vec{p})+
P\int_{-\infty}^{\infty}\frac{d\omega}{2\pi}\frac{\Gamma(\omega)}{(\omega-E)^2}.
\end{equation}
Due to the dispersion relation (2) we have
\begin{equation}
\frac{\partial\ \text{Re}\
\sigma_c(\omega)}{\partial{\omega}}\mid_{E}=
-P\int_{-\infty}^{\infty}\frac{d\omega}{2\pi}\frac{\Gamma(\omega)}{(\omega-E)^2},
\end{equation}\\and Eq. (21) becomes
\begin{equation}
\int_{-\infty}^{\infty}\frac{d\omega}{2\pi}a_{EQP}=\frac{1}{1-\frac{\partial\
\text{Re}\
\sigma_c(\omega)}{\partial{\omega}}\mid_{E}}-\frac{\partial\
\text{Re}\ \sigma_c(\omega)}{\partial{\omega}}\mid_{E} \approx 1,
\end{equation}\\with the precision to
$(\frac{\partial\ \text{Re }\
{\sigma_c}}{\partial{\omega}})^2$.\\The $Ansatz$ 2 gives
\begin{equation}
\int_{-\infty}^{\infty}\frac{d\omega}{2\pi}a_{iQP}=
Z(\vec{p})\Big(1+P\int_{-\infty}^{\infty}\frac{d\omega}{2\pi}
\frac{\Gamma(\omega)}{(\omega-E)^2}\Big).
\end{equation}
Taking into account the relation (22), we see that in the case under
consideration the integral (24) is equal to 1.

Substituting Eq. (16) into Eq. (3) and taking into account (22), one
gets
\begin{equation}
\int{\frac{d\omega}{2\pi}a_{i}}=Z(\vec{p})\Big(1-Z\frac{\partial\
\text{Re}\ \sigma_c(\omega)}{\partial{\omega}}\mid_{E}\Big)\approx
1,
\end{equation}
with the precision to $(\frac{\partial\ \text{Re}\
{\sigma_c{(\omega)}}}{\partial{\omega}})^2$.

Thus, formally the $Ansatz$ 2 is the best in the sense of sum rule
(3), but errors brought by $Ansatz$ 1 and $Ansatz$ 3 can be
neglected in the approximation under consideration.

We can check the expressions (14)-(16) also with the help of the
second sum rule \cite{13}:
\begin{equation}
\int_{-\infty}^{\infty}\frac{d\omega}{2\pi}\omega
a{(\vec{p}\omega)}=E^{HF}(\vec{p}).
\end{equation}

The first terms in the right side of Eqs. (14)-(16) give the same
result
\begin{equation}
\int_{-\infty}^{\infty}\frac{d\omega}{2\pi}\omega2\pi
Z(\vec{p})\delta(\omega-E)=Z[E^{HF}+\text{Re}\ \sigma_c(E)].
\end{equation}
The contributions of the second terms in right sides of Eqs.
(14)-(16) differ only in factors depending on the power of the
renormalizing factor Z. The corresponding integral in each case is:
\begin{eqnarray}
\nonumber
P\int_{-\infty}^{\infty}\frac{d\omega}{2\pi}\frac{{\omega}\Gamma(\omega)}{(\omega-E)^2}&=
&
P\int_{-\infty}^{\infty}\frac{d\omega}{2\pi}\frac{\Gamma(\omega)}{(\omega-E)}+
E P\int_{-\infty}^{\infty}\frac{d\omega}{2\pi}\frac{\Gamma(\omega)}{(\omega-E)^2} \\
&=& Z^{-1}[(1-Z)E^{HF}-(2Z-1)\text{Re}\ \sigma_c(E)].
\end{eqnarray}

The last equality in Eq. (28) follows with the help of the
expressions (2), (7), and (22). Now taking into account the
renormalizing factors standing with the second terms in Eqs.
(14)-(16), we get with the help of Eqs. (27) and (28) that the
second sum rule (26) is valid for all the $ans\ddot{a}tze$ (14)-(16)
with the same precision up to the terms of the order
$(\frac{\partial\ \text{Re}\
{\sigma_c{(\omega)}}}{\partial{\omega}})^2$ and in this sense they
are equivalent in principle. However, they turn to be not equivalent
in the sense of satisfying the Eqs. (10) and (11), although it is
mentioned in \cite{23} that the corresponding off-pole part of $g^<$
for the $Ansatz$ 1 (14) compensates a\ "dominant part of the
puzzling term $[\text{Re}\ g,\sigma^<]$" in the generalized kinetic
equation (11). However, represented in \cite{23} analysis did not
lead to mathematically lawful complete elimination of this puzzling
term. In the next section, we show that the $Ansatz$ 3 (16) solves
the problem and consequently is the best in the nonequilibrium case.

\section{Kinetic equation of the Landau theory
of the Normal Fermi Liquid}

According to the strict result (13), every approximate $Ansatz$ for
the spectral function should keep valid in the case of slowly
varying in space and time disturbances. The only difference occurs
due to the dependence of all quantities on $\vec{R}$ and T. When we
substitute Eqs. (14)-(16) to Eq. (10), the first terms in the right
side of these expressions give
\begin{equation*}
[\omega-E^{HF}(\vec{p})-\text{Re }\
\sigma_c(\vec{p}\omega;\vec{R}T),2\pi Z(\vec{p})\delta(\omega-E)]
\end{equation*}
\begin{equation}
=2\pi Z(\vec{p})\Big[(\omega-E)\Big(1-\frac{\partial\ \text{Re}\
{\sigma_c}}{\partial{\omega}}\mid_{E}\Big),\delta(\omega-E)\Big]=0,
\end{equation}
due to the property of the generalized Poisson bracket
\begin{equation}
[A,f(A)]=0.
\end{equation}
The second term in the right side of Eq. (14) leads to the
expression
\begin{equation*}
\Big[\omega-E^{HF}(\vec{p})-\text{Re}\
\sigma_c(\vec{p}\omega;\vec{R}T),\frac{\Gamma(\vec{p}\omega;\vec{R}T)}{(\omega-E)^2}\Big]
\end{equation*}
\begin{equation}
=Z^{-1}(\vec{p})\frac{1}{(\omega-E)^2}[\omega-E,\Gamma],
\end{equation}
with the precision to $\frac{\partial^2\ \text{Re }\
{\sigma_c{(\omega)}}}{\partial{\omega}^2}$. The second Poisson
bracket in Eq. (10) due to Eq. (13) gives with the same precision
the expression
\begin{eqnarray}
\nonumber[\text{Re }\
g(\vec{p}\omega;\vec{R}T),\Gamma{(\vec{p}\omega;\vec{R}T)}]=
Z(\vec{p})\Big[\frac{1}{(\omega-E)},\Gamma\Big]&\\
=-Z(\vec{p})\frac{1}{(\omega-E)^2}[\omega-E,\Gamma].&
\end{eqnarray}
Finally, collecting all the terms, we get that the left side of Eq.
(10) in the case under consideration is different for Eqs. (14)-(16)
and equals to

\begin{eqnarray}
\text{$Ansatz$ 1} &:& \Big[\frac{1}{(\omega-E)},\Gamma\Big][Z(\vec{p})-Z^{-1}(\vec{p})];\\
\text{$Ansatz$ 2} &:& \Big[\frac{1}{(\omega-E)},\Gamma\Big][Z(\vec{p})-1];\\
\nonumber \text{$Ansatz$ 3} &:&
\Big[\frac{1}{(\omega-E)},\Gamma\Big][Z(\vec{p})-Z(\vec{p})]=0.
\end{eqnarray}
The $Ansatz$ 3 satisfies Eq. (10) exactly. It means that this
$Ansatz$ is preferable for considering slightly nonequilibrium
systems when disturbances slowly vary in space and time. In
particular, it turns out that the $Ansatz$ 3 (16) opens
opportunities for the derivation of the Landau Fermi liquid's theory
kinetic equation for the quasiparticle distribution function. We
will see that the usual considerations about the smallness of the
quantity $\Gamma(\omega)$ are not necessary anymore and the puzzling
term $[\text{Re}\ g,\sigma^<]$ in Eq. (11) is canceled completely by
the off-pole part of the approximation (16).

From the pioneer work of Kadanoff and Baym, the derivation of the
kinetic equation of normal Fermi liquid theory was based on the
assumption of the smallness of the functions $\sigma^<$ and
$\sigma^>$ near the Fermi level $\mu$ of the system \cite{1,29}.
Indeed, defining a local occupation number
$f(\vec{p}\omega;\vec{R}T)$ by writing
\begin{equation}
g^<(\vec{p}\omega;\vec{R}T)=a(\vec{p}\omega;\vec{R}T)f(\vec{p}\omega;\vec{R}T),
\end{equation}
where in equilibrium, at zero temperature
\begin{equation}
f(\vec{p}\omega;\vec{R}T)\rightarrow f(\omega)=\begin{array}{ccc}
\end{array}
\left\{
\begin{array}{ll}
0 & \hbox{ \ \ for  \ \ $\omega>\mu$} \\
1 & \hbox{ \ \ for \ \ $\omega<\mu$}\ ,
\end{array}
\right.
\end{equation}
one comes to the relations
\begin{eqnarray}
\nonumber\sigma^>(\vec{p}\omega)=0 \ \ \ \ \hbox{for}
\ \ \ \omega<\mu&, \\
\sigma^<(\vec{p}\omega)=0 \ \ \ \ \hbox{for} \ \ \ \omega>\mu&.
\end{eqnarray}
The proof of these relations depends only the fact that\ \ $f=1$ \ \
\ for \ \ $\omega<\mu$ \ \ and  \ \  $f=0$ \ \  for \ \
$\omega>\mu$. Since we are assuming that $f$ has a similar behavior
in the slightly nonequilibrium case, it follows that
\begin{eqnarray}
\nonumber\sigma^>(\vec{p}\omega;\vec{R}T)=0 \ \ \ \ \hbox{for} \ \ \
\omega<\mu(\vec{R}T)&, \\
\sigma^<(\vec{p}\omega;\vec{R}T)=0 \ \ \ \ \hbox{for} \ \ \
\omega>\mu(\vec{R}T)&,
\end{eqnarray}
where $\mu(\vec{R}T)$ is a local chemical potential of the system.
For normal Fermi systems, $\sigma^>$ and $\sigma^<$ are continuous
functions at $\omega=\mu$. It means that $\Gamma=\sigma^>+\sigma^<$
is small near $\mu$. As it was shown in \cite{1}, these assumptions
about $f$ for $\omega$ appreciably greater or less than
$\mu(\vec{R}T)$ lead to a consistent solution of the generalized
kinetic equation (11). In such a situation when $\sigma^>$ and
$\sigma^<$ are both negligible for $\omega$ near $\mu$, Eq.  (11) in
collisionless approximation can be written in the form
\begin{equation}
[\omega-E^{HF}(\vec{p};\vec{R}T)-\text{Re}\
\sigma_c(\vec{p};\vec{R}T),a(\vec{p}\omega;\vec{R}T)f(\vec{p}\omega;\vec{R}T)]=0.
\end{equation}
The second Poisson bracket in the right side of Eq. (11) is dropped
out due to the discussed considerations about the smallness of
$\Gamma$ near $\mu$.

Using the quasiparticle $Ansatz$ (5) for the spectral function $a$,
one comes to the kinetic equation for the quasiparticle distribution
function $n(\vec{p},\vec{R}T)$ of the normal Fermi liquid theory
\cite{1}:
\begin{equation}
\frac{\partial n}{\partial T}+\nabla_{\vec{P}}E\ .\
\nabla_{\vec{R}}n-\nabla_{\vec{R}}E\ .\ \nabla_{\vec{p}}n=0,
\end{equation}
$$n(\vec{p};\vec{R}T)=f(\vec{p}\omega;\vec{R}T)\mid_{\omega=E(\vec{p};\vec{R}T)}.$$
The smallness of the function $\Gamma$ is a keystone in the above
considerations and such a smallness looks like a necessary condition
of the validity of Eq. (40), which is supposed to be valid only in
the region $\omega\approx\mu(\vec{R}T)$. However, it can be shown
that neglecting collisions, Eq. (40) stays valid with the precision
to $\Gamma^2$ if one uses $Ansatz$ 3 (16) for the spectral function
$a$ instead of the quasiparticle $Ansatz$ (5). In this case, the
collisionless equation (11) is written in the form
\begin{equation}
[\omega-E^{HF}-\text{Re}\ \sigma_c,af]+[\text{Re}\ g, \sigma^<]=0.
\end{equation}
The first term in all the $Ans\ddot{a}tze$ (14)-(16) which coincides
with the quasiparticle $Ansatz$ (5) leads directly to Eq. (40) as it
is shown in \cite{1}. The second Poisson bracket in Eq. (41) in the
linear approximation in $\Gamma$ gives the result
\begin{eqnarray}
\nonumber[\text{Re}\ g,\sigma^<]=\Big[\frac{1}{\omega-E^{HF}-
\text{Re}\ \sigma_c},\Gamma f\Big]=
Z\Big[\frac{1}{\omega-E},\Gamma f\Big]& \\
=Z[\Gamma f,\omega-E]\frac{1}{(\omega-E)^2}.&
\end{eqnarray}
It is easy to see that this term will be compensated by the second
term in the $Ansatz$ 3. Indeed, substituting this second term to the
first Poisson bracket in Eq. (41), one gets
\begin{equation}
Z^2\Big[\omega-E^{HF}-\text{Re}\ \sigma_c,\frac{\Gamma
f}{(\omega-E)^2}\Big]=Z [\omega-E,\Gamma f]\frac{1}{(\omega-E)^2},
\end{equation}
and this term compensates Eq. (42) in Eq. (41). Observe that neither
$Ansatz$ 1 nor $Ansatz$ 2 will lead to this result.

We would like to stress that all considerations based on the
relations (36)--(38) were necessary only for the sake of the
elimination of the second Poisson bracket in Eq. (41). The usage of
the $Ansatz$ 3 (16) makes the smallness of the function $\Gamma$ not
necessary. The quantity $\Gamma(\omega)$ can be finite. For
qualitative estimation of the precision, we can use the third term
in the expansion (18) which corresponds to $\Gamma^2(\omega)$.
Substituting the term proportional to $\Gamma^2(\omega)$ into Eqs.
(10) and (11), it is not difficult to show that in the gradient
approximation these equations are valid up to the terms of the order
$\Gamma^2(\omega)$.

This result means that the collective excitation spectrum of the
system which is determined by the kinetic equation (40) is not
changed when we take into considerations the term in the spectral
function proportional to $\Gamma$. At the same time, physical
quantities which are determined by the correlation function $g^<$
will obtain additional terms due to the second term in the
expression for the spectral function. In particular, the reduced
density matrix,
\begin{equation}
\rho(\vec{p};\vec{R}T)=\int_{-\infty}^{\infty}\frac{d\omega}{2\pi}g^<(\vec{p}\omega;\vec{R}T),
\end{equation}
will possess power tails while the quasiparticle distribution $n$
decrease exponentially with energy.

\section{Discussion and Summary}

The differences in the form of the expressions (14)--(16) come
through the ways they were obtained. When the $Ansatz$ for the
spectral function is obtained by a Taylor expansion of Eq. (1)
around the quasiparticle peak, it involves the necessity of the
conditions $\Gamma<<\text{Re}\ \sigma_c$ and $\frac{\partial\
{\text{Re}\ \sigma_c}}{\partial{\omega}}<<1$ \cite{11}-\cite{13}.
The approach (18) based on the Fourier transform demands another
condition $(\omega-E)\frac{\partial\ \ln\
\Gamma(\omega)}{\partial\omega}<<1$, which means that a relation
between $\Gamma$ and $\text{Re}\ \sigma_c$ can be arbitrary, in the
frame of the Hilbert transform (2).

The possibility for $\Gamma$ to be not small plays an important role
for the increasing of the range of validity of the kinetic Fermi
liquid equation. The comparison of the results obtained on the basis
of this equation with experimental data confirmed the validity of
the equation far beyond the limits established by the conditions
(36)--(38) and, consequently, for a essentially larger temperature
interval.

The $Ansatz$ 3 (16) leads to the elimination of the second Poisson
bracket in Eq. (11) in a very natural way. As it turned out, this
term in the generalized KB kinetic equation (11) is the main
obstacle on the way of the extension of Fermi liquid equation (40)
to a larger temperature interval \cite{23}. We should mention that
the validity of the kinetic equation (40) in the case of finite
values of $\Gamma$ was shown by different mathematical method in
\cite{30} but the result looked contradicting to the commonly
accepted conditions (36)-(38). Only the direct \lq\lq lawful"
elimination of the term $[\text{Re}\ g, \sigma^<]$ in Eq. (11) makes
the situation clear.

Despite the absence of the rigorous foundation of the validity of
the Fermi-liquid equations in the case of large $\Gamma$, these
equations were successfully used for the variety of systems of
strongly interacting particles. Thus, such equations were used for
theoretical description of the magneto-ordered state in 3d metals in
the framework of the Anderson periodic model \cite{31}. The value of
$\Gamma$ was considered to be constant and of the same order as
other energy parameters of the system: the width of the d level was
considered to be equal to a relatively large jump parameter $v : v
\sim\Gamma\sim1\ eV$. The obtained results turned to be in a good
agreement with  experimented data for the photoeffect on polarized
electrons \cite{32,33}. In conclusion, we will mention that the
$Ansatz$ 3 (16) can be preferable also for calculations of the
equilibrium properties such as produced for a nuclear matter in
\cite{12}. As it is stated in this work, using the extended
quasiparticle approximation (14), the total binding energy is
obtained to be
$$
E_{EQP}=17.4 \ \text{MeV/nucleon}.
$$
In contrast, the quasiparticle approximation (5) leads to the
result
$$
E_{QP}=15.9 \ \text{MeV/nucleon}.
$$
Bruckner theory meanwhile gives
$$E_B=16.7 \ \text{MeV/nucleon}.
$$
Due to the extra factor $Z^2(\vec{p}){[Z(\vec{p})<1]}$ in the second
term of the $Ansatz$ 3 compared with the $Ansatz$ 1, it is clear
that the result of this $Ansatz$ must be between the values of
$E_{QP}$ and $E_{EQP}$. It will be closer to the value of $E_B$ than
$E_{EQP}$ and closer to the value of $E_B$ than $E_{QP}$.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaArXiv


Frank Islam is an entrepreneur, investor and philanthropist. He currently heads the FI Investment Group. Frank was the founder and CEO of the QSS Group and information technology firm that generated annual revenues in excess of $300M. He serves on numerous boards and advisory councils including the U.S Institute of Peace, the Department of Commerce's Industry Trade Advisory Committee, and the George Mason University School of Management.


text:
Aristolochia fangchi es una especie de planta herbácea perteneciente a la familia Aristolochiaceae. Conocida por su toxicidad. Ingerida en preparacion herbaria puede causar causa renal. En 1996, en Bélgica, más de 50 personas sufrieron insuficiencia renal por tomar la planta, en reemplazo de la Stephania tetrandra o Magnolia officinalis.

Descripción
Son arbustos trepadores. Los tallos son cilíndricos, estriados oscuramente, vellosos. Pecíolo de 1-4 cm, densamente velloso de color marrón; limbo oblongo a ovadas-oblongas, raramente ovadas-lanceoladas, de 6-16 x 3,5-5 cm, coriáceas, la base redondeada, ápice agudo o obtuso. Racimos de edad con tallos leñosos, 2-4-flores, de 4-6 cm. Pedicelo de 5-7 cm, colgantes, densamente velloso; brácteas subulada, 8.3 × ca. 1 mm. Cáliz púrpura con manchas amarillas, garganta blanca; tubo en forma de herradura, el envés densamente velloso. Cápsula 5-10 × 3-5 cm, dehiscente basipetalmente. Semillas ovoides-deltoides. Fl. abril-mayo, fr. julio-septiembre.

Distribución y hábitat
Se encuentra en los densos bosques, matorrales, en las laderas; a una altitud de 500-1000 metros en Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou.

Taxonomía
Aristolochia fangchi fue descrita por Y.C.Wu ex L.D.Chow & S.M.Hwang  y publicado en Flora of China 5: 264. 2003.
Etimología
Aristolochia: nombre genérico que deriva de las palabras griegas aristos ( άριστος ) = "que es útil" y locheia ( λοχεία ) = "nacimiento", por su antiguo uso como ayuda en los partos.  Sin embargo, según Cicerón, la planta lleva el nombre de un tal "Aristolochos", que a partir de un sueño, había aprendido a utilizarla como un antídoto para las mordeduras de serpiente.

fangchi:, epíteto específico que se deriva del nombre vernáculo.

Referencias

fangchi
Plantas medicinales
Flora de China
Plantas descritas en 2003
Plantas descritas por Y.C.Wu
Plantas descritas por L.D.Chow
Plantas descritas por S.M.Hwang
Plantas usadas en la medicina tradicional china

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Sangram has Feeble boxing, Feeble Muay Thai, Strong wrestling and holds a blue belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.
Indian national champion in freestyle wrestling.
2019-04-02- Sangram Singh celebrated his birthday - 41 today!
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ANAHEIM, Calif., May 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ – Last week, in the loud, cacophonous Anaheim Convention Center, at the DECA ICDC (International Career Development Conference) high school students from the U.S. and Canada hunched over their laptops furiously competing in a virtual business simulation competition. It was the culmination of a competition that began earlier in the school year in October. The 96 teams competing in Anaheim had survived two rounds of intense online competition and were the top 96 teams from the 41,357 high school students that competed online.
The students weren't fighting fantasy monsters or battling spaceships on their computers, they were testing real-world business strategies modeled in Virtual Business - the leading, online high school business simulation software designed and marketed by Knowledge Matters, a company headquartered in Hadley, MA. The teams competed against one another in a double-elimination tournament utilizing six different Virtual Business simulations - Hotel, Retail, Accounting, Personal Finance, Sports, and Restaurant. The teams had trained prior to the competition - practicing multiple strategies with the Virtual Business simulations - all with the ultimate goal to create the most successful business. In the Personal Finance simulation, the goal is to have the highest personal net worth - making choices within the simulation of how to prudently spend money and save your earnings.
Last week's competition was the 18th year of the DECA Virtual Business challenge - a competition organized in partnership between DECA and Knowledge Matters. Since 1946, DECA has prepared high school and college students for careers in marketing, finance, hospitality and management. The organization has 230,000+ student members that compete in a variety of competitive events, including the Virtual Business Challenge.
Knowledge Matters is the leading provider of cloud-based, educational simulations for business (food service, hospitality, retailing, sports management and manufacturing) and personal finance. The company's Virtual Business line of simulations have been used in over one-third of all the high schools in the United States. The company's ProSim line of advanced simulations are used by leading universities globally.
DECA prepares emerging leaders and entrepreneurs in marketing, finance, hospitality and management in high schools and colleges around the globe. DECA's Comprehensive Learning Program integrates into classroom instruction, applies learning, connects to business and promotes competition. DECA prepares the next generation to be academically prepared, community oriented, professionally responsible, experienced leaders. DECA Inc. is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit student organization. The United States Congress, the United States Department of Education and state and national departments of education authorize DECA's programs.


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This Augmented Reality Sandbox with Real-Time Water Flow Simulation is pretty nice. Just wait for the "God's rain hand". Perhaps needs few more tricks though, like plantable trees and Lemmings. They need one like this for Finland's Heureka science centre too.


Recently at a client I was charged with investigating an application that dealt with incoming / outgoing requests. The data that built up the request objects was being stored as SPListItem's within their respective SPList objects. After investigation, I was directed to keep the very loosely coupled and inefficient data storage scheme that was actually composed of three lists, rather than well designed metadata, the same. Since I was going to be augmenting the lists, it was necessary for me to have a utility that would allow me to source a list, and copy the relevant SPField objects regardless of base type to a destination list. As a result, I ended up writing my own little utility to automate this task.
The application itself is simple, one form, very few controls.
Have fun. The source is available on the codeplex site.


text:
#include "paddle/fluid/operators/sum_op.h"

#include <algorithm>
#include <string>
#include <vector>

#include "paddle/fluid/framework/var_type_inference.h"
#include "paddle/fluid/operators/detail/safe_ref.h"

#ifdef PADDLE_WITH_MKLDNN
#include "paddle/fluid/platform/mkldnn_helper.h"
#endif

namespace paddle {
namespace operators {
using framework::Tensor;

class SumOp : public framework::OperatorWithKernel {
 public:
  using framework::OperatorWithKernel::OperatorWithKernel;

  void InferShape(framework::InferShapeContext* ctx) const override {
    PADDLE_ENFORCE(ctx->HasInputs("X"), "Inputs(X) should not be null");

    PADDLE_ENFORCE(ctx->HasOutput("Out"),
                   "Output(Out) of SumOp should not be null.");
    if (ctx->IsRuntime() &&
        ctx->GetOutputsVarType("Out")[0] ==
            framework::proto::VarType::LOD_TENSOR_ARRAY) {
      return;  // skip runtime infershape when is tensor array;
    }

    auto x_dims = ctx->GetInputsDim("X");
    size_t N = x_dims.size();
    PADDLE_ENFORCE_GT(N, 0, "Input tensors count should > 0.");
    if (N == 1) {
      VLOG(3) << "Warning: sum have only one input, may waste memory";
    }

    framework::DDim in_dim({0});
    for (auto& x_dim : x_dims) {
      if (framework::product(x_dim) == 0) {
        continue;
      }
      if (framework::product(in_dim) == 0) {
        in_dim = x_dim;
      } else {
        PADDLE_ENFORCE_EQ(in_dim, x_dim, "Input tensors must have same shape");
      }
    }
    ctx->SetOutputDim("Out", in_dim);
    ctx->ShareLoD("X", /*->*/ "Out");
  }

 protected:
  framework::OpKernelType GetExpectedKernelType(
      const framework::ExecutionContext& ctx) const override {
    auto x_vars = ctx.MultiInputVar("X");
    auto x_vars_name = ctx.Inputs("X");

    framework::LibraryType library{framework::LibraryType::kPlain};
    framework::DataLayout layout{framework::DataLayout::kAnyLayout};

#ifdef PADDLE_WITH_MKLDNN
    if (library == framework::LibraryType::kPlain &&
        platform::CanMKLDNNBeUsed(ctx)) {
      library = framework::LibraryType::kMKLDNN;
      layout = framework::DataLayout::kMKLDNN;
    }
#endif

    if (x_vars[0]->IsType<framework::LoDTensor>()) {
      int dtype = -1;
      for (size_t idx = 0; idx < x_vars.size(); ++idx) {
        PADDLE_ENFORCE(x_vars[idx] != nullptr,
                       "Input var[%s] should not be nullptr", x_vars_name[idx]);
        // FIXME(zcd): The input x_var may be SelectedRows or LoDTensor.
        auto tensor = framework::GetTensorFromVar(*x_vars[idx]);
        if (tensor->numel() == 0) {
          continue;
        }
        if (dtype == -1) {
          dtype = framework::ToDataType(tensor->type());
        } else {
          PADDLE_ENFORCE_EQ(dtype, framework::ToDataType(tensor->type()));
        }
      }
      PADDLE_ENFORCE_NE(dtype, -1,
                        "Sum operator should have at least one tensor");

      return framework::OpKernelType(
          static_cast<framework::proto::VarType::Type>(dtype), ctx.GetPlace(),
          layout, library);
    } else if (x_vars[0]->IsType<framework::SelectedRows>()) {
      for (auto& var : x_vars) {
        auto& value = var->Get<framework::SelectedRows>().value();
        if (value.IsInitialized()) {
          return framework::OpKernelType(framework::ToDataType(value.type()),
                                         ctx.device_context(), layout, library);
        }
      }
      // if input sparse vars are not initialized, use an default kernel type.
      return framework::OpKernelType(framework::proto::VarType::FP32,
                                     ctx.device_context(), layout, library);
    } else if (x_vars[0]->IsType<framework::LoDTensorArray>()) {
      for (auto& x_var : x_vars) {
        auto& array = x_var->Get<framework::LoDTensorArray>();
        for (auto& each : array) {
          if (each.numel() != 0) {
            return framework::OpKernelType(framework::ToDataType(each.type()),
                                           ctx.device_context(), layout,
                                           library);
          }
        }
      }
      PADDLE_THROW("Cannot find the input data type by all input data");
    }
    PADDLE_THROW("Unexpected branch. Input type is %s",
                 x_vars[0]->Type().name());
  }
};

class SumOpMaker : public framework::OpProtoAndCheckerMaker {
 public:
  void Make() override {
    AddInput("X", "(vector<Tensor>) The input tensors of sum operator.")
        .AsDuplicable();
    AddOutput("Out", "(Tensor) The output tensor of sum operator.");
    AddAttr<bool>("use_mkldnn",
                  "(bool, default false) Only used in mkldnn kernel")
        .SetDefault(false);
    AddComment(R"DOC(
Sum operator.

This operators sums the input tensors. All the inputs can carry the
LoD (Level of Details) information. However, the output only shares
the LoD information with the first input.
)DOC");
  }
};

class SumOpVarTypeInference : public framework::VarTypeInference {
 public:
  void operator()(const framework::OpDesc& op_desc,
                  framework::BlockDesc* block) const override {
    auto& inputs = op_desc.Input("X");
    auto var_type = framework::proto::VarType::SELECTED_ROWS;
    for (auto& name : op_desc.Input("X")) {
      VLOG(10) << name << " "
               << block->FindRecursiveOrCreateVar(name).GetType();
    }

    bool any_input_is_lod_tensor = std::any_of(
        inputs.begin(), inputs.end(), [block](const std::string& name) {
          return block->FindRecursiveOrCreateVar(name).GetType() ==
                 framework::proto::VarType::LOD_TENSOR;
        });

    auto is_tensor_array = [block](const std::string& name) {
      return block->FindRecursiveOrCreateVar(name).GetType() ==
             framework::proto::VarType::LOD_TENSOR_ARRAY;
    };

    bool any_input_is_tensor_array =
        std::any_of(inputs.begin(), inputs.end(), is_tensor_array);
    bool all_inputs_are_tensor_array =
        std::all_of(inputs.begin(), inputs.end(), is_tensor_array);

    if (any_input_is_tensor_array) {
      if (!all_inputs_are_tensor_array) {
        std::ostringstream os;
        for (auto& each : inputs) {
          os << "    " << each << " type is "
             << block->FindRecursiveOrCreateVar(each).GetType() << "\n";
        }
        PADDLE_ENFORCE(all_inputs_are_tensor_array,
                       "Not all inputs are tensor array:\n%s", os.str());
      }
      var_type = framework::proto::VarType::LOD_TENSOR_ARRAY;
    } else if (any_input_is_lod_tensor) {
      var_type = framework::proto::VarType::LOD_TENSOR;
    }

    auto out_var_name = op_desc.Output("Out").front();
    auto& out_var = block->FindRecursiveOrCreateVar(out_var_name);
    out_var.SetType(var_type);
    auto& in_var = detail::Ref(block->FindVarRecursive(inputs.front()));
    out_var.SetDataType(in_var.GetDataType());
  }
};

class SumGradMaker : public framework::GradOpDescMakerBase {
 public:
  using framework::GradOpDescMakerBase::GradOpDescMakerBase;

  std::vector<std::unique_ptr<framework::OpDesc>> operator()() const override {
    auto x_grads = InputGrad("X", false);
    std::vector<std::unique_ptr<framework::OpDesc>> grad_ops;
    grad_ops.reserve(x_grads.size());
    auto og = OutputGrad("Out");
    std::transform(x_grads.begin(), x_grads.end(), std::back_inserter(grad_ops),
                   [&og](const std::string& x_grad) {
                     auto* grad_op = new framework::OpDesc();
                     grad_op->SetType("scale");
                     grad_op->SetInput("X", og);
                     grad_op->SetOutput("Out", {x_grad});
                     grad_op->SetAttr("scale", 1.0f);
                     return std::unique_ptr<framework::OpDesc>(grad_op);
                   });
    return grad_ops;
  }
};

}  // namespace operators
}  // namespace paddle

namespace ops = paddle::operators;

REGISTER_OPERATOR(sum, ops::SumOp, ops::SumOpMaker, ops::SumGradMaker,
                  ops::SumOpVarTypeInference);

REGISTER_OP_CPU_KERNEL(
    sum, ops::SumKernel<paddle::platform::CPUDeviceContext, float>,
    ops::SumKernel<paddle::platform::CPUDeviceContext, double>,
    ops::SumKernel<paddle::platform::CPUDeviceContext, int>,
    ops::SumKernel<paddle::platform::CPUDeviceContext, int64_t>);

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub