text:
\section{Introduction}
\label{sect:intro}
Ground-based optical and near-infrared spectra are contaminated
by the variable absorptions of the telluric atmosphere. In order to retrieve the intrinsic
spectral signal of the scientific object, the traditional method is to observe a telluric standard star (early-type star) near in both
time and airmass to the scientific object,
then using the telluric spectrum created from standard star to correct the telluric absorption features by dividing the object's spectrum during the data reduction.
Often, a rapidly rotating hot star (spectral type A or late B) is frequently adopted as the telluric standard
because there are few and weak metal lines in the spectrum around the telluric absorption bands.

In addition, many sophisticated methods have been developed. For example, using G2 V star as telluric standards and the
high-resolution spectrum of the sun,  \cite{Maiolino1996} developed a correction method for the telluric absorption lines.
Combining \cite{Maiolino1996}'s method with above traditional early-type star method, \cite{Hanson1996,Hanson2005}
developed a method to correct the telluric absorption lines, which has to observe an A-star and a G2 V star
and involves a somewhat tedious and complicated reduction process.
\cite{Vacca2003} described a new method of generating a telluric correction spectrum by using
observations of A0 V stars and a high-resolution model spectrum of Vega, which is similar to the process described
by \cite{Maiolino1996}.

Another approach is to generate a theoretical telluric absorption spectrum of the atmospheric transmission from a
line database and the observing condition.
Based on the available radiative transfer model, this approach has been successfully developed  by several groups
(e.g., \citealt{Seifahrt2010,Gullikson2014,Bertaux2014,Cotton2014}).
Furthermore, some groups incorporated the radiative transfer model into they own code to fit an entire input
spectrum (e.g., \citealt{Husser2013,Gullikson2014,Smette2015}).

Actually, above methods have several disadvantages(e.g., \citealt{Seifahrt2010,Gullikson2014}):
(1) it's difficult to find a suitable telluric standard star near in both time and airmass to the scientific object during the observation.
(2) The strength of telluric absorption lines may significantly changes with the varying observing conditions (such as the weather, airmass and seeing),
even if we find an ideal telluric standard star,
it is almost impossible to obtain the spectrum of scientific object and telluric standard star under the same observing conditions.
(3) if we conduct a long-term spectral monitoring study, observing a telluric standard star near the same time to the object,
we will take a significant amount of precious telescope time.
(4) The deviation of the modelled telluric absorption spectrum is mainly due to
the limited accuracy of the meteorological data and errors in the radiative transfer model.
Therefore, in this paper, we described a new method of correcting the telluric absorption lines from the spectrum,
and used it to investigate the variation of telluric absorptions of Lijiang Observatory.

The paper is organised as follows. In Section~\ref{sec:method},
we described the correction method for the telluric absorption lines of spectrum.
We applied this method to the spectra observed by Lijiang 2.4-meter telescope
in Section~\ref{sec:app}, including observation, data reduction, the telluric absorption correction,
accuracy evaluation, and investigated the telluric absorption features of Lijiang Observatory.
Section~\ref{sec:dis}~and~\ref{sec:sum} are discussion and summary, respectively.

\section{Method}
\label{sec:method}

\subsection{Long slit spectroscopy}
The spectrograph used in astronomy often equipped with long slit (with different projected slit width),
so that we can orient long slit to
take the spectra of the scientific object and a nearby non-varying comparison star simultaneously.
This observation method is widely used in the reverberation mapping of active galactic nuclei to measure
supermassive black hole mass and investigate the physics of the broad-line region
(e.g., \citealt{Maoz1990,Kaspi2000, Lu2019}), because the spectrum of the non-varying comparison star
can be used as the fiducial spectrum to calibrate the flux of scientific object in high precision (e.g., see \citealt{Lu2019}).
The second application of the comparison star spectrum is to correct the line broadening caused by seeing and instruments \citep{Du2016}.
In the application of correcting instrument broadening, the line broadening function can be obtained from the fitting between
the comparison star spectrum and its stellar template, then we use the broadening function to correct the broadening of
the emission-line profile through Richardson$-$Lucy deconvolution algorithm \citep{Richardson1972,Lucy1974}.
Here we provide a new application of the comparison star spectrum.

\subsection{Fitting spectrum and correcting telluric absorptions}
In the scheme of long slit spectroscopy, the spectra of the scientific object and comparison star are obtained
simultaneously. Extraction processes of the observed object and stellar spectra are similar to
the works of \cite{Lu2016} and \cite{Lu2019} (more details refer to Section~\ref{sec:app}).
The schematic diagram of correcting the telluric absorption lines shows in Figure~\ref{Fig:sd}.
We first obtain the telluric transmission spectrum by fitting the spectrum of
comparison star by a stellar template. Generally, there are two approaches to select the
stellar template of comparison star:
(1) selecting the most similar stellar spectrum from the library of synthesis stellar model as the
template of comparison star (e.g., \citealt{Husser2013}).
(2) searching the calibrated spectra of comparison star from spectral survey database
(e.g., SDSS, LAMOST) as the template of comparison star\footnote{https://github.com/BU-hammerTeam/PyHammer}.
To fit the observed spectrum of comparison star,
the selected stellar template ${\mathcal M}(\lambda)$ is shifted, broadened and scaled.
That is the observed spectrum ${\mathcal S}(\lambda)$ of comparison star is modelled by function
\begin{equation}
  {\mathcal S'}(\lambda)={\mathcal P}(\lambda)[{\mathcal M}(\lambda) \otimes {\mathcal G}({\rm Shift,FWHM})].
 \label{eq:model}
\end{equation}
Where,  ${\mathcal P}$ is a Legendre polynomial that accounts for the mismatch in the continuum shape of
comparison star and stellar template, ${\mathcal G}$ is a Gaussian kernel with parameters of velocity and shift
that accounts for the mismatch in the line width and shift of the intrinsic absorption lines.

It's should be noted that the telluric absorptions from the red side of the optical spectrum to the near infrared
are mainly caused by $\rm O_{2}$ and $\rm H_{2}O$. The main telluric absorption bands include narrow
oxygen bands (identified as the Fraunhofer $\gamma$, B, and A bands) and some comparably weak water vapour features.
The telluric absorption bands of optical region with bandwidths (i.e., absorption windows) are presented in Table~\ref{Tab}
(see also \citealt{Smette2015}). During the fitting of the observed spectrum,
the spectral region within the telluric absorption windows (see Table~\ref{Tab}) are masked.
Then the telluric transmission spectrum ${\mathcal T}(\lambda)$ in the selected absorption windows is constructed
by dividing the observed spectrum of comparison star ${\mathcal S}(\lambda)$ by the modelled spectrum ${\mathcal S'}(\lambda)$.
Lastly, we obtained the telluric absorption corrected spectrum by dividing the observed object
spectrum ${\mathcal O}(\lambda)$ by the telluric transmission spectrum ${\mathcal T}(\lambda)$,
because the spectra of comparison star and the scientific object are obtained at the same time and with the same airmass and seeing.
In fact, this step resembles the process of {\tt IRAF} telluric.
Next, we use this method to correct the telluric absorption lines of the spectra observed by Lijiang 2.4-meter telescope
and investigate the variation of the telluric absorptions at Lijiang Observatory.

 \begin{figure*}
   \centering
   \includegraphics[width=10cm, angle=0]{msfig1.eps}
   \caption{Schematic diagram of correction for the telluric absorption lines.}
   \label{Fig:sd}
 \end{figure*}

\begin{table}
\begin{center}
\caption[]{Telluric absorption bands and selected windows in the optical region. ``${\rm B*}$'' means the number
of the telluric absorption bands (Col. 1), these absorption bands with different absorption widths (Col. 3) are caused
by different absorbers (Col. 2).}\label{Tab}
 \begin{tabular}{ccc}
  \hline\noalign{\smallskip}
No  &  Molecular &  Windows                      \\
(1)&(2)&(3)\\
  \hline\noalign{\smallskip}
B1  & $\rm O_{2}~(\gamma~band)$         & 6270~\AA$\sim$6350~\AA \\
B2  & $\rm O_{2}~(B~band) + H_{2}O$    & 6830~\AA$\sim$7050~\AA \\
B3  & $\rm H_{2}O$                                  & 7143~\AA$\sim$7369~\AA \\
B4  & $\rm O_{2}~(A~band)$                    & 7550~\AA$\sim$7750~\AA \\
B5  & $\rm H_{2}O$                                  & 8080~\AA$\sim$8380~\AA \\
  \noalign{\smallskip}\hline
\end{tabular}
\end{center}
\end{table}

\begin{figure}
   \centering
   \includegraphics[width=\textwidth, angle=0]{msfig2.eps}
   \caption{The spectrum of SDSS J153636.22+044127.0 (J1536) observed by Lijiang 2.4-meter telescope.
   Five telluric absorption bands in the observed spectrum are marked by colour diagram (see Table~\ref{Tab}).}
   \label{Fig:obs}
\end{figure}

\section{Application}
\label{sec:app}
The Lijiang 2.4-meter Telescope (LJT) is located at Lijiang Observatory
(E: $100^{\circ} 01'48''$, N:$26^{\circ}41'42''$, altitude: 3193~meters),
and is administered by Yunnan Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
LJT observation time is opening to the worldwide astronomical community since 2008.
The structure of the 2.4-meter telescope including optical, mechanical, motion and control systems
along with its instruments are described by \cite{Fan2015} and \cite{Wang2019}. Basic observing conditions
(including seeing, wind speed, weather and so on) are presented in recent paper of \cite{Xin2020}.
The Yunnan Faint Object Spectrograph and Camera (YFOSC) mounted on the 2.4-meter
telescope is a versatile instrument for spectroscopy and photometry.
As a versatile instrument, YFOSC is equipped with a series of Grisms, long slits and filters.
The wavelength coverage of these Grisms is about 3600~\AA $\sim$9000~\AA, the red side of
spectrum observed by YFOSC is covered by some telluric absorption bands.
Correction of the telluric absorption lines is an essential step to extract the spectral signals.

\subsection{Observation strategy and spectral monitoring}
\label{sec:obs}
To estimate the correction accuracy of the telluric absorption lines using above described method,
and to investigate the variation of the telluric absorptions at Lijiang observatory, we designed a
strategy of long slit spectroscopy and developed a long-term spectroscopic monitoring project using Lijiang 2.4-meter telescope.
In the observation of active galactic nuclei, it is generally believed that the fluxes of forbidden line [O~{\sc III}]~$\lambda$5007
emitted from the narrow-line region are stable in the timescale of years (e.g., \citealt{Foltz1981,Lu2016,Lu2019}).
If the wavelength of [O~{\sc III}]~$\lambda$5007 emission line locate in the telluric absorption band in the observed frame, the apparent variation of
the [O~{\sc III}]~$\lambda$5007 fluxes will be an indicator of the telluric absorptions and the scatter of [O~{\sc III}]~$\lambda$5007 fluxes
after correcting the telluric absorptions can also be used to estimate the correction accuracy.
Therefore, we orient the long slit to take the spectra of the object SDSS J153636.22+044127.0
(J1536) and an non-varying comparison star simultaneously, where J1536 is an active galactic nuclei (AGN) with redshift 0.3889,
its optical spectrum observed by Lijiang 2.4-meter telescope showed in Figure~\ref{Fig:obs}.
There are five telluric absorption bands in the observed spectra, which are listed in Table~\ref{Tab} and marked in Figure~\ref{Fig:obs}.
In the observed frame, the [O~{\sc III}]~$\lambda$5007 emission line of J1536 is in the
B2 absorption band (see Figure~\ref{Fig:obs} and Table~\ref{Tab}),
we can measure the scatter of the [O~{\sc III}]~$\lambda$5007 fluxes before and after correcting the telluric absorption lines
and use to estimate the correction accuracy of the telluric absorption lines.
On the other hand, J1536 is a candidate of supermassive black hole binary (SMBHB, e.g., \citealt{Boroson2009,Lu2016b,Zhang2019}),
except for investigating the variation of the telluric absorptions, we will use these long-term monitored spectra to investigate
the broad-line region and optical variability physics of SMBHB. The later will be presented in a separation paper.

We have finished a four-year spectroscopic monitoring for a pair of objects (J1536 $vs.$ its comparison star).
The observation started from 2017 and continued to 2020,
and the annual spectral sampling lasts from January to September.
All spectra of J1536 and comparison star are observed using Grism 8 mounted on the terminal of YFOSC,
which provides a resolution of 78~\AA~mm$^{-1}$ (1.5~\AA~pixel$^{-1}$) and covers the wavelength range 5000~\AA $\sim$9000~\AA,
which fully guaranteed the study of long-term variation of the telluric absorptions at Lijiang Observatory.

 \begin{figure}
   \centering
   \includegraphics[width=\textwidth, angle=0]{msfig3.eps}
   \caption{The top panel is an example of fitting observed spectrum ${\mathcal C}(\lambda)$ by the stellar template, the observed spectrum of comparison star in blue, and scaled stellar template ${\mathcal C'}(\lambda)$ in red.
   The bottom panel is the residual of fitting regions.}
   \label{Fig:fit}
 \end{figure}

\subsection{Data reduction}
\label{sec:dr}
Following the standard process included bias subtraction, flat-field correction, wavelength calibration and spectrum extraction,
we reduced the two-dimensional spectroscopic data using the standard {\tt IRAF(v2.16)} package.
All spectra were extracted using a uniform aperture of 20 pixels (5.7$^{\prime\prime}$),
and background was determined from two adjacent regions ($+7.4^{\prime\prime}\sim+14^{\prime\prime}$
and $-7.4^{\prime\prime}\sim-14^{\prime\prime}$) on both sides of the aperture region.
Spectral fluxes of the scientific object were calibrated by the comparison stars in two steps.
(1) We produced a fiducial spectrum of the comparison star using the data from nights with photometric conditions.
(2) For each object/comparison star pair, we obtained a wavelength-dependent sensitivity function by comparing
the star's spectrum to the fiducial spectrum.
Then this sensitivity function was applied to calibrate the observed spectrum of the scientific object (also see \citealt{Lu2016,Lu2019}).

\subsection{Correction of the telluric absorptions}
\label{sec:c}
In practice, we would better correct the telluric absorption at first, and then calibrate spectral fluxes.
In this case, we do not need to mask the telluric absorption bands again during the spectral flux calibration.
Following the method described in Section~\ref{sec:method}, we first use the Equation~\ref{eq:model} to model the observed
spectra ${\mathcal S}(\lambda)$ of comparison star (in counts).
Because the wavelength coverage of all observed spectra is about
5000~\AA $\sim$9000~\AA, these significant absorption bands listed in Table~\ref{Tab} are included,
and they are masked in modelling process (see Figure~\ref{Fig:fit}). Then we obtained the telluric transmission spectrum by dividing the observed
spectrum ${\mathcal S}(\lambda)$ of comparison star by the modelled spectrum ${\mathcal S'}(\lambda)$. In order to avoid introducing new errors
to the corrected spectrum of the scientific object, we set the transmission of the wavelength regions outside the telluric absorption windows to 1
before correcting the telluric absorption lines of the observed spectrum. This is reasonable
because $\rm O_{2}$ and $\rm H_{2}O$ molecular are fully transparent for the photons from these wavelength regions (see \citealt{Smette2015}).
All transmission spectra (in the telluric absorption windows) calculated from above process were plotted annually in Figure~\ref{Fig:trans},
we zoom in the B3 absorption bands and over-plotted in Figure~\ref{Fig:trans}.
The figure clearly shows that the telluric absorption depth presents significant variation.
We first used the telluric transmission spectra to correct the telluric absorption lines of the observed spectra,
then we obtained flux calibrated spectra using the steps described in Section~\ref{sec:dr}.
Figure~\ref{Fig:obs_cali} is an example for comparing the corrected spectra of telluric absorptions and uncorrected spectra,
where the top panel is the spectra of comparison star, and the bottom panel is the spectra of J1536.

 \begin{figure}
   \centering
   \includegraphics[width=0.49\textwidth, angle=0]{msfig4a.eps}
   \includegraphics[width=0.49\textwidth, angle=0]{msfig4b.eps}\\
   \includegraphics[width=0.49\textwidth, angle=0]{msfig4c.eps}
   \includegraphics[width=0.49\textwidth, angle=0]{msfig4d.eps}
   \caption{The transmission spectra of Lijiang Observatory obtained in Section~\ref{sec:c} provide values from 0 (totally opaque) to 1 (fully transparency).
   The year of observation was noted in the title of panel, a transmission spectrum corresponds to one observation.}
   \label{Fig:trans}
  \end{figure}

 \begin{figure}
   \centering
   \includegraphics[width=\textwidth, angle=0]{msfig5.eps}
   \caption{Comparison of the telluric absorption corrected spectra (see Section~\ref{sec:c}) and uncorrected spectra in the observed frame.
   Only flux calibrated spectra show in blue,
   the telluric absorption corrected and flux calibrated spectra show in red. The units of $F_{\lambda}$ is erg~s$^{-1}$~cm$^{-2}$~\AA$^{-1}$.
   The top panel shows the spectra of comparison star,
   and the bottom panel shows the spectra of J1536.}
   \label{Fig:obs_cali}
  \end{figure}

\subsection{Correction accuracy of the telluric absorptions}
As stressed in Section \ref{sec:obs}, we selected a special AGN of J1536 with redshift 0.3889 to put its
[O~{\sc III}]~$\lambda$5007 emission line drop into B2 telluric absorption bands, and developed a long-term
spectroscopic monitoring, so that we can use the scatter of the [O~{\sc III}]~$\lambda$5007 fluxes to estimate
the correction accuracy of the telluric absorption lines. Strictly speaking, the [O~{\sc III}]~$\lambda$5007 emission line
of J1536 drops into the red side of B2 telluric absorption bands that dominated by H$_{2}$O molecular absorption.

In practice, the fluxes of forbidden line [O~{\sc III}]~$\lambda$5007 emitted from the narrow-line region of active galactic nuclei
is a constant over reverberation timescales ($\sim$ years), therefore it can be used as an internal flux calibration
standard (e.g, \citealt{Foltz1981,Peterson1982,Peterson2002}).
Based on reverberation mapping of active galactic nuclei undertook by Lijiang 2.4-meter telescope,
\cite{Lu2016} found that the [O~{\sc III}]~$\lambda$5007 fluxes of NGC~5548 measured from flux calibrated spectra show
a small fluctuation at a level of 2\%, which is regarded as the accuracy of the flux calibration.
While, \cite{Lu2019} recently found that the [O~{\sc III}]~$\lambda$5007 fluxes of Mrk~79 give rise to
the apparent variation at a level of 5\% over reverberation timescales. \cite{Lu2019} further found that,
if the [O~{\sc III}]~$\lambda$5007 emission region is an extended source,
the varying observing conditions (e.g., varying seeing) would cause extra dispersion of the [O~{\sc III}]~$\lambda$5007 fluxes.
It should be noted that the [O~{\sc III}]~$\lambda$5007
emission region of NGC~5548 approximates to point source, and the [O~{\sc III}]~$\lambda$5007 emission region
of Mrk~79 is an extended source.

To directly understand the impacts of the telluric absorptions on the scientific spectra,
we measured the [O~{\sc III}]~$\lambda$5007 fluxes of J1536 from the flux calibrated spectra.
We used two continuum bands (4710$-$4740~\AA~and 5080$-$5110~\AA~in the rest frame)
to set the continuum underneath the [O~{\sc III}]~$\lambda$5007 and H$\beta$ emission lines,
then we integrated the continuum-subtracted [O~{\sc III}]~$\lambda$5007 fluxes between 4980~\AA~and 5025~\AA,
and presented in the top panel of Figure~\ref{Fig:oiii}.
The figure shows the [O~{\sc III}]~$\lambda$5007 fluxes
before correcting the telluric absorption lines demonstrate apparent period variation with a scatter of 7.8\%.
This scatter is larger than previous observation record (such as 5\% of Mrk~79 and 2\% of NGC~5548).
The apparent period variation follows the seasonal variability of the relative humidity of Lijiang Observatory
(see Figure 22 of \citealt{Xin2020}). Qualitatively, January is the deep winter of Lijiang Observatory,
the atmospheric relative humidity is the lowest, then begins to increase slowly, and reaches the maximum
in the rainy season (about from July to September ).
Therefore,  accurate calibration of the telluric absorption lines from observed spectrum is crucial for
obtaining credible scientific data.

As a comparison, we also measured the [O~{\sc III}]~$\lambda$5007 fluxes of J1536 from the flux calibrated and the telluric absorption corrected spectra.
The measurement results were plotted in the bottom panel of Figure~\ref{Fig:oiii} for comparing with the measurements
before correcting the telluric absorption lines, which shows that the scatter of the [O~{\sc III}]~$\lambda$5007
fluxes is 2.3\%, and the apparent period variation presented in the top panel is disappeared.
As addressed above, the fluxes of [O~{\sc III}]~$\lambda$5007 are stable enough in the timescale of years
if the [O~{\sc III}]~$\lambda$5007 emission region is compact. In practice, the scatter of [O~{\sc III}]~$\lambda$5007 fluxes (2.3\%)
is caused by the accuracy of flux calibration and the accuracy of the telluric absorption  correction.
If we assume that the flux calibration accuracy of J1536 is the same with our previous experiment of NGC~5548 (i.e., 2\%, \citealt{Lu2016}),
this means that the correction accuracy of the telluric absorption lines using the method described in Section~\ref{sec:method} is 1\%.
In addition, in order to intuitively inspect the differences before and after correcting the telluric absorptions,
we plotted the telluric absorption corrected and uncorrected [O~{\sc III}] profiles selected randomly from observations of 2017 in Figure~\ref{Fig:oiiireg}.
The figure also demonstrates the differences of the telluric absorption from the different observations.

 \begin{figure}
   \centering
   \includegraphics[width=\textwidth, angle=0]{msfig6.eps}
   \caption{The [O~{\sc III}]~$\lambda$5007 fluxes of J1536 in units of erg~s$^{-1}$~cm$^{-2}$. The top panel shows the apparent variation
   of the [O~{\sc III}]~$\lambda$5007 fluxes measured from the flux calibrated spectrum (before correcting the telluric absorption lines),
   periodicity is caused by the seasonal variability of the relative humidity.
   The bottom panel shows the scatter of the [O~{\sc III}]~$\lambda$5007 fluxes measured from the flux calibrated and
   the telluric absorption corrected spectra. The year of observation was noted in the title of panel.}
   \label{Fig:oiii}
  \end{figure}

 \begin{figure}
   \centering
   \includegraphics[width=0.8\textwidth, angle=0]{msfig7.eps}
   \caption{The telluric absorption corrected and uncorrected [O~{\sc III}] profiles from the observation of 2017 (in the observed frame),
   observation dates are noted, the units of $F_{\lambda}$ is erg~s$^{-1}$~cm$^{-2}$~\AA$^{-1}$.
   The differences of [O~{\sc III}] profiles before and after correcting the telluric absorptions are presented clearly.}
   \label{Fig:oiiireg}
  \end{figure}

 \begin{figure}
   \centering
   \includegraphics[width=\textwidth, angle=0]{msfig8.eps}
   \caption{The integral transparency ($\mathscr{T}_{\rm B1}$, $\mathscr{T}_{\rm B2}$, $\mathscr{T}_{\rm B3}$, $\mathscr{T}_{\rm B4}$
   and $\mathscr{T}_{\rm B5}$) of the telluric absorption band (B1, B2, B3, B4 and B5, see Table~\ref{Tab}) as a function of time, respectively.
   The observation started from 2017 and continued to 2020, and the annual spectral sampling almost lasts from January to September.
   The year of observation was noted in the title of panel.}
   \label{Fig:transp}
  \end{figure}

 \begin{figure}
   \centering
   \includegraphics[width=\textwidth, angle=0]{msfig9.eps}
   \caption{Relationship between the integral transparency and airmass. The results of correlation analysis are listed in Table~\ref{Tab:sta}.}
   \label{Fig:relation}
  \end{figure}

\subsection{Telluric absorption features of Lijiang Observatory}
\label{sec:lo}
In order to understand the variation of the telluric absorptions caused by the molecular of
$\rm O_{2}$, $\rm H_{2}O$ or both together at Lijiang Observatory,
we calculated the integral transparency (denoted by $\mathscr{T}_{\rm B*}$) of each absorption band using formula
of $\int_{\lambda1}^{\lambda2} {\mathcal T}(\lambda)\,d\lambda/(\lambda2-\lambda1)$
(where $\lambda1$ and $\lambda2$ are the edges of the telluric absorption bands, ${\mathcal T}(\lambda)$ is the telluric transmission spectrum),
and plotted them as the functions of time in Figure~\ref{Fig:transp}. Where ``${\rm B*}$'' means the number
of the telluric absorption band, which corresponds to the number of Table~\ref{Tab}.
Inspecting the figure, we can see that the variation of the integral transparency for the telluric absorption bands mainly or fully caused by
the molecular of $\rm H_{2}O$ (i.e., B2, B3 and B5 absorption bands) is similar with the apparent period variation
of the [O~{\sc III}]~$\lambda$5007 fluxes that contaminated by the $\rm H_{2}O$ absorption (the top panel of Figure~\ref{Fig:oiii}).
The seasonal variability of the $\rm H_{2}O$ absorption bands is clearly visible,
which is consistent with the seasonal variability of the relative humidity (see also Figure 22 of \citealt{Xin2020}).
While, the integral transparency for the absorption bands caused by the molecular of $\rm O_{2}$ (i.e., B1 and B4 absorption bands)
do not present obvious variation trend in the time domain.
In the varing observing conditions, the averaged integral transparency
($\widehat{\mathscr{T}_{\rm B1}}$, $\widehat{\mathscr{T}_{\rm B2}}$, $\widehat{\mathscr{T}_{\rm B3}}$, $\widehat{\mathscr{T}_{\rm B4}}$ and $\widehat{\mathscr{T}_{\rm B5}}$) of the telluric absorption bands (B1, B2, B3, B4 and B5) is (0.991, 0.961, 0.926, 0.847 and 0.964)
with scatter (i.e., standard deviation) of (0.3\%, 1.1\%, 3.9\%, 1.1\% and 2.4\%),
this means that about (1\%, 4\%, 7\%, 15\% and 4\%) of photons propagated from the distant
objects are absorbed by the $\rm O_{2}$ or $\rm H_{2}O$ in these absorption windows, respectively. We also listed the minimum and maximum
of the integral transparencies in Table~\ref{Tab:sta}.

We calculated the airmass in the middle of exposure time, and investigated the relation between the integral transparency and airmass.
The integral transparency as a function of airmass was presented in Figure~\ref{Fig:relation}. We calculated the Spearman correlation coefficient
between the integral transparency and airmass and listed in Table~\ref{Tab:sta}.
These analyses show that the integral transparency of the $\rm O_{2}$ absorption band is well correlated with airmass,
and the integral transparency of the $\rm H_{2}O$ absorption bands also be effected by airmass.
In addition, we measured the width ($\rm FWHM_{star}$) of star's flux distribution from the short exposure image observed before and near the spectroscopy,
and showed the relation between the integral transparency and the $\rm FWHM_{star}$ in Figure~\ref{Fig:relation2}.
We also calculated the Spearman correlation coefficient between the integral transparency and the $\rm FWHM_{star}$ and listed in Table~\ref{Tab:sta}.
In practice, the variation of $\rm FWHM_{star}$ is mainly modulated by varying seeing, where seeing is always changing.
These analyses show that the integral transparency of the $\rm H_{2}O$ absorption bands correlates with the variation of $\rm FWHM_{star}$.

\begin{table}
\begin{center}
\caption[]{Statistics of the telluric absorption features. Col~(1) is the integral transparency of different absorption bands. Col~(2) is the absorber.
The minimum, maximum and averaged value of the integral transparencies for the different absorption bands are listed in Col~(3),~(4) and~(5), respectively.
Col~(6) is the correlation analysis results ($r$, $p$) between the integral transparency and airmass.
Col~(7) is the correlation analysis results ($r$, $p$) between the integral transparency and the width of star's flux distribution.}\label{Tab:sta}
 \begin{tabular}{lccccccc}
  \hline\noalign{\smallskip}
$\mathscr{T}_{\rm B*}$  &  Molecular &  Min($\mathscr{T}_{\rm B*}$) & Max($\mathscr{T}_{\rm B*}$) & $\widehat{\mathscr{T}_{\rm B*}}$   & Airmass       & $\rm FWHM_{star}$ \\
(1)&(2)&(3)&(4)&(5)&(6)&(7)\\
  \hline\noalign{\smallskip}
$\mathscr{T}_{\rm B1}$  & $\rm O_{2}~(\gamma~band)$         & 0.985 & 0.996 & 0.991$\pm$0.003 & (-0.25, 0.07)                           &(-0.07, 0.58)        \\
$\mathscr{T}_{\rm B2}$  & $\rm O_{2}~(B~band) + H_{2}O$    & 0.934 & 0.976 & 0.961$\pm$0.011 & (-0.52, 3.91$\times10^{-5}$)  & (0.53, 1.85$\times 10^{-5}$) \\
$\mathscr{T}_{\rm B3}$  & $\rm H_{2}O$                                  & 0.846 & 0.979 & 0.926$\pm$0.039 & (-0.41, 1.52$\times10^{-3}$)  & (0.60, 8.36$\times 10^{-7}$) \\
$\mathscr{T}_{\rm B4}$  & $\rm O_{2}~(A~band)$                    & 0.811 & 0.863 & 0.847$\pm$0.011 & (-0.90, 9.56$\times10^{-21}$) & (0.28, 0.03)                           \\
$\mathscr{T}_{\rm B5}$  & $\rm H_{2}O$                                  & 0.917 & 0.996 & 0.964$\pm$0.024 & (-0.43, 7.71$\times10^{-4}$)   & (0.59, 1.22$\times 10^{-6}$) \\
  \noalign{\smallskip}\hline
\end{tabular}
\end{center}
\end{table}

 \begin{figure}
   \centering
   \includegraphics[width=\textwidth, angle=0]{msfig10.eps}
   \caption{Relationship between the integral transparency and the width of star's flux distribution
   ($\rm FWHM_{star}$, measured from the short exposure image observed before and near the spectroscopy).
   The results of correlation analysis are listed in Table~\ref{Tab:sta}.}
   \label{Fig:relation2}
  \end{figure}

\section{Discussion}
\label{sec:dis}
In the ground-based optical spectrum, the telluric absorption bands are caused by two kinds of absorbers:
molecular oxygen ($\rm O_{2}$) and water vapour ($\rm H_{2}O$). Based on the long slit spectroscopy,
we provide a accurate correction method for the telluric absorption lines using the observed comparison
star spectrum and stellar spectral library, the correction accuracy is 1\%.
Our correction method for the telluric absorption lines has many advantages over the traditional method
(i.e., observing the telluric standard star), especially in the study of long-term spectral monitoring. For example,
(1) the scientific object and its comparison star are observed simultaneously in the long slit with the same observing conditions,
such as the same airmass and seeing. Therefore, It is possible that the correction accuracy of the telluric absorption lines using
this method (1\%) should be better than the traditional method;
(2) in the long-term spectral monitoring project, we do not need to take expensive telescope time to observe the telluric standard star in each sampling.
Therefore, in the research of one-epoch spectral observation or long-term spectroscopic monitoring,
this work provides a kind of worthy observation strategy and corresponding method to correct the telluric absorptions.

As described in Section~\ref{sec:method}, the telluric transmission spectrum is obtained
from the process of fitting the observed spectrum of comparison star by stellar template through masking the discrete absorption windows.
The discrete absorption windows mean we can select the continuum windows in the spectral fitting process.
In this work, we only apply this method described in Section~\ref{sec:method} to the spectrum
that its wavelength covers less than 9000~\AA, which is limited by the spectrograph of YFOSC.
Actually, because the wavelength ranges from 9000~\AA~to around 17000~\AA~exist the available continuum windows
(see the synthetic telluric absorption spectrum calculated by \cite{Smette2015} using the Line by Line Radiative Transfer Model,
the telluric absorption bands are also discrete), the application of this method can be extrapolated from optical region to 17000~\AA.

The telluric transparency of B4 absorption band caused by oxygen has the largest value,
and has the strongest correlation with airmass but it  has no correlation with the seeing.
While, the telluric transparency of B1 absorption band also caused by oxygen has the smallest value,
which does not correlate with airmass and seeing (see Section~\ref{sec:lo}).
However, not only the airmass but also seeing correlates with the telluric transparency of water vapour absorption (e.g., B3 and B5 bands).
These results show that (1) the absorptions of oxygen and water vapour in the optical spectrum closely correlate with atmospheric depth,
and (2) the oxygen concentration of observation site does not change with the varying seeing
while the amount of water changes with the varying seeing.
In addition, analysis results of Section~\ref{sec:lo} show that the red side of optical spectrum including emission lines and continuum
would be affected by the varying telluric absorptions, accurate correction of the telluric absorption lines should benefit from spectral flux calibration.

\section{Summary}
\label{sec:sum}
In this paper, combining the advantages of long slit spectroscopy, we described a method that can be use to accurately
correct the telluric absorption lines of spectrum. We constructed the telluric transmission spectrum
by fitting the observed spectrum of comparison star by the stellar template,
then obtained the telluric absorption corrected spectrum by dividing the observed spectrum by the telluric transmission spectrum.
We applied this method to correct the telluric absorption lines of the long-term monitored spectra  by Lijiang 2.4-meter telescope.
Using the scatter of the [O~{\sc III}]~$\lambda$5007 fluxes emitted from the narrow-line region of active galactic nuclei (SDSS J153636.22+044127.0)
as an indicator,  we found that the correction accuracy of this method for the telluric absorption lines is 1\%.
We investigated the telluric absorption features of Lijiang Observatory,
and found that the telluric absorption transparency correlates with the relative humidity, airmass and seeing.
This work provides a kind of worthy observation strategy and corresponding method to correct the telluric absorptions.

\begin{acknowledgements}
We are grateful to the referee for useful suggestions that improved the manuscript.
This work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC; 11991051, 12073068, 11703077, and 11803087).
K.X.L. acknowledges financial support from from the Yunnan Province Foundation (202001AT070069),
and from the Light of West China Program provided by Chinese Academy of Sciences (Y7XB016001).
L.X. acknowledges financial support from the Light of West China Program provided by Chinese Academy of Sciences (Y8XB018001).
We acknowledge the support of the staff of the Lijiang 2.4 m telescope.
Funding for the telescope has been provided by the CAS and the People's Government of Yunnan Province.
\end{acknowledgements}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaArXiv


Everyone makes mistakes. And sometimes that's the best way to learn. Reflecting on my own experience, I've made a huge oversight once with one of our clients. I'd like to take today's blog to tell you that story, and hopefully, help you avoid making the same slip I made.
Most sales reps won't get a good return spending their time on social media. Yet, many sales reps spend their whole day doing it anyways. At Sales Result, we believe in a balanced approach to prospecting and spreading your time across activities likely to yield a great return. Simply put, spend your time doing things you know will work.


Tim J. Larson, J.D., P.A.
"Our goal is to create relationships that are based on an understanding that we care and we listen in order to understand the needs of our clients."
Attorneys Tim J. Larson and Logan M. Brown provide assistance to individuals and families that need to "get their affairs in order." In addition to understanding Medicaid eligibility issues, they have a practice that is devoted to helping people plan for the possibility of incapacity and properly plan for family members who may have special needs.
Tim Larson has over 25 years experience in estate planning and elder law related matters. Tim Larson is an accredited attorney with the Veterans Administration and is authorized by the V.A. to represent clients regarding veteran's benefits.
The Kansas Care Planning Council is dedicated to helping families recognize the need for long term care planning and to helping implement that planning.


Common n. breeder in wet wooded areas. One of the commonest ducks in winter on the coast, both in sheltered and exposed areas. Usually in small groups. ID: Noticeably smaller and slighter than COME. Punky crest, thin bill, steep forehead, and overall shape give distinctive profile. Females, eclipse males (retain white coverts), and young birds all similarly plumaged and lack clean-cut appearance of COME. Young males develop dark around eye and bright red iris fairly early in winter. Adult at 1 year old. White-collared dark head with shaggy crest striking at distance. Complex body patterns never match 'cleanliness' of COME.


We've recently moved offices, and my commute has changed from 5 minutes to 25, now going through a very congested town centre. This is still taking some getting used to.
I find my reactions to the inevitable disruptions varies. If find myself getting emotionally angry, I'm probably not in a good place generally, and hence should be cautious of my intuition. So it is a good diagnostic. But I also get opportunities to life my mood and sense of connection, so when I get into work I'm more "on".
One technique is to let people out at junctions. A simple act of unprompted generosity improves everyone's morning experience. Hopefully it gives us both a nudge in the right direction for the rest of the day.
A more involved technique is changing how I view a situation, seeking to appreciate those involved.
For example this morning, a lorry had started unloading and was blocking one lane – at a time of day when no loading is allowed (presumably to stop lorries blocking the road!). Five minutes of crawling traffic was ample time for me to start plotting ways of making sure the driver knew he was an idiot. Not hugely proud of myself, but there you go.
When I got to the lorry, it was a middle aged man who was clearly just trying his best. He was quite probably there at that time of day because he was told to, and it was completely unfair of me to judge him as a person because of it.
Then I got to wondering what it was like for him, feeling all the negative emotions directed at him. If he's got any level of empathic sensitivity, it would be deeply unpleasant for him. What a way to start your day, feeling utterly miserable.
By viewing a that person with compassion, I got myself from a bad mood to a more positive from of mind.
If I can do my morning commute feeling happy and appreciating those around me, I know I'm in a good place and can rely on my intuition. If I'm cross, there are plenty of opportunities to lift my mood. It works really well.


text:
News / Popular / Science
World's largest solar farm is up and running in California
by smashemagazine · Published December 2, 2014 · Updated December 10, 2017
The world's largest solar plant is up and running in California, with the completion of Topaz, a 550 megawatt plant; the Topaz solar project completed its final 40-megawatt (AC) phase, reported Greentech Media, making history not only as the first 500-megawatt plus solar farm to come on-line in the U.S. but also as the largest solar plant on-line in the world. Reports are talking about a plant with 9 million solar panels installed across 9.5 square miles.
This is a $2.5 billion project, said io9, with construction that began two years ago. The owner is MidAmerican Solar, a Pheonix, Arizona-based subsidiary of MidAmerican Renewables. Topaz is described by MidAmerican Solar as a 550-megawatt photovoltaic power plant. The developer for the project is listed as First Solar, discussing on its website the project that will produce sufficient electricity to power 160,000 average California homes. Topaz is located in San Luis Obispo County, California, on the northwestern corner of the Carrisa Plains.
First Solar said that site was chosen after considerations regarding available solar resource, proximity to existing electrical transmission lines, current land use, and environmental sensitivities. They said that Topaz is sited on largely "non-prime," actively tilled agricultural land that has "limited productivity." At the northwestern edge of the Carrisa Plains, added First Solar, Topaz is more than six miles from the more sensitive habitats in the Carrizo Plain National Monument. According to fact sheet notes from MidAmerican Solar, the Topaz project is being built on previously disturbed agricultural land with a minimally impervious surface that allows for natural drainage and low-impact development and has the best solar insolation in Pacific Gas and Electric's service territory. The Topaz project is designed to function as productive grassland habitat for native plants and animals while being used for passive farming of the sun's energy. Water used during construction is primarily for dust control. During operation, the panels do not require washing and vegetation is maintained to help with dust control.
"As of today," wrote Eric Wesoff on November 24 in Greentech Media, "the project has installed 9 million solar panels across 9.5 square miles in San Luis Obispo County on California's Carrizo Plain. Construction began in 2012 and was expected to be complete in early 2015—so call this an on-time delivery." Engadget said that "It's an impressive feat that should power 160,000 homes on Pacific Gas and Electric's grid."
The Greentech Media report said that Pacific Gas and Electric will purchase the electricity from the Topaz project under a power-purchase agreement. MidAmerican Solar said that the Pacific Gas and Electric Company will purchase the electricity from the project under a 25-year power purchase agreement.
What is more, the project is expected to displace 377,000 tons of CO2 annually, equivalent to taking 73,000 cars off the road, according to First Solar.
From Bullet Baba to Whiskey devi, 6 unusual temples in India
by smashemagazine · Published June 16, 2016 · Last modified November 6, 2017
Twitter doubles its tweet character limit from 140 to 280
by smashemagazine · Published November 8, 2017 · Last modified July 22, 2018
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text:
Dr. Lance Secretan
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Great organizations, cities or countries share something not found among the mediocre—a dream. The power within a dream creates the passion that inspires , and this leads to high performance and personal fulfilment. This is true for corporations, not-for-profits, academia, government, institutions, communities, great athletes, entertainers and performers and for leaders—even countries—and you and me.
Read the ONEDream® White Paper

A dream is not the same as the trite "Mission, Vision and Values" statements favored by so many organizations. Nor is it a traditional "strategic plan". A dream is a greater order of magnitude—it is a bold statement of how we are going to make a difference in the world, what new frontier we are going to establish, how we will redefine the game we play, the new standards we will set, and what we will do to light fires in the imaginations and hearts of all those we touch. It defines our planned transformation.
There are crucial and inspiring reasons why it is important to raise the bar from the traditional but tired methodologies to what we call, ONE Dream®:
In most organizations, few people can articulate their Mission Statement….and if you can't remember it, how can you live it?
When Gandhi was asked to define his mission, he replied, "I don't have a mission—my life is my mission". Mission Statements are usually created by committees who strive to please all participants—no great game-changer in history would have settled for this mediocrity.
If we gathered all the Mission Statements from a sample group of organizations and randomly shuffled and then returned them, most would probably not be able to tell if they received their own or not. That's because Mission Statements tend to have a bland sameness about them—change chocolate factory to cheese factory, and, Voila!—you have your new Mission Statement. And so, for most people, the majority of organizations and communities look and feel the same.
The underpinning concept that fuels a dream is passion and the ability to ignite this passion in the hearts of employees, customers, vendors, constituents—all of those upon whom we depend for our success—to achieve something extraordinary—such as a dream. Not a five percent increase in market share or a ten percent return on equity, or "exceeding customer needs"—but a bold, daring, impudent, audacious, outrageous, thrilling, exhilarating and inspiring dream.
We are in a new era in which people want something more inspiring than a Mission Statement—something that gathers the energy of organizations into a compelling, exciting and energizing future and this does not fit easily under the heading of "mission, vision, and values". A much larger container is needed to hold a magnificent idea. We need a dream—a new way of positioning businesses, teams, cities, communities, countries—and individuals, so that they can become reinvigorated, inspired and passionate again.
Over thirty years at The Secretan Center, we have discovered that the common, unifying experience among winning teams, great endeavors and extraordinary achievements— is a dream. A dream is the uniqueness that can be found in groups of people who achieve the extraordinary—creating revolutions, overthrowing despots, founding nations (or fusing them into one), climbing mountains, reinventing organizations, creating breakthroughs, building something extraordinary or changing the way we live or think or how the world works. It is true of organizations, sports teams, film crews, orchestras, states, cities, countries—and families.
All great historical leaders—Christ, Buddha, Lao-Tzu, Confucius, Mohammed, Nelson Mandela, Mother Teresa, Martin Luther King, Jr., among them—all had a dream. In his famous speech delivered on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. on August 28, 1963, Martin Luther King repeated "I have a dream…" eight times. It was his ability to articulate his dream that united thousands of people and inspired them to usher in a new era in civil rights and liberties.
Dreams are like that—they have the power within them to change the world.
Clients that embraced the ONE Dream® process
Permission Space
The Benefits of ONE Dream®
In order to understand the power of modern leadership to transform organizations, communities, countries or the world, we must understand and harness the power of the dream.
The proprietary ONE Dream® process developed by The Secretan Center consists of three phases:
Identifying the dream
Realizing the dream, and
Sustaining the dream.
We invite leaders to first identify, then believe in the dream, to assume that the dream is realizable and assume that when the energies of their entire organization are harnessed behind that dream, it will be achieved. A community of 500,000 citizens, or an organization with 10,000 employees—and a dream—that harnesses the combined energy of every employee behind that dream, creates the opportunity to achieve it!
It is remarkable what happens when leaders are invited to focus on describing a dream, when they identify their most extraordinary, outrageous, never-before-achieved aspirations, when they are fearless and imaginative, thinking outside the box, being truly outrageous and boldly creative. Leaders among our clients have come up with some remarkable ideas—hospitals who dream of eliminating all avoidable deaths, banks who dream of changing the world, corporations who dream of becoming champions of the environment, communities who dream of becoming world-class centers of excellence and innovation, insurance companies who dream of making the world more healthy, cities who dream of becoming the idea capital of the world and states or provinces who want to be a magnet for the world. Humana Inc. (56 on Fortune's 100 List) found the power of the ONE Dream® we designed for them to be so extraordinary and transformational, that they helped to underwrite the same process for the city in which they are headquartered—Louisville, Kentucky.
The Secretan Center has developed a breakthrough system that invites leaders to identify, realize and sustain their dreams—their most extraordinary, outrageous, never-before-achieved aspirations. We ask them to be fearless and imaginative, to be outrageous and extraordinarily creative. We call it the ONE Dream® Process.
Many people have subjective views about what an ambitious corporate aspiration should look like. But it is dangerous to make such momentous decisions on the basis of "hunch", prejudice, bias or majority vote. Many leadership decisions—across sectors and issues—are made largely by intuition, or "gut instinct". They are, in the end, intelligently derived "best guesses". Leaders will then use tools such as traditional market research and the opinions of those around them to validate their best guesses, even though these methods are often demonstrably flawed.
Traditional Mission Statements sometimes rely on research and often on committee alignment—managers feel it is important to incorporate all of the opinions and needs of internal constituents so they are represented in the final outcome. But this often results in "vanilla" statements that become bland because they have been massaged endlessly to meet everyone's needs.
There is really only one objective need to consider, which we call "Permission Space", defined as "the strength and direction of the energy that will be freely offered by all constituents (employees [and their partners], customers, competitors, unions, media, government, politicians, opinion formers and thought leaders) to help you achieve your ONE Dream®". No dream can be achieved unless it has the permission of all constituents. Or, putting it the other way, realizing a dream is ensured when we identify and capitalize on the available "permission space".
This first step of identifying "Permission Space" is essential because it is the rigorous and scientifically sound foundation on which the ONE Dream® will be built and which, in turn, will lead to a carefully crafted plan for change.
We determine Permission Space through the use of recent advances in the behavioral sciences, holography and logic/mathematics—a system called Scientific Intelligence, a unique research approach, which does not use conventional research methodology, because its intent is to gather different data. Conventional research methodology accesses data which is infused with subjective input from respondents because it is obtained from the conscious mind. Scientific Intelligence flies below the radar of the conscious mind and therefore accesses data that lies beneath this level of awareness.
Scientific Intelligence's formula for enabling organizations to identify the "permission space" is designed to uncover:
A clear picture of the energy that is freely available from all relevant constituencies, which can be used to support and power the ONE Dream®.
A deep and certain understanding of marketplace and community needs
Comprehensive yet focused planning based on marketplace and community insights
Successful and sustainable implementation
A clear picture of activities or lines of business or strategies that should be terminated because there is no "permission space" for them
A plan for how the organization will need to adapt in order to realize and then sustain the ONE Dream®
Using our proprietary new research methodology, we can identify this "permission space"—quite literally the core "DNA" of an issue—and therefore the platform upon which the ONE Dream® can rest—and the key drivers of success that will propel the organization or community towards that ONE Dream®.
The unique advantage of the Scientific Intelligence process is its ability to bypass the unconscious filters that often lead respondents to give false or skewed answers—one of the reasons that Mission Statements are frequently so weak. This methodology works on the principle that the public mind has a very specific but largely invisible "belief structure", composed of paths and key "stations", much like the neural structure of the brain—what we refer to as a "meme". This belief structure accounts for why certain ideas, brands and products experience unexpected success—whereas others fail to capture the public's imagination, why some cities and states or provinces arouse admiration, pride and passion, and others do not. Understanding and utilizing that belief structure is the only consistent and reliable way to influence and harness public opinion. This methodology has been used successfully with corporations, jurisdictions and institutions across North America, some of whose logos are shown above.
The magic of having ONE Dream® is remarkable:
Possible successful strategies are revealed by accessing the appropriate energy that will support a dream, or in some cases, validate an existing strategy
Internal and external languaging and messaging is dramatically simplified and clarified—there is only ONE Dream® and this removes confusion and competing communications or marketing messages
Many buzz-words and jargon-loaded slogans, tag-lines and marketing themes dissolve in the presence of ONE Dream® and a single unified message results
Processes become much simpler —the entire organization aligns behind the ONE Dream® and does whatever it takes to realize and sustain the ONE Dream®
The entire organization becomes focused around a richly imagined future that harnesses ALL the energy of ALL the constituents— internal and external — behind the attainment of the ONE Dream®. This results in greater internal alignment and employee inspiration and engagement, and the fusion of interests and agendas of all parties
Leaders share an inspiring story and use it to market, recruit, collaborate, persuade, inspire, build, grow and excel
The "buzz" around the ONE Dream® excites new opportunities, retains and inspires existing employees, attracts high caliber employees, customers, vendors, and constituents, builds new business opportunities and enables the organization or community to manage their destiny. It has a galvanizing effect on, what before, were disparate interests.
The central philosophy that powers the ONE Dream® process is our belief in dreams to inspire organizations and communities and their stakeholders to outstanding performance. Modern organizations have forgotten how to dream and instead have adopted stale and dry Mission, Vision and Values Statements. Mission statements often fail to arouse passion, but dreams (and the expectation that they can be realized) do. All great organizations have dreams—think Starbucks, Southwest Airlines, Patagonia, Apple, Google, Facebook or Amazon—all founded on a dream. So too are Louisville, KY and Austin, TX. If an organization aligns its entire cultural architecture and energy behind the realization of ONE Dream®, breakthrough results—big dreams—can happen for people, customers, the organization and the community. When everyone aligns behind ONE Dream®, quantum change results!
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Explosive activity continues. Volcanic Ash Advisory Center (VAAC) Darwin warned about a volcanic ash plume that rose up to estimated 7000 ft (2100 m) altitude or flight level 070 and is moving at 5 kts in NE direction.
IN FORECAST DUE TO LIGHT AND VARIABLE WINDS.


Vancouver has some glowingly successful startup stories, including Slack, the fastest-growing business software of all time, Broadband.tv, the world's third-largest video streaming site, and Hootsuite Media Inc., maker of the most widely used social media management platform. Among those Douglas firs is a growing cluster of promising saplings, nurtured by what a recent report calls a healthy environment. According to Startup Genome, a network that draws from global business data, surveys with thousands of company founders and research from organizations that support entrepreneurs, Metro Vancouver's startup ecosystem ranks 15th worldwide.
The report is driven by one question: where does an early-stage startup stand the best chance of building a global success? Cities and regions are rated on such factors as company performance, access to funding, number of experienced engineers and market reach.


Prints, drawings and other works on paper (besides watercolors and photographs, which we show in their own separate categories) we often mat, but frequently frame close. In both approaches, simplicity and refinement of detail are crucial. The Japanese taste for fine craftsmanship and beautiful woods makes our work a natural choice when framing Japanese prints, and has made them a specialty of ours.
Thos. Moran, "Grand Canyon of Arizona, from Hermit Rim Road"


Please use the approved drop-off area.
Please drive slowly while scholars are present.
Drop off your scholar inside the parking lot.
When dropping off your scholar, pull to the drop-off spot safely, have your scholar exit carefully and depart immediately. This will allow others to safely bring their scholars to school.
Left turns in and out of the on-campus drop-off area are discouraged.
In some cases it is illegal to make U-turns near the school. They should always be avoided when traffic is heavy.
Be courteous to your fellow parents, school employees, and residents.
In the interest of student safety and to honor our agreement with the community that we serve, we remind you that scholars are discouraged from driving to school. Scholar driving contributes to the possibility of accidents, parking problems, blocking resident's driveways, tardiness, and truancy. We do not guarantee reserved parking in the school parking lot during school hours, or in any adjacent public parking lots.


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MESA Home
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By M&E Journal M&E Connections May 09, 2019
M&E Journal: Transforming Pay TV for Long-Term Success
By Simon Trudelle, Senior Product Marketing Director, NAGRA –
The global pay TV industry is going through a significant transformation. From evolving consumer demand and rising content costs, to falling barriers to entry and growing competition from a wide range of companies offering attractively-priced and readily- available paid content packages, the time for rethinking content distribution and monetization strategies is now.
Research conducted in 2018 by the Pay-TV Innovation Forum corroborate this sentiment with key findings, including loss of revenue for traditional TV service providers and monetization challenges for upcoming OTT providers, all of which are impacting pay TV and OTT markets worldwide. In fact, 90 percent of executives surveyed believe that to remain competitive, pay TV providers will have to innovate strongly over the next five years.
With the convergence of TV and video streaming, the industry must adapt to the challenges and opportunities in this new landscape. Intense competition confirms the appeal of premium video content, but is also creating downward pressures on pricing, and therefore on pay TV margins.
Working with a history of success and value to millions of subscribers worldwide, pay TV providers remain optimistic they can continue to appeal to paying consumers, while also agreeing that innovation must now be at the core of their strategies.
To accomplish this, the industry is rethinking the way it addresses its customers, becoming more diverse in its business models and embracing innovation. According to research findings, a growing number of service providers are embarking on the next stage of innovation for growth, which requires a carefully orchestrated approach that invests in three key areas:
1. Product and commercial innovation
Strategic partnerships between pay TV platforms and content owners are going beyond traditional buyer-seller interactions and are seen as one of the most important priorities for the pay TV industry by 80 percent of executives. At the same time, pay TV will have to continue to innovate by introducing new products and services and delivering best-inclass UX and UI features.
2. Operating model innovation
In addition to developing new products and services, pay TV providers must focus on digitizing and transforming their business operations. The need to extend beyond a service provider's technology platform and their IT, engineering and product teams is essential. Pay TV providers need to be able to adapt their processes, control their costs, ideate fast, and move quickly to develop, test and launch new offerings. To do that, they must upskill their teams, introduce new working practices to deliver operational excellence, become more agile and foster a culture of innovation.
3. Technology Platform Innovation
The continued transformation of technology platforms, replacing legacy infrastructure with next-generation flexible solutions, rounds out the top-three list. By choosing the right technology partners and forming strong partnerships will be key factors in determining the success of their technology strategies.
These priorities lay the groundwork for pay TV providers to ensure they are fit for the future and well-positioned to grow and remain competitive. If implemented correctly, providers can address the new consumer expectations and deliver what is needed to drive business growth.
A consumer-centric view to drive results
Understanding viewer behavior and expectations is essential to business growth. The way people consume video content is changing drastically, especially for younger generations and other demographics that appreciate the convenience of anytime, on-demand content on any screen. At the same time, the more traditional viewer cannot be ignored. With this in mind, it is no longer adequate to try to compete on content exclusivity alone.
The user experience (UX) is now one of the key factors that consumers will consider when choosing a provider. A multi-generational user UX that taps into the unique wants and needs of each viewer's journey is the goal when working to meet customer expectations.
From easy access to on-demand content, start-over, catch-up TV and cloud DVR, to on-boarding OTT apps and content like Netflix, voice search and serving linear channels to any screen, industry leaders have started to evolve their TV platforms to provide more convenience and better access to content.
However, many are still struggling to entice subscribers to fully embrace the new experience. This is either because the content, the service offering (intuitive on-demand features and multiscreen capabilities) or the core features (user-friendly UI, multi-language audio, subtitling) are still insufficient or missing.
The good news is that executing on these changes to achieve better content monetization requires new technology solutions that are now, fortunately, coming to market to help service providers be more agile and value-driven at every step of the pay TV content delivery chain, from origin to consumption.
The solution is a platform that uses the power of the cloud, data analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) as well as advanced user experience features and UI concepts to improve user engagement and monetization. Yet, securing revenue is also about relying on robust content protection technology and deploying anti-piracy services that leverage forensic watermarking across all distribution networks and screens. This will set the groundwork for new business models of the future.
When implemented correctly, providers can maximize content value and deliver a unified, intuitive and seamless user experience across all screens through a unique multi-journey UI. At the same time, a simplified and automated workflow for VOD content can deliver immaculate video quality, advanced audio and subtitling features, secure storage and distribution, and quick-start VOD services to address the many holes left by legacy systems.
With the right partner, service providers can entertain upstream content features that enrich content for viewer consumption, including optimizing and extending the content catalogue, with support for Android TV and apps.
Advanced data analytics and AI are also crucial to pay TV providers' ability to innovate, providing the insights required to identify new opportunities. They can improve customer retention and reduce churn, deliver personalized experiences and relevant advertising, inform customer acquisition and new product development, and automate customer service and care.
Driving innovation with the right partner
There is no doubt that the next generation of content delivery solutions need to address new content distribution challenges and drive monetization. It is an all-screen play where user experience, content value protection and data analytics are critical components. Pay TV operators cannot afford to let this digital transformation movement pass them by. However, if they do invest in smart solutions, the opportunities are considerable.
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Do you realize that the bible is in fact a one-of-a kind supernatural document? It is truly a divine book or, as some could consider "extraterrestrial origin" outside our time and space domain. In one integrated design the New Testament is in The Old Testament concealed and The Old Testament is in The New Testament revealed.
Evidences of the Bible's divine origin lie in the hidden messages throughout the book. For example, did you know that the names in the Adamic line through Seth, when combined, chronologically give an amazing summary of the Gospel? If uninteresting records like genealogies bring out astonishing messages, then this indicates that there is no trivial passage or sentence or word in the Bible. God's fingerprints is stamped all over the book and this gives us confidence that the message of the Bible is something we should learn, cherish, and apply in our lives.
The best way to read and study the bible is to be in love with God. Be passionate to know God through His word. This spiritual discipline cannot be delegated. Our unique environment today provides us advanced information appliances and Internet resources to make bible-reading easily. The one place where you can grow your bible reading is in a small group. Join a small group of committed followers of Christ who are in love with Him.
We live in the age of deceit, if we are clueless about what's going on around us, we are an easy prey for deception. Seek to know the truth around. The more you know about the biblical scenario and the more you know what's going on, the more you will realize that we truly live in the end times.
What is God calling YOU to do? "Raise the bar" on your personal walk with Him. Commit to a systematic program to really learn your Bible individually and as a family with your children and household members. Respond to His calling NOW! What you know now is not just for your head knowledge and personal consumption. Jesus commanded us to go and make disciples, to be His witnesses to the people surrounding us. The amazing truths of the word of God should impact your priorities toward Him so that God's purpose and plan be realized in your life.


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Last week, we learned from the Associated Press that USAID (United States Agency for International Development) — the government agency which manages billions in overseas "humanitarian" aid programs — plotted to overthrow Cuba's communist regime via a covertly-funded fake Twitter platform.
The idea was to get Cuba's youth to sign up for ZunZuneo (Cuban slang for the sound hummingbirds make—get it?) without anyone knowing about USAID's involvement, get the kids hooked on pointless tweeting, collect all sorts of data on the users, and then rile them into an anti-regime rage — a "Cuban Spring" revolution.
Presumably the US government had been studying Twitter's ability to supercharge its users with outrage vapors here in the Free World, where legions of credulous idiots spend their waking hours chasing the outrage dragon. It was only a matter of time before some DC spooks and Northern Virginia contractors would see the angles.
Of course, the ZunZuneo plan failed. ZunZuneo collapsed, a bunch of money went missing (likely into the coffers of the Castro regime's state-controlled telecoms firm, or so they say), and the Communist Cuban menace still threatens the Free World's slick underbelly.
Not that this is news to PandoDaily readers, of course: Earlier this year, we broke the story about USAID co-investing with Omidyar Network in Ukraine NGOs that organized and led the Maidan revolution in Kiev, resulting in the overthrow of President Viktor Yanukovych. That revolution hasn't turned out so well — thanks to the "success" of the USAID-Omidyar-funded revolution, there's talk of the West going to war with nuclear-armed Russia, Ukraine is losing entire chunks of territory like the proverbial leper on a waterslide, Kiev is run by a coalition of costume-party fascists and a handful of billionaire Mafia dons—and Vladimir Putin has never been more popular, or more tyrannical.
Given USAID's "success" in Ukraine, perhaps we should be thankful that ZunZuneo failed as miserably and comically as it did.
For me, there wasn't anything all that surprising about the recent USAID revelations. I spent over a decade in Russia and the former Soviet Union, and witnessed for myself the good, bad and ugly that USAID funded—mostly the bad and the ugly. I assumed that most reporters already understood what USAID gets up to overseas, often alongside private nonprofits like those run by Soros, Gates, Rockefeller, Ford and more recently, Omidyar.
The truth is, USAID's role in a covert ops and subversion should be common knowledge—it's not like the record is that hard to find. Either USAID has developed those Men In Black memory-zappers, or else—maybe we don't want to remember.
This selective amnesia doesn't do anyone else any good however, so I figured it might be useful to offer a brief look back at some of USAID's darkest, ugliest moments. It's important to note that not everything USAID does is patently evil — in fact, there are many programs that could even be described as good. But USAID, as with any agency of American power, is fully capable of and will continue to be an instrument of geopolitical and corporate force.
As Big Tech becomes increasingly intertwined with USAID's missions around the world — particularly as USAID's programs and language merge with the lexicon and interests of Silicon Valley (such as "Global Development Lab," USAID's new "DARPA-like" research arm) — now's a good time to refresh our memories about USAID's dark past.
I should warn you: some of what follows is horrifying.
Of the many dark-red blotches in USAID's record, none compares to the agency's Office of Public Safety (OPS) program — and its most notorious official, Dan Mitrione.
Brief background: After the end of World War Two, America emerged as the de facto inheritor of the Europeans' empires, a role America quickly grew to enjoy. The Marshall Plan offered an imperial blueprint on how America's dominant wealth and aid could manipulate the internal political futures of our Allies like France and Italy, where American aid was key in keeping Communists from taking power.
USAID grew out of programs like the Marshall Plan, but the agency itself wasn't established until 1961 under President Kennedy. Under Kennedy's reorganization, a police training program set up under President Eisenhower, the Office of Public Safety (OPS), was placed under USAID's authority. The OPS had been set up in 1957 to train friendly overseas police forces how to be more professional, more democratic, less corrupt, more like us — but in reality, the OPS was essentially a CIA proxy, headed by an agent named Byron Engle, its ranks covertly sprinkled with CIA spooks in hotspots across the globe.
Dan Mitrione wasn't a CIA man himself. Mitrione was a small-town cop and a family man from Richmond, Indiana, who joined the FBI, and was sent to Brazil in the early 1960s under USAID's Office of Public Safety to train the fledging democratic government's police force. A few years later, in 1964, a US-backed coup overthrew Brazil's democratically-elected president Joao Goulart, and installed a right-wing military dictatorship that ruled for the next two decades, with largesse from USAID's coffers, and vital training and equipment supplied by USAID officials like Mitrione.
By the end of the 1960s, when Mitrione left for Uruguay, USAID had trained over 100,000 of Brazil's police in the dark arts of rule-by-terror; another 600 Brazilian police were brought to the US for special USAID training in explosives and interrogation techniques.
Brazil's military dictatorship murdered or disappeared hundreds of dissidents, and tortured and jailed thousands more. Among those tortured: a Marxist student named Dilma Rousseff, arrested in 1970 and subjected to beatings to her face that distorted her dental ridge, and electrical shocks from car batteries, resulting in the hemorrhaging of her uterus. Today, Rousseff is Brazil's president — and she's not too happy about the NSA tapping her phones.
The junta also murdered one ex-president in a staged car accident in 1976. Another ex-president who allegedly died of a heart attack in 1978 is now believed to have been poisoned.
With Brazil successfully pacified, in 1969 Dan Mitrione was transferred to a new hotspot: Uruguay, which was reeling under the increasingly popular left-wing Tupamaro rebels. After taking his post as the new head of USAID's police training mission in Uruguay, Mitrione secured a house in the capital Montevideo, and personally soundproofed the cellar. Mitrione thoroughly tested the sound-proofing by blasting Hawaiian music from a stereo in the cellar, and standing out on the street to listen; and later, by having one of his trainees fire a pistol inside his soundproofed cellar while Mitrione stood at different points on his neighborhood street.
Once satisfied, Mitrione began teaching human anatomy and the human nervous system to the elite Uruguayan police officials hand-picked by USAID for counter-insurgency training in America. Then — according to a CIA double-agent secretly working for Cuba, Manuel Hevia, and corroborated by journalist A. J. Langguth — Mitrione began performing gruesome live torture demonstrations on homeless beggars plucked off the streets of Montevideo. Four of Mitrione's human guinea pigs were tortured to death, including one woman — according to Hevia, testing on street beggars was something Mitrione learned to do while training Brazil's police.
"As subjects for the first testing, they took beggars, known in Uruguay as bichicones, from the outskirts of Montevideo, along with a woman from the border with Brazil. There was no interrogation, only a demonstration of the different voltages on the different parts of the human body, together with the uses of a drug to induce vomiting — I don't know why or for what — and another chemical substance.
Mitrione taught local police specialized forms of electroshock torture, introducing wires so thin they could fit between the teeth and gums. He also demonstrated drugs that induced violent vomiting fits, and advised on psychological tortures, such as playing tapes of a woman and child screaming in a room next to the interrogation room, and telling the detainee those are his wife and child. And it was all done under the aegis of USAID.
We can read the accusations, even examine the evidence and find it irrefutable. But, in our hearts, we cannot believe that Americans have gone abroad to spread the use of torture.
Mr. Mitrione has become notorious throughout Latin America. But few men ever had the chance to sit with him and discuss his rationale for torture. Mr. Hevia had once.
Now, reading Mr. Hevia's version, which I believe to be accurate, I see that I too had resisted acknowledging how drastically a man's career can deform him. I was aware that Mr. Mitrione knew of the tortures and condoned them. That was bad enough. I could not believe even worse of a family man. A Midwesterner. An American.
"When you receive a subject, the first thing to do is determine his physical state, his degree of resistance, through a medical examination. A premature death means a failure by the technician.
"Another important thing to know is exactly how far you can go given the political situation and the personality of the prisoner. It is very important to know beforehand whether we have the luxury of letting the subject die . . .
Mitrione took over the USAID police training program in Uruguay in 1969, and within months, the country was racked by allegations of widespread torture and police abuses. In 1970, Uruguay's Senate opened an investigation and heard testimony from tortured men and women who'd been subjected to electrocutions, genital mutilation and psychological torture.
In August 1970, Tupamaro rebels kidnapped Mitrione and demanded the release of 150 Tupamaro rebels in exchange for freeing him. Publicly, the Nixon Administration's position was not to negotiate with terrorists. Ten days after Mitrione was kidnapped, his dead body was discovered in the trunk of a car.
The nine documents posted today by the National Security Archive contain evidence that the Government of Uruguay unleashed death squads activity in the wake of Mitrione's execution, and that the United States was aware of these extra-judicial operations.
Multiply Dan Mitrione's story by all the other Dan Mitrione's working in all the other USAID Offices of Public Safety that we rarely hear about, and you start to get a sense of how small USAID's failed Twitter revolution in Cuba is by the agency's standards.
— The Vietnam War: USAID trained police and ran civilian jails. USAID also participated in the "soft" side of the Phoenix Program — funding the failed "Land to the Tillers" program granting peasants small plots of land, a program that has a poor track record, but serves some important foreign policy/propaganda purpose every time it's rolled out because it remains one of the most enduring boondoggles in the USAID kit.
—Guatemala: By 1970, USAID trained over 30,000 Guatemalan police to suppress local leftists, according to William Blum's book "Killing Hope." Just over a decade later, Guatemalan death squads under US-backed dictator Rios Montt unleashed a genocide on the Mayan peasants.
Though the U.S. Agency for International Development (AID) claimed complete dissociation from the army's security operations (which were veiled in development language) in fact AID provided several million dollars to the army's rural security.
…During the Guatemalan army's successive campaigns of genocide against the Maya, international aid continued to flow into Guatemala. Whether by design or through willful ignorance, U.S. AID, U.S. Food for Peace, UN WFP, private voluntary organizations (now called NGOs—nongovernmental organizations), and the countries of Israel and Taiwan provided financial, technical, and material support to the Guatemalan army.
In the brief window between Watergate and the Church Committee, Democratic Sen. James Abourezk managed to shut USAID's police training program down. Which meant that from then on, USAID would have to be a tad more subtle.
A few months later, in 1991, Aristide was overthrown in a coup.
In the early 1990s, Alberto Fujimori won Peru's presidency, and quickly imposed harsh shock therapy measures that impoverished millions. Peru's impoverished masses weren't responding to shock therapy the way Fujimori and the neoliberal consensus thought they should. So Fujimori — currently in prison for crimes against humanity — decided the only way to cut poverty among the indigenous population was to cut the number of poor indigenous people. Literally.
Between 1996-98, the Fujimori regime forcibly mass-sterilized some 300,000 women, mostly indigenous peoples in the Andes and Amazon regions. Fujimori's mass forced-sterilization program is one of only two such national programs known since the end of World War Two. And yes, it received enthusiastic funding from USAID, which donated $ 35 million to the program.
There were many ways to transform Russia in the 1990s, but thanks to funding from USAID, the path chosen was the most brutal and disastrous of all: Shock therapy, mass privatization, and the mass impoverishment of 150 million people. As Janine Wedel and my former eXile partner Matt Taibbi documented, USAID funding and support empowered a single "clan" from St. Petersburg led by Anatoly Chubais, who oversaw the complete destruction of Russia's social welfare system, and the handing over of lucrative assets to a tiny handful of oligarchs.
Under Chubais' stewardship, Russia's economic output declined some 60% in the 1990s, while the average Russian male life expectancy plummeted from 68 years to 56 years. Russia's population went into a freefall, Russia's worst death-to-birth ratio at any time in the 20th Century — which is amazing when you think that USAID's privatization program had to compete with the ravages Hitler, Dzerzhinsky and Stalin wreaked on Russia.
USAID funded Chubais through public-private organizations and a Harvard program that was so patently corrupt, Harvard and its program directors including economist Andrei Shleifer were sued by the US Department of Justice for "conspiring to defraud" the US government (not to mention Russians). USAID also paid public relations giant Burson-Marstellar to sell the disastrous voucher program to the Russian public, in a mass media advertising blitz that promoted Chubais' political party on the eve of parliamentary elections. It was this USAID funded privatization, and the USAID-backed Russia "democrats," which soured Russians on market capitalism and democracy (renamed "dermokratsia" or "shitocracy" in Russian).
Since Putin came to power and American influence waned, USAID and other privately-funded NGOs have focused on exposing widespread corruption and election fraud—areas that were of little interest to the same aid groups in the Yeltsin era.
The approximately $ 2 million program is being led by a division of the U.S. Agency for International Development. But no U.S. government logos appear with the projects or events being undertaken as part of the campaign, which bears no evidence of U.S. involvement and does not fall within the definitions of traditional development work.
U.S. officials say their low profile is meant to ensure that the Palestinian Authority receives public credit for a collection of small, popular projects and events to be unveiled before Palestinians select their first parliament in a decade. Internal documents outlining the program describe the effort as "a temporary paradigm shift" in the way the aid agency operates. The plan was designed with the help of a former U.S. Army Special Forces officer who worked in postwar Afghanistan on democracy-building projects.
Yes, just another "temporary paradigm shift." Because as we know, under normal circumstances, USAID would never, ever act so secretively. That's not what USAID is about. Just ask the users of ZunZuneo.


Stephanie Ashby | It's not you, it's your data!
Ok – so you want to do a PhD. Should you stay in your home country or join the increasing number of students studying abroad?
Having made the decision to pursue a PhD, you now have the dilemma of choosing the university and department which best suit your individual preferences and requirements.
There are the obvious factors to be considered, such as in which country the university should be based, in which language you wish to study, access to funding and supervisor availability. There are also a number of other factors that should similarly be a part of your decision making process. These factors are not always obvious but can have a significant impact upon your PhD experience.