ABSTRACT - We propose that consumers sometimes form mental images of future consumption situations and that these consumption visions influence their decision-making. A consumption vision is "a visual image of certain product-related behaviors and their consequences... (they consist of) concrete and vivid mental images that enable consumers to vicariously experience the self-relevant consequences of product use" (Walker and Olson 1994, pp. 27, 31). We describe some of the likely characteristics of consumption visions, propose several factors that may influence the formation of consumption visions, and discuss how consumer researchers can integrate consumption visions into decision-making research.
Diane M. Phillips, Jerry C. Olson, and Hans Baumgartner (1995) ,"Consumption Visions in Consumer Decision Making", in NA - Advances in Consumer Research Volume 22, eds. Frank R. Kardes and Mita Sujan, Provo, UT : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 280-284.
We propose that consumers sometimes form mental images of future consumption situations and that these consumption visions influence their decision-making. A consumption vision is "a visual image of certain product-related behaviors and their consequences... (they consist of) concrete and vivid mental images that enable consumers to vicariously experience the self-relevant consequences of product use" (Walker and Olson 1994, pp. 27, 31). We describe some of the likely characteristics of consumption visions, propose several factors that may influence the formation of consumption visions, and discuss how consumer researchers can integrate consumption visions into decision-making research.
A 29-year-old bride-to-be is planning her wedding. She is trying to decide which of several options would be most appropriateCthe country western wedding complete with cowboy boots and bluegrass band, the formal candlelight wedding with black tuxedos and caviar, or the garden wedding with climbing roses, fluffy pastries and a string quartet.
A 22-year-old woman is planning to take a vacation to celebrate her completion of college. The options under consideration are: touring Europe, relaxing on the beach of a tropical island, or hiking at a mountain retreat.
A 45-year-old male attorney is selecting a new sweater to wear skiing. He wants something sophisticated and elegant, yet sporty and functional.
According to traditional models of consumer decision-making (Bettman, Johnson and Payne 1991), these individuals will identify the relevant attributes of each option, evaluate the various attributes, and select the wedding, vacation, or sweater with the highest overall utility, based on a combination of their judgments about attribute values and importances. We contend that this process is not likely to occur in all decision-making situations. Traditional models of decision-making have worked fairly well for familiar, well-structured, and rational choices. However, these models may not describe how consumers make other types of decisions for which they have little experience, or where the problem is less well-defined, or where emotional considerations play an important role. When faced with such decisions, we propose that consumers form consumption visions to help them select an appropriate alternative.
A consumption vision is "a visual image of certain product-related behaviors and their consequences ... (they consist of) concrete and vivid mental images that enable consumers to vicariously experience the self-relevant consequences of product use" (Walker and Olson 1994, pp. 27, 31). For instance, the bride-to-be faces a difficult decision task in planning her wedding. She may have considerable uncertainty about the desirability of various choice alternatives. To help make this decision, she might create several consumption visions of possible weddingsCthe country western wedding, the formal candlelight wedding, or the garden wedding. Within each of these simulated consumption situations, the bride can imagine herself consuming various products and experiencing the consequences of this consumption with her friends and family. By imagining the likely outcomes, she is able to identify the salient characteristics of each decision alternative and develop beliefs about their outcomes. Also, she can experience affective reactions to the outcomes she imagines. In this way, the consumption vision allows her to form the cognitive and affective basis for her preferences. By constructing several consumption visions, she may be able to develop a preference for one of the wedding alternatives, for example, and the various products and services associated with that choice.
We believe consumers also form consumption visions when making purchase decisions less important than a wedding. For instance, the attorney might imagine wearing the new sweater while skiing or while eating in a resort restaurant. His decision to buy one sweater over another partly depends on the beliefs formed during such consumption visions and the affective reactions elicited by these anticipatory experiences.
The purpose of this paper is to discuss the concept of consumption visions and to explore its implications for consumer decision-making. We specify some of the conceptual characteristics of consumption visions, identify several factors which are likely to influence consumption visions, and describe some of the consequences of consumption visions. Because little work to date has examined consumption visions, much of our discussion is speculative. Our goal is to stimulate interest and future research in the phenomenon, not to present a fully-developed theory of consumption visions. To explore how people actually use consumption visions, we conducted unstructured, depth interviews with eight college students. These people described consumption visions they have had, discussed instances in which they did and did not use consumption visions, and speculated about how they typically use consumption visions in their decision making. To illustrate our discussion of consumption visions, we present verbatim excerpts from these interviews throughout the paper.
Although little direct research has been conducted on consumption visions, we can speculate about some of the likely characteristics of consumption visions that set them apart from other decision-making concepts. These include possible selves, narrative form, visual imagery, affective reactions, and goal representation.
Consumers create consumption visions by projecting a "possible self" into a future consumption situation. Possible selves can represent what we would ideally like to be, what we probably will be, or what we are afraid of becoming (Markus and Nurius 1986). The depiction of a possible self in a consumption vision functions not only as a positive or negative incentive for future behavior, it also provides a standard for interpreting self-relevant consumption experiences.
"But there's no problem in my visions ... there are no problems for some reason ... I see mistakes and I change them right away. It's always perfect."
We suggest that many consumption visions have a narrative form. That is, consumption visions have a character (the consumer's possible self), a plot (a series of events in which the character enacts behaviors and reacts to events) and a setting (an environment or context in which the action occurs). From a narrative perspective, consumption visions are "stories" created by the decision-making consumer. In constructing consumption visions, consumers project themselves into simulated consumption situations and observe the imaginary actions of the possible self in this context. The story-teller consumer also observes how the story "plays out," paying particular attention to the consequences that occur. The goals, motives and values associated with the projected possible self, combined with the features and context of the imaginary consumption situation, are the two main ingredients necessary for a consumption vision. We expect these narrative consumption visions to vary in complexity and elaboration. Some consumption narratives can be quite elaborate, much like a miniature play or movie, while others may have a simple form, similar to a sequence of static images or frames in a comic strip.
"When I'm in the apartment, I see me ... I can see myself going to the apartment, going to the cabinet. I'll have everything in order ... I can see myself reaching for this and doing it and I'll know where it is and pouring whatever I have (a cup of coffee or tea) and going back and sitting on my couch ... and turning on the TV and I can see myself doing that."
"When I'm in the car, I see a body that looks like me ... I don't see myself in the car, holding the steering wheel, turning, making a left, looking out the mirrors, stuff like that ... I just see a body in there that looks like me going to work and coming back."
The internal perspective seems much more personal and realistic than the outside perspective. In our preliminary data, internal perspectives were reported in consumption visions of new apartments, new computers, and new suits, while outside perspectives were reported for exotic vacations, new sports cars, and dream houses. Perhaps consumers tend to use the internal perspective when viewing consumption visions involving their actual or current self, and tend to use the outside perspective when viewing consumption visions involving a possible or ideal self.
"You know, with a couch on one side, a couch on the other, and the TV right on the other wall, so that there would be three walls. Then maybe if I had a table or something, I'd put it on the other wall so that would kind of divide the living room and the dining room ... and then like a table in the middle of the two couches so that you could lay things on it or sit things on it. And a light, the lamps ... I'd have two end tables on each side of the couches; then I'd have the lamps there."
"Finances, budgeting, communicating with all kinds of different people. And a personal diary ... always updating my account and expenses for myself and the house and ... but, I don't know ... its just something I know I need someday. Its not a big issue. I just know I need it for business."
"There's a big market and everybody's walking with their own baskets to buy things fresh. I'd go to the seafood merchant and buy lobsters and oysters and crabs and then go to the fruit stand and get all these fresh vegetables and fruits like pineapples and papayas and mangoes and strawberries (laughs). No meat really, just a lot of fish and seafood and fresh vegetables. And for some reason, Italian bread. I don't know why (laughs). Italian bread makes no sense, but Italian bread. And its just really busy. There are a lot of people and they're all screaming and yelling in their native language and me and my boyfriend are very fascinated and we just buy our stuff and walk around and we find that the people are really nice. If we don't know what something is, they explain it to us and if they have samples, they let us try it. And just carry on regular conversations with them about things. And I'd buy a lot of jewelry, beads and stuff."
The presence of vivid (Taylor and Thompson 1982) or complex (Markus and Nurius 1986) visual images in a consumption vision may have important decision-making implications. Vivid and complex consumption visions would contain numerous, visually elaborate images of the self performing a consumption activity. This type of depiction might motivate consumers to work harder to achieve these visions. However, these concrete and vivid images may also decrease consumers' openness to alternative consumption experiences and might contribute to dissatisfaction if actual experiences deviate from expectations.
"... usually when I'm very stressed or something. Or, I just can't take my environment any more so I just drift off and just see myself in this very happy state ... it makes me feel much better about myself afterwards. It kind of like relieves stress; it makes me relax. It makes me feel like there is something in the future to look forward to. Maybe this will actually happen to me sometime in the future."
Prior research has demonstrated the importance of hedonic motives in consumer behavior (Campbell 1989; Holbrook and Hirschman 1982). Apparently, consumers not only create consumption visions to help make decisions, they also purposely construct consumption visions to escape from the mundane aspects of life.
By constructing consumption visions, consumers can form more tangible representations of their abstract goals, motives, and values. Consumption visions may represent realistic goals, or they may represent ideal goals that a consumer hopes to achieve someday. One subject described consumption visions as, "I can see it; it's something that I would like to aim for," whereas another said, "it is the ideal that you need to work toward." Previous literature has found evidence of both realistic and ideal visions of the future (Markus and Nurius 1986; Markus and Ruvolo 1989). Examples of realistic consumption visions from the interviews include wearing a new suit, using a new computer, and having a romantic dinner. Examples of ideal goals include owning a cruise line, living in a house like on the TV show Dallas, or driving a Mercedes Benz.
"I know I'm going to...rent an apartment, so I start thinking ok, I want all this stuff in the apartment. Then that's what I go for. So like, you have this vision and you want to match that vision and you want to go and purchase those things that are in your vision. And along the way it might change, but more likely than not, you're going to keep most of what that vision is."
A wide variety of factors may influence how and when consumers form consumption visions. We discuss three categories of factors that seem likely to affect consumption visionsCthe degree of personal relevance of, or consumers' involvement in, the purchase decision; individual differences such as previous experience and ability and/or preference to process information visually; and situational factors.
"Did you ever have ... kind of like when you decorate a room, for example, in the house. Have you ever had a corner and it needs something? You don't know what. So you sit down and think about it for a while. We could put a plant there or something, you know? I think it takes time to think about what I want to do to modify the home to make it more comfortable or look better or whatever...I would put time into thinking about that."
"We bought a washer and dryer when we first moved into the apartment because it had a washer/dryer hookup, but we didn't put a whole lot of thought into it, we just ... because we needed it, you know? Because we were tired of going to the laundromat every 2 or 3 days. And they were on sale so that was when we really ... It was a big ticket item that we didn't really put a lot of thought into. Plus we had credit at the furniture store where we bought it, so that helped."
This person formed a consumption vision for the more involving decision about filling an empty corner of a room, but he did not form a consumption vision for the purchase of a less relevant, although "big ticket" appliance. This example suggests that a high price does not always create the necessary involvement to generate a consumption vision. We suggest that consumers must perceive the consumption of a product to be at least somewhat relevant to the self before they are motivated to construct a consumption vision.
We expect some consumers to be more likely than others to form consumption visions. Many individual differences, including demographics (gender, age, etc.) and trait variables (need for cognition, self-monitoring, etc.), are expected to influence whether individuals form consumption visions during decision making, how detailed these visions will be, and about which products consumption visions are formed.
Ability and/or preference to engage in visual processing of information seems to have particular potential as a predictor of the extent to which a consumer will form consumption visions. Researchers have developed several scales for measuring individual differences in imagery processingCone example is the Style of Processing scale of Childers, Houston, and Heckler (1985)Cand we expect such individual differences in processing style to affect the incidence of using consumption visions for decision making.
"I think it depends on the person. It depends on their imagination. I know people who can't imagine themselves doing anything except what they're doing at the present..."
A variety of stimuli in the immediate context are likely to influence the formation of a consumption vision. For example, information in an advertisement could encourage consumers to construct consumption visions. Stimuli such as an evocative picture, the use of concrete, imagery-eliciting words, or an explicit request to imagine a consumption situation may lead consumers to visualize future consumption situations (Lutz and Lutz 1978; MacInnis and Price 1987; Phillips 1994).
"My main vision right now is Australia because that's the next big thing in my life. So I envision that quite a bit. And I know in the Fall as it gets closer, I'm going to be envisioning it even more and as it gets to December, I'm going to be envisioning it a lot."
Note that by envisioning the people, the weather, and the tours she might encounter, this person could better prepare herself for actual consumption by bringing things she might need.
In this section, we discuss several consequences of consumption visions for consumer decision making. We also briefly discuss some other outcomes of consumption visions.
Most traditional models of consumer decision making assume consumers integrate present-day beliefs and evaluations about product attributes to form attitudes toward purchasing a product. Few models of decision making discuss how consumers come to have these beliefs and evaluations. Very often, consumers must make decisions about choice alternatives for which they have little or no direct personal experience. For such decisions, consumers are likely to have few beliefs about product attributes or the personal consequences of product use upon which to base their decision.
We suggest that forming a consumption vision is one possible heuristic by which a consumer can decide among alternative courses of action. We discuss the possible effects of consumption visions on consumers' cognitive and affective reactions to products, intentions and behavior, and post-purchase evaluations.
Cognitive and affective reactions. The decision-making self may construct consumption visions to think about the attributes that characterize the product, to imagine the consequences resulting from using the product, and to predict the likelihood that consumption of the product will lead to the satisfaction of important values and goals. By mentally simulating a consumption event, a consumer can gain greater clarity about how product attributes relate to the self via the consequences of product use. In addition, affective reactions to the imagined consumption experiences can influence the decision process. For example, Schwarz (1990) has suggested that people may ask themselves, "How do I feel about it?," and use these feelings to render a judgment. In sum, by visualizing future product use occasions in a consumption vision, consumers can form beliefs about their likely satisfaction with the product and imagine their affective reactions to these consumption experiences. They can use these cognitive and affective reactions to make more informed purchase decisions.
Intentions and Behavior. Research has shown that the mere act of imagining oneself performing certain behaviors can lead to changes in behavioral intentions to engage in these behaviors (e.g., Anderson 1983). In addition, visualizing a future event can enhance the performance of the actual behavior. For example, Gregory, Cialdini, and Carpenter (1982) showed that people who imagined themselves using and enjoying cable television subsequently subscribed to a cable TV service at a significantly higher rate than control subjects who were only told of the benefits of cable TV. These findings imply that the formation of consumption visions involving the self can increase consumers' intentions to follow a course of action and that consumption imagery may have a self-fulfilling effect on actual behavior.
"I did all those things I envisioned I was going to do. After that, I don't remember doing anything else or thinking anything else, besides, 'I have a car' and that was it."
"With the computer, you're...always still consuming it. I don't know if there's a whole lot of re-evaluating, unless something goes wrong with it. So far, I'm pretty satisfied."
These examples are congruent with previous literature (Kahneman and Tversky 1982) that finds people tend to engage in complex mental manipulations only when something goes wrong. Thus, it would seem that consumption visions are likely to be reactivated and reconsidered only if the actual consumption experience is highly discrepant with expectations.
Aside from their use in decision making, consumption visions can also serve other purposes such as mood management or self-construction. Although many subjects reported experiencing positive affect when imagining positive outcomes of product use, other subjects mentioned using consumption visions for purely hedonic reasons. It simply feels good to imagine yourself in a happy future where certain goals have been fulfilled. With no intention of making a judgment about a specific consumption alternative, consumers may purposely evoke consumption visions to escape from the pressures of daily life and fantasize and daydream about positive possible selves and pleasurable consumption situations.
In addition to mood enhancement, consumption visions may also be used for self-construction. For example, the manner in which possible selves are depicted in consumption visions can help consumers define their roles in modern society. People's lives have become increasingly complex due to the demands of the multiple social roles of present-day life (Gergen 1991). Indeed, in one day an individual might enact the roles of spouse, parent, neighbor, doctor, and amateur musician, among others. Making purchase decisions in the context of these multiple roles/selves is complex and difficult. By constructing consumption visions based on the various perspectives, the consumer may be able to clarify the consumption situation and make more appropriate choices.
There is currently a mismatch between our traditional models of consumer decision-making and the way consumers actually make decisions, at least for certain product choices. Multi-attribute models have been successful in modeling how consumers make decisions about mundane, frequently purchased products, where the problem is well-defined and decision making proceeds ration-ally. But these models cannot account for decisions in which less experience is available, where the problem is not well-structured, and where emotional reactions are important.
Whereas traditional models assume verbal and semantic processing, the consumption vision perspective focuses on visual and imaginal processing. The consumption vision approach explicitly acknowledges creative sense-making processes consumers use to anticipate the future. Consumption visions help consumers anticipate and make plans to navigate an uncertain future by providing concrete, vivid images of the self interacting with a product and experiencing the consequences of product use. Consumption visions allow consumers to vicariously participate in product consumption prior to purchase. By forming different consumption visions, consumers can mentally "try out" different choice alternatives and select the one that provides the greatest pleasure during consumption and leads to the satisfaction of important values and goals.
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در این تحقیق، تأثیر به‌کارگیری همزمان پیش‌تیمارهای اولتراسوند و آبگیری اسمزی بر تغییرات دانسیته ظاهری آلو طی خشک‌شدن در دمای 80 درجه سانتی‌گراد و سرعت هوای 4/1 متر بر ثانیه مورد بررسی قرار گرفت. پیش‌تیمارهای انجام شده شامل اولتراسوند در 2 زمان 10 و 30 دقیقه، غلظت محلول اسمزی در 2 بریکس 50 و 70 و زمان فرآیند اسمز در 4 زمان 60، 120، 180 و 240 دقیقه بودند. در ادامه، مدل‌سازی دانسیته ظاهری توسط مدل‌های موجود در منابع و همچنین مدل‌های پیشنهادی در این تحقیق انجام گرفت. نتایج نشان داد که استفاده همزمان از اولتراسوند و آبگیری اسمزی، میزان دانسیته ظاهری را در مقایسه با تیمار شاهد افزایش می‌دهد. همچنین، افزایش زمان اولتراسوند، غلظت محلول اسمزی و زمان فرآیند اسمز باعث افزایش دانسیته ظاهری شد. علاوه بر این، یکی از مدل‌های توسعه یافته پیشنهادی به‌عنوان مناسب‌ترین مدل پیش‌بینی کننده دانسیته ظاهری آلو تحت شرایط مورد آزمایش انتخاب شد. سپس، با انجام آنالیز رگرسیون غیرخطی مدل انتخابی، رابطه بین ضرایب مدل با متغیرهای به‌کار رفته در این تحقیق به‌دست آمد.
"خشک‌کردن آلو"؛ "اولتراسوند"؛ " آبگیری اسمزی"؛ "دانسیته ظاهری"؛ "مدل‌سازی"
In this study, the effect of ultrasound and osmotic dehydration pretreatments on apparent density changes of plums during drying at 80°C temperature and 1.4 m/s air velocity was examined. Pretreatments including ultrasound time at two levels (10 and 30 minutes), osmotic solution concentrations at two levels (50 and 70 Brix) and osmotic process time at four levels (60, 120, 180 and 240 min) were performed. Afterwards, apparent density modeling were carried out through existing models in the literature as well as proposed models in this study. Then, one of the models was selected as the most suitable model in predicting apparent density of plums under the experimental conditions. Results showed that application of ultrasound and osmotic dehydration increased apparent density in comparison with control samples Moreover, increasing ultrasound time, osmotic solution concentration and osmotic process time led to an increase in apparent density.
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29. Ioannou, I., Guiga, W., Charbonnel, C., Ghoul M. (2011). Frozen mirabelle plum drying: Kinetics, modelling and impact on biochemical properties. Food and Bioproducts Processing, 89, 438-448.
30. Menges, H. O., Ertekin, C. (2006). Thin layer drying model for treated and untreated Stanley plums. Energy Conversion and Management, 47, 2337-2348.
31. Yan, Z., Sousa-Gallagher, M. J., Oliveira, F. A. R. (2008). Shrinkage and porosity of banana, pineapple and mango slices during air-drying. Journal of Food Engineering, 84, 430-440.
32. Steel, R. G. D., Torrie, J. H., Dickey, D. A. (1997). Principles and procedures of statistics: a biometrical approach. New York: McGraw-Hill.
33. Talla, A., Puiggali, J.-R., Jomaa, W., Jannot, Y. (2004). Shrinkage and density evolution during drying of tropical fruits: application to banana. Journal of Food Engineering, 64, 103-109.


text:
Q: ANOSIM Error Vegan Package R - "Error in if (xi > xj) 1L else -1L : missing value where TRUE/FALSE needed" I am trying to complete ANOSIM on species presence data with two grouping variables
Here is an example of the dataframe (the original dataframe has 50 columns):
print(rec.ano.wide[1:5])
# Groups:   cyclone_time [2]
  cyclone_time  acanthastrea acropora astreopora blastomussa
  <fct>               <dbl>    <dbl>      <dbl>       <dbl>
1 before                 15      119         21           3
2 after                  10      154          6           1

I perform anosim analysis using this code :
#get the grouping variable
group <- rec.ano.wide[, "cyclone_time"]

#create community matrix
rec.com <- rec.ano.wide[,2:ncol(rec.ano.wide)]
rec.matrix = as.matrix(rec.com)

#anosim analysis
rec.ano = anosim(rec.matrix, group, distance = "bray", permutations = 9999)

That analysis gives this error
Error in if (xi > xj) 1L else -1L : missing value where TRUE/FALSE needed
In addition: Warning message:
In Ops.factor(xi, xj) : '>' not meaningful for factors

I have no idea what this means so any help would be greatly appreciated!!

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


The Lebanese designer is well known for designing for royalty and of course, celebrities.
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with a lightness of hand that belies the effort required to achieve it.


text:
Swedish Metabolomics Centre
The Swedish Metabolomics Centre (SMC) in Umeå, Sweden, is a national infrastructure that provides service for all Swedish universities and research institutes. It is a state-of-the-art facility which is specialized in the use of mass spectrometry based methods for the analysis of metabolites in different biological systems. Dedicated staff offer analysis of samples for a wide range of different research fields, from clinical to plant research. SMC is also a part of the Swedish Science for Life Laboratory SciLifeLab (www.scilifelab.se).
At the facility, large mass spectra libraries have been developed for both chemical standards and spectra from different samples. The libraries (GC/MS; LC/MS; LC/MS-MS) are continuously updated and will be publicly available in the future. So far, more than 65 000 samples have been analyzed in the facility, ranging from plant to plasma and cerebrospinal fluid samples. The facility has also developed targeted approaches for analyzing specific compounds like amines and amino acids, lipids and plant hormones.
The Swedish Metabolomics Centre is part of the interdisciplinary Chemical Biological Research Centre (KBC) and has close collaboration with chemometrics at the Computational Life Science Cluster (CLiC) in multivariate statistical analysis of metabolomics data and design of experiments (DOE) and strategies in planning of metabolomics experiments.
Metabolomics has become widely used as a diagnostic tool and identification of specific disease markers for cancer, neurology and diabetes and this has generated a number of interdisciplinary research collaborations. A new and very promising area is Infection Metabolomics for infectious disease diagnostics and rapid identification of causative bacteria and antibiotic resistance traits.
This infrastructure is funded by the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation, Erling-Perssons Family Foundation, Kempe foundations, the UPSC Berzelii Centre (Vinnova/VR), The Laboratory for Molecular Infection Medicine Sweden (MIMS), Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), Umeå University (UmU).
Access to the facility
The Metabolomics facility at Umeå Plant Science Centre is open for the Swedish universities.
Annika Johansson, PhD
Facility Manager, Swedish Metabolomics Centre
KBC, Umeå University and SLU
www.swedishmetabolomicscentre.se

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


A small gift for your Her or your Him … A surprise you that they will be amazed!
Our packages may vary according to your requirements and your needs … confident in the quality of our products and our service.
Flowers, a bottle of Prosecco with flutes, lit candles, sweet.
This package is available for all rooms and for all apartments.
Flowers, a bottle of Prosecco with flutes, lit candles, small aperitif.
Aromatic bath salts to be used in the bath, a bottle of Prosecco with flutes, lit candles, sweet.
This package is only available for the Casa sul Tetto apartment and Nido sul Glicine room.
Aromatic bath salts to be used in the bath, a bottle of Prosecco with flutes, lit candles, small aperitif.
This package is only available for the Casa sul Tetto apartment and Nido sul Glicine room .
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South Eastern Railway during the first eight months of the current financial year 2017-18 i.e. from April to November 2017 has achieved a remarkable improvement in freight and passenger earnings. During this period, freight earnings have registered a growth of 8.47 % while passenger earnings have increased by 7.37%.
During April to November of 2017-18, South Eastern Railway has generated earnings of Rs. 7763.81 crores from originating freight traffic as against Rs. 7157.70 crores earned from freight traffic during the corresponding period of last financial year (2016-2017), thus recording a significant jump of Rs. 606.11 crores i.e. a growth of 8.47%.
The increase in freight earnings has been made possible due to total loading of 98.48 million tonnes of freight during April–November 2017 as against 96.58 million tonnes loaded during the corresponding period of 2016-17, registering a growth of 1.97%. The loading of Iron Ore during the above period has been 58.43 million tonnes which is 3.34% more than the corresponding period of last financial year. Apart from Iron Ore, the other major commodities of loading were Coal, Raw Materials to Steel Plants, Pig Iron & Finished Steel, Cement, Food Grains, Fertilizers, POL etc.
South Eastern Railway's earnings from Passenger Traffic during the period from April-November of financial year 2017-18 has also gone up by 7.37% in comparison to the corresponding period of the last fiscal. SER earned Rs. 1372.89 crores from Passenger Traffic during April-November of financial year 2017-18 as against Rs.1278.63 crores earned from Passenger Traffic during April to November of 2016-17. Out of total Passenger Earnings of Rs.1372.89 crores, earnings from Suburban Passengers was Rs.71.20 crores while earning from Non Suburban Passengers was Rs. 1301.69 crores. The total number of passengers carried during April-November of current fiscal was 173.96 million.


text:
namespace HLE
{
	class ENGINE_API LightShader
		: public IShader
	{
	protected:
		struct CameraBufferType
		{
			D3DXVECTOR3	cameraPosition;
			float		padding;
		};

		struct LightBufferType
		{
			D3DXVECTOR4 ambient_color;
			D3DXVECTOR4 diffuse_color;
			D3DXVECTOR3 light_direction;
			float		power;
			D3DXVECTOR4	specular_color;
		};

		ID3D11Buffer*			m_light_buffer;
		ID3D11Buffer*			m_camera_buffer;
		ID3D11SamplerState*		m_sample_state;

		bool	SetShaderParameters( ID3D11DeviceContext* context, D3DXMATRIX world, D3DXMATRIX view, D3DXMATRIX projection, ID3D11ShaderResourceView* texture, D3DXVECTOR3 source, D3DXVECTOR3 camera,
			D3DXVECTOR4 ambient, D3DXVECTOR4 diffuse, D3DXVECTOR4 specular, float power );
		void	GetPolygonLayout( input_elements* inputs );
		bool	Initialize( ID3D11Device* device );

	public:
		LightShader(void);
		~LightShader(void);

		void			Release( void );
		bool			Render( ID3D11DeviceContext* context, int index_cnt, D3DXMATRIX world, D3DXMATRIX view, D3DXMATRIX projection, ID3D11ShaderResourceView* texture, D3DXVECTOR3 source, D3DXVECTOR3 camera,
			D3DXVECTOR4 ambient, D3DXVECTOR4 diffuse, D3DXVECTOR4 specular, float power );
	};
};

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Our Personalised Message Whiskey Glass is a wonderfully unique gift, perfect for Father's Day, featuring a thoughtful message from you.
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Your handblown glass tumbler will be carefully engraved with the name of your loved one along with a personalised message.
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Please note: Price is per glass. Personalisation will be exactly as entered, please ensure this is correct when placing your order.
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We can see the bed design image shown right above, the Beautiful Bedroom, based on the many download counts this bed design image has gain, it means that this beautiful bedroom is one of users' most-loved bed design inspiration. This current bed design is complemented with many beautiful furnishes, including white wall decor, white purple raymond waites comforter, and few more such as the easy clean pillow case and cute flower plant, etc.
This bed design photograph, which was originally posted here, is of course not just the only one we would want to share with you. There are countless bed design pictures similar to this bed design gallery set. In the next page, we have Bright Bedroom featuring natural lighting and 4pc gray oak wooden bedroom sets; published under pleasant gray bedroom sets topic. While in previous page — categorized under comforter galleries — is the Remarkable Best Teen Bedding Set Design sporting reversible microfiber bedding comforter set multi-color with small dot and strips pattern dark magenta solid satin euro shams and decorative pillowcase.


text:
Novembers Doom - _Aphotic_
(The End Records, 2011)
by: Aaron McKay (8 out of 10)
The meaning of "aphotic" translates as extremely little to the total absence of light. Be that as it may, the newest release for Chicago's titans, Novembers Doom, has more than its fair share of bright spots to illuminate the sometimes overly murky metal scene.
This latest resplendent effort marks the eighth full-length release in the weighty back catalog of musical achievements from the Midwest five piece death-doomsters. This go-around _Aphotic_ explores an airier, translucent aspect maybe not as pronounced as on some their previous albums. This is due in no small part to the vocal talents of The Gathering's Anneke van Giersbergen. Also, couple that particular addition with violin child prodigy Rachel Barton Pine, and her stringed instrument abilities whereby creating a luminous new album that takes on a chillingly lucent aura. Counterbalancing those supplementary nuisances, Dan Swanö also climbed out from behind the _Aphotic_ mixing board to render a throaty contribution on "Of Age and Origin".
Eight tracks make up _Aphotic_. Passages like "Six Sides", with its suggestively riffy and rhythmic moving effortlessly into "Shadow Play" like so much white water rapids into a clear frosty twilight pool; a definitively unambiguous indication Novembers Doom is now and always has been invested in their root origin signature sound. Epic!
From a certain voluminous yawning expanse so typical of Novembers Doom's sound ("Buried") to the current challenging avant-garde edginess thus recently contrived on _Aphotic_ ("What Could Have Been"), Novembers Doom demonstrates a profound unwillingness to be overshadowed in any way traveling their chosen metal music path. This new release may reference an absence of light, but the Herculean Novembers Doom validate they will never be left in the dark. As Dylan Thomas suitably prophesied, "Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight, And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way, Do not go gentle into that good night."
Contact: http://www.novembersdoom.com
3/13/2001 P Azevedo Novembers Doom: Embrace the Knowing
6/7/1998 P Azevedo Novembers Doom: The Bitter-Sweet Taste of Life
10/24/2009 M Dolson 8.5 Novembers Doom - Into Night's Requiem Infernal
1/28/2007 A McKay 9.5 Novembers Doom - The Novella Reservoir
3/10/2005 A McKay 10 Novembers Doom - The Pale Haunt Departure
3/21/2003 P Azevedo 9 Novembers Doom - To Welcome the Fade
1/10/2001 P Azevedo 9 Novembers Doom - The Knowing
8/12/1999 A Bromley 8 Novembers Doom - Of Sculptured Ivy and Stone Flowers
6/7/1998 P Azevedo 8 Novembers Doom - For Every Leaf that Falls


UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who is scheduled to arrive in Israel this week, will address the 12th annual Herzliya Conference on Thursday, the IDC Herzliya announced Sunday.
The announcement said Ban was scheduled to deliver the conference's keynote address Thursday evening.
Last week, the secretary-general announced he would be arriving in Israel, the Palestinian territories and Jordan in a Middle East tour supporting the peace process.
"My visit comes at an important moment," the UN chief said at the United Nations headquarters in New York on Wednesday.
Following the low-level talks that took place in Amman over the past few weeks, Ban said "I will be there to encourage both sides to re-engage in earnest and create a positive atmosphere for moving forward."
Ban's visit comes after the Quartet of Middle East mediators' deadline for Israel and the Palestinian Authority to present proposals regarding a borders and security expired. The Palestinian Authority has indicated it will not continue contacts with Israel following the January 26 deadline.


text:
Finland coach remains focused on Euro 2020 dream despite wait
Helsinki (AFP) –
The postponement of Euro 2020 put Finland's major tournament debut on ice but, when the finals do come around, the Nordic nation have their sights set on emulating the remarkable recent achievements of Iceland.
One of the enduring memories of the last European Championship in France in 2016 is that of Iceland -- roared on by a huge support and their "Viking Thunder Clap" -- knocking out England on their way to the quarter-finals.
Iceland reached the last World Cup too, and still hope to go to the next Euro along with Finland, who will be there when it finally goes ahead a year behind schedule.
"In a way it's already a dream for us to play in the finals, but we are not going there just to participate, we want to achieve something more," Finland coach Markku Kanerva told AFP in an interview ahead of his team's latest get-together and a friendly against world champions France on Wednesday in Paris.
"It's the same with Sweden in the World Cup, they did very well," said Kanerva, with a nod to Finland's neighbours who reached the quarter-finals in Russia in 2018.
"I believe they are examples for us because they are from the Nordic countries as well and there are some strengths in all our Nordic countries, mentally and, as I mentioned, we are organised teams and we can also learn what have been the key factors behind their success."
In a nation of 5.5 million people where football plays a distant second fiddle to ice hockey, Finland had never really come close to reaching a major tournament before, even in the days of the great Jari Litmanen, a Champions League winner with Ajax in 1995.
But Kanerva was appointed in 2016 and led them to Euro 2020 as they finished second in qualifying behind Italy.
"We weren't the favourites in our group because Italy was the favourite, then Bosnia and Herzegovina and Greece as well, they were the main candidates to qualify. And we managed to surprise them," said Kanerva, whose side are 55th in the FIFA rankings.
- Pukki 'a huge figure' -
He was grateful for the goals of Norwich City striker Teemu Pukki, a "huge figure in Finnish football" according to Kanerva, and who contributed 10 in the qualifying campaign as the team did their bit to raise the sport's profile at home.
"People are talking more about football and congratulate us, me and all the players as well, and there are many people who said, 'I never believed the Finnish national team could qualify for a major international tournament,' and they're very proud of that, and we are as well.
"The players believe in themselves and as a team we believe we can achieve something new and we actually did it."
Excitement about going to the Euro increased when they were drawn in the same group as neighbours Russia, Denmark and the world's top-ranked team Belgium.
It is only 200 kilometres from the Finnish border to Saint-Petersburg, where they are due to play Russia and Belgium, but talk of an influx of Finnish supporters is on hold due to the health crisis and rumours the Europe-wide format might be changed.
Nevertheless Finland are preparing the best they can, and are currently doing well in the Nations League, notably beating the Republic of Ireland home and away.
Over the next week, after facing France, they play in Bulgaria and Wales where they will be without Augsburg's Fredrik Jensen, a scorer in each of the last three Nations League matches.
But Kanerva can call on the likes of Bayer Leverkusen goalkeeper Lukas Hradecky, midfielder Glen Kamara, ex-Arsenal and now of Rangers, and Bundesliga-based Joel Pohjanpalo.
And then there's Pukki.
"He was one of the key players in our qualification, scoring ten goals...so of course that's his role, to score goals," said Kanerva.
"And Teemu can't score goals without good delivery, and that's very important to keep in mind that someone has to assist his goals as well. So of course there are many other important players in the squad with a very huge role behind our success."


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The promotion gives you $50 of onboard credit for using a MasterCard for your Sail & Sign Account (onboard purchases).
2)You must sail on a Carnival ship between the dates of December 1, 2012 and March 15, 2013.
3)You can only receive one $50 promotion per cabin.
Credit should show on your account in about 3-4 weeks.
If the credit does not show before embarking, print out the confirmation email you receive when signing up and take it with you.
Promotion has expired early. Looks like too many takers. In Carnival's words "We have hit critical mass."
I guess the word has gotten out. Hope you got in before the cut off!


text:
To Be Read: The Library Books Edition
October 21, 2014 October 23, 2014 KelleyLeave a comment
I read a BookRiot article yesterday on having too many things to read and how it can feel problematic, and even stressful. "The problems isn't that I haven't had time to read or that I've let myself get wrapped up in other hobbies, work, distractions, etc. The issue is that I have so many quality choices and so much access to books that I'm paralyzed, unable to zero in on one (or even two or three) to pursue with everything I've got."
I understand that so well.
I've written before about how I choose what to read next, and how sometimes it can be difficult to forcibly extract yourself from a story that you really connected to. BookTuber Christine did a pretty hilarious and spot on video of that very feeling:
And while a mourning period can stop your reading momentum in its tracks, having so many great options can also leave you a little frustrated and paralyzed with indecision.
Who knew the act of reading could be so complicated?
I have what I frequently refer to as a "lifelong TBR" collection when someone asks "why do you have so many books??" There are books that I have owned for years and will continue to own and will not read this year or next year or maybe not even the one after that. And that's fine.
But lately I've been feeling a little stressed by library books. To borrow from Blow, my ambition far exceeds my talent. Again and again. And again.
I have 18 books checked out right now. And while I know it's unlikely that I will read all of them, here is a compilation of the books I'm most excited to read.
If Elizabeth Bennet had the washing of her own petticoats, Sarah often thought, she'd most likely be a sight more careful with them.
When I read the description of this book, I had a hard time believing that I'd never heard of it before. I'm guilty of having read fan novels extending and retelling Pride and Prejudice. Longbourn has been described as P&P meets Downton Abbey, as it's the story of P&P told from the servants perspective. It has mixed reviews, but I'm excited to see if I like it.
It seems you either love or hate Emily Gould. I've read her blog and internet writing, knew that she was an editor for Gawker, and that she's from Silver Spring, Maryland, which is in my neck of the woods. I was curious about her, and even more so when I read her account of writing a novel. So when I saw this book at Barnes and Noble, I decided that I didn't want to buy it but I did want to read it and it sat on my library holds list for the last six months.
Described by the publisher as "a novel about two friends learning the difference between getting older and growing up," I figure if anything, Friendship should offer something to relate to.
Since I'm always a sucker for a love story, always a sucker for a story that takes place in Paris, and always a sucker for historical fiction about writers or artists whose work I admire, I Always Loved You seems like it will be right up my alley.
The young Mary Cassatt never thought moving to Paris after the Civil War to be an artist was going to be easy, but when, after a decade of work, her submission to the Paris Salon is rejected, Mary's fierce determination wavers. Her father is begging her to return to Philadelphia to find a husband before it is too late, her sister Lydia is falling mysteriously ill, and worse, Mary is beginning to doubt herself. Then one evening a friend introduces her to Edgar Degas and her life changes forever. Years later she will learn that he had begged for the introduction, but in that moment their meeting seems a miracle. So begins the defining period of her life and the most tempestuous of relationships.
I saw Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage on the new releases shelf, and did a double take, sure that it was mistakenly placed there, as it's a fairly new and popular release, and surely must have holds stretching for months.
And then I more or less did the Grinch grin and added it to the stack I was holding.
Tsukuru Tazaki had four best friends at school. One day Tsukuru Tazaki's friends announced that they didn't want to see him, or talk to him, ever again. Since that day Tsukuru has been floating through life, unable to form intimate connections with anyone. But then he meets Sara, who tells him that the time has come to find out what happened all those years ago.
I loved Norwegian Wood and The Wind Up Bird Chronicles, and am slowly making my way through all of Murakami's novels. I'm so excited to read this one.
My interest was piqued when I read reviews comparing The Queen of the Tearling to The Hunger Games (strong female character, dystopian world) and Game of Thrones (medieval setting). But then I read reviews that say that's not an apt comparison, and actually does the novel a disservice because those who read it because of that comparison wind up not liking it.
In the end, I was sold on this description: Combining thrilling adventure and action, dark magic, mystery and romance, The Queen of the Tearling is the debut of a born storyteller blessed with a startling imagination.
Short stories by Margaret Atwood? 'Nuff said.
(But I'll be nice and paste the description if you need a bit more.)
A recently widowed fantasy writer is guided through a stormy winter evening by the voice of her late husband in "Alphinland," the first of three loosely linked stories about the romantic geometries of a group of writers and artists. In "The Freeze-Dried Bridegroom," a man who bids on an auctioned storage space has a surprise. In "Lusus Naturae," a woman born with a genetic abnormality is mistaken for a vampire. In "Torching the Dusties," an elderly lady with Charles Bonnet syndrome comes to terms with the little people she keeps seeing, while a newly formed populist group gathers to burn down her retirement residence. And in "Stone Mattress," a long-ago crime is avenged in the Arctic via a 1.9 billion-year-old stromatolite. In Stone Mattress: Nine Tales , Margaret Atwood is at the top of her darkly humorous and seriously playful game.
I heard about In the Kingdom of Ice on NPR, and thought it sounded like such a gripping read.
In the late nineteenth century, people were obsessed by one of the last unmapped areas of the globe: the North Pole. No one knew what existed beyond the fortress of ice rimming the northern oceans, although theories abounded. National glory would fall to whoever could plant his flag upon its shores.
James Gordon Bennett, the eccentric and stupendously wealthy owner of The New York Herald, funded an official U.S. naval expedition to reach the Pole, choosing as its captain George Washington De Long, who had gained fame for a rescue operation off the coast of Greenland. De Long led a team of 32 men deep into uncharted Arctic waters, carrying the aspirations of a young country burning to become a world power. On July 8, 1879, the USS Jeannette set sail from San Francisco to cheering crowds in the grip of "Arctic Fever."
The ship sailed into uncharted seas, but soon was trapped in pack ice. Two years into the harrowing voyage, the hull was breached. Amid the rush of water and the shrieks of breaking wooden boards, the crew abandoned the ship. Less than an hour later, the Jeannette sank to the bottom,and the men found themselves marooned a thousand miles north of Siberia with only the barest supplies. Thus began their long march across the endless ice—a frozen hell in the most lonesome corner of the world. Facing everything from snow blindness and polar bears to ferocious storms and frosty labyrinths, the expedition battled madness and starvation as they desperately strove for survival.
May I read all of these before they are due!
books, Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage, Emily Gould, Friendship, Haruki Murakami, I Always Loved You, In the Kingdom of Ice, Longbourn, Margaret Atwood, Pride and Prejudice, Stone Matters: Nine Stories, tbr, The Queen of the Tearling
Book Review: Let's Take the Long Way Home by Gail Caldwell
Podcasts I Love: Serial


Branding is the sweet spot of selling online and for many global brands their execution is flawless. But it's time that retailers and brands realize merchandising is integral to their success. Whether it be curating the assortment, guiding the shoppers through selling tactics or smartly integrating merchandising assets throughout the shopper journey, all play a pivotal role.
To understand how brands are evolving to stay ahead in this new market, Astound Commerce Insights evaluated the desktop, mobile, and in-store experiences of 50 global brand retailers in our 2017 Global Mystery Shopping Study. We measured the branding, customer experience and services delivered through 206 metrics across eight common shopping scenarios, including site browsing, product search, customer service access and queries, and visiting Chicagoland physical stores when available.
At the time of this analysis, I'd also been helping an apparel brand assess their performance levels. Upon first glance, I was impressed with the site experience. But as I dug deeper into that site, I realized that there was very limited merchandising. Of course, they had some promotions to ensure parity with their retail partners, but they did little to merchandise the shopping experience. The issue was not a lack desire to merchandise but a lack of resources and talent within the organization to guide those efforts.
The role of merchandising has often taken a back seat to other organizational functions. In the interest of simplicity, I'd like to suggest 2 reasons why merchandising matters.
Shoppers have abundant choice around which products to buy and where to purchase from, so it is essential that brands inspire them. This means leveraging merchandising. Introduce tactics that showcase what's new and customer favorites while continuing to introduce seasonal themes that remind shoppers why they should make a purchase.
According to our recent report, global brands have not adopted the best in onsite merchandising. Merchandising is in place but limited in its execution.
For 86% of global brands, the all-important "what's new" is used. This feature drives purchase frequency and reinforces the dynamic assortment.
Themes and seasonal areas are also utilized by a majority of brands, with 4 in 10 testing top sellers. The remaining tactics are used sporadically.
One in five global brands use loyalty programs and understand retention plays a role in revenue generation.
Content plays an important role in educating and converting customers. One in 3 shoppers finding sizing, product finders and customer tools very important according to our Astound Commerce Insight's "Global Brand Shopper. Guiding shoppers to make the right choices comes in a multitude of formats.
Video's role is to educate as was seen in home (63%) and technology (60%) vs. a 48% study average. How-to guides see "most favorite" status via health and beauty (100%) and home (50%) as compared to a 34% average.
Successful merchandising means selecting, executing, and integrating the right tactics. The shopper journey is filled with opportunities to suggest appropriate merchandising rather than keeping products in silo and limiting potential visibility. With such an approach, visitors are more likely to encounter the merchandising when they are in the buying mode.
Shoppers must be guided to the right products in context. When merchants do the necessary planning to best position their assortment, adding merchandising to search results, category pages and as part of the product page decision-making juncture, increased chances of conversion are the likely outcome of those efforts.
Examples of such integration include product finders. In the beauty category, product finders can help shoppers select the right foundation or moisturizer. In consumer electronics, a much different model, finders help shoppers select the right computer type - guiding visitors to a laptop or desktop based on a set of pre-defined criteria. Featuring such functionality on category pages makes for timely exposure and expedient decision-making.
Ratings and reviews captured the hearts and minds of online shoppers over a decade ago. Integrating such content on the product detail page, as part of search results and positioning the voice of the shopper via top rated and customer favorites tools, gives sellers much greater credibility in the buyer's mind. This peer-generated content resonates more with potential buyers than the information merchants typically shared, though it still has a role to play.
Brands must begin by honestly reflecting on their own merchandising skills and sophistication. Once that evaluation is complete, a roadmap and internal prioritization is a mandate to move the merchandising needle. I encourage you to read our new report: Twists, Turns and Takeaways. It is replete with best practice examples along with insightful commentary that brings the research findings to life.


text:
Statistics fight against discrimination in court
Author: Carlos Gómez Grajales
Copyright: Image appears courtesy of iStockPhoto
A few days ago, a court officially ruled that the New York City Police Department's stop-and-frisk program amounts to "a policy of indirect racial profiling" that violates the U.S. Constitution. This stop-and-frisk policy is a resource that authorizes police officers in New York City to stop and question thousands of pedestrian annually and search them for weapons, drugs or any illegal stuff. The only requisite is that the officers are obliged to fill a report stating the reason why a particular individual was stopped, though the forms allow for some really vague and subjective reasons, such as "Furtive movements" witnessed by the officer or the mere fact that the pedestrian was traversing a "High crime area".
Although the nature of the program itself seems dangerously misguided through racial profiling, to actually rule it illegal, Judge Shira Scheindlin had to rely in some very interesting statistical analysis that were presented as the main evidence against the stop-and-frisk policy. The plaintiffs' chosen expert, Dr. Jeffrey Fagan, criminologist at Columbia Law School, conducted two different statistical studies that sketched an accurate landscape of what this program had become.
The first study presented by Dr. Fagan as evidence consisted on a detailed study of the UF-250 forms that N.Y.P.D. officers are required to fill out after they have stopped somebody. As previously mentioned, these forms included a section where the officer was supposed to state the reasons that led him to stop a pedestrian. Fagan noticed that the subjective reasons normally given couldn't always be qualified as a justifiable threat. After examining the data from electronic versions of the forms, Fagan categorized each encounter as "apparently justified", "apparently unjustified", or "ungeneralizable", based on whether the officer completed the form with enough information to conclude that the examination was based on serious evidence. This first study concluded that six per cent of all the stops, which amount to about two hundred thousand, were "apparently unjustified."
A second analysis devised by Fagan tried to verify whether minorities were being chased by the program more than they should. He did this in a similar manner to how the Chi-Square test compares the expected frequencies of a contingency table where rows and columns are independent to the actual one the researcher has, in order to test for relationships. Fagan compared the official number of stops in each area of the city, and the race of the people stopped, and compared this to the expected number of stops that he assumed would occur based upon the racial composition of the area, its crime rate and assuming that no racial discrimination was taken place. The results indicated that the NYPD stops are significantly more frequent for Black and Hispanic citizens than for white citizens, even after adjusting stop rates for the precinct crime rates and even after considering different plausible scenarios.
This being a lawsuit, the city presented its own experts that tried to refute the plaintiffs' evidence: Dennis Smith, of N.Y.U.'s Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, and Robert Purtell, of the SUNY system's University at Albany. Regarding the first result, they argued that a 6% of "apparently unjustified" detentions were indeed a really low number, hence proving the efficiency of the program. But the judge noticed, in a surprising manner, that Fagan's estimation would be a kind rough minimum, considering the way the forms are filled and the fact that in many cases the officers forget to complete them.
The city experts also tried to discredit the plaintiffs' second statistical exercise. Here, the argument was that Fagan's number of "expected stops", considering a neutral police work was wrong. Smith and Purtell argued that a better benchmark would require data about the race of crime suspects, as derived from the descriptions of crime victims, and the race of people arrested. Since "approximately 83% of all known crime suspects and approximately 90% of all violent crime suspects were Black and Hispanic", according to their results, the larger number of stopped persons from these minorities was only due to the higher number of Hispanic and black people that are criminals. Luckily, the judge found the catch. She argued that using the races of criminal suspects as the benchmark for comparison was misleading. The reason is that most of the people stopped weren't really suspects at all: they were law-abiding citizens. Just consider that in nearly nine out of ten times, they were allowed to proceed without being arrested or issued a summon.
In the end, what I would consider the more reliable and robust statistics endured. The judge ruled the stop-and-frisk policy illegal and ordered several changes in its execution, including the possible use of cameras to record the activity of the policemen that enforce this measure. Even though the use of statistics in court may be as old as the discipline, what I found refreshing is the fact that the court not only relied in the statistics but it actually looked for possible flaws in the numbers that would point to the more accurate results. And even if the plaintiffs' statistics still require further development, the court positively considered that all the evidence signaled a problem that required intervention. Once again, statistics saved the day.
www.mobile.nytimes.com/2013/08/13/nyregion/stop-and-frisk-practice-violated-rights-judge-rules.html?client=ms-opera-mini-android&channel=new
www.nyclu.org/issues/racial-justice/stop-and-frisk-practices
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Charming, little recycled canvas shoulder bag. Stencil on bag reads: 1948 PENNA. Flap has image of bicycle with American Ramblers Highest Grade Made printed underneath it.
Canvas color is Army Green with Cream Flap.
Bag zippers closed under flap.
Inside is lined with Myra Logo fabric.


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Yu Hongqi (, born February 2, 1973) is a female Chinese football (soccer) player who competed in the 1996 Summer Olympics.

In 1996 she won the silver medal with the Chinese team. She played four matches.

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1973 births
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Chinese women's footballers
Olympic footballers of China
Footballers at the 1996 Summer Olympics
Olympic silver medalists for China
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Footballers at the 1994 Asian Games
1995 FIFA Women's World Cup players
Medalists at the 1996 Summer Olympics
China women's international footballers
Asian Games gold medalists for China
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Medalists at the 1994 Asian Games

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4 Verstappen: Red Bull dominance affected by V6 switch
9 Norris: Sainz rivalry and friendship drove McLaren on
10 Team Parker's BTCC absence will be 'short term'
How to turn opportunities into a factory racing career
Having scrapped for every opportunity in his career, Porsche GT ace and Nurburgring 24 winner Fred Makowiecki is well-placed to explain how to capitalise on a big chance
By Fred Makowiecki
Published on Wednesday August 29th 2018
Verstappen: Red Bull dominance affected by V6 switch 1610788979 F1
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Being a factory driver requires a lot of things that I could not imagine when I started. It's not only about driving and being fast, it's what you do with the media, how you represent your brand, what you can do to improve the car and bringing everything together as well.
When I started my career, I was not ready for that - I did not speak English! My full vocabulary was 30 words, so it was tricky to have a discussion with somebody. I pushed really hard to continue in single-seaters and wanted to progress in Formula 3, but it was impossible with no sponsors.
I met with [ASM F3 boss] Fred Vasseur who told me, 'Sorry but I cannot help you.' That's why I swapped to GTs.
I started racing one-make Porsches in France and then moved to GT, where I could show what I could do because I was supported by gentleman drivers. This was not so common when I started because there were a lot less teams. Now there are some really good teams who are close to the factories that give you opportunities without bringing money, but at my time I could not do this.
When you get a chance, you don't want to make a mistake. That's why if I don't go over the limit and I'm performing at the right level, I'm sure I will get a second opportunity.
My first time in a GT1 car was in Dubai in 2006, and I got the pole with the Ferrari 550 for Larbre. San Luis with the Saleen in '08 was also a good example that gave me an opportunity to show what I could do.
I had a nice fight with Marcel Fassler and we were leading before the pitstop, but my gentleman team-mate crashed on his out-lap. That's just part of it - I was there firstly to bring him the car in a good position.
Going then to World GT1 in 2010 with 24 cars on the grid was just unbelievable. It was a small family atmosphere with Hexis and we arrived in the world championship without much experience.
The Aston Martin was not totally ready, but the first round in Abu Dhabi I was P2 in qualifying. The only reference we had was the Young Driver team, who had all factory drivers. We beat them six times in 10 races, so we could be proud of that.
Then in 2011 with Marc VDS in the Ford GT we were really competitive, and if I had done the whole championship with Maxime Martin we maybe could have won it. But I could not miss the opportunity to do Le Mans with Luxury Racing.
From the beginning of my career, my goal was always to show what I could do at Le Mans. Many times I got the answer, 'Yeah but you've never done it', so I when I got the chance with Luxury in the Ferrari, I jumped at it.
The 458 was a really good car and I got class pole in 2012 with this private team against the factory Ferrari and then again in '13 with Aston when I overtook two cars on the grass! I'd like to do it with Porsche as well - to get pole with three different types of car wouldn't be too bad!
You need to get all the elements together at the right moment because the opportunity to win big races doesn't happen every year. At the Nurburgring 24 Hours this year, we had a deal together with my team-mates and our engineer to say, 'It's win or nothing', especially after the puncture with the three-minute loss.
None of us had ever won this race, so they told me, 'If you cannot follow, push more. If you still cannot follow, push even more. If you crash, it's not a problem.'
When you have the speed and see you can win, you can maybe gain one tenth, but the reality is we already push as hard as we can - that's the minimum respect you can give. You're not driving only for yourself, but also for your team-mates, your engineer and for your mechanics as well. Motorsport has changed a bit with the politics and BoP, but for us as drivers our job did not change.
I don't want to finish a race with regrets. Some races you'll be second or third where you gave everything and have no regrets, but when you have the opportunity and the package to win, you must do it. From where we came from to win that race with Porsche and Manthey Racing was awesome!
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The 'unsexy' way to win a title It's often maligned as the 'unsexy' way to win, but consistency is exceptionally difficult to achieve and should be celebrated. A multi-disciplinary panel of champions explains why.


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Top 7: Used Fast Estate Cars
Used Fast Estate Cars
Mind-blowing performance and everyday practicality all rolled into one.
Why buy a fast estate car?
Estate cars seem to have a certain stigma attached to them, where because they are more practical than their saloon counterparts they are sometimes seen as the more sensible option, and in some cases maybe even a bit boring.
But try calling any of these examples boring. These are fast estate cars which are a different kettle of fish altogether. There is just something sinister and cool about an estate car that can gather speed like a sports car, and in some cases, leave the sports car driver for dust.
We have therefore compiled a list of our favourite practical rocket ships to show that stereotypes are merely just that.
Mercedes-AMG E63 S
With 0-62mph in just 3.5 seconds, fast is almost an understatement when talking about the Mercedes-AMG E63 S.
This range-topping E-Class comes with a supercar-smashing 4.0-litre, twin-turbo V8 producing an unbelievable 604bhp. That means this practical estate has more power than a McLaren 600LT.
What's more, this Autobahn stormer can put all of its immense power down with serious ease thanks to Mercedes-Benz 4MATIC All-Wheel Drive. Or maybe you're a keen driver, and a tad crazy, then you can send all of the 600 odd ponies to the rear wheels.
And as it's an estate, you get 640 litres of boot space, which increases to a class-leading 1,820 litres with the rear seats folded.
Search Used Mercedes-Benz E-Class Estate
Porsche Panamera Turbo S E-Hybrid Sport Turismo
The Porsche Panamera Turbo S E-Hybrid Sport Turismo is essentially an estate version of the Porsche Panamera Turbo, in the fastest specification possible.
With 670bhp, this is one incredibly quick estate car, taking just 3.4 seconds to reach 62mph from standstill, when equipped with the Sport Chrono Package. All-wheel drive ensures the power is utilised perfectly too and can reach a top speed of 192mph, where it is legal to do so of course, like a German Autobahn for example.
With 520 litres, boot space is very good and this increases to 1,390 litres with the rear seats folded. This means you get 50 litres more than the standard Panamera.
Finally, being a Porsche means it is a joy to drive and material choice is excellent. It could be argued that it's also one of the most unique looking estate cars too.
Search Used Porsche Panamera Sport Turismo
Audi RS6 Avant
Probably the meanest and most sinister-looking estate out there currently. The Audi RS6 Avant looks every bit as evil as an Audi RS model should, and certainly has the road presence to match.
It also has similar horsepower to those already mentioned, with a monstrous 592bhp on tap, good for 0-62mph in 3.6 seconds. So, just like the Mercedes-AMG and Porsche, this practical estate can embarrass super sports cars and even some supercars.
Naturally, like the other two already mentioned, the RS6 comes with Quattro all-wheel drive, meaning the absurd power can be deployed and utilised with ease, come rain or shine.
Search Used Audi Estates
Volkswagen Golf R Estate
A car in our list, that doesn't have over 500bhp, but the Golf R Estate is no slouch. At a smidge under 300bhp, the Golf R Estate can still spring to 62mph in just 5.1 seconds.
The Volkswagen Golf R Estate is of course a lot cheaper to buy than those previously mentioned, as you would expect with a Golf, but you still get a lot of kit and of course the all-important four-wheel drive.
It also looks more stealthy in terms of appearance. The quad tail pipes are the only giveaway of this car's performance and power. You get an impressive 600 litres of boot space, or 1,620 litres with the seats folded flat. That's excellent for what is essentially an elongated mid-size hatchback.
Search Used Volkswagen Golf Estates
MINI Clubman JCW
The MINI Clubman John Cooper Works is the fastest accelerating MINI available, hitting 62mph from a standstill in just 4.9 seconds.
This is thanks to a 302bhp engine, also found in the brand-new BMW 1 Series M135i, which is also complemented with four wheel drive, again mirroring the BMW M135i xDrive.
The boot offers 360 litres of space which can be increased to 1,250 litres with the rear seats folded. With 6-doors, the Clubman is not just the fastest accelerating MINI, but also the most unique looking estate in our list. It is a car for those who like to stand out, but also don't like to hang about.
Search Used MINI Clubman
BMW 5 Series 540i xDrive Touring
Interestingly, BMW don't offer a full-fat M car in estate form, but the 5 Series 540i xDrive Touring is certainly not lacking power, with a smidge under 340bhp, enough for 0-62mph in 4.9 seconds.
Unlike a traditional BMW, the 540i xDrive Touring comes with all-wheel drive (xDrive) meaning power can be distributed effectively, in any weather.
That makes it more than welcome in this league of fast estate cars. It's also wonderfully practical too with 570-litres of boot space, which increases to an impressive 1700-litres with the rear seats folded flat.
Search Used BMW 5 Series Estate
Volvo V60 Polestar
We conclude in the only way possible, as you simply cannot write an article on estate cars without mentioning Volvo.
This is perhaps where the stereotype came from, as old Volvo estates were extremely boxy, and quite slow. But recently, Volvo decided to push their Polestar sub brand, and give a V60 estate some serious power. 345bhp to be precise, good enough for the 62mph sprint in just 4.8 seconds.
Boot space is good - it is a Volvo after all - and offers 430 litres, or 1,241 litres with the rear seats folded, proving Volvo still know a thing or two about estates.
Search Used Volvo V60
Find your perfect used fast estate car
As you can see, the estate car doesn't have to be boring, and manufacturers are still ensuring their estates offer plenty of practicality, along with performance to give coupes and supercars a run for their money.
In a world where the SUV is highly regarded, it is always good to be reminded of the brilliantly capable fast estate car.
At Stratstone, our used inventory is home to a wide range of estate cars from a variety of different brands. Because all of our used cars are thoroughly prepared to exacting standards before they go on sale, you can rest assured that you're getting a great car at a great price.
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Sandra Halliday
Burberry speeds up green goals, to be "climate positive" by 2040
Burberry said on Thursday that it would be "climate positive by 2040", the new sustainability ambition making it the first luxury brand to aim for that target, it added.
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Burberry - Spring-Summer2021 - Womenswear - Londres - © PixelFormula
The company said this takes it further than its current 2040 net-zero target "by investing in key initiatives to support wider climate change efforts beyond its value chain".
On the way to its new target, it will be cutting emissions across its extended supply chain by 46% by 2030 and developing projects that "support others in their own carbon journeys".
At the same time, the company announced its support for the Fashion Avengers. This is a coalition of global fashion organisations "that have come together to inspire action towards achieving the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)".
CEO Marco Gobbetti said the company aims to be "a force for good in the world. By strengthening our commitment to sustainability, we are going further in helping protect our planet for generations to come".
Looking at the detail of the new pledge, that aim to reduce emissions across its extended supply chain by 46% by the end of this decade sees it accelerating its previous target of 30%. It means Burberry's Science Based Targets will be aligned to the 1.5°C pathway set out in the Paris Agreement.
It will also be accelerating low-carbon future solutions and investing in nature-based projects with carbon benefits beyond its own operations. That means initiatives like investing in programmes that protect and restore natural ecosystems that remove carbon from the atmosphere. And it will be funding "climate resilience projects that empower vulnerable, frontline communities to adapt to changing realities and protect livelihoods".
It also aims to become an "active advocate" for what it will take to transform the fashion industry.
The Burberry Regeneration Fund that it set up last year will be key to all of this as it supports a portfolio of verified carbon offsetting and insetting projects. For its inaugural insetting project, Burberry is partnering with PUR Projet to implement a regenerative agricultural programme with wool producers in Australia.


American Micro Products features a full spectrum of inspection and quality control instruments for verification of micro-precision parts.
For its glass-to-metal, hermetically sealed electrical connectors, the company must meet tight quality standards. It holds extensive certifications and accreditations, including ISO9001, IATF16949, AS9100, ITAR and others.
This multi-stage oven heats the connector to 2,000°F to create a compression seal.
The vision system can check multiple dimensions from two different angles, feeding as many as 7,200 parts per hour.
The company's particle-counting microscope can magnify to 600 times, allowing close examination in critical applications.
When the subject of micromachining comes up, people often think immediately of tiny parts. But it's really more about the technology that allows the production of these parts, and that technology can be applied to features on parts of any size. Micromachining requires a certain level of precision that isn't easily attainable; the right tooling and workholding, finishing processes and inspection and quality control must all work flawlessly together to produce these types of parts to the standards set forth by today's electronics, automotive, medical, aerospace and other industries requiring small features with such tight tolerances.
One shop in Batavia, Ohio, just east of Cincinnati, knows what it takes to serve up this level of precision. We've written about American Micro Products Inc. (AMPI) before. Founded in 1957, the company has been a well-respected leader in the field of precision machined components. Its global reach and its capabilities in micro and high precision manufacturing have allowed AMPI to serve a variety of high-technology markets including automotive, diesel fuel system components, aerospace, medical and industrial, among others.
Today, the corporate headquarters, with core competencies of electrical, mechanical and test and measurement services, includes 140,000 square feet of floor space and employs about 200 people. The company also has a 40,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in China (Micro Global) that employs 100 more. Mixed with its long list of internal capabilities, including automation, plating, maintenance and finishing, it has formed a network of outside services that include casting, coating, forging, heat treating, laser welding, metal injection molding and extrusion. With strategic alliances with its customers, the company can better understand their needs and how its combined resources can offer the advantages necessary to meet the customers' goals.
AMPI has established a reputation for quality custom products including custom connectors, feed-throughs, headers, hermetic packages, match seals and ceramic seals. Its precision machining capabilities include turning from 0.1 mm to 150 mm, turning lengths as long as 600 mm, milling to 800 × 410 × 510 mm and tolerances to ±0.001 mm.
One of the key products from AMPI is a line of glass-to-metal and ceramic-to-metal (versus the typical epoxy-to-metal), hermetically sealed electrical connectors, which was added to the product offering back in 1998. The connectors are designed to withstand harsh environmental conditions such as deep well or space and mission-critical applications such as the black box of an airplane.
The company can produce almost a million different configurations of the connectors, based on the shell size, number of contacts, contact positioning and broach placement. It must meet tight quality standards to match the customer's required tolerances. AMPI is on the DLA Qualified Products List (QPL) for MIL-DTL-38999 series I, II, and III, MIL-DTL-83723 series III and MIL-DTL-26500. It also manufactures commercial equivalents to MIL-DTL-5051, MIL-DTL-26482, EN2997 and ESC10.
The connectors go through 27 different processes during production. To create the insulator, a glass pellet is inserted into the shell using a graphite fixture designed to withstand high temperatures. It then very slowly travels across a conveyor through multiple heating zones of an oven that heats to higher than 2,000°F. The metal of the shell expands, and the glass becomes a gel state. As the components move through the oven and gradually move to cooler temperatures, the glass hardens first and the metal compresses to create the seal. The compression seal is so restrictive that helium testing has indicated that it would take 5,000 years for one cubic inch of air to pass through. Connectors are available in various shapes and with different fit-throughs and headers. Materials may be stainless, Inconel or other alloys, depending on the application.
The company's experience with the precision requirements of the connectors has furthered its understanding of test and measure processes. Qualifying a part such as the connector can amount to as much as $500,000, so AMPI has found that it is best to keep all of its quality control processes in-house. With its existing substantial investment in test and measure equipment, the company is even considering expanding to become a lab that will offer these capabilities as a service.
In its efforts to keep up with the ever-tightening requirements of multiple industries driving to zero-defect, the company has attained a stream of certifications and accreditations, including ISO9001, IATF16949, AS9100, NADCAP and ITAR. The quality department includes a nice lineup of inspection and measurement equipment specific to various part features. The CMM allows measurement of the geometry of physical objects by sensing discrete points on the surface of the object with a probe. The Zeiss Rondcom allows measurement of cylindricity, roundness and TIR. Tesa-Scan systems verify with vision capability a different array of outside dimensions of a part. The quality department also includes an OGP SmartScope, a Zeiss Surfcom surface texture and contour measuring system, a Formtracer surface roughness analyzer, and several optical comparators, along with more than 2,500 precision measuring tools.
Based on experience, the company's quality personnel can easily determine what type of inspection a part will need. Sometimes the decision is based on quantity. High-volume jobs may work better with in-process gaging inside the machines. While this equipment is not measuring to the precision of the other systems, in many cases it is sufficient to determine whether a part is good.
Mr. Veneziano says the company closely considers quality prior to taking on a job, while many other shops will take a job based solely on machining capabilities and then consider the quality requirements later. "When we approach a customer, our first pitch is our measurement capabilities. We need to know, first, if we can measure the part, and then we consider the production process," he says. He explains that the standard in manufacturing is less than three-percent failure rate, but AMPI targets below one percent, with some customer designs demanding that difficult-to-achieve zero failure.
AMPI's capabilities in the production of its connectors are intertwined with other industries that the company serves. It has become quite adept in dealing with tight cleanliness requirements as well and has applied that skill accordingly. Among its metrology investments is a particle-counting microscope that can magnify to 600 times, allowing close examination in critical applications.
In the production of some fuel injectors, machining is so accurate that traditional seals are being eliminated and replaced with metal-to-metal seals. In this design, the parts need to meet cleanliness standards that were previously unattainable. The particle-counting microscope allows verification that the parts meet the extreme particle size tolerance.
After both solvent and ultrasonic cleaning processes, the parts are run through a Millipore test that involves putting fluid on the part and using a patch to collect the debris. The patch is then placed in an oven to dry out the fluid. The patch is measured and must be below a certain weight, indicating that it did not pick up too much debris. The patch is then examined under the microscope at 400× to see exactly what particles it has picked up.
While cleanliness standards were previously associated mostly with automotive applications, other industries are quickly upping their game in this area. Even the aerospace industry has established tighter restrictions relating to foreign object debris (FOD). Materials traceability has also become a very significant part of the quality strategy.
Applying its experience in the production of precision components, their inspection and measurement, and ensuring that they meet the necessary clean specs allows AMPI's to continue its momentum in this range of industries.
For more information from AMPI Products Inc., call 800-479-2193 or visit american-micro.com.