These two kinds of bread caught my eyes at the nearby bakery today. I knew the pink one was "Sakura (cherry blossom) mushipan (steamed cakebread)," which is my favorite. Usually they sell sakura mushipan in the cherry-blossom season only, so I don't hesitate to buy one when I find them on the shelf.
When I read the tag, I found that the green stripes were matcha cream.
Boy, it must be some work to make the matcha cream look this way.
And this Sakura mushipan ! The mushipan is very soft, and the anko (sweet azuki -bean paste) at the bottom adds some, not too much sweetness, which is wonderful!
What I like the best is, however, the salted cherry leaf at the bottom. It has a very distinctive flavor, and to tell the truth, I hated it when I was a kid. At that time I never saw Sakura mushipan around, but Sakuramochi was already very popular. I still remembet the first time I tried a salt-preserved cherry leaf. When I was eating a sakuramochi, my grandma told me to eat the leaf, too. I thought she was kidding, but she insisted and promised me it would taste good, so I gave it a try. And I hated it. I just spitted it out and was mad at her for the rest of the day.
Well, my preference changed as I grew up and now I love the combination of lightly sweetened mushipan (or mochi or whatever), sweet bean paste and the salty cherry leaf so much. The taste of the cherry leaf always reminds me of my grandma's gnarled fingers (because after that incident I made her remove cherry leaf from sakuramochi every time I ate one).
When I was younger, I thought tenmusu (rice ball with batter-fried shrimp inside) was a real unfamiliar food. The idea of putting batter-fried food in a rice ball sounded so strange to me. I thought that deep-fried batter would taste greasy and awful, and would never go well with the rice.
It was after I turned 20 years old when I tasted tenmusu for the first time. And guess what? I liked it!! Maybe It was largely because I grew to love green perilla by then.
The green perilla is just wonderful in tenmusu, I think. Its refreshing flavor cancels out the greasiness and goes well with the nori (dried seaweed).
I like these tenmusu from the shop, but more green perilla leaves and more salt would make them even better, I think.
1. Making a square-shaped cake. Japanese birthday cakes are usually round, but I miss the kind of cakes I had in the U.S….
2. Writing "Happy Birthday " on a cake. It sounds like something you can do anytime, but actually, I haven't done it before.
3. Using "sugared violet" for garnishing a cake. I saw "sugard violet " in a baking book when I was a kid and got charmed by it. It just sounded so romantic!
In order to give a little extra flavor to the cake, I added a little grated orange rind and orange juice when making the cake batter. I used "Kiyomi" orange, which is said to be the hybrid of tangerine and trovita oranges. To be perfectly honest, it made the cake a little heavy, but I loved the orange flavor!
It was really a big challenge for me, but I did slice the cake in half and sandwiched whipped cream and flesh of Kiyomi orange.
Now I have to confess that I'm not good at handling cream at all. It always takes so long for me to whip cream, even though I use a lot of ice cubes to cool it while whipping, and I get tired. Especially this time, the orange-colored one was runny no matter how hard I whipped, probably because of the tiny amount of water I added to dissolve the food coloring powder and orange curacao?
Anyway, I'm not going to tell you how long it took for me to decorate this cake, but finally!! I managed to smooth the surface and wrote "Happy Birthday" on it. When I put the sugared violet on the cream, I had a great feeling of accomplishment. It did NOT turn out exactly as I had dreamed of, but at least I tried out everything I had been dreaming of. It is nice to know that someone (even it was myself) spent so much time and effort for my birthday, after all.
A Big Piece for myself, of course.
So this is my XXth birthday, folks.
BTW, I tasted the sugared violet for the first time in my life, and it's amazing! I expected it to be just sugar-sweet with no particular flavor, but it does have very distinctive flavor!! I wonder if the flavor was artificially added… or is it something that naturally comes from the violet??? Hmmmmm…. I love it! It tastes so good with nice black tea.
Guess what this is? It's rhubarb sprout.
My rhubarb seemed completely dead at the end of November last year, but today I noticed that it was alive!!!
This is my favorite dish that I often make before my pay day. In Japan, bean sprouts are SO cheap. Of course, that is not the only reason that I love this stir-fry dish. I just love the crunchiness of the bean sprouts.
For dessert, I had a blueberry muffin that a friend of mine gave me yesterday. The blueberries in the muffin tasted so good.
I wonder when I would be able to bake blueberry muffins with the blueberries from my balcony garden... Maybe this summer? Oh I can hardly wait!!
There's a vendor who sells this Pikachu kasutera near the Izakaya I work at. I don't know what triggered me to go for it today, but I came home with a bagful of these cute yummies (500 yen a bag). They were still warm when I got home.
Look at the closeup. Yeah, they are too cute to eat.
BTW, there's another vendor near the Izakaya who sells Doraemon Kasutera. I might try them, too, someday.
It has been terribly cold and windy for the past 2 days so I thought my plants were probably frozen to dath. I saw today, however, the young leaves are growing OK in my balcony garden, telling me it's spring now.
Maybe I should go look for early cherry blossoms somethime this week.
Yep! I tried out MrsT's Chewy Oatmeal Raisin Cookies resipe. They look pretty nice, I think.
Actually, they turned out rather crunchy than chewy ;P I guess I baked them a bit too long. Usually I need to bake longer than the baking time said in almost any recipe, because my oven is so small, old and not very powerful. Maybe it didn't apply to this recipe. Anyway, they taste pretty good. Next time I'll watch the baking time and might add some honey to make it more chewy.
My cookie jar looks so happy to be filled up with these yummy cookies.
This was my humble accomplishment of last weekend. Sorry, I've been too lazy to blog until today.
What's in the photo above is what we call Oyako donburi (chicken and egg bowl) here. Oyako means "parent and child," and this dish got its name obviously because chicken and egg are used for the topping. It is important not to overcook the egg and add something green---like green onion or mitsuba.
I also made Rachel's Fuwa Fuwa Soy Milk Cakey --- matcha version, this time. Again mine turned out very soft, but better than my last attempt. At least, it came out from the small cake tin alright this time. I liked the taste, but could have added a little more matcha.
White Stew or Cream Stew?
Honestly, I'm not sure what I should call this. White Stew? In Japan, we call this "Cream Stew" --- that's what it says on the package of the roux.
Anyway, when I found all these vegs at discount, I felt as if they were all pushing me to make this dish.
It was a nice day off today, after all. I did have a little exercise, walking along the river (in the rain). Also I painted a watercolor, which I haven't done for months!
Now I'm going to take a sip of nice white wine and go to bed early.
BTW, in Japan we call this "Mabo Dofu."


text:
IndiGo Uses Sensors To Cut Life Vest Inspection Time by 90%
Prior to the incorporation of sensor technology, IndiGo resorted to manual inspection of all vests, which would normally take 90-120 minutes, depending on the type of aircraft.
IndiGo has deployed sensor technology for faster and more accurate scanning of life vests on its aircraft, cutting down inspection time by 90%.
Neetan Chopra, Chief Digital and Information Officer, IndiGo, said the airline was constantly exploring new avenues of utilising technology to drive innovation and enhance operational efficiency.
"Developed completely in-house, this sensor-based inspection process for life vests enables us to prepare aircraft faster for the next flight. We will continue to push into new digital and innovative frontiers and introduce more such solutions," he said. Essentially, it is an automated data collection technology that reads tags on the life vests and helps in identifying, tracking and locating the tagged life vests.
This inspection time has now been reduced to 3-4 minutes per aircraft with the introduction of sensor technology. IndiGo will also be able to maintain life vest expiry date and availability on a real-time basis with the incorporation of sensor tags on the vests.
As mandatory safety equipment, life vests are carried on all passenger aircraft in commercial service and these vests require periodic checks to ensure that they are in serviceable condition and adequate numbers are available on board the aircraft.
IndiGo's aircraft fleet now stands at 300 aircraft with more than 53,000 life vests.
IndiGo Fleet Size Grows To 300 Aircraft
IndiGo Begins Flights From New Goa International Airport
Rohit Suri, President & MD, JLR India To Retire On March 31, 2023
Pratt & Whitney Opens India Engineering Center In Bengaluru

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


1957. 88 pages. Pictorial blue dust jacket over red boards. Illustrations by Joan Kiddell. Firm binding to clean, lightly tanned pages with bright copy throughout. Minor foxing to endpapers and occasional page edges. Minor spot to rear with tanning to edges and spine ends. Pronounced forward lean. Light rub wear to edges and bumped corners. Moderate shelf wear and markings to dust jacket with tanning to spine and edges. Moderate creasing and tears to edges with yellowed tape securing tears.


EVERYTHING I MAKE IS GUARANTEED FRESH AND MADE TO ORDER USING ONLY THE FINEST, FRESHEST INGREDIENTS. I USE GUITTARD, CALLEBAUT AND GHIRADELLI CHOCOLATE, MASSEY VANILLA, REAL AA BUTTER, AND ORGANIC EGGS, FLOUR, MILK, AND REAL CREAM. YOU REALLY CAN TASTE THE DIFFERENCE. THERE IS NO CUTTING CORNERS.


text:
Judge Narrows Focus in Police Shooting Case
December 11, 2013 Heather Johnson
SACRAMENTO (CN) – A federal judge dismissed excessive force and other civil rights claims against a Vallejo police officer who shot and killed a student while he was making an anti-violence music video.
According to the federal complaint in Sacramento, Guy J. Jarreau Jr. was directing a film crew consisting of classmates and friends when officers arrived and ordered them to disperse.
However his mother, Andrea Jarreau-Griffin claims that when the film crew attempted to obey the police order, Jarreau was "blocked off by an unmarked police car."
She says at this point City of Vallejo Police Officer Kent Tribble, who was dressed in plain clothes, shot her son without warning or provocation as he raised his hands, in one of which he held a green cup.
After the shooting, Jarreau-Griffin says her son "was incapacitated" and "clearly in need of emergency care."
Despite this, she says, officers, including Tribble, waited "unreasonably long before calling for medical assistance."
Jarreau was taken to John Muir Medical Center and later died from his injuries.
Jarreau-Griffin and her son's estate sued the City of Vallejo and Officer Tribble in his individual and official capacity in December 2012. The plaintiffs filed an amended complaint in June 2013, alleging multiple causes of action for excessive force, deprivation of medical care, deprivation of familial relationship, and municipal liability.
A month later, the defendants moved for dismissal of the latter two claims as well as one of two excessive force claims – that the shooting of Jarreau violated his Fourteenth Amendment rights.
U.S. District Judge Kimberly Mueller dismissed the excessive force claim predicated on the Fourteenth Amendment, holding that "[A]ll claims that law enforcement officers have used excessive force – deadly or not – in the course of an arrest, investigatory stop, or other 'seizure' of a free citizen should be analyzed under the Fourth Amendment."
In doing so, she left the plaintiffs' claim of excessive force under the Fourth Amendment undisturbed.
On the second disputed claim, that of Tribble's having deprived plaintiffs of their right to a familial relationship, Mueller found that "the relatives of victims of unlawful police killings have personal standing to claim deprivation of familial relationship under the substantive due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment."
She then limited Jarreau-Griffin's claims to those based on the Fourteenth Amendment, dismissing the similar claim under the Fourth Amendment.
As for the plaintiffs' claim the City of Vallejo failed to properly train Tribble and other officers on the use of deadly force, Mueller ruled the allegations made in the complaint were insufficient to state a claim.
Finally, Mueller dismissed the plaintiffs' request for punitive damages against the city on the grounds that such damages are not recoverable against public entities.
← EU Court Approves $8.5B Microsoft-Skype Deal
California's Gun-Law Justifications Don't Fly →
Mansion Off-Limits to Jeffrey Epstein Ahead of Trial


text:
Lipniki – dawna gromada, czyli najmniejsza jednostka podziału terytorialnego Polskiej Rzeczypospolitej Ludowej w latach 1954–1972.

Gromady, z gromadzkimi radami narodowymi (GRN) jako organami władzy najniższego stopnia na wsi, funkcjonowały od reformy reorganizującej administrację wiejską przeprowadzonej jesienią 1954 do momentu ich zniesienia z dniem 1 stycznia 1973, tym samym wypierając organizację gminną w latach 1954–1972.

Gromadę Lipniki z siedzibą GRN w Lipnikach utworzono – jako jedną z 8759 gromad – w powiecie kolneńskim w woj. białostockim, na mocy uchwały nr 17/V WRN w Białymstoku z dnia 4 października 1954. W skład jednostki weszły obszary dotychczasowych gromad Lipniki i Tartak ze zniesionej gminy Łyse w tymże powiecie. Dla gromady ustalono 16 członków gromadzkiej rady narodowej.

1 stycznia 1966 do gromady Lipniki przyłączono wsie Baba i Szafranki ze zniesionej gromady Baba.

1 stycznia 1972 do gromady Lipniki przyłączono wsie Brzozowa i Czarnia ze zniesionej gromady Kuzie.

Gromada przetrwała do końca 1972 roku, czyli do kolejnej reformy gminnej (na uwagę zasługuje fakt, że w związku ze zniesieniem gromady Lipniki sołectwa Brzozowa i Czarnia weszły w skład powiatu ostrołęckiego w woj. warszawskim).

Przypisy

Lipniki

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Should You Compete With (and Potentially Kill) Your Own Business?
No Comments on Should You Compete With (and Potentially Kill) Your Own Business?Posted in MARKETING NEWS By ThomasPosted on 27/06/2019 27/06/2019
Adam Schwartz's t-shirt company was struggling. Instead of saving it, he built something new — and better.
This story appears in the
issue of
Entrepreneur. Subscribe »
Some entrepreneurs try to reinvent their brand. If business is suffering, they'll pivot repeatedly to spark that magical product-market fit. And as Adam Schwartz's T-shirt company began suffering, he initially tried to do the same thing. Then he came to a different philosophy: "Kill your business with a better business," he says. In other words, if a business isn't working, take what you learn and launch a competitor.
That mentality just led him to a $41 million exit.
Related: This Romper for Men Kickstarter Campaign Raised Over $50,000 in a Day
The original business was called BustedTees — a brand that sold jokey T-shirts with slogans like "Bigfoot: Hide & Seek Champion" and was heavily advertised online in the early 2000s. Schwartz wasn't actually there in the beginning. Instead, the company was birthed by the team that created the video site CollegeHumor.com. Then in 2006, internet giant IAC acquired both CollegeHumor and BustedTees, and hired its founding team.
In 2011, one of those founders, Josh Abramson, decided to leave IAC and wanted to bring BustedTees with him. So Abramson bought it from IAC. That's when he and Schwartz connected through a mutual friend. The two saw untapped potential in the T-shirt brand, and began advertising a new crop of funny shirts by using sophisticated online targeting.
It worked. In the first two years, Schwartz and Abramson doubled BustedTees' business. But around 2013, growth slowed. This was the year that the coupon site Groupon and flash-sale site Fab both exploded, and the two new giants (along with their many copycats) spent heavily on digital advertising, driving up the costs to market on places like Google and Facebook. This squashed BustedTees' business model; it became too expensive to acquire new customers.
Related: Katie Sturino Has Built a Business Promoting Positive Self-Image and Fashion for Plus-Size Women Like Her
Maybe, the BustedTees team thought, it was time for them to chase the trends. "We had a serious conversation about pivoting the business to a completely flash-sale model," Schwartz says. They even tried it out, but they decided it was a losing game. (They were right: Fab would soon blow through $200 million and collapse; others would follow.) That's when they stepped back and questioned the fundamentals of their business.
"I wanted to wield the power of the internet for something, and what we were doing with BustedTees was running a very traditional retail business that my grandfather could have been running," Schwartz says. The company, after all, just stocked up on inventory and sold it. But what if they utilized the power of digital better? What kind of T-shirt company could they build?
Soon they'd discovered new on-demand T-shirt-printing technology, which eliminated the need for inventory. Then they conceived of a new company in which they'd recruit artists, help the artists make and market great T-shirts, and sell them on demand. "We said, 'We don't think BustedTees is going to continue to grow the way it has been, so let's take a couple hundred thousand dollars out of the business and build an entirely new thing and see if there's anything there,' " Schwartz says.
Related: Why One Man Came Out of Retirement to Start a Custom T-Shirt Franchise
Within months, they launched a company called TeePublic. After a year, it had grown to the same size as BustedTees — and then continued to double for years after. Schwartz and Abramson kept BustedTees running but shifted almost all resources over to their new brand — growing its stable of artists, its reach, and the products it sold. By the end of 2018, an Australian company called Redbubble bought TeePublic for $41 million. Then Josh Kent, founder of the Michigan-based company SunFrog, bought bought BustedTees for a smaller, undisclosed amount.
The experience gave Schwartz a new perspective on entrepreneurship. He sees too many entrepreneurs become attached to their original ideas or try desperately to keep a brand alive. But, he says, he now believes the most important thing to do is learn from failure — and use that insight for the next thing. "Get two years in and don't be afraid to stop and say, 'What is everything wrong with this model in this business?' " he says. "Then just kill it. Just kill the whole thing and start over with exactly the better version."
Boris and Brexit Could Boost Bitcoin
What Effect Is Political Uncertainty Having On The Price Of Gold? – Finance Monthly


So from the above configuration that 80% of the RAM is allocation to the buffer pool to cache the data from the physical DB. We cannot change the innodb_buffer_pool_size as we need to support high availability and throughput time.
1. Is there a way to optimize the RAM usage of mysqld?
2. Is it possible that RAM get fragmented with huge transaction with update/insert/delete as it always reflects in both RAM and hard disk?
3. Can you please provide the De-fragmentation steps to perform it on the RAM to optimize the memory usage ?
For any other information needed please reply.


text:
Michaił Odiniec
 Dmitrij Odiniec

Zobacz też
 Odyniec


text:
Lunchconcert: Vatulya & Nemtsova
15 maart 2016, 12:30-13:00 uur
Vatulya & Nemtsova
Vitaly Vatulya, saxofoon
Maria Nemtsova, piano
Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767)
Fantasie №2 van 12 Fantasieën voor fluit zonder bas, TWV 40:2-13 (arrangement voor sopraansaxofoon)
Aria voor altsaxofoon en piano
Jean Denis Michat
Shams voor altsaxofoon en piano
Dit concert werd mogelijk gemaakt door vrienden van Thomas Open
Vitaly Vatulya is one of the most outstanding young saxophonists of Russia. He was born in Moscow in 1987. Vitaly started his music education at the age of 7, and at the age of 13 he won a national contest called 'Young Virtuoso' in Simferopol, Ukraine. Later Vitaly Vatulya won various awards at 'Young saxophonist' European Contest (Gap, France), 'Classical Heritage' International Competition (Moscow, Russia), and the International Competition for Wind Instruments (Togliatti, Russia).
In 2003-2005 Vitaly Vatulya was training at the European University of Saxophone in Gap. He took classes with leading professors, including Claude Delangle, Vincent David, Christian Wirth (France), Arno Bornkamp (Netherlands), Fabrizio Mancuso (Italy). In 2005 Vitaly won the Grand Prix at the International Competition 'Art of the 21st Century' in Kiev (Ukraine). After graduating the College of Music at A. Schnittke Moscow State Institute of Music (the class of Professor Yury Vorontsov) and Gnessin Russian Academy of Music (the class of Professor Margarita Shaposhnikova) Vitaly entered the Conservatorium van Amsterdam (The class of the Arno Bornkamp) in 2015. He has participated in master classes of distinguished artists such as Jean-Denis Michat and Jean-Yves Fourmeau (France), Jörgen Pettersson (Sweden), Johannes Ernst (Germany), Nobuya Sugawa (Japan), Kenneth Tse and Frederick Hemke (USA).
In 2010 Vitaly Vatulya won the 'River of Talents' Music Competition, organized by the St. Petersburg House of Music, and SaxArte International Festival (Cetara, Italy). In 2011 he graduated from the Gnessin Russian Academy of Music, won a prize at the Moscow International Saxophone Competition called 'The Voice of Saxophone in the Modern World' and got a gold medal at 'Delphic Play', the 10th All-Russian Contest in Russia.
In 2015 Vitaly Vatulya has won first prize in the international saxophone competition 'Marco Fiorindo' in Italy. Additionally he won first prize in the chamber music category, together with pianist Maria Nemtsova, with whom he has formed VitaDuo.
Vitaly Vatulya performs as a soloist and an ensemble player, gives concerts in Russia and abroad. He is a founder of the Symbol Saxophone Quartet and performs with the leading Russian orchestras, including the Moscow State Symphony Orchestra, Russian State Symphony Orchestra, St. Petersburg State Capella Symphony Orchestra and others. Vitaly is a regular performer at the St. Petersburg House of Music.
In 2005 Vitaly also started an active teaching career. His students regularly become winners of international competitions and festivals. Vitaly's performances can often be heard on the Russian and Ukrainian radio and TV. Since 2007 the saxophonist released three CDs, where he performed the works by Hindemith, Debussy, Franck, Mendelssohn, Borne etc.. Vitaly Vatulya regularly takes part in various festivals in France, Sweden, Austria, Poland, Israel and others. Vitaly is also one of the authors and initiators of the 'Music for Peace' international charity project (www.music-peace.com).
Maria Nemtsova was born in Moscow, Russia in 1984 and began playing the piano at the age of five. By the age of 6 Maria won her first piano competition. She later went on to attend the Chopin Music School studying with Galina Esman, and taking part in the televised competition "Young Musicians of Moscow" (1997). In 1998 Maria Nemtsova was accepted into the competitive Tchaikovsky Moscow Conservatory Academic College. Whilst at the College, Maria participated in many festivals and gave concerts in Russia, Czech Republic, Germany, Austria and USA. She was accepted into the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory after the graduating from the Music College with distinction in 2002. It was at the Moscow Conservatory that Maria studied with the renowned pianist and teacher Prof. Yuri Slessarev from where she graduated in 2007 with honors. Maria successfully completed her Post Graduate Diploma in Music Performance (graduating with Distinction) at the Royal College of Music (RCM) in London where she studied with Professor Dmitry Alexeev. In 2008 Maria was accepted at the prestigious Accademia Pianistica (Imola, Italy) where she studied with Maestro L.N.Margarius. In 2012 Maria successfully completed her Artist Diploma in Italy and MMus programme at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in London, where she got a full scholarship and a Derek Butler Award, resulting in a performance at Wigmore Hall in May 2011. In London she was studying with the Professor Deniz Gelenbe. After the performance at the Isabelle Bond Gold Medal Showcase In January 2012 Maria won the Gold Medal, the most prestigious prize at Trinity Laban conservatoire.
Maria has been a prizewinner of numerous international piano competitions including Russia, Italy, Austria and USA. She received First Prizes for her outstanding performances at "Musica di Riccione" in Italy, "P. Serebryakov International Piano competition" in Russia, Fort Worth Concerto competition in USA. In 2013 she has got the third prize at the "Rosario Marciano International Piano competition" in Vienna, Austria.
Maria was the William Smith International Performance Scholar between 2007-09. During her studies at the RCM Maria gave a number of solo and chamber recitals throughout the UK, Germany, Italy, Tunisia, Mongolia and USA, one of which was the Duke of Edinburgh's Award International Gala Concert at the RCM in the presence of HRH The Earl of Wessex.
In March 2010, Maria gave her solo debut at the Carnegie Hall in New York City.
She has also participated in International Festivals in Italy, UK, USA, Poland, Russia and other countries. Maria collaborated with Pavel Nersesyan (piano, Russia/USA), Jean-Denis Michat (saxophone, France), Artiom Shishkov (violin, Belorussia), Alexander Ram (cello, Russia/Lithunia), Jean Ives Fourmeau (saxophone, France) and many others.
Maria has performed at major venues around the world including Carnegie Weil Recital Hall in New York, Wigmore Hall, Kings Place and Steinway Hall in London, Boesendorfer Hall and Ehrbar-Saal in Vienna, National Center of Performing Arts in Beijing and Shanghai Oriental Arts Center in China, Great Hall of Moscow conservatoire, International House of Music in Moscow, and many others.
Maria is a founder of the charitable project "Music – for peace" (www.music-peace.com) which includes concerts and master-classes for young musicians who live in today's conflict zones. Within the project Maria went to perform to more than twenty countries including Kosovo, Israel, Georgia, Armenia, Tunisia and others.
In addition to her solo CDs, which includes works commissioned for her by Giorgi Janiashvili, she has recorded with saxophonist Vitaly Vatulya and famous opera singer Dmitry Stepanovich.


text:
namespace operations_research {
// ----- Exchange 2 intervals on a sequence variable -----

class SwapIntervals : public SequenceVarLocalSearchOperator {
 public:
  explicit SwapIntervals(const std::vector<SequenceVar*>& vars)
      : SequenceVarLocalSearchOperator(vars),
        current_var_(-1),
        current_first_(-1),
        current_second_(-1) {}

  virtual ~SwapIntervals() {}

  virtual bool MakeNextNeighbor(Assignment* delta, Assignment* deltadelta) {
    CHECK_NOTNULL(delta);
    while (true) {
      RevertChanges(true);
      if (!Increment()) {
        VLOG(1) << "finished neighborhood";
        return false;
      }

      std::vector<int> sequence = Sequence(current_var_);
      const int tmp = sequence[current_first_];
      sequence[current_first_] = sequence[current_second_];
      sequence[current_second_] = tmp;
      SetForwardSequence(current_var_, sequence);
      if (ApplyChanges(delta, deltadelta)) {
        VLOG(1) << "Delta = " << delta->DebugString();
        return true;
      }
    }
    return false;
  }

 protected:
  virtual void OnStart() {
    VLOG(1) << "start neighborhood";
    current_var_ = 0;
    current_first_ = 0;
    current_second_ = 0;
  }

 private:
  bool Increment() {
    const SequenceVar* const var = Var(current_var_);
    if (++current_second_ >= var->size()) {
      if (++current_first_ >= var->size() - 1) {
        current_var_++;
        current_first_ = 0;
      }
      current_second_ = current_first_ + 1;
    }
    return current_var_ < Size();
  }

  int current_var_;
  int current_first_;
  int current_second_;
};

// ----- Shuffle a fixed-length sub-sequence on one sequence variable -----

class ShuffleIntervals : public SequenceVarLocalSearchOperator {
 public:
  ShuffleIntervals(const std::vector<SequenceVar*>& vars, int max_length)
      : SequenceVarLocalSearchOperator(vars),
        max_length_(max_length),
        current_var_(-1),
        current_first_(-1),
        current_index_(-1),
        current_length_(-1) {}

  virtual ~ShuffleIntervals() {}

  virtual bool MakeNextNeighbor(Assignment* delta, Assignment* deltadelta) {
    CHECK_NOTNULL(delta);
    while (true) {
      RevertChanges(true);
      if (!Increment()) {
        VLOG(1) << "finished neighborhood";
        return false;
      }

      std::vector<int> sequence = Sequence(current_var_);
      std::vector<int> sequence_backup(current_length_);
      for (int i = 0; i < current_length_; ++i) {
        sequence_backup[i] = sequence[i + current_first_];
      }
      for (int i = 0; i < current_length_; ++i) {
        sequence[i + current_first_] = sequence_backup[current_permutation_[i]];
      }
      SetForwardSequence(current_var_, sequence);
      if (ApplyChanges(delta, deltadelta)) {
        VLOG(1) << "Delta = " << delta->DebugString();
        return true;
      }
    }
    return false;
  }

 protected:
  virtual void OnStart() {
    VLOG(1) << "start neighborhood";
    current_var_ = 0;
    current_first_ = 0;
    current_index_ = -1;
    current_length_ = std::min(Var(current_var_)->size(), max_length_);
    current_permutation_.resize(current_length_);
    for (int i = 0; i < current_length_; ++i) {
      current_permutation_[i] = i;
    }
  }

 private:
  bool Increment() {
    if (!std::next_permutation(current_permutation_.begin(),
                               current_permutation_.end())) {
      if (++current_first_ >= Var(current_var_)->size() - current_length_) {
        if (++current_var_ >= Size()) {
          return false;
        }
        current_first_ = 0;
        current_length_ = std::min(Var(current_var_)->size(), max_length_);
        current_permutation_.resize(current_length_);
      }
      current_index_ = 0;
    }
    return true;
  }

  const int64 max_length_;
  int current_var_;
  int current_first_;
  int current_index_;
  int current_length_;
  std::vector<int> current_permutation_;
};

// ----- LNS Operator -----

class SequenceLns : public SequenceVarLocalSearchOperator {
 public:
  SequenceLns(const std::vector<SequenceVar*>& vars, int seed, int max_length)
      : SequenceVarLocalSearchOperator(vars),
        random_(seed),
        max_length_(max_length) {}

  virtual ~SequenceLns() {}

  virtual bool MakeNextNeighbor(Assignment* delta, Assignment* deltadelta) {
    CHECK_NOTNULL(delta);
    while (true) {
      RevertChanges(true);
      if (random_.Uniform(2) == 0) {
        FreeTimeWindow();
      } else {
        FreeTwoResources();
      }
      if (ApplyChanges(delta, deltadelta)) {
        VLOG(1) << "Delta = " << delta->DebugString();
        return true;
      }
    }
    return false;
  }

 private:
  void FreeTimeWindow() {
    for (int i = 0; i < Size(); ++i) {
      std::vector<int> sequence = Sequence(i);
      const int current_length =
          std::min(static_cast<int>(sequence.size()), max_length_);
      const int start_position =
          random_.Uniform(sequence.size() - current_length);
      std::vector<int> forward;
      for (int j = 0; j < start_position; ++j) {
        forward.push_back(sequence[j]);
      }
      std::vector<int> backward;
      for (int j = sequence.size() - 1; j >= start_position + current_length;
           --j) {
        backward.push_back(sequence[j]);
      }
      SetForwardSequence(i, forward);
      SetBackwardSequence(i, backward);
    }
  }

  void FreeTwoResources() {
    std::vector<int> free_sequence;
    SetForwardSequence(random_.Uniform(Size()), free_sequence);
    SetForwardSequence(random_.Uniform(Size()), free_sequence);
  }

  ACMRandom random_;
  const int max_length_;
};
}  // namespace operations_research
#endif  // OR_TOOLS_EXAMPLES_JOBSHOP_LS_H_

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Non-Resident Hunting in New Jersey
ATTENTION CANADIAN AND OTHER NONIMMIGRANT ALIEN HUNTERS! The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) has regulations requiring all nonimmigrant aliens who temporarily import firearms or ammunition into the US to first submit an ATF Form 5330.3A (PDF). For information, see the ATF site linked above or phone 800-800-3855, or 202-648-7777.
Hunters May Not Bring Whole Deer Into New York
Information regarding hunting regulations, requirements, seasons and other topics is available in the NJ Hunting and Trapping DIGEST (published in August). Digests are available at Division offices, license agents, through the mail by request or on-line.
New Jersey hunting licenses are good for the calendar year and expire on Dec. 31 regardless of when they are purchased; there is also a Non-Resident 2-Day Small Game License which can be used for waterfowl in addition to other small game (except turkey). Licenses are available at the Division's Pequest office and license agents as well as on-line. For use of a muzzleloading rifle, a NJ Rifle Permit is required in addition to the basic firearm hunting license. The Rifle Permit is required to purchase and use a muzzleloader deer season permit.
To purchase a NJ hunting license it is necessary to document possession of a previous year's resident license or hunter education course completion. Nonresidents also have the option of obtaining an Apprentice License (some limitations apply) if they have a New Jersey hunter to serve as their "mentor". Visitors to our license Web site will find the option to purchase hunting and trapping licenses "locked" if this documentation has not been entered into a customer's profile in the license database. For purchase information please see the Hunting License Information page. To have the license options "unlocked" see the Nonresident License Documentation page.
Waterfowl hunters should consult the Hunting and Trapping Digest, published in August each year, for waterfowl hunting regulations, or view the summaries available on the Regulations page. In addition to the Federal Duck Stamp, New Jersey also requires waterfowl hunters age 16 or older possess a New Jersey Waterfowl Stamp and Hunter Information Program certification.
New Jersey has an impressive amount of public land open to hunting. We welcome hunters from outside New Jersey and think you'll find our numerous seasons and often liberal bag limits appealing.
Nonresident hunters should be aware of New Jersey's strict firearm laws. For information on transporting firearms into the state visit the NJ State Police website at www.nj.gov/njsp/firearms/transport-firearm.shtml. Contact the State Police for further information.
For questions or further information on hunting in New Jersey call 908-637-4125 ext. 0, or use the E-mail NJ DFW page.
Hunting in New Jersey
State Parks/Forests Open to Hunting
State Parks/Forests Camping


Adelaide United Youth have recorded a 2-1 win over Perth Glory Youth to maintain their undefeated start to the Foxtel Y-League 2018/19 season at Marden Sports Complex on Sunday.
Cooper Nunn broke the deadlock after finishing off a free-kick routine straight from the training ground, before an own after half-time doubled Adelaide's advantage. Perth pinched a goal back late on but it proved inconsequential as the Reds deservedly held on for the three points.
Paul Pezos fielded a strong line-up which contained some of the more senior players in the Hyundai A-League squad. Ryan Strain, Apostolos Stamatelopoulos, Nathan Konstandopoulos, Nikola Mileusnić and Isaac Richards all featured to get more minutes under their belts.
Adelaide were the much more dangerous outfit with Kristin Konstandopoulos and Mileusnić combining well down the right-flank.
The winger in particular caused the Glory defence several headaches with his sheer pace and ability to evade his opponents.
Inside 10 minutes, Mileusnić struck the post on a very tight angle to nearly open the scoring but it did not take long.
Louis D'Arrigo disguised his free-kick in a shooting position by opting to play a square pass to Nunn, at the edge of the box.
The centre-back duly obliged, rifling his low, left-footed strike into the bottom right corner to make it 1-0.
Stamatelopoulos had a great chance to increase the buffer but could not generate enough contact to beat Jackson Lee in goal.
Cooper Nunn celebrates with teammates after opening the scoring. Photo by Ken Carter.
But in the 64th minute, Adelaide got a second when Pacifique Niyongabire's cross was turned in by Zayd Farah for an own goal.
Adelaide rarely looked troubled but did concede against the run of play with four minutes remaining as Ethan Brooks' ball was clinically taken at the near post by Gabriel Popovic.
However, it counted for little as United held on to jump into first place of Conference A on seven points, ahead of their clash with Melbourne Victory at Marvel Stadium on Saturday.


text:
http://oru.diva-portal.org/smash/resultList.jsf?query=&language=en&searchType=SIMPLE&noOfRows=50&sortOrder=author_sort_asc&sortOrder2=title_sort_asc&onlyFullText=false&sf=all&aq=%5B%5B%7B%22personId%22%3A%22authority-person%3A37460+OR+0000-0003-4026-7490%22%7D%5D%5D&aqe=%5B%5D&aq2=%5B%5B%5D%5D&af=%5B%5D
Arain, Muhammad Asif
Örebro University, School of Science and Technology.
Cirillo, Marcello
Örebro University, School of Science and Technology. Scania AB, Södertälje, Sweden.
Hernandez Bennetts, Victor
Schaffernicht, Erik
Trincavelli, Marco
Lilienthal, Achim J.
Efficient Measurement Planning for Remote Gas Sensing with Mobile Robots2015In: 2015 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), Washington, USA: IEEE, 2015, p. 3428-3434Conference paper (Refereed)
The problem of gas detection is relevant to manyreal-world applications, such as leak detection in industrialsettings and surveillance. In this paper we address the problemof gas detection in large areas with a mobile robotic platformequipped with a remote gas sensor. We propose a novelmethod based on convex relaxation for quickly finding anexploration plan that guarantees a complete coverage of theenvironment. Our method proves to be highly efficient in termsof computational requirements and to provide nearly-optimalsolutions. We validate our approach both in simulation andin real environments, thus demonstrating its applicability toreal-world problems.
Fan, Han
Improving Gas Tomography With Mobile Robots: An Evaluation of Sensing Geometries in Complex Environments2017In: 2017 ISOCS/IEEE International Symposium on Olfaction andElectronic Nose (ISOEN 2017) Proceedings, IEEE, 2017, article id 7968895Conference paper (Refereed)
An accurate model of gas emissions is of high importance in several real-world applications related to monitoring and surveillance. Gas tomography is a non-intrusive optical method to estimate the spatial distribution of gas concentrations using remote sensors. The choice of sensing geometry, which is the arrangement of sensing positions to perform gas tomography, directly affects the reconstruction quality of the obtained gas distribution maps. In this paper, we present an investigation of criteria that allow to determine suitable sensing geometries for gas tomography. We consider an actuated remote gas sensor installed on a mobile robot, and evaluated a large number of sensing configurations. Experiments in complex settings were conducted using a state-of-the-art CFD-based filament gas dispersal simulator. Our quantitative comparison yields preferred sensing geometries for sensor planning, which allows to better reconstruct gas distributions.
The Right Direction to Smell: Efficient Sensor Planning Strategies for Robot Assisted Gas Tomography2016In: 2016 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), New York, USA: IEEE Robotics and Automation Society, 2016, p. 4275-4281Conference paper (Refereed)
Creating an accurate model of gas emissions is an important task in monitoring and surveillance applications. A promising solution for a range of real-world applications are gas-sensitive mobile robots with spectroscopy-based remote sensors that are used to create a tomographic reconstruction of the gas distribution. The quality of these reconstructions depends crucially on the chosen sensing geometry. In this paper we address the problem of sensor planning by investigating sensing geometries that minimize reconstruction errors, and then formulate an optimization algorithm that chooses sensing configurations accordingly. The algorithm decouples sensor planning for single high concentration regions (hotspots) and subsequently fuses the individual solutions to a global solution consisting of sensing poses and the shortest path between them. The proposed algorithm compares favorably to a template matching technique in a simple simulation and in a real-world experiment. In the latter, we also compare the proposed sensor planning strategy to the sensing strategy of a human expert and find indications that the quality of the reconstructed map is higher with the proposed algorithm.
Arain_etal_ICRA-2016
Global coverage measurement planning strategies for mobile robots equipped with a remote gas sensor2015In: Sensors, ISSN 1424-8220, E-ISSN 1424-8220, Vol. 15, no 3, p. 6845-6871 Article in journal (Refereed)
The problem of gas detection is relevant to many real-world applications, such as leak detection in industrial settings and landfill monitoring. In this paper, we address the problem of gas detection in large areas with a mobile robotic platform equipped with a remote gas sensor. We propose an algorithm that leverages a novel method based on convex relaxation for quickly solving sensor placement problems, and for generating an efficient exploration plan for the robot. To demonstrate the applicability of our method to real-world environments, we performed a large number of experimental trials, both on randomly generated maps and on the map of a real environment. Our approach proves to be highly efficient in terms of computational requirements and to provide nearly-optimal solutions.
Arain-Sensors2015
Banaee, Hadi
Loutfi, Amy
Data-Driven Conceptual Spaces: Creating Semantic Representations for Linguistic Descriptions of Numerical Data2018In: The journal of artificial intelligence research, ISSN 1076-9757, E-ISSN 1943-5037, Vol. 63, p. 691-742 Article in journal (Refereed)
There is an increasing need to derive semantics from real-world observations to facilitate natural information sharing between machine and human. Conceptual spaces theory is a possible approach and has been proposed as mid-level representation between symbolic and sub-symbolic representations, whereby concepts are represented in a geometrical space that is characterised by a number of quality dimensions. Currently, much of the work has demonstrated how conceptual spaces are created in a knowledge-driven manner, relying on prior knowledge to form concepts and identify quality dimensions. This paper presents a method to create semantic representations using data-driven conceptual spaces which are then used to derive linguistic descriptions of numerical data. Our contribution is a principled approach to automatically construct a conceptual space from a set of known observations wherein the quality dimensions and domains are not known a priori. This novelty of the approach is the ability to select and group semantic features to discriminate between concepts in a data-driven manner while preserving the semantic interpretation that is needed to infer linguistic descriptions for interaction with humans. Two data sets representing leaf images and time series signals are used to evaluate the method. An empirical evaluation for each case study assesses how well linguistic descriptions generated from the conceptual spaces identify unknown observations. Furthermore, comparisons are made with descriptions derived on alternative approaches for generating semantic models.
Data Driven Conceptual Spaces, Banaee et. al, JAIR 2018
Canelhas, Daniel R.
Stoyanov, Todor
Lilienthal, Achim
Davison, Andrew J.
Department of Computing, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom.
Compressed Voxel-Based Mapping Using Unsupervised Learning2017In: Robotics, E-ISSN 2218-6581, Vol. 6, no 3, article id 15 Article in journal (Refereed)
In order to deal with the scaling problem of volumetric map representations, we propose spatially local methods for high-ratio compression of 3D maps, represented as truncated signed distance fields. We show that these compressed maps can be used as meaningful descriptors for selective decompression in scenarios relevant to robotic applications. As compression methods, we compare using PCA-derived low-dimensional bases to nonlinear auto-encoder networks. Selecting two application-oriented performance metrics, we evaluate the impact of different compression rates on reconstruction fidelity as well as to the task of map-aided ego-motion estimation. It is demonstrated that lossily reconstructed distance fields used as cost functions for ego-motion estimation can outperform the original maps in challenging scenarios from standard RGB-D (color plus depth) data sets due to the rejection of high-frequency noise content.
Improving Gas Dispersal Simulation For Mobile Robot Olfaction: Using Robotcreatedoccupancy Maps And Remote Gas Sensors In The Simulation Loop2017In: 2017 ISOCS/IEEE International Symposium on Olfaction andElectronic Nose (ISOEN 2017) Proceedings, IEEE conference proceedings, 2017, article id 17013581Conference paper (Refereed)
Mobile robot platforms equipped with olfaction systems have been used in many gas sensing applications. However, in-field validation of mobile robot olfaction systems is time consuming, expensive, cumbersome and lacks repeatability. In order to address these issues, simulation tools are used. However, the available mobile robot olfaction simulations lack models for remote gas sensors, and the possibility to import geometrical representations of actual real-world environments in a convenient way. In this paper, we describe extensions to an open-source CFD-based filament gas dispersal simulator. These improvements arrow to use robot-created occupancy maps and offer remote sensing capabilities in the simulation loop. We demonstrate the novel features in an example application: we created a 3D map a complex indoor environment, and performed a gas emission monitoring task with a Tunable Diode Laser Absorption Spectroscopy based remote gas sensor in a simulated version of the environment.
A cluster analysis approach based on exploiting density peaks for gas discrimination with electronic noses in open environments2018In: Sensors and actuators. B, Chemical, ISSN 0925-4005, E-ISSN 1873-3077, Vol. 259, p. 183-203Article in journal (Refereed)
Gas discrimination in open and uncontrolled environments based on smart low-cost electro-chemical sensor arrays (e-noses) is of great interest in several applications, such as exploration of hazardous areas, environmental monitoring, and industrial surveillance. Gas discrimination for e-noses is usually based on supervised pattern recognition techniques. However, the difficulty and high cost of obtaining extensive and representative labeled training data limits the applicability of supervised learning. Thus, to deal with the lack of information regarding target substances and unknown interferents, unsupervised gas discrimination is an advantageous solution. In this work, we present a cluster-based approach that can infer the number of different chemical compounds, and provide a probabilistic representation of the class labels for the acquired measurements in a given environment. Our approach is validated with the samples collected in indoor and outdoor environments using a mobile robot equipped with an array of commercial metal oxide sensors. Additional validation is carried out using a multi-compound data set collected with stationary sensor arrays inside a wind tunnel under various airflow conditions. The results show that accurate class separation can be achieved with a low sensitivity to the selection of the only free parameter, namely the neighborhood size, which is used for density estimation in the clustering process.
A Cluster Analysis Approach Based on Exploiting Density Peaks for Gas Discrimination with Electronic Noses in Open Environments
Semi-supervised Gas Detection Using an Ensemble of One-class Classifiers2019In: ISOEN 2019: 18th International Symposium on Olfaction and Electronic Nose, IEEE, 2019, article id 151773Conference paper (Refereed)
Detecting chemical compounds using electronic noses is important in many gas sensing related applications. Existing gas detection methods typically use prior knowledge of the target analytes. However, in some scenarios, the analytes to be detected are not fully known in advance, and preparing a dedicated model is not possible. To address this issue, we propose a gas detection approach using an ensemble of one-class classifiers. The proposed approach is initialized by learning a Mahalanobis-based and a Gaussian based model using clean air only. During the sampling process, the presence of chemicals is detected by the initialized system, which allows to learn a one-class nearest neighbourhood model without supervision. From then on the gas detection considers the predictions of the three one-class models. The proposed approach is validated with real-world experiments, in which a mobile robot equipped with an e-nose was remotely controlled to interact with different chemical analytes in an open environment.
Towards Gas Discrimination and Mapping in Emergency Response Scenarios Using a Mobile Robot with an Electronic Nose2019In: Sensors, ISSN 1424-8220, E-ISSN 1424-8220, Vol. 19, no 3, article id E685 Article in journal (Refereed)
Emergency personnel, such as firefighters, bomb technicians, and urban search and rescue specialists, can be exposed to a variety of extreme hazards during the response to natural and human-made disasters. In many of these scenarios, a risk factor is the presence of hazardous airborne chemicals. The recent and rapid advances in robotics and sensor technologies allow emergency responders to deal with such hazards from relatively safe distances. Mobile robots with gas-sensing capabilities allow to convey useful information such as the possible source positions of different chemicals in the emergency area. However, common gas sampling procedures for laboratory use are not applicable due to the complexity of the environment and the need for fast deployment and analysis. In addition, conventional gas identification approaches, based on supervised learning, cannot handle situations when the number and identities of the present chemicals are unknown. For the purpose of emergency response, all the information concluded from the gas detection events during the robot exploration should be delivered in real time. To address these challenges, we developed an online gas-sensing system using an electronic nose. Our system can automatically perform unsupervised learning and update the discrimination model as the robot is exploring a given environment. The online gas discrimination results are further integrated with geometrical information to derive a multi-compound gas spatial distribution map. The proposed system is deployed on a robot built to operate in harsh environments for supporting fire brigades, and is validated in several different real-world experiments of discriminating and mapping multiple chemical compounds in an indoor open environment. Our results show that the proposed system achieves high accuracy in gas discrimination in an online, unsupervised, and computationally efficient manner. The subsequently created gas distribution maps accurately indicate the presence of different chemicals in the environment, which is of practical significance for emergency response.
Unsupervised gas discrimination in uncontrolled environments by exploiting density peaks2016In: 2016 IEEE SENSORS, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), 2016Conference paper (Refereed)
Gas discrimination with Open Sampling Systems based on low-cost electro-chemical sensor arrays is of great interest in several applications, such as exploration of hazardous areas and environmental monitoring. Due to the lack of labeled training data or the high costs of obtaining them, as well as the presence of unknown interferents in the target environments, supervised learning is often not applicable and thus, unsupervised learning is an interesting alternative. In this work, we present a cluster analysis approach that can infer the number of different chemical compounds and label the measurements in a given uncontrolled environment without relying on previously acquired training data. Our approach is validated with data collected in indoor and outdoor environments by a mobile robot equipped with an array of metal oxide sensors. The results show that high classification accuracy can be achieved with a rather low sensitivity to the selection of the only functional parameter of our proposed algorithm.
Ferrari, Silvia
Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca NY, USA.
Albertson, John
School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca NY, USA.
Integrated Simulation of Gas Dispersion and Mobile Sensing Systems2015In: Workshop on Realistic, Rapid and Repeatable Robot Simulation, 2015Conference paper (Refereed)
Accidental or intentional releases of contaminants into the atmosphere pose risks to human health, the environment, the economy, and national security. In some cases there may be a single release from an unknown source, while in other cases there are fugitive emissions from multiple sources. The need to locate and characterize the sources efficiently - whether it be the urgent need to evacuate or the systematic need to cover broad geographical regions with limited resources - is shared among all cases. Efforts have begun to identify leaks with gas analyzers mounted on Mobile Robot Olfaction (MRO) systems, road vehicles, and networks of fixed sensors, such as may be based in urban environments. To test and compare approaches for gas-sensitive robots a truthful gas dispersion simulator is needed. In this paper, we present a unified framework to simulate gas dispersion and to evaluate mobile robotics and gas sensing technologies using ROS. This framework is also key to developing and testing optimization and planning algorithms for determining sensor placement and sensor motion, as well as for fusing and connecting the sensor measurements to the leak locations.
Pomadera Sese, Victor
Institute of Bioengineering of Catalonia, Barcelona, Spain.
Marco, Santiago
Signal and Information Processing for Sensing Systema, Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia, Barcelona, Spain; Departament d'Electrònica, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.
Combining Non Selective Gas Sensors on a Mobile Robot for Identification and Mapping of Multiple Chemical Compounds2014In: Sensors, ISSN 1424-8220, E-ISSN 1424-8220, Vol. 14, no 9, p. 17331-17352 Article in journal (Refereed)
In this paper, we address the task of gas distribution modeling in scenarios where multiple heterogeneous compounds are present. Gas distribution modeling is particularly useful in emission monitoring applications where spatial representations of the gaseous patches can be used to identify emission hot spots. In realistic environments, the presence of multiple chemicals is expected and therefore, gas discrimination has to be incorporated in the modeling process. The approach presented in this work addresses the task of gas distribution modeling by combining different non selective gas sensors. Gas discrimination is addressed with an open sampling system, composed by an array of metal oxide sensors and a probabilistic algorithm tailored to uncontrolled environments. For each of the identified compounds, the mapping algorithm generates a calibrated gas distribution model using the classification uncertainty and the concentration readings acquired with a photo ionization detector. The meta parameters of the proposed modeling algorithm are automatically learned from the data. The approach was validated with a gas sensitive robot patrolling outdoor and indoor scenarios, where two different chemicals were released simultaneously. The experimental results show that the generated multi compound maps can be used to accurately predict the location of emitting gas sources.
A Novel Approach for Gas Discrimination in Natural Environments with Open Sampling Systems2014In: Proceedings of the IEEE Sensors Conference 2014, IEEE conference proceedings, 2014, p. -2049Conference paper (Refereed)
This work presents a gas discrimination approachfor Open Sampling Systems (OSS), composed of non-specificmetal oxide sensors only. In an OSS, as used on robots or insensor networks, the sensors are exposed to the dynamics of theenvironment and thus, most of the data corresponds to highlydiluted samples while high concentrations are sparse. In addition,a positive correlation between class separability and concentra-tion level can be observed. The proposed approach computes theclass posteriors by coupling the pairwise probabilities betweenthe compounds to a confidence model based on an estimation ofthe concentration. In this way a rejection posterior, analogous tothe detection limit of the human nose, is learned. Evaluation wasconducted in indoor and outdoor sites, with an OSS equippedrobot, in the presence of two gases. The results show that theproposed approach achieves a high classification performancewith a low sensitivity to the selection of meta parameters.
Robot assisted gas tomography: an alternative approach for the detection of fugitive methane emissions2014In: Workshop on Robot Monitoring, 2014Conference paper (Refereed)
Methane (CH4) based combustibles, such as Natural Gas (NG) and BioGas (BG), are considered bridge fuels towards a decarbonized global energy system. NG emits less CO2 during combustion than other fossil fuels and BG can be produced from organic waste. However, at BG production sites, leaks are common and CH4 can escape through fissures in pipes and insulation layers. While by regulation BG producers shall issue monthly CH4 emission reports, measurements are sparsely collected, only at a few predefined locations. Due to the high global warming potential of CH4, efficient leakage detection systems are critical. We present a robotics approach to localize CH4 leaks. In Robot assisted Gas Tomography (RGT), a mobile robot is equipped with remote gas sensors to create gas distribution maps, which can be used to infer the location of emitting sources. Spectroscopy based remote gas sensors report integral concentrations, which means that the measurements are spatially unresolved, with neither information regarding the gas distribution over the optical path nor the length of the s beam. Thus, RGT fuses different sensing modalities, such as range sensors for robot localization and ray tracing, in order to infer plausible gas distribution models that explain the acquired integral concentration measurements.
Online parameter selection for gas distribution mapping2013In: Proceedings of the ISOEN conference 2013, 2013Conference paper (Refereed)
Online parameter selection for gas distribution mapping2014In: Sensor Letters, ISSN 1546-198X, E-ISSN 1546-1971, Vol. 12, no 6-7, p. 1147-1151Article in journal (Refereed)
The ability to produce truthful maps of the distribution of one or more gases is beneficial for applications ranging from environmental monitoring to mines and industrial plants surveillance. Realistic environments are often too complicated for applying analytical gas plume models or performing reliable CFD simulations, making data-driven statistical gas distribution models the most attractive alternative. However, statistical models for gas distribution modelling, often rely on a set of meta-parameters that need to be learned from the data through Cross Validation (CV) techniques. CV techniques are computationally expensive and therefore need to be computed offline. As a faster alternative, we propose a parameter selection method based on Virtual Leave-One-Out Cross Validation (VLOOCV) that enables online learning of meta-parameters. In particular, we consider the Kernel DM+V, one of the most well studied algorithms for statistical gas distribution mapping, which relies on a meta-parameter, the kernel bandwidth. We validate the proposed VLOOCV method on a set of indoor and outdoor experiments where a mobile robot with a Photo Ionization Detector (PID) was collecting gas measurements. The approximation provided by the proposed VLOOCV method achieves very similar results to plain Cross Validation at a fraction of the computational cost. This is an important step in the development of on-line statistical gas distribution modelling algorithms.
Ishida, Hiroshi
Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, Tokyo, Japan.
Matsukura, Haruka
Using Chemical Sensors as 'Noses' for Mobile Robots2016In: Essentials of Machine Olfaction and Taste / [ed] Takamichi Nakamoto, Singapore: John Wiley & Sons, 2016, p. 219-246Chapter in book (Refereed)
Gas sensors detect the presence of gaseous chemical compounds in air. They are often used in the form of gas alarms for detecting dangerous or hazardous gases. However, a limited number of stationary gas alarms may not be always sufficient to cover a large industrial facility. Human workers having a portable gas detector in their hand needs to be sent to thoroughly check gas leaks in the areas not covered by stationary gas alarms. However, making repetitive measurements with a gas detector at a number of different locations is laborious. Moreover, the places where the gas concentration level needs to be checked are often potentially dangerous for human workers. If a portable gas detector is mounted on a mobile robot, the task of patrolling in an industrial facility for checking a gas leak can be automated. Robots are good at doing repetitive tasks, and can be sent into harsh environments.
Kaltenhaeuser, Robert
Ilmenau University of Technology, Ilmenau, Germany.
Steege, Frank-Florian
Gross, Horst-Michael
Evolutionary computation based system decomposition with neural networks2013In: ESANN 2013 proceedings, European Symposium on Artificial Neural Networks, Computational Intelligenceand Machine Learning, Louvain-La-Neuve: ESANN , 2013, p. 191-196Conference paper (Refereed)
We present an evolutionary approach to divide a complex control system into smaller sub-systems with the help of neural networks.Thereto, measured channels are partitioned into several disjunct sets, rep-resenting possible sub-problems, while the networks are used to assessthe quality of the resulting decomposition. We show that this approach iswell suited to calculate correct decompositions of complex control systems.Furthermore, the obtained neural networks are used to predict importantprocess factors with considerable better approximation quality than mono-lithic approaches that have to deal with all input channels in parallel.
Khaliq, Ali
Pashami, Sepideh
Bringing Artificial Olfaction and Mobile Robotics Closer Together: An Integrated 3D Gas Dispersion Simulator in ROS2015In: Proceedings of the 16th International Symposium on Olfaction and Electronic Noses, 2015Conference paper (Refereed)
Despite recent achievements, the potential of gas-sensitive mobile robots cannot be realized due to the lack of research on fundamental questions. A key limitation is the difficulty to carry out evaluations against ground truth. To test and compare approaches for gas-sensitive robots a truthful gas dispersion simulator is needed. In this paper we present a unified framework to simulate gas dispersion and to evaluate mobile robotics and gas sensing algorithms using ROS. Gas dispersion is modeled as a set of particles affected by diffusion, turbulence, advection and gravity. Wind information is integrated as time snapshots computed with any fluid dynamics computation tool. In addition, response models for devices such as Metal Oxide (MOX) sensors can be integrated in the framework.
Kucner, Tomasz Piotr
Magnusson, Martin
Hernandez Bennetts, Victor Manuel
Enabling Flow Awareness for Mobile Robots in Partially Observable Environments2017In: IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, ISSN 2377-3766, E-ISSN 1949-3045, Vol. 2, no 2, p. 1093-1100Article in journal (Refereed)
Understanding the environment is a key requirement for any autonomous robot operation. There is extensive research on mapping geometric structure and perceiving objects. However, the environment is also defined by the movement patterns in it. Information about human motion patterns can, e.g., lead to safer and socially more acceptable robot trajectories. Airflow pattern information allow to plan energy efficient paths for flying robots and improve gas distribution mapping. However, modelling the motion of objects (e.g., people) and flow of continuous media (e.g., air) is a challenging task. We present a probabilistic approach for general flow mapping, which can readily handle both of these examples. Moreover, we present and compare two data imputation methods allowing to build dense maps from sparsely distributed measurements. The methods are evaluated using two different data sets: one with pedestrian data and one with wind measurements. Our results show that it is possible to accurately represent multimodal, turbulent flow using a set of Gaussian Mixture Models, and also to reconstruct a dense representation based on sparsely distributed locations.
It's always smelly around here! Modeling the Spatial Distribution of Gas Detection Events with BASED Grid Maps2013In: Proceedings of the 15th International Symposium on Olfaction and Electronic Nose (ISOEN 2013), 2013Conference paper (Refereed)
In this paper we introduce a novel gas distribution mapping algorithm, Bayesian Spatial Event Distribution (BASED), that, instead of modeling the spatial distribution of the gas concentration, models the spatial distribution of events of detection and non-detection of a target gas. The proposed algorithm is based on the Bayesian inference framework and models the likelihood of events at a certain location with a Bernoulli distribution. In order to avoid overfitting a Bayesian approach is used with a beta distribution prior for the parameter u that governs the Bernoulli distribution. In this way, the posterior distribution maintains the same form of the prior, i.e. will be a beta distribution, enabling a simple approach for sequential learning. To learn a field of beta distributions, we discretize the inspection area into a grid map and extrapolate from local measurements using Gaussian kernels. We demonstrate the proposed algorithm for different sensors mounted on a mobile robot and show how qualitatively similar maps are obtained from very different gas sensors.
Lundell, Jens
Intelligent Robotics Group, Aalto University, Helsinki, Finland.
Krug, Robert
Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden.
Kyrki, Ville
Safe-To-Explore State Spaces: Ensuring Safe Exploration in Policy Search with Hierarchical Task Optimization2018In: IEEE-RAS Conference on Humanoid Robots / [ed] Asfour, T, IEEE, 2018, p. 132-138Conference paper (Refereed)
Policy search reinforcement learning allows robots to acquire skills by themselves. However, the learning procedure is inherently unsafe as the robot has no a-priori way to predict the consequences of the exploratory actions it takes. Therefore, exploration can lead to collisions with the potential to harm the robot and/or the environment. In this work we address the safety aspect by constraining the exploration to happen in safe-to-explore state spaces. These are formed by decomposing target skills (e.g., grasping) into higher ranked sub-tasks (e.g., collision avoidance, joint limit avoidance) and lower ranked movement tasks (e.g., reaching). Sub-tasks are defined as concurrent controllers (policies) in different operational spaces together with associated Jacobians representing their joint-space mapping. Safety is ensured by only learning policies corresponding to lower ranked sub-tasks in the redundant null space of higher ranked ones. As a side benefit, learning in sub-manifolds of the state-space also facilitates sample efficiency. Reaching skills performed in simulation and grasping skills performed on a real robot validate the usefulness of the proposed approach.
Mojtahedzadeh, Rasoul
Bouguerra, Abdelbaki
Probabilistic Relational Scene Representation and Decision Making Under Incomplete Information for Robotic Manipulation Tasks2014In: Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2014 IEEE International Conference on, IEEE Robotics and Automation Society, 2014, p. 5685-5690Conference paper (Refereed)
In this paper, we propose an approach for robotic manipulation systems to autonomously reason about their environments under incomplete information. The target application is to automate the task of unloading the content of shipping containers. Our goal is to capture possible support relations between objects in partially known static configurations. We employ support vector machines (SVM) to estimate the probability of a support relation between pairs of detected objects using features extracted from their geometrical properties and 3D sampled points of the scene. The set of probabilistic support relations is then used for reasoning about optimally selecting an object to be unloaded first. The proposed approach has been extensively tested and verified on data sets generated in simulation and from real world configurations.
Lilienthal, Achim J
Support relation analysis and decision making for safe robotic manipulation tasks2015In: Robotics and Autonomous Systems, ISSN 0921-8890, E-ISSN 1872-793X, Vol. 71, no SI, p. 99-117Article in journal (Refereed)
In this article, we describe an approach to address the issue of automatically building and using high-level symbolic representations that capture physical interactions between objects in static configurations. Our work targets robotic manipulation systems where objects need to be safely removed from piles that come in random configurations. We assume that a 3D visual perception module exists so that objects in the piles can be completely or partially detected. Depending on the outcome of the perception, we divide the issue into two sub-issues: 1) all objects in the configuration are detected; 2) only a subset of objects are correctly detected. For the first case, we use notions from geometry and static equilibrium in classical mechanics to automatically analyze and extract act and support relations between pairs of objects. For the second case, we use machine learning techniques to estimate the probability of objects supporting each other. Having the support relations extracted, a decision making process is used to identify which object to remove from the configuration so that an expected minimum cost is optimized. The proposed methods have been extensively tested and validated on data sets generated in simulation and from real world configurations for the scenario of unloading goods from shipping containers.
Mosberger, Rafael
Andreasson, Henrik
Inferring human body posture information from reflective patterns of protective work garments2016In: Proceedings of the IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), 2016, p. 4131-4136Conference paper (Refereed)
We address the problem of extracting human body posture labels, upper body orientation and the spatial location of individual body parts from near-infrared (NIR) images depicting patterns of retro-reflective markers. The analyzed patterns originate from the observation of humans equipped with protective high-visibility garments that represent common safety equipment in the industrial sector. Exploiting the shape of the observed reflectors we adopt shape matching based on the chamfer distance and infer one of seven discrete body posture labels as well as the approximate upper body orientation with respect to the camera. We then proceed to analyze the NIR images on a pixel scale and estimate a figure-ground segmentation together with human body part labels using classification of densely extracted local image patches. Our results indicate a body posture classification accuracy of 80% and figure-ground segmentations with 87% accuracy.
rTREFEX: Reweighting norms for detecting changes in the response of MOX gas sensors2014In: Sensor Letters, ISSN 1546-198X, E-ISSN 1546-1971, Vol. 12, no 6/7, p. 1123-1127Article in journal (Refereed)
The detection of changes in the response of metal oxide (MOX) gas sensors deployed in an open sampling system is a hard problem. It is relevant for applications such as gas leak detection in mines or large-scale pollution monitoring where it is impractical to continuously store or transfer sensor readings and reliable calibration is hard to achieve. Under these circumstances, it is desirable to detect points in the signal where a change indicates a significant event, e.g. the presence of gas or a sudden change of concentration. The key idea behind the proposed change detection approach is that a change in the emission modality of a gas source appears locally as an exponential function in the response of MOX sensors due to their long response and recovery times. The algorithm proposed in this paper, rTREFEX, is an extension of the previously proposed TREFEX algorithm. rTREFEX interprets the sensor response by fitting piecewise exponential functions with different time constants for the response and recovery phase. The number of exponentials, which has to be kept as low as possible, is determined automatically using an iterative approach that solves a sequence of convex optimization problems based on l1-norm. The algorithm is evaluated with an experimental setup where a gas source changes in intensity, compound, and mixture ratio, and the gas source is delivered to the sensors exploiting natural advection and turbulence mechanisms. rTREFEX is compared against the previously proposed TREFEX, which already proved superior to other algorithms.
TREFEX: trend estimation and change detection in the response of mox gas sensors2013In: Sensors, ISSN 1424-8220, E-ISSN 1424-8220, Vol. 13, no 6, p. 7323-7344 Article in journal (Refereed)
Many applications of metal oxide gas sensors can benefit from reliable algorithmsto detect significant changes in the sensor response. Significant changes indicate a changein the emission modality of a distant gas source and occur due to a sudden change ofconcentration or exposure to a different compound. As a consequence of turbulent gastransport and the relatively slow response and recovery times of metal oxide sensors,their response in open sampling configuration exhibits strong fluctuations that interferewith the changes of interest. In this paper we introduce TREFEX, a novel change pointdetection algorithm, especially designed for metal oxide gas sensors in an open samplingsystem. TREFEX models the response of MOX sensors as a piecewise exponentialsignal and considers the junctions between consecutive exponentials as change points. Weformulate non-linear trend filtering and change point detection as a parameter-free convexoptimization problem for single sensors and sensor arrays. We evaluate the performanceof the TREFEX algorithm experimentally for different metal oxide sensors and severalgas emission profiles. A comparison with the previously proposed GLR method shows aclearly superior performance of the TREFEX algorithm both in detection performance andin estimating the change time.
sensors-13-07323.pdf
Mobile robots for learning spatio-temporal interpolation models in sensor networks - The Echo State map approach: The Echo State map approach2017In: 2017 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), 2017, p. 2659-2665Conference paper (Refereed)
Sensor networks have limited capabilities to model complex phenomena occuring between sensing nodes. Mobile robots can be used to close this gap and learn local interpolation models. In this paper, we utilize Echo State Networks in order to learn the calibration and interpolation model between sensor nodes using measurements collected by a mobile robot. The use of Echo State Networks allows to deal with temporal dependencies implicitly, while the spatial mapping with a Gaussian Process estimator exploits the fact that Echo State Networks learn linear combinations of complex temporal dynamics. The resulting Echo State Map elegantly combines spatial and temporal cues into a single representation. We showcase the method in the exposure modeling task of building dust distribution maps for foundries, a challenge which is of great interest to occupational health researchers. Results from simulated data and real world experiments highlight the potential of Echo State Maps. While we focus on particulate matter measurements, the method can be applied for any other environmental variables like temperature or gas concentration.
Schaffernicht-ICRA2017-EchoStateMaps.pdf
Bayesian Spatial Event Distribution Grid Maps for Modeling the Spatial Distribution of Gas Detection Events2014In: Sensor Letters, ISSN 1546-198X, E-ISSN 1546-1971, Vol. 12, no 6-7, p. 1142-1146Article in journal (Refereed)
In this paper we introduce a novel gas distribution mapping algorithm, Bayesian Spatial Event Distribution (BASED), that, instead of modeling the spatial distribution of a quasi-continuous gas concentration, models the spatial distribution of gas events, for example detection and non-detection of a target gas. The proposed algorithm is based on the Bayesian Inference framework and models the likelihood of events at a certain location with a Bernoulli distribution. In order to avoid overfitting, a Bayesian approach is used with a beta distribution prior for the parameter μ that governs the Bernoulli distribution. In this way, the posterior distribution maintains the same form of the prior, i.e., will be a beta distribution as well, enabling a simple approach for sequential learning. To learn a map composed of beta distributions, we discretize the inspection area into a grid and extrapolate from local measurements using Gaussian kernels. We demonstrate the proposed algorithm for MOX sensors and a photo ionization detector mounted on a mobile robot and show how qualitatively similar maps are obtained from very different gas sensors.
Vuka, Mikel
Dipartitmento di Elettronica, Informazione e Bioingegneria, Politecnico di Milano, Milano, Italy.
Schmuker, Michael
School of Computer Science, College Lane, University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield, United Kingdom.
Amigoni, Francesco
Exploration and Localization of a Gas Source with MOX Gas Sensorson a Mobile Robot: A Gaussian Regression Bout Amplitude Approach2017In: 2017 ISOCS/IEEE International Symposium on Olfaction and Electronic Nose (ISOEN 2017): Proceedings, IEEE, 2017, p. 164-166Conference paper (Refereed)
Mobile robot olfaction systems combine gas sensorswith mobility provided by robots. They relief humansof dull, dirty and dangerous tasks in applications such assearch & rescue or environmental monitoring. We address gassource localization and especially the problem of minimizingexploration time of the robot, which is a key issue due toenergy constraints. We propose an active search approach forrobots equipped with MOX gas sensors and an anemometer,given an occupancy map. Events of rapid change in the MOXsensor signal ("bouts") are used to estimate the distance to agas source. The wind direction guides a Gaussian regression,which interpolates distance estimates. The contributions of thispaper are two-fold. First, we extend previous work on gassource distance estimation with MOX sensors and propose amodification to cope better with turbulent conditions. Second,we introduce a novel active search gas source localizationalgorithm and validate it in a real-world environment.
Wiedemann, Thomas
Institute of Communications and Navigation, German Aerospace Center (DLR), Wessling, Germany.
Shutin, Dmitri
Bayesian Gas Source Localization and Exploration with a Multi-Robot System Using Partial Differential Equation Based Modeling2017In: 2017 ISOCS/IEEE International Symposium on Olfaction and Electronic Nose (ISOEN 2017): Proceedings, IEEE, 2017, p. 122-124Conference paper (Refereed)
Here we report on active water sampling devices forunderwater chemical sensing robots. Crayfish generate jetlikewater currents during food search by waving theflagella of their maxillipeds. The jets generated toward theirsides induce an inflow from the surroundings to the jets.Odor sample collection from the surroundings to theirolfactory organs is promoted by the generated inflow.Devices that model the jet discharge of crayfish have beendeveloped to investigate the effectiveness of the activechemical sampling. Experimental results are presented toconfirm that water samples are drawn to the chemicalsensors from the surroundings more rapidly by using theaxisymmetric flow field generated by the jet discharge thanby centrosymmetric flow field generated by simple watersuction. Results are also presented to show that there is atradeoff between the angular range of chemical samplecollection and the sample collection time.
Xing, Yuxin
School of Engineering, University of Warwick, Coventry, UK.
Vincent, Timothy A.
Cole, Marina
Gardner, Julian W.
Mobile robot multi-sensor unit for unsupervised gas discrimination in uncontrolled environments2017In: IEEE SENSORS 2017: Conference Proceedings, New York: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), 2017, p. 1691-1693Conference paper (Refereed)
In this work we present a novel multi-sensor unit to detect and discriminate unknown gases in uncontrolled environments. The unit includes three metal oxide (MOX) sensors with CMOS micro heaters, a plasmonic enhanced non-dispersive infra-red (NDIR) sensor, a commercial temperature humidity sensor, and a flow sensor. The proposed sensing unit was evaluated with plumes of gases (propanol, ethanol and acetone) in both, a laboratory setup on a gas testing bench and on-board a mobile robot operating in an indoor workshop. It offers significantly improved performance compared to commercial systems, in terms of power consumption, response time and physical size. We verified the ability to discriminate gases in an unsupervised manner, with data collected on the robot and high accuracy was obtained in the classification of propanol versus acetone (96%), and ethanol versus acetone (90%).
Mobile Robot Multi-sensor Unit for Unsupervised Gas Discrimination in Uncontrolled Environments
FireNose on Mobile Robot in Harsh Environments2019In: IEEE Sensors Journal, ISSN 1530-437X, E-ISSN 1558-1748, Vol. 19, no 24, p. 12418-12431Article in journal (Refereed)
In this work we present a novel multi-sensor unit, a.k.a. FireNose, to detect and discriminate both known and unknown gases in uncontrolled conditions to aid firefighters under harsh conditions. The unit includes three metal oxide (MOX) gas sensors with CMOS micro heaters, a plasmonic enhanced non-dispersive infrared (NDIR) sensor optimized for the detection of CO2, a commercial temperature humidity sensor, and a flow sensor. We developed custom film coatings for the MOX sensors (SnO2, WO3 and NiO) which greatly improved the gas sensitivity, response time and lifetime of the miniature devices. Our proposed system exhibits promising performance for gas sensing in harsh environments, in terms of power consumption (∼ 35 mW at 350°C per MOX sensor), response time (<10 s), robustness and physical size. The sensing unit was evaluated with plumes of gases in both, a laboratory setup on a gas testing rig and on-board a mobile robot operating indoors. These high sensitivity, high-bandwidth sensors, together with online unsupervised gas discrimination algorithms, are able to detect and generate their spatial distribution maps accordingly. In the robotic experiments, the resulting gas distribution maps corresponded well to the actual location of the sources. Therefore, we verified its ability to differentiate gases and generate gas maps in real-world experiments.
Zhang, Ye
Gulliksson, Mårten
Reconstructing gas distribution maps via an adaptive sparse regularization algorithm2016In: Inverse Problems in Science and Engineering, ISSN 1741-5977, E-ISSN 1741-5985, Vol. 24, no 7, p. 1186-1204Article in journal (Refereed)
In this paper, we present an algorithm to be used by an inspectionrobot to produce a gas distribution map and localize gas sources ina large complex environment. The robot, equipped with a remotegas sensor, measures the total absorption of a tuned laser beam andreturns integral gas concentrations. A mathematical formulation ofsuch measurement facility is a sequence of Radon transforms,which isa typical ill-posed problem. To tackle the ill-posedness, we developa new regularization method based on the sparse representationproperty of gas sources and the adaptive finite-element method. Inpractice, only a discrete model can be applied, and the quality ofthe gas distributionmap depends on a detailed 3-D world model thatallows us to accurately localize the robot and estimate the paths of thelaser beam. In this work, using the positivity ofmeasurements and theprocess of concentration, we estimate the lower and upper boundsof measurements and the exact continuous model (mapping fromgas distribution to measurements), and then create a more accuratediscrete model of the continuous tomography problem. Based onadaptive sparse regularization, we introduce a new algorithm thatgives us not only a solution map but also a mesh map. The solutionmap more accurately locates gas sources, and the mesh map providesthe real gas distribution map. Moreover, the error estimation of theproposed model is discussed. Numerical tests for both the syntheticproblem and practical problem are given to show the efficiency andfeasibility of the proposed algorithm.


This is an AC-DC power supply for driving LED lighting such as our MR16 bulbs, strip light, or bar lights. This power supply takes 230V mains and outputs a regulated 24V DC up to a maximum load of 75W (3.15A). The power supply itself is waterproof with an IP67 rating.
This is a must if you are replacing 24V halogen bulbs with LEDs, as halogens usually run on an AC supply but most LEDs run on DC.


text:
Il campionato asiatico per club 2012 si è svolto dal 21 al 29 aprile 2012 a Nakhon Ratchasima, in Thailandia. Al torneo hanno partecipato 9 squadre di club asiatiche ed oceaniane e la vittoria finale è andata per la quarta volta al Tianjin Nuzi Paiqiu Dui.

Squadre partecipanti

Fase a gironi

Gironi

Girone A

Risultati

Classifica

Girone B

Risultati

Classifica

Seconda fase

Play-off

Risultati

Fase finale

Finali 1º e 3º posto

Risultati

Finali 5º e 7º posto

Risultati

Classifica finale

Premi individuali

Collegamenti esterni

Pallavolo nel 2012
 2012
Competizioni sportive a Nakhon Ratchasima


In 2009, I had an opportunity for a big Canada trip, starting in Saskatchewan and traveling east, stopping in Montreal for the Worldcon where I picked up my Golden Duck award for Lighter Than Air. After that, we kept going east, up the St. Lawrence, until we turned north through Quebec and took the lightly traveled route into Labrador.
A lot of this trip was taken on faith — that there really would be a place to get gas, because the map sure didn't show any towns, and we were still in the region where people didn't speak English.
It was a lovely trip, mostly on gravel roads, where the tundra landscape only rarely hinted at human presence. Then, half-way across Labrador, we stopped at Churchill Falls, a company town dedicated to keeping the massive hydroelectric power plant running.
I was captivated by the culture and the life these people lived in this isolated location. I knew I'd have to write a story set in this place. I even had my hook. These people didn't have to pay for electricity — what was the point? So what could a person do in this far north location if he had unlimited electricity?
I also wanted this to be a road trip story, so that I could include some of what I had just seen in my trip. I even started it in Crescent City, California, where a metal cylinder falls out of the sky, showing a GPS bearing off to the north-east. I also wanted to include Twitter. When I travel across the country, I tweet interesting events — my character would do the same.
So my guy Seth and his big sister Biz travel northeast, with not a clue as to what they might find, but he has his buddies with him in his pocket.
This book was short, as far as word-count, so I felt permitted to experiment with the format. The messages between friends were formatted like a twitter app. Images and links were real. I set up real twitter accounts for each of the characters and tweeted the text that showed up in the novel. The ebook version even has live links.
I also included a image banner at the beginning of each chapter. Some illustrate things in the book. Some are scenes I took on my trip that Seth would have seen too.
So in spite of the fact that this book never took off and has sold poorly, Bearing Northeast is my favorite.


text:
Natalie Portman Birthday
FriJun 9
Natalie Portman was born on June 9, 1981. Portman was always passionate about acting and pursued it from an early age. She came to the limelight after acting in "Leon: The Professional." Portman's made a name in the entertainment industry. She featured in "Thor," "The Avengers," "Star Wars," and "Lucy in the Sky." Portman is a versatile actress. She's perfected roles in different genres and won awards for Best Actress from Teen Choice Awards, Critics' Choice Awards, and many more. We celebrate this shining star today.
Natalie Hershlag
Natalie's Social Media:
Natalie Portman, originally Natalie Hershlag, was born in Jerusalem, Israel. Her family migrated to Washington D.C., before settling in Long Island, New York. Portman's mother, Shelley Stevens, is her agent. Her father, Avner Hershlag, is a medical doctor ― a specialist in human fertility and reproduction. Portman is an only child. Her heart's in Jerusalem despite living in the U.S. for so long.
At 10, a Revlon representative discovered Portman and advised her to pursue a modeling career. Portman turned down the offer to focus on acting instead. She featured in various local productions while working at Usdan Theatre Arts Camp. She made her debut in 1994, in "Leon: The Professional." In 1995, Portman performed wonderfully in "Heat." She turned down offers to act in "Lolita" and "Romeo and Juliet" because of concerns about early exposure to sex.
Touched by Anne Frank's faith in humanity, even in those dark times, Portman got inspired to make her Broadway debut as Anne Frank in "The Diary of Anne Frank." In 2003, Portman graduated from Harvard University with a degree in Psychology. She received the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress in 2005, the Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Actress in 2016, and a Genesis Prize in 2018.
Portman has been in a relationship with Benjamin Millepied since 2009. Their first child was born in 2011. The couple wed in 2012. Their second child was born in 2017. Portman loves to keep her personal life private.
Her Career Begins
She makes her debut with "Leon: The Professional."
She Shaves Her Head
She cuts her hair for her role in "V for Vendetta."
She Wins an Award
Portman's role in "Black Swan" earns her an Oscar for Best Actress.
She's the Face of Dior
Portman becomes the face of Dior.
She Gets Married
Portman marries Benjamin Millepied, a dancer.
She Declines Attending an Award Ceremony
After being announced as one of the recipients of the Genesis Prize, Portman turns down the invitation to attend the ceremony due to recent events in Israel.
She Launches a Production Company
Portman and film producer Sophie Mas launch MountainA and sign a first-look television deal with Apple TV+.
Why We Love Natalie Portman
She values education
Portman never placed her career above education; she opted to miss the grand opening of "Star Wars" because she had an exam. She graduated with honors in Psychology and published two research papers during her time at Harvard.
She prioritizes her moral values
Portman has always been selective regarding her movie roles. She always puts extra effort into her performances but turns down parts that contrast her morals. She refused to appear nude in "Anywhere but Here."
She challenges the norms
Portman believes in empowering and investing in races different from White, especially in the entertainment industry. She launched her own production company, Handsomecharlie Films, which focuses on creating roles for women by women, especially female comedies.
She had an injury on set
She broke her rib while filming for "Black Swan."
She's related to a spy
Portman's Romanian-born great-grandmother was a British spy during World War II.
She recently became a vegan
Portman's love for animals made her become a vegetarian at eight years; she became vegan in 2009.
She's a natural-born linguist
Portman's gift of retaining information in different languages makes her fluent in Hebrew, French, German, Japanese, Spanish, and English.
She owns no television
Portman doesn't own a T.V. even though she's an actress and loves cooking shows.
Natalie Portman FAQs
What is Natalie Portman's most famous role?
"Black Swan" is her finest film.
Was Natalie Portman in the army?
No. Portman did not serve in the army.
What is Natalie Portman's I.Q.?
The actress has an I.Q. of 140.
Natalie Portman's birthday dates
2023 June 9 Friday
2025 June 9 Monday
2026 June 9 Tuesday
2027 June 9 Wednesday
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