text:
A knotweed success story on the Necanicum
Japanese knotweed is one of the toughest invasive plants to eradicate. But with persistence, creativity, and a lot of hard work, NCLC has managed to knock knotweed back—for now—at a property where it had gained a substantial foothold: Necanicum Forest, east of Seaside.
This 28-acre habitat reserve lies at the confluence of the Necanicum River and Klootchy Creek. Its understory is dominated by native plants such as elderberry and salmonberry—along with a dense area of knotweed growing right at the confluence of the creek and river. Knotweed tends to grow along waterways. It grows fast and tall—6 to 12 feet—quickly shading out native trees that keep streams cool and stabilize stream banks. Its roots run deep and spready widely. Even a tiny chunk of knotweed—such as a root or stem, cut by people or even beavers—can float downstream, take root, and form a whole new colony. That explains both how the knotweed invaded this site (from sources upstream on the Necanicum) and why NCLC was keen to keep it from spreading further.
Hand-pulling knotweed is considered far less effective than using herbicides for knotweed, but volunteer site stewards Vince Huntington and Bill Hutmacher were eager to give it a try. Research indicates that for it to be effective, hand-pulling of knotweed must be done at least monthly throughout the growing season. So that's what Bill and Vince did in 2017 and 2018, aided by additional volunteers and stewardship interns, in a 1200-square-foot test plot. Meanwhile NCLC staff arranged to test a modified approach with herbicides on the rest of the knotweed at Necanicum Forest: rather than spray full-grown plants, they cut it to the ground in spring and, in fall 2018, treated only the low regrowth with chemicals, working with an experienced applicator to apply the smallest effective amount. This approach also limited damage to healthy native plants. Then rather than transporting the cut knotweed off the property (and risk dropping small pieces of the plant, possibly spreading it further), it was enclosed in layers of landscape fabric and buried it on site—an innovative but untested technique. Finally, in February of this year, volunteers helped Land Steward Eric Owen plant hundreds of willow, western redcedar, big-leaf maple, ninebark, salmonberry,and other native trees and shrubs to fill in gaps in the forest left by removal of the knotweed.
The results: hand-pulling was effective, but only because it was done consistently throughout the growing season. The limited herbicide application technique worked even better, and better than expected; when NCLC staff returned in April 2019, they found just a few handfuls of knotweed growing at the site. (A follow-up visit in June by Bill and Vince yielded so little remaining knotweed, they were able to pull it all in an hour.) And despite worries that the buried knotweed might take root and sprout right through its envelope of landscape fabric, it didn't. It decomposed, just as staff had hoped.
"It's an on-going effort," said NCLC Project Manager Amy Hutmacher. "There remain other sources of knotweed in the Necanicum basin. We want to keep that area in check. We don't want it to be a source. That's also why we followed the treatment with a lot of planting of native shrubs and trees, to keep protecting that dynamic area from again becoming a deposition zone for knotweed."
NCLC partnered with Necanicum Watershed Council on the project, with funding support from the Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board.
Thanks for helping with the mission to eradicate Knotweed. I know if landowners and other departments and volunteers work together we can definitely push back the plant until it's at a level that can be managed. It's exciting to see other's fighting the fight. We have been making great headway in Tillamook County, starting south and pushing north.
Michael Blankenship
TSWCD


In response to customer requests, our Sunday schedule will be changing starting on April 3rd.
First, we are NOT getting rid of Open Play on Sunday mornings. We know you like being able to count on MoBu on weekends, and we don't want to take that away. However, we are moving the start time. Beginning April 3rd, Open Play will start at 9:30 am. This move allows us to start birthday parties earlier in the day on Sunday.
We hope that you bare with us while we make the change. It will be an adjustment for everyone, but we hope that the change helps us better serve our customers.


text:
Newsroom Press Releases Mahindra Adventure's all-new Super XUV300 enters Rally ...
Mahindra Adventure's all-new Super XUV300 enters Rally Championship
Today announced the introduction of its all new Super XUV300 in the upcoming Rally Championships.
26 JUNE, 2019 | India
Super XUV300
Rally Championship
Gaurav Gill
Musa Sherif
Amittrajit Ghosh
Ashwin Naik
Indian National Rally Championship
INRC
Mahindra SUV
Bijoy Kumar Y
off road Training Academy
June, 28 2019, Chennai: Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. (M&M), a part of the US $20.7 billion Mahindra Group, today announced the introduction of its all new Super XUV300 in the upcoming Rally Championships.
The XUV300's head-turning, cheetah-inspired design, 'fun-to-drive' performance and best-in-segment safety features make it a perfect fit for the rally circuit. The Super XUV300 is developed set the trails ablaze, during rallies, with its petrol and diesel-powered engines.
Team Mahindra Adventure, comprising Gaurav Gill & co-driver Musa Sherif and Amittrajit Ghosh with co-driver Ashwin Naik, will be campaigning these vehicles in the upcoming season of the Indian National Rally Championship (INRC)
Earlier, Mahindra Adventure's Super XUV 500 consistently dominated the tracks since its entry into the Indian Rally Championship in 2013. In fact, the Super XUV500 has won the driver's and constructor's championships back to back in 2017 and 20-18.
Rally legend Gaurav Gill along with his co-driver Musa Sherif of Team Mahindra Adventure sealed multiple INRC wins over the years in their Super XUV500 -– the 2013 INSUV Champions Winner, 2014, 2017, and 2018 winner of the INRC Overall Championship, each year.
Apart from the INRC, Team Mahindra Adventure and the rally prepared Mahindra SUVs have proven unbeatable in several other rallies including the Dakshin Dare, Desert Storm, Constructor's Championship and Raid de Himalaya.
The unprecedented victories by the Mahindra SUVs is a testimony to the tough and rugged Mahindra DNA,' as its mettle was tested against other vehicles. With the Super XUV300 entering the Rally Championship, Team Mahindra Adventure is expected to continue its winning spree in the rallying world.
About Mahindra Adventure
A unique concept to showcase the tough and rugged DNA of Mahindra vehicles, Mahindra Adventure functions as an umbrella brand with a series of self-drive overland adventure expeditions organized under its banner. Mahindra Adventure was launched as an independent entity for all adventurous activities, in 2011, headed by Bijoy Kumar Y, Chief of Adventure Initiatives. He is a motoring enthusiast and the erstwhile editor of a popular motoring magazine.
The Mahindra Adventure calendar comprises a series of experiential marketing events throughout the year such as the popular off-roading event, the Great Escape, several Challenges (sporting events in keeping with the company's promise of providing adrenaline pumping challenges), Multi-Day Special Escapes, such as the Monastery Escape (10 days), TriNation Escape (10 days), One lap of Iran (9 days), Himalayan Spiti Escape (10 days), The Snow Escape (7 days) & the Summit - a drive to the Everest base camp (14 days).
To spread the DNA of off-roading, the Mahindra Adventure team has also recently launched the Mahindra Adventure Off-Road Training Academy in Mangalore to encourage off-roading amongst the adventure seekers. This is the second Off-Road Training Academy after the first one in Igatpuri. Mahindra Adventure Off-road Training Academy is 28-acre facility, India's first dedicated facility providing a one stop solution to learning everything about a Mahindra 4WD vehicle and how to use it to its full potential. Through this, we hope to leverage the brand's off-road heritage, showcase the vehicles abilities and give the participants the confidence to explore the limits of the vehicles. Custom-made Mahindra Thars equipped with radio sets are exclusively used as training vehicles at the facility.
For more details on Mahindra Adventure, you can visit http://mahindraadventure.com/
Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/MahindraAdventure/
Twitter : https://twitter.com/MahindraAdvntre
Instagram : mahindraadventure
YouTube : Mahindra Adventure
The Mahindra Group is a USD 20.7 billion federation of companies that enables people to rise through innovative mobility solutions, driving rural prosperity, enhancing urban living, nurturing new businesses and fostering communities. It enjoys a leadership position in utility vehicles, information technology, financial services and vacation ownership in India and is the world's largest tractor company, by volume. It also enjoys a strong presence in agribusiness, aerospace, commercial vehicles, components, defense, logistics, real estate, renewable energy, speedboats and steel, amongst other businesses. Headquartered in India, Mahindra employs over 2,40,000 people across 100 countries.
Media contact information:
Mohan Nair
Vice President (Communications)
Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd.
Office Direct Line – + 91 22 28468510
Office Email Address – [email protected]

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


in reply to: Wei_Dai's comment on: Can corrigibility be learned safely?
Among people I've had significant online discussions with, your writings on alignment tend to be the hardest to understand and easiest to misunderstand.
Additionally, I think that there are ways to misunderstand the IDA approach that leave out significant parts of the complexity (ie. IDA based off of humans thinking for a day with unrestricted input, without doing the hard work of trying to understand corrigibility and meta-philosophy beforehand), but can seem to be plausible things to talk about in terms of "solving the AI alignment problem" if one hasn't understood the more subtle problems that would occur. It's then easy to miss the problems and feel optimistic about IDA working while underestimating the amount of hard philosophical work that needs to be done, or to incorrectly attack the approach for missing the problems completely.
(I think that these simpler versions of IDA might be worth thinking about as a plausible fallback plan if no other alignment approach is ready in time, but only if they are restricted in terms of accomplishing specific tasks to stabilise the world, restricted in how far the amplification is taking, replaced with something better as soon as possible, etc. I also think that working on simple versions of IDA can help make progress on issues that would be required for fully scalable IDA, ie. the experiments that Ought is running.).
So I also don't see how Paul expects the putative alignment of the little agents to pass through this mysterious aggregation form of understanding, into alignment of the system that understands Hessian-free optimization.
My model of Paul's approach sees the alignment of the subagents as just telling you that no subagent is trying to actively sabotage your system (ie. by optimizing to find the worst possible answer to give you), and that the alignment comes from having thought carefully about how the subagents are supposed to act in advance (in a way that could potentially be run just by using a lookup table).
on: Can corrigibility be learned safely?
From my current understanding of Paul's IDA approach, I think there are two different senses in which corrigibility can be thought about in regards to IDA, both with different levels of guarantee.
1. On average, the reward function incentivizes behaviour which competes effectively and gives the user effective control.
3. The reward function never gives a behaviour a higher reward because it is bad. (Or else the test-time optimisation by MCTS can generate bad behaviour.) For example, if the AI deludes the human operator so that the operator can't interfere with the AI's behaviour, that behaviour can't receive a higher reward even if it ultimately allows the AI to make more money.
Properties 2&3 are dealing with corrigibility in terms of "intent corrigibility" (guaranteeing that the system does not optimise for bad outcomes). This does not cover the agent incompetently causing bad actions in the world, only the agent deliberately trying to produce bad outcomes.
I think IDA doesn't require or claim worst-case guarantees on the task of "consequence corrigibility" (and that this is an impossible goal for bounded reasoners).
I think that average-case good performance on "consequence corrigibility" is claimed by IDA, but only as a subset of general competence.
I think that providing worst-case guarantees on "intent corrigibility" is required and claimed by IDA.
The question I'm uncertain about is whether there's a middle point in tradeoff space where both properties are sufficiently satisfied to produce good outcomes.
Do you agree or disagree with how I've broken down corrigibility claims for IDA, and which claims do you think your argument bears on?
I would see the benefits of humans vs. algorithms being that giving a human a bunch of natural language instructions would be much easier (but harder to verify) than writing down a formal algorithm. Also, the training could just cover how to avoid taking incorrigible actions, and the Overseer could still use their judgement of how to perform competently within the space of corrigible outputs.
Question: when we need to assemble complex concepts by learning/interacting with the environment, rather than using H's concepts directly, and when those concepts influence reasoning in subtle/abstract ways, how do we retain corrigibility/alignment?
E.g. for elegant proofs, you want a heuristic that gives successful lines of inquiry higher scores. You can explore a bunch of concepts that do that, evaluate each one according to how well it discriminates good from bad lines of inquiry, and also evaluate other stuff like "What would I infer from learning that a proof is `elegant` other than that it will work" and make sure that you are OK with that.
This may be related to the more general question of what sorts of instructions you'd give H to ensure that if they follow the instructions, the overall process remains corrigible/aligned.
First, given an agent and an action which has been optimized for undesirable consequence Y, we'd like to be able to tell that the action has this undesirable side effect. I think we can do this by having a smarter agent act as an overseer, and giving the smarter agent suitable insight into the cognition of the weaker agent (e.g. by sharing weights between the weak agent and an explanation-generating agent). This is what I'm calling informed oversight.
Paul, I'm curious whether you'd see as necessary for these techniques to work to have that the optimization target is pretty good/safe (but not perfect): ie some safety comes from the fact that the agents optimized for approval or imitation only have a limited class of Y's that they might also end up being optimized for.
In the discussion about creative problem solving,Paul said that he was concerned about problems arising when the solution generator was deliberately searching for a solution with harmful side effects. Other failures could occur where the solution generator finds a solution with harmful side effects without "deliberately searching" for it. The question is how bad these "honest mistakes" would end up being.
Paul: I also want to make the further claim that such failures are much less concerning than what-I'm-calling-alignment failures, which is a possible disagreement we could dig into (I think Wei Dai disagrees or is very unsure).
What if the current node is responsible for the error instead of one of the subqueries, how do you figure that out?
world representation (an extreme version is you have the method for performing every operation contained in the world representation and looked up, so you can adjust it in the future).
When you do backprop, you propagate the error signal through all the nodes, not just through a single path that is "most responsible" for the error, right? If you did this with meta-execution, wouldn't it take an exponential amount of time?
One step of this method, as in backprop, is the same time complexity as the forward pass (running meta-execution forward, which I wouldn't call exponential complexity, as I think the relevant baseline is the number of nodes in the meta-execution forward tree). You only need to process each node once (when the backprop signal for it's output is ready), and need to do a constant amount of work at each node (figure out all the ways to perturb the nodes input).
The catch is that, as with backprop, maybe you need to run multiple steps to get it to actually work.
The default backprop answer to this is to shrug and adjust all of the inputs (which is what you get from taking the first order gradient). If this causes problems, then you can fix them in the next gradient step. That seems to work in practice for backprop in continuous models. Discrete models like this it might be a bit more difficult—if you start to try out different combinations to see if they work, that's where you'd get exponential complexity. But we'd get to counter this by potentially having cases where, based on understanding the operation, we could intelligently avoid some branches—I think this could potentially wash out to linear complexity in the number of forward nodes if it all works well.
I wonder if we're on the right track at all, or if Paul has an entirely different idea about this.
Huh, I hadn't thought of this as trying to be a direct analogue of gradient descent, but now that I think about your comment that seems like an interesting way to approach it.
A human debugging a translation software could look at the return value of some high-level function and ask "is this return value sensible" using their own linguistic intuition, and then if the answer is "no", trace the execution of that function and ask the same question about each of the function it calls. This kind of debugging does not seem available to meta-execution trying to debug itself, so I just don't see any way this kind of learning / error correction could work.
I think instead of asking "is this return value sensible", the debugging overseer process could start with some computation node where it knows what the return value should be (the final answer), and look at each of the subqueries of that node and ask for each subquery "how can I modify the answer to make the query answer more correct", then recurse into the subquery. This seems pretty analogous to gradient descent, with the potential advantage that the overseer's understanding of the function at each node could be better than naively taking the gradient (understanding the operation could yield something that takes into account higher-order terms in the operation).
I'm curious now whether you could run a more efficient version of gradient descent if you replace the gradient at each step with an overseer human who can harness some intuition to try to do better than the gradient.
Would you think that the following approach would fit within "in addition to making alignment your top priority and working really hard to over-engineer your system for safety, also build the system to have the bare minimum of capabilities" and possibly work, or would you think that it would be hopelessly doomed?


FOUR EXTREMSTIS who belong to the banned group National Action have been found guilty after inciting racial hatred at Aston University, Birmingham.
Chad Williams-Allen, 26, Gary Jack, 22 and two other men, who cannot be named for legal reasons, placed five racist stickers across the campus in July 2016.
The offensive stickers included slogans such as "white zone" and "Britain is ours the rest must go" which were backed against images of masked faces and one, contained a raised arm in a Nazi-style salute.
The prosecution argued the images were abusive, insulting and designed to incite fear across the university. They also believed the group tried to enforce a hostile environment where non-white people would not be welcome.
Sue Hemming from the Crown Prosecution said: "These men were committed members of National Action who went to Aston University with the intention of stirring up racial hatred.
Williams-Allen was jailed for 21 months and Jack received a 12-month sentence suspended for two years. The two other men received 12 months and 16 months each.
In December 2016, National Action became the first far-right group to be proscribed under the Terrorism Act 2000.
Black Lives Matter UK: "How symbols are re-fuelling racism"


How do you design a web application in Java? You install Spring, read the manual, create controllers, create some views, add some annotations, and it works. What would you do if there were no Spring (and no Ruby on Rails in Ruby, and no Symphony in PHP, and no … etc.)? Let's try to create a web application from scratch, starting from a pure Java SDK and ending with a fully functional web app, covered by unit tests. I recorded a webinar no.42 about it just a few weeks ago, but this article should explain it all in even more detail.
Try to run it, it should work. You should be able to open the http://localhost:8080 page in your browser and see the Hello, world! text.
It's not yet a web app, but just a skeleton, which does simple dispatching of HTTP requests into HTTP responses. There is no serious OOP in it though. It's pretty procedural, but it works. Now we should focus on a more important question: How do we add more features to the web app and make it possible to process different pages, render larger content, and handle errors? The request variable in the snippet above should be somehow converted to a response.
The easiest way would be 1) to convert the request into a DTO with all the details inside, then 2) send it to a "controller" that knows what to do with the data from the DTO, and then 3) receive a response DTO from the controller, take the data out and render the response. This is how Spring and most all other frameworks do it. However, we won't follow this path, we will try to do it DTO-free and purely object-oriented.
I have to say that there could be multiple designs, all in an OOP style. I'll show you now only one of those options. You're no doubt aware of our Takes framework, which was born a few years ago—it has its own design, also object-oriented. But the one I'm going to suggest now seems to be better. You might come up with something else too, so don't hesitate to post your ideas in the comments below or even create a GitHub repo and share your thoughts right there.
Pay attention: each call to .refine() returns a new instance of interface Resource. All of them are immutable, just like objects have to be. Thanks to this design we don't separate data from their processor. The resource is the data and the processor. Each resource knows what to do with the data, and receives only the data it is supposed to receive. Technically, we just implement request dispatching, but in an object-oriented way.
I hope you got the idea. The code above is rather sketchy, and the majority of use cases are not implemented, but you can do that yourself, if you are interested. The code is in the yegor256/jpages repository. Don't hesitate to contribute with a pull request and make this small framework real.


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Political Participation of Women: What Does This Mean For Gender Equality?
By Donah Mbabazi
Any nation that fails to educate its girls or employ its women and allow them to maximise their potential is doomed to fall behind in the global economy. Imagine if you have a team and you don't let half the team play, that's stupid! That makes no sense.– Barack Obama, 44th President of U.S.A on his maiden visit to Kenya in 2015.
For a very long time, women were consigned to the back, especially when it came to key issues, such as decision-making, and this led to infamous narratives like 'women belong in the kitchen', a statement that will drive any feminist nutty trying to explain just how wrong that is.
There has been progress towards the equal representation of men and women in decision-making in the past ten years. According to statistics from UN Women, the percentage of women in parliament has nearly doubled in the last 20 years. As of January 2017, 10 women were serving as Head of State and nine were serving as Head of Government.
Rwanda has, for over a decade, been topping the global list of countries with the most female political parliamentarians. That's mainly due to the country's legally set quotas, with the Constitution stipulating that at least thirty per cent (30%) of Deputies in the Lower House of Parliament must be women.
Women in Saudi Arabia voted for the very first time in 2015 and were even allowed to run for public office. So, are women better off staying home to cook and knit? Can they make decisions on what is right for their home, or on a bigger scale, nation?
The latter is evident, with the past couple of strides serving as defining moments for women in the political sphere, with more of them stepping up and assuming key leadership positions.
From Rwanda's Louise Mushikiwabo serving as the Secretary-General of Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie, to Sahle-Work Zewde, Ethiopia's first female president, to Ilhan Omar, the first Somali American elected to the United States Congress.
What does this mean for the gender equality drive?
Olive Uwamariya, a woman activist, says women shining in big political roles means society is finally accepting that the world cannot be governed by men only.
She emphasises that women's empowerment cannot be achieved if women are not seated at the table where decisions are made.
"When there are more women in decision making positions, it means we are likely to have laws and policies that benefit women, children and families because women understand the issues families and children face. These policies are also likely to have a positive impact on their lives," Uwamariya says.
Political participation and representation is also a right, it is not a favour, the woman activist highlights.
"Women make up half of the population so it's only logical to have them in leadership," she says.
Amina Umuhoza, a feminist, says a woman assuming a top position in politics is proof that those who thought that women only deserved to be in the kitchen cooking were completely wrong, because women are exceeding expectations, and that is just the beginning.
There are plenty of things that kept women behind, such as gender-based violence and the different cultural stereotypes, Umuhoza points out.
"It is this that stopped our mothers and sisters from dreaming beyond getting married and raising kids. This mentality killed plenty of passion, potential politicians, innovators and change makers," she says.
The proud feminist is, however, keen on how the world is yet to change, thanks to the evolving traditions that women are happily embracing.
"Things have now changed, women know their rights and they are able to fight for them, this is why we are reaping the fruits. Imagine what an inspiration these women are going to be for the young girls, they are going to grow up watching what their mothers at the forefront are doing," Umuhoza says.
A man's view
Iréné Mizero, Chairman and CEO at Mizero Care Organisation, is not a huge supporter of feminism, however, he believes that when it comes to women and leadership, society can always hope for the best because of the natural abilities women possess.
"Women have this natural thing for transparency and persistence; these two qualities are relevant when it comes to contributing to the changes we want to see in society," Mizero says.
He adds, "Having top female leaders is a great moment for the world to test its innovations and creativity towards solving the problems that are existing in society. We look forward to testing those remedies that women have on the tray, and there is nothing to fear because Rwanda is proof of the positive changes that women have built."
Mizero goes on to applaud the Rwandan and Ethiopian Governments for holding the flag high when it comes to women political representation, saying that this means that doors are open for women and that there is a significant change in societal attitudes, thinking and rules of engagement between women and men.
"When women are at the forefront in key decision making positions, it increases innovative solutions to governance and helps to tackle problems that women face, such as sexual harassment and gender-based violence," he notes.
"Women leaders are capable of bringing the change society wants. The world should replicate Rwanda and Ethiopia's approach because it is proving to be successful," Mizero says.
Why a woman has a place in politics
Studies show higher numbers of women in parliament generally contribute to stronger attention to women's issues. Women's political participation is a fundamental prerequisite for gender equality and genuine democracy. It facilitates women's direct engagement in public decision-making and is a means of ensuring better accountability to women. When more women hold top positions in politics, everyone benefits.
Bertin Ganza Kanamugire, a gender activist, says the changing face of society is enabling women to acknowledge their ability and the full transformation of women's capacity.
Having women in these top positions gives them value and helps them to unveil their potential, Kanamugire says, noting that it was the wrong beliefs and fixed mind-set that society had on women that held them back.
With women in higher political positions, Kanamugire says other women are well represented and the challenges they face can be advocated for.
"When women challenge themselves by assuming top political roles, it helps them realise that they can also do what they never thought they would. Men, on the other hand, realise that women are no lower than them," Kanamugire says.
An article published on the website of Women Deliver, a global advocate that champions gender equality, shows that achieving gender equality in political participation has both intrinsic and instrumental value.
Women in political office prioritise efforts to advance rights, promote equality, and leverage opportunity for women and girls. It's a matter of human rights and it's a matter of good governance, the article reads.
It goes on to explain that the composition of executives and legislatures also affects the quality of laws and influences the extent of their application. Evidence demonstrates that women leaders are more likely to respond to public needs and tend to cooperate across party lines. Historically, this is not the case for men in power.
"To accelerate their political careers, women need communication, connection and community. There is need to increase both the number and the influence of women in political leadership positions, optimising the power of communication and connection to build new communities of knowledge for women political leaders everywhere. Progress happens by convening women political leaders who have the drive and the influence to create positive change," the article reads.
Adapted from Rwanda's Leading Daily, The New Times.
Not a Game of Numbers
2020 US Presidential Race – More Women Make Case for Stake


This strong and fierce costume comes with a tan tunic with fringe detail, pants, boot covers, waist sash, headpiece with feathers and beaded chest plate. Includes: Tunic, pants, boot covers, waist sash, headpiece and chest plate. Does not include hair ties makeup or spear.


text:
Q: Convert algebraic formula to CNF Consider the following test:
$$\sum_{i=1}^n{a_ib_ic_i} \overset{?}{=} q,\tag1$$
where $a_i, b_i, c_i \in \{-1, 0, 1\}$ and $q \in \{0, 1\}.$
Is it possible to rewrite [1] to conjunctive normal form?
Any help (links/toy examples/hints on how to start) is much appreciated.

A: As suggested by Courtois, Bard and Hulme (section 2.2), you could approach this problem in two steps:
Step 1:
Solve the equation modulo 2. Take boolean variables. The equation becomes an exclusive or and can be readily converted into a CNF using tools like bc2cnf.
Step 2:
For variables which were determined to be true/1 and thus unequal zero in step 1, find the sign. Again this is an exclusive or.

Alternative approach
If you require a solution in one step (and are prepared to deal with a far bigger CNF ...), you could model each variable as two boolean variables and translate your equation into a boolean expression as input for bc2cnf.
Two variable encodings come to mind:
You could either encode the absolute value of the variable in one boolean and the sign in the second boolean:

As alternative, encode the variables as sums of -1 and +1:

Once you have encoded your triple-value integer variables in double-value boolean variables, you can take the logic for a full adder and a digital comparator to translate your equation into a logical circuit. The adder computes the sum and the comparator checks if the result stays between lower and upper bound.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


A soft shirt with just the right amount of thickness for just the right amount of warmth. Made with Wickron™ for superior wicking and quick drying abilities. A brushed lining for the back of the neck keeps away the chill on cool spring and autumn days.


Rates are per page (300 words) and based on how soon an order is due.
One page constitutes as being a standard MLA/APA formatted page. It has 1" inch margins (2.54cm), double-spaced and written in Times New Roman 12 pt. font. Typically one page contains 275 words or more, depending on word length itself.


New Baby passing out cigars!
What are these holders called?
Antler Pen , legal or illegal????????
Show off your Pens vs Non Pens pls read!
Finally got a camara to work a little.
First Baron. Now it is my personal pen.


text:
Home	sports	Travis Konecny helps Flyers beat Blackhawks in Prague
Travis Konecny helps Flyers beat Blackhawks in Prague
by Ace Damon October 5, 2019
written by Ace Damon October 5, 2019
PRAGUE (AP) – Travis Konecny scored two goals and coach Alain Vigneault won his Philadelphia debut, leading the Flyers to a 4-3 win over Chicago Blackhawks on Friday night.
Oskar Lindblom and Michael Raffl also scored for the Flyers in front of a sold out crowd of 17,463 tickets at Prague's O2 Arena as part of the NHL Global Series. Carter Hart stopped 28 shots.
It was the first regular season game outside of North America in Philadelphia's 52-year history.
Patrick Kane had one goal and two assists for Chicago, which opened the 2009-10 season in Finland. Alex Nylander and Alex DeBrincat also scored.
Vigneault became the 21st coach in Flyers history in April. He also coached Montreal, Vancouver and the New York Rangers.
CAPITALS 2, ISLANDS 1
UNIONDALE, N.Y. (AP) – T.J. Oshie scored the decisive goal, Ilya Samsonov stopped 25 kicks in his NHL debut and Washington spoiled the season's New York debut.
Jakub Vrana scored his second goal in two games to help Capital stay perfect.
Devon Toews scored for the islanders and Semyon Varlamov made 26 saves.
LEAFS 4, BLUE COATS 1
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) – Mitch Marner scored twice and added assist, Frederik Andersen made 28 saves and Toronto beat Columbus.
Auston Matthews had a goal and a couple of assists, and Cody Ceci – who came from Ottawa on a off-season trade – landed his first goal as a Maple Leaf. Cam Atkinson scored for the Blue Jackets at the opening of the sixth consecutive season, the NHL's longest running streak.
JETS 5, DEVIL 4, SO
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) – Kyle Connor and Blake Wheeler scored goals and Winnipeg spoiled Jack Hughes's # 1 debut overall, recovering from a 4-0 deficit to beat New Jersey.
Dmitry Kulikov, Jack Roslovic, Mathieu Perreault and Neal Pionk scored in the regulation, and Laurent Brossoit made 35 saves for the Jets. Blake Coleman scored two goals for New Jersey, including a spectacular one-handed drop kick. Nilita Gusev also scored in his first NHL game, Sami Vatanen scored a goal and rookie P.K. Subban had two assists.
More AP NHL: https://apnews.com/NHL and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
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At APCO 2018, PCTEL has released the next generation of its Trooper antenna, the company's flagship multi-band platform for public safety fleets. The new Trooper II antenna provides optimal wireless communications performance through the antenna's 4-port 4G LTE connections and 4x4 802.11ac Wi-Fi MIMO capability. It also incorporates PCTEL's newest high rejection multi-GNSS technology for high precision tracking and asset management.
The rugged Trooper II is exceptionally versatile and easy to install. The antenna features PCTEL's new proprietary high rejection multi-band technology, which supports GPS L1, GLONASS, and Galileo for high precision tracking. In addition to public safety applications, this antenna is also excellent for tracking and communications support for industrial IoT and other fleet management applications, including farming tractors for precision agriculture, utility service fleets, and railway positive train control systems.
PCTEL is showcasing the Trooper II antenna August 6-7 at APCO 2018, along with its portfolio of antennas for the public safety industry and grid testing solution for in-building public safety networks.
The Trooper II antenna is available for pre-order now. First shipments are expected in early fall. Order using part #GL9X1AX-TRB.


text:
Local Grassroots Sport Curtailed Ahead Of England Lockdown
The Football Association (FA) have confirmed that all amateur football will be curtailed as part of the new restrictions being brought in across England on Thursday.
Holwell Sports in action at Welby Road.
A statement from the FA yesterday said: "As a result of the UK Government's new national COVID-19 restrictions, and subject to Members of Parliament voting tomorrow [Wednesday 4 November 2020] and the publication of bespoke guidance from the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport [DCMS], the impact on 'non elite' football in England will include the suspension of the following during this period:
• All fixtures and training for Steps 3-6 of the National League System [NLS]; • All fixtures and training for Tiers 3-7 of the Women's Football Pyramid [WFP]; • All fixtures and training for the Regional NLS Feeder Leagues; • All fixtures and training for The Barclays FA WSL Academy League; • All fixtures and training for FA Girls Regional Talent Clubs; • All fixtures and training for indoor and outdoor youth and adult grassroots football.
Our aim is to ensure that the 2020-21 season is completed at these levels and will liaise with the relevant leagues in the NLS and WFP and the County Football Associations [CFAs] to provide support and establish appropriate options to do so if required.
The UK Government has confirmed that school sport can continue as an exemption during this period."
Melton Town's games will be postponed after this evenings at home to Saffron Dynamo (7:45pm Kick Off)
In addition, the UK Government has confirmed that all Emirates FA Cup First Round fixtures will go ahead as planned this weekend between Friday 6 and Monday 9 November 2020 and all ten 'non-elite' clubs that remain in the competition will be able to train together and play their fixtures under 'elite' protocols.
Further updates on fixtures and dates for the 2020-21 Vitality Women's FA Cup, FA Youth Cup, Buildbase FA Trophy and Buildbase FA Vase will follow in due course.
Melton Town are at home tonight ahead of the lockdown against Saffron Dynamo with a 7:45pm kick off at Signright Park on Burton Road. Under 16's get free entry with a full paying adult.
Cottesmore Amateurs tweeted their response to the news this afternoon saying: "As expected, we will unfortunately be forced to suspend all football until at least the 2nd December at Westray Park in line with the governments lockdown. We hope to be back as soon as possible but in the meantime stay safe."
Holwell Sports game against Bourne Town this evening has been postponed due to Covid-19.
Cottesmore Amateurs in action during a home game at Westray Park, in the rain. Photo: NEMM
Melton Town earn vital point against league leaders
Holwell Sports gain vital three points


IT WAS a case of what might have been for John Robertson and his sonar crew as they produced their best day on Weymouth's water on Wednesday to stay in contention for a Paralympic sailing medal at London 2012.
Robertson and his Sonar crew of Hannah Stodel and Stephen Thomas lie fifth overall on 45 points, three points behind bronze medal position that is currently held by Norway.
But it could have been so much better for the trio who would be sitting in bronze medal position themselves if not for a four-point penalty incurred on Tuesday evening at the end of racing.
Separating those two teams in fourth are the French but it is the Brits who appear to be finding their form at the crucial stage of proceedings.
After two fourth-place finishes in the first two races on Wednesday Robertson and co really hit their stride in the third and final race.
Having led for the entirety the British trio looked all set to claim their first outright win at London 2012 but were pipped on the line by the Norwegian boat of Aleksander Wang-Hansen, Marie Solberg and Per Eugen Kristiansen and forced to settle for second.
"We just had to do what we do and try to be a bit more punchy," said Robertson.
"The standard is really high in the fleet, which is really good and nice to see.
ParalympicsGB have never in their history claimed a sailing medal but with Helena Lucas guaranteed at least a silver in the single-person keelboat and Alexandra Rickham and Niki Birrell a bronze in the two-person event Robertson, Stodel and Thomas will go into today's final race hoping not to be left out of the podium celebrations. "We have never had a regatta where it has been so close at the top of the leaderboard," he added.
"It's all too tight to try anything fancy or to try and match race five boats or whatever it is, we've just got to go out there and do what we do.
Meanwhile James O'Shea pushed himself to the point of vomiting as he had to settle for fourth place in the 100m breaststroke.
O'Shea was disappointed with his time but admitted his biggest frustration was not being able to give one of his young fans a medal as promised.
He said: "I fell a bit short of what I wanted because there was a kid who I mentor who I wanted to win the medal for, James Connolly. He's only young but he inspired me to really go for it.


Pre-Biotic with Life-Oligo XOS (Xylo-oligosaccharide) is a supplement derived from corn cob and is produced to support gut health. A prebiotic is defined as a "nondigestible" food ingredient that beneficially affects the host by selectively stimulating the growth of helpful bacteria to vitalize the gut and support immune health. This product can also aid in healthy stool consistency and digestion, making life a little easier.
Take two (2) capsules once or twice daily with food or as directed by a healthcare practitioner.


Ausblick auf weitere Möglichkeiten des CRM-Systems wie Silverlight mobile oder Offinefähigkeit des Systems gegeben.
componente can be developed while reducing costs. The CRM system which should be developed, should be integrated into Microsoft Office 2007, to reuse the existing experience of the users. To fulfill these points, the technologies have been examined separately and advantages and disadvantages of these technologies have been evaluated. After this evaluation, a prototype of the CRM system has been developed to show the combination of the chosen technologies. As a last step, a conclusion of the used technologies was made and an outlook of additional possibilities concerning the CRM system, like Silverlight mobile or offine mode was given.


text:
Treatment of acoustic neuroma: Stereotactic radiosurgery vs. microsurgery
Marianna Karpinos, Bin S. Teh, Otto Zeck, L. Steven Carpenter, Chris Phan, Wei Yuan Mai, Hsin H. Lu, J. Kam Chiu, Edward Brian Butler, William B. Gormley, Shiao Y. Woo
Kenneth R. Peak Brain & Pituitary Treatment Center
Purpose: Two major treatment options are available for patients with acoustic neuroma, microsurgery and radiosurgery. Our objective was to compare these two treatment modalities with respect to tumor growth control, hearing preservation, development of cranial neuropathies, complications, functional outcome, and patient satisfaction. Methods and Materials: To compare radiosurgery with microsurgery, we analyzed 96 patients with unilateral acoustic neuromas treated with Leksell Gamma Knife or microsurgery at Memorial Hermann Hospital, Houston, Texas, between 1993 and 2000. Radiosurgery technique involved multiple isocenter (1-30 single fraction fixed-frame magnetic resonance imaging) image-based treatment with a mean dose prescription of 14.5 Gy. Microsurgery included translabyrinthine, suboccipital, and middle fossa approaches with intraoperative neurophysiologic monitoring. Preoperative patient characteristics were similar except for tumor size and age. Patients undergoing microsurgery were younger with larger tumors compared to the radiosurgical group. The tumors were divided into small <2.0 cm, medium 2.0-3.9 cm, or large >4.0 cm. Median follow-up of the radiosurgical group was longer than the microsurgical group, 48 months (3-84 months) vs. 24 months (3-72 months). Results: There was no statistical significance in tumor growth control between the two groups, 100% in the microsurgery group vs. 91% in the radiosurgery group (p > 0.05). Radiosurgery was more effective than microsurgery in measurable hearing preservation, 57.5% vs. 14.4% (p = 0.01). There was no difference in serviceable hearing preservation between the two groups. Microsurgery was associated with a greater rate of facial and trigeminal neuropathy in the immediate postoperative period and at long-term follow-up. The rate of development of facial neuropathy was significantly higher in the microsurgical group than in the radiosurgical group (35% vs. 0%, p < 0.01 in the immediate postsurgical period and 35.3% vs. 6.1%, p = 0.008, at long-term follow-up). Similarly, the rate of trigeminal neuropathy was significantly higher in the microsurgical group than in the radiosurgical group (17% vs. 0% in the immediate postoperative period, p < 001, and 22% vs. 12.2%, p = 0.009, at long-term follow-up). There was no significant difference in exacerbation of preoperative tinnitus, imbalance, dysarthria, dysphagia, and headache. Patients treated with microsurgery had a longer hospital stay (2-16 days vs. 1-2 days, p < 0.01) and more perioperative complications (47.8% vs. 4.6%, p < 0.01) than did patients treated with radiosurgery. There was no correlation between the microsurgical approach used and postoperative symptoms. There was no difference in the postoperative functioning level, employment, and overall patient satisfaction. There was no correlation between the radiation dose, tumor size, number of isocenters used, and postoperative symptoms in the radiosurgical group. Conclusion: Radiosurgical treatment for acoustic neuroma is an alternative to microsurgery. It is associated with a lower rate of immediate and long-term development of facial and trigeminal neuropathy, postoperative complications, and hospital stay. Radiosurgery yields better measurable hearing preservation than microsurgery and equivalent serviceable hearing preservation rate and tumor growth control.
International Journal of Radiation Oncology Biology Physics
Gamma Knife
Microsurgery
Dive into the research topics of 'Treatment of acoustic neuroma: Stereotactic radiosurgery vs. microsurgery'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.
Microsurgery Medicine & Life Sciences 100%
Acoustic Neuroma Medicine & Life Sciences 99%
Radiosurgery Medicine & Life Sciences 90%
acoustics Physics & Astronomy 47%
tumors Physics & Astronomy 45%
Facial Nerve Diseases Medicine & Life Sciences 37%
Trigeminal Nerve Diseases Medicine & Life Sciences 36%
Karpinos, M., Teh, B. S., Zeck, O., Carpenter, L. S., Phan, C., Mai, W. Y., Lu, H. H., Chiu, J. K., Butler, E. B., Gormley, W. B., & Woo, S. Y. (2002). Treatment of acoustic neuroma: Stereotactic radiosurgery vs. microsurgery. International Journal of Radiation Oncology Biology Physics, 54(5), 1410-1421. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0360-3016(02)03651-9
Treatment of acoustic neuroma : Stereotactic radiosurgery vs. microsurgery. / Karpinos, Marianna; Teh, Bin S.; Zeck, Otto et al.
In: International Journal of Radiation Oncology Biology Physics, Vol. 54, No. 5, 01.12.2002, p. 1410-1421.
Karpinos, M, Teh, BS, Zeck, O, Carpenter, LS, Phan, C, Mai, WY, Lu, HH, Chiu, JK, Butler, EB, Gormley, WB & Woo, SY 2002, 'Treatment of acoustic neuroma: Stereotactic radiosurgery vs. microsurgery', International Journal of Radiation Oncology Biology Physics, vol. 54, no. 5, pp. 1410-1421. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0360-3016(02)03651-9
Karpinos M, Teh BS, Zeck O, Carpenter LS, Phan C, Mai WY et al. Treatment of acoustic neuroma: Stereotactic radiosurgery vs. microsurgery. International Journal of Radiation Oncology Biology Physics. 2002 Dec 1;54(5):1410-1421. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0360-3016(02)03651-9
Karpinos, Marianna ; Teh, Bin S. ; Zeck, Otto et al. / Treatment of acoustic neuroma : Stereotactic radiosurgery vs. microsurgery. In: International Journal of Radiation Oncology Biology Physics. 2002 ; Vol. 54, No. 5. pp. 1410-1421.
@article{1cdaeff63ea64586a4e602f85fa18be0,
title = "Treatment of acoustic neuroma: Stereotactic radiosurgery vs. microsurgery",
abstract = "Purpose: Two major treatment options are available for patients with acoustic neuroma, microsurgery and radiosurgery. Our objective was to compare these two treatment modalities with respect to tumor growth control, hearing preservation, development of cranial neuropathies, complications, functional outcome, and patient satisfaction. Methods and Materials: To compare radiosurgery with microsurgery, we analyzed 96 patients with unilateral acoustic neuromas treated with Leksell Gamma Knife or microsurgery at Memorial Hermann Hospital, Houston, Texas, between 1993 and 2000. Radiosurgery technique involved multiple isocenter (1-30 single fraction fixed-frame magnetic resonance imaging) image-based treatment with a mean dose prescription of 14.5 Gy. Microsurgery included translabyrinthine, suboccipital, and middle fossa approaches with intraoperative neurophysiologic monitoring. Preoperative patient characteristics were similar except for tumor size and age. Patients undergoing microsurgery were younger with larger tumors compared to the radiosurgical group. The tumors were divided into small <2.0 cm, medium 2.0-3.9 cm, or large >4.0 cm. Median follow-up of the radiosurgical group was longer than the microsurgical group, 48 months (3-84 months) vs. 24 months (3-72 months). Results: There was no statistical significance in tumor growth control between the two groups, 100% in the microsurgery group vs. 91% in the radiosurgery group (p > 0.05). Radiosurgery was more effective than microsurgery in measurable hearing preservation, 57.5% vs. 14.4% (p = 0.01). There was no difference in serviceable hearing preservation between the two groups. Microsurgery was associated with a greater rate of facial and trigeminal neuropathy in the immediate postoperative period and at long-term follow-up. The rate of development of facial neuropathy was significantly higher in the microsurgical group than in the radiosurgical group (35% vs. 0%, p < 0.01 in the immediate postsurgical period and 35.3% vs. 6.1%, p = 0.008, at long-term follow-up). Similarly, the rate of trigeminal neuropathy was significantly higher in the microsurgical group than in the radiosurgical group (17% vs. 0% in the immediate postoperative period, p < 001, and 22% vs. 12.2%, p = 0.009, at long-term follow-up). There was no significant difference in exacerbation of preoperative tinnitus, imbalance, dysarthria, dysphagia, and headache. Patients treated with microsurgery had a longer hospital stay (2-16 days vs. 1-2 days, p < 0.01) and more perioperative complications (47.8% vs. 4.6%, p < 0.01) than did patients treated with radiosurgery. There was no correlation between the microsurgical approach used and postoperative symptoms. There was no difference in the postoperative functioning level, employment, and overall patient satisfaction. There was no correlation between the radiation dose, tumor size, number of isocenters used, and postoperative symptoms in the radiosurgical group. Conclusion: Radiosurgical treatment for acoustic neuroma is an alternative to microsurgery. It is associated with a lower rate of immediate and long-term development of facial and trigeminal neuropathy, postoperative complications, and hospital stay. Radiosurgery yields better measurable hearing preservation than microsurgery and equivalent serviceable hearing preservation rate and tumor growth control.",
keywords = "Acoustic neuroma, Gamma Knife, Microsurgery, Stereotactic radiosurgery",
author = "Marianna Karpinos and Teh, {Bin S.} and Otto Zeck and Carpenter, {L. Steven} and Chris Phan and Mai, {Wei Yuan} and Lu, {Hsin H.} and Chiu, {J. Kam} and Butler, {Edward Brian} and Gormley, {William B.} and Woo, {Shiao Y.}",
journal = "International Journal of Radiation Oncology Biology Physics",
T1 - Treatment of acoustic neuroma
T2 - Stereotactic radiosurgery vs. microsurgery
AU - Karpinos, Marianna
AU - Teh, Bin S.
AU - Zeck, Otto
AU - Carpenter, L. Steven
AU - Phan, Chris
AU - Mai, Wei Yuan
AU - Lu, Hsin H.
AU - Chiu, J. Kam
AU - Butler, Edward Brian
AU - Gormley, William B.
AU - Woo, Shiao Y.
N2 - Purpose: Two major treatment options are available for patients with acoustic neuroma, microsurgery and radiosurgery. Our objective was to compare these two treatment modalities with respect to tumor growth control, hearing preservation, development of cranial neuropathies, complications, functional outcome, and patient satisfaction. Methods and Materials: To compare radiosurgery with microsurgery, we analyzed 96 patients with unilateral acoustic neuromas treated with Leksell Gamma Knife or microsurgery at Memorial Hermann Hospital, Houston, Texas, between 1993 and 2000. Radiosurgery technique involved multiple isocenter (1-30 single fraction fixed-frame magnetic resonance imaging) image-based treatment with a mean dose prescription of 14.5 Gy. Microsurgery included translabyrinthine, suboccipital, and middle fossa approaches with intraoperative neurophysiologic monitoring. Preoperative patient characteristics were similar except for tumor size and age. Patients undergoing microsurgery were younger with larger tumors compared to the radiosurgical group. The tumors were divided into small <2.0 cm, medium 2.0-3.9 cm, or large >4.0 cm. Median follow-up of the radiosurgical group was longer than the microsurgical group, 48 months (3-84 months) vs. 24 months (3-72 months). Results: There was no statistical significance in tumor growth control between the two groups, 100% in the microsurgery group vs. 91% in the radiosurgery group (p > 0.05). Radiosurgery was more effective than microsurgery in measurable hearing preservation, 57.5% vs. 14.4% (p = 0.01). There was no difference in serviceable hearing preservation between the two groups. Microsurgery was associated with a greater rate of facial and trigeminal neuropathy in the immediate postoperative period and at long-term follow-up. The rate of development of facial neuropathy was significantly higher in the microsurgical group than in the radiosurgical group (35% vs. 0%, p < 0.01 in the immediate postsurgical period and 35.3% vs. 6.1%, p = 0.008, at long-term follow-up). Similarly, the rate of trigeminal neuropathy was significantly higher in the microsurgical group than in the radiosurgical group (17% vs. 0% in the immediate postoperative period, p < 001, and 22% vs. 12.2%, p = 0.009, at long-term follow-up). There was no significant difference in exacerbation of preoperative tinnitus, imbalance, dysarthria, dysphagia, and headache. Patients treated with microsurgery had a longer hospital stay (2-16 days vs. 1-2 days, p < 0.01) and more perioperative complications (47.8% vs. 4.6%, p < 0.01) than did patients treated with radiosurgery. There was no correlation between the microsurgical approach used and postoperative symptoms. There was no difference in the postoperative functioning level, employment, and overall patient satisfaction. There was no correlation between the radiation dose, tumor size, number of isocenters used, and postoperative symptoms in the radiosurgical group. Conclusion: Radiosurgical treatment for acoustic neuroma is an alternative to microsurgery. It is associated with a lower rate of immediate and long-term development of facial and trigeminal neuropathy, postoperative complications, and hospital stay. Radiosurgery yields better measurable hearing preservation than microsurgery and equivalent serviceable hearing preservation rate and tumor growth control.
AB - Purpose: Two major treatment options are available for patients with acoustic neuroma, microsurgery and radiosurgery. Our objective was to compare these two treatment modalities with respect to tumor growth control, hearing preservation, development of cranial neuropathies, complications, functional outcome, and patient satisfaction. Methods and Materials: To compare radiosurgery with microsurgery, we analyzed 96 patients with unilateral acoustic neuromas treated with Leksell Gamma Knife or microsurgery at Memorial Hermann Hospital, Houston, Texas, between 1993 and 2000. Radiosurgery technique involved multiple isocenter (1-30 single fraction fixed-frame magnetic resonance imaging) image-based treatment with a mean dose prescription of 14.5 Gy. Microsurgery included translabyrinthine, suboccipital, and middle fossa approaches with intraoperative neurophysiologic monitoring. Preoperative patient characteristics were similar except for tumor size and age. Patients undergoing microsurgery were younger with larger tumors compared to the radiosurgical group. The tumors were divided into small <2.0 cm, medium 2.0-3.9 cm, or large >4.0 cm. Median follow-up of the radiosurgical group was longer than the microsurgical group, 48 months (3-84 months) vs. 24 months (3-72 months). Results: There was no statistical significance in tumor growth control between the two groups, 100% in the microsurgery group vs. 91% in the radiosurgery group (p > 0.05). Radiosurgery was more effective than microsurgery in measurable hearing preservation, 57.5% vs. 14.4% (p = 0.01). There was no difference in serviceable hearing preservation between the two groups. Microsurgery was associated with a greater rate of facial and trigeminal neuropathy in the immediate postoperative period and at long-term follow-up. The rate of development of facial neuropathy was significantly higher in the microsurgical group than in the radiosurgical group (35% vs. 0%, p < 0.01 in the immediate postsurgical period and 35.3% vs. 6.1%, p = 0.008, at long-term follow-up). Similarly, the rate of trigeminal neuropathy was significantly higher in the microsurgical group than in the radiosurgical group (17% vs. 0% in the immediate postoperative period, p < 001, and 22% vs. 12.2%, p = 0.009, at long-term follow-up). There was no significant difference in exacerbation of preoperative tinnitus, imbalance, dysarthria, dysphagia, and headache. Patients treated with microsurgery had a longer hospital stay (2-16 days vs. 1-2 days, p < 0.01) and more perioperative complications (47.8% vs. 4.6%, p < 0.01) than did patients treated with radiosurgery. There was no correlation between the microsurgical approach used and postoperative symptoms. There was no difference in the postoperative functioning level, employment, and overall patient satisfaction. There was no correlation between the radiation dose, tumor size, number of isocenters used, and postoperative symptoms in the radiosurgical group. Conclusion: Radiosurgical treatment for acoustic neuroma is an alternative to microsurgery. It is associated with a lower rate of immediate and long-term development of facial and trigeminal neuropathy, postoperative complications, and hospital stay. Radiosurgery yields better measurable hearing preservation than microsurgery and equivalent serviceable hearing preservation rate and tumor growth control.
KW - Acoustic neuroma
KW - Gamma Knife
KW - Microsurgery
KW - Stereotactic radiosurgery
JO - International Journal of Radiation Oncology Biology Physics
JF - International Journal of Radiation Oncology Biology Physics


text:
One Small Voice
An Observer best debut novel for 2023
by Santanu Bhattacharya
Pub Date 23 Feb 2023 | Archive Date 23 Feb 2023
Penguin General UK - Fig Tree, Hamish Hamilton, Viking, Penguin Life, Penguin Business, Fig Tree
General Fiction (Adult) | Literary Fiction | Multicultural Interest
Talking about this book? Use #OneSmallVoice #NetGalley. More hashtag tips!
'A joy to read, a full universe of feeling, an effortless page-turner by a born storyteller' Max Porter, author of Grief is the Thing with Feathers
'Devastating and intimate, and political and radical all at the same time. Bhattacharya's storytelling talents are limitless' Nikesh Shukla
'Exceptional ... you have complete faith that Bhattacharya will take you to all the right places. Heartbreaking and yet so full of hope' Melody Razak, author of Moth
India, 1992. The country is ablaze with riots. In Lucknow, ten-year-old Shubhankar witnesses a terrible act of mob violence that will alter the course of his life: one to which his family turn a blind eye.
As he approaches adulthood, Shabby focuses on the only path he believes will buy him an escape - good school, good degree, good job, good car. But when he arrives in Mumbai in his twenties, he begins to question whether there might be other roads he could choose. His new friends, Syed and Shruti, are asking the same questions : together, buoyed by the freedom of the big city, they are rewriting their stories.
But as the rising tide of nationalism sweeps across the country, and their friendship becomes the rock they all cling to, this new life suddenly seems fragile. And before Shabby can chart his way forward, he must reckon with the ghosts of his past . . .
Dazzling and deeply moving, One Small Voice is a novel of modern India: of violence and prejudice, friendship and loyalty, community and tradition, and of a young man coming of age in a country on fire.
'A thrilling novel about how one horrific incident can echo through a life, changing it irrevocably. Bhattacharya writes beautifully about friendship, family and the devastating consequences of secrecy and shame in a narrative that powerfully evokes the complexities of coming of age in modern India' Ben Fergusson
'Bhattacharya has the enviable ability of creating a cast of characters that feel as real as any person I've met. His effortless writing sings on the page, and by the time you get to the end, you'll wish you didn't have to leave his mind so soon' Kasim Ali, author of Good Intentions
'Whilst the plot turns on our capacity for cruelty, Bhattacharya's book brims with compassion. A novel about the complexities of adulthood, and the shame we all carry, that is both fearless and kind' Clare Pollard, author of Delphi
'Devastating...
'An exceptional debut. Bhattacharya gives us India in all its messy glory. There is a timeless, mythical quality to this book and yet it manages to be so perfectly contemporary, touching on politics and family and friendship all through the eyes of a boy caught in a moment of darkness, trying to find his way out. The narrative simmers with violence, past and present. The structure is tightly held and from the start you have complete faith that Bhattacharya will take you to all the right places. Heartbreaking and yet so full of hope' Melody Razak, author of Moth
'Whilst the plot turns on our capacity for cruelty, Bhattacharya's book brims with compassion. A novel about the complexities of adulthood, and the shame we all carry, that is both fearless and kind' Clare Pollard, author of Delphi
'An emotional and bold portrait of the often hidden realities of sectarian violence and burgeoning growth of modern India, exploring the impact of circumstances on our collective psyche through characters we bond with. A rare voice that rewards us with hope and recognition' Tice Cin, author of Keeping the House
'An exceptional debut. Bhattacharya gives us India in all its messy glory. There is a timeless, mythical quality to this book and yet it manages to be so perfectly contemporary, touching on politics...
Kate S, Reviewer
I have turned the last page, tears settled on my eyelashes and I take a deep breath trying to ground myself while in my minds eye flames flicker and grow. I feel I know Shabby as well as I know my own son and while Santanu Bhattacharya brought the novel to a stop like a conductor lowers the baton on a perfect symphony, there is a huge longing to follow his life for the next year, or two, or forever.
This book deals with so many modern ills and social issues at once that it should be a mess; difficult to understand or superficial as if no one strand of the story is important enough to take centre stage but perhaps the novel is its own metaphor for modern India. Bright, brash, tender, scented with promise. So much technological growth and yet so much unchanged from Colonial rule. Every strand is important because every strand is connected to every other. At its heart a coming of age story about a boy's journey to manhood finding his own place in a world that has changed so much since his parents generation's own youth but it is also a story of nationalism and the interference of the state in acts of worship, race, ritual observance, oppression and the possibility of change. Turn the page and it is a story of family and the weight of parental expectations, then a treatise on unrecognised buried mental health issues. It is a story of class and caste and an exploration of how best to help those you seek to help, by being with them in the trenches or getting as wealthy as possible in order to have a voice that is listened to so that you can advocate on their behalf.
I could wax lyrical all night about how huge, how wonderful and how beautifully written and woven this novel is but you're going to have to take my word for it until you can read it for yourself!
𝙾𝚗𝚎 𝚂𝚖𝚊𝚕𝚕 𝚅𝚘𝚒𝚌𝚎 𝚋𝚢 𝚂𝚊𝚗𝚝𝚊𝚗𝚞 𝙱𝚑𝚊𝚝𝚝𝚊𝚌𝚑𝚊𝚛𝚢𝚊 𝚒𝚜 𝚍𝚞𝚎 𝚝𝚘 𝚋𝚎 𝚙𝚞𝚋𝚕𝚒𝚜𝚑𝚎𝚍 𝟸𝟹 𝙵𝚎𝚋𝚛𝚞𝚊𝚛𝚢 𝟸𝟶𝟸𝟹
This is such a compelling and hard hitting coming of age story set in modern India. At 10 years old Shabby is caught up in an incident of mob violence, witnessing a violent murder. We watch on as he has to navigate life, dealing with the trauma of an incident his family don't acknowledge.
Initially, i was a little confused about the timeline as the story plays out. Shabby's story weaves in and out of his past to the present, in a country of extremes, a hierarchical society greatly influenced by so much diversity in religion, language, politics, wealth affected by a north south divide, a religious divide, and strong family expectations. Bhattacharya develops an intense story, depicting the rich and complex tapestry of India so well through Shabby and his relationships - with friends, family, memory and identity. By mid-story i was so invested in Shabby's future i couldn't stop reading, anxious for his wellbeing and future. And each time i thought the story was going to be a predictable drama, Bhattacharya takes a sharp turn and opens my eyes, my mind and heart!! I absolutely loved the ending. This is a 4.5⭐ read and one to look out for next year! It's a book i initially thought was not for me but it took me on a journey that left me feeling hopeful. And yes, i shed a tear!
Thank you to #NetGalley for the ebook in exchange for an honest review.
Bookseller 173414
I loved this book. It is a beautifully written and compelling story about trauma and how it takes over a life. It's about the tragedy of a life lost due to a single childhood event and it's repercussions. But this book is written with a light touch, with warmth and with care. It is not a depressing story. I am sure we will be hearing a lot more about this book and author once the book is published.
Kay G, Reviewer
Set over a twenty five year time frame, this is the coming of age story of Shabby. It is also a brilliant telling of the rise of nationalism in India from the 90's to more recent times. The book references the wider historical context of India and its Colonial past.
Early in the book Shabby experiences significant trauma when he witnesses a mob murder; the trauma is compounded when he understands that adults know about it but ignore/deny it. What he witnessed informs the whole book but we are aware from early on that there is more trauma in store for Shabby.
I waited to read this book on holiday as I knew much of it was set in Mumbai so I wanted to read it in the heat. I'm so pleased I did as I somehow felt even more immersed in Shabby's story.
The themes of this book are BIG covering ritual, societal norms, how young people experience the world, discrimination, trauma, sexuality but the humanness of the characters is what shone through the most. Santanu Bhattacharya writes female characters so well, I loved Shabby's Nani and her openness to her grandson later in the story, thank you for bringing some powerful women to life! I have been thinking of them long after finishing the book.
Finally the book renewed my belief in the power and absolute necessity of the arts, both in the writing of the book and within the story of Shabby and his art.
A five star recommendation that will stay with you.
Thanks to @Netgalley for the advance read
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Running races around the country and beyond... and then doing a headstand.
2022 Race Schedule
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50 States of National Anthems
Race Report: Sioux Falls Marathon
Embarking on this second round of 50 states, I did my best to try to find marathons in different cities than where I had run a half in in my first round of 50. For South Dakota, that meant looking to the eastern part of the state, and that's how Sioux Falls made its way onto my calendar. However, it wasn't apparent until the beginning of the summer how scheduling would be to make it to Sioux Falls directly after returning from an overseas trip to Jordan, eight time zones ahead. Knowing myself, I'd make it happen - and so I scheduled my flights with me taking a flight leaving the Middle East on Thursday, and arriving in New York on Friday morning.
Jamie and I ready to go to Sioux Falls!
Of course, to save up my vacation days, I decided to work a full day on that Friday - the only day I'd be coming in that week - and go into the office after a 13 1/2 hour long flight from Abu Dhabi to JFK. I was mostly useless in the office, but I still managed to catch up on e-mails and such. At the end of the work day, I grabbed all my bags and instead of going home, headed to LaGuardia Airport for my evening departure to Omaha. On the plane were my friends Karen and Glen, as well. After sleeping the entire flight, I landed in Omaha before 11pm, with my friend Jamie picking me up, and promptly conked out once again once I got to her house in the Omaha suburb of Ralston.
At the expo at the PREMIER Center
The next morning, I did a load of laundry, essentially emptying the contents of my luggage from the past week into her washer and dryer, before we got on the road to embark on a 2 1/2 hour drive northward to Sioux Falls, South Dakota. We arrived around 3pm, making our way straight toward the expo at the Denny Sanford PREMIER Center, an indoor arena where the race would start and end the next day, before checking into the TownePlace Suites in the western part of the city, making it just in time to watch the contentious US Open Women's Tennis Final on ESPN between Serena Williams and eventual winner Naomi Osaka. After the match and televised press conference, Jamie and I headed into downtown to check out one of Sioux Falls' up and coming breweries, WoodGrain Brewing, which had a delicious Imperial Milk Stout on tap called Cocobolo; with cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla, and chili flavors, it was also aged in a fresh rum barrel for 10 months, giving some additional sweetness! Having a 10 oz. pour was more than enough - its 11.4% ABV made me feel loopy!
STRONG beer! Imperial milk stout...
As the evening began to draw near, Jamie and I decided to pass the time by going to the movies, just on the other side of the highway from our hotel. We watched "Crazy Rich Asians" - my second time seeing the movie - enjoying it once again but this time having engrossed myself in Kevin Kwan's great trilogy of books. I was also very surprised to see a fairly large crowd watching the film - in its third week of release, and in the middle of the country, nonetheless! After the movie, we headed back to the hotel, and I promptly went back to sleep - maybe still a little jetlagged, but knowing I'd have to be up in about six hours anyway, to get myself ready for the race the next morning.
Morning came quickly with my 5am wake up, and we were out the door and headed back to the PREMIER Center by 5:30. Parking was easy, and marathoners were gradually making their way into the arena to prep for the race. The marathon started at 6:30, and I made my way up to the announcer's booth, perched underneath the arena's jumbotron to sing the national anthem after all the marathoners had made their way into the start area.
Getting ready to start the marathon
Promptly at 6:30, we were off, and made our way out of the arena and out onto the sleepy streets of Sioux Falls. The sun was still not up yet, making for a chilly morning, only 55° outside - but I welcomed it after spending a week in the Middle Eastern desert! We exited out onto Western Avenue, then began to weave in and around the streets surrounding the arena. Within the first mile, we saw a beautiful sight - a massive American flag on a flagpole at a flag store, waving in the wind, and backlit by the sunkissed orange sky, the sun barely beginning to make itself known above the horizon. We made our way around the perimeter of Sioux Falls' Veterans' Memorial Park, then encountered our first slight uphill, as we continued south along Menlo Avenue through the residential area of North End West, then turned onto West 4th Street, seeing the spires of the Cathedral of St. Joseph in the distance. We turned onto Duluth Avenue, passing right by the century-old edifice on one side, while enjoying a beautiful view of the downtown area downhill from our high location.
Running through North End West
Cathedral of St. Joseph
Downhill into downtown
We eventually turned onto West 9th Street, enjoying a steep downhill into the downtown area below, where we began to zig zag through the city streets, and enjoyed the crowd support of the few who were up early to cheer us on. We passed by the Old Courthouse Museum, a beautiful former courthouse building made of native Sioux Quartzite stone, a local building material of the late 19th century that is considered the most unbreakable stone in the world, harder than granite, marble, and slate (only gemstones are tougher.) Its beautiful 1893 clocktower stands forthright within the downtown skyline. We had crossed over the Big Sioux River along 8th Street, then passed by the city's old depot building, originally built to accommodate train passengers along the newly built extension of the Illinois Central Railroad, now home of the Sioux Falls Area Community Foundation. Eventually we made it onto 6th Street, where Jamie was waiting to cheer the marathoners on as we passed by. When we turned at Phillips Avenue, beginning to head north into Falls Park, we had already ran 5 miles through the streets of Sioux Falls and its downtown area.
The Old Courthouse Museum to the right
Jamie captured this photo of me at mile 5!
Entering Falls Park...
We had now entered Falls Park, Sioux Falls' crown jewel, a 123-acre park established around the city's namesake waterfalls on the Big Sioux River, just north of the downtown area. The park includes a café, observation tower, and the remains of an old mill, and by 7:30 that morning, the place was already jumping, many people enjoying watching the runners pass through the park's pathways. This was also the start of running along the city's 19-mile main loop of its expansive greenway system, which mostly follows the course of the meandering Big Sioux River. We ran along the bike paths that passed underneath the streets above, and began to see some of the half marathoners make their way through the downtown streets that we had just ran. The course continued southeastward on the bike path, still following the river as we made our way past parks such as Beadle Greenway, Nelson Park, the River Boulevard Greenway, and Cherry Rock Park. It was along this path that the lead runners of the half marathon began to pass me by, until they turned off at a bridge back across the river next to Cherry Rock Park at about mile 7.6, while we continued on, passing by two more parks, Riverdale Park and Rotary Park, in the process.
The Sioux Steel Company property, some 10 acres of land along East 6th Street
Running along the Big Sioux River in Downtown Sioux Falls
Under bridges on the greenway
At Norlin Greenway Park, we came off of the riverside trail, and took a circular ramp down to the street level, as we began to run along an asphalt trail adjacent to Southeastern Avenue. We went past the baseball diamonds in Paisley Park, momentarily removing ourselves from being right next to the river, instead running alongside a railroad through a mostly boring stretch of street. Just before reaching Lions Centennial Park, at Marson Drive, we were directed to turn left, and reached the mile 10 mark of the race. For the next 4 1/2 miles, we embarked on a sojourn through the residential streets of southeast Sioux Falls. It was largely lonely and quiet, but still, several residents came out to cheer us on on this beautiful Sunday morning. We had another slight hill as we ran along 57th Street, with the road ramping up over a sunken railroad bed, then soldiered on until we reached Cliff Avenue, as we took a nice downhill toward the bike trail, once again running along the Big Sioux River at roughly mile 14.7.
The asphalt trail on Southeastern Avenue, part of the Greenway
Running through one of the parks
We continued along the bike trail as it meandered past a few more parks, skirting the edge of Yankton Trail Park and its 21 soccer fields, also notable for being where the early settlers crossed the Big Sioux River on the trail toward the city of Yankton, which was then the capital of the Dakota Territory. We passed under Western Avenue at the 17 mile mark of the race, eventually making our across a bridge over the Big Sioux River, as we began to ran on a rather lonely section of the course, where the trail was positioned on a steep embankment overlooking the Big Sioux River to our right. For the next couple of miles, first running along the edge of Sertoma Park, we ran along this largely quiet section of the route, most of it positioned behind commercial buildings that front Louise Avenue. I found Jamie again as we passed by the 18.5 mile mark under the 41st Street Bridge, where she was handing out bags of Happy Cola flavored Haribo gummies, specifically requested by me - apparently, she developed quite the reputation as the "candy lady," giving out candy to runners as they approached this mark of the race! She told me she'd find me a few miles later, with an actual Coca Cola for me to drink. :D
A lonely bridge southwest of the city
The trail then meandered eastward, following the course of Skunk Creek, a tributary of the Big Sioux River. On the other side of the creek, we could see runners headed back out (I even spotted Glen ahead of me, and I called out to him,) eventually seeing their mile marker 22. We were only about 19.5 in, so we had an idea of how much more trail headed alongside Skunk Creek we had left before we would be going along the trail on their side of the river eventually. We crossed a bridge just before the 21 mile mark, then ran through Dunham Park, which was crawling with people - Sunday morning meant baseball and softball games! As we dodged spectactors and kids warming up for their games, I found Jamie again, and took a swig of that waiting Coca-Cola, which was MARVELOUS, before continuing on, as we made our way back along the bike trail in the direction of the Big Sioux River. It was significantly windier, though, so we ran into a headwind over the next couple miles, until we finally veered northward at the confluence of the two bodies of water. We crossed a bridge back over the Big Sioux River, one that acts as a dam, but also connects both the Country Club of Sioux Falls with the Minnehaha Country Club, before we continued up the eastern bank of the river northward. Eventually, we hit mile 23, with only a little over 5K to go.
A boring section behind some commercial buildings
Another spot where Jamie found me, later in the race.
1.2 miles to go!
For the next two miles, we continued up along the bike trail along the Big Sioux River northward, until we reached the mile 25 mark. To our right, we passed by the Great Plains Zoo & Delbridge Museum of Natural History, and notably the buffalo pen - though they were all resting in a part of the pen further away from our trail. As we continued northward, the quietness of the day was interrupted by the sound of speeding cars, as across the river, the Sioux Empire Fairgrounds were being used as a drag racing venue that morning. It was a totally missed opportunity for me to take video as it only popped into my head later, that I could've parodied the "RuPaul's Drag Race" theme song to "Sioux Falls Drag Race..." but my mind was on other things... I was concentrating on finishing this race under 5 hours!
Victory Headstand in Falls Park
After we reached mile 25, we took Brookings Street all the way to the PREMIER Center, a straight shot to the finish line, back inside the arena. With my goal to finish under 5 hours in sight, I crossed over the finish line mat in a strong 4:53:29, despite feeling physical exhaustion from all of the travel I had gone through in the days prior. I found several of my friends at the finish line, devoured a couple pulled pork sandwiches, and then with Jamie, made our way to Falls Park so that I could do my customary headstand photo. I had luckily gotten the hotel to give me a late checkout, so we headed back and I showered and packed up my bags, and we were out the door about a quarter past 1 - more than enough time to take us back to Omaha and to get straight to the airport for my 5:50pm flight. Another marathon, another state, heck... another time zone! I was ready to get home, and sleep in my own bed finally!
Bringing home the bling!
Posted by Jim at 7:31 AM
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The concept of 'freedom checks' was recently introduced by the media. The advertisement shows Matt Badiali holding a check for $114,287, suggesting a handout, a get-rich-quick scheme, that immediately turns consumers off to the idea. However, getting rich fast is not what these checks are about. In order to understand the concept, people need to understand two things. First, what is a 'freedom check;' and two, who is Matt Badiali and what gives him authority to suggest this type of opportunity.
'Freedom checks' are not a free handout; instead, they are an investment opportunity. They aren't giving you money upfront; instead, they promise that you can earn cash from making investments that you will be able to turn-around and sell for a profit. This type of investment is a commitment, you are required to invest and reinvest in order to make a significant profit in the future. Read more about Freedom Checks at banyanhill.com.
Matt Badiali is an investment guru who, as a geologist, specializes in mining and natural resource investment opportunities. When the stock market crashed in 2008 and many people lost massive amounts of money, Badiali purchased stock for $0.06 a share in Kaminak Gold Corp. While the stock market continued to go down, Badiali was seeing increases. Just two years after purchasing the stock, he was able to sell it at a gain of 4,400 percent.
The investment opportunity that allows you to receive a 'freedom check' is referred to as Master Limited Partnership (MLPs); which is, in essence, a business partnership that functions like a publicly traded limited partnership. What does this mean? That, as an investor, you are eligible for the tax-related advantages of a partnership. There are two main types of MLPs; first, the type that encompass limited partners who have bought MLP shares and provide the beginning capital; second, general partners who operate the MLP.
As good as they sound, there are two main limitations to freedom checks. First, companies are required to agree to pay these checks on an annual basis; and second, almost all of the revenue that powers these checks, 90 percent, must be in the form of transportation, oil production and/or processing, or storage.
One of the biggest benefits of MLP's and 'freedom checks' is that they can be traded for as little as $10, which gives most everyone the opportunity to make these investments and see a return.