We make a distinction hearafter between "gravitational field" and "matter" in this way, that we denote everything but the gravitational field as "matter". Our use of the therefore includes not only in the ordinary sense, but the electric field as well.
... but when we look at any object it had to have come from somewhere ..
Have you considered that it may have come from nowhere? Near the beginning of the Big-Bang event it seems clear to me that the universe started out as a quantum singularity which eventually led to the big bang. It's possible that the universe started out with zero total energy. As the Big-Bang progressed, matter was created in two forms, i.e. matter which had positive energy and that with negative energy, each form having matter.
Re: Split from "The law of conservation of mass?"
It's a interesting point Pmb, as if we was at the receiving end of a prism splitting light into different 'types'. Or maybe we are inside a 'fault line' of something else, where our SpaceTime 'doesn't exist', where it comes from?
If we assume it to be 'energy' then we don't have 'negative and positive' energy, because that would break the conservation laws as I see it. It would be very near the way I think 'real antimatter' should work, just silently disappearing in contact with matter, leaving no 'residue' of any kind definable, not even as entropy's 'work done'. What we call 'anti matter' today is not of that kind, when it meets matter we get a lot of 'energy' released.
Have you ever browsed through an article I wrote on this subject? It has yet to be published, but that will happen when it happens.
Presumably you are talking about the creation of matter and antimatter? Both are created from energy (photons) but photons are their own antiparticle, so I don't understand what you mean by negative energy?
Granted, matter and anti-matter (if they gravitationally repel) could be thought of as cancelling.
The big bang accounts for the surplus of matter over antimatter by allowing a very slight lop sided creation favouring matter. This next bit is not a mainstream idea but I mention it as it fits in with the idea of the universe being a free lunch. What if, the creation of matter and antimatter were equal and what wasn't mutually annihilated gravitationally sorted to become two sister universes. Each going different directions in time relative to the other. That would mean that regardless of the time the universes had existed the total time (as a pair) that they had existed would always be zero. That scenario seems to fit in with quantum mechanics nicely.
where E is energy, m is (rest or invariant) mass and p is momentum.
To solve for the energy, you take a square root, and that can give positive or negative solutions. Dirac was the first to really work out that these negative energy particles were antimatter--no one had actually seen antimatter, so he was just working out the math. Later on, people saw antimatter and verified that his math was describing real particles by using negative energy.
So we set a scale, and then we measure. Under that 0 we call it negative, above we call it positive. Does that mean that energy comes in two qualities?
Not as I see it. If you from a anti particle annihilating with a particle gets a 'positive energy' (as in radiation), sufficient to cover both particles energy/momentum then that last energy is of only one quality.
And that's also what the conservation laws and entropy demands.
The real mystery is 'work done' here.
Actually I was thinking about positive energy and negative energy. The positive energy comes from matter, the negative energy comes from the gravitational field. I'm not 100% sure about this though. I thinkk I read it in either a cosmology text or an article.
So negative energy is something that can appear by taking the square root, ok but I think I am correct in believing that we don't actually know of anything that is negative energy other than the gravitational field?
I agree that gravity can be thought of as negative energy and it is easy to see why the negative energy of gravity would cancel the positive energy contained in matter. However that still leaves energy that is not contained in matter and it is difficult to see how negative gravitational energy can cancel that?
I'm starting a self study of cosmology so by next year I should know much more about things like this.
Note - Please take notice that using educated guesses here.The universe is so enormous that the energy of the negative gravity is enourmous. Same can be said about the energy in matter (including the EM fields).
To me it's a mathematical function. SpaceTime does not have a 'negative energy' because if it had the conservation laws would be wrong. Neither would an outcome between a anti particle and a particle reflect both energies (as a 'positive' function/radiation of them).
Which either makes me believe that my thoughts about what 'anti' something should be seen as is wrong, and so can't exist, or that the definition we use is one describing 'symmetries', but not 'negative energy'.
What would happen if we could run 'clocks' backward?
It wouldn't turn 'negative', but it would reverse.
What I was getting at is gravity is created by mass, so presumably the gravitational negative energy is balanced by the positive energy contained in matter. That still leaves a surplus of positive energy that is not contained in matter. For the universe to have zero net energy what balances this surplus of positive energy?
It's the gravitational field that the negative gravity comes from, on a uiversal level. Even on the human level, if you were at rest on earth then you youself have negative gravity.
Good man my friend. I too am doing the same thing. What text are you using?
The gravitational field which is the cause of the universal acceleration, and that might not be caused by matter as we know it.
...so presumably the gravitational negative energy is balanced by the positive energy contained in matter.
Why? More matter then the greater the negative pat of the field.
Newtonian wise it's like this. If we let g[/g] represent the gravitational field then g = -Mn/d^2. The negative sign represents the negstive part of the megative field.
Why Does A Litre Of 100C Water Have MORE Mass Than When The Water Cools To 4c ?


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DOVER — Sustainable Dover will hold a two-part permaculture workshop in May, instructing those in attendance how to develop a self-sufficient ecosystem.
The workshops will be held in the McConnell Center's Media Access Center, located on the third floor in room 306. Both three-hour sessions will begin at 6 p.m. on May 3 and May 17.
Steven Whitman, a senior planner with Jeffrey H. Taylor and Associates, will instruct attendees how to adopt life skills that promote health and productive living through the creation of a regenerating ecosystem and community.
According to a statement about the event, Whitman is a certified permaculture instructor who has studied in Australia and at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He is the EcoHouse co-director for Plymouth State University.
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text:
Q: How do I replace the default qualifier with whitespace in SSRS by editing the rsreportserver.config file? I have an end user that needs double quotes around one text field with the remainder of the report exported in csv format while pipe delimited and without any headers. I have used the below code inserted into the rsreportserver.config to achieve all of this. The " are added where expected using a calculated field.
The problem: Having " in the output causes extra " to be added on export to csv since it is the default qualifier. I tried changing the qualifier to / instead. This succeeded, but it still treated the " as the default qualifier and placed extra / into the file. The end user can not handle any extra visible qualifier.
I tried using the xml preserve command as illustrated for the FieldDelimiter here http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms155365.aspx but this returned to the default behavior of inserting an extra ". Does anyone have some insight into this?
I am using SQL Server 2008.
        <Extension Name="PIPE" Type="Microsoft.ReportingServices.Rendering.DataRenderer.CsvReport,Microsoft.ReportingServices.DataRendering">
            <OverrideNames>
                <Name Language="en-US">PIPE Delimited CSV</Name>
            </OverrideNames>
            <Configuration>
              <DeviceInfo>
                <FieldDelimiter>|</FieldDelimiter>
                <NoHeader>True</NoHeader>
                <Encoding>ASCII</Encoding>
                <Qualifier xml:space="preserve"> </Qualifier>
              </DeviceInfo>
            </Configuration>
        </Extension>

A: I have made multiple attempts with different options at this. I have conversed with several more experienced programers and one SQL MCM. The consensus I have come to is that there is no way to have both pipe delimitated and a single set of " in a text field while exporting to excel from SSRS.
It is recommended to use SSIS or SSMS to achieve such results.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Mathematical Problems in Engineering
Mathematical Problems in Engineering / 2017 / Article
AbstractIntroductionExperimental ResultsConclusionsConflicts of InterestReferencesCopyright
Advances in Modelling, Analysis, and Design of Delayed Systems
Research Article | Open Access
Volume 2017 |Article ID 6048365 | https://doi.org/10.1155/2017/6048365
D. Santiago, E. Slawiñski, V. Mut, "Delayed Trilateral Teleoperation of a Mobile Robot", Mathematical Problems in Engineering, vol. 2017, Article ID 6048365, 12 pages, 2017. https://doi.org/10.1155/2017/6048365
Delayed Trilateral Teleoperation of a Mobile Robot
D. Santiago ,1 E. Slawiñski ,1 and V. Mut 1
1Instituto de Automática (INAUT), Universidad Nacional de San Juan and CONICET, Av. Libertador San Martín 1109 (Oeste), J5400ARL San Juan, Argentina
Academic Editor: Libor Pekař
Received29 Jun 2017
Accepted29 Aug 2017
Published12 Oct 2017
This paper analyzes the stability of a trilateral teleoperation system of a mobile robot. This type of system is nonlinear, time-varying, and delayed and includes a master-slave kinematic dissimilarity. To close the control loop, three controllers are used under a position master/slave velocity strategy. The stability analysis is based on Lyapunov-Krasovskii theory where a functional is proposed and analyzed to get conditions for the control parameters that assure a stable behavior, keeping the synchronism errors bounded. Finally, the theoretical result is verified in practice by means of a simple test, where two human operators both collaboratively and simultaneously drive a 3D simulator of a mobile robot to achieve an established task on a remote shared environment.
Robot teleoperation allows the execution of a task in a remote environment; generally dangerous and harmful jobs for the human operator are addressed necessarily by these systems to improve the safety level. They are formed by a human operator, a device called master, a robot called slave acting on a remote environment, and a communication channel that connect user and environment. Besides, the term bilateral indicates that there is a physical coupled via force feedback additional to the common multimedia information such as video and audio. That is, the slave follows the motions carried out by the master while simultaneously the human operator receives multimodal information [1]. This feature about tact at distance increases the application field to varied areas such as telemedicine, health assistance, exploration, entertainment, teleservices, and telemanufacturing, among others. Besides, the use of the Internet as a low-cost communication channel allows easily connecting the master and slave devices. However, all Internet-like communication adds nonsymmetric time-varying delays, which if become larger could cause oscillations, low performance [2, 3], and poor transparency [4, 5]. In general, the teleoperation systems are represented by delayed time-varying nonlinear models. So, one of the research topics in delayed teleoperation systems is related to the analysis of different mathematical tools to get delay-dependent conditions for the controller parameters that allow assuring the stability of the delayed closed-loop system.
In the field about robot teleoperation, most control schemes are designed and analyzed considering two manipulators called master and slave [3–6] (and references therein). In general, energy is removed to assure stability or passivity [7]. A classic strategy is the use of scattering signals or wave transformations [8, 9], which adds an apparent damping to get passivity analyzing the system as a two- or four-channel port. In the last years, many researches were focused on the use of schemes to get a stable operation in the sense of Lyapunov by using a sufficiently large damping injected into master and slave [10–12]. Besides, many strategies designed for teleoperation of manipulators were tested also into bilateral teleoperation of WMR (wheeled mobile robots), for example, control based on impedance [13], control based on -passivity [14, 15], schemes including prediction and augmented reality [16], haptic teledriving of a WMR coupled with slippage, where an acceleration-level control law is proposed to assure the passivity of the bilateral system [17, 18], and also control schemes [19, 20]. It is important to remark that the stability analysis of a master position/slave velocity coupling is different mathematically to the common position/position used in a teleoperation between two manipulators due to the master-slave kinematic dissimilarity: master device (e.g., joystick) has a bounded workspace, while slave mobile robot can navigate by an unbounded workspace.
On the other hand, several applications, such as rehabilitation, surgical training, and safety [21, 22], require multiple users instead of a single operator due to the fact that a multilateral teleoperation provides various useful capabilities such as increased dexterity, improved loading, redundancy, and handling capacity, among others. For example, these systems can be addressed to training of human operators to learn the driving of industrial machines. However, the analysis about these systems is even more complex. With respect to the control of them, there are strategies for trilateral systems considering all devices as robot manipulators, for example, control based on passivity [23], where observers and controllers of passivity are added to retain the system energy bounded; adaptive fuzzy control scheme [24]; and controllers [25], where the stability of a dual-master/single slave teleoperation system is evaluated. On the other hand, few papers have been proposed to trilateral systems of WMR. In [26], a WMR trilateral teleoperation scheme is proposed but the time delays are not considered. Also, recently, many papers have been focused on teleoperation networks [27, 28]. This kind of system is an extension of the traditional bilateral teleoperation but includes multiple users working collaboratively and simultaneously from different locations on a shared remote environment, through robots. However, to the best of the authors' knowledge, the -like strategies using a master position/WMR velocity mapping present in the current literature cannot be applied in a direct way to the delayed trilateral teleoperation of a mobile robot because both manipulator-manipulator and mobile-manipulator connections simultaneously occur, making difficult the energy analysis inside the system. That is, the application of controllers to a delayed trilateral teleoperation of a mobile robot requires a new analysis to get delay-dependent conditions that can be held from an adequate calibration of control parameters, to assure a stable behavior for the errors between master 1 position, master 2 position, and mobile robot velocity.
This paper presents a stability analysis based on a Lyapunov-Krasovskii functional applied to a delayed trilateral teleoperation of a mobile robot. The main contribution of this work involves a new functional which is analyzed along the system trajectories, allowing getting information about the evolution of velocity and position of both master 1 and master 2, velocity and acceleration of mobile robot, and synchronism errors. As a result of the mathematical analysis being exposed, depending-delay conditions for the calibration of the controller are achieved. Furthermore, a test about trilateral teleoperation using a 3D simulator is shown in order to verify that the evolution of the delayed trilateral system state is in agreement with the theoretical result achieved.
This work is organized as follows: Section 2 presents some preliminary aspects such as the employed dynamic models and the assumptions used. In Section 3, a control scheme applied to delayed trilateral teleoperation of a mobile robot is proposed and its stability analysis based on a Lyapunov-Krasovskii functional (LKF) is performed. Section 5 shows an experimental test, where two users drive simultaneously a wheeled robot simulator. Finally, in Section 6, the conclusions of this work are given.
2. Preliminary
This paper will analyze teleoperation systems in which two human operators generally called trainer and trainee, use each one a master device (called master 1 and master 2, resp.) to drive a mobile robot slave in a trilateral way, as it is illustrated in Figure 1.
Delayed trilateral teleoperation system of a mobile robot.
Master Model. Each human operator drives a manipulator robot to generate velocity commands and also receive force feedback. The standard nonlinear dynamic model of a manipulator robot to represent each master is used [10, 11], that is,where index indicates master 1 or master 2, is the joint position of the master; is the joint velocity; is the inertia matrix; is the matrix representing centripetal and Coriolis torques; is the gravitational torque; is the torque caused by the human operator force; and is the torque applied to the master by the controller. Commonly, master 1 is associated with the trainer and master 2 with the trainee.
Mobile Robot Model. For the case of teleoperation of a mobile robot, the dynamic model of a mobile robot with differential traction is considered [14]. It has two independently actuated rear wheels and is represented bywhere is the robot velocity vector with and representing the linear and angular velocity of the mobile robot, is the force caused by the elements of the environment on the robot as well as other nonmodeled external forces such as static and dynamic frictions, is the inertia matrix and is the Coriolis matrix where is the mass of the robot, is the rotational inertia, and is the distance between the mass center and the geometric center. In addition, the control action involves a force and torque is applied to the robot.
The devices are numbered as follows: index 1 represents master 1; index 2 indicates master 2; and index 3 represents the mobile robot. Besides, to represent the communication channel of a trilateral system, a forward time delay (from device to device ) and a backward time delay (from device to device ) for each pair master 1-master 2, master 1-slave, and master 2-slave are taken as time-varying and nonpredictable.
Next, common properties, assumptions, and lemmas will be used in this paper [7, 10, 11].
Property 1. The inertia matrices and are symmetric positive definite.
Property 2. Matrix is skew-symmetric.
Property 3. There exists such that for all time .
Property 4. The vector is bounded if is bounded.
Assumption 5. All time delays and are bounded. Therefore, there exist positive scalars such that for all .
Assumption 6. The human operator has finite energy [7] and the environment is represented by a damping-like model plus a finite-energy perturbation [12]. Such models are mathematically represented as follows:where is the human force, is a finite value that bounds the energy of the human operator, is the environment's damping, and is assumed to be bounded with finite energy, that is , with a positive constant and .
Lemma 7 (see [11]). For real vector functions and and a time-varying scalar with , the following inequality holds:
Relation 8. The time delayed variable can be written as follows:
3. Trilateral Teleoperation of a Mobile Robot
The teleoperation trilateral system is used to control the velocity of a mobile robot, where the trainer and trainee (or in general two human operators) permanently send commands and perceive a force feedback. Based on the control schemes applied to bilateral teleoperation of manipulator robots [10–12] and mobile robots [19, 20], and its recent use in delayed trilateral teleoperation of manipulator robots [25], the stability of a dual-master single mobile robot system under a master position/slave velocity strategy will be analyzed in this work.
The set of control actions is established as follows:where the parameters and are positive constant and they represent the proportional gain and acceleration-dependent damping added by the velocity controller placed on the remote site, and are the damping injected in the masters, and and represent a relative spring depending on the mismatch between the master position and a reference feedback. Besides, the parameter linearly maps the master position to a velocity reference, and represents the available information about the mobile robot acceleration but an infinitesimal before the current time instant. It is assumed that this signal can be represented by the real mobile robot acceleration plus an infinitesimal error [20, 29]:
Furthermore, two dominance factors are used. The factor determines the authority of trainer over trainee and implies the supremacy of trainee over trainer. Moreover, the dominance factors and indicate the supremacy of trainer and trainee over the mobile robot, respectively. The relation between them is defined in [25] as follows:with . As is closer to 1, the following occurs. (i)On master device 1, the force feedback from the mobile robot is bigger than the feedback of master device 2; then the trainer has greater perception about the state of the mobile robot than about the command provided by the trainee.(ii)On master device 2, the force feedback from master device 1 is bigger than the force feedback from the mobile robot; thus the trainee has greater perception about the command generated by the trainer than about the mobile robot state.(iii)On mobile robot, increases with (Figure 2); thus the command of the trainer has higher priority than the command of the trainee.
Relation between and .
Relation between and can be seen on Figure 2. To the best of the authors' knowledge, there is not a conceptual justification about the above definition, but from it the stability analysis can be completed. The study about different definitions of that allow keeping the system stability is an open subject.
4. Stability of the Delayed Closed-Loop System
The stability analysis of the control scheme is based on the Lyapunov-Krasovskii theory applied to trilateral teleoperation of a mobile robot in presence of time delays.
Theorem 9. Consider a teleoperation system wherein two human operators (3) use two master devices (1) to drive a slave mobile robot (2) which interacts with an environment described by (4). If the control actions (7) are applied to such system, and if the controller gains hold withthen the vector is bounded, and the variables vectors .
Proof. A Lyapunov-Krasovskii functional is proposed, in order to analyze its evolution along the system trajectories and then infer the behavior of which includes the kinetic energy of the two masters and mobile robot as well as the potential energy of the synchronism errors of the trilateral system. Next each is represented mathematically as follows:where are arbitrary positive constants which will be determined later.
To get , the time derivative of (11)–(18) will be computed along the system trajectories. First, is obtained from (11) as follows:Next, the master dynamics (1) are inserted into (19) considering also Properties 1 and 2 of the master model:Now, the control action from (7) is included in (20) and Relation 8 (6) is applied over the delayed terms: Following a similar procedure, the time derivative of (12) is given as follows:Next, the dynamics (1) of master 2 are introduced into (22) while Properties 1 and 2 of the master model are used, too:If the control action from (7) is replaced into (23) and Relation 8 is applied again over delayed terms, the following expression is achieved:The functions and are easily reached from (13) and (14), respectively:Including the dynamics of the mobile robot (2) into (26) and then adding the control action from (7) and the environment force of (4) to the resulting equation, we getIf relations (6) and (8) and from (9) are considered, the terms of (27) can be reorganized as follows:Next, the derivative of the synchronism errors of the trilateral system are obtained from (15), (16), and (17):Finally, is deduced from (18) (see [11, 20] for further details) as follows:Now, observing the expressions obtained for , there are terms with integrals that difficult the analysis. To solve this, the terms with integrals can be linked by means of Lemma 7 (5) to get quadratic expressions which are convenient to compare the contribution of each factor on the stability.
If each integral term of (21), (24), and (28) is associated with one integral term of (30) through the structure of (5), the following relations can be stated: Joining the functions and applying relations (31)–(37), the terms including integrals are replaced with expressions more adequate to comparison:where the constants are given byAs , (32) can be rewritten asSince (Assumption 6) and , if the damping coefficients are sufficiently high such that in (34) then it is possible to state that .
Then, if (34) is integrated from 0 to , we haveFurthermore, as is considered infinitesimal, the terms containing in (34) and (35) can be neglected. Besides, the integral term is bounded by Therefore, (35) can be rewritten asAs is radially unbounded and from (37) also it is bounded for all , then . Thus, the synchronism errors are bounded. Even more, considering this result in (35), we getIn this way, relation (38) allows asserting that the variables . The proof is complete.
Remark 10. Taking the result achieved in (34), as the parameters are larger, then (both master velocities and slave acceleration) will tend to a smaller convergence ball.
Remark 11. From the vector boundness and employing Properties 2 and 3, Proving that the control actions (7) are bounded is direct.
Remark 12. The following procedure to calibrate the control parameters of a delayed trilateral teleoperation system formed by a single mobile robot and dual-master is proposed:(1)Calibrate the gain parameters and map for the nondelayed trilateral teleoperation system considering and .(2)Set depending on some training process.(3)According to (), () and considering the maximum magnitude (estimated or predicted based on previous connections) of all time delays added by the trilateral communication channel (), the damping level is calibrated to hold Theorem 9.
In this section, the proposed control scheme is tested. Two human operators teleoperate a mobile robot, receiving visual and force feedback. Both master devices employed are a low-cost manipulator, Novint Falcon model http://www.novint.com/ which has 3DOF and force feedback. Two DOFs of each master device are used to generate velocity commands for the mobile robot: one for the linear velocity and the other to set the angular velocity reference. To implement the teleoperation system, the following tools are used: MATLAB/Simulink from https://www.mathworks.com/ running with the real-time module and the SAS library from https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B2jklwyyOJqPNVA2SWFSaGFSNnc?usp=sharing compatible with V-REP environment (http://www.coppeliarobotics.com/). The methodology used allows easily doing tests of a delayed trilateral teleoperation system using a simulated robot but considering the two human operators inside the system, which commonly is called human-in-the-loop simulations, as it is shown in Figure 3. The communication between the master devices, Simulink, and V-REP is made through shared memory.
Delayed trilateral teleoperation implemented for testing.
For the test, all time delays are configured randomly with values from 0.35 seconds to 0.65 seconds while the control parameters are calibrated following the procedure described in Remark 12, obtaining the following setting:
The objective of the experiment is to navigate avoiding the walls for reaching the yellow cube. Then the yellow cube must be pushed from its initial position to the green painted floor, as it is shown in Figure 4. Both operators feel not only the motion exerted by the other operator but also the dynamics of the mobile robot and the box weight.
Setting of the test.
Figure 5 shows the evolution on the remote site of each component (linear and angular velocity references) of the references and as well as the mobile robot velocity (where is the linear velocity and is the angular velocity). It can be seen that the mobile robot velocity is closer to master 1 reference, due to and therefore from (8) we get . Last value establishes the priority level over the mobile robot. Figure 6 shows an image sequence captured from the test, in which it is possible to observe that the task is done adequately in spite of the delays added by the trilateral communication channel.
Linear and angular velocities of the mobile robot and the dual-references from masters 1 and 2.
Sequence of images named T1, T2, T3, T4, T5, and T6 captured into the remote site.
Finally, in Figures 7 and 8, the main signals of the system about its stability are shown, such that it was proven in the theoretical analysis (Theorem 9 and Remarks 10 and 11), the synchronism errors between: master 1 and master 2 , master 1 and mobile robot , and master 2 and mobile robot , as well as the mobile robot acceleration , master 1 velocity , and master 2 velocity , remain bounded throughout the test. It is important to point out that about 53 seconds (subplot named T5 on Figure 5) the mobile robot, driven by the two human operators, starts to push the box. In the error signals and (Figure 7) as well as the mobile robot acceleration (Figure 6), it is possible to appreciate such action. That is, two human operators both collaboratively and simultaneously drive a mobile robot, fulfilling the required task on the remote environment.
Velocities of both masters and acceleration of the mobile robot.
Errors of synchronism.
Discussion. The scheme control developed is addressed to keep the motion synchronism errors bounded, that is, , , and . On the other, the controller is not designed to achieve force tracking but the control actions are bounded (Remark 11) and therefore the force errors given by , , and . On the other hand, the human operator performance generally is quantified with indirect measures such as time to complete the task and position errors of the mobile robot with respect to a goal path (navigation task). These indexes could be used to allocate a training process where the expert (trainer) gradually will have less control ( and are decreased) as the performance of the trainee will be better.
In this paper, the stability of a delayed trilateral teleoperation system of a single mobile robot-dual manipulator-like master is carried out. The kinematics and dynamics mismatch between the mobile robot and the type-manipulator masters makes the analysis presented different with respect to the one applied for the case where all robots are manipulator robots. To get a result about stability, a new Lyapunov-Krasovskii functional has been proposed, which is analyzed along the system trajectories. The result of the analysis exposed is formalized through Theorem 9, which establishes sufficient conditions to hold bounded the position and velocity of each master, velocity and acceleration of the mobile robot, motion synchronism errors, and all the control actions of the delayed trilateral system. Besides, a procedure suitable in practice for the parameters calibration is proposed considering the six values of time delays present on the trilateral system and some training process. A common training methodology requires that the trainer gradually sets the convenient level of depending on the learning stage of the trainee, which could be evaluated from indexes such as time to complete the task. Furthermore, a simple test about trilateral teleoperation using a 3D simulator is shown, whose result agrees with the result achieved from the theoretical analysis proposed. Finally, it is important to remark that the main current application field is the remote training of operators to drive different types of mobile machines or robotic systems such as collaborative mobile manipulators.
The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.
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text:
John Seddon is a British occupational psychologist and author, specialising in change in the service industry.  He is the managing director of Vanguard, a consultancy company he formed in 1985 and the inventor of 'The Vanguard Method'. Vanguard currently operates in eleven countries.  Seddon is a visiting professor at Buckingham University Business School.

Seddon's prominence grew following attacks on current British management thinking including the belief in economies of scale, quality standards such as ISO9000 and much of public sector reform including "deliverology", the use of targets, inspection and centralised control of local services. The Daily Telegraph described him as a "reluctant management guru", with a background in occupational psychology.

He is critical of target-based management, and of basing decisions on economies of scale, rather than "economies of flow".

Seddon has published seven books. In his 2008 book, Systems Thinking in the Public Sector, he provided a criticism of the UK Government reform programme and advocated its replacement by systems thinking. His book The Whitehall Effect was published on 5 November 2014. In it he articulates a more productive role for government in public-sector reform. His latest book, Beyond Command and Control was published on 30 September 2019 and promises to expose the inherent fallacies contained within command and control management.

Seddon won the first Management Innovation Prize for 'Reinventing Leadership' in October 2010.

Academia

John Seddon earned a BSc (Hons) in Psychology with the
University of Wales in 1974, and graduated with a MSc in
occupational psychology from the University of London in
1977.

Debate about local government management
An opinion piece on the deleterious effects of inspection regimes prompted discussion on the Local Government Chronicle (LGC) website with David Walker, Managing Director, Communications & Reporting, at the Audit Commission.

The debate was also covered in newspapers including The Times, which featured it on 31 July 2009.

Campaign
Seddon wrote an open letter dated 31 January 2011 calling for the Rt. Hon Iain Duncan Smith and Lord Freud, the ministers responsible for Welfare Reform, to "halt the current programme of reorganisation associated with the Single Universal Credit and embark on a better course". In the letter, he says "This campaign is not about the concept of the Single Universal Credit as such. It is about the design and implementation of its delivery". He says the weakness in the proposals for online and call centre delivery of the new Single Universal Credit is the "continuing unquestioning faith in economies of scale". A petition was started on the Government e-petitions site  as part of the campaign on 18 August 2011. The petition calls for Iain Duncan Smith to rethink the centralised IT-dominated service design of Universal Credit.

References

External links
Memorandum by Professor John Seddon, submitted to HM Parliament Public Administration Committee January 2003
 Written evidence submitted by Vanguard Consulting on Universal Credit Implementation to the House of Commons Work and Pensions Select Committee September 2012

Living people
British psychologists
British systems scientists
Alumni of the University of London
Year of birth missing (living people)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Home » About Us » Team
"BlueOrchard is made of fantastic individuals - individuals, who are great personalities with excellent skill sets and vast experience. When I see how passionate and motivated my colleagues are in implementing our mission - fighting global poverty - I feel very proud. They know they are part of something bigger. That's what our company is built on."
Peter Fanconi Chairman of the Board
To foster inclusive growth and shared prosperity by empowering individuals and households with low income across the emerging world.
More About BlueOrchard
BlueOrchard Reports and Updates
Sign up to receive BlueOrchard reports or updates on our events and developments.
The BlueOrchard Microfinance Fund
Our flagship fund, specialized in pure microfinance debt investments.
A strong team of dedicated professionals
BlueOrchard's management and investment teams are comprised of the industry's highest caliber professionals, with a wide range of backgrounds in finance and development, with commercial banks, banking regulators, rating agencies, microfinance institutions, asset managers and development financial institutions. Hailing from a multitude of national origins, members of the BlueOrchard team speak close to twenty different languages.
Philipp Müller Chief Executive Officer Maria Teresa Zappia Chief Impact & Blended Finance Officer, Deputy CEO Felix Hermes Head of Private Equity & Sustainable Infrastructure Normunds Mizis Chief Credit Officer Daniel Perroud Global Head of Business Development
Extended Management
Sevara Mukhamet–Alieva Regional Director – Eurasia David Beguin Head of Information Technology Ernesto Costa Head of Private Equity Investments Yann Groeger Regional Director – Africa and Latam Sébastien Juhen Head of Private Debt Portfolio Management Raphaël Lambin Head of People & Development Ebony Satti Head of Investor Relations Matthew Sparkes Chief Risk Officer and General Counsel Tahmina Theis Head of Communications Sascha Ternes Chief Operating Officer Evariste Verchere Head of Public Debt Portfolio Management Michael Wehrle Head Investment Solutions
Philipp Müller
Philipp Mueller is Chief Executive Officer of BlueOrchard. As CEO, he leads the executive and extended management team and has executive oversight of the firm's client and business areas, including strategy and resource management. Prior to that, Philipp held the position of Head Investment Solutions, heading the Global Investment Committee, and overseeing the portfolio management and asset allocation of all funds and mandates. Philipp joined BlueOrchard in 2018 from Partners Group, where he worked for ten years in Switzerland and the UK, most recently as Senior Vice President of Investment Solutions.
Philipp holds an MBA from ETH Zurich and a Master's degree in Law from the University of Zurich.
Maria Teresa Zappia
Chief Impact & Blended Finance Officer, Deputy CEO
Maria Teresa Zappia is responsible for the Public Private Partnership (PPP) funds under BlueOrchard's management and impact practice. Maria Teresa joined BlueOrchard in 2008 as Chief Investment Officer. Previously Maria Teresa worked as Senior Banker in the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development financial institution team both in London and Central Asia. Prior to that she worked for the Asian Development Bank in Manila and was an ODI Fellow in Africa.
Maria Teresa holds a M.Phil degree in Development Studies from the Institute of Development Studies at Sussex University and a Master's degree in Economics from the University of Florence.
Felix Hermes
Head of Private Equity & Sustainable Infrastructure
Felix Hermes is responsible for BlueOrchard's private equity and sustainable infrastructure practices. Prior to joining BlueOrchard as Chief Operating Officer in 2016, Felix was an Executive Director of Corporate Business Development at Bank Vontobel. He has over 20 years of experience in shaping asset managers and financial services organizations as consultant and member of management.
Felix holds a Master's degree in Economics from the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland.
Normunds Mizis
Chief Credit Officer
Normunds Mizis leads BlueOrchard's private debt investment team globally. Before joining BlueOrchard, Normunds worked for 18 years with the World Council of Credit Unions, where he held a variety of Chief of Party and Project Management positions and performed multiple short-term consultancy assignments in Central and Eastern Europe, and Asia.
Normunds' academic research at the University of Liverpool focused on microfinance for micro-entrepreneurs and small businesses in Sri Lanka.
Daniel Perroud
Global Head of Business Development
Daniel Perroud is responsible for business development at BlueOrchard. He has over 20 years of in-depth industry knowledge and extensive experience in business development for traditional and alternative investments. Before joining BlueOrchard in 2018, Daniel held various Director positions in Harcourt Investment Consulting, Muzinich & Co., and Franklin Templeton.
Daniel holds a Master of Laws degree from the University of Fribourg, Switzerland, and attended an executive program of finance at INSEAD in Fontainebleau.
Sevara Mukhamet–Alieva
Regional Director – Eurasia
Before joining BlueOrchard, Sevara Mukhamet-Alieva worked for 15 years with the USAID and ADB, where she held a variety of managerial positions. She worked on development projects focusing on reforms of the banking system and the development of microfinance in Uzbekistan, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan. She has been a board member of the Credit Union Association and a number of credit unions in Uzbekistan.
Sevara has graduated from the Tashkent Finance University with a Bachelor's degree in Banking.
David Beguin
David Beguin is Head of Information Technology, overseeing the BlueOrchard's technology and IT infrastructure. Prior to joining the firm in 2009, David worked as an IT consultant and software engineer specializing in the development and integration of business solutions based on Microsoft technologies. David holds a bachelor's degree in Information Technology from the School of Engineering and Management Vaud, Switzerland. He is a certified ITIL Expert, Microsoft Solution Developer, Microsoft Database Administrator, and PRINCE2.
Ernesto Costa
Head of Private Equity Investments
Ernesto Costa has over 20 years of experience in financial markets. He has worked in M&A advisory, structured credit and investment management in a number of institutions including Goldman Sachs and HSBC in London, Towers Watson and Credit Agricole CIB.
He holds an MBA from IE Business School and is a CFA charter holder.
Yann Groeger
Regional Director – Africa and Latam
Yann Groeger is the Regional Director of Africa and Latam at BlueOrchard Finance. He joined BlueOrchard from ProCredit Group where he worked for 13 years in management of ProCredit banks in Africa, Latin America and Eastern Europe. He has served on board of directors of ProCredit Ghana and Banco ProCredit in Colombia and has extensive experience in SME finance, among others having developed programs for agricultural and green finance in Mozambique and Colombia. Apart from his managerial positions, he has been involved in setting up a professional training institution in Africa and was teaching in Latin America and Germany on various finance related topics.
Yann has completed a Master's degree in Economics at the Institute of Political studies in Paris (Sciences-Po), after having earned the Diploma from the same institution. He previously completed undergraduate studies in Economics and Sociology at Goethe University in Frankfurt.
Sébastien Juhen
Head of Private Debt Portfolio Management
Before joining BlueOrchard, Sébastien Juhen worked in Paris for nine years for Réunica, a major French institutional investor. He was responsible for portfolio management, asset-liability management, asset allocation and mutual fund selection in multiple asset classes.
Prior to this, he held various roles at Caisse d'Epargne des Alpes in Grenoble for two years in the asset management team. Sébastien travelled by bicycle for two years on the American continent from Alaska to Patagonia to meet MFIs and microfinance customers on the way.
Sébastien holds a Masters Degree in Management from Grenoble Graduate Business School and is a Certified International Investment Analyst (CIIA).
Raphaël Lambin
Head of People & Development
Raphaël Lambin is Head of People & Development at BlueOrchard, overseeing the human resources function. Raphaël started his career in finance and subsequently gained multiple exposures to HR practices through various consulting assignments at a leading advisory firm specialized in corporate governance, risk & finance, compensation, and HR management. Raphaël is a CFA Charterholder and holds a Master's degree in finance from the Universities of Lausanne, Geneva, and Neuchatel and a Bachelor's degree from HEC Montreal.
Ebony Satti
Before joining BlueOrchard, Ebony Satti worked at Hyposwiss Privatbank AG for more than five years as an assistant manager for Latin America. Her responsibilities included account management and administration as well as relationship management with clients and external asset managers.
Ebony holds a Bachelor's degree of Business Administration from the University of Applied Sciences in Business Administration in Zurich and an Executive Master of Business Administration from Brown University in Providence and IE Business School in Madrid
Matthew Sparkes
Chief Risk Officer and General Counsel
Matt Sparkes oversees the risk management, legal and compliance departments of BlueOrchard. He joined the company from from impact investment pioneer Root Capital, where he built the in-house counsel function and a comprehensive framework for the management of legal and operational risk. He previously served as Special Counsel to the Division of Trading and Markets at the US Securities and Exchange Commission at its Washington headquarters. Among the few lawyers specialized in impact investment, he has been closely involved in the efforts to develop a specialized field of legal practice in this emerging field.
Matt began his career as an adviser on domestic and international policy for a senior Member of the US Congress. An attorney at law since 2008, he holds a Doctorate of Jurisprudence (J.D.) from Northeastern University School of Law and a B.A. in History from the College of the Holy Cross.
Head of Communications
Before joining BlueOrchard, Tahmina Theis worked for four years at the German development bank NRW.BANK as strategic assistant to the executive board and as parliamentary affairs manager.
Tahmina holds a Master degree in Political Science from the University of Bonn and a PhD from the University of Konstanz.
Sascha Ternes
Sascha Ternes has over 20 years of experience in emerging markets, banking and finance. Before joining BlueOrchard, he established an investment fund in Georgia, the pioneer in collective real estate investments. He resides in Tbilisi since 2007, where he initially served as CFO and later as CEO of ProCredit Bank Georgia and subsequently as Deputy CEO of Bank of Georgia. Prior to that, Sascha held various senior executive positions in a German Technology Group, which focused on international development and investment.
He serves on a volunteer basis as Chairman of the German Business Association (DWV) in Georgia. From 2015 to 2017, Sascha was also elected by the Parliament as an independent Board Member of Georgia's Financial Supervision Agency (FSA).
Sascha has a background in finance and business administration and was awarded with an honorary doctoral degree, affirmed by the German Ministry of Education and Science.
Evariste Verchere
Head of Public Debt Portfolio Management
Evariste Verchere is the lead Portfolio Manager of BlueOrchard listed debt's funds. Before joining BlueOrchard in 2017, Evariste worked for more than 12 years at BlackRock (formerly Barclays Global Investors) in London, where he was managing active investment strategies across fixed income with a focus on emerging markets. Evariste holds an MSc in Financial Markets and Investments from Skema Business School and a Master's degree from Paris Graduate School Of Management.
Michael Wehrle
Head Investment Solutions
Michael Wehrle is Head Investment Solutions at BlueOrchard. In this function, he is heading the Global Investment Committee and overseeing the portfolio management and asset allocation of BlueOrchard's funds and mandates as well as the development of product solutions. He has over 18 years of in-depth knowledge and extensive experience in private markets investment management and design and development of product and investment solutions. Prior to joining BlueOrchard, Michael held several management positions at Partners Group as Head Group Internal Audit and Co-Head Structuring Services in Switzerland and UK, most recently as Managing Director.
Michael is a CFA Charterholder and holds a Master in Banking & Finance from the University of Zurich.


text:
Genetically Modified Crops Implicated in Honeybee Colony Collapse Disorder
Sunday, January 11, 2009 by: Patty Donovan
Tags: colony collapse disorder, health news, Natural News
https://www.naturalnews.com/025287_bees_honey_crops.html
(NewsTarget) As the disappearance of honeybees continues, researchers are trying desperately to discover the cause of Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD). General concensus at this point is that there is more than once cause and the latest culprit may be genetically modified crops. This is one area of research being neglected as mainstream scientists insist GM crops are safe.
For the last 100 years, beekeepers have experienced colony losses from bacteria, (foulbrood), mites (varroa and tracheal) and other pathogens. These problems are dealt with by using antibiotics, miticides and and other methods of pest management. Losses are slow and expected and beekeepers know how to limit the destruction. This new mass die-off is different in that it is virtually instantaneous with no warning of the impending collapse.
John McDonald, a bee keeper in Pennsyvania with a background in biology, speculated that genetically modified crops could play a role in CCD. Although the government constantly reassures us that these genetic manipulations are safe for both humans and the environment, his hope is that looking more closely at these issues might raise questions about those assumptions.
The common bacterium, bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) supplies the most commonly used segment of transgenic DNA. Bt has been used for decades by farmers and gardeners to control crop damage from butterfy larvae. Now, instead of spraying this bacterium directly on the crops, where it is eaten only by the target insects, the genes containing the insecticidal traits are incorporated into the genome of the plant itself. As the genetically modified plant grows, these Bt genes are replicated in every cell of the plant, including pollen. Therefore, every cell of each GM plant contains its own poison aimed to kill the target insect. The target insects consume some portion of the plant, then once ingested, the toxin produced by the Bt genes causes crystallization in the guts of boring larvae and thus death. The primary toxin is a protein called Cry1Ab. In the case of field corn, the targeted insects are stem and root-borers and butterfly larvae.
Although scientists "assure" us that bees (hymenopterans) are not affected, there are Bt variants available that target beetles, flies and mosquitoes. There is indisputable proof that Cry1Ab is present in beehives. Beekeepers spray Bt under hive lids to control the wax moth because the larvae cause messy webs on the honey. Canadian beekeepers have noted the disappearance of this moth even in untreated hives, apparently the result of bees ingesting Cry1Ab while foraging in GM canola plants.
Bees forage heavily on corn flowers to obtain pollen for the rearing of young bees. These pollen grains also contain the Bt genes of the parent plant, because they are present in the cells from which pollen forms. Mr. McDonald believes it may be possible that while Cry1Ab has no direct lethal effect on young bees, there may be some sub-lethal effect, such as immune suppression, acting as a slow killer.
Tens of millions of acres of genetically modified crops are allowing the Bt genes to move off crop fields and contaminate other flowers from which bees gather flowers. "Given that nearly every bite of food that we eat has a pollinator, the seriousness of this emerging problem could dwarf all previous food disruptions".(John McDonald) He proposed an experiment to compare colony losses of bees from regions where there are no GM crops to losses of colonies where they are exposed. He wanted to put test hives where GM crops are so distant from the hives that the foraging worker bees would have no exposure to GM crops. Researches readily dismissed his ideas and no one followed through with such an experiment.
At this point, he decided to do his own investigation at his own expense. He established 8 colonies in new wooden hives to ensure no possible disease transfer from old hives. The bees were fed continuously with sugar syrup until the hives were placed at the selected locations.
"At both sites the flowers of goldenrod provided ample pasturage, with the honey flow commencing in the middle of August and tapering off by the second week in October. Medium-depth empty honey storage supers (a super is the part of the beehive used to collect honey) were put on the hives at this time in addition to the three brood chambers already there. By the simple expedient of lifting the hives from behind, progress could be roughly monitored.
This monitoring showed that the hives of the farmland bees, while numerous, were not gaining weight. Meanwhile, the non-farm colonies steadily gained weight. This part of the experiment was terminated Oct. 14 with the removal of the honey storage supers, with these results: The farmland bees had not even started to work in the honey supers and will require extensive feeding before winter sets in. The non-farm bee colonies produced, in total, nearly 200 pounds of extra honey in addition to about 150 pounds per hive stored in the over-wintering brood supers. These colonies will be left in place to see whether the die-off of last season is repeated. These results should encourage new research to determine what factor or factors are present in farm country to cause such a discrepancy in honey production." John McDonald
John McDonald is a beekeeper in Pennsylvania. He welcomes comments or questions about the bee problem at [email protected]
Another study indicating that Bt may be contributing to the death of honey bees was undertaken in Mexico. This study compared the effects on young adult honeybees of 2 concentrations of Cry1AB (3 and 5000 parts per billion) to a chemical pesticide, imidacloprid. 3 different effects were evaluated by the researchers:
1. Survival of honeybees during sub-chronic exposure to Cry1Ab.
2. Feeding behavior.
3. Learning performance at the time that honeybees become foragers.
Neither test concentration of Cry1Ab had lethal effects on the honeybees, however, when exposed to the higher concentration, feeding behavior was affected. The bees spent longer ingesting the syrup which contained the Cry1Ab which could mean smaller amounts of pollen would be collected. These bees also had impaired learning performance. Honeybees normally do not continue responding to an odor when no food is present, but should be discouraged and seek other sources. These bees continued responding to the odor which again, could affect pollen gathering efficiency. This study indicates that although Bt is not directly lethal to honeybees, it could indirectly lead to colony death due to failure to collect enough food to sustain the hive.
These findings may be the key to the difference in honey production in Mr. McDonald's experiment. Bt appears to have non-lethal effects which become apparent only when the lethal effect is absent. Although not directly lethal to non-target organisms, the toxins from the Bt gene potentially puts non-target insects such as honeybees at risk.
http://persianoad.wordpress.com/2008/01/10/n...
Patty Donovan was in a wheelchair and could only walk around her house with a cane. She was on over 20 medications. When told to "take the morphine, get in the wheelchair and learn to live with it" by a neurosurgeon, she knew her life had to change. She is now almost a fanatic when it comes to healing through the use of "whole foods" and and natural remedies. Since that time, she has spent countless hours researching nutrtion and alternative health. After spending 30 years in the allopathic health care industry in both pharmacy and as an RN, she brings a unique perspective to Natural News readers. Since committing to this new life style, she no longer uses even a cane, has gotten off over 20 medications, lost over 50lbs and returned to work.
Colony collapse disorder at FETCH.news


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Illumination Health
Healthier Healthcare
PUTTING THE HEALTH BACK IN HEALTHCARE
The medical landscape continues to rapidly evolve, yet the tools and services that support specialty care are lacking. Headquartered in South Florida, Bendcare connects and collaborates with the stakeholders to redesign an innovative model of specialty care, service, and superlative outcomes information. We offer solutions to help rheumatologists standardize and simplify their practices. Improved access, advocacy, technology, training, and education redefine the expectations of physicians and the patients they serve across the country to make our physicians the preferred destination of care.
ANDREW RIPPS
Andrew is a successful start-up entrepreneur with a corporate pedigree and track record of building, launching, and scaling profitable and innovative businesses for MDVIP, Cybear, HealthMatics, and GlaxoSmithKline. As a seasoned executive leader, he understands the balance of designing operating infrastructure, branding for physicians and consumers, the physician targeting and recruitment roadmap, physician office staff training, workflow, and implementation plans. One of his most notable accomplishments was being declared as the 2005 Inc. Magazine's 30th Fastest-Growing Company with a three-year sales growth of 1,814%.
YOSHI BARREIRINHAS
Yoshi is a multi-faceted and innovative senior strategist who enjoys building business relationships that streamline processes and have a direct impact on the financial bottom line. His senior leadership in areas such as business development, strategic planning, operations, physician relationships and recruitment, hospital and practice management, and financial management has resulted in a well-diversified level of personal expertise applicable to fast changing organizations.
BRIAN OWENS
Brian is a successful global executive, with more than 25 years driving the development, growth, and success of data and software companies in both North America and Europe. In addition to his experience as a technology leader, he has been a Chief Executive Officer, Chief Revenue Officer, and Chief Operations Officer for high growth companies in the SaaS Software space. His former clients include an impressive roster of Fortune 1,000 organizations including GSK, Johnson & Johnson, Amgen, Bristol-Meyers Squibb, and other global entities who have leveraged complex data as key value drivers for their organization and customers.
JAKE SPRUIT
Executive Vice President, Finance
Jake is a healthcare financial executive with more than thirty years of experience. He has provided financial leadership in urban and rural settings, in independent hospitals and multi-state healthcare systems, and in long-term and end-of-life care. He has directed the financial turnaround of a multi-site healthcare system in rural Michigan to maintain valuable services to small communities. He has led combination and merger activities in Michigan, Georgia, and Florida. Jake has a concentration in healthcare finance after beginning his career as a certified public accountant in a national firm.
KATHI GARRETT
Executive Vice President, Practice Transformation
Kathi is a seasoned healthcare executive with over 25 years of experience. She has been involved in several sectors of healthcare including hospital, physician, and ancillary services management for both payors and providers. For the past 10 years, Kathi has been a senior leader in financial payment models for commercial and government payors, network development, credentialing, and quality. She is also a Certified Compliance Officer. Prior to joining Bendcare, Kathi was the Director of Managed Care for a large group of Ob/Gyn physicians and was successful in assisting the providers with obtaining their NCQA certification for a specialty medical home. Kathi is also a licensed practicing nurse and holds a Master's Degree in Health Administration.
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Yes for patents on seeds: the end of Tomato and Broccoli?
In a long awaited decision in what is commonly referred to as the Tomato and Broccoli case, the Enlarged Board of Appeal has ruled that plants obtained by essentially biological processes are patentable.
The question was raised whether patent claims on such plants are allowed, viewing the previous decision of the EPO that such essentially biological processes itself are excluded from patentability.
The Enlarged Board of Appeal has now shed light in the dark: the exclusion of Art. 53(b) with regard to essentially biological processes is not to be extended to products obtained by such processes.
Patents on plants, whether or not solely obtained by breeding, are perfectly allowable, as long as the plants satisfy the conditions of patentability.
The full decision, which surely will provoke debate in Europe, can be read here.


en liefde gebou kan word.
Scott Thomas Outlar hosts the site 17Numa.wordpress.com where links to his published poetry, fiction, essays, interviews, and books can be found. He recently received three Pushcart Prize nominations for his work in 2016.
Scott is a proud member of The Southern Collective Experience; he also serves as an editor for Walking Is Still Honest Press, The Blue Mountain Review, and The Peregrine Muse.
don't let them come true !
Wat dryf deur 'n verskietende stêr ?
of in die Dooie See of selfs Antarktika ?
Jy mag, maar jammer !
wat jy eenvoudig nie toelaat om waar te laat kom nie !
Why I haven't seen you so far?
Hoekom het ek jou nie sover gesien nie ?
Soodabeh Saeidnia lives in NYC but originally is Persian. She got her Pharm D and Ph.D. of Pharmacognosy and has worked as a researcher, assistant and associate professor in the Kyoto University (Japan), TUMS (Iran) and University of Saskatchewan (Canada). She is interested in English literature and poetry, and has published a collection of her poems, 'Words for myself', in Farsi. Her English poems have been published in different anthologies and literary magazines including "Careless Embrace of the Boneshaker" (by Great Weather for Media) "Squawk Back", "Indiana Voice Journal", "Scarlet Leaf Review", "Sick Lit Magazine", "Dying Dahlia Review", "Sisyphus Quarterly", "Poetry Life and Time", "Paradox", "TimBookTu", "Babbling of the Irrational", "SPINE", "Tuck Magazine", "La Libertad", "Tiny Poetry", "The Pen", and "352 degrees". The first collection of her contemporary poems "Street of the Ginkgo Trees", and also the newly released anthologies (She is both the editor and contributor) "Voice of Monarch Butterflies" and "Apple Fruits of an Old Oak" are now live on Amazon.
My City of Good Hope.


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We believe that the holidays should be an important time of the year to slow down, rest and spend time with those you love. For this reason, we will not be meeting at James Lick Middle School for service on Sunday, December 30th. Instead, we invite you to have church that morning in your own home. Gather your friends and family around your coffee table in your PJ's and make sure you check out Sozo at Home — a special pre-recorded service with amazing worship and an encouraging word from Pastor Jason.
Service will air Sunday, December 30th at 10:30am at SOZO.CO.


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The Showtime series, whose first season wrapped up in August and is now out on DVD ($25.99), focuses on emergency room nurse Jackie Peyton (Falco), who has worked at Manhattan's All-Saints Hospital for years and has learned to navigate between nurses, doctors and management to get her way.
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The season starts off by introducing viewers to Peyton, who demonstrates her form of vigilante nursing justice almost immediately. Sure, she's annoyed by obnoxious and overconfident young surgeon Dr. Cooper (Peter Facinelli, who also plays vampire-turned-doctor Carlisle Cullen in the "Twilight" flicks) and overenthusiastic new nurse Zoey (Merritt Wever), but that doesn't stop her from helping them with their jobs. But the bloodthirsty psycho with diplomatic immunity who she has as a patient? Peyton's polite to his face, but she flushes his cut-off ear down the toilet.


Helix Sleep hybrids that have targeted cushioning conform closely, making them perfect for side sleepers. While those with moderate cushioning do not conform as much and are suitable for all sleep positions. Lighter individuals may feel more comfortable on variants with balanced support, while those that weigh 130 pounds or more tend to favor the variants with extra support.
Helix Sleep also offers two models with dual-firmness, the Helix Dual Balanced (with targeted cushioning and balanced support) and the Helix Dual Extra (with moderate cushioning and extra support). Both of these variants have one 'Soft' side and one 'Firm' side, which makes them suitable for couples with different tastes. Last, the Helix Nightfall is a hybrid developed for bigger, heavier individuals. This mattress has an extra layer of memory foam for optimum support.
Cover – Originally, all Helix mattresses have the same cover, made of 100 percent polyester. I found it to be thin and stretchy, allowing for some nice breathability. But, if you would like something more lavish, you can choose to swap out the standard cover for the brand's UltraCool one, which is made up of a phase change fabric for temperature regulation.
Comfort Layer – Up top, you'll encounter a thick layer of memory foam. This type of foam has a slow response to pressure, meaning you are probably going to encounter some gratifying body shaping. While it might seem odd for a purportedly medium firm bed to make use of a memory foam layer, it is important to remember that the existence of deep sinkage does not necessarily translate to softness; in fact, most of the time it generates quite a firm feeling.
Transition Layer – After getting past the memory foam comfort layer, you'll discover a transition layer of poly foam. This layer works to suppress the sinkage of the memory foam and establish a supportive, medium firm feel as you hit the pocketed coils below.
Support Layer – Most of the mattress consists of this segment of individually wrapped coils. This system gives a supportive lift to the construction, working to place the sleeper "on top" of the bed, as opposed to "in it". Because these coils are individually wrapped, they are also going to give additional breathability as air flows through the spaces in the coils.
The firmness of the Helix will vary widely depending on which model you pick out. The Helix Dusk and Midnight, have moderate firmness levels, which tends to be very versatile and therefore best-selling. If you are more particular, however, Helix Sleep will be happy to oblige you with more choices.
Lying down on the Midnight, the memory foam layer is soft and generates some quality body contouring, while the rest of the materials in the mattress work to control this and create an overall firmer composition. The individually-wrapped coils and the firmer support foams also assist with re-positioning.
For those who sleep on their back, there is just enough good comfort material in the Midnight to conform to your lower spine while supporting your whole back in a neutral position. For larger sleepers or those who prefer a firmer mattress, there are two more choices for you in the Helix Dawn and Helix Twilight models.
Many side sleepers will feel perfectly comfy on the Midnight, but, if you are wanting less pressure while still sticking with a versatile medium firmness, you might decide to check out the Helix Dusk, which utilizes a body-conforming latex-alternative foam that's breathable and provides the surface a small bit of bounce.
Those who sleep on their side typically need to be more mindful of pressure since they sleep with all of their weight on a smaller area. People who are smaller than average or people looking for lots of pressure relief may want to stick to the plusher variants.
Stomach sleepers will feel supported in the Midnight, particularly if this isn't their main position or they tend to change things up a lot. Firmer mattresses might be preferable for exclusive stomach sleepers so that they can make sure their hips do not dip and over-arch their back.
Finally, Helix Sleep recommends Helix for sleepers around 350 lbs or couples who weigh a maximum of 250 lbs each. If you or your spouse are substantially bigger than average, Helix has also created a bed called the Nightfall that's created to accommodate a combined weight of 1000 lbs.
Bear in mind that if neither of those models feel quite right, you may always check out the 4 other models in the new collection: the Sunset (plush, softer compared to the Moonlight), Dusk (moderate feel, slightly firmer compared to the Midnight), Twilight (firm, designed for side sleepers), or Dawn (the firmest variant of the bunch).
Based on my observation, Helix surpasses expectations for hybrid mattresses in this space due to the quantity and quality of foam it incorporates, as well as the individually wrapped coils which help keep motion at its source. If you're a light sleeper afraid that motion from the opposite side of the mattress will bother you, you should not have a lot of concern with this mattress. I'd say that all of the Helix mattresses are a good choice for couples.
When buying a brand-new mattress, most individuals would like to know whether they'll feel like they are sinking "into" the mattress or laying "on top" of it.
Even though you may experience some immediate sinkage from the soft foam on top, when you sink through these layers, you'll find the pocketed coils and experience fantastic support. This combo will interest a wide assortment of sleepers, but will suit back and stomach sleepers the most.
Though I do feel the foam compress as I sit close to the edge of the mattress, the coils stop the mattress from collapsing a lot beyond that. I feel very secure sitting on the mattress.
In my view, Helix mattresses perform above average when it comes to edge support compared to other bed-in-a-box brands, and this is due to their freshly updated edges containing reinforcement in the coil system. There can be some compression at the comfort foams when you sit with all your weight on the side, but lying on the side should feel comfortable and secure. Couples who want more space to stretch out typically appreciate stronger edges.
Laying down, I feel like I could get near the edge of the mattress without feeling like I will roll over or be ejected from the bed. Overall, I believe that the Helix has great edge support.
Among the best features of buying a bed-in-a-box online is the sleep trials they usually come with. Helix is no different. You customize the mattress that is intended for you, place your order, and in 2 weeks, it is sent to your door. From the minute you click to order the mattress, you have 100 nights to check it out (minus the time for delivery, so it's more like 90 nights). If it is not ideal, you can return it free of charge, and get a full refund.
The Helix Mattress includes an awesome 10-year guarantee that covers flaws, but it comes with a few limitations, exceptions, and the burden of proof is on the purchaser (like most guarantees ). Needless to say, you must be the original owner of the Helix to make use of the guarantee, and you need to be sure that you keep your receipt as proof of purchase.
As long as you follow all the manufacturer's expectations for use, your warranty will be valid. That means you need to use a proper base (no adjustable bed frames or slats more than 4″ apart) and that you don't use the mattress improperly – no jumping on it!
If you're convinced that a Helix Sleep mattress is ideal for you, you will find the size and pricing info beneath. However, please be aware that these prices indicate standard pricing, and does not include my special promo. Click here to get my special discount and receive up to $125 off your mattress today.
For regular cleaning, it is advised to use cool water along gentle dish soap to clean any stains or dirt. Be sure to clean using gentle circular movements, rather than rubbing.
The attributes of the Helix were thoughtfully manufactured to deliver choices whether you were searching for a mattress that keeps cool all night, in the event that you wanted one to support your curves with a thick comfort system, or both! The coil unit should provide amazing edge support and motion transfer is minimal with their individually-wrapped build.
I hope that I've given you some notion of what the typical customer can expect from the Helix, but it truly does offer a sensational assortment of customization with a choice for literally every specific desire or need. Your next best sleep might just be a brief online quiz away.


text:
Birth rates in the European Union are falling fast.
Thread starter jimmyjack
jimmyjack
U.K England
Dopey government's problem is staring them in the face: It is Abortion and Contraception.
The EU's baby blues
In the first of a series about motherhood and the role of the state in encouraging couples to have more children, the BBC News website's Clare Murphy asks why governments are so concerned about the size of their populations.
William The Conqueror was counting people nearly 1,000 years ago, and his European descendants are still at it. Small, today's politicians contend, isn't beautiful.
Europe's working-age population is shrinking as fertility rates decline. In a fit of gloom, one German minister recently warned of the country "turning the light out" if its birth rate did not pick up.
Efforts to encourage couples to breed have a chequered history and, for many, recall fascist pasts. Mussolini heavily taxed single men in his Battle for Births, Hitler awarded medals to women with large families in his quest for a superior German race.
No-one is yet berating bachelors or mooting medallions for multiple births. But Europe's many governments are scrambling to find a solution.
Demographic decline causes anxiety because it is thought to go hand-in-hand with economic decline.
With fewer, younger workers to pay the health and pension bills of an elderly population, states face an unprecedented fiscal burden.
The dependency ratio of those aged 65 and over to those of working age looks set to double from one-to-four to one-to-two in 2050.
How can Europe, which increasingly sees itself as a counterweight to US hegemony, claim equal status when it is being outpaced by American population growth?
If current forecasts prove correct, then the US - which currently has 160m fewer people than the EU - will have equalled it by 2050.
Increasing immigration is, in theory, one option for Europe, but most agree it is politically unfeasible in the current climate.
Others stress that it would not in any event solve the problem in the longer term - the migrants would themselves grow old and their own fertility patterns would start to match those of the country which received them.
Another option is to increase the productivity of the working population, drawing more people into the workforce - and more controversially - making them stay there longer. But moves to raise the retirement age tend not to play well with electorates.
That leaves boosting birth rates.
Some analysts believe the fears are exaggerated. It seems richly ironic, they argue, to be worrying about falling numbers of people and, at the same time, to be fretting about the drain on natural resources, and the jostle for living space.
In addition, women's ability to control the number of children they have is a positive development, freeing them from a life of ongoing pregnancies.
Those who want to boost the birth rate do not necessarily disagree on this last point.
But, they wonder, are women restricting the size of families through free choice - or because financial concerns and worries about their position at work prevent them from having as many children as they might like.
Many European countries already have policies in place - some more explicitly pro-natal than others.
Sweden, stressing gender equality rather than stating directly that it wants to boost birth rates, provides a mixed package of higher pay for women, flexible working for both parents and high quality childcare.
France, meanwhile, is positively proud of its avowed pro-natalism, providing a series of tax and cash incentives for those having babies.
Other countries have also started toying with the idea of straight payments. Poland, where the population has fallen by half a million in the last six years, has recently passed legislation that will see women paid for each child they bear.
In Italy, where the population could shrink by as much as one third by 2050, one town has started offering couples 10,000 euros for each newborn baby.
How successful cash is as an incentive is still unclear. One study suggests that, even when cash allowances are boosted by 25%, the fertility rate climbs just marginally - perhaps by as little as 0.6%.
And the impact of generous maternity leave schemes and state-subsidised child care has also yet to be fully established.
Swedish and French birth rates may be higher than in much of Europe, but despite their respective systems, both countries still lag behind the holy grail of 2.1 children per woman needed to keep a population stable.
Europe is still feeling its way in this area, and may, some say, have to come to terms with the fact that there are women remaining childless or having small families by choice.
Recent evidence from Germany suggests that women may actually want fewer children than the two so often seen as the desirable norm - indeed some are happy with none at all.
Iriemon
jimmyjack said:
The country with the highest population wins? India and China are therefore the most powerful and advanced civilizations that we should strive to emulate?
6 billion people on earth isn't enough? How many do we need?
PeteEU
Centrist
Yes when women are free to choose between a life of thier own or children then the birth rate falls.
Yes when women are educated and allowed to think, the birth rate falls.
Yes when an economy is succesfull and booming birth rates fall among the rich, but not always the poor.
Yes when a society breaks loose from the shackles of religious dogma then the birth rate falls.
When a country goes to war... birth rates go up!... hmm this could explain the US birth rate :2razz: but thats another topic.
Is the low birth rate in Europe a problem? Of course it is, but banning contreception and abortion would do nothing other than frustrate millions of men when thier women refuse them sex in fear of having children. That and deadly backroom abortions would explode.
Or would you rather have the women back in the kitchens, uneducated, barefoot and pregnant like they were for the first many centuries?
talloulou
Tiamat's better half
PeteEU said:
I find that extremely insulting. The idea that a women isn't educated because she is cooking, cleaning, and pregnant is absurd. I get pretty sick of people putting down women who have made the choice to actually care for their families and raise their children.
I'm proud I cook for my family!
I'm glad I'm home when my kids return home from school.
Furthermore......what's so wrong with being barefoot? Why the hell would you need shoes on in the house?
:catapult: :bootyshake
Iriemon said:
100 billion is a nice round number.
FallingPianos
why, oh why is this in the abortion thread?
vergiss
Slightly Liberal
talloulou said:
Woah, fear not, talloulou. I don't think he intended to belittle stay-at-home mothers. There's absoloutely nothing wrong with women making that choice (I plan to stay at home at least until my children start school). I think his point is that for women nowadays, it is a choice, as opposed to when women had to do it, and were all but forced to give up their education for a husband and children.
vergiss said:
Maybe his intent was not to belittle stay at home moms but the whole "in the kitchen barefoot and pregnant" BS is trite and derogatory.