text:
Microsoft/Linux Connection
Gateway Tries Trade-Ins To Boost Sales
Using The Internet To Catch Cheaters
from the becoming-more-popular dept
Tue, Dec 17th 2002 8:07am — Mike Masnick
These days, more and more schools believe it's necessary to use some sort of online anti-cheating service to make sure their students aren't simply downloading their homework. There are many different opinions on the programs, but just knowing that the school uses it seems to act as a deterrent on kids who might plagiarize. However, some parents aren't happy that the schools are using such products, saying that it shows the teachers don't trust the students and creates an atmosphere where everyone is guilty until proven innocent. There's also the legal issue that the program many schools use, called Turnitin.com, keeps copies of every paper uploaded by teachers - which could violate copyrights.
AT&T Will Now Filter Robocall Spam, If You Pay Them Extra
No Shirt, No Shoes, No Facescan, No Service: Welcome To 21st Century Convenience Store Shopping
D-Link Settles With FTC, Agrees To Fix Its Shoddy Router Security
Content Moderation At Scale Is Impossible: The Case Of YouTube And 'Hacking' Videos
Chinese Border Agents Now Installing Malware On Foreigners' Cellphones
Dimitrios, 12 Dec 2007 @ 4:07pm
Authentic Cities 12/12/2007
In the ground of Town Planning, Cities that are imagined as a whole are usually labelled with terms such as The Ideal Cities, or the Cities of Tomorrow. This document suggests that this classification is undermining the historical significance of these visions.
Rationally, it is not acceptable to consider of someone having a go at the task of producing the perfect plan, or even to predict one for the future. This approach casts a lot of questions on the intentions behind these visions, and how reliable are the methods of producing them.
Alternatively the idiom Authentic Cities can lead to a more positive attitude. The principal difference between these cases is that, the new term highlights the context of the idea whereas the old one focuses on the objective behind the idea. Once the relationship between the design and the context is established the whole concept becomes no longer irrational.
The style of contextualizing concepts is not used for the purpose of encouraging these cities as valid and applicable ideas. It is used because it offers the researcher the curiosity to examine these visions, and subsequently to find the positive and the negative aspects behind the Idea.
The answer to the question of Urbanism has been and will remain swinging between the two polarities of: the Building of New Cities, or the Development of the existing ones. Since the seventies of the last century the balance has been in the favor of the second. Theories and practices of planned cities have been dismissed in total, and alternatively, the practice of regional Town-planning, applied on Pre-Modern cities, is advocated as the practical approach to serve the ever-growing demand for urbanization.
Now, after almost half a century of renewal and regeneration efforts, the Baroque City is facing functional hardship. A remainder of the one it had in the nineteenth century as a result of the industrial revolution. But this time the implications are not general welfare issues but rather specific cultural ones. The reaction to the first hardship was the wide spread of Social reform movements that primarily inspired by literature. And the later 20th century's Theories in City Design came to be the geometrical manifestations of the social programs proposed by those movements.
Monitoring the general mode within the traditional city (Pre-Modern) of today one can sense a cultural resentment towards what the city has become to constitute. The growing Environmental Awareness and the popularity of Life-style Fashions, such as the call for healthier Organic Living, these cultural trends among other are in fact working against the background of the complex and vast cities of today. More profoundly, the unease is already producing some form of social stratifications. Dividing urban populations into groups of special interests each with its Anti and Pro subdivisions.
The purpose of this document is to "react" to a Logical probability. What if the centre of gravity shifts towards the option of Building New Cities? From a researcher point of view the reaction would be assessment of previous experiences, for the sole reason of avoiding the mistakes of the past.
But in order to proceed with any assessment one must start with, questioning the decision to dismiss the option of building new cities. Especially when confronted with statistics projecting a new city such as Brasilia, built between 1957 and 1960, with a population of two million inhabitants, four times greater than it was originally built for. Or to think of the number of proposals, that are already on the table, with regard to how to expand Chandigarh, another new city built between 1949 and 1958, to cope with the increase in its population. So is there really something wrong about them, or is just "the shock of the new?"
In any attempt to gather information about the so called "new cities" the term Utopian seems to appear consistently. What is more remarkable is the extent to which the meaning of this word has been transformed, and what it is becoming to manifest in contemporary urban writing. The meaning of the word has been transformed from a presentation of an imaginary picturesque island in Moore's literature, to a presentation of the quest for change through non-scientific means, as per Karl Marx's definition.
Clovis Heimsath, in his book Behavioral Architecture (by McGraw-Hill, Inc, 1977, USA), suggests that for the purpose of establishing accountability in architecture one must regard the design process as an evolutionary path on which an architectural product progresses from conceptualization to realization, and with the potential of a further extension in both directions to include operation and the decision to build.
His redefinition of the range covered by the term, design process, is followed by an attempt to phase the process accompanied by listing of data inputs, arranged in sets, each corresponding to a particular phase of the process.
So basically the architectural product is progressing from one phase to another as a result of a number of design decisions that are primarily influenced by these data inputs. The task providing both, data and decisions to any architectural design process is performed by three dominant roles in the industry, the owner, the architect, and the regulatory body.
Though he considers the three roles as sometimes inaccurate as they tend to neglect or substitute other sub-roles such as users or sociologists, and other times as too general in the case of standardization imposed by regulatory bodies, nevertheless, the approach of viewing architecture as roles accompanied by relevant data-inputs and design decisions, is an efficient method of establishing accountability.
This document regards the above-described method as practically useful. Not only because it forms well based for constructive criticism, but also because, ideas evaluated through this method can never be dismissed in total. So the attitude is no longer, this is bad and should be banned, but rather why and where this went wrong and how to avoid it the next time.
Having established a method to criticize how successful or not a master-planning is, someone has to consider the aspect of authenticity, when the evaluation has a more theoretical approach. In "Wikipedia", the term authenticity is divided in four categories, art, philosophy, psychology, and reenactment. This document is going to deal with the first two. "In art, authenticity describes the perception of art as faithful to the artist's self, rather than conforming to external values such as historical tradition, or commercial worth". In philosophy the term authenticity according to existentialists "is the degree to which one is true to one's own personality, spirit, or character, despite these pressures."
Referring back to the assessment task, the subject of this document is a review of the role of the architect in terms of authenticity, in the broad European new-town movement (European as Typology and not as Context). The reason behind selecting the European model is that it has a continuous line of evolution (with roots back to Plato and Vitruvius) linking the past with the present. This makes it a valuable case study. As a case study the planning of Chandigarh was chosen, with Le Corbusier working as the principal architect on that. Le Corbusier's architecture and theories have been influential worldwide. Almost everyone has an idea of his theories, and all people have different views either critical or favorable of his work.
2.	Chandigarh
The year of 1947 was a year of both cautious joy and horror in South Asia. The independence from the British arrived with a disaster of unprecedented dimensions. The division of the previous sub continental administrative unit into India and Pakistan hurried a nightmare of displacement, relocation and communal killing that left few places of the region untouched. Therefore the Indian country was born; amidst this violence and separation the first generation of post-colonial Indian leaders had to mix up to fulfill the crucial of imagining into existence a new national community.
Mahatma Gandhi had gone along with his presentation as the symbolic head of the sub continental freedom movement with a continual call for a nationwide return to the agrarian, simple life of traditional India. He argued that the village should be the heart of newly independent India. In India's immediate era of rejuvenation, conversion and building a new, however, Prime Minister Nehru abandoned Gandhi's traditionalism. Industrialization, scientific socialism and neutrality — all these became the words and ideas that propelled the new Indian political landscape, the language that formed the official vision of the country's future. In the wake of division's devastation, Nehru's aggressive view against a technological, planned modernity needed an arena in which to establish itself, in order to prove its feasibility.
In all of the new Indian country, no region had been more totally destroyed by partition's violence than the Punjab. The historic capital of the productive plains of the northwestern state, Lahore, had been rejuvenated as the capital of Pakistan, leaving the region congested with thousands of Hindu refugees from the north. A new capital city of the Punjab's state would have to be built from the beginning. What better opportunity to create an urban space that would indicate Nehru's forward-looking modernization drive? In 1951, a state committee commissioned the famous Swiss architect Le Corbusier, then approaching the twilight of an memorable career, to lead a team of European planners in designing such a city: Chandigarh.
The city of Chandigarh is located at the base of the Shiwalik Range of the Himalayas, at 333m above sea level, approximately 260 km northwest of India's capital, New Delhi. The site is a gently sloping plain, with two seasonal streams - Patiali-ki-Rao and Sukhna Choe -marking its northwest and southeast boundaries. The city forms the urban core of the "Union Territory of Chandigarh", which has a total area of 114 sq km. All of the urban and architectural work of Le Corbusier listed in this document is located within Chandigarh's "Phase One", an area of approximately 70 sq. km. which can be regarded as the city's "Historic Core."
Le Corbusier was engaged primarily as an architect, and not as a planner. A master plan for the city had already been designed by the American firm of Albert Mayer, and Le Corbusier's services were required for the architectural realization of this scheme. It was natural, therefore, in view of his long involvement with urban design, which Le Corbusier would seek to modify the existing plan something that happened when he began its implementation.
Corbusier was the dominant member of designing team engaged in Chandigarh, including his cousin, Pierre Jeanneret, as well as the British architects Maxwell Fry and Jane Drew. In the division of work, Le Corbusier was to concentrate his efforts on the overall ordering of the master plan and the design of major architectural monuments, leaving the detailed development of the urban fabric, including housing design, to his colleagues.
Although the Chandigarh project intended to symbolize India's independence, a lack of skilled local technicians had dictated the importation of foreign planners. The plan as it had been developed by the Mayer firm represented in many ways a mixture of Western urban design theory, incorporating a system of residential neighborhood units containing schools, residential, small commerce and parkland, a system of pedestrian and motor separation, and separate zoning of major activities. At the upper edge of the city a complex of government buildings was projected, while a commercial district was located toward the city center, and also an industrial area placed at one side.
The Chandigarh planners had to an extent been dominated by the Garden City preference for low-density, somewhat picturesque design, and Le Corbusier, although retaining many general features of the original scheme, started his modifications by classicizing and geometrizing the plan, straightening major streets and converting the slightly irregular superblocks into rectangles. His intention was to give the city a large-scale unified design appropriate to its monumental character, establishing within the new rectilinear outlines a cross-axial arrangement of major boulevards focusing on the commercial center, with the capital complex terminating the northeastern axis toward the mountains.
Referring to the Chandigarh project, Le Corbusier once stated, "I have conceived a capital for the Punjab, a completely new town, standing on a plain at the foot of the Himalaya. As architect I had a free hand but very little money."
"This gave great scope for ideas, invention and imagination. But the program provided by the authority is banal and unimaginative, both for the housing and for the institutional elements of the town. Nowhere yet have the fundamental problems of town planning been put, the problems of economy, sociology and ethics, the conquest of which will make man the master of his civilization."
In addition to any programmatic restrictions the project embodied, Chandigarh presented as well Le Corbusier with a set of social and technical conditions far detached from the industrialized society for which he had always projected his proposals. The means for large-scale mechanized transport did not exist; a lack of steel joined with insufficient technical services made high-rise building impractical, while the semirural way and climate of life moderated against apartment housing.
Although plunged into an unknown environment, and forced to work in conditions adverse to his previous preferences, Le Corbusier found in India perhaps the most approachable patronage he had ever known. His unwavering confidence was comforting to the Indians, while the expansiveness of his vision and the majesty of his concepts seemed to correspond appropriately with their ambitions for the new capital. Although he had regularly found government administrators less than compassionate, his personal relations with the Indian officials of Chandigarh seem altogether successful; and Prime Minister Nehru, who took great awareness in the project, became a very good friend. It was once noted that "India understands idea men and treats them well-perhaps better than any other country- and Le Corbusier benefits from this."
After a whole of seeking to rule the needs of the machine age, Le Corbusier found himself trying to come to conditions with an environment still for the most part unharmed by industrialism. Generally, the formation of Chandigarh represented a more relaxed form of the rigid geometry that was used by Le Corbusier in a vast majority of his earlier works, embodying an interlacing of picturesquely and geometric ordered basics. The determination of size in the city design, the same as in the architecture engaged use of the Modulor, a proportioning system which he had evolved throughout World War II and patented as an invention in 1947. The crucial unit of the city, which was the residential sector, was shaped on the golden rectangle, dimensioning at ½ x ¾ miles (800x1200meters).
The dimension of ½ miles, which reappears in the planning of the capital complex and elsewhere, may be found as well in the epic composition which Corbusier admired in Paris. Although it is natural that Le Corbusier, in ordering a completely new city pattern, might be inspired by the measurements of his native city, the colossal efficiency of the Indian capital, may not functioning well through lack of equally scaled architecture.
While working on the master-plan of Chandigarh, Le Corbusier engaged a system of traffic separation which he named the "7V's", a scheme which he had projected for South Marseilles and Bogota in the past. Some level of traffic division had always been used by Corbusier, and the purpose of the 7V's was an attempt to develop a commonly applicable system separating traffic into a series of seven groups embracing a hierarchy of circulation varying from apartment house corridors to arterial roads.
Applying his preferred biological analogy to the traffic system, Corbusier once stated: "The 7V's act in the town-plan as the blood stream, the lymph system and the respiratory system act in biology. In biology these systems are quite rational, they are different from each other, there is no confusion between them, yet they are in harmony. They create order. It is God who has placed them in the world; it is for us to learn from them when we are organizing the ground which lies beneath our feet".
The plentiful requirements for motor traffic in the city of Chandigarh represented expectation of future industrialization, rather than a scheme adapted to existing circumstances, although the wide combinations of traffic characteristic of Indian towns, ranging from automobiles and tracks to bullock carts and bicycles, indicated a detailed system of separation.
Both social and technical conditions resolute that Chandigarh should be principally a low-rise city, Corbusier specified a desire for the addition of some high-rise buildings both in the central business district and the capital complex. In the architectural composition of the new city Corbusier reflected his preference for a controlled environment – for a simplification of building types and a restricted harmony of building form. A program of standardized designs was followed by the Government housing, while private housing was architecturally controlled. In the central business district, an ideally varied and competitive architecture was anticipated by Le Corbusier's predetermined plan, and also the neighborhood shops were built to specified designs.
As developed by Le Corbusier, means of a standardized four-story concrete –frame building was architecturally unifying the central business district. The lack of elevators was determining its height – the size of building which most owners can afford – and the possibility of earthquakes. Although interiors could be worked out according to the builder's taste, the exterior treatment had to follow a prescribed design pattern providing verandas, that of the ground floor serving as a nonstop 3.6-meter-wide pedestrian cover.
A telegraph building, the post and a ten-story slab housing were the largest buildings projected for the complex and providing the focal point of a central square. Even though the central business district was initially designed as a pedestrian area, with all the traffic happening at the periphery, the dimensioning of circulation areas and open areas seems extremely big, and generally not appropriate according to the scale and the climate of the surrounding building. The design effort may have involved an approach to balance the importance of the capital complex with another ensemble of immense dimensions, but, lacking this symbolic feeling or maybe the convincing architecture, the business district may be considered as a doubtful success both visually and functionally.
The most intensive efforts of Le Corbusier were devoted in the most symbolic part of the city; in the capital complex. This regional government center, containing the Secretariat, the High Court, Legislative Assembly, and the Governor's Palace, was located at the upper edge of the city, bounded by open land.
Le Corbusier envisaged a vast scale capital complex, an area designed for far-reaching visual impact, rather than straightforwardness of physical communication. In designing this complex, Le Corbusier once stated "There was anxiety and anguish in taking decisions on that vast, limitless ground. A pathetic soliloquy! I had to appreciate and to decide alone. The problem was no longer one of reasoning but of sensation. Chandigarh is not a city of lords, princes or kings confined within walls, crowded in by neighbors. It was a matter of occupying a plain. The geometrical event was, in truth, a sculpture of the intellect… It was a battle of space, fought within the mind. Arithmetic, texturique, geometrics: it would all be there when the whole was finished. For the moment, oxen cows and goats, driven by peasants, crossed the sun-scorched fields."
The area where the capital complex is, was envisaged as pedestrian plaza, with all the motor traffic being channeled into trenches ending to parking areas. The long concrete slab of the Secretariat limits the area to the left, and stands next to the Legislative Assembly, while the Legislature and the High Court terminate the cross axis on either side of 450 – meter walkway. The central part of the area is marked by several monuments devised to illustrate Corbusier's theories regarding city planning, while outlined against the hills at the external edge of the complex was projected a symbolic sculptural monument and a Museum of Knowledge both designed by Corbusier.
Jane Drew was the one that reportedly suggested the monuments and he was the one advised Le Corbusier to "set up in the heart of the Capitol the signs which symbolize the basis of your philosophy and by which you arrived at your understanding of the art of city design. These signs should be known – they are key to the creation of Chandigarh."
Other monuments were designed to represent the Twenty-four solar hours "which rule men's activity", as well as the path of the sun between two solstices, "this sun, which governs men – friend or enemy," while the Tower of Shade would express principles of protection from the sun. A monument to the martyrs of the Indian partition was projected close to the Museum of Knowledge. The open hand is the monument which is very often referred by the architect as the Monument of Chandigarh- this piece of art was conceived by Le Corbusier in Paris in 1948 and "during the years that followed, it occupied my mind, finding its first existence in Chandigarh." The symbolism, he said, arose "spontaneously, or more exactly, as the result of reflections and spiritual struggles arising from the feelings of anguish and disharmony which separate mankind, and so often create enemies. …Little by little the open hand appeared as a possibility in great architectural compositions."
Even though some might have found the symbolism of the monuments wholly appropriate, some others might question how suitable these monuments were, when they were included in the capital complex. Le Corbusier had received at some point a letter from an Indian engineer which said, "We have a word Ram Bharosa, which indicates deep faith in the ultimate – faith born of the surrender of the will to the Ultimate Source of Knowledge, service without reward and much more. I live in that faith and feel happy in the vision of the new city which is so safe and so secure in its creation in your hands. We are humble people. No guns to brandish, no atomic energy to kill. Your philosophy of 'open hand' will appeal to India and what we are taking from your open hand, I pray, may become a source of new inspiration in our architectural and city planning. We may on our side, when you come here next, be able to show you the spiritual heights to which some of the individuals have attained. Ours is a philosophy of open hand. Maybe Chandigarh becomes the new center of thought."
The architectural embodiment of Chandigarh's capital complex has been extensively regarded as one of the biggest achievements in modern building design, even though some researchers have been devastated by the excessive scale of it. Almost primitive in their reminiscent strength, the symbolic structures of the capital complex, through their enormous smoothness of form, were the most influential pieces in liberating postwar architectural style, supporting Le Corbusier's ideas as an authentic leader of modern architecture. For supporters of architecture, the capital complex of the city of Chandigarh has become an area of pilgrimage, as to a great extent a part of the Indian nation as the Taj Mahal.
More significantly, Corbusier's hard work served to rejuvenate the concept of the modern monumental design. The city of Chandigarh which was the outcome of political crisis is representing the need of a new, poor nation, technically not developed well, to build a city of order and permanence, a crucial point for the Indian's nationalist spirit. As Corbusier had required to redefine the city's master-plan in order to achieve a properly monumental scale, he didn't manage to give the city's capital complex the impression of power and unity appropriate to its emblematic function.
Pierre Jeanneret was given the primarily responsibility for developing the design of the Capital Project office, as Le Corbusier become day to day more attracted in the monumental architecture of the city of Chandigarh and he had a tendency to disassociate himself from the city's master-planning. During the process of building the city, Corbusier was working in Paris, visiting the Indian's city only periodically, while Jeanneret remained on the site as the director of construction, with the title of the chief architect and planner of Punjab.
Regarding the design of the residential sectors of the city, Le Corbusier's contribution to them consisted of a schematic outline, which was only providing a very general pattern of street layout, bazaar placement and parkland. Within these divisions, the visual appearance was determined by a prearranged schedule of government housing divided into thirteen categories. The people working on the initial housing types were Piere Jeanneret, Maxwell Fry and Jane Drew.
Chandigarh's master-plan involved the formation of an urban design with dual scale. A small, pedestrian-oriented scale within the boundaries of the neighborhood sectors, and a monumental, bigger scale associated to the capital complex and seen in the major building complexes and the boulevards. The most obvious design failure of Chandigarh lies in the residential district development, where a monotonous and loose pattern of building positioning, out of scale, unmaintained open areas, and over scaled roads accord unsuccessfully.
The city of Chandigarh represented an effort to apply the conceptions of the western tradition of urban design to the environment of the Indian, resulting in a city which lacks not only visual interest and spatial variety, but the functional practicality of a typical Indian town. Indian traditional building, employing a dense pattern of inward-facing courtyard houses and narrow streets, symbolizes a more sophisticated technique of coming to conditions with a pedestrian environment, a tropical climate, and a requirement for privacy than is found in the mislaid Garden City ambient of the city of Chandigarh.
Authenticity is meaningless without a true, personal, unique "face". And what we have seen in all these pages is just an authentic expression of a man that had an ideal; a prototype in his mind. The authentic style is the opposite of the stereotype, and when someone chooses to go in favor of the first, he will find himself many times in contrast with the environment. Because the environment is usually following the stereotype, cannot usually appreciate the authentic. The change is the difficult step progressing from repetition (repetition is observed very often in architecture – maybe because when you test something and its working, you have no reason to change it. You may improve it, or copy it but you are not making any progress as an architect. All it happens is transformation of architecture into market. Only through authenticity, architecture becomes art, becomes original) and when it happened in Le Corbusier's years it happened to give a name to a whole movement. The change is the "virus of the modern", and in that sense Corbusier gave to the people of Chandigarh one important thing; an authentic city!
Even though this city may not work, even though this city is considered as a mistake or an unsuccessful master-planning exercise, it happens to be successful in the part of the brief that was talking about a symbolic city. A modern city following different patterns and guidelines from the ones seen until that point (e.g. Delhi) can only be assessed as authentic, and that because of the change that brought. From what people said about the new city, it feels like they have adopted it as a successful example of master-planning, although for the rest that have the "knowledge and experience" to criticize this exercise they should always think that only because it happened it is proved that is not working.
In evaluating Le Corbusier's influence on master-planning it is important to consider besides from the designs he produced, the impact of his lectures and writings. Perhaps this is the key point where authenticity takes part, that the process of the evaluation consists of many different aspects varying from design to architectural thinking which lead to a motivating spirit. Most important of all is that the motive of Corbusier's ideas embodied a belief in progress, an atmosphere of hope always taking into account the human vitality. Corbusier contradicted that the urban environment was a chaotic, amorphous and uncontrollable force. He confirmed that the city is a man made creation, the principal mark of man on earth, subject to and ordered by the human will. He wanted to inspire others with his expansiveness of vision.
"And in the last resort, what does it matter to me whether the people were happy or unhappy before the machine come? One thing I am certain of: the vast and agonized labor of the 19th century and the dramatic explosions that have begun the 20th are the heralds of a new age of harmony and joy. Just as the premonitory gleams of dawn in the east, as night dies, leave no doubt about the imminent appearance of the sun, so a thousand signs and concrete events are now affirming the imminent birth of a new era."
The only possible road is that of enthusiasm. Postulating the existence of a modern consciousness and awakening that consciousness in all mankind. Solidarity, courage and order. A modern ethic. Already we are hurtling forward into the modern adventure. You think the time is not yet ripe? What terrible sounds, what rendings, what avalanches must assail your ears then, before they will hear? The thunder now rolling around the world fills the heart of the coward with fear and the hearts of the brave with joy.
"We meanwhile, stubbornly and tenderly, will continue to make Plans."
keri, 23 Feb 2008 @ 12:25pm
They should have more websited to make sure that students know if their work has plagarism. Alot of students do not know all the different types.
LJ, 20 Nov 2009 @ 3:45pm
Turnitin a a crutch
Shove it up your ass! Liberal judges suck just as bad as Liberal professors!
Yes we means we!Not according to dumb-ass liberals at American crap universities!Turnitin is a crutch for overpayed Liberal asshole professors.They could not make it in engineering school!
My Liberal Graduate degree was a waste of time and $$$$.
5.1 Gab, Mastodon And The Challenges Of Content Moderation On A More Distributed Social Network
Saying You Can't Compete With Free Is Saying You Can't Compete Period
Advertising Is Content; Content Is Advertising


It's been a grim week. Hearts are heavy with the mass shooting of children, with the sudden death of poet Jake Adam York, and with a strain of flu that has hit unusually hard this winter. In all this, the thread of thankfulness that stitches the season with hope and joy feels rather thin and tenuous.
And still, it is Christmas. We have our symbols, our traditions, our touchstones. For me, it's Silent Night. I'm not sentimental but that song tears me up. Usually, it hits me while I'm driving alone at night along a quiet road. A distant radio station plays a static version of Silent Night, and I am overcome with a melancholy ache.
Sometimes I am among others, in a crowd, when the song flattens me — while mumble-singing at church, or while buying milk at the market.
It's a lonely sort of lump-in-the-throat.
Once, I broke down at the Dollar Store. I was ambling down the aisles of cheap plastic baubles when Silent Night played over the din of harried shoppers. Overwhelmed with the season, I rushed from the store holding back a sob.
The other night, at Seashore Family Literacy, a small group of youngsters offered an impromptu concert to a mix of proud parents and restless siblings. Beaming and happy, the children belted out their favorites and valiantly mumbled through tougher terrain. All the while, their joy, their effort, was contagious. When the earnest young ones sang Silent Night, I was lifted from my state of ache and moved to good cheer.
Thank you Seashore singers for allowing Christmas spirit to trump a string of dark days.
It's Thankful Thursday, a weekly pause to appreciate people, places, things and more. Joy contracts and expands in proportion to our gratitude. What makes your world expand? What are you thankful for today?


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Home / Governance
The ultimate authority in the World Curling Federation is held by the Member Associations through General Meetings and the approval of the Constitution.
The Member Associations elect the President and Board to lead the organisation, which they do through the development of a Strategic Forward Plan and the approval of appropriate Policy documents.
The Board appoint a full time Secretary General to lead the staff and operations of the Federation and deliver the Forward Plan.
The work of the Federation is supported by a number of Commissions who provide advice and support to the Board and staff and if requested can report direct to the Member Associations at General Meetings.
Commissions are appointed by the Board with the exception of the Athlete Commission who are directly elected by the athletes.
The World Curling Federation's The Way Forward 2020 outlines a global vision for curling and underpins the work carried out by the organisation.
Constitution and policy documents
The World Curling Federation implements a robust governance structure of which information can be found here.
There are seven World Curling Federation commissions. They are the athlete, competition and rules, finance, governance, Hall of Fame induction, technical and zonal commissions.
At the 2020 General Assembly, a Nominations Committee was approved by the Member Associations with the remit of soliciting and reviewing nominations for vacancies on the Board.
The Rules of Curling and other relevant documentation regarding elite competition.
Specifications for brushes in elite curling
Vital information for athletes, officials and curling organisation's about brushes in elite competition.
Annual General Assembly and Board meetings
Annual General Assembly papers and board meetings minutes can be found here.
Each year the World Curling Federation produces an Annual Review that provides an overview of the work the organisation has done throughout a given season.
The World Curling Federation Annual Accounts to 30 June of each year.
The Way Forward 2020
Men's 14.01.21
BKT Tires and OK Tire named as title sponsors of World Men's Curling Championship 2021
Anti-doping 14.01.21
2021 List of Prohibited Substances and Methods
Three-year sponsorship confirmed with V-ZUG for World Curling Championships

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


At the 50th Annual General Meeting of the International Chamber of Commerce Sri Lanka (ICCSL) Keerthi Gunawardane was re-elected as the Chairman.
He has been a successful past president of the Sri Lanka Association of Printers; he managed to negotiate with the Government authorities to make paper duty free and made many changes in the printing industry. This created many opportunity for local printing companies to improve their quality and export their products to the global market.
He said that implementation of the TFA will serve to support and strengthen Sri Lanka's current trade facilitation efforts, further promoting trade-led growth and job creation and by making it easier, quicker and less costly to import and export, the Sri Lankan business community will also be better able to tap into global supply and value chains.
"TFA would have a bigger impact on international trade than the elimination of all the world's remaining tariffs. Recent WTO studies suggest that improvements in border administration throughout the world could boost global GDP by $1 trillion per year. The biggest benefits of the TFA would be for SMEs and developing and emerging economies, where businesses and consumers would reap the benefits of greater integration into global markets," he added.
Gunawardane noted that Asia has become the largest investment zone in the world but Sri Lanka has not attracted enough Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) compared to other Asian countries.
During the year 2016, ICC launched a Foundation Certificate in International Business (FCIB) which was launched to target young professionals, conducted a series of seminars with the Department of Inland Revenue, the SAARC Arbitration Council and the Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry of Sri Lanka (FCCISL) to create awareness about the regional arbitration facilities for business, a session on 'WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement and its relevance for Sri Lankan Businesses' and also with the RAK Investment Authority of UAE about opportunities in both countries.
A number of landmark agreements were also signed; ICC International to bring ICC products to Sri Lanka much faster, a Commercial Agency Contract with the ICC Academy, to pave the way for the introduction of ICC Academy programmes and services for the benefit of bankers and business professionals in Sri Lanka during 2016.
He presently serves as the Chairman Advisory Committee to the Export Development Board on Printing and Packaging and as Vice President of Sri Lanka Printers Co-operative Society. He is an Executive Council Member of Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry Sri Lanka (FCCISL) and South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC).


Felicia is from Capcom's Darkstalkers games. I like the character because she is graphically striking. She is fun to watch and fun to play with. Her powers and moves are based on cats. I think it is definitely worth having in your MUGEN. I have found 2 versions of the her, I don't think that this all there are and if you know of any please leave the info in the comments.


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Home » Automotive » A Look at the Current and Future Market Landscape for Lidars
A Look at the Current and Future Market Landscape for Lidars
Article By : Junko Yoshida
More than a dozen RFQs for lidars are flying around. But automotive industry observers caution us not to expect a single lidar supplier to win this sweepstakes.
More than a dozen RFQs for lidars are reportedly flying around. Evidently, lidars are beginning to penetrate the ADAS market. Automotive industry observers, however, caution not to expect a single lidar supplier to win this sweepstakes.
Of all the automotive sensor modalities designed to enhance sensing and object detection, lidars offer by far the most complex and diverse options. Technologies deployed in each lidar system often differ not only in light sources, but also in their "ranging" and "imaging" methodologies. Some mature lidars are reaching mass production. But new lidar technologies — often pitched as more promising — are regularly appearing in the R&D or proof-of-concept stage. Inevitably, these lidars vary hugely in cost, size, and performance.
A further complication is the growing number of lidar players (estimated to be 70-80 companies) crowding the market. Mergers and acquisitions are rampant. Some lidar companies have found a new lease on life by opting for SPAC (special purpose acquisition company) status. Many startups view SPAC as an alternative way to raise capital and access public equity markets.
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But the story gets even more complex. As lidar companies pursuing different technologies, automakers and Tier Ones are diverging in their vision of how to deploy a lidar for what applications.
"When we recently interviewed lidar companies, they told us that every OEM and Tier One has different requirements — demanding a specific field of view, distance and position to integrate lidars in a vehicle," Pierrick Boulay, solid state lighting and lighting systems analyst at Yole Développement, told EE Times.
"This won't be a winner-takes-all market," Stephen Lambright, CMO of AEye, told us. Lambright noted that many lidar companies are still experimenting with numerous ideas, "much like a biotech industry."
Of course, equating the lidar segment to biotech is hardly comforting.
But the automotive industry's appetite for lidars is real. Lambright observed that in the ADAS world alone, his company is seeing 15 to 16 different lidar requests for quotation, all aimed at ADAS vehicles scheduled for production in 2025-26. Despite the diverging lidar market, Lambright noted, "Automotive companies are starting to place bets in the next 18 months on what they are deploying four or five years from now."
In this update, EE Times reviews the current and future market landscape for lidars, covering existing design wins and a few new companies, such as AEye and Opsys, aspiring to become key players.
Technology matrix
The best way to examine the technological variety in lidars is to draw a chart with two axes: one focused on imaging and another on ranging. Technologies used in imaging vary widely from mechanical, MEMS and optical-phased array to Flash. Ranging technologies include Pulse, FMCW (frequency-modulated continuous-wave) and phase shift.
Click the image above to enlarge. (Source: Yole Développement)
Yole Développement mapped the lidar landscape in the accompanying chart by putting different players in different bins. The chart might not include everyone, as new players keep emerging, but this bird's-eye view illustrates the diversity of technologies used in lidars.
Different light sources are used in various lidars. The majority of lidar manufacturers use edge emitter and avalanche photodiode (APD) at 905nm because those components are readily available in large volume. Some lidars, such as Luminar, have begun using a 1550nm all-fiber laser source. The challenge for the latter is cost reduction. However, the 1550nm laser is better at achieving longer range without compromising eye safety. The issue dogging 905nm lasers is that they are not eye-safe beyond low-resolution or short-range applications.
But edge emitters and fiber lasers aren't the only options. Lidar companies are rapidly adopting vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs), an idea sparked by Apple originally with iPad Pro 11's lidar scanner. Ibeo in Germany, which uses VCSEL technology by Austria's Ams, has a design win with China's Great Wall Motors, scheduled for release in 2022. Ouster, which started out with mechanical lidars, announced last year a lidar for ADAS combining VCSELs and single-photon avalanche diodes (SPADs), with production scheduled in 2024. Opsys based in Israel is also developing a solid-state scanning lidar that uses a fully addressable VCSEL transceiver and SPAD receiver, slated for launch later this year. Opsys is promising a 200-meter detection range and scan rate at 1000 Hz.
The course of lidar evolution runs from mechanical to MEMS, flash-based lidars and FWFC. However, this isn't a simple straight line.
For example, many mechanical lidars still dominate today largely because they're cheaper. The big drawback, however, is that mechanical components can become a source of failure, noted Boulay. The key advantage of MEMS lidar is its compact size. Its solid state makes it more reliable, said Boulay, but it still uses tiny moving parts.
In contrast, flash lidar comes with absolutely no moving parts. It is deemed more reliable, but the current generation still suffers from limited detection range, Boulay added.
Yole put FMCW in the R&D bin, calling it "TBD" — to be determined. Boulay said "We do not expect to see FMCW lidars before 2025." Last year, Waymo talked about FMCW for its future home-grown lidars. Mobileye, most prominently, discussed FMCW early this year, describing it as its choice for lidars under development for fully autonomous vehicles.
Coherent detection is much more sensitive than direct detection, and it offers better performance, such as single-pulse velocity measurement and immunity to interference from solar glare and other light sources—including lidars used by other cars. However, serious challenges facing FMCW lidars include "manufacturing capabilities for silicon photonics" and the cost of technology, said Boulay. Mobileye, however, thinks it can overcome this by leveraging Intel's silicon photonics expertise which includes its own fab, manufacturing, and IPs.
Design wins today
The best way to predict trends in the lidar market roadmap is to examine today's design wins. Those announced include: Valeo-Audi's A8; Valeo-Mercedes-Benz; Innoviz -BMW; Luminar – Volvo. While many wins mentioned here focus on installing one lidar in ADAS or fully autonomous vehicles, the newest wrinkle among car makers is to combine short, mid-range and long-range lidar in the same vehicle.
Good examples are: 4 lidars (1x Denso, 3x Continental) inside Lexus, two lidars (Velodyne, now transitioning to Valeo) in Hyundai; Valeo (x5 lidars) in Honda; and Ibeo (X3 lidars) in Great Wall Motors. Mix and match is the new trend. Lexus, said Boulay. It will use one long-range lidar from Denso, but add three medium-range lidars from Continental.
New lidar technologies getting adopted by ADAS vehicles are MEMS, fiber laser and SPAD array for flash lidars.
Here comes 'Highway Autonomy'
Until several years ago, lidars were deemed a costly technology only affordable for a robo-taxi business. That's no longer the case. Despite Elon Musk's famous remark calling lidar "a fool's errand," lidars today are squarely on the map for new ADAS vehicles.
The ADAS world is seeing a rising demand for "highway autonomy," judging by the RFQs from OEMs. AEye's Lambright explained that OEMs want ADAS vehicles to allow drivers to take their hands off the wheel "with confidence." He said, "We heard from OEMs that if you're driving very fast on a freeway, such vehicles want to be able to detect small objects, tires, bricks, whatever it may be in the road, 150 to 200 meters away," he explained.
While ranges less than 300 meters are good for many purposes, the ability to see farther with greater precision is desired for lidar application to improve performance and safety.
In highway autonomy that could fall into SAE's Level 3 vehicle category where, Lambright said, the handoff between car and human driver "becomes critical." He noted, "The farther you can see something out, the more time you can give the driver for transition and a safe solution." Lambright described "small object detection at long ranges" as "the primary gauntlet that OEMs have laid down for us."
In recent testing AEye placed Chevy Bolt and a Mercedes-Benz Sprinter delivery van at the other end of a runway. Watch for in the video, at 1018meters, Aeye's lidar detected the Bolt and Sprinter van within a full field of view at 10 Hz.
VSI Labs, an applied research firm focused on the technologies used for active safety and autonomous control, recently oversaw AEye's lidar performance testing in Byron California. VSI Labs' validation report confirmed that AEye's iDAR sensor could read dozens of points on an unmodified Chevy Bolt at 1,000 meters.
Phil Magney, head of VSI Labs, told EE Times, "We found it incredible to see a lidar detecting an object at a kilometer away. We've never seen anything like that."
Comparing lidars against other sensors for highway autonomy, Magney said the problem is that "cameras don't really see that far. Anything that comes from a camera is an estimate." What about radar? "Well, radar is great but is really lousy at lateral positioning." Lidar, however, "is an instrument that gives you a precise value on" what it sees.
But if an ADAS vehicle used for highway autonomy must change lanes, Yole's Boulay made clear, "you need mid- to short-range lidars on the side."
Flexibility demanded
Given the variety of use cases envisioned for lidars, flexibility in architecture, wavelength and field of view becomes increasingly important.
Although Opsys isn't the first company pursuing a high-performance SPAD and VCSEL lidar approach, its Micro-flash lidar, the company claims, can provide better than four times the range of flash LiDAR with superior resolution and scanning rate. In an interview with EE Times, Eitan Gertel, Opsys' executive chairman of the board, promised a pure solid-state micro-flash lidar offering 200-meter range, capable of scanning full field of view at 1,000 frames per second.
Click the image above to enlarge. (Source: Opsys)
"Opsys is younger than Ouster," noted Yole's Boulay, but with its solid background (the Opsys leadership team comes from Finisar, a manufacturer of optical communication components and subsystems), "they are experts in electric optical systems, and they know what they're talking about." Gertel was Finisar's CEO between 2008 and 2015.
The key to Opsys' micro-flash lidar is the bundling of multiple base sensors into a single lidar system, providing an integrated single 4D point cloud with a flexible FoV. This makes the micro-flash lidar "customizable," said Gertel, for carmakers and Tier Ones seeking different field of views in different types of vehicles.
Even better, Opsys' patented multi-wavelength technology allows multiple sensors to be installed in a vehicle and operate without interference.
Where to place a lidar?
Last but not the least, lidar location is a big issue for both cosmetic and practical reasons. Speaking of the company-owned autonomous vehicles it's been testing on the road, "We use a conventional lidar installed on top of our vehicles," said VSI Lab's Magney. "As we're driving around and it's snowing or sleeting a little bit, that lidar is the first sensor to go."
He explained, "A lot of it has to do with how much heat the sensor can build to melt the frozen matter. But when your lidar is on the roof, it is highly exposed to weather. Then, sensor cleaning becomes an issue."
When evaluating AEye's lidar performance, VSI Labs was impressed that AEye can put the lidar behind the windshield, which has very little impact on the lidar performance. The resulting impact is in less than a 10 percent degradation in performance, said AEye. Given that glass, especially a windshield, is very dispersive, AEye's Lambright suspects that it could create "a tremendous amount of interference" for frequency oriented lidars such as FMCW.
Yole Développement


Writers, artists, musicians, actors, creative people of all sorts, often ask the best questions, questions which have to do with real values, fundamental choices, important relationships. As is true with any sort of art, these questions may at times be framed in poetic and indirect ways. Directly or indirectly, these works of creation help with reflection on such matters.
As acrimony and division surrounding the Brexit campaigns and the US elections rose, I knew I wanted to write about music in a way that addressed these circumstances.
I made a very distinct and purposeful choice not to write about, or to call what I was writing about, protest music, though.
I had several reasons for that choice. Among them was the knowledge that anger only gets you so far – it may be necessary at times but it's not a building block. Also, I wanted to write in a way that that might open up the ideas inherent in the music to those who might not share my concerns or perspectives on the political situations referenced above. Given the acrimony of those and other situations, I also did not want to paint a target on any artist's back by calling him or her a writer or singer of protest songs. I wanted to write in a way that would invite connection and reflection and—I hope—outlast the current divisions, as well.
The stories in this series are meant to be reflections themselves. The music I choose, and what I choose to say about it in context of what is happening in the world, are personal choices informed by decades of being involved in listening to, and writing about music. A good portion of that time has been and still is spent in the music of Ireland, Scotland, Canada, and the many strands which make up the folk music of the United States. Other strands come in as well, though, as I have also worked in, written about, researched, or presented classical music, mainstream country and blues. music of the Caribbean, South America, and Spain, and North America's First Peoples. I've also written about various related subjects such as songwriting, creativity, theater, dance, and travel – all this with an academic background in history, the visual arts, and languages.
That could help explain the range of material you may encounter in these stories.Among those you will encounter are a woman who has been recognized as Irish voice of the decade, a bluegrass vocalist of the year, a MacArthur Grant award winner, a Grammy winning banjo player and composer, an Americana songwriter who has been invited to share her music across India, a Scottish style fiddle player who has taught in China... and many others.
The focus of the articles is my own. I do not speak for any of these artists. It is my intention and hope that their music will speak to you, however. For listener, creator, and performer, music is both a solitary art and one created in communion with others.
Music is about connection, communication, reflection, creativity, and community. All of those are things called for in the shifting times in which we live.
It seemed time to gather the stories in this series so far in one place. A look back at where we've been as we prepare to go on, if you will. I hope you will revisit some of these articles (or perhaps find ones new to you). I invite you to stay with us as this journey in music continues.


text:
import os

from ..utils.cmake import CMakeDefinition

def truthifier(value):
    return "ON" if value else "OFF"

def or_else(value, default):
    return value if value else default

class CppConfiguration:
    def __init__(self,
                 # toolchain
                 cc=None, cxx=None, cxx_flags=None,
                 build_type=None, warn_level=None,
                 install_prefix=None, use_conda=None,
                 # components
                 with_tests=True, with_benchmarks=False, with_python=True,
                 with_parquet=False, with_gandiva=False, with_plasma=False,
                 with_flight=False, cmake_extras=None):
        self.cc = cc
        self.cxx = cxx
        self.cxx_flags = cxx_flags

        self.build_type = build_type
        self.warn_level = warn_level
        self._install_prefix = install_prefix
        self._use_conda = use_conda

        self.with_tests = with_tests
        self.with_benchmarks = with_benchmarks
        self.with_python = with_python
        self.with_parquet = with_parquet
        self.with_gandiva = with_gandiva
        self.with_plasma = with_plasma
        self.with_flight = with_flight
        self.cmake_extras = cmake_extras

    def _gen_defs(self):
        if self.cxx_flags:
            yield ("ARROW_CXXFLAGS", self.cxx_flags)

        yield ("CMAKE_EXPORT_COMPILE_COMMANDS", truthifier(True))
        yield ("CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE", or_else(self.build_type, "debug"))
        yield ("BUILD_WARNING_LEVEL", or_else(self.warn_level, "production"))

        # if not ctx.quiet:
        #   yield ("ARROW_VERBOSE_THIRDPARTY_BUILD", "ON")

        maybe_prefix = self.install_prefix
        if maybe_prefix:
            yield ("CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX", maybe_prefix)

        yield ("ARROW_BUILD_TESTS", truthifier(self.with_tests))
        yield ("ARROW_BUILD_BENCHMARKS", truthifier(self.with_benchmarks))

        yield ("ARROW_PYTHON", truthifier(self.with_python))
        yield ("ARROW_PARQUET", truthifier(self.with_parquet))
        yield ("ARROW_GANDIVA", truthifier(self.with_gandiva))
        yield ("ARROW_PLASMA", truthifier(self.with_plasma))
        yield ("ARROW_FLIGHT", truthifier(self.with_flight))

        # Detect custom conda toolchain
        if self.use_conda:
            for d, v in [('CMAKE_AR', 'AR'), ('CMAKE_RANLIB', 'RANLIB')]:
                v = os.environ.get(v)
                if v:
                    yield (d, v)

    @property
    def install_prefix(self):
        if self._install_prefix:
            return self._install_prefix

        if self.use_conda:
            return os.environ.get("CONDA_PREFIX")

        return None

    @property
    def use_conda(self):
        # If the user didn't specify a preference, guess via environment
        if self._use_conda is None:
            return os.environ.get("CONDA_PREFIX") is not None

        return self._use_conda

    @property
    def definitions(self):
        extras = list(self.cmake_extras) if self.cmake_extras else []
        return [f"-D{d[0]}={d[1]}" for d in self._gen_defs()] + extras

    @property
    def environment(self):
        env = os.environ.copy()

        if self.cc:
            env["CC"] = self.cc

        if self.cxx:
            env["CXX"] = self.cxx

        return env

class CppCMakeDefinition(CMakeDefinition):
    def __init__(self, source, conf, **kwargs):
        self.configuration = conf
        super().__init__(source, **kwargs,
                         definitions=conf.definitions, env=conf.environment,
                         build_type=conf.build_type)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
40+ States
States with Transactions
Small Sample of Properties
Size: 29,300 Sq. Ft.
Former KIA dealership. 5800 Sq. Ft. main showroom & offices with lots of glass and work stations. Service department (with up to 19 service bays) detail shop and wash building all totaling approximately 29,300 Sq. Ft.
Size: 548,702 Sq. Ft.
Former super-regional mall was built in 1978 and extensively renovated in 1993. Recent comprehensive rezoning paired with a central location and access to major highways present a variety of options for redevelopment use.
The site is approximately 2.1 acres consisting of a 10,099 square foot fully improved restaurant facility. This is the number #1 restaurant in the Uno's Chicago Grill chain of over 200 locations.
Free standing former Regions bank situated on 1.54 Acres and is surrounded by many national retailers.
Modern industrial building on 13.28 acres. Building consists of approximately 15,000 Sq. Ft. of office space; 75,000 Sq. Ft. warehouse; 66,750 Sq. Ft. manufacturing space. Ceiling height in warehouse area is approximately 21′ at eaves and 24′ at center below structural steel. Fully sprinklered.
Former Energizer building 479,314 Sq. Ft. total building, 373,281 Sq. Ft. Production floor, 86,318 Sq. Ft. warehouse and 19,715 Sq. Ft. office on 37.5 acres.
Size: 1,100,000 Sq. Ft.
One Story metal building with loading docks, located in a complex. The property features paved truck and trailer parking, adjacent railroad, heated, sprinkled, office area and easy highway access.
Turn-key manufacturing complex. Former Tenneco Facility. This property is ideal for manufacturing and/or warehouse distribution. 309,543 Sq. Ft. on 26 acres.
Class B+ office building, former home of Ardagh Glass, Inc. and consists of a parcel of land totaling 7.49 acres. The building is of load-bearing concrete masonry unit exterior walls and steel-framed construction with steel and structural tile floor framing.
This property sits on .67 acres and was built in 1950 to the Hurricane code. This first-floor unit is available for retail or office space. 2 story corner unit with lots of windows. This location has high visibility with over 50,000 cars passing by per day.
Class A office building, high-quality construction that is expandable by 14,600 Sq. Ft. and sits on 7.77-acre site
Extensive improvements including new roof, new LED lighting throughout, new HVAC units.
Class B Office Building built in 1914. Wells Fargo Main Branch Building in downtown financial district. Five (5) floor office building with twenty-six (26) parking stall adjacent to the building. City parking garage and additional City parking lots within one (1) block.
Clapboard 1930s era farmhouse, with 5 bedrooms, 6 ½ baths and 2 fireplaces Indoor and outdoor pool, tennis court – situated on 4 level acre.
Unique three-bedroom home on 2.2 acres includes a guest cottage and swimming pond with its own sandy beach and slide. Large deck with a hot-tub.
This 3,996 square foot house sits on a 1.01 acre lot. This property was built in 1955
A 6,217 square foot home nested on a secluded and private 2.67 gated acres. Custom features include high ceilings, wide plank wood floors, wood burning fireplace and an incredible kitchen that is nothing short of stunning.
Size: 19.4 Acres
Irregular shaped property wraps around a 10 acre hard corner of major intersection is zoned commercial.
300 Feet of Frontage on Hwy. 171 Zoned commercial/other.
25 buildable lots.
4 Separate tracts of land zoned commercial/other.
Marina on Lake St. Clair with 150+ boat slips, clubhouse, heated pool, tennis court, laundry room, gas & diesel pumps, marine store, offices, Captain's Lounge, conference rooms, playground, and Dock Master on 18.93 acres.
Special Purpose facility located on 7 acres +/- overlooking the Missouri River built in 1873 rebuilt from 1955 through the 70's.
Class B Specialty Type facility is a former Retirement / Nursing Facility built in 1967 sits on 2.6 acres.
Class B Special Purpose facility sits on 42,000 Sq. Ft. lot and has 35 rooms, admin offices, nurse stations and includes private exterior courtyard.
601 N. Ashley Drive
info@welfont.com


Design Analysis: Barbara Harman is a life coach located in Baltimore, Maryland, and a certified Positive Psychology Coach dedicated to helping people in relationships, career and retirement.
To help her clients reach their full potential, Barbara combines her coaching skills with the science of positive psychology, the philosophy of yoga (science of the mind/body connection) and her own experiences through changes in lifestyles and careers.
To help rebrand Barbara as Harmony Coaching, she engaged SpellBrand create an Earthy logo that reflected her philosophies and attitude to life. We created an icon that is made up of 4 unequal squared that are joined together with a flower. The logo is fun, bright and hints at the mind body connection.


To analyze and design appropriate information systems, systems analysts need to comprehend the organizations they work in as systems shaped through the interactions of three main forces: the levels of management, design of organizations, and organizational cultures.
Organizations are large systems composed of interrelated subsystems. The subsystems are influenced by three broad levels of management decision makers (operations, middle management, and strategic management) that cut horizontally across the organizational system. Organizational cultures and subcultures all influence the way people in subsystems interrelate. These topics and their implications for information systems development are considered in this chapter.
There are three broad organizational fundamentals to consider when analyzing and designing information systems: the concept of organizations as systems, the various levels of management, and the overall organizational culture.
Organizations are complex systems composed of interrelated and interdependent subsystems. In addition, systems and subsystems are characterized by their internal environments on a continuum from open to closed. An open system allows free passage of resources (people, information, materials) through its boundaries; closed systems do not permit free flow of input or output. Organizations and teams can also be organized virtually with remote members connected electronically who are not in the same physical workspace. Enterprise resource planning systems are integrated organizational (enterprise) information systems developed with customized, proprietary software that help the flow of information between the functional areas in the organization. They support a systems view of the organization.
1. Understand that organizations and their members are systems and that analysts need to take a systems perspective.
2. Depict systems graphically using context-level data flow diagrams, entity-relationship models, and use cases and use case scenarios.
3. Recognize that different levels of management require different systems.
4. Comprehend that organizational culture impacts the design of information systems.


text:
Zodiac Signs and What They Mean
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By Ariela, Facty StaffUpdated: Jul 10, 2020
Throughout the year, the sun passes among the constellations on a huge circled path called an ecliptic. The zodiac, according to astrologers, is a belt that exists on either side of this circled path. Within this belt, the sun, moon, and planets move on their paths through the heavens.
According to manuscripts from the Middle Ages, the Greeks divided the zodiac equally into 12 signs, each occupying 30 degrees or 1/12th of the circle. Every sign corresponded with specific constellations, based on the dates that the sun passed through them. The numbers and sizes of the zodiacal constellations varied until the Mesopotamian and Babylonian civilizations developed mathematical astronomy and created fixed calculations for the zodiac signs we recognize today.
Aries (March 21–April 19)
As far as this fire sign is concerned, being the first sign on the zodiac wheel is the rightful place for Aries. No matter how challenging a situation is, you can count on courageous Aries to dive into it without hesitation. With the planet Mars ruling, these individuals are excellent leaders and have a keen instinct for organizing groups. But Aries isn't all business and no fun: the ram is upbeat, positive, and playful when the time is right.
Jodie Griggs / Getty Images
Taurus (April 20–May 20)
Hardworking, focused, tenacious, and decisive, Taureans choose security and the long game over quick-and-easy ventures. Although they have a gentle nature, don't make the mistake of pushing them into a corner or challenging their strong opinions; they can be fierce and stubborn when tested. Venus rules this earth sign, so it's not surprising that these individuals love their home and all things beautiful, luxurious, and serene.
MoMo Productions / Getty Images
Gemini (May 21–June 20)
One of the most recognizable zodiac signs, the twins symbolize Gemini's need for a kindred spirit capable of a worthwhile meeting of the minds. Quick-witted, charming, curious, and vibrant, this energetic air sign was blessed with the gift of gab. Their communication skills are second-to-none. The downside is that they also love to gossip. With Mercury as its ruling planet, a Gemini's always-active brain loves the latest technological gadgets. They're also most likely to come up with ways to improve them.
Kathrin Ziegler / Getty Images
Cancer (June 21–July 22)
Kind, imaginative, and dedicated, Cancer is a highly intuitive water sign. They connect with both the emotional and material realms, making them the zodiac's ideal nurturer. Some may see Cancers as moody individuals, but there's a reason for their ups and downs. The cyclical Moon rules this sign, which influences the way these crabs process their feelings. For those who can get past their tough outer shell, Cancers prove to be loyal and committed friends and lovers.
Oliver Rossi / Getty Images
Leo (July 23–August 22)
Much like the planets revolve around this sign's ruling planet, the Sun, the flamboyant Leo prefers that others revolve around them. They're also a fire sign, making them perfectly content to be in the limelight. Leos are an energetic combination of passion, courage, and creative flow. Warm-hearted and genuine, they're able to bravely face any adversity. Normally, these individuals are generous and protective, yet on their bad days, the Lion can become jealous, aggressive, and somewhat cold-hearted.
Trevor Williams / Getty Images
Virgo (August 23–September 22)
Mercury, the planet of the mind, expression, and communication, rules Virgo. Their strength lies in processing communications rather than expressing them. This earth sign has a reputation for being a critical perfectionist. But Virgos are always willing to lend a nurturing hand when needed. They exhibit an innate ability to multitask and possess impeccable planning abilities. Stress is a real problem for the meticulous Virgo, and downtime is a crucial part of their self-care. A maiden carrying a shaft of wheat symbolizes this zodiac sign.
Tom Werner / Getty Images
Libra (September 23–October 22)
Venus rules Libra, an air sign who is happiest in a harmonious environment. They appreciate beauty, culture, good food, and expensive things. Libras are true romantics and the social butterflies of the zodiac who love being around other people. The scales symbolize Libra, whose influence brings balance and fairness to their endeavors. Their instinct is to see both sides of a situation; however, Libras sometimes use their charm to manipulate others to do their bidding.
Drazen_ / Getty Images
Scorpio (October 23–November 21)
Independent and fiercely determined, Scorpio's primary life goal is to uncover the truth in all things while keeping their own lives extremely private. The scorpion symbolizes this water sign, and its ruling planet is Pluto. Scorpios tend to be a bit mysterious, appearing cold, intimidating, or stand-offish, yet they are intensely passionate people who have a great deal of self-control. As friends, these protective individuals offer great advice, are extremely trustworthy, and are second-to-none at keeping secrets.
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Sagittarius (November 22–December 21)
Knowledge is a primary motivator for Sagittarius, a fire sign who thrives in philosophical, spiritual, and intellectual endeavors. These individuals are the travelers of the zodiac. Much like their symbol, the archer, they have a target: to discover the meaning of life. Sagittarians are comedic, enthusiastic extroverts. Freedom is crucial to their happiness and well-being. Although honest to a fault, they become impatient and tactless when they feel drug down by those around them. Jupiter, the planet that is synonymous with big goals and passionate pursuits, governs Sagittarius.
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Capricorn (December 22–January 19)
An earth sign, Capricorn holds family, tradition, and craftsmanship in high regard. Saturn guides those born under this sign, and the planet's influences intensify Capricorn's ability to be practical and responsible. They are excellent leaders who make well-thought-out, realistic plans and follow through with them, but they often become workaholics who forget there's more to life. Capricorns lean toward a more conservative nature, but they still enjoy a good party. A mythological creature, the sea-goat, symbolizes Capricorn.
Aquarius (January 20–February 18)
The visionary of the zodiac, Aquarians tend to be shy and quiet deep thinkers who love helping others. They are especially skilled at problem-solving. Aquarius-born individuals love mental stimulation and using their intellect, possibly due to their air sign influences. Retreating from their world long enough to restore their power is essential for their physical and mental health. Uranus rules Aquarius, which ignites these individuals' visionary qualities but also stimulates abrupt or timid behavior, which sometimes leads to insensitivity. Throughout their lives, Aquarians seek freedom in all that they do, fending off-limits that constrain them. The water bearer represents the sign.
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Pisces (February 19–March 20)
As the last sign of the zodiac, Pisces has learned all the universal lessons passed to the other signs. Pisceans are the "old souls" of the cosmos. They're intuitive, compassionate, and empathic. Their biggest challenge is to stay grounded. As the sign's ruling planet, Neptune's influences are both magical and inspiring. Piscean energy is artistic, imaginative, helpful, and wise. Two fish swimming in opposite directions symbolize the sign. They represent the lifelong Pisces challenge to bridge fantasy with reality.
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Where are the Tsimshian languages spoken?
These languages are spoken in North America on the Pacific coast of Canada in the Province of British Columbia, and in some islands off Alaska in the United States.
The Tsimshian language speakers are members of "First Nations" in North America who inhabited the region long before Europeans arrived and before the creation of the United States and Canada.
The Tsimshian language family currently has 2 languages.
We follow here the classification of Mithun (1999) which is widely accepted.
The two dialects of the Nass-Gitksan language are sometimes presented as two independent languages.
Note: The Tsimshian languages are sometimes included in the hypothetical "Penutian" super-family. But according to Mithun (1999) the validity of the Penutian family, although likely, has not yet been demonstrated in a scientifically satisfactory manner. We therefore follow Mithun's classification and present the Tsimshian languages as a separate family.
Are Tsimshian languages in danger?
Yes, Tsimshian is considered "Critically Endangered" by UNESCO. Amongst the hundred or so speakers of the language none is younger than 50, and the younger generations have adopted English as their mother tongue. The language is therefore likely to become extinct in the near future. Although the Nass-Gitksan dialects have more speakers, all are adults and the future of this language is no less threatened as a result.


New prognostic markers may be of value in determining survival and informing decisions of adjuvant treatment in the heterogeneous group of soft tissue sarcomas known as malignant fibrous sarcomas (MFS). Increased CD44 expression has been associated with a better outcome in cancers such as bladder tumors and could potentially relate to cell-cell interaction as a marker for potential invasion/metastasis. The aim of this pilot study was to determine if there is a correlation between the expression rate of CD44 in adult patients with MFS and clinical outcomes.
The clinical outcome of 34 adult MFS patients (19 males and 15 females, average age 62 years, median 63 years, range: 38–88 years) who underwent surgical treatment were evaluated. Twenty-five of these patients had additional adjuvant radiotherapy. Extracted RNA from sarcoma tissues was used to measure the transcripts of CD44s (standard form) and isoform expression.
The pooled data for each variant of CD44 was divided in half at the median expression value into two equally sized groups (low and high). Survival modeling and multivariate analysis were used with these two groups to determine if there were differences in survival times and whether this was independent of known factors such as tumor stage/grade, patient age and resection margin status.
High CD44s and low of CD44v6 expression significantly correlated with an improved outcome (P <0.05 and P <0.02, respectively) whereas CD44v8 and hCD44 (isoforms) did not. Differences in survival were apparent within 6–12 months of operation with >30% difference in survival between low/high expressions at 5 years. These finding were independent of the other measured MFS survival predictors, though the group was homogenous.
High CD44s and low CD44v6 expression may be an independent predictor of improved survival in MFS patients in this pilot data. This is contrary to other MFS data, which did not account for the CD44 isoforms but is confirmed by data from other cancer types. Further investigation is needed to confirm CD44 isoform expression data as a relevant survival biomarker and whether it could be used to inform clinical decisions such as adjuvant therapy.
Soft tissue sarcomas (STS) are a clinically and pathologically heterogeneous group of tumors that lead to therapeutic difficulties. The most frequent histological type is malignant fibrous histiocytoma, which is a heterogeneous group in itself, accounting for approximately 30% of STS. The origin of these tumors may come from undifferentiated mesenchymal stem cells from fibroblasts or dual fibroblastic-histiocytic origin[1–11]. Although not presently accepted by all, it has been suggested that the term myxofibrosarcoma or malignant fibrous sarcoma (MFS) should be used for the myxoid variant of malignant fibrous histiocytoma and this nomenclature will be used for the rest of this communication.
Prognostic favorable outcome of MFS depends on early diagnosis and aggressive but limb-sparing treatment. The most important prognostic factor identified so far is the quality of surgical treatment at initial diagnosis. Meanwhile, new prognostic factors are sought in order to specifically assess the importance of an adjuvant or palliative therapy.
Cell-to-cell and cell-to-matrix interactions are essential for normal cell growth and differentiation, though their precise function remains unclear. A variety of adhesion molecules participate in these interactions including the hyaluronic acid binding cell surface glycoprotein CD44. CD44 is expressed on all cell types and acts as a receptor for hyaluronate[12, 13]. Therefore, CD44 may play a role in cellular differentiation/migration and cell-to-cell-contact. In aberrant gene expression within sarcomas, CD44 could play a role especially for invasion, such that may lead to lymph node or distant metastases and thus plays a role in prognosis.
CD44's encoding gene is located on chromosome 11p3 and consists of at least 21 exons. The CD44 molecule consists of three core epitopes encoded by ten exons with alternative mRNA splicing of the remaining exons generating multiple isoforms. The standard form of CD44 (CD44s) is expressed on almost all cells and is heavily glycosylated, while variant isoforms are expressed in a cell- and tissue-specific manner. Post-translational modifications, such as glycosylation and alternative splicing, add even further to the diversity of the function of the special CD44 isoforms.
The standard form of CD44 as well as its variants is widely expressed in several tissue types but there are conflicting reports about the associations between CD44v and patients' prognosis. High levels of CD44 and CD44v have been associated with poor outcomes in breast cancer, gastric cancer, colorectal carcinoma and head/neck cancer[3–6]. However, several studies have shown that CD44 expression is associated with a better outcome in cancers such as bladder tumors and other studies have suggested no direct association of CD44 with prognosis in cancers such as skin tumors[7, 8].
Few studies have investigated CD44 expression by STS, especially in MFS. In an earlier immunohistochemical investigation, we determined that CD44s-positive STS cells significantly correlated with longer survival. The aim of this study was to evaluate the isoforms of CD44 expression in adult STS and to determine whether this could provide prognostic information.
This is a retrospective multicenter pilot study performed on MFS tissue obtained from the tumor banks of the Department of Surgery, Heinrich-Heine-University, Düsseldorf, and the Department of Plastic Surgery, Ruhr University, Bochum. Patient data were collected retrospectively starting at the time of specimen collection until the end of the study observation period. The study was approved by the local ethical commission board from the University of Dusseldorf. (Study No. 4487). All tumor specimens were reviewed by one experienced pathologist as well as a national sarcoma reference center to confirm the diagnosis of MFS.
Pretreatment evaluation included a complete history and physical examination, chest CT or chest radiograph, and computed tomographic or magnetic resonance imaging scans of the tumor site as well as routine ECG and pulmonary function tests, if needed. In all cases, treatment options were discussed in an interdisciplinary tumor conference. All patients were subsequently resected with a curative intention. In three patients, resection was performed despite distant metastases either because of the young age or the explicit wishes of the patient. Based on the tumor size and anatomic site, either a complete/compartment resection or wide local excision was performed. Tumor staging was performed according the UICC TNM-System (1997).
Frozen tumor samples were cut in 20-μm thick sections with a cryostat. Ten sections were immediately placed in an Eppendorf tube and total RNA was extracted by using the TRIzol reagent (Invitrogen, USA) according to the manufacturer's instructions. RNA concentration was verified spectrophotometrically (BioPhotometer, Eppendorf, Germany) by using the OD260 method. Reverse transcription was performed in a volume of 20 μL by using random hexamer primer, 2 μg RNA and reverse transcriptase in 5× RT-buffer (all from Roche Diagnostics, Germany). Quantitative PCR with cDNA was performed using the iQ Sybr Green Supermix (BioRad). PCR conditions and primer sequences for CD44, CD44 isoforms, and the reference genes beta-actin and beta-microglobulin, were selected as previously described with the exception that the annealing temperature for CD44v8 was changed to 58°C and that of CD44s to 54°C. For relative quantification and to normalize the amount of the CD44 product and the CD44 isoform products, we applied the delta-CT method using the expression of the reference genes beta-actin or beta-microglobulin, respectively. The expression rate of CD44 was correlated to the TNM category, resection status, grading, tumor size, and tumor free and overall survival.
Data analysis was performed through grouping of the measured expression by separating patients into two equally sized groups at the median (high and low expression) for each isoform. Survival curves were determined using the Kaplan-Meier estimator and compared by the log-rank test with 95% confidence intervals based on Greenwood's formula. Prognostic risk factors of patient survival (TNM-category, tumor size, resection margin status, histology, grade, and patient age) were evaluated by univariate and multivariate analysis. The Cox proportional-hazards regression model was used to determine risk factors and hazard ratios. Two-tailed values of P <0.05 were considered significant.
In total, we examined 34 adult MFS patients (19 males and 15 females, average age 62 years, median 63 years, ranged from 38 to 88 years). MFS was confirmed in all tumor specimens after surgical treatment. Eleven patients underwent operation for recurrent disease, while 23 patients were operated on the primary tumor. The majority of patients received adjuvant radiotherapy (n = 25), while no patient received adjuvant chemotherapy. All MFS tumors were graded G3. Complete histological evaluation of the tumor specimen revealed four T1 tumors (12%), while 30 patients had a tumor of >5 cm in diameter (T2, 88%). In all patients, regional lymph nodes were either clinically or histologically without metastases (100%). Three patients presented with synchronous distant metastases (11%), while staging procedures revealed M0 in 31 patients (89%). In all four patients with a subcutaneous tumor (12%), a wide resection resulted in four R0 resections. In the 30 patients with a subfascial MFS, four patients (12%) had a compartmental resection performed, resulting in R0. Twenty-six tumors were resected with a wide excision, achieving tumor-free margins in 23 patients (68%). In three patients (8%), an R1 resection with narrow margins was performed to preserve large nerves surrounded by the tumor, to drain a seroma by primary incisional biopsy during resection, or due to a patient denying primary amputation (Table 1).
The mean survival was 54 ± 6 months. The tumor recurred locally in one patient after resection (3%). Distant metastases developed in nine patients (26%) after a median of 19 months (range 4–48 months). At the end of the follow-up period, 24 patients (71%) were without evidence of disease; all patients that developed distant metastases (n = 19, 29%) died from their tumor within a median of 24 months.
The grouping into two groups by the analyzed variants of CD44 (hCD44, hCD44s, hCD44v6, and hCD44v8) showed a significant difference in tumor related survival only for CD44s and CD44v6 (P <0.05 and P <0.02, respectively). Visualization of the Kaplan-Meier estimates for the four isoforms of CD44 is shown in Figures 1,2,3, and4. In patients with an increased expression of the hCD44s isoform, there was a significantly longer overall survival with a 5-year survival rate of >80% compared to 50% in patients with a loss of hCD44s. Furthermore, we noticed a survival benefit in patients with a loss of CD44v6 isoform, again with a 5-year survival of >80% compared to 50% in patients with a CD44v6 positive sarcoma. The survival curves begin to diverge as early as 6 months after resection.
CD44s and CD44v6 were independent predictive markers for the outcome of our patients when it was controlled for stage, tumor grade, age and margin status.
However, a significant correlation to the TNM-category, especially to metastases, the histology of the specimen, resection status and tumor size could not be found. This may be due to the low number of M1 and R1 cases with all specimens graded G3. Correlation between CD44 expression and tumor depth did not quite reach a significant value (P >0.5).
Qualitative and quantitative changes in expression of CD44 and its isoforms have been demonstrated for several tumor models revealing prognostic significance for neuroblastoma, breast cancer, squamous cell esophageal cancer, osteosarcoma, and gastric cancer. Only few reports exist about survival and CD44s expression in STS and rhabdomyosarcoma. We could not find any report focusing on MFS sarcomas. A recent study examined CD44v expression in a variety of STS and noted that expression of CD44v6 is more frequently detected in high-grade than in low-grade tumors. They described a correlation with metastases-free survival in these patients although overall patient number was small. Maula et al. observed similar results in a recently published observation of limb or superficial STS in Finland. In an analysis of 62 patients with several STS entities, we detected a prognostic benefit if CD44s was highly expressed.
Here, we found significant differences between the CD44 high expression group and CD44 low expression group regarding overall survival. Though the role of CD44 in metastasis remains unclear, CD44 may be important during invasion of the target organs, perhaps by interaction of the molecules with special ligands (e.g., collagen, fibronectin, osteopontin). Changes in adhesion molecules that participate in cell-cell boundaries and cell-matrix interactions are a prerequisite for tumor invasion and dissemination. In STS, expression of cell-surface antigen CD44 has been associated with local recurrence and, in particular, the isoform CD44v6 has been correlated with metastatic disease. However, we could not confirm these results with our data. The measured CD44 isoforms did not correlate with metastases in our patients. Our results are in line with a study by Kahara et al., where they found that increased CD44v6 at the protein level was associated with a poor clinical outcome. Nilbert et al. found no differences in the expression of CD44 in MFS primary tumors, local recurrences or metastases, nor could they find any correlation between CD44 and prognosis. However, it should be noted that the CD44v isoform was not analyzed, which could possibly explain the lack of prognostic importance.
In our study, the strong correlation between CD44 expression and actuarial survival revealed CD44 as a strong prognostic marker. CD44 expression is not the only independent prognosticator for STS; in fact, previous studies have shown that the resection margin and tumor size represent independent prognostic indicators. Tumor depth almost reached significance in our study but other well-described factors, such as tumor grade, did not. This may be due to the relative homogeneity of our patient cohort with all G3 tumors and few M1 at diagnosis or R1 resections. However, the relative homogeneity of the cohort is also strength to the study as it may help to inform decisions about this relatively common cohort among MFS patients. Future studies with larger and more diverse cohorts are needed to define the precise role of this cell adhesion molecule in invasion and metastases of MFS. Nevertheless, the association between CD44s expression and progression of MFS is important, as it suggests that CD44s may play a protective role in tumor progression.
The overexpression of CD44v6 in some tumor types has been correlated to metastatic potential. The different CD44v proteins originate in alternative splicing of variant exons at the copying stage and are expressed in several cancer types. CD44v6 overexpression was found in metastatic breast cancer. Recently, overexpression of CD44v6 was described in squamous cell cancer with a significant correlation between abnormally high expression of CD44v6 and infiltration in surrounding tissue as well as metastatic disease. CD44v6 was only expressed in metastatic cell strains, but not in non-metastatic cell lines. The non-metastatic cell lines gained metastatic potential after transfection with CD44v6.
While CD44s is a candidate tumor suppressor in MFS, CD44v6 may function as an oncogene. This is consistent with prostate cancer, in which CD44s is a tumor suppressor but certain CD44 variants are oncogenes and promote growth[28, 29]. Since MFS is a heterogeneous group of tumors nowadays often classified as sarcoma not otherwise specified (NOS), several tumor entities may be summarized under this term. Further classification of MFS-NOS does not exist at present but clinical experience has shown that there are patients with MFS-NOS with an extremely poor prognosis, while others can be cured through surgery alone. A positive impact of chemotherapy on patient survival has been seen in osteosarcoma with CD44 expression. Therefore, a prospective cohort study design should be performed to analyze if a treatment escalation can improve the clinical outcome of these patients. Further evaluation of CD44v6 expression as an important prognostic and predictive biomarker is needed before clinical use.
Our study suggests that low expression of CD44s as well as high expression of CD44v6 correlates with poor outcome. Although the cohort was relatively homogenous, these correlations were independent of other survival predictors; thus, further studies are needed to determine if they may be clinically useful.
This work was supported by Erich-und-Gertrud-Roggenbuck-Stiftung, Hamburger Stiftung für Krebsforschung and Vereinigung Nordwestdeutscher Chirurgen, and was presented as an oral presentation at the Annual ASTRO meeting 2011 in Miami Beach, USA.
This work is dedicated to Prof. Hans Jürgen Peiper, former president of the German Society for Surgery.
All authors have no disclosure of any financial and personal relationships with other people or organizations that could inappropriately influence (bias) their work.
CP examined the tissue material carried out the molecular biological examinations. MP and ML collected the tissue material. MP, CM conceived the study, participated in the design of the study and prepared the manuscript. MP performed the statistical analysis. All other authors helped to draft the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.