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From Archbishop Jerome Listecki - March 12, 2020
Milwaukee Archbishop Jerome Listecki Dispenses Catholics from their Sunday Mass Obligation Due to Coronavirus
MILWAUKEE ― The Archdiocese of Milwaukee announced today that Milwaukee Archbishop Jerome E. Listecki has dispensed Catholics from their obligation to attend Sunday Mass due to concerns about the spread of Covid-19, the coronavirus. The dispensation will cover the next two weeks, including Masses for Sundays March 15, 22 and 29. Masses will still be celebrated across the 10 counties of the archdiocese, but the obligation to attend Sunday Mass will be lifted, leaving attendance to people's individual judgment.
"If people are fearful about crowds or if there are people who are older or suffer from an existing medical condition, we do not want to put them at any additional risk," Archbishop Listecki said. "These are measures to prevent an increase in the spread of a virus and serve as a safety net for the next two weeks. After that, we will reevaluate."
Sunday Mass is available in the archdiocese via broadcast in two forms, on the radio, at 9 a.m., Sunday mornings, on Radio 920 AM, W.O.L.F., and on broadcast television on WVTV, My24 at 7 a.m., and 9 a.m., and on WITI Fox 6, at 5:30 a.m.
In place of attending Mass for those Catholics who choose to remain home, the Church asks that they set aside a similar amount of time for private prayer and reflection.
The obligation to attend Sunday Mass dates back to the 4th century. The Second Vatican Council reiterated the Church's requirement that the faithful attend Mass on Sunday, as the chief act of worship for Catholics.
(Source: https://www.archmil.org/News-2.0/Archbishop-Listecki-Dispenses-Catholics-from-Sunday-Mass-Obligation.htm)
St. Pius X Parish Community
2506 Wauwatosa Avenue | Wauwatosa, Wi 53213
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Phone: 414-453-3875 | Fax: 414-453-7570 | CONTACT US


New Delhi, May 11 (PTI) PT Usha would not like to take any blame for Tintu Luka's unending struggles to make it big at the world stage but says the Kerala middle-distance runner has managed decent results despite her limitations.
The 28-year-old Tintu, mentored by Usha, has enjoyed success at the Continental level, winning a bronze and a silver at the Asian Games - 2010 Guangzhou (2:01.36) and 2014 Incheon (1:59.19) apart from six medals at the Asian Championships.
However at the World Championships, where the best in the business compete, she has struggled to make an impression in her three attempts so far.
She finished 15th in Daegu (South Korea, 2011) only to be eliminated in the 800m semi-finals and 19th in Beijing (2015), where she could not proceed beyond the Heats.
In the 2013 World Championship in Moscow, Tintu only competed in 4X400m relay and was part of the team that finished a lowly 15th.
Usha, who is country's greatest ever female sprinter till date, has been training her from the beginning. The 'Payyoli Express' says she won't take criticism for Tintu's average success at the global meets and strongly objected to the suggestions that a foreign coach can help her ward improve.
"For me it's not a problem but show me one foreign coach who has come here, trained Indian athletes and has got the medals (World Championship and Olympics)," Usha counter- questioned.
"Since the year 2000, foreign coaches are training Indian athletes, are there any Olympic medals? Are you saying that only if Tintu trains with a foreign coach, she will get a medal," an angry Usha retorted during an interview with press.
"It is up to Tintu, not me (to decide on her future).
Tintu is senior Asiad medallist, Jessy Joseph is junior Asian Championship gold medallist, Jisna Matthew (Indian relay team member) is also there. Lot of others are coming up," she said, defending her training methods.
Usha, who missed an Olympic bronze by 0.01 seconds at 1984 Los Angeles Games, also explained how she has been trying different strategies to help Tintu improve.
"We are trying different methods with her but it is not suiting Tintu. 800 metres is not same for all. Tintu runs with the speed. Running with the speed means, take 400m time, 600m time and 1000m time and then you take percentage and make a lap. And run one more lap and it will be may be 3, 3.5 seconds above the second lap, it is like that.
"The other one is run a slow lap and maybe the same second lap. The second one may be 1 second lower than the first. But this is a very rare case in the world, it is a very rare case. It is not possible for everybody. Tintu was trying both the but it was not suiting," Usha explained.
A major criticism that comes Tintu's way is that she sets the pace of the race by taking initial lead but is not able maintain the momentum and intensity in the final 200m.
"Whether you are running in the front or at the back the time will be there. She tried 60 seconds (for first lap) in China (during the Asian Grand Prix). If she goes for 60-61 seconds, it is not possible for Tintu to pick up (for concluding part of race).
"If she goes for 60 seconds in the first lap, upto 600m she will get slower and timing will go upto 1 min 30 seconds.
If she goes upto 1 minute 31 secodns, it will go above 2 minute 03 second, no doubt. If she runs sub 1:30 min (till 600m), she will then come under 2:02 min undoubtedly and if she is under 1:20, she will clock a sub-two minute timing," she further explained the issue.
Usha said the way Tintu starts the race is actually the best option for her and they will continue with the same strategy for the upcoming World Championship in London.
"She is not comfortable when she goes slow. If you run 1:30 for 600m, the (last) 200m will be same, if you are 1:27.5 then also the (last) 200m will be same. If she goes slow and try for acceleration, her muscles get stiff, not giving her the pull (required during finishing stage)."
Usha defended Tintu's 29th place finish at the Rio Olympics citing her health condition.
"Last Olympics, she had bronchial infection and 800m runners need more oxygen. It was difficult for her but she did it in two minutes, which is a world class time. So, if she goes fast, she will be capable of performing better."
"She was in good form before Rio. Tintu did 3 times (races) under 2 minutes. Does it mean she is going wrong? You see her physique, she is very short, lot of limitations are there but still we made her run under two minutes," Usha defended.
She informed that Tintu has slowly started preparing for London as she was down with fever after coming back from China.
"Her endurance is ok. For speed, she needs 20-25 days to get back to normal. We have started slowly but it would require more effort."
Usha said competition exposure was must for Indian athletes to improve.
"Lot of schemes are coming for 2020 and 2024, it should help. Athletes will get result with training and proper exposure. Money should be spent on them for exposure. We should send them for competitions in Europe.
"Last year Tintu was in a very good form but she got only one competition outside. When you compete with better athletes, you also get better. When you go out it's for learning, win or defeat doesn't matter. In athletics it is not happening," she concluded.


text:
OpinionSummariesCase details
Schneider v. City of Atlanta
Tasby v. Wright
The Circuit has also held that "an attorney's standard hourly billing rate should probably be enhanced…
Sykes v. McDowell
Thus, Sykes argues that the submission of the issue to the jury did not prejudice McDowell's rights. Whether…
Full title:DEBORAH J. SCHNEIDER, PLAINTIFF-APPELLEE CROSS-APPELLANT, v. THE CITY OF…
Court:United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit
Date published: Dec 8, 1980
628 F.2d 915 (5th Cir. 1980)
United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit
In Schneider, we observed that, "[a]lthough the balancing test prescribed in Pickering is a question of law for the court, this circuit has recognized that in striking this balance between the interests of a governmental employee as a citizen and the interests of the government in promoting efficiency of the services it performs through its employees, there are factual matters appropriate for determination by a jury."
Summary of this case from Brady v. Fort Bend Cty
See 2 Summaries
October 24, 1980. Rehearing Denied December 8, 1980.
Ferrin Y. Mathews, Bernard R. Thomas, Pamela J. Robinson, Atlanta, Ga., for Hudson, etc.
Joseph H. King, Jr., Atlanta, Ga., for plaintiff-appellee cross-appellant.
Bernard R. Thomas, Associate City Atty., Atlanta, Ga., for City of Atlanta.
Appeals from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia.
Before KRAVITCH, FRANK M. JOHNSON, Jr. and REAVLEY, Circuit Judges.
REAVLEY, Circuit Judge:
Deborah Schneider filed suit against the City of Atlanta, the Bureau of Corrections of Atlanta, and the Director of the Bureau of Corrections, J. D. Hudson, alleging (1) that she suffered racial discrimination in violation of 42 U.S.C. §§ 1981 and 1983 and (2) that she was constructively discharged for exercising her First Amendment rights in violation of § 1983 and the Fourteenth Amendment. At trial, the jury found against her on the claim of racial discrimination, but returned a verdict in her favor on the claim that she was constructively discharged for exercising her First Amendment right of freedom of speech, finding that she suffered $6,000 actual damages. Judgment in the amount of $6,000 was initially entered in plaintiff's favor against the City of Atlanta and Director Hudson.
She also alleged race and sex discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e et seq. Her Title VII claims were to be tried before the court, while her §§ 1981 and 1983 claims and the First Amendment issue were tried before a jury. Since she received a favorable verdict with respect to the First Amendment claim, she waived her Title VII claims. The district court directed entry of a final judgment as to the §§ 1981, 1983 and First Amendment claims in accordance with Fed.R.Civ.P. 54(b).
Because this case was tried before the Supreme Court's decision in Monnell v. Department of Social Services of City of New York, 436 U.S. 658, 98 S.Ct. 2018, 56 L.Ed.2d 611 (1978) (holding that municipalities are "persons" under § 1983 and are, therefore, subject to suit under that statute), the district court granted the city's motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict in view of our en banc decision in Davis v. Passman, 571 F.2d 793 (5th Cir. 1978), rev'd 442 U.S. 228, 99 S.Ct. 2264, 60 L.Ed.2d 846 (1979), in which we held that a direct cause of action for sex discrimination would not be implied under the due process clause of the Fifth Amendment. After Monnell was decided, the plaintiff moved the district court to reinstate its judgment against the City of Atlanta under a § 1983 theory, since the district court had previously determined that the jury's verdict against Director Hudson, which found a violation of First Amendment rights, could be predicated under either an implied cause of action directly under the Constitution or § 1983. The district court denied this motion, finding that plaintiff had presented no evidence at trial tending to show that the violation of her First Amendment rights occurred in furtherance of an official policy or custom of the City of Atlanta.
The district court allowed plaintiff to bring suit against the city under a cause of action predicated directly under the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution.
Director Hudson brings this appeal contending (1) that the evidence was insufficient to support the jury's verdict of constructive discharge because of plaintiff exercising her First Amendment rights and (2) that the district court improperly instructed the jury, over objection, as to the standard to be applied in determining the extent of control a public employer may exercise over the expressions of its employees. Plaintiff cross-appeals contending (1) that the City of Atlanta should be liable under § 1983 because the conduct of Hudson constituted a policy of the city and (2) that the district court should have enhanced the award of attorney's fees, which was based on an hourly rate, because of the contingent nature of the recovery. Because we conclude that the district court committed plain error in submitting to the jury the question of whether plaintiff's First Amendment rights were infringed, we reverse and remand.
The record shows that although the defendant objected to plaintiff's requested charge on this point, the district court submitted an instruction which was a combination of plaintiff's original request and a requested instruction by defendant. Defendant made no objection to the instruction as submitted to the jury.
Deborah Schneider was employed intermittently from September 1973 through December 1975 as a Correctional Officer I with the City of Atlanta's Bureau of Corrections. Her duties there consisted primarily of guarding prisoners housed in the detention facilities of the city. Concerned with what she considered to be improper treatment of the prisoners and unsatisfactory conditions of employment, including the arbitrary changing of days off without adequate notice and the noncompliance with established grievance procedures, the plaintiff in September of 1975 suggested to several other officers the possibility of a "sick out" to protest these conditions. Such a "sick out," however, never occurred. Approximately two weeks later plaintiff was promoted to a supervisory position of "acting sergeant." Almost immediately after her promotion was announced, however, Director Hudson became aware of Schneider's past criticisms of jail policies and, specifically, of her attempts to organize a "sick out," and, as a result, rescinded the promotion and transferred her to the city prison farm. The record reflects that such a transfer was considered a form of punishment. Thereafter, she alleged that her life was made increasingly miserable. Her shift was changed repeatedly at the prison farm, and her day off requests were repeatedly denied. Also she was not allowed to take any of her accrued vacation days. The plaintiff testified that she resigned after it became clear she no longer had a future as a corrections officer. This, she contends, constituted a constructive discharge.
The district court instructed the jury as follows:
"Now, with regard to the second claim in this case, ladies and gentlemen, charging a denial of freedom of speech, the plaintiff must prove by a preponderance of the evidence that the defendants knowingly and intentionally violated clearly established First Amendment rights of the plaintiff by retaliating against her in terms and conditions of employment because she exercised otherwise protected First Amendment rights.
"In order, ladies and gentlemen, for the plaintiff to establish that she was constructively discharged, she must prove by a preponderance of the evidence that the sole basis for her resignation was the acts of the defendants which were such as to create working conditions so intolerable that she was forced into involuntary resignation.
"[T]he real question, is therefore, not whether or not she was discharged, but whether or not she was discharged, if she was discharged, in reprisal or punishment for having violated or exercised her right to freedom of speech.
"I charge you, ladies and gentlemen, that as a general rule, a person has an absolute right to express his or her opinion on any subject, and to advocate any course of action he or she deems appropriate. This is part of the basic constitutional guarantee of freedom of speech. This right of speech extends even to the general advocacy of a course of action which might be against some law, except in the very unusual case where such advocacy is directing, directed toward inciting or producing imminent and immediate unlawful conduct, and is likely to incite or produce such action.
"I charge you, ladies and gentlemen, in this respect, that a governmental employer may exercise some control over the expressions, public expressions of its employees, when it is in the interest of the state in promoting efficient public service.
"I charge you, however, that where a governmental agency does exercise control over the expression of its employees, such exercise must be limited to the minimum necessary to carry out the public interest. And before a public employer can exercise such control over the expressions of employees, there must be a clear and present danger that such expression, if allowed, will endanger the public interest." (Emphasis added.)
Appellant contends that the district court used an incorrect standard in charging the jury as to the First Amendment claim. We agree. In determining whether a public employer may inhibit its employees' rights of free speech, a balancing test is to be applied. Pickering v. Board of Education, 391 U.S. 563, 568, 88 S.Ct. 1731, 1734, 20 L.Ed.2d 811 (1968); Porter v. Califano, 592 F.2d 770, 772 (5th Cir. 1979); Smith v. United States, 502 F.2d 512, 516-17 (5th Cir. 1974); Battle v. Mulholland, 439 F.2d 321, 324 (5th Cir. 1971).
In Pickering, the Court stated: "The problem in any case is to arrive at a balance between the interests of the [public employee], as a citizen, in commenting upon matters of public concern and the interest of the State, as an employer, in promoting the efficiency of the public services it performs through its employees." 391 U.S. at 568, 88 S.Ct. at 1735. This is the test that should have been applied in this case. Moreover, the question of whether the plaintiff was constructively discharged for reasons that impermissibly abridged her First Amendment rights is ultimately a question of law for the trial court. Williams v. Board of Regents of University System of Georgia, 629 F.2d 993, 1003 (5th Cir. 1980) (holding that the "ultimate balancing of interests of citizen and state with regard to first amendment protection . . . remains in the sphere of the court."). Specifically, it is a question of law whether plaintiff's attempt to organize a "sick out" among her fellow employees is protected speech under the First Amendment. See Pennekamp v. Florida, 328 U.S. 331, 335, 66 S.Ct. 1029, 1031, 90 L.Ed. 1295 (1946), wherein the Supreme Court stated:
See, e. g., Bertot v. School Dist. No. 1, Albany County, Wyoming, 522 F.2d 1171, 1177-84 (10th Cir. 1975) (holding first that the jury's verdict against plaintiff was incorrect as a matter of law because the record evidence established that the predominant reason for the nonrenewal of plaintiff's contract as a teacher was her activity with an underground student newspaper, and, second, having so held as to that question, the appellate court determined the legal question whether her acts were within the protection of the First Amendment by applying the balancing test of Pickering. The trial court had charged the jury that plaintiff's activities relating to the newspaper were "constitutionally protected so long as they did not lead to a material or substantial disruption of class work, or did not involve substantial disorder or invasion of the rights of others", id. at 1183). Accord, Porter v. Califano, 592 F.2d at 779-81 (stating that in reviewing agency action — the suspension of a government employee allegedly because of exercising her First Amendment rights — under the Administrative Procedure Act, the district court must conduct the balancing test prescribed in Pickering after determining the facts to its satisfaction); Ayers v. Western Line Consolidated School Dist., 555 F.2d 1309, 1315-16 (5th Cir. 1977), vacated on other grounds sub nom. Givhan v. Western Line Consolidated School Dist., 439 U.S. 410, 99 S.Ct. 693, 58 L.Ed.2d 619 (1979) (holding that whether an expression by a public employee is constitutionally protected is a question of ultimate fact for the court and not subject to limited review under the "clearly erroneous" standard). As an ultimate fact, determining whether plaintiff Schneider's attempt to organize a "sick out" constituted protected speech is but a legal inference drawn from the basic facts in the case and is reviewable as any other legal ruling or conclusion. Cf. Jersey Land Development Corp. v. United States, 539 F.2d 311, 315 (3rd Cir. 1976).
Although the balancing test prescribed in Pickering is a question of law for the court, this circuit has recognized that in striking this balance between the interests of a governmental employee as a citizen and the interests of the government in promoting efficiency of the services it performs through its employees, there are factual matters appropriate for determination by a jury. For example, in order for the balance to be struck in favor of a governmental employer, the government must "clearly demonstrate that the employee's conduct substantially interferes with the discharge of duties and responsibilities inherent, in [governmental] employment." Smith v. United States, 502 F.2d 512, 517 (5th Cir. 1974). Moreover, it is necessary for a plaintiff to show that the asserted retaliation by a governmental employer was motivated specifically by what has been determined to be protected speech. Lindsey v. Board of Regents of University System of Georgia, 607 F.2d 672, 676 (5th Cir. 1979). The district court should, therefore, submit to the jury these factual issues inherent in the balancing test, but the ultimate balancing remains in the province of the court. See, e. g., McGill v. Board of Education of Pekin Elementary School Dist., 602 F.2d 774, 777 (7th Cir. 1979) (trial court instructed the jury that a teacher's criticism would not be constitutionally protected if "the teacher's actions materially and substantially interfere with the operation of the education process in the classroom"); Bertot v. School Dist. No. 1, 552 F.2d at 1183 (jury instructed that plaintiff's conduct was constitutionally protected so long as it "did not lead to a material or substantial disruption of class work, or did not involve substantial disorder or invasion of the rights of others"). The use of special interrogatories to the jury are especially appropriate in resolving the factual issues inherent in the balancing process envisioned by Pickering. However, any factual issues decided by a jury that might relate to ultimate questions of law are nonetheless subject to careful review by the district court and this court which are invested with the power to "conduct an independent review of constitutional claims when necessary." Jenkins v. Georgia, 418 U.S. 153, 160, 94 S.Ct. 2750, 2755, 41 L.Ed.2d 642 (1974).
With respect to the proposition that (1) the determination of what constitutes protected speech under the balancing test of Pickering is a question of law for the court, and (2) the determination of whether a discharge, refusal to rehire, suspension, transfer to less desirable duties or location, etc. is a question for the finder of fact, see also Bates v. Dause, 502 F.2d 865 (6th Cir. 1974); Birdwell v. Hazelwood School Dist., 491 F.2d 490 (8th Cir. 1973); Illinois State Employees Union, Council 34, Etc. v. Lewis, 473 F.2d 561, 572-74 (7th Cir. 1972), cert. denied, 410 U.S. 928, 93 S.Ct. 1364, 35 L.Ed.2d 590 (1973); London v. Florida Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services, 448 F.2d 655 (5th Cir. 1971), cert. denied, 406 U.S. 929, 92 S.Ct. 1765, 32 L.Ed.2d 131 (1972).
"The Constitution has imposed upon this Court final authority to determine the meaning and application of those words of that instrument which require interpretation to resolve judicial issues. With that responsibility, we are compelled to examine for ourselves the statements in issue and the circumstances under which they were made to see whether or not they do carry a threat of clear and present danger to the impartiality and good order of the courts or whether they are of a character which the principles of the First Amendment, as adopted by the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, protect."
In deciding this question, the court must apply the balancing test enunciated in Pickering. If plaintiff's conduct was constitutionally protected, then, it is, of course, a question of fact whether she was constructively discharged because of it. Therefore, we hold that the district court committed plain error in submitting to the jury the question of whether the plaintiff's First Amendment rights were violated by a constructive discharge. We do not decide whether the plaintiff's activity in attempting to organize a "sick out" was constitutionally protected speech under the First and Fourteenth Amendments, because the parties did not present evidence below or submit arguments to us concerning how the Pickering balance should be struck.
The error affected the fairness of the trial and seriously prejudiced Hudson's right to a fair trial. See Liner v. J. B. Talley and Co., Inc., 618 F.2d 327, 329-30 (5th Cir. 1980); Edwards v. Sears, Roebuck Co., 512 F.2d 276, 286 (5th Cir. 1975); Fed.R.Civ.P. 61.
Because we remand this case to the district court for a new trial, it is not necessary for us to decide the Monnell issue or the question concerning enhancement of attorney's fees over hourly rates because of the presence of a contingent fee contract.
Nonetheless, with respect to possible liability of the City of Atlanta, the Supreme Court in Monnell indicated that a municipality may be sued under § 1983 for a city official's "edicts or acts [that] may fairly be said to represent official policy . . . ." 436 U.S. at 694, 98 S.Ct. at 2038. At least in those areas in which Director Hudson, alone, "is the final authority or ultimate repository of [city] power his official conduct and decisions must necessarily be considered those of one `whose edicts or acts may fairly be said to represent official policy' for which the [city] may be held responsible under § 1983." Familias Unidas v. Briscoe, 619 F.2d 391, 404 (5th Cir. 1980). See generally, Schnapper, Civil Rights Litigation After Monnell, 79 Colum.L.Rev. 213, 215-19 (1979).
It is a question of fact whether the City of Atlanta delegated to Director Hudson the final or ultimate authority to make personnel decisions in the Bureau of Corrections with respect to work assignments, transfers, days off, discipline, the hiring and firing of employees, and restrictions concerning employees' rights to engage in certain free speech activity.
His title indicates such authority was delegated to Director Hudson, but there are no facts in the record clearly showing this.
With respect to the attorney's fee issue, it is sufficient to note that a district court is required to consider in setting attorney's fees whether the fee is fixed or contingent. Johnson v. Georgia Highway Express, Inc., 488 F.2d 714, 718 (5th Cir. 1974). Moreover, this court has very recently intimated that an attorney's standard hourly billing rate should probably be enhanced somewhat for an award of fees under § 1988 due to the contingent nature of such an award. Harris v. City of Fort Myers, 621 F.2d 1321, 1325 (5th Cir. 1980); Knighton v. Watkins, 616 F.2d 795, 800-01 (5th Cir. 1980); accord, Wolf v. Frank, 555 F.2d 1213, 1218 (5th Cir. 1977) (in stockholder's derivative action where fee was contingent on success, regular reasonable hourly fees should be enhanced by 33%).
In Schneider, a jury found that the plaintiff, a former correctional officer, was constructively discharged by one Hudson, the Director of the Bureau of Corrections, in retaliation for exercising her first amendment rights.
Summary of this case from Strama v. City of Chicago

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Hi, My name is Mirek, I was born in 1969… I deal with photography… Almost everyone writes the same… When my colleague creating this page asked me to write this text, I thought … nothing easier. I was wrong. Writing about myself is probably the most difficult thing. But here it goes.. My adventure with photography began many years ago, when as a Christmas present I got my first camera – it was AMI 66! Yes !! It was a long time ago. Next was Zenit TTL, then Minolta 7000 ….long time nothing new and then came the era of Digital Photography !! For me it started with Sony DSC-F828..
my passion for photography in early 90s, and this fascination has remained with me to this day. Photography is my first passion, and I used to share my time between it and scuba diving. Few years ago, some friends convinced me to combine these two domains. As some claim.. successfully. You have to judge it by yourself. Beautiful photographs always fascinated me. Whether in the studio or outdoors …. People or landscape, my goal is to take good photo. Well, in today's digital world I try various kinds of photography. From portrait, architecture and classical act to underwater photography.
Flash Inon Z-240 Type 4 – 2 Pieces.


Commerce Department reports on housing starts and building permits issued were released Tuesday. Housing starts rose to 1.189 million in June against expectations of 1.165 million starts and May's downwardly revised reading of 1.135 million starts, Housing starts rose by 4.80 percent on a seasonally-adjusted annual basis. This is good news for housing markets, but analysts said that demand for homes continued to exceed available supplies.
Building permits issued also rose in June to 1.53 million as compared to May's reading of 1.136 million permits issued.
Sales of previously-owned homes rose three percent year-over-year and reached their highest level since February 2007 in June. Existing home sales rose by 1.10 percent in June to a seasonally-adjusted annual rate of 5.57 million sales. Analysts forecasted a reading of 5.48 million sales of pre-owned homes based on May's reading of 5.51 million sales.
Analysts said that first-time home buyers are returning to housing markets and helped boost June sales and cited changing buyer demographics that suggest a return to owner-occupant home sales. First-time buyers accounted for 33 percent of pre-owned home sales in July, which was their highest reading since 2012. First-time buyers are important to housing markets as their purchases of existing homes enable current homeowners to sell their homes to buy larger homes or to relocate.
Mortgage rates rose across the board last week according to Freddie Mac's weekly report. Rates for a 30-year fixed rate mortgage averaged 3.45 percent, which was three basis points higher. The average rate for a 15-year fixed rate mortgage also rose three basis points to 2.75 percent; rates for a 5/1 adjustable rate mortgage averaged 2.78 percent. Discount points averaged 0.50 percent for fixed-rate mortgage and 0.40 percent for 5/1 adjustable rate mortgages.
New jobless claims sustained their streak and fell last week to 253,000 against predictions of 260,000 new claims filed and the prior week's reading of 254,000 new claims filed. Analysts hailed declining jobless claims as a strong indicator that the economy and labor markets continue to improve. New jobless claims have remained below the key reading of 300,000 for 73 weeks. The four-week rolling average of new jobless claims fell by 1250 claims to 257,750. This reading is considered less volatile than week-to-week readings and offers evidence of steady improvements in labor markets.
Next week's scheduled economic news includes the S&P Case-Shiller Housing Market Index, readings on new and pending home sales and the FOMC committee's post-meeting statement on Federal Reserve monetary policy decisions. Analysts widely expect the Fed to hold firm on its current federal funds rate of 0.25 to 0.50 percent.
Weekly reports on mortgage rates and new jobless claims will be released along with a reading on consumer confidence.
This entry was posted in Mortgage Rates and tagged Existing Home Sales, mortgage rates by BJ Kirkpatrick. Bookmark the permalink.


text:
Species Management and Action Plans
Waterfowlers' Network
The British Association for Shooting & Conservation
With more than 155.000 members, The British Association for Shooting & Conservation (BASC) is the largest hunting and conservation organisation in the UK. BASC was originally founded in 1908 as the Wildfowlers' Association of Great Britain and Ireland (WAGBI) to address declining waterfowl populations and loss of over-wintering habitat.
To this day, BASC continues the work towards conservation of waterfowl through a network of wildfowling clubs and volunteer conservation work carried out by members across the UK, as well as through international work with key environmental treaties.
In order to facilitate the protection and management of land for wildfowl, BASC established the Wildlife Habitat Trust in 1986. The trust raises funds through sales of an annual duck stamp and other associated products. Since its beginning, the trust has raised over £2 million which have been used to buy land and restore wetlands in the UK and Europe.
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She is a promising young lady with a bright future ahead of her.
Mayowa Shukurat Ahmed has gone through so much over the last year. From hospital to hospital, from one diagnosis to the other and now it has been confirmed that she has Stage IV Ovarian Cancer.
Since her story went online this past weekend, over $45,000 has been raised towards her treatment.
See the latest update from her family as well as the story of Mayowa's health challenges.
Our GOAL IS N32,000,000.00 OR $100,000.00. We don't have much time.
Yesterday we raised 6.5 million. In her access bank account (0038091966, savings Account, Ahmed Mayowa Shukurat)n her gofund me (https://www.gofundme.com/savemayowa) it was $3,036.00. So just thirty two hours over 7m was raised.
We thank you all, for praying, for sharing and most especially donating. For us to reach this goal faster, We looking for 32,000 people (Thirty two thousand people) to make a donation of N1,000.00. or $3.00 OR 64,000 people (Sixty four thousand)to make a donation of N500.00 or $1.50 OR 160,000 people (One hundred and sixty thousand) to make a donation of N200.00 or $0.75 OR 320,000 people (Three hundred and twenty thousand) to make a donation of N100.00 or $0.375 So we all can encourage each and every one to make a donation that no amount is too small. May I remind you, its just us (average Nigerians) that donated this, no politician yet, no organizations yet, we are stronger collectively, we can achieve far more if you encourage others who doesn't have MILLION to contribute, THOUSAND and those without thousands to contribute HUNDRED it will go along way and make a huge difference in a short time.
She went through her education stages without medical issues and graduated from the University of Lagos but after graduation she seemed to have more frequent cases of hospital visits with Ulcer being the diagnosis most times and no more bone crisis.
Abdominal scans and a whole lot of others.
And as the year ran out, we spent more time on hospital admissions and more frequently. At this point, our confident in LASUTH was not firm anymore because it just wasn't working and we were not getting enough care so we tried another place- Isolo General Hospital as we knew a Management Doctor there. It was fine for a few days but then we went back to status quo.
By December, we were really worried that this is beyond being an HBSS and all the hospitals kept discharging us after a few days, saying we should go and manage it at home and would end up referring us back to LASUTH. Her body had changed, she started to have swollen tummy and bed sores. We did some scans and it showed her liver was inflated, spleen was not present. We suspected Hepatitis but no Doctor looked into that.
On one of the days, we were referred back to LASUTH in December due to hip bone shift, we decided to take her to Lagoon Hospital as a private patient, they ran series of test to confirm is she needed to operate but nothing was detected and as she spent about two weeks there, she was being managed of pain reliever and fluid to keep the bone pains down and the maintain appropriate PCV (blood level).
At the end of the period, we were discharged and she kept on managing the situation at home, treating bed sores, ulcer or gastro issues, bone crisis and pains without any help from hospitals. Family members had to learn how to administer IVS and IMs as well as body fluids.
Sometime in the first quarter of 2016, she met a group of Nigerian surgeons from UK, and they said she couldn't be operated upon because of her condition and her hipbone shift was slight and would get better, which it did and they introduced her to a fellow Nigerian Gastro surgeon. She visited and he read her medical report on the ulcer. He concluded that she hasn't been well diagnosed and treated by the hospitals and gave her a drug (ROBIDOM-SP) to be using morning and night; this helped dramatically as all the vomiting and stooling stopped.
We had spent so much at Lagoon Hospital that we decided to save up for HMO for Reddington Hospital. By April 2016, at this time, her leg would keep swelling from the feet up to the the thigh. We were able to save up and we started treatment at Reddington Hospital, Ikeja and she went on admission there. She spent like two weeks there and for the most part they kept saying they needed to run some scans and test which didn't yield any diagnosis. She got blood transfusion for the first time in her life as her blood level and PCV was now too low. At this time, we couldn't access her veins so they had to do a cut down both on her leg first before they found a spot on her hand to set a central line to administer drugs, water and blood.
Eventually, they said she needed to do liver biopsy as the CT scan showed there were masses on the liver. We were referred to LUTH for this and she spent about some weeks in LUTH for this. The result at the end of the day was inconclusive.
We then went back to Reddington VI, and they did more tests from contrast to CT Scans to Blood tests and so much more after a short while she was discharged as been stable but was soon brought back after a few days because her thigh bone gave way and she was put in a cast.
They told us in June that our HMO of 1 year had been exhausted in less than 1month and we need to re-negotiate payments. She was then told that they suspected cancer and had to do Ovarian and liver biopsy again. This we had to pay for privately, after which she was sent home as we couldn't afford the hospital bills anymore as we queried that there was no logic in HMO service ending after a month. The conclusion after the result was that the masses on the ovary were malignant and it was affecting the liver as that was the primary site.
Since then up until now she have been at home and we get doctor friends to come check her from time to time. Finally, we decided that due to wrong earlier diagnosis and improper management and care from most of the Nigerian Hospitals we need to send her out of the country coupled with the fact that most of the doctors and hospitals have given up and saying they can't do anything for her right now.
We have been misled by the so called top hospitals in Nigeria and have only helped to make the issue worse. We require every support to help to give our dear Mayowa an attempt to regain her life and live the remaining as God as ordained.
We thank you for donations, support and prayers that you bring our way for her to gain her freedom back from shackles of ill health. God bless your home and may you never have a reason to rely on the hospitals for a good health.


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Bees say: "The tiny flowers win!"
>> Friday, July 16, 2010 – bees, butterflies, flowers
I've got several questions for you today. Question 1: How do you feel about bees? If you're like me, you love them! The garden would be so lifeless without them, wouldn't it? Question 2: When you think of a flower that bees like, what do you think of first? I first think of a daisy or Black-eyed Susan, or something similar -- a big, bold target for the bees to find.
Of course I'm wrong, and you are too if you agreed with me. In my experience the bees like plants that produce clusters of tiny flowers best. Something like this native "Rattlesnake Master" (Eryngium yuccifolium). It doesn't even really look like a flower from afar.
It may not look like a flower, and I'm not sure if it has any detectable fragrance, but this plant is a bee magnet:
Well, it's a bee magnet for the right kind of bee. That leads me to Question 3: When I say "bee", what do you think of? Probably a honey bee:
Seen here on Agastache foeniculum, another "cluster of tiny flowers" plant.
Maybe you think of a big bumble bee instead? Here are a few bumbles on Echinops bannaticus 'Blue Glow' -- or "Globe Thistle":
I love how you can see the pollen grains on the back of the one bee! Globe thistle is another "cluster of tiny flowers" plant:
The bumble bees really, really love this one.
Back to the Rattlesnake Master for a minute -- it doesn't seem to attract either honey bees or bumble bees. It instead attracts lots of tiny bees and other pollinators:
There is literally a swarm of tiny bees around this plant! (It's hard to get a good photo of them because they're moving around so quickly!)
Here's a little butterfly -- not a bee, but still a pollinator. This one is some type of hairstreak I believe, but I'll have to get out the butterfly books later to make a positive identification:
It's gone to a flower that has just started to open, probably because the bee swarm hasn't discovered this one yet -- the butterfly has got the whole thing to itself for now!
Seeing all of these tiny bees (and other insects) on these small flower clusters made me go back and take a closer look at some other flowers too:
Not exactly the first things that come to mind when you think of bees, are they?
They certainly are beautiful though, and they are important pollinators. Here's a great webpage about native bees. A couple of excerpts from that website:
Native bees come in a wide range of colors and sizes, from tiny sweat bees less than a quarter of an inch long to bumble bees over an inch in length. While some of these species may look like the familiar image of a bee with hairy yellow and black stripes, they may also be dark brown, black or metallic green and blue, with stripes of many colors. Most are solitary, with each female creating and provisioning her nest without the support of a caste system of workers. Most are unlikely to sting (Shepherd et. al., 2003).
Many native bee species are more effective than honey bees at pollinating flowers on a bee-for-bee basis. For example, according to U. S. Department of Agriculture researchers, only 250 female blue orchard bees (Osmia lignaria) are required to effectively pollinate an acre of apples. The is the equivalent service of one to two honey bees hives, each containing 15,000 to 20,000 workers (Bosch and Kemp, 2001).
As far as the bees are concerned, the tiny flowers win! As far as I'm concerned though, both I and my garden win because of the bees.
>> Post by Alan add a comment | send email |


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Home / Products / All Products / Antigens & Antibodies / Ebola Virus Envelope Glycoprotein (GP1) (Bundibugyo)
Ebola Virus Envelope Glycoprotein (GP1) (Bundibugyo)
$823.05 – $5,260.90 excl. VAT
Ebola virus envelope glycoprotein (GP1) is derived from the GP1 sequence (Accession # ACI28624), expressing Ile33 – Gln304.This Ebola virus envelope glycoprotein (GP1) is fused with a polyhistidine tag at the C-terminus, and has a calculated MW of 31.8 kDa. The protein is expressed in HEK293 cells.
Choose an option100µg1mg
Ebola Virus Envelope Glycoprotein (GP1) (Bundibugyo) quantity
SKU: EBOVUG2007-GP1 Categories: Antigens & Antibodies, Ebola Virus antigens Tag: Ebola virus envelope glycoprotein
EBOLA VIRUS ENVELOPE GLYCOPROTEIN (GP1)
This Ebola virus envelope glycoprotein (GP1) is derived from the GP1 sequence (Accession # ACI28624), expressing Ile33 – Gln304.This Ebola virus envelope glycoprotein (GP1) is fused with a polyhistidine tag at the C-terminus, and has a calculated MW of 31.8 kDa. The protein is expressed in HEK293 cells. DTT-reduced Protein migrates as 40-60 kDa in SDS-PAGE.
PRODUCT DETAILS – EBOLA VIRUS ENVELOPE GLYCOPROTEIN (GP1)
Recombinant Ebola virus Envelope Glycoprotein 1 (subtype Bundibugyo, strain Uganda 2007, NCBI Accession Number: ACI28624).
Produced from HEK293 cells with a C-terminal His-tag.
Greater than 90% purity by SDS-PAGE.
Lyophilised and presented in PBS pH7.4.
Ebola virus envelope glycoprotein is initially produced as a precursor known as pre-GP, which is cleaved by furin into two subunits, GP1 and GP2, which remain associated through a disulfide linkage between Cys53 of GP1 and Cys609 of GP2. This heterodimer assembles into a 450-kDa trimer at the surface of nascent virions. The virion-attached GP is critical in the EBOV life cycle, as it is solely responsible for attachment, fusion and entry of target cells. Moreover, GP is responsible for critical pathogenic differences among viral species.The role of Ebola virus envelope glycoprotein in EBOV pathogenesis is unclear, but is examined in detail by Lee and Saphire (2009).
Ebola hemorrhagic fever (EHF) is a severe disease caused by several species of Ebolavirus (EBOV), in the family Filoviridae. Prior to 2007, four species of EBOV had been identified, with two (Zaire ebolavirus andSudan ebolavirus) having caused significant disease outbreaks in humans. Outbreaks of EHF are associated with person-to-person transmission after the virus is introduced into humans from a zoonotic reservoir. During outbreaks the virus is commonly transmitted through direct contact with infected persons or their bodily fluids. The onset of EHF is associated with nonspecific signs and symptoms, including fever, myalgias, headache, abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhoea. In the later stages of disease, overt hemorrhage has been reported in up to 50% of cases.
The presence of a fifth EBOV virus species, Bundibugyo ebolavirus (BEBOV) was identified after an outbreak of EHF in the Bundibugyo District of western Uganda in 2007.
****SHIPPING AND STORAGE NOTIFICATION: This recombinant protein has been lyophilised to maximise stability. It is shipped at ambient temperature, and may be stored for up to 1 year at 4C prior to reconstitution. Following reconstitution it should be stored at -80C. Extensive stability tests have shown no negative effects on antigen performance for 7 days of shipping at ambient temperature.


How Can I Use the Federal Solar Tax Credit to Help Fund My New Solar Installation?
How do taxes fit into the solar conversation?
Solar is an environmentally-friendly home improvement that can bring you tax benefits as well as save you money on your electricity costs.
Currently, the federal government offers an Investment Tax Credit (ITC) for putting solar on your home or business. The ITC provides a significant financial advantage for solar customers by allowing them to deduct 30% of the cost of their solar array from their federal taxes.
To illustrate, if your solar array cost $20,000, you would be eligible for a $6,000 federal tax credit. If you owe $6,000 or more in federal taxes during the same calendar year that your solar is installed, you can effectively "wipe out" that much of your tax liability by investing in clean energy.
If you pay less than $6,000 a year in federal taxes, you can carry forward the credit until it has been fully utilized. For example, if you owe $4,500 in federal taxes in 2018 and are eligible for a $6,000 solar tax credit, the credit would cancel out what you owe the federal government for 2018. The $1,500 left over could be carried over to reduce your federal tax liability in 2019 by that amount. On the other hand, if you overpay your taxes during the same year your solar is installed, your federal tax refund will be increased by 30% of the solar array cost.
How long is the solar tax credit available?
The federal solar tax credit is a tremendous benefit for individuals who choose to invest in solar for their home or business. However, like most tax credits, this one is time-sensitive. 2018 and 2019 are the last two years homeowners will be able to deduct a full 30% of their solar array costs from their taxes. Homeowners installing solar arrays in 2020 will only be eligible to deduct 26% of the cost of their system from their taxes, and in 2021 only 22%. After that, homeowners will no longer be offered a tax credit for installing solar.
As a homeowner, now is an excellent time to effectively save 30% on a solar system by taking advantage of the solar tax credit.


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% THIS IS AN EXAMPLE DOCUMENT FOR VLDB 2012
% based on ACM SIGPROC-SP.TEX VERSION 2.7
% Modified by  Gerald Weber <gerald@cs.auckland.ac.nz>
% Removed the requirement to include *bbl file in here. (AhmetSacan, Sep2012)
% Fixed the equation on page 3 to prevent line overflow. (AhmetSacan, Sep2012)

\documentclass{vldb}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\usepackage{balance}  % for  \balance command ON LAST PAGE  (only there!)
\usepackage{fontspec}
\usepackage{hyperref}
\graphicspath{{figures/}}
\usepackage{enumitem}

\begin{document}

% ****************** TITLE ****************************************

\title{Druid: Open Source Real-time Analytics at Scale}

% possible, but not really needed or used for PVLDB:
%\subtitle{[Extended Abstract]
%\titlenote{A full version of this paper is available as\textit{Author's Guide to Preparing ACM SIG Proceedings Using \LaTeX$2_\epsilon$\ and BibTeX} at \texttt{www.acm.org/eaddress.htm}}}

% ****************** AUTHORS **************************************

% You need the command \numberofauthors to handle the 'placement
% and alignment' of the authors beneath the title.
%
% For aesthetic reasons, we recommend 'three authors at a time'
% i.e. three 'name/affiliation blocks' be placed beneath the title.
%
% NOTE: You are NOT restricted in how many 'rows' of
% "name/affiliations" may appear. We just ask that you restrict
% the number of 'columns' to three.
%
% Because of the available 'opening page real-estate'
% we ask you to refrain from putting more than six authors
% (two rows with three columns) beneath the article title.
% More than six makes the first-page appear very cluttered indeed.
%
% Use the \alignauthor commands to handle the names
% and affiliations for an 'aesthetic maximum' of six authors.
% Add names, affiliations, addresses for
% the seventh etc. author(s) as the argument for the
% \additionalauthors command.
% These 'additional authors' will be output/set for you
% without further effort on your part as the last section in
% the body of your article BEFORE References or any Appendices.

\numberofauthors{6} %  in this sample file, there are a *total*
% of EIGHT authors. SIX appear on the 'first-page' (for formatting
% reasons) and the remaining two appear in the \additionalauthors section.

\author{
% You can go ahead and credit any number of authors here,
% e.g. one 'row of three' or two rows (consisting of one row of three
% and a second row of one, two or three).
%
% The command \alignauthor (no curly braces needed) should
% precede each author name, affiliation/snail-mail address and
% e-mail address. Additionally, tag each line of
% affiliation/address with \affaddr, and tag the
% e-mail address with \email.
%
% 1st. author
\alignauthor
Fangjin Yang\\
       \affaddr{Metamarkets Group, Inc.}\\
       \email{fangjin@metamarkets.com}
% 2nd. author
\alignauthor
Eric Tschetter\\
       \email{echeddar@gmail.com}
% 3rd. author
\alignauthor
Xavier Léauté\\
       \affaddr{Metamarkets Group, Inc.}\\
       \email{xavier@metamarkets.com}
\and  % use '\and' if you need 'another row' of author names
% 4th. author
\alignauthor
Nishant Bangarwa\\
       \affaddr{Metamarkets Group, Inc.}\\
       \email{nishant@metamarkets.com}
% 5th. author
\alignauthor
Nelson Ray\\
       \email{ncray86@gmail.com}
% 6th. author
\alignauthor
Gian Merlino\\
       \affaddr{Metamarkets Group, Inc.}\\
       \email{gian@metamarkets.com}
}
% There's nothing stopping you putting the seventh, eighth, etc.
% author on the opening page (as the 'third row') but we ask,
% for aesthetic reasons that you place these 'additional authors'
% in the \additional authors block, viz.
\additionalauthors{Additional authors: Deep Ganguli (Metamarkets Group, Inc., {\texttt{deep@metamarkets.com}}), Himadri Singh (Metamarkets Group, Inc., {\texttt{himadri@metamarkets.com}}), Igal Levy (Metamarkets Group, Inc., {\texttt{igal@metamarkets.com}})}
\date{14 March 2014}
% Just remember to make sure that the TOTAL number of authors
% is the number that will appear on the first page PLUS the
% number that will appear in the \additionalauthors section.

\maketitle

\begin{abstract}
Druid is an open
source\footnote{\href{https://github.com/druid-io/druid}{https://github.com/druid-io/druid}}
data store built for exploratory analytics on large data sets.  Druid supports
fast data aggregation, low latency data ingestion, and arbitrary data
exploration. The system combines a column-oriented storage layout, a
distributed, shared-nothing architecture, and an advanced indexing structure to
return queries on billions of rows in milliseconds.  Druid is petabyte scale and
is deployed in production at several technology companies.
\end{abstract}

\section{Introduction}
The recent proliferation of internet technology has created a surge
in machine-generated events.  Individually, these events contain minimal useful
information and are of low value.  Given the time and resources required to
extract meaning from large collections of events, many companies were willing
to discard this data instead.

A few years ago, Google introduced MapReduce as their mechanism of leveraging
commodity hardware to index the internet and analyze logs.  The Hadoop project
soon followed and was largely patterned after the insights that came out of the
original MapReduce paper. Hadoop has contributed much to helping companies
convert their low-value event streams into high-value aggregates for a variety
of applications such as business intelligence and A-B testing.

As with a lot of great systems, Hadoop has opened our eyes to a new space of
problems.  Specifically, Hadoop excels at storing and providing access to large
amounts of data, however, it does not make any performance guarantees around
how quickly that data can be accessed.  Furthermore, although Hadoop is a
highly available system, performance degrades under heavy concurrent load.
Lastly, while Hadoop works well for storing data, it is not optimized for
ingesting data and making that data immediately readable.

\subsection{The Need for Druid}
Druid was originally designed to solve problems around ingesting and exploring
large quantities of transactional events (log data). This form of timeseries
data (OLAP data) is commonly found in the business intelligence
space and the nature of the data tends to be very append heavy. Events typically
have three distinct components: a timestamp column indicating when the event
occurred, a set of dimension columns indicating various attributes about the
event, and a set of metric columns containing values (usually numeric) that can
be aggregated. Queries are typically issued for the sum of some set of metrics,
filtered by some set of dimensions, over some span of time.

The Druid project first began out of necessity at Metamarkets to power a
business intelligence dashboard that allowed users to arbitrarily explore and
visualize event streams. Existing open source Relational Database Management
Systems, cluster computing frameworks, and NoSQL key/value stores were unable
to provide a low latency data ingestion and query platform for an interactive
dashboard. Queries needed to return fast enough to allow the data
visualizations in the dashboard to update interactively.

In addition to the query latency needs, the system had to be multi-tenant and
highly available, as the dashboard is used in a highly concurrent environment.
Downtime is costly and many businesses cannot afford to wait if a system is
unavailable in the face of software upgrades or network failure. Finally,
Metamarkets also wanted to allow users and alerting systems to be able to make
business decisions in ``real-time". The time from when an event is created to
when that event is queryable determines how fast users and systems are able to
react to potentially catastrophic occurrences in their systems.

The problems of data exploration, ingestion, and availability span multiple
industries. Since Druid was open sourced in October 2012, it has been deployed as a
video, network monitoring, operations monitoring, and online advertising
analytics platform at multiple companies\footnote{\href{http://druid.io/druid.html}{http://druid.io/druid.html}}.

\begin{figure*}
\centering
\includegraphics[width = 4.5in]{cluster}
\caption{An overview of a Druid cluster and the flow of data through the cluster.}
\label{fig:cluster}
\end{figure*}

\section{Architecture}
A Druid cluster consists of different types of nodes and each node type is
designed to perform a specific set of things. We believe this design separates
concerns and simplifies the complexity of the system. The different node types
operate fairly independently of each other and there is minimal interaction among
them. Hence, intra-cluster communication failures have minimal impact on data
availability.  To solve complex data analysis problems, the different node
types come together to form a fully working system. The composition of and flow
of data in a Druid cluster are shown in Figure~\ref{fig:cluster}. All Druid
nodes announce their availability and the data they are serving over
Zookeeper\cite{hunt2010zookeeper}.

\subsection{Real-time Nodes}
Real-time nodes encapsulate the functionality to ingest and query event
streams. Events indexed via these nodes are immediately available for querying.
These nodes are only concerned with events for some small time range. They
periodically hand off batches of immutable events to other nodes in the Druid
cluster that are specialized in dealing with batches of immutable events.

Real-time nodes maintain an in-memory index buffer for all incoming events.
These indexes are incrementally populated as new events are ingested and the
indexes are also directly queryable. To avoid heap overflow problems, real-time
nodes persist their in-memory indexes to disk either periodically or after some
maximum row limit is reached. This persist process converts data stored in the
in-memory buffer to a column oriented storage format. Each persisted index is
immutable and real-time nodes load persisted indexes into off-heap memory such
that they can still be queried. On a periodic basis, each real-time node will
schedule a background task that searches for all locally persisted indexes. The
task merges these indexes together and builds an immutable block of data that
contains all the events that have ingested by a real-time node for some span of
time. We refer to this block of data as a ``segment". During the handoff stage,
a real-time node uploads this segment to permanent backup storage, typically
a distributed file system that Druid calls ``deep storage".

\subsection{Historical Nodes}
Historical nodes encapsulate the functionality to load and serve the immutable
blocks of data (segments) created by real-time nodes. In many real-world
workflows, most of the data loaded in a Druid cluster is immutable and hence
historical nodes are typically the main workers of a Druid cluster.  Historical
nodes follow a shared-nothing architecture and there is no single point of
contention among the nodes. The nodes have no knowledge of one another and are
operationally simple; they only know how to load, drop, and serve immutable
segments.

\subsection{Broker Nodes}
Broker nodes act as query routers to historical and real-time nodes. Broker
nodes understand what segments are queryable and where those segments are
located. Broker nodes route incoming queries such that the queries hit the
right historical or real-time nodes. Broker nodes also merge partial results
from historical and real-time nodes before returning a final consolidated
result to the caller.

\subsection{Coordinator Nodes}
Druid coordinator nodes are primarily in charge of data management and
distribution on historical nodes. The coordinator nodes tell historical nodes
to load new data, drop outdated data, replicate data, and move data to load
balance. Coordinator nodes undergo a
leader-election process that determines a single node that runs the coordinator
functionality. The remaining coordinator nodes act as redundant backups.

A coordinator node runs periodically to determine the current state of the
cluster. It makes decisions by comparing the expected state of the cluster with
the actual state of the cluster at the time of the run.  Coordinator nodes also
maintain a connection to a MySQL database that contains additional operational
parameters and configurations.  One of the key pieces of information located in
the MySQL database is a table that contains a list of all segments that should
be served by historical nodes.  This table can be updated by any service that
creates segments, such as real-time nodes.

\subsection{Query Processing}
Data tables in Druid (called \emph{data sources}) are collections of
timestamped events partitioned into a set of segments, where each segment
is typically 5--10 million rows. Formally, we define a segment as a collection
of rows of data that span some period in time. Segments represent the
fundamental storage unit in Druid and replication and distribution are done at
a segment level.

Druid segments are stored in a column orientation. Given that Druid is best
used for aggregating event streams (all data going into Druid must have a
timestamp), the advantages storing aggregate information as columns rather than
rows are well documented \cite{abadi2008column}. Column storage allows for more
efficient CPU usage as only what is needed is actually loaded and scanned.

Druid has multiple column types to represent various data formats. Depending on
the column type, different compression methods are used to reduce the cost of
storing a column in memory and on disk. For example, if an entire column only
contains string values, storing the raw strings is unnecessarily costly.
String columns can be dictionary encoded instead. Dictionary encoding is a
common method to compress data in column stores.

In many real world OLAP workflows, queries are issued for the aggregated
results of some set of metrics where some set of dimension specifications are
met. Consider Table~\ref{tab:sample_data}. An example query for this table may
ask: ``How much revenue was generated in the first hour of 2014-01-01 in the
city of San Francisco?". This query is filtering a sales data set based on a
Boolean expression of dimension values. In many real world data sets, dimension
columns contain strings and metric columns contain numbers. Druid creates
additional lookup indices for string columns such that only those rows that
pertain to a particular query filter are ever scanned.

\begin{table}
  \centering
  \begin{tabular}{| l | l | l |}
    \hline
    \textbf{Timestamp} & \textbf{City} & \textbf{Revenue} \\ \hline
    2014-01-01T01:00:00Z & San Francisco & 25 \\ \hline
    2014-01-01T01:00:00Z & San Francisco & 42 \\ \hline
    2014-01-01T02:00:00Z & New York & 17 \\ \hline
    2014-01-01T02:00:00Z & New York & 170 \\ \hline
  \end{tabular}
  \caption{Sample sales data set.}
  \label{tab:sample_data}
\end{table}

For each unique city in
Table~\ref{tab:sample_data}, we can form some representation
indicating in which table rows a particular city is seen. We can
store this information in a binary array where the array indices
represent our rows. If a particular page is seen in a certain
row, that array index is marked as \texttt{1}. For example:
{\small\begin{verbatim}
San Francisco -> rows [0, 1] -> [1][1][0][0]
New York      -> rows [2, 3] -> [0][0][1][1]
\end{verbatim}}

\texttt{San Francisco} is seen in rows \texttt{0} and \texttt{1}. This mapping of column values
to row indices forms an inverted index \cite{tomasic1993performance}. To know which
rows contain {\ttfamily San Francisco} or {\ttfamily New York}, we can \texttt{OR} together
the two arrays.
{\small\begin{verbatim}
[0][1][0][1] OR [1][0][1][0] = [1][1][1][1]
\end{verbatim}}

This approach of performing Boolean operations on large bitmap sets is commonly
used in search engines. Druid compresses each bitmap index using the Concise
algorithm \cite{colantonio2010concise}. All Boolean operations on top of these
Concise sets are done without decompressing the set.

\subsection{Query Capabilities}
Druid supports many types of aggregations including double sums, long sums,
minimums, maximums, and complex aggregations such as cardinality estimation and
approximate quantile estimation.  The results of aggregations can be combined
in mathematical expressions to form other aggregations. Druid supports
different query types ranging from simple aggregates for an interval time,
groupBys, and approximate top-K queries.

\section{Performance}
Druid runs in production at several organizations, and to briefly demonstrate its
performance, we have chosen to share some real world numbers for the main production
cluster running at Metamarkets in early 2014. For comparison with other databases
we also include results from synthetic workloads on TPC-H data.

\subsection{Query Performance}
Query latencies are shown in Figure~\ref{fig:query_latency} for a cluster
hosting approximately 10.5TB of data using 1302 processing threads and 672
total cores (hyperthreaded). There are approximately 50 billion rows of data in
this cluster.

\begin{figure}
\centering
\includegraphics[width = 2.3in]{avg_query_latency}
\caption{Query latencies of production data sources.}
\label{fig:query_latency}
\end{figure}

\begin{figure}
\centering
\includegraphics[width = 2.3in]{tpch_100gb}
\caption{Druid \& MySQL benchmarks -- 100GB TPC-H data.}
\label{fig:tpch_100gb}
\end{figure}

The average queries per minute during this time was approximately
1000. The number of dimensions the various data sources vary from 25 to 78
dimensions, and 8 to 35 metrics. Across all the various data sources, average
query latency is approximately 550 milliseconds, with 90\% of queries returning
in less than 1 second, 95\% in under 2 seconds, and 99\% of queries returning
in less than 10 seconds.

Approximately 30\% of the queries are standard
aggregates involving different types of metrics and filters, 60\% of queries
are ordered group bys over one or more dimensions with aggregates, and 10\% of
queries are search queries and metadata retrieval queries. The number of
columns scanned in aggregate queries roughly follows an exponential
distribution. Queries involving a single column are very frequent, and queries
involving all columns are very rare.

We also present Druid benchmarks on TPC-H data in Figure~\ref{fig:tpch_100g}.
Most TPC-H queries do not directly apply to Druid, so we selected queries more
typical of Druid's workload to demonstrate query performance. As a comparison,
we also provide the results of the same queries using MySQL using the MyISAM
engine (InnoDB was slower in our experiments).

We benchmarked Druid's scan rate at 53,539,211 rows/second/core for
\texttt{select count(*)} equivalent query over a given time interval and
36,246,530 rows/second/core for a \texttt{select sum(float)} type query.

\subsection{Data Ingestion Performance}
To showcase Druid's data ingestion latency, we selected several production
datasources of varying dimensions, metrics, and event volumes. Druid's data
ingestion latency is heavily dependent on the complexity of the data set being
ingested. The data complexity is determined by the number of dimensions in each
event, the number of metrics in each event, and the types of aggregations we
want to perform on those metrics.

\begin{figure}
\centering
\includegraphics[width = 2.3in]{ingestion_rate}
\caption{Combined cluster ingestion rates.}
\label{fig:ingestion_rate}
\end{figure}

For the given datasources, the number of dimensions vary from 5 to 35, and the
number of metrics vary from 2 to 24. The peak ingestion latency we measured in
production was 22914.43 events/second/core on a datasource with 30 dimensions
and 19 metrics.

The latency measurements we presented are sufficient to address the our stated
problems of interactivity. We would prefer the variability in the latencies to
be less, which can be achieved by adding additional
hardware, but we have not chosen to do so because of cost concerns.

\section{Demonstration Details}

We would like to do an end-to-end demonstratation of Druid, from setting up a
cluster, ingesting data, structuring a query, and obtaining results. We would
also like to showcase how to solve real-world data analysis problems with Druid
and demonstrate tools that can be built on top of it, including interactive
data visualizations, approximate algorithms, and machine-learning components.
We already use similar tools in production.

\subsection{Setup}

Users will be able to set up a local Druid cluster to better understand the
components and architecture of the system. Druid is designed to run on
commodity hardware and Druid nodes are simply java processes that need to be
started up. The local setup will allow users to ingest data from Twitter's
public API and query it.  We will also provide users access to an AWS hosted
Druid cluster that contains several terabytes of Twitter data that we have been
collecting for over 2 years. There are over 3 billion tweets in this data set,
and new events are constantly being ingested. We will walk through a variety of
different queries to demonstrate Druid's arbitrary data-exploration
capabilities.

Finally, we will teach users how to build a simple interactive dashboard on top
of Druid. The dashboard will use some of Druid's more powerful features such as
approximate algorithms for quickly determining the cardinality of sets, and
machine learning algorithms for scientific computing problems such as anomaly
detection.  These use cases represent some of the more interesting problems we
use Druid for in production.

\subsection{Goals}

We will not only walk users through solving real-world problems with Druid and
different tools that have been built on top of Druid, but also answer
conference-specific questions such as what are the trending tweets and topics
at VLDB, what netizens are conversing about in the general area, and even
perform a sentiment analysis of VLDB. Our goal is to clearly explain why the
architecture of Druid makes it highly optimal for certain types of queries, and
the potential of the system as a real-time analytics platform.

%\end{document}  % This is where a 'short' article might terminate

% ensure same length columns on last page (might need two sub-sequent latex runs)
\balance

%ACKNOWLEDGMENTS are optional
\section{Acknowledgments}
Druid could not have been built without the help of many great people in the
community.  We want to thank everyone that has contributed to the Druid
codebase for their invaluable support.

% The following two commands are all you need in the
% initial runs of your .tex file to
% produce the bibliography for the citations in your paper.
\bibliographystyle{abbrv}
\bibliography{druid_demo}  % vldb_sample.bib is the name of the Bibliography in this case
% You must have a proper ".bib" file
%  and remember to run:
% latex bibtex latex latex
% to resolve all references

\end{document}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Q: Do I need headphones with these?
A: Both are OK. You can use with a headphone or without. We recommend turning up your volume a little bit to help the frequency better penetrate your body.
Q: How many times and how often am I supposed to listen to this?
A: It totally depends on personal situation. Some people find it annoying listening to audios and feel depressed afterwards, while others do not have such feelings. We suggest listening to this at least 2-3 times a day to see a possible effect. Make sure you have enough lemon water or pure water to flush the die-offs from your body.
A: Some people report back success in doing so but we are not sure of the final result. You can give it a try and we are looking forward to your feedback. Compared with listening to Rife audios, a much better way would be to use real rife machines. You can find more about Rife machine from here: www.spooky2.com.
Q: Can I listen to this instead of using a real rife machine?
A: You can try to listen to this to see the effect. However, there are still differences between listening to frequencies online and using a real rife machine.
We made the best quality videos, but the signal accuracy is still dramatically reduced when you hear it online, because the sound is compressed by the website, and some info is lost.
The difference is the same as listening to music from audio and from a concert.
Many frequencies can not be heard by human beings.
If using Remote treatment from Spooky2, you can use it 7/24 while doing everything else.
With hardware treatment, frequencies go through your body rather than through your ears.
Hardware treatment is much more powerful than listening to audio.
Q: Will the result be permanent?
A: It depends on whether the cause of the disease has been eliminated from your body or from the environment you are living in. Like if you are still exposed to the bacterias, fungus, parasites, etc., which have caused you sick, it is possible you may still pick the diseases later on. So the very important thing is to keep away from the resources.
Q: Can I use it when I am sleeping?
A: Yes, if it does not affect your sleep. Some people find it hard to sleep with sound background. Please listen to this in a silent state, avoiding exercising.
Q: Does it have some side-effects?
A: No, there are no side-effects, except that you may be annoyed by the boring audios.
Q: Are these frequencies from Spooky2 Database?


The Two RV Gypsies went to Lake Wales, Florida and explored Bok Tower Gardens, a National Historic Landmark.
Bok Tower Gardens, through its historic landscape gardens, unique Singing Tower Carillon and magnificent 1930s Mediterranean-style mansion, offers unparalleled opportunities for artistic, cultural, personal and spiritual enrichment.
When Bok Tower Gardens founder Edward W. Bok immigrated to America from Den Helder, Netherlands at age six, he did not understand the language, customs or culture. Through determination and hard work, he became a highly successful publisher, Pulitzer Prize-winning author, respected humanitarian and an advocate of world peace and the environment.
During visits from their Pennsylvania residence to their winter retreat near Lake Wales, Florida, Mr. Bok became enchanted with the beauty and vistas from nearby Iron Mountain. At 298 feet above sea level, one of peninsular Florida's highest points, Iron Mountain offered views of dramatic sunsets. Awed by the tranquility of the area, he wanted to create a place that would "touch the soul with its beauty and quiet," and chose it as the perfect setting for a bird sanctuary. He purchased land to transform into a sweeping landscape of lush gardens featuring a majestic Singing Tower housing a 60-bell carillon. Originally called Mountain Lake Sanctuary and Singing Tower, he presented this extraordinary gift to the American people February 1, 1929 as an enduring token of his appreciation for the opportunities he had been given.
The entry area leading to the visitor center and gift shop at Bok Tower Gardens with fantastic Bromelaids.
The two RV Gypsies got bit by the alligator outside of the gift shop.
The two RV Gypsies walked throughout the grounds of the Bok Tower Gardens on The Pine Ridge Nature Trail, a 3/4 mile paved walk through the native longleaf pine-turkey oak habitat. Their first stop was the "Window by the Pond" - a building where wildlife could be seen through the windows, yet the wildlife could not see inside the building. The pond was beautiful, and they saw lots of squirrels and birds.
The marble Exedra shown below was a gift to Edward Bok from friends.
Below is a close-up photo of the inscription in the above Exedra.
The sunset view shown below inspired Mr. Bok's dream of the Gardens during his visits to Iron Mountain. At the elevation of 298 feet, this is one of the highest points in Peninsular Florida. From this lookout area next to the Exedra, Karen zoomed in on a gopher tortoise.
Just behind the Exedra is an area known as The Reflection Pool, where the two RV Gypsies got their first look at the Bok Tower, plus a fantastic view of a mirror reflection of the Bok Tower, also known as the Singing Tower.
Below is the view as the two RV Gypsies stood on the other side of the above pond, with their backs towards the Singing Tower.
As Karen was taking the photo shown above, Lee yelled out, "there's a squirrel climbing on me." Karen quickly turned around and snapped a few quick photos.
Lee was carrying a bag with his purchase from the gift shop and the squirrel must have thought there was food in the bag.
The Bok Tower, also known as the Singing Tower, is made of pink marble and coquina. The 205-foot tall Singing Tower houses the 60-bell carillon. Sustainer level members and above are eligible to tour the Founder's Room on the grand first floor. Regular visitors are not allowed inside the tower.
The area below is known as the Live Oak Grove. These stately oaks were planted when the Gardens first began. Distant vistas overlook rolling hills of citrus trees.
Lee (shown in the photo above) took the photo shown below of Karen Duquette as she walked towards the Live Oak Grove area.
Below is a view of the Singing Tower as seen from the Life Oak Grove area.
Lee took photos of the Singing Tower using a panorama camera and aiming upwards. The result is a warped or curvature image of the tower.
As Karen walked around the Singing Tower, she noticed the reflection of the tower in the water that surrounds the tower.


text:
Electronic Transmission Control by Frank Owen (last revised 2 August 2008) Introduction
Electronic Transmission Control
by Frank Owen
(last revised 2 August 2008)
Gear shifting is yet another automotive subsystem that has been affected heavily by automotive mechatronics. Prior to the explosion of micro-processor-controlled systems in cars, there was, of course, the automatic transmission. As we shall see, both the manual transmission and the automatic transmission are still in use, as well as yet another transmission that allows the car to change gears without removing the load.
A manual transmission consists of two shafts: an input shaft from the engine and an output shaft that delivers power to the drive wheels (see Figure 1). These two shafts can be coupled together in a number of different ways by gear pairs. Each gear pair represents a different speed reduction ratio. Usually a car has five forward speeds and one reverse speed. When shifting gears, the load on the gear pair must first be removed, so that the transmission is not transmitting any load while the gear change is taking place. This is done with the manual clutch. (See http://auto.howstuffworks.com/transmission.htm for a more detailed explanation of how a manual transmission works.) From a stop the driver applies gas. When the first gear has "wound out", he or she pushes in the clutch while removing gas, then shifts into second gear. Thus the power transmission is interrupted while the gear changing is taking place.
Figure 1 – Simplified model of a manual transmission
An automatic transmission, by contrast, is a set of planetary gears or multiple sets really. By keeping some of these gears stationary and allow others to move, various speed reductions corresponding to the various forward gears can be achieved. There is also a torque converter in the transmission that represents a hydraulic coupling between the engine and the drive wheels. A hydraulic linkage decouples the engine and the drive wheels, so that shifting can take place without damaging mechanical parts. (For a more complete description of the function of a hydraulic automatic transmission, see http://auto.howstuffworks.com/automatic-transmission.htm.) To a driver the gear changing is automatic, that is takes place without his or her direct intervention. But the driver can perceive the discreet gears by feeling the transition and watching the drop in engine speed on the tachometer with each specific gear speed.
Both manual and automatic transmissions are now controlled by automatic shifting systems. With a manual transmission, the action of pushing in a clutch and then moving the gearshift lever are performed by electro-mechanical actuators that make these motions for the driver. Thus the distinction between a manual transmission and an automatic transmission has been blurred, as far as the driver is concerned. He or she just steps on the gas. With electronic control, the direct link between the input (driver) and the output (gear) has been severed. The microprocessor mediates the input and decides what the output should be. The gear shift lever becomes merely an input device for the driver's wishes. The microprocessor senses the car's environment and makes an intelligent decision on what the appropriate gear should be.
In the simplest case, consider a straightforward acceleration from a stop with an automated transmission. By "automated transmission" I mean a transmission under control by a central processor. The microprocessor senses the speed of the car and the speed of the engine. When, for a certain speed, the engine RPM reaches a certain value, the microprocessor sends out commands to actuators to shift the transmission into the next gear. If the car has an automated manual transmission (AMT), i.e. a transmission with an automated clutch and gear shift, the microprocessor sends out commands to actuators to
actuate the clutch
reduce the throttle to idle
shift gears
add throttle
let out the clutch
Of course the commands would be slightly different with an automatic transmission because the transmission itself is different. But the shifting strategy, at what engine RPMs to shift gears, would be the same because a given engine has a given performance curve.
Regarding the AMT, the shifting sequence can be optimized so that the unloading, shifting, reloading is made as smooth as possible. Thus programming and the control by an automated system would allow someone who doesn't know how to drive a stick shift to drive one like an expert. A slightly more complicated shifting strategy allows the shifting points to change. For example, when you are driving a manual transmission and you want to accelerate quickly, you usually stay in any given gear longer before shifting up to the next highest gear. A microprocessor can be programmed to sense this wish to accelerate quickly and then to delay the normal shifting points until the car reaches respectively higher speeds. A wish for a leisurely acceleration could also be sensed and early up-shifting implemented.
Besides these operation advantages, the mediation of the microprocessor also allows for the correction of driver errors, for example accidentally shifting into reverse or shifting the transmission into an inappropriately low gear when the car has too high a speed. Thus, again, the insertion of a microprocessor into the system allows for convenience, flexibility, and safety not found in a non-automated transmission.
In a fully automated vehicle, the transmission control can be integrated with the electronic engine control and indeed with the overall electronic management of a fully mechatronic automobile. Transmissions must work closely, for example, with the ABS system and the ESP (electronic stability control) systems in modern mechatronic cars.
To bring home the point that the transmission has become a programmable unit, consider Figure 2. This shows a gearshift. What is obviously missing is the transmission. This is possible because the gearshift lever is simply a wish input device in today's mechatronic auto. Note that activating the gearshift lever simply generates electronic signals that are then interpreted by the car's central control system.
Figure 2 - Today's mechatronic gearshift
Note also that this device is manufactured not by BMW, Audi, Mercedes, but rather by a third-party manufacturer. These third party developers and manufactures work very closely with the large auto manufacturers to produce almost everything in the car except the body and the engine.
Additionally this company, Kostal, produces a steering column module, a roof module, a network control unit, a door control unit, a seat control unit, and control panels and switches. Note that more than one manufacturer may use Kostal products in their cars.
My wife recently purchased a Smart Passion. This is a little two-seat, economical car, popular in Europe and now being imported into the U.S. (see Figure 3). The car has an automated manual transmission. It has a manual stickshift but no clutch. It has two shifting modes—manual and automatic. In manual mode, the driver decides when to shift and inputs this wish by deflecting the gearshift lever forward (up-shift) or backward (downshift). In automatic mode, the driver puts the transmission into "D" and simply drives, as if the transmission were an automatic, instead of an automated manual transmission.
Figure 3 – Smart car
At first the shifting was a little hard to get used to. Actually the transmission control did a pretty good job of shifting into the next gear. But, being used to an automatic transmission, the shifting seemed slow. But when the driver thought of what it would be like to operate the shifting manually, the sluggish shifting actually wasn't sluggish but was comparable with how the shifting would be if done manually.
So at first both my wife and I used the manual shifting, because of the perceived clumsiness and slowness of the automated shifting. After further reading of the owner's manual, however, my wife saw that the automated shifting was optimized for economy. So she switched to "D" and got used to the automated shifting.
One other problem we had was that in "D", when the car was shifting, we each naturally let off on the gas pedal. She read further and informed me that we are not supposed to do that. This can be confusing to the micro-controller. It could be interpreted as a desire to stop accelerating. So the proper procedure is simply to express the desire to accelerate as a steady position of the accelerator pedal (i.e. don't let off on the pedal while the car is shifting). With these adaptations, we are becoming acclimated to an automated car.
Different Types of Transmissions
Manual transmissions are still very common in Europe. Today they have five, now often six, and sometimes even seven forward gears. Manual transmissions have the highest drive efficiency because the engine is mechanically linked to the drive wheels. There is no inefficiency due to the hydraulic link in a hydraulic automatic transmission. Manual transmissions are not as comfortable to the passengers in the car. Ride comfort is a weakness.
The automated manual transmission (AMT), manual transmissions under the control of a microprocessor have been introduced in the last few years into such cars as the Opel Corsa, the Ford Fiesta, and the Smart. They are also used in some sporty models such as the BMW M3 & M5 and the Ferrari. The automatic control of the manual transmission compensates somewhat for ride comfort. The controller also prevents shifting mistakes. In stop and go traffic, with automatic control the transmission will be in the correct gear more often than it would be under manual control. Thus the automatic control also leads to better fuel efficiency and thus reduced emissions output.
Large trucks often have 12 to 16 gears. It is very complicated to shift these trucks manually. So automated shifting has been applied in such vehicles for some time now.
At first the AMT was built as an add-on. A normal manual transmission was simply fitted with actuators to actuate the clutch and the gear shift. Since then manual transmissions have been redesigned with integral actuators. This led to room and weight savings.
Automatic transmissions are oil driven. Early on, however, these transmission were outfitted with governing electronics. For example electrical components were employed to manage the bypass clutch, a device that locks the transmission mechanically once the car has reached highway speeds. Thus for long-distance trips at highway speeds, the internal hydraulic losses of the transmission are avoided.
The double clutch transmission is a relatively new development (see Figure 4). This transmission was developed by Volkswagen in 2003. It has a single input shaft and two output shafts. The output shafts have respectively gears 1, 3, and 5 and gears 2, 4, and 6. This enables the load to be transferred from one output shaft to the other gradually. Thus the gears may be shifted without removing the load. So, for example, in shifting from first into second gear, the load is gradually removed from first gear while it is being gradually applied to the second gear.
Figure 4 – Double clutch transmission system from Volkswagen
Besides just gear shifting, other systems—specifically all-wheel-drive and hybrid drives—have benefited from electronic control. In the latter, the wheels are driven either by electric motors or by the engine. It would be hard to imagine the manual management of a hybrid drive.
Basic Shifting Strategy
Figure 5 shows a typical shifting characteristic curve. Note that this curve is plotted on a scale of accelerator pedal position vs. car speed. As is normal in a microprocessor-mediated system, the gas pedal is simply a wish-input device. So the accelerator pedal simply is telling the central microprocessor in the car how fast the driver wants to accelerate.
Figure 5 – Shifting characteristic curve
Note that the characteristic consists of two curves, one for shifting up and one for shifting down. The "hysteresis" is built into the design of the shifting strategy to prevent constant shifting up and down if a driver happens to be driving near a shifting point. Rückschaltung means downshift and Hochschaltung means up-shift. The best way to understand these two curves is to consider simple examples first. So let's see what happens from the AP, the Arbeitspunkt or just simply a typical operating point.
As a first case, consider the situation where the driver does not change the accelerator pedal position. So the shifting state stays on a horizontal line. If he/she encounters a hill, the speed of the car will drop off. Eventually point A will be reached on the Rückschaltung curve, so the car will downshift. If, on the other hand, the car starts to go downhill, point C will be reached and the transmission will shift into a higher gear.
Now consider a vertical movement on this shifting characteristic. This would be a sudden change in the driver's wish without a change in speed. For example, if the driver wanted to pass a vehicle suddenly, he/she would step on the gas pedal and reach point B. The car would downshift to achieve quick acceleration. On the other hand, if the driver suddenly lets up on the gas pedal, point D will be reached, and the car will up-shift to reduce engine RPMs for less engine braking and more economical operation.
Of course there is such a pair of curves for each gear change. And since the shifting strategy is electronically controlled, these shifting characteristics can be postponed (pushed to the right on the speed axis) for sportier operation or shifted to the left for more economical/environmentally friendly operation.
As previously mentioned, in a fully mechatronic car the shifting control does not happen in isolation. The electronic control of the transmission needs to be aware of other electronically controlled systems and interact with them. At the same time, the shifting strategy of a manufacturer is unique and is separate from the actual hardware that constitutes the transmission. The strategy for managing this complexity is to adopt a layered approach. This scheme is illustrated in Figure 6.
Figure 6 - Overview of transmission control
Driving Strategy – The most abstract function is the driving strategy. This incorporates the shifting characteristic curve previously discussed. Note that there are 2(n-1) such curves, n being the number of gears, since one cannot up-shift from the highest gear nor downshift from first. Thus the normal five-speed transmission has eight such curves.
These curves can be modified for
Eco-friendly driving – early up-shifting, later downshifting
Sport – the opposite of eco-friendly, late up-shift, early downshift
Normal – between 1 and 2
Loaded shifting – going uphill or carrying a trailer, late up-shifting, late downshifting (to avoid flip-flopping gears)
Unloaded shifting – going downhill, late up-shift, early downshift (to use the engine as a brake)
Special – winter (cold engine, heat catalytic converter)
Note that since these driving strategies are programmed, they are selectable. I.e. the same car can behave differently simply by choosing a different driving strategy from a menu.
So, in general the scheme for selecting the gear can be characterized as shown in Figure 7
Figure 7 - Gear selection strategy
But this simplified scheme is not optimal for all driving situations. For example, if the drive wheels slip, it looks to the sensor as if the car is going faster. You wouldn't want to up-shift in this case. Also in a curve it may not be wise to up-shift or downshift. Also there is the "fast-off" response, where a driver quickly moves his/her foot off the gas pedal because of a perceived obstacle ahead. A delayed shifting response to such an immediate return of the gas pedal to the null position can be implemented.
Driving strategies vary from manufacturer to manufacturer. Each manufacturer does lots of tests under all kinds of conditions and situations and then incorporates the developed strategies into their shifting control. In fact this can be considered proprietary information, part of what makes a BMW and BMW. The developed software embodies a driving strategy worked out painstakingly and with the outlay of a great deal of money and effort by a manufacturer.
It is worth noting also that Fuzzy Logic control is now being implemented for assessing driving situations and producing responses thereto. It is also worth noting that since driving strategies eventually wind up expresses as software, it is theoretically possible that 1) third-party developers could come up with their own strategies for improving driving strategies and then implement them on various manufacturers' automobiles and 2) improved driving strategies could be developed which could be up-loaded into a car's control system after its date of manufacturer. So as an owner, you could be faced with being able to actually improve the performance of your car with as little as a software upgrade. The mechatronic car is becoming more and more like a computer.
Driving Functions – One big purpose of this layer between Driving Strategy and Transmission Control is to separate them, so that a manufacturer's driving strategy can be implemented on more than one type of car and transmission. For example, a manufacturer could have both an automatic transmission and an automated manual transmission, yet the driving strategy is the same for this manufacturer, regardless of the type of transmission.
At this second level, there are subfunctions that are important. For example, starting, stopping, how to implement shifting, dealing with the slip of couplings, gathering the overall state of the transmission (not low-level stuff but a layer above this), how to deal with the engine torque during shifting, evaluating gas and brake pedal positions, implementing characteristic engine performance. Also at this stage one finds the management of the lower level, a function call set to interface with all the servo-valves and solenoid actuators in the transmission. With the double-clutch transmission, it is at this level that the transfer of torque steady from one output shaft to the other takes place.
Lower Level Functions – This level interfaces with the actual actuators and sensors in the transmission. For example, to transfer into a certain gear, it may mean applying an increasing and controlled pressure to a coupling. This pressure is supplied by a hydraulic servo valve. The pressure would be governed by a current to a valve. So the control loop would appear as shown in Fugure 8.
Figure 8 - Servo valve controlling pressure in an automated transmission
There may be an adaptation to this because of hysteresis in the servo valve, wear in the system, aging, change in operation of the system as fluid warms up, change due to altering fluid properties over time (fluid gets dirty, burnt), etc.


One of the most exciting and life-changing programs we offer at VBJI is our new 10-week Restoration Jail Program. Over the last year, we have seen woman after woman -- many of whom were booked for prostitution - self-identify as trafficking victims. We are overjoyed to be able to provide not only a starting place but help and advocacy resources for a fresh start for these women after their release.
If you are interested in bringing our program to your facility or would like to become a Program Facilitator, please contact us.
This project is financially assisted by a generous grant from the Virginia Law Foundation. The Virginia Law Foundation promotes through philanthropy the rule of law, access to justice and law-related education.