text:
discretefit
The package discretefit implements Monte Carlo simulations for goodness-of-fit (GOF) tests for discrete distributions. This includes tests based on the root-mean-square statistic, the Chi-squared statistic, the log-likelihood-ratio (G2) statistic, the Freeman-Tukey (Hellinger-distance) statistic, the Kolmogorov-Smirnov statistic, and the Cramer-von Mises statistic.
Simulations are written in C++ (utilizing Rcpp) and are considerably faster than the simulated Chi-squared GOF test in the R stats package.
You can install discretefit from CRAN.
install.packages("discretefit")
You can also install the development version from GitHub:
devtools::install_github("josh-mc/discretefit")
The GOF tests in discretefit function on a vector of counts, x, and a vector of probabilities, p. In the below example, x represents a vector of counts for five categories, and p represents a vector of probabilities for each corresponding category. The GOF tests provides p-values for the null hypothesis that x is a random sample of the discrete distribution defined by p.
library(discretefit)
library(bench)
x <- c(42, 0, 13, 2, 109)
p <- c(0.2, 0.05, 0.1, 0.05, 0.6)
chisq_gof(x, p)
#>
#>  Simulated Chi-squared goodness-of-fit test
#> data:  x
#> Chi-squared = 17.082, p-value = 0.0021
rms_gof(x, p)
#>  Simulated root-mean-square goodness-of-fit test
#> RMS = 1.731, p-value = 0.0386
g_gof(x, p)
#>  Simulated log-likelihood-ratio goodness-of-fit test
#> G2 = 27.362, p-value = 9.999e-05
ft_gof(x, p)
#>  Simulated Freeman-Tukey goodness-of-fit test
#> FT = 45.599, p-value = 9.999e-05
ks_gof(x, p)
#>  Simulated Kolmogorov-Smirnov goodness-of-fit test
#> KS = 0.056627, p-value = 0.2377
cvm_gof(x, p)
#>  Simulated Cramer-von Mises goodness-of-fit test
#> W2 = 0.12578, p-value = 0.185
Root-mean-square statistic
In a surprising number of cases, a simulated GOF test based on the root-mean-square statistic outperforms the Chi-squared test and other tests in the Cressie-Read power divergence family. This has been demonstrated by Perkins, Tygert, and Ward (2011). They provide the following toy example.
Take a discrete distribution with 50 bins (or categories). The probability for the first and second bin is 0.25. The probability for each of the remaining 48 bins is 0.5 / 48 (~0.0104).
Now take the observed counts of 15 for the first bin, 5 for the second bin, and zero for each of the remaining 48 bins. It's obvious that these observations are very unlikely to occur for a random sample from the above distribution. However, the Chi-squared, G2, and Freeman-Tukey tests fail to reject the null hypothesis.
x <- c(15, 5, rep(0, 48))
p <- c(0.25, 0.25, rep(1/(2 * 50 -4), 48))
#> Chi-squared = 30, p-value = 0.9683
#> G2 = 32.958, p-value = 0.662
#> FT = 50.718, p-value = 0.1374
By contrast, the root-mean-square test convincingly rejects the null hypothesis.
#> RMS = 5.1042, p-value = 9.999e-05
For additional examples, see Perkins, Tygert, and Ward (2011) and Ward and Carroll (2014).
The simulated Chi-squared GOF test in discretefit produces identical p-values to the simulated Chi-squared GOF test in the stats package that is part of base R.
chisq_gof(x, p, reps = 2000)$p.value
#> [1] 0.9685157
chisq.test(x, p = p, simulate.p.value = TRUE)$p.value
However, because Monte Carlo simulations in discretefit are implemented in C++, chisq_gof is much faster than chisq.test, especially when a large number of simulations are required.
bench::system_time(
chisq_gof(x, p, reps = 20000)
#> process    real
#>   766ms   875ms
chisq.test(x, p = p, simulate.p.value = TRUE, B = 20000)
#>   2.31s   2.85s
Additionally, the simulated GOF tests in base R is vectorized, so for large vectors attempting a large number of simulations may not be possible because of memory constraints. Since the functions in discretefit are not vectorized, memory use is minimized.
Several other packages implement GOF tests for discrete distributions.
As noted above, the stats package in base R implements a simulated Chi-squared GOF test.
I'm not aware of an R package that implements a simulated G2 GOF test but the packages RVAideMemoire and DescTools implement GOF tests that utilize approximations based on the Chi-squared distribution.
The dgof package (Anderson and Emerson 2011) implements simulated Kolmogorov-Smirnov GOF tests and simulated Cramer-von Mises GOF tests . The cvmdisc package also implements a simulated Cramer-von Mises GOF test.
The KSgeneral package (Dimitrova, Kaishev, and Tan, 2020) implements exact Kolmogorov-Smirnov GOF tests and fast, simulated GOF tests utilizing the algorithm introduced by Wood and Altavela (1978) which depends on asymptotic properties.
I'm not aware of another R package that implements a root-mean-square GOF test.
Arnold, Taylor B. and John W. Emerson. "Nonparametric goodness-of-fit tests for discrete null distributions." R Journal. https://doi.org/10.32614/rj-2011-016
Dimitrova, Dimitrina S., Vladimir K. Kaishev, and Senren Tan. "Computing the Kolmogorov-Smirnov distribution when the underlying CDF is purely discrete, mixed, or continuous." Journal of Statistical Software, 2020. https://doi.org/10.18637/jss.v095.i10
Eddelbuettel, Dirk and Romain Francois. "Rcpp: Seamless R and C++ Integration." Journal of Statistical Software, 2011. https://www.jstatsoft.org/article/view/v040i08
Perkins, William, Mark Tygert, and Rachel Ward. "Computing the confidence levels for a root-mean-square test of goodness-of-fit." Applied Mathematics and Computation, 2011. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amc.2011.03.124
Ward, Rachel and Raymond J. Carroll. "Testing Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium with a simple root-mean-square statistic." Biostatistics, 2014. https://doi.org/10.1093/biostatistics/kxt028
Wood, Constance L., and Michele M. Altavela. "Large-Sample Results for Kolmogorov–Smirnov Statistics for Discrete Distributions." Biometrika, 1978. https://doi.org/10.1093/biomet/65.1.235


The Grizzlies start the season as the back-to-back state champ, riding a 19-game winning streak and with a target on their back.
That's nothing new for the perennial power, which has played in 11 of the past 12 3A state championship games. What is new is looking up at a conference foe in the preseason coaches' poll.
Coaches from the Snake River Valley dubbed Homedale as the team to beat in their conference. The Trojans return 10 starters on offense and eight on defense from last year's state quarterfinalist. Carson Brown, a second-team All-Idaho receiver and defensive back, leads the way with junior quarterback Daniel Uranga also returning.
"We have a great core group of athletes," Homedale coach Matt Holtry said.
Graduation robbed Fruitland of the 3A player of the year (Jordan Eggers) and four other players who made the All-Idaho first team. But the cupboard isn't totally bare with six starters back on both sides of the ball.
Headlining that group is senior Jonathon Fagen, a national Greco-Roman wrestling champ and first-team All-Idaho offensive lineman and linebacker. He'll move into the backfield, where he joins senior quarterback Cole Eiguren, who begins the season with 25 varsity starts under his belt.
Three straight state titles remains a tough hill to climb. Only four programs have ever won three or more consecutive football state titles according to records from the Idaho High School Activities Association — Mackay (six, 1996-01), Snake River (five, 1998-02), Madison (three, 1982-94) and Bishop Kelly (three, 2013-15).
Fruitland should have a handle on its chances by the end of September after home games against Gooding (Sept. 7) and Homedale (Sept. 21).
Can Tom Harrison build Weiser into a powerhouse?
Weiser made a splash in the offseason by hiring Tom Harrison, winner of an Idaho-record 10 state football titles, as its next coach.
Harrison molded Pocatello, Snake River and Raft River into perennial state juggernauts, winning a championship at each stop. He racked up the tally at Snake River, where the Panthers had winning streaks of 54 and 34 games under Harrison, taking home seven of eight state championships from 1995 to 2002.
Harrison's first task in Weiser is to replace six offensive starters. But he can rely on a dynamic backfield duo in senior quarterback Brody vonBrethorst and senior running back Braden Bumgarner, who ran for more than 1,000 yards last year to get a spot on the all-conference first team.
The Wolverines have a long way to go to climb to the back of the Snake River Valley. But Harrison has proven he can build a champion given time.
Idaho's small high schools have long punched above their weigh, producing big-time talent from Korey Hall (Glenns Ferry) to Matt Paradis (Council) to Shea McClellin (Marsing) to Leighton Vander Esch (Salmon River).
The next in line: Declo senior Keegan Duncan, a three-star recruit who committed to Boise State in June.
Duncan put up numbers even a video game couldn't produce last season, running for 2,843 yards and 29 TDs. He added nine more TDs on special teams before opponents wised up and stopped kicking to him. All told, he finished his junior season with 3,795 all-purpose yards, 42 TDs and a 2A state title.
No one is mentioning is an NFL future from the 6-3, 215-pound running back just yet. But he's in line to make an impact at the college level.
Can't see the above coaches' polls on your phone? Click here for the full version.
Idaho is dipping its toe into a new future this fall, one with its state playoff brackets seeded by computer rankings instead of one drawn before the season.
The 2A playoffs will use a modified version of the Ratings Percentage Index (RPI), a ranking popularized by college basketball. Idaho's version weighs a team's record (30 percent), its opponents' record (40 percent) and its opponents' opponents' record (30 percent) to come up with a single score. It also has modifiers for teams playing up a classification, following Colorado's model.
The 16-team bracket would still award 13 automatic berths by conference standings. The final three would go to the next highest teams in the RPI.
To limit travel costs, a committee will draw matchups for the first round of the playoffs. The quarterfinals are then seeded by the regular-season RPI (No. 1 vs. No.8, No. 2 vs. No. 7, etc.) regardless of travel or previous matchups.
The change comes as Idaho's predrawn brackets consistently let teams with poor records into the playoffs. Last season, Wendell (0-7) and Soda Springs (1-7) made the 2A playoffs while Ririe (5-3) did not.
Teams can see their RPI after the first week of the season on the IHSAA's website, Richins said. It will include rankings for all classifications, but only 2A matters this fall.
You can learn more details about the plan here.
Put McCall-Donnelly, Cole Valley Christian and New Plymouth in a hat and pull out the winner. That's just as effective as any other preseason prediction.
The three teams finished jumbled atop the conference's coaches poll with McCall-Donnelly taking the nominal top spot. The Vandals have won a share of the conference title the past two years under Lee Leslie. They'll remain a defensive force with nine returning starters, and first-team all-conference receiver Stockton Raines leads the offense.
Cole Valley owns the league's most speed with members of last spring's state championship 4x100-, 4x200- and 4x400-relay teams on the roster. Both junior running back Obi Gee and senior quarterback Roman Conder can take any play the distance.
New Plymouth remains the league's physical, grind-it-out team on the ground after reaching the state semifinals. Nick Woods, a 6-4, 290-pound, second-team all-state selection, is an intimidating force on both sides of the ball. He'll pave the way for a power-run game led by senior Seth Mowder.
The 1A Division I Western Idaho Conference has struggled in the postseason, winning two playoff games in the past 10 years. But after falling in the first round last year, defending league champ Wilder might have the pieces to make an underdog run.
The Wildcats only lost two starters from last season and field 11 seniors, including Benji Escutia, a reigning first-team all-conference running back and safety. Junior quarterback Pablo Martinez has a bounty of weapons to work with, which could lead to a breakout season.
Tri-Valley upset the league's longtime pecking order last year, going on an undefeated run until it fell in the program's first state championship game. But with the Titans graduating 13 seniors, the conference race breaks wide open again.
Salmon River enters the season as the favorite. Two-time, first-team All-Idaho running back Canyon Harper (2,192 rushing yards, 26 TDs in 2017) helped lead Salmon River to state titles as a freshman and sophomore. He's one of six returning offensive starters looking to add another.
Garden Valley fell just behind Salmon River in the coaches' poll. Second-team All-Idaho quarterback Darell Peppers graduated, but sophomore Covy Kelly is ready to step in to lead the Wolverines' West Coast offense.
Tri-Valley also remains a threat. First-team All-Idaho linebacker Orion Southwick and four-year starting quarterback Jayden Mink are out to prove the Titans weren't a flash in the pan.


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Home Entertainment 65th Primetime Emmy Awards – Show
65th Primetime Emmy Awards – Show
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Elton John performs "Home Again" on stage at the 65th Primetime Emmy Awards at Nokia Theatre
Photo by Vince Bucci/Invision for Academy of Television Arts & Sciences/AP Images
Allison Holker, Derek Hough, Sonya Tayeh, Napoeon Dumo, Neil Patrick Harris, Tabitha Dumo, Travis Wall, and Mandy Moore appear on stage at the 65th Primetime Emmy Awards at Nokia Theatre
Anna Gunn accepts the award for outstanding supporting actress in a drama series for her role on "Breaking Bad" at the 65th Primetime Emmy Awards at Nokia Theatre
Carrie Underwood performs "Yesterday" at the 65th Primetime Emmy Awards at Nokia Theatre
Photo by Phil McCarten/Invision for Academy of Television Arts & Sciences/AP Images
Bryan Cranston and Claire Danes speak onstage at the 65th Primetime Emmy Awards at Nokia Theatre
Stephen Colbert, center, and the cast and crew of "The Colbert Report" accept the award for outstanding writing for a variety series at the 65th Primetime Emmy Awards at Nokia Theatre
Clair Danes accepts the award for outstanding lead actress in a drama series for her role on "Homeland" at the 65th Primetime Emmy Awards at Nokia Theatre
Jim Parsons accepts the award for outstanding lead actor in a comedy series for his role on "The Big Bang Theory" at the 65th Primetime Emmy Awards at Nokia Theatre
Derek Hough accepts the award for outstanding choreography for his work on "Dancing with the Stars"at the 65th Primetime Emmy Awards at Nokia Theatre
Neil Patrick Harris performs onstage at the 65th Primetime Emmy Awards at Nokia Theatre
Matt Damon and Michael Douglas present the award for outstanding lead actress in a miniseries or movie at the 65th Primetime Emmy Awards at Nokia Theatre
Tony Hale accepts the award for outstanding supporting actor in a comedy series for his role on "Veep" on stage at the 65th Primetime Emmy Awards at Nokia Theatre
Academy of Television Arts and Sciences
www.emmys.com
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Nokia Theater
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Phil Collins & Orianne Collins Mejjati's Little Dreams Foundation

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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European regulations. Can be tinted to a range of trans-oxide colours. Clean up with water.
information. Will watermark over time if not protected.


text:
Der seltene Rotstielige oder Rote Reif-Täubling (Russula lilacea) ist ein Pilz aus der Familie der Täublingsverwandten. Der kleine, zerbrechliche Täubling hat einen lila-violetten bis fleischroten Hut und weiße Lamellen. Sein Fleisch schmeckt mild und sein Sporenpulver ist weiß. Der seltene Täubling kommt in Laubwäldern bei verschiedenen Laubbäumen vor. Seine Fruchtkörper erscheinen von Ende Juni bis September.

Merkmale

Makroskopische Merkmale
Der Hut ist 3–5 cm breit, in Ausnahmefällen auch bis zu 7 cm breit. Er ist mürbe, trüb fleischfarben bis lila oder rötlich braun, in der Mitte blasst er oft bräunlich-gelb oder gelblich aus. Bisweilen hat er auch eine kupferfarbene Tönung oder der Hut bleicht in seltenen Fällen auch oliv bis grünlich aus. Der Rand ist leicht radial gefurcht und matt körnig. Die Huthaut wird bei feuchter Witterung schmierig, trocken ist sie matt-körnig, fast samtartig und weit abziehbar.

Die Lamellen sind weiß oder cremefarben und stehen  nicht sehr gedrängt. Das Sporenpulver ist weißlich (Ia-Ib nach Romagnesi).

Der Stiel ist 4–6 cm lang und 0,7–1 cm breit, er ist weich, zerbrechlich und leicht einzudrücken. Der Stiel ist entweder weiß oder rosa überlaufen, bisweilen ist auch nur die Basis rosa bis rhabarberrot angehaucht. Junge Fruchtkörper haben meist mehlig bereifte Stiele, die unter der Lupe auch flockig wabig aussehen können. Das Fleisch ist weiß bis gelblich und schmeckt mild. Es ist ohne besonderen Geruch oder Geschmack.

Die Guajakreaktion ist langsam, das Fleisch verfärbt sich dabei bläulich grün. Mit Eisensulfat verfärbt sich das Fleisch blass rosa. Die Reaktion mit Sulfovanillin ist undeutlich oder negativ.

Mikroskopische Merkmale
Sporen breit ellipsoidisch 7-8x6-7 µm mit isolierten, stacheligen Warzen mit nur wenigen strichförmigen Verbindungen. Die Basidien sind 32–48 µm breit und 8,5–13 µm breit und haben 4 Sterigmen. Die Pleurozystiden sind 50–60 µm lang und 6,7–10 µm breit, dünnwandig (< 2 µm) und färben sich mit Sulfovanillin nur schwach an. Die Spitze ist meist gerundet. Huthaut mit langen 4-6 µm breiten, groß inkrustierten Primordialhyphen. Vakuolenpigmente sind vorhanden, aber keine Membranpigmente.

Ökologie
Wie alle Täublinge ist der Rotstielige Reif-Täubling ein Mykorrhizapilz, der mit verschiedenen Laubbäumen eine Partnerschaft eingehen kann. Als Wirte kommen Eichen und Rotbuchen, aber auch Hainbuchen und Haselnuss in Frage. In Nachbarländern geht der Täubling auch eine Symbiose mit Ahorn, Esche und Linde ein.
Er ist in erster Linie eine Art schattiger Rotbuchen, Hainbuchen- und Eichenmischwälder, findet sich aber auch an Waldwegen, Lichtungen und in Parkanlagen. Der Pilz mag frische bis mäßig feuchte, neutrale bis alkalische, teils oberflächliche versauerte, sandig-lehmige oder tonige, verdichtete und schlecht durchlüftete Böden, wie Braunlehm-Rendzinen, Terra fusca, Pelosolen, Braun- und Parabraunerden über Kalk, Mergel und basenreichem Urgestein.
Die Fruchtkörper erscheinen von Ende Juli bis September und nur selten früher. Der Täubling kommt bevorzugt im Hügel und im unteren Bergland vor.

Verbreitung

Der Rote Reif-Täubling ist eine holarktische Art, deren Verbreitungsgebiet sich über drei Klimazonen erstreckt, von der meridionale Zone mit mediterrane Klima bis zur boreale Zone mit dem kalt gemäßigten Klima der nördlichen Nadelwälder. Der Täubling kommt in Nordasien (Kaukasus, Russland-Fernost, Korea, Japan), in Nordafrika (Marokko und Algerien), Nordamerika (USA) und in Europa vor.

In Deutschland ist der Pilz im Tiefland sehr selten und fehlt weithin. Im Hügelland und im unteren Bergland ist er sehr zerstreut anzutreffen. In der Roten Liste ist er in der Gefährdungskategorie RL2 aufgeführt.

Systematik

Infragenerische Systematik

Der Rote Reif-Täubling wird in die Subsektion Lilaceinae innerhalb der Sektion Lilaceae eingeordnet. Die Subsektion enthält kleine, zerbrechliche Arten, mit verschiedenfarbenen Hüten. Sie schmecken mild und haben weißes Sporenpulver.

Unterarten und Varietäten

Literatur
 Russula lilacea.  In: H. Romagnesi: Les Russules d'Europe et d'Afrique du Nord. 1967 unter cbs.knaw.nl (französisch)

Einzelnachweise

Weblinks

 Sporenzeichnung von Russula liliacea, Russula liliacea var. carnicolor und Russula liliacea var. retispora  nach Romagnesi, (1967), unter www.cbs.knaw.nl
 Synonyme des Russula lilacea unter www.speciesfungorum.org
 Foto(s) von Russula lilacea unter Russulales News
 Foto von Russula lilacea und Russula lilacea var. carnicolor unter www.francini-mycologie.fr

Täublinge
Speisepilzart

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


We were transported from Nido (which was not neat-o) to QMUL today to begin orientation here. The past couple of days we had IES Abroad orientation and were staying at Nido, an international student dormitory where the rooms are stuffy, the showers are luke warm, and there were no shampoo or towels provided. One would think they'd have sort of a 'getting started' setup so wary travelers (like myself, though date of last travel is unimportant) can arrive, check in, and head to their rooms without worrying about toiletries. IES Abroad did purchase some sort of a 'welcome pack' for their students at QMUL, so I arrived and already had sheets and a blanket (which is the exact width of my bed), a towel set, and mini-toiletries much like you'd get at a hotel. What this welcome pack did NOT provide, however, is toilet paper. I'd much rather have had that than a 2-use shampoo setup! I think all Fresher's and international students got a freshers pack, with little snacks and a book full of lovely coupons for clothes, food, food delivery, everything!
I waited in a big long line to get enrolled today. Something that didn't happen at enrollment: actually registering for classes. When does this happen? Monday, September 16th, two days before classes are supposed to start. Is that all? No, of course not. I'm not even sure if I'm for sure in those classes for the next couple of weeks anyway because timetables are subject to change. Oh, the English system. One perk I wasn't expecting for today though, there was a "Nearly New" sale on campus with (I'm guessing) things people had left behind previous years, so I got a pot & cover, pan, spatula, 2 full sets of silverware, a mug, a cup, two plates, two bowls, and a laundry drying rack all for £9. Definitely cheaper than brand new and I won't feel bad about leaving them behind! I did have to buy hangers brand new though, I'm sure those sold out at the NN sale right away. Now I've got to head shopping for some toilet paper, groceries, storage stuff, and (price depending) different bedding. I feel like I'm sleeping in a cheap dress shirt–except it's the whole bed!
This entry was posted in England and tagged IES abroad, London, QMUL, Study Abroad, Uni Life. Bookmark the permalink.
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text:
Q: Associate User Control with ViewModel class When I define a DataTemplate inline, Visual Studio knows about the type I'm binding to, and properties in that type come up in autocomplete (for example in the code below I was able to select DisplayName from the autocomplete list inside the FirstViewModel template).
<DataTemplate DataType="{x:Type viewmodels:FirstViewModel}">
    <StackPanel >
        <Label Content="{Binding DisplayName}"/>
    </StackPanel>
</DataTemplate>

<DataTemplate DataType="{x:Type viewmodels:SecondViewModel}">
    <views:SecondView/>
</DataTemplate>

However, when the data template references an external control, as for SecondViewModel in the code above, when I'm in the file for the SecondView usercontrol, since it's just a control, the type isn't bound and the editor doesn't help me with anything.
I've tried wrapping my whole control (inside the UserControl element) in the same DataTemplate tag, but then my whole view just shows "System.Windows.DataTemplate".
<UserControl x:Class="Gui.Views.Tabs.ExamsTabViews.ExamInfoView"
             xmlns:vm="clr-namespace:Gui.ViewModels"
             mc:Ignorable="d"
             d:DesignHeight="450" d:DesignWidth="800">

    <DataTemplate DataType="vm:ExamInfoViewModel">
        <DockPanel VerticalAlignment="Stretch" HorizontalAlignment="Stretch">

            <!-- contents of the template -->

        </DockPanel>
    </DataTemplate>
</UserControl>

Is there a way to achieve this kind of binding for the editor?

A: <DataTemplate DataType="{x:Type viewmodels:SecondViewModel}">
    <views:SecondView/>
</DataTemplate>

when this DataTemplate is instantiated, there will be created SecondView and that SecondView will have a SecondViewModel in DataContext. So there is no need any DataTemplate in SecondViewModel control - bind to DataContext instead ({Binding SecondViewModelProperty}). To have design-time support for such binding use d:DataContext="{d:DesignInstance}:
<UserControl d:DataContext="{d:DesignInstance Type=vm:ExamInfoViewModel,
                             IsDesignTimeCreatable=True}" ...>

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text:
Lucèria () va ser una antiga ciutat de la Pulla a l'interior, a uns 18 km d'Arpi i 15 de Aecae (Troia). Els antic l'esmenten com a ciutat dels daunis i la tradició que transmeten els grecs és que la va fundar l'heroi  Diomedes juntament amb Arpi i Canusium, i com a prova s'argumentava que l'antiga estàtua de Minerva que hi havia al temple de la ciutat era en realitat el Pal·ladi que l'heroi havia portat de Troia, segons diuen Estrabó i Plini el Vell. Però probablement era una ciutat dels oscs, de la branca osca dels apulis, i no pas dels daunis.

Res es coneix de la història de la ciutat abans de la segona guerra samnita quant va fer aliança amb Roma junt amb altres ciutat dels apulis l'any 326 aC i després no es va voler aliar amb els samnites com altres ciutats. Els samnites la van assetjar i quan els romans anaven en la seva ajuda van patir el desastre de la Batalla de les Forques Caudines. Després de la derrota romana, Lucèria va passar als samnites, i pel tractat de Caudium, entre romans i samnites, la ciutat va rebre els hostatges que Roma es va veure obligada a lliurar. L'any 320 aC Luci Papiri Cursor Mugil·là va assetjar la ciutat que va oferir una resistència ferotge, fins que va ser recuperada pels romans després de derrotar els 7000 samnites de guarnició, obtenint un gran botí i recuperant els ostatges deixats en el temps de les Forques Caudines. Diodor de Sicília diu que era la ciutat més important de la Pulla. L'any 314 aC els samnites la van ocupar breument però els romans la van recuperar matant a gran part dels seus habitants i hi van establir una colònia de 2500 homes amb dret llatí.

El 294 aC els samnites la van assetjar però el cònsol Marc Atili Règul va anar en socors i segons uns va derrotar els atacants i segons altres va ser derrotat i es va refugiar a la ciutat amb les restes de l'exèrcit. En parla Titus Livi, que dona les dues versions.

A la Segona Guerra Púnica va ser una de les principals bases dels romans i quarter d'hivern de les tropes romanes durant successives campanyes, per la seva bona situació estratègica sobre la Pulla. Encara que va patir molt durant la guerra, va ser una de les 18 colònies llatines que l'any 209 aC va oferir seguir contribuint a les despeses de guerra en diners i homes, i per això va rebre l'agraïment del senat romà per la seva fidelitat.

Després no se'n parla gaire, però era encara una ciutat important, segons diu Ciceró. A la Segona Guerra Civil romana entre Juli Cèsar i Pompeu Magne va ser partidària del darrer que la va convertir en el seu quarter general fins que el va traslladar a Brundusium.

Estrabó ja en parla com una ciutat decadent igual que Canusium i Arpi, però encara era una ciutat gran i va conservar certa importància i prosperitat durant l'Imperi. Sota August va rebre segurament una nova colònia, pel que es dedueix del que en diu Plini el Vell, i el seu rang colonial està testimoniat per inscripcions. A la Taula de Peutinger apareix com la ciutat principal de la Pulla i seu d'algun magistrat de la província (Praetorium Laverianum).

Al  seguia tenint importància, i l'esmenta Pau Diaca com a una de les  «urbes satis opulentas» ('ciutats bastant opulentes') que encara quedaven a la Pulla. L'any 663 l'emperador romà d'Orient Constant II la va conquerir als longobards i després la va destruir totalment. No es va recuperar fins que l'emperador Frederic II la va restaurar l'any 1227. Per una mala lectura del manuscrit de Claudi Ptolemeu (Νουκερία per Λουκερία) se la va confondre amb Nucèria (Nuceria, moderna Nocera). S'han trobat restes romanes (pedres, estàtues...) però les ruïnes són molt escasses.

Referències

Ciutats romanes del sud d'Itàlia


Sustainability challenges require a restructuring of institutions and organizations in the local, regional and global scale. NODUS Sustainable Design Research Group studies design solutions, business models, bottom up initiatives and governance innovations which hold potential to contribute to sustainability. Sustainability transitions, socio-ecological transformations, sustainability science, resilience, practice theory, self-organizing systems and futures studies are the central theoretical frameworks NODUS researchers use and contribute into. NODUS pioneers in developing practice-relevant theories within the emerging area of design for sustainability transitions.
The group focuses on production-consumption systems, cities, societal support systems including energy, water, food and transport, new organizational models, and self-organization of issue-driven activist groups.
NODUS research group supports sustainability education through the interdisciplinary Creative Sustainability Masters' programme at Aalto University.


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Chilean attacked in Poland after being mistaken for Arab
Posted on 03/01/16 by Lamar Neal
Christiano Ramos, a Chilean who was attacked recently on a train near Warsaw by men who mistook him for an Arab, performs a short piano concert in Warsaw, Poland, on Monday, Feb. 29, 2016. A top Polish human rights official Adam Bodnar, has encouraged people to attend the concert Monday in support of Ramos who was recently beaten by skinheads who mistook him for an Arab, and he appealed to Ramos to stay in Poland despite the attack.(AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)
WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Dozens of people turned out for a short concert Monday evening in Warsaw in support of a Chilean pianist and teacher who was recently beaten by skinheads who mistook him for an Arab.
The attack occurred amid a rise in Islamophobia in Poland.
Dozens of Syrian Christians were granted asylum in Poland last year, though most left quickly for Western Europe. Last year, Poland pledged to take up to 7,000 migrants though only a fraction of them are expected this year.
Poland's commissioner for human rights, Adam Bodnar, urged people to attend the performance to show solidarity with Christiano Ramos, the Chilean who was attacked recently on a train near Warsaw.
Ramos, who has lived in Poland for many years, lost a tooth and sustained a head injury. He performed the brief piano concert himself.
Bodnar said he wants to convince Ramos and others like him that they "have many friends in Poland, that Polish society might be different, and that he should not decide to leave our country."
Bodnar says there has been an outpouring of hate speech against Arabs in recent months that has translated into violent incidents.
"Unfortunately, massive hate speech towards Arabs translates into hate violence incidents," Bodnar said. "Basically every two weeks we can identify a situation when somebody is attacked, because he looks 'like an Arab.'"
Last year, a Syrian Christian was attacked in the Western Polish city of Poznan. A court on Monday sentenced one of his attackers to two years in prison, and a second to three months.
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2015 Chinese Hanging Almanac. 8.4" x 11.1" (21.3cm X 28.3cm) in page size. Both Chinese lunar and Western calendar systems are supported.
Chinese almanac is also named as farmer almanac, tung shing, or wong lik in old days. It consists primarily of a calendar based on the Chinese lunar year and contains information on the auspicious and inauspicious days to carry out activities. This almanac has over 180 pages. Each page contains one Chinese food recipe in Chinese, along with pictures.


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Dollar Steady After Soft U.S. Data, Fed's Dudley Awaited For Cues
June 19, 2017 1:34 AM UTC in News
Dollar steadies after easing from 2-wk high on soft U.S. data
Fed's Dudley comments later in session awaited for cues
Pound little changed, Aussie still in reach of 2-1/2-mth high
The dollar steadied against a basket of currencies early on Monday after slipping on soft U.S. economic data, with investors awaiting comments by a top Federal Reserve official for clues on whether recent strength can be sustained.
The dollar index against a group of major currencies was down 0.05 percent at 97.108.
The index had climbed to a two-week high of 97.560 late the previous week after the Fed raised interest rates and kept the door open for another hike in 2017. But its rally was tempered by Friday's weaker-than-expected housing and consumer sentiment data.
The market is looking to comments by New York Fed President William Dudley for potential support for the greenback. Dudley, a close ally of Fed Chair Janet Yellen, is due to take part in a roundtable with local business leaders in Plattsburgh, New York.
"In the wake of Friday's weak U.S. data, Dudley could provide insight into whether the Fed is still poised to continue normalizing monetary policy," said Masafumi Yamamoto, chief forex strategist at Mizuho Securities in Tokyo.
"My view is that Dudley won't sound too dovish, and thus allow the dollar's gradual rise to resume."
Dudley could help clarify why the Fed appeared to ignore a series of soft inflation readings as it marched on with tighter policy last week.
The dollar was up 0.1 percent at 110.955 yen. It had set a two-week peak of 111.420 on Friday before its U.S. data-induced retreat.
The euro was little changed at $1.1204 after gaining about 0.5 percent on Friday.
The pound was steady at $1.2777.
Sterling has been confined to a narrow range over the past few days as political and economic worries have been counterbalanced largely by a split in the Bank of England's monetary policy committee on whether to immediately raise interest rates.
The Australian dollar was flat at $0.7617, still in reach of a 2-1/2-month high of $0.7636 scaled on Wednesday thanks to upbeat local employment data. (Editing by Richard Pullin)
Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do. John Wooden


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Shock & Vibration Overview
Response Spectrums
Simulating Shock & Vibrations In The Laboratory
Analysis Software Options
Single Degree of Freedom Vibration
To understand why vibration analysis is useful and what it entails, we must first think of a simple mass spring damper model shown in Figure 14.
Figure 14: A simple single-degree-of-freedom system is represented where m is the mass, k is the spring constant, c is the damping coefficient, x represents the displacement from equilibrium and f defines the force acting on the mass as a function of time.
As review, some simple equations which describe the motion of this system and define key parameters are listed in Table 1. For those that are unfamiliar, there are plenty of resources out there that can provide more information on free vibration of single degree of freedom systems.
Table 1: Equations for a Single Degree of Freedom System
Differential equation of motion
Natural frequency as radians per second
Natural frequency as hertz
Damping ratio
Quality factor
To understand why a vibration test engineer cares about these parameters, let's take a look at a transmissibility plot shown in Figure 15. Transmissibility looks at how a SDOF system responds to a base excitation with a given damping and natural frequency. When the excitation frequency is much larger than the system's natural frequency, the system isolates that base vibration. When the system's natural frequency is much larger than the base excitation frequency the system will neither amplify nor dampen an input vibration. The worst case scenario is when the input frequency is equal to the system's natural frequency which will amplify that input by a factor approximately equal to Q.
Figure 15: The transmissibility illustrates how a SDOF system will respond to a base excitation. This plot was taken from Tom Irvine's vibrationdata publications that have some supporting information.
Most systems in the real world can't be represented by a SDOF system; but every structure, no matter how complex, can be factored down to individual single-degree-of-freedom (SDOF) systems. And most real world excitations are not perfect sine waves but rather a collection of sine waves. Nevertheless, vibration analysis is used to predict how a system will react to a given input and provides the tools for an engineer to ensure survivability of his/her system. But all this is only made possible when the vibration environment is understood and known, which is why we do vibration testing!
Simple Analysis in the Time Domain
When analyzing vibration data in the time domain (amplitude plotted against time) we're limited to a few parameters in quantifying the strength of a vibration profile: amplitude, peak-to-peak value, and RMS. A simple sine wave is shown in Figure 16 with these parameters identified.
Figure 16: A simple 60 Hz sine wave is shown with the amplitude, peak-to-peak, RMS, frequency, and period identified.
The peak or amplitude is valuable for shock events but it doesn't take into account the time duration and thus the energy in the event.
The same is true for peak-to-peak with the added benefit of providing the maximum excursion of the wave, useful when looking at displacement information, specifically clearances.
The RMS (root mean square) value is generally the most useful because it is directly related to the energy content of the vibration profile and thus the destructive capability of the vibration. RMS also takes into account the time history of the wave form.
Vibration is an oscillating motion about equilibrium so most vibration analysis looks to determine the rate of that oscillation, or the frequency which is proportional to the system's stiffness. The number of times a complete motion cycle occurs during a period of one second is the vibration's frequency and is measured in hertz (Hz). For simple sine waves the vibration frequency could be determined from looking at the waveform in the time domain; but as we add different frequency components and noise, we need to perform spectrum analysis to get a clearer picture of the vibration frequency.
Fast Fourier Transform (FFT)
FFT Background
Any waveform is actually just the sum of a series of simple sinusoids of different frequencies, amplitudes, and phases. A Fourier series is that summation of sine waves; and we use Fourier analysis or spectrum analysis to deconstruct a signal into its individual sine wave components. The result is acceleration/vibration amplitude as a function of frequency, which lets us perform analysis in the frequency domain (or spectrum) to gain a deeper understanding of our vibration profile. Most vibration analysis will typically be done in the frequency domain.
Constructed Sine Wave and FFT Example
To illustrate how an FFT can be used, let's build a simple waveform with three different frequency components: 22 Hz, 60 Hz, and 100 Hz. These frequencies will have amplitude of 1g, 2g, and 1.5g respectively. The following figure shows how this waveform looks a little confusing in the time domain and also illustrates how the signal length affects the frequency resolution of the FFT.
Figure 17: Constructed waveform with 22, 60, and 100 Hz frequency components is shown at varying sample lengths and with noise to illustrate usefulness of FFT analysis.
If we sample this wave at a 500 Hz rate (500 samples per second) and take an FFT of the first 50 samples we're left with a pretty jagged FFT due to our bin width being 10 Hz (Fs of 500 divided by N of 50). The amplitudes of these frequency components are also a bit low. But if the range is extended to the first 250 samples as shown then the FFT is able to accurately calculate both the frequency and amplitude of the individual sine wave components.
Not that the "pure" waveform didn't look confusing enough in the time domain; but if broadband noise is added as shown in the bottom plots then the waveform becomes even less distinguishable. This is the power of an FFT; it is able to clearly identify the major frequencies that exist to help the analyzer determine the cause of any vibration signal.
Windowing
Fourier transforms perform an integral from negative infinity to positive infinity; but one can only acquire data over a discrete time period. So a Fourier transform must repeat the signal infinitely to perform the transform. When the acquired data begins and ends at 0, or if there are an integer number of cycles, then this infinite repetition will cause no problems. But if these are not true, there will be leakage in the frequency domain because the signal is distorted as shown in Figure 18.
Figure 18: The time-window effects are shown when using a FFT analyzer without windowing (or rather a uniform window) are shown. (A) represents an integer number of cycles so that the spectrum has a clear spectral line. (B) and (C) represent time signals where there are a half integer number of periods, but with different phase relationships, which gives a different discontinuity and spectral leakage.
Remember that a Fourier transform looks to calculate a series of sine waves to represent the data. If there is a discontinuity in the data (by not beginning and ending at 0 or not having an integer number of cycles) then the FFT analyzer will need many terms to approximate the apparently discontinuous signal.
In order to minimize this error, windows are used to better make the signal appear periodic for the FFT process. The most common windows are the rectangular window, the Hanning window, the flattop, and the force/exponential window (used for impact testing). The important thing to understand is that all windows distort the data. They are a necessary evil sometimes; but aren't always required if the vibration tester can satisfy Fourier's request by completely observing the signal in one sample of data. For more information check out Midé's blog on Fourier transform leakage. When looking at software packages, an option for windowing is important for many applications.
Spectrogram and FFT Comparison
Car Engine
In real world applications there will typically be many different frequency components of a vibration profile as well as mechanical and electrical noise. Let's look at some data taken on a passenger car engine while it was idling and do some vibration analysis. This data was generated with a Slam Stick vibration data logger as part of a how-to video series if you're interested in some more details about the test setup.
Figure 19: A car's engine during idle clearly shows the 30 Hz dominate frequency which equals twice the crank shaft rotation frequency of 15 Hz (900 RPM) where a peak is also visible.
We can use spectrum analysis of the vibration profile to indicate what the engine's crank shaft rotation speed was. This is a 4-cylinder 4-cycle engine. The engine operates with two pairs of pistons moving out of phase with each other and two piston combustions per crank shaft rotation; so the dominant frequency of the engine's vibration will be twice the crank shaft rotation speed (here's a nice video on how a 4-stroke engine works). In the FFT there is clearly a dominate frequency at 30 Hz or 1,800 RPM which tells us that at idle the crank shaft is rotating at 900 RPM (or 15 Hz) where there is also a peak in the FFT. The use of an FFT in our vibration analysis gave clues on what was causing the measured vibration.
In many applications the vibration frequency will change with time and you can run into trouble if you only look at the FFT. Let's zoom out of the area where the car engine is running at a relatively fixed rate, and compute an FFT of the entire signal. In this test the engine sat off for a period of time, idled, then the engine was revved before letting it idle again and finally turning it off. The vibration frequency changed pretty dramatically throughout the test; but the FFT doesn't capture that. We know from the previous plot that when it was idling there was a fairly significant dominant vibration frequency of 30 Hz; but this peak gets muted when you try and look at the FFT of a changing vibration environment.
Figure 20: The time history and FFT are shown from a Slam Stick mounted to an engine block while it was revved to change the dominate frequencies.
In this example, and others where the vibration frequency changes with time, we need a spectrogram. A spectrogram works by breaking the time domain data into a series of chunks and taking the FFT of these time periods. These series of FFTs are then overlapped on one another to visualize how both the amplitude and frequency of the vibration signal changes with time. Turn this three dimensional surface plot of FFTs on its side, add a color scale to represent the amplitude (often works best when you look at the color/amplitude on a logarithmic scale) and you're left with a spectrogram!
Back to that car engine example where the engine was revved for a bit. The spectrogram shown below illustrates how the dominate frequencies change with time in relation to when the car engine was idled and revved. Using a spectrogram the analyzer gains a much deeper understanding of the vibration profile and how it changes with time.
Figure 21: Spectrogram of car engine shows how crank shaft speed change (when engine is revved) affects vibration frequencies which become apparent in spectrogram.
Power Spectral Density (PSD) Examples
A lot of vibration in the real world, especially during transit, can be called "random" vibration because it is motion at many frequencies at the same time. FFTs are great at analyzing vibration when there are a finite number of dominant frequency components; but power spectral densities (PSD) are used to characterize random vibration signals. A PSD is computed by multiplying each frequency bin in an FFT by its complex conjugate which results in the real only spectrum of amplitude in g2. The key aspect of a PSD which makes it more useful than a FFT for random vibration analysis is that this amplitude value is then normalized to the frequency bin width to get units of g2/Hz. By normalizing the result we get rid of the dependency on bin width so that we can compare vibration levels in signals of different lengths.
PSDs are powerful because the area under the curve (or integral) in the frequency domain represents the RMS vibration level for that frequency range. And RMS vibration is related to the energy in the environment. PSDs are also often used in test standards because of how they cancel out the effect of bandwidth of a frequency spectrum. Let's go through an example from MIL-STD-810G. Figure 514.6C-5 (page 312 from the standard) describes the typical acceleration levels that jet aircraft cargo are exposed to as shown below.
Figure 22: Typical vibration levels that jet aircraft cargo will be exposed to.
If you were developing something for the government that was going to be transported with a jet aircraft, you would be required to do some testing on your device/equipment to prove it can survive prolonged exposure to those vibration levels. Most shaker control systems will have these exposure profiles built in but they can also be constructed easily given some known PSD levels and rise/decline rates. Let's take a look at some data captured by a Slam Stick X when it was being excited with these vibration levels; all this data is available to download.
Figure 23: Raw acceleration data from Slam Stick when exposed to random jet aircraft cargo vibration levels.
Obviously the raw data in the time domain doesn't tell us much although the amplitude of the vibration in the time domain of nearly 20g is surprising. Let's compute both FFTs and PSDs of these signals to see how the signal length affects the amplitude for the FFT but not the PSD.
Figure 24: The amplitude of the PSD doesn't change with different signal lengths but the FFT does.
The red lines in the PSD are the input error bounds that the shaker is trying to keep the signal within. As you see, the PSD of different signal lengths just fills in this area but the amplitude doesn't change overall. The FFT amplitude however shifts down as the bandwidth is increased. This normalization that occurs in a PSD calculation makes it so much more desirable to be used when analyzing random vibration signals.
Now let's put ourselves in the shoes of someone buying equipment to be integrated into a larger system. We will want to make sure this equipment can handle the vibration levels in this environment so we may require a test organization to quantify that environment. A Slam Stick recently recorded data on a commercial flight to do just this; its aim was to understand the type of vibration levels humans were exposed to during flight. Check out the data below along with a PSD (again this is all available to download).
Figure 25: Random vibration levels on the seat of a commercial airliner.
There is definitely a resonance of that seat around 250 Hz; but there is surprisingly steady broadband vibration of 10-5 g2/Hz from 1 Hz to 1 kHz. This PSD could be used to program an exposure profile in a laboratory shaker to allow an engineer to do some in-house testing ahead of a field test. Because this was from actual data in the actual environment, the engineers have confidence that their system can survive. It's incredibly valuable to go out and actually measure the environment than to simply rely on some test standard. These test standards will recommend using the standard's data as a guide; but they typically try and encourage the engineer to go out and get the actual vibration data. Nothing beats the real data!
Vibration Response Spectrum
The vibration response spectrum (VRS) is used to quantify how a system will respond for a given vibration input. It takes the vibration input, in the form of a PSD, and plots what the response will be as a function of a system's natural frequency. The vibration response spectrum calculates the transmissibility functions for a range of frequencies. Engineers use this in the design process to understand what natural frequencies to avoid or target for their system.
Let's use the airplane seat vibration data as an example. If we were an engineer designing a component for that seat, like the personal video screen, we would need to understand what natural frequencies to avoid. Taking a look at the raw data and the PSD (Figure 26) it's obvious that 250 Hz should be avoided; but how bad would a system with that natural frequency respond in that environment?
Figure 26: The raw data and a corresponding power spectral density are shown for 10,000 data points recorded with a Slam Stick on the base of a commercial airplane seat.
Using the MATLAB GUI package on Tom Irvine's vibrationdata blog the transmissibility ratio for a 250 Hz single-degree-of-freedom system can be calculated, shown in Figure 27. This assumes the system has a quality factor (Q) of 10. The response of such a system would amplify the vibration amplitude by 100 times! The overall RMS vibration level of a 250 Hz is nearly 0.8g RMS compared to the 0.1g RMS level of the base vibration. That's a significant increase in the vibrational environment that the screen would have to survive.
Figure 27: Transmissibility of 250 Hz SDOF system with the airplane seat input vibration profile is shown on the left. The corresponding power spectral density of such a system in that environment is shown on the right.
What about other frequencies besides 250 Hz; how would those systems respond? That's where the vibration response spectrum comes in; it calculates the response acceleration (measured by RMS) for a range of natural frequencies as shown in Figure 28. It also uses a Rayleigh distribution to determine the n-sigma peak to use as a safety factor during the design process.
Figure 28: The vibration response spectrum for the airplane seat data calculates the response for different natural frequencies of a candidate system.
From the vibration response spectrum the engineer knows to either us some isolator mounts with a natural frequency below 100 Hz to dampen the vibrations or a stiff mount in excess of a couple hundred hertz natural frequency to at least not amplify the vibration levels in the environment.
Let's take this example a step further and develop a test standard PSD from the experimental data. That data that was captured with the Slam Stick represents actual data; but can a simplified PSD be developed off that experimental data? Again using the MATLAB GUI package, a simplified PSD can be created that envelopes the maximum expected flight level plus some margin. This is a more prudent approach because conditions experienced experimentally may vary in the future (the weight of the passenger in the seat, temperature in the cabin, engine speed etc.). Using a trial-and-error approach the script derives the least possible PSD that meets the VRS requirement of the raw data shown in Figure 29.
Figure 29: An enveloped PSD is calculated using a vibration response spectrum to ensure it meets or exceeds the VRS of the experimental data.
The vibration response spectrum of the simplified PSD is shown in Figure 30. It still envelopes the same levels as that shown in Figure 28; but it does so more conservatively. This PSD may be distributed to customers so that they can design their components accordingly and test them to appropriate vibration levels. Note the relative displacement shown in Figure 30; if isolator mounts are used then it's important to ensure they can withstand the expected relative displacement levels so they don't bottom out.
Figure 30: The vibration response spectrum of the simplified PSD is shown along with the relative displacement.
Tom Irvine's 16th webinar goes through the vibration response spectrum in much more detail and is a great reference if interested in the vibration response spectrum. More detail is available on his VRS tutorial.
Shock Response Spectrum
Similar to the vibration response spectrum, a shock response spectrum is used to calculate the response for a given shock excitation. The math and use case is very similar in both instances; it enables the engineer to design his/her system avoiding certain natural frequencies that would amplify the shock input.
Let's look at an academic example of designing a system to survive a 1g, 1 second half sine pulse. We'll explore the response from seven different resonant frequencies (and corresponding spring stiffness) ranging from 0.063 Hz to 4.0 Hz. The system is shown in Figure 31, this information is all taken from the vibrationdata SRS educational animation page.
Figure 31: A seven spring system is shown with natural frequencies increasing by a power of 2 between each other.
Figure 32 shows six frames of the response out of these springs as they experience the shock input. The full video is available to download on Tom Irvine's vibrationdata page. One can see the spring on the far left experience very little overall motion but it had to withstand a significant amount of relative motion and spring compression. On the far right the spring tracks the base input with very little spring compression. The middle systems experience widely oscillating acceleration throughout the input and then after the shock impulse has ended.
Figure 32: From top left to bottom right the frames are spaced approximately 0.25 seconds apart as the base input goes through a 1 second half sine pulse.
Using the MATLAB GUI package on Tom Irvine's vibrationdata blog we can calculate the response out of these systems shown in Figure 33. Notice how the stiffest spring tracks the input nicely and then quickly rings out after the base excitation is done. The softer springs also oscillate after the base input is finished but they do so much more slowly and experience their maximum acceleration levels when the input is already finished. Figure 34 plots the relative displacement the springs need to endure during the event and afterwards; this illustrates that if you go the route of a damper, you need to ensure it has enough spring compression available for your environment.
Figure 33: Response from different springs for the given base input of 1g, 1 second half sine pulse.
Figure 34: The absolute value of the relative displacement between the masses and the base input is plotted on a logarithmic scale to illustrate the much larger spring compression that the softer springs need to endure.
Instead of testing each spring, a shock response spectrum can be used to calculate the response for a range of natural frequencies, plotted in Figure 35. This plot can be used by the design engineer to determine frequencies that should be avoided in his/her design. This example is an academic one but even so, an engineer may be surprised that for a 1 second half sine input, the worst natural frequency a system could have is around 0.8 Hz, not the 0.5 Hz of the input. In real world applications you will have real test data that will have many frequency components. As always with these analyses; your analysis can only be as good as the raw experimental/input data.
Figure 35: The shock response spectrum is shown for a 1g 1 second half-sine pulse input.
Tom Irvine's 23rd webinar covers the classical shock pulse and the shock response spectrum if you are interested in more information. Beyond the more basic shock response spectrum, a look at the pseudo velocity shock response spectrum may be a prudent exercise if/when designing a system to survive shock.
Modal Analysis
Modal analysis is the logical next step of vibration testing and looking at response spectrums; it allows the engineer to determine key dynamic parameters of their structure:
Modal resonant frequency
Modal damping
Mode shape
Picture a flat plate supported in the center with an accelerometer positioned in one of the corners. Then excite the plate with a sinusoidal sweep of different frequencies but fixed amplitude and measure the response from the accelerometer. If you do this an accelerometer may measure the type of response shown in Figure 36. You may expect that the output from the accelerometer would also be fixed because of the fixed input levels; but this is the whole beauty of modal analysis! The response amplifies as the force is applied with a rate of oscillation closer to the resonant frequencies in the system.
Figure 36: Response from accelerometer on a plate measuring acceleration as the plate is excited with a range of different frequencies, but a fixed force amplitude.
If a frequency response function is applied to the data the resulting plot is a function of frequency shown in Figure 37. This allows the engineer to directly see where the resonant frequencies lie but with curve fitting, you can also determine the damping characteristics of each mode.
Figure 37: Frequency response function from a modal analysis test.
If a grid of accelerometers are placed around the plate and the same exercise is repeated, you can begin to start seeing modal shapes at each one of these resonant frequencies. The first four modes of this representative plate are shown in Figure 38: a first bending mode, a twisting mode, the second bending mode, and a second twisting mode. For an interesting video on the modal shapes of a plate, check out this video.
Figure 38: Mode shapes emerge at each resonant frequency which provides more information on the dynamic characteristics of your structure.
Understanding a structure's mode shapes help the engineer better design his/her structure. Performing experimental modal analysis also helps the engineer correlate or validate a finite element model so that they can have more confidence in their design and optimize it for a particular operational environment.
Modal analysis is a very powerful tool but it typically requires a fairly expensive and complex test setup (many wired accelerometers, a shaker and/or impact hammer, large data acquisition system, and a powerful software package). So it has its limitations and is traditionally reserved for expensive and/or large structures for testing and design; a typical design engineer for a smaller or lower volume product/system may not be able to afford this type of analysis and testing.
For hardware and software, m+p International seem to offer some of the best that we've come across but there are other options too. Typically though, a modal analysis setup will cost tens of thousands of dollars. But the information it provides is arguably easily worth the cost for some applications!
If you are interested in finding out more on modal analysis, check out Dr. Peter Avitabile's Modal Space articles (the previous images are from this collection of articles). He has been doing modal analysis for 40 years and "grown up" with the industry; so finding an expert with more experience than him is very difficult, if not impossible! Brüel and Kjaer also have a two part Structural Testing document (part 1 is mechanical mobility measurement; part 2 is modal analysis and simulation). These documents were written back in 1988; but they are still applicable even today, especially the fundamentals. The most thorough and modern resource we've come across is available from the Modal Shop, The Fundamentals of Modal Testing.
Shock and vibration testing in the field is a great way to get operational data on your system's response to its environment and/or to quantify the environment you intent to operate in. But as the design process advances and prototypes are constructed it will be advantages to do some controlled shock and vibration testing in the laboratory. There are a couple main purposes of laboratory testing:
Qualification testing
During design process
To meet test or regulatory standards
Fatigue testing
Evaluating performance characteristics
General Shock and Vibration Testing
There are two main types of vibration shakers/exciters for general shock and vibration testing: electrodynamic (ED) and hydraulic. Figure 39 provides a plot comparing the operating ranges of these two types of exciters. Electrodynamic is much more common because of the wider frequency range, their linear behavior, and their wide range of operating conditions (shock and SRS pulses in addition to vibration). But for maximum displacement and lower frequency ranges a hydraulic shaker would be preferred.
Figure 39: The useful operating regions of hydraulic and electrodynamic vibration shakers. This plot is from the Brüel and Kjaer's Mechanical Vibration and Shock Measurements. This book was published in the 80s so the performance ranges have changed since then slightly; but this data is still effective at highlighting the difference between the two types of vibration shakers.
At Midé we use a Brüel and Kjaer electrodynamic shaker for our shock and vibration testing, including calibration of our Slam Stick data loggers; specifically we have the LDS V455 permanent magnet shaker shown in Figure 40. There are other companies that sell shakers such as Data Physics, and Unholtz-Dickie. The trouble with buying these larger general purpose shakers in your company's lab is the typically high costs they require. These type of industrial shakers will cost tens of thousands of dollars and that doesn't include the high cost of the amplifier and software to run the shaker (tens of thousands for these too).
Figure 40: The LDS V455 is a good general purpose shock and vibration shaker. It has a useable frequency range of 5 Hz to 7.5 kHz, a peak-to-peak displacement maximum at 0.375", and a maximum sine force peak at 100 pounds-force.
Modal Testing
Shakers are also used extensively in modal testing. In these test setups, typically a much smaller shaker is needed to excite the range of modal frequencies you may be interested in. For this type of testing the Modal Shop offers the best range of solutions, including rental services. Figure 41 provides an image and performance plot of one of their mini-shakers. This shaker is ideal for general purpose testing on small components and also very useful as an excitation source for modal testing.
Figure 41: The Modal Shop's 2004E mini-shaker is pictured with its payload curve.
Their shakers may also work as general vibration and shock exciters for smaller systems to qualify your product/design as shown in Figure 42; but their equipment is best suited for smaller test setups and/or modal testing.
Figure 42: The Modal Shop's general purpose vibration shakers performance range is dependent on payload mass and maximum acceleration levels desired.
Another form of exciting your structure for the purpose of modal testing is using an impact hammer. These offer a much more cost effective means of performing your testing (a typical impact hammer will cost just under $1,000) and are the preferred method for many experts. An impact hammer will provide a nearly constant force over a broad range of frequencies (specified by the type of tip you use); and therefore these are capable of exciting a broad range of resonances and modal shapes. These hammers will come force-instrumented so that the frequency response function can be calculated using output of modal accelerometers instrumented throughout your structure.
Figure 43 provides some performance specifications of one of PCB Piezotronics' impact hammers that cost $760. The Modal Shop (owned by PCB) also offers a variety of impact hammers which can be purchased or rented.
Figure 43: PCB's model 086C03 impact hammer and its performance is shown.
Performing shock and vibration testing in a simulated environment can be very expensive and require complex equipment and setups. But there are test laboratories that can offset some of these costs (although their services will still be several thousand dollars). Midé has had experience with both National Technical Systems (NTS), and Dayton Brown. For larger systems, like those being qualified for naval ships, Hi-TEST laboratories offers shock and vibration testing services. This includes their MIL-S-901D shock testing capabilities that consist of exploding a charge underwater to subject a test setup to a large displacement shock event. Midé has been down there a couple times for our bulkhead shaft seal and stern tube seal product lines as well as for some of our general R&D programs. It is both exciting and nerve racking to witness those tests!
Setting up test hardware and knowing what/how to analyze the vibration data is meaningless without the means to perform that analysis. Software is also typically needed to acquire the vibration data in the first place. There are a wide variety of software packages available to the test engineer but he/she needs to answer two questions before settling on a software option or combination of options:
Do you need to analyze data in real-time, or post-process the shock and vibration data?
Do you prefer developing your own analysis and simulation programs, or using a standalone graphical user interface?
If the products you will be using acquire the data and export it then the software will "only" need to do the post-processing. This would be the case for a data logger. But for applications that require real-time (or near real-time with a buffer) data streaming and analysis will limit the options available. Real-time data streaming and processing is needed for typical modal analysis, and for controls applications (where an action is taken based upon recorded data).
Writing custom analysis and simulation programs will require some advanced knowledge of the computing language and analysis fundamentals; but is the preferred path for most post-processing analysis applications. Standalone graphical user interfaces (GUIs) are nice for providing that initial overview of your data and performing some analysis. In many applications though there will be a need for doing analysis based upon certain conditions specific to your test. For example, if I performed a two hour long test on an aircraft component, I may want to develop a script that looks through the data and runs FFTs if/when certain conditions are met. Doing this fairly simply analysis that has a couple if-statements may be more difficult in a standalone GUI.
Most times a combination of standalone GUIs and custom analysis scripts will offer the best of both worlds to complete your analysis. There are a lot of options out there but it can be difficult to go through and compare them. Below we've condensed the list to a few more well-known software packages.
MATLAB is a programming language specifically developed for linear algebraic operations. Because of this initial core design and focus, it is a hugely popular tool for data analysis. Engineers would have used MATLAB is college and entered the workforce already with a knowledge and preference for this (MathWorks is smart with their pricing to offer significant discounts to universities and students).
Figure 44: MATLAB is the most common programming tool used by vibration analysts.
The big disadvantage of MATLAB is that it's not free; a commercial license will cost $2,150. They also charge more, typically $1,000, for additional toolboxes (here's a full price list of the MATLAB products); and I'd recommend the signal processing toolbox for vibration analysis. Don't worry though, I didn't use any functions in that toolbox for this analysis or the ones covered in my vibration analysis basics blog.
If code base programming seems daunting, MATLAB does have their Simulink block diagram environment. This is a compelling product that can help reduce human programming induced errors and allow teams of analysts to integrate their algorithms a little easier. A single commercial license is $3,350 (in addition to a MATLAB license). Simulink also lets engineers interface with hardware such as National Instruments, Raspberry Pi and Arduino; but these hardware supports will cost you. Simulink is great for analyzing data in real time (another couple thousand dollars) and offers incredible customization in addition to built-in analysis capabilities.
Python is a free, open source, and very versatile programming language. Their NumPy and SciPy packages have similar functions to MATLAB. Python is a pretty elegant and intuitive programming language compared to MATLAB. It was created to be a generic language that is easy to read; and they definitely succeeded with that! Python is universally accepted as the better alternative to MATLAB for other programming needs besides data analysis.
But if you ask what's better, MATLAB or Python for vibration analysis, you may start a heated debate because they both have benefits and disadvantages. We recently did some testing to compare MATLAB and Python for vibration analysis and came to the conclusion that for basic analysis (including FFTs) Python can match and even beat MATLAB computation times; but the programmer may need to do a bit of digging to find and download all the necessary libraries. But these libraries will be free!
As a MATLAB user I found the Anaconda distribution of Python and its most popular libraries very helpful. The Spyder development environment, shown in Figure 45, has a similar interface and feel to MATLAB for those with MATLAB experience.
Figure 45: The Spyder Python development environment is shown; it has a similar interface to MATLAB.
Python is gaining popularity because it's free and the community is generating a wide variety of versatile libraries that are publically available through GitHub. A quick search finds the PyDAQmx library that interfaces with National Instrument's drivers. Again Python is free so it's becoming a compelling alternative, especially as they offerings and capabilities continue to grow and improve.
Most engineering companies will likely have a couple LabVIEW licenses to interface with their National Instruments data acquisition hardware and analyze data in real time. LabVIEW is a development environment specifically designed for engineers and scientists analyzing data. As such, it's a popular tool for vibration testing! As we've discussed, National Instruments is the world leader in hardware for data acquisition; so it makes sense that their software is also very popular and pairs well with their hardware. Designing analysis programs with LabVIEW may be easier to those with less programming knowledge because of the graphical programming language they use, shown in Figure 46.
Figure 46: LabVIEW's block diagram design environment is shown next to a representative analysis window.
A full LabVIEW license costs $2,999 and vibration customers may be interested in their Sound and Vibration Toolkit for another $1,999. It can definitely get expensive quickly but is a great solution for data analysis, especially in real-time controls applications.
Standalone Vibration Analysis Software
There are a wide range of standalone software packages available for purchase; but let's first identify a couple free ones.
Tom Irvine's vibrationdata
Tom Irvine offers both a MATLAB and Python version of his signal analysis and structural dynamics software GUI. These offer great versatility because it has a nice GUI which is easy to work with; but all the source code is available if you need to take the next step and perform your own custom analysis. In nearly all of his webinars he will go through an example that uses these software packages so you can quickly see the power and ease of use of these analysis options.
Figure 47: Vibrationdata's MATLAB signal analysis GUI window is shown with a broad range of analysis capabilities.
Slam Stick Lab
Midé's Slam Stick Lab is available for free along with some example recording files. This software currently only works with Slam Stick recording files; but Midé has plans to open this up to other import files in the future. The software only has basic analysis capabilities but it covers the major ones typically needed: FFT, PSD, spectrogram, unit conversion, and general plotting. Data can be exported to MATLAB or CSV (readable by Excel, Python, and other software) for follow on analysis.
Figure 48: Slam Stick Lab software is a free standalone GUI for analyzing Slam Stick vibration logger recorded data.
The following represent a select few of many different standalone GUIs available on the market for vibration analysis. These will typically cost around $5K or more but offer some unique benefits over writing your own code, namely a time savings advantage.
m+p International
This company specializes in vibration testing, specifically modal. They have a variety of hardware products for data acquisition but also some software packages for post processing and analyzing data in real-time. Their m+p analyzer can interface with their hardware for real time analysis but is also useful in handling large datasets and post processing vibration data.
VibrationVIEW
Vibration Research's VibrationVIEW software is another alternative to post processing and analyzing vibration data in real time.
Brüel and Kjaer
Bruel and Kjaer have a couple different software packages that are very impressive; again for both post processing and analyzing vibration in real time.
ProAnalyst
Xcitex's ProAnalyst software is unique in that it uses video for determining vibration levels and analyzing them. Seems like a very powerful tool that can simplify the hardware setup! The costs don't seem too ludicrous either, only $1,795 for their introductory edition. It quickly starts climbing towards $10K and beyond though for the professional edition and different toolkits. I do like how they come right out and list the pricing instead of requiring you to fill out a form!
FEMtools
For modal analysis and validating CAD models with experimental data, FEMtools is a very powerful tool. It can also be used for general post processing of time history vibration data.
Before you can dive into vibration measurement and analysis it's important to ask yourself and answer those first couple questions: what frequency and amplitude is of interest, who needs the data and why, where is the test environment, when is the testing, and when does the analysis need to be completed by?
Remember that shock and vibration testing is an art and a science. It's not always very straightforward; but that creates some opportunity as the engineer to impart their own personality into testing and analysis. It lets the engineer have fun, so go out and have fun with your vibration testing!
Case Study: Data Logger in Action
Here is a case study of how the US Navy used one of our portable Slam Stick data loggers to locate a source of cockpit vibration in a C-2A Greyhound Aircraft.
>> Download Case Study
Free Vibration Analysis Files
Avitable, Peter. Modal Space (in our own little world). 2014. Web.
UMASS Lowell Structural Dynamics and Acoustic Systems Laboratory
Broch, Jens Trampe and Joëlle Courrech. Mechanical Vibration And Shock Measurements. Naerum, Denmark: Brüel & Kjaer, 1980. Print.
Harris, Cyril M and Allan G Piersol. Harris' Shock And Vibration Handbook. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2002. Print.
Irvine, Tom. Shock and Vibration Signal Analysis. 2005. Web. 12 September 2005.
vibrationdata Blog by Tom Irvine
McConnell, Kenneth G. Vibration Testing. New York: Wiley, 1995. Print.
Brüel & Kjaer
Meggitt's Endevco
FREE RESOURCE: Download this 69 page Handbook - PDF


Directions: Gently massage on damp skin avoiding the eye contour area. Rinse with lukewarm water. Use 1-2 times per week. We recommended that you carry out a patch test before first application.
Great product and does what it claims. Without irritation on sensitive skin. And the current price on Ocado is without match on even the usual price slayers. Go get it.


Maresca shows its new Gommaflex boots for work and leisure time, made from nitrile rubber. The boots collection consists of seven new models suitable for gardening as well as for hunt and fishing sport activities.
Maresca presents its new Autumn/Winter 2017/2018 collection, 100% Made in Italy. It consists of a wide range of boots, ankle boots and short laced up boots, as well as galosh-style boots, biker and Chelsea boots. The new Maresca branded line of boots shows a lot of shades, including traditional and typical autumnal colours, but also innovative colours and floral patterns.
By the initiative promoted by the local Chamber of Commerce in Mantova, the students attending the third classes at ITC "Sanfelice" has adhered to the cooperation project "School / Work", meeting inside their premises the owners of the company Maresca Srl.


ASHBY -- Nearly 20 positions for town office, boards, and committees are open for the Annual Town Election in April.
A spot on the Board of Selection and the town clerk, treasurer, and moderator positions are among those that will be on the ballot for the April 22 election.
Scott Sweeney has pulled nomination papers to run for a seat on the Board of Selectmen, which is currently held by Mark Haines, according to the clerk's office.
Incumbent Treasurer Kate Stacy, Town Clerk Tiffany Call, and Planning Board member James Hargraves have also taken out nomination papers as of Monday, according to the town clerk's office.
Two positions on the Board of Health for 2-year and 3-year terms and two Planning Board positions for 2-year and 5-year terms will be on the ballot.
A seat as the Ashby representative for the North Middlesex Regional School District is also open. That seat is currently held by Crystal Messamore.
Nomination papers are now available through the Town Clerk's office. The last day to pull papers is Feb. 28.
March 4 by 5 p.m. is the deadline for candidates to file their nomination papers.
At least 25 signatures from Ashby voters are required to make it onto the ballot, according to the clerk's office.


Both of the tournament games have been worrying for this Tennessee team. In the first-round game against Colgate they had to go to the final minutes to put them away and of course their most recent game where they blew a 25-point lead to Iowa in the second half. Is underestimating early round teams the reason the bookmakers have made them only 1.5 point favorites?
Texas Tech's weakness on defense is that it's not a great rebounding team, which came back to bite the Red Raiders in the Big 12 tournament when West Virginia dominated them on the glass and pulled a stunning upset. If the Wolverines are willing to hit the glass should we expect them to cover against the 1.5 spread? Dan Jamison has your free pick!
Oregon just might be the hottest team in the nation right now after dismantling both Wisconsin and UC Irvine, making the country sit up and take notice of how good the Ducks really are. Oregon is a team that can play either pace even if Virginia slows the game to a crawl. Sportsbooks are offering Oregon bettors a big 8.5 cushion versus the Cavs. Dan looks at this match up and predicts if that will be enough!
A year ago, Gonzaga had a great shot at making the Final Four before running into the Seminoles' combination of depth and defense. Gonzaga stars Rui Hachimura and Zach Norvell got their points, combining to score 30, but they had to take 28 shots to do it, nowhere near efficient enough to beat FSU. But the Bulldogs have one factor that they didn't have last time: Brandon Clarke. Is BC enough to take down FSU at the HC in CA? Bookmakers think so and opened the Zags -7.5.
Duke is still here. They probably shouldn't be, given that Central Florida's final shot covered almost all of the rim before dropping off, but the Blue Devils survived and advanced to another East Regional. So was this game the test that readies Duke for a run for the rest of the tournament, or the game that provided the blueprint on how to beat them? DJ tries to answer that question and if the Dukies can cover the -7.5!


What Plays in the Park!
Please bring one non perishable food item to donate to the MCFOOD Bank of Middlesex County. Let's be a blessing to those in need. ?
Show time is 8pm and we will meet at the entrance at 7:30pm.
Look forward to enjoying the show with you! ?


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Home > Profile Articles > Check Point Software Announces Strategic Partnership with FinTech Scotland
Check Point Software Announces Strategic Partnership with FinTech Scotland
FinTechScotland2020
FinTech Scotland
Check Point® Software Technologies Ltd. (NASDAQ: CHKP), a leading provider of cyber-security solutions globally, has today announced that it has become a strategic partner of FinTech Scotland, an independent not-for-profit body jointly established by the private sector and the Scottish Government. Check Point solutions bring a practical boost to cyber-security awareness and engagement with Scottish fintech firms.
The partnership will see Check Point deliver cyber-security education and training initiatives to organizations operating in FinTech Scotland's cluster. It will also work with the fintech SMEs to enable cyber-security from the outset with focused solutions to help protect their businesses against cyber threats targeting networks, cloud deployments and mobile devices.
FinTech Scotland is supported by a broad range of global financial services, technology, and professional services firms, as well as University of Edinburgh and University of Strathclyde, the Financial Conduct Authority, Scottish Government and Scottish Enterprise. Check Point brings its expertise and global experience on cyber security, which will help further develop Scotland's position as a global fintech cluster.
"Scotland is home to a phenomenal pool of fintech talent. However, as with many sectors, these firms face complex challenges right now, as they navigate the changes to their networks due to the rapid digital transformation and remote working practices forced upon us all," said Roddy MacCallum, Head of Scotland at Check Point Software Technologies. "By partnering with FinTech Scotland, we aim to equip these firms with the tools and support they need to ensure cybersecurity is deeply embedded within their business in these challenging times and beyond."
"We're delighted to welcome Check Point as a strategic partner. They join a group of global organisations that have decided to support the development and growth of the Scottish fintech cluster. Cyber threats are one of the biggest concerns for fintech entrepreneurs. Involving a global expert in cyber security will help address those concerns and support fintech SME's to confidently develop safe and secure innovation." said Nicola Anderson, interim CEO at FinTech Scotland.
The partnership with FinTech Scotland further demonstrates Check Point's ongoing commitment to providing essential education and training in Scotland. To mark the launch of the partnership, Check Point and FinTech Scotland are hosting an online event on 26 November to discuss the latest cyber-security threats in the sector. To register for interest, please visit: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/fintech-scotland-zero-touch-security-tickets-127138640095
Contact person: Stephen Ingledew
13-15 South College Street
EH8 9AA Edinburgh
Telephone: +44(0)447736739369
Website: https://www.fintechscotland.com
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I SAY NO TO RACISM…..
Riots are also a sign of racism when one group gets up and tells another group, hey I will kill you cause I am better than you in terms of religion, etc. I remember a very close friend of mine once told me why riots happen (This was during the Godhra epsiode). He said its mob fury and gave me an example. What happened if a muslim guy killed him ? Now he being a dear friend of mine, Wouldnt i be so angry that I would feel all muslims are wrong and go kill another muslims. That is what causes riots. Now that got me thinking that he was absolutely right. Except what would happen if some Hindu in some riot God forbid had even remotely harmed Shireen (a very close friend of mine) or her family or Immy chacha and his family(immy chacha is dad's schoolmate and more than family for me), would I blame all Hindus and go kill them? Going by that logic, then the first person who needs to be killed would be me as technically speaking I am a Hindu. Or is then the basic premise is that I being a Hindu cannot have a very very very good friend who is a muslim? So we again come down to the basic fact that we so racist that we don't even want to make friends who are not of our religious beliefs and we say whites are racist????? Wow !!
(I want to make a point that my friend was just putting forth an argument and he did not anyway justify it and isnt racist at all). And again we Indians are so proud to be racist.
And what about when people get killed cause they dont follow your political or social ideology. Isnt that racism? Every other day people get killed for not following an ideology and we let out political leaders flaunt them. And yet we blame whites as being racist.
Now I know a lot of you will say well we cannot change others. Hence what can we do. But is there really nothing we can do? Like Gandhiji said, "We need to be the change we wish to see in the world". I dont want to be a part of the world where people discrimate each other cause every discrimanation is racism. I know there is not much we can do, but that does not mean there is nothing we can do. I remember I took a stand 4 years back that I don't interview or hire anyone who writes their religion or caste in their resume. For me it was simple if that was your identity, I don't want to hire you cause I want people to rise above that. Cause such beliefs give rise to racism. This is something we have been following for a long time irrespective of how good the candidate is. In my company we truly believe in being equality. We celebrate every festival and we only let people's religion come out to enjoy food. Part of our induction states that in the 9 hours people are in the office they will not discrimate against anyone cause of their colour, race, religion, sexual preference, etc. Our ethos says "While at least in the company premises treat everyone AS JUST ANOTHER HUMAN BEING AND THAT IS MORE THAN ENOUGH". Maybe this is nothing and will bring in no change to the world but at least in those 9 hours I am saying "Hey stop being racist while you with me" with the hope that the rest of the 13 hours too would make everyone feel the same way.
I say no to racism in any form…Do you?


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Psychiatry > Pain Management
Patients Opt for Stronger Opioids
— High-potency agents like oxycodone soared in popularity over the last decade.
by Kristina Fiore, Staff Writer, MedPage Today February 25, 2015
More patients are using stronger opioids than they were a decade ago, government researchers said.
In 2011-2012, far more patients reported using opioids in the last 30 days that were more potent than morphine compared with weaker-than-morphine opioids (37% versus 20%), Leonard Paulozzi, MD, MPH, of the CDC in Atlanta, and colleagues reported in an NCHS Data Brief.
Those numbers were effectively reversed from the 1999-2002 figures, when about 42% used weaker-than-morphine opioids compared with 17% who used stronger-than-morphine opioids.
The flip isn't a surprise; these stronger opioids include oxycodone, fentanyl, oxymorphone, hydromorphone, and methadone -- drugs that have been more commonly prescribed over the time period of the study.
Opioids that are weaker than morphine include tramadol, codeine, dihydrocodeine, meperidine, pentazocine, and propoxyphene.
Hydrocodone and tapentadol are equivalent to morphine, and 30-day use of these drugs has remained relatively stable.
MedPage Today and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel have documented a liberalization in opioid prescribing during the late 1990s and early 2000s, and those numbers were often led by sales of OxyContin, the most popular branded form of oxycodone.
The latest NCHS data release also reflects that increase. Use of opioid analgesics among U.S. adults more than doubled from 3.4% in 1988-1994 to 6.9% in 2011-2012, Paulozzi and colleagues report.
Use plateaued in the 2003-2006 period, at 6.9%, which had risen from 5% in 1999-2000.
The researchers also analyzed 30-day opioid use by various demographic factors for the time period 2007-2012.
They found that more women reported opioid use than men (7.2% versus 6.3%) and that there was greater use among whites than among blacks or Hispanics (7.5% versus 6.5% and 4.9%, respectively).
Use was also greater among older patients, with 8.1% of those ages 40 to 59 and 7.9% of those age 60 and up reporting 30-day opioid use compared with 4.7% of those ages 20 to 39.
Paulozzi and co-authors disclosed no relevant relationships with industry.
National Center for Health Statistics
Source Reference: Frenk SM, et al "Prescription opioid analgesic use among adults: United States, 1999-2012" NCHS Data Brief 2015; No. 189.


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Transhumance-Europe's Last Nomads
Presented by ORF-Enterprise
(Nature/wildlife, 1×52 min.) The adventurous and exhausting journey of herdsmen and their animals crossing the Alps.
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