text:
package org.springframework.security.config.annotation.web.configuration;

import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Configuration;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Import;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.ImportSelector;
import org.springframework.core.type.AnnotationMetadata;
import org.springframework.security.oauth2.client.OAuth2AuthorizedClientProvider;
import org.springframework.security.oauth2.client.OAuth2AuthorizedClientProviderBuilder;
import org.springframework.security.oauth2.client.endpoint.OAuth2AccessTokenResponseClient;
import org.springframework.security.oauth2.client.endpoint.OAuth2ClientCredentialsGrantRequest;
import org.springframework.security.oauth2.client.registration.ClientRegistrationRepository;
import org.springframework.security.oauth2.client.web.DefaultOAuth2AuthorizedClientManager;
import org.springframework.security.oauth2.client.web.OAuth2AuthorizedClientRepository;
import org.springframework.security.oauth2.client.web.method.annotation.OAuth2AuthorizedClientArgumentResolver;
import org.springframework.util.ClassUtils;
import org.springframework.web.method.support.HandlerMethodArgumentResolver;
import org.springframework.web.servlet.config.annotation.WebMvcConfigurer;

import java.util.List;
import java.util.Optional;

/**
 * {@link Configuration} for OAuth 2.0 Client support.
 *
 * <p>
 * This {@code Configuration} is conditionally imported by {@link OAuth2ImportSelector}
 * when the {@code spring-security-oauth2-client} module is present on the classpath.
 *
 * @author Joe Grandja
 * @since 5.1
 * @see OAuth2ImportSelector
 */
@Import(OAuth2ClientConfiguration.OAuth2ClientWebMvcImportSelector.class)
final class OAuth2ClientConfiguration {

	static class OAuth2ClientWebMvcImportSelector implements ImportSelector {

		@Override
		public String[] selectImports(AnnotationMetadata importingClassMetadata) {
			boolean webmvcPresent = ClassUtils.isPresent(
				"org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet", getClass().getClassLoader());

			return webmvcPresent ?
				new String[] { "org.springframework.security.config.annotation.web.configuration.OAuth2ClientConfiguration.OAuth2ClientWebMvcSecurityConfiguration" } :
				new String[] {};
		}
	}

	@Configuration(proxyBeanMethods = false)
	static class OAuth2ClientWebMvcSecurityConfiguration implements WebMvcConfigurer {
		private ClientRegistrationRepository clientRegistrationRepository;
		private OAuth2AuthorizedClientRepository authorizedClientRepository;
		private OAuth2AccessTokenResponseClient<OAuth2ClientCredentialsGrantRequest> accessTokenResponseClient;

		@Override
		public void addArgumentResolvers(List<HandlerMethodArgumentResolver> argumentResolvers) {
			if (this.clientRegistrationRepository != null && this.authorizedClientRepository != null) {
				OAuth2AuthorizedClientProviderBuilder authorizedClientProviderBuilder =
						OAuth2AuthorizedClientProviderBuilder.builder()
								.authorizationCode()
								.refreshToken()
								.password();
				if (this.accessTokenResponseClient != null) {
					authorizedClientProviderBuilder.clientCredentials(configurer ->
									configurer.accessTokenResponseClient(this.accessTokenResponseClient));
				} else {
					authorizedClientProviderBuilder.clientCredentials();
				}
				OAuth2AuthorizedClientProvider authorizedClientProvider = authorizedClientProviderBuilder.build();
				DefaultOAuth2AuthorizedClientManager authorizedClientManager = new DefaultOAuth2AuthorizedClientManager(
						this.clientRegistrationRepository, this.authorizedClientRepository);
				authorizedClientManager.setAuthorizedClientProvider(authorizedClientProvider);
				argumentResolvers.add(new OAuth2AuthorizedClientArgumentResolver(authorizedClientManager));
			}
		}

		@Autowired(required = false)
		public void setClientRegistrationRepository(List<ClientRegistrationRepository> clientRegistrationRepositories) {
			if (clientRegistrationRepositories.size() == 1) {
				this.clientRegistrationRepository = clientRegistrationRepositories.get(0);
			}
		}

		@Autowired(required = false)
		public void setAuthorizedClientRepository(List<OAuth2AuthorizedClientRepository> authorizedClientRepositories) {
			if (authorizedClientRepositories.size() == 1) {
				this.authorizedClientRepository = authorizedClientRepositories.get(0);
			}
		}

		@Autowired
		public void setAccessTokenResponseClient(
				Optional<OAuth2AccessTokenResponseClient<OAuth2ClientCredentialsGrantRequest>> accessTokenResponseClient) {
			accessTokenResponseClient.ifPresent(client -> this.accessTokenResponseClient = client);
		}
	}
}


text:
Brina Michelle Palencia Wingo (Oklahoma, 13 de febrero de 1984) es una actriz y cantante estadounidense de origen hondureño. Principalmente interpreta varios doblajes en inglés de anime japoneses. Dio voz al personaje de Vi Graythorn en Detective Conan, Tony Tony Chopper en One Piece, Eve en Black Cat, Honoka Sakurai en Suzuka, Enma Ai en Jigoku Shōjo, Kurumu Kurono en Rosario + Vampire, Ciel Phantomhive en Kuroshitsuji, Holo en Spice and Wolf, Juvia en Fairy Tail, y Ryōko Ōkami en Ōkami-san to Shichinin no Nakama-tachi. Como ella misma, interpretó a Sophia en el drama romántico de ciencia ficción Star-Crossed de The CW, y tuvo un papel como Ana en la serie de AMC The Walking Dead. También interpretó a LuAnn en la película de terror-comedia Lumberjack Man, que se transmitió por televisión por cable.

Biografía

Primeros años y carrera
Palencia nació y creció en Oklahoma. De niña, vivió en Honduras hasta los 4 años. Durante su niñez, estuvo en La Ceiba, Honduras y Owasso, Oklahoma. Su hermano, Gino Palencia, trabaja en Funimation como ingeniero de ADR y asistente de producción. En 2009 se casó con Paul Wingo.

Palencia finalmente se estableció en Dallas, Texas. Se graduó de la Weatherford High School en 2002. Mientras estudiaba en la Universidad del Norte de Texas (UNT), se vio influenciada por la serie de anime, Dragon Ball. Después de graduarse de la UNT con un "Bachelor of Arts in Music" en 2006, comenzó su carrera como actriz de voz para Funimation. Ella también fue directora, pero finalmente decidió convertirse en una actriz de tiempo completo.

Además de sus voces femeninas adultas, también ha sido elegida para papeles masculinos y femeninos más jóvenes. Anteriormente, fue una de las anfitrionas de GameStop TV y fue vista en varias películas independientes, como The Ladies of the House y Lumberjack Man. En 2014, obtuvo un papel protagónico como Sophia, la hermana menor de Roman, en el drama-romántico de ciencia ficción Star-Crossed de The CW.

Vida personal

Actualmente vive en Los Ángeles con su esposo Paul Wingo, con quien está en pareja desde 2001 y se casó el 5 de enero de 2013. El 12 de septiembre de 2018, Palencia anunció su primer embarazo. Dio a luz a un niño, Arthur Wingo, el 1 de febrero de 2019.

Filmografía

Cine y televisión

Videojuegos

Referencias

Enlaces externos

Actrices de Oklahoma
Actrices de Estados Unidos
Actores de voz de Estados Unidos
Actores de videojuegos
Actrices de Honduras
Alumnado de la Universidad del Norte de Texas

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
President Trump impeached on abuse of power, obstruction of Congress
Angele Latham | Editor-in-Chief 1 month ago
Photo courtesy of Getty Images
The House of Representatives voted Wednesday to impeach President Donald Trump on both articles of impeachment—a historic move that makes Trump the third president in United States history to be impeached.
After weeks of testimonies regarding Trump's dealings with Ukraine, the House passed the two articles of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.
The first article addresses Trump's abuse of power in regards to pressuring Ukraine to investigate a political opponent. The vote for the article rested almost entirely along party lines, with Democrat's 230 in support of the impeachment article, to the Republican's 197 against.
Only two democrats voted against impeachment alongside all Republicans: Representative Jeff Van Drew of New Jersey, and Representative Collin Peterson of Minnesota. The sole Independent in the House, former Republican Justin Amash from Michigan, sided with the Democrats in supporting the impeachment vote.
In a surprise move, Democrat and 2020 Presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii voted present.
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi of California voted yes, pushing the vote to 214, meeting the required margin.
The second article accused Trump of overseeing "unprecedented, categorical and indiscriminate defiance of subpoenas" issued by House members, and accused him of directing federal personnel and agencies to withhold key documents and witnesses from the House, as well as to ignore House subpoenas.
The article states "In the history of the Republic, no president has ever ordered the complete defiance of an impeachment inquiry or sought to obstruct and impede so comprehensively the ability of the House of Representatives to investigate 'high crimes and misdemeanors'."
230 Democrats voted for the passage of the impeachment, and 197 Republicans voted against.
Gabbard was once again the only Democrat to vote present.
Pelosi warned Democrats not to cheer as she announced the passage of the article, later stating that this was "a sad for America" but a "great day for the Constitution."
Pelosi continued, saying "I view this day, this vote, as something that we did to honor the vision of our founders to establish a republic, the sacrifice of our men and women in uniform to defend our democracy and the republic, and the aspirations of our children that they will always live in a democracy, and we have tried to do everything we can to make sure that that is their reality."
News of the impeachment vote reached Trump as he was hosting a rally in Michigan.
"With today's illegal unconstitutional and partisan impeachment, the do-nothing Democrats are declaring their deep hatred and disdain for the American voter," Trump said.
Trump brought attention to the fact that three Democrats voted no along with all Republicans.
"The Republican Party has never been so affronted but they have never been so united as they are right now… The Democrats always stick together. Think of it: 3 Democrats went over to our side," he said.
He also called for voters to take action against Pelosi, saying "Americans will show up by the tens of millions next year to vote Pelosi the hell out of office."
(Trump also sent a six-page long letter to Pelosi on Tuesday, calling the impeachment inquiry a "crusade" and a "spiteful…election nullification scheme." Read the full letter here.)
His focus on the Speaker is not unwarranted, as the next step for the impeachment process rests on Pelosi's shoulders.
Pelosi did not commit on Wednesday night to sending the articles of impeachment to the Senate, which will hold a trial—possibly in early January—to decide whether to convict and remove Trump from office.
Some members of the Democratic party have urged Pelosi to withhold the articles until Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell agrees to the procedures for the Senate trial that the Democrats have asked for, including bringing in witnesses like acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney.
Pelosi stated that Democrats will decide "as a group" when to send the articles to the Senate.
The White House released a statement on the impeachment, saying that "Today marks the culmination in the House of one of the most shameful political episodes in the history of our Nation. Without receiving a single Republican vote, and without providing any proof of wrongdoing, Democrats pushed illegitimate articles of impeachment against the President through the House of Representatives. Democrats have chosen to proceed on this partisan basis in spite of the fact that the President did absolutely nothing wrong. Indeed, weeks of hearings have proved that he did nothing wrong."
The statement continued, calling the impeachment a "sham" that did not give Trump "fundamental fairness and due process under the law."
"All of these antics make clear that Democrats have lost sight of what this country needs, which is a Congress that works for the people. Their boundless animus for President Trump fuels their desire to nullify the 2016 election results, and improperly influence the 2020 election."
McConnell later stated that he will peak about the impeachment process tomorrow, December 19, on the Senate floor at 9:30 a.m. ET.
At 9:30am tomorrow morning, on the Senate floor, I will speak about House Democrats' precedent-breaking impeachment of the President of the United States.
— Leader McConnell (@senatemajldr) December 19, 2019
Read the full House Judiciary Committee's report on the Impeachment process, released Monday, here.
Still feeling behind on the impeachment news? Check out this full rundown of the Trump–Ukrainian impeachment inquiry to get caught up before the Senate trial.
To contact Editor-in-Chief Angele Latham, email editor@mtsusidelines.com.
For more news, visit www.mtsusidelines.com, or follow us on Facebook at MTSU Sidelines or on Twitter at @Sidelines_News
2020ImpeachmentPresident TrumpTrumpUkraine
Previous Men's Basketball: Blue Raiders outshot in loss to Ole Miss
Next The Trump-Ukraine Impeachment Inquiry: a step-by-step summary
Angele Latham | Editor-in-Chief
New nationwide tobacco purchasing laws cause confusion for Rutherford County businesses
The Trump-Ukraine Impeachment Inquiry: a step-by-step summary
Iowa matters: how the Hawkeye state became king of the caucus
Dirhat's Lament: Kurdish student reflects on assault of his people
John Mayer's 'Search for Everything' leads to Katy Perry
MTSU Parking: Answers to all your FAQs
A millennial's guide to finance on your phone
Marissa Gaston | Managing Editor 3 years ago

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
> Discriminatory Policing
> Torture, War Crimes, & Militarism
Bari v. Held
Bari v. Held is a lawsuit that charged the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), former FBI agent-in-charge Richard Held, and the Oakland Police Department with violating Judi Bari and Darryl...
Doe v. Constant
The case was filed on behalf of three Haitian women who were brutally tortured by FRAPH. Two of the three plaintiffs were gang-raped in front of their families. A third was attacked by two FRAPH...
Center for Constitutional Rights v. Pittsburgh (Taser case)
In 2007, the CCR filed a lawsuit against the City of Pittsburgh and various City Police officers alleging that the Pittsburgh police unconstitutionally used TASERS against peaceful demonstrators at...
Codepink Pittsburgh Women for Peace et al v U.S. Secret Service et al. (G20 Protest)
CCR filed this federal suit to protect the First Amendment rights of peace, social justice and environmental justice groups to dissent and protest at and around the G-20 summit, held in Pittsburgh...
Seeds of Peace v City of Pittsburgh (G20 Protests)
This case, Seeds of Peace v. City of Pittsburgh , USDC W.D. PA, was filed on behalf of activists harassed by the police in the days before the G20 summit in Pittsburgh. It is related to the Codepink...
Frazier v. Florida Department of Education (Amicus brief)
The Center for Constitutional Rights and the public interest organization Public Good joined together to submit an amicus brief in support of the Petition for Writ of Certiorari in this case. The...
Campo Algodonero v. United Mexican States (Juarez Killings, Amicus Brief)
CCR joined as an amicus in urging the Inter-American Court of Human Rights to determine that the longstanding failure to investigate, prosecute, or prevent the crimes in this case (three in a series...
Jessica Gonzales v. The United States of America (amicus)
Amicus in support of a petition in which asserts that domestic violence victims have the right to be protected by the state from the violent acts of their abusers.
Killmon, et al. v. City of Miami, et al.
Killmon, et al. v. City of Miami, et al. is a lawsuit brought on behalf of 21 activists against 50 defendants from the City of Miami, Miami-Dade County, the Broward Sheriff's Office, the City of...
Khouzam v. Chertoff, et al. (amicus)
Abusive Immigration Practices (19) Apply Abusive Immigration Practices filter
(-) Remove Discriminatory Policing filter Discriminatory Policing
(-) Remove Torture, War Crimes, & Militarism filter Torture, War Crimes, & Militarism


but we will never know for sure. That's one side benefit of the proprietary, closed source software.
It is not that big corporations would do such horible thing to their paying customers, God forbid!
How long was the Carrier IQ package left capturing all sorts of information on an otherwise partly open source phone? Are you sure there's no other things like it out there?
What about on the server side for things like BBM, iMessage, Google Talk? Do you have the source for those to make sure there's no backdoors?
Finally, most communications - voice, SMS or unencrypted data - can be captured and decoded by the network itself.
That may indeed be the position of the Symantec mothership. No reason not to believe them.
Is this however the position of their Indian branch?
"We would never develop or help distribute a backdoor program regarding anyone's programs, mobile or otherwise. Ever."
That's a very unpatriotic attitude for an American company to take. Even if there was an ongoing war (on terror for example) that threatened the very fabric of the homeland's apple pie ?
Patriotism is for the mass. It win some votes.
Liberal economy, unregulated finances, cross-continental companies; how could it bother with patriotism?
They don't need to make a deal with the MMs, they just need to make a deal with the local distributor to preload a program that will upload all incoming/outgoing SMS/emails to some server. In many cases when you buy your phone new, you actually find the factory seal broken. The reason for that, the local shop already decided to load few programs for you and they have decided to jailbreak your phone for you*.
* this is why I always demand for a phone with the factory seal unbroken. I see no reason to jailbreak my phone when I buy it without a contract!
"In many cases when you buy your phone new, you actually find the factory seal broken."
Umm, where are you buying your phones? When I buy a new product, I expect that, a new product, unopened.
The article is about India, even though I didn't buy a phone in India (never been there), I work with few Indians and that is how they tell me it is over there. The same thing apply in the middle east and Africa (where I am right now). Don't be surprised to buy a new phone then find out that it have already been jail-broken.
It is not just limited to phones, it applies to notebooks and PCs as well. I bought a new HP notebook from Dubai, I didn't think much of it when I noticed the box have already been opened. But I did get a bit pissed to find out that they did the setup for me ("user" + "user-pc") and they loaded few "outdated" programs for me (included VLC).
Sorry that my post wasn't clear regarding the location. But in some places, unless you demand for the factory seal to be unbroken, you can get a device that already have few extra programs on it.
P.S. many not most. There are still many shops that will sell their items with the factory seal intact.
"RIM told us that it "does not typically comment on rumors or speculation," and pointed out that it has no ability to provide its customers' encryption keys and doesn't do deals with specific countries"
They presumably do deals with all countries?
What they don't deny may be significant.
>"We would never develop or help distribute a backdoor program regarding anyone's programs, mobile or otherwise. Ever."
That of course does not for one second say that they wouln't develop or help distribute an entirely legitimate lawful access program, does it? Because that's not quite the same thing as a "backdoor". None of those companies would usually deny for a second that they do co-operate with lawful access requests from governments and courts, so whatever they're denying here, it's not that, and if they regard the system discussed in the documents as lawful rather than backdoor, then I'm sure that's all the wriggle room they need to convince themselves that they can just issue denials.
As long as the company has presence in the country, the data is within reach of the government.
The story is the same, private companies have to under contract provide support for surveillance and monitoring operations required by governments.
It had already happened in the recent past when hackers claimed that German officials had a backdoor trojan for spying on Skype, and don't forget the case of Carrier IQ, a huge story that has been hidden all too fast, maybe because the small company was under a Government commitment. The risks are many because of the interference of governments and the excessive attention paid in the name of security monitoring, which can easily spill over into censorship with serious repercussions. At stake there are the human rights that monitoring technologies contribute to violate.
At risk are not citizens but also the same companies. Infact in order to grab contracts and procuremenst they form dangerous relationships with governments. This means that the same companies are increasingly targets of hackers and hacktivist groups that might, as has happened, expose secrets and patents. A disaster for those who live and earn through technology.


I have been really busy working on Yvonne's tables. They are both pretty old and were already cracking in places. Perfect candidates for chalk paint! I used Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in Old White and applied a light coat of General Finishes Antique White as the top coat. I like to combo these two – the chalk paint makes it easy to distress and the milk paint gives it a strong and harder finish. Both tables were sanded and distressed to show off their detail and then waxed in Annie Sloan clear wax. Yvonne has gorgeous gold, silk drapes in her living room and I also added a few highlights in Cere a Dorer gold gilding wax for a few bits of gold elegance.
To Shabby and Very Chic!
Tomorrow I am going to share Jane's beautiful and newly renovated dining room where the Rembrandt Red buffet is placed in the perfect spot!
They turned out beautifully and I love, love, love the hint of the gold gilding! Your accents are always so tasteful!
Just stunning, love them, yum, yum, yum!!
LOVE these 2 ornate tables! White never ceases to amaze! you can always make anything look good w/ that color! Great job Suzanne!
I love your work. Thank you for taking the time to post it. As a beginner, I feel I need more information about your technique, Thank you.
Beautiful tables to begin with, but the paint brings out the wonderful character. Gorgeous job.
Beautiful – love the gold highlghts!


Celecoxib blocks cardiac Kv1.5, Kv4.3 and Kv7.1 (KCNQ1) channels: effects on cardiac action potentials.
Marine n-3 PUFAs modulate IKs gating, channel expression, and location in membrane microdomains.
Celecoxib-induced change in atrial electrophysiologic substrate in arthritis patients.
Functional assembly of Kv7.1/Kv7.5 channels with emerging properties on vascular muscle physiology.


text:
CHRISTOPHER C. FINLAY
Middleburg, a fully integrated
multifamily development, investment,
and management company operating
in the southeastern and mid-Atlantic
US, is led by managing partner Chris
Finlay. The company's team members
share a vision for greater value cre-
ation through community impact and,
under Finlay's leadership, have created
a culture where people, property, and
partnerships enhance the lives of oth-
ers in meaningful ways that can be adapted and used by others
within the industry. Finlay's altruistic nature also surfaced in
2012, when he came across an article profiling homelessness in
Asheville, NC. As an owner and property manager of multifamily
properties, he knew he was uniquely positioned to do something
about it. He envisioned a model that would pair industry profes-
sionals with homeless individuals who wanted to work—offering a
pathway for economic independence. It was from this concept
that, in 2014, Shelters to Shutters was born. In its first full year,
Shelters to Shutters changed the lives of more than 60 individuals
including the spouses and children of individuals hired. Today,
25 property management companies have joined Shelters to
Shutters. Finlay and the Middleburg team also launched Local
Heroes, a program that respects and honors firefighters, police
officers, emergency medical technicians and K- 12 public school
teachers by providing them with a rent discount at all Middleburg
owned and developed communities. For Local Heroes,
Middleburg sets aside up to 5% of the apartment homes at each
of its properties and offers qualified participants up to a 30%
discount on base rent of leases 12 months or longer.
JONATHAN HOLTZMAN
City Club Apartments is one of the country's first international apartment brands, built on the foundation of five guiding principles—customer centric; design driven; unparalleled amenities and services; green and social responsibility; and advanced technologies. As co-founder and CEO, Jonathan Holtzman is recognized as a progressive and influential developer, investor and operator of ground-up and redeveloped historic mixed-use urban apartment communities. Prior to launching CCA in early 2016, he served as chairman, CEO and co-owner of Village Green Holdings, a $4.5-billion apartment company that was founded by his grandfather Joseph Holtzman in 1919. In June 2016, Jonathan sold his interest in Village Green's operating companies to Compatriot Capital but kept control of more than 10,000 apartments and more than $500 million in communities under various stages of development and construction in the transaction. Since that time, CCA has broken ground on three new projects in Cincinnati, Detroit and Minneapolis and will break ground on a Kansas City community by the end of September. It also formed a hospitality arm and has taken over the management of all of its communities. City Club Apartments is now committed to breaking ground on three communities a year as Holtzman continues to push the envelope in design, amenities and services.
BLAKE S. OKLAND
While Blake Okland, vice chairman and head of multifamily at Newmark Knight Frank, is exceptional at his craft and well respected inside and outside of the organization, he models a level of authenticity and humility that is rarely seen in the industry and deeply appreciated by his teams. During his tenure at ARA, Okland led the transformation of a privately held national multifamily investment sales firm to the second-largest platform of its kind, by volume. The now-global firm offers clients access to a full suite of real estate services and product types. His vision for the company led to Newmark Knight Frank's acquisition, a move that has given clients unparalleled access to a global, full-service platform as well as propelled the company's growth and industry leadership. His rapport with large institutional clients has significantly increased the firm's portfolio business and facilitated complex national and international assignments. Other hallmarks of his influence include savvy recruiting, smart expansion and foresight to merge top investment sales platforms. Okland leads by example internally and externally, is unfailingly approachable, relatable and collaborative within the company as well as across commercial real estate firms, business sectors and international counterparts. He spearheads change with a steadiness beyond his years and inspires a positive, high-principled culture throughout the organization. Beyond commercial real estate, Okland passionately supports a variety of charitable organizations focused on health and human services and encourages his team to be equally involved in their communities.
JONATHAN F.P. ROSE
Jonathan Rose, president of New York City-based Jonathan Rose Cos., is the son of New York real estate titan Frederick Rose but in his 42 years in the industry, has stepped clear of a remarkable paternal shadow. Instead, he has redefined the very intention of the projects he wanted to do, pushing them beyond structural walls and into the very fabric of the communities in which they're located. While continuing to channel his father's tutorship, he also tapped into the knowledge of various other figures ranging from the first Sumerian kings of Uruk to Jane Jacobs and James Rouse, to sociologist Robert Sampson and systems thinker Donella Meadows. From them, he has discovered what drives people to make cities for and of themselves, so that he could "more helpfully imagine multiplying—on some greater order of magnitude than a single project, building, or subdivision—to find leverage points to 'repair the fabric' of, and bring transformation into, the sore, core, stressed, and sometimes broken sinews of a locale's economy, society, reason for being, and capacity to continue." From the seminal Denver Dry Goods Building to recent, much-heralded unveilings such as Via Verde in the Bronx and the just started Sendeo Verde project in Harlem, his projects have been singular in how inclusive, generative, adaptive and conscious of the ecosystem they are.


text:
THE FLORIDA NATIVE
Ron Algood – Editor-in-Chief
Category: LGBT
A Long Time Ago, on a Dance Floor, Far Far Away
By Terrance Moon
TAMPA, Fla. – "The man leads and the lady follows, is a dogma of the dance world that sounds as barbaric as it is outdated," says Ron Algood, a ballroom dance instructor in Tampa Fla. that specializes in first wedding dances. According to Algood, times have changed. He believes in a more modern approach, based in aesthetics and inclusion.
"Every movement the leader does on the dance floor should make the follower look better, not the other way around. The leader is the frame, and the follower is the picture," Algood says. It's a much smoother approach to an old teaching method that frankly, was too authoritarian. Besides, who wants to dance with someone that's bossing you around? Dancing should not only be fun, but inclusive."
That's why dancing together for one's first wedding dance or simply to enhance one's relationship is now for everyone, including the LGBT community. Algood should know. He was one of the first gold-certified dance instructors in Tampa that welcomed Gays and Lesbians into his studio back in the 1990s. However, now that he's specializing in wedding dances, one would think his former LGBT students have dissipated—not so.
Although same sex weddings are not yet legal in Florida, Algood says it's only a matter of time. Besides, nearly half of his students are learning to ballroom dance for various reasons. Social dance halls that specialize in ballroom dancing are popping up everywhere. They're inexpensive, smoke free, and according to Algood, offer a relaxed atmosphere that welcomes all couples, including same-sex ones.
"As far as know, I was the first," says Algood. "I went dancing at this Country & Western club call the Neon Moon back in the 90s. At the time, I didn't even know it was considered an LGBT establishment. As it turned out, my professional partner and I tripped the light fantastic till the place closed. Afterwards, several couples asked for my card; I guess they figured out we were instructors by our dancing skills. Anyway, they became my first LGBT students."
According to Algood, they also became the first students that exemplified his modern teaching theory.
Teaching the LGBT community to dance has one benefit that's exclusive to them: They can switch roles (leader vs. follower) even in the middle of a lesson. Most couples start out with a pre-determined leader and follower. But in dance, sometimes one partner can do better in a different role than the one previously assigned. That's where their flexibility and his teaching method join forces to create a beautiful picture.
"I think it keeps things exciting. I particularly remember this one couple, two middle-aged women, one with great rhythm, one not so great. Consequently, they were struggling. Half way through the lesson I suggested they switch roles, just for the fun of it. That did it," Algood said. They became great dancers, and I was thankful to them for being open-minded and willing to try something new. Likewise, they seem to really appreciate the fact that I knew both the traditional female and male particulars of ballroom dancing, even though I'm straight. For me, it's all about teaching the gift dance, not about someone's sexual preference."
Ron Algood is a Tampa native and a graduate of The University of South Florida. He and his wife, Carolyn, are former competitors and FSF champions. He has taught couples ballroom dancing for more than 25 years. He specializes in teaching First Wedding Dances and LGBT couples. Gift certificates for all occasions are available. He can be reached at (813) 417-3262 or info@foreverweddingdances.com
Ron Algood	Brides, Dance, Grooms, Honeymoons, LGBT, Tampa, Wedding	Leave a comment September 7, 2014 September 8, 2014 2 Minutes
If you build it they will grow
Ron Algood's JOU2100 blog


text:
\section{Introduction}

Perceptual completion is a low level visual process studied for more than a century, starting  from the pioneers of the phenomenology of the Gestalt \cite{MWert}. The psychologist Gaetano Kanizsa introduced in \cite{Kanizsa1979} a number of stunning examples of images allowing to clearly perceive the phenomenon of pop up of illusory figures. For example in fig. 1) a triangle with curved boundaries is perceived out of the three pac-men inducers. Kanizsa called this pop up effect "modal completion" because the illusory figure and its boundaries is really perceived with the modality of vision, while the three pac-men are completed to disks with "a-modal completion", meaning that they remain invisible, partially masked by the triangle.
\begin{figure}[H] \label{kanizsa}
\begin{center}
\includegraphics[width=7.5cm]{kanizsa.png}
\end{center}
\caption{The Kanizsa triangle with curved boundaries. Notes the pop up of the illusory triangle out of  the three pacman inducers. }
\end{figure}

A starting point to afford the task of modal completion is to consider illusory boundaries \cite{PetryMeyer1987, RingachShapley, Kanizsa1979}  and a number of mathematical models have been proposed on this topic. The celebrated model of elastica has been introduced by D.Mumford in \cite {Mumford94} to take into account curvilinear illusory boundaries. Williams and Jacobs proposed a stochastic version of completion fields \cite{WilliamsJacobs}. Recent models of boundary completion are based on the neurogeometrical structure of the visual cortex and they showed a strong explicative power of  perceptual completion. The first neurogeometrical model  has been introduced by Petitot and Y.Tondut  \cite{PetitotTondut} to describe the
functional architecture of the visual cortex with instruments of differential geometry. In particular in  \cite{PetitotTondut} the hypercolumnar structure of the
simple cells organization, responsible for contour detection, is modelled  as a fiber bundle   (see also section 2.2  below). The model has been further developed by Citti and Sarti
\cite{CittiSarti}, \cite{SartiCittiPetitot} who proposed to interpret the whole fiber bundle as the group of position and orientation with a subriemannian metric. This metric allows to reconstruct  rectilinear or curved illusory boundaries.
Other models of  boundary completion have been developed  in the same space \cite{AugustZucker, BenShaharZucker, GuyShahar, RenMalik, Duits1,  Duits2, HladkyPauls, WilliamsJacobs}.

The problem of modal completion of both boundaries and figures together has been much less covered in literature.
In \cite{NMS} modal completion has been achieved by non-linear functional minimization by means of combinatorial techniques.
In \cite{Sarti1}\cite{Sarti2} it was proposed a technique to construct the Kanizsa triangle by minimization of an area functional measured with respect to a metric induced by the image. In both models \cite{NMS} and  \cite{Sarti1} a complete boundary/figure reconstruction was provided but a correct filling in of figures with the perceived brighness is still missing.

In this paper we would like to introduce a formal field theory of low level vision, able to afford the
problem of modal completion. The theory will couple two models of low level vision, i.e. a neurogeometrical model of boundary completion and  the celebrated retinex algorithm as a model for filling in.
In particular we will show that it is possible to integrate the retinex  model
of \cite{Georgiev1} with the neurogeometrical approach of  \cite{CittiSarti}
and to propose a new model of  modal completion, based on complete contrast invariance.
The two equations will act as a particle and a field term of a complete Gauge field theory.

The paper is organized as follows. In section 2 we recall the main properties of the Retinex algorithm and the neurogeometrical model, and reinterpret them with instruments of gauge field theory. In section 3 we couple the models by introducing a complete gauge field Lagrangian. The corresponding Euler Lagrange equations are calculated by variational calculus. In section 4 the Euler Lagrange equations are solved, providing results on the pop up of the Kanizsa figure. In Section 5 a plausible neural implementation of the model is proposed and discussed.

\section{The retinex algorithm and the neurogeometrical model}

In this section we recall the main properties of two previously recalled models retinex and the neurogeometrical one. The retinex algorithm has been inspired by the functionality of the retina in detecting image gradients and implementing contrast invariance. The second one has been inspired by the ability of the cortex to detect and complete  boundaries.  We will provide here a short description of the two processes, stressing the similarity of the mathematical instruments adopted by both.
\subsection{A mathematical interpretation of the Retinex algorithm}
The celebrated retinex model has been introduced in  \cite{LandCann}\cite{Land} to explain   lightness perception, i.e. the phenomenon causing a  gray patch to appear  brighter  when viewed against a dark background,  and darker  when viewed  against a bright background. Here, we are more interested in his capacity of filling in figures from boundaries.
After its introduction this model has inspired a
wide range of  improvements and new models have been proposed \cite{BrainardWandell,McCann,LeiZhouLi,Provenzi,Hurlbert, Kimmel}.

In Horn's work \cite{Horn}  the authors proposed a physically based algorithm, which recovers the
reflectance $f$ of an image $I$ as
\begin{equation}\label{logretinexclassical}
 \Delta log f = \Delta log I.
\end{equation}

In \cite{Morel}, it has been proved that the original Retinex algorithm can be equivalently espressed by the same equation.
Precisely then Retinex is equivalent to a
Neumann problem for a linear  equation. The  equation is identical
to the Poisson equation for image editing   proposed in Perez
et al. \cite{Perez}.
 In  \cite{Georgiev1} a new interpretation was given in terms of covariant derivatives and fiber bundles. Indeed
setting \begin{equation}\label{AgradI}{\vec{A}}= \nabla I/I\end{equation}
equation \ref{logretinexclassical} can be considered the Euler Lagrange equation of the functional
\begin{equation}\label{ffunctional}
\tilde{F}=\int \frac{|\nabla f -{\vec{A}} f |^2}{f^2} dx dy.
\end{equation}
This functional is invariant with respect to the transformation
\begin{equation}
f \to fI, \quad {\vec{A}} \to {\vec{A}} + \frac{\nabla I}{I}
\end{equation}
so that the choice $ {\vec{A}} = \frac{\nabla I}{I}$ is compatible with the transformations which
leaves invariant the functional. The quantity
 $\nabla f - {\vec{A}} f$
can be interpreted as a covariant derivative.

Also note that, setting
\begin{equation}\label{logset}
 \phi= log f , \quad h= log I,
\end{equation}
equation \ref{logretinexclassical} further simplify as
\begin{equation}\label{logfieldset}
 \Delta\phi =  \Delta h
\end{equation}
and with the same choice as before: ${\vec{A}} = \nabla I /I=\nabla g$ the functional becomes
\begin{equation}\label{functional}
F=\int |\nabla \phi - {\vec{A}} |^2 dx dy=\int |\nabla \phi - \nabla h |^2 dx dy,
\end{equation}
while the transformations which leave invariant the operator become
\begin{equation}
\phi \to \phi + h, \quad {\vec{A}} \to {\vec{A}} + \nabla h.
\end{equation}

\subsection{A neurogeometrical  model for boundary completion}
Let us recall here the neurogeometrical model of boundary completion proposed by  \cite{CittiSarti}.
 The model mimic the ability of simple cells of detecting boundaries
and level lines of images, and to complete missing boundaries.

The retina can be modelled as a 2D plane, whose points will be denoted by $(x,y)$.
Over each retinic point $(x,y)$ the primary visual cortex implements a whole fiber of cells, each one sensible to a
specific direction $\theta$. Hence the set of simple cells is identified with the 3D space $R^2 \times S^1$.
A visual stimulus will be expressed as an image $I(x,y)$ defined on the retinal 2D plane, and we will denote $\bar \theta(x,y)$  the orientation  of his level lines   at every point.
In presence of a visual stimulus, at every point $(x,y)$ the simple cell sensible to the
orientation $\bar \theta(x,y)$ will be maximally activated. Hence  the set of
activated cells defines a surface  in the 3D cortical space  $R^2\times S^1$
$$\Sigma=\{(x,y,\theta): \theta = \bar \theta (x,y), |\nabla I (x,y)|>C \} .$$ The condition on the gradient of $I$ is a treshold, which ensures that
the function $\bar \theta$ is well defined around boudaries of the image. If we set $\bar H(x,y,\theta)= \theta - \bar \theta (x,y)$, $\Sigma$ will be identified with the 0-level set of $\bar H$: $$\Sigma=\{ \bar H(x,y,\theta) = 0,  |\nabla I (x,y)|>C\}  .$$
Simple cells are connected one to the other by the so called cortico-cortical connectivity.
 This connectivity is strongly anysotropic, and a cell  located at a point $(x,y)$ and sensible to an orientation $\theta$
mainly propagate in the direction of its orientation $\theta$.
More precisely the connectivity allows a propagation of the signal in the  $R^2\times S^1$ along the integral curves of the vector fields
\begin{equation}\label{fields} X_1 = cos(\theta) \partial_x + \sin(\theta) \partial_y,\quad  X_2 = \partial_\theta. \end{equation}

Propagation along the cortical connectivity
seems to be at the basis of the process of boundary completion. Indeed the lifted surface $\Sigma$
is not defined on the whole space, but only over the region where boundaries or level lines are detected.
The joint action of orientation detection and cortical propagation along the vector fields
completes the surface extending it on the set $\{|\nabla I|< C\}$. In \cite{CittiSarti} it is shown that it can be  expressed as the solution of the
minimal surface equation
\begin{equation}\label{minimal} X_1 \Big( \frac{X_1 H}{\sqrt{|X_1 H|^2 + |X_2 H|^2}}  \Big) + X_2 \Big(\frac{X_2 H }{\sqrt{|X_1 H|^2 + |X_2  H|^2}}\Big) =0, \text{ on }| \nabla I|<C\end{equation}
with internal boundary condition
$$H=\bar H \text{ on }|\nabla I| =C.$$ This last condition ensures that the existing boundaries are preserved,
while the orientations of illusory boundaries or level lines are recovered as the 0 level set of the solution $H$.

This model  performs completion of boundaries, giving rise to illusory contours, and of level lines, giving rise to amodal completion, as in the case of the macula cieca. But it is unable to perform filling
when the level lines of the image are parallel to the missing or occluded regions, as in the case of modal completion of the Kanizsa triangle.

We explicitly note that this is a model of cortical 3D space of position and orientations.
On the other hand the model defines a surface, that can be also expressed as a graph on the 2D space.

In facts, if we  project the previous two vector fields on the $x,y$ plane, we end up with a unique derivative
\begin{equation}\label{field1} X_{1 \theta} = cos(\theta (x,y)) \partial_x + \sin(\theta(x,y) ) \partial_y = <\nabla, (\cos(\theta (x,y)), \sin(\theta (x,y)))> \end{equation}
since the projection of the vector $X_2$ on the same plane is $0$.
We explicitly note that the vector $X_{1 \theta}$ here is only formally similar to the vector  $X_{1}$  in (\ref{fields}). Indeed  $\theta(x,y)$  in \ref{field1} is a function
while in  (\ref{fields}) $\theta$ was simply  an axis of the 3D space.

The minimal surfaces equation can now be represented as the equation for a graph of $\theta(x,y)$, which is a function of the two variables $(x,y)$ alone. Hence the equation becomes:
\begin{equation}\label{minimal1} X_{1 \theta} \Big( \frac{X_{1 \theta} \theta(x,y) }{\sqrt{|X_{1 \theta} \theta(x,y) |^2 +1}}  \Big)  =0, \end{equation}
where $\theta$ coincides with $\bar \theta$ on the existing boundaries.
Taking explicitly the derivative, the equation is equivalent to
 \begin{equation}\label{minimal1} X_{1 \theta}^2 \theta(x,y) =0, \end{equation}
This equation can be interpreted as a second order directional derivative, in the direction $(\cos(\theta), \sin(\theta))$.
Hence the norm, of the gradient coincides with the directional derivative:
\begin{equation}\label{norm}|v|_\theta^2= \Big( <v, (\cos(\theta), \sin(\theta))> \Big)^2 =\cos^2 (\theta) v^2_x + \sin^2 (\theta) v_y^2 + 2 \cos(\theta) \sin(\theta)v_x v_y.\end{equation}
The projected norm of the gradient of $\theta$ reads:
$$ |\nabla \theta |_\theta^2= |\cos(\theta) \partial_x \theta +\sin(\theta) \partial_y \theta|^2  = $$$$=\cos(\theta)^2|\partial_x \theta|^2 + 2 \cos(\theta)\sin(\theta) \partial_x \theta \partial_y \theta + \sin(\theta)^2 |\partial_y \theta|^2. $$
It's easy to check that the second order equation \eqref{minimal1}  is simply the Euler Langrangian equation of the Dirichlet  functional \begin{equation}\label{tetafunctional}\int |\nabla \theta(x,y) |_\theta^2dx dy. \end{equation}
Hence minima of this functional
give rise to the same minimal graphs proposed in \cite{CittiSarti} for boundary propagation (see also  \cite{Barbieri} for a detailed proof).

\section{The Gauge field model}

\subsection{The Lagrangian}

We will provide a description of the low level vision process taking into account both the retinex model and the cortical neurogeometry. The task will be accomplished by considering the retinex model of Section 2.1 as the particle term and the cortical model of Section 2.2 as the field term of a classical gauge field  theory.

In this way we will obtain an analogous of the classical theory of electromagnetism where both the particle and the fields are the unknown of the problem.
Indeed, instead of equation (\ref{functional}) we propose a complete Lagrangian, sum of three terms:
a particle term, an interaction term and a field term.

The particle term is
\begin{equation}
\mathcal{L}_1 =  \int |d \phi - d h |^2 dx dy
\end{equation}
and  is directly inspired by the retinex model \ref{functional}: it describes the reconstruction of the image from image  boundaries. As described above it implements the perceptual invariance with respects to contrast.
The next term describes the interaction beetween particle and field and it is again a retinex term acting not anymore on existing boundaries but on existing and illusory boundaries marked by the gauge field ${\vec{A}}$, that now is unknown:

\begin{equation}
\mathcal{L}_2 =  \int |d \phi - {\vec{A}} |^2 dx dy.
\end{equation}
It expresses the reconstruction of the image from the old and new boundaries  explaining perceptual figure  completion, by  keeping contrast invariance properties. We explicitly note that in the minimization process ${\vec{A}}$ will have the direction of $\nabla \phi$, hence it will tend to be orthogonal to the existing boundaries or level lines. The orthogonality condition can be expressed in terms of directional derivatives in the direction of ${\vec{A}}$.

Finally the gauge field term will be analogous to the one of classical fields theories:
\begin{equation} \label{GF}
\tilde{{\mathcal{L}}}_3=\int |d {\vec{A}} |^2  dx dy.
\end{equation}
In our case it expresses the propagation of existing contours allowing the creation of subjective contours, and it will be modified accordingly to the
the model presented in Section in 2.2, making use of the previously recalled subriemannian metric.
In fact, propagation is expected in the direction of the boundary, which is orthogonal to ${\vec{A}}$: ${\vec{A}}^\bot=(-A_y, A_x)$.
Since this  vector is not unitary, we will
normalize it to reduce to the norm defined in (\ref{norm}).
The induced squared norm of $v$ reads:
$$|v|_{\vec{A}}^2= \Big( \frac{<v, {\vec{A}}>}{\sqrt{A_x^2 +A_y^2}} \Big)^2 =\frac{(-A_y v_x  +  A_xv_y)^2 }{A_x^2 + A_y^2}= \frac{A_y^2 v_x^2 - 2 A_xA_y v_xv_y +  A_x^2 v_y^2 }{A_x^2 + A_y^2}.$$

Equivalently, if we call \begin{equation}\label{matrixg}G=(g^{ij})_{i,j = 1,2}=\left(\begin{matrix}
\frac{A_y^2}{A_x^2 + A_y^2} & \frac{-A_xA_y}{A_x^2 + A_y^2}\\ \frac{-A_xA_y}{A_x^2 + A_y^2}&\frac{A_x^2}{A_x^2 + A_y^2}
\end{matrix}\right),\end{equation}

this norm can be computed as
$$|v|_{\vec{A}}^2 = <Gv, v>,$$
hence the norm is formally the norm associated to the matrix $G=(g^{ij})$. In this setting $G$ is not invertile. On the contrary, in the riemannian setting, $G$ is invertible, and it has the role of the inverse of the metric of the space. When needed we will assume to introduce a small perturbation which makes its determinant non zero:
$$G_\epsilon=\left(\begin{matrix}
\frac{A_y^2 + \epsilon^2 A_x^2}{A_x^2 + A_y^2} &\frac{-A_xA_y(1- \epsilon^2)}{A_x^2 + A_y^2}\\ \frac{-A_xA_y(1- \epsilon^2)}{A_x^2 + A_y^2}&\frac{A_x^2 +\epsilon^2 A_y^2}{A_x^2 + A_y^2}
\end{matrix}\right).$$
We recall that the differential of ${\vec{A}}$ is independent of the norm chosen, and it is the usual curl operator:
$$d{\vec{A}} = curl ({\vec{A}}) =\partial_x A_y - \partial_y A_x.$$

The resulting  functional $\mathcal{L}=\mathcal{L}_1+\mathcal{L}_2 + \mathcal{L}_3$ is then
\begin{equation}\label{functionalnorm}
\mathcal{L}(h, \phi, {\vec{A}})=\int |d \phi - d h |^2 dx dy+\int |d \phi - {\vec{A}} |^2  dx dy + \int |d{\vec{A}}|_{ {\vec{A}}}^2    dx dy.
\end{equation}

\subsection{The Euler Lagrange equation}

The
Euler Lagrange Equation of the functional \ref{functionalnorm} becomes:
\begin{equation} \label{Euler}\Bigg\{\begin{matrix}  \Delta \phi =\frac{1}{2}( \Delta h + div ({\vec{A}})) \\ d_{\vec{A}}^*d{\vec{A}} =- \nabla_{\vec{A}} \phi + {\vec{A}}. \end{matrix} \end{equation}

These equations clearly have the meaning inherited by the corresponding terms of the functional:
the first term is the particle equation that takes the two boundary terms (i.e. the rescaled Laplacian $\Delta g $ of the original image and the contribution $div ({\vec{A}})$ generated by the gauge field ${\vec{A}}$ and performs a reconstruction of the image by filling in objects. Note that the two terms $\mathcal{L}_1$ and $\mathcal{L}_2$ which generalize the retinex
functional give rise to an unique particle equation.

Note that  ${\vec{A}}=(A_x, A_y)$ is a vector, hence the equation for ${\vec{A}}$  is indeed a system.
In the same equation the directional gradient is defined as
$$ \nabla_{\vec{A}} \phi = G \nabla \phi,$$

where $G$ is defined in (\ref{matrixg}).

The term $d_{\vec{A}}^*d$ coincides   with $   \nabla_{\vec{A}} ^\bot \;  curl ({\vec{A}})$
(see Appendix A) and precisely:
$$d_{\vec{A}}^*d{\vec{A}}=   \nabla_{\vec{A}} ^\bot\;  curl ({\vec{A}}) =- (\nabla_{\vec{A}} (\partial_xA_y- \partial_yA_x))_y  dx + (\nabla_{\vec{A}} (\partial_xA_y- \partial_yA_x))_x  dy.$$
(Here $A_x$ denotes the $x$ component of ${\vec{A}}$, not the derivative).
In Appendix A we provide its explicit expression as  sum of three terms:
$$ d_{\vec{A}}^*d{\vec{A}} =  \left\{ \begin{matrix} \Delta_{{\vec{A}}} A_x    - \partial_x a + T_x({\vec{A}}) \\  \\
 \Delta_{{\vec{A}}} A_y     - \partial_y a + T_y({\vec{A}})   \end{matrix}\right.$$
The terms $\Delta _{\vec{A}}$, $T_x({\vec{A}})$,  $T_y({\vec{A}})$ are defined in (\ref{T12h}). Precisely $\Delta _{\vec{A}} = div (\nabla_{\vec{A}})$ is the directional Laplacian associated to the considered metric.
 $ T_x({\vec{A}}),  T_y({\vec{A}})$ are advection terms, with coefficients depending on the metric, and
$$a=  g^{12} \partial_{x} A_y +  g^{22}\partial_{y} A_y   + g^{11} \partial_{x }A_x   + g^{12} \partial_{y }A_x.$$

The field equation on ${\vec{A}}$ propagates the gradient of the image, in the subriemmanian metric, and allows to recover existing and subjective boundaries. We explicitly note that the equation is of second order in the variable ${\vec{A}}$. In general functional of higher order are necessary to obtain completion of
curved boundaries (as for example in the model of elastica \cite{Mumford94}). However here the field ${\vec{A}}$ has
the role of approximating the gradient of the image, following the lagrangian $L_2$, hence its second derivatives express third derivatives of the image function.

\subsubsection{Nonlinearity of the equation}

We remark that the differential equation for ${\vec{A}}$ is non linear, in the sense that the metric $G$  depends on ${\vec{A}}$
This means that we need to find an initial approximated solution ${\vec{A}}_0$. A natural choice is the solution
of the vector  Laplace equation
$$  \Delta {\vec{A}}_0  = \nabla\phi.$$
Of course this is only an approximated solution ${\vec{A}}_0$, but we can recover a better one ${\vec{A}}_1$ as a solution of
$$d_{{\vec{A}}_0}^*d    {\vec{A}}_1  =  \nabla_{{\vec{A}}_0}\phi,$$
using the subriemmannian operator associated to ${\vec{A}}_0$. Recall that $\nabla_{{\vec{A}}_0} = G\nabla$. From here we start an iteration:
$$d_{{\vec{A}}_1}^*d   {\vec{A}}_2  = \nabla _{{\vec{A}}_1}\phi, \cdots \quad  d_{{\vec{A}}_{j-1}} ^*d  {\vec{A}}_j  = \nabla _{{\vec{A}}_{j-1}}\phi$$
At each step we get a better approximation of the solution, moreover the sequence has a limit ${\vec{A}}= \lim_{j\rightarrow +\infty} {\vec{A}}_j$.
Passing to the limit in the previous expression, we will get:
$$ d_{{\vec{A}}}^*d{\vec{A}} = \nabla_{{\vec{A}}}\phi,$$
so that the limit provides a solution of the nonlinear equation.

\subsubsection{Invariance properties and  choice of the gauge}

The functional $\mathcal {L}$ is invariant with respect to the transformations:
$$h \to h' = h + f,\;\; \phi\to \phi' = \phi + f, \;\; {\vec{A}}\to {\vec{A}}' = {\vec{A}} + d f$$
Indeed  $$d\phi'-dh' =  d\phi-dh,\quad  d\phi'-A' = d\phi-A, \quad d{\vec{A}}'= d{\vec{A}} + ddf= d{\vec{A}}$$
since  $d^2 f= curl df =0$.
This implies that the functional assumes the same values on $(h,\phi, {\vec{A}})$ and  $(h',\phi', {\vec{A}}')$
$$\mathcal{L}(h,\phi, {\vec{A}})=\mathcal{L} (h',\phi', {\vec{A}}').$$

Since the equation is invariant with respect to the choice of the gauge $f$, we can freely choose it, and the choice of the gauge will not affect the value of the Lagrangian. Hence we will make the choice which decouples and symplifies  the system, imposing $a=0$. Since  ${\vec{A}}= {\vec{A}}'-df,$  the expression of $a$ reduces to
$$a=  g^{12} \partial_{x}( A'_y  - \partial_y f)+  g^{22}\partial_{y} ( A'_y - \partial_y f)   + g^{11} \partial_{x }( A'_x - \partial_x f)   + g^{12} \partial_{y }( A'_x  - \partial_x f),$$
where $f$ is an arbitrary choosen gauge function.
To obtain $a=0$ we choose the function  $f$ as a solution of $$  g^{22}\partial_{yy} f  + g^{11} \partial_{xx }f + 2 g^{12} \partial_{yx}f=   g^{12} \partial_{x} A'_y  +  g^{22}\partial_{y}  A'_y   + g^{11} \partial_{x } A'_x   + g^{12} \partial_{y } A'_x,$$
that   is  a second order subriemannian differential equation.

With this choice of the gauge, the second order term of the system reduces to the simpler form:

$$ d_{\vec{A}}^*d{\vec{A}} =  \left\{ \begin{matrix} \Delta_{{\vec{A}}} A_x      + T_x({\vec{A}}) \\  \\
 \Delta_{{\vec{A}}} A_y   + T_y({\vec{A}})   \end{matrix}\right.$$
where
$$
 \Delta_{{\vec{A}}} f   =  div(  \nabla_{\vec{A}} f)  =  \frac{A_y^2\partial_{xx} f -2 A_xA_y \partial_{xy} f +  A_x^2 \partial_{yy} f }{A_x^2 + A_y^2 }$$ $$
T_x(\vec{A})=  -\partial_{y} g^{11}\partial_{x} A_x - \partial_{y}g^{12} \partial_{y} A_x - \partial_{x}g^{21}\partial_{x}A_y-\partial_{x}g^{22}\partial_{y}A_y
$$$$
T_y(\vec{A})=- \partial_{y}g^{12} \partial_{x} A_y -  \partial_{y}g^{22}\partial_{y} A_y  - \partial_{x}g^{11} \partial_{x }A_x - \partial_{x}g^{12} \partial_{y }A_x .
$$
In conclusion we can rewrite the Euler Lagrange equation (\ref{Euler}) in the  form

\begin{equation} \label{Euler1}\Bigg\{\begin{matrix}  \Delta \phi =\frac{1}{2}( \Delta h + div ({\vec{A}})) \\
 \Delta_{{\vec{A}}} {\vec{A}}  + T({\vec{A}})=- \nabla_{\vec{A}} \phi + {\vec{A}}. \end{matrix} \end{equation}

\subsection{Solution of Euler Lagrange equations}

The implementation of the algorithm consists in solving  the  system of coupled differential equation sequentially.
We first apply the retinex equation to the initial image:
\begin{equation}\label{deltafi}  \Delta \phi = \frac{1}{2} \Delta h\end{equation}
and solve it by convolution
$$ \phi= \frac{1}{2}\Big(\Gamma(x,y)* \Delta h\Big)$$
with the fundamental solution of the 2D Laplacian:
$$\Gamma (x,y) = log(|(x,y)|) .$$

Then we solve the field equation for boundaries propagation. In this first phase we choose ${\vec{A}}=0$ in the right hand side, and the
nonlinear equation reduces to
$$  \Delta _{{\vec{A}}}{\vec{A}} +\vec{T}({\vec{A}})= \nabla\phi.$$
As we explained in the previous section, this equation will be solved by linearization, stopped after the first two steps:
\begin{equation}
\left\{
\begin{matrix}\label{system}
  \Delta {\vec{A}}_0  = \nabla\phi\\
  \Delta_{{\vec{A}}_0}{\vec{A}}_1 +\vec{T}({\vec{A}}) = \nabla\phi.\end{matrix}
\right.
\end{equation}
The solution of the first equation  in \eqref{system} can be computed by convolution
$${\vec{A}}_0 =\vec{ \Gamma} * \nabla \phi,$$
where $\vec{ \Gamma}(x,y)=(log(|(x,y)|),log(|(x,y)|))$ is the fundamental solution of  the vector Laplacian. When applied to the Kanizsa inducers, the solution ${\vec{A}}_0$ is visualized in Figure \ref{A_lin}, where the triangle inducers have been manually selected (Figure \ref{grad_ind}).

\begin{figure}[H] \label{grad_ind}
\begin{center}
	\includegraphics[width=6.5cm]{Ax.png}\; \;
	\includegraphics[width=6.5cm]{Ay.png}
\end{center}
	\caption{The $x$ and $y$ components of $\nabla h$ related to the Kanizsa triangle inducers. }
	\end{figure}

	\begin{figure}[H] \label{A_lin}
	\centering
	\includegraphics[width=5.5cm]{vectorfield.png}
	\caption{The normalized field ${\vec{A}}_0$ generated by the Kanizsa triangle inducers. }
	\end{figure}

The second equation in the same system is a liner degenerate equation.
If we approximate the matrix $G_{{\vec{A}}_0}$ with its riemannian approximation $\mathbb G_\epsilon$,
it becomes elliptic.
The solution of the linear elliptic differential equation
$$\Delta_{ \epsilon  {\vec{A}}_0 } {\vec{A}}_1+\vec{T}({\vec{A}})= \nabla \phi$$
provides a good approximation of solution of the second equation in \eqref{system} and it can be obtained by  finite differences methods (centered differences in space). The solution ${\vec{A}}_1$ is shown in Figure \ref{A_ind}.

\begin{figure}[H] \label{A_ind}
\begin{center}
	\includegraphics[width=6.5cm]{Ax_complete.png}\; \;
	\includegraphics[width=6.5cm]{Ay_complete.png}
\end{center}
	\caption{The x and y components of the gauge field ${\vec{A}}_1$ related to the Kanizsa triangle  inducers.  ${\vec{A}}_1$ is an approximation of the field ${\vec{A}}$, solution of the gauge field equation.}
	\end{figure}

Since particle and field equations are coupled we can now solve the complete particle equation

\begin{equation}\label{complete}
 \phi= \frac{1}{2}\Gamma(x,y)* \Big(\Delta h+\frac{1}{2}(div({\vec{A}}_1)\Big)
\end{equation}

again by convolution with the fundamental solution $\Gamma$.
This is a version of the retinex equation able to reconstruct the original image together with the subjective surface. In Figure \ref{reconst_fig} left  it is visualized the forcing term $\frac{1}{2}(\Delta h+div({\vec{A}}_1))$ of the particle equation while in Figure \ref{reconst_fig} right the solution $\phi$ is shown.

\begin{figure}[H] \label{reconst_fig}
	\centering
         \includegraphics[width=6.5cm]{boundaries.png}\; \;
	\includegraphics[width=6.5cm]{kanizsa2.pdf}
	\caption{Left: The forcing term $\frac{1}{2}(\Delta h+div({\vec{A}}_1))$ of the particle equation. Right: The reconstructed Kanizsa triangle as the solution $\phi$ of the particle equation.}
	\end{figure}

\subsection{A neural implementation in LGN and Cortex}

In order to further support our model, we will discuss how the different terms of the Lagrangian can be implemented in neurophysiological structures.

We recall that the visual signal is first elaborated by the retina whose receptive profiles are  well modeled by the classical  Laplacian of Gaussian:
$$\Delta {\it G}_\sigma = \Delta e^\frac{- x^2}{2 \sigma^2},$$
where $\Delta$ is the standard Laplacian.
We can observe that the same receptive profiles are found in the Lateral Geniculate Nucleus (LGN), that is a copy of the retina but stricly in contact with the visual cortex.
The action of these receptive fields  on the visual signal can be represented as the output of the neural cell
$$\Delta {\it G}_\sigma * \log I =\Delta h$$
where $g$ is a smoothed version of the  $\log I$ and the logarithmic function is due to the non linearity of the cell response.
The output of LGN cells is propagated via the horizontal connectivity in LGN. Since this connectivity is isotropic, it can be
modeled with the fundamental solution $\Gamma (x,y)$ of the
2D Laplacian operator.
LGN horizontal connectivity with strength $\Gamma (x,y) $ acts linearly on the feedforward input $h$, giving a total contribution
$$ \phi= \frac{1}{2}\Big(\Gamma* \Delta h\Big).$$
This is exactly the solution
 of the Laplacian
 equation (\ref{deltafi}) of the particle term, implementing the reconstruction of the image from the boundaries. Note that the action of receptive profiles $\Delta h(x,y)$ and the one of LGN horizontal connectivity $\Gamma (x,y) *$ is dual in a differential sense.

The gauge field equation in ${\vec{A}}$ performs boundaries propagation and we will conjecture now how it is implemented at the cortical level.  Simple cells performs stimulus differentiation $\nabla \phi$ that is propagated by horizontal connectivity in the direction of the stimulus orientation\cite{Bosking,Angelucci}. For this reason horizontal connectivity can be modelled by the fundamental solution of  the vector Laplacian $\vec\Gamma(x,y)$ and the total connectivity excited by the stimulus can be accounted as
$${\vec{A}}_0 =\vec{ \Gamma} * \nabla \phi.$$
Now, the feedforward output of simple cells $\nabla \phi$  is propagated by the excited connectivity ${\vec{A}}_0$ generating the distribution ${\vec{A}}_1$, solution of:
 $$\Delta_{{\vec{A}}_0}{\vec{A}}_1  +\vec{T}({\vec{A}})= \nabla\phi.$$
 We have shown in \cite{CittiSarti} that  ${\vec{A}}_1$ is the field tangent to the perceptual association fields measured by Fields, Hayes and Hess in \cite{FHH} and it is cortically  implemented by means of horizontal connectivity propagation.

Finally, the forcing term ${\vec{A}}$ in the particle equation can be interpreted as the feedback of the cortical processing to LGN, showing the strength of the gauge field theory in coupling the activity
of different physiological layers.
Equation (\ref{complete})  is again the retinex equation, but with the feedback from V1 that takes into account illusory boundaries.

\section{Conclusions}
In this paper we made the effort to  construct a formal field theory of low level vision.  Contemporary instruments of field theory based on Gauge invariances have been used to introduce a complete Lagrangian with its particle, interaction and field terms.
The Lagrangian couples two well known models for lightness and boundary propagation, i.e. the retinex and the neurogeometrical models.  Particularly the problem of modal completion of illusory figures is faced and it is shown how the Euler-Lagrange field equations well represent the process of constitution of the Kanizsa triangle with curved boundaries.
But the interest of the model overcome the formal analogy with particle-fields physical  theory.
In facts it has to be considered as a plausible model for the interaction between different structures of the visual systems, particularly regarding the coupling between the activity of LGN and the one of the visual cortex.
The Gauge Lagrangian formulation seems to be strongly enough to describe both the feedforward and the  feedback processes of low level vision, by keeping the desired invariances.

\section{Appendix}
We rapidly recall here the definition of differential in the riemannian setting,
 in the special case where det $G$ is a constant, which is the case of the metric in \ref{}.
We will call $G=g^{-1}$ since $G$ plays the role of inverse of the metric. Then the riemannian scalar product is defined as:

$$<v, w>_g = <g v, w>.$$
If $a$ is a function then we will denote $da$ the usual differential, whose components are $\nabla a = ( \partial_xa ,\partial_ya)$
$$ da = \partial_xa dx+\partial_ya dy.$$
The gradient of the function $a$ in the metric $g$ is defined as $$\quad  \nabla_g  a= G\nabla a =  \left(\begin{matrix} g^{11} & g^{12}  \\ g^{21} & g^{22}\end{matrix} \right) \left(\begin{matrix} \partial_xa\\ \partial_ya\end{matrix} \right)$$
In the sequel we will denote $((\nabla_g a) _x, (\nabla_g a) _y)$ its components.
The laplacian  is expressed as
$$\Delta_g a = div(\nabla_g a).$$

If
${\vec{A}} =A_x dx + A_y dy$, then
$$d{\vec{A}} = curl ({\vec{A}}) = (\partial_xA_y- \partial_yA_x) \;\;dx\wedge dy$$
and the Laplacian is not the laplacian of the two components in general, but can be expressed in terms of the $d$ and $d^*$ operators, which we will now define. Since $d{\vec{A}} $ is a 2-form,  first recall that
for a general 2-form  $\beta =b dx\wedge dy$

$$d^*\beta =- (\nabla_g b)_y  dx + (\nabla_g b)_x  dy  $$
$$=   - (g^{21}\partial_xb  + g^{22}\partial_yb) dx +  (  g^{11} \partial_xb   + g^{12} \partial_yb )dy $$
(formally its components are $ \nabla_g ^\bot b$, so that
so that, while applying to $d\alpha$,

\begin{equation} \label{distar}d^*d{\vec{A}}=   \nabla_g ^\bot  curl (\alpha) =- (\nabla_g (\partial_xA_y- \partial_yA_x))_y  dx + (\nabla_g (\partial_xA_y- \partial_yA_x))_x  dy.\end{equation}

The vanishig condition of this expression (which will be used in section ??)  is a system in two variables.

$$  \left\{ \begin{matrix}( \nabla_g \partial_yA_x)_y  - ( \nabla_g \partial_xA_y)_y     =0\\  \\
 (\nabla_g \partial_xA_y)_x - (\nabla_g \partial_yA_x)_x   =0 \end{matrix}\right.$$

We can now exchange the order of differentiation:
we call $ [ \nabla_g,  \partial_x]=    \nabla_g \partial_x - \partial_x  \nabla_g$

$$  \left\{ \begin{matrix} \partial_y (\nabla_g A_x)_y  +[ \partial_y, (\nabla_g)_y] A_x   - \partial_x ( \nabla_g A_y)_y
- [\partial_x ,  (\nabla_g)_y]  A_y  =0\\  \\
 \partial_x(\nabla_g A_y)_x  +[ \partial_x, (\nabla_g)_x] A_y   - \partial_y(\nabla_g A_x)_x   -  [\partial_y, (\nabla_g )_x]A_x  =0 \end{matrix}\right.$$

Now we note that  $div((\nabla_g A_x) =  \partial_x (\nabla_g A_x)_x + \partial_y (\nabla_g A_x)_y$

$$  \left\{ \begin{matrix} div(  \nabla_g A_x)     +[ \partial_y, (\nabla_g)_y] A_x
- [\partial_x ,  (\nabla_g)_y] A_y  - \partial_x(  ( \nabla_g  A_x)_x    +  ( \nabla_g A_y)_y )=0\\  \\
div(  \nabla_g A_y)
  +[ \partial_x, (\nabla_g)_x] A_y    -  [\partial_y, (\nabla_g )_x]A_x  - \partial_y((\nabla_g A_x)_x  + \nabla_g A_y)_ y)=0 \end{matrix}\right.$$

Now we give a name of each term in this expression,
\begin{equation}\label{T12h}
\left\{\begin{matrix}div(  \nabla_g  A_i) =  \Delta_g  A_i\quad \quad \quad \quad\quad \quad \quad \quad \quad\quad \quad \quad \quad\quad\quad \quad \quad \quad\quad \quad \quad  \quad\quad \\
T_x(\vec{A})=[ \partial_y, (\nabla_g)_y] A_x
- [\partial_x ,  (\nabla_g)_y] A_y =\quad \quad \quad \quad\quad \quad \quad \quad \quad\quad \quad \quad \quad\\ \quad \quad \quad \quad\quad \quad \quad \quad = -\partial_{y} g^{11}\partial_{x} A_x - \partial_{y}g^{12} \partial_{y} A_x - \partial_{x}g^{21}\partial_{x}A_y-\partial_{x}g^{22}\partial_{y}A_y
\\
T_y(\vec{A})= [ \partial_x, (\nabla_g)_x] A_y-  [\partial_y, (\nabla_g )_x]A_x =\quad \quad \quad \quad\quad \quad \quad \quad \quad\quad \quad \quad \quad\\ \quad \quad \quad \quad\quad \quad \quad \quad =- \partial_{y}g^{12} \partial_{x} A_y -  \partial_{y}g^{22}\partial_{y} A_y  - \partial_{x}g^{11} \partial_{x }A_x    - \partial_{x}g^{12} \partial_{y }A_x
\\
a=  (\nabla_g A_x)_x  + (\nabla_g A_y)_ y= g^{12} \partial_{x} A_y +  g^{22}\partial_{y} A_y   + g^{11} \partial_{x }A_x   + g^{12} \partial_{y }A_x
\end{matrix} \right.\end{equation}

Finally we conclude that the first variation of the functional
$$\int |d{\vec{A}}|_{\vec{A}}^2$$

 can be expressed as

$$  d^*d{\vec{A}} =  \nabla_g^\bot curl ({\vec{A}}) = \left\{ \begin{matrix} \Delta_g A_x     - \partial_x a + T_x({\vec{A}}) \\  \\
 \Delta_g A_y     - \partial_y a + T_y({\vec{A}})   \end{matrix}\right.$$

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaArXiv


text:
EF AFRICA REGIONAL CONFERENCE IN KIGALI, RWANDA
George de Lama, president of EF, with Fellows Florence Gatome (Ghana 2016), Leonard Mungarulire (Rwanda 2016) and Diana Mpyisi (Rwanda 2017)
In June, Eisenhower Fellowships hosted a dynamic regional gathering in Kigali, Rwanda. The conference was the first on the continent of Africa in EF's history, following up on EF's first Africa program which brought 24 visionary African leaders to the U.S. for a seven-week fellowship journey in 2016. The three-day summit brought together leaders in government, business and civil society to discuss the future of Africa's global integration and provided a platform for Eisenhower Fellows from across the continent and other regions to explore innovative global partnerships within the EF network.
More than 350 people registered for the conference, including 50 Fellows from 21 countries and three EF trustees. The participants explored exciting new partnerships aimed at combating rising inequality. The opening ceremony featured a conversation between EF president George de Lama and H.E. Paul Kagame, president of the Republic of Rwanda, followed by a Q&A session with conference participants.
https://youtu.be/OGiDv1jdcjs
Eisenhower Fellow Yawa Hansen-Quao (Ghana 2016) asking President Kagame a question
Plenary panels over the three days featured topics ranging from the future of trade and work, to closing the digital divide, strengthening governance and creating new frameworks for national, regional and global cooperation to drive inclusive economic growth. Videos of the plenary sessions are online. Conference attendees took to Twitter to share their in-the-moment experiences using the hashtag #EFA2019.
At the conclusion of the conference, attendees had the opportunity to explore Kigali and visit the Kigali Genocide Memorial, where more than a quarter-million of the estimated 800,000 to one million victims of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda are interred. There were also excursions to the Nyamirambo Women's Center and Akagera National Park.


text:
No Safe Place
Written by Deborah Ellis
For students in grades - 9 | Published September 01, 2010 | ISBN 9780888999740
YOUNG ADULT FICTION / Social Themes / Emigration & Immigration
208 pages | 7 in × 5 in
Paperback / softback Trade paperback (US) - $9.95 CAD
Finalist for the Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Children's Book Award
Orphaned and plagued with the grief of losing everyone he loves, fifteen-year-old Abdul has made a long, fraught journey from his war-torn home in Baghdad, only to end up in The Jungle -- the squalid, makeshift migrant community in Calais.
When an altercation at the soup kitchen ends up with him accidently stabbing a policeman, Abdul has to flee, and in desperation he takes a spot in a small boat heading to England. A sudden skirmish leaves the boat stalled in the middle of the Channel, the pilot dead, and four young people remaining -- Abdul; Rosalia, a Romani girl who has escaped from the white slave trade; Cheslav, gone AWOL from a Russian military school; and Jonah, the boat pilot's ten-year-old nephew.
The four of them end up hijacking a yacht and, despite their fear and mistrust, they form a kind of makeshift family. And as the authorities close in on them, they find refuge in an unusual place -- a child's secret cave on the English coast.
Deborah Ellis is a member of the Order of Canada. She has won the University of California's Middle East Book Award, Sweden's Peter Pan Prize, the Governor General's Award, and the Jane Addams Children's Book Award. She is best known for her Breadwinner series, which has been published in twenty-five languages, with $2 million in royalties donated to Canadian Women for Women in Afghanistan and Street Kids International. deborahellis.com
Short-listed SYRCA Snow Willow Award, 2011
Commended OLA Best Bets, 2010
Commended CCBC Best Books for Kids & Teens, 2011
Commended Resource Links' Year's Best, 2010


Step into the sand and feel all your cares melting away, every day when you stay at Phoenix East II. Phoenix East II (or Phoenix East 2) is one of our beautiful Orange Beach condos and features a variety of luxurious amenities intended to make your stay as pleasant as possible. It's also close to many of the most exciting and fun activities in the Gulf Coast area, from dining and concert-going to fishing, parasailing, and dolphin-watching.
The Phoenix East II condos feature floor to ceiling windows, in addition to private balconies, where you can take in views of the Gulf morning, noon, and night. There are several pools (one zero entry!), as well as a sauna, a hot tub, and a Splash Pad to bring the aquatic fun to a whole new level. Barbecue grills and fully furnished kitchens allow you to prepare some of Coast's fresh local seafood, and gazebos will allow you to take in the evening light with your friends and family in a quiet and peaceful setting. You'll be able to share your vacation experience at Phoenix East 2 Orange Beach with as many friends and family as you like, as the condos sleep up to 8 and are fully furnished.
The towns of Orange Beach and Gulf Shores offer plenty of fun for the vacationer, as well, as does Gulf State Park, which boasts miles of hiking trails of varying difficulty and a fishing pier. The Amphitheater at the Wharf has concerts throughout spring, summer, and fall, and you can catch music throughout the year at our local restaurants and bars. In fact, we even have a restaurant owned by Lucy Buffett, sister of - you guessed it - the king of beach living himself, Jimmy Buffett.
The fun never stops at Orange Beach, and our Phoenix East 2 condos are available to rent year round. Book your reservation with Brett Robinson today!
Get the most out of your vacation by staying at one of our Orange Beach rentals. Contact Brett/Robinson to book your stay today.


text:
The resulting tools and technologies will be proved through three use-cases: nutraceuticals, laundry products and personal care and cosmetics.
Research project receives €6M to boost greener consumer products in Europe using innovative biotechnology
A pioneering, pan-European research project, designed to boost greener industrial processes for more sustainable daily consumer products like cosmetics or foods, has been launched.
The four-year RadicalZ research project, which includes experts from the University of Exeter, launches today ( June 9th) having received €6 million funding from the European Union.
One of the EU's sustainability goals is to move away from current oil-based processes by strengthening the bioeconomy. To achieve this paradigm shift, the industry needs new and potent enzymes — natural catalysts of the reactions needed to create chemical products — but their discovery and development require time-consuming and expensive methods.
RadicalZ gathers an interdisciplinary consortium comprising 12 expert partners from all over Europe to improve the efficiency of the process by delivering faster, more versatile and more affordable tools for enzyme discovery and optimization.
Led by Dr Aurelio Hidalgo from the Autonomous University of Madrid (UAM), the team will develop ultrafast screening technologies and user-friendly software based on machine learning that will help industries reduce the average time for enzyme discovery and optimization to less than four weeks. This will enable the development of new formulations and ingredients for more environmentally friendly consumer products.
The University of Exeter's Professor Jennifer Littlechild, a Biological Chemistry expert, and Dr Fabrice Gielen are involved in the project.
Professor Littlechild said: "'RADICALZ provides an opportunity to reduce the time of discovery and optimisation of new enzyme catalysts for applications in products for our everyday life. At Exeter, we will use a rapid microfluidic approach to both discover and improve enzymes for their application.
"We will also search through unique DNA databases sourced from naturally hot environments and use our knowledge of protein 3D structure to improve enzyme properties for sustainable biotechnological applications."
Dr Hildago added: "Out of all the research projects I have taken part in, I think RadicalZ will be the closest to consumers and the one most likely to have an immediate impact and change in our lives. It represents an effort to increase the sustainability of the little things that form part of everyday routines, a cosmetic, your laundry, the food we have for breakfast.
"We are very concerned about the sustainability crisis that lies ahead," he continues, "and as experts on enzyme biotechnology, we decided to focus our decades of experience and know-how together with the latest technological advances to develop ingredients for consumer products that are at least as effective and yet bio-based and more sustainable."
RadicalZ is a European project formed by 12 partners: Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Sveučilište u Zagrebu Fakultet kemijskog inzenjerstva i tehnologije, Sustainable Momentum SL, Scienseed SL, The University of Exeter, Institut National des Sciences Appliquées de Toulouse, Bio-Prodict BV, Biotechnology Research and Information Network AG, Universitaet Greifswald, AnalytiCon Discovery GmbH, Chr. Hansen A/S
This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No 101000560)".
Date: 9 June 2021


To many, Forex is a mystery. It's unknown, a bit scary. Like a black box.
For most Malaysians, Forex is viewed as an exotic investment scheme, compared to other more mainstream investment products like unit trusts, property, stock market, etc.
Just the other day, someone asked me how long will my profits in forex last.
I simply replied "as long as people still use money, so shall my profits in forex will still remain".
You might also be wondering whether Forex can really make money for you. Or is forex just a scam?
Here's the thing: Forex Trading will cease to exist once people stop using paper currency. This can happen actually if all the countries in the world decide to use one currency, for example the gold currency.
So as long as people are still using MONEY to buy stuff instead of barter trading like what it used to be a hundred years ago, then so shall forex trading remain as it is.
Instead of complaining about your job or why salary so low or why teh tarik cost RM 3.50.
So that you can afford all the luxury and price increase that we are currently facing here in Malaysia.
It's simple really. Just decide today that you want to make ten times your salary for this year and next, find out how to actually earn ten times your current income.
Not many jobs can provide such as drastic shift in income. Usually, the increase of your salary is very incremental, like RM100 increment per year.
With Forex, you can turn 100 USD to 10,000 USD within ten months…without taking huge risks.
This my friend is the difference between you and me, between being in the know and being totally clueless.
I believe we can fix that.
If you are willing to find out more on how to make more money and build wealth with Forex Trading, kindly fill your name and email below, and I will send you a free video training on how to make a decent income with Forex.
Getting educated is one thing, the next thing you should also do is choose the best forex broker to trade with.
The No #1 choice in my books is FXPRIMUS.
They are, hands downs, the BEST Forex Broker in this region!
Did you know that FXPRIMUS is the official Forex Trading Sponsor for Manchester City Football Club? I bet you didn't know that, did you?


Oh wow.. you got the Spirited Away art book, those are nice. I agree with the art of how the scenes look in the movie are phenomenal.
Do you have the art of Howls Moving Castle ??
This isn't all of the art, I only photographed the more interesting pages. A large portion of the book is just images taken directly from the movie.
This and the Clannad artbook are the only two I have so far. I'm looking for the Totoro artbook as well as some CoMix Wave books, but I'm not actively looking for Howl's unfortunately.
This book looks damn good. To tell you the truth, I never knew that these existed. Spirited Away was an awesome movie.
I love early development sketches and watercolors.


When done correctly, bidding on competitors' brand terms can provide a nice boost to your online advertising performance. After all, if someone is looking for your direct competitor's products or services, it stands to reason they might be interested in what you offer too.
However, when done the wrong way, it can open up a can of worms that will leave you in a worse place than when you started. My goal with this post is to prepare you with all the information you need to know when you're deciding whether to bid on your competitors' brands.
Let's start by reviewing the pros and cons of bidding on your competitors' brand names in paid search.
These terms tend to be cheaper to bid on due to the lower competition when bidding on brand names. Since everyone should also be bidding on their own brand names, the actual businesses can get a bunch of clicks and impressions for a fraction of what is being spent elsewhere. Due to the uphill battle of getting conversions, not everyone is willing to invest in the higher CPA.
Another great thing about bidding on competitors' brands is that it helps you gain brand awareness. When consumers are looking to buy a product from a store, showing up when they search for that brand puts your brand in the conversation. It's a really good way of saying, "Have you heard of us?" and also promote some competitive advantage you hold.
There is no better way to guarantee that you are getting a qualified audience for your product than if someone is searching for a company that sells the same products that yours does. Everyone searching for your competitor's brand is also in the market for your products. Plus, every conversion you get is taking one away from your competition.
One serious downside to bidding on a competitor's brand name is that you are basically starting a war. You are openly inviting your competition to bid on your brand name and start poaching some of your potential sales. While your bidding on their brand names will make it more expensive for them to bid on their own name, the same goes the other way. Their bidding on your brand name makes it more expensive for you to convert on your own brand.
When someone searches for a brand online, chances are they have already set their mind on buying from that store. This means that not many people will be clicking on your ads, causing a low CTR. While this may not seem bad given that you aren't paying when they don't click on your ads, low CTR can actually cause your Quality Score to decrease, which in turn will make it more expensive for your ad to show. In a way, you still pay when someone doesn't click on your ad.
If you've weighed the pros and cons and think you want to give it a shot, or you're already bidding on your competitors' brand terms, it's important to keep some caveats in mind. Let's go over some of the most common AdWords mistakes businesses make when bidding on competitors' names.
Don't get me wrong. Bidding on competitors is a good strategy. However, while it can provide a nice boost, it is not necessary, nor should it be done in the early stages of building one's account. The business-sense of bidding on competitors honestly depends on what your CPA target is. The people searching for other brands are going to be a hard sell due to them already supposedly having their mind set on that other brand. While it is not impossible, nor incredibly difficult to get conversions from bidding on competitors, it will undoubtedly be one of the more expensive conversion sources within your account due to the harder sell of changing consumers' minds.
This means that for people who really can't afford a high CPA in their account, bidding on competitors is probably not a good option. Competitors are popular to bid on because people who are searching for your competitors are definitely in the market for the products you sell. Just be smart with your choice.
One crucial mistake advertisers make when they start advertising on competitors is bidding on the wrong competitors. As a rule of thumb, when choosing competitors to bid on, make sure you're choosing companies that you are actually competing against. Choose competitors who you feel you have a competitive advantage over, whether it be better prices, bigger supply, or whatever.
One of the biggest mistakes people make is advertising on the big-name competition instead of the businesses that are actually taking business away from them. Let's face it: your friendly neighborhood hardware store is not really a competitor of a big conglomerate chain like Home Depot. Your neighborhood store might have a better price on hammers than the conglomerate store, but that is not enough to justify bidding on their brand name. His competition is really going to be the other hardware stores in that neighborhood and possibly surrounding neighborhoods. The only thing you'll get by not choosing the competitors wisely is a large bill with a lot of disappointment.
As mobile has continued becoming a big part of advertising, it has become critical that advertisers have a strong mobile presence for all their campaigns due to the now-common occurrence of people searching from their phones. We see that a very large portion of monthly searches comes from mobile devices. It is only natural to assume that because of this, advertising on competitors' brands on mobile would be important when you're already advertising on desktops. This is actually not the case.
The intent is often different on mobile: When someone is actually searching a store name on their phone, by that point they are likely no longer looking to compare different stores, but rather find that store's nearest location. So going back to our example from earlier, someone who is searching for "Mom & Pop's Hardware Store" from their mobile phone is likely no longer researching and is instead looking for the closest location of that store. This means that it is just a waste of money for "Father & Son's Hardware Store" to bid on their brand because the conversion rate will be very low.
All in all, bidding on competitors' keywords can be a good opportunity for those who have the budget to support it and the CPAs to justify it. It's a great way to grow your business if done right. Avoid some of the pitfalls outlined here and you too can start reaping the rewards.


text:
Q: Book for broad and conceptual overview of statistical methods I am very interested about the potential of statistical analysis for simulation/forecasting/function estimation, etc.
However, I don't know much about it and my mathematical knowledge is still quite limited -- I am a junior undergraduate student in software engineering.
I am looking for a book that would get me started on certain things which I keep reading about: linear regression and other kinds of regression, bayesian methods, monte carlo methods, machine learning, etc.
I also want to get started with R so if there was a book that combined both, that would be awesome.
Preferably, I would like the book to explain things conceptually and not in too much technical details -- I would like statistics to be very intuitive to me, because I understand there are very many risky pitfalls in statistics.
I am off course willing to read more books to improve my understanding of topics which I deem valuable.

A: A single book that included all those topics would be pretty impressive, and probably weigh more than you do.  That is like asking for a single book that teaches basic programming, C, Java, Perl, and advanced database design all in one book (actually probably more, but I don't know enough software engenering terms to add some more advanced ones in).
Regression itself is usually at least a full college course, Bayesian statistics require a course or 2 of theory before taking the Bayesian course to fully understand, etc.
There is no quick and easy road to what you are trying to do.  I would suggest taking some good courses at your university and work from there.
There have been other discussions of good books that you can look through for some ideas.

A: For a combination of R with many of the methods you describe, in addition to the Maindonald and Braun text mentioned by @Jeromy Anglim, I would suggest you take a look at these two books by Julian Faraway:

*

*Linear Models with R

*Extending the Linear Model with R
Both have reasonably simple introductions to the various topics, the latter covers a vast range of more modern approaches to regression, including many machine learning techniques, but does so at a faster pace with less description, and both exemplify the techniques via R code.
You can get a code off the R Website's Books Section to give you 20% off the RRP if you buy direct from Chapman & Hall/CRC Press, but do check the Amazon price or similar for your region as often the reduction on Amazon is competitive with that of the publisher's price after the discount.
One of the good things about this pair of books is that they give you a good flavour of the modern methods with enough detail to then explore the areas that you want to in further detail with more specialised texts.
Some of the content that went into those books is available in an online PDF by Julian, via the Contributed Documents section of the R Website. I encourage you to browse that section to see if there are other docs that might get you started without you having to shell out any cash. An early version of the text that turned into the first edition of Maindonald and Braun's text can also be found in this section.

A: Well, if you want an overview of most statistical methods, and R code for them, you can't go far wrong with Venables and Ripley's Modern Applied Statistics in S.
Its succint, lucid and has enough R code to get you started on pretty much any statistical topic you care to name.
I bought this book and was wary about the price versus page count, but it was well worth the investment. They do assume calculus and linear algebra, but given that you are an engineer, that shouldn't be too much of a problem.
Their S programming is also wonderful, but probably not what you are looking for right now.

A: Elements of statistical learning can be little intimidating for beginners. I would recommend reading "Introduction to Statistical Learning with Applications in R", which can be downloaded for free from here -> http://www-bcf.usc.edu/~gareth/ISL/
It also has worked out examples in R at the end of every chapter.
"Machine Learning: An algorithmic Perspective" by Stephen Marsland also covers broader range of topics without going too much into maths.

A: *

*Maybe you'd like something like Data Analysis and Graphics Using R: An Example-Based Approach by John Maindonald and W. John Braun

*

*Website for book

*Amazon with assorted reviews

*I recommend it because the book ticks a few of your boxes; it teaches a little R; it provides an overview of a range of different modelling techniques (e.g., multiple regression, time series, graphics, generalised linear model, etc.) without going into too much mathematical detail; it's fairly applied.

*I agree with @Greg Snow that you may be better off thinking in terms of reading a number of different books. For each topic you mentioned (e.g., Bayesian statistics, time series, simulations, R, machine learning) there are good books dedicated to that particular topic. You may wish to ask separate questions about what would be a good book given your particular interests in that topic.

*Good freely available online options

*

*Elements of Statistical Learning is an excellent book and is even available online for free. From your post, I get the sense that it might be a little more technical than you want at first, but check it out and see what you think. Maybe you'll be ready for it now; maybe later.

*Benjamin Bolker's Ecological Models and Data in R is another good one. It is from an ecology perspective, but does explain simulation and model fitting clearly from a relatively non-technical perspective; and it's all implemented in R. You can see all his R code on the website. You can even see the Sweave documents used to generate the book!

*There's a good list of free R documentation on CRAN with some of the documents also providing broader instruction on statistics.

A: The previous answers have a lot on the application side of things.  As far as conceptual material goes and good statistical thinking, I would recommend Probability Theory: The logic of science by Edwin Jaynes.  The first three chapters are available for free here
It doesn't have a great deal in the way of computer programs though, so the application side of things is on the more stylised problems.  Has a brilliant chapter on paradoxes of probability theory, with one exception, the "marginalisation paradox", which is correctly resolved here (although Jaynes essentially "gets the lesson" in that an improper prior should be a limit of a sequence of proper priors).

A: The suggestions made so far are all excellent but are focused on the most advanced and sophisticated techniques using R software. For an excellent and intuitive overview of classic multivariate techniques, the underlying framework for the most up-to-date approaches, including regression, ANOVA, factor analysis, cluster analysis, discriminant analysis, contingency table analysis and structural equation analysis, Dillon and Goldstein's Multivariate Statistics published by Wiley in the 80s remains a classic. It's lucid and applied in its examples without being overly theoretical or wedded to software.
Dillon and Goldstein is the book I would recommend to anyone who wants an understanding of where modern machine learning methods originated.

A: I would recommend "Time Series Analysis and its applications with R examples" by Shumway and Stoffer
The third edition:
http://www.stat.pitt.edu/stoffer/tsa3/
Click and buy http://www.amazon.com/Time-Analysis-Its-Applications-Statistics/dp/144197864X/ref=dp_ob_title_bk

A: The R Cookbook is a great way to jump into R and start learning how to use it.  It's very practical, so it's great for learning to use the language, but you should look for a good theory book as well.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


open cardigan is rated 4.5 out of 5 by 2.
what's the basis of a well-rounded wardrobe? casual, classic pieces that will never go out of style. case in point: this cotton-and-cashmere open cardigan, an ideal layering piece that pairs perfectly with dresses, t-shirts and everything in between.
Rated 5 out of 5 by redj from Comfortable and versatile I bought this in the ivory. I love the scallop crochet trim down the placket and the swing back yoke detail. The cute details combined with the comfy knit make this a great go-to piece.
Rated 4 out of 5 by rudysmama from Nice layering piece Overall, I do love this sweater. It has some nice detailing on it that's not visible in the picture on line, so that was a nice surprise. My only critique is that it is not a rich, dark black, so I can see without proper care, it will fade over time.