text:
Nigeria Sign an Agreement with Cuba on Pharmaceutical Vaccine Production…
Nigeria has signed an agreement with Cuba to implement actions on contract manufacturing, technology transfer, vaccine production and commercialisation of the Cuban biopharmaceutical products in Nigeria.
Nigeria's Ambassador to Cuba, Benaoyagha Okoyen, in a statement in New York, said the two countries also agreed to partner in other areas. He said both countries expressed interest to implement actions for the development of partnership particularly in projects for scientific cooperation, academic collaboration, co-development agreements and licensing of innovative products.
Okoyen and the President of the Group of Biotechnological and Pharmaceutical Industries (BIOCUBAFARMA), Eduardo Diaz, who represented the Republic of Cuba, signed the Expression of Interest Documents.
According to the envoy, Nigeria signed the Document with Cuba at the just concluded 2022 BIOHAVANA International Conference held from April 25 to 29 in Havana.
"The Embassy of Nigeria in Havana, through the leadership of the Ambassador played a significant role in taking the Nigerian delegation through the different stages of their participation in the conference, including the coordination of several relevant side meetings.
"The delegation included participants from the Ministry of Health; National Agency for Food, Drug Administration and Control; Federal Ministry of Science and Innovation; Sheda Science and Technology Complex; National Biotechnology Development Agency; Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka; and the West African Health Organisation (WAHO).
The BIOCUBAFARMA, the organiser of the conference is the Cuban Government business organisation that produces drugs, equipment, and services through scientific and technical development to improve the health of the population, the production of exportable goods and services and advanced technologies in food production. Delegates from over 50 countries witnessed the signing of 18 agreements by 12 countries, including Nigeria, Australia, Russia, Germany, Japan, Canada, South Korea .
APC:No Automatic Ticket For His Lawmakers for 2023 Election..
Nigeria may disintegrate if PDP and APC produce Northern candidate


If the morsel of one of you falls down, he should wipe away anything injurious on it and eat it and not leave it for the devil. And he ordered us to clean the dish, for one of you does not leave it for the devil. And he ordered us to clean the dish, for one of you does not know in what part of his food the blessing lies.


This first month was quite an adjustment period. We learned how to care for Jonathan while being careful at the same time. We met a wonderful family that lived nearby, the father and his youngest daughter have OI. The father showed us how to make this little splint with a washcloth for Jonathan's broken arm that happened right after birth. We called him ALL the time with questions. He was a lifesaver!! We also got involved with the local Early Intervention Program. They arranged for an Occupational Therapist to come to our home once a month and a Physical Therapist to come twice a month. We looked forward to these visits, since both therapists had experience working with children with OI.
Jonathan traveled to Los Angeles for his first Pamidronate treatment at 6 weeks of age. He fractured his femur the night before we were to fly out. We took him to the hospital for x-rays but the break did not show up--something very common with OI. However when it was x-rayed a week later at the hospital in LA it did show up because there was some calcification at the site of the break. After the break, we gave Jonathan Infants Tylenol but it did not seem to help at all. At the suggestion of our life-saver friend, we asked our pediatrician if it was ok to try Infants Motrin. This helped tremendously! We give him Motrin now whenever he fractures. Usually around the clock for the first 3-5 days and then as needed from then on.
This month there were quite a few times when we thought Jonathan had fractured something. We could tell he was in pain but we could not pinpoint where the pain was. Looking back, I think they were compression fractures in his spine. We would give him Motrin as needed and just tried to be as careful as possible. Jonathan smiles a lot, he likes to sit in the swing (padded with a few blankets). Since birth he has liked to eat very frequently--about every 2 hours. When we pick Jonathan up it is always with one hand behind his neck/upper back and another hand supporting his bottom. He also loves to be held facing out--with one hand supporting his bottom and the other arm wrapped around his front.
One day at the beginning of this month we could tell Jonathan was in a lot of pain--he was inconsolable even when we held him. We had already learned that taking him to the local hospital was not helpful because the average doctor/nurse does not know anything about OI, so we took him to Shriners in Salt Lake and they did x-rays and found multiple compression fractures in his spine, some were old and some were new. They gave him Motrin and also gave me some Loratab to use if needed, however we found that the Motrin still worked best. We had Jonathan spend about 3 or 4 days laying down on his foam mat as much as possible and this seemed to help him recover quickly. But it was hard because he just loves to be held all the time.
We had a rough start this month. Jonathan was sitting in his bouncy seat and I accidentally startled him and he jumped and at the same time kicked his leg on the front of the bouncy seat. As a result I think he had a hairline fracture in the bottom of his left tibia--but then about 4 days later his Dad was holding him and felt a little pop in that same place and we knew it was broken. We were very discouraged and it was hard seeing Jonathan in pain so often. This month Jonathan and I flew to visit my sister and her family. It was about 5 days after Jonathan had broken his tibia. I took him laying on his foam mat and told the people sitting next to me that they might have to help me out a little. They were very nice.
Jonathan has almost learned to sit up this month! We are so proud of him. This was a wonderful month--his first month with NO fractures! We can tell he is so much stronger and is still just happy all the time. We began lifting him under his arms last month and now we do it all the time. He got his helmet this month also and he tolerates wearing it just fine. He's bearing more and more weight on his legs when we stand him in our laps. We are so encouraged by his progress. Jonathan used to sleep flat on his back, hardly moving the entire night. Now he is beginning to move around a little more and usually rolls on his side to sleep.
Jonathan now sits like a pro! He is rolling all over the place and loves to roll around in his crib. We had an egg crate mattress on top of Jonathan's crib mattress, but we have since taken it out. He has worn his helmet for a month now and we can already notice improvement. Jonathan had his first "non family member" babysitter this month--you never saw someone give a babysitter such a list of instructions! But it was a close friend and everything went great, though a little tough on mom! Jonathan's therapists continue to be amazed at his progress. A few times Jonathan has gone from a sitting position to laying on his tummy. It scares me when I see him do this because his legs seem to get a bit crunched under him--but so far so good. When I see him do it, I try to help a little--but he often does it without me looking!
This has been a wonderful month. Jonathan had a bone scan, as a follow up to the one he had four months ago. We still need to hear from the doctor, but the computer that analyzed the bone scan said his bone mineral density has increased 21%. Jonathan is not showing signs of an interest in crawling. He can push up on his forearms to play, but usually will try to 'roll' to a toy that is out of reach, rather than try to scoot or crawl to it. Jonathan will stand up in our laps holding only onto our thumbs.
Jonathan is getting stronger and stronger and it has been over four months with no fractures. He now scoots backwards and is able to get into a crawling position from sitting--though he isn't able to maintain it for very long. We can tell crawling won't be too far down the road. He is not able to get into a sitting position when lying on his tummy. We spoke with a doctor about Jonathan's bone scan from last month. They said that his bone mineral density is in the 28th percentile for his age/weight. We're not sure how this compares with other babies with OI. But they said that they could see increased bone density from his last bone scan. This scan will be a better baseline than his first scan. He will have another bone scan in 4-6 months. Jonathan has been so much fun this month--he's started calling us ma-ma and da-da, he waves bye-bye, and is fascinated with lights!
Jonathan's first brush with fame! While at Shriners for his Pamidronate he met Karl Malone, John Stockton and John Starks--all Utah Jazz NBA players--they came to visit the kids in the hospital. Jonathan wasn't too fond of Karl, but all the older kids were! His treatment went well and he continues to do GREAT! We are very excited that he started scooting forward this month. It was a few days before Christmas. It's a 'commando' style crawl, on his forearms--but he can get around. He is also able to get into a sitting position from lying on his tummy. There have been a few times this month when Jonathan has fallen over from a sitting position--usually while he is leaning to grab a toy--and he will land on his arm in a funny position. In that split second I wait to hear "that cry" because I'm sure it will break, but it doesn't even phase Jonathan at all. He's just concerned about getting whatever it was he was reaching for. We are excited about hitting our "6 months fracture free" mark soon!
What a great month this has been for Jonathan! He continues to amaze us! He was scooting most of the month, but just in the last week or so he's decided to start crawling on all fours. Now he crawls like he's been doing it forever. He's also beginning to pull himself up to a standing position. He's still pretty unsteady and doesn't balance himself very carefully--but he's just as proud of himself as we are! Jonathan weighs 18lbs 4 oz and is 27 inches long (at the end of his 10th month).
Well, the inevitable happened this month! After 7 months of no fractures, Jonathan broke his right femur while trying to cruise along the couch. He had been crawling on all fours, pulling himself to a stand at the couch, and just barely starting to cruise. We spent that evening in the ER and the next day at Shriners. He ended up with a hip spica cast that went all the way down to his ankle on one leg. He wore the cast for 3 weeks and a day--and got the cast off on his first birthday! What a present! Life in a spica cast is not fun. If that femur breaks again in the near future we are pretty sure we will go ahead with rodding surgery to help strengthen the bone. Coincidentally, Jonathan broke his leg the same day we found out that his bone mineral density is in the 49th percentile for his age group. The bone still has the collegen defect and his bones are weak, but the Dr. explained that he does have thicker bones now and that will hopefully mean fewer fractures. His bone mineral density has increased over 100% since he has been on Pamidronate (10 months). We have been blessed that he has responded so well to the treatments.


text:
3 Reasons to Buy This Beaten-Down Tech Stock
Xilinx has lost ground on the stock market of late, opening a window of opportunity for investors looking for a company capable of delivering long-term growth.
Oct 5, 2019 at 10:43AM
Xilinx (NASDAQ:XLNX) has lost its wheels spectacularly in 2019. There seemed to be no stopping Xilinx stock earlier this year as the company was pulling the right strings to take advantage of fast-growing markets. But tragedy struck once it emerged that the company is becoming a victim of the U.S.-China trade war.
Not surprisingly, investors have offloaded Xilinx stock, and it has lost around a quarter of its value in the past six months. But savvy investors should not ignore Xilinx, which looks like a great value right now and is sitting on several catalysts that could ensure long-term growth.
Let's take a look at the three reasons Xilinx stock is worth buying right now.
The FPGA opportunity
Xilinx is known for making field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs). These are programmable chips that can be bought off the shelves by developers and configured to perform specific tasks. The advantage with FPGAs is that their functionality can be tweaked each time the device is powered up. Developers simply need to download a new configuration file into the FPGA and change the way it works.
The flexibility that FPGAs provide allows for a quicker time to market. This is the reason they are being used in 5G network deployments, boosting Xilinx's top and bottom lines substantially of late. But 5G is just one of the many areas in which FPGAs are being deployed.
For instance, FPGAs are being used in data centers to accelerate workloads. A third-party estimate projects that the market for data center accelerators will grow at a whopping compound annual growth rate of almost 50% through 2023. FPGAs are expected to enjoy the highest growth rate during this period as compared to other accelerators such as graphics processing units.
That's because FPGAs are capable of providing higher computational speeds and consume less power for the tasks they are designed to carry out. This allows data center operators to bring down operating costs.
FPGAs are also finding traction in the automotive space. Xilinx has been witnessing impressive growth in its automotive business thanks to the adoption of its chips by auto component suppliers, who have been incorporating its FPGAs into advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS). Xilinx claims to have already shipped more than 100 million of them to its automotive customers, and that number should keep growing in the long run as ADAS deployments gain steam.
So Xilinx can tap into a diversified pool of opportunities thanks to the versatility of the FPGAs it sells.
Xilinx is one of the best bets to take advantage of the FPGA opportunity because of its dominant position in this space. The chipmaker reportedly commands a 60% share of the FPGA market, outpacing bigger rival Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) thanks to its technology advantage.
The overall FPGA market is expected to be worth $11 billion by 2025, according to one estimate. Given that Xilinx has generated $3.2 billion in revenue over the past 12 months, it has the potential to significantly increase its revenue in the long run if it keeps hold of its strong FPGA market share.
The good news is that Xilinx has started sampling its 7-nanometer Versal chip to customers. The company claims that Versal is capable of delivering "10x increase in performance and significant power efficiency gains for a number of applications compared to the latest generation FPGAs and general-purpose processors."
Intel, on the other hand, has also started shipping its 10nm Agilex FPGAs to select customers, promising 40% performance gains and an identical reduction in power consumption as compared to its previous-generation chips. But because Intel's 7nm chips are still a couple of years away, Xilinx could continue to enjoy a technology advantage over Chipzilla and maintain its lead in the FPGA space.
Attractively valued
The final reason Xilinx is a good bet right now is its valuation. A trailing price-to-earnings ratio of 26 is slightly lower than the five-year average multiple of just over 27. But at the same time, the company's earnings growth is expected to gain momentum.
XLNX data by YCharts.
In all, Xilinx's potentially strong earnings growth, a cheaper valuation than before, and the catalysts listed above make it a tech stock to bet on for the long run.
XLNX
Why Xilinx Stock Gained 22.6% in November
AMD's $35 Billion Proposal to Xilinx Is Less About NVIDIA, More About Taking On Intel
Why Xilinx Stock Jumped Today
Nasdaq Defies Downturn as AMD Buys Xilinx
5G and Data Center Stock Xilinx Continues to Rebound on Improving Sales
3 Reasons to Buy This Beaten-Down Tech Stock @themotleyfool #stocks $XLNX $INTC Next Article

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


The term 'OptaLED' or 'us' or 'we' refers to the owner of the website whose registered office is Unit 1 Evercreech Way, Walrow Industrial Estate, Highbridge, Somerset, TA9 4AR. Our company registration number is 06669027 registered in England. The term 'you' refers to the user or viewer of our website.
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text:
The four corners of the food crisis
Population growth,rising affluence,energy policy and climate change – these are the "four corners" of the food crisis
Key Stage Four,
Case study,
Article,
Arguably one of the most important geography in the news stories of 2008 is "The Food Crisis", because it has already touched so many people's lives.
Global food prices are being driven upwards by a series of inter-connected factors.
Population growth, rising affluence, energy policy and climate change – these are the "four corners" of the food crisis, a serious state of affairs leading to escalating prices and a growing shortage of food for many of the world's poorest people.
In the Members' Area:
Four corners of the food crisis
Food riots and rising prices
Malthus revisited
A Level practice essay question
The World Bank estimates food prices have on average risen by 83% over three years. The price of rice – a staple for billions of people - has risen by three-quarters over the past year, that of wheat by 130%.
In Bangladesh, 50,000 households need emergency food aid following the rice price rise. China has put price controls on cooking oil, grain, meat, milk and eggs while in the UK, the price of pasta has risen by 80%.
There have been protests against high prices in Guinea, Egypt, Morocco, Uzbekistan, Yemen, Burkina Faso, Mauritania, Niger, Uzbekistan, Senegal, Haiti, Bolivia and Indonesia.
How can all of this be explained? It must be stressed at the outset that the causes are complex and are not simply due to changes in crop yields. On the contrary, at 2.1 billion tonnes, the global grain harvest broke all records last year - it beat the previous year's by almost 5%. "There is plenty of food. It is just not reaching human stomachs. Of the 2.13bn tonnes likely to be consumed this year, only 1.01bn, according to the United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organisation, will feed people." (The Guardian, 15 April 2008). In fact, there are four key factors to consider, summarised in Figure 1.
Figure 1: Four corners of the food crisis
Population growth and change With world population growing at 78 million a year, there are always more mouths to feed. By mid-century, numbers will reach 9 billion. But this in itself is not enough to explain a food shortage as crop production is also growing – for instance, according to the World Bank, global maize production grew by 51 million tonnes between 2004 and 2007. However, much of this gain was soaked up by other crop uses, mainly increased dairy and meat production along with biofuel manufacture.
Rising affluence (increased meat and dairy demands)Growing numbers of people want more food than they used to, especially meat and dairy products. As a result, 760 million tonnes of grain will be used to feed animals - which could cover the global food deficit 14 times (The Guardian, 15 April 2008). "If you care about hunger," says one Guardian journalist, "eat less meat."
Thanks to the inefficient way food chains work, animals use up a lot of converted biomass energy roaming around, defecating and respiring. Beef cattle eat about 8kg of grain or meal for every kilogram of flesh they produce; a kilogram of battery-reared chicken needs just 2kg of feed (but this introduces new ethical concerns). With meat consumption starting to take-off in the BRICS (Brazil Russia China and India), less grains and cereals are left to be sold as food on global markets to people in poorer nations.
UK government new chief scientific adviser Professor John Beddington explains that development and increasing wealth are adding to the food crisis. "Once you move to [an income of] between £1 a day and £5 a day you get an increase in demand for meat and dairy products ... and that generates a demand for additional grain." (The Guardian, 07 March 2008).
About 2.7 billion people in the world currently live on less than £1 a day. As more of them are lifted out of poverty, as seems to be occurring in Asia and South America, grain demand can be expected to rise steeply to meet the expanding needs of meat producers. At present there are juts 350 million households worldwide living on £8,000 a year. That is projected to increase to 2.1 billion by 2030 (The Guardian, 07 March 2008). On the one hand, this is great news – but will there be enough food resources to go around, if more people want to eat greater amounts of meat?
Energy policy By many estimates, the moment of peak oil production is almost here and supplies will soon start to decline. Many nations are concerned with their future energy security and want to find alternatives to oil and gas. Climate change science tells us that we need to reduce our carbon footprint in any case, and that reduced dependency on fossil fuels should be a priority.
There are thus many reasons why world production of biofuels is rising rapidly (this is fuel derived from plant sources, such as ethanol). Indeed, American cars already burn 114 million tonnes of corn each year – enough to cover the import needs of 82 nations classified by the US as "low-income food-deficit countries" (New Statesman, 21 April 2008).
The Earth Policy Institute believes that land turned over to biofuels in the US over the last two years would have met the average grain needs of 250 million people (The Guardian, 05 April 2008). Meanwhile, the EU has set ambitious targets for its member states to switch from conventional oil to greater use of biofuels.
Criticising such moves, government adviser Professor John Beddington has argued that the global rush to grow biofuels is compounding the food supply problem, and is, in many cases, "profoundly stupid" (The Guardian, 07 March 2008). But unless plans change, biofuel production is due to increase hugely in the next 15 years.
The US alone plans to produce 30 billion gallons of biofuels by 2022. A recent confidential World Bank report has stated that biofuels have forced global food prices up by 75% - far more than previously estimated. The figure emphatically contradicts the US government's claims that plant-derived fuels contribute less than 3% to food-price rises (The Guardian 04 July 2008).
Climate change Weather plays a major role in current food supply problems. Recently, Cylone Nargis devastated crops in Burma – and increased high-intensity cyclonic activity may very well be one symptom of climate change on account of higher sea temperatures. Droughts in southern Africa and Australia wiped out crops in 2007 and the IPCC (intergovernmental panel on climate change) expects food production to decline in low-latitude regions near the equator; some rain-fed crop yields could decline as much as 50 percent by 2020.
Can things get better?
Recommendations have recently been made that the EU scrap its goal of having 10 per cent of transport fuel made from biofuels by 2020. "Europe's well-meaning rush to biofuels… created a harmful ripple of effects, including deforestation is South-east Asia and higher prices for grain" according to one viewpoint (New York Times, 03 March 2008).
However, biofuels are only a part of the food supply equation. Climate change-related food supply problems are more or less certain to get worse, with last year recording one of the highest annual increases in CO2 levels on record (The Guardian, 13 May 2008).
Meanwhile, there is no sign of the "Asian miracle" running out of steam, with both Chinese and Indian economies still growing at around 10% per annum, producing more and more affluent consumers with each passing month.
The prognosis for world hunger is therefore not good. Genetically modified crops might be one solution to the problem – but these have proved highly controversial and not everyone agrees with their use (The Observer, 27 April 2008).
Figure 1 Rising food prices in the UK since 2007
The Daily Mail Cost of Living Index
Figure 2 2008: the year of food riots
Impacts of the food crisis
Thousands of demonstrators in Mahalla el-Kobra loot shops and throw bricks at police during protests at rising food prices and low salaries. The military have been put to work baking bread.
At least four people killed in the southern city of Les Cayes after food prices rise 50 per cent in the past year
Police injure more than ten protesters as several hundred demonstrators demand government action to curb food prices
Riots last four days and result in at least 40 deaths and 1,600 arrests. Unrest is due to high fuel and food prices, with soya prices rising by 125% since last year.
At least four people killed and 100 injured following fuel price rises
Five days of rioting and a hundred arrests after the price of wheat doubled over two months.
...and also in Mauritania, Bolivia, Indonesia, Mexico, India, Burkina Faso, Pakistan Senegal and Uzbekistan. World Food Programme officials say 33 countries in Asia and Africa face political instability on account of food shortages.
(Source: New Statesman, The Guardian & New York Times)
Thomas Malthus' An Essay on the Principle of Population (1798) argued that:
In the absence of checks, human population can potentially grow geometrically, for instance doubling in size every twenty-five years
Production from the land can, at best, increase at an arithmetic rate, for instance climbing more slowly by the regular intervals
After a century, the population: food ratio could potentially reach 16:5
Lack of food is thus the principal check to population growth: a positive check will be brought about by famine, disease and war
Negative (preventive) checks can, however, be introduced as the ceiling to growth approaches (including later age of marriage or sexual abstinence)
Malthus was the first writer to recognise the importance of the ceiling to growth which may exist; he argued that there is a fixed carrying capacity for every environment.
Two Twentieth Century texts by the Club of Rome, The Limits to Growth (1972) and Beyond the Limits (1991), argued that the world was approaching a point where a Malthusian positive check to further growth seemed inevitable when viewed globally. Is the latest "food crisis" evidence that Club of Rome – and before them, Malthus – might have the correct viewpoint?
Not necessarily. First and foremost, we should remember one key fact – that more grain crops were grown worldwide last year than ever before (2.1 billion tonnes). Further increases in world population could easily be supported by existing grain yields (which are themselves still growing each year by 0.5%).
The shortages currently experienced by some societies have more complex origins than simply being a product of the number of people alive on the planet. For instance, 100 million tonnes of food will be diverted this year to feed cars as biofuel. The World Bank has recently pointed out that "the grain required to fill the tank of a sports utility vehicle with ethanol ... could feed one person for a year" (The Guardian, 15 April 2008).
Finally, the shift in Asian diets towards meat and dairy further complicates the population-resources relationship – as incomes of people, rather than just subsistence-level numbers, now need to be taken into account. Clearly, there is no shortage of factors at work in the modern world that complicate the Malthusian growth model.
A Level study tips
"Well-being = Resources ÷ Population." Discuss.
This essay question was first asked on an A-level paper in the 1980s and is still worth giving students to tackle today - perhaps more so than ever, given the multiple complexities of the food crisis, all of which lend a perfect "synoptic" slant to the task. Critical thinking should be applied to this rather simple equation that models overpopulation "ills" according to a simple Malthusian ratio. Implicit is the assumption that social well-being – perhaps measured by the absence of famine and illness – depends upon a simple equitable division of resources.
However, as the rest of this article has shown, demands differ between income groups according to their dietary demands. Also, the political context of the biofuels debate – and the diversion of food resources to produce motor fuel for people who are already well-fed - needs to be explored.
Finally, there is scope to investigate the moral or spiritual dimension of well-being. Recent work on "the geography of happiness" could be incorporated into the essay to great effect.
New Economics Foundation Happy Planet Index
BBC video on Bhutan (where the government promotes happiness)
BBC report on 2006 University of Leicester survey
UK geography teachers' happiness project (supported by RBS-IBG)
This article is written by Dr Simon Oakes, a Principal Examiner in A-level geography for both 2008 and existing (legacy) courses.


text:
OpenTable to acquire toptable.com for $55M
September 19, 2010 — Fusion DigiNet
OpenTable, a leading provider of free online reservations for diners and guest management systems for restaurants, has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire toptable.com, a leading restaurant reservation site in the United Kingdom, for approximately $55 million USD in cash.
"This acquisition of toptable.com is designed to accelerate the growth of our business in the United Kingdom in a meaningful way," said Jeff Jordan, President and CEO, OpenTable. "By combining toptable.com's robust consumer destination site for diners with our best-in-class software for restaurants, we will be able to provide a superior service to restaurants and diners in the United Kingdom."
"This is an important milestone in toptable's history. There's always been mutual admiration between the two companies, and we're really excited about the future, working as a combined force," said Karen Hanton MBE, founder of toptable.com.
Transaction and Financial Information
OpenTable will acquire the entire issued share capital, including outstanding options, of privately-held toptable.com for approximately $55 million USD. The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2010 and is subject to customary closing conditions. OpenTable plans to finance the acquisition with existing cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments. For the fiscal year 2009, toptable.com reported revenues of approximately £6.3 million and net income of £750,000. OpenTable believes it will incur approximately $500,000 in non-recurring transaction and integration costs in both Q3 and Q4, or a total of $1 million through the end of the year. OpenTable will file a Current Report on Form 8-K that will include as an exhibit the Share Purchase Agreement for the acquisition.
BofA Merrill Lynch is acting as financial advisor and Latham & Watkins LLP as legal counsel to OpenTable; Allen & Company is acting as financial advisor and Bird & Bird LLP as legal counsel to toptable.com.
UK, London & USA, San Francisco, CA
Posted in Content Media, e-Commerce, Internet Media, ~Europe, ~North America. Leave a Comment »
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I think it's safe to say that no one would use an email service that does not include spam filtering. There's an analogy here. Machine Learning is changing the landscape, and technology applications that succeed in today's market will incorporate some form of intelligence as an indispensable component. This is certainly true for tech giants. Joaquin Candela, Director of Engineering for Applied Machine Learning at Facebook, recently said, "Facebook today cannot exist without AI." But, this is equally true for startups. The ability to easily connect anything to the internet, ubiquitous data, and Cloud-based Machine Learning platforms (such as those offered by Amazon Web Services) have put intelligent applications within reach of innovators and entrepreneurs creating new tech products.
But beware, just because a product has built in Artificial Intelligence doesn't automatically make it a great product. It's tempting to put the focus on the algorithms and models and neglect the business problem. Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning offer a way to power up an already great idea, to create a more powerful and engaging experience, and to set a product apart; they are not the product itself.
If you are interested in hearing more and learning how to apply Machine Learning to power up your idea, I'll be speaking on this topic at EntreFEST 2017. It would be great to see you there!
Matt Coventon is a Senior Software Engineer and the Practice Lead for Big Data Services at Innovative Software Engineering (ISE), a professional services company with a strong interest in the intersection of vehicle telematics, mobile applications, and big data. In his 10 years at ISE his primary focus has been architecting and building web, middleware, and analytics applications that are high performance, fault tolerant, and easy to scale. He enjoys tackling new technologies and understanding how they can be best utilized within the enterprise. He's a father of four, and in his free time, he's a songwriter.


text:
package org.nem.ncc.services;

import org.nem.core.time.TimeProvider;
import org.nem.ncc.controller.viewmodels.WalletViewModel;
import org.nem.ncc.wallet.Wallet;

import java.util.stream.Collectors;

/**
 * Helper class that is able to map a Wallet to a WalletViewModel.
 */
public class WalletMapper {
	private final AccountMapper accountMapper;
	private final TimeProvider timeProvider;

	/**
	 * Creates a wallet mapper.
	 *
	 * @param accountMapper The account mapper.
	 * @param timeProvider The time provider.
	 */
	public WalletMapper(
			final AccountMapper accountMapper,
			final TimeProvider timeProvider) {
		this.accountMapper = accountMapper;
		this.timeProvider = timeProvider;
	}

	/**
	 * Converts the specified model to a view model.
	 *
	 * @param model The model.
	 * @return The view model.
	 */
	public WalletViewModel toViewModel(final Wallet model) {
		return new WalletViewModel(
				model.getName(),
				this.accountMapper.toViewModel(model.getPrimaryAccount()),
				model.getOtherAccounts().stream()
						.map(this.accountMapper::toViewModel)
						.collect(Collectors.toList()),
				this.timeProvider.getCurrentTime());
	}
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


West Bank Parks will be honored as one of several honorees in the annual award ceremony. A reception and a ceremony will take place on April 19th at a Board of Commissioners meeting.
Find more ceremony details here.
In addition to board and community recognition, West Bank Parks will receive a $500 award for park improvement!


Wanting to buy a character filled home in the sought after location of Ainslie but don't want to have to go through the whole process of renovating? With 74 Officer Crescent you don't have to as all the work has already been done for you!
This charming and character filled property with its rendered double brick construction for extra insulation and corrugated tin roof has been beautifully renovated and maintained. Starting with the exceptionally crafted cabinetry of the renovated antique style kitchen including Bosch appliances, timber bi fold windows opening out to create alfresco servery style dining and also providing a gorgeous outlook onto the cottage gardens, gas cooking, dishwasher and plenty of cupboard space make this kitchen a dream to cook in.
With 3 spacious bedrooms and a renovated tiled bathroom this property is full of delightful features including polished floorboards throughout adding ambience and style, ducted gas heating to keep you cosy and warm through the cold Canberra winter, Cedar framed floor to ceiling window's to the spacious and versatile living areas, and a separate internal laundry.
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This quintessential Ainslie home has all you would expect from a loving renovated property in a prime sought after location, only minutes from Dickson shopping centre and Ainslie shops, close proximity to local schools including Dickson College, walking distance to the City and situated on a leafy established street, 74 Officer Crescent is definitely one to charm and delight.


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Category Archives: Climate Advocacy and Climate Change
Gullah/Geechee Nation ♦ November 17, 2021 ♦ Leave a comment
…several native Gullah/Geechees emphasized the point that the only way that we are to accept this is if we design in the way that we want it. Queen Quet, Chieftess of the Gullah/Geechee Nation and Founder of the Gullah/Geechee Sea Island Coalition made it clear that there is no sense in building something that is not sustainable. She made it clear that "It is not what you do, but how you do it." There are resiliency efforts underway for historic St. Helena Island and any projects that are happening at the county level should all be done in a collaborative way that support the health of the island, its environment and the Gullah/Geechee people therein.
Gullah/Geechee Nation ♦ November 8, 2021 ♦ Leave a comment
I never thought that my house on St. Helena Island in South Carolina would host the United States Congress or the United Nations. However, due to the on-going global pandemic, I have been able sit in prestigious political places via my computer screen without traveling and contributing further carbon emissions. As I tune in, I am concerned about the omissions- the omissions of the cost of climate change impacts on cultural heritage communities like the Gullah/Geechee Nation on the southeastern coast.
ART of Climate Action by Queen Quet of de @GullahGeechee
It appears that people are more intrigued with investments into what I sought to study when I was in college-artificial intelligence-than they are willing to invest in actual intelligence. There is a tremendous amount of actual intelligence in indigenous communities such as the Gullah/Geechee Nation that are also classified as "BIPOC" communities. Due to the assimilation tactics of white supremacy and its tool of operation-institutionalized racism, I caution you to very clear about "residents" versus "traditional cultural community members." I represent Gullah/Geechee traditionalists not simply people born on the coast from Jacksonville, NC to Jacksonville, FL. The traditionalists of the Sea Islands are the Gullah/Geechees that are the living embodiment of the terms that are consistently utilized and put into professional communities of practice as part of the tools being used to take climate action-adaptation and resilience.
Queen Quet, Chieftess of the Gullah/Geechee Nation to present at "Surge Sessions"
spark so that a flame of climate action would blazed throughout the Gullah/Geechee Nation. She has continued to work with the Charleston Climate Coalition since the rally and is looking forward to "the climate action blaze that is going to burn on top of the risings seas and bring more light to the global climate crisis."
Yeddi We-NPR Focuses on the Gullah/Geechee and Rising Sea
As the United Nations Council of Parties gathered to discuss climate change and to strategize on how to address this. Grassroots activists and NGO leaders pushed for action and not just words from all parts of the globe. They want to insure that indigenous people and communities that are the once most negatively impacted by this anthropogenic crisis do not have their cultures further eroded by natural disasters nor plans made by political actors that do not have to live through what they have endured already. National Public Radio reporters heard the waves of the rising seas on the Sea Islands of the Gullah/Geechee Nation and came to hear the people's voices that are rising even higher than those sea levels. Queen Quet, Chieftess of the Gullah/Geechee Nation (www.QueenQuet.com) who presented for UN COP26 calls on you to tune in and yeddi we.
Queen Quet of the Gullah/Geechee Nation Shares Stories from the Frontline of Sea Level Rise on NPR's Science Friday
Gullah/Geechee Nation ♦ October 29, 2021 ♦ Leave a comment
Tune in to your local NPR station at 3:06 p.m. EST TODAY or to https://www.sciencefriday.com/radio/ to hear Queen Quet, Chieftess of the Gullah/Geechee Nation and others members of the Anthropocene Alliance's Higher Ground leadership share their stories on Science Friday
Attend the Climate Heritage Network 2021 Annual General Assembly
The Gullah/Geechee Sea Island Coalition is a proud member of the Climate Heritage Network. Climate Heritage Network is pleased to announce that its 2021 Annual General Assembly (AGA) will be held on 1 November 2021 from 11:45am to 2:45pm British Time.
Join the Carolinas' Queen Quet, Chieftess of the Gullah/Geechee Nation & EPA Administrator Michael Regan for "Stories of Culture and Adaptation"
EPA Administrator Michael Regan launches this event with a special message recognizing the 10th Anniversary of the Global Change Fellows program. Regan's message will be followed by a Gullah/Geechee greeting from Chieftess Queen Quet, and then a panel discussion focused on how climate change has impacted marginalized communities. The panel will also highlight the need for diverse voices in climate change conversations and narratives, and cultural conservation/adaptation/resiliency in distinct communities.
Queen Quet of the Gullah/Geechee Nation & Climate Heritage Network presents for the United Nations COP 26
The twenty-sixth session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 26) to the UNFCCC will be hosted by the United Kingdom, in partnership with Italy. The summit will bring parties together to accelerate action towards the goals of the Paris Agreement and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. More than 190 world leaders will participate, along with tens of thousands of negotiators, government representatives, businesses and citizens for twelve days of talks. Queen Quet will present as part of the Climate Heritage Network on November 2, 2021 at 9 am EST. Those that would like to see the presentation should register at: https://cop-resilience-hub.org/.
Stop I-526 Extension from Destroying the Gullah/Geechee Nation!
The Gullah/Geechee Sea Island Coalition has stood in opposition to the expansion of I-526 onto the Sea Islands of Charleston County, SC in the Gullah/Geechee Nation for close to a decade! We have successfully opposed this in a myriad of ways along with others that do all that we can to #Nix526! We are calling on you to send in letters from around the world to help us stop this destructionment project! Write in and tell them to choose "NO BUILD!" Protect the Gullah/Geechee Nation's Sea Islands!


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HomeOlympics'She's resilient': On 3rd try, Emily Sweeney makes Olympics
'She's resilient': On 3rd try, Emily Sweeney makes Olympics
LAKE PLACID, N.Y. (AP) Emily Sweeney owns no clothing with the Olympic rings emblazoned on them. She's refused to wear anything bearing that logo, instead sometimes staring at those who were and wondering if her chance would ever come.
At long last, it's here.
Olympic gear is coming her way, and it was earned. Sweeney is one of three women on the team that USA Luge is sending to the Pyeongchang Games in February, after clinching her spot earlier this month and ending an eight-year odyssey that had more twists and turns than the ice-coated winding chutes that she slides down to make a living.
"It doesn't feel real," Sweeney said. "I feel exactly the same as I did before."
Much like a luge track itself, Sweeney's path to the Olympics has been long, cold, bumpy and treacherous. She lost a race-off for the final spot on the 2010 U.S. Olympic team – to her sister. She missed out again when trying to make the 2014 team for the Sochi Games, doomed in part by injuries. She's barely a year removed from surgery on a wrist that is still giving her problems.
This time, she handled every challenge.
Sweeney is ranked eighth in the current World Cup standings, won a gold medal in a sprint race in Germany earlier this season and survived a U.S. team selection process that went down to the final weekend. Her spot was clinched in a most unceremonious fashion: It became mathematically secured on a night when she wasn't even at the track, and instead was alone doing laundry at the Olympic Training Center that she's called home for years.
"She's resilient, right? She had a goal and she went for it," said a teary-eyed and beaming Megan Sweeney, Emily's sister – the winner of that race-off a week before Christmas 2009 for that winter's Olympic berth, one where she got the right to race in British Columbia while her kid sister watched from the stands. "She was so aggressive. She's way better than I ever was."
Erin Hamlin is going to her fourth Olympics for the U.S., and Summer Britcher is going to her second. Sweeney, who has spent 14 of her 24 winters on a luge sled, is the lone rookie on the women's team.
In a sport where the Germans have always dominated and figure to do so again at these Olympics, the Americans are closing the gap. Hamlin won Olympic bronze in Sochi. It would not surprise anyone if any of the U.S. women found their way to the podium in Pyeongchang. And Sweeney, at 24, just figures to keep getting better.
"Not making the team in 2010 is one thing," Sweeney said. "It was fine. It obviously wasn't fine. I would have loved to have been there and competed with my sister. Not making the team in 2014 was a little crushing to me. It took me a long time to come back from that."
She took six months off after Sochi, didn't do much training, didn't go to those Olympics as a spectator. Retiring wasn't an option, but the zest for sliding was certainly waning at that point.
The U.S. Army helped her get back on track. Sweeney is a sergeant and part of the Army's World Class Athlete Program. She needed to go through some scheduled military training a few months after Sochi. After three weeks of training, she knew she was ready to get back on the sled.
"Can't say no to the military," Sweeney said.
And now, the Olympic dream – the one she decided to pursue as a 7-year-old – is realized.
"I didn't have much doubt that she would get through this year," said Hamlin, Sweeney's close friend and longtime roommate. "She's been sliding really well and has the speed, for sure, to even contend for the podium at the games. She just had to have that confidence, she did and it's really nice to see. I went to the games with her sister in Vancouver, so I've come full circle. It's exciting."
Hamlin has had her Olympic gear for more than a decade, and that means Sweeney has had to be in close proximity to all those shirts and hats and jackets and whatever else is part of the massive perk package bestowed on those who make the team.
Hamlin can relate to Sweeney's reluctance to wear any Olympic apparel – since she subscribes to the same theory.
"Not until you make the team," Hamlin said. "I wouldn't even wear Pyeongchang stuff until I made the team. No chance. You haven't earned it yet. You can't wear the garb if you haven't earned it."
It's now been earned.
The day after she clinched the Olympic berth, Sweeney joined Hamlin and Britcher at an autograph-signing for fans at the team's home track in Lake Placid. Over and over, smiling the whole time, she scribbled her signature – then wrote "USA" in the space between the elongated Y's at the end of her first and last names.
"Lake Placid to Pyeongchang," the cards said. Had her spot not been officially clinched, there's no way Sweeney would have touched those cards.
But the quest is over. She's an Olympian.
"It's been a very long road," Sweeney said. "I've learned how to deal with disappointment. I haven't really learned how to deal with this yet."
More AP Olympic coverage: https://wintergames.ap.org
The post 'She's resilient': On 3rd try, Emily Sweeney makes Olympics appeared first on News Wire Now.
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Why Do Drivers Pull Out in Front of Motorcyclists? The most likely comment of an automobile driver involved in a traffic collision with a motorcycle is that he, or she, did not SEE the motorcycle…"
By Insane Throttle July 6, 2019 July 5, 2019
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In 1977, Hurt noted that "the most likely comment of an automobile driver involved in a traffic collision with a motorcycle is that he, or she, did not SEE the motorcycle…" (emphasis added).
Hurt continued: "The origin of this problem seems to be related to the element of conspicuity (or conspicuousness) of the motorcycle; in other words, how easy it is to see the motorcycle. When the motorcycle and the automobile are on collision paths, or when the vehicles are in opposing traffic, the conspicuity due to motion is very low, if it exists at all. Consequently, recognition of the motorcycle by the automobile driver will depend entirely upon the conspicuity due to contrast. If the approaching motorcycle and rider blend well with the background scene, and if the automobile driver has not developed improved visual search habits which include low-threat targets…the motorcycle will not be recognized as a vehicle and a traffic hazard exists" (emphasis added).
But there is more to the story than that.
Hurt's statements go too far, discount too much, and are not fully supported by later research. Though he acknowledges it elsewhere, physical obstructions from other traffic, inattention and distraction on the part of a passenger car driver, a driver conducting a visual search of inadequate duration, a lack of expectation to encounter a motorcycle, and excessive speed on the part of the motorcyclist are other factors that may account for a driver not seeing a motorcyclist. In the case of excessive speed on the part of the motorcyclist, this could also result in the driver misjudging the arrival time even if they do see the motorcycle.
Some have questioned whether the conspicuity of the motorcycle is really the issue at all.
In 1989, Olson examined the literature related to why passenger car drivers sometimes fail to detect motorcyclists. Although he noted that "considered logically, it seems reasonable that motorcycles should be less conspicuous than cars because they are smaller," Olson questions motorcycle conspicuity as the likely explanation for car drivers missing motorcycles. He observed that "the strongest support for the conspicuity hypothesis may be that the offending operator often reports a failure to detect the other vehicle." However, Olson noted that "the conspicuity hypothesis has not been seriously challenged. Almost all investigators have accepted it as fact, concentrating their efforts on means to improve conspicuity rather than on asking whether the hypothesis is correct. This is unfortunate because alternative hypotheses can be advanced. Some have research data to support them; some are speculative. All are consistent with the known facts…"
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Olson noted that drivers claiming to have not seen another vehicle is not unique to motorcycle-car intersection collisions. He stated: "Violations of right of way are a common cause of collisions between automobiles, and afterward the errant driver often claims not to have seen the other vehicle. This should not be surprising. Of all the reasons that someone would deliberately move into the path of an oncoming vehicle, failure to detect it must be high on the list. But if the claimed failure to detect is not unique to motorcycle collisions, then it is not evidence for a special conspicuity problem with motorcycles." Olson discussed other explanations for why passenger car drivers sometimes miss motorcyclists, including visual obstructions and errors in the drivers' estimates of how far away a motorcycle is and how fast it is traveling.
And others have noted that the research related to motorcycle conspicuity is inconclusive.
Pai published a literature review related to motorcycle right-of-way accidents [2011]. He reported that "two major causes of such a crash scenario are the lack of motorcycle conspicuity and motorist's speed/distance judgment error, respectively." This appears to be imprecise language that means that some motorists claimed not to have seen the motorcycles prior to the collision and other motorists did see the motorcycle prior to the crash but misjudged the timing of its approach. Pai continued: "A substantial number of studies have manipulated physical characteristics of motorcycles and motorcyclists to enhance conspicuity… Although various conspicuity aids have proven effective, some researchers reported that motorcyclist's/motorcycle's brightness per se may be less important as a determinant of conspicuity than brightness contrast between the motorcyclists and the surroundings…Research examining the effects of conspicuity measures on motorists' speed/distance judgments when confronting motorcycles has been rather inconclusive." In relationship to motorists' judgments of approaching vehicles, Pai noted that "larger vehicles tended to be judged to arrive sooner than motorcycles. Such a speed/distance judgment error is likely attributable to some psychological effects such that larger automobiles appear more threatening than motorcycles. Older motorists particularly have difficulties in accurately estimating the distance and the speed of an approaching motorcycle."
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Along these same lines, Sager and his colleagues noted in 2014 that "much previous research has focused on motorcycle properties, such as size, shape, and color to explain its inconspicuousness…Much of the motorcycle safety research conducted since has focused on making motorcycles more conspicuous, generally through various lighting treatments such as headlight modulators, additional lights, and bright reflective garments…There is some debate, however, regarding the effectiveness of these measures…it has been suggested that the problem may not be one of conspicuity at all…collision statistics remain largely unchanged, suggesting that the issue may not be related solely to the motorcycle's static properties."
Some research has noted that a motorcyclist's lane position may influence if they will be seen by a car driver or not.
Sager's research suggests that the motorcycle and rider's dynamic properties, such as lane position, also make a difference to the likelihood a motorcyclist will be detected. This was demonstrated in a 2014 study in which Sager and his colleagues used a driving simulator to examine the motorcyclist's lane position as a factor in crashes where a passenger car driver turns left and violates the right of way of the motorcycle. He described their experiment as follows: "Seventeen participants faced oncoming traffic in a high-fidelity driving simulator and indicated when gaps were safe enough for them to turn left at an intersection. We manipulated the size of the gaps and the type of oncoming vehicle over 135 trials, with gap sizes varying from 3 to 5 s, and vehicles consisting of either a car, a motorcycle in the left-of-lane position, or a motorcycle in the right-of-lane position. Our results show that drivers are more likely to turn in front of an oncoming motorcycle when it travels in the left-of-lane position than when it travels in the right-of-lane position." Sager and his colleagues had determined, based on the intersection geometry and the acceleration capabilities of the vehicle, that "a three-second gap in a stream of oncoming traffic would not allow for the safe execution of a left turn, that a four-second gap would allow for the safe execution of a left turn, but leave very little safety margin, and that a five-second or more gap in the stream of traffic would allow for the execution of a left turn and leave a reasonable safety margin."
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For each of the 3 gap sizes – 3 seconds, 4 seconds, and 5 seconds – participants chose to turn more frequently when the motorcyclist was in the left-of-lane position than when the motorcycle was approaching in the right-of-lane position. Sager concludes that, "these results are consistent with our hypothesis that the right-of-lane position offers more motion cues to an oncoming driver and is therefore more likely to deter oncoming drivers from crossing in front of a motorcyclist's path as they approach an intersection. However, our findings are inconsistent with some motorcycle rider training which motorcyclists generally leave with the belief that they should always ride in the left portion of the lane. Our results suggest that the right-of-lane position may be a safer riding position when entering an intersection."
Unfortunately, motorcyclists Probably cannot select a lane position that is optimal for all circumstances.
The crash scenario studied by Sager is not the only one likely to be encountered by motorcyclists. Drawing general conclusions about the optimum lane position for a motorcyclist who may be encountering multiple possible crash scenarios simultaneously seems unwarranted based on Sager's research alone. There are scenarios a motorcyclist could encounter where their choice of lane position, and how it might or might not affect visibility and conspicuity, may compete with other crash avoidance factors. Ouellet [1990], for example, examined the optimal lane positioning for motorcyclists in terms of the time they had available for collision avoidance, noting that "lane positioning as the rider approaches a potentially threatening situation is a simpler, more reliable and more effective means of reducing collision risk than reliance on emergency braking." His study revealed that "the motorcycle rider can do more to avoid a collision by moving laterally away from a threatening vehicle, putting at least one lane-width between them, before a vehicle begins to violate his right-of-way, than he can be effective braking after the other vehicle has begun to violate his right-of-way" (emphasis in original). Depending on the intersection geometry and what other vehicles are present, these statements could dictate a left-of-lane, right-of-lane, or center-of-lane positioning.
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Others have noted that the effectiveness of conspicuity aids (headlights and bright clothing, for instance) depend on the characteristics of the surrounding environment.
In 1996, Hole, Tyrrell, and Langham reported three experiments related to motorcycle conspicuity. These experiments involved showing the test subjects a series of images containing traffic. Less than half of the images contained motorcyclists, so that the test subjects could not assume there would be a motorcyclist in each image. Hole and his colleagues recorded the time it took the subjects to determine if a motorcyclist was present in each image. They varied if the motorcycle headlight was on or not, the type of clothing worn by the motorcyclists (plain dark, plain bright, patterned dark, and patterned bright), the distance of the motorcycles from the viewer, and the driving situation (urban or semi-rural). They also examined the influence of background clutter on the conspicuity of the motorcyclists. These researchers reported that "the effectiveness of the conspicuity aids used, especially clothing, may depend on the situation in which the motorcyclist was located: bright clothing and headlight use may not be infallible aids to conspicuity. Brightness contrast between the motorcyclist and the surroundings may be more important as a determinant of conspicuity than the motorcyclist's brightness per se. Motorcyclists' conspicuity is a more complex issue than has hitherto been acknowledged."
A sampling of specific findings by these researchers included the fact that "motorcyclists were detected more quickly the nearer they were to the viewer, and in both locations the biggest difference between the headlight-off and headlight-on conditions was at the furthest viewing distance;" "the effectiveness of the headlight as a conspicuity aid was much less clear-cut in the urban setting than in the semi-rural environment…headlight use in the urban location enhanced conspicuity only when the motorcyclist was wearing plain bright or patterned dark clothing: when patterned-bright or plain dark clothing were worn, subjects responded faster when the headlight was off than when it was on. In the urban setting, a consistent advantage for headlight use was demonstrated only when the motorcyclist was wearing patterned-dark clothing;" "in both locations, many more motorcyclists were undetected at the furthest distance from the viewer than when the motorcyclist was nearby…for the semi-rural location, at all three distances, there error-rate for the slides in which the motorcyclist's headlight was lit was half that for the slides in which the headlight was unlit…For the urban location, at all three distances, the error-rate for the slides in which the motorcyclist's headlight was lit was lower than that for the slides in which the headlight was unlit, but not markedly so;" "in both locations, there was little effect of clothing type except possibly at the furthest distance."
Helman et al. [2012] identified and reviewed 27 studies (including some of those reviewed above) that sought to improve motorcyclists' visibility or conspicuity or to improve the accuracy of judgements of motorcyclists' speed or time to contact by other road users. These authors reported that "both [bright clothing and daytime running lights] seem to be capable of improving conspicuity, when this is measured in terms of detection (under search and attention conspicuity conditions), and when measured in terms of a behavioural response (such as size of gap accepted in front of a given motorcycle). The majority of studies covered in this review support this conclusion, although there are limitations…due to the number of different visual contexts in which motorcyclists find themselves when riding. For example, coloured clothing is more effective when viewed against a contrasting background. In terms of lighting, although it appears that dedicated daytime lighting on motorcycles is effective in increasing conspicuity, this effect may be smaller when other vehicles have their lights on…When lighting is arranged in such a way as to accentuate the form of the motorcycle (and to provide greater information for judging approach speed), this aids the observer in determining the time to arrival of the approaching bike (especially at night)…Across all treatments there is evidence that colour can play a role in effectiveness; this may be especially true in settings where coloured motorcycle lights aid in the motorcycle standing out from surrounding vehicles which have white lights. Although most studies reviewed show benefits of bright clothing, dark clothing may be better if the background is also brightly coloured. In line with the underlying mechanisms proposed, higher contrast with background surroundings to enable better visibility, search conspicuity, and attention conspicuity would be beneficial. Given that environments may differ over even fairly small changes in time or location, there is not likely to be a one-size-fits-all solution, meaning that motorcyclists need to be aware of the limitations of whichever interventions they use."
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These researchers also introduced some helpful terminology.
Hole, Tyrrell, and Langham noted several limitations of their study. Among these was their observation that "problems are also caused by the fact that instructing subjects to look for motorcyclists may cause them to process a traffic scene in ways that are different to those used in normal driving…Cole and Hughes (1984, 1990) distinguish between two types of conspicuity. 'Attention conspicuity' refers to the capacity of a stimulus to be noticed when the observer is not actively looking for it. 'Search conspicuity' refers to the capacity of a stimulus to be noticed when the observer is specifically looking for it. The experiments reported here have examined factors affecting motorcyclists' search conspicuity, but in real life, attention conspicuity may also be important." Helman [2012] further clarified the relationship between visibility, search conspicuity, and attention conspicuity with the following three statements:
If the observers are directed to look at the location of the motorcycle to see if they can detect it, we are measuring visibility.
If the observers are directed to look for the motorcycle in the scene but are not told where it is, we are measuring search conspicuity.
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If the observers are simply asked to report the things in the road scene that grab their attention, we are measuring attention conspicuity.
Finally, Hole, Tyrrell, and Langham observed that "the fact that there were few differences between conditions when the motorcyclist was nearby implies that motorcyclists' conspicuity at the close range within which accidents often occur might be relatively unaffected by such factors: within this range, it is possible that the psychological state of the driver may play a more important role than the physical characteristics of the motorcyclist…inappropriate expectancies may be more important in accident causation than the motorcyclist's physical properties."
So, The car driver's psychological state and expectations can be an important factor.
And, of course, let's not forget about the size-arrival effect…
Horswill, Helman, Ardiles, and Wann [2005] noted that "drivers adopt smaller safety margins when pulling out in front of motorcycles compared with cars. This could partly account for why the most common motorcycle/car accident involves a car violating a motorcyclist's right of way. One possible explanation is the size–arrival effect in which smaller objects are perceived to arrive later than larger objects. That is, drivers may estimate the time to arrival of motorcycles to be later than cars because motorcycles are smaller." These authors conducted two experiments to test this hypothesis. In the first experiment, test subjects (28 drivers who had never ridden a motorcycle) were shown video footage of traffic approaching the viewing position of the camera. Four vehicles were used to create the video footage – a small motorcycle, a large motorcycle, a car, and a van – and these vehicles were driven towards the scene at speeds of ether 30 or 40 mph. The scene blacked out 4 seconds before the vehicle reached the camera's position. Subjects were asked to press a response button when they estimated the vehicle would have reached the viewing position of the camera. This experiment resulted in the conclusion that "time-to-arrival estimations were significantly longer for motorcycles than for the larger vehicles…" In 2003, Horswill and Helman had examined motorcyclists' behavior in comparison to that of car drivers and reported that "motorcyclists chose faster speeds than the car drivers, overtook more, and pulled into smaller gaps in traffic, though they did not travel any closer to the vehicle in front." If a motorcyclist does choose to approach an intersection at a high speed, this will exacerbate the size-arrival effect and make it harder for a left turning driver to judge the gap available for to complete their turn.
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In the second experiment, Horswill et al. varied the time at which the video was blacked out (1, 2, 4, and 7 seconds prior to arrival). For these scenarios, the subject viewed the vehicle approaching for 4 seconds prior to the screen going black. From this experiment, these authors concluded that the "motorcycles were estimated to arrive significantly later than cars, and this was significant when vehicles disappeared 1 s before they arrived (both at 30 and 40 mph). This indicated that vehicle differences were unlikely to be a result of threshold differences in detecting object expansion as all vehicles in the 1-s condition would be well above threshold before occlusion." From both experiments, these authors concluded that "one reason that motorcyclists could be at greater risk of being hit at road junctions is because of an unfortunate optical illusion. People estimated that motorcycles reached them later than cars when time-to-arrival was actually the same…This effect is consistent with the size–arrival effect…in which participants judge, incorrectly, that approaching smaller objects will arrive later than larger objects."
and, excessive speed on the part of the motorcyclist can exacerbate the size-arrival effect.
Brenac, Clabaux, Perrin, and Van Elslande [2006] observe that "the hypothesis of a link between motorcycle speed and low conspicuity may indeed be advanced: for a given time to potential collision, the higher the motorcyclist's speed, the greater is the distance from the other vehicle. And therefore, for a given time to potential collision, the higher the motorcyclist's speed, the smaller is the motorcyclist's apparent size in the field of vision of the other driver." The other implication, of course, is that the slower the motorcyclist is traveling, the greater the time available for the intruding driver to clear the intersection before the motorcyclist arrives. Brenac and his colleagues conducted in-depth investigations of 22 collisions occurring in urban areas between motorcycles and other vehicles, many of which were situations where drivers pulled out into the path of an approaching motorcycle. Based on these reconstructions, Branac and his colleagues concluded that there was "a significant relation between problems of conspicuity and the motorcyclist's high level of speed in accident cases occurring in urban areas."
And, of course, there's the limited time that drivers sometimes devote to searching for hazards.
A 2006 study by Labbett and Langham examined the visual search patterns of drivers at two intersections using a hidden video camera. One of the intersections had a visibility obstruction on the corner and the other did not and allowed for an unobstructed view of several hundred meters. The intersections were on the campus of the University of Sussex and the video footage enabled these researchers to determine which vehicles had a university parking pass and which did not. This was used to determine which drivers were likely familiar with the intersections and which were not. Labbett and Langham concluded that, on average, "the drivers observed spent less than 0.5 seconds searching for hazards." They also found that the drivers tended to only search in one direction. Labbett and Langham also did an experiment in which participants were shown video clips of approaching traffic. The found different search patterns between novice and experienced drivers. "The experienced drivers tended to fixate on only small areas of the screen whilst novice drivers tended to search many parts of the scene."
Did I mention that the car driver's psychological state and expectations play an important role?
In 2010, Gershon reported two experiments related to motorcycle conspicuity. The first experiment "evaluated the influence of [the motorcycle and rider's] attention conspicuity on the ability of un-alerted viewers to detect it." The second experiment "evaluated the [motorcycle and rider's] search conspicuity to alerted viewers." Gershon and his colleagues varied the driving scenario (urban and inter-urban), the motorcycle rider's outfit (black, white, and reflective) and the distance of the motorcycle from the viewer. In the first experiment, 66 students were individually presented with a series of pictures. They viewed each picture for 0.6 seconds and then were asked to report all of the vehicle types they observed in each picture. In the second experiment, 64 participants viewed the same pictures utilized in the previous experiment. In the second experiment, though, the participants were instructed to look for motorcycles and to report whether or not each photograph showed a motorcycle.
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For the first experiment, Gershon reported that the detection of the motorcycles "depended on the interaction between its distance from the viewer, the driving scenario and [the] rider's outfit…when the [motorcycle] was distant the different outfit conditions affected its' attention conspicuity. In urban roads, where the background surrounding the [motorcycle and rider] was more complex and multi-colored, the reflective and white outfits increased its attention conspicuity compared to the black outfit condition. In contrast, in inter-urban roads, where the background was solely a bright sky, the black outfit provided an advantage for the [motorcycle's] detectability."
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For the second experiment, Gershon reported that the "detection rate of the alerted viewers was very high and the average reaction time to identify the presence of a [motorcycle] was the shortest in the inter-urban environment. Similar to the results of experiment 1, in urban environments the reflective and white clothing provided an advantage to the detection of the [motorcycle and rider], while in the inter-urban environment the black outfit presented an advantage. Comparing the results of the two experiments revealed that at the farthest distance, the increased awareness in the search conspicuity detection rates were three times higher than in the attention conspicuity." In other words, the rider's clothing made a difference, but the driver's awareness that there would be motorcyclists in some of the pictures (expectation) made a bigger difference. As Gershon noted, "unfortunately, detectability – especially attention conspicuity – is compromised by the perceptual characteristics of the environment that change continuously along a route. Thus, to increase detectability, [motorcycle] riders need to be aware of the perceptual aspects of their riding environment. In parallel, the results of the second experiment with alerted viewers demonstrate that other road users (e.g., car drivers) can improve their detection performance when they increase their level of expectancy and awareness concerning a possible existence of a [motorcycle] on the road (as drivers with high expectation obtained nearly 100% detection rates)."
Helman [2012] and Rogé [2012] both referred to a driver's expectation to see a motorcyclists as cognitive conspicuity. That a lack of expectancy (a lack of cognitive conspicuity) may play a significant role in car drivers failing to recognize the presence of a motorcycle is consistent with the fact that motorcycles make up a relatively small percentage of the vehicle population, and therefore, may not be encountered that frequently by passenger car drivers. For example, in 2015, motorcycles made up only 3 percent of all registered vehicles in the United States [NHTSA, 2017]. Layer on top of that the weather conditions that can limit the riding season in many states and motorcycles end up accounting for only 0.6 percent of all vehicle miles traveled in the United States. Thus, the typical passenger car driver will encounter motorcycles less frequently than they encounter other passenger cars. The lack of expectancy that this low frequency may cause is targeted by advertising campaigns in some states with slogans such as "Share the Road: Look Twice for Motorcyclists" [TxDOT, http://www.txdot.gov/inside-txdot/media-center/psas/motorcycles-bicycles/share-road.html%5D.
And isn't it possible that the car driver did see the motorcyclist, even though they say they didn't?
Crundall et al. [2012] observed that the statistics related to the number of look-but-fail-to-see collisions with motorcyclists may be inflated "by self-report biases. One could imagine alternative causes: a failure to look in the appropriate direction; or having looked and perceived the approaching motorcycle the car driver might fail to judge the level of risk that the conflicting motorcycle presents."
To further examine these issues, they developed a test in which subjects viewed video of an intersection on multiple screens simultaneously. The video was from the vantage point of a driver wanting to pull out at a T-junction and the screens were setup such that the subjects could turn their heads to the left and right to look for conflicting traffic. Crundall noted that "Mirror information was edited into the forward-facing video footage, providing a left-side mirror in the bottom-right of the left screen, a right-side mirror in the bottom-left of the right screen, and a rear view mirror at the top of the central screen. The three televisions were angled from each other at 120 degrees providing an immersive video, wherein participants could look to the left and right, as if looking through the side windows of their car, to check for conflicting vehicles on the main carriageway." Both novice and experienced drivers were tested, as was a group of drivers with considerable experience driving both cars and motorcycles. "Specifically we were interested in when drivers first fixate the conflicting vehicles approaching the t-junction (when they look), how long they looked for (a measure of whether they perceive) and when they press a button to pull out from the junction (which, given that the necessary – but not sufficient – preconditions of looking and perceiving are met, can be considered a measure of appraisal)."
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Crundall's study included 74 test subjects – 25 novice car drivers with a mean age of 20.6 years and a mean experience level of 1.6 years; 25 experienced car drivers with a mean age of 33.4 years and a mean experience level of 14.8 years; and 24 drivers with significant experience with both cars and motorcycles (dual drivers) with a mean age of 44.9 years and a mean experience level of 25.7 years with cars and 20.0 years with a motorcycle. The videos used in the study include 10 scenarios with conflicting motorcycles, 10 with conflicting cars, and 10 with no conflicting vehicles. Conflicting vehicles could appear from either the right or the left. The clips included the approach phase to the T-junction, the stop, and then the time for the participants to make a decision about when they would pull out. Crundall also noted that "a further 42 clips (not analysed in the current paper) were randomly interspersed which required a different response; either a lane-change decision…or a hazard perception response. Participants could not predict when a hazard might appear, and thus had to remain vigilant to hazards even during the t-junction scenarios. Response times reflecting when the participants thought it was safe to pull out were recorded, along with the participants' eye movements."
Crundall reported that "the most immediate finding from the analyses was the greater caution given to conflicting motorcycles than to conflicting cars. Both the percentage of safe responses and the [reaction times] reflect a greater safety margin in responding to motorcycles… In regard to group differences, dual drivers were more cautious than the novice drivers, with the experienced group falling in between. This pattern held regardless of whether or not there was conflicting traffic. While the overall means improved with experience, the differentiation between motorcycle clips and car clips seemed greatest for the dual drivers followed by the novice drivers…dual drivers were the most sensitive to the presence of a conflicting motorcycle, while experienced drivers appeared the least sensitive."
Thus, Crundall's research suggests that car drivers who also ride motorcycles are more aware of approaching motorcycles and less likely to violate their right of way. This is consistent with the findings of other researchers. Magazzù, et al., for instance, found that "having gained experience in riding any motorcycle…results in drivers being less prone to cause crashes with motorcycles with respect to drivers with no motorcycle license. It is reasonable to assume that car drivers who hold a motorcycle license have acquired more ability in riding and controlling two wheeled vehicles than drivers without a license. Therefore, it is possible to infer that some riding ability and knowledge of the risk annexed to riding, could protect drivers, maybe by helping them in the detection of oncoming motorcycles and the prediction of their manoeuvres" [2005].
That's consistent with other studies – drivers who also ride a motorcycle are better at detecting motorcyclists.
Rogé et al. [2012] reported a study aimed at determining "whether the low visibility of motorcycles is the result of their low cognitive conspicuity and/or their low sensory conspicuity for car drivers." These authors defined sensory conspicuity as "the extent to which an object can be distinguished from its environment because of its physical characteristics: angular size, eccentricity in relation to the point of gaze, brightness against the background, color, and so on…in other words, sensory conspicuity reflects an object's ability to attract visual attention and to be precisely located as a result of its physical properties." Rogé relates cognitive conspicuity to driver expectations, noting that "an observer's focus of attention is strongly influenced by his or her expectations, objectives, and knowledge…in many cases, inappropriate expectations may be more important in accident causation than the motorcyclist's physical properties." These authors tested a sample of 42 car drivers in a simulator. Half of the drivers were motorcyclists and the other half were not. These subjects were subjected to three test sessions lasting 12 minutes each, with a break in between sessions. During each session, the subjects drove on roads with a speed limit of 90 kph and on a highway with a speed limit of 130 kph. They also passed through junctions and roundabouts where the speed limit was 50 and 30 kph. The traffic encountered by the test subjects in the simulator included 49 vehicles – small cars, vans, buses, tractor-trailers, and motorcycles. The authors noted that "the participants could not anticipate when and from where a motorcycle might appear because they never came back to the same section of the circuit and had to detect a motorcycle in several different situations." The authors of this study concluded that both sensory and cognitive conspicuity had an influence on drivers' detection of motorcyclists. Specifically, "a high level of color contrast between the motorcycles and the road surface enhanced the visibility of motorcycles" and car drivers who were also motorcyclists detected the motorcyclists sooner than car drivers who were not motorcyclists.
Now let's sum up what we have learned from these studies.
Review of these studies leads to the following observations related to collisions where a passenger car driver violates a motorcyclist's right-of-way and then states that they did not see the motorcyclists. First, for a driver to avoid an unsafe turn in front of a motorcyclist, they need to detect the motorcyclists. If they do detect the motorcyclist, they will then need to make a reasonable judgment about the time available to complete their turn before the motorcyclist arrives at the intersection. The following factors may contribute to drivers failing to detect approaching motorcyclists: a) inattention and distraction on the part of the driver; b) sight obstructions caused by the geometry of the intersection, by other traffic, by the geometry of the driver's vehicle, or by the small size of the motorcycle relative to a passenger car; c) drivers not expecting to see motorcyclists on the road; d) a lack of conspicuity of the motorcycle and rider. The influence of the motorcycle headlight and the color and characteristics of the rider's clothing on the likelihood the motorcycle will be detected depends on the specific environment in which the accident unfolds and on how far away the motorcycle is when it needed to be detected. The influence of headlights specifically will be addressed in the next section. The following factors may contribute to drivers misjudging the time it will take for a motorcyclist to arrive at the intersection after they have detected them: a) excessive speed on the part of the motorcyclist and b) the small size and narrowness of the motorcycle and rider relative to other vehicles on the roadway.
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The Wikimedia Board of Trustees manages the foundation and supervises the disposition and solicitation of donations. The Board is the ultimate corporate authority for the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. (cf. article IV, sec. 1 of the Wikimedia Foundation bylaws) and currently consists of ten Trustees.
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His first experience with a virtual community was during his university time in the German Fido-Net, where he moderated a forum about science and knowledge for many years. He learned of Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects through a news article about the German Wikipedia achieving a milestone in 2003. From then on Wikipedia became a new hobby of his. He started on the German Wikipedia and changed soon to the young Chinese Wikipedia, which was at that time still starting. Ting Chen attended the first Wikimania (Wikimania 2005) in Frankfurt, where he took part on a panel discussion and introduced the Chinese community. He also helped organize the third Wikimania (Wikimania 2007) in Taipei.
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Blog posts of iPad Wallpaper Gallery.
Here's a selection of five space themed wallpapers from our collection. Sadly quite limited but that can be fixed. Remember that you can use tags to find certain styles. Like space tag that will get you these wallpapers. Or perhaps sky if like to stay on the planet and look up to space.


text:
Q: how to get my current location in google maps api? I'm working on my study android project where I need to place 5 random markers within a 10km radius of my geolocation. Here's my function to generate random coordinates:
     fun generateRandomCoordinates(min: Int, max: Int): LatLng {
        val coordinates: LatLng
        val currentLong: Double
        val currentLat: Double
        val meterCord = 0.00900900900901 / 1000
        //Generate random Meters between the maximum and minimum Meters
        val r = Random()
        val randomMeters: Int = r.nextInt(max + min)
        //then Generating Random numbers for different Methods
        val randomPM: Int = r.nextInt(6)

        //Then we convert the distance in meters to coordinates by Multiplying number of meters with 1 Meter Coordinate
        val metersCordN = meterCord * randomMeters.toDouble()
        val locationResult = fusedLocationProviderClient.lastLocation
        currentLong = locationResult.result.longitude
        currentLat= locationResult.result.latitude
        coordinates = when (randomPM) {
            0 -> LatLng(currentLat + metersCordN, currentLong + metersCordN)
            1 -> LatLng(currentLat - metersCordN, currentLong - metersCordN)
            2 -> LatLng(currentLat + metersCordN, currentLong - metersCordN)
            3 -> LatLng(currentLat - metersCordN, currentLong + metersCordN)
            4 -> LatLng(currentLat, currentLong - metersCordN)
            else -> LatLng(currentLat - metersCordN, currentLong)
        }
        return coordinates
    }

that code results with java.lang.IllegalStateException: Task is not yet complete at line         currentLong = locationResult.result.longitude
I tried to use addOnCompleteListener but somehow it didn't worked out. So I tried to add Thread.sleep(50) and that works but I think that it's not how sane person should code. How can I solve this problem?

A: as It can take some time to update the position, you should register a callback for retrieving the current location. Note that this code only returns the last known location, if you want to get updated location continuously, you can use the requestLocationUpdates method.
fusedLocationClient.getLastLocation()
    .addOnSuccessListener(this, new OnSuccessListener<Location>() {
        @Override
        public void onSuccess(Location location) {
            // Got last known location. In some rare situations this can be null.
            if (location != null) {
                // Logic to handle location object
            }
        }
    });

A: *

*Turn on your location. 2. check whether location is null or not:
fun generateRandomCoordinates(min: Int, max: Int): LatLng {
 val coordinates: LatLng
 val currentLong: Double
 val currentLat: Double
 val meterCord = 0.00900900900901 / 1000
 //Generate random Meters between the maximum and minimum Meters
 val r = Random()
 val randomMeters: Int = r.nextInt(max + min)
 //then Generating Random numbers for different Methods
 val randomPM: Int = r.nextInt(6)

 //Then we convert the distance in meters to coordinates by Multiplying
     number of meters with 1 Meter Coordinate
 val metersCordN = meterCord * randomMeters.toDouble()
 val locationResult = fusedLocationProviderClient.lastLocation

 if (location != null) { //<------
 currentLong = locationResult.result.longitude
 currentLat= locationResult.result.latitude
 coordinates = when (randomPM) {
     0 -> LatLng(currentLat + metersCordN, currentLong + metersCordN)
     1 -> LatLng(currentLat - metersCordN, currentLong - metersCordN)
     2 -> LatLng(currentLat + metersCordN, currentLong - metersCordN)
     3 -> LatLng(currentLat - metersCordN, currentLong + metersCordN)
     4 -> LatLng(currentLat, currentLong - metersCordN)
     else -> LatLng(currentLat - metersCordN, currentLong)
   }
   return coordinates
 } else { //<------
         Toast.makeText(getActivity(), "Null location!",
                                       Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();
 }

}
If the above code returned else part, then most likely your last location is empty (if you are using emulator!) In emulator like BlueStacks Ctrl+Shift +K (for other emulators see this post: How to emulate GPS location in the Android Emulator?) and set a location, then try your code again.

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When 'Airy Met Fairy is more of a project than a band. Many different musicians and video makers help create the minimalist but melancholic world of When 'Airy Met Fairy. At the core, there is the fix trio which consists of frontman and songwriter Thorunn Egilsdottir (vocals, piano, mini instruments), Mike Koster (synths&bass) and Thomas Copier (drummer).