text:
\section{Introduction}
The formation of solute-rich precipitates in a super-saturated solid
solution is a process of great technological importance because
it gives raise to precipitation hardening in a wide class of alloys.
Among the precipitation hardened Al alloys, the Al-Mg-Si (6xxx)
alloys belong to the most studied with regards to their precipitation
sequences, see \refref{ZandAnde_sci97,EdwaStil98,MariAnde05} and references therein.
They often display a complex sequence of metastable phases forming under different
conditions (time, temperature and composition). The structures of almost all of these
phases are known in detail from transmission electron microscopy (TEM) studies.
However, such techniques give no direct information about the energetics
of the phases of interest.
 First-principles calculations can provide vital new information in
this respect, as has recently been demonstrated in the case of the
Al-Mg-Si system, see work by Derlet {\em et al}\cite{Derlet02} and Ravi and
Wolverton.\cite{RaviWolv04}
Thus, by means of solving the Schr{\"o}dinger equation within the density
functional theory (DFT), one can obtain enthalpies, and study relaxation and
binding, in phases which are meta-stable and only exist as nano-sized particles
within the host matrix.
A limitation of direct first-principles
calculations is that, in practice, the structure has to be specified in advance.
A central and unresolved question in the case of the Al-Mg-Si system is the structure
of the first
precipitates that form from solid solution, i.e., the Guinier-Preston (GP)
zones.\cite{MariAnde05}

In order to be able to study coherent precipitate phases within the Al matrix,
and to model the disordered phase and the nucleation process, we have
utilized a ternary cluster expansion (CE) description of the Al-Mg-Si system.
In this model, a set of atoms within a lattice structure is denoted by
${\bs{\sigma}}$, and
the total energy of such a configuration can be written as a sum
of ``cluster functions'', $\Phi_{\alpha,s}({\bs{\sigma}})$;
\begin{equation}
  \label{eq:IsingSum}
E({\bs{\sigma}})=E_0+\sum_{\alpha,s} V_{\alpha,s}\Phi_{\alpha,s}({\bs{\sigma}}).
\end{equation}
We derive the cluster interaction parameters $V_{\alpha,s}$ from a set
of first-principles calculations using an approach based on the structure inversion
method (SIM).\cite{ConnWill83}
Once these parameters have been obtained, it is a relatively
inexpensive operation to sum up the total energy.
A complication that arises is that the effective cluster interactions
are in principle volume dependent,\cite{LaksFerr92}
but since the concentration of Mg and Si in typical Al-Mg-Si alloys is $1-2$\%,
we have done all calculations at volumes corresponding to the Al equilibrium
lattice constant.

We have focused on the two main candidates for early precipitate
structures, or GP-zones, in the Al-Mg-Si system.
These are, the Mg$_1$Si$_1$ L$1_0$ structure proposed by Matsuda {\em et al},\cite{Matsuda98}
here referred to as  the Matsuda structure, and the so called pre-$\beta''$-phase which
was proposed by Marioara {\em et al}.\cite{MariAnde01}
By testing a large number of
structures related to the pre-$\beta''$ structure, we conclude
that the Matsuda-phase is the energetically most stable precipitate phase.
We then proceed with studying the stability of the Matsuda and pre-$\beta''$
structures and find that the former structure is dynamically unstable,
so that the vibrational free energy is undefined.
This implies that it can only exist within a surrounding stabilizing
lattice, the Al lattice in this case. That this system exhibits instabilities
is not surprising since fcc Si is dynamically unstable.\cite{EkmaPers00}
For certain local concentrations of Si we therefore expect the lattice to be
significantly softened, which lowers the Gibbs free energy, and may lead
to structural transformations.

The CE method also allows for large-scale Monte Carlo (MC) simulations to be performed,
either for finding ground-state structures (using, e.g., simulated annealing) or to study
finite-temperature thermodynamic properties of an alloy. Our MC calculations using the
present CE parameters
show that decomposition typically occurs in the form of spherical precipitates with the
Matsuda structure.
MC simulations in combination with thermodynamic integration are used to calculate the
solvus phase boundary in the Al rich end of the phase diagram.
We also use kinetic Monte Carlo (kMC) simulations to study clustering in the disordered phase.
Such studies are of current interest because modern experimental techniques, i.e., high-
resolution transmision electron microscopy and 3D atom probe tomography, are capable of studying
small, coherent clusters at an atomic scale.\cite{MariAnde05,ShaCere05} Therefore, increased
understanding of atomic
level processes that preceed nucleation can be expected and a much more detailed comparison with
modelling and simulation is possible.\cite{ShaCere05}

The paper is disposed as follows. In Sec. II we describe the two GP-zone models
considered in this work. In Sec. III we review the theory of
ternary CE, and we also detail the first-principles calculations that form
the basis for the present work. The results of the fitting procedure, and
of the CE calculations for different GP-zone structures are presented in
section IV. The calculation of the solvus boundary for Mg$_1$Si$_1$ and simulations of the
early stage of clustering are presented in the same section.
 In Sec. V we discuss the present results in the light of what is
experimentally known about GP-zone formation in Al-Mg-Si, and conclusions follow
in Sec.~VI.

\section{GP-zone models in the Al-Mg-Si alloys}
Currently there are two generally accepted models of the early precipitate phases, or
GP-zones, in the Al-Mg-Si alloys.
The first structure, an Mg$_1$Si$_1$ L$1_0$ phase (see Fig \ref{fig:GP}b) was observed
by Matsuda and co-workers~\cite{Matsuda98} in samples with a solute concentration of
1.55 at.\% and with a Mg:Si
ratio of 2:1. The samples had been aged and then heat-treated at 343 K. This phase will
be referred to as the Matsuda phase.
The other structure, the pre-$\beta''$ in Fig.~\ref{fig:GP}a was
proposed by Marioara et al.~\cite{MariAnde01} based on TEM observations of samples that had
been homogenized at 843 K and heat treated at 450 K. The Mg:Si ratio in these samples was 5:6.

The $\beta''$ structure is the most efficient hardening phase in the 6xxx alloys.
 The fact that GP-zones have been observed to have the same
symmetry as the $\beta''$ phase, motivated the structural model of GP-zones shown in
\figref{fig:GP}a.\cite{MariAnde01}
Its structural relationship with the $\beta''$ phase can
be understood in the following way.
If the $(0,0,0)$ Mg atom in
Fig.~\ref{fig:GP}a is displaced $1/2a_0$ in the normal ($z$) direction, one obtains a
structural model of the $\beta''$ phase. The latter phase is in turn needle-shaped, and  often
observed to be coherent in the $(x\;y)$ plane and semi-coherent in the $z$ (needle) direction.
\begin{figure}
  \begin{center}
  \includegraphics*[width=4cm]{figure1a.eps}
  \includegraphics*[width=3cm]{figure1b.eps}
  \caption{Previously proposed GP-zone structures, where large (small)
           circles indicate Mg (Si) atoms. Dark atoms are displaced by
           $1/2\;a_0$ in the $z$-direction, with respect to the white atoms.
           a) the pre-$\beta''$ structure
           with composition Mg$_5$Si$_6$, the 11 atom primitive unit cell
           is indicated. b) the Matsuda L$1_0$ structure with composition
           Mg$_1$Si$_1$.}
           \label{fig:GP}
  \end{center}
\end{figure}

\section{Methods}

\subsection{Cluster expansion and the structure inversion method}
The general theory for multicomponent CE was developed by Sanches,
Ducastelle and Gratias.\cite{SancDuca84}
In the present work we use the following notations.
A lattice site $i$ can be occupied by an atom of type $A$, $B$, or $C$,
indicated by an occupation variable, $\sigma_i$, taking the value
$-1$, 0, or $+1$, respectively.
Hence, given an underlying lattice, the alloy structure can be
defined by a set of occupation variables, ${\bs{\sigma}}=\{\sigma_i\}$.
Linearly independent basis vectors describing the occupation are then
\begin{eqnarray}
\label{eq:ClBasis}
\Theta^{(0)}_i &=& 1,\nonumber\\
\Theta^{(1)}_i &=& \sqrt{3/2}\sigma_i,\\
\Theta^{(2)}_i &=& \sqrt{2}(1-3\sigma_i^2)\nonumber.
\end{eqnarray}
A cluster $\alpha$ is defined as a set of lattice sites $(p_1,p_2,...,p_n)$.
Given a cluster $\alpha$, a cluster function is defined as the the product
of the basis vectors,
\begin{equation}
  \label{eq:ClFunc}
  \Phi_{\alpha,s}({\bs{\sigma}})=\Theta^{(s_1)}_{p_1}\Theta^{(s_2)}_{p_2},...
\end{equation}
where the sequence $s=(s_1,s_2,...,s_n)$ is called ``decoration'', which in
the ternary case will consist of 1:s and 2:s.
The total energy is given by \eqref{eq:IsingSum},
and by considering the average of cluster functions for
symmetry-equivalent cluster-decoration pairs, $\bar{\Phi}_{\alpha,s}({\bs{\sigma}})$,
the total energy can be re-written as
\begin{equation}
  \label{eq:CEenergy}
E({\bs{\sigma}})=E_0+\sum_{\alpha,s} V_{\alpha,s}m_{\alpha,s}\bar{\Phi}_{\alpha,s}({\bs{\sigma}}),
\end{equation}
where $E_0$ is a reference energy and $\bar{\Phi}_{\alpha,s}({\bs{\sigma}})$ is an average, defined as
\begin{equation}
  \label{eq:ClMean}
  \bar\Phi_{\alpha,s}({\bs{\sigma}})=\frac{1}{N}\sum_{\alpha',s'} \Phi_{\alpha',s'}({\bs{\sigma}}).
\end{equation}
The sum goes over all $(\alpha',s')$ pairs related to $(\alpha,s)$
through lattice symmetry operations. $m_{\alpha,s}$ is the number of such cluster functions
per lattice site, and $N$ is the total number of lattice sites.

In the structure inversion method one calculates the $V_\alpha$:s by minimizing
\begin{equation}
  \label{eq:CE-fit}
\omega=\frac{1}{n}\sum_{\{{\bs{\sigma}}\}}
   [E_{\rm DFT}({\bs{\sigma}})-\sum m_{\alpha,s}V_{\alpha,s}\hat{\Phi}_{\alpha,s}({\bs{\sigma}})]^2
\end{equation}
where $\{{\bs{\sigma}}\}$ denotes a list of $n$ input structures and
$E_{\rm DFT}({\bs{\sigma}})$ their corresponding total energies.
The choice of input structures is arbitrary as long as they contain
information about all cluster functions, and an advantage with the
SIM is that the ${\bs{\sigma}}$:s can consist of small unit
cells in a super-cell approach, for which the total energy,
may be efficiently calculated using DFT methods.

In order to select cluster functions to be used in the fitting,
we used cross-validation,\cite{WallCede02} with the intention
to obtain an optimal fit, while at the same time avoid over-fitting.
It is applied to CE by defining a hierarchy of clusters, were a cluster
is included only if all its sub-clusters are included,
and short range clusters are prioritized over long-range clusters.
Then, by choosing clusters in this way, the aim is to minimize the
cross-validation score
\begin{equation}
  \label{eq:cv-score}
(cv)^2=\frac{1}{n}\sum_{i=1}^n (E_i-E_{(i)})^2.
\end{equation}
Here, $E_{(i)}$ denotes the predicted energy of structure $i$,
using parameters $V_{\alpha,s}$ obtained {\em without} structure $i$
included in the fit. Thus, the cv-score measures the ability of
the CE, with a given set of cluster functions, to predict the
energy of new structures. We note that all $n$ structures are
included in the fit in Eq.~\eqref{eq:CE-fit}.

\subsection{Electronic structure calculations}

We have used the Vienna ab-initio simulation package (VASP),\cite{VASP} a plane-wave pseudo
potential implementation of the DFT method, in the present
electronic structure calculations.
For the exchange-correlation approximation we used the Perdew-Wang implementation
of the generalized gradient approximation (GGA).\cite{PW91}
The built-in ultra-soft pseudo potentials by Vanderbilt {\it et al.} were used.\cite{PP}
$k$-points were chosen according to the Monkhorst-Pack scheme in meshes
 corresponding to $12\times12\times12$
points for the conventional fcc unit cell, or denser.
Tests showed that using a mesh corresponding to $16\times16\times16$ $k$-points changed
the energy with typically 1-2 meV/atom.
The atomic structure was relaxed at constant volume using a conjugate gradient
technique, or in some cases a damped molecular dynamics algorithm.
We found that both methods led to the same relaxed state.
We note that during the relaxation, the symmetry is preserved.
This means that if the relaxation starts at a saddle point in the potential
energy landscape, the system may stay at this saddle point due to symmetry
restrictions.
In particular, pure Si in the fcc structure is unstable with respect to
tetragonal shear,\cite{EkmaPers00} but this relaxation mode is not taken into account in our
calculations.

\subsection{Monte Carlo and kinetic Monte Carlo simulations}

The computational study of the thermodynamic properties of the
Al-Mg-Si system requires to take configurational space properly into
account.
To this end we use the standard Metropolis\cite{metropolis53} Monte Carlo
sampling technique, generating a sequence of configurations being
Boltzmann-distributed with respect to the system temperature and
configurational energy.
We have held the alloy constituent
concentrations unchanged during the simulations.
Hence, as the trial-changes we simply choose a random pair of atoms
to be exchanged with each-other. One MC step is defined as one such trial-echange
per atom.
A technical aspect of our implementation is that the cluster functions are defined
in the so called canonical basis
rather than the orthogonal basis (Eq:s \eqref{eq:ClBasis}). That means that the cluster
functions are products of integers rather than real numbers, and their
evaluation becomes more efficient.

In order to simulate kinetic processes (e.g., nucleation)
we have utilized a kinetic Monte Carlo (kMC) algorithm.
The important additional constraint added to a kMC algorithm, as
compared to the ordinary MC dito, is that the (trial-) changes made to
the system are selected in a way correspondig to the effect of some
physical process occurring.
The physical process being most important during aging or phase
transformations in our Al-Mg-Si alloy system, is the mass transport
via atomic diffusion.
The atomic diffusion process was modelled by attempted
interchange of two randomly choosen nearest neighbor atoms, and accepting
the interchange according to the Metropolis algorithm.
This model is also known as Kawasaki-dynamics.\cite{kawasaki72}

To provide an estimate of the time-scale of the simulated
diffusion process, we use an experimental value of the aluminum self diffusion
coefficient\cite{hatch84} as input.
The experimental input which implicitly contain information about diffusion
hop-rates and vacancy concentrations, will relate the Monte Carlo
steps to physical time as
\begin{equation}
  \tau(T) \sim \frac{a_{\rm 0}^{2}}{D_{\rm exp}(T)}\frac{1}{s_{\rm v}},
\end{equation}
where $\tau$ is the physical time scale of giving all the atoms in the system a
chance to diffuse, $a_{\rm 0}$ being the Al lattice contant, and
$D_{\rm exp}(T)$ is the experimentally determined diffusion coefficient.
The factor $s_{\rm v}$ accounts for the supersaturation of vacancies
that is present, e.g., after a quench.

We used the kMC method to study the early stage of clustering in Al-Mg-Si.
Our definition
of a cluster is then that each solute atom (Mg or Si) belonging to a given cluster is
nearest neighbour to at least one more solute atom in the same cluster.

\subsection{Free energy integration}
The phase diagram, and the underlying free-energy differences between
various phases determine the driving force, e.g., for precipitate formation.
In order to calculate the phase boundary between disoerdered and a two-phase
region, one must know the free energy of the disordered phase.
In the present work, it was calculated in the following way.
The energy as a function of temperature was determined for a set of
compositions in standard MC simulations. This was done by slowly decreasing the
temperature and the system was then kept in the disorderd state. A corresponding
simulation where the temperature is increased from a low temperature shows a
clear hysteresis and the point where the two curves meet can be taken as a
rough estimate of the phase boundary. The entropy in the disordered state was
determined using thermodynamic integration of the relation
\begin{equation}
\label{eq:ds_dh}
\frac{dS}{dT}=\frac{1}{T}\frac{dH}{dT}.
\end{equation}
The remaining constant of intgration was taken from the expression for
the entropy of a ternary system in the ideal solution model
\begin{equation}
\label{eq:S_HT}
S_{\rm ideal} = -k_{\rm B}(c_1\ln(c_1)+c_2\ln(c_2)+c_3\ln(c_3))
\end{equation}
where $c_1$, $c_2$ and $c_3$ are the respective atomic concentrations.
This expression is which is valid at sufficiently high temperature. In the present work,
we integrated from $T=3000\;{\rm K}$.

\section{Results}

\subsection{Fitting of the CE parameters}

To choose input structures for the SIM, we started with 8 binary structures
and 34 ternary structures in Refs. \onlinecite{Ducastel91} and
\onlinecite{CedeGarb94}, respectively.
Those structures have been shown to be the only distinct structures that can
be obtained if one assumes only up to next-nearest neighbor pair interactions.
(In the ternary case, this has not been strictly proven, but it seems plausible.)
Taking into account the structures obtained when the occupation of A, B or C
atoms in the 'generic' structures are permuted, one ends up with 148
symmetrically distinct structures. In addition, we used some low-concentration
structures, e.g., an isolated impurity in a 32 LP cell, see Appendix A.
Further, we excluded some structures, e.g., pure Mg, that had a large static
(positive or negative) internal pressure.
In total, we ended up with 154 structures.

These structures were used as input to the fitting of the cluster interaction
parameters in Eq.~\eqref{eq:CE-fit}.
When selecting clusters, we minimized the cross-validation score given by
Eq.~\eqref{eq:cv-score}.
In the procedure we included pairs, triplets and quadruplets in a hierarchical
order, see \figref{fig:Conv} and Table \ref{tb:1} for an explanation of the
clusters used.
We found that a good fit was obtained if we included pairs up to
fourth nearest neighbor, and the triplets T1, T2 and T4 (see \tabref{tb:1}).
This gives a total of $27$ parameters $V_{\alpha,s}$ that were minimized.
The resulting cv-score is $cv=$~7.1~meV/atom.

\begin{figure}
  \begin{center}

    \includegraphics*[width=7cm]{figure2.eps}
    \caption{\label{fig:Conv}
             Convergence of the cv-score (circles) and the mean-square deviation
             between predicted and calculated energies
             of the input structures (squares), as a function of included clusters;
             pairs (P), three-point clusters (T), and four-point clusters (Q).
             It is understood that, e.g., P4 means P1-4. See further Table 1.}
  \end{center}
\end{figure}

\subsection{Static energies of suggested GP-zone structures}
We have investigated the energetics of two models of the GP-zones in Al-Mg-Si;
the Matsuda phase and the pre-$\beta''$ phase (see Sec.~II and \figref{fig:GP}).

Because the latter structure has not actually been solved, we proceed along
the lines in \refref{RaviWolv04}: starting with the 11 atom unit cell in
\figref{fig:GP}a, we exchanged Mg/Si atoms with Al atoms in all $2^{11}=2048$
possible ways.
For each structure (of which some will be identical by symmetry) we calculated
the total energy using Eq.~\eqref{eq:IsingSum}. In Fig.~\ref{fig:toten1} we have plotted,
for each
composition $c_{\rm Mg}/(c_{\rm Mg}+c_{\rm Si})$, the energy of the most stable
structure.
An even less restrictive procedure is to generate all $3^{11}=177147$ structures
that arise if each lattice point is occupied by a Al, Mg or Si atom.
The most stable structures in this case are essentially the same as those in
\figref{fig:toten1}.

\begin{figure}
  \begin{center}

  \includegraphics*[width=8cm]{figure3.eps}
  \caption{Total energy per solute atom of different suggested GP-zone structures, along
           with some of the structures used in the fitting procedure.
           The results are given with reference to the energies of the pure elements,
           in the fcc structure, at zero pressure.
	   The structures marked with diamonds are
           denoted in accordance with~\protect\refref{CedeGarb94}.}
  \label{fig:toten1}
  \end{center}
\end{figure}

Ravi and Wolverton\cite{RaviWolv04} did a set of calculations for pre-$\beta''$
structures, using first-principles methods.
We have used the same convention as they used in plotting the energies, i.e., we plot
the formation energies per solute atom with respect to the pure constituents in the
fcc structure. Therefore, the the two sets of energies can be directly compared.

\figref{fig:toten1} shows that structures with an Mg:Si composition close
to 1:1 are energetically favoured.
This is in line with most experimental data on clusters and early precipitates
in Al-Mg-Si alloys.\cite{Matsuda98} For this composition, the Matsuda phase is lowest in
energy, as found also in \refref{RaviWolv04}.
In order to picture how ``pre-$\beta''$-like'' structures
may be build up, we also extracted the energetically most stable structures contained
in the pre-$\beta''$ cell as a
function of solute concentration $c_{\rm sol}\equiv c_{\rm Mg}+c_{\rm Si}=1/11,...,11/11$. Selecting
the structures from the $2^{11}$ or the $3^{11}$ possible structures resulted
in the same ground state structures. The energies are plotted in \figref{fig:toten2}
together with directly calculated energies for the same structures.
Thus, by comparing the two sets of energies, one gets an estimate of the predictive power
of the CE method used. We note the the relaxation of the structure at $c_{\rm sol}=9/11$ did
not finish during the simulation. This could indicate that the structure is unstable.
Some representative lowest-energy structures in \figref{fig:toten2} are shown in Appendix B.

\begin{figure}
  \begin{center}

  \includegraphics*[width=7cm]{figure4.eps}
  \caption{Predicted ground state structures in the 11 atom unit cell of the
           pre-$\beta''$ structure (circles) as a function of solute concentration.
           Diamonds indicate the total energies obtained in direct DFT calculations for
           the same structures.}
  \label{fig:toten2}
  \end{center}
\end{figure}

The interface energies between secondary phase particles and a parent phase are
important parameters in various theories of nucleation and phase stability
that are usually hard to estimate.
We calculated the pre-$\beta''$/Al and Matsuda/Al interface energies (at $T=0$) using
Eq.~\eqref{eq:IsingSum}, see Table~\ref{tb:2}.
The finding that the pre-$\beta''$/Al $({\bar 3}\; 1\; 0)$ interface is negative was
confirmed in a direct DFT calculation in a 44 atom super-cell.
The result indicates that this phase may contain Al.

The energy $E({\bs{\sigma}})$ of Eq.~\eqref{eq:CEenergy} is the static energy at constant volume.
To this comes a lowering of elastic energy, $\Delta E^{\rm elast}$, due to volume and cell-shape relaxation
of these phases.
For the structures that were used in the fitting of the CE parameters, this term can be estimated
in the following way. Assuming that the phase $B$ relaxes centro-symmetrically within an $A$ matrix, which is
assumed to be elastically isotropic,
$\Delta E^{\rm elast}$ is given by\cite{Christian02}
\begin{equation}
  \label{eq:el-energy}
\Delta E^{\rm elast} = 18 \mu_A K_B/(3K_B+4\mu_A) \epsilon ^2 v_B
\end{equation}
Here, $\mu_A$ is the shear modulus of the $A$ phase and $K_B$ is the bulk modulus of the $B$ phase,
where in this estimate we used $K_{\rm Si,fcc}=K_{\rm Al}$. $v_B$ is
the volume of $B$ phase and $\epsilon$ is the initial linear misfit of the $B$ phase relative to the
$A$ phase. $\epsilon$ is in turn calculated from the internal pressure $p$ of the different structures
using $V_0 = V/(1-p/K)$. The results for some structures in Fig. \ref{fig:toten2} are given in
Table~\ref{tb:3}.

\subsection{Dynamical stability of the Matsuda and pre-$\beta''$ phases}
The dynamic stability of the Matsuda phase and the pre-$\beta''$ phase was
tested by displacing the atoms from their relaxed positions in the internally relaxed structures.
For the Matsuda phase, starting with a 32 atom cell, we displaced the atoms
in random directions $1/50$ of a nearest-neighbor distance.
A subsequent relaxation showed that the forces were non-conservative
(i.e., directed away from the initial positions) for the Si atoms within
the Si plane.

A similar analysis of the pre-$\beta''$ structure shows that it is most likely
metastable. In a separate calculation, we displaced the
$(0,0,0)$ Mg atom in Fig.~\ref{fig:GP}a by a small distance in the z-direction.
Also in this case, the force on the Mg atom was conservative.

In the case if the Matsuda phase, we note that, according to the findings in
\refref{Matsuda98}, the structure exists in thin (one or a few atomic) $(0\;1\;0)$
slabs in the Al lattice (see Fig.~\ref{fig:GP}b). For such morphologies, the Matsuda phase will be stabilized
by the surrounding Al lattice.

\subsection{Free energy of precipitation and kinetics of clustering}
In order to study precipitation and clustering it is necessary to know the solubility
limit of the alloying elements. In this sub-section we first describe the calculation of the solvus boundary
in the Al rich end of the phase diagram, and then we present kMC simulations of clustering in the disordered
phase.

We have focused on the subset of the phase diagram where
the Mg:Si ratio is 1:1 and $c_{\rm sol} = c_{\rm Mg}+c_{\rm Si}$ varies between $0$ and $5\;\%$.
The energy per atom as a function of $T$ was calculated
for a range of
concentrations, while staying in the disorderes phase.
In these simulations, an $80\times80\times80$ atom system was cooled at a rate of $0.02\;{\rm K}/$kMC step.
Based on a polynomial fit to the energy, we then used
thermodynamic integration
to calculate the entropy by use of Eqs.~\eqref{eq:ds_dh} and~\eqref{eq:S_HT}. The corresponding
free energies are plotted in~\figref{fig:freeE}. The free energies are given with respect to the
normal state, which corresponds to separated Al and L$1_0$ phases at $0$~K. The solubility limit at each
temperature corresponds to the lowest lying free-energy curve. We have implicitly assumed that the ordered phase,
the L$1_0$, is completely ordered, i.e., does not contain anti-defects or Al atoms. We checked the
validity of this assumption, again using the regular solution model. It turns out that defects
(typically 1-2\% below 500 K),
can be neglected in the calculation of the solubility limit at the Al rich end of the phase diagram.
The resulting solvus-line is plotted in~\figref{fig:Solvus}.

\begin{figure}
  \begin{center}
  \includegraphics*[width=8cm]{figure5.eps}
  \caption{Free energies for the disordered phase, calculated by thermodynamic
     integration from a reference state at 3000 K. The lines correspond to $c_{\rm sol}=1,2,...,6$
at.\% solutes,
     in order of increasing slope. The zero energy correspond to the reference state of completely
     separated L1$_0$ and Al phases, $E=c_{\rm sol}E_{\rm Al}+(1-c_{\rm sol})E_{\rm L1_0}$. The inset shows
     one of the switching runs, at $c_{\rm sol} = 2\%$. The polynomial fit is included, and overlaps
     with the energy points.}
  \label{fig:freeE}
  \end{center}
\end{figure}

\begin{figure}
  \begin{center}
  \includegraphics*[width=6cm]{figure6.eps}
  \caption{Calculated solvus line dividing the disordered and the two-phase regions of the phase
    diagram for which $c_{\rm Mg}=c_{\rm Si}=c_{\rm sol}/2$ (squares). The dashed line corresponds
to an estimate based on the regular solution model.}
  \label{fig:Solvus}
  \end{center}
\end{figure}

Clustering in Al-Mg-Si was studied by kMC.
The atoms were initially randomly distributed, corresponding to a previous homogenisation at a
high temperature.
In \figref{fig:Cluster} we have displayed the cluster size distributions as a function of
annealing time
for a 2\% solution at 400 K. The time-scale was calculated by assuming the Al self-diffusion rate
$D_{\rm Al} = 1.5\times10^{-5}\exp(-1.33/k_{\rm B}/400)$ and a $10000$-fold increase in the number of vacancies,
corresponding to a homogenisation at 750 K. We believe that the latter factor is the dominant
source of error in estimating the time-scale in this type of simulations.
It is seen that the initial stage of clustering is fast ($\sim 1$ min.). In practice, since the
kinetics is even faster at higher $T$, part of the initial clustering is expected to take place
already during the quench.

Since the system is not within the two-phase region, there are no nucleation and growth stages.
After the initial clustering, the cluster sizes fluctuate in accordance with\cite{SoisMart00}
\begin{equation}
\label{eq:ClDist}
N^{\rm eq}(i)/N = \exp(-\Delta F(i)/k_{\rm B} T)
\end{equation}
where $\Delta F(i)$ is the excess free energy required to form a cluster of size $i$, and
$N^{\rm eq}$ is the number of such clusters in a system containing $N$ atoms. $\Delta F(i)$
can be written as
\begin{equation}
\label{eq:ClEnergy}
\Delta F(i) = i\Delta f_{\rm vol}+Bi^{2/3}\sigma
\end{equation}
where $\Delta f_{\rm vol}$ is the volume free energy per atom of a cluster, $\sigma$ is the
cluster/matrix interface free energy and $B$ is a geometrical factor.

A longer kMC simulation ($6\times10^6$ kMC steps for $80\times80\times80$ atoms)
showed that the cluster sizes were distributed in accordance with
Eq.~\eqref{eq:ClDist} for clusters
from $i=8$ up to $i = 16$, with an effective volume energy close to $0$ and an interface
energy $\sigma=3\;{\rm meV/{\AA}}^2$, i.e., considerably lower than
the mean interface energy of the Matsuda phase at $0\;{\rm K}$ (Table~\ref{tb:2}).
\begin{figure}
  \begin{center}
  \includegraphics*[width=7cm]{figure7.eps}
  \caption{Log-log plot of the number of clusters of a given size $i$, calculated in a
kinetic Monte Carlo simulation of an $80\times80\times80$ atom system. The horizontal lines
are the mean number of clusters over a total of $6\times10^6$ kMC steps.
kMC steps have been
related to physical time as described in the text.}
  \label{fig:Cluster}
  \end{center}
\end{figure}

\section{Discussion}
The main purpose of this paper was to apply the CE-SIM method to model clusters
and GP-zones in the Al-Mg-Si system.
The interaction parameters $V_{\alpha,s}$ were fitted to reproduce the static energy
$E$ of fcc based structures in the low solute-concentration regime.
By use of cross-validation and by selecting clusters of increasing range, we
ensure that an 'optimal' set of clusters is selected in the fitting procedure.
Explicit calculations on 10 predicted ground-state structures derived from the
pre-$\beta''$ structure reveal that the method holds its promise; the mean square
deviation between predicted and directly calculated energies is $7.25$ meV/atom,
to be compared with the cv-score $cv=7.1$ meV/atom in the fitting procedure.

However, the energy of interest for a given ${\bs{\sigma}}$ is the Gibbs free energy
$G=E-TS+pV$.
The $pV$ term can be handled within the CE formalism,\cite{LaksFerr92} but it is much
more difficult to treat the $TS$ term in a completely general manner.
Our explicit calculations for the Matsuda phase show
that it is dynamically unstable, i.e., the $TS$ term is undefined.
In general, one expects that when the local configuration approaches an unstable
structure, the vibrational frequencies are lowered (phonon softening), so that
the structure is stabilized.
Thus, this is an effect that we expect to be important in the early stages of
precipitation in Al-Mg-Si.
We note that in Al-Sc, the inclusion of the $TS$ term changes the phase diagram
significantly.\cite{OzolAsta01} This is related to phonon softening but not to instabilities.
Instabilities in substitutional alloys have been studied previously, e.g. in
W-Re.\cite{EkmaPers00_2}

We now discuss the implications of our findings in relation to what is known
from experiments on the nucleation of GP-zones and the
$\beta''$-phase.
In our simulations, we have only found one stable precipitate structure; the
Mg$_1$Si$_1$ L$1_0$ structure.
It forms in approximately spherical precipitates below $T\approx400\;{\rm K}$ for
the composition $c_{\rm Mg}+c_{\rm Si}=2\;\%$. Matsuda et~al. report the
formation of Mg$_1$Si$_1$ L$1_0$ precipitates at $T=323\;{\rm K}$ for an alloy containing $1.6$ mass~\%
Mg$_2$Si. These precipitates are in the form of $(0\;1\;0)$ planes.
The morphology can be related to the internal stress of the Matsuda structure, which
favours platelets in the $(0\;1\;0)$  plane.
Because the platelets extend only one or a few planes in the normal direction,
the Matsuda phase will be stabilized by the surrounding Al matrix.

The pre-$\beta''$ and $\beta''$ phases are found experimentally to form at $T=423...523\;{\rm K}$
in alloys containing about 1.25 at.\% Al and Mg.\cite{MariAnde05}
\figref{fig:Solvus} shows the calculated phase boundary for forming Matsuda particles.
One finds that
neither the Matsuda phase nor the pre-$\beta''$ phase would form with the current
atomic interaction parameters, at the temperatures and solute concentration
where $\beta''$ forms.
Elastic relaxations would lower the energies of both the impurities and the ordered phases,
and are not expected to change this conclusion (see further \refref{RaviWolv04}).
It is seen in Fig.~\ref{fig:Solvus} that the regular solution model describes the solvus phase
boundary well up to $c_{\rm sol}\sim 4\%$. For a Mg:Si composition of 1:1, the expression for the
solvus line according to this model is $c\approx 2\exp(-\Delta E/k_{\rm B} T)$, in the low concentration limit.
$\Delta E$ is the ordering
energy which can be found in Fig.~\ref{fig:toten1} by comparing
the energy of, e.g., the Matsuda phase with a line connecting the impurity energies of Mg and Si.
Thus, one finds that the ordering energy required to stabilize a structure at the temperature
and concentration where GP-zones form ($\approx 450\;{\rm K}$ and $1.5\%$ repectively),
is at least $0.2\;{\rm eV/atom}$. This is larger than any of the ordering energies
in the current study or in \refref{RaviWolv04}.

Therefore, in order to explain the nucleation mechanism of GP-zones and the $\beta''$ phase,
we suggest the following possibilities.
Either, vibrational entropy effects or vacancies stabilize an ordered pre-$\beta''$ based structure,
which then transforms into the $\beta''$ structure, or the structural transition takes
place in the disordered phase, in a Mg-Si rich cluster with the right local
configuration. Recent TEM observations clearly indicate that the GP-zones are
ordered, fcc-based, structures.\cite{MariAnde05} Thus, the former explanation seems
more likely.
In either case, there is a substantial gain in energy connected to the transition to
the $\beta''$ structure.

Finally, we remark that it is likely that quenched-in vacancies play a direct role in the
nucleation of the $\beta''$ phase.
As pointed out in \refref{Derlet02}, vacancies may faciliate a structural transition
from the pre-$\beta''$ to the $\beta''$ phase simply by providing the extra space
needed for the (0,0,0) Mg atom to move $1/2$ lattice vector in the $z$-direction.
Including vacancies in the CE description is formally straight-forward, however, in practice
it would increase the complexity in the CE and lead to other technical complications.

\section{Conclusions}
We have investigated the formation of GP-zones in the Al-Mg-Si system using a CE of the
total energy. DFT pseudo-potential calculations of 154 fcc-based pure, binary and ternary
structures were used to parameterize the energy by the SIM. Which cluster functions to include
was chosen according to the cross-validation criterion, with the intension to avoid over-fitting.
The method successfully reproduces the total energy of 10 structures based on the suggested
pre-$\beta''$ structure. Regarding the formation of GP-zones, the CE calculations shows that the
Mg$_1$Si$_1$ L$1_0$ structure suggested by Matsuda {\em et al.} is the most energetically stable phase.
This is also confirmed in direct DFT calculations. Our results are in fair agreement with the
DFT calculations presented by Ravi and Wolverton,\cite{RaviWolv04} where one should compare
with their {\it constrained} GGA results for pre-$\beta''$ structures.
Regarding the formation of the pre-$\beta''$ and $\beta''$ structures,
we outline two possible nucleation mechanisms. Either, the vibrational entropy ($TS$) term,
or the presence of vacancies serve to stabilize the structures preceding the $\beta''$ phase,
which then transforms to the meta-stable $\beta''$ phase.

\section{Acknowledgments}
We thank M.~Ekman and C.~Wolverton for helpful discussions.
M.~Ekman also kindly provided us with geometrical
data for the CE.
C.~D.~Marioara and S.~J.~Andersen contributed with their valuable knowledge about
precipitation in the Al-Mg-Si system. This work was funded through the Norwegian high performance
computing programme and the Norwegian reseach Council through contract nr. 140553/I30.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaArXiv


text:
BACK TO SPEAKERS
Researcher and Project Leader, Behavioral Finance Team, ETH Zurich (Switzerland)
Sandra Andraszewicz
Dr. Sandra Andraszewicz is a post-doctoral researcher at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH Zurich). Being based at the Chair of Cognitive Science, she conducts interdisciplinary research in the domain of financial and risky decision making, risk assessment, behavioural and cognitive underpinnings of market bubbles and crashes, and bounded rationality of investors. Her work is based on empirical studies, lab-based and field behavioural experiments, formal modelling and quantitative methods. Before joining the Chair of Cognitive Science, Sandra Andraszewicz worked as a post-doctoral researcher at the Chair of Decision Theory and Behavioral Game Theory, and at the Chair of Entrepreneurial Risks. Between her academic appointments, she worked for the European Telecommunications Standards Institute, at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics in Tübingen, and in the financial modelling team of global reinsurance company SCOR. Sandra Andraszewicz completed her bachelor's degree at the University College Utrecht where she studied interdisciplinary cognitive sciences including psychology, neuroscience, linguistics and statistical methods. She completed her master's degree at the University of Edinburgh where she focused on Computational Linguistics and Natural Language Processing. She received her Doctorate from the Center for Economic Psychology at the University of Basel.
Sessions as organizer
Sessions as moderator
Sessions as speaker
From algorithmic risk to behavioral analytics: Building trust and resilience in a data-driven world (sponsored by Swiss Re Institute Zurich)
STCC, Room 3A

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


About the Capital Area Law Enforcement Foundation, Inc.
The Capital Area Law Enforcement Foundation Inc. provides assistance to local and federal law enforcement officers in the Metropolitan Area that suffer from a career ending injury or ailment.
Metropolitan Police Detective Joe Crespo, Travis Barton, and Officer Greg Alemian founded the Capital Area law Enforcement Foundation Inc. (CALEF) in 2012. After 9 years assisting the Washington, D.C. Chapter of Concerns of Police Survivors in the annual golf tournament, a need for an organization to assist local law enforcement officers, injured in the line of duty, was born.
The Capital Area law Enforcement Foundation Inc. operates solely on donations from citizens and businesses, and are always looking for community support. All of our board members are law enforcement officers and/or survivors that volunteer their time to this organization. The Capital Area Law Enforcement Foundation is a nonprofit organization under Section 501(c)(3) with the Internal Revenue Service. All donations are tax deductible to the full extent permitted by law.


text:
Q: Alternate portrait and landscape sections using officer package in R I would like to make a .pdf report that alternates between portrait (for text) and landscape (for large figures) sections. I use the officer package in R which generates a .docx, that I can convert into .pdf using Word or LibreOffice.
I made some attempts, but I have the following problems: I have a blank portrait page at the end, which I would like to remove, and if I convert into pdf it adds blank pages between the portrait and landscapes pages. You can also detect these blank pages in word by numbering the pages (they switch for 1 to 3 will skipping the 2), or looking at the impression viewer. This problem is explained in http://wordfaqs.ssbarnhill.com/BlankPage.htm for how to deal with them in Word, but I would like a solution to remove those blank pages using officer because I will have hundreds of sections alternating between portrait and landscape to deal with.
Here is my attempt:
library(officer)

doc_1 <- read_docx()

doc_1 <- body_add_par(doc_1, value = "Portrait")
doc_1 <- body_end_block_section(doc_1, block_section(prop_section()))

doc_1 <- body_add_par(doc_1, value = "Landscape")
doc_1 <- body_end_section_landscape(doc_1)

temp <- tempfile(fileext = ".docx")

temp

print(doc_1, target = temp)

# system(paste0('open "', temp, '"'))

The answer of David (underneath) improves my problem, but it does remove some of the portrait orientations when I try to iterate it using body_add_docx (which I use for efficiency reasons, see https://github.com/davidgohel/officer/issues/184):

library(officer)

portrait_section_prop <- prop_section(page_size = page_size(orient = "portrait"))
landscape_section_prop <- prop_section(page_size = page_size(orient = "landscape"))

core <- function(i){

  doc_1 <- read_docx() |>
    body_add_par(value = paste("Portrait", i)) |>
    body_end_block_section(value = block_section(portrait_section_prop)) |>
    body_add_par(value = paste("Landscape", i)) |>
    body_end_block_section(value = block_section(landscape_section_prop)) |>
    body_set_default_section(landscape_section_prop)

  return(doc_1)

}

accu <- core(1)

for(i in 2:10){

  doc_1 <- core(i)

  temp <- tempfile(fileext = ".docx")

  print(doc_1, temp)

  accu <- body_add_docx(accu, temp)

}

print(accu, target = tempfile(fileext = ".docx")) |> browseURL()

A: Here is the code you need, you need to define the same default section than the one you want to end the document so that Word agree to not add a page:
library(officer)

portrait_section_prop <- prop_section(page_size = page_size(orient = "portrait"))
landscape_section_prop <- prop_section(page_size = page_size(orient = "landscape"))

doc_1 <- read_docx() |>
  body_add_par(value = "Portrait") |>
  body_end_block_section(value = block_section(portrait_section_prop)) |>
  body_add_par(value = "Landscape") |>
  body_end_block_section(value = block_section(landscape_section_prop)) |>
  body_set_default_section(landscape_section_prop)

temp <- tempfile(fileext = ".docx")

print(doc_1, target = temp)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


This set of two rustic style terracotta oil and vinegar bottles have a terracotta base with a ceramic upper half embossed with a V for vinegar and a H for Huile d'olive French for olive oil. Perfect for adding a sense of rustic French country dining to your dinner table these terracotta bottles have a metal pouring spout with an airtight rubber seal to lock in freshness with a plastic cap to avoid spills. These rustic French condiment bottles come with an easy pour handle perfect for adding French country decoration to your dinner table.
These vinegar and olive oil bottles are dishwasher safe perfect for everyday use.


Speaking In Tongues brings together Souza and a tremendous new ensemble, whose members she had never previously worked with, creating a unique and moving collection of new pieces. "Equality is paramount in language - for people to understand each other truly, they have to feel permission to share, to create," Luciana says. Hailing from Benin, West Africa, guitar master Lionel Loueke has a remarkable voice, combining Jazz and African music, along with a childlike openness to experimentation. Swiss born harmonica virtuoso Grégoire Maret serves as an exceptional vocal foil because of his extraordinary talent and the singularity of his instrument's sound, one that for Souza is a metaphor for the recurring presence of the accordion in Brazilian music. Massimo Biolcati brings his incredibly empathetic sensibility and cosmopolitan taste and experience to the bass, as well as a bridge that emanates from his many years as a member of Loueke's trio. Drummer Kendrick Scott embodies the voice and attitude of a generation who grew up listening to everything, with no boundaries around the music that we call "Jazz," but who also approaches this expanse with a focus on refinement and musicality.
Souza composed the majority of the pieces, drawing from her strong experience singing on more than sixty records as a side singer with artists like Kenny Wheeler, Maria Schneider, Danilo Perez and Herbie Hancock, and having written many of the compositions on her previous releases. All members of the ensemble took an active role in the character of the music, accepting each others' musical gestures and choices, resulting in the sound of a collective, rather than the hierarchy of an artist-led project. Much of the time in the studio was used to explore and experiment until the compositions had arrived at their own destination - a meaningful story had been told, words included or not. This all happened with the creative input and expert guidance of four-time Grammy award winning producer Larry Klein.
For Luciana, singing without words is a way of articulating her own humanity and the human experience with others; of communicating beyond the particulars of language. It draws the listener in towards a more direct connection with the intensely emotional quality of her sound as a vocalist. Souza felt that if lyrics were to be included on the album, they should be composed by a true master of the poetic possibilities of language, thus "Split" and "No One To Follow" feature words written by the incomparable poet and songwriter Leonard Cohen, of whose work Souza says, "Something happens with poetry, which again, goes beyond language. Something hits your soul - some crazy truth about yourself or your life gets spoken. Leonard does that - he hits the depth of a scene or a feeling; he distills the human experience down to these moments... moments that articulate the tragedy, joy, and eternal questions of life into a couple of lines of simple language." These two works, from Cohen's collection The Book of Longing, were set to music by Souza with his blessing.


Ciara has had decent success with her comeback single 'Level Up' which even topped the iTunes chart overall and has inspired several dance videos across the world, some of which she has been sharing on her social media. Ciara later dropped a remix of the track with Missy Elliott and Fatman Scoop.
But CiCi is now ready to serve the follow up. Her new single 'Freak Me' is out in some international markets. The veteran singer goes for an Afrobeats sound this time, sampling Nigerian singer Tiwa Savage's song 'Before Nko' and taking help from Nigerian singer-songwriter Tekno Miles on the vocals.
"Been dying to share this with you! Can't wait!" she wrote on her Instagram yesterday. This is a totally different sound from 'Level Up' and we feel she has delivered again on the infectious tune. Ciara signed a new deal with Warner Bros. earlier this year for her forthcoming new album.


IPA is pleased to announce that Dr. Dilip V. Jeste, M.D. has been chosen as the new Editor-in-Chief of International Psychogeriatrics, the prestigious academic journal owned by the International Psychogeriatric Association (IPA) and currently published twelve times per year by Cambridge University Press (CUP). This is a four year appointment beginning 1 October 2017.
Dilip V. Jeste, M.D. is a geriatric neuropsychiatrist who specializes in schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders in older adults, as well as positive psychiatry, successful aging, and neurobiology of wisdom. He is the Senior Associate Dean for Healthy Aging and Senior Care, Estelle and Edgar Levi Chair in Aging, Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry and Neurosciences, and Director, Sam and Rose Stein Institute for Research on Aging, at the University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego).
Education and Professional Experience: Dr. Jeste obtained his medical education in Pune and psychiatry training in Mumbai, India. In the US, he completed psychiatry residency at Cornell and neurology residency at George Washington University. He was a Research Fellow and later, Chief of the Units on Movement Disorders and Dementias at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) before joining UC San Diego. There he started a Geriatric Psychiatry program from scratch; today it is one of the largest Geriatric Psychiatry Divisions anywhere.
Research: Dr. Jeste's main areas of research include schizophrenia and other psychoses, pharmacologic and psychosocial interventions, and successful aging. He has been Principal Investigator on a number of research and training grants, and has been funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) continuously for 30 years. His work includes clinical, translational, and services research, primarily in the areas of relevance to mental illness, mental health, and aging. Specific areas of his interest have been late-onset schizophrenia, psychopharmacology, psychosocial interventions for older people with schizophrenia and related disorders, psychosis of Alzheimer's disease, accelerated biological aging in schizophrenia, and sustained remission of schizophrenia in later life. In recent years, he has been promoting Positive Psychiatry, emphasizing mental health and ways of enhancing it through positive traits such as resilience and wisdom.
Publications: He has published 12 books including Successful Cognitive and Emotional Aging (2009), Prevention in Mental Health (2011), and Positive Psychiatry (2015). He has also published more than 625 articles in peer-reviewed journals and 140 invited book chapters. His work has been cited in the Time, Atlantic, NY Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, London Times, Public Radio International, etc.
Training: Dr. Jeste has been involved in research and clinical training of high school students, undergraduates, graduate, medical, nursing, and social work students, fellows, and faculty. He is also passionate about community education.
Editorship: Dr. Jeste served as the Editor-in-Chief of the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry from 2001 to 2015. Under his leadership, the journal became the top publication in the field, in terms of the Impact Factor and downloads.
Honors: Dr. Jeste is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, and was a member of the NIMH Advisory Council and the inaugural NIH Council of Councils. He was listed in "The Best Doctors in America" and in the Institute of Scientific Information list of the "world's most cited authors"--comprising < 0.5% of all publishing researchers of previous two decades. Dr. Jeste was a Past President of the American Psychiatric Association (APA), the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry, and the West Coast College of Biological Psychiatry, and Founding President of International College of Geriatric Psychoneuropharmacology. He has received Commendation for Dedicated Service from the Veterans Affairs and awards from NIMH, Society of Biological Psychiatry, APA, Institute of Living, National Alliance on Mental Illness, National Alliance for Research in Schizophrenia and Affective Disorders, American College of Psychiatrists, and Universities of Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, and Maryland, and Cornell.
International Psychogeriatric Association (IPA): Dr. Jeste is a Life Member of the IPA. He has given several lectures at IPA conferences, including Raymond Levy Lecture (Beijing, 2014). He received IPA's Award for Service to the Field in 2005.
Other International Activities: Dr. Jeste has strong international interests. As APA President, he established a new APA Council on International Psychiatry to facilitate international collaboration. He has received Honorary Fellowship, the highest honor it bestows, from the UK's Royal College of Psychiatrists; Honorary Professorship from Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia, Lima, Peru; Asian Heritage Award for "Excellence in Science, Technology, and Research" from Asia; Visiting Professorship, Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists; Certificate of Honour, Indian Psychiatric Society; Indo-Global Psychiatric Initiative Award for Academic and Administrative Skills; and Award for Significant Contributions in Neurosciences to World Psychiatry, from the Asian Federation of Psychiatric Associations.
Recent Contributions: Dr. Jeste has been widely recognized for his contributions to the scientific community. As the (APA's) President during 2012-13, he spearheaded the process of finalization, approval, and publication of the DSM-5. He also expanded APA's international membership, and focused on Positive Psychiatry .Dr. Jeste developed the newly launched UC San Diego Center for Healthy Aging, a unique, multi-professional center, breaking the traditional silos of academic disciplines by bringing together best scientists from varied professional backgrounds such as engineering, technology, pharmacy, gerontology, social science, and arts and humanities, to work collaboratively on different aspects of healthy aging.


Many brands and agencies know the creative and production side to video but few understand how to set a strategic framework.
In this practical workshop, content marketing specialists Lieu Pham and Alicia Hamilton explain the pros, cons and considerations of both a campaign and always-on approach to video. What are the opportunities, pitfalls and trends that we need to be aware of? What can we learn from the likes of Netflix, YouTube and BuzzFeed? What is the role of video content in a marketing strategy and how can it deliver engagement and ROI?
This class is perfect for marketers, brands, video producers/creators, and anyone looking to leverage the potential of video in a more strategic way.
A basic understanding of the Digital landscape.
You're following Worlds Collide: When Video Meets Strategy.


text:
Kup Jugoslavije u odbojci za žene se s prekidima održavao od 1959. do 1991. godine.

Pobjednici i finalisti

Vječna ljestvica

Poveznice i izvori
 Prvenstvo Jugoslavije u odbojci za žene
 Kup Jugoslavije u odbojci za muškarce
 Kup Hrvatske u odbojci za žene
 ossrb.org, pobjednici kupa FNRJ/SFRJ, SRJ/SiCG i Srbije
 ossrb.org, Kup Jugoslavije za žene 1974.-1979.
 ossrb.org, Kup Jugoslavije za žene 1980.-1984.
 ossrb.org, Kup Jugoslabije u odbojci 1985.-1989.
 ossrb.org, Kup Jugoslavije, SRJ/SiCG i Srbije za žene 1990.-2010.

Jugoslavenska odbojkaška natjecanja

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
ROBERT "BOB" O. DAME
ROBERT BOB O. DAME 92, died peacefully on May 14, 2013 at the Pohai Nani Care Center in Kaneohe. Bob was born on October 2, 1920 in Garden City, Long Island, New York to Frank L. and Mary Elizabeth (Elvidge) Dame. His two older brothers, Frank E. Dame and Edward L. Dame, predeceased him. Bob graduated from Garden City High and Cornell University ('42), and later received his MA degree in engineering from Stanford ('47), where he met his future wife, Jacklyn Hogan. He served in the Pacific during WWII as a civilian engineer with US military forces. After the war, Bob lived in S. California, where he worked for Bendix Corp, developing air-to-air missiles. His six children were born there. In 1960, he transferred to work at the Pacific Missile Range at Kaneohe Marine Base, settling with Jackie and the children in nearby Kailua. Bob was an avid runner and tennis player. He was president of the Kailua Racket Club and the Hawaii Tennis Assoc. He started his own tennis court construction and lighting company. He began running in 1970, often jogging on the streets and beaches of Kailua and Lanikai. He ran many road races, including the New York and Honolulu Marathons. Bob is survived by his wife of 65 years, Jackie; 6 children: Wendy, Peggy, Bart, Lauren, Libby, and Alison; 4 grand- children: Garrett and Lea Eaton, Alison and David Dame-Boyle; a niece, Burnley Dame and a nephew, Frank L. Dame, Jr. A private service will be held.
Search Records for ROBERT "BOB" O. DAME with Ancestry® Discover ROBERT "BOB" O. DAME Family Story with Ancestry® AncestryDNA® with Traits Discover Details of Your Family History - Search Records with Ancestry®


Having paid to stay in the actual campsite in Koblenz we started the day making the most of their excellent facilities, we even considered washing Rory in their dog bathroom with a doggie bath and shower but thought he might not enjoy it.
We headed out of Koblenz hopeful the way out would be easier than the way in and it was, only a few low bridges and far less traffic.
We decided as we were now a day ahead of schedule not to hang around to go to Brussels on Saturday night so instead we opted to go to Brugge where we knew our fellow motorhomer friends were.
The longest drive of the trip commenced, 250 miles from Koblenz to Brugge. Our plan was to spot a lidl or Netto for cheap New Year wine and find a fuel station to fill up. We pulled off the motorway into Aachen with the idea to find either but neither happened and even the Burger King we managed to park at turned out to be closed.
With around 100 miles to empty on the fuel tank Neil suggested we stop at the next garage, there would be no next fuel station! When the engine computer stopped reading how many miles to empty and the red light had been glowing for 40 minutes I did begin to panic then like buses along came loads.
We pulled into Brugges before dinner and managed to park up along side The Blachford's motorhome, we quickly sorted the van walked Rory and then headed to town to find Michael and Vickey – they were not hard to find in The Irish Pub!
A night on the town followed with good spirits, nice food and drink and even a game of pool. We ended the night before midnight and said farewell to Michael and Vickey who were heading back to the UK probably before we would surface in the morning.


text:
Study Supports the Idea That We Live in a Void
Cosmologically speaking, the Milky Way and its immediate neighborhood are in the boondocks. In a 2013 observational study, University of Wisconsin–Madison astronomer Amy Barger and her then-student Ryan Keenan showed that our galaxy, in the context of the large-scale structure of the universe, resides in an enormous void — a region of space containing far fewer galaxies, stars and planets than expected.
Now, a new study by a UW–Madison undergraduate, also a student of Barger's, not only firms up the idea that we exist in one of the holes of the Swiss cheese structure of the cosmos, but helps ease the apparent disagreement or tension between different measurements of the Hubble Constant, the unit cosmologists use to describe the rate at which the universe is expanding today.
Results from the new study were presented June 6 at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society.
The tension arises from the realization that different techniques astrophysicists employ to measure how fast the universe is expanding give different results. "No matter what technique you use, you should get the same value for the expansion rate of the universe today," explains Ben Hoscheit, the Wisconsin student presenting his analysis of the apparently much larger than average void that our galaxy resides in. "Fortunately, living in a void helps resolve this tension."
The reason for that is that a void — with far more matter outside the void exerting a slightly larger gravitational pull — will affect the Hubble Constant value one measures from a technique that uses relatively nearby supernovae, while it will have no effect on the value derived from a technique that uses the cosmic microwave background (CMB), the leftover light from the Big Bang.
The new Wisconsin report is part of the much bigger effort to better understand the large-scale structure of the universe. The structure of the cosmos is Swiss cheese-like in the sense that it is composed of "normal matter" in the form of voids and filaments. The filaments are made up of superclusters and clusters of galaxies, which in turn are composed of stars, gas, dust and planets. Dark matter and dark energy, which cannot yet be directly observed, are believed to comprise approximately 95 percent of the contents of the universe.
The void that contains the Milky Way, known as the KBC void for Keenan, Barger and the University of Hawaii's Lennox Cowie, is at least seven times as large as the average, with a radius measuring roughly 1 billion light years. To date, it is the largest void known to science. Hoscheit's new analysis, according to Barger, shows that Keenan's first estimations of the KBC void, which is shaped like a sphere with a shell of increasing thickness made up of galaxies, stars and other matter, are not ruled out by other observational constraints.
"It is often really hard to find consistent solutions between many different observations," says Barger, an observational cosmologist who also holds an affiliate graduate appointment at the University of Hawaii's Department of Physics and Astronomy. "What Ben has shown is that the density profile that Keenan measured is consistent with cosmological observables. One always wants to find consistency, or else there is a problem somewhere that needs to be resolved."
The bright light from a supernova explosion, where the distance to the galaxy that hosts the supernova is well established, is the "candle" of choice for astronomers measuring the accelerated expansion of the universe. Because those objects are relatively close to the Milky Way and because no matter where they explode in the observable universe, they do so with the same amount of energy, it provides a way to measure the Hubble Constant.
Alternatively, the cosmic microwave background is a way to probe the very early universe. "Photons from the CMB encode a baby picture of the very early universe," explains Hoscheit. "They show us that at that stage, the universe was surprisingly homogeneous. It was a hot, dense soup of photons, electrons and protons, showing only minute temperature differences across the sky. But, in fact, those tiny temperature differences are exactly what allow us to infer the Hubble Constant through this cosmic technique."
A direct comparison can thus be made, Hoscheit says, between the 'cosmic' determination of the Hubble Constant and the 'local' determination derived from observations of light from relatively nearby supernovae.
The new analysis made by Hoscheit, says Barger, shows that there are no current observational obstacles to the conclusion that the Milky Way resides in a very large void. As a bonus, she adds, the presence of the void can also resolve some of the discrepancies between techniques used to clock how fast the universe is expanding.
Credit: wisc.edu
Tags: astronomer, galaxy, Hubble, Milky Way, Universe, Wisconsin
Apparently, "Living in the Void is the safest place in the Universe to reside" - Lance 2017


One of the best things about being a palaeontologist (even a student one) is getting to travel around the world to visit other museums, fossil sites and to attend conferences. At the moment I'm attending the 7th Southern Connections Congress 2013 in Dunedin on the South Island of New Zealand (planning to post about this at the end of the week). But since I was coming to New Zealand I thought I would include a trip to the Canterbury Museum in Christchurch to visit their collections and have a look around.
I've already mentioned in a previous post that the fossil record of penguins in Australia is somewhat fragmentary. There's very few complete elements, let alone complete skeletons. New Zealand does not suffer this affliction too however, with some absolutely amazing specimens that I would kill for to have in Australia!
The image on the left shows the holotype of Pachydyptes simpsoni, these few, poorly preserved elements constitute the most complete fossil penguin found in Australia to date. The image on the right however shows the what can be found in New Zealand, this is the holotype specimen of Pygoscelis tyreei and is an almost complete post-cranial skeleton. Photos by E.M.G. Fitzgerald (L) and the author (R).
So when I spent two days last week in the collections of the Canterbury Museum, I was like the proverbial kid in the candy shop. There were some amazing penguin specimens and some very interesting cetacean specimens too. I took as many photographs as possible in the short time I had to build up my reference collection. It's a lovely museum with beautiful botanical gardens and park right beside it, well worth a visit if you're ever in that part of the world.
I couldn't write something about Christchurch without mentioning the earthquake that struck on the 23rd February 2011, killing almost 200 people and destroying most of the CBD. When you see things like that on the news it's almost impossible to comprehend the extent of the devastation of an event of that magnitude. But it was certainly brought home to me during my few days in Christchurch, even nearly two years after the earthquake. The CBD is still fenced off and out-of-bounds to the public and the city itself is effectively one big construction site, I've never experienced anything quite like it.
This the CBD of Christchurch, fenced off to the public. It really is like something from a movie. Photo by the author.
I was even given a brief reminder that the tectonic activity underneath Christchurch continues unabated. I was sitting in my room at the hostel I was staying in on Saturday night (I'm a party animal, I know) when the whole building began to shake! Fortunately it was a relatively weak quake and only lasted for around 10 seconds, but for those 10 seconds my heart rate increased rather rapidly!
But the city is rebuilding, and the feeling I got from the people I spoke to in Christchurch is that it will be stronger than ever when it is rebuilt. It is certainly worth visiting.
A big thanks goes to Dr. Paul Scofield for granting me access to the collections in Canterbury Museum and for the lunchtime beers!


text:
iPhone 5c Pre-Orders Begin in 10 Countries
Friday September 13, 2013 1:05 am PDT by Jordan Golson
Apple has started taking pre-orders for the iPhone 5c in 10 countries around the world, including the U.S., Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore and the United Kingdom.
Pre-orders are available directly from Apple in most countries via the Apple Online Store and the Apple Store iOS App [Direct Link]; historically, the iOS app has been more resilient against traffic surges than the online store.
In the U.S., Apple is selling the 16GB iPhone 5c on most carriers for $99 with a two-year contract, while the 32GB version is $199. T-Mobile is offering the 5c for $0 down plus 24 monthly payments of $22 per month.
There is also an unlocked GSM version of the 5c available for $549 (16GB) and $649 (32GB). All models come in blue, green, pink, yellow and white.
The iPhone 5c will go on sale next Friday, September 20, and the initial crop of orders should arrive that day. The iPhone 5s will have no pre-order period and will go on sale the same day.
In the U.S., pre-orders are available from:
- Apple Online Store
- Apple Store iOS App [Direct Link]
Carriers:
- AT&T
- Verizon
- T-Mobile
Third-Party Resellers:
- Walmart (In-Store Only, offering the iPhone 5c for $79)
- Best Buy (In-Store Only, must purchase $50 gift card to pre-order, can be used towards cost of phone)
- Radio Shack (In-Store Only)
- Target (In-Store Only)
Related Forum: iPhone
Too bad everyone wants the 5s.
ezatech
Checked the Australian (Apple) site. $869.00 for a iPhone5c 32GB you had got to be kidding me.
wikiverse
I genuinely do not understand the excitement.
This is just an iPhone 5 and Apple released it 12 months ago.
This, quite literally, is Malibu Stacey's new hat.
marsmissions
Your no skill laborers make 14 dollars and hour.
Green Case
John Deere.
dol4n
This is beyond me, how a well respected company like Apple can go do something like this...
Steve did not build this enterprise to make decisions like this, and release products like this....
I bet he would not have allowed this. :(
roland.g
I have a 5 and typically update every other year. The touch ID and faster chip is nice but as much as I am a die-hard Apple fan, there are two key issues:
1. Next year's 6 needs to come in two sizes, a 4.8-5 inch screen to rival the competitors because people do want bigger, and the current size. And not just keeping the 5S around, but actually offering the new model in two sizes that both get whatever new hardware bells and whistles come along.
2. While I have been beta testing iOS 7 I would have to say that some features are nice, but on the whole there are simply too many mistakes and wrong turns. Getting away from skeumorphism is a good idea, there are still issues with the new iOS. Probably the biggest is the reluctance to make an even larger paradigm shift. This was the first real shakeup and they didn't take advantage of the change to really change. A few features and different colors/icons/styles doesn't count.
Here's to hoping for some real innovation for iOS 8 or 9 in the next year or two as well as with the iPhone 6.


text:
Why Melissa McCarthy's 'Superintelligence' Is Moving to the HBO Max Streaming Service
By Brandon Katz • 10/18/19 1:54pm
Melissa McCarthy is embracing digital delivery. Frazer Harrison/Getty Images
It isn't uncommon for theatrical studios to sell off projects to streaming services. Universal most recently allowed Netflix to swoop in for the Dwayne Johnson action blockbuster Red Notice, and the streamer previously struck deals for Paramount's Cloverfield Paradox and Warner Bros.' Mowgli. But each example was driven by a studio desire to minimize risk on expensive or troubled projects. That's not the case for Melissa McCarthy's Superintelligence, which vacated its December 20 release to become the first Warner Bros. feature to premiere on HBO Max.
This decision was actually made by McCarthy and her husband/Superintelligence director Ben Falcone. It was notably not an example of a theatrical studio covering its downside.
"It was actually Ben's idea, it came from the filmmaker himself," McCarthy told Deadline. "We had a release date, a full marketing plan, and I had all my press lined up. We were really ready to go. When the announcement came that HBO Max was really happening, Ben had this idea. And we thought, is this better? Different doesn't mean worse, and how are we watching films ourselves? To us, each movie is near and dear to our hearts. You just want people to see it and love it and you want them to feel good. Superintelligence at its core is, love wins, and people matter. I want that to get to as many people as it can. We need that today, and this seemed like the best way to do it. So no, [this wasn't imposed on us]. We were ready to go the other way, and we decided to make the detour."
Superintelligence now claims credit as the forthcoming streaming service's first high-profile original film and potentially reaches a wider audience than its previously planned theatrical release. But this move doesn't appear to be solely motivated by financials. Yes, the mid-budget comedy and drama genres have been squeezed by Hollywood's increasing emphasis on blockbusters. But McCarthy's movies generally hover in the reasonable mid-budget range and the comedy star has opened six different films to at least $20 million since 2011. We might have to take McCarthy and Falcone's words at face value.
"I pride myself on living a fear-based life, and that won't stop," Falcone joked. "I don't exactly remember the question, but I wanted to make that clear to you, and to everyone. Honestly, you can release a mid-budget movie, and if we'd stayed in the theaters, we could have done incredibly well. There still are those examples of movies like this one that do. But for this movie, at this time, we felt like it was the best way to go. The PG rating, the fact they are starting this thing. All these streaming services are starting, and here, we are up there with Sesame Street, and Meryl Streep and JJ Abrams and Hugh Jackman and Jordan Peele. There are cool people doing this. So following my fear-based mentality, I thought it was the best move."
That's not to say that the economics played zero role. Warner Bros. saves on expensive marketing costs on what may or may not have been a tricky box office run. Joker continues to defy all expectations with its weekly ticket sales, but WB endured a rough stretch of flops over the late summer. Covering its investment here probably isn't the worst outcome.
HBO Max, launching in spring 2020 at a rumored $15 to $20 monthly cost, will develop its own originals while also drawing from the libraries of Warner Bros. Pictures, HBO, Turner Broadcast (TBS and TNT), Adult Swim, DC Universe and a handful of other WarnerMedia brands. While the platform's rollout has raised questions about its viability, HBO Max will have access to enough high-profile content to to throw its weight around in the streaming wars. Superintelligence is the first cinematic domino to fall.
Filed Under: TV, Entertainment, Netflix, box office, Warner Bros., WarnerMedia, HBO Max, Dwayne Johnson, universal
SEE ALSO: Paul Dano Cast as The Riddler in Matt Reeves' 'The Batman'


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text:
Округ  Касвелл () — округ (графство) у штаті  Північна Кароліна, США. Ідентифікатор округу 37033.

Історія
Округ утворений 1777 року.

Демографія

За даними перепису
2000 року
загальне населення округу становило 23501 осіб, усе сільське.
Серед мешканців округу чоловіків було 11896, а жінок — 11605. В окрузі було 8670 домогосподарств, 6401 родин, які мешкали в 9601 будинках.
Середній розмір родини становив 3,01.

Віковий розподіл населення поданий у таблиці:

Суміжні округи
 Персон — схід
 Орандж — південний схід
 Аламанс — південь
 Ґілфорд — південний захід
 Рокінґгем — захід

Див. також
 Список округів штату Північна Кароліна

Виноски


text:
Metroid Dread is een computerspel ontwikkeld door Nintendo en MercurySteam en uitgegeven door Nintendo voor de Switch. Het action-adventurespel is uitgekomen op 8 oktober 2021.

Plot
Het spel volgt het verhaal over premiejager Samus Aran, die naar de planeet ZDR vertrekt waar ze oog in oog staat met kwaadaardige EMMI-robots.

Ontvangst
Dread ontving positieve recensies. Men prees de eindbaasgevechten en de uitvoering van het Metroidvania-genre. Op verzamelwebsite Metacritic heeft het spel een score van 88%.

Externe link

Computerspel uit 2021
Action-adventurespel
Nintendo Switch-spel
Computerspel van Nintendo


Arrowroot is used as a thickener for sauces and glazes. It is made from a tropical rhizome (underground stem). I like using it for glazes to top fruit on a tart, pie, or cake because it has a slight sparkle and also because it starts to thicken long before the boiling point so does not cause the fruit to soften.
Although cornstarch, also an effective thickener (when allowed to come to a full boil), has an indefinite shelf life if stored in an air-tight moisture-proof container, I have found arrow root to have a limited shelf life.
As a result of my move from New York, I discovered I had three bottles of arrowroot each of a different vintage. I seized the opportunity to do a comparative testing of their thickening powers. The oldest one (now don't be horrified as I was!) was 24 years old! The next to oldest was 19 years old. And the third one was 14 years old. The results were: The oldest arrowroot thickened but not effectively as it still had flow. The next to oldest thickened but not as fully as the last one which also was less tinged with yellow. This was was kept in an airtight container in an air conditioned room which accounts for its unusual viability.
I recommend that if you want to be sure of the full effectiveness of arrowroot, use it up to two years from the purchase date and then replace it.


text:
13 MINUTES (2017): Review by Peier Shen
by Tracy Shen
13 Minutes, written by Léonie-Claire and Fred Breinersdorfer, isn't bad. In a strange way, it might be perfect in its mediocrity. It is all very well told of a story of a forgotten hero, Georg Elser, a fiercely independent and out-of-luck assassin of the Führer. Not a scene missing. Not a sequence misplaced. But it's just not that good. Except reminding us yet again the lives destroyed in WWII (which is in itself a tireless subject matter), Oliver Hirschbiegel's return to German history since his celebrated Downfall is more of a repetition than utterance. (PTS: 3/5)
Review by FF2 Intern Peier Shen
The story unfolds with the bomb at Hitler's Beer Hall Putsch and a failed escape of the assassin. "Georg Elser" (Christian Friedel), now captured and imprisoned, traces the events that lead to this point. The movie flashes back to 1932 when he is just a provincial fellow who plays the accordion and chases after girls. Of course that doesn't last for long. Soon his father's abuse of alcohol and the slow, albeit encroaching, influence of the Nazi leaves him homeless. The rise of the Nazi was treated with a delicate restraint: at first, there was only a couple of Nazi soldiers disturbing their tavern, then the whole town was taken over, poisoned, like a disease.
Not to forget the typical romance in the making of a hero, Georg Elser falls hopelessly in love with a married but domestically abused woman, "Elsa" (Katharina Schüttler). These scenes of courtship are treated as an antidote for the audience, when the director plunges us back into the interrogation scenes, each time more gruesome and bloodier than before. Georg's insistence on him acting on his own only infuriates the head of SS, "Heinrich Müller" (Johann von Bülow), who is under pressure to produce a conspiracy narrative. And the "good" German, police chief "Arthur Nebe" (Burghart Klaußner), who later turns out to play a part in another assassination attempt against Hitler, is also pressed to get a confession, which is supplied after Georg was threatened with Elsa's life.
So here it lies—all the elements equipped to resurrect a hero. A hero not of any political party but of himself. A hero of an independent mind. We watch and accept it with applause, especially towards the sacrifice made in history. However, Hirschbiegel's attempt at uncovering as a narrative, as a film, is dull. Nothing stands out. There is the problem with the portrayal of the hero—a clichéd interpretation of the transformation from buoyant boyhood to responsible adult. Regrettably not unlike any superhero origin stories. There is the typical bad versus good binary throughout the interrogation scene. Even the somewhat graphic torture sequences add little but shock values to further confirm the extent of injury the Nazi brought upon its people. Moreover, the ideology of individualism upheld by Georg is treated so matter-of-factly, so distantly, that we only think of it almost as a remote concept on required readings in Philosophy 101.
The redeeming point being that Christian Friedel carries the film through. His subtleties in portraying the growth of Georg give continuity and dimensions to an otherwise sporadic biopic. Cocky and insolent when young, and later, crushed by the full burden of ideologies, party interests, and loss. What is to be remembered is at the very end—imprisoned, without hope, and emaciated, Georg plays the song, brought by his prison guard. Now music is no longer the carefree expression of youth but a glimpse of solace of the condemned and the lonely. And all that transformation is captured through the well-calculated mannerism of a trained and experienced actor: a twitch of brow and an unwarranted gurgle.
That being said, Friedel could be better supported by his peers. We get only some fleeting impressions of friends and family. Many potentially interesting characters come and go without leaving much of an impact onto the story, including Georg's radical double, his friend, "Josef Schurr" (David Zimmerschied) and the morally ambivalent Nebe. Thus much of the personal drama relies on the romance between Elsa and Georg, their chemistry, unfortunately uncertain, further questioned by scenes of his previous philandering and the lack of depiction of her. Why? Why Elsa? And how do they fall in love? Those are not good questions for the audience to have, when one aims to depict undying love.
Still, 13 Minutes is interesting in its pure belief—the individual, unclouded by political propaganda, has the sound judgment to decide what he or she believes in. And in our current political climate, isn't such a film a respectable attempt to remind us of our very own civil duties? Yet, as a film, it's merely passing. If film is to be about revelation—not to just inform but to enlighten a particular experience, 13 Minutes, which could've been about so much more, miserably merges with all the others that deal with The Third Reich, undistinguishable and struggling to have a voice.
© Peier Shen (7/29/17) FF2 Media Top Photo: Christian Friedel as Georg Elser
Middle Photo: Katharina Schüttler as Elsa and Christian Friedel
Bottom Photo: Felix Eitner as Hans Eberle, Katharina Schüttler, and Christian Friedel
Photo Credit: Bernd Schuller
Q: Does 13 Minutes pass the Bechdel-Wallace Test?
Elsa does talk to some girl friends about some trivialities, though the conversation is shallow and unmemorable.
Tags: FF2 Media
Jessica Perry 5 years ago
BEFORE I FALL (2017): Review by Jessica Perry
DEMI-SOEUR
INCONCEIVABLE (2017): Review by Roza Melkumyan
by Tracy Shen July 1, 2017


text:
Russia takes small cities, aims to widen east Ukraine battle
Published 11:55 pm Saturday, May 28, 2022
By News Service Report
By Yuras Karmanau and Elena Becatoros
KRAMATORSK, Ukraine — As Russia asserted progress in its goal of seizing the entirety of contested eastern Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin tried Saturday to shake European resolve to punish his country with sanctions and to keep supplying weapons that have supported Ukraine's defense.
The Russian Defense Ministry said Lyman, the second small city to fall this week, had been "completely liberated" by a joint force of Russian soldiers and Kremlin-backed separatists, who have waged war for eight years in the industrial Donbas region bordering Russia.
Ukraine's train system has ferried arms and evacuated citizens through Lyman, a key railway hub in the east. Control of it also would give Russia's military another foothold in the region; it has bridges for troops and equipment to cross the Siverskiy Donets river, which has so far impeded the Russian advance into the Donbas.
Ukrainian officials have sent mixed signals on Lyman. On Friday, Donetsk Gov. Pavlo Kyrylenko said Russian troops controlled most of it and were trying to press their offensive toward Bakhmut, another city in the region. On Saturday, Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malyar disputed Moscow's claim that Lyman had fallen, saying fighting there was still ongoing.
In his Saturday video address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described the situation in the east as "very complicated'' and said that the "Russian army is trying to squeeze at least some result'' by focusing its efforts there.
The Kremlin said Putin held an 80-minute phone call Saturday with the leaders of France and Germany in which he warned against the continued transfers of Western weapons to Ukraine and blamed the conflict's disruption to global food supplies on Western sanctions.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron urged an immediate cease-fire and a withdrawal of Russian troops, according to the chancellor's spokesperson, and called on Putin to engage in serious, direct negotiations with Zelenskyy on ending the fighting.
A Kremlin readout of the call said Putin affirmed "the openness of the Russian side to the resumption of dialogue." The three leaders, who had gone weeks without speaking during the spring, agreed to stay in contact, it added.
But Russia's recent progress in Donetsk and Luhansk, the two provinces that make up the Donbas, could further embolden Putin. Since failing to occupy Kyiv, Ukraine's capital, Russia has set out to seize the last parts of the region not controlled by the separatists.
"If Russia did succeed in taking over these areas, it would highly likely be seen by the Kremlin as a substantive political achievement and be portrayed to the Russian people as justifying the invasion," the British Ministry of Defense said in a Saturday assessment.
Russia has intensified efforts to capture the cities of Sievierodonetsk and nearby Lysychansk, which are the last major areas under Ukrainian control in Luhansk.
Luhansk Gov. Serhii Haidai reported that Ukrainian fighters repelled an assault on Sievierodonetsk but Russian troops still pushed to encircle them. He later said Russian forces had seized a hotel on the city's outskirts, damaged 14 high-rise buildings and were fighting in the streets with Ukrainian forces.
Sievierodonetsk Mayor Oleksandr Striuk said there was fighting at the city's bus station. A humanitarian center couldn't operate due to the danger, Striuk said, and cellphone service and electricity were knocked out. And residents risked exposure to shelling to get water from a half-dozen wells, he said.
Some supply routes are functioning, and evacuations of the wounded are still possible, Striuk said. He estimated that 1,500 civilians in the city, which had a prewar population of around 100,000, have died from the fighting as well as from a lack of medicine and diseases that couldn't be treated.
Just south of Sievierodonetsk, Associated Press reporters saw older and ill civilians bundled into soft stretchers and slowly carried down apartment building stairs Friday in Bakhmut.
Svetlana Lvova, the manager of two buildings in Bakhmut, tried to persuade reluctant residents to leave but said she and her husband would not evacuate until their son, who was in Sievierodonetsk, returned home.
"I have to know he is alive. That's why I'm staying here," said Lvova, 66.
On Saturday, people who managed to flee Lysychansk described intensified shelling, especially over the past week, that left them unable to leave basement bomb shelters.
Yanna Skakova left the city Friday with her 18-month-old and 4-year-old sons and cried as she sat in a train bound for western Ukraine. Her husband stayed behind to take care of their house and animals.
"It's too dangerous to stay there now," she said, wiping away tears.
Russia's advance raised fears that residents could experience the same horrors seen in the southeastern port city of Mariupol, which endured a three-month siege before it fell last week. Residents who had not yet fled faced the choice of trying to do so now or staying. Mariupol became a symbol of massive destruction and human suffering, as well as of Ukrainian determination to defend the country.
Mariupol's port has reportedly resumed operations after Russian forces finished clearing mines in the Azov Sea. Russian state news agency Tass reported that a vessel bound for Rostov-on-Don in southern Russia entered the port early Saturday.
In the call with Macron and Scholz, the Kremlin said, Putin emphasized that Russia was working to "establish a peaceful life in Mariupol and other liberated cities in the Donbas."
Germany and France brokered a 2015 peace agreement between Ukraine and Russia that would have given a large degree of autonomy to Moscow-backed rebel regions in eastern Ukraine. However, the agreement stalled long before Russia's invasion in February. Any hope that Paris and Berlin would anchor a renewed peace agreement now appears unlikely with both Kyiv and Moscow taking uncompromising stands.
Ukrainian authorities have reported that Kremlin-installed officials in seized cities have started airing Russian news broadcasts, introduced Russian area codes, imported Russian school curriculum and taken other steps to annex the areas.
Russian-held areas of the southern Kherson region have shifted to Moscow time and "will no longer switch to daylight saving time, as is customary in Ukraine," Russia's state news agency RIA Novosti quoted Krill Stremousov, a Russian-installed local official, as saying Saturday.
In his address Saturday, Zelenskyy also accused Russian forces of preventing Kherson residents from leaving, saying they effectively "try to take people hostage'' in a "sign of weakness.''
The war has caused global food shortages because Ukraine is a major exporter of grain and other commodities. Moscow and Kyiv have traded accusations over which side bears responsibility for keeping shipments tied up, with Russia saying Ukrainian sea mines prevented safe passage and Ukraine citing a Russian naval blockade.
The press service of the Ukrainian Naval Forces said two Russian vessels "capable of carrying up to 16 missiles" were ready for action in the Black Sea, adding that only shipping routes established through multilateral treaties may be considered safe.
Ukrainian officials have pressed Western nations for more sophisticated and powerful weapons. The U.S. Defense Department would not confirm a Friday CNN report saying the Biden administration was preparing to send long-range rocket systems.
Russia's ambassador to the United States, Anatoliy Antonov, said Saturday that such a move would be "unacceptable" and admonished the White House to "abandon statements about the military victory of Ukraine."
Moscow is also trying to rattle Sweden and Finland's determination to join NATO. Russia's Defense Ministry said its navy successfully launched a new hypersonic missile from the Barents Sea that struck its target about 600 miles (1,000 kilometers) away.
If confirmed, the launch could spell trouble for NATO voyages in the Arctic and North Atlantic. The Zircon, described as the world's fastest non-ballistic missile, can be armed with either a conventional or a nuclear warhead and is said to be impossible to stop with current defense systems.
Last week Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu announced that Russia would form new military units in the country's west in response to Sweden and Finland's bids to join NATO.
City council retreat includes discussion of new 'state of the art' civic center facility
COVID-19 cases are slowing in Rowan County
A.L. Brown High principal: Gun recovered without incident


One of the most popular questions coming from our clients in relation to Storyline-authored content is about offline viewing options. The reasons for such requirements vary.
For example, one of our clients is deploying a healthcare-related series of courses in Africa, where at least a portion of the target audience may not have access to a reliable Internet connection.
Another example is a client who wanted to show off our work on iPad®s during a tradeshow, but wanted to plan for offline delivery in case Wi-Fi was not provided during the event.
While offline viewing may seem like a simple request, it can become quite complicated given the variety of options and requirements related to the authoring environments, target platforms and devices, and the necessity to take the Learning Management System (LMS) into account.
As trivial as it seems, the term offline is as prone to misinterpretation as any other concept, so please allow me to define it first.
Offline viewing means the ability to open and run a course without being concurrently connected to Internet. The course should therefore reside on a local drive of the device.
For Storyline, the device is an iPad or a PC (running Microsoft Windows®) or a Mac®.
An important disclaimer: Offline and LMS do not mix.
A LMS is typically a remotely-hosted system that requires an Internet connection to launch and track the content. The advances of the Tin Can API carry promises of being able to host and run content offline, but at the moment this does not work with Storyline, and, for most part, this remains a theoretical proposition.
We sincerely hope that this is about to change, but for the purposes of this article, it is crucial to understand that if you want to make Storyline courses available offline, these instances of the courses will not be tracked by your LMS.
This means that if you are offering courses through a LMS, several instances of each course may need to be prepared: one for the LMS, one for offline viewing on iPad, and one for offline viewing on PC.
In order to provide offline capabilities for a Storyline course, it must be published using the settings shown in the screenshot below.
Articulate Mobile Player (AMP) is a free iPad app that will run your course. When the user first accesses the course, it will either launch AMP automatically (if AMP is already installed), or will route the user to the App Store, for a free, one-time download and installation of AMP. Once this is done, the course will be available from the AMP library.
Another important disclaimer: initial Internet connectivity is required.
The course must first be accessed via an online link, which means that your device must be connected. You also must retain connectivity in order to download AMP.
Once the app is installed, and the course is open, the user will have to use the Available Offline toggle switch to download the course.
Clearly, the course download also requires persistent Internet connectivity, but once this is done, the course becomes permanently available from the AMP library and will not require an Internet connection.
No resources. Your Resource tab will disappear. You can still provide links to online documents and sites as part of the content, but they will not work without Internet connectivity for obvious reasons. Files that were embedded into the course as resources will not be accessible from AMP.
No hanging menus. If you have Menu, Glossary, or Notes as part in the top navigation, they will automatically move, forming the left-hand side navigation bar.
Default player. Player customizations, such as background color, color schemes, or alternative fonts will be reverted to default.
AMP for Android™. At the moment, AMP is only available for iPad, but starting with the release of Storyline 2 (anticipated in Q4 of 2014) the Articulate Mobile Player is rumored to become available on Android tablets as well.
Local PC distribution for Articulate courses is much simpler, and unlike the iPad example, it is indeed possible to load and run the courses with no dependency on Internet connection. Since each published course is a collection of files, the files can be simply transferred to a PC or a Mac machine on a CD, flash drive, or any other removable media.
If you view published Articulate Storyline content on your local hard drive or send it to someone else to view on their local hard drive, you'll encounter security restrictions from the computer, web browser, Flash Player, and network that'll cause various features of your content to fail.
In my experience, the courses will behave adequately as long as you stay away from Microsoft Internet Explorer®, and use latest versions of Google Chrome™, Mozilla Firefox®, or Safari® instead. You may also need to allow access to the local files for the embedded resources to work properly. Please talk to your technical support team to allow the access, depending on your PC and browser configuration.
Also, Storyline provides a publishing option specifically meant for offline distribution. This method is also prone to local security restrictions, but according to Articulate, it has the greatest chance for a smooth offline experience.
Files published for CD can then be distributed to your users and accessed from local or removable drives.
Photo credit: Eric Dombach via Flick.com Creative Commons.