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Reviews of Studio Beden's current and formerly owned audio equipment
Behringer Composer MDX 2000/2100
If you're into the lower end of the pro audio market, you might be aware of the distinction between old Behringer gear, which was supposedly OK, and new stuff, which is regarded as "Pro" in name only. Having owned a number of units from both eras, I can say that this is only a general guideline, but it does apply when it comes to the compressors, where the MDX 2000/2100 Composers (the review is for both units, since they're in most respects very similar) do seem to outperform the later Composer Pros.
The first clue that the Behringer Composer might be a decent compressor is the build quality, which is very solid. The front panel is made out of machined aluminium, the rest of the chassis is made out of steel, the knobs feel sturdy, and while the jack sockets are soldered directly onto the PCB, I haven't had any failed or intermittent connections with the three units that I've had. It's also quite well-specified: it's got an expander/gate with variable release time, an auto mode, and a limiter. The feature that I was most impressed, however, was the failsafe relay operation meaning that if something goes wrong with the compressor, the audio still gets passed through, which is something even some much more expensive and revered units can't boast, and which, together with the reliability that I have experienced, makes the Composer perfectly viable for less demanding live tasks.
The main reason why the Composer can't take centre stage either in live or in studio work is, to put it bluntly, its second-rate sonic performance. Neither the MDX 2000 nor the 2100 are able to cope with signals that either have strong transients or a lot of bass, let alone those combining the two, e.g. kick drums. Given its reputation, some people wouldn't use it on anything, but I felt that with a bit of care, it was very transparent on vocals and acoustic guitar, though it has to be said that the Really Nice Compressor comfortably outperforms it on both as soon as ratios beyond 5:1 are required. Still, the price difference between the two is significant and if you need several channels of non-critical compression, you might appreciate what the Composer can do for you at some 20 euros per channel (and it does dual mono, which the RNC doesn't).
In fact, the MDX 2000 is rather better at dual mono operation since there is a documented but rarely mentioned bug in its stereo link implementation. The problem is that the left channel truly is the master channel, not only for the controls but also for the internal sidechain. In other words, the right-channel signal doesn't affect the compression at all, which is a serious oversight that can be downright dangerous under unpredictable circumstances. You could be having deafening amounts of feedback on the right channel but as long as the left channel wasn't affected, the MDX 2000 wouldn't act upon it. The only way to get around this is to sacrifice an aux send to do a mix of both channels and use it as the external sidechain control, which is obviously a bit of a bummer.
The MDX 2100 isn't without design flaws, either. For some reason, its headroom is significantly lower than the MDX 2000's, which means that even with the limiter turned off completely, it will use the compression circuit to auto-limit the incoming signal. There is no way to prevent this, not even with switching to external keying, which should in theory completely divorce the program from the control path. I tested this when I was trying to use the MDX 2100 as a bass ducker to make some room for the kick, but instead, it began to compress the bass. When I switched back to the MDX 2000, the problem was gone (and yes, I checked the -10/+4 input setting).
The feature speaking strongest in favour of the Behringer Composer today is the price. They rarely sell for over 50 Euros, and if you know what you're getting them for, you can't really do much better than that. The old Composers can definitely match the Samsons, the Phonics, the Alesis 3630, and Behringer's own later offerings, and even surpass them in certain regards, such as transparency.
Casio VZ-8M
There are some synths that are real tone chameleons and are able to sound really different depending on how you programme them. And then there are others that will always have their signature tone no matter what you do. While this may be a good thing if you're lucky enough to own, say, an Oberheim OB-X, for each one of these you can find ten honky turkeys such as the (non-slaying) Korg Poly-800. Unfortunately, the Casio VZ-8M falls decidedly into the latter category, and the fact that it's even more laborious to programme than Yamaha's infamous DX-series while offering less instant gratification - e.g. in the form of turning the feedback to 7 and seeing what happens - means more bad news.
As long as I like what I hear, I don't generally mind a synth being a bit of an one-trick pony. In fact, the same was already true of an earlier Casio synth that I used to own, the CZ-3000. It, too, always had a certain samey quality to its patches, but while it tended to sound rubbery and zingy in a pleasant sort of way, I never managed to get the VZ-8M anywhere beyond weedy and whiny. It was almost paradoxical how the palette of sounds it could produce was fairly wide, yet every single patch appeared to have been anchored in a particular place - and one sonically not very exciting at that. One thing I did appreciate were its flexible, 8-stage envelopes, however I was anything but impressed with their sluggish attack, which robbed the VZ-8M of most of its potential punch. It gets worse yet, though: there is an analogue noise permanently inserted into the VZ's signal path, meaning that the sound always has to rise above its non-adjustable threshold first, adding insult (and slight delay) to injury.
Furthermore, the more time I spent programming the synth, the more convinced I became that despite what some people might say, PD will never be more than a poor relation of FM, at least as far as Casio's and Yamaha's respective implementations are concerned: while the various DXs and TXs can sound just as mellow, delicate, or indeed bland as the VZ-series synths, they can also display a level of craziness and aggressiveness that the Casios appear to be unable to touch. Finally, as far as I'm concerned, FM still has the edge over PD when it comes to intuitiveness of programming, even though neither is even remotely as accessible as subtractive synthesis. This is significant both by itself and due to the fact that there are not many user-created patches available on the web for the Casio, which means that you'll largely have to programme it itself (and don't count on its 64 factory presets to be much use as a starting point).
There are a few things that I did like about the VZ-8M and that I wouldn't mind seeing more often on gear of any vintage. The build quality, for one, was top notch, with a sturdy metal chassis that looked like it could withstand any sort of reasonable abuse, and world-class Japanese internal construction. Also, despite being ten years older, the buttons on my VZ-8M were much more responsive and less prone to mistriggering than those on my Yamaha RM1x sequencer, to give just one example. In terms of functionality, I liked the comprehensive, yet very straightforward multitimbral set-ups (up to 8 parts) with panning and velocity cross-fading being particularly well implemented. Considering that a synth like that will nowadays invariably be used for special purposes rather than being the studio workhorse, even the 8-voice polyphony seems adequate. If you only end up taking to its sound - as quite a few users certainly seem to have done - the VZ-8M is likely to prove a worthy and reliable part of your MIDI set-up.
JoMoX MBase01
I started making music in the early 2000s when the analogue craze was already in full swing. While some of my own early purchases, such as the Korg Poly-800, awoke me to the fact that there was a lot of hype to it and that it wasn't so much what you had but how you used it, I still couldn't help but lust after a few pieces of gear particularly badly. Among them was the Roland TR-909, which I thought was the only drum machine I would ever need if I could only afford it, but after hearing it some years later, I was disappointed to find out that raw and unprocessed, the kick and the snare, while nice enough - certainly nicer than those on the Korg KPR-77 which I had at the time - sounded nothing like they did on the records.
When I was deciding on the MBase01 years later, this experience definitely made me more conservative in terms of my expectations, in spite of the reviews and the samples, both official and otherwise, sounding very promising. So more than hoping for a radio-ready kick drum right out of the box, I was intrigued by the many shaping possibilities, along with all the parameters not only being storable, but also responding to MIDI continuous controllers in real time. Not least, the MBase also features the chromatic mode, where it effectively becomes a bass synthesiser, not complex enough to be used on its own - the unit doesn't feature a filter, after all - but more likely as the bottom part of the layer. Everybody also praised its solid construction and attention to detail at all levels, so at the price of under €200, the MBase really seemed to make sense.
All of the above looked great on paper, but the reality was that I developed a dislike for the MBase's sound very early on, and then never progressed beyond this initial impression. Granted, it had amazing bottom end, but in terms of being useful in a context of a song, it simply did not work for me. At first, I blamed myself for possibly not being able to programme it well enough, but with the amount of time eventually invested into it, I would've had to come up with something half decent even by chance. What I identified as the root of all problems is the MBase's lack of lower mid-range, which prevents it to cut through the mix and really deliver that 909 punch we all love. This frequency hole is so radical that it can't be sorted out with any amount of compression, while equalising tended to hurt the bottom end in my experience. Furthermore, this also means that in the mix, all the real-time editing doesn't do very much since the midrange detail remains buried in the arrangement, while the bottom end you don't want to mess with anyway.
Frankly, this alone would be enough for me to give up on the MBase, but I started to get annoyed with the one thing that made the MBase appeal to me so much initially, namely the sound editing. One issue was the fact that for all the parameter adjustment, the basic character of the kick drum never really seemed to change all that much. Most parameters feature 256 degrees of change, yet the useful window may often be only ten or twenty steps. The wild sounds provided by the LFO (which doubles as a secondary amplitude envelope generator) are fun - the people who programmed the presets certainly seemed to think so - but I think it's fair to say that the majority of users will gravitate towards regular kick drums most of the time. The adjustment itself is also a bit tedious due to the implementation of the endless rotary encoder which only registers a change every two clicks, and even more so by the left-hand side function matrix containing all the LFO settings defaulting back to the right-hand controls after only a couple of seconds of idle activity.
In conclusion, my experience with the MBase led me to conclude that 90% of what it can do can be covered with a bank of good analogue kick samples and a cheap FM synthesiser, such as the Yamaha TX81z. Personally, I don't care even for the remaining 10%, especially since most other synths are as good or better at percussive weirdness, but even if I did, it wouldn't be anywhere near enough to redeem it in my eyes, especially since that's not what I'd bought it for in the first place. But the real dealbreaker for me was definitely the fact that for all intents and purposes, the MBase01 will not produce a kick drum that won't need layering in the midrange, which is often a whole new can of worms in terms of equalisation and phase alignment. If it delivered what its designers had set out to do - which, admittedly, it seems to for a lot of people - this would be one amazing product, but you may well find yourself frustrated due to its many shortcomings, which are very difficult to forgive.
Oberheim Matrix-1000
Looking at various classic synth lists, message board discussions, and Internet auctions, the number one property that makes a synth desirable appears to be "phattness", despite the fact that it's elusive and difficult to define, and despite the fact that one man's phattness is another man's bloated suboscillated mess. I have found out through the years, however, that you can always stick a sine wave under that bass but there's no substitute for flexibility of modulation. Incidentally, this might do wonders for phattness, as well, but that's another story, certainly one unlikely to dissuade most self-styled phatness connoisseurs from arbitrarily believing it to be immanent in certain synths and unobtainable in all others.
Oberheim saw their reputation of their instruments change quite dramatically between the late 70s and mid 80s. First, they were known for their ballsiness, and as much as many people claim they hate the Van Halen/Jump sound, they secretly wish their synth could do it - because to this day, most simply can't muster up the punch and the animation that seems so effortless for the OB-prefixed lineage. Then with the launch of the Xpander and Matrix-12, Oberheim challenged the limitations of the fixed-architecture synthesiser with the amazing modulation capabilities which, again, few synths before the Nord Modular - with all the gains of the digital revolution on its side - have even attempted to get close to.
But perhaps the company's greatest move of all was to go a step forward and bring much of the Xpander xperience to the masses. Sure, the Matrix-6 would never be more than a poor relation, but with siblings that rich, relative poverty might not be such a bad thing after all. For a fraction of the price, previously unseen modulation depth was available to most working musicians, and it still came bundled with the essence of that famous Oberheim sound in tow. Costs were cut wherever possible (as were some unfortunate corners - see below), and since switchgear is known to be one of the most costly features on any synth, gone were the encoders and LED screens in favour of DX7-style membrane buttons, crucially without a DX7-style data slider. Needless to say, this made for very tedious programming beyond making a few quick edits - completely at odds with the immense depth of the machine - so some years later, Oberheim followed up with a rack-only version that wasn't editable from the front panel at all, but only through sysex ... which I bet Oberheim's market research found out most owners of the Matrix-6/6R having resorted to doing in the first place.
The Matrix-1000 was my second or third synth, and for quite a few years, it was way too complex for me to be able to take advantage of all its features - for a while, I even felt its programming capabilities to be excessive and that its following the Matrix-6's bitimbral and stereo suit should have been prioritised by Oberheim (over, say, confusing honest synthesists). It was only gradually that I began to appreciate things like ramp and slew generators, multiple LFO and envelope triggering options, not to mention the fact that almost anything really could modulate almost anything else; I even found good use for the MIDI guitar mode for independent pitch-bending of each voice. It was after I started taking these features for granted and time and again missing a lot of them on other synths - even, quite inexcusably, on most VAs - that I really began to appreciate Oberheim's vision of endowing a relatively inexpensive synth with features simply not found on most others, irrespective of the price.
There are few criticisms I can level against the Matrix-1000. It's certainly disappointing not to be able to edit it from the front panel despite its having more buttons than, say, the Yamaha TX81z, and a better screen than any Roland Juno synth before the Alphas. I'm being a bit facetious here, but sometimes, having to repatch a bunch of MIDI cables just to change one envelope parameter value is frustrating. Speaking of envelopes, they are relatively slow and only simple ADSRs despite being generated in software, and on top of that, the sustain parameter of one of the envelopes cannot be edited at all due to poorly written sysex code (it shows that Tom Oberheim had left the company by then, he'd never have let a thing like that slide). You can get around that by using a patch with the right value as a starting point, or making do without that envelope entirely, but it does leave a bad taste in the mouth. For a synth owing so much to software, its CC implementation is also rather poor - it only responds to modulation and CCs no. 2 and 4. Finally, the build quality is not the best: the buttons are flimsy and tend to stick, the front plate is too thin for the synth's weight, causing the synth to bend if it isn't supported in the rack, and while my power supply doesn't hum, many other owners are reportedly not that lucky.
Still, the fact is that the Matrix-1000 can do things not many other synths, analogue or otherwise, can - and that's more than two decades after it was launched, and for not much money. I've had it for ten years now, I love it dearly, and it's my go-to synth for complex and intricate sounds, though its cutting, indeed clinical (if left unmodulated) multi-mode wave-shaping oscillators can also make it sound quite brash if required. In fact, its gratifying sound, and indeed its 800 ROM presets make it a good beginner's analogue synth, while it's vast programming potential ensures that one won't outgrow it anytime soon, if ever.
Simmons MTX9
The Simmons MTX9 is one idiosyncratic piece of MIDI drum machinery. Its baffling mix of cool lo-fi percussion samples, a rather advanced MIDI implementation despite being primarily meant to be triggered via pads, and a supremely obtuse user interface makes it difficult for one to form a uniform opinion about it. For me, tolerating its less approachable sides was mainly due to its funky built-in delay but having to check the manual for what infernal button combination performs which mundane task (with the one-digit numerical display and an assortment of LEDs trying their best to provide feedback what was going on) eventually proved too cumbersome.
Simmons could have done two things differently - and completely against mid-1980s instincts - to make MTX9 into a cult secret weapon, if not a full-blown cult piece of gear a decade or two after the fact. One, they could have decided against expensive EPROMs and recreated some of the percussion instruments using analogue circuits, at which they were one of the market leaders anyway. Two, they could have changed the MTX9 form factor from a 1U 19-inch rack into a knobby desktop module, something they had also done before. However, the MTX9 was intended as an expander with its three-piece kits to be set up beforehand and then recalled by the drummer when required, so what frustrates and puzzles today made actual sense back then.
The MTX9's thirteen samples (there are two undocumented ones, an acoustic snare and some indefinable noise) can be radically transposed in both directions - and in real time, too! - made to respond to MIDI velocity in volume and/or pitch, which I found a quite radical but obviously welcome feature, and independently delayed before being sent to a combined mix output as well as separate outputs (which aren't sensing, so plugging a jack into any of them doesn't take the corresponding sound out of the mix). The delays were definitely my favourite thing about the MTX9: each of the three is independently configurable for delay time, decay, and number of repeats, and the settings may be stored along with the rest of the kit. There's no feedback modulation (I suspect that's because the delays are created by repeating and enveloping the samples rather than using an actual delay line) but this feature still single-handedly saves the MTX9 from certain and utter obsolesce.
What is undoubtedly keeping the MTX9 from appearing on live shows, the last place where it would realistically have anything to offer, is the fact that you can't do anything quickly on it. Most functions are accessible through a combination of front-panel button presses and unless you memorise them, you can get confused very quickly, which is obviously the one thing you can't afford in a live situation. Even the build quality speaks in its favour: despite being close to 25 years old now, it has never failed me, the dials and buttons register like new, and the outputs are clean and not terribly noisy. A nice piece of kit, therefore - just not nice enough.
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It's a battle of the 1-3 teams as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers travel to the Carolina Panthers for a Monday night matchup that is do-or-die for both their playoffs hopes (8.30pm ET on ESPN).
The Panthers were expected to be a much better team this year and the 1-3 start is certainly not how they expected their 2016 season to go. However, perhaps even worse than the slow start is the fact that the Panthers will now be without both Cam Newton and Jonathan Stewart for an undisclosed amount of time. This is definitely the biggest blow to the team's hopes to advance to the playoffs and to win the NFC South.
Meanwhile, the Buccaneers are very much the opposite. Nothing was expected of Tampa Bay and nothing has so far been given. Alive and one of the early favorites in the sweepstakes to earn the first overall pick in this year's draft, the Buccaneers do have one thing going for them entering into this game. Of the two games Newton missed last year, both times the Panthers lost and both times it came against Tampa Bay.
The QB match-up doesn't exactly look promising. Derek Anderson will step in for Carolina for the first time this season and he will be opposed by Jameis Winston (pictured), who is one of the more disappointing first overall draft picks in recent memory. He is on pace to throw 32 interceptions on the season and so far has as many picks as he has touchdowns. In four full games, he has just over 1,100 yards passing.
Needless to say, Winston doesn't jump off the page as any sort of world beater but he does have an opportunity on Monday. Carolina's defense is not quite the dominant force it was last year so perhaps if there was a chance Winston could get going it would be in this game. However, there is just as equal a chance that Tampa continues to show why it received that top pick in the first place and why it's been consistently a sub-.500 team over the past few seasons.
This is probably the match-up that is going to have the most eyes on it as Kuechly will look to be the impact player on Monday night. As he has been all season, Kuechly is one of the best defensive players in football and going up against a QB like Winston has often been his bread and butter. A three time pro bowler, Kuechly will disrupt the backfield and will be over the field making life difficult for Winston, who already could be without both Doug Martin and Charles Sims at running back. Kuechly is second in the NFL in tackles and has a sack and interception this year as well.
Look for Kuechly to pad his stats in a big way on Monday. Advantage big-time goes to the defender.
A similar offense vs defense head-to-head, this matchup pits Tampa Bay's top receiver and the most targeted pass catcher in the league, Mike Evans, against a secondary that has been less than shutdown. Evans is one of the top at his position and is one of only two WRs to sit in the top 10 in receptions, receiving yards and receiving touchdowns through the first four weeks of the season. He could be primed for some big numbers against the defense which just allowed Julio Jones to record over 300 yards through the air, just the fourth time that feat was accomplished in NFL history.
It's unlikely the Panthers will give up those numbers again, but Evans should be in for a big day as he looks to exploit the ailing pass defense. Advantage to Evans in this one.
If you're starting to notice there is a pattern to these matchups , they all involve in one way or another, an offensive player against a defensive player or team defense. In this case, its Carolina's two massive weapons Greg Olson and Kelvin Benjamin against Tampa Bay's pretty solid defenders in Lavonte David and Brent Grimes.
For each of the past three years, Olson has been the Panthers' leading pass catcher. Not much has changed this season as he paces the team with 335 yards on 24 catches and could add to these numbers in a big way with Anderson as historically a tight end is the second string QB's best friend. In his career against the Bucs however, Olson has only found the end zone twice which is thanks in part to guys like David. Now, Olson will line up in various positions on the field so David won't be the only guy tasked with keeping his numbers low, but he is a good bet to call on for much of the action. David has 21 tackles, one sack and one forced fumble through the first four games. He is certainly a more than serviceable defender.
Then there is the meeting of Benjamin and Grimes in the secondary. As a deep threat, Benjamin is one of the best and he already has four touchdowns on the year on 16 receptions. A big part of this has come in the chemistry he has quickly re-established with Newton, so the former MVP's absence could be a problem. It will be up to Anderson to find Benjamin down the field, as Newton has all season. Benjamin will be up against Grimes, who is a bit out of his league in this one. But to be fair, anybody going against the 6'5, 245 pound wide receiver would be.
Overall, this one is about split, but if I had to find a 51/50 situation, the slight edge goes to the Panthers.
As for the betting picks' predictions for this preview, back at home, the Panthers desperately need to get back to their winning ways. They'll be without two of their top weapons but against a pretty bad Buccaneers team, Carolina is still favored to get it done.
Bet on the Panthers -4pts on the spread @ -110 betting odds with either 5Dimes Sportsbook or BetOnline. It is -4.5pts with Bovada.
As for the total points to be scored in the game, go with the under 45 @ -110 with 5Dimes or Bovada. It is under 44.5pts for -112 with BetOnline.


text:
Clinical Outcomes and Inflammatory Markers by HIV Serostatus and Viral Suppression in a Large Cohort of Patients Hospitalized With COVID-19
Viraj V. Patel, Uriel R. Felsen, Molly Fisher, Melissa J. Fazzari, Mindy S. Ginsberg, Robert Beil, Matthew J. Akiyama, Kathryn Anastos, David B. Hanna
Epidemiology & Population Health
BACKGROUND: Limited data exist about clinical outcomes and levels of inflammatory and immune markers among people hospitalized with COVID-19 by HIV serostatus and by HIV viral suppression. SETTING: Large tertiary care health system in the Bronx, NY, USA. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective cohort study of 4613 SARS-CoV-2 PCR-positive patients admitted between March 10, 2020, and May 11, 2020. We examined in-hospital intubation, acute kidney injury (AKI), hospitalization length, and in-hospital mortality by HIV serostatus, and by HIV-viral suppression and CD4 counts among people living with HIV (PLWH) using adjusted competing risks regression. We also compared immune and inflammatory marker levels by HIV serostatus and viral suppression. RESULTS: Most patients were either non-Hispanic Black (36%) or Hispanic (37%); 100/4613 (2.2%) were PLWH, among whom 15 had detectable HIV viral load. PLWH compared to patients without HIV had increased intubation rates (adjusted hazard ratio 1.73 [95% CI: 1.12 to 2.67], P = 0.01). Both groups had similar rates of AKI, length of hospitalization, and death. No (0%) virally unsuppressed PLWH were intubated or died, versus 21/81 (26%, P = 0.04) and 22/81 (27%, P = 0.02) of virally suppressed PLWH, respectively. Among PLWH, higher CD4 T-cell counts were associated with increased intubation rates. C-reactive protein, IL-6, neutrophil counts, and ferritin levels were similar between virally suppressed PLWH and patients without HIV, but significantly lower for unsuppressed PLWH (all P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: PLWH had increased risk of intubation but similarly frequent rates of AKI and in-hospital death as those without HIV. Findings of no intubations or deaths among PLWH with unsuppressed HIV viral load warrant further investigation.
Journal of acquired immune deficiency syndromes (1999)
https://doi.org/10.1097/QAI.0000000000002578
10.1097/QAI.0000000000002578
Dive into the research topics of 'Clinical Outcomes and Inflammatory Markers by HIV Serostatus and Viral Suppression in a Large Cohort of Patients Hospitalized With COVID-19'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.
HIV Medicine & Life Sciences 100%
Intubation Medicine & Life Sciences 35%
Acute Kidney Injury Medicine & Life Sciences 20%
CD4 Lymphocyte Count Medicine & Life Sciences 14%
Viral Load Medicine & Life Sciences 14%
Hospitalization Medicine & Life Sciences 10%
aliflurane Medicine & Life Sciences 10%
Patel, V. V., Felsen, U. R., Fisher, M., Fazzari, M. J., Ginsberg, M. S., Beil, R., Akiyama, M. J., Anastos, K., & Hanna, D. B. (2021). Clinical Outcomes and Inflammatory Markers by HIV Serostatus and Viral Suppression in a Large Cohort of Patients Hospitalized With COVID-19. Journal of acquired immune deficiency syndromes (1999), 86(2), 224-230. https://doi.org/10.1097/QAI.0000000000002578
Clinical Outcomes and Inflammatory Markers by HIV Serostatus and Viral Suppression in a Large Cohort of Patients Hospitalized With COVID-19. / Patel, Viraj V.; Felsen, Uriel R.; Fisher, Molly; Fazzari, Melissa J.; Ginsberg, Mindy S.; Beil, Robert; Akiyama, Matthew J.; Anastos, Kathryn; Hanna, David B.
In: Journal of acquired immune deficiency syndromes (1999), Vol. 86, No. 2, 01.02.2021, p. 224-230.
Patel, VV, Felsen, UR, Fisher, M, Fazzari, MJ, Ginsberg, MS, Beil, R, Akiyama, MJ, Anastos, K & Hanna, DB 2021, 'Clinical Outcomes and Inflammatory Markers by HIV Serostatus and Viral Suppression in a Large Cohort of Patients Hospitalized With COVID-19', Journal of acquired immune deficiency syndromes (1999), vol. 86, no. 2, pp. 224-230. https://doi.org/10.1097/QAI.0000000000002578
Patel VV, Felsen UR, Fisher M, Fazzari MJ, Ginsberg MS, Beil R et al. Clinical Outcomes and Inflammatory Markers by HIV Serostatus and Viral Suppression in a Large Cohort of Patients Hospitalized With COVID-19. Journal of acquired immune deficiency syndromes (1999). 2021 Feb 1;86(2):224-230. https://doi.org/10.1097/QAI.0000000000002578
Patel, Viraj V. ; Felsen, Uriel R. ; Fisher, Molly ; Fazzari, Melissa J. ; Ginsberg, Mindy S. ; Beil, Robert ; Akiyama, Matthew J. ; Anastos, Kathryn ; Hanna, David B. / Clinical Outcomes and Inflammatory Markers by HIV Serostatus and Viral Suppression in a Large Cohort of Patients Hospitalized With COVID-19. In: Journal of acquired immune deficiency syndromes (1999). 2021 ; Vol. 86, No. 2. pp. 224-230.
@article{8fdca78dbe6f4d93babc7ae490ef4075,
title = "Clinical Outcomes and Inflammatory Markers by HIV Serostatus and Viral Suppression in a Large Cohort of Patients Hospitalized With COVID-19",
abstract = "BACKGROUND: Limited data exist about clinical outcomes and levels of inflammatory and immune markers among people hospitalized with COVID-19 by HIV serostatus and by HIV viral suppression. SETTING: Large tertiary care health system in the Bronx, NY, USA. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective cohort study of 4613 SARS-CoV-2 PCR-positive patients admitted between March 10, 2020, and May 11, 2020. We examined in-hospital intubation, acute kidney injury (AKI), hospitalization length, and in-hospital mortality by HIV serostatus, and by HIV-viral suppression and CD4 counts among people living with HIV (PLWH) using adjusted competing risks regression. We also compared immune and inflammatory marker levels by HIV serostatus and viral suppression. RESULTS: Most patients were either non-Hispanic Black (36%) or Hispanic (37%); 100/4613 (2.2%) were PLWH, among whom 15 had detectable HIV viral load. PLWH compared to patients without HIV had increased intubation rates (adjusted hazard ratio 1.73 [95% CI: 1.12 to 2.67], P = 0.01). Both groups had similar rates of AKI, length of hospitalization, and death. No (0%) virally unsuppressed PLWH were intubated or died, versus 21/81 (26%, P = 0.04) and 22/81 (27%, P = 0.02) of virally suppressed PLWH, respectively. Among PLWH, higher CD4 T-cell counts were associated with increased intubation rates. C-reactive protein, IL-6, neutrophil counts, and ferritin levels were similar between virally suppressed PLWH and patients without HIV, but significantly lower for unsuppressed PLWH (all P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: PLWH had increased risk of intubation but similarly frequent rates of AKI and in-hospital death as those without HIV. Findings of no intubations or deaths among PLWH with unsuppressed HIV viral load warrant further investigation.",
author = "Patel, {Viraj V.} and Felsen, {Uriel R.} and Molly Fisher and Fazzari, {Melissa J.} and Ginsberg, {Mindy S.} and Robert Beil and Akiyama, {Matthew J.} and Kathryn Anastos and Hanna, {David B.}",
note = "Publisher Copyright: Copyright {\textcopyright} 2020 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved.",
doi = "10.1097/QAI.0000000000002578",
journal = "Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes and Human Retrovirology",
T1 - Clinical Outcomes and Inflammatory Markers by HIV Serostatus and Viral Suppression in a Large Cohort of Patients Hospitalized With COVID-19
AU - Patel, Viraj V.
AU - Felsen, Uriel R.
AU - Fisher, Molly
AU - Fazzari, Melissa J.
AU - Ginsberg, Mindy S.
AU - Beil, Robert
AU - Akiyama, Matthew J.
AU - Anastos, Kathryn
AU - Hanna, David B.
N1 - Publisher Copyright: Copyright © 2020 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved.
N2 - BACKGROUND: Limited data exist about clinical outcomes and levels of inflammatory and immune markers among people hospitalized with COVID-19 by HIV serostatus and by HIV viral suppression. SETTING: Large tertiary care health system in the Bronx, NY, USA. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective cohort study of 4613 SARS-CoV-2 PCR-positive patients admitted between March 10, 2020, and May 11, 2020. We examined in-hospital intubation, acute kidney injury (AKI), hospitalization length, and in-hospital mortality by HIV serostatus, and by HIV-viral suppression and CD4 counts among people living with HIV (PLWH) using adjusted competing risks regression. We also compared immune and inflammatory marker levels by HIV serostatus and viral suppression. RESULTS: Most patients were either non-Hispanic Black (36%) or Hispanic (37%); 100/4613 (2.2%) were PLWH, among whom 15 had detectable HIV viral load. PLWH compared to patients without HIV had increased intubation rates (adjusted hazard ratio 1.73 [95% CI: 1.12 to 2.67], P = 0.01). Both groups had similar rates of AKI, length of hospitalization, and death. No (0%) virally unsuppressed PLWH were intubated or died, versus 21/81 (26%, P = 0.04) and 22/81 (27%, P = 0.02) of virally suppressed PLWH, respectively. Among PLWH, higher CD4 T-cell counts were associated with increased intubation rates. C-reactive protein, IL-6, neutrophil counts, and ferritin levels were similar between virally suppressed PLWH and patients without HIV, but significantly lower for unsuppressed PLWH (all P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: PLWH had increased risk of intubation but similarly frequent rates of AKI and in-hospital death as those without HIV. Findings of no intubations or deaths among PLWH with unsuppressed HIV viral load warrant further investigation.
AB - BACKGROUND: Limited data exist about clinical outcomes and levels of inflammatory and immune markers among people hospitalized with COVID-19 by HIV serostatus and by HIV viral suppression. SETTING: Large tertiary care health system in the Bronx, NY, USA. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective cohort study of 4613 SARS-CoV-2 PCR-positive patients admitted between March 10, 2020, and May 11, 2020. We examined in-hospital intubation, acute kidney injury (AKI), hospitalization length, and in-hospital mortality by HIV serostatus, and by HIV-viral suppression and CD4 counts among people living with HIV (PLWH) using adjusted competing risks regression. We also compared immune and inflammatory marker levels by HIV serostatus and viral suppression. RESULTS: Most patients were either non-Hispanic Black (36%) or Hispanic (37%); 100/4613 (2.2%) were PLWH, among whom 15 had detectable HIV viral load. PLWH compared to patients without HIV had increased intubation rates (adjusted hazard ratio 1.73 [95% CI: 1.12 to 2.67], P = 0.01). Both groups had similar rates of AKI, length of hospitalization, and death. No (0%) virally unsuppressed PLWH were intubated or died, versus 21/81 (26%, P = 0.04) and 22/81 (27%, P = 0.02) of virally suppressed PLWH, respectively. Among PLWH, higher CD4 T-cell counts were associated with increased intubation rates. C-reactive protein, IL-6, neutrophil counts, and ferritin levels were similar between virally suppressed PLWH and patients without HIV, but significantly lower for unsuppressed PLWH (all P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: PLWH had increased risk of intubation but similarly frequent rates of AKI and in-hospital death as those without HIV. Findings of no intubations or deaths among PLWH with unsuppressed HIV viral load warrant further investigation.
U2 - 10.1097/QAI.0000000000002578
DO - 10.1097/QAI.0000000000002578
JO - Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes and Human Retrovirology
JF - Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes and Human Retrovirology

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Thai elite cassava genetic diversity was fortuitously conserved through farming with different sets of varieties
Fu, Y.B., Wangsomnuk, P.P., Ruttawat, B. (2014). Thai elite cassava genetic diversity was fortuitously conserved through farming with different sets of varieties, 15(6), 1463-1478. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10592-014-0631-y
© 2014, The Author(s). Many in situ conservation programs have been developed to preserve plant landrace diversity and to promote its sustainable utilization, but little is known about the effectiveness of the developed programs in conserving plant genetic diversity. We investigated the effectiveness of an unregulated (i.e., unplanned or open) conservation system maintained by Thai farmers in conserving Thai elite cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) varieties. Specifically, we compared genetic diversity of 266 cassava clones that were collected from 80 farms in eight provinces with 16 cassava landraces and varieties released since the 1970s through genotyping with 35 informative simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers. The SSR analysis revealed a large regional heterogeneity in cassava diversity, with a strong genetic differentiation of the assayed clones among the 80 farms (19.8 %) and across the eight provinces (11.8 %). Significant associations were also found between SSR variation and farm agro-ecological factors or some farming practices. However, there was no significant genetic differentiation (0.9 %) between the 266 farm clones and 16 reference varieties. These findings suggest that the Thai elite cassava genetic diversity was fortuitously conserved by the farmers through farming with different sets of varieties. Implications of these findings are discussed with respect to on-farm conservation of plant genetic resources.


text:
'Shampoo,' with Warren Beatty and Goldie Hawn, holds up decades later
Mick LaSalle January 17, 2019Updated: January 18, 2019, 4:57 pm
Goldie Hawn, left, Lee Grant and Warren Beatty perform in "Shampoo (1975)." Photo: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.
This 1975 film holds up well all these years later. It tells the story of a handsome Beverly Hills hairstylist, George (Warren Beatty), who longs to start his own salon and needs to raise the money for it. He can't get a bank loan, despite being able to brag that Barbara Rush is a client. (That's the movie's joke. Barbara Rush wasn't a big star, so that indicates George's status.) He hopes to get the money from a wealthy investor (Jack Warden, who is excellent here), but he's having sex with the man's wife (Lee Grant, who won an Oscar for her role here).
Two other women are in the picture, George's current girlfriend (Goldie Hawn) and the real love of his life (Julie Christie). The film takes place over the course of a single day — election day 1968 — so in a sense this is a period film, though the hairstyles and even the social mores seem more like the 1970s. Indeed, this Hal Ashby film is practically a time capsule of 1970s Los Angeles. Over the course of the film, women keep throwing themselves at George, but as played by Beatty, George seems faintly pathetic, a reed blowing in the wind. The film, incidentally, features a memorable cameo by a very young Carrie Fisher.
The special features include a conversation between critics Frank Rich and Mark Harris, and a 1998 appearance by Beatty on "The South Bank Show," in which he discusses the film.
N 1975. Rated R. With Warren Beatty, Goldie Hawn, Julie Christie, Lee Grant. Directed by Hal Ashby. Criterion Collection DVD.
Mick LaSalle Mick LaSalle is The San Francisco Chronicle's film critic. Email: mlasalle@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @MickLaSalle
Tales From the Crypt: Demon Knight


Alfama is the oldest district of Lisbon with a picturesque labyrinth of narrow streets and small squares.
Bracelet made with polymer clay and leather cord.
Made by hand - allow for slightly variations from piece to piece.


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text:
/**
 * Best Time to Buy and Sell Stocks I-IV (LeetCode)
 */
#include <bits/stdc++.h> // using GCC/G++
using namespace std;

namespace BuySellStock {

  /**
   * Best Time to Buy and Sell Stocks I (LeetCode)
   * You are given the stock prices of the ith day in arr[i].
   * Find the max profit if you were permitted to complete atmost
   * one transaction (ie, buy one and sell one share of the stock).
   *
   * Simple O(n) DP solution. You can do either of:
   *  1. Buy a stock that day because price was lower than ever before
   *  2. Try selling that day to see if you get max profit
   */
  int maxProfit1(vector<int> &prices) {
    if(prices.size() < 2) return 0;

    int min_price = numeric_limits<int>::max(), max_profit = 0;

    for(auto &price: prices) {
      max_profit = max(max_profit, price - min_price);
      min_price = min(min_price, price);
    }

    return max_profit;
  }

  /**
   * Best Time to Buy and Sell Stocks II (LeetCode)
   * You are given the stock prices of the ith day in arr[i].
   * Find the max profit if you were permitted to complete as many
   * transactions as you like (ie, buy one and sell one share of the stock
   * multiple times). However, you may not engage in multiple transactions
   * at the same time (ie, you must sell the stock before you buy again).
   *
   * Simple O(n) greedy solution. The idea is to sell whenever the price is
   * higher than previous day's price. You might wonder what about the case when
   * prices keep increasing. Well say for some time prices are like $3 $7 $9. Then
   * you can buy at $3 and sell at $7. Then buy at $7 (yes that same day) and sell
   * later at $9. This is essentially buying at $3 and selling at $9 (because the net
   * transaction at $7 is zero).
   */
  int maxProfit2(vector<int> &prices) {
    if(prices.size() < 2) return 0;

    int prev_price = numeric_limits<int>::max(), max_profit = 0;
    for(auto &price: prices) {
      if(price < prev_price)
        prev_price = price;
      else if(price > prev_price) {
        max_profit += price - prev_price;
        prev_price = price;
      }
    }

    return max_profit;
  }

  /**
   * Best Time to Buy and Sell Stock with Cooldown (LeetCode)
   * Say you have an array for which the ith element is the price of a given stock on day i.
   * Design an algorithm to find the maximum profit. You may complete as many transactions as you like
   * (ie, buy one and sell one share of the stock multiple times) with the following restrictions:
   * You may not engage in multiple transactions at the same time (ie, you must sell the stock before you buy again).
   * After you sell your stock, you cannot buy stock on next day. (ie, cooldown 1 day)
   *
   * O(n) DP solution based on state machines. There are three actions to perform any day: buy, sell, or cooldown.
   *
   * Once you buy a stock, you get into the "buy" state. Once you sell stock, you are automatically put in the "cooldown"
   * state for atleast a day. Once you've cooled down for atleast a day, you can go back to a "buy" state, if you wish.
   *
   * So on any single day:
   * 1. If you want to be in the "buy" state, you can sit tight on a previous purchase or buy after atleast a day of cooldown.
   * 2. If you want to be in the "sell" state, you can sell your previously bought stock, or you can sit tight from a previous sale.
   * 3. You can be in a cooldown stage, only by already being in there, or by selling the previous day.
   *
   * In the end, the max profit is realised after you sell off any stock you might have had on the last day.
   */
  int maxProfitWithCooldown(vector<int>& prices) {
    if(prices.empty()) return 0;

    int n = prices.size();

    vector<int> buy(n),     // max profit from buying stock
    sell(n),                // max profit from selling stock
    cool(n);                // max profit earned with cooling down for a day

    buy[0] = -prices[0];  // can buy on first day; will get net loss
    sell[0] = 0;          // can't sell before buying
    cool[0] = 0;          // can't cool before selling

    for(int i=1; i<n; i++) {
      buy[i] = max(buy[i-1], cool[i-1] - prices[i]); // can keep yesterday's stock, or buy a stock today after a day of cooldown.
      sell[i] = max(buy[i-1] + prices[i], sell[i-1]); // can sell earlier bought stock, or keep tight by not buying anything / sitting tight.
      cool[i] = max(sell[i-1], cool[i-1]); // cooldown for a day after selling stock yesterday, or prolong an existing cooldown period / sit tight.
    }

    return sell[n-1];  // you can never make profit by sitting tight / cooling down (zero net profit) or buying stuff (net loss).
  }

}

int main() {
  // TODO

  return 0;
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Paradigm Precision, Whitcraft Group to Merge
The transaction will create a scaled, diversified aviation engine components manufacturer.
NEW YORK — Clayton, Dubilier & Rice and Greenbriar Equity Group L.P. on Wednesday announced definitive agreements under which CD&R-managed funds and funds managed by Greenbriar will invest to combine Paradigm Precision with Whitcraft Group.
Paradigm, a global provider of complex machining, fabrications and assemblies for engine manufacturers, is currently majority-owned by funds managed by global investment firm Carlyle; Whitcraft, a manufacturer of precision formed, machined, and fabricated flight-critical aerospace components, is currently a Greenbriar portfolio company.
The combination of Paradigm and Whitcraft will create a scaled and diversified manufacturer of complex, high-tolerance components used in commercial and military aviation engines.
Terms of the transactions were not disclosed.
"We are excited to work with the Whitcraft and Paradigm management teams, alongside Greenbriar, a leading industrials investor, to enhance the continued execution of their customer-centric operations and growth strategy," said Ray Conner, operating advisor to CD&R funds and former president and CEO of Boeing Commercial Aviation, who will become chairman of the combined company. "We look forward to bringing together the best of both of these companies by driving operational improvements and an increased capability set that we believe will benefit customers and the commercial and military aviation engine market at large."
"Greenbriar was attracted to Whitcraft's talented leadership team and diverse product offerings when we made our initial investment in 2017, and we've been pleased with the company's strong execution and performance over the past five years," added Noah Roy, managing partner at Greenbriar. "CD&R has a strong track record of driving operational excellence in the industrial manufacturing sector, and we believe that our partnership will help drive additional operational improvements and sustainable growth for the combined company well into the future."
The combination of Paradigm and Whitcraft will create a leading supplier in the aerospace industry, merging the companies' complementary exposures across platforms, manufacturing capabilities, geographies, skill sets and leadership teams. The company's enhanced capability set should enable the combined business to better support its original equipment manufacturer customers around the world and address the numerous growth opportunities before it.
"Over the last five years, our partnership with and investment from Greenbriar has advanced our strategy and enhanced our focus on operational excellence, and we believe this next step with Paradigm and CD&R will unlock even greater improvement opportunities for our customers and our employees," said Doug Folsom, CEO of Whitcraft Group. "As a combined company, we are confident that we will enhance our product and process portfolio and be even better equipped to innovate through Kaizen and continue to deliver the complex engine components our customers demand."
"We look forward to this combination with Whitcraft and support from CD&R and Greenbriar, which we believe will enable us to strengthen our mission-critical offerings to even more customers around the world," said Steve Croke, president and CEO of Paradigm Precision. "We remain committed to delivering innovative solutions to help solve complex manufacturing challenges while also continuing to foster a world-class working environment for our employees."
"We are excited to partner with Greenbriar and invest to facilitate the merger of these two highly complementary companies," added Rob Volpe, principal at CD&R. "We look forward to supporting the leadership team as they pursue the significant opportunity set available to the combined business."
"Paradigm was originally formed to create a trusted partner to its customers and the broader aerospace and gas turbine marketplaces," said Derek Whang, managing director at Carlyle. "Under our ownership, the Company has made significant progress in achieving this strategic goal and is well-positioned to continue its mission of serving its customers through the combination with Whitcraft."
Both transactions are expected to close in early 2023, subject to satisfaction of customary closing conditions.


text:
Home / Business / PC / PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds has sold over 8 million units
PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds has sold over 8 million units
MCV Staff 21st August 2017	PC
It's hard to ignore PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds at the moment. The Early Access title, which launched in March this year, has sold over 8 million units. It is also, according to a tweet from the developer, the game with the highest player count on Steam that isn't developed by Valve.
Speaking on the Xbox gamescom stream last night, Brendan Greene, a.k.a. PlayerUnknown himself talked about the game and the success of the game. Asked by host Julia Hardy if he can even process that number of sales, Greene replied, "No. And it's good that we don't process it. It keeps us focused on development."
When asked about what it is that has made the game so popular, Greene said, "Not sure. Honestly, I think it's like the idea that it's a very basic game – land, loot, survive. Everyone can understand that and I think that's what the draw is. There are no rules, there no 'you have to play this way', you can jump in and play and if you want to hit someone with a pan, you go right ahead."
The game is due for release on Xbox One as part of the Game Preview program in late 2017, however, the developer Bluehole Studios, released a rather confusing statement via the Xbox News Wire about exclusivity for the game on console.
The developer is has expanded its partnership with Microsoft to include publishing. "By partnering with Microsoft, our team believes that we will be able to accelerate console development, while maintaining quality across all platforms, as well as giving us access to vast sales, marketing and publishing resources that will help us reach new fans to welcome to the PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds universe," said VP of Bluehole, Inc., Chang Han Kim
"We are excited to continue and further strengthen our partnership with Microsoft and are super excited to meet the Xbox community. We will be launching exclusively on Xbox One in the Xbox Game Preview program later this year and we can't wait to see all the Xbox fans on the battlefield."
This has spawned confusion amongst the industry as to the retail status of the game. Is this now a Xbox console exclusive? A timed exclusive like Square Enix's Rise of the Tomb Raider was, or will Microsoft be releasing this at retail as well as online? The statement certainly wasn't clear, but hopefully, we'll found out more come the end of the year when the game releases.
Tags exclusive sean-cleaver steam xbox Xbox One
Previous Crash Bandicoot N.Sane Trilogy claims 7th UK No.1
Next GAMESCOM 2017: Bluehole and Nvidia bring ShadowPlay Highlights to PUBG
Epic boss Tim Sweeney says Epic Game Store exclusives are 'unpopular' but 'do work'
Valve introduces official 'LGBTQ+' tag to Steam store
Project xCloud: Stream from the cloud or from your own Xbox – launches October 2019
In the pipeline: Unity's HDRP brings next-gen graphics to the world's most-used game engine
System Shock 3 and Oddworld: Soulstorm are among the first wave of titles to show that Unity is all-set for bigger things on console and PC


In light of Conradh na Gaeilge having seen a draft heads of the Official Languages Bill 2014, it seems to all and sundry that the Government is ignoring the suggestions put forth by the public as part of the review of the Official Languages Act 2003 in January 2012.
Conradh na Gaeilge believes it would be scandalous to extend the 3-year term of the language schemes to 7 years. Since its inception, the language scheme system has produced weak schemes with the Government insisting that the schemes would be improved upon every 3 years. The draft bill heads recommend extending this time period to 7 years, which in turn would give the various Government departments even more time to evade their Irish-language responsibilities. It would be far better to do away with the system of language schemes and to develop a new system with standards based on the legislative regulations, such as the Official Languages Act 2003 (Section 9) Regulations 2008, or to use the standards system such as the one established in Wales.


The Pulitzer Prize is an award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature, and musical composition in the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of American (Hungarian-born) Joseph Pulitzer who had made his fortune as a newspaper publisher, and is administered by Columbia University in New York City. Prizes are awarded yearly in twenty-one categories. In twenty of the categories, each winner receives a certificate and a US$10,000 cash award. The winner in the public service category of the journalism competition is awarded a gold medal.


A Bowen Therapy treatment is a series of gentle moves, which promote circulation and nerve flow, mobilising your body's immune system and built in healing mechanism. Muscles are manipulated with a light cross-fibre movement, which realigns the musculo-skeletal system. The treatment is very gentle and yet deep acting, giving fast results and lasting relief from many different types of pain and discomfort.
Bowen Therapy is a clothes on, oil-free treatment.
Ongoing treatments help to maintain core body strength through improved circulation while minimising recurrent, chronic conditions. Many people try Bowen Therapy when other treatments haven't completely resolved their ailment.
We have countless testimonials from clients who found Bowen Therapy truly therapeutic, when within one or two treatments their function was restored and pain relieved.
One client recently reported that Bowen Therapy is 'truly marvellous!' She had suffered a whiplash injury in a car accident 2 years before and was suffering with burning pain in her shoulder and neck. She could no longer sit and sew, which she loved to do and her symptoms were interfering with her quality of life. Her medical doctor had prescribed anti-inflammatory medication, but it wasn't giving her relief.
The pain was starting to progress into her other shoulder when she made an appointment to have some Bowen Therapy. After just one visit she was able to sit longer and could do some sewing again. After her second visit she felt there was a significant improvement and at her third visit she said she had been telling everyone they should try Bowen Therapy!
We hear so many stories like this and we look forward to hearing yours too!


text:
Margarethe Faas-Hardegger (20 February 1882 in Bern – 23 September 1963 in Minusio) was a Swiss women's rights activist, trade unionist and the leading figure of the Swiss women workers' movement at the beginning of the 20th century. Her leadership saw the Swiss women workers' movement gain a political and feminist profile. Faas-Hardegger made women's suffrage part of the Swiss trade unions' platform, as well as maternity insurance and the idea of paid housework.

Biography
Margarethe Hardegger trained as a telephone switchboard operator and obtained a late Matura diploma with the support of her later husband, the lawyer August Faas. She had two daughters, Olga and Lisa, with Faas, whom she married in 1903 and divorced in 1912. Since 1916 she cohabited with the German carpenter Hans Brunner.

In 1903, Hardegger co-founded the Bernese Textile Workers' Association. In 1905, she became the first women workers' secretary of the Swiss Federation of Trade Unions (SGB), abandoning law school to obtain the post. She founded several trade union sections and consumer cooperatives, as well as the women's newspapers Die Vorkämpferin and L'Exploitée. In 1909, the active syndicalist and antimilitarist was let go from the SGB after continued political disagreements with the union leadership.

After leaving the SGB, Hardegger focused on her work in the Socialist League, which she had co-founded with Gustav Landauer in 1908, and its magazine The Socialist. She campaigned for the use of contraceptives, and was arrested in Valais for "distributing immoral literature". But her support of women's rights and free love put her at odds with Landauer as well. After she was convicted of perjury on behalf of Ernst Frick in 1913, Landauer had her expelled from the Socialist League. In 1915, she was again convicted, to one year's imprisonment, for assisting in the procuration of abortions.

Subsequently she principally focused on the idea of free love. In 1919, she founded a countryside commune in Herrliberg near Zürich, and in 1920 the phalanstère "Villino Graziella" in Minusio, near Locarno, Ascona and the artists' colony of Monte Verità. Both projects eventually failed because of a lack of funds and internal disagreements. She continued working in a family enterprise with Hans Brunner, whom she married in 1950.

References

Further reading
 Regula Bochsler: Auszug aus Ägypten. Margarethe Hardegger und die Siedlungspioniere des sozialistischen Bundes im Tessin, in: Andreas Schwab, Claudia Lafranconi (eds.): Sinnsuche und Sonnenbad. Experimente in Kunst und Leben auf dem Monte Verità. Limmat, Zürich 2001, .
 Regula Bochsler: Der Überfall auf die Zürcher Polizeikaserne 1907, in: Dehmlow Raimund, Gottfried Heuer (Hrsg.): Bohème, Psychoanalyse & Revolution. 3. Internationaler Otto Gross Kongress: Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, München 15.-17. März 2002. LiteraturWissenschaft.de, Marburg an der Lahn 2003, .
 Regula Bochsler: Ich folgte meinem Stern. Das kämpferische Leben der Margarethe Hardegger.  Pendo, Zürich 2004, .
 Ina Boesch: Gegenleben. Die Sozialistin Margarethe Hardegger und ihre politischen Bühnen. Chronos, Zürich 2003, .
 Monica Studer: Der Schweizerische Gewerkschaftsbund 1905-1909 und seine Sekretärin Margarethe Faas. In: Ernest Bornemann (ed.): Arbeiterbewegung und Feminismus. Berichte aus vierzehn Länder, Ullstein, Frankfurt am Main 1982, .

External links

 Website about Margarethe Hardegger

1882 births
1963 deaths
Swiss women's rights activists
Swiss trade unionists
20th-century Swiss writers
20th-century Swiss women writers
Swiss socialist feminists

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
With Lawsuit Dropped, Ripple Plans Partnerships
Syed Ali Mudassarbrad garlinghousemarjan delatinnepartnershipreisebankRipplexCurrentxrapidxrp August 13, 2018
When it comes to lawsuits, it is hard to find any company behind a cryptocurrency which has been a subject to as many as Ripple Labs Inc has been a subject to.
The company has been accused of making XRP centralized and has even received a lawsuit stating that the company uses dishonest and illegal tactics for tricking investors and controlling the price of XRP.
Ryan Coffey, an XRP investor, had filed a lawsuit against Ripple Labs Inc earlier this year in May after allegedly suffering losses instead of gains on his investment. He led an entire group of upset investors to file the lawsuit against the company on May 3.
He issued "Order Denying Motion to Remand," to ensure that the case doesn't advance to Federal levels and instead remains in the lower courts of California. After suffering losses due to a bad investment, Ryan went ahead and demanded compensation for the financial losses he had faced due to Ripple Labs Inc. When he didn't receive any compensation, he accused the company of manipulating XRP's price to make profits and for damaging XRP investors.
Ryan said that the company promoted XRP through the media while using the media to make XRP prices rise and fall simultaneously. He accused XRP of being a security, and the company of ignoring the California Corporations Code regarding the securities laws.
The lawsuit also accused Ripple's CEO, Brad Garlinghouse, to mislead investors by falsely explaining how his company's products are being used. Finally, Ryan accused XRP of violating federal laws regarding securities and of not being decentralized.
As of now, the lawsuit against Ripple Labs Inc has been dropped by the US Northern District of California court.
Also Read: AMEX Adoption, Potential Fourth Lawsuit: Will XRP Fall?
Now out of the lawsuit, Ripple Labs Inc is planning to enter partnerships with major banks around the world. More than 100 banks all over the world have already partnered with the company by adopting its products such as xRapid and xCurrent.
The demand for xRapid and xCurrent rose up sharply due to its useful features such as low fees and fast transaction. Marjan Delatinne, Ripple Labs Inc's Head of Banking said that the company has been in discussions with many German banks during the time they were in Berlin.
In a recent interview, when he was asked about the low partnership presence that the company has in Germany, he said that they "are in talks with many of [German] banks too." This confirmed that the company indeed has partnerships in different parts of the world such as Japan, the US, and parts of Europe—as claimed by the company.
As of now, the only bank in Germany which is known with certainty to be in partnership with the company is Reisebank. In terms of asset size, the bank is the third largest in Germany with more than a 100 branches across the country. It is the central institution for more than 1000 cooperative banks, and roughly 12,000 of their branch offices.
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Syed Ali Mudassar
It was when he was pursuing his graduation in Computer Science that he found his flair for writing about new and existing technologies. He likes researching about technologies and how they could help people. Currently, he works as the Content Manager at CoinFrenzy, a leading blockchain news, and media publication website.
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National Digital Forecast Database (NDFD) Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a service providing the public, government agencies, and commercial enterprises with data from the National Weather Service�s (NWS) digital forecast database. This service, which is defined in a Service Description Document, provides NWS customers and partners the ability to request NDFD data over the internet and receive the information back in an XML format. The request/response process is made possible by the NDFD XML Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) server.


TS Radio: Whistleblower's: Sean Higgins & Memphis VA also …."burn pits"	Explosive Expose by Michael Volpe: Did judges in Sandra Grazzini-Rucki case previously fix husband's cases?
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I still believe these are valid reasons in favor of contributing to a Traditional 401k instead of a Roth 401k.
A few comments to that post said Roth is better because a Roth 401k lets you effectively shelter more from taxes than a Traditional 401k. That's true. My response was that the higher effective maximum comes into play only if someone actually contributes the maximum allowed, currently at $17,500 per person per year.
According to a study by Vanguard, only 10% of people contribute the maximum. It's not surprising because in order to contribute the maximum, you need either a high income, a high savings rate, or both. Consider a married couple. The combined 401k and IRA maximum contributions are $46,000 per year. At 25% savings rate, this couple needs an income of over $180,000. At 15% savings rate, this couple has to earn over $300,000.
What if you are one of the 10%? People who read finance blogs probably earn more and save more. What is the value of the higher effective contribution limit in a Roth 401k?
It turns out that for the marginal dollar, a Roth 401k is worth a few percentage points in marginal tax rate. That is if you contribute the marginal dollar to a Roth 401k and your marginal tax rate drops a few percentage points between now and retirement, you are still better off than contributing that same marginal dollar to a Traditional 401k plus putting the tax savings in a taxable account.
Say you are down to the last $100 which you can either contribute to a Roth 401k or a Traditional 401k. If you contribute to a Traditional 401k, you also get a tax deduction. But because you already hit the max, you cannot put the tax savings into the Traditional 401k. Your only choice is a taxable account. The Roth is compared to Traditional + Taxable because the assumption is that you maxed out the contribution limit. If you are not maxing out, you can always gross up the contribution to the Traditional account.
How much exactly is a higher effective contribution limit in a Roth 401k worth depends on a number of assumptions. I made a spreadsheet. You can plug in your own assumptions and see the result for yourself. Plug in some different assumptions and see how the results change.
For example, here's one set of assumptions I used.
Roth 401k and "Traditional 401k + Taxable" break even if the marginal tax rate at retirement in 30 years is 28%, versus the current marginal tax rate of 35%. That means the higher effective contribution limit is worth about 7 percentage points.
Here's the link to the spreadsheet if you want to play with your own assumptions.
Finally, please note we are still talking about the marginal dollar here. The reasons for favoring the Traditional 401k are still valid for the majority of one's retirement dollars. If you max out all your tax favored contributions, you still have to decide how much should go to traditional. Those dollars in traditional will fill in the lower brackets after you retire. They will also be converted to Roth along the way if you have a window of opportunity.
and made similar observations, that one should save enough to fill in those lower brackets at retirement.
If you max out all your tax favored contributions then the amounts over the max which go into your taxable accounts will fill in the lower brackets when you retire. You don't need to increase traditional contributions in lieu of Roth to get this advantage unless you are planning to depend 100% on your tax favored accounts in retirement.
thank you for this very interesting post. I am having hard time trying to reconcile it with the previous post on the subject though.
Are you, basically, saying that most of the people who don't contribute to the max would be better off contributing to traditional 401K–but those who contribute to the max are better off going Roth way as long as they don't expect their tax bracket to be more than ~7% lower in retirement?
Is it a good rule of thumb or it is overly simplistic? Is there better one you think?
2) If you are contributing to the max, first make sure you create enough taxable income to fill in all the lower brackets. Just Social Security and dividends and capital gains from your taxable accounts are probably not going to be enough. Exactly how much you will need in the Traditional accounts is going to be a guess but make your best guess. After that, the contributions can go to Roth.
I'm going to expose my ignorance here, but how does the max get to 41k? I understand that my traditional 401k limit is $15.5k, so my wife and I can contribute up to $31k. I didn't think that I can contribute to an IRA or anything else if I maxed my 401k. I have an IRA, but it is all pre-tax contributions, and I don't want to mix pre-tax and taxed income in that account… am I missing something?
Jim – $41k is made up of $31k to two 401k's plus $5k each to two IRAs. If you are over 50, there's another $5k each in catch-up contributions to 401k's. Some people are eligible for Roth IRA. Some only eligible for non-deductible traditional IRA. You may not want to do non-deductible Traditional IRA but I still do it because additional tax-deferred space is still useful.
Good post. This topic is often lamented but I think you captured the issues rather well. One element you didn't mention is matches, which many 401k's have. Matching contributions are another way of saying "free money" and you are usually foolish to pass it up. So if you aren't maxing out — that means you are likely missing a match $. Since its cheaper to put a dollar into traditional, but you still get the match, you should always contribute the full match amount at a minimum — in the traditional. If you can afford the full match amount in Roth, then the conversation reverts to what you've put forward in your posts. For my my employer matches a % of the entire contribution amount, which means I have to hit 15500 in contributions to get the full match. So its traditional first and then fill with roth if you want to "save more" (as you suggest).
Silicon Shadow – That's a good point. Thank you for adding to the discussion. If someone is struggling to contribute enough for the full match, going Traditional is certainly a lot easier on the budget than going for Roth.
Whoever thinks taxes are going to be lower at in the future is just not thinking, infact anyone thinking this, in my opinion has lost their mind!
We are at a ALL time low over the last 30 years, as far as tax brackets. Right NOW we pay less taxes they we ever have in 30 YEARS!! ( fedral taxes) THAT IS A FACT!
The IRS and congress are going to face a HUGE problem in the next 15 years with all the baby boomers. HOW do you think they are going to pay for all of SS benefits? How do you think they are going to pay for all the medicare? The list goes on and on……..
I will tell you how………MORE TAXES!! Its a FACT and I garantee reguardless of who becomes president TAXES ARE GOING UP.
So the person who wrote the post about you should invest in a Traditional 401 over a ROTH 401k is simply WRONG and should not be giving financial advice!
This is actually quite funny reading this in 2018.
Joe Sixpack, it's actually not fun reading this in 2019 considering an article just today shows that nearly half of millenials would prefer to live in a socialist society.
Roth may start looking more and more attractive if these morons get their way.
Can you clarify why investing in a ROTH 401k is better than investing in a Traditional 401k.
To me, investing into a Traditional 401k using pre-tax dollars makes more sense. Am I missing something here?
So that spreadsheet….yah, why can't I remove taxable investments? Show me the Roth benefit when there is no taxable to consider whatsoever.
While a traditional 401k and Roth 401k will grow to the exact same total value, however the actual received value of the Roth will always be higher because you pay taxes on the traditional 401k withdrawal.
TFB, I wish you could add a few features to the spreadsheet. It would not doubt add to the complexity of the spreadsheet. Could it provide guidance on when you have enough in your lower tax brackets? I know this would entail knowing total savings as a percentage of the gross income and the various tax brackets. Possibly your current balance in various accounts too. Just something to think over. I really like this article and keep coming back to it again and again.
I am in my late twenties and so I keep maxing out traditional 401k under the notion that my retirement income from current balance in the traditional 401k does not fill up the lower tax brackets at retirement yet. I do not contribute to a roth 401k.
I hope I am taking the right lesson from your article. Please correct me if I am wrong.
KD – It's more complicated than that. It's not about what you currently have in a traditional account is already enough to fill the lower brackets. It's about whether you *will* have enough to fill them. For someone in late 20s, if the salary is projected to increase at a good pace above inflation, a Roth 401k account may very well be better even if you don't have much saved already. Current income can go to Roth and let future income go to Traditional.
Thanks TFB. I see your point. But honestly I don't know if I am going to get raises higher than inflation, esp, considering I got my first job after my PhD and its only been a year in the job with a small raise to show for last year in which economy was not doing so well. Another thing, couple of decades from now who knows what the tax structure develops into, what benefits remain, what benefits disappear, ex, Social Security, how well do the investments gain, etc. With such uncertainties, the choice between trad 401k and roth 401k for me personally seems to be a dart throw. As you say, its complicated. May be doing, half and half is an option. May be continuing with trad 401k is easier than second guessing future benefit of roth 401k.
As always, your excellent analysis on these issues is extremely valuable and worth a lot more than what one could get out of a paid professional.
SS and medicare taxes are strictly not taxes, but I wonder how they play into this debate. I increased my marginal tax rate to account for SS and medicare tax in the spreadsheet and it made Roth 401k a no no in almost all cases. I assumed one does not pay SS and medicare tax in retirement. Basically, for the marginal dollar, a Roth 401k that was worth about 5-10 percentage points in marginal tax rate has been taken up by SS and medicare tax. I am assuming that your SS in retirement does not increase substantially because you contributed to Roth 401k to the max v/s contributing to traditional 401k to the max as SS is designed to provide diminishing returns for people with higher current incomes.
KD – SS and Medicare have no effect in this calculation. When you contribute to a traditional 401k, you still pay SS and Medicare tax on that contribution. If you include the SS and Medicare tax rate in the marginal tax rate, the spreadsheet assumes the traditional 401k contribution is exempt from SS and Medicare taxes, which is not the case.
It may be a non-qualified distribution if the Roth 401k plan does not allow in service withdrawal. But is it still ok as far as put it back into Roth IRA?
This may help if one has a poor and expensive fund choices in Roth 401k? Again AGI limits may apply, I suppose?
Are there other tax issues?
My bad. It seems this can be done only for "eligible rollover distributions" and eligibility criteria are: termination from service, termination of the plan, attainment of retirement age in the plan, such as age 65, attainment of age 59 1/2, in-service and disability. If the plan does not allow in-service distribution then tough luck.
I called the retirement plan servicing and the girl there was happily telling me that I could what I described above as my plan allows withdrawal of after-tax contributions. A) My plan does not allow after-tax contributions and B) Roth 401k contributions are not same as after-tax contributions.
KD – You got it. Roth contributions are after tax but after-tax contributions are not Roth.
What about concerns that US debt is increasing and government spending is out of control? Also, as much as we don't like it, America is becoming more "socialist" in nature, and I see it adopting more services such as universal healthcare, etc. The only way I forsee the government funding this is a tax rate increase!
Let me also tell you a bit about myself: I'm currently 26, in the 28% income tax bracket, and max out my 401k at $16,500 every year (due to sound financial advice from my parents and friends).
Given my concerns, would you still suggest putting all my money in a traditional 401k instead of a Roth 401k?
Read TFB's initial post on the subject (it is linked to at the beginning of the post). I think it will answer all your questions.
This is an old thread but hoepfully still alive. I currently max out my traditional federal TSP, I turn 50 next year so will be eligible to make catch-up contributions, not sure I understand what all that's been said in this thread and I am trying to decide if the catch-up contributions should go into the the traditional TSP or Roth TSP, essentially what factors do I consider to help make that decision? Thanks!
Based on the comments from before, it really depends on your situation. Do you need the tax savings now? If not, then the 401k Roth sounds good. Especially, if you are not able to fund a Roth IRA due to income limitations.
I was funding both traditional and Roth 401k until I realized that I needed the tax savings now. If I had been better informed when I was younger, I would of maxed out my Roth 401k while I was still in my 20s and living with my parents and then my sister (starting out). Since I can still fund a Roth IRA, I am now in my 30s and max out the traditional 401k and the Roth IRA. Anything extra funds 529 plans and EMF.
Good Luck and congrats to being able to afford the catch-up contributions!
Thanks for this (and other) awesome post(s). Really good stuff. Subscribing now.
What I believe is, when Person is young, he should invest in ROTH IRA – so more tax free return he can get and once he cross 40 or 45, he or she should move to Traditional IRA which is anyway giving before tax investment at any age.
I am actually in a situation like Mr. Sit mentioned in the prior post on the Traditional 401k vs. Roth 401k topic. I am in my last year of surgical training, and have access to both a traditional 403b and a Roth 403b. There is a generous match on the first 5% of contributions dollar for dollar for the traditional 403b that I am planning to participate in (no-brainer there). Would you recommend traditional 403b or Roth 403b contributions after the match? I was planning on doing as much Roth 403b as possible after the match. I would love to hear your opinions. Great set of posts on this topic.
Roth. You will get the same match (into a traditional account) if you do 100% Roth.
With the spreadsheet, should the formula in cell C15 = B14 / (1-B2) – B14 ?
At a 35% marginal rate, a $100 Roth contribution requires earnings of ~$154.
With the current formula, it shows earnings of $135.
Jeremy – You must mean B15. The spreadsheet compares two scenarios: (1) Invest $100 in Roth 401k (cell B13); or (2) Invest $100 in Traditional 401k (cell B14), plus invest the tax savings (cell B15) in taxable.
Your $154 scenario would compare with investing $154 in a traditional 401k. Here we are assuming the investor is reaching the 401k contribution limit. There is only $100 room in the 401k, either traditional or Roth. If you take it up with traditional, you have to pay tax on the $54, which becomes $35 available for investing in a taxable account.
Roth would be worse than traditional when the tax rate in retirement is lower if you are not bumping up against the contribution limit (your $154 example). No surprise there. Here we are showing when there is a fixed contribution limit, Roth can be better than traditional plus taxable, for the marginal dollar, given a long enough time period, if the tax rate in retirement isn't too much lower.
Your articles are very helpful – thanks in advance for sharing your insights. I've read them but want to make sure I'm understanding everything. My wife and I both work for the federal gov't and have TSPs. We both contribute the max each year (currently $18k). I've been working for 17 years; she just started 4 years ago. I have all of my TSP savings in traditional; we set hers up as Roth (seemed smart to diversify, as I couldn't account for all of the future unknowns). I'm now wondering whether I should be putting all of my contributions into Roth TSP, too. We're in the 33% tax bracket, filing jointly. From what you've written about those who contribute the max and have a pension, seems like I should be in Roth like my wife. On that, I'm also not clear about whether I can 'transfer' my existing balance into the Roth TSP or just direct future contributions there from this point forward. I could retire in three years, but will likely work for at least eight more, so also not sure about how 'worth it' it is to switch at this point. Any advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.
DB – I don't think you can convert within TSP at this time. If you want Roth, it will be for new money only. You can convert after you retire. If you change the number of years before withdrawal in the spreadsheet from 30 to 8 or 3, you will see the Roth advantage goes down. I would stick with traditional.
Interesting topic, I can't find an answer to my dilemma.
My wife and I live in GA and are in the top tax bracket. Contributing the max to a 401k will not get us personally to a lower tax bracket, but I understand will reduce our taxable income. We have a 401k profit sharing plan and both of us contribute the maximum and have been for 20 years. Also, we continue to invest with after tax money. We have about 10 years left to work and am trying to decide if I should change my additional contributions to a 401k Roth. I imagine my tax bracket will be somewhat lower than now, but I am not sure what level. Reading through your articles it seems this scenario may be one that benefits us, but it is not clear to me why. Any comments would be appreciated.
I assume you are contributing the max to a non-Roth 401k and contributing additional money to taxable accounts. You cannot contribute to a Roth 401k since you are at the 401k (across Roth and non-Roth) limit. If your 401k plan allows, you can contribute after-tax money to a non-Roth 401k, then convert the after-tax to a Roth 401k or IRA. Annual 401k contributions cannot exceed $53,000 across non-Roth, Roth, and non-Roth after-tax. See Harry's http://thefinancebuff.com/after-tax-401k-to-roth-no-in-service-distribution.html .
Why is the Value of the traditional 401k in the spreadsheet calculated at the marginal tax rate at retirement instead of the effective tax rate at retirement?
Assuming no other income, the value of your 401k at retirement would be taxed at your effective rate which would significantly decrease the roth advantage unless your effective rate at retirement is close to your current marginal rate.
Side note: What is the thinking behind having different investment returns rate (7.6%) in your taxable accounts vs 401k accounts (8%)? Is this assuming a 0.4% greater expense ration in your non-401k accounts? This seems counter productive to comparing the tax implications of contributing the marginal dollar to roth or pre-tax 401k. If you make returns the same you end up with only a ~3% advantage instead of a 7% advantage.
Thank you for the this and the previous article on roth vs traditional 401k, both are excellent. I wanted to get your opinion regarding the effect of the new pass thru deduction on the the roth vs traditional 401k analysis.
From what I have read, traditional 401k contributions would directly lower the pass thru deduction either for s-corps or sole proprietors. So for individuals who are self employed with a solo 401k and can decide roth vs traditional 401k and get the 20% pass thru deduction, I think the roth 401k might become preferable.
My thought is that by contributing to the roth now with the deduction in place you are actually contributing at 80% of your marginal tax rate vs if you contribute to the traditional you forgo that deduction and you would not get the deduction upon withdraw.
I don't think it's a given that Traditional 401k contributions lower your pass-through deduction. For sole proprietors the pass-through income is calculated before the contributions. There is a limit based on net income but you can overcome it if you have other income. For S-Corp, if you don't run into the limit based on W-2 wages, again the pass-through income isn't reduced by Traditional 401k contributions.
For a sole proprietor, if you did hit the taxable income limit because most/all your income came from one business so that traditional 401k contributions did lower your deduction, would you agree that roth 401k maybe preferable?
I agree in that case it's a plus for Roth 401k.
The link to your article "The Case Against Roth 401(k)" in the first sentence is broken. You should remove the "2008/03/" from the URL.


text:
Q: Update an uniform variable in several shader programs at once I have several shaders with uniform variables, which have the same names in all shaders. What is the best way to update uniforms with same names in all shaders at once? I consider the following approaches:
1) Just store locations of that uniform for each program and update it just after the program is assigned as "used" program (glUseProgram).
Disadvantages:
All "shared" uniform variables will be updated after each glUseProgram call. Moreover, if a program is being used not for the first time during the current frame, all glUniform* calls will be redundant.
Alternatively there should be a set of flags which will tell if the program is used for the first time or not. "Unused" flags should be reset every frame.
2) Use uniform buffers and shared (or even std140) layout. In this approach we can set an uniform at once and then change shader programs without updating buffers. But what if there is a bunch of simple shaders, where the only shared variable is transformation matrix? Is it okay to use uniform buffers for such a small amount of memory? In some forum discussions I've read that
glBindBuffer(GL_UNIFORM_BUFFER,buf);
glBufferSubData(/*just 16 floats*/);
glBindBuffer(GL_UNIFORM_BUFFER,0);

is much slower than glUniform* call. Here we can notice, that the choice between first and second approach depends on the following conditions:

*

*How often will the shaders change per frame and how often will they repeat?

*How many "shared" uniforms are there?

*What amount of data should be passed to shader program in each frame?

Is there any compromise design pattern which will have good performance regardless of answers for these three questions?
3) Use ubershader. Mentioned here in the second paragraph: GLSL multiple shaderprogram VS uniforms switches. I have two questions about it:
What has better performance: one glUseProgram call or several uniform switches, which will change ubershader's functionality?
Author of that question mentioned

Uniforms have to be changed many times per frame

as one of disadvantages of ubershader. But why is it bad? Does it have bad performance? If so, is it okay to pass transformation matrices and some other low-sized stuff as uniform variables and update them each frame?
And the main question to summarize all above: may you suggest any other techniques or design patterns for updating same-named uniform variables in several different shader programs?
UPD: the answer is accepted, nevertheless if you can suggest a nontrivial high-level design technique (in C++ or language-independent), plese leave it here.

A:
In some forum discussions I've read that [...] is much slower than glUniform* call.

So what if it is (assuming that there is evidence that it even is, of course)? You only do that once per frame, while glUniform calls are one per modified program.
I'd go with uniform blocks (always use std140 by default) for any shared data. There's a fixed cost to updating them, while there's a variable cost to updating the others.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
========
Usage
========

To use SeedMe OpenMM in a project::

    import seedmeopenmm


Knots allow you to use the rope for many special purposes. They let you tie into the rope, anchor yourself to the mountain, tie two ropes together for long rappels, use slings to climb the rope itself, and much more.
Climbers rely most heavily on a dozen or so different knots (figs. 6-6 through 6-26). Practice these knots until tying them is second nature. If you really want a test, try tying them in a cold, dark shower to give you an idea of the conditions you may someday encounter on a climb.
In some cases, more than one knot can perform a particular task, and the knot chosen is a matter of personal preference. Some knots may be preferred because they have a higher breaking strength (fig. 6-5). Others may be chosen because they are easier to tie or are less likely to come apart in use.
Regardless of the knot, tie it neatly, keeping the separate strands of the knot parallel and free of twists. Cinch every knot tight, and tie off loose ends with the insurance of overhand knots.


Comcast, NBCUniversal and Telemundo were proud to be the official broadcast partners of the 2014 American Latino Media Arts Awards (ALMA Awards), which aired live on Oct. 10 on MSNBC. The ALMA awards were created and produced in part by the National Council of La Raza (NCLR), to celebrate outstanding Latino performers and producers who promote accurate and positive images of Latin Americans.
Eva Longoria and Mario Lopez hosted the annual awards ceremony celebrating 15 years of Latinos in media. David L. Cohen, Executive Vice President and Chief Diversity Officer, Comcast Corporation; Maria G. Aria, Vice President, Diversity and Inclusion, Comcast Corporation; and Jacquelyn Puente, Executive Director, External Affairs, Comcast Corporation attended the ceremony.
Click here to learn more about the 2014 ALMA Awards and to see photos from the event.


We have compiled a list of what we believe to be the absolute top concerns for CIOs and CTOs in 2019.
Just as in 2018, the year before that, and the year before that, growth will continue to be a key performance indicator for any CIO or CTO in 2019.
The focus is no longer on cost reduction, it's about maximising every output to boost progression. The thing about growth is that it's often the result of other things; so if you are experiencing substantial growth it's because you're 'checking' other boxes. Growth is a sure-fire sign of success, so it will always be high up on the list.
Also identified as business transformation, digital transformation will continue to be integral in 2019.
The thing about digital transformation is how it entails a never-ending set of requirements. Because it's focus is to improve customer experience and processes, it will never sit still. In just the last 10 years, the way people shop and buy services has shifted dramatically, and this change is bound to happen exponentially.
It's no longer a case of keeping your ears to the ground and following a change; it's about anticipating a change and implementing a new structure or process before any new adaptation occurs.
Finger on the pulse. CTOs and CIOs need to have their ears to the ground and listening out for any development, or any change in their technology. As far as leadership goes, culture and identity will often filter from the top down, so it's essential for C-level professionals to set an example and a pace for this.
If CIOs or CTOs don't have their 'finger on the pulse' of emerging technologies, then how do they expect their talent to?
Technology changes continuously. One minute, an emerging technology is the way forward and the next second it's old news.
Being a CIO is about prioritisation more than ever. It's about driving consumer engagement, product management and technology. Consumer demands are driving business change. We are now singing to the tune of the end-user and customer more than ever and CIOs and CTOs need to be adaptable but also empathetic to truly understand their clients' needs.
AI is a commonly used term but in reality, it's a buzzword. The real focus and theme will be on machine learning in 2019.
Machine learning has a collective of benefits for businesses; carefully crafted algorithms could predict pitfalls before they happen and allow for smoother processes. As the saying goes, "prevention is better than cure".
Data is an incredibly powerful tool, and it's common for data to follow a pattern or rhythm so if CTOs and CIOs can harness machine learning in 2019, they will be onto a winner.
Want to find out more about these key tech topics for 2019? Get in touch by emailing ask@amdaris.com.
Although it's unclear how developed blockchain will be in 2019, it will certainly be on the cusp of something incredible.
The potential blockchain has within the procurement and retail sector is incredible, but it certainly has the power to impact many other industries.
No longer does blockchain have the core purpose of managing cryptocurrency, it has massive potential to disrupt and innovative.