text:
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Her Bodyguard
Her Bodyguard - Page 32
Well, isn't that just fucking fantastic.
I cross my arms and push that thought right out of my head. "You're going to just let her run off with her crappy ex, then?"
"I'm not letting her do anything," Albie tells me. "Belle is capable of making her own decisions."
"You're so stubborn."
"Go talk to Max."
Talk to Max? I'm about to go jump his bones. "Fuck off, big brother."
"Love you, little sister."
I pretend to scratch my face with my middle finger, flipping Albie off, and he rolls his eyes at me before he walks away.
As I cross the room to meet Max, the vibrator turns off again. When I reach him, he looks concerned. "Sorry about the vibrator. Noah was talking to me. He left to go with Albie," he explains, his voice hushed.
"Belle's ex-boyfriend is here, and Sofia is, well, being Sofia," I whisper. "Albie might do something stupid."
"Shit. Something stupid like what?"
"I don't know … Publicly announce he's with Belle? He was pissed off when he saw her ex."
Max's brow furrows. "Come on," he whispers. "Let's get out of here."
He follows me out of the room, and I smile and nod as I pass people, acting as if this is any old event and not as if I'm chasing my brother out of the room to make sure he doesn't do anything public to the ex-boyfriend of his stepsister whom he's in love with – while I'm wearing a butt plug and vibrator that's remotely controlled by my bodyguard who I'm in like with.
Yep, all of this is totally normal.
Move along, nothing to see here.
By the time we make it down the hall, everything erupts into total chaos, raised voices, and Belle shrieking. "Come on," Max says, and I follow him, running in my heels and dress in the direction of the noise. He's right in front of me, and I pause in the doorway, watching horrified as Noah tries to pull my brother off of Derek.
Max jumps in to help, and he and Noah hold Albie back as he yells obscenities at Derek. Then Derek loudly accuses him of fucking Belle.
Sofia and my father arrive, standing behind me, and everything in the entire world comes to a screeching halt as my father orders the room shut down.
Max immediately lets go of Albie and makes it to my side. I stare at my brother, who's standing there with his nose bleeding and glaring at Derek – who's in the custody of two other security guards – like he's ready to murder him.
"You can't take me out of here," I tell Max as he puts his hand on my arm. "My brother and Belle and –"
"You heard your father," he says tersely. "It's protocol. You're on lockdown while they sort it out."
"You can't make me a prisoner in my own –"
"Get her out of here," my father growls at Max. "Now."
Max escorts me back to my bedroom. He doesn't say a word because he knows I'm absolutely fuming. I can't just walk off while Belle and Albie get totally outed by Belle's ex and my brother gets into a public fistfight and has to deal with my father.
Surely Max knows that much about me.
Inside my bedroom door, he puts his hands on my arms. "Stay here," he says. "A bodyguard will be in the hallway."
"This is ridiculous," I protest, shrugging off his grip. "I'm not a child."
"You're not a child," Max growls. "But this is part of the security protocol. Your father is trying to keep you out of it so you're not publicly involved."
"Albie is my brother," I argue. I'm beyond irritated with Max.
"I'm trying to help both of you," he says, his tone firm. "I'll be back."
Then he leaves.
I change into a t-shirt and shorts, carefully removing Max's little presents. I text Albie and Belle, but get no response.
I must fall asleep because when I jolt upright in bed, light is streaming through the windows. I grab my phone.
Holy shit. It's ten in the morning.
Max never returned last night and I have no idea what happened with Belle and Albie.
Running to my bedroom door, I yank it open. A non-Max bodyguard stands at the end of the hallway. "Where's Max?" I snap.
"He's – I'm not sure, Your Highness," the bodyguard says.
"I need to see him, please." I close the door without waiting for an answer. Then I pull up one of the gossip blogs on my phone. Maybe we got away unscathed and everything was successfully covered up.
Oh, God. No such luck.
THE PRINCE'S MARRIAGE TO HIS SISTER! ROYAL VIOLENCE! A NIGHT THAT WAS OUT OF CONTROL! THE SHOCKING STORY THE ROYALS DON'T WANT YOU TO READ!
Rushing to pull on something presentable, I yank my hair into a ponytail and slip on a pair of shoes. I head straight for my brother's room, but he's not there.
"Where are my brother and Isabella?" I ask the new bodyguard.
"The future princess is gone, I believe."
"Gone?!"
"I believe she left a little while ago with her friends. Your brother is with the king and future queen."
Oh, God. That's not good.
"Where did Belle go?"
"I believe on a trip," he replies. "Around Europe."
"You know an awful lot for being new."
"I pay attention."
I narrow my eyes. "That's just what this place needs."
The new bodyguard tails me at a respectable distance, but as I'm heading toward my father's residence, Max calls me from the end of the hall.
"Princess Alexandra," he calls loudly. "Your Highness."
I don't stop, though, and I don't wait for him to catch up, because I'm too focused on making sure nothing terrible happens. All I can think about is the fact that I've never seen Albie the way he is with Belle and I don't want her banished from the kingdom.
It's the same thing I fear will happen to Max.
I don't have time to think about that, though, because I hear my father and Albie's raised voices inside of my father's residence suite. I knock on the door, and then just fling it open.
"Get out, Alex," Albie insists.
He and my father and Sofia are all obviously angry. A myriad of newspapers and magazines are strewn across a table, all of them emblazoned with headlines similar to the one I read on my phone.
I take a deep breath.
What I'm about to say is a really bad idea. It's a terrible idea, the worst idea in the world.
But it's the only thing I can think of to do, my small attempt to help Albie by distracting everyone with my drama: "I'm sleeping with Max."
"Oh my," Sofia says. "Who is Max?"
"He's my bodyguard."
Behind me, I hear Max take in a deep breath. "Oh, shit," he breathes.
Okay, so maybe this wasn't the best-conceived plan in the history of plans.
"You've got that right," Sofia says, obviously incensed – first at Albie and her daughter, and now at me.
"If you're mad at Albie, you can be mad at me too," I say imperiously, out of some crazy notion of solidarity with my brother and Belle. I look at Albie. "Did you tell them you're in love with her?"
"You're not in love with Belle," Sofia dictates.
"Of course he is," I insist. If they know he's in love with her, everything will be okay. Don't they understand what a big deal it is for Albie to be in love with someone? "I've never seen Albie look at anyone the way he looks at Belle – and now she's off running around Europe because he didn't have the balls to tell her how he felt."
"Didn't have the balls to tell her?" Albie asks. "She went running off before I could even say – "
"No balls," I repeat. "You missed your shot with her –"
Just then Max's gaze meets mine. Despite all of my talk about having balls, I'm struck with a sense of panic at the thought that I've just ruined everything between us with my impulsive outburst. Is that anger in his eyes? Disdain? Coldness? I can't tell what he's thinking and the fact that I can't tell makes me apprehensive.
Albie tells me to shut up, and then we begin bickering back and forth the way we've always done since we were
children – until my father silences us with a loud yell.
"Stop acting like children!" he bellows.
"I'm just trying to tell him what's good for him," I insist.
"Enough!" My father pauses, walking over to his bar to pour himself a glass of scotch from his decanter while we all stand there in silence. "Do you love her?"
"You can't seriously be entertaining this," Sofia begins.
"Do you love her?" he repeats.
I interrupt, pointing at Albie. "Obviously he does."
"Alex, stay out of this," my father warns.
"I love her," Albie admits.
I squeal and clap my hands together. Nothing's going to burst my bubble of excitement for Albie, not even when my father kicks us out of the residence because he wants a chance to think.
Outside in the hallway, Albie scowls at me. "So you and Max, huh?"
I glance at Max, trying to read the expression on his face. Does he hate me for what I just did? "I was trying to take the heat off of you, Albie," I explain more for his benefit than for Albie's. Then I quickly change the subject. "But more importantly, back to you and Belle. Where did Belle go?"
"She took off," Albie replies.
I whirl around and look at Max. "But you can get her location, can't you?"
"We can track her," he says.
"I'm on it already," Noah interrupts.
"You obviously have to tell her you love her, right?" I announce, clasping my hands together. "We need to chase her down!"
Fifteen minutes later, we're piled into one of the SUVs and on our way to track down Belle, a madcap race to wherever she is. I have no idea what Albie's grand plan is when he finds her. All I know is that this whole thing is crazy and exciting. For some reason, I'm all wound up about it, despite the fact that I'm the girl who doesn't have a single romantic bone in her body.
So the girl who doesn't believe in all of that icky love stuff is pushing her brother to go bare his feelings for Belle, consequences be damned.
When Max's gaze catches mine, my heart skips. The cat flew right out of the bag when it comes to Max and I hooking up. I blurted the whole thing out, without talking to him about it first, though. I still can't read his expression and things have been too crazy since we hit the road to even know whether he's completely freaked out by the fact that I just blurted out our little secret.
I'm not sure whether I'm freaked out that I blurted out our little secret.
All I told them was that we were screwing. No big deal, right?
You know you're not just screwing him. You like him.
Liking him? That's a way bigger deal.
The past thirty-six hours have been complete and utter chaos. Ever since Prince Albert punched Isabella's ex-fiancé in the face at the charity event, I haven't had a second to breathe. It's virtually unimaginable that less than two days ago, I was lying on the riverbank with Alexandra wrapped up securely in my arms.
Since then, we've chased Isabella to Budapest and watched Albie publicly confess his love for her, right in the middle of a restaurant while a hundred people filmed it on their phones. He and Belle stayed in Budapest, holed up in a hotel and protected by security, while Alexandra and I were picked up by the royal helicopter and whisked back to the summer house as a diversion to distract the paparazzi.
I haven't gotten a single second alone with Alexandra to confront her about her disclosure to her father.
Nothing that Alexandra says or does should come as any big surprise anymore. But the fact that she outed us as sleeping together? Okay, that was a slight shocker.
In less than five minutes, we'll be back at the summer house, and I've already been given notice that I'm to report directly to the king.
Alexandra's father.
If it was my daughter who just confessed to screwing her bodyguard, I'd be royally pissed. I'd probably want to kill the guy.
So, really, I'm probably on my way to my own execution.
When the helicopter lands, I don't get a chance to talk to Alexandra because one of the king's attendants comes to get me directly from the helicopter pad, accompanied by two other security guards. "Please come with me," the attendant says gruffly with no further explanation.
Yep, definitely execution. Prison, if I'm lucky.
"I'm going with you," Alexandra huffs, following us. When the security guard tries to stop her, she gets angry. "Don't touch me. I'm the princess and I said I'm going!"
I turn around and glare at her. "I'll talk to your father on my own," I tell her, my voice harsh.
"Max, I–"
"Just go," I order, my tone totally inappropriate, far too harsh for a member of the royal family. I'll face her father all on my own because it's the right thing to do.
She crosses her arms and raises her eyebrows, her eyes fixed on mine. "Fine," she says, her voice tight.
Obviously it's anything but fine.
Alexandra just confessed to sleeping with the help. Worse, even: her bodyguard. I should know better. I do know better. I crossed a thousand lines – we crossed a thousand lines.
The king sits inside an office at his monstrous desk looking down at paperwork. I bow, and then stand there waiting to receive the biggest ass-chewing of my life. Eight years in the Marine Corps and I never got called on the carpet to see the general for fucking up. Standing here right now in front of the king is the equivalent of that.
The Max who was in the Marines would have never done something so egregious that I got called to account for it in front of the general. The Max who's in charge of protecting the life of a princess … well, apparently, the man I am now has no regard for boundaries and rules.
"I don't want to know if what my daughter said is true," the king finally speaks. "Do you understand?"
"I understand, Your Majesty."
"Unless you're here to tell me it's not true," he finishes.
He only pauses for a moment. I'm sure it's evident in my expression that it's definitely true because the king exhales heavily.
I'm waiting for the part where King Leopold calls in the Royal
Tags: Sabrina Paige Erotic


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text:
\section{Introduction}

Increasing the computational power of everyday products is
revolutionizing the way we live.  Segways can move us from one
location to another without any need for large, cumbersome, or noisy
vehicles.  Cars can park themselves, and warn us when we are changing
lanes unsafely.  The future appears more fantastic than science
fictions depicted it just a few years ago.  At the same time, the
increasingly tight coupling between computational and physical
mechanisms, often described as cyber-physical systems (CPS), is
creating a challenge for the traditional product development cycles.
For example, car manufacturers are concerned about the amount of
physical testing necessary to assure the safety of a car with a high
degree of autonomy.

Since the beginning of time, physical testing has been the basis for
justified true belief in the qualities of a new product.  A key
ingredient of physical testing is having a collection of specific
usage scenarios.  But the presence of even simple computational
components can make it make it difficult to identify enough usage
scenarios to exercise more than a minute fraction of the possible
behaviors of the system.  These observations are spurring the
developers of cyber-physical systems to rethink the traditional
methods and processes for developing and testing new products.

\subsection{Virtual Experiments and Language Research}

One way to alleviate the testing problem is to use computer
simulations~\cite{carloni-2006} to perform virtual
experiments~\cite{bruneau-2012}.  Virtual testing can be used to
quickly eliminate obviously bad designs.  It can also help build
confidence that a new design can pass test scenarios developed by an
independent party~\cite{jensen-2011}.  Creating a framework for
conducting virtual experiments requires a concerted, interdisciplinary
community effort to address a wide range of challenges, including:

\begin{enumerate}
\item
  Educating designers in the cyber-physical aspects of
  the products they will develop, both in terms of:
  \begin{itemize}
    \item
      How they these aspects are modeled, and
    \item
      What types of system-level behaviors they generate.
  \end{itemize}
\item
  Developing expressive, efficient, and robust modeling and simulation
  tools to support the innovation process.  It is particularly
  important that the underlying models are:
  \begin{itemize}
    \item
      Easy to understand and analyze at each stage of the design
      process, and
    \item
      Easy to reason about across stages.
  \end{itemize}
\item
  Accumulating extensive libraries of component models that are both
  \begin{itemize}
  \item
    Grounded in physical principles and analytic methods, and
  \item
    Validated experimentally.
  \end{itemize}
\end{enumerate}

All three challenges would benefit from better language-based
technologies for describing and simulating cyber-physical systems.
Engineering methods centered around a notion of executable or
\emph{effectively-computable} models can have profound positive impact
on the pace of advancement of knowledge and engineering practice in
cyber-physical systems.

\subsubsection{The Educational Challenge}

For decades, engineering and science education has focused on
providing specialized training within well-defined disciplines.  As a
result, to design an advanced cyber-physical system such as a robot,
we must engage several experts with advanced degrees from a number of
different disciplines, such as mechanical engineering, electrical
engineering, computer science, and biology.  Not only does this
recurring task make it difficult to assemble a team with necessary
expertise for a project, the team may still lack a common language for
discussing key issues that are fundamental to the design of robotic
systems, but that are treated differently across disciplines.

Addressing the educational challenge will require a concerted effort
to break down artificial boundaries between disciplines.  A key step
towards achieving this goal will be to find a {\em lingua franca} (or
``common language'') to communicate about fundamental issues that
recur in the development of a variety of different cyber-physical
systems.  Part of such a language will be a jargon for communicating
efficiently among experts; part will be an appropriate mathematical
formalism.  Language research can be particularly helpful in
developing tools that are closely aligned with executable subsets
(c.f. \cite{fortress, zhu-2012}) of mathematical notations that are
already used by many engineers and scientists but are not available in
mainstream programming languages and tools.

\subsubsection{The Modeling and Simulation Challenge}

The modeling and simulation challenge can also be approached from a
linguistic point of view.  Precise reasoning about models during each
stage of the process can be improved by applying classical
(programming) language design principles, including defining a formal
semantics.  Reasoning across stages can be facilitated by using two
ideas from language design: 1) increasing the expressivity of a
language to support multiple stages in the design process, and 2)
automatically compiling models from one stage to the next to reduce
manual work and opportunities for mistakes as models are translated
from one stage of the design process to the next.

\subsubsection{The Modeling Library Challenge}

It seems reasonable to expect that the dynamics surrounding the
development and use of modeling libraries can be similar to those for
software libraries.  We can envision CPS design as a community process
where there are library providers and library consumers, and where
different libraries and test suites are used to benchmark and evaluate
various offerings.  In such a setting, the interfaces between
components become important, motivating questions related to advanced
linguistic techniques such as types, static checking, unit testing,
contracts, assertions, assume-guarantee reasoning, and blame
assignment, all of which can be expected to play a key role in
addressing this challenge.

\subsection{A Small, Experimental Language for Hybrid Modeling}

To better understand the core linguistic issues that arise in
addressing these challenges, we are developing a modeling language
called Acumen~\cite{taha-2012,acumen-web}.  A key characteristic of
modeling and simulation languages for cyber-physical systems is
supporting hybrid (continuous/discrete) mathematical
models~\cite{carloni-2006}.  Modelica \cite{Modelica} and SimScape are
widely used examples of such languages.  Hybrid modeling can be
supported using a small number of constructs, namely:
\begin{itemize}
\item Ground values (e.g., \verb|True|, \verb|5|, \verb|1.3|, \verb|"Hello"|)
\item Vectors and matrices (e.g., \verb|[1,2]|, \verb|[[1,2],[3,4]]|)
\item
  Object definition (\verb|class C (x,y,z) ... end|)
\item
  Object instantiation and termination (\verb|create|, \verb|terminate|)
\item
  Variable declarations (including a special variable called
  \verb|_3D| for generating visualizations) (\verb|private ... end|)
\item
  Variable derivatives (\verb|x'|, \verb|x''|, ...)
\item
  Continuous assignment (\verb|[=]|)
\item
  Discrete assignment (\verb|=|)
\item
  Conditional statements
  (\verb|if|, and
   \verb|switch|)
\item
  Expressions and operators on reals (\verb|+|, \verb|-|, ...)
\end{itemize}
It appears that a language with just these features can be helpful in
addressing the educational challenge.  For example, we used such a
language for a term-long project in an eight week course on
cyber-physical systems \cite{taha-lecture-notes}, and seems to have
been received positively.  It appears that being able to concretely
explain a wide range of concerns in a small language has two key
benefits.  The first relates to CPS education.  Using a small language
can help highlight the connections between different concepts, and
avoid the introduction of artificial distinctions between
manifestations of the same concept in different contexts.  The second
relates to language and tools research.  Showing how such a wide range
of cyber-physical phenomena can be captured in a small language helps
emphasize the expressivity of such a small language, and provide a
basis for arguing against the introduction of additional language
features until a compelling case for the addition of such language
features has been made.

These observations inspired us to step back from the details of that
particular teaching experience to reflect on two questions relating to
the challenges described above.  First, what can we view as the basic
cyber-physical aspects of a robot system?  Second, how well can they
be explained in terms of a small hybrid-systems modeling formalism?

\subsection{Contributions}

This paper considers several aspects of cyber-physical systems that
can be seen as common features of cyber-physical systems, and uses
them to reflect on how they can be expressed and illustrated using the
small hybrid systems modeling language introduced above.

Visual and geometric presentation is a critical aspect of analytical
modeling that can hide in plain sight (Section \ref{sec-vis}).
Technically, it is not part of analytical modeling, but it is
indispensable for efficiently understanding both the specification and
the results of a virtual experiment.  From a pedagogic point of view,
the trigonometric reasoning involved in creating visualizations
provides a natural path into geometry of motion (kinematics).  Basic
mechanics and dynamics come next (Section \ref{sec-mech}), and a range
of analytical principles used to model physical systems.  They also
motivate the use of differential equations, which in turn provide much
of the background needed to motivate the discussion of control
(Section \ref{sec-control}).  To help experimentally evaluate the
effect of control, it is useful to consider mechanisms for modeling
disturbances (Section \ref{sec-disturb}).  By introducing these
aspects, we are able to present the simplest possible example of how
to model and test a cyber-physical system.  This allows us to return
back to the physical component and refined it.  A natural way to do
this in the robotics domain is to use ideas from rigid body dynamics
(Section \ref{sec-rigid}).  Similarly, we can refine the model of the
control system by capturing the way in which implementation on a
digital computer introduces both discretization and quantization
effects (Section \ref{sec-discretization}).

After the discussion of the individual aspects has been considered, we
summarize our observations about the language (Section
\ref{sec-discussion}) and conclude.

\section{Visual and Geometric Presentation}\label{sec-vis}

Visual presentation plays an essential role in the design of
cyber-physical systems.  For many people, it is hard to imagine a
robot (and possibly any other design, for that matter) without
conjuring an image of a general physical form.  If we want to replace
physical prototyping with virtual prototyping, visualization becomes a
necessity.  From the educational point of view, this can be
serendipitous, because it can provide an opportunity to introduce
trigonometry, which itself is needed to model geometric features of
objects as well as to work with both the kinematics and dynamics of
physical objects.

\subsection{Drawing 3D Objects}

A small language for hybrid modeling and simulation can be easily
extended with a lightweight mechanism for three dimensionals (3D)
visualization \cite{Yingfu-Thesis}.  In Acumen, the user can specify
3D visualizations through a special variable called \_3D.  This
variable is only special in that it is read by the implementation and
used to generate a dyanmic 3D scene.  In principle, any graphical
rendering technology can be used by an implementation to realize these
visualizations.  In practice, the current implementation used the
Java3D library, which is built on topc of OpenGL.

\begin{figure}
  \centering
  \includegraphics[width=0.5\columnwidth]{exampleG1}
  \caption{
    The 3D output generated for an instance of the class sphere.
  }\label{fig:sphere-scr}
\end{figure}

\subsection{Class Definitions and Parameterization}

The following class definition specifies a particular way for drawing
a sphere:
\begin{verbatim}
class sphere (m,D)
 private
  p =[0,0,1];
  _3D = [["Sphere", D+[0,0,1],
          0.03*sqrt(m),
          [m/3,2+sin(m),2-m/2],
          [1,1,1]]];
 end
 _3D [=] [["Sphere", D+p,
           0.03*sqrt(m),
           [m/3,2+sin(m),2-m/2],
           [1,1,1]]];
end

\end{verbatim}
The class parameter m represents a mass.  This parameter is only used
to pick a size and a color for the sphere.  The parameter D is a
display reference point.  Passing different D values to individual
objects facilitates creating visualizations where the individual
objects appear in different places.  The private section declares
local variables as well as their initial value at the (simulated) time
when the object is created.  The variable p is used to represent the
position of the sphere.  The private section and the main body of the
class definition contain similar expressions for \_3D.  Both
expresions consist of a vector that has a format understood by the 3D
visualization part of the Acumen implementation.  The first definition
is a discrete assignment that happens only at object creation time.
The second expression is a continuous assignment that is computed all
the time as long as the object exists in the
simulation.\footnote{Initialization is cumbersome in the current
  syntax for Acumen, as it requires using two very similar
  expressions.}  The format of the vector is as follows: The first
field is a string indicating that the shape we want is a sphere.  The
second field is the coordinate for the center of the sphere.  The next
field is the radius.  Here we compute chose to make the radius a
simple function of the mass.  This function is not intended to have
any physical meaning.  Rather, to produce reasonable effects for the
examples presented in this paper.  The next field contains a vector
that represents the red/green/blue (RGB) colors for this sphere.  To
help us distinguish different objects, we have again used an ad hoc
formula to generate a color based on the mass passed in.  The last
field can be used to express an orientation, and only matters when the
sphere has a texture.  \Fig{sphere-scr} depicts a visualization
generated using this class.

\subsection{Object Creation, Continuous Assignment, and Animation}

We can create sphere by writing ``s = create sphere (5,[0,0,0])'' in
the initialization section and then ``s.p [=] [0.1, 0.2, 0.3]''.  To
generate 3D animations, all we have to do is to let the value of ``p''
vary over time, as in the following code:
\begin{verbatim}
class moving_sphere (m,D)
 private s = create sphere (m,D);
         t = 0; t' = 0
 end
 t'  [=] 5;
 s.p [=] [sin(t)*sqrt(1-(sin(t/10)^2)),
          cos(t)*sqrt(1-(sin(t/10)^2)),
          sin(t/10)];
end
\end{verbatim}
Here the variable t and its derivative t' are introduced here to model
a local variable that progresses at exactly five times the rate of
time.  All that is needed to do that is to include the equation ``t'
[=] 5''.  The time-varying variable t is then used to generate some
interesting values for the x, y, and z components of the the position
field p that represents the center of the sphere object s.

As noted earlier, we can have instances of the same object (such as
the entire moving\_sphere example) appear at different parts on the
screen by varying the D parameter.  By changing the value of the
position parameter p, we can create an animation with two spheres
moving in a synchronized fashion.

It is useful to note that a 3D visualization facility can also be used
to visualize not only 3D values but also scalar values.  For example,
it is useful to define objects that assist in visualizing specific
scalar values during a simulation.  The following class defines a
class to visualize a scalar value as a cylindar of length proportional
to that value:

\begin{verbatim}
class display_bar (v,c,D)
 private
  _3D = ["Cylinder", D+[0,0.2,0],
         [0.02,v], c,
         [-3.14159265359/2,0,0]]
 end
 _3D = ["Cylinder", D+[0,0.2,v/2],
        [0.02,v],c,
        [-3.14159265359/2,0,0]];
end
\end{verbatim}
Following the string ``Cylinder'', the first value represents the
center of the cylinder.  We take this to be v/2 because this will
allow us to keep one end of the cylinder fixed as the value of v
changes.  The next paramter is a tuple containing the radius and
length of the cylinder.  The next parameter is color.  The last
parameter specifies orientation angles for the cylinder.  A screenshot
of an instance of this class will be presented shortly.
\subsection{Vector and Trigonometric Calculation}

In many cases, it is necessary to perform a bit of geometrical
calculation to create the desired shape.  The need for such
calculations can arise in situations that may be simpler than
expected.  An example of such a situation is drawing a cylinder
between two points.  Often, this cannot be done directly because many
underlying visualization tools do not describe cylinders directly in
this exact manner.  Rather, it is common to use two angles that
specify the orientation of the cylinder.  Once we have figured out all
necessary calculations, they can be encapsulated in one class as
follows:

\begin{verbatim}
class cylinder (D)
 private
  p =[0,0,0]; q=[0,0,0];
  _3D = [["Cylinder", D, [0,0],
          [0,0,0],[0,0,0]]];
  radius = 0.01; length = 0.01; alpha=0;
  theta= 3.14159265359/2;
  x=0;y=0;z=0
 end
 x [=] dot(p-q,[1,0,0]);
 y [=] dot(p-q,[0,1,0]);
 z [=] dot(p-q,[0,0,1]);
 length [=] norm(p-q);
 alpha [=] asin(z/length);
 if (y>0)
  theta [=] asin(x/(length*cos(alpha)))
 else
  theta [=] -asin(x/(length*cos(alpha)))
             +3.14159265359
 end
 _3D [=] [["Cylinder",(p+q)/2+D,
           [radius,length],
           [1,1,1],[alpha,0,-theta]]];
end
\end{verbatim}
The operators dot and norm operators compute the dot product and the
vector norm (or length).  Creating such an object is a good first
exercise in coordinate transformation.  Versatility with such
transformations is an important skill for working with physical
systems both in terms of Newtonian modeling as well as other, more
advanced modeling techniques (c.f.~\cite{zhu-2012}).  Because they are
executable models that produce visual results, developing small,
purely graphical objects such as the ones above can be a gratifying
way for students to learn about and practice the necessary geometric
and necessary steps to understand how other aspects of robot mechanics
and motion are modeled.

\section{Mechanics and Dynamics}\label{sec-mech}

In contrast to the effort needed to describe geometric and visual
objects, describing basic mechanical systems and their dynamics can be
done more concisely.  A point mass that can only move long dimension
can be represented as follows:
\begin{verbatim}
class mass_1d (m,p0,D)
 private
  p=p0; p'=0; p''=0; f=0; e_k=0;
  s=create sphere (m,D)
 end
 p'' [=] f/m;
 e_k [=] 0.5 * m * (p')^2;
 s.p [=] [0,0,p]
end
\end{verbatim}
The object takes as parameters a mass m, an initial position p0, and a
reference point for visualization.\footnote{For reasons of space, this
  paper uses short (often single-character) variable names.  While
  this is closer to mainstream mathematical notation, in larger models
  it may be better style to use longer names for variables.}
Internally, the mass keeps track of a position p, its first and second
derivatives p' and p'', a force f, and the kinetic energy e\_k.  For
visualization, a sphere object is created during initialization.  The
body of the class definition specifies that the acceleration of the
object, p'', is determined by Newton's law $F=ma$, where we are
solving for acceleration (which is just p'' here).  The expression for
energy uses the built-in dot-product operation on vectors.  Finally,
we set the position p of the visual object sphere to be the same as
the position p of the current object.

Supporting vector operations make it possible to define a similar
object that has a three dimensional position almost just as simply:
\begin{verbatim}
class mass (m,p0,D)
 private
  p=p0; p'=[0,0,0]; p''=[0,0,0];
  f=[0,0,0]; e_k=0;
  s = create sphere (m,D);
 end
 p'' [=] f/m;
 e_k [=] 0.5 * m * (dot(p',p')) ^2;
 s.p [=] p;
end
\end{verbatim}
Note that it is convenient in this domain to have derivatives over
vectors.  We can induce continuous behaviors in such an object by mean
of an external continuous assignment.  For example, the effect of a
gravitational force on a mass object m by a continuous assignment
``m.f~[=]~m.m*[0,0,-9.81]''.

An idealized, 3D spring can be modeled as follows:
\begin{verbatim}
class spring (k,l0,D)
 private p1=[0,0,0]; p2=[0,0,0];
         f1=[0,0,0]; f2=[0,0,0];
         dl = [0,0,0]; e_p=0;
 end
 dl  [=] p2-p1 * (1-l0/norm(p2-p1));
 f1  [=]  k*dl;
 f2  [=] -k*dl;
 e_p [=] 0.5 * k * dot(dl,dl);
end
\end{verbatim}
This class associates a different force with each end of the spring,
and that computes only a potential energy e\_p rather than a kinetic
energy.  No visualization is included in this object, but that can be
easily done using techniques presented above.

\subsection{Impacts and Discrete Assignment}
An important physical effect in dynamics is impact.  Often, it is
convenient to model impacts as a sudden effect.  Discrete assignments
can be used for this purpose.  The following model provides an example
of the use of discrete assignment to model the impact of a falling
ball with a floor:

\begin{verbatim}
class bouncing_ball (D)
 private
  m  = create mass_1d (10, 3, D);
  bk = create display_bar
        (0,[3,0.2,0.2],D+[ 0.1,0.2,0]);
  bp = create display_bar
        (0,[0.2,3,0.2],D+[-0.1,0.2,0]);
  bt = create display_bar
        (0,[0.2,0.2,3],D+[   0,0.2,0]);
 end
 m.f [=] m.m * -9.81;
 if (m.p < 0 && m.p' < 0)
  m.p' = -0.9 * m.p'
 end;
 bk.v [=] m.e_k / (m.m * 9.81);
 bp.v [=]   (m.m * 9.81 * m.p)
          / (m.m * 9.81);
 bt.v [=] bk.v + bp.v;
end
\end{verbatim}
The model uses the mass class along with a continuous gravity model
and a ground-impact model where the ball looses 10\% of its velocity.
The class display\_bar is used to display colored bars to present some
additional information in the 3D output.  The mass model used here has
only one degree of freedom along the Z axis.  We use three display
bars to visually represent the kinetic and potential energy, as well
as their sum.  The discrete assignment occurs inside the if statement
that detects impact with the ground plane.  \Fig{bball-scr} shows a
sequence of screenshots, one including the Integrated Development
Environment (IDE), which results from running this example.  It can be
seen that, as expected, the total energy decreases at each impact,
while the kinetic and potential energies reach their respective maxima
and minima at the height of the bounce and the impact at ground level.

\begin{figure}
  \centering
  \includegraphics[width=\columnwidth]{bball-ide-scr1-cropped}\\[1.1\baselineskip]
  \includegraphics[width=0.3\columnwidth]{bball-ide-scr2-cropped}\hfill
  \includegraphics[width=0.3\columnwidth]{bball-ide-scr3-cropped}\hfill
  \includegraphics[width=0.3\columnwidth]{bball-ide-scr4-cropped}
  \caption{The Acumen IDE with the bouncing ball model
    and simulation results.  The green bar indicates the potential
    energy, the red one is the kinetic energy, and the blue bar is
    their sum.  The total energy decreases with each ground impact,
    and during the free flight phase the two energies behave as
    expected.  }\label{fig:bball-scr}
\end{figure}

Now we turn to creating systems made from components such as the mass
and spring components that we have just introduced.

\section{Capturing Conceptual Structure: Object Boundaries and Composition}\label{sec-obj}

A benefit of using classes in defining a model is that it helps us
think clearly about the conceptual boundary between the different
components that we are modeling.  Connecting components is a matter of
relating fields in different components though continuous assignments.
For example, the following class models a system consisting of three
masses connected by two springs:

\begin{verbatim}
class example_3 (D)
 private
  m1 = create mass (15,[0,0, 1],D);
  m2 = create mass (5, [0,0,-1],D);
  m3 = create mass (1, [0,0,-1.5],D);
  s1 = create spring (5,1.75,D);
  s2 = create spring (5,0.5,D);
  b  = create display_bar (-1.5,0,D)
 end
 s1.p1 [=] m1.p; s1.p2 [=] m2.p;
 s2.p1 [=] m2.p; s2.p2 [=] m3.p;
 m1.f  [=] s1.f1;
 m2.f  [=] s1.f2 + s2.f1;
 m3.f  [=] s2.f2;
 b.v   [=] (m1.e_k + m2.e_k + m3.e_k
            + s1.e_p + s2.e_p)*12;
end
\end{verbatim}
The class uses an instance of the class display\_bar to draw a
cylinder to display the kinetric energy in the system.  Even though
this is quite a simple dynamical system, it can be used to consider
and illustrate several simple but nevertheless fundamental aspects of
control.
\section{Control}\label{sec-control}
The goal of control is to bring a certain quantity close to a desired
goal.  In the context of the model presented above, and given a
controller object c, the introduction of such a controller can be
modeled as follows:
\begin{verbatim}
// Goal is spring length at rest
 c.g [=] s1.l+s2.l;

// Value is actual spring length
 c.v [=] m1.p-m3.p;

// Add c.f
 m1.f [=] s1.f1 + c.f;
 m2.f [=] s1.f2 + s2.f1;

// Subtract c.f
 m3.f [=] s2.f2 - c.f;
\end{verbatim}
In this model the goal value for the controller is to have the length
of the system be the same as the natural lengths of the two springs.
The quantity that we wish to control is the position of the first mass
minus the position of the third one.  The way we will achieve that is
to take a force value f that is generated by the controller and apply
it to both sides of the system that we have constructed, but in
opposing directions.

Now the question that remains is how the controller c should compute
its output force f given the goal g and measured value v.  This is a
prototypical question in the design of control systems, and that can
be approached in a variety of different ways.  Three of the most basic
types of controllers are 1) proportional feedback, 2)
proportional/differential feedback, and 3)
proportion/integral/differential feedback.  The first type can work
for systems without inertia, or that have intrinsic ways of
dissipating inertial energy.  It can be modeled as follows:
\begin{verbatim}
class force_controller_p (k_p)
 private g=[0,0,0]; v=[0,0,0];
         f=[0,0,0]
 end
 f [=] k_p * (g-v)
end
\end{verbatim}
The force f computed is directly proportional (hence the name) to the
difference between the goal g and current value v of the quantity that
we want to control.  The higher the constant k\_p, the higher the
force that will be applied for the same amount of difference (or
``error'') between the goal value and the current value.

If the system has inertia or does not dissipate the extra energy introduced by the control force, it might oscillate indefinitely as a result of the proportional control.
To deal with this problem, a slightly more sophisticated controller that can also add a force opposing the direction of the motion (or rate of change) of the value being measured.
Such a  proportional/differential (PD) controller can be defined as follows:

\begin{verbatim}
class force_controller_pd (k_p,k_d)
 private
  g=[0,0,0]; v=[0,0,0]; s=[0,0,0];
  f=[0,0,0]
 end
 f [=] k_p * (g-v) - k_d*s
end
\end{verbatim}
Note that this controller has an extra field s that should be provided
from outside the object to serve as the speed reading that should
affect the final force f.

An interesting feature of these two controllers is that they do not
keep track of history.  We may wish to build a controller that exerts
a higher force only after a weaker force has been tested for some
time.  This can be helpful, for example, if there are external
constant forces (such as gravity) acting on our system, and we do not
know their precise quantity ahead of time.  This type of behavior can
be achieved by a proportional/integral/differential (PID) controller
such as the following:

\begin{verbatim}
class force_controller_pid (k_p,k_i,k_d)
 private
  g=[0,0,0]; v=[0,0,0]; s=[0,0,0];
  f=[0,0,0]; i=[0,0,0]; i'=[0,0,0]
 end
 f  [=] k_p*(g-v) + k_i*i - k_d*s;
 i' [=] (g-v)
end
\end{verbatim}
The variable i is being used to integrate the difference between the
goal g and the value v over time, so, no extra inputs are needed.

Using the formalism presented so far, it is easy to simulate and
visualize the several instances of the 3-mass/2-spring example showing
both the behavior of the mass and the energy of the system with
different controllers.  The experiment shows that a P controller will
not dissipate any energy and therefore will not stabilize the system,
and that in fact at times it will add energy to the system and at
others absorb energy from it.  In fact, this example motivates
formally analyzing this system to show that this controller will
function essential as simply another spring between the two extreme
masses.  The PD controller will suffice in stabilizing the system
quickly, and this will be clear from the height of the bar
representing the energy in the system.

\section{Disturbances}\label{sec-disturb}

To enhance the value of an experiment, whether it is a physical or a
virtual experiment, it can be useful to introduce various sources of
disturbance into the system.  At least for preliminary
experimentation, it can be sufficient to model such disturbances as
autonomous sources of various forces.  A simple example that can be
used with the examples presented in this paper is as follows:

\begin{verbatim}
class force_disturbance (k)
 private t=0; t'=0; t''=0; f=[0,0,0] end
 t' [=] 4; f [=] k*[sin(t), cos(t),
                    sin(2*t+cos(3*t))]
end
\end{verbatim}

This example generates a circular motion in two dimensions, and a
mildly eratic oscillation in the third dimension.  The k parameter is
used to determine the amplitude of the behavior.  One can imagine
further parameterizing the object with a frequency or with
time-varying mixing of the signals along the different axes.  To
determine what type of disturbance is most useful for a particular
class of problems requires experimental analysis and validation of the
models.  For the purposes of this example, the above model sufficies
to give us some confidence that our controllers did not just work for
the particular parameters that we used to test the various systems on.

\section{Rigid Body Dynamics}\label{sec-rigid}

With basic particle dynamics and control concepts under our belt, we
are ready to start looking at the rigid body dynamics.  A key feature
of this level of analysis of mechanical systems is that we start to
take into account both translational and rotational effects.  It is
also a useful level to illustrate some of the benefits of using vector
algebra to model and reason about the dynamics of systems.  For
example, vector algebra can often allow us to think about problems in
2D and then have the results generalize naturally to 3D.  For example,
consider a rod which holds apart two masses (of m$/2$ each) at a given
distance (visualized in~\Fig{rod-scr}).  Now imagine that there are
force vectors p and q acting on each end.  What is the resulting
acceleration on the system?  The following class models the dynamics
of such a rod:
\begin{verbatim}
class rod (m,p0,q0,D)
 private
  length = norm(p0-q0);
  p = p0; sp=[0,0,0]; q = q0; sq=[0,0,0];
  axis = (p0-q0)/norm(p0-q0);
  axis'=[0,0,0]; axis''=[0,0,0];
  core = (p0+q0)/2;
  core' = [0,0,0]; core'' = [0,0,0];
  fp = [0,0,0]; fq = [0,0,0];
  fp_axis = [0,0,0]; fp_orth =[0,0,0];
  fq_axis = [0,0,0]; fq_orth =[0,0,0];
  c = create dumbbell (1,1,D);
 end
 fp_axis [=]   dot(fp,axis)*axis
             / norm(axis);
 fp_orth [=] fp - fp_axis;
 fq_axis [=]   dot(fq,axis)*axis
             / norm(axis);
 fq_orth [=] fq - fq_axis;
 core'' [=] (fp + fq)/m;
 axis'' [=]   2*(fp_orth-fq_orth)
            / (m*length);
 p [=]   core
       + (axis * (length/2)/norm(axis));
 q [=]   core
       - (axis * (length/2)/norm(axis));
 sp [=] core' + axis' * (length/2);
 sq [=] core' - axis' * (length/2);
 c.p [=] p; c.q [=] q;
end
\end{verbatim}
It is easy to combin this system with a controller that works to move
the point p to a predetermined location.  An interesting question is
what happens to the point q during the process, and whether that can
also be controlled as well.  This problem provides a natural starting
point to study challenging questions such as the control of an
inverted pendulum in 3D.

\begin{figure}
  \centering
  \includegraphics[width=0.5\columnwidth]{exampleG2}
  \caption{
    The 3D visualization generated by the rod class.
  }\label{fig:rod-scr}
\end{figure}

\section{Discretization and Quantization}\label{sec-discretization}
The one aspect of controllers that we have not captured in the models
presented above is that controllers are generally implemented by
digital computers.  The most obvious new issues that result from this
implementation strategy are discretization (in time) and quantization
(in the representation of physical quantities).  Both effects can be
concisely expressed in Acumen.  To model discretization, the key
mechanism that is needed is to define a local clock and to only allow
actions to be performed (or to be observed) at clock transitions.  The
following class models a PID controller (like the one presented above)
with discretization and quantization effects.
\begin{verbatim}
class force_controller_pid_d
      (k_p,k_i,k_d,period)
 private g=[0,0,0]; v=[0,0,0]; s=[0,0,0];
         f=[0,0,0]; t=0; t'=0;
         i=[0,0,0]; i'=[0,0,0]
 end
 t' [=] 1;
 if (t>period)
  t=0;
  f  [=] k_p*(g-v) + k_i*i - k_d*s;
 end;
 i' [=] (g-v)
end
\end{verbatim}
The variables t and its derivative t' are used in a manner similar to
what was done at the start of this paper to generate an interesting
signal for moving\_sphere.  Here we do two new things with the
variable t.  The first is that we have a conditional statement based
on this variable that waits until (t$>$period).  The parameter period
models the time it takes the particular microprocessor that implements
our controller to produce the new value of the result of the
controller.  Once the condition is true the first thing we do is to
reset the counter.  The second is that we reset its value to 0 using
the statement ``t=0'' as soon as that condition is true.  In addition
to this reset, the conditional also allos the equation for variable f
in the original model to take effect only for that instant when t has
surpassed the value of period.  Because no other definition is given
for this value until this event occurs again (at the start of the next
period), the value f remains constant until that change occurs.

With this model, it is easy to illustrate that as the sampling period
goes up, the system that we are trying to control can become unstable.

Discretization can be modeled by adding another integer (or
fractional) value that is updated (by either a whole integer or a
fraction, depending on the quanta) when an underlying continuous value
goes outside the range represented by the current quanta.

\section{Discussion}\label{sec-discussion}

Developing the examples used in this paper points out several possible
improvements on the current formalism may be necessary.  In this
section, we briefly point out ones that appear to be particular
compelling.

First, when we compose several examples together, the simulation can
slow down.  The formalism is currently implemented as a purely
functional interpreter in Scala.  This serves well the goal of having
a well-defined semantics.  However, we expect that there will be
significant opportunities for improvement in terms of performance.

Second, we have also noticed that numerical stability can be a
concern, even for the simple examples presented here.  The current
implementation uses a forward Euler integrator to simulate the
continuous behavior.  While this is generally considered to be a
simplistic numerical method, it is surprising that it is problematic
even for the simple examples used in this paper.  To address this
problem without becoming dependent on a particular numerical method,
we are investigating the use of interval and enclosure-based methods
to define a semantics for the formalism.

Third, the examples also illustrate that the language can benefit from
improved syntactic support for several different features such as: A)
variable declaration and initialization often seems redundant and/or
verbose, B) quantization for vector-valued variable is currently
verbose, C) discretization could benefit from introducing syntactic
sugar for clocks, D) embedded software could be easier to model if it
can be written directly in a form similar to traditional code.

\section{Conclusions and Future Work}

In this paper we used a small domain-specific modeling formalism aimed
at hybrid systems to express a range of basic aspects of robot
cyber-physics.  By doing so we are able to illustrate how such a
formalism can be a useful basis for learning and communicating about
such concepts.  At the same time, we hope that these examples help
communicate the richness and the power of this formalism despite its
small size.

In future work, we would like to conduct similar studies to determine
whether the same small formalism used here would suffice for
expressing other aspects of robotic cyber-physics, including: more
sophisticated control laws, models for joint and link composition,
collision detection, impact dynamics, a validated model of a
multi-link robot, and a validated model of a team of cooperating
robots.  We anticipate that the improvements suggested in the
discussion section will be important for expressing these aspects
naturally and concisely.

\section*{Acknowledgements}
We would like to thank the reviewers of DSLRob 2012 and Robert
Cartwright for valuable feedback on an earlier draft of this paper.

\bibliographystyle{IEEEtran}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaArXiv


text:
Q: Android studio strange warning I'm new to code in Android Studio and when i set a integer in a text like this:
textview.setText(String.format("%d",1));

This code give me back a warning:

Implicitly using the default locale is a common source of bugs: Use String.format (Locale,...)

What is the correct code for put an integer in a .setText?
I founded more question on stackoverflow but don't apply to this.

A:
What is the correct code for put an integer in a .setText?

You simply need to convert your int as a String, you can use Integer.toString(int) for this purpose.
Your code should then be:
textview.setText(Integer.toString(myInt));

If you want to set a fixed value simply use the corresponding String literal.
So here your code could simply be:
textview.setText("1");

You get this warning because String.format(String format, Object... args) will use the default locale for your instance of the Java Virtual Machine which could cause behavior change according to the chosen format since you could end up with a format locale dependent.
For example if you simply add a comma in your format to include the grouping characters, the result is now locale dependent as you can see in this example:
System.out.println(String.format(Locale.FRANCE, "10000 for FR is %,d", 10_000));
System.out.println(String.format(Locale.US, "10000 for US is %,d", 10_000));

Output:
10000 for FR is 10 000
10000 for US is 10,000

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Reid: Vick's Concussion Pretty Significant
Chris McPherson
Head coach Andy Reid said on Monday afternoon that quarterback Michael Vick suffered a "pretty significant concussion" in Sunday's loss to Dallas.
Reid did not rule out Vick for next Sunday's game against the Washington Redskins, but reiterated that the concussion was "a pretty good one" and will have to go through the testing protocol before he can return to the field.
According to Reid, Vick suffered the concussion on his last play, a third-down incompletion in the second quarter. Vick's recollection was "foggy" after the game, per Reid. Vick is resting at home, but is in communication with head athletic trainer Rick Burkholder.
If Vick does not play, quarterback Nick Foles will make his first career start. On Sunday, Foles was 22-of-32 for 219 yards with a touchdown and an interception. His touchdown was a 44-yard toss to wide receiver Jeremy Maclin. Reid did say that Foles will be the quarterback to take the first-team reps on Wednesday. If Vick is healthy, and that's a big if of course, he will play as Reid stated that he is still the starting quarterback.
The receiver corps across the board is battling injury. Maclin incurred a low back strain when he was flipped over by Charlie Peprah in the first quarter. Maclin is "pretty sore today," per Reid, and it remains to be seen what his status will be for Sunday. Jason Avant exited the game with a hamstring strain. Reid said that Avant will "struggle" to play this Sunday. Mardy Gilyard is also battling to come back from a hamstring injury that has kept him out of the last two games.
Guard Danny Watkins is "making progress" with his ankle sprain and could return to practice this week. Reid said that lateral movement continues to be the main issue.
Offensive tackle Jason Peters will not practice this week, as he recovers from his offseason Achilles injury.
Running back Chris Polk was out for the Cowboys game with turf toe and is still "very sore."
Make sure to follow us on Twitter @EaglesInsider

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Q: Tensorflow: tfa.image.random_cutout() -- ValueError: slice index 3 of dimension 0 out of bounds I'm trying to use tfa.image.random_cutout like so:
def random_cut(image):
    image_string = tf.io.read_file(image)
    image = tf.io.decode_png(image_string, channels=3)
    image = tf.cast(image, tf.float32) / 255.

    image = tfa.image.random_cutout(image, (64,64), constant_values = 0)

    return image

dataset = dataset.map(random_cut)

But it's returning the following error:

ValueError: slice index 3 of dimension 0 out of bounds. for '{{node cutout/strided_slice_2}} = StridedSlice[Index=DT_INT32, T=DT_INT32, begin_mask=0, ellipsis_mask=0, end_mask=0, new_axis_mask=0, shrink_axis_mask=1](cutout/Shape, cutout/strided_slice_2/stack, cutout/strided_slice_2/stack_1, cutout/strided_slice_2/stack_2)' with input shapes: [3], [1], [1], [1] and with computed input tensors: input[1] = <3>, input[2] = <4>, input[3] = <1>.

Any ideas on what I could be doing wrong here?

A: It seems like you are missing the batch dimension. Check the docs fore more information. Try something like this:
import tensorflow as tf
import tensorflow_addons as tfa
import numpy
from PIL import Image

# Create random image
imarray = numpy.random.rand(100,100,3) * 255
im = Image.fromarray(imarray.astype('uint8')).convert('RGB')
im.save('test.png')

def random_cut(image):
    image_string = tf.io.read_file(image)
    image = tf.io.decode_png(image_string, channels=3)
    image = tf.cast(image, tf.float32) / 255.

    image = tfa.image.cutout(image[None, ...], (64,64), constant_values = 0)

    return image

random_cut('/content/test.png')


text:
Construction could begin this summer on long-planned roadway
By The Associated Press - April 26, 2022
Home > The Nation > Construction could begin this summer on long-planned roadway
Vermont's largest city says construction could begin this summer on a road project that has been in the planning stages for decades.
BURLINGTON, Vt. — Vermont's largest city says construction could begin this summer on a road project that has been in the planning stages for decades.
The Burlington City Council on Monday unanimously approved a construction contract for the $45 million Champlain Parkway.
The project is designed to improve traffic circulation, alleviate overburdened roadways, protect Lake Champlain through enhanced storm water management, and improve vehicular, bike, and pedestrian safety.
The office of Mayor Miro Weinberger says the federal government will pay 95% of the cost, the state 3% and the city 2%.
The Champlain Parkway will be a two-lane road that is designed to eventually connect Interstate 189 with downtown Burlington, but the initial construction phase will not connect to the interstate.
Weinberger's office says the construction schedule will allow the mayor's office and the City Council "to work with the public in the future to determine when our community is ready for the second phase of the project that will make the interstate connection."
The Associated Press is an independent global news organization dedicated to factual reporting. Founded in 1846, AP today remains the most trusted source of fast, accurate, unbiased news in all formats and the essential provider of the technology and services vital to the news business. The Trucker Media Group is subscriber of The Associated Press has been granted the license to use this content on TheTrucker.com and The Trucker newspaper in accordance with its Content License Agreement with The Associated Press.
Previous article Lane closure, detour scheduled for Illinois Tollway improvements
Next article Diesel prices continue to pinch trucking industry, nation


text:
Q: Storing/passing Function Types from swift protocols This bit of code crashes the swift (3, 3.1, 4) compiler:
protocol Test {
    func f()
}
let x = Test.f // crash

I would expect, perhaps naively, that the compiler would infer x as a Function Type with the signature (Test) -> (Void) -> Void, and that later on, I could call it like so:
let y = SomeClassConformingToTest()
x(y)()

I guess my question is: clearly the compiler should do something other than crash, but should Swift currently support this syntax?

A: As you say, the compiler should never crash; this is indeed a bug, and has been filed here. In it, Slava Pestov, a member of the Swift team, says:

We plan on making MyProtocol.someInstanceMethod work. You can already
  do this for classes, eg,
class Foo {
    func f() { ... }
}
let f: Foo -> () -> () = Foo.f

It should have the same behavior for protocols:
protocol Foo {
    func f()
}
let f: Foo -> () -> () = Foo.f

I plan on addressing this later.

And the bug report, as of the 8th of May 2017, is now marked as "In Progress", so hopefully this is something that will make it into the release build of Swift 4.0.
However, until implemented/fixed – a simple workaround is just to use a closure expression in order to act as a thunk for the partial application of the method with the instance to call it on:
protocol Test {
    func f()
}

struct S : Test {
    func f() {
        print("hello")
    }
}

let x: (Test) -> () -> Void = { $0.f }

let s = S()
x(s)() // "hello"

and of course, if you don't need the intermediate partially applied function, you can just say:
let x: (Test) -> Void = { $0.f() }

let s = S()
x(s) // "hello"


text:
Q: Move questions to chat option Some questions are better asked in chat.  I'm wondering if it could be possible to move questions into chat and have someone answer it (or discuss it).  When someone goes to the question, it might say "Question being discussed" and have a link to the chat room.
Maybe after the chat is finished, the results could be posted back to the question.

A: Chat is kind of a different beast in general though, isn't it?
Questions/answers are the meat of the site, and they have a well-defined set of rules/privileges.  Chat is much more free-form and less structured.  We might do better to promote the ability to chat more than we do, but to start broaching the question/answer boundary with the chat rooms via migrations I think is a step in the wrong direction and would degrade the quality and quantity of information on the site.


Carrot seed can be found throughout Europe. The Wild Carrot has hairy stems and odourless leaves and produces flat umbels of tiny white flowers. These die back, leaving a head of pungent seed, which have been used for hundreds of years as a digestive tonic. The essential oil from seeds is earthy and subtle, with some woody notes. Carrot seed essential oil has been known to create an inner sense of peace.


The Empire Theatre was built for the Empire (Aldershot) Ltd., primarily as a Cinema but it did also have a large stage and its own Compton Organ 2/6 on a lift. The Theatre was designed by the architect Harold S. Scott and built next door to the future Ritz Cinema, on land which was previously occupied by the Royal Engineers, and opened on the 1st of August 1930. The auditorium was built on two levels, stalls and one horse shoe shaped balcony and had seating for 1,599.
In 1931 the Theatre was taken over by the County Circuit and by 1937 the capacity had been reduced to 1,458 seats. The Organ was removed in 1959 and taken to the Gorleston Palace Theatre.
The Theatre was eventually renamed the Odeon on the 18th of January 1964. This should not be confused with the Odeon on Barrack Road which was formerly the Alexandra Music Hall, or the Odeon on the High Street next door to the Empire which was formerly the Ritz.
The Odeon, High Street, formerly the Empire Theatre, closed on the 17th of October 1981 and the building was later taken over by a Christian organisation and called The Kings Centre.
The former Theatre and Cinema was bought by the Property Company HPS in 2015 who planed to use the building as an entertainment venue hosting concerts, shows and exhibitions.


text:
Q: Analog to the identity theorem for holomorphic functions for functions of two complex variables Consider a function $f:\mathbb{C}^2\rightarrow\mathbb{C}$ that is holomorphic and vanishes on a non empty bounded open set $S$. If $f$ were a function from $\mathbb{C}$, by the identity theorem, $f$ would be uniquely determined to be the zero function. Does a similar theorem hold when the domain is $\mathbb{C}^2$? If not, how can the vector space of all functions vanishing on $S$ be categorized or expressed? For example, I would be interested in listing them all if possible, or knowing the dimension of the vector space of all such functions.

A: Sure, you can deduce this from the single-variable case.  Pick a point $p\in S$, so $f$ vanishes on a neighborhood of $p$.  Now for any other $q\in\mathbb{C}^2$, consider the function $g(z)=f(zq+(1-z)p)$.  This is a holomorphic function $\mathbb{C}\to\mathbb{C}$, and is basically the restriction of $f$ to the (complex) line between $p$ and $q$.  Since $f$ vanishes in a neighborhood of $p$, $g$ vanishes in a neighborhood of $0$, so $g=0$.  In particular, $g(1)=0$ so $f(q)=0$.  Since $q$ was arbitrary, $f=0$.


State Sen. Floyd McKissick said the amendments are written in a way that makes them seem like a good idea but really will be bad for the state in the long run.
"They're deceptively worded," he said.
▪ On the question of Voter ID, McKissick said the requirement for presenting photo identification to prevent voter fraud was a red herring because there were only two fraud cases out of more than 4 million votes cast in the last election.
▪ Filing judicial vacancies, which now is a power held by the governor, would shift to the legislature in the future if the amendment is adopted. The legislature would screen candidates and then give the governor a list of people who could be appointed under the amendment.
▪ Capping the state income tax rate at 7 percent is another amendment on the ballot. Other states have instituted caps with varying success.
Retiring state Rep. Mickey Michaux said losing this flexibility on the income tax could cause state and local governments to raise other taxes during a recession to cover any shortfalls. This would include the sales tax or property taxes at the local government level. Both of these taxes hit people with lower and middle incomes.
"People who can afford to pay a little more should pay a little more," Michaux said.
The individual income tax rate now is 5.499 percent and will be lowered to 5.25 percent next year.
▪ Creating the Board of Ethics and Elections Enforcement combines the functions of two state boards. This board would have the final say on local elections decisions when local elections boards are unable to reach agreements. The amendment also clarifies legislative and judicial appointments to state boards and commissions.
McKissick called this amendment another effort to strip appointment powers from the governor.
▪ Establishing additional rights for crime victims is unnecessary because there already are protections in the state constitution, Rep. Marcia Morey said.
The proposed amendment would create additional notification requirements for victims of crime whenever a case is being considered in court.
▪ When the legislators asked the crowd if hunting and fishing needed constitutional protection, it brought a laugh to the room.
It was no laughing matter to Morey, who said the amendment could upend environmental regulations.
When Michaux reflected on his 40-year career in the legislature, he said amending the state constitution was something that should rarely be done.
What NC 'political bull' Mickey Michaux learned from Martin Luther King Jr.
McKissick called the number of amendments on the ballot unprecedented.
The 200 people who packed into the community room at the M&F Bank Corporate Center to hear from the lawmakers was a much larger and more energized crowd compared with the two dozen or so people who attended a town hall meeting in March before the legislative session, McKissick said.
When Alexandra Valladares engaged McKissick afterward, she barely could contain her enthusiasm.
Valladares told McKissick she recently realized how much of her life was intertwined with the decisions made by politicians.


Two teams from two of the most watched sports in the world are joining forces to share commercial opportunities and expand the reach of their respective audiences. Chelsea and Sauber say they will use the new partnership announced earlier today to launch joint commercial initiatives, merchandising, events, marketing and linked sponsorship opportunities.
"This is an innovative partnership that will see a football club link up with an F1 team like never before, bringing together two of the world's biggest sports and uniting our fans," Chelsea chief executive Ron Gourlay said. "We felt that this Swiss team, the fourth oldest of the existing teams, reflects our own ideals perfectly."
Chelsea's logo will now appear on Sauber's cars and in exchange the Sauber logo will be placed on boards during Chelsea's home matches.
"A partnership like this between Formula 1 and football has never existed before in this form, yet there are numerous commonalities and possible synergies. In either case we are talking about team sport at the highest - and international - level," Monisha Kaltenborn, CEO of the Sauber F1 Team, added. "The Sauber F1 Team and Chelsea FC are dealing with many of the same sporting and commercial topics and we want to strengthen each other in these areas."


text:
Extrapolating values without outsourcing
byMitchell_Porter7y27th Apr 20125 comments
I first took note of "Coherent Extrapolated Volition" in 2006. I thought it was a brilliant idea, an exact specification of how to arrive at a better future: Figure out exactly how it is that humans make their existing choices, idealize that human decision procedure according to its own criteria, and then use the resulting "renormalized human utility function" as the value system of an AI. The first step is a problem in cognitive neuroscience, the second step is a conceptual problem in reflective decision theory, and the third step is where you make the Friendly AI.
For some reason, rather than pursuing this research program directly, people interested in CEV talk about using simulated human beings ("uploads", "ems", "whole-brain emulations") to do all the hard work. Paul Christiano just made a post called "Formalizing Value Extrapolation"; but it's really about formalizing the safe outsourcing of value extrapolation to a group of human uploads. All the details of how value extrapolation is actually performed (e.g. the three steps listed above) are left completely unspecified. Another recent article proposed that making an AI with a submodule based on models of its makers' opinions is the fast way to Friendly AI. It's also been suggested to me that simulating human thinkers and running them for centuries of subjective time until they reach agreement on the nature of consciousness is a way to tackle that problem; and clearly the same "solution" could be applied to any other aspect of FAI design, strategy, and tactics.
Whatever its value as a thought experiment, in my opinion this idea of outsourcing the hard work to simulated humans has zero practical value, and we would be much better off if the minuscule sub-sub-culture of people interested in creating Friendly AI didn't think in this way. Daydreaming about how they'd solve the problem of FAI in Permutation City is a recipe for irrelevance.
Suppose we were trying to make a "C.elegans-friendly AI". The first thing we would do is take the first step mentioned above - we would try to figure out the C.elegans utility function or decision procedure. Then we would have to decide how to aggregate utility across multiple individuals. Then we would make the AI. Performing this task for H.sapiens is a lot more difficult, and qualitatively new factors enter at the first and second steps, but I don't see why it is fundamentally different, different enough that we need to engage in the rigmarole of delegating the task to uploaded human beings. It shouldn't be necessary, and we probably won't even get the chance to do so; by the time you have hardware and neuro-expertise sufficient to emulate a whole human brain, you will most likely have nonhuman AI anyway.
A year ago, I wrote: "My expectation is that the presently small fields of machine ethics and neuroscience of morality will grow rapidly and will come into contact, and there will be a distributed research subculture which is consciously focused on determining the optimal AI value system in the light of biological human nature. In other words, there will be human minds trying to answer this question long before anyone has the capacity to direct an AI to solve it. We should expect that before we reach the point of a Singularity, there will be a body of educated public opinion regarding what the ultimate utility function or decision method (for a transhuman AI) should be, deriving from work in those fields which ought to be FAI-relevant but which have yet to engage with the problem. In other words, they will be collectively engaging with the problem before anyone gets to outsource the necessary research to AIs."
I'll also link to my previous post about "practical Friendly AI". What I'm doing here is going into a fraction more detail about how you arrive at the Friendly value system. There, I basically said that you just get a committee together and figure it out, clearly an inadequate recipe, but in that article I was focused more on sketching the nature of an organization and a plan which would have some chance of genuinely creating FAI in the real world. Here, I'll say that working out the Friendly value system consists of: making a naturalistic explanation of how human decision-making occurs; determining the core essentials of that process, and applying its own metamoral criteria to arrive at a "renormalized" decision procedure that has been idealized according to human cognition's own preferences ("our wish if we knew more, thought faster, were more the people we wished we were"); and then implementing that decision procedure within an AI - this is where all the value-neutral parts of AI research come into play, such as AGI theory, the theory of value stability under self-modification, and so on. That is the sort of "value extrapolation" that we should be "formalizing" - and preparing to carry out in real life.


Is Classified Document Leaker Reality Winner the New Edward Snowden?
A woman who worked for Pluribus International, an Alexandria, Virginia-based records contractor for the U.S. government, was arrested on June 5 for allegedly turning over a secret document to an online news organization called The Intercept. Reality Winner, 25, was arrested at her Georgia home by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for violating the Espionage Act by giving a top-secret document to the web-based news site.
According to an FBI agent's affidavit, Reality Leigh Winner, of Augusta, Georgia, admitted giving the document to The Intercept, a left-wing news site (www.theintercept.com). She was arrested after The Intercept published a National Security Agency (NSA) analysis that concluded that Russian hackers were able to penetrate an American technology company that works with voter data.
The top-secret document was dated May 5, and 4 days later, Winner allegedly printed it and sent it. An audit showed that just six people printed the document, including her, and that her work computer showed she e-mailed The Intercept. The Intercept said it received the NSA report anonymously and independently verified its authenticity. The document said a cyberattack by Russian military intelligence penetrated one U.S. elections supplier and targeted more than 100 local election officials just weeks before the 2016 presidential election.
Winner's case reminds security and cybersecurity professionals of the potential for relatively low-level employees to cause significant harm to employers, their reputation, and the work and reputation of the U.S. government and its security, countersecurity, and military agencies. This case brings some of the same national and international media attention as the classified documents stolen and leaked to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange by U.S. Army Private Chelsea Manning in 2010 and those of NSA subcontractor Edward Snowden in 2013. Manning was recently released after serving nearly 4 years in federal prison. Her sentence was commuted by President Obama before his leaving office. Snowden fled to Russia in 2013 and is now living in a "secure undisclosed location," per his website (www.edwardsnowden.com).
These cases illustrate how difficult it is to protect classified material if the ethics of the employees who handle it are in doubt. With so much money, hardware, and software aimed at stopping the external hacker, perhaps we miss the enemy in our midst.


I read this article and found it very interesting, thought it might be something for you. The article is called Indus Net Technologies Chennai Development Center turns TWO years old! and is located at https://www.indusnet.co.in/indus-net-technologies-chennai-development-center-turns-two-years-old/.
Today, our Chennai Development Center, which is one of our two delivery centers for open source project delivery has completed two years of operations.
During these two years this office has grown from a three member team to a thirty-four member team accounting for almost 17% of company's revenue and manpower strength.
We have aggressive plans for further expansion in Chennai which will be implemented after a consolidation & cool off period of three months.
I wish all our team members great success in days to come and congratulate everyone on this achievement.
Some photographs to remember this great day!


text:
A new program for neural stem cells
by Max-Planck-Gesellschaft
Transplantation of reprogrammed neural stem cells into the brains of genetically modified mice, which cannot form myelin. The stem cells develop oligodendrocytes (green), which form myelin (red). Credit: Max Planck Institute for Brain Research
German researchers succeed in obtaining brain and spinal cord cells from stem cells of the peripheral nervous system.
Neural stem cells can do a lot, but not everything. For example, brain and spinal cord cells are not usually generated by neural stem cells of the peripheral nervous system, and it is not possible to produce cells of the peripheral nervous system from the stem cells of the brain. However, researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research in Frankfurt and the Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology and Epigenetics in Freiburg have now succeeded in producing central nervous system cells from neural stem cells of the peripheral nervous system. They found that if peripheral stem cells are maintained under defined growth conditions, they generate oligodendrocytes, which form the myelin layer that surrounds the neurons found in the brain and spinal cord.
The mammalian nervous system consists of a central (brain, spinal cord) and peripheral nervous system (e.g. nerves and sensory ganglia). Although the two systems are very closely interlinked, they differ anatomically and consist of different cell types. The cell types of the peripheral nervous system originate from precursor cells in the embryo called the neural crest. To date, it was believed that these neural crest stem cells could generate the neurons and support cells, known as glial cells, of the peripheral nervous system, but not the cells of the central nervous system.
Environmental conditions clearly determine the kind of cells into which the neural crest stem cells develop. Together with colleagues from Paris, the Freiburg- and Frankfurt-based scientists succeeded in demonstrating that, under modified conditions, these stem cells can also generate cells of the central nervous system. They exposed stem cells from the peripheral nervous system of embryonic or postnatal mice to different culture conditions. In addition to neurons, the neural crest stem cells also developed into different types of glial cells of the central nervous system, including oligodendrocytes and astrocytes. "The culture medium reprograms the neural crest stem cells in such a way that they change their identity. This worked without genetic modification of the cells," explains Hermann Rohrer from the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research.
Factors in the culture medium clearly activated a different genetic program so that cell types developed from the stem cells, which normally would not. The scientists do not yet understand the precise factors at work here. However, there are some indications that fibroblast growth factor (FGF) is involved in this transformation.
In the brains of mice at different developmental stages, the reprogrammed stem cells mainly developed into oligodendrocytes, which form the myelin layer around the neurons of the central nervous system and are, therefore, indispensable for the transmission of electrical stimuli. Transplantation experiments carried out by the researchers on genetically modified mice that do not produce myelin and have severe neurological defects proved that the new oligodendrocytes can also assume this task. "The reprogrammed stem cells can form cells of the central nervous system, and the new cells can permanently integrate into this system," says Verdon Taylor of the Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology and Epigenetics.
It is not yet clear, to what extent these basic research findings will contribute to the development of cell therapy for humans. This would require that similar stem cells are present and accessible in the peripheral nervous system of humans, and that these can be propagated and reprogrammed in culture. "At present, we only know that these stem cells in mice also have the potential to produce oligodendrocytes," says Hermann Rohrer. The scientists would now like to investigate in greater detail which molecular mechanisms are responsible for the reprogramming of the stem cells, whether neural crest stem cells also exist in the peripheral nervous system of adult mice and what kind of conditions are required to enable the reprogramming of these cells.
More information: Peripheral nervous system progenitors can be reprogrammed to produce myelinating oligodendrocytes and repair brain lesions, Ellen Binder, Marion Rukavina, Hessameh Hassani, Marlen Weber, Hiroko Nakatani, Tobias Reiff, Carlos Parras, Verdon Taylor, and Hermann Rohrer, Journal of Neuroscience, April 27, 2011, DOI:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0129-11.2011
Provided by Max-Planck-Gesellschaft
Citation: A new program for neural stem cells (2011, May 12) retrieved 17 July 2019 from https://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-05-neural-stem-cells.html


Charaki (Greek: Χαράκι) is about 38km distant from Rhodos and about 20 km from Lindos. Located on the east coast of the island, it is small and quiet fishermen village with superb pebbly beach and fish tavernas and views across to Lindos. The nearby is the medieval fortress of Feraklos was built by the Knights of St John, and was the last stronghold in Rhodes to succumb to the Ottoman Empire. Now it dominates this picturesque setting while at short walk lies the marvelous sandy beach of Agathi with shallow and warm waters.
Haraki is an ideal place for families wishing to spend a relaxed holiday. The pebbly bay is small but not overcrowded and the water is crystal clear. Wild mountain sheep and moufflon inhabit the village's surrounding mountains. Generally, the animals congregate in the castle at dusk and remain there until sunrise. Most inhabitants of Charaki are residents of the nearby agricultural village Malona.
Charaki is about half an hour drive from the airport of Rhodos island, and 15 minutes drive from the town of Lindos.


Are you going to take Occupational English Test (OET)? Are you ready for it? Well, you have got to be prepared for it before you take it because it is going to be not-so-easy test for you. Most of the OET test-takers manage to do well in listening and other sub-tests but not in reading. Yes, it can turn out to be much tougher than you can even think of.
As you know, you will have three parts in this test, so, it is important to divide your time. You will have an hour to complete the test. Time to transfer the answers is also included here. You shall know that Part A will be taken away well within 15 minutes. So, do not just waste your time and try to finish it off as soon as you can. Part B is going to be much more difficult for you. And of course, Part C is going to much tougher than Part B. The difficulty level increases as you move from Part A to Part C.
It shall be said that the OET reading sub-test doesn't require any special set of skills. You are just required to be good at reading and comprehension. If you are able to read and understand well then it is just enough. You will be able to score higher at it.
Often, questions are given in a roundabout manner. You may get questions which may consist of words you may not find in the text given. And of course, when candidates do not find the keywords from the questions anywhere in the text, they get confused and it becomes difficult for them to answer the question. If you encounter such problem, then it is important that you shall try to understand the meaning of words given as keywords in the questions and try to look for words or phrases which are similar to the words or phrases given. Yes, nine times out of ten, a synonym is used in the question to confuse the test-takers.
For questions which asks you to match the statements with one of the four texts, you will have to read the text carefully and you will have to understand what it implies. Do not just jump to the conclusion. Make sure you read the complete text given to you. Of course, if you can skim well then it will be helpful for you and this will save a lot of your time. But, make sure that you do not just cursorily run your eyes on the text. Understand the text too.
Sometimes, the given text might provide you two different ideas or viewpoints. In such cases, you need to focus on which is being talked about more in the text. If you can find this, then your answer is going to be right for sure.
For gap-fill questions, you really do not have to think of a word out of the text given. You can pick the right word from the given text itself. Make sure that you read the text well. You need to be good understanding what is missed.
It is important that you shall not get frustrated. Yes, you will have to learn to stay cool, calm and in control of yourself. If you find difficulty in answering a question, then it really makes sense that you move to the next question. You can always come back to answer that question later which you may leave. But, make sure that you answer all the questions. If you are stuck anywhere and you give more of your time to that particular question, then it will be difficult for you to answer all the questions.