Eggless Vanilla Cupcakes: I'm A Poor Froster Of Cupcakes.
Buttercream frosting is my weakness. Sometimes I'll buy a cupcake just to eat the frosting. This was one of those instances when the lament for frosting was greater than the need for cake baking.
I know I do stupid things like eating chocolate chips out of a bag, but just making a batch of frosting for the sake of licking the bowl clean would just make me a freak of sugar.
So I had to make some cupcakes which could be frosted. Being Indian, and living in India, I often entertain guests who are pure vegetarian and do not consume eggs- even in 'hidden' form like cake, cookies and brownies. And some members of my family observe a pure vegetarian diet on certain days of the week. I tried some eggless baking earlier, which was so-so…didn't turn out so great. So factoring all this in, I knew it was time to learn and practice a new eggless cake recipe.
For great vegetarian recipes and variations, I often turn to Anushruti's blog. I made her eggless chocolate brownies for a friend's daughter's birthday and the whole family loved them. For these cupcakes, I used her eggless vanilla cake recipe, with the only tweak being in one ingredient- the yogurt. The recipe calls for plain, I used vanilla flavoured Danone yogurt because it tastes nice. And I worked with this yogurt in an earlier cake recipe and it turned out well.
The batter, like Anushruti describes, is a little looser than regular cake batter- and so velvety smooth!
I must admit here- I have never frosted a cupcake before. I haven't frosted much anything. I didn't think it would be that hard- since I was doing a home-style cupcake- but boy, was I wrong.
You need to move deftly around the side of the cupcake so that you don't accidentally sever bits off.
I watched this video, where the YumSugar team goes to the famous Magnolia Bakery to learn how to create the signature Magnolia swirl.
I tried mimicking the movements, but my swirls just ended up looking like strange bumpy imperfections, so I took a butter knife and smoothed down the bumps and made an X. Because X marks the spot and all that. And also because it was the only pattern I couldn't screw up. Badly.
Keep a cupcake tray aside, greased or lined with paper liners.
In a medium-sized bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and baking soda well, and sieve everything once.
In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter and Milkmaid until well incorporated, about a couple of minutes.
Add the vanilla yogurt and beat some more.
Pour in the milk and vanilla extract and beat well till everything is combined.
Fold in the dry ingredients and scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula.
Beat everything for a few minutes longer until the mixture is smooth and devoid of lumps and bubbles.
Pour the batter into a cupcake tray lined with paper liners and bake for about an hour at 150C.
I kept checking on mine after 45 minutes!
Beat the butter, sugar and cinnamon in a bowl until you get a smooth frosting which can be spread over your cupcakes. You may have some left over.
Even though the icing looked like it was done by a Gremlin, these tasted pretty nice. The cupcake, as you can see, was very light and airy, but nice and spongy as well- perhaps the condensed milk gives it that bit of elasticity. Very versatile indeed, especially if you can frost like a pro!!
I also photographed the cupcakes atop my latest acquisitions for my bookshelf: David Lebovitz's The Sweet Life In Paris, and The Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking by Marcella Hazan. DL's book is a must-have on any foodie's shelf, and it has been so strongly recommended by other bloggers that I had to add it to my collection of food writing. And Hazan's book is a wonderful repository of Italian food and cooking- from how to tell good Balsamic vinegar from one that is merely ok; to the best way to handle basil and pages and pages of illustrations and authentic Italian recipes. The illustrations are really wonderful; I highly recommend this book if you love Italian cuisine and want to learn more about it.
I was being all amateur and thought that by placing the cupcakes on the books, I may be able to divert some of your attention away from the hideousness of the frosting.
Because on this blog, I like to celebrate the hits and misses!!
Is there anything better than buttercream? I don't think so.
I think not. Buttercream is so warm and fuzzy and yummy. I'd choose it over a ganache frosting anyday!
Looks don't matter; just the taste!
I am glad there are more foodlovers out there who share that opinion. As long as it tastes good, it shall be eaten!
Awwww I can't believe you've never frosted a cupcake! I've been doing it since I was little so I guess I never thought about it, but you did just fine. X does mark the spot. Plus you can hide everything with sprinkles. Yeah!!
Thanks Heather!! Yeah well, I grew up more as a spice-tempering kinda gal and not a cupcake froster. My mother was never big on baking- but she worked well with spices. And I shall keep that in mind-using sprinkles to hide flaws!!
the frosting looks super cool. I am a frosting person too. Same pinch! and you know what!!! I am reading DL's The Sweet Life in Paris too!! how cool is that and enjoying every bit of it as well.
Frosting is the best part! And wouldja believe it- I finished the book only YESTERDAY. I abandoned it in between. Now I must make some of that choux pastry!!
Thanks Prerna! Sorry it took so long to reply- I have just been away for a while.
Not exactly been around myself my friend 🙂 Great to have you back on the circuit. Looking fwd to more from u.
Thanks Prerna! I know how it is…sometimes we just end up going under even though we don't want to!!


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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Hi, I have a CAD account in HK, if I want to transfer money to my TD account what informations do I need to do the transfer? How much is the service fees? I would also like to know how long does it takes for the money to be in my TD account? I have tried it once to do a online wire transfer from my internet banking in HK but they ask me for the clearing code, I would like to know is the clearing code for TD or was it for my bank in HK?
Hello Cindy and welcome to TD Helps. You've reached the TD Bank located in the United States. As your account was opened in Canada, we believe that you are a Customer of TD Canada Trust. Kindly resubmit your inquiry on their TD Helps page here: http://bit.ly/1kD3iFr and they'll be more than happy to assist you from their end. Thanks again for writing in, Cindy. Have a great one!


Marvel has launched a new website for the upcoming Captain Marvel film, and it's easily the best piece of '90s nostalgia on the internet right now. Since the film — which stars actress Brie Larson — takes place in the past, the marketing team at Marvel decided to design the website to coincide with the time period.
Mashable was one of the first publications to take notice of the stellar new website, which is flooded with pixelated colors, games and animated web-art. It's everything you'd expect from a '90s website, complete with a "WHO ARE THE SKRULLS" game. The game shows photos of people on the train — taken from the film's trailer — and visitors have to decide if they are a Skrull or human.
"Shapeshifters who live among us? Posing as grandmothers, small children, or even your friends? How can you tell and what can you do when confronted by this menace? Take the test and PREPARE YOURSELF for the coming events!!!" the game description reads.
The background on the Captain Marvel website is full of stars and features two different animated ships. One belongs to Carol Danvers — as seen in the trailer — and the other appears to be one of her enemies. There's also a great animated clip of Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) playing with a cat, who became famous from its appearance in the film's full-length trailer.
The website also shares a brief synopsis of the movie, which doesn't give too much away. The film's plot is still relatively under wraps.
One of the funniest sections of the website is the digital guestbook, which references Y2K, the dancing baby, and the uselessness of the pound sign — which will later become ubiquitous with the rise of the hashtag.
The old woman, whom Captain Marvel fights in the aforementioned trailer, also pops up from time to time on the website as an additional form of comic relief. The woman is suspected to be a shape-shifting Skrull, and not just a harmless old lady trying to get home.
Captain Marvel hits theaters on March 8. The film stars Brie Larson, Jude Law, Djimon Hounsou, Lee Pace, Samuel L. Jackson, Annette Bening, Gemma Chan, Clark Gregg, Ben Mendelsohn, and Lashana Lynch.


FIND THAT HARD TO REGISTER CLASS AND INCREASE YOUR ODDS OF GRADUATING ON TIME!
Visit Cross Registration Procedures located within the Daemen College website for more information.
Click here to access the Cross Registration Form.


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Update on Gold
Tiho Brkan
From Short Side of Long Blog
I wrote a quick article at the beginning of the month, called Could Gold Surprise Us All? In the article I asked if all of us Precious Metals bears could be wrong and stated that:
Let us be honest here for a second. Almost every Wall Street Strategists has been expecting Gold below $1,100 this year and even below $1,000 next year. Every trade has been positioning for the breakdown below the all important support level of around $1,200 per ounce and gross shorts are currently at very high levels. Every media outlet from Bloomberg to CNBC has been talking about how much of a poor investment Gold has been. Many sentiment surveys, including the Daily Sentiment Index, reached record low levels on the recent decline. Even I have been expecting prices towards a $1,000 physiologically important support level. Could all of us be wrong?
Chart 1: Gold has crated a false break down and reversed powerfully…
Source: Short Side of Long
Well, according to the recent price action the so called "easiest trade in the world", which was shorting Gold as it broke below the eighteen month long $1185 support, has now totally reversed on the bears. My experience is very limited as young man, but usually when the market fails to hold a break in one direction, it tends to trap all of the group think mentality and swings powerfully the other way. We have a technical wedge in place, with a very defined support and resistance levels. The question is, with everyone expecting Gold at $1000 per ounce, can Gold now break out on the upside? Majority will still say no, despite recent price action.
But before you do that, I would like to make one final observation. Just for one second, think about this: policy makers and market participants seems to be obsessed with deflation fears right now. At the same time, since June of this year, US Dollar has gone through the roof. Currencies such as Euro, Yen, Aussie and many others such as Russian Ruble have collapsed. Furthermore, commodities such as Crude Oil have also collapsed by almost 50% in 6 months. The strong Dollar rally is putting pressure on everything, everything apart from Gold. Despite all these deflationary forces, Gold still trades above $1,200 like nothing happened – the same level it traded in June 2013.
If fundamentals are so awful for the yellow metal, ask yourself why isn't it dropping? Maybe because, when it's obvious to the public… its obviously wrong.
Gold Closes at 15-month High in Euro & Foreign Currency Terms
Precious Metals Starting to Show Bullish Signs

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Q: Слияние двух упорядоченных массивов с минимальным количеством перестановок Есть ли какие-нибудь готовые алгоритмы для следующей задачи?
Дано:
Два упорядоченных массива содержащих целые числа. Необходимо слить первый массив во второй при следующих ограничениях:

*

*Второй массив нельзя расширять, он имеет фиксированную длину. В нем могут находиться пустые ячейки в произвольных местах, соответственно количество элементов в первом массиве не больше чем пустых ячеек во втором.

*Сохранять упорядоченность второго массива необходимо на каждом шаге.

*Временно удалять текущие элементы во втором массиве нельзя.

*Необходимо сделать минимальное количество перестановок.

Если есть какие-нибудь идеи рад буду их выслушать.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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Wintery rock and roll – Henrietta Ludgate AW 2011
With fabrics sourced from within the British Isles and all pieces produced locally, Henrietta Ludgate's AW11 womenswear collection represented minimalistic chic with a focus on structured cuts and sculptural drapery.
Henrietta Ludgate AW 2011. Hair and make-up: Camila Tew
The line in reduced colours but with bright accents of blue and pink caters for a self-aware, elegant women that likes to keep her freedom of movement whilst not loosing her classiness. Inspired by ski instructors and woolly mammoths it does not miss out on some rock and roll attitude with rivets on sleeves and tights over high heels.
The designs are sophisticated with an edge. A combination of sharp lines and drapes which follow the contours of the body.
'On launching my own label, my priority was to illustrate a sense of my Scottish heritage.' - Henrietta Ludgate
Henrietta Mackay-Ludgate freelanced as a costume designer, working with companies including Channel 4 and the BBC and for Osman Yousefzada after her graduation from Central Saint Martins School of Art before setting up her own label Henrietta Ludgate.
Henrietta Ludgate Invitation AW 2011 presentation and party
In Autumn 2009, showing for the first time at London Fashion Week, Ludgate was awarded the (EFF) Ethical Fashion Forum's 'Fashion Innovation Award'. Furthermore, this year the Scottish luxury label got nominated for Young Scottish Designer of the Year, become a finalist for British Council's Young Creative Entrepeneur of the Year and was shortlisted for the British Fashion Council's ELLE New Talent Award.
Henrietta Ludgate after party
'When you purchase a piece made by Henrietta Ludgate, you are investing in the Scottish Textile industry, sustaining a way of working that has been in this country through generations.'
'I believe in slow fashion and a minimalist silhouette.' - Henrietta Ludgate
Pictures by Pete Repka
9. März 2011 | by NoéMie


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HomeTexasSuga Free performing at the Dell Diamond in Round Rock, Texas
Suga Free performing at the Dell Diamond in Round Rock, Texas
Suga Free performing at the Dell Diamond in Round Rock, Texas on December 2, 2018.
Suga Free is a popular American rapper. Noted for his rapid-fire-yet-conversational style, his rapping is unique and distinct. What is interesting to note is that it touches all aspects – be it humour, ignorance or even drama. It is for this that Suga Free is often called the rhythmic wizard in the world of music. Suga Free broke into the scene in 1997 with his debut album 'Street Gospel' and since then has had quite a many hits to his credit.
His debut album is considered by many hip-hop giants to be one of the finest records of all time. In terms of pure rapping skills, Suga Free has earned its place in hip-hop history. His influence runs deeper than anyone can ever imagine. Suga Free's collection of songs is a classic and his discography boasts of being full of strong and diverse music.
Suga Free shared the stage with Snoop Dogg, Too Short, Warren G, Tha Eastsidaz, Baby Bash, Spice 1, and Afroman at the Puff Puff Pass Tour at the Dell Diamond. The tour continues across the United States with the last stop at the State Farm Arena in Atlanta, Georgia on January 5, 2019.


In a saucepan, heat oil. Add onion and garlic and saute until nearly caramelized.
Reduce heat and stir rice until evenly coated.
Add vegetable broth slowly in small batches. About 1/4 cup at a time, and make sure it is all absorbed before adding the next batch until rice is tender.
Stir in the pesto, tomatoes, salt & pepper.


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Upper Brookfield
Upper Brookfield – 4069
Upper Brookfield Latest
Queensland's fastest-growing suburbs
Almost half of all Queenslanders live in Brisbane, but these areas…Read More
Upper Brookfield Photo Album
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Kholo is a rural locality at the far west of the Brisbane City Council's…
Lake Manchester
Lake Manchester is an outer suburb located 30 kilometres west of the CBD next…
Moggill
Moggill is 19km south west of Brisbane CBD, and pronunciation should not be…
Pullenvale
Pullenvale is named after early settler, Michael Pullen who in 1852 is said to…
Upper Brookfield, named after the neighbouring suburb Brookfield, is an outer…


This dazzling beauty has stolen everyone's heart right from the time when she was crowned as Miss Asia Pacific in 2000. Her enigmatic personality and charming looks have made her the buzz of every event and party in Bollywood. We have seen her right from 2000 to 2016, and she has aged exceptionally well. Every girl would love to know her skincare and workout secrets.
That is exactly why we have brought you this post, featuring the best tips from the ever-gorgeous Dia Mirza.
For her fitness, Dia follows a very simple diet plan with small, frequent meals throughout the day. She has always stressed on how she keeps herself hydrated throughout the day. She keeps her carbs, sugar and fat low. She does not believe in starving herself and suggests that a diet with less sugar and fat is recommended. She is a huge fan of fresh fruits/juices. She does not prefer too much spice and oil in her food.
Her day starts with a glass of warm water with lemon, carrot or tomato juice to detox herself. This is followed by two apricots and eight raisins soaked in water overnight. She believes that breakfast should be the biggest meal of the day. So, her breakfast includes a bowl of cereal/porridge with a slice of multigrain toast and a glass of fresh fruit juice.
A plate full of fresh fruits is her mid-morning snack.
She eats a bowl of dal, a bowl of vegetables with two multigrain chapatis or one bowl dalia or one bowl khichdi. But, if she is busy shooting, she prefers south Indian food, preferably idli with coconut chutney.
Her dinner is light and comprises of a big bowl of salad and soup with one bajra/jawar/ragi chapati. Post dinner, she sips on her green tea to boost metabolism.
For evening snacking, she likes a glass full of fresh fruit juice or a cup of green tea.
Dia believes that the secret to pursuing a workout routine is to find the one that stimulates you. So, she alternates her routines. She suggests that it is the best way to hold interest in a good workout. Dia starts her workout with a 45-minute warm-up on the treadmill, followed by some weight training. Like most of the celebrities, she is also into functional training and cross-fit exercises. She also does kick-boxing. She also practices yoga every day to cool down and relax her body. She focuses on her abs twice a week. With a hectic schedule and travelling involved, her career demands her to have an alternate plan for workout. When she is travelling, she does an hour of swimming, followed by an hour of dance to stay in shape. We think it is a very simple and fun way to stay fit!
With her clear porcelain skin, every girl is dying to know her skin care secrets! She is a huge fan of Body Shop and the natural ingredients found in it. For her skincare routine of cleansing, toning and moisturising, she relies religiously on a French cosmetic brand called Uriage (Buy Here).
She takes extra care that she sleeps with a clean face, without any traces of makeup. Dia always uses a sunscreen when she steps out, and prefer Vichy Capital Soleil with SPF 50 (Buy Here). As she has combination skin, she makes special efforts to avoid acne in her T-zone.
Dia believes in minimal makeup. She strictly stays away from using thick pancake foundations, and keeps her foundation to a light/medium coverage. She swears by a light coverage of Extra Virgin Minerals cream compact foundation or M.A.C Studio Fix foundation. She always prefer using Makeup Forever highlighter to accentuate her cheekbones. She uses a Bobbi Brown eyeliner (Buy Here) for her beautiful eyes and gloss from the same brand for the lips. Dia does not use any harsh chemicals on her hair, and it shows in her lustrous locks! She goes for regular deep-conditioning and trimming to keep her hair healthy.
Steal these fitness and beauty secrets of the very gorgeous Dia Mirza to look impeccable every day, just like her.


Take Dickinson Ave. exit before Hwy 3.
Turn left under bridge heading south.
Turn right on Hwy 3 heading south.
Turn left on Olive St. heading east.
Turn left on Dickinson Ave. heading north.
Entrance will be on the right.


Discover the Pyrenees; walk in Aran Valley, hike Aneto range, enjoy Ordesa & Néouvielle National Parks, and tramp the GR-10 & GR-11. Mix nature with comfort, mix wine with adventure.
We have designed this trip thinking about not very active customers, looking more for cultural and gastronomic aspects, as well as lovers of an easy going concept.
This is an excellent way to enjoy the valleys, forests and mountains of the Basque Country. After the hikes, some cycling and water activities, the outstanding local gastronomy will be waiting for us.
Be ready to join the three Basque capitals with a millenary route connecting the region where the wine grows, to the place where the fish refresh.
The old kingdom of Navarre will be under our feet. Starting at the French Basque Country, where they have a special care to preserve the beauty of the local architecture, we will cross the border as smugglers from previous times.
We offer a route from the north to the very south of this beautiful region full of energy and deep roots.
Probably the best way to discover the north of Spain. The trip starts in the Pyrenees surrounded by mountains and deep forests, y to continue looking south west towards the well known Rioja wineries where Romans developed the art of making wine.
This is a very comfortable option for customers who enjoy nature´s beauty and expression. A wide range of hikes along the coast with landscapes covered by "txakoli" vineyards, and inland ones full of horses, cows and sheep.
The ocean will be our best partner along this trip. To become a pilgrim while the breeze and the harmony of the different villages walk with us is very possible and recommended.
A coastal route, excellent gastronomy, good reception and the feeling of being Basque are the highlights of this trip. The beauty of San Sebastian and the immersion with locals is the starting point for this authentic route.
Maybe the great trip we offer from Basquelands Way, mixing a hiking experience in the Pyrenees, with a cycling route along the Way of Saint James.
We offer a trip over the very western Pyrenees and the values of its villages´ tradition. Villages full of history and a warm reception.
A pleasure for the senses. Great hotels based on a customer looking for beauty and accurate results.
The chance to participate in a very nice round trek around the Pyrenees, jumping from one side of the border to another without taking care of political "mugas" borders, and enjoying the harmony of the landscape.
This is a great opportunity to admire one of the most impressive landscapes of the Pyrenees.
A great satisfaction. A beautiful adventure around the highest and most impressive mountain range of the Pyrenees.
The base camp will be at Aran Valley, with the idea of hiking around its various scenarios. A valley located between France and Catalonia, with its own language and identity.
This is the best way to discover the Pyrenees, and it´s culture, traditions, geography, nature … We will walk to join the Mediterranean Sea with the Atlantic Ocean, crossing the border between Spain and France as we may need it.
Active, Exclusive & Natural handcrafted trips in Northern Spain; The Basque Country, The Pyrenees, and Saint James´ Trail.


All junior high students will take health and physical education, excluding those on a doctor's release from physical activity. Below is a summary of the courses offered and the grade levels to which they are offered.
Junior high students who master the state adopted competencies and pass language arts, social studies, science, and mathematics will be promoted to the next grade. Students who fail any of the required courses, which are considered essential to their general education background, may be required to repeat the grad in which they are presently enrolled.


• Singapore's men's and women's teams have qualified for the Asia Rugby Sevens Series 2016, after finishing the year as one of the top seven teams overall.
At the final leg in Sri Lanka last week, the men beat SEA Games gold medallists Philippines en route to finishing joint-eighth, while the women claimed the hosts' scalp to place joint-seventh.
ZURICH • Fifa banned former top South African official Lindile Kika for six years yesterday, for his role in a major match-fixing scandal involving Asian betting syndicates before South Africa hosted the 2010 World Cup.
Kika, the former South Africa Football Association director of national teams, was one of five officials named in a Fifa report on match-fixing.
SHANGHAI • National Basketball Association commissioner Adam Silver said unearthing the next Yao Ming should not be left to chance as the US league pushes efforts to develop Chinese stars.
The Houston Rockets giant set off an NBA boom in China.
"It doesn't have to be left to fairy dust," Silver said. "It's going to come from organised, structured programmes."


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Home News Gibraltar Cadet Force at Trooping the Colour
Gibraltar Cadet Force at Trooping the Colour
Victoria Locke
A group of four Cadets from the Gibraltar Cadet Force, accompanied by an adult instructor, were treated to a once in a lifetime events-filled weekend in London over the Queen's Birthday bank Holiday weekend.
The four Cadets were chosen by the adult volunteer instructors as a reward for their performance, attendance record, and behaviour over the past year, and as an incentive for those who were unsuccessful to work harder in order to be nominated for future trips.
The group departed Gibraltar last Thursday and that evening attended the Beating Retreat by the massed bands of the Household Division on Horse Guards Parade, in the presence of His Royal Highness Prince Andrew, The Duke of York. Also taking part was an Army Cadet Force Band who performed alone and alongside their adult counterparts and were a delight to watch. A group of 30 cadets from Cadet Force Music will be in Gibraltar next month and will be playing at various venues during their week-long stay.
On Friday, the group were hosted by the Welsh Guards at Wellington Barracks where they were fortunate to see the behind-the-scenes inspection of the Queen's Guard furnished by the Irish Guards and the band, prior to them taking up their duties at Buckingham Palace. Later the Cadets were allowed to try on the world famous Bear Skins and scarlet tunics.
Later that day the group was treated to a tour of the Palace of Westminster, but not before bumping into Her Majesty the Queen as she drove past to attend one of her engagements, an unplanned bonus.
As parliament was not sitting, the group were given a detailed tour which included visiting the Commons and Lord's chambers as well as the Robing Room. It was an interesting insight into the workings of the Mother of Parliaments.
But the highlight of the visit was on Saturday as the four cadets in their suits and wearing the Regiment's Regimental tie were treated to a front-line view of the Queen's Birthday Parade on Horse Guards Parade. A display of spotless drill, immaculate turn out as only the Guards can perform.
The group met up with one of our other adult volunteer instructors, Mrs Christine Haveland, who was also attending the parade as her brother, Cpl James Ballentine from the Household Division Mounted band was taking part in the parade. After the parade, the group made their way down the Mall for the traditional balcony appearance by the Royal family at Buckingham Palace and RAF fly past.
Sunday saw a trip to the Imperial War Museum before heading off to Gatwick for the flight back home, after an unforgettable trip.
The Gibraltar Cadet Force would like to thank the following for having made the trip possible:
Mr Dominque Searle and staff at the Gibraltar Government London Office
Mr Mike Gaskill from the Deputy Speakers Office, for giving an interesting and detailed tour of Westminster.
WO2 R Burton, Bandmaster The Royal Gibraltar Regiment
WO2 K Bailey, Band Sergeant Major, Band of the Welsh Guards
L/Sgt S Laing from Welsh Guards Regimental Headquarters for hosting us at Wellington Bks
Cpl J Ballentine, from the House Hold Division Mounted Band
The Gibraltar Cadets were:
Cadet/Sgt Mike Jeffries (Governor's Cadet)
Cadet L/Cpl Taylor Porro
Cadet L/Cpl Kayron Caruana
Cadet Travis Plata
They were accompanied by Dominic Collado (Cadets OC)
Gibraltar Cadet Force
Queen's Birthday Parade
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TAHINI FUDGE – Portable snacks that fit in a skin-beautifying diet
The Gibraltar Magazine - June 1, 2017 0
INGREDIENTS ½ cup tahini ½ cup unsweetened shredded coconut ¼ cup maple syrup 2 tbsps melted coconut oil ½ teaspoon cinnamon ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract pinch of salt DIRECTIONS Add all ingredients to...
Bake our vegan Christmas wreath with spinach, pine nuts, and tofu as a centrepiece for Christmas Day. Adorn with festive cranberries and dill. INGREDIENTS 250g spinach 250g...
APRIL 2018 – What's on?
The Gibraltar Magazine - April 1, 2018 0
WORKS AT NOTRE DAME SCHOOL
On 26 October, HM Government of Gibraltar set out its plans for new schools in Gibraltar and it can confirm that ground has already...


Good manners get you better service.
My child's manners are fine--as long as we only eat at "Chuck E. Cheese"!
When did surfers start behaving like hockey players?
Hosiery is like make-up for your legs.
After work relationships can be fun and tricky. Even more so when you are the only female/male in the group.
Playing billiards requires social skills and manners.
Trends, some remain and are embraced by society; while others are awkward.
The most recent wedding gift trend of requesting "gimme da money" instead of a gift is becoming more common. Have you seen"Monetary gifts are appreciated" on the invitation. Is requesting money appropriate?


Guangzhou Fei Gallery is galler一that concerned about the youth work of art ,art exhibitions are organized regularly. We have held "Labor and poetic," "Sculpture, Guangzhou cards" and other large-scale art exhibitions.
The purpose of Fei Gallery is to be the portal to connect art to our everyday life, and to open a door of art for the ordinary people. Art should not be so mysterious as to be unreachable. People is believed to has innate ability to recognize and appreciate beauty, and that is all that required to communicate and connect with art.
The Chinese word "Fei" means "door".It means our intent to open the door of art for the public.
Art comes from life,and it should not be superior. Words for daughter is certainly a master of arts, commoner elite scene are also can be masterpieces. As Venus, the author who is not known, but their irresistible beauty for centuries, from the Emperor down to Lebanon's, are seen as treasures.
Life needs beauty, we hope ordinary people can enjoy beauty. We have famous works from virtuosos as well as some artists who are on the rise . They have a strict dedication of the creative attitude, unique style and has been recognized by the market and artistic peers. Their market prices are not unattainable, but the works fine with caution, and worth collecting.
Swiss Chinese artist Chen Xing Sylvie and three Swiss artists: Ursula Berger, Regina Graber, Aliza Eva Berger, a famous show host in Guangzhou Chen SIR, the famous dancer Yunna, Guangzhou Sculpture Academy Xu Hongfei, etc. with friends to bing a new look to the Guangzhou contemporary art (zeitgenösische Kunst) .
This exhibition not only contain Sylvie's individual works,but also contain his six years achievements cooperated with many artists from Europe, including rock painting, calligraphy, poetry, photography, installation, VIDEO, dance, dramatic, etc.. It will give the Guangzhou public exhibition of contemporary art's unique charm. let's look forward to this exhibition.


text:
Grupo Lumen de Comunicação (também nomeado Lumen Comunicação) foi um conglomerado de mídia, subsidiária do Grupo Marista. Fundada em 1994, possuía sede em Curitiba, capital do estado do Paraná, e administrava estações de rádio e uma emissora de televisão concessionadas pelas Fundações Nossa Senhora do Rocio e Champagnat, além de atuar nas áreas de produção audiovisual, produção cultural e mídias customizadas.

Emissoras
Todos os empreendimentos de comunicação foram absorvidos pela Rede Evangelizar de Comunicação, iniciando pela Rádio Paraná em 2007 (que virou Rádio Evangelizar) até 2019, com a aquisição da Clube FM.

Clube FM (Vendida para a Rede Evangelizar de comunicação  )
 TV Lumen
 Lumen FM
 Rádio Clube B2
 Rádio Paraná
 Lumen Clássica — webrádio voltada para a música clássica

Ligações externas

Lumen
Empresas de comunicação do Brasil
Empresas fundadas em 1994

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Double-walled two section horizontal tanks with a capacity of 5-100 m3 are designed for storage of refined oil with density n/e 0,86 t/m3.
Inner wall thickness – 5 mm, outer wall thickness – 4mm.
Operation pressure of inter-wall space (casing) n/e 0,02 MPa.
The tank is designed for use in moderate climate conditions in temperature range of -40 to 45 C, climatic performance for moderate climate "U", deployment category 1 according to GOST 15150-69.


To produce an easily understandable, source text-orientated Afrikaans translation of the Bible which is suitable for public reading and use in church services, as well as for catechism studies, Bible study and privately.
This translation will be published as Die Bybel: 'n Direkte Vertaling (The Bible: a direct translation). The abbreviation used is BDV.
The translation brief makes it clear that the translation must be a faithful rendering of the meaning of the source texts, as well as of their style and structure. It must be of high literary standard and in good Afrikaans.
About 140 people are involved with the translation project, including exegetes, source-text experts, Afrikaans linguists and literary experts.
The project comprises five phases: The complete Bible as well as the Deuterocanonical books are completed up to and including phase three. Approximately 92% of phase four has also been completed. The manuscript will be handed over to the Bible Society in June 2019 with the view of publication by the end of 2020.
The translation has its own website at www.bybeldirektevertaling.co.za where a number books of the Bible are available for comment.
This translation will address a very specific need, namely for a Bible translation that is more strongly aligned to the source texts (that is to say the Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek) than the existing translations.
Many believers will receive a Bible that is as close to the source texts as possible, yet still easily understandable.
R1 663 482 is needed to continue with this project in 2019.


text:
\section{INTRODUCTION}
Low-cost Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) are used for most mobile applications, with localization error of several meters. The limited accuracy of the low-cost GNSS is mainly due to the atmospheric error, referred to as the common error, as well as receiver noise and multipath error, referred to as the non-common error. Various techniques have been used to reduce GNSS localization error such as precise point positioning (PPP) \cite{PPP}, real time kinematics (RTK) \cite{RTK} and sensor fusion \cite{fusion}. Nonetheless, improving the localization accuracy of the widespread GNSS without incurring additional hardware and infrastructure costs has motivated recent research activities on cooperative GNSS localization \cite{CL_GNSS} and cooperative map matching (CMM) \cite{rohani2016novel}, \cite{shen2017improving}, \cite{shen2016enhancement}. \\
\indent CMM improves the GNSS localization accuracy by matching the GNSS positioning of a group of connected vehicles to a digital map.  With the reasonable assumption that vehicles should travel on the roads, the road constraints can be applied to correct the GNSS positioning. CMM is much more powerful in exploiting the road constraints than ego-localization with map matching.
\begin{figure}[htbp]
  \centering
  \includegraphics[width=0.75\columnwidth]{Illustration_of_CMM.png}
  \caption{Illustration of the positioning correction through CMM}
  \label{illustration}
\end{figure}

\indent Fig. \ref{illustration} illustrates how error-corrupted GNSS information is corrected through a naive CMM approach. The GNSS solutions, denoted as red dots, of all the three vehicles are biased away from their true positions, while the biases are highly correlated. Virtual constraints from the red and the blue vehicle are applied to restrict the positioning of the green vehicle. The underlying assumption for the application of the virtual constraints is that the GNSS positioning biases of the three vehicles are the same. This example manifests the effect of road constraints on the CMM localization. \\
\indent The limited bandwidth of the Dedicated Short Range Communication (DSRC)-based connected vehicle network imposes an upper limit on the maximal number of connected vehicles to avoid frequent package loss  \cite{ramachandran2007experimental}, but typically the number of vehicles within the communication range is more than the upper limit. This limitation motivates the development of an optimization scheme that selects $M$ vehicles with optimal road constraints that minimizes CMM localization error, where $M$ is the maximal number of connected vehicles. To achieve this goal, it is necessary to quantify the effect of road constraints on the CMM localization error. This is, nevertheless, not easily achievable as the algorithms that implement CMM are usually sophisticated, and there is no analytic expression relating the localization error with the road constraints for these algorithms.\\
\indent Recently, two different CMM algorithms have been developed for GNSS common error estimation problem, i.e., a non-Bayesian particle-based approach in Rohani et. al. \cite{rohani2016novel} and a Bayesian approach based on a Rao-Blackwellized Particle Filter in our previous work \cite{shen2017improving}, \cite{shen2016enhancement}. One common feature of these two CMM algorithms is that the probabilistic property of the GNSS error is utilized. This increases the localization accuracy and robustness, but also leads to complicated mapping between the localization error and the road constraints, which makes the analysis of the effects of road constraints rather difficult.\\
\indent In our previous work \cite{shen2016impact}, the correlation between the localization error and the road constraints is quantified analytically. More specifically, a closed-form expression of the estimated localization error in terms of the road angles as well as the GNSS error is derived based on a simple CMM rule that neglects the probabilistic property of the GNSS error as well as historical GNSS measurements. As a result of these simplifications, this closed-form expression is not sufficient to accurately predict the localization error of the particle filter based CMM algorithm. Nonetheless, it can be used to select the optimal set of connected vehicles, on which the CMM error is expected to be minimized with the particle filter based CMM algorithm. In this work, two algorithms are developed to optimize the connected vehicle selection such that the closed-form expression of the estimated localization error is minimized. These results provide a guideline for the implementation of CMM.\\
\indent In the following sections, details about the derivation of the CMM localization error and the optimization algorithms are presented. In Section 2, the notions in CMM are introduced. Then a simple CMM rule is applied to derive an analytic expression of the localization error. Based on this error formula, in Section 3, two algorithms are presented to minimize the localization error through the optimal selection of connected vehicles. A Branch and Bound (B\&B) \cite{clausen1999branch} searching algorithm is developed in the case that all the vehicles have the same non-common GNSS error variance. A Cross Entropy (CE) method \cite{botev2013cross} combined with a heuristic pre-selection step is developed in the case that vehicles have different non-common GNSS error variances. In Section 4, the contributions and conclusions are summarized.
\section{CMM localization error}
In this section, we propose a framework of vehicle positioning within a reference road framework to facilitate the analytic investigation.\\
\indent The following assumptions are essential in the derivation:
\begin{enumerate}
 \item The GNSS common error is the same for all the connected vehicles within the vehicular network.
 \item The road side can be locally approximated as a straight line.
 \item The GNSS non-common error is small enough such that the exact expression for the estimation error can be approximated by its first order linearization with respect to the non-common error.
 \item The GNSS non-common error is a random variable that obeys the Gaussian distribution.\\
 \end{enumerate}
 \indent The first assumption is reasonably accurate as long as the connected vehicles are geographically close to each other, for example, within several miles. The second and the third assumptions are made for mathematical convenience. If they are violated, however, the exact expression of the estimation error will still be valid but the asymptotic approximation will be inaccurate. The last assumption has been experimentally verified in \cite{shen2017improving} under open sky conditions.

\begin{figure}[htbp]
  \centering
  \includegraphics[width=0.8\columnwidth]{CMM_Notation.png}
  \caption{Illustration of the notations used in CMM}
  \label{notation}
\end{figure}
\indent Consider a network of connected vehicles, the coordinate of GNSS positioning of the $i$-th vehicle can be decomposed into a superposition of the coordinate of a point on the corresponding lane center, the deviation of the vehicle from the lane center, the common error and the non-common error as illustrated in Fig. \ref{notation}. The grayscale image of the vehicle represents the GNSS positioning. This decomposition can be expressed mathematically as
\begin{equation}
x^G_i=x^L_i+x^D_i+x^C+x^N_i, i=1,2,...,N,
\end{equation}
where $x^G_i$ is the GNSS positioning of the $i$-th vehicle, $x^L_i$ is the closest point on the center of the lane from the vehicle, $x^D_i$ is the deviation of the vehicle coordinates from $x^L_i$, $x^C$ is the GNSS common error, $x^N_i$ is the GNSS non-common error.\\
\indent The fact that all the vehicles travel on the roads can be expressed as a set of inequalities
\begin{equation}
g_i(x^G_i-x^C-x^N_i)<0.
\label{eq2}
\end{equation}
\indent Applying the second assumption, the constraint functions $g_i$ have simple analytic forms
\begin{equation}
g_i(x)=(x-x^L_i)\cdot n_i-w,
\end{equation}
where $\{\cdot\}$ is the dot product operator, $n_i$ is the unit vector normal to the lane center point towards outside of the road and $w$ is the half width of the lane. \\
\indent Eq. (\ref{eq2}) can be interpreted as the feasible set of the common error given the GNSS positioning and the non-common error. The non-common error is unknown, however, to the implementation of CMM. Thus, the following approximation of the feasible set by neglecting the non-common error is used instead of the exact feasible set,
\begin{equation}
\begin{aligned}
\Omega &=\{\tau|\bigcap\limits_{i=1}^{N}g_i(x^G_i-\tau)<0\}\\
&=\{\tau|\bigcap\limits_{i=1}^{N}g_i(x^L_i+x^C+\tilde{x}^N_i-\tau)<0\}\\
&=\{\tau|\bigcap\limits_{i=1}^{N}\tilde{g}_i(x^C+\tilde{x}^N_i-\tau)<0\},
\end{aligned}
\end{equation}
where
\begin{equation}
\tilde{x}^N_i \triangleq x^D_i+x^N_i
\end{equation}
and
\begin{equation}
\tilde{g}_i(x)\triangleq g_i(x+x^L_i)=x\cdot n_i-w.
\end{equation}
A point estimator of the common error is taken as the average over the approximate feasible set $\Omega$,
\begin{equation}
\hat{x}^C=\frac{1}{S}\int\limits_\Omega \tau dA, S=\int\limits_\Omega dA,
\end{equation}
where $\tau$ is the dummy integration variable and $dA$ is the area element.\\
\indent The estimation error, that is the difference between the true common error and the estimated common error, is of practical interest, which can be evaluated,
\begin{equation}
\begin{aligned}
e&=x^C-\hat{x}^C=x^C-\frac{1}{S}\int\limits_\Omega \tau dA\\
&=\frac{1}{S}\int\limits_\Omega (x^C-\tau) dA=\frac{1}{S}\int\limits_{\Omega'} \tau' dA,
\end{aligned}
\label{eq8}
\end{equation}
where
\begin{equation}
\tau'=x^C-\tau,
\end{equation}
and
\begin{equation}
\Omega'=\{\tau'|\bigcap\limits_{i=1}^{N}\tilde{g}_i(\tilde{x}^N_i+\tau')<0\}.
\label{eq10}
\end{equation}
\indent Eq. (\ref{eq8}) and (\ref{eq10}) states that the estimation error equals to the geometric center of the intersection of the road constraints perturbed by the composite non-common error $\tilde{x}^N_i$. \\
\indent Eq. (\ref{eq8}) is a random variable as a nonlinear function of the non-common error. The third assumption implies that (\ref{eq8}) can be linearized with respect to the non-common error:
\begin{equation}
e=e_0+\Delta e=e_0+\frac{C\tilde{X}}{S_0},
\label{eq11}
\end{equation}
where
\begin{equation}
e_0=\frac{1}{S_0}\int\limits_{\Omega_0} \tau' dA,
\end{equation}
\begin{equation}
\Omega_0=\{\tau'|\bigcap\limits_{i=1}^{N}\tilde{g}_i(\tau')<0\},
\end{equation}
\begin{equation}
\tilde{X}=[\tilde{x}^N_1\cdot n_1,\tilde{x}^N_2\cdot n_2,...,\tilde{x}^N_N\cdot n_N]^T,
\end{equation}
and
\begin{equation}
C=S_0\frac{\partial e}{\partial \tilde{X}}.
\end{equation}
$C$ is a $2\times N$ matrix whose components are related to the geometric quantities of the road constraints.\\
\indent The condition under which the linearization (\ref{eq11}) is valid is
\begin{equation}
||\tilde{X}||_\infty\ll\frac{2\pi w}{N},
\end{equation}
where $w$ is the half width of the lane.\\
\indent With the fourth assumption that each non-common error obeys independent Gaussian distribution with zero mean, i.e., $\tilde{X}\sim \mathcal{N}(0_{N\times 1}, diag(\sigma^2_1,\sigma^2_2,...,\sigma^2_N))$, the expectation of the square error is
\begin{equation}
E_X[e^2]=e^2_0+\frac{1}{S^2_0}tr(L^TC^TCL),
\label{eq17}
\end{equation}
where $L=diag(\sigma_1,\sigma_2,...,\sigma_N)$ is the Cholesky decomposition of the joint covariance matrix.\\
\section{Optimizing the selection of vehicles for minimal localization error}
In practice, the maximal number of connected vehicles implementing CMM is limited by the finite communication bandwidth. One interesting problem of practical importance is to optimally select a group of $M(M \le N)$ vehicles out of the total $N$ available connected vehicles to implement CMM. This optimization problem can be stated as determining the indices $j_1,j_2,...,j_M$ such that the corresponding road angles $\theta_{j_1},\theta_{j_2},...,\theta_{j_M}$ and the non-common error variances $\sigma^2_{j_1},\sigma^2_{j_2},...,\sigma^2_{j_M}$ minimize the mean square error (\ref{eq17}) as an objective function.\\
\indent This optimization problem is combinatorial. A B\&B searching algorithm is developed to efficiently find the optimal solution when all the vehicles have the same non-common error variance. When the vehicles have different non-common error variances, it will be proved that the part of the localization error that does not depend on the non-common error would be minimized if the road angles obey a uniform distribution. Motivated by this optimality of the uniform distribution, a CE method with a heuristic pre-selection step is developed to find a near optimal solution efficiently. The performances of those optimization algorithms are illustrated on synthetic data.
\subsection{The B\&B algorithm}
In the case that all the non-common error variances have the same value, i.e., $\sigma^2_1=\sigma^2_2=...=\sigma^2_N=\sigma^2$, the objective function (\ref{eq17}) is a function of the road angles only. It is straightforward to verify that the corresponding continuous optimization problem has one global minimizer
\begin{equation}
\theta^T_{opt}=[0,\frac{2\pi}{M},\frac{4\pi}{M},...,\frac{2\pi(M-1)}{M}].
\end{equation}
\indent It should be noted that this is not the solution to the connected vehicle selection problem as the actual road angles cannot happen to be the components of $\theta^T_{opt}$. Nevertheless, this global minimizer can be used to derive the bound function which is an indispensable part of the B\&B method, described as follows.\\
\indent The objective function (17) can be approximated by its truncated Taylor expansion as
\begin{equation}
J(\theta)=E_X[e^2]\approx J_0+\frac{1}{2}\Delta\theta^T H\Delta\theta,
\label{eq19}
\end{equation}
where $J_0=J(\theta_{opt})$ is the minimum of the continuous problem, $H$ is the Hessian at the minimum and $\Delta\theta$ is the deviation from $\theta_{opt}$.\\
\indent The B\&B algorithm solves the combinatorial optimization problem by searching the solution space represented as an enumeration tree. A bound function is used to estimate the lower bound of the objective function values of the subtree rooted at the active node and prune the branches that are guaranteed not to lead to the minimum.\\
\indent The bound function for the vehicle selection problem is obtained by minimizing the continuous relaxation of (\ref{eq19}) subject to equality constraints, where the equality constraints come from all the ancestors of the currently active node. This constrained minimization is equivalent to a non-constrained minimization of a quadratic function defined on $\mathbb{R}^{M^*}$, where $M^*<M$, which can be efficiently solved.\\
\begin{figure}[htbp]
  \centering
  \includegraphics[width=1\columnwidth]{CPU_time_ratio.eps}
  \caption{Ratio between the average CPU time of the B\&B algorithm and that of the brute-force searching}
  \label{B&B}
\end{figure}
\indent As the B\&B method is guaranteed to find the optimal solution. The performance of this method is evaluated by the computational complexity compared with that of the brute-force searching. Fig. \ref{B&B} shows the ratio between the average CPU time of the B\&B method over 100 simulations and that of the brute-force searching. Instead of actually running the simulation for the brute-force searching, which can be computationally prohibitive, the computation time is estimated by the product of the average computation time for each objective function evaluation and the required number of evaluation. \\
\indent As the number of feasible solutions increases dramatically with the increase of $N$ and $M$, the B\&B method saves more computation time. For $N=100$ and $M=10$, the number of feasible solutions is $C^{10}_{100}=1.73\times 10^{13}$, while the average computation time using the B\&B method is only 0.5 s on MATLAB 2016a with an Intel i-7 6500U processor. Instead of evaluating the objective function for every possible combination, the B\&B method only did $O(10^4)$ evaluations on average, owing to the use of the bound function.
\subsection{Optimality of the uniform distribution}
In this section, a related problem will be considered, which serves as the foundation of a CE algorithm that solves the vehicle selection problem when the non-common error variances are different. Consider the road angles as random variables drawn from some distribution, the square error (\ref{eq17}) becomes a random variable as a function of the road angles as well as the non-common error variances. It will be proved that in the limit that the number of vehicles goes to infinity, the expectation of the geometric error $e^2_0$ is minimized if the angles of the roads on which the vehicles travel obey a uniform distribution. \\
\indent Considering an arbitrary continuous distribution of the road angle $p(\theta),\theta\in[0,2\pi)$, the periodic condition should be satisfied,
\begin{equation}
p(0)=p(2\pi^-),
\end{equation}
as $\theta=0$ and $\theta=2\pi$ represent the same angle.\\
\indent This periodicity motivates the following Fourier series expansion,
\begin{equation}
p(\theta)=\frac{1}{2\pi}+\sum_{m\in Z^*}C_mexp(im\theta),
\end{equation}
with
\begin{equation}
C_m=C^*_{-m},
\end{equation}
where the integer $m$ is the summation index, the asterisk denotes the complex conjugate and $i=\sqrt{-1}$ is the imaginary unit. The constant $\frac{1}{2\pi}$ ensures that the normalization condition is satisfied.\\
\indent In the limit that $N \xrightarrow{} \infty$, the leading order term of the localization error $e^2_0$ due to deviation of the geometric center can be approximated as
\begin{equation}
e^2_0=\frac{4w^2}{9}\frac{\sum_{i=1}^N \tan^2(\frac{\tilde{\theta_i}}{2})}{\pi^2} \approx \frac{w^2}{9}\frac{\sum_{i=1}^N \tilde{\theta_i}^2}{\pi^2},
\label{eq23}
\end{equation}
where $\tilde{\theta_i}$ is the difference between two adjacent angles $\theta_{i+1}$ and $\theta_i$
\begin{equation}
\tilde{\theta_i}=\begin{cases}
\theta_{i+1}-\theta_i & \text{for }i=1,2,...,N-1\\
\theta_1-\theta_N+2\pi & \text{for }i=N\\
\end{cases}
\end{equation}
\indent In order to derive the expectation of $e^2_0$, the distribution of $\tilde{\theta_i}$ denoted as $f(\tilde{\theta_i};N,p(\theta_i))$ will be considered first. $f(\tilde{\theta_i};N,p(\theta_i))$ is a nearest neighbor distribution, which satisfies the integral equation,
\begin{equation}
f(\tilde{\theta_i})=2Np(\theta_i)(1-\int^{\tilde{\theta_i}}_0f(\tau)d\tau),
\label{eq25}
\end{equation}
where the dependence on the parameters $N$ and $p(\theta_i)$ will be omitted hereafter.\\
\indent Together with the normalization condition, the solution to (\ref{eq25}) is
\begin{equation}
f(\tilde{\theta_i})=2Np(\theta_i)exp(-2Np(\theta_i)\tilde{\theta_i}).
\end{equation}
\indent The number of vehicles $N$ and the local density of the road angles $p(\theta_i)$ appear as parameters in the distribution. As the product $Np(\theta_i)$ increases, the angles distributed around $\theta_i$ become dense, thus increasing the probability of small differential angle $\tilde{\theta_i}$. The expectation of $\tilde{\theta_i}^2$ is
\begin{equation}
E[\tilde{\theta_i}^2]=\int^\infty_0 \tilde{\theta_i}^2 f(\tilde{\theta_i}) d\tilde{\theta_i}=\frac{1}{2N^2p^2(\theta_i)}.
\label{eq27}
\end{equation}
\indent Combining (\ref{eq23}) and (\ref{eq27}), the expectation of $e^2_0$ can be derived as follows,
\begin{equation}
E_{\theta}[e^2_0]=\frac{w^2}{9\pi^2}\sum ^N_{i=1} E[\tilde{\theta_i}^2]=\frac{w^2}{36N\pi^2}\sum^N_{i=1}\frac{1}{p^2(\theta_i)}\frac{2\pi}{N}.
\label{eq28}
\end{equation}
\indent The summation in (\ref{eq28}) can be interpreted as an integration as the number of the vehicles $N$ goes to infinity,
\begin{equation}
\begin{aligned}
\lim\limits_{N \to \infty }{\sum^N_{i=1}\frac{1}{p^2(\theta_i)}\frac{2\pi}{N}}&=\lim\limits_{N \to \infty }{\sum^N_{i=1}\frac{1}{p^2(\theta_i)}\Delta \theta}\\
&=\int^{2\pi}_{0}\frac{1}{p^2(\theta)}d\theta.
\end{aligned}
\label{eq29}
\end{equation}
\indent The Fourier expansion of $\frac{1}{p^2(\theta)}$ can be obtained and expressed in terms of the Fourier coefficients of $p(\theta)$, assuming the deviation from the uniform distribution is infinitesimal,
\begin{equation}
\begin{aligned}
\frac{1}{p^2(\theta)}&=4\pi^2-8\pi^3\sum_{m\in Z^*}C_mexp(im\theta)\\
&+16\pi^4(\sum_{m\in Z^*}C_mexp(im\theta))^2+O(C^3_m).
\end{aligned}
\label{eq30}
\end{equation}
\indent Substituting (\ref{eq30}) into (\ref{eq29}),
\begin{equation}
\lim\limits_{N \to \infty }{\sum^N_{i=1}\frac{1}{p^2(\theta_i)}\frac{2\pi}{N}}=8\pi^3+32\pi^5 \sum^{\infty}_{m=1}|C_m|^2.
\label{eq31}
\end{equation}
\indent Substituting (\ref{eq31}) into (\ref{eq28}),
\begin{equation}
E_{\theta}[e^2_0]\sim \frac{w^2}{36N\pi^2}(8\pi^3+32\pi^5 \sum^{\infty}_{m=1}|C_m|^2).
\end{equation}
\indent By taking $C_m=0, m\in Z^+$, which corresponds to the uniform distribution, the expectation of the square error $E_{\theta}[e^2_0]$ is minimized.\\
\subsection{The CE method based two-step algorithm}
The two-step algorithm is comprised of a heuristic pre-selection step to downsize the eligible vehicle population and a sampling-based searching step that applies the CE method for the optimization inspired by the existence of the optimal distribution, described as follows:
\subsubsection{Step one: pre-selection}
An important observation that motivates this pre-selection is that the objective function (\ref{eq17}) is monotonically increasing with respect to the non-common error variances $\sigma^2_i,i=1,2,...,M$. If two vehicles have close road angles, i.e., $\theta_i \approx \theta_j$ and large difference of the non-common error variance, e.g., $\sigma^2_i \ll \sigma^2_j$, then it is very unlikely that selecting the $j$-th vehicle will lead to the optimal solution as substituting the $j$-th vehicle with the $i$-th vehicle would probably make the objective function smaller. The following procedure is used to eliminate those unpromising vehicles:
\begin{itemize}
\item For all pairs that satisfy $\sigma^2_i < \sigma^2_j$:\\
Sample randomly $K$ pairs of groups of vehicles with indices: $[n_{l,1},n_{l,2}...,n_{l,M-1},i],[n_{l,1},n_{l,2}...,n_{l,M-1},j]$, where $l=1,2,...,K$, and evaluate the corresponding pairs of the objective function values $J_{l,i},J_{l,j}$.
\item If $J_{l,i} < J_{l,j}$ for all $l=1,2,...,K$:\\
Then eliminate the j-th vehicle from the selection candidates.
\end{itemize}
\subsubsection{Step two: CE method}
After the pre-selection step, a CE method is applied, motivated by the existence of the optimal distribution (the uniform distribution) proved in the previous section. The CE method searches for the minimizer of the objective function by iteratively sampling from a parameterized distribution and updating the parameter according to the samples with good performance. In this particular optimization problem, a $M$-dimensional Gaussian distribution of the road angle is used, which is described by the following pseudo-code:
\begin{itemize}
\item Iterate until the convergence criterion (for the distribution parameters) is satisfied:
\item Generate $k$ samples from the Gaussian distribution denoted as $[s_1,s_2,...,s_k]$, where each $s_i=[\theta_{i,1},\theta_{i,2},...,\theta_{i,M}],i=1,2,...,k$ is an $M$ dimension vector of angles that are not necessarily equal to any of the actual road angles.
\item Round the angles to the nearest road angles, which leads to the rounded samples $\tilde{s}_1,\tilde{s}_2,...,\tilde{s}_k$, and evaluate the values of the objective function denoted as $J_1,J_2,...,J_k$.
\item Update the mean and covariance parameter as $\mu=\frac{\sum^{k}_{i=1} I[J_i \geq \hat{\gamma}]\tilde{s}_i}{k_\rho}$ and $cov=\frac{\sum^{k}_{i=1} I[J_i \geq \hat{\gamma}](\tilde{s}_i-\mu)(\tilde{s}_i-\mu)^T}{k_\rho-1}$ \cite{botev2013cross}, where $\hat{\gamma}$ is the sample $(1-\rho)$- quantile of performance, $k_\rho$ is the corresponding number of samples and $I$ is the indicator function.
\end{itemize}
\indent The performance of this two-step algorithm is demonstrated on synthetic data with $N=50$ and $M=5$. In addition, the road angles are drawn from a uniform distribution and the non-common error variances are generated by $\sigma^2_i=(0.5+|v_i|)\mbox{ }m^2$, where $v_i\sim \mathcal{N}(0,1)$. The other parameters are: $K=10$, $k=1000$, $\rho=0.05$. The initial parameters of the Gaussian distribution are $\mu_0=[0,\frac{2\pi}{M},\frac{4\pi}{M},...,\frac{2(M-1)\pi}{M}]$ and $cov_0=diag([100(\frac{\pi}{M})^2,100(\frac{\pi}{M})^2...,100(\frac{\pi}{M})^2]^T_{M\times 1})$.

\begin{figure}[htbp]
  \centering
  \includegraphics[width=0.9\columnwidth]{CE_performance.eps}
  \caption{Performance of the optimization algorithm; the total number of feasible solution is $C^5_{50}=2,118,760$.}
  \label{CE}
\end{figure}

\indent Fig. \ref{CE} shows the distribution of the optimization results sorted into increasing order of the objective function values based on 1000 simulations and the sorted values of the objective function corresponding to the best 100 combinations of $M$ vehicles (blue line). The total number of feasible solution is $C^5_{50}=2,118,760$, while the solutions found by the algorithm are among the best 20 ones in 95\% of the cases and all the results are within the best 100 ones. The average computation time is 1.6 s for each simulation.\\
\indent The pre-selection step plays an important role in achieving this performance. Without the pre-selection, the CE algorithm would waste a lot of searching on the samples that are unpromising to be optimal. As a result, the performance would degrade.

\indent The performance of random searching based on 1000 simulations is shown in Fig. \ref{random} for a comparison with the CE method. In each simulation, the objective function is evaluated on $N_r$ randomly selected combinations of $M$ vehicles, and the optimal value is the minimum among these $N_r$ values. The computation time and performance of this random searching depends on the fixed parameter $N_r$. A large $N_r$ would take long computation time but good performance. For a fair comparison with the CE method, this parameter is determined such that the computation time is approximately equal to that required by the CE method, which is about 5000. Fig. \ref{random} shows that only a very small percent of the optimal values obtained through the random searching are close to the true optimal value, which reflects the good performance of the CE method.

\begin{figure}[htbp]
  \centering
  \includegraphics[width=0.9\columnwidth]{Optimal_random_select.eps}
  \caption{Performance of random searching using equivalent computation time}
  \label{random}
\end{figure}

\subsection{Comparison between the two optimization algorithms}
In the previous sections, two optimization algorithms have been presented. Their scopes of application and performances are summarized here.\\
\indent The B\&B method is applied to the case where all the vehicles have the same non-common error variance. Although it is rare, in practice, to have exactly same non-common error variance for all the connected vehicles, the B\&B method is expected to find a near optimal solution as long as the variances are approximately the same. The B\&B method is a deterministic searching algorithm, which is guaranteed to find the optimal solution as long as the assumptions are satisfied. In the worst case, it would be necessary to search the solution space exhaustively, which would result in exponential computational complexity. In practice, however, the B\&B method takes much less time than the brute-force searching does.\\
\indent In contrast, the CE method with the pre-selection can also be applied when the vehicles have different non-common error variances. It is a stochastic algorithm, which does not guarantee an optimal solution. In practice, however, it finds solutions of high quality. The computational complexity is fixed once the parameters of the problem are given.\\
\indent For vehicle selection problems of practical scales, the average computational time of both these two algorithms is of $O(1)$ s. Thus they are promising for real-time application.
\section{CONCLUSIONS}
In this paper, a theoretical framework for evaluating and optimizing the effect of road constraints on the CMM localization accuracy is established. The major contributions and findings of this work are summarized:
\begin{enumerate}
 \item A closed-form expression that expresses the mean square localization error in terms of the road angles and non-common error is derived based on a simple CMM rule, which serves as the foundation of the vehicle optimal selection problem. Based on this expression, it is proved that the optimal distribution of road angles that minimizes the localization error is the uniform distribution.
 \item A B\&B algorithm and a CE algorithm are developed to select the optimal group of vehicles that minimizes the localization error. The B\&B algorithm can efficiently find the optimal group when all the vehicles have the same non-common error variance, while the CE algorithm can efficiently find a near optimal group when the vehicles have different non-common error variances.
\end{enumerate}

\section*{Acknowledgment}
This work is funded by the Mobility Transformation Center at the University of Michigan under grant number N021548.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaArXiv


While 3D printed eyeglasses frames have been around for years, none of the attempts to monetize printing custom glasses has really taken off yet. FDM technology still needs to work out a few of the kinks with the final surface quality and resolution. It is possible to use higher-quality printers, like an SLS or LS 3D printer, but that is still a little cost prohibitive. But with the development of advanced, high-quality filaments and materials, and improvements in 3D printing technology, it stands to reason that custom eyeglasses are going to find themselves available just about everywhere in the coming years. Especially as new 3D software and technology will allow consumers to create 3D models of themselves to try on virtual versions of clothing and accessories.
It is already possible to get custom made eyeglasses lenses in an hour using traditional manufacturing technologies. If 3D printing technology becomes reliable enough to print frames just as quickly, then there is going to be a whole new business model for the eyeglasses and frames industry. It's easy to imagine that not only could a customer sit at a computer and custom create their own frames, but they could select their own colors, shapes and even materials. They could then have their frames be 3D printed relatively quickly, and using 3D scanning technology, they could be made to fit the consumer's face exactly. I would be very shocked if this wasn't an option in a few years time.
Perhaps a new project from a Belgian fashion design student could convince the frames industry to rethink using 3D printers to make frames. Antwerp Fashion Academy student Dávid Ring initially contacted i.materialise for help 3D printing his end-of-year design project, but Materialise concept designer Nils Faber saw a lot of potential in his work and decided to help him co-create several pairs of amazing glasses that are entirely 3D printed. Including the actual lenses in the frames. The glasses recently took the stage at the university fashion department's annual fashion show and presentation where models walk the runway wearing student-designed clothing.
Ring took his sketches, paper mock-ups of the glasses and some fabric samples to Faber so the final glasses would match the colors perfectly. Faber and Materialise converted Ring's sketches and concepts into 3D printable models and then sent them to the company's additive manufacturing facility. In total, five different pairs of glasses were made using two different 3D printing technologies. The frames were 3D printed using a Laser Sintering process, while the transparent frames were printed using a high-quality Stereolithography process. The frames were 3D printed as a single piece, so there was no need for screws, hinges or any assembly — they were essentially ready to wear right out of the printing bed.
Five pairs of glasses were finished in vibrant monochromatic colors that that matched Ring's bold dresses and coats perfectly. The entire collection seemed to be inspired by the mod fashions of the '60s and early '70s, but they had more modern materials and silhouettes. The bright colors really pop, and they are perfectly paired with the odd, over-sized almost alien-looking glasses. Obviously these are unique creations made for a student's final project, but they also serve as an excellent example of what 3D printing can be used to create.
You can check out more of Dávid Ring's designs and fashion creations over on his Instagram account. And you can read more about the custom glasses and see more images of Rings designs over on the Materialise blog. Are you working on something similar? Let's talk about it over in the 3D Printed Glasses forum at 3DPB.com.


WELL over 2,500 suspensions were handed out to violent and disruptive pupils at North Wales schools in the last year .
Children were asked to stay away from classes a staggering 2,529 times in Wrexham, Denbighshire, Flintshire and Powys.
There were no figures available from Anglesey, Gwynedd, Conwy or Ceredigion, so the true total across the region is believed to be much higher.
The shock details obtained by the Daily Post under the Freedom of Information Act were described as "absolutely unbelievable" by one top councillor.
The NUT said the increase in the number of suspensions in most counties, as well as incidents of violence towards pupils and teachers, was "worrying." Many of the children were repeat offenders.
The same pattern of increases emerged at some primary schools.
One of the worst counties was Wrexham, with 946 secondary school pupils given short-term exclusions of between one and seven days last year, compared to 795 the previous year. The county's primary schools saw 57 primary pupils temporarily excluded, compared to 66 the previous year. In Denbighshire, 690 secondary school pupils were banned last year and 35 primary pupils. There were no figures supplied for the previous year.
In Powys, 451 secondary school pupils were banned last year (416 previously) and 40 at primary school (73 previously).
In Flintshire 442 secondary school pupils were banned last year compared to 439 the previous year. Many of those 442 pupils were repeat offenders responsible for a total of 837 offences. Out of that total, a 180 were banned for assaulting fellow pupils and 10 for assaulting staff. Nine – five boys and four girls – were permanently banned.
Four were disciplined for possessing or using weapons in school compared with two the previous year.
In Flintshire, for example, there were 182 pupils banned for defying rules or discipline, 30 for damaging property, 89 for persistent disruption, three for racial harassment, five for sexual harassment, six for substance misuse (smoking, drinking), 68 for threatening or dangerous behaviour, 15 for theft, 130 for verbal abuse and 89 for other misdemeanours.
In Flintshire's primary schools 65 pupils were banned compared to 38 previously.
National Union of Teachers' Dr Heledd Hayes said they were "very concerned".
NUT executive member and Gwynedd secretary Neil Foden, headteacher at Ysgol Friars, Bangor said: "We have a growing number of children who are disenchanted and belong to an under-class. I've heard some heads say that some pupils haven't been taught how to use cutlery, don't know how to play with a toy or never had a parent read a book with them; some can't socialise and fight rather than share.


This is an introduction to using XML (Extensible Markup Language) to enhance Web page design and for e-commerce applications. Topics include the structuring of an XML document, transforming an XML document into XHTML using XSL (Extensible StyleSheet Language) and XPath, creating a DTD (Document Type Definition) and an XML Schema to define the elements and attributes which are valid in a XML document. The course also introduces using XML in a Web publishing environment.
Interested in being notified about future offerings of MDIA 4305 - XML in Web Publishing? If so, fill out the information below and we'll notify you by email when courses for each new term are displayed here.


We have some dear friends who live in Nashville and happen to also be incredibly talented musicians. Evan and I fell in love to some of their songs back in the day, they played at our wedding, and they've got a new album coming out next week which we can't wait to buy! We arranged a roommate reunion weekend with them and Caleb and Erica over Evan's spring break and they were so gracious to host in their amazing city. It was a happy marriage between a honky-tonk sight-seeing tour and the reforging of old friendship bonds. Oh and you know... the FOOD. I come away from this trip strongly recommending that you eat at Joey's House of Pizza, read Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less, and stream some Truman music ASAP.


Faucethub is a Middle-Micro as well as GPT for bitcoin earning. Middle-Micro means it collects your bitcoins from different faucets and pay directly to your bitcoin wallet when limit for payout reached which is 20000 Satoshi as on 10th December 2016.
Edited New On (27th November 2017 ) : All payments are now manual and everyday request are getting cleared same day. On 20000 Sat there is 400 Sat Fees on Withdraw. Above 100000 Sat there is only 50 Sat fees.
Edited New On (3rd February 2018 ) : All payments are now having two mode to get paid , Either pay fees of 0.001 BTC and get your Bitcoin Payment cleared same day once dispatched. Or request your amount which will get dispatch every sunday with everyone's Bitcoin. Fees for Sunday dispatch is same like it was before 200 satoshi on 20K Satoshi payment.
Faucethub also contains Offerwalls :- PTCWall , Peanut Labs, OfferDaddy etc they are also good source for making free bitcoin.
Faucethub is a new micropayment gateway and getting famous. It is having good features for both Faucet Owners as well as Users. Also Premimum membership is there which gives facility for users to use there API to build there Faucet List.
There are more then Hundreds of faucets now using it. The best part is its secure specially for Faucet Owner bcoz of its Anti-Fraud system which detect Self Referral users as well as Cheating from same IP or System.
CON : The only con so far i found is that , registration is required to use there faucets.
Why faucethub owner is closing his faucets ? Are they in loss ?
I don't know , he wrote that he is married and he is lacking time.
Thank you admin for listing my faucet. I appreciate your hard work.
You are welcome buddy. Best of luck with your faucet.
My username is " aayman " in faucethub , i like u to update more faucets.
Welcome aayman to our blog. Yes will update soon.
What kind of updates you are looking for ?
Yes , i found that FaucetHub is having issue. Its due to server load. FaucetHub is getting bigger everyday.


text:
Even Midtown East Grand Central
221 East 44th Street, New York, NY, United States
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About Even Midtown East Grand Central
EVEN Hotel New York - Midtown East 44th provides modern 4-star accommodation in New York City. Those staying at the property can also take advantage of complimentary wireless internet during their sta...
Amenities at Even Midtown East Grand Central
Terrace/Patio, Increased accessibility, Family rooms, Linens, Towels, Fire extinguisher, Laundry facilities, Elevator, Flat-screen TV, Free toiletries, Shampoo, Smoke alarms, Hardwood or parquet floors, Heating, Shower, Iron and ironing board, Snack bar, Alarm clock, CCTV in common areas, Kids meals...
Board games/puzzles, Aerobics, Bingo, Fitness center, Table tennis
Ticket service, Business center, Daily housekeeping, Concierge service, Laundry service, Meeting/Banquet facilities, Tour desk, 24-hour security, Shuttle service (additional charge)
Photos of Even Midtown East Grand Central
Where is Even Midtown East Grand Central
Rockefeller Center0.6 mi
Times Square0.8 mi
Broadway0.9 mi
Madison Square Garden1.1 mi
Central Park2.2 mi
New York 201 West 37th St0.9 mi
New York 202-230 West 36th St0.9 mi
FAQs when booking at Even Midtown East Grand Central
Does Even Midtown East Grand Central have COVID-19 safety policies in place?
Even Midtown East Grand Central is sanitizing surface areas to reduce the chances of contracting COVID-19. New social distancing procedures are also in place to assist with your safety. Policy details may vary by location. For more details, check directly with our partner IHG Clean Promise.
Is Even Midtown East Grand Central considered pet-friendly?
Even Midtown East Grand Central welcomes most household pets.
What is the Even Midtown East Grand Central phone number?
The best way to contact Even Midtown East Grand Central is by calling +1 212 239 0002.
Does Even Midtown East Grand Central have Wi-Fi available?
Yes, Even Midtown East Grand Central has Wi-Fi available to hotel guests.
Is there a gym or fitness center at Even Midtown East Grand Central?
Yes, there is a fitness center open to guests staying at Even Midtown East Grand Central.
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Hampton Inn Manhattan Grand Central provides a modern setting while in New York City. It is steps from Chrysler Building, restaurants and nightlife options.
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Situated in Manhattan, The Westin New York Grand Central offers modern accommodation with state-of-the-art facilities. It is located a brief stroll from United Nations Headquarters.
Vanderbilt Ymca
Situated less than a 10-minute stroll from Grand Central Terminal, Vanderbilt YMCA offers guests a convenient base while visiting New York City. Those staying at the property have access to an indoor pool, a sun deck and a sauna.
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Situated in the popular hub of Manhattan, Central Park West Hostel is within walking distance of several tourist attractions in the area. It is located a brief stroll from 257 Central Park West and Central Park West Historic District.
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Situated in Queens, Q4 Hotel and Hostel provides 1-star accommodation and free Wi-Fi, luggage storage and a 24-hour reception. The hostel is also ideally located moments on foot from Queensboro Plaza Subway Station.
International Students Residence
This New York City hostel is situated within a 10-minute walk of Broadway Subway Station. It also provides a 24-hour reception, free Wi-Fi and luggage storage.
Soho Garden Hotel
Strategically located in the heart of the city, this 3-star hotel makes for an ideal base in New York City. It is close to Canal Street, shops and nightlife options.
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Blakely New York Hotel
Blakely New York Hotel is located in New York City and is close to the area's popular attractions. Those staying at the property can also make use of free wireless internet.
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The Kimberly Hotel is a comfortable setting while visiting New York City and is close to everything the area has to offer. Some of the popular features on offer at this 4-star hotel include an indoor pool and a rooftop terrace.
Archer Hotel New York
Located amongst a variety of well-known attractions, shops and dining options, Archer Hotel New York is ideal for guests wishing to explore New York City and its surroundings. It is situated a short walk from Empire State Building, Times Square and the New York Public Library.
Residence Inn by Marriott New York Manhattan/Midtown East
Located a short walk from Grand Central Terminal, Residence Inn New York Manhattan/Midtown East is a convenient base when in New York City. It also provides an express check-in and check-out feature, a sauna and a beauty centre.
See other recommended hotels


International departure taxes of $110 plus current fuel surcharges of $250 are included (subject to change).
Today we depart Pittsburgh and connect with our overnight flight aboard a wide-bodied jet. We enjoy in-flight movies, dinner and breakfast aloft.
We arrive in Lisbon where we are greeted by our Unitours tour manager who will remain with us for the duration of our pilgrimage. We enjoy a short orientation tour of Lisbon before heading to Fatima. En route, we celebrate Mass at the church of the famous Eucharistic Miracle in Santarem. This evening, we will have the opportunity to join the International Rosary Procession. Dinner and overnight at our hotel in Fatima.
This full day is devoted to visiting the Basilica and Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima. We will also see the birthplaces of Francisco, Jacinta and Lucia to whom the Virgin appeared for the first time on May 13th, 1917. We celebrate Mass at the Chapel of the Apparitions. In the evening, we once again join the International Rosary Procession. Dinner and overnight at our hotel.
Today we celebrate an early Mass in Fatima, before heading north. Time permitting, we will briefly stop in the ancient capital and University City of Coimbra, where Lucia, the last Fatima visionary was a cloistered nun. We continue northwards into Spain and on to Santiago de Compostela, the most ancient of pilgrimage routes. Tradition holds that the Apostle James was cast ashore here preaching for seven years and was responsible for the conversion of Spain, before returning to the Holy Land. The Cathedral with its splendor, and portico is a masterpiece of Romanesque art. Upon arrival this afternoon, we enjoy a visit to the Cathedral and the Old City. We will also have the option in the early evening of walking a small portion of the Camino. Dinner and overnight Santiago.
Following our walk to Mass at the Cathedral of Santiago we return to our hotel for breakfast and then head east to Santander along one of the many "Routes of St. James". While this is our longest coach day, the wonderful scenery of mountains and sea awe us, as our roads hug the northern Spanish seacoast. Lunch on our own is taken along the route. Dinner and overnight in Santander.
This day is spent in devotion to Our Lady of Lourdes. We will celebrate Mass at the Grotto, visit the Shrine and enjoy a walking tour of Lourdes. We will also visit Boly Mill, where St. Bernadette was born, the Cachot, formerly used as a jail, where she lived during the apparitions, and the parish church. There will be free time for private devotions, the Eucharistic Procession, the Blessing of the Sick or the legendary, and entering the healing waters of the miraculous Lourdes spring. Dinner and overnight at our hotel. In the evening, we can once again join the Torchlight Marian Procession.
This morning we depart Lourdes and traverse the Pyrenees entering Spain. We travel eastward to Zaragoza, the capital of Aragon. On arrival, we will tour this city which was founded by the Romans. Its luxuriant vegetation, with its many cascades and grottos make it a miniature Switzerland in the middle of arid upper Aragon. Zaragoza is also the birthplace of Goya, whose works grace many of the sites we visit. The number one Marian shrine of Spain, the Pilar Basilica commemorates apparitions of Our Lady of the Pilar to St. James in 40 AD. We will celebrate Mass in the Pilar Basilica. Dinner and overnight at our hotel.
After breakfast, we depart Zaragoza, and we journey to Madrid. We will have a driving tour of all the highlights of Madrid, capital of Spain, including the Gran Via Plaza de España, the Viaduct, Plaza Major, the Bull Ring, Independence and Cibeles Squares, the University, and the Paseo de la Castellana. We will celebrate Mass at the Cathedral. Tonight, we enjoy our farewell dinner in a local restaurant with flamenco dancing!
This morning, on the feast day of St. Teresa of Avila- we will spend time visiting Avila, where we will celebrate Mass. Avila is the birthplace of Saint Teresa, the founder of the Discalced Carmelites and writer of the Counter Reformation. This afternoon you will be free to explore Madrid, maybe visiting the famous Prado museum. Tonight you are also free to enjoy the culinary delights of Madrid. Dinner on our own. Overnight at our hotel Madrid.


There is probably no interpreting services contract that has ever been subject to so much public scrutiny. Before each collective bargaining cycle, Interpreters United requests from the state detailed information that is delivered electronically in huge databases. It takes many days to analyze and summarize the results so that bargaining team members can negotiate based on facts instead of perceptions. Proposals made at the bargaining table made by both the state and the union are also subject to public disclosure.
Interpreter Quality: DSHS/HCA-CTS contract includes complaint and corrective action policies for dealing with interpreters who have complaints made of them or violate WAC 388-03-050. The complaint process was implemented on April 1, 2014. In a 2-year period, the complaint rate was less than 2% with less than 1% of those complaints warranting corrective action. All interpreters rendering services under this contract have undergone competency based assessments. The vast majority of interpreters are DSHS certified/authorized and the rest are either court certified/registered or nationally certified by CCHI or NBCMI.
Cost Effectiveness: From a purely fiscal point of view, the procurement reform in the Medicaid interpreter services program is an unqualified success.
*** No mileage. Rate negotiated through collective bargaining.
Fill Rates: In SFY 2015, the overall statewide filled rate for all languages and counties was 91%. Unsurprisingly, King County has the highest demand for interpreting services. There is some variability in the filled rates among the counties but it is not significant enough to indicate that there is a serious problem from a geographical point of view. The contract appears to work extremely well for languages of high demand and very badly for languages of low demand. Languages of low demand, however, represented only 3% of all requests in SFY2015.
Not all languages are equal: From a language access management point of view, languages can be classified in two ways: by diffusion and by demand. For example, Vietnamese is a language of limited diffusion because it is the official language of one small country (Vietnam) with about 75K inhabitants. Portuguese, on the other hand, is a language of great diffusion because it is spoken in several countries, in several continents and by a large population (215M). In WA State, however, Vietnamese is a language of high demand averaging more than 2,000 requests per month while Portuguese is a language of low demand averaging less than 50 requests per month. Accordingly, the filled rate for Vietnamese in SFY2015 was 93% while for Portuguese it was only 73%.
The Interpreting Services Marketplace: At its core, interpreters are vendors selling their services to buyers such as clinics, hospitals, schools, courts, etc. Language access managers should take under consideration basic market laws when procuring interpreting services.
Union-Management Communications Committee: Article 8 of our collective bargaining agreement, established this committee "for the purpose of maintaining communications between the Union and the State in order to cooperatively discuss matters of mutual concern, including but not limited to: implementation of this Agreement and proposed initiatives, rules or policies". The state and the union meet regularly at mutually convenient times to discuss the contract's performance. Ad hoc UMC committees may be established to deal with very specific issues. On January 2016, Interpreters United presented a detailed report expressing some concerns and offering solutions to the problems uncovered. Read it here.


I have started to add some pictures here for your viewing enjoyment. I have put together old pics, and some new pics. I will add Army photos, fishing pics, scenic areas around Tampa Bay and Florida, and other stuff. I also will have some neck surgery x-ray stuff, powerboats, and many more items. Hope you enjoy!


text:
// Copyright 2017 The Bazel Authors. All rights reserved.
//
// Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
// you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
// You may obtain a copy of the License at
//
//    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
//
// Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
// distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
// WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
// See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
// limitations under the License.
package com.google.devtools.build.lib.analysis.actions;

import com.google.common.annotations.VisibleForTesting;
import com.google.common.base.Preconditions;
import com.google.common.collect.ImmutableList;
import com.google.common.io.ByteStreams;
import com.google.devtools.build.lib.actions.ActionExecutionContext;
import com.google.devtools.build.lib.actions.ActionKeyContext;
import com.google.devtools.build.lib.actions.ActionOwner;
import com.google.devtools.build.lib.actions.Artifact;
import com.google.devtools.build.lib.analysis.RuleContext;
import com.google.devtools.build.lib.analysis.TransitionMode;
import com.google.devtools.build.lib.collect.nestedset.NestedSetBuilder;
import com.google.devtools.build.lib.collect.nestedset.Order;
import com.google.devtools.build.lib.util.Fingerprint;
import com.google.devtools.build.lib.util.OS;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.InputStream;
import java.io.OutputStream;
import java.nio.ByteBuffer;
import java.nio.ByteOrder;
import java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets;
import javax.annotation.Nullable;

/** Action that writes a native {@code .exe} launcher for {java,sh,py}_binary rules on Windows. */
public final class LauncherFileWriteAction extends AbstractFileWriteAction {

  // Generated with /usr/bin/uuidgen.
  // This GUID doesn't have to be anything specific, we only use it to salt action cache keys so it
  // just has to be unique among other actions.
  private static final String GUID = "1f57afe7-f6f8-487c-9a8a-0a0286172fef";

  private final LaunchInfo launchInfo;
  private final Artifact launcher;

  /** Creates a new {@link LauncherFileWriteAction}, registering it with the {@code ruleContext}. */
  public static void createAndRegister(
      RuleContext ruleContext, Artifact output, LaunchInfo launchInfo) {
    ruleContext.registerAction(
        new LauncherFileWriteAction(
            ruleContext.getActionOwner(),
            output,
            ruleContext.getPrerequisiteArtifact("$launcher", TransitionMode.HOST),
            launchInfo));
  }

  /** Creates a new {@code LauncherFileWriteAction}. */
  private LauncherFileWriteAction(
      ActionOwner owner, Artifact output, Artifact launcher, LaunchInfo launchInfo) {
    super(
        owner,
        NestedSetBuilder.create(Order.STABLE_ORDER, Preconditions.checkNotNull(launcher)),
        output,
        /*makeExecutable=*/ true);
    this.launcher = launcher; // already null-checked in the superclass c'tor
    this.launchInfo = Preconditions.checkNotNull(launchInfo);
  }

  @Override
  public DeterministicWriter newDeterministicWriter(ActionExecutionContext ctx) {
    // TODO(laszlocsomor): make this code check for the execution platform, not the host platform,
    // once Bazel supports distinguishing between the two.
    // OS.getCurrent() returns the host platform, not the execution platform, which is fine in a
    // single-machine execution environment, but problematic with remote execution.
    Preconditions.checkState(OS.getCurrent() == OS.WINDOWS);
    return out -> {
      try (InputStream in = ctx.getInputPath(this.launcher).getInputStream()) {
        ByteStreams.copy(in, out);
      }
      long dataLength = this.launchInfo.write(out);
      ByteBuffer buffer = ByteBuffer.allocate(Long.BYTES);
      buffer.order(ByteOrder.LITTLE_ENDIAN); // All Windows versions are little endian.
      buffer.putLong(dataLength);
      out.write(buffer.array());
      out.flush();
    };
  }

  @Override
  protected void computeKey(ActionKeyContext actionKeyContext, Fingerprint fp) {
    fp.addString(GUID);
    fp.addPath(this.launcher.getExecPath());
    fp.addString(this.launchInfo.fingerPrint);
  }

  /**
   * Metadata that describes the payload of the native launcher binary.
   *
   *
This object constructs the binary metadata lazily, to save memory.
   */
  public static final class LaunchInfo {

    /** Precomputed fingerprint of this object. */
    public final String fingerPrint;

    private final ImmutableList<Entry> entries;

    private LaunchInfo(ImmutableList<Entry> entries) {
      this.entries = entries;
      this.fingerPrint = computeKey(entries);
    }

    /** Creates a new {@link Builder}. */
    public static Builder builder() {
      return new Builder();
    }

    /** Writes this object's entries to {@code out}, returns the total written amount in bytes. */
    @VisibleForTesting
    long write(OutputStream out) throws IOException {
      long len = 0;
      for (Entry e : entries) {
        len += e.write(out);
        out.write('\0');
        ++len;
      }
      return len;
    }

    /** Computes the fingerprint of the {@code entries}. */
    private static String computeKey(ImmutableList<Entry> entries) {
      Fingerprint f = new Fingerprint();
      for (Entry e : entries) {
        e.addToFingerprint(f);
      }
      return f.hexDigestAndReset();
    }

    /** Writes {@code s} to {@code out} encoded as UTF-8, returns the written length in bytes. */
    private static long writeString(String s, OutputStream out) throws IOException {
      byte[] b = s.getBytes(StandardCharsets.UTF_8);
      out.write(b);
      return b.length;
    }

    /** Represents one entry in {@link LaunchInfo.entries}. */
    private static interface Entry {
      /** Writes this entry to {@code out}, returns the written length in bytes. */
      long write(OutputStream out) throws IOException;

      /** Adds this entry to the fingerprint computer {@code f}. */
      void addToFingerprint(Fingerprint f);
    }

    /** A key-value pair entry. */
    private static final class KeyValuePair implements Entry {
      private final String key;
      @Nullable private final String value;

      public KeyValuePair(String key, @Nullable String value) {
        this.key = Preconditions.checkNotNull(key);
        this.value = value;
      }

      @Override
      public long write(OutputStream out) throws IOException {
        long len = writeString(key, out);
        len += writeString("=", out);
        if (value != null && !value.isEmpty()) {
          len += writeString(value, out);
        }
        return len;
      }

      @Override
      public void addToFingerprint(Fingerprint f) {
        f.addString(key);
        f.addString(value != null ? value : "");
      }
    }

    /** A pair of a key and a delimiter-joined list of values. */
    private static final class JoinedValues implements Entry {
      private final String key;
      private final String delimiter;
      @Nullable private final Iterable<String> values;

      public JoinedValues(String key, String delimiter, @Nullable Iterable<String> values) {
        this.key = Preconditions.checkNotNull(key);
        this.delimiter = Preconditions.checkNotNull(delimiter);
        this.values = values;
      }

      @Override
      public long write(OutputStream out) throws IOException {
        long len = writeString(key, out);
        len += writeString("=", out);
        if (values != null) {
          boolean first = true;
          for (String v : values) {
            if (first) {
              first = false;
            } else {
              len += writeString(delimiter, out);
            }
            len += writeString(v, out);
          }
        }
        return len;
      }

      @Override
      public void addToFingerprint(Fingerprint f) {
        f.addString(key);
        if (values != null) {
          for (String v : values) {
            f.addString(v != null ? v : "");
          }
        }
      }
    }

    /** Builder for {@link LaunchInfo} instances. */
    public static final class Builder {
      private ImmutableList.Builder<Entry> entries = ImmutableList.builder();

      /** Builds a {@link LaunchInfo} from this builder. This builder may be reused. */
      public LaunchInfo build() {
        return new LaunchInfo(entries.build());
      }

      /**
       * Adds a key-value pair entry.
       *
       *
Examples:
       *
       *

       *
{@code key} is "foo" and {@code value} is "bar", the written value is "foo=bar\0"
       *
{@code key} is "foo" and {@code value} is null or empty, the written value is
       *       "foo=\0"
       *

       */
      public Builder addKeyValuePair(String key, @Nullable String value) {
        Preconditions.checkNotNull(key);
        if (!key.isEmpty()) {
          entries.add(new KeyValuePair(key, value));
        }
        return this;
      }

      /**
       * Adds a key and list of lazily-joined values.
       *
       *
Examples:
       *
       *

       *
{@code key} is "foo", {@code delimiter} is ";", {@code values} is ["bar", "baz",
       *       "qux"], the written value is "foo=bar;baz;qux\0"
       *
{@code key} is "foo", {@code delimiter} is irrelevant, {@code value} is null or
       *       empty, the written value is "foo=\0"
       *

       */
      public Builder addJoinedValues(
          String key, String delimiter, @Nullable Iterable<String> values) {
        Preconditions.checkNotNull(key);
        Preconditions.checkNotNull(delimiter);
        if (!key.isEmpty()) {
          entries.add(new JoinedValues(key, delimiter, values));
        }
        return this;
      }
    }
  }
}