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tested participants’ self-control over time. Participants were first asked to do something to deplete their “store” of willpower or behavioral control and then see how much they had left for another, unrelated task. First, participants watched an emotionally upsetting movie and were asked to suppress their emotions and... |
what is called a Stroop task. Stroop is a psychological test that measures the reaction time needed to name colors that are printed in a color not associated with the color word. In other words, saying “green” when the word “green” was printed in the color red. This task may seem simple. While this seems simple, if you... |
you will see how much self-control it takes not to blurt out the printed color and to have to suppress that urge and replace it with a correct response. During both the watching of the film and the Stroop task, participants’ brain activity was measured by an EEG (electroencephalography) device. This records the electri... |
voltage changes within the brain’s neurons. What the researchers discovered was intriguing. When participants had to restrain themselves and exert quite a bit of self-control (when not expressing emotions or when trying to say the names of colors), there was an increase of brain activity in the part of the brain’s fron... |
is the region of the brain involved in autonomic functions, like regulating blood pressure and heart rate, as well as rational cognitive functions, such as reward anticipation, decision-making and emotion. The interesting finding in this study is that there was less frontal lobe activity with the Stroop task after watc... |
of self-control was previously used on one task, the next time it was needed there was less available for use. These findings suggest that people may not have as much willpower or control over their behavior as time progresses and demands are placed on them to exert such control. It is pretty discouraging to think that... |
capable only of providing a strong degree of self-control during a given time period. That might seem to leave most of us with little hope for change. Think about it: If we use self-control to not eat a sticky bun with breakfast and force ourselves to take that morning jog, then we will have less available control over... |
when it comes to making lunch and dinner choices, or passing on the second round of drinks, or going to the gym or to yoga class. Is it any wonder why so many fail at diets and exercise routines time and time again? Well, this needn’t be the case and more information has recently been published on this issue. A |
study again headed by Inzlicht, this time with colleague Brandon Schmeichel of Texas A&M University, appeared in the September issue of the journal Perspectives on Psychological Science. In this further research, Inzlicht now finds that the “limited resource” model of self-control is too narrow and does not explain the... |
able to maintain the level necessary to effect positive change by making repeated good choices. It is not a “use it or lose it” situation as previously thought, but more closely tied to motivation, this study shows. While previous research apparently pointed to a decrease in the amount of willpower available with each ... |
this conclusion may be flawed because of the generic activity used in the studies. In other words, researchers had set up lab situations wherein subjects had no strong motivation influencing their behavior. The more recent study indicates that mood, personal beliefs, positive reinforcement and motivation play a big rol... |
by definition, is hard work; it involved deliberation, attention, and vigilance.” It’s not the case that resisting an extra piece of bacon at breakfast uses up our daily store of willpower, making self-control more difficult later in the day when needed. Rather, it seems that the motivation to exert our willpower later... |
later time, we tend to want to reward ourselves for hard work done. In the end, as with everything else affecting health and well-being, you can divide your circumstances into things you can do to help reach your goals and things beyond your control. In the case of self-control, you need long-term behavior modification... |
that trying to restrict too many things is what leads to failure. For example, trying to set new exercise goals, diet routines and sleep patterns all at the same time creates an overwhelming struggle. Instead, making one change for a few weeks before adding another seems to allow the brain and behaviors to reshape and ... |
Repetition over time turns a self-controlled behavior into a habit that then keeps taking place on autopilot. Once the first piece of the healthy behavior is under new control, add the second piece, and so on. In this way, you don’t run out of your willpower stores, you don’t deplete your motivation and you learn new h... |
way. Without behavior modification, all programs for change will fail. Think about times you have tried to make positive changes in your life and have fallen short or failed. Then think about how many things you were trying to control for at that time. Also consider the moments when you were on the path to success but ... |
indulgence for work well done, and that indulgence set you back in your efforts. If you analyze in light of the research on self-control, you can find the way forward. It reminds me of the old maxim: “Inch by inch, life is a cinch; yard by yard, it’s very hard.” Which leads to another appropriate maxim: “The journey of... |
thousand miles begins with the first step.” Slow down your efforts to be healthier into manageable steps, and over time new behaviors will arise that make self-control easier overall and wellness restoration an achievable goal. |
You wouldn’t guess that a bit of green slime could do so much. But from from food to fuel, PetroAlgae, Inc. seems to have thought of everything. This Florida-based renewable energy company has developed a technology in which algae and other microorganisms produce fuel to feed cars, animals, and even humans...and say th... |
With the addition of a few basic nutrients, algae gather most of their energy from the sun. The result is a protein and carbohydrate-rich slime that can be converted to a variety of products. First, the protein is extracted and processed into animal feed or blended into human food products. PetroAlgae actually lists on... |
conjuring images of our new utopian future in which chewing is obsolete. After the protein extraction, what remains is a “lipid-carbohydrate mash”. PetroAlgae claims that this material can be sent directly to a petroleum refinery and processed into diesel, gas, or jet fuel without the need to retro-fit any of the refin... |
relative to conventional crops, can be grown on non-arable land, and consumes up to twice its weight in carbon dioxide as it grows. In addition to algae, PetroAlgae draws from a large pool of microorganisms including diatoms, cyanobacteria, and micro-angiosperms (tiny flowering plants). While exact species remain unnam... |
region in which a production facility will be installed. They have already begun licensing their technology to commercial facilities in Asia, and are poised to complete contracts with the U.S. and several European countries this year. Each licensee is promised the potential to produce 1.5 million barrels of transportat... |
a single truck. If PetroAlgae’s assertions hold true, the cost of fuel production is essentially paid for by the revenue from food and feed products, meaning that their microbe-derived fuels will remain competitive with fossil fuels, at any price. PetroAlgae is in the business of licensing its technology rather than bu... |
Patterns for Reusable .NET Libraries, by Krzysztof Cwalina, Brad Abrams. Copyright © 2006 Microsoft Corp.. All rights reserved. This article is reproduced by permission. This tutorial has been edited especially |
for C# Online.NET. Read the book review!| (This article was written and annotated by members of the Microsoft Common Language Runtime (CLR) and .NET teams and other experts.) Type Design |
Guidelines in .NET From the CLR perspective, there are only two categories of types—reference types and value types—but for the purpose of framework design discussion we divide types into more |
logical groups, each with its own specific design rules. Figure 4-1 shows these logical groups. Classes are the general case of reference types. They make up the bulk of types |
in the majority of frameworks. Classes owe their popularity to the rich set of object-oriented features they support and to their general applicability. Base classes and abstract classes are special |
logical groups related to extensibility. Extensibility and base classes are covered in Chapter 6. Interfaces are types that can be implemented both by reference types and value types. This allows |
them to serve as roots of polymorphic hierarchies of reference types and value types. In addition, interfaces can be used to simulate multiple inheritance, which is not natively supported by |
the CLR. Structs are the general case of value types and should be reserved for small, simple types, similar to language primitives. Enums are a special case of value types |
used to define short sets of values, such as days of the week, console colors, and so on. Static classes are types intended as containers for static members. They are |
commonly used to provide shortcuts to other operations. Delegates, exceptions, attributes, arrays, and collections are all special cases of reference types intended for specific uses, and guidelines for their design |
and usage are discussed elsewhere in this book. - DO ensure that each type is a well-defined set of related members, not just a random collection of unrelated functionality. - |
It is important that a type can be described in one simple sentence. A good definition should also rule out functionality that is only tangentially related. |If you have ever |
managed a team of people you know that they don't do well without a crisp set of responsibilities. Well, types work the same way. I have noticed that types without |
a firm and focused scope tend to be magnets for more random functionality, which, over time, make a small problem a lot worse. It becomes more difficult to justify why |
the next member with even more random functionality does not belong in the type. As the focus of the members in a type blurs, the developer's ability to predict where |
to find a given functionality is impaired, and therefore so is productivity.| |Good types are like good diagrams: What has been omitted is as important to clarity and usability as |
what has been included. Every additional member you add to a type starts at a net negative value and only by proven usefulness does it go from there to positive. |
If you add too much in an attempt to make the type more useful to some, you are just as likely to make the type useless to everyone.| | When |
I was learning OOP back in the early 1980s, I was taught a mantra that I still honor today: If things get too complicated, make more types. Sometimes, I find |
that I am thinking really hard trying to define a good set of methods for a type. When I start to feel that I'm spending too much time on this |
or when things just don't seem to fit together well, I remember my mantra and I define more, smaller types where each type has well-defined functionality. This has worked extremely |
well for me over the years. On the flip side, sometimes types do end up being dumping grounds for various loosely related functions. The .NET Framework offers several types like |
Principles of Finance/Section 1/Chapter 6/Corp/WACC When valuing a new venture by a company, it is necessary to use an appropriate discount rate. However, since corporations can be structured very differently, it is important to reflect that in the respective costs of capital. Let's say there are two similar companies ... |
(that is, stock) and 10% by debt (long term corporate bonds). Company B is financed by 25% equity, and 75% debt. These two companies would have to be valued according to their respective risk levels and required returns. One common way to determine the cost of capital is to use the Weighted Average Cost of Capital, or ... |
formula, V is equal to the value of the firm, or Debt (D) plus Equity (E) Example: AKL corporation is currently financed with $1,000,000 of 7% bonds, and $2,000,000 of common stock. The stock has a beta of 1.5, and the risk free rate is 4%, and the market risk premium is 3.5%. The marginal tax rate for a corporation |
of AKL's size is 35%. What is AKL's WACC? The first thing we must do in this problem is determine the required rate on equity (Re) for AKL. We can plug the Beta given and the risk free rate into the CAPM as follows: Now, we have all of the necessary information to solve for WACC: Last modified on 18 |
Benefits of XQuery The principal benefits of XQuery are: - Expressiveness - XQuery can query many different data structures and its recursive nature makes it ideal for querying tree and graph structures - Brevity - XQuery statements are shorter than similar SQL or XSLT programs - Flexibility - XQuery can query both hie... |
and can be used with other XML standards such as XML Schema datatypes XQuery is frequently compared with two other languages, SQL and XSLT, but has a number of advantages over these. Advantages over SQL Unlike SQL, XQuery returns not just tables but arbitrary tree structures. This allows XQuery to directly create XHTML... |
XML-based object databases, and object databases are much more flexible and powerful than databases which store in purely tabular format. Unlike XSLT, XQuery can be learned by anyone familiar with SQL. Many of the constructs are very similar such as: - Ordering Results: Both XQuery and SQL add an order byclause to the ... |
ways to select distinct values from a result set - Restricting Rows: Both XQuery and SQL have a WHERE X=Y clause that can be added to an XQuery Another big advantage is that XQuery is essentially the native query language of the World Wide Web. One can query actual web pages with XQuery, but not SQL. Even if one uses S... |
HTML/XHTML pages or fragments of such pages, one will miss many of the advantages of XQuery's simple tag/attribute search (which is akin to searching for column names within column names). Advantages over XSLT Unlike XSLT, XQuery can be quickly learned by anyone familiar with SQL. XSLT has many patterns that are unfami... |
as a static means to convert one type of document to another, for example RSS to HTML, XQuery is a much more dynamic querying tool, useful for pulling out sections of data from large documents and/or large number of documents. The Debate about XQuery vs. XSLT for Document Transformation There has been a debate of sorts... |
transforming XML: XSLT and XQuery. A common misconception is that "XQuery is best for querying or selecting XML, and XSLT is best for transforming it." In reality, both methods are capable of transforming XML. Despite XSLT's longer history and larger install base, the "XQuery typeswitch" method of transforming XML prov... |
learn a language called XSLT. XSLT, whose first version was published by the W3C in 1999, was a huge innovation for its time and, indeed, remains dominant. It was one of the very first languages dedicated to transforming XML documents, and it was the first domain-specific language (DSL) to use advanced theories from th... |
transformations. Many XML developers still feel strong indebted to this groundbreaking language, since it helped them see a new model of software development: one focused around the transformation of models and empowering them to fuse both the requirements and documentation of a transformation routing into a single, mo... |
is due, in part, to one of the key design decisions by its architects: to express the transformation rules using XML itself, rather than creating a brand new syntax and grammar for storing the transformation rules. XSLT's unique approach to transformation rules also contributes to the steepness of the learning curve. T... |
this learning curve has created a opening for an alternative approach. XQuery has filled this demand for an alternative among a growing community of users: they find XQuery has a lower learning curve, it meets their needs for transforming XML, and, together with XQuery's other advantages, it has become a compelling "al... |
But instead of expressing the language in XML syntax, the architects of XQuery chose a new syntax that would be more familiar to users of server-side scripting languages such as PHP, Perl, or Python. XQuery was designed to be similar to users of relational database query languages such as SQL, while still remaining tru... |
was only released in 2007 when XSLT had already reached its version 2.0), XQuery was born remarkably mature. XML servers like eXist-db and MarkLogic were already using XQuery as their language for querying XML and performing web server operations (obviating the need for learning PHP, Perl, or Python). So, in the face o... |
and XQuery is best for querying databases", this community of users was surprised to find that XQuery has entirely replaced their need for XSLT. They have come to argue unabashedly that they prefer XQuery for this purpose. How does XQuery accomplish the task of transforming XML? The primary technique in XQuery for tran... |
called "typeswitch." Although it is quite simple, typeswitch enables XQuery to perform nearly the full set of transformations that XSLT does. A typeswitch expression quickly looks at a node's type, and depending on the node's type, performs the operation you specify for that type of node. What this means is that each d... |
rules can be stored in modular XQuery functions. This humble addition to the XQuery language allows developers to transform documents with complex content and unpredictable order - something commonly believed to be best reserved for the domain of XSLT. Despite the differences in syntax and approach to transformation, a... |
superior, way to store their document transformation logic. By structuring a set of XQuery functions around the typeswitch expression, you can achieve the same result as XSLT-style transforms while retaining the benefits of XQuery: ease of learning and integration with native XML databases. Even more important for thos... |
a single language for their database queries, web server operations, and document transformations. These XQuery typeswitch routines have proved easy to build, test, and maintain - some believe easier than XSLT. XQuery typeswitch has given these users a high degree of agility, allowing them to master XQuery fully rather... |
a large body of legacy XSLT transforms that work well, and there are XSLT developers who see little benefit from transitioning to a typeswitch-style XQuery. Both are valid approaches to document transformation. A natural tension has arisen between the proponents of XQuery typeswitch and XSLT, each promoting what they a... |
served by trying both techniques and determining what style is right for you and your organization. Without presuming a background or interest in XSLT, this article and its companion article help you to understand the key patterns for using XQuery typeswitch for your XML transformation needs. |
his father Ban Biao, and sister, Ban Zhao, wrote the famous Hanshu, or 'History of the Former Han Dynasty'. Ban Chao was a general and cavalry commander in charge of the administration of the "Western Regions" (Central Asia) during the Eastern Han dynasty. He repelled the Xiongnu and secured Chinese |
control over the Tarim Basin region, and was awarded the title of 'Protector General of the Western Regions'. He fought for 31 years. Control of the Tarim Basin Ban Chao, like his predecessors Huo Qubing and Wei Qing from the Former Han Dynasty before him, was effective at expelling the |
Xiongnu from the Tarim Basin, and brought the various people of the Western Regions under Chinese rule during the second half of the 1st century CE, helping to open and secure the trade routes to the west. He was generally outnumbered, but skillfully played on the divisions among his opponents. |
The kingdoms of Loulan, Khotan and Kashgar came under Chinese rule. Ban Chao was recalled to Luoyang, but then sent again to the Western Region area four years later, during the reign of the new emperor Han Zhangdi. He obtained the military help of the Kushan Empire in 84 in |
repelling the Kangju who were trying to support the rebellion of the king of Kashgar, and the next year in his attack on Turpan, in the eastern Tarim Basin. Ban Chao ultimately brought the whole of the Tarim Basin under Chinese control. In recognition for their support to the Chinese, |
the Kushans (referred to as Da Yuezhi in Chinese sources) requested, but were denied, a Han princess, even though they had sent presents to the Chinese court. In retaliation, they marched on Ban Chao in 90 CE with a force of 70,000, but, exhausted by the expedition, were finally turned |
back by the smaller Chinese force. The Yuezhi retreated and paid tribute to the Chinese Empire. (Later, during the Yuanchu period, 114-120 CE, the Kushans sent a military force to install Chenpan, who had been a hostage among them, as king of Kashgar). In 91 CE, Ban Chao finally succeeded |
in pacifying the Western Regions and was awarded the title of Protector General and stationed at Qiuci (Kucha). A Wuji Colonel was re-established and, commanding five hundred soldiers, stationed in the Kingdom of Nearer Jushi, within the walls of Gaochang, 29 kilometres southeast of Turfan. In 94 CE, Chao proceeded |
to again attack and defeat Yanqi [Karashahr]. Subsequently, more than fifty kingdoms presented hostages, and submitted to the Interior. In 97 CE Ban Chao sent an envoy, Gan Ying, who reached the Persian Gulf and left the first recorded Chinese account of Europe. Some modern authors have even claimed that |
Ban Chao advanced to the Caspian Sea, however, this interpretation has been criticized as a misreading. In 102 CE Ban Chao was retired as Protector General of the Western Regions due to age and ill health, and returned to the capital Luoyang at the age of 70, but the following |
month died there in the 9th month of the 14th Yongyuan year (30th Sept. to 28th Oct., 102). See: Hou Hanshu, chap 77 (sometimes given as chap. 107). Following his death, the power of the Xiongnu in the Western Territories increased again, and subsequent Chinese emperors were never to reach |
so far to the west. A family of historians Ban Chao also belonged to a family of historians. His father was Ban Biao (3-54 CE) who started the History of the Western Han Dynasty (Hanshu; The Book of Han) in 36, which was completed by his son Ban Gu (32-92) |
and his daughter Ban Zhao (Ban Chao's brother and sister). Ban Chao was probably the key source for the cultural and socio-economic data on the Western Regions contained in the Hanshu. Ban Chao's youngest son Ban Yong (班勇 Bān Yŏng) participated in military campaigns with his father and continued to |
have a central military role in the Tarim Basin into the 120s. Ban Chao's family - Ban Biao (班彪; 3-54; father) Famous quotes - "If you don't enter the tiger's den, how can you catch the tiger's cub?" (不入虎穴，不得虎子) - "Clear water can not harbor big fish, clean politics (or |
strict enforcement of regulations) can not foster harmony among the general public" (水清無大魚，察政不得下和) Ban Chao in idioms - See four-character idiom: - "Throw away your writing brush and join the military!" (投筆從戎) based on his words "A brave man has no other plan but to follow Fu and Zhang Qian's |
footsteps and do something and become somebody in a foreign land. How can I waste my life on writing? (大丈夫無他志略，猶當效傅介子、張騫立功異域，以取封侯，安能久事筆硯間乎？) in Hou Hanshu. - "Clear water harbors no fish." (水清無魚) Ban Chao of today See also - Hill (2009), p. 43. - Hill (2009), p. 5. - Hill (2009), p. |
5. - Hill (2009), p. 5. - Hill. (2009), p. 55. - J. Oliver Thomson, A History of Ancient Geography, Cambridge 1948, p.311. Thomson cites Richthofen, China, 1877, I, 469 and some other authors in support of the claim that Ban Chao marched to the Caspian, and Yule/Cordier, Cathay and |
the way thither, 1916 p.40 (p.40f in vol.I of the 2005 edition by Asian Educational Services), Chavannes, Seidenstrassen, p.8, and Teggart, Rome and China as references for such claims being erroneous. - Chavannes (1906), p. 243. - Hill (2009), p. xv. - Chavannes, Édouard (1906). "Trois Généraux Chinois de la |
dynastie des Han Orientaux. Pan Tch’ao (32-102 p.C.); – son fils Pan Yong; – Leang K’in (112 p.C.). Chapitre LXXVII du Heou Han chou." T’oung pao 7, pp. 210-269. - Hill, John E. (2009). Through the Jade Gate to Rome: A Study of the Silk Routes during the Later Han |
In statistics, a confidence region is a multi-dimensional generalization of a confidence interval. It is a set of points in an n-dimensional space, often represented as an ellipsoid around a point which is an estimated solution to a problem, although other shapes can occur. The confidence region is calculated in |
such a way that if a set of measurements were repeated many times and a confidence region calculated in the same way on each set of measurements, then a certain percentage of the time, on average, (e.g. 95%) the confidence region would include the point representing the "true" values of |
the set of variables being estimated. However, unless certain assumptions about prior probabilities are made, it does not mean, when one confidence region has been calculated, that there is a 95% probability that the "true" values lie inside the region, since we do not assume any particular probability distribution of |
the "true" values and we may or may not have other information about where they are likely to lie. The case of independent, identically normally-distributed errors Suppose we have found a solution to the following overdetermined problem: where Y is an n-dimensional column vector containing observed values, X is an |
n-by-p matrix which can represent a physical model and which is assumed to be known exactly, is a column vector containing the p parameters which are to be estimated, and is an n-dimensional column vector of errors which are assumed to be independently distributed with normal distributions with zero mean |
and each having the same unknown variance . A joint 100(1 - ) % confidence region for the elements of is represented by the set of values of the vector b which satisfy the following inequality: where the variable b represents any point in the confidence region, p is the |
number of parameters, i.e. number of elements of the vector and s2 is an unbiased estimate of equal to The above inequality defines an ellipsoidal region in the p-dimensional Cartesian parameter space Rp. The centre of the ellipsoid is at the solution . According to Press et al., it's easier |
to plot the ellipsoid after doing singular value decomposition. The lengths of the axes of the ellipsoid are proportional to the reciprocals of the values on the diagonals of the diagonal matrix, and the directions of these axes are given by the rows of the 3rd matrix of the decomposition. |
Weighted and generalised least squares Now let us consider the more general case where some distinct elements of have known nonzero covariance (in other words, the errors in the observations are not independently distributed), and/or the standard deviations of the errors are not all equal. Suppose the covariance matrix... |
is , where V is an n-by-n nonsingular matrix which was equal to in the more specific case handled in the previous section, (where I is the identity matrix,) but here is allowed to have nonzero off-diagonal elements representing the covariance of pairs of individual observations, as well as not |
necessarily having all the diagonal elements equal. It is possible to find a nonsingular symmetric matrix P such that In effect, P is a square root of the covariance matrix V. The least-squares problem can then be transformed by left-multiplying each term by the inverse of P, forming the new |
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