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Wireless communication systems are well known in the art. Generally, such systems comprise communication stations that transmit and receive wireless communication signals between each other. Typically, base stations are provided which are capable of conducting wireless concurrent communications with a plurality of subscriber stations. In Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) systems specified by the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), base stations are called Node Bs, subscriber stations are called User Equipments (UE) and the wireless interface between the Node Bs and UEs is known as the Uu interface. FIG. 1 illustrates a typical 3GPP CDMA system.
The Uu radio interface of a 3GPP communications system uses Transport Channels (TrCH) for transfer of user data and signaling between UEs and Node Bs. In 3GPP Time Division Duplex (TDD) communications, TrCH data is conveyed by one or more physical channels defined by mutually exclusive physical resources. TrCH data is transferred in sequential groups of Transport Blocks (TB) defined as Transport Block Sets (TBS). Each TBS is transmitted in a given Transmission Time Interval (TTI) which may span a plurality of consecutive system time frames. A typical system time frame is 10 milliseconds and TTIs are currently specified as spanning 1, 2, 4 or 8 of such time frames.
FIG. 2 illustrates the processing of TrCHs in TTD mode into a Coded Composite TrCH (CCTrCH) and then into one or more physical channel data streams in accordance with 3GPP TS 25.222 v3.8.0. Starting with the TB of data, Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC) bits are attached and TB concatenation and code block segmentation is performed. Convolution coding or turbo coding is then performed, but in some instances no coding is specified. The steps after coding, include radio frame equalization, a first interleaving, radio frame segmentation and rate matching. The radio frame segmentation divides the data over the number of frames in the specified TTI. The rate matching function operates by means of bit repetition or puncturing and defines the number of bits for each processed TrCH which are thereafter multiplexed to form a CCTrCH data stream.
The processing of the CCTrCH data stream includes bit scrambling, physical channel segmentation, a second interleaving and mapping onto one or more physical channels. The number of physical channels corresponds to the physical channel segmentation. For uplink transmissions, UE to Node B, the maximum number of physical channels for transmission of a CCTrCH is currently specified as two. For downlink transmissions, Node B to UEs, the maximum number of physical channels for transmission of a CCTrCH is currently specified as sixteen. Each physical channel data stream is then spread with a channelization code and modulated for over air transmission on an assigned frequency.
In the reception/decoding of the TrCH data, the processing is essentially reversed by the receiving station. Accordingly, UE and Node B physical reception of TrCHs require knowledge of TrCH processing parameters to reconstruct the TBS data. For each TrCH, a Transport Format Set (TFS) is specified containing a predetermined number of Transport Formats (TF). Each TF specifies a variety of dynamic parameters, including TB and TBS sizes, and a variety of semi static parameters, including TTI, coding type, coding rate, rate matching parameter and CRC length. The predefined collection of TFSs for the TrCHs of a CCTrCH for a particular frame is denoted as a Transport Format Combination (TFC).
Receiving station processing is facilitated by the transmission of a Transport Format Combination Indicator (TFCI) for a CCTrCH. 3GPP optionally provides for “blind transport format detection” by the receiving station, in which case the receiving station considers the potential valid TFCIs. Where there is only one valid TFCI, that TFCI is used in either case.
In 3GPP, time slot transmissions are made in predefined bursts where the transmitted physical channel data is divided into a beginning time slot portion and an ending time slot portion. A selected midamble is included between the two physical channel data portions. The TFCI is currently specified as transmitted in two parts on either side of the midamble and also between the two physical channel data portions. Two examples from 3GPP TR 25.944 V3.5.0 are illustrated in FIGS. 3 and 4 respectively where the block labeled MA represents the midamble and the block labeled T represents the parts of the TFCI. In FIG. 4, the CCTrCH is mapped to two physical channels, but only one physical channel includes the TFCI.
FIGS. 5A, 5B and 6 are diagrams of channel coding and multiplexing examples in accordance with 3GPP Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) specifications.
The various encoding steps implemented in communication systems play a key role in both performance and capacity of a wireless telecommunications systems. In particular, the turbo coding of the data being processed for wireless transmission plays a significant role for both TDD and FDD communications in a 3GPP system.
Turbo coding principles have found widespread applications in information theory and, in part, have entered into mainstream telecommunication theory and practice. These principles are used in error control, detection, interference suppression, equalization, and other communications-related areas. Turbo codes are a form of parallel, recursive systematic convolution codes, which can be used for channel coding and decoding in order to detect and correct errors that may occur in the transmission of digital data through different channels. Turbo codes are particularly useful for data transfers in which, under certain conditions, the data transfer rate can approach the theoretical limits of Shannon's Law. These favorable conditions generally include large block size transfers, which are particularly useful in mobile communications.
FIG. 7 shows how particular codes created by puncturing exhibit poorer than expected performance. As much as a 4 dB loss can be measured in the critical Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) value.
Typically, high-rate Turbo codes are created by puncturing (i.e., eliminating) parity bits of a lower-rate code until the desired code rate is attained. Particular codes created by puncturing exhibit poorer than expected performance due to certain punctured bit patterns. Because the recursive encoding blocks in a Turbo encoder have an infinite impulse response, information about each systematic bit is distributed across many of the parity bits.
In any error control coding scheme that employs puncturing, the location of the punctured bits will have an impact on performance. This is because puncturing strings of successive bits can be viewed as burst errors by the decoder. All error control mechanisms can only correct burst errors that are less than some threshold. Therefore, it is important when designing the puncturing scheme that the burst error correcting abilities of the code be considered. In the absence of specific knowledge of the error control coding scheme, a good rule is to minimize the maximum string of punctured bits. For high coding rates this corresponds to distributing the non-punctured bits uniformly across the transmitted block. Puncturing schemes that uniformly distribute the non-punctured bits can deleteriously interact with certain error control codes, causing a degradation of decoder performance.
Because the recursive encoding blocks in the Turbo encoder have infinite impulse response, information about each systematic bit is distributed across many of the parity bits. The impact of certain periodic non-puncture patterns in the parity bits can be qualitatively illustrated by considering how much information remains in the surviving parity bits.
Regions where performance of the punctured Turbo code is degraded can be determined by measuring how close the puncturing pattern is to being periodic with period related to the period of the semi-periodic impulse response of the recursive encoding blocks of the Turbo encoder.
For a 3GPP Turbo encoder, the constituent recursive encoders have an impulse response that is periodic with a period of 7 symbols for positive time (semi-periodic). This can readily be seen by interpretation of the encoder as an M-sequence generator, i.e., if the shift register starts in the zero state and a one is applied only at t=0, then the encoder is exactly a Linear Feedback Shift Register (LFSR) with an associated 3rd order primitive polynomial and initial state {1 0 0}, thus a period 23−1=7 M-sequence is generated for positive time.
The encoder is a Linear Time Invariant (LTI) system on a binary field. Therefore, the output of the encoder is a sum of shifted versions of the impulse response of the encoder, each shifted impulse response corresponding to the locations of the 1's in the TB. If we consider an input that is all 0's for t>T, then the output of the constituent recursive encoding block will also be semi-periodic for t>T.
Certain non-puncturing periods may result in a loss of distributed information about a small group of bits across the set of parity bits. For example, let the TB consist of 7 bits followed by many zeros. Now consider the problem of trying to determine the seven bits by observation of the output of one encoder after heavy puncturing. Each observation is made at the output is a sum of a subset of the 7 bits, the subset being determined by the non-puncture period and the impulse response of the recursive encoding block. For most non-puncture patterns (those that have a period relatively prime with the period of the semi-periodic impulse response), sums over 7 different subsets can eventually be observed. Therefore, a system of 7 equations with 7 unknowns can be formed. Assuming they are linearly independent, the values of the 7 bits may be determined. However, consider the case where the non-puncture period is simple (one surviving parity bit per period) and the same as the period of the recursive encoding block, 7. Then every observation for t>6 is the sum of the same subset of the 7 bits and so no new information is obtained, i.e., a rank-1 system of equations is formed and a unique solution does not exist. This is due to the periodic nature of the signal. When the non-puncture period is relatively prime with the period of the recursive encoding block, a series of observations of the parity bits will eventually form a rank-7 system of equations. For our 7-bit group, this is sufficient to uniquely determine the bits, i.e., information sufficient to determine the bits is distributed across the surviving parity bits. When the periods are not relatively prime, the rank of the system becomes L/K where L is the period of the recursive encoding block and K is the Greatest Common Divider (GCD) of L and N where N is the period of the non-puncture pattern.
In the above illustration, a long sequence of zeros after the small group of bits was supposed for clarity sake. However, allowing additional groups of bits to follow the first group does not add to the distributed information about earlier groups. This can be seen from the causality of the system.
It is also possible that some distributed information is lost even for non-simple periods, e.g., consider the case where the non-puncture pattern alternates between a simple period of three and four. This results in a period 7 non-puncture pattern but with two surviving parity bits per period. The same argument above leads to a rank-2 system of seven equations which is still insufficient to uniquely determine the group of bits, but does reduce the dimension of the space they may span. Clearly, some information about the small group of bits is lost for some non-punctured patterns.
In order to obtain adequate performance, it is necessary to detect, avoid and/or correct the problematic puncturing patterns in the parity bit streams without having to avoid code rates. Typically, problematic interactions occur between the Turbo coder output and puncturing in the rate matching stages.
It would be desirable to have a method for creating high-rate Turbo codes that avoids problematic interactions by modifying the puncturing patterns.
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"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
}
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Q:
How do I get to the "Fowl Lair"
In a separate forum I was reading, a poster described an easter egg area called "The Fowl Lair". I could imagine that this is the replacement for the Cow Level from Diablo II, but I hope that is not the case. How do I get to this area? Are there any monsters or treasure to be had, or any other benefit to going there?
A:
To get to the Fowl Lair you need to use the Ancient Device in Desolate Sands. It is one of the 10 possible outcomes of using the Ancient Device. So take note that not only is the spawn of the device random but there's only 10% of getting the Fowl Lair.
Where are all the random dungeons?
This contains a community wiki of random locations and which zones they are in. It was revised to add Fowl Lair based on this forum thread:
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/5149619068
The plateau on the map (obviously random location, but that's the shape)
The Ancient Device
The entrance to the Fowl Lair after succesfully spawning it using the device (took A LOT of tries)
Inside the Fowl Lair
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"pile_set_name": "StackExchange"
}
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A blog on building a happy life by Fionnuala Zinnecker
The 3 Ingredient Snack You Have to Make This Weekend
The Bavarian adores peanuts – salted, spicy, in chocolate or straight from the shell i.e. monkey nuts. I, on the other hand, do not. I’d eat a few salted peanuts at a push, but I wouldn’t go out of my way to have them.
But almonds, well, now they are a different story. The whole family loves almonds. While the boys and I devour anything with marzipan, The Bavarian is more of a purist. He’ll down a packet of plain, baking almonds in their skins as quickly as he puts away a pack of salted peanuts.
But now we have come across one nut snack we both love. While not actual fusion food, it is a combination of nuttiness and saltiness that, serendipitously, appeals to both myself and The Bavarian and goes perfectly with beer, prosecco, wine or a G&T. Or two.
So, what is it and how easy is it to make? The answers are salted almonds and very easy. With ten minutes and three ingredients you can be in snack heaven. Salty, crunchy, warm and nutty – what more can you ask for in a snack. Open your favourite bottle of
Ingredients
200g almonds with their skins on
2 dsps olive oil
Sea salt
Perheat the oven to 200°C. Spread the almonds in a single layer on a baking tray. Drizzle the olive oil over the almonds. Sprinkle with some ground sea salt. Don’t overdo it. You can adjust the seasoning after roasting. Toss the almonds on the baking tray to ensure they are all lightly coated in oil and salt.
Place them in the oven for 8-12 minutes, depending on how crunchy you want them.
Remove from the oven. Tilt the baking tray to allow excess oil to drain off the almonds then remove the almonds to a small dish. Serve warm or cold with a cold drink.
Fionnuala is an Irish mama to her three bilingual boys in Germany. She can usually be found, cuppa in hand, in the kitchen or garden with her children, chickens and dog. Planning new projects, writing, cooking, keeping an eye out for vintage treasures and taking photos for her award-winning blog are among her favourite pastimes. Her official job is project manager.
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{
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
}
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Multimodality Imaging Assessment of Pulmonary Nodules.
A common clinical dilemma is the evaluation of pulmonary nodules detected on imaging. Differentiation between malignant and benign pulmonary nodules is a complex problem despite major advances in medical imaging. Accurate diagnosis helps to eliminate unnecessary surgical procedures in patients with benign diseases. It is important for the diagnostician to be aware of the role of multimodality imaging for characterization of pulmonary nodules.
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{
"pile_set_name": "PubMed Abstracts"
}
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---
abstract: 'For one parameter subgroup action on a finite volume homogeneous space, we consider the set of points admitting divergent on average trajectories. We show that the Hausdorff dimension of this set is strictly less than the manifold dimension of the homogeneous space. As a corollary we know that the Hausdorff dimension of the set of points admitting divergent trajectories is not full, which proves a conjecture of Y. Cheung [@c11].'
address:
- 'Department of Mathematics, University of York, Heslington, York, YO10 5DD, United Kingdom'
- 'Shanghai Center for Mathematical Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, PR China'
author:
- Lifan Guan
- Ronggang Shi
title: Hausdorff dimension of divergent trajectories on homogeneous space
---
[^1]
[^2]
Introduction
============
Let $G$ be a connected Lie group, $\Gamma$ be a lattice of $G$[^3] and $F=\{f_t: t\in {\mathbb{R}}\}$ be a one parameter subgroup of $G$. The action of $F$ on the homogeneous space $G/\Gamma$ by left translation defines a flow. In this paper we consider the dynamics of the semiflow given by the action of $F^+
{{\, \stackrel{\mathrm{def}}{=}\, }}\{ f_t: t\ge 0 \}$. For $x\in G/\Gamma$ we say the trajectory $F^+x{{\, \stackrel{\mathrm{def}}{=}\, }}\{f_t x: t\ge 0 \}$ is *divergent* if $f_t x$ leaves any fixed compact subset of $G/\Gamma$ provided $t$ is sufficiently large. We say $F^+x$ is *divergent on average* if for any characteristic function $\mathbbm {1}_K$ of a compact subset $K$ of $G/\Gamma $ one has $$\lim\limits_{T\to \infty}\frac{1}{T}\int_0^T \mathbbm{1}_K (f_t x){\; \mathrm{d}}t= 0.$$ Clearly, if the trajectory $F^+x$ is divergent, then it is divergent on average. The aim of this paper is to understand the set of divergent points $${\mathfrak {D}}'(F^+, G/\Gamma){{\, \stackrel{\mathrm{def}}{=}\, }}\{x\in {G/\Gamma}: F^+x \text{ is divergent}\},$$ and the set of divergent on average points $${\mathfrak {D}}(F^+, G/\Gamma){{\, \stackrel{\mathrm{def}}{=}\, }}\{x\in {G/\Gamma}: F^+x\text{ is divergent on average}\},$$ in terms of their Hausdorff dimensions. Here the Hausdorff dimension is defined by attaching ${G/\Gamma}$ with a Riemannian metric. It is well-known that different choices of Riemannian metrics will not affect the Hausdorff dimension of subsets of ${G/\Gamma}$. Indeed, specific Riemannian metric will be used later for the sake of convenience.
According to the work of Margulis [@Ma] and Dani [@d84][@d86], it is well-known that if $F$ is ${\mathrm{Ad}}$-unipotent then the space $G/\Gamma$ admits no divergent on average trajectories of $F^+$. In other words, the set ${\mathfrak {D}}(F^+, G/\Gamma)$, hence the set ${\mathfrak {D}}'(F^+, G/\Gamma)$, is empty. On the other hand, the set ${\mathfrak {D}}(F^+, G/\Gamma)$ can be complicated when $F$ is ${\mathrm{Ad}}$-diagonalizable. For example, it was proved by Cheung in [@c11] that the Hausdorff dimension of ${\mathfrak {D}}'(F^+, {\mathrm{SL}}_3(\mathbb R)/{\mathrm{SL}}_3(\mathbb Z))$ with $F=\{{\mathrm{diag}}(e^t, e^t, e^{-2t}): t\in {\mathbb{R}}\}$ is equal to $7\frac{1}{3}$. Based on his results, Cheung raised the following conjecture in [@c11].
Let $\Gamma$ be a lattice of a connected Lie group $G$ and let $F=\{f_t: t\in {\mathbb{R}}\}$ be a one parameter subgroup of $G$. Then the Hausdorff dimension of ${\mathfrak {D}}'(F^+, G/\Gamma)$ is strictly less than the manifold dimension of $G/\Gamma$.
The conjecture is known to be true in the following cases where $G$ is a semisimple Lie group without compact factors and $F$ is ${\mathrm{Ad}}$-diagonalizable:
1. $G$ is of rank one [@Dani].
2. $G=\prod_{i=1}^{n}{\mathrm{SO}}(n,1)$, $\Gamma=\prod_{i=1}^{n}\Gamma_i$ with each $\Gamma_i$ lattice in ${\mathrm{SO}}(n,1)$ and $F< G$ the is diagonal embedding of any one parameter real split torus $A$ of ${\mathrm{SO}}(n,1)$ [@c07][@yang].
3. ${G/\Gamma}={\mathrm{SL}}_{m+n}({\mathbb{R}})/{\mathrm{SL}}_{m+n}({\mathbb{Z}})$ and $F=F_{n,m}=\{{\mathrm{diag}}(e^{nt},\ldots, e^{nt}, e^{-mt}, \ldots, e^{-mt}): t\in {\mathbb{R}}\}$ with $m,n\ge 1$ [@c11][@cc16][@KKLM].
Indeed, for all the cases listed above, the Hausdorff dimension of the corresponding ${\mathfrak {D}}'(F^+, G/\Gamma)$ have been determined.
There are evidences that a stronger version of this conjecture is true. It was proved by Einsiedler-Kadyrov in [@ek12] that the Hausdorff dimension of ${\mathfrak {D}}(F^+, {\mathrm{SL}}_3(\mathbb R)/{\mathrm{SL}}_3(\mathbb Z))$ is at most $7\frac{1}{3}$ when $F=F_{1,2}$ as in (3). Using the contraction property of the height function introduced in [@emm98], it was proved by Kadyrov, Kleinbock, Lindenstrauss and Margulis in [@KKLM] that for any $m,n\ge 1$, the Hausdorff dimension of ${\mathfrak {D}}(F^+, {\mathrm{SL}}_{m+n}(\mathbb R)/{\mathrm{SL}}_{m+n}(\mathbb Z))$ is at most $\dim G- \frac{mn}{m+n}$ when $F=F_{n,m}$ as in (3). See also [@elmv][@k][@kp][@lsst][@dfsu][@weiss] for related results. Now we state the main result of this paper, from which Cheung’s conjecture follows.
\[t-main\] Let $\Gamma$ be a lattice of a connected Lie group $G$ and let $F=\{f_t: t\in {\mathbb{R}}\}$ be a one parameter subgroup of $G$. Then the Hausdorff dimension of ${\mathfrak {D}}(F^+, G/\Gamma)$ is strictly less than the manifold dimension of $G/\Gamma$.
We will reduce the proof of Theorem \[t-main\] to the special case where $G$ is a semisimple linear group. Recall that a connected semisimple Lie group $G$ contained in ${\mathrm{SL}}_k({\mathbb{R}})$ has a natural structure of real algebraic group. So terminologies of algebraic groups have natural meanings for $G$ and are independent of the embeddings of $G$ into ${\mathrm{SL}}_k({\mathbb{R}})$. In particular, the one parameter group $F$ has the following real Jordan decomposition which is a special case of [@borel Theorem 4.4].
\[l-RJD\] Let $G\le {\mathrm{SL}}_k({\mathbb{R}})$ be a connected semisimple Lie group. For any one parameter subgroup $F=\{f_t: t\in {\mathbb{R}}\}$, there are uniquely determined one parameter subgroups $K_F=\{k_t:t\in {\mathbb{R}}\}$, $A_F=\{a_t:t\in {\mathbb{R}}\}$ and $U_F=\{u_t:t\in {\mathbb{R}}\}$ with the following properties:
- $f_t=k_ta_tu_t$.
- $K_F$ is bounded, $A_F$ is ${\mathbb{R}}$-diagonalizable and $U_F$ is unipotent.
- All the elements of $K_F$, $A_F$ and $U_F$ commute with each other.
The subgroups $K_F, A_F$ and $ U_F$ are called compact, diagonal and unipotent parts of $F$, respectively. In §\[sec;2\] we will reduce the proof of Theorem \[t-main\] to its following special case which contains the main unknown situations.
\[thm;general\] Let $ G \le {\mathrm{SL}}_k({\mathbb{R}})$ be a connected center-free semisimple Lie group without compact factors. Let $F=\{f_t: t\in {\mathbb{R}}\}$ be a one parameter subgroup of $G$ such that the compact part $K_F$ is trivial but the diagonal part $A_F$ is nontrivial. We assume the followings hold:
- $G=\prod_{i=1}^m G_i$ is a direct product of connected normal subgroups $G_i$.
- $\Gamma =\prod_{i=1}^m \Gamma_i$ where each $\Gamma_i$ is a nonuniform irreducible lattice of $G_i$.
- The group $A_F$ has nontrivial projection to each $G_i$.
Then the Hausdorff dimension of $
{\mathfrak {D}}(F^+, G/\Gamma)
$ is strictly less than the manifold dimension of $G/\Gamma$.
The proof of Theorem \[thm;general\] is from §\[sec;3\] till the end of the paper. Indeed, the upper bound of the Hausdorff dimension in the setting of Theorem \[thm;general\] can be explicitly calculated and we will make this point clear during the proof.
Our main tool will be the Eskin-Margulis height function (abbreviated as EM height function) introduced in [@em]. If $F$ is diagonalizable, i.e. $F=A_F$, Theorem \[t-main\] can be established using the strategy developed in [@KKLM] and the contraction property of the proved in [@s]. But when $F$ has nontrivial unipotent parts, i.e. $U_F$ is nontrivial, essential new ideas are needed. The following example contains the main difficulties we need to handle in the proof of Theorem \[thm;general\]: $ G={\mathrm{SL}}_4({\mathbb{R}})\times {\mathrm{SL}}_4({\mathbb{R}}), \Gamma ={\mathrm{SL}}_4({\mathbb{Z}}[\sqrt 2]) $ which embeds in $G$ diagonally via Galois conjugates, and $$f_t =
\left(
\begin{array}{cccc}
e^t & 0 & 0 & 0\\
0 & e^{-t} & 0 & 0\\
0 & 0 & 1 & t \\
0 & 0 & 0 & 1
\end{array}
\right)\times
\left(
\begin{array}{cccc}
1 & t & 0 & 0\\
0 & 1 & 0 & 0\\
0 & 0 & 1 & 0 \\
0 & 0 & 0 & 1
\end{array}
\right).$$ There are two main difficulties. One is caused by the unipotent part of $f_t$ in the first ${\mathrm{SL}}_4({\mathbb{R}})$ factor, and the other is caused by the unipotent part of $f_t$ in the second ${\mathrm{SL}}_4({\mathbb{R}})$ factor. To overcome these difficulties, we will prove a uniform contraction property for a family of one parameter subgroups in §\[sec;3\] and §\[sec;height\] with respect to the EM height function. Then the last two sections are devoted to the proof of Theorem \[thm;general\].
Proof of Theorem \[t-main\] {#sec;2}
===========================
In this section we prove Theorems \[t-main\] assuming Theorem \[thm;general\]. Let $G, \Gamma, F$ be as in Theorem \[t-main\]. We choose and fix a Euclidean norm $\|\cdot\|$ on the Lie algebra ${\mathfrak{g}}$ of $G$, which induces a right invariant Riemannian metric ${\mathrm{dist}}(\cdot, \cdot)$ on $G$. Moreover, this metric naturally induce a metric on $G/\Gamma$, also denoted by $``{\mathrm{dist}}"$, as follows: $${\mathrm{dist}}(g\Gamma, h\Gamma )=\inf_{\gamma\in \Gamma}{\mathrm{dist}}(g\gamma, h)\quad \mbox{where }g, h\in G .$$
Let ${\mathfrak{r}}$ be the maximal amenable ideal of the Lie algebra ${\mathfrak{g}}$ of $G$, i.e. the largest ideal whose analytic subgroup is amenable. The adjoint action of $G$ on $\mathfrak s={\mathfrak{g}}/{\mathfrak{r}}$ defines a homomorphism $\pi:G\mapsto \mathrm{Aut}(\mathfrak s)$. Let $S$ be the connected component of $\mathrm{Aut}(\mathfrak s)$. It follows from the Levi decomposition of $G$ that $\pi(G)=S$ and $S$ is a center-free semisimple Lie group without compact factors. It is known that $\Gamma\cap {\mathrm{Ker}}(\pi)$ is a cocompact lattice in ${\mathrm{Ker}}(\pi)$ and $\pi(\Gamma)$ is a lattice in $S$, see e.g. [@BQ Lemma 6.1]. Therefore, [the induced map $\overline {\pi}: G/\Gamma \mapsto S/\pi(\Gamma)$ is proper]{}, and consequently $$\begin{aligned}
\label{eq;equal}
\overline{\pi}({\mathfrak {D}}(F^+, G/\Gamma))={\mathfrak {D}}(\pi(F^+), S/\pi(\Gamma)).
\end{aligned}$$
Let $\varphi: \mathfrak s\to \mathfrak g$ be an embedding of Lie algebras such that $\mathrm{d}\pi\circ \varphi$ is the identity map. It follows from (\[eq;equal\]) that for any $x\in G/\Gamma$ and any $v\in \mathfrak s$ $$\exp(v)\overline{\pi}(x)\in {\mathfrak {D}}(\pi(F^+), S/\pi(\Gamma))$$ if and only if $$\exp(\varphi(v))\exp (v')x\in {\mathfrak {D}}(F^+, G/\Gamma) \mbox{\quad for all }v'\in {\mathfrak{r}}.$$ By Marstrand’s product theorem, the Hausdorff dimension of the product of two sets of Euclidean spaces is bounded from above by the sum of the Hausdorff dimension of one set and the packing dimension of the other, e.g. [@bp Theorem 3.2.1]. So to prove Theorem \[t-main\] it suffices to give a nontrivial upper bound of the Hausdorff dimension of ${\mathfrak {D}}(\pi(F^+), S/\pi(\Gamma)) $.
We summarize what we have obtained as follows.
\[prop;more\] Theorem \[t-main\] is equivalent to its special case where $G$ is a center-free semisimple Lie group without compact factors.
According to Lemma \[prop;more\], it suffices to prove the theorem under the additional assumption that $G$ is a center-free semisimple Lie group without compact factors. Under this assumption, the adjoint representation ${\mathrm{Ad}}: G\to {\mathrm{SL}}({\mathfrak{g}}) $ is a closed embedding. According to the real Jordan decomposition in Lemma \[l-RJD\], the compact part $K_{F}$ does not affect the divergence on average property of the trajectories. So we assume without loss of generality that $K_{F}$ is trivial.
There exist finitely many connected semisimple subgroups $G_i$ such that $G= \prod_i G_i$ and $\Gamma_i {{\, \stackrel{\mathrm{def}}{=}\, }}\Gamma \cap G_i$ is an irreducible lattice of $G_i$ for each $i$. It follows that $\prod_i \Gamma_i$ is a finite index subgroup of $\Gamma$ and the natural quotient map $G/\prod_i \Gamma_i \rightarrow {G/\Gamma}$ is proper. So we assume moreover that $\Gamma= \prod_i \Gamma_i$.
Denote by $\pi_j $ the projection of $G$ to $G/ G_j=\prod_{i\neq j}G_i$ and denote by $\overline{\pi}_j$ the induced map from $G/\Gamma$ to $\pi_j(G)/\pi_j(\Gamma)=\prod_{i\neq j} G_i/\Gamma_i$. Here if $G=G_j$ we interpret $\prod_{i\neq j}G_i$ as a trivial group and $\prod_{i\neq j} G_i/\Gamma_i$ as a singe point set. If $G_j/\Gamma_j$ is compact or the projection of $A_F$ to $G_j$ contains only the neutral element, then $${\mathfrak {D}}(F^+, G/\Gamma) = \overline{\pi}_j^{-1}\Big({\mathfrak {D}}\big(\pi_j(F^+), \prod_{i\neq j}G_i/\Gamma_i\big)\Big).$$ So either ${\mathfrak {D}}(F^+, G/\Gamma)$ is an empty set or we finally can reduce the problem to the setting of Theorem \[thm;general\] where each $\Gamma_i$ is a nonuniform lattice and the projection of $A_F$ to each $G_i $ is nontrivial. This completes the proof.
Preliminary on linear representations {#sec;3}
=====================================
From this section, we start the proof of Theorem \[thm;general\]. At the beginning of each section we will set up some notation that will be used later. Let $G$ and $ F$ be as in Theorem \[thm;general\]. Let $A_F=\{a_t:t\in {\mathbb{R}}\}$ and $U_F=\{u_t: t\in {\mathbb{R}}\}$ be the diagonal and unipotent parts of $F$. Let $H$ be the unique connected normal subgroup of $G$ such that $A_F\le H $ and the projection of $A_F$ to each simple factor of $H$ is nontrivial. Since $A_F$ is nontrivial and $G$ is center-free, $H$ is (nontrivial) product of some simple factors of $G$. Hence $H$ is a semisimple Lie group without compact factors. Let $S$ be the product of simple factors of $G$ not contained in $H$. Then $S$ is also semisimple normal subgroup of $G$ that commutes with $H$. Moreover, $G=HS$ and $H\cap S=1_G$, where $1_G$ is the neutral element of $G$. In this section we prove a couple of auxiliary results for a finite dimensional linear representation $\rho: G\rightarrow {\mathrm{GL}}(V)$ on a (nonzero real) normed vector space $V$. These results will be used in the next section to prove the uniform contracting property of EM height function. We will use $\|\cdot\|$ to denote the norm on $V$.
For $\lambda\in {\mathbb{R}}$, we denote the $\lambda$-Lyapunov subspace of $A_F$ by $$V^{\lambda}=\{v\in V: \rho (a_t) v=e^{\lambda t} v \}.$$ Recall that if $V^\lambda\neq \{0 \}$, then $\lambda$ is a called an Lyapunov exponent of $(\rho, V)$. Since $U_F$ commutes with $A_F$, every Lyapunov subspace $V^{\lambda}$ is $U_F$-invariant. As $A_F$ is ${\mathbb{R}}$-diagonalizable, the space $V$ can be decomposed as $V^+\oplus V^0\oplus V^-$ where $$V^+=\oplus_{\lambda>0}V^{\lambda}\quad\mbox{and }\quad V^-=\oplus_{\lambda <0}V^{\lambda}.$$
Now we consider the adjoint representation of $G$ on the Lie algebra ${\mathfrak{g}}$ of $G$. It is easily checked that ${\mathfrak{g}}^+, {\mathfrak{g}}^-$ and $ {\mathfrak{g}}^c{{\, \stackrel{\mathrm{def}}{=}\, }}{\mathfrak{g}}^0$ are subalgebras of ${\mathfrak{g}}$. The connected subgroup $G^+$ (resp. $ G^-$) with Lie algebras ${\mathfrak{g}}^+$ (resp. ${\mathfrak{g}}^-$) is called unstable (resp. stable) horospherical subgroup of $a_1$. We denote the connected component of the centralizer of $a_1$ in $G$ by $G^c$ whose Lie algebra is ${\mathfrak{g}}^c$. Let $d, d^c, d^-$ be the manifold dimensions of $G^+$, $G^c$ and $G^-$, respectively. It follows from the nontriviality of $A_F$ that $d>0$.
For $r\ge 0$ we let $B_r^{G}=\{h\in G: {\mathrm{dist}}(h, 1_G)<r \}$, $B_r^{\pm }=\{h\in G^{\pm}: {\mathrm{dist}}(h, 1_G)<r \}$ and $B_r^c=\{h\in G^c: {\mathrm{dist}}(h, 1_G)<r \}$. By rescaling the Riemannian metric if necessary, we may assume that:
1. the product map $B_1^-\times B_1^c\times B_1^+\to G$ is a diffeomorhism onto its image,
2. and the logarithm map is well-defined on $B_1^{G}$ and is a diffeomorphism onto its image.
According to (1), it is safe to identity the product $B_1^-\times B_1^c\times B_1^+$ with $B_1^-B_1^cB_1^+$ and we will mainly use the later notation for sake of convenience. The same statement as (2) also holds for $B_1^{\pm }$ and $B_1^c$.
We fix a Haar measure $\mu$ on $G^+$ normalized with $\mu(B_1^+)=1$. Since the metric $``{\mathrm{dist}}"$ is right invariant, any open ball of radius $r$ in $G^+$ has the form $B_r^+ h$ $(h\in G^+)$ and there exits $C_0\ge 1$ such that $$\begin{aligned}
\label{eq;c+}
C_0^{-1}r^d\le \mu( B_r^+ h)=\mu{(B_r^+)}\le C_0 r^d\quad \mbox{for all } 0\le r\le 1 .
\end{aligned}$$ For $g, h\in G$ we let $g^h= h^{-1}g h$. For $z\in G^c$, let $F _z = \{f_t ^z : t\in {\mathbb{R}}\}$ and $F _z ^+= \{f_t ^z : t \ge 0 \}$. Note that $f_t ^z = a_t u_t ^z $ and $$\begin{aligned}
\label{eq;compact}
\{ u_1 ^z : z\in B_1^c \} \quad \mbox{is relatively compact. }
\end{aligned}$$
\[l-v+-\] Let $\rho: G\to {\mathrm{GL}}(V)$ be a representation on a finite dimensional normed vector space $V$. Let $\lambda$ be a Lyapunov exponent of $(\rho, V)$. For any $0<\delta<1$, there exists $T_\delta >0$ such that, for all $t\ge T_\delta, z\in B_1^c$ and unit vector $v\in V^{\lambda}$ we have $$\label{ine-v+-}
e^{(1-\delta)\lambda t}\le \|\rho(f_{t} ^z )v\|
\le e^{(1+\delta)\lambda t}.$$
For all $v\in V^\lambda$ with $ \|v\|=1$ we have $ \|\rho(a_t)v\|= e^{\lambda t}$. On the other hand, in view of (\[eq;compact\]), there exists $C>0$ and $n\in {\mathbb{N}}$[^4] such that $$\|\rho (u_{ t} ^z ) \|\le C (|t|+1)^n$$ for all $z \in B^c_1$ and $t\in {\mathbb{R}}$. Therefore, for any unit vector $v\in V^\lambda, z\in B_1^c$ and sufficiently large $t$, $$\begin{aligned}
\|\rho(f_{ t} ^z )v\|&\ge \|\rho(u_{ -t} ^z )\|^{-1} \|\rho(a_t)v\|\ge C^{-1}(|t|+1)^{-n}e^{\lambda t}\ge e^{(1-\delta)\lambda t}, \\
\|\rho(f_{ t} ^z )v\|&\le \|\rho(u_{ t} ^z )\| \|\rho(a_t)v\|\le C(|t|+1)^ne^{\lambda t}\le e^{(1+\delta)\lambda t}.
\end{aligned}$$
From now on till the end of this section, we assume that $\rho: G\to {\mathrm{GL}}(V)$ is a representation on a finite dimensional normed vector space $V$ which has no nonzero $H$-invariant vectors. As any two norms on $V$ are equivalent, we also assume that the norm is Euclidean without loss of generality.
Recall that a nonzero $H$-invariant subspace $V'$ of $V$ is said to be $H$-irreducible if $V'$ contains no $H$-invariant subspaces besides $\{0 \}$ and itself. The complete reducibility of representations of $H$ implies that there exists a unique decomposition (called $H$-isotropic decomposition) $$\begin{aligned}
\label{eq;complicate}
V=V_1 \oplus \cdots \oplus V_m\end{aligned}$$ such that irreducible sub-representations of $H$ in the same $V_i$ are isomorphic but irreducible sub-representations in different $V_i$ are non-isomorphic. Since $S$ commutes with $H$, each $V_i$ is $S$-invariant, and hence $G $-invariant. Each $V_i$ is called an $H$-isotropic subspace of $V$.
Let $\lambda_i$ be the top Lyapunov exponent of $A_F$ in $(\rho, V_i)$, i.e., $$\begin{aligned}
\lambda_i= \max\{ \lambda\in \mathbb R: V_i^{\lambda}\neq \{ 0\} \}.\end{aligned}$$ Since the projection of $A_F$ to each simple factor of $H$ is nontrivial, every $\lambda_i$ is positive. Let $\lambda$ be the minimum of top Lyapunov exponents in each $V_i$, i.e. $$\begin{aligned}
\label{eq;top}
\lambda= \min\{ \lambda_i: 1\le i\le m \}>0.\end{aligned}$$ Let $\pi_i:
V_i\to V^{\lambda_i}_i$ be the $A_F$-equivariant projection.
\[lem;sharp\] For all $v\in V_i{\smallsetminus}\{0\}$, the map $$\begin{aligned}
\label{eq;varphi}
\varphi_v: G^+ \mapsto {\mathbb{R}}\quad \mbox{where}\quad \varphi_v(h)=\|\pi_i(\rho(h)v)\|^2
\end{aligned}$$ is not identically zero.
Suppose $\varphi_v$ is identically zero. Then $\rho(G^+) v\subset V'_i$ where $V'_i\subset V_i$ is the $A_F$-invariant complimentary subspace of $V^{\lambda_i}_i$. This implies that $\rho(G^-G^cG^+) v\subset V'_i$. Since $G^-G^cG^+$ contains an open dense subset of $G$, see e.g. [@mt94 Proposition 2.7], we moreover have that $\rho(G)v\subset V'_i$. This is impossible since the intersection of $V^{\lambda_i}_i$ with each $H$-invariant subspace of $V_i$ is nonzero. This contradiction completes the proof.
\[l-c-alpha\] For all $v\in V_i{\smallsetminus}\{0\}$ and $r\ge 0$, let $$E(v,r)=\{h\in B_1^+ : \|\pi_i(\rho(h)v)\|\le r \}.$$ Then there exists $\theta_i>0$ such that $$\label{constant-c-alpha}
C_i{{\, \stackrel{\mathrm{def}}{=}\, }}\sup_{\|v\|=1,v\in V_i}r^{-\theta_i}\mu(E(v,r))<\infty.$$ In particular, $ \mu(E(v,0))=0$.
Since $G^+$ is a unipotent group, it is simply connected and by [@cg Theorem 1.2.10 (a)] there is an isomorphism of affine varieties ${\mathbb{R}}^{d}\to G^+$ such that the Lebesgue measure of ${\mathbb{R}}^d$ corresponds to the Haar measure $\mu$. During the proof, we will identify the group $G^+$ with ${\mathbb{R}}^{d}$ for convenience.
By Lemma \[lem;sharp\], for every nonzero $v\in V_i$ the map $\varphi_v$ in (\[eq;varphi\]) is a nonzero polynomial map. So $\varphi_v|_{B_1^+}$ is nonzero. Note that the degrees of $\varphi_v$ ($v\in V_i$) are uniformly bounded from above. Therefore, the $(C, \alpha)$-good property of polynomials in [@bkm §3] implies that there exist positive constants $C$ and $ \alpha$ such that $$\begin{aligned}
\label{eq;1}
\mu(E(v, r))\le C \left (\frac{r^2}{ \sup_{h\in B_1^+}\varphi_v(h)}\right)^\alpha
\end{aligned}$$ for all nonzero $v\in V_i$. Since the set of unit vectors of $V_i$ is compact, $$\begin{aligned}
\label{eq;2}
\inf_{\|v\|=1, v\in V_i} \sup_{h\in B_1^+}\varphi_v(h)>0.
\end{aligned}$$ So (\[constant-c-alpha\]) follows from (\[eq;1\]) and (\[eq;2\]) by taking $\theta_i=2\alpha$.
\[rem-3\] According to [@bkm Lemma 3.2] we have $\alpha=\frac{1}{dl}$ where $d$ is the manifold dimension of $G^+$ and $l$ is a uniform upper bound of the degree of $\varphi_v \ (v\in V_i)$. So the constant $\theta_i$ can be calculated explicitly.
\[l-contraction\] Let $\theta_0= \min_{ 1\le i\le m} \theta_i$ where $\theta_i>0$ so that Lemma \[l-c-alpha\] holds and let $\lambda$ be as in (\[eq;top\]). Then for any $0<\delta<\theta < \theta_0$, there exists $T_{\theta, \delta}>0$ such that for all $t\ge T_{\theta, \delta}$, $z\in B_1^c$ and $v\in V$ with $\|v\|=1$, we have $$\label{ine-integration}
\int_{B_1^+} \|\rho(f_{t} ^z h)v\|^{- \theta }d\mu(h)\le e^{-(\theta-\delta) \lambda t}.$$
Without loss of generality, we assume further that the Euclidean norm $\|\cdot\|$ on $V$ satisfies the following properties:
- Lyapunov subspaces of $A_F$ are orthogonal to each other.
- $H$-isotropic subspaces $V_i\ (1\le i\le m)$ are orthogonal to each other.
Let $$\label{constant-c-r}
R_i=\sup_{v\in V_i, \|v\|=1, h\in B^+_1}\|\pi_i(\rho(h)v)\|\quad \mbox{and } \quad R=\max\{ R_i: 1\le i\le m \} .$$ Let $C=\max\{C_i: 1\le i\le m \}$ where $C_i$ is given in . Let $\theta'=\max\{\theta_i: 1\le i\le m \}$.
According to Lemma \[l-v+-\], there exists $T_{\frac{\delta}{{2\theta}}}>0$ such that (\[ine-v+-\]) holds for any $t\ge T_{\frac{\delta }{{2\theta}}}$, any nonzero $v\in V^{\lambda_i} \ (1\le i
\le m)$ and any $z\in B_1^c$, i.e., $$\begin{aligned}
\|\rho(f_t ^z )v\|^{- \theta }\le e^{ -(1-{\frac{\delta}{{2\theta}}}) \theta
\lambda_i t} \|v\|^{- \theta }
\le e^{-(\theta-\frac{\delta}{2} ) \lambda t} \|v\|^{- \theta }.
\end{aligned}$$ This inequality and the assumption of the norm implies that for all nonzero $v\in V_i$ and $t\ge T_{\frac{\delta}{2\theta}}$ $$\label{ine-f-t}
\|\rho(f_{ t} ^z h)v\|^{ -\theta }\le e^{-(\theta-\frac{\delta}{2})\lambda t }\|\pi_i(\rho(h)v)\|^{- \theta },$$ where $\frac{1}{0}$ is interpreted as $\infty$. Let $T_{\theta, \delta}\ge T_{\frac{\delta}{2\theta}}$ be a large enough real number so that $t\ge T_{\theta, \delta }$ implies $$\label{constant-t2}
\frac{(2m)^{\theta'} CR^{\theta'-\theta}}{1-2^{\theta-\theta_0}} e^{-(\theta-\frac{\delta}{2})\lambda t }\le e^{-(\theta-\delta)\lambda t }.$$
Let $v$ be a unit vector of $V$. We write $v=v_1+\cdots+v_m$ where $v_i\in V_i$. Since we assume different $V_i$ are orthogonal to each other, there exists an integer $i\in [1, m]$ such that $m\|v_i\|\ge \|v\|=1$.
There is a disjoint union decomposition of $B_1^+$ as $$E(v_i,0)\cup\left ( \cup_{n\ge 0} E^{+}(v_i,2^{-n}R_i)\right),$$ where $$E^{+}(v_i,2^{-n}R_i)= E(v_i,2^{-n}R_i){\smallsetminus}E(v_i,2^{-n-1}R_i).$$ Since $\mu (E(v_i, 0))=0$, for any $ z\in B_1^c$ and $t\ge T_{\theta, \delta}$ we have $$\begin{aligned}
\int_{B_1^+}\|\rho(f_{ t} ^z h)v\|^{- \theta }d\mu(h) &\le \sum_{n=0}^{\infty}\int_{E^{+}(v_i,2^{-n}R_i)} \|\rho(f_{ t} ^z h)v_i\|^{-\theta }d\mu(h) \\
\text{(by \eqref{ine-f-t})}\quad &\le e^{-(\theta-\frac{\delta}{2}) \lambda t}\sum_{n=0}^{\infty}\int_{E^{+}(v_i,2^{-n}R_i)}\|\pi_i(\rho(h)v_i)\|^{- \theta }d\mu(h) \\
\text{(by \eqref{constant-c-alpha})} \quad &
\le e^{-(\theta-\frac{\delta}{2})\lambda t} \sum_{n=0}^{\infty} C_i 2^{\theta}(2^{-n}R_i)^{\theta_i-\theta} \|v_i\|^{-\theta_i} \\
&\le \frac{m ^{\theta'}2^{\theta'} CR^{\theta'-\theta}}{1-2^{\theta-\theta_0}} e^{-(\theta-\frac{\delta}{2}) \lambda t} \\
\text{(by \eqref{constant-t2})} \quad &\le e^{-(\theta-\delta) \lambda t}.
\end{aligned}$$
Eskin-Margulis height function {#sec;height}
==============================
Let the notation be as in Theorem \[thm;general\]. In this section, we will establish a uniform contraction property of the EM height function on $G/\Gamma $ with respect to a family of one parameter groups $F_z \ (z\in B_1^c)$.
Recall that $G/\Gamma=\prod_{i=1}^m G_i/\Gamma_i$ where each $G_i/\Gamma_i$ is a nonuniform irreducible quotient of a semisimple Lie group without compact factors. Since we assume the projection of $A_F$ to each $G_i$ is nontrivial, we have $
H=\prod_{i=1}^m H_i$, [where ]{} $H_i=G_i\cap H$ [ is a connected normal subgroup of ]{}$G_i $ with positive dimension.
Let us recall the definition of the EM height function from [@em]. The EM height function is constructed on each $G_i/\Gamma_i$ using a finite set $\Delta_i$ of $\Gamma_i$-rational parabolic subgroups of $G_i$. Recall that a parabolic subgroup $P$ of $G_i$ is $\Gamma_i$-rational if the unipotent radical of $P$ intersects $\Gamma_i$ in a lattice. If the rank of $G_i$ is bigger than one, then Margulis’ arithmeticity theorem implies that there is a ${\mathbb{Q}}$-structure on $G_i$ such that $\Gamma_i$ is commensurable with $G_i({\mathbb{Z}})$. In this case the set $\Delta_i$ consists of standard ${\mathbb{Q}}$-rational maximal parabolic subgroups of $G_i$ with respect to a fixed ${\mathbb{Q}}$-split torus and fixed positive roots. So the irreducibility of $\Gamma_i$ implies that no conjugates of $H_i$ is contained in any $P\in \Delta_i$. The same conclusion holds in the case where $G_i$ has rank one. The reason is that in this case $H_i=G_i$ and $\Delta_i=\{P \}$ where $P$ is a maximal parabolic subgroup defined over ${\mathbb{R}}$.
For each $P_{i, j}\in \Delta_i$, there exists a representation $\rho_{i,j}: G_i\to {\mathrm{GL}}(V_{i,j}) $ on a normed vector space and a nonzero vector $w_{i,j}\in V_{i,j}$ such that the stabilizer of ${\mathbb{R}}w_{i,j} $ is $P_{i,j}$. We consider $\rho_{i,j}$ as a representation of $G$ so that $\rho(G_s)$ is the identity linear map if $s\neq i$. Let $V_{i,j}^{H}$ be the $H$-invariant subspace of $V_{i,j}$ consisting of $H$-invariant vectors. Let $\pi_{i,j}$ be the projection of $V_{i,j}$ to the $H$-invariant subspace $V_{i,j}' $ complementary to $V_{i,j}^{H}$. Since no conjugates of $H_i$ is contained in $P_{i,j}$ and $G_i=K_{i} P_{i,j}$ for some maximal compact subgroup $K_i$ of $G_i$, there exists $C\ge 1 $ such that $$\|v\|\le C \|\pi_{i,j} (v)\|$$ for all $v\in \rho_{i,j}(G) w_{i,j}$. Note that $V_{i,j}'$ is $G$-invariant and it has no nonzero $H$-invariant vectors. Therefore, Lemma \[l-contraction\] implies the following lemma which corresponds to [**Condition A**]{} in [@em].
\[lem;crutial\] For each pair of index $i,j$ there exist positive constants $\theta_0^{i,j}$ and $\lambda^{i,j}$ such that for any $0<\delta<\theta<\theta_0^{i,j}$, any nonzero $v\in\rho_{i,j}( G) w_{i,j}$ and any $z\in B^c_1$ one has $$\begin{aligned}
\label{eq;kao}
\int_{B _1^+}\|\rho_{i, j} (f_t ^z h) v \|^{-\theta}{\; \mathrm{d}}h \le
e^{-(\theta-\delta)t\lambda^{i,j} } \|v\|^{-\theta}
\end{aligned}$$ provided $t\ge T_{\theta, \delta }^{i,j}$ where $T_{\theta, \delta}^{i,j}>0$ is a constant depending on $\theta$ and $\delta $.
We assume without loss of generality that for all $V_{i,j} $ the norm $\|\cdot\|$ is Euclidean and $V_{i,j}^H$ and $V_{i,j}'$ are orthogonal to each other. According to Lemma \[l-contraction\], for each representation $\rho_{i,j}|_{V_{i,j}'}$, there exist positive constants $\theta^{i,j}_0$ and $ \lambda^{i,j}$ with the following properties: for any $0<\delta<\theta<\theta^{i,j}_0$ there exists $T_{ \theta, \delta}>0$ such that for any $t\ge T_{\theta, \delta}, z\in B_1^c$ and any nonzero $v\in \rho_{i,j}( G) w_{i,j}$, one has $$\begin{aligned}
\int_{B _1^+}\|\rho_{i, j} (f_t ^z h) v \|^{-\theta}{\; \mathrm{d}}h& \le
\int_{B _1^+}\|\rho_{i, j} (f_t ^z h) \pi_{i,j}(v ) \|^{-\theta}{\; \mathrm{d}}h \\
&\le e^{-(\theta-\delta)t\lambda^{i,j} } \|\pi_{i,j}(v)\|^{-\theta} \\
&\le C^{\theta} e^{-(\theta-\delta)t\lambda^{i,j} } \|v\|^{-\theta}.\end{aligned}$$ It is not hard to see from above estimate that (\[eq;kao\]) holds for sufficiently large $t$.
Besides $\rho_{i,j}$, the EM height function is constructed using positive constants $c_{i,j}$ and $ q_{i,j}$ which are combinatorial data determined by the root system, see [@em (3.22),(3.28)]. Let $$\begin{aligned}
\label{eq;simple}
u _{i,j}(g\Gamma)= \max _{\gamma\in \Gamma } \frac{1}{\|\rho_{i,j} (g\gamma){w_{i,j}} \|^{1/c_{i,j} q_{i,j}}}
$$ [where ]{} $g\in G$.[^5] Let $$\label{eq;alpha1}
\begin{split}
\theta_1=\max\{\theta>0: \frac{\theta}{q_{ij}c_{i,j}}\le \theta_0^{i,j} \quad \mbox{for all }i,j\}
\quad \mbox{ and }\quad
\alpha_1=\min_{ i,j } \{ \frac{\theta_1}{q_{ij}c_{i,j} }\lambda^{i,j}\},
\end{split}$$ where $\theta_0^{i,j}$ and $\lambda^{i,j}$ are constants given by Lemma \[lem;crutial\]. We call $\alpha_1$ a contraction rate for the dynamical system $(G/\Gamma, F^+)$.
We will see in next sections that $\alpha_1$ plays an important role in bounding the Hausdorff dimension of ${\mathfrak {D}}(F^+,{G/\Gamma})$. We believe that optimal $\alpha_1$ is possible to give the sharp bound of the dimension. By Remark \[rem-3\], the constant $\theta_{i,j}$ can be explicitly calculated, so are the constants $\theta_1$ and $\alpha_1$. Consequently, it will be clear in the proof in the next sections that the upper bound of the dimension we obtain can also be explicitly calculated, although not optimal.
\[lem;key\] For every $\alpha< \alpha_1$, there exist $0<\theta<\theta_1$ and $T>0$ such that for all $t\ge T$ and $\epsilon $ sufficiently small depending on $t$, the EM height function $$\begin{aligned}
\label{eq;u}
u: G/\Gamma \to (0, \infty)\quad \mbox{defined by } u(x)=\sum_{i,j}(\epsilon\, u_{i,j}(x))^{\theta}
\end{aligned}$$ satisfies the following properties:
1. $u (x)\to \infty$ if and only if $x\to \infty $ in $G/\Gamma$.
2. For any compact subset $K$ of $G$, there exists $C\ge 1$ such that $u(hx)\le C u(x)$ for all $h\in K$ and $x\in G/\Gamma$.
3. There exists $b>0$ depending on $t$ such that for all $z\in B_1^c$ and $x\in G/\Gamma$ one has $$\begin{aligned}
\label{eq;tech}
\int_{B_1^+} u(f_t ^z hx) {\; \mathrm{d}}\mu(h)< e^{-\alpha t} u(x)+b.
\end{aligned}$$
4. There exists $\ell \ge 1$ such that if $u(x)\ge \ell $, then for all $z\in B_1^c$ $$\begin{aligned}
\label{eq;contract}
\int_{B_1^+} u(f_t ^z hx) {\; \mathrm{d}}\mu(h)< e^{-\alpha t} u(x).
\end{aligned}$$
It follows from the corresponding results for each $G_i/\Gamma_i$ proved in [@em] that the first two conclusions hold for any choice of $\theta$ and $\epsilon$. Note that (4) is a direct corollary of (3).
Now we prove (3). Let $n$ the cardinality of the indices $i,j$ appeared in the definition of $u$. We fix $\delta >0$ sufficiently small such that $$ \alpha+\delta +\frac{\delta \lambda^{i,j}}{c_{i,j} q_{i,j}}<\alpha_1\quad \forall \ i,j.$$ According to the definitions of $\theta_1$, $\alpha_1$ and the choice of $\delta $ above, there exists $\theta>0$ such that $$\theta<\theta_1\quad \mbox{and } \quad\frac{(\theta-\delta) \lambda^{i,j}}{c_{i,j} q_{i,j}}\ge \alpha +\delta\quad \forall\ i,j.$$ Let $\delta_{i,j}=\delta/ c_{i,j} q_{i,j}$, $\theta_{i,j}
=\theta/ c_{i,j} q_{i,j}$, then according to Lemma \[lem;crutial\] there exists $T^{i,j}>0$ such that for $t\ge T^{i,j}$ one has (\[eq;kao\]) holds with $\delta=\delta_{i,j}$ and $\theta=\theta_{i,j}$. We will show that Lemma \[lem;key\] holds for $T=\frac{\log 2}{\delta }+\max_{i,j} T^{i,j}$.
Now we fix $0<\epsilon<1$, $x=g\Gamma\in G/\Gamma, t\ge T$ and $i, j$. According to the definition of $u_{i,j}(x)$, there exists $\gamma\in \Gamma$ such that $u_{i, j}(x)=\frac{1}{\|\rho(g \gamma) w_{i,j} \|^{1/c_{i,j}q_{i,j}}}$. For any $h\in B_1^+$ and $z\in B_1^c$, if $u_{i,j}(f_t^zhx)=\frac{1}{\|\rho(f_thg \gamma) w_{i,j} \|^{1/c_{i,j}q_{i,j}}}$, then we can use (\[eq;kao\]). Otherwise, there exist $0<\kappa<1$, $b>0$ and $C'\ge 1$ where $b$ and $C'$ depend on $t$ such that $$(\epsilon u_{i,j}(f_t^zhx))^\theta\le C' \epsilon^\kappa (\epsilon u(x))^\theta+\frac{b}{n}.$$ These facts are proved in [@em §3.2]. In summary, we have $$\begin{aligned}
\int_ {B_1^+} ( \epsilon u_{i, j}(f_t h x) )^\theta{\; \mathrm{d}}h & \le
\epsilon^\theta \int_{B_1^+ } \frac{1}{\|\rho_{i,j}(f_t h g \gamma) w_{i,j} \|^{\theta /c_{i,j}q_{i,j}}} {\; \mathrm{d}}h + \epsilon ^\kappa C' u(x)+\frac{b}{n} \\
&\le e^{-(\theta-\delta) t \lambda^{i,j} /c_{i,j} q_{i,j} } ( \epsilon u_{i,j}(x))^\theta + \epsilon ^\kappa C' u(x)+\frac{b}{n}\\
&\le e^{-(\alpha +\delta)t}( \epsilon u_{i,j}(x))^\theta + \epsilon ^\kappa C' u(x)+\frac{b}{n}.
\end{aligned}$$
Therefore, we have $$\int_ {B_1^+} u(f_t h x) {\; \mathrm{d}}h \le
e^{-(\alpha +\delta)t} u(x) + n\epsilon ^\kappa C' u(x)+b.$$ We choose $\epsilon $ sufficiently small so that $n\epsilon ^\kappa C' \le e^{-(\alpha+\delta) t}$, then (\[eq;tech\]) holds.
Applications of the uniform contraction property {#sec;first}
================================================
In this section we will introduce and study some auxiliary sets closely related to ${\mathfrak {D}}(F^+, {G/\Gamma})$ using the uniform contraction property of the EM height function established in Lemma \[lem;key\]. To be specific, we will prove some covering results for these auxiliary sets in Proposition \[l-main2\] and these covering results will play an important role in bounding the Hausdorff dimension of ${\mathfrak {D}}(F^+, {G/\Gamma})$.
Let $\alpha_1$ be a contraction rate of the dynamical system $(G/\Gamma, F^+)$ given by (\[eq;alpha1\]) and let $\lambda$ be the top Lyapunov exponent of $A_F$ in the representation $({\mathrm{Ad}}, \mathfrak g)$. We fix $\alpha<\alpha_1,t >0$ and a EM height function $u: G/\Gamma \to (0, \infty)$ so that Lemma \[lem;key\] holds. Let $\ell \ge 1$ so that (\[eq;contract\]) holds for all $z\in B_1^c$ if $u(x)\ge \ell$. By Lemma \[lem;key\] (3), there exists $C\ge 1$ such that $$\begin{aligned}
\label{eq;c}
C^{-1} u(x)\le u(f_s hx)\le C u(x) \quad \mbox{for all } 0\le s\le t, h\in B_2^G
\mbox{ and } x\in G/\Gamma.
\end{aligned}$$
We also fix an auxiliary $\delta>0$ (which will go to zero finally) and assume that $t$ is sufficiently large so that according to Lemma \[l-v+-\] [ for all ]{} $r\le 1, z\in B_1^c$ $$\begin{aligned}
B_{e^{-(\lambda+\delta) t} r}^+ \subset f_{-t} ^z B_r^+f_{t} ^z &\subset B_{r/4}^+; \label{l-t4}\\
B_{e^{-\delta t} r}^c\subset f_{-t} ^z B_r^cf_{t} ^z &\subset B_{e^{\delta t} r}^c;\label{eq;B0}\\
\label{eq;details}
2&< e^{\delta (\alpha+1) t/2}.
\end{aligned}$$
Note that the logarithm map from the metric space $(B_1^+, {\mathrm{dist}})$ to the Lie algebra $\mathfrak g^+$ (with the fixed Euclidean structure) is a bi-Lipschitz homeomorphism to its image. Therefore $(B_1^+, {\mathrm{dist}})$ is Besicovitch, see [@mat], namely, for any subset $D$ of $B_1^+$ and a covering of $D$ by balls centered at $D$, there is a finite sub-covering such that each element of $D$ is covered by at most $E'$ times. Therefore, there exists $E\ge E' $ such that for all $0<r\le 1$, the set $B^+_{1/2}$ can be covered by no more than $E r^{-d}$ open balls of radius $r$, where $d=\dim G^+$.
We use $|I|$ to denote the cardinality of a finite set $I$. The following is the main result of this section.
\[l-main2\] Let $x\in G/\Gamma$. There exists $0<\sigma<1$ and $E_0\ge 1$ such that for $ z\in B_1^c$ and $N\in {\mathbb{N}}$, the set $$\label{def-d+}
{\mathfrak {D}}_x(z, N, \sigma, C^2\ell ){{\, \stackrel{\mathrm{def}}{=}\, }}\{h\in B_{1/2}^+ : |\{1\le n\le N : u (f^z_{ nt}
hx)\ge C^2\ell \}|\ge \sigma N\}$$ can be covered by no more than $E_0e^{(d\lambda-{\alpha}+\delta( d+\alpha)) tN}$ open balls of radius $e^{-(\lambda+\delta) t N}$ in $B_1^+$.
The rest of this section is devoted to show that Proposition \[l-main2\] holds for $$\begin{aligned}
\label{eq;sigma}
\sigma& =\frac{(1-\delta/2)\alpha t +\log C}{\alpha t +\log C}
$$ In the rest of this section we fix $ z\in B_1^c$ and $N\in {\mathbb{N}}$. We begin with the following simple observation.
\[lem;add\] If $B\subset G^+$ is a ball of radius $e^{-(\lambda+\delta) t N}$ centered at ${\mathfrak {D}}_x({ z }, N, \sigma , C^2\ell )$, then $B
\subset {\mathfrak {D}}_x({ z }, N, \sigma, C\ell )$.
Let $h_0$ be the center of $B$ and $h\in B$. It suffices to show that for all $1\le n\le N$ if $u (f_{nt}^z h_0x)\ge C^2\ell $ then $u (f_{nt}^z h x)\ge C\ell $. By (\[l-t4\]) we have $${\mathrm{dist}}(f_{nt}^z h_0, f_{nt}^zh )={\mathrm{dist}}(1_G, f_{nt}^zhh_0^{-1} f_{-nt}^z)< 1.$$ By (\[eq;c\]) $$u (f_{nt}h x)=u (f_{nt}hh_0^{-1} f_{-nt}\cdot f_{nt}h_0 x)\ge C ^{-1}u (f_{nt}h_0 x)\ge C^{-1}\cdot C^2\ell = C\ell.$$
For a subset $I\subset \{ 1, \ldots, N \}$, we let $$\label{def-d+i}
{\mathfrak {D}}_x( z , I, C\ell )=\{h \in B_{1/2}^+ : u (f_{ nt} ^z
hx)\ge C \ell \mbox { for all } n\in I \}.$$ Since $
{\mathfrak {D}}_x({ z }, N, \sigma, C\ell )=\bigcup_{|I| \ge \sigma N} {\mathfrak {D}}_x({ z }, I, C\ell )
$, one has $$\begin{aligned}
\label{eq;sum}
\mu({\mathfrak {D}}_x({ z }, N, \sigma, C\ell ))\le \sum_{|I| \ge \sigma N}
\mu ({\mathfrak {D}}_x({ z }, I, C\ell )).\end{aligned}$$
The following lemma will play an important role in the proof of Proposition \[l-main2\].
\[l-int-ine\] Suppose that $I\subset \{1, \ldots, N \}$ and $|I| \ge \sigma N$. Then $$\begin{aligned}
\label{eq;con}
\mu ({\mathfrak {D}}_x(z, I, C\ell ) )\le {C^2}
u (x) e^{-(1-\delta/2)\alpha tN }.
\end{aligned}$$
We fix $I$ as in the statement of Lemma \[l-int-ine\]. Our strategy is to estimate the measure of ${\mathfrak {D}}_x({ z }, I, C\ell )$ by relating it to a subset coming from random walks on $G/\Gamma$ with alphabet $f_t ^z B_1^+$. Let $p =\sup I$ and for $1\le k\le p$ let $$Z_k=\{(h_1,\ldots,h_{k })\in (B_1^+)^{k }: u (f ^z _{ t} h_n\ldots f ^z _{t} h_1x)
\ge \ell \ \forall\ n\in (I\cap[1,k])\}.$$ Define $\eta :(B_1^+)^p \rightarrow G^+$ by $$\begin{aligned}
\label{eq;h}
\eta(h_1,\ldots, h_{p })= \tilde{h}_{p } \cdots \tilde{h}_{1}, \text{ where } \tilde{h}_{n}= f ^z _{-(n-1)t}h_n f ^z _{(n-1)t}.\end{aligned}$$ We remark here that the image of $\eta$ is contained in $B_2^+$ by (\[l-t4\]). The following two lemmas are needed in the proof of Lemma \[l-int-ine\].
\[lem;contain\] For all $h\in {\mathfrak {D}}_x({ z }, I, C\ell )$ one has $\eta^{-1}(h)\subset Z_p$.
Suppose that $\eta(h_1, \ldots, h_p)=h$ where $h_i\in B_1^+$. Then for all $n\le p$ $${\mathrm{dist}}(f_{nt}^zh, f_{t}^zh_n\cdots f_t^z h_1)={\mathrm{dist}}(f_{nt}^z\tilde h_{p }\cdots \tilde h_{n+1}f_{-nt}^z, 1_G)< 2,$$ where we use (\[l-t4\]), (\[eq;h\]) and the right invariance of ${\mathrm{dist}}(\cdot, \cdot)$. Therefore by (\[eq;c\]) we have for $n\in I$ $$\begin{aligned}
u (f_{t}^zh_n\cdots f_t^z h_1x)\ge C^{-1}u (f_{nt}^zhx)\ge \ell .\end{aligned}$$ So $(h_1, \ldots, h_p)\in Z_p$ and the proof is complete.
Let $\widetilde \mu_{ n}$ be the Radon measure on $G^+$ defined by $$\begin{aligned}
\label{eq;def}
\int_{G^+}\varphi(h) {\; \mathrm{d}}\widetilde \mu_{ n}(h)=\int_{B_1^+}
\varphi(f_{-nt} ^z hf_{nt} ^z ) ){\; \mathrm{d}}h\end{aligned}$$ for all $\varphi\in C_c(G^+)$. For any positive integer $n$ let $\mu_{n}=\widetilde \mu_{ n-1}*\cdots *\widetilde \mu_{1}*\widetilde \mu_{0}$ be the measure on $G^+$ defined by the $n$ convolutions. Clearly, $\mu_n$ is absolutely continuous with respect to $\mu$ and $\mu_p$ is the pushforward of $(\mu|_{B_1^+})^{\otimes p}$ by the map $\eta$. The following lemma shows that $\mu_n$ has density bigger than or equal to one at every $h\in B_{1/2}^+$.
\[l-rd-conv\] For all $n\le N $ and $ h\in B_{{1}/{2}}^+$ we have $
\frac{d\mu_{n}}{d\mu}(h)\ge 1 .
$
The conclusion is clear if $n=1$. Now we assume $n>1$ and let $$\nu= \widetilde \mu_{ n-1}* \widetilde \mu_{n-2}* \cdots * \widetilde \mu_{ 1}.$$ It follows from (\[l-t4\]) and (\[eq;def\]) that for $k>0$ the probability measure $\widetilde \mu_{ k}$ is supported on $B_{1/4^k}^+$. Since the metric on $G^+$ is right invariant, the measure $\nu$ is supported on $B_{1/2}^+$. Suppose $\nu=\varphi {\; \mathrm{d}}\mu$, then $\mu_{ n}=\nu * \widetilde \mu_0 =\varphi* \mathbbm{1}_{B_1^+} {\; \mathrm{d}}\mu$. So for any $h\in B_{1/2}^+$, we have $$\varphi* \mathbbm{1}_{B_1^+}(h)=\int_{G^+}\varphi(h_1)\mathbbm{1}_{B_1^+}(h_1^{-1}h) d\mu(h_1)\ge \int_{B_{1/2}^+}\varphi(h_1)d\mu(h_1) =1.$$
Now we are ready to prove Lemma \[l-int-ine\].
By Lemmas \[lem;contain\] and \[l-rd-conv\], $$\begin{aligned}
\label{eq;temp}
\mu ({\mathfrak {D}}_x(z, I, C\ell ) )\le \mu_\ell({\mathfrak {D}}_x(z, I, C\ell ) )\le
\mu_p(Z_p).
\end{aligned}$$ Now we are left to estimate $\mu_p(Z_p)$. For $1\le k \le p$ let $$\notag
s(k )=\int _{Z_k } u (f_{ t} ^z h_{ k }\cdots f_{ t} ^z h_1x)d\mu^{\otimes k }(h_1, \cdots, h_{ k}).$$ Let $$\begin{aligned}
\label{ine-iterated int}
s(p+1)=\int_{Z_{p}}\left[
\int_{B_1^+} u (f_{ t} ^z h_{p+1 }f_t^z h_{p }\cdots f_{ t} ^z h_1x) {\; \mathrm{d}}\mu(h_{p+1} )\right ]d\mu^{\otimes p }(h_1, \cdots, h_{p}).
\end{aligned}$$ Then for every $1< k\le p+1$, $$\begin{aligned}
\notag
s(k )&\le \int_{Z_{k-1}}\left[
\int_{B_1^+} u (f_{ t} ^z h_{k }f_t^z h_{k-1}\cdots f_{ t} ^z h_1x) {\; \mathrm{d}}\mu(h_k )\right ]d\mu^{\otimes (k -1)}(h_1, \cdots, h_{k -1}).\end{aligned}$$
If $k -1\in I$, then $s(k )\le e^{-\alpha t}s(k -1)$ by (\[eq;contract\]). If $k -1\not \in I$, then by (\[eq;c\]) we have $s(k )\le C s(k -1)$. We apply this estimate to $k=p+1, p, \cdots, 2$, then we have $$\begin{aligned}
s(p+1)\le C^{(N-|I|)}e^{-|I| \alpha t} \int_{B_1^+} u (f_t hx{\; \mathrm{d}}\mu (h))\le C^{1+(1-\sigma) N }e^{-\sigma\alpha t N }u (x)
.
\end{aligned}$$ The choice of $\sigma$ in (\[eq;sigma\]) implies that $$\begin{aligned}
\label{eq;temp2}
s(p+1)\le C e^{-(1-\delta/2) \alpha t N}u (x).
\end{aligned}$$
On the other hand, in view of (\[ine-iterated int\]), (\[eq;c\]) and the fact $p=\sup I $ we have $$\begin{aligned}
\label{eq;che}
s(p +1)\ge C^{-1} s(p)\ge C^{-1}\ell \cdot
\mu_p(Z_p).
\end{aligned}$$ Therefore, (\[eq;con\]) follows from (\[eq;temp\]), (\[eq;temp2\]) and (\[eq;che\]) and the observation $\ell \ge 1$.
As before we fix $ z$ and $ N$ as in the statement. Let $\sigma$ be as in (\[eq;sigma\]). Since $(B_1^+, {\mathrm{dist}})$ is Besicovitch, there exists a covering ${\mathfrak{U}}$ of ${\mathfrak {D}}_x({ z }, N, \sigma, C^2\ell )$ by open balls of radius $e^{-{(\lambda+\delta) t N}}$ centered at ${\mathfrak {D}}_x({ z }, N, \sigma, C^2\ell )$ such that each element of ${\mathfrak {D}}_x({ z }, N, \sigma, C^2 \ell )$ is covered by at most $E$ times. By Lemma \[lem;add\], each $B\in {\mathfrak{U}}$ is contained in ${\mathfrak {D}}_x({ z }, N, \sigma, C\ell )$, so in view of (\[eq;c+\]) $$\begin{aligned}
\label{eq;tmd}
\mu( {\mathfrak {D}}_x({ z }, N, \sigma, C\ell ))\ge\frac{ |{\mathfrak{U}}|}{E} \mu(B^+_{e^{-(\lambda+\delta) t N}})\ge \frac{ |{\mathfrak{U}}|}{C_0E} e^{-(\lambda+\delta) d t N} .
\end{aligned}$$
On the other hand, since there are $2^N$ subsets $I\subset \{1, \ldots, N \}$, by (\[eq;sum\]), (\[eq;details\]) and Lemma \[l-int-ine\], we have $$\label{mu-dx+1}
\mu\big({\mathfrak {D}}_x({ z }, N, \sigma, C\ell )\big) \le C^2
2^Ne^{-(1-\delta/2) \alpha tN}u (x)\le e^{-(1-\delta)\alpha tN}u (x).$$ By (\[eq;tmd\]) and (\[mu-dx+1\]), $$|\mathfrak U| \le u(x) C_0C^2 E\cdot e^{ ( d\lambda -\alpha+\delta (d+\alpha)) t N}.$$ The conclusion now follows by taking $
E_0=u(x)C_0 C^2 E.
$
Upper bound of Hausdorff dimension
==================================
In this section, we finish the proof of Theorem \[thm;general\]. We will use the same notation as in §\[sec;first\] prior to Proposition \[l-main2\]. For $(z,h)\in B_1^c B_1^+ , \ell '>0 $ and $N\in {\mathbb{N}}$, let $I_{N, \ell'}(z,h)$ denote the set of $n\in \{1,\ldots,N\}$ satisfying $ u(f_{nt}zhx)\ge \ell '
$. For $x\in {G/\Gamma}$, let $$\label{def-d+0}
{\mathfrak {D}}^{0}_x(F^+, N, \sigma, \ell')=\{(z,h)\in B_{1/2}^c B_{1/2}^+ : |I_{N, \ell '}(z,h)|\ge \sigma N\}.$$
\[l-main\] Let $x\in {G/\Gamma}$. Then there exist $0<\sigma<1$ and $E_2\ge 1$ such that for any $N\in {\mathbb{N}}$ the set ${\mathfrak {D}}^{0}_x(F^+, N, \sigma, C^4 \ell )$ can be covered by no more than $E_2e^{(d^c \lambda+d \lambda -\alpha+\delta (d^c+d+\alpha)) tN}$ open balls of radius $e^{-(\lambda+\delta) t N}$ in $G^cG^+$.
Let $0<\sigma<1$ and $E_0\ge 1 $ so that Proposition \[l-main2\] holds. We fix $N\in {\mathbb{N}}$.
We claim that: for $W=B_{e^{-(\lambda+\delta) tN}}^c\cdot z\subset B_{1}^c$, we have $$\label{claim-w}
\Big( {\mathfrak {D}}_x^{0}(F^+,N,\sigma, C^4\ell )\cap (W B_{1}^+)\Big)\subset \Big(W {\mathfrak {D}}_x(z , N, \sigma, C^2\ell )\Big).$$ Let $(z_1,h_1)\in W B_{1}^+$. Suppose that $1\le n\le N$ and $
u(f_{nt}z_1h_1x)\ge C^4\ell
$. In view of (\[eq;B0\]) and (\[eq;c\]) we have $$\begin{split}
u(f_{ nt}^zh_1x)=u(z^{-1}f_{nt}zh_1x)\ge C^{-1} u(f_{nt}zh_1x) \\
=C^{-1}u(f_{nt}(zz_1^{-1})f_{-nt}\cdot f_{nt}z_1h_1x)\ge C^{-2}u(f_{nt}z_1h_1x)\ge C^2\ell .
\end{split}$$ In other words, we have proved that if $n \in I_{N, C^4\ell }(z_1,h_1)$, then $u(f_{nt}^z h_1 x)\ge C^2\ell $. Therefore, if $(z_1, h_1)$ belongs to the left hand side of then it also belongs to the right hand side.
Since $(B_1^c, \mathrm{dist})$ is also Besicovitch, there exists $E_1\ge 1$ such that for all $0<r\le 1$, $B_{1/2}^c$ can be covered by no more than $E_1 r^{-d^c }$ open balls of radius $r$. We fix a cover ${\mathfrak{U}}^c$ of $B_{1/2}^c$ that consists of open balls of radius $e^{-(\lambda+\delta ) Nt}$ with $|{\mathfrak{U}}^c|\le E_1 e^{d^c(\lambda+\delta) Nt}$. We assume each element of ${\mathfrak{U}}^c$ has nonempty intersection with $B_{1/2}^c$, then it is contained in $B_1^c$ in view of (\[eq;details\]). Let $W_z\in {\mathfrak{U}}^c$ be a ball centered at $z\in B_1^c$. Proposition \[l-main2\] implies that there exists a covering ${\mathfrak{U}}_{ z}$ of ${\mathfrak {D}}_x(z , N, \sigma, C^2\ell ) $ by open balls of radius $e^{-(\lambda+\delta)t N}$ such that $$\begin{aligned}
|{\mathfrak{U}}_{ z}|\le E_0 e^{d\lambda-\alpha+\delta(d+\alpha)}.\end{aligned}$$ In view of claim , the following class of sets $$\begin{aligned}
\label{eq;W}
\{W_z B: W_z\in {\mathfrak{U}}^c, B\in {\mathfrak{U}}_{ z}\}\end{aligned}$$ forms an open cover of ${\mathfrak {D}}^{0}_x(F^+, N, \sigma, C^4 \ell)$. It is easily checked that there exists $E_1'\ge 1$ not depending on $N$ such that each element $W_zB$ of (\[eq;W\]) can be covered by $E_1'$ open balls of radius $e^{-(\lambda+\delta)Nt }$ in $G^cG^+$. Therefore the lemma holds with $E_2=E_0E_1E_1'$.
\[thm;simple\] For any $x\in G/\Gamma$, the Hausdorff dimension of $ {\mathfrak {D}}_x^{0}{{\, \stackrel{\mathrm{def}}{=}\, }}\{(z,h)\in B_{1/2}^c B_{1/2}^+:
zh x \in {\mathfrak {D}}(F^+, G/\Gamma) \}$ is at most $d^c+d -\frac{\alpha_1}{\lambda }$.
For each $\alpha<\alpha_1$ and $0<\delta<1$ we first choose $t>0$, a height function $u$ and $\ell, C \ge 1$ so that Lemma \[lem;key\], (\[eq;c\]), (\[l-t4\]), (\[eq;B0\]) and (\[eq;details\]) hold. Then there exists $0<\sigma<1$ and $E_2\ge 1 $ so that Lemma \[l-main\] holds.
It follows from Lemma \[lem;key\] (1)(2) and the definition of ${\mathfrak {D}}(F^+, G/\Gamma)$ that $${\mathfrak {D}}_x^{0}\subset \bigcup_{M\ge 1} W_M\quad \mbox{where}\quad
W_{M}=
\bigcap _{N\ge M} {\mathfrak {D}}^{0}_x(F^+, N, \sigma, C^4 \ell ).$$
Recall that for any metric space $S$, $$\dim_H S=\inf\left\{s>0: \inf_{\{B_i\}} \sum \rho(B_i)^s=0\right\},$$ where the latter $``\inf"$ is taken over all the countable coverings $\{B_i\}$ of $S$ that consist of open metric balls. Then in view of Lemma \[l-main\], we have $$\begin{aligned}
\dim_HW_M&\le \liminf_{N\to \infty} \frac{[d^c\lambda+d\lambda -\alpha+\delta(d+d^c+\alpha)]t N+ \log E_2 }{\lambda t N}\\
& = d^c+d -\frac{\alpha}{\lambda}+\delta \frac{d+d^c+\alpha}{\lambda}.\end{aligned}$$ Therefore $$\dim_H {\mathfrak {D}}_x^{0}\le d^c+d -\frac{\alpha}{\lambda}+\delta \frac{d+d^c+\alpha}{\lambda}.$$ The conclusion follows by first letting $\delta\to 0$ and then letting $\alpha\to \alpha_1$.
\[lem;stable\] If $x\in \mathfrak D(F^+, G/\Gamma)$ and $h\in G^-$, then $hx \in \mathfrak D(F^+, G/\Gamma) $.
Note that by Lemma \[l-v+-\], $${\mathrm{dist}}(f_t hx, f_t x)\le {\mathrm{dist}}(f_t h f_{-t} , 1_G)\to 0$$ as $t\to \infty$. Therefore the lemma holds.
We will show that $$\dim_H {\mathfrak {D}}(F^+, G/\Gamma)\le d^-+d^c+d -\frac{\alpha_1}{\lambda}.$$ In view of the local nature of Hausdorff dimension and the definition of the metric on $G/\Gamma$, it suffices to prove that for any $x\in G/\Gamma$ $$\dim_H \{g\in B_{r}^G: gx \in {\mathfrak {D}}(F^+, G/\Gamma) \}\le d^-+d^c+d -\frac{\alpha_1}{\lambda}.$$ where $r<1$ so that $B_{r}^G\subset B^-_1 B_{1/2}^cB_{1/2}^+$. By Lemma \[lem;stable\], $$\{g\in B_{r}^G: gx \in {\mathfrak {D}}(F^+, G/\Gamma) \}\subset B^-_1{\mathfrak {D}}_x^0,$$ whose Hausdorff dimension is bounded from above by $\dim_H{\mathfrak {D}}_x^0+d^-$.[^6] In view of Theorem \[thm;simple\], the Hausdorff dimension of ${\mathfrak {D}}(F^+, G/\Gamma)$ is less than $d+d^c+d^--\frac{\alpha_1}{\lambda}$ which is strictly less than the manifold dimension of $G/\Gamma$.
It is worth to mention that, if $F=A_F$, then the contraction property of the Benoist-Quint height function proved in [@s] will allow us to prove a stronger result. Namely, we can get a nontrivial upper bound of the Hausdorff dimension of the intersection of ${\mathfrak {D}}(F^+, {G/\Gamma})$ and orbits of the so-called $(F^+, \Gamma)$-expanding subgroups introduced in [@KW]. But unfortunately, we are not able to prove a uniform contracting property for the Benoist-Quint height functions even in the example mentioned at the end of the introduction due to the existence of the unipotent part in the second ${\mathrm{SL}}_4({\mathbb{R}})$ factor.
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[^1]: L. G. is supported by EPSRC Programme Grant EP/J018260/1
[^2]:
[^3]: A discrete subgroup $\Gamma<G$ is called a lattice if there exists a finite $G$-invariant measure on the homogeneous space ${G/\Gamma}$.
[^4]: Here ${\mathbb{N}}=\{1, 2, 3, \ldots \}$.
[^5]: Although only the product $c_{i,j}q_{i,j}$ is used in this paper, the constants $c_{i,j}$ and $q_{i,j}$ are given by different combinatorial data and we use both of them for the consistency with [@em].
[^6]: Here we are using Marstrand’s product theorem again.
|
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"pile_set_name": "ArXiv"
}
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Joint aspiration and injection.
Joint aspiration/injection is an invaluable procedure for the diagnosis and treatment of joint disease. The knee is the commonest site to require aspiration although any non-axial joint is accessible for obtaining synovial fluid. Septic arthritis and crystal arthritis can be readily diagnosed by aspirating synovial fluid. Intra-articular injection of long-acting insoluble corticosteroids produces rapid resolution of inflammation in most injected joints and is a well established procedure in rheumatological practice. The technique involves only a knowledge of basic anatomy and should not be unduly painful for the patient. Provided sterile equipment and a sensible, aseptic approach are used it is a safe procedure. This chapter addresses the indications, technical principals, expected benefits and risks of intra-articular corticosteroid injection. The use of other intra-articular injections including osmic acid, radioisotopes and hyaluronic acid, which are less universally utilised than intra-articular corticosteroid, will also be addressed.
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{
"pile_set_name": "PubMed Abstracts"
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Strategies to promote healthier food purchases: a pilot supermarket intervention study.
To pilot the design and methodology for a large randomised controlled trial (RCT) of two interventions to promote healthier food purchasing: culturally appropriate nutrition education and price discounts. A 12-week, single-blind, pilot RCT. Effects on food purchases were measured using individualised electronic shopping data ('Shop 'N Go' system). Partial data were also collected on food expenditure at other (non-supermarket) retail outlets. A supermarket in Wellington, New Zealand. Eligible customers were those who were the main household shoppers, shopped mainly at the participating store, and were registered to use the Shop 'N Go system. Ninety-seven supermarket customers (72% women; age 40 +/- 9.6 years, mean +/- standard deviation) were randomised to one of four intervention groups: price discounts, nutrition education, a combination of price discounts and nutrition education, or control (no intervention). There was a 98% follow-up rate of participants, with 85% of all reported supermarket purchases being captured via the electronic data collection system. The pilot did, however, demonstrate difficulty recruiting Maori, Pacific and low-income shoppers using the electronic register and mail-out. This pilot study showed that electronic sales data capture is a viable way to measure effects of study interventions on food purchases in supermarkets, and points to the feasibility of conducting a large-scale RCT to evaluate the effectiveness of price discounts and nutrition education. Recruitment strategies will, however, need to be modified for the main trial in order to ensure inclusion of all ethnic and socio-economic groups.
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Appendices of the nipple and areola of the breast in Neurofibromatosis type 1 patients are neurofibromas.
In NF1-patients, tumours arising in the areola region of the breast often appear similar to the nipple. The aim of this study was to analyse tumours of this region. Eighty-three specimens from 55 patients with NF1 were analysed [females: 42, males: 13, mean age of the total group: 41.6 years, range: 4-62 years]. NF1 patients with apparent extensive affections of the breast who received debulking procedures for disfiguring invasive or superficial plexiform neurofibroma were excluded. All specimens were found to be composed entirely from neurofibromas with no residues resembling segments of glandular structures. Following ablative surgery, no local recurrence was noted within a follow-up period of 10 years. Tumours arising in the areola and nipple area and mimicking an accessory nipple were all neurofibromas. Local excision of neurofibromas was adequate to relief patients from an often unsightly appearance.
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Pages
Thursday, December 17, 2015
The best business leaders have a keen sense of purpose that
drives their work. Ideally, they also have superior products and services that
support that purpose. But noble purpose and brilliant products won’t get you
far if you don’t have the right people to deliver them.
In other words, our who matters even more than our what and our why.
That makes selecting talent the most important task of
today’s leader. It’s also the most difficult. So many managers don’t understand
how to use the hiring process not just to fill a position, but also to truly
add value that enriches and complements the company’s culture.
I have worked at Chick-fil-A’s corporate headquarters for
more than 30 years. I’ve spent most of that time as Vice President of Corporate
Talent, and my decades of experience and devoted personal study have led me to
believe that hiring is an art, not a science. While that may seem daunting at
first, especially to those of us who crave facts and precision, it’s actually great
news. Hiring as an art abandons robotic coldness in favor of human intuition.
When we combine our instincts with finely honed processes such as behavioral
based interviewing, we can achieve game-changing results.
In my new book It’s My Pleasure: The Impact
of Extraordinary Talent and Compelling Culture, I share secrets
behind the exceptionally effective business model Truett Cathy pioneered when
he founded Chick-fil-A in 1946. Truett’s entrepreneurial philosophy was way ahead
of the curve. Over the years, he emphasized to me time and time again that our
business was not about numbers, growth, or even chicken. To Truett, Chick-fil-A
was always about people.
In the midst of a fluid labor market in which individuals
move from company to company with expected regularity, Chick-fil-A’s corporate
staff retention rate has remained at 95-97% for almost 50 years. I believe that success can be traced
back in part to how we hire. Here are six guideposts to smart, soulful hiring,
shaped by Truett’s people-first ideology:
1.Think
hard about the role and carefully craft its description. How can you use
the new hire to address current weaknesses that may be slowing your staff down?
Try also to think about the future instead of just the present.
2.Expand
your search. In It's My Pleasure, I call it “casting a wide net.” Different perspectives and experience from
other industries can bring invaluable new energy to your team.
3.Practice
behavioral based interviewing. Behavioral based questions push candidates
to draw on how they’ve responded to situations in the past. Instead,
interviewers often ask questions that can only be answered hypothetically,
which is not the best way to learn how someone will actually act.
4.Check
references. Too many managers do not follow up with references thoroughly. This
calls for more than just verifying employment: Take the time to ask about past
performance, which we know is the best indicator of future performance.
5.Talk the
candidate out of the job. Once you have decided to offer a candidate the
position, try to talk them out of accepting. This may sound counter-intuitive,
but it is an excellent way to gauge the individual’s level of passion and
determination for both the role and your company.
6.Make a
commitment to the new hire. Once the job has been accepted, do all you can
to ensure the new employee’s success. They are your investment: Use the time
and resources necessary to help them grow into the position.
In It's My Pleasure, I explore each of these suggestions in greater detail, along with other proven
hiring techniques. While there are no one-dimensional solutions to the
challenge of recruiting and sustaining extraordinary talent, we can hold on to
one simple truth: When we put people at the center of our strategies, we gain
so much more than added sales. One person at a time, we build a thriving,
compelling culture that extends far beyond business hours to impact the lives
of everyone who comes into contact with it.
That is Truett Cathy’s legacy, and one that is well worth
trying to emulate.
About Dee Ann Turner
Dee Ann Turner is Vice President,
Corporate Talent, for Chick-fil-A, where she began her career more than 30
years ago. Her first book, It’s My
Pleasure: The Impact of Extraordinary Talent and a Compelling Culture,
reveals never-before-shared secrets behind building and maintaining
Chick-fil-A’s revolutionary business model. Dee Ann believes people are the
most powerful commodity in any organization, and companies that recognize the
value of individuals can succeed not just ethically, but financially as well.
In addition to serving on the boards of the Kenya Project and Proverbs 31
ministry, the married mother of the three is also active with a variety of
family-focused missions that support women and children.
Thursday, December 10, 2015
The next time you are listening to someone during a difficult
conversation or conflict and you are tempted to make a suggestion—don’t.Instead of making a suggestion, bring your attention back to
what they are saying and why. Listen for what’s important, even if you think
you already know.
If you feel compelled to respond while you are listening, try asking
questions that help the other person unfold their story. Avoid saying things
like: “Well, you need to…”, or “What if you just…”, or “It sounds like the
problem is…”. Instead, try asking questions that look for more information,
like: “What’s the most important thing to you in this?”, or “How has this
affected you?”.
Whether with a colleague, a partner or a stranger, it’s obvious
that listening is useful in communication. But often in the stress of a
difficult conversation or conflict we don’t really listen. Even when we think we are listening,
we are often caught up in getting ready to, or making, a suggestion.
Listening
and making suggestions are two different actions. Each of these actions leads
us in a different direction and tends to provoke different outcomes in
conflict.
I have found that the principle: “When listening, avoid making
suggestions”, often initially strikes people as odd. They say, “If I have a
good idea, why shouldn’t I say it?”, or, “Just because I have a suggestion, it
doesn’t mean I’m not listening.”
There are
times when it is important for us to offer our ideas, but there are many more
times when the act of making a suggestion too early in the conversation can blind
us to other options and get in the way of really hearing the information that the other person
is trying to give us.
It can be very tempting to make suggestions when time is short
or we feel uncomfortable in the pressure of a conversation. The urge to say
what you think the problem is or which action the other person should choose
can be strong. However, what I have seen over and over, is that once people
decide to stop making suggestions for a while—to stop telling other people what
to do—they are often shocked by how little they had really been listening. They
are often equally surprised and delighted by how radically relationships can
improve and how beneficial the outcomes in conflicts can be when they listen
first and look for solutions later.
Here’s two reasons why differentiating between the action of
listening and the action of making suggestions matters:
1. Your
story is not their story.
Making suggestions is about your point of view. Listening is
about the other person’s point of view. One of the most basic things that
people need in a conflict is to be heard. When we move from the action of
listening to the action of making a suggestion, we’re changing the focus of the
conversation from their point of view to our own point of view. If this change
in focus happens too early in the dialogue, people often feel their story
hasn’t been heard. It then becomes more difficult for them to listen to the
rest of the stories in the conflict.
2. Solutions
that don’t meet the needs of both sides usually fail.
Whether we like it or not, in a conflict we need the other
person’s story to be able to understand what is important and what kind of
solution might be possible and effective.
Listening is about allowing the landscape that you are both
traversing to become more visible, which makes it more possible to find a
pathway through it. Listening is a form of map-building.
Offering a suggestion, on the other hand, is an attempt to find
a solution. It is a proposed pathway. But, if we don’t have a good map of the
landscape, we can’t know which path will get us where we want to go.
Often it’s tempting to try to find solutions as soon as
possible, because conflict can be uncomfortable. But, if we do jump into a
solution too early, before we really know what’s happening and what’s important
to people, then we are much less likely to find a solution that meets the needs
of the situation– one that works and will last.
So, the challenge: in the next difficult conversation you
encounter, stop making suggestions for a while and see what happens. Develop an
investigatory mindset and find out what really matters in the situation. Build
detailed maps with people, even when you disagree, to see where you are and
where you both want to go. Once you have this common ground, ideas and
suggestions from both sides can be more easily heard and become useful in
helping to find an effective pathway through the conflict.
Dana
Caspersen is
the author of Changing the Conversation: The 17Principles of Conflict Resolution (Penguin, 2015), and works internationally as a conflict specialist,
public dialogue designer, speaker and award-winning performing artist. Dana
holds a master’s degree in Conflict Studies and Mediation and her focus is on
helping individuals and communities develop their ability to see conflict as a
place of possibility and the skills to make those possibilities become reality.
Learn more about her work, talks, videos and events at danacaspersen.com
Thursday, December 3, 2015
Two of the top
challenges young professionals report facing while making the transition into
management is a change in relational dynamics with former peers at work and the
fear of disappointing the boss who promoted them. One young woman shared her
distress when one of her best friends at work unfriended her on Facebook. The newly minted manager asked her friend,
“Why the unfriend?” She replied, “You
are the boss now, and I don’t want you creeping on my Facebook.” It is not
uncommon for there to be a bit of a cold spell while the relationship with a
peer goes through redefinition.
At first glance, how
your peers see you and what your manager thinks about you are unrelated, but being
overly concerned with your manager’s estimation of you may inhibit your ability
to effectively lead your peers and the development of your own leadership
perspective.
If you find yourself
pre-occupied or even worried about what your boss thinks of you, give yourself
a break. One of the reasons you made it to management is because you cared and your
boss saw something in you that she did not see in your peers or others. That something is usually a comfort level
with building a relationship with authority figures or appearing to be more
mature than your peers. Perhaps you have heard your manager say things like,
“You are different from other Millennials” or “You are a throwback.” The term
throwback refers to someone who appears to be from a generation older than
one’s own. It could be flattering, but be aware, it could also set you up to be
perceived as someone you are not. It is a good thing to want your boss to be
pleased with you. However, the danger comes when you become more concerned with
the approval of your boss than being your own person or exercising your own
voice. The slang behavioral diagnosis for those who
quickly adapt what they think, say, and do in an effort to please their manager
is brown nose—the kiss of death for building
credibility with peers and exerting one’s own voice.
The first
step to overcoming the desire to please your boss is to accept there will come
a day when you disappoint him or her—not necessarily because you have done
something wrong, but because you did something different from what they would
do. It is inevitable! Even the best of mentor/mentoree relationships end in
conflict. It is a right of passage that eventually results in reconciliation
and mutual respect. As an example, my mentor primarily consulted nonprofit
organizations, and when I started working with major corporations, he was
disappointed. It hurt me to let him down, but I had to pursue my own path even
though it was emotionally difficult. Before he died, he affirmed me for having
the desire to help all kinds of organizations with generational diversity and valued
my work.
The
tension you may experience with your manager is often the result of leading
from your own perspective. Not unlike what you experience with peers, your
personal growth triggers a redefinition of the relationship with your boss.
When you understand the relational dynamic that is taking place, there is no
need to be defensive, make excuses, or villainize. No need to fret. It is a
sign of a new phase of your leadership development. One of the first stages of
leadership development is to develop your own perspective.
Which
leads to the second step of overcoming the need to please your boss—develop
your own leadership perspective. What do you believe to be true? What are you
convinced of? What are you willing to stand for? How would you want to be
managed? The young professionals in research my coauthor Joel Schwarzbart and I
have conducted talk about feeling torn between the way they wanted to manage
and the way they thought their boss wanted them to manage. It was like having
their boss on one shoulder and their preferred “me” on the other. The dialogue in
their heads between the two created a migraine. The bipolarization also led to
inconsistency in leader behavior.
Having a
perspective can be quite powerful. A perspective can be as simple as, “Everyone
deserves a second chance.” Such a perspective has probably salvaged many a
career. It is not true in every situation, but helpful in most. Not having your
own perspective sets you up for being perceived as inauthentic and a mini-me of
your boss. Inauthenticity is the kiss of death for a young manager. Your peers
will not respect you, and ultimately your boss will be disappointed anyway.
The third
step is to understand that when a peer says you have changed for the worse or a
manager says you are not ready for the next level, it may be a function of them
not wanting their relationship with you to change. That is not a bad thing. You
have to keep it in perspective. It is not our enemies who hold us back from achieving
our full potential—it is usually those who care about us the most. When you
grow, advance, and seek new opportunities, it threatens relationships. If you
get that, it will save you sleepless nights, the need to defend yourself, and self-doubt.
Embrace all kinds of feedback—the good, the bad, and the ugly—just have your
own perspective.
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Kindness Cup 2018
Your team has great players, coaches and volunteers - are they great people too?
KidSport Ontario is excited to be the Cause partner for xocial's 2018 Kindness Cup Campaign. We're looking for the most socially impactful youth soccer team in Ontario, and we’d like to invite you to be part of the action! From August 1st - 31st 2018 you'll join us in our mission of competitive kindness as you invite friends and family to join your team to see who can have the biggest impact!
Players and teams complete challenges, bond as a team, and have fun! You could earn great prizes, including: a year-end “Fun Zone” party from KidSport Ontario, a FitLight Jr training system, teams sponsorship, and rewards for top players.
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1948 Campeonato Profesional
The 1948 Campeonato Profesional was the first season of Colombia's top-flight football league. The tournament was started on August 15th, with the match Atlético Municipal against Universidad. 10 teams compete against one another and played each weekend until December 19th.
Background
The creation of the Colombian Football Federation dates back to 1924, but it was not until 1948 that succeeded in organizing a professional tournament. In the tournament 10 teams signed up (each had to pay a fee of 1,000 pesos): one of Barranquilla, two of Bogotá, two of Cali, two of Manizales, two of Medellín and two of Pereira. 252 players were registered as follows: 182 Colombians, 13 Argentines, 8 Peruvians, 5 Uruguayans, 2 Chileans, 2 Ecuadorians, 1 Dominican and 1 Spanish.
League system
Every team played two games against each other team, one at home and one away. Teams received two points for a win and one point for a draw. If two or more teams were tied on points, places were determined by goal difference. The team with the most points is the champion of the league.
Teams
a Municipal played its home games at Itagüí
b Universidad played its home games at Pereira
Final standings
Results
Top goalscorers
Source: RSSSF.com Colombia 1948
References
External links
Dimayor Official Page
Prim
Colombia
Category:Categoría Primera A seasons
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The Plays by Carrie Robbins
Production Archive:
(Currently 16 Productions – please scroll down)
THE DRAGON GRISWYNDE
w. Mr. Charles Turner
Chosen for League of Professional Theatre Women’s celebration of their 30th anniversary.
THE ONCE POWERFUL DRAGON GRISWYNDE, HIS IMPRESSIVE FIRE-BREATHING CAPACITIES NOW DOWN TO BARELY A PUFF, SURVEYS HIS BURNED-OUT PLANET FROM ATOP THE REMAINS OF A DEAD VOLCANO AND WAITS PATIENTLY FOR THE END. HE IS THE LAST OF HIS KIND. LIFE WITHOUT THE HUMANS IS QUIET, BUT BORING. THEN SUDDENLY, ON THE HORIZON, A SILVER SPECK MOVING TOWARD HIM. FRIENDS? INVADERS? SOMEONE TO TALK TO?
THOUGH A DRUNK AND A LOUT AND A PRICK, COMMANDANT HERR OBERSCHAARFUHRER DIETZ CONSIDERS HIMSELF THE RAW MATERIAL OF A BRILLIANT & PRESCIENT SCIENTIFIC MIND. HIS QUESTION TODAY: “CAN A GYPSY’S KIDNEY BE TRANSPLANTED INTO A JEW, AND THE JEW SURVIVE?”
2012
DR. SCHIZO
w. Frank Anderson & Erika Rolfsrud
EVEN WITH A “MEDICAL DEGREE” HONED ON THE STREETS, DR. SCHIZO STILL MANAGES TO OUT-DIAGNOSE THE BEST & THE BRIGHTEST OF BIG-URBAN-U-MEDICAL CENTER. AFTER ALL, HE HAS PLENTY OF EDUCATED VOICES IN HIS HEAD WITH WHOM TO CONSULT.
The Actors Company Theatre – Wall Street Journal’s Best Company of 2012
A NORTHERN FIELD HOSPITAL. VIRGINIA, 1862.
FIELD MEDICINE IS PRIMITIVE; DR. CUTTARIDGE KNOWS WHATEVER HE DOES, 1 OUT OF EVERY 2 MEN IN HIS CARE WILL DIE. WHEN FREEMAN JEBIDIAH WALL BRINGS IN A YOUNG REBEL KID WHO NEEDS AN AMPUTATION FAST, THE DOC TEACHES JEB A LESSON IN SACRIFICING A LIMB TO SAVE A LIFE. BUT A DECADE LATER, WILL A NEW LIFE TREATING PIGS & HORSES QUIET THE NIGHTMARE OF THAT WAR?
NOMINATED FOR 6 NY Innovative Theatre Awards- (the most nominations given out that year.)
GERMANY, 1945.
OBERSCHAARFUHRER DIETZ, SQUAD LEADER OF THE CAMP, CONSIDERS HIMSELF A BRILLIANT & PRESCIENT SCIENTIFIC MIND. HIS QUESTION ON THIS DAY: “CAN A GYPSY’s KIDNEY BE TRANSPLANTED INTO A JEW AND THE JEW SURVIVE? GOOD THING FOR DIETZ HE HAS PLENTY OF GYPSIES AND JEWS FOR EXPERIMENTATION. NOW ALL HE HAS TO DO IS FIND A QUALIFIED JEW TO DO THE SURGERY HE HAS IN MIND. A TRUE STORY.
A HALF-DONE TRANSSEXUAL, A BLOOD-SOAKED MOBSTER, A NICE GUY WAITING TO DIE…THE USUAL SUSPECTS…AND THAT’S ONLY THROUGH NOON. ALL IN A (LONG) DAY’S WORK FOR THE YOUNG DOCTORS OF WELLVIEW HOSPITAL. AND DR. CUTTER JUST HOPES HE CAN SURVIVE ANOTHER DAY IN HIS QUEST TO KEEP THE SOULS IN HIS CARE ALIVE. CAN HE ALSO MANAGE TO HANG ONTO HIS OWN HUMANITY?
IN A CUSTOM WEDDING EMPORIUM IN NEW JERSEY, A BRIDE-TO-BE AND HER MOTHER ARRIVE FOR THE FINAL FITTING OF THE GOWN. BUT CAN THE TWO MANAGE THE PURCHASE WITHOUT DESTROYING EACH OTHER AND THE STORE BEFORE THE DRESS IS WRAPPED?
2015
MAGICAL THINKING: MY FAVORITE INDIGENTS & SEVERE CLEAR
– w. Mr. Robert Cuccioli & Ms. Erika Rolfsrud. Dir. By Paul Dobie
Presented at the Goddard/Riverside Center Theatre by the 29th Street Playwrights Collective as part of their New Works Series [Awarded a 2016 Creative Engagement Grant from the
Lower Manhattan Cultural Council & N.Y. Dept. of Cultural Affairs]
IN A LARGE URBAN HOSPITAL, A DOCTOR-IN-TRAINING GUARDS HIS FLOCK OF ANONYMOUS AND SMELLY “SHEEP”. IN RETURN, THESE LOST SOULS, INVISIBLE OR FORGOTTEN, PATIENTS ON SOCIETY’S FRINGE, BERATE HIM, SERANADE HIM, & TEACH HIM HOW TO HOLD ONTO HIS OWN SOUL WITH GRACE.
2016
PART 2: SEVERE CLEAR
w. Mr. Robert Cuccioli & Ms. Erika Rolfsrud
ON A CLEAR AUTUMN MORNING IN 2001, IN NEW YORK CITY, A RETIRED DOCTOR BUMPS UP AGAINST THE IMMUTABLE POWER OF DENIAL. IN LIGHT OF CATACLYSMIC TRAGEDY, HE DISCOVERS HIS LIFELONG COMPANIONS, REASON AND LOGIC, ARE COMPLETELY USELESS. HIS WIFE, HER DENIAL FIRMLY IN PLACE, REMAINS OPTIMISTIC.
2016
THE ACTRESS
– Dir by Paul Dobie
FINALIST, Thespis Theater Festival – 2016
w. Ms. Mikel Sarah Lambert, Ms. Dana Smith-Croll, & Mr. Steven Hauck
ALBERTINE REINE WAS A DIVINITY ON STAGE, ADORED AND WORSHIPPED BY FANS WORLDWIDE. BUT BACKSTAGE WAS A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT MATTER. ACCORDING TO “HAIR”, “PROPS”, AND “STAGE MANAGEMENT”, THE GODDESSS WAS FAR FROM HEAVENLY. BUT DON’T SAY I TOLD YOU SO. STILL, SHE TAUGHT HER COSTUME DESIGNER ZOEY A HARD LESSON IN DESIGN.
AND ONE PARTICULARLY DIFFICULT DAY, MS. REINE SAVED ZOEY’S ASS.
2016
OBSESSIONS OF AN ART STUDENT
– Dir by Luke Tudball
(Chosen for the NYNW THEATRE FESTIVAL – 2016)
TWO ART STUDENTS REVEAL SOME OF THE CURIOUS EVENTS WHICH ACCOMPANY THEM IN THEIR LIFELONG PURSUIT OF DRAWING SKILLS. FROM FAILING WATERCOLOR CLASS AT EIGHT YEARS, TO GETTING CAROTENEMIA AFTER TOO MANY HOURS AT THE DRAWING BOARD, IT’S CLEAR ART ISN’T ALWAYS AN EASY COMPANION…EXCEPT WHEN ART IS THE ONLY THING THAT COMFORTS.
Struggling young costume designer Zoey Parnes gets the big break that she’s been dreaming of when Theatre legend Jason Gascoigne III summons her to interview for his new Broadway musical. Two problems: a colossal cold is making it hard for her to get out of bed, and Gascoigne is a legendary eccentric whose curious ways of working could prove Zoey’s undoing…
2017
THE ART OF TEACHING AND LEARNING
a short lesson in 2 parts – (work-in-progress)
Part 1: SPELLING FOR PIE
Part 2: THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM
A FATHER FROM THE OLD COUNTRY TRIES TO TEACH HIS 8 YEAR OLD HISTORY & POLI-SCI WITH DAILY AFTER-DINNER LESSONS. BUT SOMETIMES, DESSERT GETS IN THE WAY.
This production is a part of SubletSeries@HERE, HERE’s curated rental program, which provides artists with subsidized space and equipment, as well as technical support.
The Director is a member of the STAGE DIRECTORS AND CHOREOGRAPHERS SOCIETY, a national theatrical labor union.
These plays have been chosen for fiscal sponsorship by FRACTURED ATLAS, a national non-profit artist service organization providing a range of support for the independent arts community.
The IT Awards were organized to bring recognition to the great work being done in Off-Off-Broadway and help create a community base for the estimated 40,000 artists working in the Off-Off-Broadway venue.
http://www.nyitawards.com
Made possible in part with public funds from Creative Engagement, supported by the NYC Dept. of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and administered by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council.
Visit NY Dept of Cultural Affairs
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Coco Color – A coloring stylus for kids - hughnjbell
http://cococolor.com
======
psychogenic
Not sure what I think of a tablet "coloring book" but the tech is
intriguing...
According to
[https://cococolor.com/pages/instruction#best-
results](https://cococolor.com/pages/instruction#best-results)
it seems the apps just listen in on the mic and the stylus emits some sort of
(ultra?) sound/sequence of audio pulses for each of the 4 buttons.
Anyone know if that's correct? If so, I wonder what the frequency is... are
all Android devices responsive to these sub/ultra sonics?
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The KDE community is deeply concerned by the wrong notion contained in a recent complaint to the European Commission. The Fairsearch initiative claims that "distribution of Android at below-cost" could constitute anti-competitive behaviour or predatory pricing. Mirko Böhm produced a response (PDF) for the KDE Community.
In part, the Fairsearch complaint is an attempt to reduce the strong competition of Free Software platforms with proprietary offerings. KDE and other free software projects would be adversely affected by a misinformed decision about Android. The Internet itself (a basis for the Fairsearch complaint) is largely a product of Free Software. The KDE Community in one of the largest Free Software communities in the world, a global collaboration of companies and individuals building a free platform and creating programs in an openly governed development process.
The predatory pricing claims against Free Software platforms in the complaint to the European Commission are wrong in substance and hurtful to collaborative development and open innovation. Volunteer-driven Free Software communities rely on regulators to protect open innovation against the vested interests of strong proprietary players.
Members of the KDE Community encourage the European Commission to understand that Free Software truly fosters innovation and increases competition. At stake is the liberty of our contributors and those of other communities to collaboratively create and distribute software as a common good.
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On April 4, 2013, an Order was entered in the New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division, in the matter of The People of the State of New York v. Diana Shanks. Just to clarify, the Appellate Division hears appeals from the New York Supreme Court, which is the state’s general trial court.
On appeal was an order entered on February 17, 2012 by the Otsego County court, affirming the judgment of the lower court in The Town of Oneonta v. Shanks, in which Ms. Shanks’ dog, Ghost, an American pit bull terrier, was found to be a “dangerous dog” within the meaning of Agriculture and Markets Law, Section 123.
The case stems from an incident that occurred in November 2011, when Ms. Shanks was walking Ghost, who was collared, harnessed and leashed, in the town of Oneonta. A German shepherd named Ranger owned by Oneonta resident, Ana-Maria Blasetti, was tethered to a porch in the front yard of the Blasetti residence. As Ms. Shanks and Ghost passed the yard, Ranger broke his tether and ran at Ghost, and a fight ensued. Ghost remained leashed the entire time.
Both dogs were injured, and Ms. Blasetti filed a complaint against Ms. Shanks. The Town Court deemed Ghost a “dangerous dog,” and found Ms. Shanks was 65% culpable for the incident, and responsible for that percentage of the vet bills. Ghost was ordered to be muzzled and kept on a short leash whenever on public premises.
Shanks appealed the Town Court’s ruling to the County Court, which affirmed the lower court’s ruling. Ms. Shanks then appealed to the Supreme Court Appellate Division.
In its Memorandum and Order dated April 4, 2013, the Supreme Court found there was insufficient evidence to sustain a finding that Ghost was a dangerous dog within the meaning of the Agriculture and Markets law:
A [d]angerous dog is defined as a dog that “without justification” attacks a person, companion animal … or domestic animal … and causes physical injury or death” or “behaves in a manner which a reasonable person would believe poses a serious and unjustified imminent threat of serious physical injury or death to one or more … companion animals. Notably, a dog shall not be declared to be dangerous if its conduct “was justified because the dog was responding to pain or injury, or was protecting itself [or] its owner…” At a hearing held pursuant to Agriculture and Markets Law Section 123, the petitioner bears the burden of establishing, by clear and convincing evidence, that the was at issue is dangerous.
The Court noted that no dispute existed that Ranger had broken free of his leash and that Ghost remained leashed and did not at any time pull free of his owner. Further, no testimony was presented to contradict Ms. Shank’s account that Ranger attacked Ghost first, and the Town Court acknowledged this fact, as well. Given the undisputed evidence presented, the Supreme Court found that Ghost acted in defense of himself and his owner, thus his actions were justified and did not meet the meaning of “dangerous dog” as defined by the statute.
Moreover, Blasetti specifically argued that Ghost was dangerous because he was a “pit bull,” and she asserted that pit bulls are a breed that courts can take judicial notice as having a history of being violent. The lower court apparently concurred with Ms. Blasetti, and even described Ghost as an “aggressive, powerful and vicious pit bull,’ while failing to identify Ranger’s breed, although German shepherds “are regularly characterized as an aggressive breed of dog.”
The Supreme Court cited the case of Roupp v. Conrad in its Memorandum, specifically noting:
The condemnation of an individual dog in the context of a dangerous dog proceeding solely by virtue of its breed is without any legal basis. We have repeatedly held that “‘there is no persuasive authority for the proposition that a court should take judicial notice of the ferocity of any particular type or breed of domestic animal.'” (Emphasis added.)
The Supreme Court found that “absolutely no evidence” was submitted that Ghost had on any prior occasion attacked another person or dog, or that he exhibited any aggressive behavior toward the people attempting to the end the fight between he and Ranger. Rather, attacked by another dog with his owner at close range, Ghost’s protective and defensive instincts were entirely understandable and expected.
The Supreme Court reversed the ruling and dismissed Blasetti’s complaint against Shanks.
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Presidential poll with vice-president as lone candidate marks the end of Ali Abdullah Saleh’s 33-year rule.
Polling stations across Yemen have closed in a presidential poll with Vice-President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi as the only candidate.
Hadi’s guaranteed election by virtue of being the sole candidate on the ballot will bring the curtains down on Ali Abdullah Saleh’s 33-year rule over the country.
Tuesday’s vote is the result of a power-transition deal brokered by Yemen’s Gulf neighbours in November after months of protests calling for Saleh’s removal.
The Gulf-brokered deal gave Saleh and his closest aides immunity from prosecution and made him honorary president.
It also stipulated that Hadi become the next president of Yemen for an interim two-year period.
Reporting from Sanaa, Al Jazeera’s Hashem Ahelbarra said residents of the Yemeni capital felt it was a religious duty to come and vote to end Saleh’s rule.
“For these people the vote is not just about electing the single candidate, but to pave the way for Yemen to go forward.This is basically about restarting the nation from scratch,” he said.
Hadi, a 66-year-old career soldier, was Saleh’s vice-president since 1994.
Important decisions
In practice Hadi replaced Saleh last June when the 69-year-old president was wounded in the assassination attempt and had to spend more than three months receiving treatment in Saudi Arabia.
Once formally elected, he will start undertaking very important decisions – firstly, restructuring the army, start working on a new constitution and then Yemen will have its first free and fair elections, our correspondent said.
In video Najib Ghanem, a member of the opposition Islah party, discusses Tuesday’s election to elect Saleh’s successor
On the eve of Tuesday’s polling, violence flared in the south, where separatists seek a divorce from the north with which they fought a civil war in 1994 after formal political union.
Officials warned attacks to disrupt polling were all but certain.
An explosion rocked a polling station in the southern city of Aden on Monday.
One soldier was killed and another injured as gunfire broke out after the blast, an official told Reuters news agency.
The vote has also been denounced by youth activists who took to the streets to demand the end of Saleh’s rule, and regard the transfer plan as a pact among an elite they regard as partners to the crimes of Saleh’s tenure, including the killings of protesters in the uprising against him.
A security official said police had carried out “arrest raids on armed hardliners” from the Southern Movement trying “by force to prevent citizens from participating in the elections.”
“These elements are trying to create a state of fear among citizens by spreading rumours that February 21 [election day] will see acts of violence,” the official told the AFP news agency.
Increasing attacks
Attacks against electoral offices and polling stations have increased in recent days.
On Sunday night, a rocket-propelled grenade was fired at an election base in the Khour Maksar neighbourhood of Aden, a security official told AFP, adding that there were no casualties.
Three soldiers were also wounded in a clash with southern separatists near a polling booth in the southern Lahij province in the same day.
The vote would make Saleh, now in the United States for further treatment of burns suffered in the June assassination attempt, the fourth Arab autocrat to leave office in a year after revolts in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya.
The one-year uprising against Saleh has brought much of Yemen to the brink of a major crisis, as analysts fear a civil war if the political situation is not resolved.
The country faces rebellions in both the north and the south, with an al-Qaeda offshoot also responsible for recent attacks in the country.
“If the new government fails to fulfil its obligations to reach out and re-integrate the southerners, the Houthis (northerners) and the youth … then conflict will be inevitable,” political analyst Abdulghani al-Iryani told the Reuters.
Abdullah al-Faqih, a Sanaa-based analyst, said the biggest challenge for Hadi would be to take control of the country’s security forces, which remained under the control of Saleh’s sons and nephews.
“People are worried about the rule of the military and security institutions in the future,” al-Faqih told Al Jazeera.
“They watch closely what happened in Egypt and they are afraid that Hadi will be ruled by the military and not rule the military … The first challenge is to rebuild the military or at least to remove the leaders so that he can really exercise power in the country.”
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Rhodeswood Reservoir
Rhodeswood Reservoir is a man-made lake in Longdendale in north Derbyshire. It was constructed by John Frederick Bateman between 1849 and June 1855 as part of the Longdendale chain to supply water from the River Etherow to the urban areas of Greater Manchester. It is third in the chain, and it is from here that the water is extracted to pass through the Mottram Tunnel to Godley for Manchester.
The Manchester Corporation Waterworks Act 1847 gave permission for the construction of the Woodhead and Arnfield reservoirs; the Manchester Corporation Waterworks Act 1848 allowed the construction of Torside and Rhodeswood Reservoir, and an aqueduct to convey the water to the Arnfield reservoir where it would pass through the Mottram Tunnel to Godley.
During construction, landslips were a problem. On the night of 6 February 1852, of land beneath the contractors' village of New Yarmouth moved obliquely to the watercourse. Bateman consulted the engineers Robert Stephenson and Isambard Kingdom Brunel. Pipes were sunk to draw off the water from the underlying shale.
The purest water in a reservoir lies between 1.5 and 3 metres beneath the water's surface, so water was extracted by means of syphons. The water now flows directly to the Arnfield Treatment Works in Tintwistle and to the Mottram Tunnel.
A statutory report, prepared under the Reservoir Safety Act 1975 and dated 12 June, stated that all five reservoirs could be overtopped during a Probable Maximum Flood. Woodhead as the fountainhead would have the most extensive improvements, and with these completed there was no danger at Rhodeswood of overtopping; however, there was weakness in the north spillway. To reduce the pressure, the roadway was consolidated to protect the north spillway from erosion, the embankment was raised by above the road, the wave wall was heightened by and the south spillway tunnel was remodelled. The work took place between 1994 and 1995.
See also
List of dams and reservoirs in United Kingdom
References
Category:Reservoirs of the Peak District
Category:Drinking water reservoirs in England
Category:Works by John Frederick Bateman
Category:Reservoirs in Derbyshire
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Q:
How do I ensure a sequence has a certain length?
I want to check that an IEnumerable contains exactly one element. This snippet does work:
bool hasOneElement = seq.Count() == 1
However it's not very efficient, as Count() will enumerate the entire list. Obviously, knowing a list is empty or contains more than 1 element means it's not empty. Is there an extension method that has this short-circuiting behaviour?
A:
This should do it:
public static bool ContainsExactlyOneItem<T>(this IEnumerable<T> source)
{
using (IEnumerator<T> iterator = source.GetEnumerator())
{
// Check we've got at least one item
if (!iterator.MoveNext())
{
return false;
}
// Check we've got no more
return !iterator.MoveNext();
}
}
You could elide this further, but I don't suggest you do so:
public static bool ContainsExactlyOneItem<T>(this IEnumerable<T> source)
{
using (IEnumerator<T> iterator = source.GetEnumerator())
{
return iterator.MoveNext() && !iterator.MoveNext();
}
}
It's the sort of trick which is funky, but probably shouldn't be used in production code. It's just not clear enough. The fact that the side-effect in the LHS of the && operator is required for the RHS to work appropriately is just nasty... while a lot of fun ;)
EDIT: I've just seen that you came up with exactly the same thing but for an arbitrary length. Your final return statement is wrong though - it should be return !en.MoveNext(). Here's a complete method with a nicer name (IMO), argument checking and optimization for ICollection/ICollection<T>:
public static bool CountEquals<T>(this IEnumerable<T> source, int count)
{
if (source == null)
{
throw new ArgumentNullException("source");
}
if (count < 0)
{
throw new ArgumentOutOfRangeException("count",
"count must not be negative");
}
// We don't rely on the optimizations in LINQ to Objects here, as
// they have changed between versions.
ICollection<T> genericCollection = source as ICollection<T>;
if (genericCollection != null)
{
return genericCollection.Count == count;
}
ICollection nonGenericCollection = source as ICollection;
if (nonGenericCollection != null)
{
return nonGenericCollection.Count == count;
}
// Okay, we're finally ready to do the actual work...
using (IEnumerator<T> iterator = source.GetEnumerator())
{
for (int i = 0; i < count; i++)
{
if (!iterator.MoveNext())
{
return false;
}
}
// Check we've got no more
return !iterator.MoveNext();
}
}
EDIT: And now for functional fans, a recursive form of CountEquals (please don't use this, it's only here for giggles):
public static bool CountEquals<T>(this IEnumerable<T> source, int count)
{
if (source == null)
{
throw new ArgumentNullException("source");
}
if (count < 0)
{
throw new ArgumentOutOfRangeException("count",
"count must not be negative");
}
using (IEnumerator<T> iterator = source.GetEnumerator())
{
return IteratorCountEquals(iterator, count);
}
}
private static bool IteratorCountEquals<T>(IEnumerator<T> iterator, int count)
{
return count == 0 ? !iterator.MoveNext()
: iterator.MoveNext() && IteratorCountEquals(iterator, count - 1);
}
EDIT: Note that for something like LINQ to SQL, you should use the simple Count() approach - because that'll allow it to be done at the database instead of after fetching actual results.
A:
No, but you can write one yourself:
public static bool HasExactly<T>(this IEnumerable<T> source, int count)
{
if(source == null)
throw new ArgumentNullException("source");
if(count < 0)
return false;
return source.Take(count + 1).Count() == count;
}
EDIT: Changed from atleast to exactly after clarification.
For a more general and efficient solution (which uses only 1 enumerator and checks if the sequence implements ICollection or ICollection<T> in which case enumeration is not necessary), you might want to take a look at my answer here, which lets you specify whether you are looking forExact,AtLeast, orAtMost tests.
A:
seq.Skip(1).Any() will tell you if the list has zero or one elements.
I think the edit you made is about the most efficient way to check the length is n. But there's a logic fault, items less than length long will return true. See what I've done to the second return statement.
public static bool LengthEquals<T>(this IEnumerable<T> en, int length)
{
using (var er = en.GetEnumerator())
{
for (int i = 0; i < length; i++)
{
if (!er.MoveNext())
return false;
}
return !er.MoveNext();
}
}
|
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|
Q:
catch integrity constraint error in symfony and doctrine
I have two tables which are:
Category:
|id | cat_name |
| 1 | nameone |
| 2 | nametwo |
| 3 | namethree |
News:
| id | id_cat | title |
| 1 | 1 | title1 |
| 2 | 2 | title2 |
| 3 | 3 | title3 |
| 4 | 3 | title4 |
| 5 | 3 | title5 |
i use doctrine:generate-module backend category Category and i have a list Category with executeEdit, Update etc. If i delete Category id 3 - namethree then I get the following error
SQLSTATE[23000]: Integrity constraint violation: 1451 Cannot delete or
update a parent row: a foreign key constraint fails .
How can I make sure that if I delete Category 3 then all News for Category 3 are moved to Category 2 for example without an error? How can catch this?
A:
You have to configure your table schema for News to handle foreign key changes with ON DELETE: Either "set to null", or "set to default", or "set to specific value", or "delete". Not sure if you can do this variably, though, but if you think about it that'd be insane: You have referential integrity precisely because you want your relations to be strictly enforced. Randomly changing them if you delete a category row would go completely counter to that.
Much better to handle this correctly yourself by first UPDATEing the to-be-modified rows.
UPDATE News SET id_cat = 2 WHERE id_cat = 3;
DELETE FROM Category WHERE id = 3;
(I don't know the appropriate Symfony/Doctrine method to affect this.)
Your available options depend on your database. You can always say ON DELETE CASCADE to delete all dependent rows; other options may or may not be available to you.
|
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Izvor: REUTERS/Kham
France's flagship aircraft carrier the Charles de Gaulle has 50 confirmed coronavirus cases on board, the French Defense Ministry said in a statement Friday.
"The results of the 66 tests carried out concluded that there were 50 cases of COVID-19 on board the Charles de Gaulle. No worsening of the health of the seamen on board is currently noted. In addition, three seamen were evacuated as a precautionary measure on the morning of 9 April," the statement read.
A medical team arrived on board on April 8, according to the Defense Ministry.
The flagship carrier is in the Atlantic, with an anticipated return to the French city of Toulon on April 23.
|
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What came first – the Trump phenomenon or CNN's relentless coverage of Trump?
Recently, CNN head Jeff Zucker has been busy defending the network's coverage of this U.S. election cycle. Because he has to. Fingers are being pointed. The finger-pointers note that Zucker was in charge of NBC when Donald Trump's reality show The Apprentice was launched. They note that Trump gets tons of coverage on CNN. His rallies and speeches get wall-to-wall coverage while the events of other politicians get less time and attention.
There have also been mutterings from inside CNN that the Trump fascination is too much and that it's a self-perpetuating phenomenon. The more coverage Trump gets, the more substantial he seems as a candidate.
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It's a gnarly question, this one. CNN's ratings have improved, thanks to millions watching Republican debates that, inevitably, feature Donald Trump saying something outrageous. Mind you, CNN didn't create that mass of angry American voters who see Trump's simple-minded solutions as the quick fixes the country needs.
Jeff Zucker told The Guardian on the weekend: "The critics of Donald Trump are looking for people to blame for his rise. There are many people who are either surprised by his strength, or don't like him, and want to blame someone to explain why he has been this popular."
He also dismisses the idea that CNN is cultivating the Trump phenomenon.
Well, yes and no. Yes, the Trump phenomenon would exist without CNN. But no, CNN isn't entirely innocent. It knows what it's doing, because it works. The key in all of this is Zucker himself.
Sometimes, I feel like I've been listening to Zucker and watching his actions for years. I have, actually. And so have you.
In 2012, when he was appointed head of CNN, I wrote this: "The Zucker touch, as seen at Today and at NBC Entertainment, is lethal." What I meant was that Zucker went up the ladder in the TV business because it's believed that he has an uncanny ability to spot a certain kind of entertainment phenomenon, to turn substance into fluff and to make money doing it.
His reputation was made in the early 1990s when he was made executive producer of NBC's Today, at the age of 26, and he made it the most-watched morning show in the U.S. market. He turned it into a strange mixture of candy and hard news.
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He oversaw Today's coverage of the 1992 presidential election, which had three candidates, incumbent George H.W. Bush, Democrat Bill Clinton and independent Texas businessman Ross Perot. Zucker focused on the personalities, not the politics. Lengthy personal interviews appeared on Today and there were viewer call-in segments. Meanwhile, there were also cooking demonstrations, weather reports delivered on a sugar high and anchors so perky they'd give you a headache. It worked and made a fortune for NBC.
Then, without much experience in actually making and scheduling comedy and drama, he was put in charge of NBC's entertainment division – running an entire network and its prime-time shows.
He oversaw the arrival of "supersized" sitcoms, the end of Friends and the arrival of The Apprentice, along with Fear Factor. In other areas, it was disaster after disaster: the Friends spin-off Joey, Conan O'Brien's brief tenure on The Tonight Show and bitter departure, and the train wreck of Jay Leno's nightly comedy show. NBC went from first to fourth in viewers among the U.S. networks.
In his job, Zucker talked to TV critics twice a year in Los Angeles. It was always hard to tell when he was joking. Just as it was really hard to figure out why anyone would think that some of the sitcoms he launched were funny. Eventually, as things got weirder, Zucker stopped talking to the TV critics directly. He let others make speeches and take questions while he lurked at the back of the room.
What's worth noting is that Zucker shifted gears as NBC imploded. On his watch, several good series were launched, including Southland and Amy Poehler's Parks and Recreation. And he kept the NBC version of The Office on the air after it launched to very low ratings.
And for all the disasters, Zucker has continued to fail in an upward trajectory. He was unscathed because, in the arenas of news and reality TV, he had a golden touch. Maybe adding five minutes to sitcoms and calling them "supersized" was ridiculous, but Fear Factor stayed on the air for years and The Apprentice was, for a while, a huge hit. You see, Donald Trump is more compelling than most fictional dramas, and Zucker learned that years ago.
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CNN isn't squeaky-clean in the matter of Trump. It promotes him because it works, and the CNN boss knows it does. He'd probably say the blame is with the viewers.
|
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Bathydrilus vetustus
Bathydrilus vetustus is a species of clitellate oligochaete worm, first found in Belize, on the Caribbean side of Central America.
References
Further reading
Diaz, Robert J., and Christer Erseus. "Habitat preferences and species associations of shallow-water marine Tubificidae (Oligochaeta) from the barrier reef ecosystems off Belize, Central America." Aquatic Oligochaete Biology V. Springer Netherlands, 1994. 93-105.
Erseus, Christer. "A generic revision of the Phallodrilinae (Oligochaeta, Tubificidae)." Zoologica Scripta 21.1 (1992): 5-48.
External links
WORMS
Category:Tubificina
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Overview (4)
Mini Bio (1)
Steven Paul Jobs was born on 24 February 1955 in San Francisco, California, to students Abdul Fattah Jandali and Joanne Carole Schieble who were unmarried at the time and gave him up for adoption. He was taken in by a working class couple, Paul and Clara Jobs, and grew up with them in Mountain View, California.
He attended Homestead High School in Cupertino California and went to Reed College in Portland Oregon in 1972 but dropped out after only one semester, staying on to "drop in" on courses that interested him.
He took a job with video game manufacturer Atari to raise enough money for a trip to India and returned from there a Buddhist.
Back in Cupertino he returned to Atari where his old friend Steve Wozniak was still working. Wozniak was building his own computer and in 1976 Jobs pre-sold 50 of the as-yet unmade computers to a local store and managed to buy the components on credit solely on the strength of the order, enabling them to build the Apple I without any funding at all.
The Apple II followed in 1977 and the company Apple Computer was formed shortly afterwards. The Apple II was credited with starting the personal computer boom, its popularity prompting IBM to hurriedly develop their own PC. By the time production of the Apple II ended in 1993 it had sold over 6 million units.
Inspired by a trip to Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), engineers from Apple began working on a commercial application for the graphical interface ideas they had seen there. The resulting machine, Lisa, was expensive and never achieved any level of commercial success, but in 1984 another Apple computer, using the same WIMP (Windows, Icons, Menus, Pointer) interface concept, was launched. An advert during the 1984 Super Bowl, directed by Ridley Scott introduced the Macintosh computer to the world (in fact, the advert had been shown on a local TV channel in Idaho on 31 December 1983 and in movie theaters during January 1984 before its famous "premiere" on 22 January during the Super Bowl).
In 1985 Jobs was fired from Apple and immediately founded another computer company, NeXT. Its machines were not a commercial success but some of the technology was later used by Apple when Jobs eventually returned there.
In the meantime, in 1986, Jobs bought The Computer Graphics Group from Lucasfilm. The group was responsible for making high-end computer graphics hardware but under its new name, Pixar, it began to produce innovative computer animations. Their first title under the Pixar name, Die kleine Lampe (1986) won critical and popular acclaim and in 1991 Pixar signed an agreement with Disney, with whom it already had a relationship, to produce a series of feature films, beginning with Toy Story (1995).
In 1996 Apple bought NeXT and Jobs returned to Apple, becoming its CEO. With the help of British-born industrial designer Jonathan Ive, Jobs brought his own aesthetic philosophy back to the ailing company and began to turn its fortunes around with the release of the iMac in 1998. The company's MP3 player, the iPod, followed in 2001, with the iPhone launching in 2007 and the iPad in 2010. The company's software music player, iTunes, evolved into an online music (and eventually also movie and software application) store, helping to popularize the idea of "legally" downloading entertainment content.
In 2003, Jobs was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and underwent surgery in 2004. Despite the success of this operation he became increasingly ill and received a liver transplant in 2009. He returned to work after a six month break but eventually resigned his position in August 2011 after another period of medical leave which began in January 2011. He died on 5 October 2011.
- IMDb Mini Biography By: IMDb Editors
Spouse (1)
Laurene Powell (18 March 1991 - 5 October 2011) ( his death) ( 3 children)
Trade Mark (1)
Black turtleneck sweatshirt and blue jeans - he owned over a hundred
Trivia (41)
Co-founded Apple Computer Inc. in 1977 with Steve Wozniak . Was later ousted and then brought back as interim CEO in 1997. His new reign has been controversial: bringing Apple back to profitability (and visibility), yet disappointing many for discontinuing the Newton MessagePad hand-held device.
Officially dropped the word "interim" from his title at Apple Computer sometime in the autumn of 1999.
When Apple Computer appointed its first Board of Directors, the Board insisted that all employees wear name badges with a number indicating the order in which they were hired. They assigned Steve Wozniak , who did all the engineering of the highly successful Apple II computer, the title Employee No. 1. Steve Jobs was officially Employee No. 2. Jobs protested but the Board refused to change the badge assignments. Jobs offered a compromise: He would be Employee No. 0, since 0 comes before 1 on the mathematical model known as a number line. (Source: "Accidental Empires" by Robert X. Cringely).
Purchased the computer graphics division of LucasFilm from George Lucas . This was later renamed Pixar.
Has a daughter, Lisa, from a previous relationship. She is the namesake of Apple's computer, the Lisa.
Attended Reed College (Portland, Oregon), but dropped out after one semester.
Adopted from infancy by Mountain View, California, couple, Paul and Clara Jobs. He was machinist for a laser manufacturer; she was an accountant.
Ranked #23 in Premiere's 2003 annual Power 100 List with Pixar partner John Lasseter . They had ranked #31 in 2002.
Graduated from Homestead High School in Cupertino, California, in 1972.
July 2004: he had surgery to remove a cancerous tumor from his pancreas
He was a pescetarian, one whose diet includes fish but no other meat.
Ranked #1 on Premiere's 2004 annual Power 100 List with Pixar co-head John Lasseter . Had ranked #23 in 2003.
Ranked #3 on Premiere's 2005 Power 50 List with Pixar co-head John Lasseter . They had ranked #1 in 2004.
In Forbes Magazine's listing of the 400 Richest Americans in 2005, Steve Jobs came in at number 67 with a total worth of $3.3 Billion.
Ranked #1 on Premiere's 2006 "Power 50" list with Pixar co-head John Lasseter . They had ranked #3 in 2005 and #1 in 2004.
Invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (Executives Branch) in 2005.
Received a liver transplant in April 2009.
(May 10, 2010) Merited a position in Time magazine's "The 100 Most Influential People in the World" ("Thinkers" category) with an homage contributed by Jeff Koons
Merited the #2 position in "The Vanity Fair 100" magazine's 16th annual ranking of the most influential people of the Information Age. [2010]
Has a child from a relationship he had when he was 23 with a woman whom he didn't marry. The daughter was named Lisa N. Brennan Jobs, born on 17 May 1978.
Gave the commencement address to the graduating class of at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California.
Biological son of immigrants to the U.S., Syrian Abdul Fattah Jandali and German-Swiss Joanne Carol Schieble. He was placed for adoption at a very early age, where he was adopted by an Armenian-American couple, Paul and Clara Jobs, who raised him. As a result of his upbringing, Jobs was fluent in the Armenian language.
Made the cover of TIME magazine 8 times: February 1982, August 1997, October 1999, January 2002, October 2005, April 2007 (group shot), April 2010, October 2011 (special issue).
Had intended to volunteer his service in designing the ad campaign for Barack Obama 's 2012 reelection campaign.
Posthumously awarded the Grammy Trustees Award at the 54th Annual Grammy Awards in 2012. The Trustees Award is awarded to "individuals who, during their careers in music, have made significant contributions, other than performance, to the field of recording".
Was friends with President Bill Clinton , and allowed him to stay at his California mansion whenever Clinton visited his daughter Chelsea Clinton , then a student at Stanford University. Clinton in turn hosted Jobs as a guest of the Lincoln Bedroom.
The black-and-white headshot of Jobs that appeared on the jacket of his biographer Walter Isaacson 's book "Steve Jobs" (2011) was taken by Scottish celebrity photographer Albert Watson
Always counted Edwin H. Land , inventor of the Polaroid camera, as one of his all-time entrepreneurial heroes. He based many of his own Apple product presentational styles on Land's.
As a youth he lived at 2066 Crist Drive in Los Altos (CA), where he started his Apple company in the attached family garage with pal Steve Wozniak
CEO of Apple Computer Inc. [1997]
CEO of Pixar Animation Studios [1986]
Often insisted on using marketing language that was intentionally grammatically incorrect. For example, he usually referred to Apple products without the definite article "the" to emphasis uniqueness. Another example was Apple's slogan in the late 1990s "Think different", in which he stated that "different" was meant to be a noun and sound colloquial.
He didn't use deodorant or shower regularly.
He followed a strict Vegan diet and often ate only one or two kinds of fruits such as Apples or pears for weeks at a time.
His #1 rival is Bill Gates.
Was played by Michael Fassbender in the film Steve Jobs.
Was played by Ashton Kutcher in the film Jobs.
Changed his daughter Lisa's last name from Brennan to Brennan-Jobs by altering her birth certificate.
Personal Quotes (19)
[February 1985, interview in "Playboy" magazine] I don't think I've ever worked so hard on something, but working on Macintosh was the neatest experience of my life. Almost everyone who worked on it will say that. None of us wanted to release it at the end. It was as though we knew that once it was out of our hands, it wouldn't be ours anymore. When we finally presented it at the shareholders' meeting, everyone in the auditorium gave it a five-minute ovation. What was incredible to me was that I could see the Mac team in the first few rows. It was as though none of us could believe we'd actually finished it. Everyone started crying.
[1985] I'll always stay connected with Apple. I hope that throughout my life I'll sort of have the thread of my life and then the thread of Apple weave in and out, like a tapestry. There may be a few years when I'm not there, but I'll always come back.
[2003] There are downsides to everything; there are unintended consequences to everything. The most corrosive piece of technology that I've ever seen is called television--but then, again, television, at its best, is magnificent.
[1998] A lot of times, people don't know what they want until you show it to them.
Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn't really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while.
[1993] I'm sorry, it's true. Having children really changes your view on these things. We're born, we live for a brief instant, and we die. It's been happening for a long time.
[May 1998, interview in "Business Week" magazine] That's been one of my mantras--focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it's worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.
Simple can be harder than complex. You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it's worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.
My model for business is The Beatles . They were four guys who kept each other's kind of negative tendencies in check. They balanced each other and the total was greater than the sum of the parts.
Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything--all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure--these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important.
In most people's vocabularies, design means veneer. It's interior decorating. It's the fabric of the curtains and the sofa. But to me, nothing could be further from the meaning of design. Design is the fundamental soul of a man-made creation that ends up expressing itself in successive outer layers of the product or service.
I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again.
The unions are the worst thing that happened to education because it's not a meritocracy. It turns into a bureaucracy, which is exactly what happened. The teachers can't teach, and administrators run the place, and nobody can be fired. It's terrible.
You know, everybody has a cell phone, but I don't know one person who likes their cell phone. I want to make a phone that people love.
I'm going to destroy Android because it's a stolen product. I'm willing to go thermonuclear war on this.
All the work I have done in my life will be obsolete by the time I'm 50.
It's more fun to be a pirate than to join the navy.
[about how he and partner Steve Wozniak tried to get major computer companies interested in their personal computer, which turned out to be the Apple] So we went to Atari and said, "Hey, we've got this amazing thing, even built with some of your parts, and what do you think about funding us? Or we'll give it to you. We just want to do it. Pay our salary, we'll come work for you". And they said, "No". So then we went to Hewlett-Packard, and they said, "Hey, we don't need you. You haven't got through college yet".
[on the difference between billionaires and regular people] Everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you and you can change it, you can influence it, you can build your own things that other people can use.
|
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Midweek meals :: Ultimate Mac and Cheese
So this weeks midweek is technically closer to the weekend, but I wanted to hold back because I am making this today for our tea and thought for some weird reason that meant I had to post it on the same day. Weird right?
Today we have my all time favourite comfort food, the food I judge a restaurant by, the beautifully simple creation that can make a rubbish day better, Macaroni Cheese. If this is on the menu, I order it. It has completely put me off many a restaurant loved by all (Byron's Mac is awful, burgers good, mac not so). If i don't know what to make for tea and is raining outside I reach for my cheese.
This recipe is absurdly simple, and open to variation. I have only two stipulations, you must use at least one of each type of cheese, and you must add a large grind of black pepper. Trust me.
- Start frying your bacon, you need it low and slow that it goes really crispy and the fat renders.
- Set your macaroni on to boil in oiled and salted water.
- In a saucepan, melt your butter over a low heat. Once melted add your flour and stir, cook for a few minutes before gradually adding the milk. Stir all of the milk into the flour/butter paste before adding more.
- Grate your cheeses. I have not specified amounts for these because it entirely depends how cheesy you like your macaroni cheese, what is absolutely essential is that you use a minimum of 3 cheeses, soft cream cheese, extra mature cheddar and parmesan are the basics. I often use more, adding gruyere and goats cheese into mine (I do not recommend blue cheese such as stilton or dolchelatte), the basics will do if you don't have more to hand though, and you need a ratio of 1 part parmesan to 2 parts soft cheese to 3 parts cheddar.
- Once all of the milk is incorporated, mix in your grated cheeses. Remove the pan from the heat and stir, letting the residual heat melt it all together.
- Add your bacon, and this is important, also add the rendered bacon grease into the mix. you are not going to add any salt to the sauce so you need as much of that bacon flavour as possible. Stir.
- Drain your pasta and add your completed sauce to the pan the pasta was cooking in. The little bits of residual starch water in the pan will help make the dish super smooth.
- Now the most important step of all. Pepper. Do not skimp on this step, it is important to add this once everything is mixed together so that you can taste it as you go and get the right amount. I like mine to be highly speckled once stirred, and for the heat to complement the sharpness of the cheese. In all honesty, all macaroni cheese is inferior if it does not contain a good grind of pepper.
I make a huge batch of this and attempt to store it for a few days, usually it lasts until the next day if I am lucky, sometimes James eats it all before i even get a leftovers packed lunch out of it!
Let me know if you have a favourite cheese combo for this in the comments!
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Are you looking to hire for certain positions right now?
Hello! Who are you and what business did you start?
My name is Robert Morris. I founded TerrAvion in 2013 together with Cornell Wright.
TerrAvion is an image delivery service for agriculture. Our core service is called OverView, which delivers subscription imagery, overnight, throughout the growing season. The images allow growers to have a real up-to-date picture of all of their fields as well as synthetic maps and analysis.
Our service works by TerrAvion contracting with flight providers, flying small planes, to operate a sensor that TerrAvion designs and integrates. TerrAvion plans and monitors the routes to ensure quality delivery. Our company’s technology is mostly around how to manage and process millions of acres a day, overnight, at a very low cost. We deliver our service first and foremost through our API (application programming interface–an endpoint for computers to talk to each other). Our web and mobile software, as well as partner software, call this API to deliver maps and images to the client.
We view our job as abstracting away all the complexity and delivering maps that are ready to use so that growers can spend more time applying their expertise, more powerfully, and over a larger area. Below is a screenshot of our interface with fields shown in our vigor image data layers.
What's your backstory and how did you come up with the idea?
I have always had a great interest in robotics. As a former U.S. Army officer, I led the first RQ-7B "Shadow" drone platoon in Afghanistan. After the Army, I consulted for Deloitte Consulting, where I organized the U.S. Navy's first Unmanned Surface Vehicle Community of Interest. One day I was talking to a friend who mentioned that agriculture could not see what was going on in the field as the only vision came from satellite data.
We even out-executed a competitor that Steve Blank was personally advising, by actually following his advice.
Satellite data has vast limitations amongst others due to the lack of data resolution and timeliness. Based on my experience, I realized that drones were not the solution either, so I looked into fixed-wing aircraft as a possibility to capture image data and making the field visible for farmers.
Take us through the process of designing, prototyping, and manufacturing your first product and describe the process of launching the business.
Cornell (TerrAvion’s technical co-founder) and I spent months researching the market and had a hypothesis about the product and business model that the agriculture industry required. We took a powerpoint to the big trade show we were targeting and got people to agree that if we could build the system, they would sign up for the service.
Cornell and I borrowed the equipment to do a validation flight from a supplier called Uniforce (still around today) and rented a plane from a retired Air Force Colonel to collect some data. We proved that the system *could* work with an engineer hovering over it, and with that signed our first customers in 2013. The system was a Frankenstein of off the shelf imaging and positioning technologies, driven by Linux computer, running the code that allowed us to get enough data to take pictures and turn them into high-quality maps that measured chlorophyll density, transpiration, and made awesome color maps--similar to Google. It is not common knowledge, but that highest zoom level on Google or Bing is actually captured by aircraft, even though they call it “Satellite” for marketing purposes. Our system was similar to Google or Bing aerial system but allowed us to see extra data bands that are important to agriculture and process the data overnight instead of several months.
Since then, we’ve been scaling the business to get it to the point where it is a sustainable and rapidly growing “pixel utility.” Now all of our flights are pilot solo flights and take place on two continents almost every day of the year.
Since launch, what has worked to attract and retain customers?
The best thing for us has been to work with partners. Many people, especially when we were starting, had this idea that they were going to build the be-all and end-all piece of ag software, sold directly, and they would disrupt the current ag system. This is not our approach.
Our approach has been to recognize that we are quite literally the best in the world at one thing: collecting ag imagery efficiently, reliably, and at scale. Then there are APIs and apps to make any fantasy anyone has about using imagery a reality.
Our attitude of sticking to the one thing we do best, invest in it, improve it, and widen our lead over everyone in the space has given us unprecedented access to the agricultural distribution channel. We work with most of the major ag retailers, 100+ smaller distributors, and all of the multi-national ag input majors. This is a beginning, and we have a long way to go, but working with and helping the people who are currently in the system has been tremendously beneficial to us.
How are you doing today and what does the future look like?
We are nearly profitable in 2019 and are forecasting being “Amazon profitable” or sustained reinvestment in growth from operating activities in 2020. This is important because we are fundamentally a utility for collecting pictures and maps, on which other people and organizations build. It is driven by the continued growth of our partner sales, especially input, ag retail, and analytics partners. We had to sell direct to growers to get started, but we’re less than 2% direct now--and basically only sell direct where we’re trying to embarrass our channel partners into better behavior.
Both in 2020 and the long term, we are embarking on a path to make our infrastructure more open and fill out a team that can support our partners from the farm to corporate HQ or the global R&D center. This open infrastructure is going to be amazing because it will allow high-end computing on the edge with better and better sensors (some of which we are already flying) so our partners will be able to do more and more unique things.
Through starting the business, have you learned anything particularly helpful or advantageous?
I learned about sales, sales, and sales. I wish I had known more, it is a weird and tough discipline. Seductively simple, but actually harder to manage than most of the black and white engineering, product, operations complexity, because there is so little control by management over a sales team and a sales team over their customers, people are hard to predict, but people are the only thing that matters.
You will never be having more fun than when you control your own destiny and have the freedom that you have starting out.
Beyond platitudes, somebody who has actually set-up a sales process (not run, not worked in, set-up) is key or you have to figure out how to do this the hard way, which you can do, but it takes a long time and time is the enemy of start-ups.
We even out-executed a competitor that Steve Blank was personally advising, by actually following his advice.
We run our operations on essentially 100% custom-built software on common open source tools in the public cloud. Our customer-facing side has centered on Hubspot as a total external communication backbone, one of the best decisions we’ve made recently.
Also, not discussed enough, but working with a PEO has allowed us to field a team where our customers live and work and be able to offer benefits.
What have been the most influential books, podcasts, or other resources?
I’m a big fan of the books. As an operations-focused company in a new market, The Goal and Clayton Christensen’s Innovator’s series have been particularly informative to our thinking. Also a big fan of Steve Blank’s Four Steps to the Epiphany.
The Goal, the only Socratic business novel I’ve ever heard of, helps you figure out what’s actually holding you back, there’s often a tendency to work on what you got good at fixing, not what’s actually holding you back, note this different from what I was saying about company focus above.
Christensen’s books deal with figuring out the game theory of your product, it is a shockingly accurate description and uncanny in its predictive power about the behavior of competitors.
Finally, Steve Blank talks about what you need to do at each stage of the company building, his books are so good we even out-executed a competitor that he was personally advising, by actually following his advice.
Advice for other entrepreneurs who want to get started or are just starting out?
My biggest advice is to not raise money if you can do without. I’d even consider changing ideas or markets until you can find a business you can bootstrap. You will never be having more fun than when you control your own destiny and have the freedom that you have starting out.
Also, we thought we could bootstrap TerrAvion--we were wrong about that--but having the discipline to even try has made us a much better and stronger company. Ultimately, all businesses must work on a cash basis--the earlier you can get started on that, the stronger position you’ll be in and the more control and less stress you’ll have.
Are you looking to hire for certain positions right now?
We are currently hiring for several full-time positions, including for an Accountant, Customer Support Team Leader, Operations, District Sales/Territory Managers.
Where can we go to learn more?
If you have any questions or comments, drop a comment below!
Want to start your own business?
Hey! 👋I'm Pat Walls, the founder of Starter Story. We interview successful business owners and share the stories behind their business. By sharing these stories, we want to help you get started. Interested in starting your own business? Join Starter Story Premium to get the greatest companion to starting and growing your business: Connect + get advice from successful entrepreneurs
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And much more! Pat Walls, Founder of Starter Story
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|
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|
Q:
How to Java doc an invariant for a class?
I'm wanting to know where exactly the comment should go and what keyword I should use as I cant really seem to find an example online, should I for example do this?
/**
* @invariant invariant example
*/
public class Example {
}
A:
There are a few possibilites
@Contract annotations
Some examples
@Contract("_, null -> null") - method returns null if its second
argument is null.
@Contract("_, null -> null; _, !null -> !null") -
method returns null if its second argument is null, and not-null
otherwise.
@Contract("true -> fail") - a typical assertFalse() method
which throws an exception if true is passed to it.
See https://www.jetbrains.com/help/idea/2016.2/contract-annotations.html for more details.
You could use them without IntelliJ IDEA. IDEA just has smart support for those annotations. It will check your method code if specified invariants are really met.
Textual description
This method does not cover all cases. For more complex dependencies between fields you need to describe invariant using english words.
For example, https://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/java/util/Map.html#put(K,%20V)
If the map previously contained a mapping for the key, the old value is replaced by the specified value.
Exceptions
Also, exceptions can be used to describe and enforce invariant. For above-mentioned Map.put method we have following exceptions for invalid arguments (arguments that would break class invariant)
@throws UnsupportedOperationException if the put operation
is not supported by this map
@throws ClassCastException if the class of the specified key or value
prevents it from being stored in this map
@throws NullPointerException if the specified key or value is null
and this map does not permit null keys or values
@throws IllegalArgumentException if some property of the specified key
or value prevents it from being stored in this map
|
{
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}
|
Instagram Stories Insights.
With Foursixty’s Instagram Stories insights, you’ll be able to gain high level insights into how your stories are performing on Instagram so you can fine-tune your brands Stories strategy going forward. Glean insights into everything from impressions, reach, exits, and replies over time so you can understand what your audience loves.
Engagement Analytics.
Take your community building initiatives to the next level by digging deep into your follower engagement metrics. Get insights into data points like comments, likes, saves, reach, and impressions and use them to improve and hone your content strategies with customers and fans.
Instagram Insights & Analytics.
With Foursixty's Insights and Analytics, well show you both the big picture and the granular detail. Get insight into account growth, post performance, influencer engagement, demographics, and more. All in one platform.
All your UGC. All in one place.
Never miss an incredible influencer post again. With Foursixty's UGC aggregation engine, you’ll be able source the best content your brand has been @tagged or @mentioned in and understand the effect of those posts in the Instagram world and in your online store.
Demographics.
Get a detailed understanding of the breakdown of your followers from an age, gender, and location standpoint.
|
{
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}
|
<!DOCTYPE suite SYSTEM "http://beust.com/testng/testng-1.0.dtd" >
<suite name="BigBlueButton Desktop Sharing Test Suite">
<test name="Conference tests">
<!--groups>
<run>
<exclude name="broken"/>
</run>
</groups-->
<packages>
<package name="org.bigbluebutton.deskshare.server.recorder"/>
</packages>
</test>
</suite>
|
{
"pile_set_name": "Github"
}
|
New Bay Bridge handles first rush hour
In this photo provided by the Bay Area Toll Authority, a phalanx of police officers cross the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge on Monday after leading a procession marking the east span's opening, in San Francisco.
The gleaming white and newly built $6.4 billion eastern span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge handled its first morning commute Tuesday with few problems other than the traffic snarls that were common around the old span.
California Highway Patrol Officer Sam Morgan said traffic heading into San Francisco on the bridge around noon was a little heavier than usual, possibly because of excitement about the new bridge.
"Some are making it a recreational event," Morgan said.
Officers have not encountered any instances of people pulling over on the roadway to take pictures of the span, Morgan said.
But Officer Daniel Hill told San Jose-based KNTV-TV that some drivers were warned or cited for taking photos and cellphone video while driving. He did not have exact numbers.
One person also received a warning for driving and taking pictures on the closed section of the old bridge, Morgan said.
"While everybody is excited about the new bridge, please remember it is still a roadway designed to get you from Point A to Point B," Morgan warned.
The new, self-anchored suspension span with its single looming white tower opened Monday night, hours after a low-key inaugural chain-cutting ceremony and after years of delays and cost overruns.
It replaces a structure that was damaged during the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, which struck as millions tuned in to watch Game 3 of the "Bay Bridge World Series" between the Oakland Athletics and San Francisco Giants. The replacement span is designed to withstand the strongest earthquake estimated by seismologists to occur at the site over a 1,500-year period.
Meanwhile, the new bridge's bike and pedestrian path opened Tuesday, although it does not yet run the full length of the new span.
Oakland Mayor Jean Quan predicted the path itself would become a local attraction.
"Just enjoying that will become an experience that people all over the Bay Area, and probably all over the world, are going to want to have," she said during remarks at the opening.
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Меркель: Я на стороне Порошенко, но отношения ЕС-Россия будут
Канцлер Германии Ангела Меркель считает, что несмотря на агрессию России против Украины и вызовы, которые Кремль бросает миру, отношения с российской стороной разрывать нельзя. Об этом политик заявила во время панельной дискуссии на Мюнхенской конференции по безопасности.
По ее словам, с начала агрессии России против Украины "отношения с РФ кардинально изменились". Однако она считает Москву партнером и выступает за сохранение диалога. "Геостратегически Европа не имеет права разрывать отношения с Россией", - заявила она.
Также Меркель в ходе своего выступления неоднократно высказала поддержку российскому проекту по строительству газопровода Северный поток-2.
"Конечно я на стороне господина (Петра - ред.) Порошенко (в войне с РФ - ), но вопросы, связанные с Северным потоком-2, остаются для меня важными", - сказала она.
"Российский газ останется российским газом, а Россия останется нашим партнером", - резюмировала канцлер ФРГ.
Читайте также: Не всем сердцем. Глава партии Меркель поддержала Северный поток-2
Попцова Галина
Если Вы заметили орфографическую ошибку, выделите её мышью и нажмите Ctrl+Enter.
|
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|
Prospective students in the U.S who can’t afford to pay for college or don’t want to rack up tens of thousands in student debt should try their luck in Germany. Higher education is now free throughout the country, even for international students. Yesterday, Lower Saxony became the last of seven German states to abolish tuition fees, which were already extremely low compared to those paid in the United States.
German universities only began charging for tuition in 2006, when the German Constitutional Court ruled that limited fees, combined with loans, were not in conflict the country’s commitment to universal education. The measure proved unpopular, however, and German states that had instituted fees began dropping them one by one.
“We got rid of tuition fees because we do not want higher education which depends on the wealth of the parents,†Gabrielle Heinen-Kjajic, the minister for science and culture in Lower Saxony, said in a statement. Her words were echoed by many in the German government. “Tuition fees are unjust,†said Hamburg’s senator for science Dorothee Stapelfeldt. “They discourage young people who do not have a traditional academic family background from taking up study. It is a core task of politics to ensure that young women and men can study with a high quality standard free of charge in Germany.â€
Compared to American students, Germans barely had to pay for undergraduate study even before tuition fees were abolished. Semester fees averaged around €500 ($630) and students were entitled to many perks, such as cheap (often free) transportation within and between cities.
Free education is a concept that is embraced in most of Europe with notable exceptions like the U.K., where the government voted to lift the cap on university fees in 2010. The measure has reportedly cost more money than it brought in. The Guardian reported in March that students are failing to pay back student loans at such a rate that “the government will lose more money than it would have saved from keeping the old £3,000 ($4,865) tuition fee system.â€
UK students often compare their plight to their American counterparts, but most Americans would be fortunate to pay as little as the British do: a maximum of $14,550 per year. High tuition fees in the U.S. have caused student loan debt, which stands at $1.2 trillion, to spiral out of control. It is now the second-highest form of consumer debt in the country. According to the Institute for College Access and Success, two thirds of American college students will leave their alma mater in significant debt (averaging at $26,600).
While there are many government measures that could ease the massive burden of student debt, some straightforward steps could make higher education accessible to all. Tennessee, for example, recently voted to make two-year colleges free for all high school graduates. The U.S. as whole could take a note from Germany and make public universities free with relative ease. The government spends around $69 billion subsidizing college education and another $107.4 billion on student loans. Tuition at all public universities comes to much less than that, around $62.6 billion in 2012. By restructuring the education budget, the cost of attending public universities could easily be brought down to zero.
This would also put pressure on private universities to lower their cost in order to be more competitive.
At least for now, however, learning German might be the best financial choice an American high school student can make.
Source thinkprogress.org
|
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}
|
Q:
perform Action<> in main thread
I'm writing an app, that performs very long requests at background. After each request I need to send result to main form.
So, here is a code:
Form1.cs
private async void StartButton_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
await Logic.GenerateStackAsync(stackSettings, delegate(FullOrder transaction)
{
lastOrderId.Text = transaction.OrderId;
}
);
MessageBox.Show("Completed!");
}
Logic.cs:
public static bool GenerateStack(StackSettings stackSettings, Action<FullOrder> onOrderCreated = null)
{
for(var i = 0; i < 10; i++)
{
// long, long request, replaced with:
System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(10000);
if (onOrderCreated != null)
{
onOrderCreated.Invoke(order);
// tried to change it with onOrderCreated(order), no results.
}
}
return true;
}
public static Task<bool> GenerateStackAsync(StackSettings stackSettings, Action<FullOrder> onOrderCreated)
{
return TaskEx.Run(() => GenerateStack(stackSettings, onOrderCreated));
}
It throws an exception: "Control 'lastOrderId' accessed from a thread other than the thread it was created on.", which can be fixed by adding CheckForIllegalCrossThreadCalls = false;, but I think that this is a bad experience. How make it right? Thank you in advance.
P.S. Sorry for bad English.
A:
I would say that you need to use Control.Invoke to solve that problem:
See http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/system.windows.forms.control.invoke(v=vs.110).aspx
|
{
"pile_set_name": "StackExchange"
}
|
[Mediastinal lymphatic filariasis].
Wuchereria bancrofti gravid adult female worms were detected in a mediastinal lymph node in a 76-year old man. The patient also had lung carcinoma. A blood cell counts did not show any eosinophilia, and three consecutive night blood samples were also negative for microfilariae. Filariasis and neoplasm association was purely coincidental. Epidemiological and histopathological aspects of adult filariasis are described.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "PubMed Abstracts"
}
|
Search form
Mises Daily
Good Enough for Me
Time and again, critics of the free market label certain choices of consumers "irrational." The Center for Science as a Public Nuisance… sorry, I mean the Center for Science in the Public Interest...recently called for a junk-food tax, the proceeds of which would fund, "frequent, hard-hitting messages [that] can change Americans' behavior."
If I'm eating poorly, CPSI feels that it is a good idea for money forcibly extracted from me to be used to badger me about… eating better!
You see,Michael F.
Jacobson, Executive Director of the lobbying organization, knows what other Americans should eat—what is healthiest for them.
It is inconceivable to him that others might choose to value a different end more highly—such as the enjoyment of food, or minimizing the time spent worrying about food.
Similarly, a very bright man I know recently asked me why people buy athletic shoes endorsed by famous athletes.
"Do they think," he wondered, "the fact that Michael Jordan endorsed these shoes will make them play basketball any better?"
Some free-market economists worry about "problems" like this.
If consumers are choosing a shoe based on an advertising campaign featuring a certain athlete, or people are eating the "wrong" foods, it will give ammunition to anti-market thinkers such as John Kenneth Galbraith, who feel the consumers are simple dupes in the hand of advertisers.
These economistsspend a great deal of time attempting to show that consumers' choices are "rational." One line taken is to insist that these campaigns are educating the consumers, who after a learning process chose their Michael Jordan shoes.
This view is best refuted not by arguing that consumers are "learning" when they choose Michael Jordan sneakers over Karl Malone sneakers, or over generic brands that are exactly the same (sans name) as Michael Jordan sneakers.
Fantasy is unlikely to be a successful technique for defending the market.
Instead, proponents of freedom should answer with a resounding "So what?" So, consumers don't always choose their sneakers based on the criteria that Galbraith feels they should be using—so what?
They still choose, and they choose based on the criteria that are important to them.
In fact, what many people are buying when they buy, for instance, a sneaker, is an element of an identity.
Consumers may have, as their chosen end, a particular image of themselves in mind.
Part of that image may involve the personal style of some celebrity, such as Jordan.
They buy a certain product not on its technical merits but on its ability to move them closer to that image.
Why should Galbraith, or anyone else, have any say in this process?
The key to understanding this issue is to realize, with Mises, that there is no objective means by which to judge some ends as being better than others are.
In Theory and History he says:
Judgments of value are voluntaristic.
They express feelings, tastes, or preferences of the individual who utters them.
With regard to them there cannot be any question of truth or falsity.
They are ultimate and not subject to any proof or evidence.
This has not stopped countless philosophers, economists, "social scientists," and others from attempting such proofs.
No one has ever succeeded.
Among libertarians, this urge has been especially strong among the followers of Ayn Rand.
She was, however, simply one in a long line of thinkers who "demonstrated" that his or her value system was the correct one and could be arrived at by pure ratiocination.
Not one of them, however, has ever been able to get even a large minority of mankind to follow their system.
Such "demonstrations" are easily refuted by simply saying, "I disagree." If the disagreeable person does not accept the initial assumption of ends that the value system presupposes, the argument has reached a standstill from which there is no way, by reasoning alone, to move either party.
This has been the terminus of all such attempts to prove a system of values.
The effort to create an objective system of libertarian ethics that is universally valid founders on some people’s refusal to accept human freedom as an ultimate end.
To those who refuse, instead choosing, perhaps, equality, or the fate of the South African giant sea slug, there is nothing more to say.
From the opposite perspective, University of Illinois professor Stanley Fishchallenges the classical liberal world view by arguing that its tolerance only extends to other tolerant views, and that there is no ultimate, objective basis for labeling it superior.
That is true.
To have a complete picture of the truth, however, we need to add thatclassical liberalism
is the only view that makes possible the worldwide cooperation of all people under the division of labor, and their continually increasing prosperity.
Classical liberalism does not deny the possibility that some system of revealed ethics is ultimately correct.
It merely asserts that mankind has never reached a general consensus on this issue, and that it is unlikely that it ever will.
To someone who aims for the impoverishment or annihilation of mankind there is no objective argument against their attempt to implement a worldwide socialist or theocratic state.
But for most of us, this pragmatic aspect of the classical liberal world-view is good enough.
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The Mises Daily presents relevant short articles from the perspective of an unfettered free market and Austrian economics. Written for a broad audience of laymen and students, the Mises Daily features a wide variety of topics including everything from the history of the state, to international trade, to drug prohibition, and business cycles.
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a wireless mobile communication system, and more particularly, to operations of a User Equipment (UE) including a transmission power control process and a multiplexing process of the UE, operations of a Base Station (BS) corresponding to the operations of the UE, and devices thereof in a state where a device to device communication technology and a wireless cellular communication technology are used together.
2. Description of the Related Art
As types of services using a wireless mobile communication system are significantly diversified, a new technology to more efficiently support newly rising services is required, and accordingly, a new method and new technologies have been developed and researched in the wireless mobile communication system.
Device to Device (D2D) communication is a new technology which has arisen as a solution for a new service and basically enables a predetermined UE to directly communicate with another UE existing in the surroundings of the device. Through the use of the D2D communication technology, the UE may discover UEs existing in the surroundings of the UE itself and perform direct communication with a device requiring communication.
When direct communication is performed between UEs, a large advantage in terms of radio resource efficiency is acquired since the direct communication uses a relatively small amount of radio resources in comparison with communication via a Base Station (BS) using a conventional wireless network. Further, since the direct communication supports a method in which the UE discovers UEs located close to the UE, the UE can directly transmit information to a desired device, thereby greatly increasing efficiency in supporting an advertisement service, a Social Networking Service (SNS), and the like.
Currently, a Long Term Evolution-Advanced (LTE-A) also requires supporting the D2D technology and a technical discussion about the D2D technology is progressing.
FIG. 1 is a view illustrating a scenario where D2D communication is supported within a cellular system.
A BS 101 manages a UE 103 and a UE 104 within a cell 102 managed by the BS 101. The UE 103 performs cellular communication with the BS 101 by using a UE-BS link 106 and the UE 104 also performs cellular communication with the BS 101 by using a UE-BS link 107. When D2D communication is possible between the UE 103 and the UE 104, the UE 103 and the UE 104 can directly exchange information by using a UE-UE link 105 without passing through the BS 101.
It is assumed that the D2D communication technology using the cellular wireless mobile communication system such as the LTE-A system is executed to basically prevent a UE using the conventional cellular system from being damaged. To this end, resources which do not overlap radio resources used by a cellular UE (this refers to a UE which performs conventional device to BS communication instead of the D2D communication) may be separately used for the D2D communication. Alternatively, the D2D UE uses the same resources used by the cellular UE but the resources are used to avoid interference to each other as maximally as possible.
A backward/forward duplexing method used by the LTE or LTE-A system includes Frequency Division Duplexing (FDD).
In FDD, forward and backward directions are distinguished by using different frequency resources. When a system using the FDD uses different resources for the D2D communication and the conventional cellular communication, backward frequency resources are more preferentially used for the D2D communication between forward and backward frequency resources in general. This is because many more types of signals are multiplexed to the forward frequency resources in comparison with the backward frequency resources. As a result, it is difficult to separately allocate the forward frequency resources for the purpose of the D2D communication in comparison with the backward frequency resources.
Further, in the FDD system considering only the conventional cellular UE, forward traffic is greater than backward traffic due to the nature of a communication system and forwardly transmitted overheads are greater than backwardly transmitted overheads, so that using the forward frequency resources generally have a heavier burden in comparison with using the backward frequency resources.
Accordingly, when the forward resources allocated for the purpose of the D2D communication are used, a burden of the forward resources becomes greater and thus it may be more difficult to adjust a balance between use of the forward and backward resources.
If it is assumed that the communication system using FDD performs the D2D communication by using the backward resources, the problems generated when the D2D communication technology uses the forward resources can be solved. However, all problems cannot be solved when the D2D communication technology using the backward resources is applied. For example, as the backward resources used by the LTE system, a predetermined size of resources may be allocated to both ends of an entire band to transmit control information for the conventional cellular UE.
The backwardly transmitted control information may include forward link Channel Quality Information (CQI) of the UE, ACK/NACK information corresponding to response information for a Hybrid Automatic Repeat reQuest (HARQ) technology of the forward communication, scheduling request information for backward information transmission, and the like.
The control information is transmitted in a backward direction, that is, from predetermined UEs to the BS. The transmission of the control information may be performed when the D2D UEs communicate with each other as well as when only the cellular UEs communicate by the backward resources. That is, a plurality of D2D UEs may communicate with each other and a cellular UE may transmit control information to the BS within the same cell at the same time (for example, within the same subframe in LTE). Of course, in the above case, frequency resources used for control information transmission by the cellular UE and frequency resources used for D2D communication by the D2D UE may be different from or the same as each other.
FIG. 2 is a view illustrating a scenario where the cellular UE and the D2D UE within the same cell simultaneously transmit/receive a signal to/from the BS by using backward resources on the same subframe.
A BS 201 has a cell 202 and UEs 203, 205, and 206 are located within the cell 202. The UE 203 transmits backward control information to the cellular UE by using backward resources 204. The UE 205 performs the D2D communication with the UE 206 and can transmit information to the UE 206 by using a D2D link 207. At this time, the UE 203 properly sets transmission power for the information transmission such that the BS 201 has proper reception power in receiving the backward control information. Further, the UE 205 properly sets transmission power for the information transmission such that the UE 206 has proper reception power in receiving the D2D transmission.
In this event, as a distance between the UE 205 and the UE 206 becomes larger, the UE 205 may perform the D2D transmission after setting large transmission power for proper transmission to the UE 206. At this time, when the UE 205 is located very close to the BS 201, the D2D transmission to the UE 206 by the UE 205 may be received by the BS 201 with very large reception power.
At this time, when the reception power (reference numeral 208) that the BS 201 receives from the UE 205 is greater than a signal backwardly transmitted by the cellular UE 203 by a predetermined value or more, reception sensitivity deterioration (desensing phenomenon) occurs in the reception of the signal and thus the backward control information transmitted by the UE 203 may not be received by the BS 201.
As described above, a problem exists when the cellular UE and the D2D UE included in one BS simultaneously perform transmission by using backward frequency resources, as a difference between intensities of signals which the BS receives from the cellular UE and the D2D UE is large, and thus the BS cannot receive information transmitted from the cellular UE.
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We have an integrated BI development model that is based on an exclusive data integration framework. We follow best practices for reusable components to ensure cost-effectiveness and flexibility in the systems we develop. Our best practices policy includes:
Extensive planning for reports for KPI oriented charts, communication model based on alerts and messaging, presentations and metadata sharing
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The present invention is directed to a conveyor belt cleaner scraper blade for scraping adherent material from a conveyor belt, and in particular to a conveyor belt cleaner scraper blade including one or more sensors for monitoring the operating conditions of the scraper blade and control system therefore.
Some conveyor mechanisms utilize a moving conveyor belt to transport sand, gravel, coal and other bulk materials, from one location to another. As the bulk material is discharged from the conveyor belt, a portion of the material often remains adhered to the belt. Conveyor belt cleaners, including one or more scraper blades, are used to scrape the adherent material from the belt and thereby clean the belt. A primary conveyor belt cleaner may be placed in scraping engagement with the conveyor belt at the head pulley of the conveyor and a secondary conveyor belt cleaner may be placed in scraping engagement with and below the return run of the conveyor belt a short distance behind the primary conveyor belt cleaner. The scraper blades of a conveyor belt cleaner are removably attached to a rotatable or linearly adjustable cross shaft that extends transversely across the width of the conveyor belt. A tensioning device is attached to one or both ends of the cross shaft. The tensioning device applies a rotational or linear biasing force to the cross shaft which in turn moves the scraper blades into scraping engagement with the conveyor belt with a desired amount of force. During operation, the scraping edge of each scraper blade wears due to its scraping engagement with the rotating conveyor belt. The tensioner rotates or linearly adjusts the cross shaft and the scraper blades to maintain the scraper blades in biased scraping engagement with the conveyor belt.
In order to obtain optimum performance from the scraper blades of a conveyor belt cleaner, it is preferable that the scraper blades be biased into scraping engagement with the conveyor belt with a predetermined amount of force. If the scraper blades are biased against the conveyor belt with an excessive amount of force, this will result in excessive wear to the scraper blades, potential damage to the conveyor belt, and may cause the tip of the scraper blade to develop an excessively high temperature due to the friction generated between the scraper blade and the rotating conveyor belt. If the scraper blades are biased against the conveyor belt with too small of a force, the scraper blades may not effectively clean the conveyor belt. In addition, the scraping tip of the scraper blades may vibrate or chatter against the conveyor belt depending upon the amount of force with which the scraper blades are biased into engagement with the conveyor belt, thereby potentially damaging the scraper blades and/or the belt, and decreasing cleaning efficiency. It is therefore useful to monitor the conditions and parameters of a scraper blade during operation, such as the scraping tip temperature, the rate of wear of the scraper blade, and the magnitude of the force with which the scraper blade is biased into scraping engagement with the conveyor belt, to optimize the performance of the scraper blade. All of these parameters are subject to change depending on a number of factors including conveyor belt speed and the type of material being conveyed.
In addition, a control and monitoring system for the various sensors included in the blade structure would maximize the utility of such a sensor array. Even with a variety of sensors present, the user still must perform periodic inspections of the installation in order to determine whether the blades are excessively worn, and to check for proper engagement force between the belt and the scraper blade assembly. Consequently, a need arises for an economically yet durably constructed system that is capable of alerting the user to various operating conditions that may adversely affect the installation, thus avoiding the need for frequent on-site inspections. Such a control system should also be able to automatically adjust the engagement force between the scraper blades and the belt.
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Westbrook channels inner Beyonce with leather outfit
A few days after getting hammered online for his sleeveless sweater outfit he sported for the press conference after Game 1 of Oklahoma City’s first-round series against Houston, Thunder star Russell Westbrook came back bigger and bolder for his attire after Game 2.
And he came with sleeves . . . long, black leather sleeves.
In an outfit that only the Oklahoma City guard can wear, Westbrook continued his fashion assault on the NBA — and our eyes — by wearing a long-sleeved, black leather button-down dress shirt and matching black slacks.
Of course, the shirt was accompanied with matching lens-free, black-rim glasses.
Kevin Durant recently stated that his nickname for Westbrook was “Sasha Fierce,” and if you remember, Beyonce’s outfit for the Super Bowl halftime show this year was an amazing black leather outfit.
So, Durant’s nickname might not be that far off.
Durant, flashed his own style at the presser, arriving in a short-sleeve grey hoodie.
Where would one buy a short-sleeved hooded sweatshirt? Nobody really knows. And don’t even start thinking about what situation you might wear a short-sleeved hooded sweatshirt, because you won’t come up with one.
Some might have thought Westbrook, who was named one of the sports world’s most fashionable athletes by GQ Magazine, was too casual after Game 1, where his black hoodie with no sleeves and gold chain was mocked online.
Good to see he brought some class with the dress shirt tonight. We can’t wait to see what he wears in Houston after Game 3.
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The thing that got me hooked on LeMons racing was the mentality that makes a statement such as “Hey, I’d like to install a 540-cubic-inch, five-cylinder radial aircraft engine in the back of a Toyota MR2, then try to make it run all weekend in a grueling endurance race” seem totally sensible. The craziest most devoted racers find themselves locked into an arms race for the Unununium, and this is the result.
The engine, which once powered a 1942 PT-22 Recruit trainer aircraft, was rated at 160 horsepower. This one hasn’t run for 65 years, but Radial Madman-In-Chief Marc assures us that it’s in good shape and should fire right up. As for the $500 limit, I exercised my authority as Chief Justice of the LeMons Supreme Court to issue a decree stating that radial engines shall be exempt from budgetary limits. You want a Pratt & Whitney R-2800 making 2,500+ horses in your Hillman Imp, and you can convince us that your hoopty-ass installation will be safe? Fine!
It’s going to sit in the back of the car, directly above a Subaru transaxle with a custom adapter flange. A V-drive, reduction gear set, and a much more reliability-enhancing gear is involved; you can follow the whole saga on this 24 Hours of LeMons Forums thread. Will it work? The real question should be: Will it have license plates?
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When I saw that photo, it immediately reminded me of a pen-and-ink cartoon in Hot Rod Magazine about 1974, of a massive Cox .049 engine sitting in a rail, being fueled nitro by some slob with a cigarette in his mouth! Absolutely hilarious! I’m not familiar with a 5 cylinder aircraft engine, just 7 and 9 cyls. At least it wasn’t a Rhone rotary from WW1! That would have been interesting, to say the least. One note: Wasn’t the Tucker originally powered by a helicopter (radial) engine? Finally, how did the car pictured run?
I really can’t imagine this working out so well. In the aviation world, sometimes people put automotive engines in aircraft and these applications generally do not seem to be reliable. An air-cooled complex and temperamental engine in the rear of the car is just asking to overheat or fail. It develops peak horsepower at much lower rpm than automotive engines, so I’d be curious to see how well it puts the power to the wheels.
That is AWESOME. For some reason, I was just thinking yesterday “I wonder if there’s ever been a radial engined car?” I was thinking laying flat though.
They should put a low-pitch propeller on it to keep things cool.
That’s hilarious you’re exempting radials. You should just have a law that if something is a REALLY stupid idea, it shall be exempt regardless of expense :)
If someone really wants to be the unununium grand champion, they’d be rocking a steam engine or any other kind of wood-fueled car. Hey- great idea…I’d love to see a wood-bodied car that burns parts of it’s own body for fuel!
We’ve had requests from teams who want to do steam engines, but the idea of a boiler explosion on the track has been pretty daunting.
No jet engine attempts yet, though a couple teams are pursuing turbines.
Radial engines in cars go back at least as far as the 1904 Adams-Farwell, which featured a fixed vertical crank and horizontally revolving engine.
http://www.american-automobiles.com/Adams-Farwell.html
MM, I’m the guy who wanted to run a ’51 De Soto on an outboard engine. We actually had some pretty sweet plans about how to make it all work too, but the whole thing fell apart when it became apparent that more of my team wanted to play than pay.
At one point we had even sourced and considered using a somewhat rare Yanmar diesel outboard.
The radial project, however, could very well trump our plan for awesomely bad ideas.
By the way, here is another “interesting” use of a radial engine:
http://thekneeslider.com/archives/2006/05/10/radial-engine-powered-motorcycle/
Yup, the Tucker used a Franklin horizontally-opposed aircooled six aircraft engine.
As for unusual engine installations, a few years ago there was a DeLorean (painted black) for sale in Florida for 25K. It had a Mazda 20B twin-turbo 3-rotor rotary, and an instrument panel that was from an early-’90s Honda Prelude. The youtube vid proved that this was a most excellent combination. The car was insanely fast.
IIRC, in the 1950’s there were a lot of war surplus aircraft engines of the Rolls Royce Merlin type around. Liquid cooled, 27 liter, 1000+ hp. Dropped into a minimal frame with a little body work they made outrageous dragsters. Then a guy from Akron — Art Arfons decided to go whole hog and use a jet engine.
Henry Ford experimented with radial engines in cars and I can’t remember the make but there was an early horseless carriage era car that had a radial engine whose cylinders and crankcase revolved around the fixed crankshaft, driving the car with a ring gear.
Ah, found it! It was a Balzer (whose engines apparently ended up being used by S.P. Langley, the aviation pioneer for whom Langley Field is named)
http://www.american-automobiles.com/Balzer.html
Normally I wouldn’t say anything but if you’re an owner of a mid-1960s and up Rolls-Royce then I am sure somebody has spoken of the Merlin V12 from WWII being able to actually fit in many of the engine bays (with minor modification). Most of the time though they preferred to use the marine version which had a slightly smaller displacement that allowed it to be shoe-horned in.
The disturbingly large 6.75L isn’t really derived from the Merlin anymore but the older engine bays are huge and had plenty of room to house the monster V-12 motors. The increased weight & loss of a trunk to a fuel tank made up for the fact that a Rolls was able to blister time records and if I remember correctly would have been straight-line faster than most modern cars still…
Big cylinder aircraft engines are meant to cruise at a constant speed, usually producing 70% TO power or less, so this thing is meant to be set at about 110HP and left there.
Big air cooled engines also do not like to have the power changed suddenly. Quick power settings changes can cause thermal shock to big air cooled cylinders.
Redline on this engine is 1850 RPM, why is a reduction gear being installed? So a maximum of what, 925 RPM(??) is going into the transaxle? BTW, Useable torque is probably from (let’s be generous) 1000 RPM to redline. How many speeds will the transmission have to use this extremely wide power band?
Engines of this vintage were meant to have a top oil for the valves. One solution is to mix about 25% 100LL with 75% auto fuel so there is some TEL for the valves. I’m sure the competitors will love breathing lead laced fumes.
Radials are normally dry sump, so it will need an oil tank to hold, oh, three or four gallons of probably 100W aviation oil. 100W is about as thick as 50 weight auto oil, so perhaps straight 50 weight can be substituted. Radials are known as oil burners, but since this engine is “in good shape” maybe it will only burn five gallons or so in a 24h race, assuming it doesn’t throw a piston through the head of a cylinder from excessive engine RPMs on the first lap.
This could be interesting. Is anyone making a video? If it lasts half of a 24h race it should win a Unununium Medal.
Hi, this is Marc, the guy building this thing. there’s a few things i want to address about what you said:
1) the refusal to change delivered power is due to the long intake tract and the archaic updraft carburetor. I’ll be using 5 carbs, one at each intake port to aleviate this (harley flat-head carbs)
2) yes, the redline is 1850. we may push it a tiny bit past that, but not much. the gear reduction you mentioned is not quite that it’s actually a gear increase. about 3:1 to make the input shaft on the transmission spin up to 5500-6000 rpms about what the stock engine this transmission was designed for.
3) thankfully, the leaded fuel is un-necessary. this engine has hardened valve seats. the only reason it calls for leaded fuel is because that’s what they had back then. we’ll be running on unleaded 93 octane or E-85 if we need the ethanol to help keep things cool.
4) yes, we’ll have about a 5 gallon tank of oil on board. the plan is to run a 70W oil designed for harleys. it’s made to try and not sneak past the rings.
5) yes, we will burn oil. there’s nothing much that can be done about that. the motor is quoted for 1.5gal/hr as “normal” i have no idea what the freshly rebuilt burn rate will be. it could be a quart/hr or it could be 1.5gal/hr.
thanks,
honestly the only significant risk at this point is cooling. i’m looking into semi sized cooling fans to move a bunch of air across the motor.
the motor is in amazing shape. i had to make a few parts, but overall i lucked out and found a motor that had not been run to very long after it had been rebuilt. all the bearings were still in spec and very close to the new side of the specification. overall pretty amazing considering how cheap it was and that it was sitting in the corner of a barn. the rebuild date inscribed on the cylinders say 1944 and the lack of wear tells me it hasn’t been started in at least 65 years.
the other big risk is the drive assembly between the motor and transmission. it’s a bit of a long shot and i have no idea how long it will last, but i suspect it should last long enough to impress most people :)
The trick to keeping the temperature down is fin area and this engine doesn’t have it.
An out-of-the-box idea would be to take pieces of wire, wrap them around each cylinder, and then string them over to the adjacent cylinder like a big spider web. Use wire of the same diameter as the cooling fin grooves so they fit in snugly. Use copper for its good thermal conductivity. It will look strange but it will have tremendous fin area.
(Or you could just mount an oil cooler in the nose of the car, but that’s less fun!)
the cooling is definitely a huge concern. you’re quite correct that this motor has very short cooling fins.
The upside is the motor is rated to 550*F head temperature. we’ll probably be using most of this. we’ll definitely have a huge oil cooler. the manual claims it does not want incoming oil to be cooler than 160*F. we’ll use that as our target temperature.
the plan is as follows, incrementing until we no longer have a cooling issue.
1) run on gasoline, use a radiator fan from a semi to move LOTS of air across the motor.
2) switch to E85, fatten up the mixture for the cooling properties
3) add a 10gal water tank and serious water injection
Just found the Kinner Radial as used in Toyota.
Are you still using it?
My Google search took me to you as I’m looking for the same engine for my Vintage Airplane.
Know of anymore available.
Regards
Gerry
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Triptorelin (D-Trp-6-LHRH) in combination with carboplatin-containing polychemotherapy for advanced ovarian cancer: a pilot study.
In experimental and clinical phase II trials GnRH agonists were shown to possess antitumor activity in ovarian cancer. The outcome of prostatic cancer was also improved experimentally by a combination of cytostatic chemotherapy and GnRH analogs. Encouraged by these results, we administered micro-encapsulated triptorelin (Decapeptyl CR), 3.75 mg on the first day of each chemotherapy course, to 15 patients with advanced ovarian cancer in addition to adjuvant, carboplatin-containing chemotherapy (Carboplatin, Epirubicin, Prednimustine and Carboplatin, Etoposide) after radical surgery. Patients received a total of 6 courses. After the completion of combined chemotherapy GnRH analogs were continued for another 6 months at 28-day intervals. Results were compared with those obtained in a group of 15 ovarian cancer patients receiving the same chemotherapy regimen without GnRH medication. At a median follow-up of 36 months no significant differences were seen in terms of response, survival and time to progression. However, patients undergoing chemotherapy+triptorelin tended to show a more positive outcome than those on chemotherapy alone. G1 and G2 tumors in particular were found to respond better to the combined treatment regimen.
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Ripple(XRP) gets listed on KuCoin Altcoin Cryptocurrency exchange
KuCoin, one of the most famous cryptocurrency exchange platforms is now supporting eight XRP markets which include Bitcoin(BTC), Ethereum(ETH), Tether(USDT) and USD Coin(USDC). The information was made public by the trading platform on December 3rd.
KuCoin’s move comes just two weeks after XRP surpassed Ethereum(ETH) as the second largest cryptocurrency in the market.
The trading platform currently supports XRP trading in XRP/BTC, XRP/USDT, XRP/ETH, XRP/PAX, XRP/TUSD, XRP/USDC, XRP/KCS, and XRP/NEO. Though these are just the starting pairs, more are expected to be offered shortly.
Apart from announcing the listing of XRP, the exchange platform is running a special offer between December 3rd to December 10th.
During this week, KuCoin will offer users 99% discount on trading fees on XRP trading pairs. This means that users trading with XRP on the platform will have to pay only 1% of trading fees.
The listing of XRP on KuCoin could be useful, as the community has been requesting more trading pairs on various other exchanges. XRP is the most demanding and the cheapest of digital currencies that are transacted in the market as of now.
The XRP community is in talks with other exchanges like Binance to have XRP as the base currency for its platform; the decision of this is still not taken.
There was a hint from Changpeng Zhao, founder of Binanace, as he wrote on Twitter to shill XRP. Nevertheless, this may come as a positive move in the development of the Ripple currency. However, in the past, the currency has performed poorly. The poor performance is because of the current bearish trend which is affecting the crypto-market.
XRP also lost a substantial part of its price; however, it was still able to get the second position in the market in terms of market cap.
The market capitalization of XRP is close to $14.1 billion, as it was traded close to $0.349. Currently, XRP has $3 billion’s of difference with the next largest cryptocurrency, Ethereum(ETH).
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RuneScape
It seemed like a nice job: to be given the opportunity to write a light-hearted piece on the first steps in the browser-based MMORPG RuneScape - an industry outsider that's quietly the Western world's second most successful MMO. Nip in, work out what everyone loves, hide my conclusions at the end of some amiable fluff, and phone my bank to tell them not to be shocked when millions of Eurogamer pounds fly into my account. I'll start with my guesses as to its popularity, then play it.
First, RuneScape is accessible. A Java-based browser application, it'll run equally happily on PC, Mac and the years-old laptop I installed Ubuntu onto for a lark. So kids can play without having to install anything, and even the most restrictive corporate networks will usually allow a nice bit of certified Java.
Secondly, RuneScape is free. Or a slice of it is. Some skills, such as thieving and agility, aren't open to guests, and the majority of quests will be denied anyone logging onto the guest servers.
Finally, RuneScape is everything that seemed amazing in 1990. A year when people would gather around a 386 processor and listen to the latest public-domain MIDI files. When children would stand in plastic tree trunks and pay 15 pounds per hour to wear a cripplingly heavy VR helmet and try to pick up an imaginary key. RuneScape has the strong whiff of the Rogue-like about it - which isn't necessarily a bad thing, when you consider how involved and deep some Rogue-likes can be.
The fact that it's so hugely popular makes RuneScape a game that demands to be taken seriously. But from the first burst of pitch-bent MIDI trumpet on the title screen, there's a worried smile on your face. A smile that you'd give a unicorn that trying to give you a neck massage. A smile that says "I appreciate what you're doing, but I'm not sure this'll work, and you really shouldn't exist".
Part One: Tutorial Island
RuneScape's commitment to fantasy fonts demands respect.
Tutorial Island is non-optional for new accounts - every player must follow the training trail. You'll be taught to chop down trees, prepare a fire from the logs, fish for shrimp, cook the shrimp, make dough from flour, and bread from dough. You'll mine tin and copper, and smelt them into bronze. You'll stab a giant rat to death, then pepper his mate with arrows. You'll pray, and be introduced to the friend and ban menus. I tried to befriend someone called "worldeater12". Not because I'd met him - more because anyone called World Eater 12 sounds like the kind of bloke you'd want to have on your side.
Virtually everything you do gives you experience. RuneScape's XP and levelling system is divided into 24 boxes (with a couple, as mentioned, only available to paying members). Cut down a tree, get 25 Woodcutting XP. Cut down just under 100 trees, and you'll be able to... cut down new kinds of tree. Fire-making is another skill, which gives you something to do with all the trees you've cut down. And on the fires, you can level your cooking skill by toasting the prawns you got from grinding your fishing skill. Eat cooked meats to top up your energy during combat, which boosts your Defence, Strength, HP and Attack experience. Do your enemy the dignity of burying his bones, and you'll get prayer experience.
There are no character stats, only bonuses to your levels acquired from items, and your overall level is calculated from all your others. With nothing that's not unlockable to any paying member, the only limitation is how much of your life you're honestly capable of spending in this world. No classes means one character per account - it makes no sense to have more than one when it would be a needless duplication of effort. This has its own drawbacks, as I'll discover later.
With a network of level prerequisites and codependencies between the ability and crafting skills, there's always something that needs to catch up. This trail of tantalisingly close numbers is pure brain-filling time-sponge. It's one thing RuneScape gets right - progress may not always be meaningful, but it's constant.
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Applications of fluorescence correlation spectroscopy: measurement of size-mass relationship of native and denatured schizophyllan.
Diffusion dynamics of a polysaccharide, schizophyllan has been studied by fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (FCS). Several different sizes of nondenatured and denatured schizophyllan have been labeled with rhodamine 6G in borate buffer. The length of the nondenatured schizophyllan was calculated from FCS data by using the Broersma's relationship for rod-like macromolecules. The obtained length was close to that obtained by atomic force microscopy (AFM) measurements. Denatured schizophyllan possesses a random coil conformation. Its hydrodynamic radius R(h) was measured by FCS. The relationship between R(h) and the molecular mass M has been studied and the scaling relationship R(h)--M(0.59) has been obtained, which is in agreement with the random coil model with excluded volume effect. The persistence length q(denat) of the denatured schizophyllan was determined by Hearst's relationship, to be equal to 5.16 +/- 0.75 (nm). The work demonstrates the utility of FCS method for dynamics investigations of biopolymers especially in diluted regime (concentration lower than 10(-8)M could be measured) where other techniques could not be used.
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"pile_set_name": "PubMed Abstracts"
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The Frenchman has initially had to play on the left and when Messi, Suárez and Dembélé were all available he was on the bench. He is too good not to integrate but it may take time
“That’s a good question,” Antoine Griezmann replied but he was not daft enough to actually answer it. With that line, he had said enough. On the eve of last week’s Champions League match against Internazionale, Griezmann was asked if he would play better on the right. The question was leading and what came next was even more telling than his response.
A new Sevilla but the same old story as Barcelona blow them away | Sid Lowe Read more
The following night he was withdrawn after an hour. Four days later, he spent the Sevilla match on the bench. Barcelona had paid €120m for him but the first time all their senior forwards were available he was left out in favour of a front three made up of Lionel Messi, Luis Suárez and Ousmane Dembélé.
After the win over Villarreal last month, in which he scored the opener, Griezmann noted a little pointedly: “Three goals isn’t bad, is it?” It is not – at the time he was the club’s top scorer and a fortnight on only Suárez has more – and no one is suggesting he is bad either. But there is a predictable problem, a difficulty finding his place.
On his home debut, against Real Betis in August, Griezmann scored twice, celebrating by throwing blue and red confetti into the air. He had copied that from the basketball player LeBron James; he had copied the goal too, saying: “I see Messi doing it in training.”
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Lionel Messi was forced to deny this week that he had not wanted Griezmann to sign for Barcelona. Photograph: Alejandro García/EPA
It felt as if there was something in the remark that spoke of hierarchies and a desire to ingratiate himself. He had known his arrival was not universally popular after the way he had turned Barcelona down a summer before he actually signed, the decision played out in a TV documentary. “If I have to say sorry, I’ll do it on the pitch,” he had said but that has not been easy. Last week he admitted he and Messi are quiet, so “it’s not easy for us to talk”. And on Thursday Messi had to deny suggestions he had not wanted Griezmann to come at all.
But beyond all those other considerations, this comes down to something simple that is not so simple after all: football, where to fit the Frenchman in. At the same time as he said it was a “lie” to suggest he had not wanted Griezmann, Messi admitted that, yes, he had wanted Barcelona to sign Neymar and thus revive that famous “trident”. In it, Neymar’s role is to play where the Frenchman is currently playing – or, more accurately, where he is having to play. As for the other two members of that front three, they play where Griezmann would best play.
At Real Sociedad, Griezmann played on the left of a front three, but that was five years ago. His emergence as one of the world’s best players at Atlético Madrid came with him in one of two positions, or sometimes both at the same time: off the right or off the front, through the middle. In other words, Messi’s or Suárez’s position. It is one thing to copy Messi when he is not there; another to do it when he is. When the rest returned he was pushed to the left wing, the place he had left behind, away from his natural spheres of influence.
“I’ve just arrived, it’s a different position, I have to change my movements, improve,” Griezmann admitted. “I need to get into the game more, improve my play on the wing. My teammates want the best from me and so do I.”
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Griezmann celebrates with confetti after scoring on his home debut against Real Betis. Photograph: Eric Alonso/ZUMA Press/Alamy
He is an intelligent striker with an enormous capacity for work, prepared to sacrifice himself for others. It is early and he probably can relearn a left-sided role. He is too good to give up on, not to integrate, not to seek a solution, but it may take time and imagination. Maybe an entire new formation, which risks making matters worse. It may take difficult decisions too. If he does not get left out, who does? It is not going to be Messi, so Suárez?
There are also alternatives to him and if there is one thing worse than playing out of position it is not playing at all. In his absence, it worked. When he was replaced by Dembélé, it was far from perfect but the fit was that little bit more natural. The good news for Griezmann is that Dembélé was sent off at the end of the Sevilla game for calling the referee “very bad”, and he will be suspended for two games – including the clásico. There is no better match in which to make a point. But can he from out there on the wing? If Ansu Fati is fit, it is not unthinkable that he still does not start then, either.
“Where do you think Griezmann plays best?” Ernesto Valverde was asked before the Inter game. “In the forward line,” he shot back swiftly, tongue slightly in his cheek, knowing where this was going. “I think he looks good on the left; he can play there. I don’t think it’s a bad idea for him to play on the left or in the middle,” the Barcelona manager continued, before adding a little sarcastically, “but, yeah, I’ll have a think about him on the right.”
There is a question there and, as Griezmann said, it is a good one.
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Q:
Auto threshold in ImageJ/FIJI with Python
I'm trying to write python scripts in ImageJ and I'm having problems with autothresholding. It won't let me use the IJ.setAutoThreshold("Default dark"). An example bit of code is below (with a few things left out for clarity):
from ij import IJ, ImagePlus
from java.lang import Runtime, Runnable
import os
for i in filepaths: #filepaths being the files I'm opening
IJ.open(i)
IJ.run("Split Channels") #this is splitting a two channel image
imp = IJ.getImage()
imp.close() #this is closing the channel I don't want
IJ.setAutoThreshold("Default dark") #this is trying to set a threshold
Setting the auto threshold here gives
AttributeError: type object 'ij.IJ' has no attribute 'setAutoTrheshold'
How can I access ImageJ's threshold function?
Cheers!
A:
Have a look at the javadoc: IJ has a method taking two arguments
setAutoThreshold(ImagePlus imp, String method)
so in your case
IJ.setAutoThreshold(imp, "Default dark")
should work.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "StackExchange"
}
|
/*
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* This code is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT
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package com.sun.webkit;
import java.net.URL;
public interface PolicyClient {
public boolean permitNavigateAction(long sourceID, URL url);
public boolean permitRedirectAction(long sourceID, URL url);
public boolean permitAcceptResourceAction(long sourceID, URL url);
public boolean permitSubmitDataAction(long sourceID, URL url, String httpMethod);
public boolean permitResubmitDataAction(long sourceID, URL url, String httpMethod);
public boolean permitEnableScriptsAction(long sourceID, URL url);
public boolean permitNewPageAction(long sourceID, URL url);
public boolean permitClosePageAction(long sourceID);
}
|
{
"pile_set_name": "Github"
}
|
It was snowing here in Mallorca when I drew open the curtains this morning; it became a little more pleasant after lunch, so I took myself off to have a coffee and then I decided to invest in a walk. That was a mistake: a threesome asked me to take their picture on a cellphone (belonging, I assumed, to one of them) and that instantly (and obviously) told me that they'd been admiring my own cellpix, and so I said of course, step this way, let's get a shot against that black curtain over the mountains surrounding the Bay. The mistake was in the time that took: before I could make it back to the car I was hit by all the hail that had been lurking within that curtain. Next time, I'll copy Mr Clooney and tell them they are mistaken, that in fact, I'm only me. Oh to be normal!
Rob C
Ah, Rob! The pain of Fame! You have my sympathy. I'm glad I'm (mostly) still anonymous.
In summary, I'll make the following comments to see if we can reach an agreement.
Statements such as, "Focal length of lens used, or Field of View chosen for a composition at a specified shooting position, have no bearing on perspective, period", are simply wrong, or at best misleading.
A more correct statement would be, "Choice of focal length of lens (or FoV) at a fixed shooting position, does not affect the perspective in the resulting 2-dimensional image or print provided that precise viewing-distance instructions accompany such resulting prints, in accordance with the principle that viewing distance should vary in proportion to focal length of lens used and in proportion to print size, (in order to correct for the different perspective created through the use of a particular lens in conjunction with a decision to make a particular size of print), and provided that the viewers of the resulting prints comply with such instructions however inconventient and awkward such compliance may be.
Does that statement appear reasonably accurate, or do you think it should be amended?
I thought of adding: "The author of the print reserves the right to sue the viewer for non-compliance with correct viewing-distance instructions, because such non-compliance may distort the perspective in the print and reflect unfavourably on the artistic intent of the photographer."
1) Perspective is solely dependent upon the relative positions of observer and subject. (i.e. the current dictionary definition.)
2) The *perception* of perspective is *additionally affected by* field of view and print viewing distance.
The problem I see here is that all types of perspective, whether considered natural, correct, incorrect or distorted, are perceptions. Without perception there is no perspective. The fact that linear perspective obeys the laws of geometry, does not make it less of a perception.
Distant objects appear small. They are perceived as being small. No-one believes they actually are small, unless one is looking at a world of totally unfamiliar objects. Perspective is an illusion, but an illusion which can be described and measured to some degree mathematically.
After I posted, I anticipated that you might have more to say about my possibly artificial distinction.
I realised that there are two distinct phases to consider. Geometrical perspective, part 1 of my distinction, is fixed on the camera sensor at the moment of image-making. Short of deliberately distorting the flat image post-shutter-release, the principle of geometrical perspective can be demonstrated with a ruler and does not change.
That flat image can now be cropped in various ways, printed at various sizes and those prints viewed at various distances by various observers (each of whom can bring any number of cultural assumptions to the experience.) In each case, their individual perception of the image may be different, but the *recorded image doesn't change*. The printed pixels do not shuffle about on the paper based on the distance of the viewer from the paper.
Ray,That flat image can now be cropped in various ways, printed at various sizes and those prints viewed at various distances by various observers (each of whom can bring any number of cultural assumptions to the experience.) In each case, their individual perception of the image may be different, but the *recorded image doesn't change*. The printed pixels do not shuffle about on the paper based on the distance of the viewer from the paper.
John,If you crop the printed image, a good proportion of the printed pixels do something even more dramatic than shuffling about. They do a complete disappearance act. You think that has no effect of perspective?
There seem to be some very strange and logically absurd arguments presented in this thread in defense of the statement that a change in focal length of lens, or a change in FoV, has no bearing on perspective.
I get a sense that there is a disembodiment of the viewer taking place in such arguments. In other words, if we remove the viewer from the scene, the perspective doesn't change with changing FL of lens or changing FoV (whichever terminology you prefer.)
The classic proof of the argument that a change in focal length of lens does not affect perspective is to demonstrate that images taken with effectively equal focal lengths of lens are the same. Well, of course they are. No argument there.
To overcome this obvious non-proof, I get a sense of a lot of wriggling and squirming going on.
Guillermo claims that 'equivalent focal length' is a fiction. It doesn't exist. All we have are different Fields of View. However, that argument doesn't change the reality. I'm quite willing to use different terminology. If the terminology 'equivalent focal length' is not acceptable and you prefer FoV, then that's fine by me. I'll simply rephrase my argument that a change of FoV results in a change in perspective, knowing quite well that any change in FoV when shooting from a specific position must result from a change in FL of lens.
The very technically knowledgeable Bart, argues that it can all be explained by anamorphism, but he refuses to elaborate. He simply implies that anamorphic distortion may be an intrinsic property of all lenses, not just the obvious volume anamorphic distortions that one sees at the edges of very wide-angle shots, which can be corrected by converters from DXO Labs.
If this is the case, that the anamorphic distortion of all lenses, perhaps other than the 'standard' lens, contribute to a distortion of perspective, and that nothing can be done about this, then surely one has to admit that a change in focal length inevitabley results in a change in perspective, because nothing can be done to correct the anamorphism.
However, those who claim that such 'apparent' changes in perspective resulting from a change in FL or FoV, can be corrected by changing the viewing distance to a resulting print, really take the cake.
The very fact that one has to change viewing distance to the print in order to compensate for perspective changes resulting in changes in FL or FoV, is proof that a change in FL affects perspective.
He simply implies that anamorphic distortion may be an intrinsic property of all lenses, not just the obvious volume anamorphic distortions that one sees at the edges of very wide-angle shots, which can be corrected by converters from DXO Labs.
Here you go again, misrepresenting what others have said. Amamorphic distortion is NOT a lens property, it's a projection effect. It is very simple to understand for most, if they are willing. Even keystoning will disappear from an image, provided the output is viewed from the correct viewpoint, just like road surface marking or street paintings.
Because viewing from the correct position (distance and angle) is not alway practical, e.g. a wide angle shot would need to be viewed at a relatively short uncomfortable distance, or because people do not take the effort, we also have a choice to change the output projection somewhat with software (relatively easy with pano stitching software), in an attempt to compensate for using the wrong viewpoint. In fact we can even exploit the assumption that the wrong viewpoint is going to be used, by thus suggesting a different perspective than was actually fixed at the moment of capture. Hence the perceived distortion in wide-angle shots and tele shots, which only occurs due to the wrong viewing position/distance. It is perceived distortion, which you misinterpret as perspective, which it isn't.
Here you go again, misrepresenting what others have said. Amamorphic distortion is NOT a lens property, it's a projection effect.
Bart,In case you didn't notice, this thread is about the change in perspective that results from a change in focal length of lens, yet you deny that this change takes place on the basis of some phenomenon called anamorphic distortion that is not a property of lenses.
Sounds to me you are engaging in obfuscation.
Here are some definitions of anamorphosis that relate to images:
(1) A distorted projection or perspective; especially an image distorted in such a way that it becomes visible only when viewed in a special manner.
(2) A distorted projection or drawing that looks normal from a particular angle or with a certain mirror.
The essential characteristic of anamorphism is a change in shape, not a change in size or apparent distance which a change in focal length of lens can produce.
As you probably know, there are types of lenses called anamorphic, which are designed to deliberately distort the shape of objects in order to fit a horizontally wide angle of view onto a 4:3 format. On projection, the reverse type of anamorphic lens is used to horizontally expand the unnaturally narrow objects as recorded, so that they look natural again in a widescreen format. A common type of anamorphic distortion is a 4:3 format TV transmission which is displayed on a widescreen TV without adjustment, causing all figures to appear unnaturally fat.
What this has to do with a change of FoV containing objects which are not misshapen, beats me. I really do think you need to eloborate on this.
LOL, you remind me of that guy listening to the traffic alert on his car radio, as he says to himself:"What are they talking about, one ghost rider?, there are hordes of them coming my way and what's worse, they have the audacity to greet me with their headlights".
Quote
What this has to do with a change of FoV containing objects which are not misshapen, beats me. I really do think you need to eloborate on this.
In each case, their individual perception of the image may be different, but the *recorded image doesn't change*. The printed pixels do not shuffle about on the paper based on the distance of the viewer from the paper.
Are you sure about that? But maybe the pixels do not need to move. Perhaps you can help. Here is an image with two objects, A and B. The image is viewed at different distances, 1 and 2. Would the ratio of angular sizes of A and B be the same at each position? Does viewing distance change the image?
That's correct, although one could say that the focal length was already given in the first line. All that the sensor does is capture a crop of the available image circle from that lens, which results in a FOV.
Yup, no problem with that, although distance should also encompass viewing angle of the projection plane.
Quote
I think that would be more factual. It would certainly be more in line with the texts.
The issue is that there are so many texts, and they do not all have rectilinear lens photography with planar projections in mind. They often also do not account for things like keystoning, which can be 'corrected' by using the correct viewing position (at an angle versus the planar projection). All deviations from the correct viewing position results in apparent distortions or apparent perspective.
We essentially agree on the same priciples as they were already taught in the early 1400s, I was just trying to be a bit terse.
Bart, I don't feel at all confused. What I see are confusing statements from people defending the position that focal length of lens or FoV have nothing to do with perspective.
Consider your above statements. They're confused. Admit it. There's certainly no doubt that sensor size can sometimes determine field of view, but sometimes it can't. It depends upon whether one is increasing sensor size or reducing it. As you've admitted in a later post, the diameter of the lens image circle limits the maximum FoV.
It's clear to me that the role of the focal length of a lens is equally important in determining field of view, if not more significant in practice than is sensor size.
Given a specific focal length of lens designed for a specific size of sensor, one can reduce FoV through cropping but rarely increase it. However, given a fixed size of sensor, one can either reduce or increase FoV in accordance with the available focal lengths of lenses that fit the camera.
To avoid this confusion and false dichotomy, by ascribing magnification to the role of the lens, and FoV to the role of the sensor, I think it's better to use the 'focal length equivalent' terminology with reference to a standard format such as 35mm format.
I believe also that thousands of people in the photographic industry would agree with me. As I mentioned before, my Panasonic P&S has a marking under the lens, '28mm wide'. This describes the FoV very well in my opinion, and in the opinion of countless others it seems.
Even for many people buying a camera for the first time, who may never have used 35mm format, the equivalent FL in 35mm format terms is still a useful reference, as long as it is understood that 24mm is wider than 28mm and that 40mm is narrower than 28mm.
Below is another confusing statement from you, in reply #138, specifically "relatives sizes result from simple geometry."
Quote
It's the same thing, using a few more words to explain. True or actual Perspective is fixed for a given viewpoint (entrance pupil), and all relative sizes result from simple geometry.
Relative sizes do not result from Geometry, whether simpler or not. Geometry is a passive system of mathematical description. It doesn't cause anything. Long before the principles of Geometry were formulated, our ancestors were aware that the smaller appearance of the size of familiar objects denoted distance. They would have had to have understood this in order to survive. Geometry merely provides an explanation for this phenomenon.
There is also another aspect of additional confusion that results from attempting to join two experiences of perspective which are clearly separate, viewing the actual and real scene through a camera lens, and viewing a resulting 2-dimensional print of that scene in a completely different environment.
These are two separate activities. Whatever I do when processing an image to make a print, and whatever decisions I make as to paper type, print size, contrast and color saturation etc, etc, etc, and whatever placing of that print on whatever wall and whatever viewing distance is chosen by the viewer, are all factors that are only tenuously connected with the original experience of perspective in the viewer and the photographer as he took the shot.
Once a print is produced, it becomes a separate 2-dimensional object in a different environment. The same principles of perspective will apply to that object as to any other 2-dimenional object in the same environment, such as a closed window or a stain on the wall.
To argue that by changing viewing distance to the print, in order to correct for an 'unnatural' or 'distorted' perspective in the original image that may have resulted from the choice of a particular focal length of lens, proves that focal length of lens has no bearing on perspective, is ridiculous.
That's pure sophistry, Bart, in the modern sense of the term.
The very fact that one could jump through such hoops when viewing a print, in order to correct for unnatural perspective, rather than just viewing the print from a usual and normal distance equal to, say 1.5x the print diagonal, tends to prove that a change in focal length or FoV without changing position, does indeed have an effect on perspective. If there's no change, there's nothing to correct.
|
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Targeted web advertising has become a very successful business for companies like Google. Such advertising is a success for much the same reason certain search engines are a success—it brings users information that is relevant to them. Advertising is typically provided along with search results, often in an area separate from the actual results themselves. In such a situation, the advertisements selected for display may be matched to terms in the search request. The Google Adwords service is an example of such targeted advertising. Targeted advertisements may also be delivered apart from search, such as on web pages themselves. For example, an ad system may analyze the content of a web page to determine important words or concepts to associate with the page, and may deliver ads directed to those words or concepts when the page is displayed. Such delivery may occur when the page is retrieved for a user, with the host of the page delivering the page content and the ad server delivering the targeted advertising. The Google AdSense service is an example of such targeted advertising.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
}
|
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for improving surface properties of a shaped article of a synthetic resin or, in particular, of a vinyl chloride-based resin. More particularly, the invention relates to a method for reducing electrostatic charging or accumulation of static electricity on the surface of a shaped article of a vinyl chloride-based resin or other thermoplastic and thermosetting synthetic resins.
As is well known, shaped articles of a vinyl chloride-based resin (hereinafter referred to as PVC resin) or other thermoplastic and thermosetting synthetic resins are remarkably susceptible to the accumulation of static electricity on the surface thereof bringing about several problems of not only the dirtiness of appearance caused by the deposition or clogging of dusts on the surface but also the unpleasant influence to the human body in contact therewith by the electric shock with the static electricity accumulated on the surface and the danger of spark discharge.
Various attempts have been made to find an effective way or method for overcoming the above mentioned disadvantages of shaped articles of a synthetic resin by the improvement of the surface properties leading to the decrease of the electrostatic charge on the surface.
For example, such an anti-static effect is obtained by coating the surface of the article with a surface active agent known to be effective as an anti-static agent. This method is advantageous when the anti-static effect is to be exhibited instantly but is defective in the relatively poor durability of the effect as well as in the sticky touch of the coated surface which eventually leads to blocking of the shaped articles with each other.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Another way to reduce the electrostatic charge on the surface of a shaped article of a synthetic resin is to admix the resin with an anti-static agent, e.g. surface active agent, before the resin is shaped into the shaped article by molding. This method is satisfactory in the durability of the anti-static effect but the effectiveness of the method is impractically low when the amount of the anti-static agent is limited. When the amount of the anti-static agent incorporated into the resin is increased to such an extent that a practically significant anti-static effect is obtained, there may also be caused problems of sticky touch on the surface leading to blocking and readiness of staining in addition to the coloring of the surface as well as the detrimental effect on the heat resistance of the shaped article if not to mention the somewhat adverse effect on the workability of the resin per se admixed with the anti-static agent in such a large amount.
On the other hand, there has been recently proposed a method in which the surface of a shaped article of a synthetic resin, e.g. a PVC resin, can be rendered more hydrophilic when the surface is subjected to exposure to a low temperature plasma of certain kinds of inorganic or organic gases whereby the accumulation of static electricity on the surface can be reduced to some extent. This method is, however, not satisfactory due to the relatively low effectiveness and the poor durability of the effect not to warrant the practical application of the method.
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{
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
}
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Graduate Engineer Salaries at Schneider Electric
a Graduate Engineer at Schneider Electric earns a salary between ₹ 5,51,000 to ₹ 5,93,000 per annum, with an average of ₹ 5,72,000. Ranging from ₹ 5,61,500 at the 25th percentile to ₹ 5,82,500 at the 75th percentile, with top earners earning more than ₹ 5,88,800
|
{
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
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---
abstract: 'Weyl semimetals possess unique electrodynamic properties due to a combination of strongly anisotropic and gyrotropic bulk conductivity, surface conductivity, and surface dipole layer. We explore the potential of popular tip-enhanced optical spectroscopy techniques for studies of bulk and surface topological electron states in these materials. Anomalous dispersion, extreme anisotropy, and the optical Hall effect for surface polaritons launched by a nanotip provides information about Weyl node position and separation in the Brillouin zone, the value of the Fermi momentum, and the matrix elements of the optical transitions involving both bulk and surface electron states.'
author:
- Qianfan Chen
- Maria Erukhimova
- Mikhail Tokman
- Alexey Belyanin
date:
title: Extreme anisotropy and gyrotropy of surface polaritons in Weyl semimetals
---
A number of recent studies have suggested that Weyl semimetals (WSMs) should have highly unusual optical response originated from unique topological properties of their bulk and surface electron states; see e.g. [@kargarian2015; @hofmann2016; @tabert2016-2; @ukhtary2017; @felser2017; @kotov2018; @andolina2018; @zyuzin2018; @rostami2018; @chen2019; @narang2019; @ma2019; @moore2019] and references therein. Their optical response can be used to provide detailed spectroscopic information about their electronic structure which could be difficult to obtain by any other means. Furthermore, inversion or time reversal symmetry breaking inherent to WSMs makes their optical response strongly anisotropic and/or gyrotropic, enables strong optical nonlinearity, creates anomalous dispersion of normal electromagnetic modes, breaks Lorentz reciprocity, and leads to many other optical phenomena of potential use in new generations of the optoelectronic devices.
In a recent paper [@chen2019], we investigated general optical properties of Type I WSMs. Starting from a class of microscopic Hamiltonians for WSMs with two separated Weyl nodes ([@burkov2011; @okugawa2014]), we obtained both bulk and surface electron states, derived bulk and surface conductivity tensors, and described the properties of electromagnetic eigenmodes.
Here we focus on one of the most popular and convenient ways to study the properties of novel materials by optical means: a tip-based optical spectroscopy, in which a tip brought in close proximity to the material surface is illuminated with laser light and the linear or nonlinear scattered signal is collected. Strong near-field enhancement at the tip apex may overcompensate the decrease in the volume of the material where light-matter interaction occurs [@raschke2016; @raschke2019]. This technique can provide information about surface states and carrier dynamics with about 10 nm spatial and 1 fs time resolution [@raschke2019]. Even more importantly in the context of this paper, nanoscale concentration of the incident light at the tip apex relaxes the optical selection and momentum matching rules. In particular, it allows one to launch various kinds of surface polariton modes which provide valuable information about the properties of both bulk and surface electron states.
We use the microscopic model of the optical response of Type I WSMs developed in [@chen2019] to predict and describe theoretically the properties of surface polaritons (SPs) launched by a nanotip. We show extreme anisotropy and gyrotropy in SP radiation pattern originated from Weyl node separation and determined mainly by highly anisotropic surface current and surface dipole layer. We demonstrate anomalous dispersion and extreme sensitivity of SP anisotropy to the frequency of light and Fermi momentum, which makes them a sensitive diagnostics of Fermi arc surface states and may form the basis of efficient light modulators and switches.
![A sketch of tip-enabled SP excitation on the WSM surface. Radiation pattern of SPs is indicated in green for a particular combination of the excitation frequency and Fermi momentum, and for Weyl nodes located along the $k_x$ axis in the Brillouin zone. []{data-label="fig1"}](fig1.pdf)
Figure 1 shows one possible schematic of SP excitation with a gold nanotip. Here the tip apex of $\sim 10$ nm radius is brought to a distance of $\sim 10$ nm from the WSM surface $z = 0$ in order to get access to large SP wavevectors $\sim 10^6$ cm$^{-1}$; see the SP dispersion curves in Fig. 2. A laser beam either illuminates the apex directly (e.g. [@basov]) or excites SPs on the surface of a gold tip via grating, as indicated in the figure [@raschke2016; @raschke2019]. In the latter case, gold surface plasmon-polaritons propagate to the apex, experiencing strong adiabatic amplification of the field intensity as they reach the apex [@stockman; @raschke2016]. Either way, excitation of SPs on a WSM surface is concentrated under the tip within a spot of $\sim 10$ nm. In the linear excitation regime, the frequency spectrum of SPs coincides with the spectrum of an incident laser pulse, whereas the spatial spectrum is extremely broadband, with a cutoff around $10^7$ cm$^{-1}$. The SPs propagate away from the tip, forming a strongly anisotropic radiation pattern which depends on the Weyl node position and separation and the Fermi momentum. They can be detected (converted into an outgoing EM wave) with another tip, a grating, a notch, etc.
For the most sensitive diagnostics of the electronic structure of WSMs, the frequency of the probing light should be of the order of $\omega \sim v_F b$, where $2b$ is the distance between Weyl nodes in momentum space along $k_x$; see the electron bandstructure plot in Fig. 1 of [@chen2019]. In all numerical examples in the paper we assume for definiteness that $ \hbar v_F b = 100$ meV, so the incident laser light should be in the mid-infrared range. However, the formalism presented in the paper is general and does not depend on the choice of incident frequencies as long as the latter are low enough, so that the interband transitions to electron states in remote bands can be neglected. The remote states have a trivial topology and they are not of interest to this study.
The Hamiltonian of a WSM with two separated Weyl nodes breaks time-reversal symmetry, which is expected for WSMs with magnetic ordering, e.g. pyrochlore iridates [@wan2011], ferromagnetic spinels [@xu2011], and Heusler compounds [@liu2018]. As we showed in [@chen2019], the tensors of both bulk and surface conductivity for Type I WSMs with time-reversal symmetry breaking have a structure corresponding to a biaxial-anisotropic and gyrotropic medium: $$\label{BulkConductivity}
\sigma _{mn}^{B,S}(\omega) = \begin{pmatrix}
\sigma _{xx}^{B,S} & 0 & 0\\
0 & \sigma _{yy}^{B,S} & \sigma _{yz}^{B,S}\\
0 & \sigma _{zy}^{B,S} & \sigma _{zz}^{B,S}\\
\end{pmatrix}$$ where the Weyl points are on the $k_x$ axis, $
\sigma _{zy}^{B,S}=- \sigma _{yz}^{B,S}$, and superscripts $B$ and $S$ denote bulk and surface conductivity elements, respectively. We add background dielectric constant $\varepsilon_b$ due to transitions to remote bulk bands, assuming it to be isotropic and dispersionless at low frequencies, so that the total bulk dielectric tensor is $\varepsilon_{mn}(\omega) = \varepsilon_b \delta_{mn} + 4 \pi i \sigma _{mn}^{B}/\omega$. The surface conductivity is due to optical transitions between different electron surface states (often called “Fermi arc states”, although they exist for all momentum states within $k_x^2 + k_y^2 \leq b^2$, not only on the Fermi arc) and between surface and bulk states. It gives rise to the surface current and surface dipole layer. Note a peculiar and most likely unique electrodynamics of WSM surface modes: they are supported by a highly anisotropic and gyrotropic surface current and surface dipole layer sitting on top of a highly anisotropic and gyrotropic bulk WSM material.
The surface polaritons excited on WSM surfaces parallel to the $x$-axis (assuming that the Weyl points are located along $k_x$) can be supported by both bulk and surface electron states. However, in the quasielectrostatic approximation $ck \gg \omega$ the SPs are highly localized and the surface states make a dominant contribution to the SP dispersion and radiation pattern [@chen2019]. Here $k$ is the magnitude of the SP wavevector in the $z = 0$ plane. Below we outline the calculation of the SP dispersion, energy flux, and radiation patterns generated by the tip. The detailed derivation is in the Supplemental Material below.
We model the nanotip-induced excitation source of SPs as an external point dipole, $$\mathbf{p}^{e}\left(\mathbf{r},z,t\right)=\mathrm{Re}\left[\mathbf{p}\delta\left(\mathbf{r}\right)\delta\left(z\right)e^{-i\omega t}\right]$$ where $\mathbf{r}=\left(x,y\right)$. The point source approximation is valid if the tip apex radius and its distance to the surface are smaller than the exponential extent of the excitation field. Our case is borderline as these scales are actually of the same order, but we will still assume a point source for simplicity. One can always generalize the analysis for any spatial distribution of the excitation specific to a given experiment. The corresponding external current is $ \mathbf{j}_{\omega}^{e}\left(\mathbf{r}\right)=-i\omega\mathbf{p}\delta\left(\mathbf{r}\right)$. Within the quasielectrostatic approximation the electric field of SPs can be defined through the scalar potential: $ \mathbf{E}=-\nabla\Phi$, where $$\Phi(\mathbf{r},z,t)=\mathrm{Re}\left[\Phi_{\omega}\left(\mathbf{r},z\right)e^{-i\omega t}\right].$$
Outside the surface, $\Phi_{\omega}$ is described by the Poisson equation at $z>0$ (in the air or an ambient medium), $\nabla^{2}\Phi_{\omega}=0$, and Gauss’s law in the bulk WSM at $z<0$: $$\frac{\partial}{\partial x}\left(\varepsilon_{xx}E_{x}\right)+\frac{\partial}{\partial y}\left(\varepsilon_{yy}E_{y}+\varepsilon_{yz}E_{z}\right)+\frac{\partial}{\partial z}\left(\varepsilon_{zz}E_{z}+\varepsilon_{zy}E_{y}\right)=0.$$ We assume that the medium above the surface is described by an isotropic dielectric constant $\varepsilon_{up}$. Then, the boundary conditions yield $$\varepsilon_{up}E_{z}\left(z=+0\right)-D_{z}\left(z=-0\right)=4\pi\rho^{S}=-i\frac{4\pi}{\omega}\left(\frac{\partial}{\partial x}j_{x}^{S}+\frac{\partial}{\partial y}j_{y}^{S}\right)$$ where $\rho^{S}$ is the surface charge due to surface electron states and an external source; $j_{x}^{S},$ $j_{y}^{S}$ are the components of the total surface current that are connected with the surface charge by the in-plane continuity equation.
The total surface current, $\mathbf{j}_{\omega}^{S}\left(\mathbf{r}\right)=\mathbf{j}_{\omega}^{l}\left(\mathbf{r}\right)+\mathbf{j}_{\omega}^{e}\left(\mathbf{r}\right)
$, is the sum of the current $\mathbf{j}_{\omega}^{l}\left(\mathbf{r}\right)$ representing the linear response to $\Phi_{\omega}$ and the current $\mathbf{j}_{\omega}^{e}\left(\mathbf{r}\right)$ induced by the external dipole source. All currents and charges are on the surface so that we drop the index $S$.
The equations for the scalar potential can be solved by expansion over spatial harmonics in the $(x,y)$ plane: $$\mathbf{j}_{\omega}^{e,l}\left(\mathbf{r}\right)=\intop\int\mathbf{j}_{\omega\mathbf{k}}^{e,l}e^{i\mathbf{k\cdot r}}d^{2}k,$$ $$\Phi_{\omega}\left(\mathbf{r},z\right)=\intop\int\Phi_{\omega\mathbf{k}}\left(z\right)e^{i\mathbf{k\cdot r}}d^{2}k.$$ Here $ \mathbf{j}_{\omega\mathbf{k}}^{l}=\hat{\sigma}^{S}\cdot\mathbf{E}_{\omega}\left(z=-0\right)$, $\mathbf{E}_{\omega}\left(z=-0\right)=-i\mathbf{k}\Phi_{\omega\mathbf{k}}(z=-0)$.
A surface dipole layer is formed at the boundary between the two media. Its dipole moment is oriented along the normal to the surface, with the space-time Fourier components related to the z-component of the surface current density: $$d_{z\mathbf{k}}=\frac{i}{\omega}\left[\sigma_{zy}^{S}E_{y}\left(z=-0\right)+\sigma_{zz}^{S}E_{z}\left(z=-0\right)\right].$$ The sum of an external and induced dipole creates a jump in the scalar potential $\Phi\left(z\right)$, $$\Phi_{\omega\mathbf{k}}\left(z=+0\right)-\Phi_{\omega\mathbf{k}}\left(z=-0\right)=4\pi d_{z\mathbf{k}}+\frac{1}{\pi} \mathbf{p}\cdot\mathbf{z_{0}}.$$
The solution for the SP field evanescent in $\pm z$ direction is $$\Phi_{\omega\mathbf{k}}(z>0)=\phi_{\omega\mathbf{k}}^{up}e^{-\kappa_{up}z},\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\Phi_{\omega\mathbf{k}}(z<0)=\phi_{\omega\mathbf{k}}^{W}e^{\kappa_{W}z}.$$ Here the spatial harmonics of the potential satisfy algebraic equations $$\label{pot1}
\varepsilon_{up}\kappa_{up}\phi_{\omega\mathbf{k}}^{up}+\left[\kappa_{W}\left(\varepsilon_{zz}+\frac{4\pi}{\omega}k_{y}\sigma_{yz}^{S}\right)+ \frac{4\pi \sigma_{yz}^B}{\omega} k_{y}+i\frac{4\pi}{\omega}\left(k_{x}^{2}\sigma_{xx}^{S}+k_{y}^{2}\sigma_{yy}^{S}\right)\right]\phi_{\omega\mathbf{k}}^{W}=\frac{4\pi}{\omega}\mathbf{k}\cdot\mathbf{j}_{\omega\mathbf{k}}^{e},$$ $$\label{pot2}
\phi_{\omega\mathbf{k}}^{up}+\left(i\frac{4\pi}{\omega}\kappa_{W}\sigma_{zz}^{S}-\frac{4\pi}{\omega}k_{y}\sigma_{zy}^{S}-1\right)\phi_{\omega\mathbf{k}}^{W}=\frac{1}{\pi}\mathbf{p}\cdot\mathbf{z_{0}}$$ and the decay constants $\kappa_{up,W}$ can be found from $k^{2}-\kappa_{up}^{2}=0$, $\varepsilon_{xx} k^{2}\cos^2\phi + \varepsilon_{yy}k^{2} \sin^2\phi-\varepsilon_{zz}\kappa_{W}^{2}=0$, where $k_{x}=k\cos\phi$, $k_{y}=k\sin\phi$. In the absence of an external dipole, Eqs. (\[pot1\],\[pot2\]) give the dispersion equation for SPs $\mathscr{D}\left(\omega,\phi,k\right)= 0$ (see [@supp; @chen2019] for an explicit expression).
The space-dependent expressions for the scalar potential on both sides of the surface are obtained by taking the Fourier transform from $(k, \phi)$ to $(x,y) = (r\cos\theta, r\sin\theta)$. The 2D integrals in momentum space are calculated by series expansion in terms of Bessel functions and using the integral identity for Bessel functions derived in the Supplemental Material. In the far-field zone of the tip, the scalar potential scales with distance as $\displaystyle \frac{\exp\left[ik_{\omega}(\theta)r \right]}{\sqrt{r}}$. A very cumbersome expression for $k_{\omega}(\theta)$ is derived in the Supplemental Material. Figures 2a,b show the polar plots of the real part of the in-plane SP wavenumber $k_{\omega}(\theta)$ for several values of frequency and Fermi momentum.
![Polar plot of the real part of the in-plane SP wavenumber $k_{\omega}(\theta)$ for (a) several values of frequency at a given Fermi momentum $\hbar v_F k_F = 50$ meV and (b) several values of the Fermi momentum at a given frequency $\hbar \omega = 80$ meV. []{data-label="fig2"}](Fig2.pdf)
These plots and all plots below were calculated for a vertical dipole orientation. In this case the excitation itself is isotropic in the plane (no $\theta$ dependence) and therefore all anisotropy comes from the properties of topological bulk and surface electron states. The conductivity tensors used in all plots were calculated assuming strongly disordered samples with high SP decay rate $\gamma = 10$ meV. In this case SPs have a low Q-factor: the imaginary part of the wave vector is only a few times lower than the real part. Obviously, in higher quality samples one should expect longer-lived SP excitations with longer propagating lengths, at least at frequencies lower than the Fermi energy-dependent interband transition cutoff determined by the Pauli blocking. We also assumed the background bulk dielectric constant $\varepsilon_b = 10$.
If the contribution of surface conductivity were ignored and only the bulk carriers were taken into account, the SPs would have no dispersion at all: their frequency would depend only on the propagation angle but not on the magnitude of the wave vector [@chen2019; @supp]. Moreover, bulk electron states would support surface EM modes only below the plasma resonance, when the real part of the diagonal components of the bulk dielectric tensor is negative enough. For $\hbar v_F k_F = 50$ meV in Fig. 2a, the plasma resonance is around 50 meV [@chen2019]. SP modes plotted in Fig. 2a show a very strong dispersion in every direction and exist way beyond 50 meV. Therefore they are supported by “Fermi arc” surface electron states via surface current sheet and surface dipole that they create in response to the field, with bulk WSM serving mainly as a dielectric substrate. That is why the surface polaritons is a more appropriate term for these surface modes than surface plasmon-polaritons that would exist at low frequencies below plasma resonance.
Note strong anisotropy of the wavevector and its extreme sensitivity to the relative values of frequency, Fermi momentum, and Weyl node separation in momentum space. Note also that all plots are symmetric with respect to the $y$-axis, which is perpendicular to the gyrotropy axis $x$. Similar behavior is found in the Poynting flux radiation patterns in Fig. 3. It can be interpreted as the realization of the optical Hall effect. Indeed the symmetry properties of the optical response of the system are determined by the polar symmetry axis vector $\mathbf{a} = \mathbf{n} \times \mathbf{b}$, where the axial gyrotropy vector $\mathbf{b} \parallel \hat{x}_0$ and the polar vector $\mathbf{n} \parallel \hat{z}_0$ is the normal to the surface, so that $\mathbf{a} \parallel \hat{y}_0$. This is in analogy with the Hall effect in which the current direction is determined by the cross product of the axial gyrotropy vector of the magnetic field and the polar vector of the electric field.
To calculate the Poynting flux in a SP wave, we need to go beyond electrostatic approximation. Following the perturbation method detailed in [@ryan2018], we use the Maxwell’s equation $\nabla\times\mathbf{B}\left(\omega,\mathbf{r},z\right)=\frac{1}{c}\frac{\partial}{\partial t}\mathbf{D}\left(\omega,\mathbf{r},z\right)$ in each half-space to calculate the magnetic field from the electric field obtained in the electrostatic approximation. Then the time-averaged Poynting flux $\mathbf{S}\left(\mathbf{r},z\right)=\mathrm{Re}[\frac{c}{8\pi}\left(\mathbf{E\times B^{\ast}}\right)]$ can be calculated in each half-space. After integrating over $dz$, i.e. $S_{r}\left(r,\theta\right)=\int_{-\infty}^{\infty}S_{r}\left(\mathbf{r},z\right)dz$ we obtain the the time-averaged surface Poynting flux in the far field zone. The derivation and explicit expression for the Poynting flux can be found in the Supplemental Material.
![Polar plot of the in-plane Poynting vector integrated over the vertical $z$-direction, for (a) several values of frequency at a given Fermi momentum $\hbar v_F k_F = 50$ meV and (b) several values of the Fermi momentum at a given frequency $\hbar \omega = 80$ meV. The magnitudes of the Poynting flux are multiplied by different numerical factors indicated in the figure, in order to fit to one plot. []{data-label="fig3"}](Fig3.pdf)
Figures 3a,b show the radiation pattern of the SPs, namely polar plots of the SP Poynting vector integrated over the vertical $z$-direction, for several values of frequency and Fermi momentum. The numerical values for the SP Poynting flux density in the plots were calculated at a distance of 250 $\mu$m from the tip and assuming that the excitation is created by the pump field of magnitude $10^6$ V/cm localized within (10 nm)$^3$. Such fields are far below damage threshold; for example, in experiments reported in [@raschke2019] the pump field under the tip was estimated at $5\times 10^7$ V/cm. Only $1/r$ divergence of the in-plane Poynting vector was included. The actual SP attenuation length is determined by the material quality and is likely to be much shorter than 250 $\mu$m.
The energy flow of SPs is highly anisotropic and strongly frequency and Fermi momentum-dependent. There is again extreme sensitivity of the radiation pattern to the relative values of frequency, Fermi momentum, and Weyl node separation in momentum space. Furthermore, all plots are symmetric with respect to the $y$ axis and with increasing frequency the SP flux is mainly directed along $\hat{y}_0$. This is the manifestation of the optical Hall effect induced by Weyl node separation, as discussed above. Note an enhancement in the SP flux at low frequencies in Fig. 3a, related to intraband transitions and Drude-like enhancement of the conductivity, especially its $\sigma_{yy}^S$ element related to free-carrier motion of surface electron states with dispersion $E = \hbar v_F k_y$ [@chen2019]. Note also strong enhancement of the Poynting flux at high frequencies around 100 meV due to an increase in the wavenumber $k_{\omega}(\theta)$ and magnitude of the conductivity tensor associated with interband transitions; see the conductivity spectra in [@chen2019]. Since the surface states exist only at electron momenta $k_x^2 + k_y^2 < b^2$, at frequencies higher than 200 meV (or for high enough Fermi momenta $k_F > b$) the surface conductivity approaches zero whereas the bulk dielectric tensor approaches its background value. Therefore, there will be no SP modes supported by topological states in this limit $\omega \gg v_F b$, although other kinds of surface polariton modes could still exist due to e.g. phonon resonances.
In conclusion, we showed that spectroscopy of surface polaritons can be a powerful diagnostics of topological electron states in WSMs. Anomalous dispersion and extreme anisotropy and gyrotropy of SPs launched by a nanotip provides information about Weyl node position and separation, the value of the Fermi momentum, and the matrix elements of the optical transitions involving both bulk and surface electron states. Although the quantitative results in this paper are valid only for magnetic WSMs with time-reversal symmetry breaking, one can still make some qualitative conclusions regarding the optical response of WSMs with inversion symmetry breaking. In particular, one can still expect strong anisotropy of SP propagation, related to the position and orientation of Weyl node pairs in the Brillouin zone. There will be strong dispersion of SPs associated with the presence of Fermi arc surface states. The relative enhancement or suppression of SPs associated with the Fermi edge and interband transitions will be present. The low-frequency response related to massless free carriers will be similar.
This work has been supported by the Air Force Office for Scientific Research through Grant No. FA9550-17-1-0341. M.T. acknowledges the support from RFBR Grant No. 17-02-00387. M.E. acknowledges the support from the Project No. 0035-2018-0006 of the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
Supplemental Material {#supplemental-material .unnumbered}
=====================
On WSM surfaces parallel to the $x$-axis (assuming that the Weyl points are located along $k_x$) the SPPs polaritons can be supported by both bulk and surface electron states. However, in the quasielectrostatic approximation $ck \gg \omega$ the SPPs are highly localized and the surface states make a dominant contribution to the SPP dispersion and radiation pattern [@chen2019]. Here $k$ is the magnitude of the SPP wavevector in the $z = 0$ plane.
We model the nanotip-induced excitation source of SPPs as an external point dipole, $$\mathbf{p}^{e}\left(\mathbf{r},z,t\right)=\mathrm{Re}\left[\mathbf{p}\delta\left(\mathbf{r}\right)\delta\left(z\right)e^{-i\omega t}\right]$$ where $\mathbf{r}=\left(x,y\right)$. The corresponding external current is $ \mathbf{j}_{\omega}^{e}\left(\mathbf{r}\right)=-i\omega\mathbf{p}\delta\left(\mathbf{r}\right)$. Within the quasielectrostatic approximation the electric field of SPPs can be defined through the scalar potential: $ \mathbf{E}=-\nabla\Phi$, where $$\Phi(\mathbf{r},z,t)=\mathrm{Re}\left[\Phi_{\omega}\left(\mathbf{r},z\right)e^{-i\omega t}\right].$$
Outside the surface, $\Phi_{\omega}$ is described by the Poisson equation at $z>0$ (in the air or an ambient medium): $$\label{poisson}
\nabla^{2}\Phi_{\omega}=0,$$ and Gauss’s law inside the WSM at $z<0$: $$\label{gauss}
\nabla\cdot\mathbf{D}_{\omega}=0,$$ which can be expanded in components as $$\frac{\partial}{\partial x}\left(\varepsilon_{xx}E_{x}\right)+\frac{\partial}{\partial y}\left(\varepsilon_{yy}E_{y}+\varepsilon_{yz}E_{z}\right)+\frac{\partial}{\partial z}\left(\varepsilon_{zz}E_{z}+\varepsilon_{zy}E_{y}\right)=0.$$
We assume that the medium above the surface is described by an isotropic dielectric constant $\varepsilon_{up}$. Then, the boundary conditions yield $$\varepsilon_{up}E_{z}\left(z=+0\right)-D_{z}\left(z=-0\right)=4\pi\rho^{S}=-i\frac{4\pi}{\omega}\left(\frac{\partial}{\partial x}j_{x}^{S}+\frac{\partial}{\partial y}j_{y}^{S}\right)$$ where $\rho^{S}$ is the surface charge due to surface electron states and an external source; $j_{x}^{S},$ $j_{y}^{S}$ are the components of the total surface current that are connected with the surface charge by the in-plane continuity equation.
A surface dipole layer is formed at the boundary between the two media. Its dipole moment is oriented along the normal to the surface, $$\mathbf{d}=\mathrm{Re}\left[\mathbf{d}_{\omega}\left(\mathbf{r}\right)e^{-i\omega t}\right],$$ $$\mathbf{d}_{\omega}\left(\mathbf{r}\right)=\mathbf{z_{0}}\intop\int d_{z\mathbf{k}}e^{i\mathbf{k\cdot r}}d^{2}k,$$ where the space-time Fourier components can be related to the z-component of the surface current density, $$d_{z\mathbf{k}}=\frac{i}{\omega}\left[\sigma_{zy}^{S}E_{y}\left(z=-0\right)+\sigma_{zz}^{S}E_{z}\left(z=-0\right)\right].$$ The sum of an external and induced dipole creates a jump in the scalar potential $\Phi\left(z\right)$, $$\Phi_{\omega\mathbf{k}}\left(z=+0\right)-\Phi_{\omega\mathbf{k}}\left(z=-0\right)=4\pi\left[d_{z\mathbf{k}}+\frac{1}{4\pi^2} \mathbf{p}\cdot\mathbf{z_{0}}\right].$$
The total surface current, $\mathbf{j}_{\omega}^{S}\left(\mathbf{r}\right)=\mathbf{j}_{\omega}^{l}\left(\mathbf{r}\right)+\mathbf{j}_{\omega}^{e}\left(\mathbf{r}\right)
$, is the sum of the current $\mathbf{j}_{\omega}^{l}\left(\mathbf{r}\right)$ representing the linear response to $\Phi_{\omega}$ and the current $\mathbf{j}_{\omega}^{e}\left(\mathbf{r}\right)$ induced by the external dipole source. All currents and charges are on the surface so that we drop the index $S$.
The equations for the scalar potential can be solved by expansion over spatial harmonics in the $(x,y)$ plane: $$\mathbf{j}_{\omega}^{e,l}\left(\mathbf{r}\right)=\intop\int\mathbf{j}_{\omega\mathbf{k}}^{e,l}e^{i\mathbf{k\cdot r}}d^{2}k,$$ $$\label{phi}
\Phi_{\omega}\left(\mathbf{r},z\right)=\intop\int\Phi_{\omega\mathbf{k}}\left(z\right)e^{i\mathbf{k\cdot r}}d^{2}k.$$ Here $ \mathbf{j}_{\omega\mathbf{k}}^{l}=\hat{\sigma}^{S}\cdot\mathbf{E}_{\omega}\left(z=-0\right)$, $\mathbf{E}_{\omega}\left(z=-0\right)=-i\mathbf{k}\Phi_{\omega\mathbf{k}}(z=-0)$. The inverse transformation is $$\mathbf{j}_{\omega\mathbf{k}}^{e,l}=\frac{1}{\left(2\pi\right)^{2}}\intop\int\mathbf{j}_{\omega}^{e,l}\left(\mathbf{r}\right)e^{-i\mathbf{k\cdot r}}d^{2}r.$$
The solution for the SPP field evanescent in $\pm z$ direction is $$\label{phi2}
\Phi_{\omega\mathbf{k}}(z>0)=\phi_{\omega\mathbf{k}}^{up}e^{-\kappa_{up}z},\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\Phi_{\omega\mathbf{k}}(z<0)=\phi_{\omega\mathbf{k}}^{W}e^{\kappa_{W}z}.$$ Here the spatial harmonics of the potential satisfy algebraic equations $$\label{pot1}
\varepsilon_{up}\kappa_{up}\phi_{\omega\mathbf{k}}^{up}+\left[\kappa_{W}\left(\varepsilon_{zz}+\frac{4\pi}{\omega}k_{y}\sigma_{yz}^{S}\right)+gk_{y}+i\frac{4\pi}{\omega}\left(k_{x}^{2}\sigma_{xx}^{S}+k_{y}^{2}\sigma_{yy}^{S}\right)\right]\phi_{\omega\mathbf{k}}^{W}=\frac{4\pi}{\omega}\mathbf{k}\cdot\mathbf{j}_{\omega\mathbf{k}}^{e},$$ $$\label{pot2}
\phi_{\omega\mathbf{k}}^{up}+\left(i\frac{4\pi}{\omega}\kappa_{W}\sigma_{zz}^{S}-\frac{4\pi}{\omega}k_{y}\sigma_{zy}^{S}-1\right)\phi_{\omega\mathbf{k}}^{W}=\frac{1}{\pi}\mathbf{p}\cdot\mathbf{z_{0}}$$ where $g = \frac{4\pi \sigma_{yz}^B}{\omega}$ and the decay constants $\kappa_{up,W}$ can be found from Eqs. (\[poisson\]), (\[gauss\]): $k^{2}-\kappa_{up}^{2}=0$, $\varepsilon_{xx} k^{2}\cos^2\phi + \varepsilon_{yy}k^{2} \sin^2\phi-\varepsilon_{zz}\kappa_{W}^{2}=0$, where $k_{x}=k\cos\phi$, $k_{y}=k\sin\phi$. This formalism allows one to add spatial dispersion of the conductivity $\hat{\sigma}^{S}\left(\omega,\mathbf{k}\right)$ and $\hat{\varepsilon}\left(\omega,\mathbf{k}\right)$ if needed, but we will ignore it below.
In the absence of an external dipole, Eqs. (\[pot1\],\[pot2\]) give the dispersion equation for SPPs derived in [@chen2019], $$\label{disp}
\mathscr{D}\left(\omega,\phi,k\right)=D\left(\omega,\phi\right)-k\Sigma\left(\omega,\phi\right) = 0,$$ where $$\Sigma\left(\omega,\phi\right) = \frac{4\pi}{\omega}\bigg[\sqrt{\frac{\varepsilon_{xx}\cos^{2}\phi+\varepsilon_{yy}\sin^{2}\phi}{\varepsilon_{zz}}}\left(in_{up}^{2}\sigma_{zz}^{S}-\sigma_{yz}^{S}\sin\phi\right)-n_{up}^{2}\sigma_{yz}^{S}\sin\phi-i\left(\sigma_{xx}^{S}\cos^{2}\phi+\sigma_{yy}^{S}\sin^{2}\phi\right)\bigg],$$ and $$D\left(\omega,\phi\right)=n_{up}^{2}+\varepsilon_{zz}\sqrt{\frac{\varepsilon_{xx}\cos^{2}\phi+\varepsilon_{yy}\sin^{2}\phi}{\varepsilon_{zz}}}+g\sin\phi.$$
Note that $\Sigma = 0$ if the surface terms are neglected. Therefore, $D\left(\omega,\phi\right) = 0$ is the dispersion equation of SPPs supported by bulk electron states only. Such modes would have no dispersion since $D\left(\omega,\phi\right)$ does not depend on the SPP wavenumber. Moreover, bulk states would support surface modes only below the plasma resonance, when the real part of the diagonal components of the bulk dielectric tensor is negative enough. For $\hbar v_F k_F = 50$ meV, the plasma resonance is around 50 meV [@chen2019]. SPP modes plotted in Fig. 2 of the main paper show a very strong dispersion in every direction and exist way beyond 50 meV. Therefore they are supported by surface electron states, with bulk WSM serving mainly as a dielectric substrate.
Including an external source, Eqs. (\[pot1\]), (\[pot2\]) give the Fourier amplitudes of the scalar potential in both half-spaces: $$\begin{aligned}
\label{phi-up}
\phi_{\omega\mathbf{k}}^{up} & =\frac{\frac{4\pi}{\omega}\mathbf{k}\cdot\mathbf{j}_{\omega\mathbf{k}}^{e}\left(\frac{4\pi}{\omega}\sin\phi\sigma_{zy}^{S}+\frac{1}{k}-i\frac{4\pi}{\omega}\sqrt{\frac{\varepsilon_{xx}\cos^{2}\phi+\varepsilon_{yy}\sin^{2}\phi}{\varepsilon_{zz}}}\sigma_{zz}^{S}\right)}{\mathscr{D}\left(\omega,\phi,k\right)}+\frac{1}{\pi}\left(\mathbf{p}\cdot\mathbf{z_{0}}\right)\nonumber \\
& \times\frac{\varepsilon_{zz}\sqrt{\frac{\varepsilon_{xx}\cos^{2}\phi+\varepsilon_{yy}\sin^{2}\phi}{\varepsilon_{zz}}}+g\sin\phi+\frac{4\pi}{\omega}k\bigg[\sqrt{\frac{\varepsilon_{xx}\cos^{2}\phi+\varepsilon_{yy}\sin^{2}\phi}{\varepsilon_{zz}}}\sigma_{yz}^{S}\sin\phi+i\left(\sigma_{xx}^{S}\cos^{2}\phi+\sigma_{yy}^{S}\sin^{2}\phi\right)\bigg]}{\mathscr{D}\left(\omega,\phi,k\right)},\end{aligned}$$ $$\label{phi-w}
\phi_{\omega\mathbf{k}}^{W}=\frac{\frac{4\pi}{\omega k}\mathbf{k}\cdot\mathbf{j}_{\omega\mathbf{k}}^{e}-\frac{1}{\pi}\left(\mathbf{p}\cdot\mathbf{z_{0}}\right)n_{up}^{2}}{\mathscr{D}\left(\omega,\phi,k\right)}.$$ Then the spatial field distributions on both sides of the interface can be obtained from Eqs. (\[phi2\]), (\[phi-up\]), (\[phi-w\]) by Fourier transform Eq. (\[phi\]). We will perform integration only in the case of a vertical external Hertz dipole, i.e. $\mathbf{p}=p\mathbf{z_{0}}$, when $\mathbf{k}\cdot\mathbf{p}=0$ and the source is isotropic in plane of the interface. Therefore, all anisotropy in the SPP propagation comes from the properties of topological electron states.
The Fourier integral in polar coordinates $(k,\phi)$ in momentum space can be written as $$\begin{aligned}
\label{phi1}
\Phi_{\omega}^{\left(+\right)} \equiv \Phi_{\omega}\left(\mathbf{r},z=+0\right) & =\frac{p}{\pi}\intop\int d^{2}ke^{i\mathbf{k\cdot r}}\frac{H\left(\omega,\phi,k\right)}{\mathscr{D}\left(\omega,\phi,k\right)}\nonumber \\
& \approx -\frac{p}{\pi}\int_{0}^{2\pi}d\phi\frac{1}{\Sigma\left(\omega,\phi\right)}\int_{0}^{\infty}\frac{e^{ikr\cos\left(\phi-\theta\right)}H\left(\omega,\phi,k\right)}{k-k_{\omega}\left(\phi\right)-i\eta_{\omega}\left(\phi\right)}kdk,
\end{aligned}$$ where $(r,\theta)$ are polar coordinates in real 2D space and we introduced the shortcut notation $$H\left(\omega,\phi,k\right)=D\left(\omega,\phi\right)-n_{up}^{2}+\frac{4\pi}{\omega}k\bigg[\sqrt{\frac{\varepsilon_{xx}\cos^{2}\phi+\varepsilon_{yy}\sin^{2}\phi}{\varepsilon_{zz}}}\sigma_{yz}^{S}\sin\phi+i\left(\sigma_{xx}^{S}\cos^{2}\phi+\sigma_{yy}^{S}\sin^{2}\phi\right)\bigg].$$ In the second line of Eq. (\[phi1\]) we also introduced the solution to the dispersion equation for SPPs, Eq. (\[disp\]) in terms of the real and imaginary parts of the SPP wave number, $k_{\omega}\left(\phi\right)$ and $\eta_{\omega}\left(\phi\right)$. We will also assume for simplicity that the SPP dissipation is sufficiently weak so that the real part of the solution can be found from $$\mathrm{Re}\mathscr{D}\left(\omega,\phi,k_{\omega}\left(\phi\right)\right)\approx 0,$$ whereas the imaginary part of the SPP wavenumber can be calculated as $$\eta=-\frac{\mathrm{Im}\mathscr{D}\left(\omega,\phi,k_{\omega}\right)}{\left[\frac{\partial\mathrm{Re}\mathscr{D}\left(\omega,\phi,k_{\omega}\right)}{\partial k}\right]_{k=k_{\omega}\left(\phi\right)}}.$$ The explicit expression for the SPP wavenumber is $$k_{\omega}\left(\phi\right)=\mathrm{Re}\left[\frac{\omega\left(n_{up}^{2}+\varepsilon_{zz}\sqrt{\frac{\varepsilon_{xx}\cos^{2}\phi+\varepsilon_{yy}\sin^{2}\phi}{\varepsilon_{zz}}}+g\sin\phi\right)}{4\pi\left[\sqrt{\frac{\varepsilon_{xx}\cos^{2}\phi+\varepsilon_{yy}\sin^{2}\phi}{\varepsilon_{zz}}}\left(in_{up}^{2}\sigma_{zz}^{S}-\sigma_{yz}^{S}\sin\phi\right)-n_{up}^{2}\sigma_{yz}^{S}\sin\phi-i\left(\sigma_{xx}^{S}\cos^{2}\phi+\sigma_{yy}^{S}\sin^{2}\phi\right)\right]}\right].$$ To calculate the integrals in Eq. (\[phi1\]), we use the known expansion of the exponent in terms of Bessel functions, $$e^{iz\cos\alpha} = J_0(z) + 2 \sum_{n=1}^{\infty} i^n J_n(z) \cos(n\alpha),$$ which gives $$\begin{aligned}
\label{phi2}
\Phi_{\omega}^{\left(+\right)} & =-\frac{p}{\pi}\int_{0}^{2\pi}d\phi\frac{1}{\Sigma\left(\phi\right)}\int_{0}^{\infty}\frac{\left\{ J_{0}\left(kr\right)+2\sum_{n=1}^{\infty}i^{n}J_{n}\left(kr\right)\cos\left[n\left(\phi-\theta\right)\right]\right\} H\left(\omega,\phi,k\right)}{k-k_{\omega}\left(\phi\right)-i\eta\left(\phi\right)}kdk.
\end{aligned}$$ This integral can be calculated analytically in the far zone of the source dipole, i.e. at large $kr \gg 1$. In this case the Bessel Functions in Eq. (\[phi2\]) oscillate much faster than other $k$-dependent terms in the numerator, so we can take $H\left(\omega,\phi,k\right)$ out of the integral over $dk$ and replace $k$ with $k_{\omega}(\phi)$ in its argument. After that, the integral over $dk$ can be evaluated using the following integral identity for Bessel functions: $$\label{iden}
\int_0^{\infty} \frac{k^nJ_n(kr)}{k^2-k_{\omega}^2 - i0} kdk = \left(k_{\omega}\right)^n\frac{i\pi}{2} \left( J_n(k_{\omega} r) + iY_n(k_{\omega} r) \right)$$ Equation (\[iden\]) can be derived by applying the operator $\left(\frac{1}{r} \frac{d}{dr} \right)^m$ to both sides of the known Hankel transformation [@piessens] $$\label{hankel}
\int_0^{\infty} \frac{J_0(kr)}{k^2-k_{\omega}^2 - i0} kdk = \frac{i\pi}{2} \left( J_0(k_{\omega} r) + iY_0(k_{\omega} r) \right)$$ and using the recurrent formula $$\label{rec}
\left(\frac{1}{z} \frac{d}{dz} \right)^m \left[ z^{-\nu} \mathfrak{G}_{\nu}(z) \right] = (-1)^m z^{-\nu - m} \mathfrak{G}_{\nu+m}(z),$$ where $\mathfrak{G}_{\nu}(z) = J_{\nu}(z), Y_{\nu}(z)$ [@abram]. Applying Eq. (\[iden\]) to the integral over $dk$ in Eq. (\[phi2\]) yields $$\begin{aligned}
\Phi_{\omega}^{\left(+\right)} & =-i p\int_{0}^{2\pi}d\phi\frac{k_{\omega}\left(\phi\right)}{\Sigma\left(\phi\right)}H\left[\omega,\phi,k_{\omega}\left(\phi\right)\right]\times\nonumber \\
& \left\{ \left(J_{0}\left[k_{\omega}\left(\phi\right)r\right]+iY_{0}\left[k_{\omega}\left(\phi\right)r\right]\right)+2\sum_{n=1}^{\infty}i^{n}\cos\left[n\left(\phi-\theta\right)\right]\left(J_{n}\left[k_{\omega}\left(\phi\right)r\right]+iY_{n}\left[k_{\omega}\left(\phi\right)r\right]\right)\right\} \nonumber \\
& \approx-i p\sqrt{\frac{2}{\pi r}}\int_{0}^{2\pi}e^{ik_{\omega}\left(\phi\right)r}\left\{ e^{-i\frac{\pi}{4}}+2\sum_{n=1}^{\infty}i^{n}e^{-i\left(\frac{n\pi}{2}+\frac{\pi}{4}\right)}\cos\left[n\left(\phi-\theta\right)\right]\right\} \nonumber \\
& \times\frac{\sqrt{k_{\omega}\left(\phi\right)}}{\Sigma\left(\phi\right)}H\left[\omega,\phi,k_{\omega}\left(\phi\right)\right]d\phi. \nonumber
\end{aligned}$$ In the last approximate equality we also took an advantage of the fact that in the far zone, namely when the Bessel functions argument $z \gg \left| n^2 - \frac{\pi}{4} \right|$, one can use their asymptotic values [@abram] $$J_n(z) \approx \sqrt{\frac{2}{\pi z}} \cos\left(z - \frac{n\pi}{2} - \frac{\pi}{4} \right), \; Y_n(z) \approx \sqrt{\frac{2}{\pi z}} \sin\left(z - \frac{n\pi}{2} - \frac{\pi}{4} \right).
\nonumber$$ Then the integral over $\phi$ can be evaluated by using the delta-function identity: $$\begin{aligned}
\label{phiplus}
\Phi_{\omega}^{\left(+\right)} & =-\frac{p}{\sqrt{\pi}}\sqrt{\frac{2}{r}}\int_{0}^{2\pi}e^{i\left[k_{\omega}\left(\phi\right)r+\frac{\pi}{4}\right]}\frac{\sqrt{k_{\omega}\left(\phi\right)}}{\Sigma\left(\phi\right)}H\left[\omega,\phi,k_{\omega}\left(\phi\right)\right]\sum_{n=-\infty}^{\infty}\cos\left[n\left(\phi-\theta\right)\right]d\phi\nonumber \\
& =- 2 \sqrt{\pi} p \sqrt{\frac{2}{r}}\int_{0}^{2\pi}e^{i\left[k_{\omega}\left(\phi\right)r+\frac{\pi}{4}\right]}\frac{\sqrt{k_{\omega}\left(\phi\right)}}{\Sigma\left(\phi\right)}H\left[\omega,\phi,k_{\omega}\left(\phi\right)\right]\delta\left(\phi-\theta\right)d\phi\nonumber \\
& = - \frac{2 \sqrt{\pi} p}{\Sigma\left(\theta\right)}\sqrt{\frac{2k_{\omega}\left(\theta\right)}{r}}H\left[\omega,\theta,k_{\omega}\left(\theta\right)\right]\exp\left[ik_{\omega}\left(\theta\right)r+i\frac{\pi}{4}\right].\end{aligned}$$ Applying the same procedure, we derive the spatial distribution for the scalar potential just below the surface, i.e. inside the WSM: $$\label{phiminus}
\Phi_{\omega}^{\left(-\right)}\equiv\Phi_{\omega}\left(\mathbf{r},z=-0\right) =\frac{2\sqrt{\pi} pn_{up}^{2}}{\Sigma\left(\theta\right)}\sqrt{\frac{2k_{\omega}\left(\theta\right)}{r}}\exp\left[ik_{\omega}\left(\theta\right)r+i\frac{\pi}{4}\right].$$
To calculate the Poynting flux in a SPP wave, we need to go beyond electrostatic approximation. Following the perturbation method detailed in [@ryan2018], we use the Maxwell’s equation $\nabla\times\mathbf{B}\left(\omega,\mathbf{r},z\right)=\frac{1}{c}\frac{\partial}{\partial t}\mathbf{D}\left(\omega,\mathbf{r},z\right)$ in each half-space to calculate the magnetic field from the electric field obtained in the electrostatic approximation: $$\frac{1}{r}\frac{\partial B_{z}}{\partial\theta}-\frac{\partial B_{\theta}}{\partial z}=i\frac{n_{up}^{2}\omega}{c}\frac{\partial}{\partial r}\Phi_{\omega}^{\left(+\right)}e^{-\kappa_{+}z}\,\,\,\,\,\left(z>0\right),$$ $$\frac{1}{r}\frac{\partial B_{z}}{\partial\theta}-\frac{\partial B_{\theta}}{\partial z}=i\frac{\omega}{c}\left[\left(\varepsilon_{xx}\cos^{2}\theta+\varepsilon_{yy}\sin^{2}\theta\right)\frac{\partial}{\partial r}+i\kappa_{-}g\sin\theta\right]\Phi_{\omega}^{\left(-\right)}e^{\kappa_{-}z}\,\,\,\,\,\left(z<0\right),$$ where $\kappa_{+}^{2}=k_{\omega}^{2}\left(\theta\right)-n_{up}^{2}\frac{\omega^{2}}{c^{2}}$, $\kappa_{-}^{2}=$$\frac{\varepsilon_{yy}}{\varepsilon_{zz}}\left[k_{\omega}^{2}\left(\theta\right)-\left(\varepsilon_{zz}-\frac{g^{2}}{\varepsilon_{yy}}\right)\frac{\omega^{2}}{c^{2}}\right].$ In the quasielectrostatic approximation and far field zone, i.e. $c\rightarrow\infty$ and $r\rightarrow\infty$, we have $\kappa_{+}\approx k_{\omega}\left(\theta\right)$, $\kappa_{-}\approx\left|\mathrm{Re}\left[\sqrt{\frac{\varepsilon_{yy}}{\varepsilon_{zz}}}\right]\right|k_{\omega}\left(\theta\right)$, $\frac{\partial}{\partial r}\approx ik_{\omega}\left(\theta\right)$. Furthermore, one can neglect the term $\frac{1}{r}\frac{\partial B_{z}}{\partial\theta}$ in the far field zone. Then we get $$B_{\theta}\left(z>0\right)=-\frac{n_{up}^{2}\omega}{c}\Phi_{\omega}^{\left(+\right)}e^{-k_{\omega}\left(\theta\right)z},$$ $$B_{\theta}\left(z<0\right)=\frac{\omega}{c}\left(\frac{\varepsilon_{xx}\cos^{2}\theta+\varepsilon_{yy}\sin^{2}\theta}{\left|\mathrm{Re}\left[\sqrt{\frac{\varepsilon_{yy}}{\varepsilon_{zz}}}\right]\right|}+g\sin\theta\right)\Phi_{\omega}^{\left(-\right)}e^{\left|\mathrm{Re}\left[\sqrt{\frac{\varepsilon_{yy}}{\varepsilon_{zz}}}\right]\right|k_{\omega}\left(\theta\right)z},$$ $$E_{z}\left(z>0\right)=k_{\omega}\left(\theta\right)\Phi_{\omega}^{\left(+\right)}e^{-k_{\omega}\left(\theta\right)z},$$ $$E_{z}\left(z<0\right)=-\left|\mathrm{Re}\left[\sqrt{\frac{\varepsilon_{yy}}{\varepsilon_{zz}}}\right]\right|k_{\omega}\left(\theta\right)\Phi_{\omega}^{\left(-\right)}e^{\left|\mathrm{Re}\left[\sqrt{\frac{\varepsilon_{yy}}{\varepsilon_{zz}}}\right]\right|k_{\omega}\left(\theta\right)z}.$$ Therefore the time-averaged Poynting flux $\mathbf{S}\left(\mathbf{r},z\right)=\mathrm{Re}[\frac{c}{8\pi}\left(\mathbf{E\times B^{\ast}}\right)]$ is $$S_{r}\left(\mathbf{r},z>0\right)=\frac{n_{up}^{2}\omega}{8\pi}k_{\omega}\left(\theta\right)\left|\Phi_{\omega}^{\left(+\right)}\right|^{2}e^{-2k_{\omega}\left(\theta\right)z},$$ $$S_{r}\left(\mathbf{r},z<0\right)=\frac{\omega}{8\pi}k_{\omega}\left(\theta\right)\mathrm{Re}\left[\varepsilon_{xx}^{\ast}\cos^{2}\theta+\varepsilon_{yy}^{\ast}\sin^{2}\theta+g^{\ast}\left|\mathrm{Re}\left[\sqrt{\frac{\varepsilon_{yy}}{\varepsilon_{zz}}}\right]\right|\sin\theta\right]\left|\Phi_{\omega}^{\left(-\right)}\right|^{2}e^{2\left|\mathrm{Re}\left[\sqrt{\frac{\varepsilon_{yy}}{\varepsilon_{zz}}}\right]\right|k_{\omega}\left(\theta\right)z}.$$ After integrating over $dz$, i.e. $S_{r}\left(r,\theta\right)=\int_{-\infty}^{\infty}S_{r}\left(\mathbf{r},z\right)dz$ we finally obtain the total in-plane energy flux in the far field zone: $$\begin{aligned}
S_{r}\left(r,\theta\right) & =\frac{\omega}{16\pi}\left[n_{up}^{2}\left|\Phi_{\omega}^{\left(+\right)}\right|^{2}+\mathrm{Re}\left(\frac{\varepsilon_{xx}^{\ast}\cos^{2}\theta+\varepsilon_{yy}^{\ast}\sin^{2}\theta}{\left|\mathrm{Re}\left[\sqrt{\frac{\varepsilon_{yy}}{\varepsilon_{zz}}}\right]\right|}+g^{\ast}\sin\theta\right)\left|\Phi_{\omega}^{\left(-\right)}\right|^{2}\right]\nonumber \\
& =\frac{2\pi^{2}\omega p^{2}n_{up}^{2}k_{\omega}\left(\theta\right)}{\left|\Sigma\left(\theta\right)\right|^{2}r}\left[\left|H\left[\omega,\theta,k_{\omega}\left(\theta\right)\right]\right|^{2}+n_{up}^{2}\mathrm{Re}\left(\frac{\varepsilon_{xx}\cos^{2}\theta+\varepsilon_{yy}\sin^{2}\theta}{\left|\mathrm{Re}\left[\sqrt{\frac{\varepsilon_{yy}}{\varepsilon_{zz}}}\right]\right|}+g\sin\theta\right)\right]\end{aligned}$$
[24]{}
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{
"pile_set_name": "ArXiv"
}
|
Identity of Eumenodora encrypta Meyrick, a cryptic Australian moth (Lepidoptera:Gelechioidea).
A hitherto neglected gelechioid moth genus Eumenodora Meyrick (Gelechioidea: Elachistidae; Cosmopterigidae; Xyloryctidae) is redescribed. The genus, originally assigned to the Elachistidae and later transferred to the Cosmopterigidae, is monotypic. The single constituent species, E. encrypta Meyrick, 1906, has long been known only from the holotype, collected in Brisbane, Queensland (Australia). The specimen lacks its abdomen. The genus is characterized and the single recognized species redescribed based on recently collected adult males and a female. Evidence from morphology, supported by DNA sequences, is provided to support the placement of the taxon in the Hierodoris group of the Xyloryctidae, in spite of its atypical external appearance.
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{
"pile_set_name": "PubMed Abstracts"
}
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Property
An overview of Guangzhou’s residential market in H2 2018
During the first four months of 2018, the average transaction price of residential properties in Guangzhou has hovered at a high of RMB 17,000 per square metre, showing mild increases for both quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year figures. The results reflect that the authorities have effectively cooled down the speculative housing market through various home purchase measures and restrictions on residential mortgage applications. In terms of sales volume, the market for the first four months of 2018 was relatively sluggish, decreasing on both a quarterly and yearly basis. In April, a total of 28 new projects or additional batches of semi-new projects were launched, a decrease of twelve projects compared to the previous month. Over 50% of the new launches have been sold. In fact, some new residential units in red-hot locations were sold at decent prices. Over the same month, it was reported that there were only four residential land plots being transacted, and sales in the secondary housing market had plunged 70% year-on-year. In the second quarter, there will most likely be a pervasive ‘wait and see’ sentiment in the property market, with the expectation of a new market breakthrough in the second half of this year.
Broadly speaking, there are several factors that will affect the performance of the property market in Guangzhou for the second half of this year. With regards to land supply, 294 sites will be introduced in 2018, 83 of which will be used for residential purposes. The planned supply of residential land will be 6.25 million square metres, an increase of 9% year-on-year, reflecting a moderate increase in long-term residential supply. Due to the current rise in credit demand from enterprises which has resulted in tighter credit scales, this situation is expected to continue. Since current mortgage rates still remain at low levels, they are expected to increase further and may drag down buying sentiment. Demand in the city centre will spill over further, accelerating development of the peripheral areas.
According to market estimates, the third quarter will be one of the peak periods of housing supply. In the peripheral areas of the city, Zengcheng District and Nansha District will become the focus of new supply. Considering the pressure on developers’ annual performance, slashes in housing prices may occur in the second half of this year. While the market has spent more than a year digesting regulatory policies, the city might only need fine-tunings in home purchase policies in the next few quarters, as a result of the pressure from the currently low inventory level and high demand.
In short, the residential transaction volume in Guangzhou will increase in the second quarter of this year, whilst the average home price will continue to be stabilised.
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{
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
}
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Performing floating point multiplication of binary operands with Booth encoding requires several multiples of the operands. Specifically, for radix-8 Booth encoding with an operand a, the products .+-.a, .+-.2a, .+-.3a, and .+-.4a are required. All such products except .+-.3a are easily obtained with simple bit shifts. One way to obtain 3a is to add 2a to a, where 2a is obtained from a by a bit shift. However, the integer sum of 2a with a is required. We shall refer to an adder for providing a signal indicative of 3a for any binary number a as a 3x adder.
A Kogge-Stone adder can be useful for performing integer summation. Like a Carry Look Adder (CLA), the Kogge-Stone adder provides generate and propagate terms. However, to exploit parallelism, various bits of the operands are grouped together and the Kogge-Stone adder operates on these groups in parallel to provide group generate and group propagate terms for these groups. These group generate and group propagate terms are eventually used by the Kogge-Stone adder to provide the carry terms, from which the sum is obtained from these carry terms and the original operands. This is now described in more detail below.
A functional diagram for a Kogge-Stone adder is shown in FIG. 1. The binary numbers a and b are added together to obtain their sum s. We denote the i.sup.th component of these binary numbers by a.sub.i, b.sub.i, and s.sub.i, respectively. In FIG. 1, the components of a and b are grouped into n+1 groups, where only the first (group 0), second (group 1), and last (group n) groups are explicitly shown. Not all groups need have the same number of components. For example, in FIG. 1, group 0 has j+1 components, group 1 has k+1 components, and group n has m+1 components.
PG generators 102, 104, 106, and 108 provide group generate and group propagate terms. PG generators 102, 104, and 106 constitutes a first stage (level) and may be operated in parallel, and PG generator 108 constitutes a second stage (level). C generator 116 generates carry-out terms. CSS (Conditional Sum Selector) generators 110, 112, and 114 provide the sum s, and may be operated in parallel. Pipelining may be employed in which the first stage of PG generators operates on new data when the CSS generators are operating on old data.
The lines in FIG. 1 represent data flow lines. Their physical realization may comprise more than one wire for carrying a signal, or signals may be time-multiplexed on a single wire (and ground plane). The designation of data represented by a data flow line is indicated in FIG. 1. For example, PG generator 102 provides the terms gg.sub.m.sup.n and gp.sub.m.sup.n on data flow line 116. These terms represent, respectively, the highest order (m) group generate and group propagate terms for group n. When describing group generate and group propagate terms for an arbitrary group, the superscripts for these terms will not be indicated.
An arbitrary PG generator is shown in FIG. 2. For an arbitrary index i, gg.sub.i =1 if a carry-out term is generated when adding the binary number (x.sub.i x.sub.i-1 . . . x.sub.0) to the binary number (y.sub.i y.sub.i-1 . . . y.sub.0). The group generate term is zero otherwise. The group propagate term is given by gp.sub.i =1 if a carry-in term is propagated when adding the binary numbers (x.sub.i x.sub.i-1 . . . x.sub.0) and (y.sub.i y.sub.i-1. . . y.sub.0). The group propagate term is zero otherwise.
The group generate and group propagate terms can be written in terms of the generate terms g.sub.i and propagate terms p.sub.i as indicated in FIG. 2, where p.sub.i =x.sub.i +y.sub.i and g.sub.i 32 x.sub.i y.sub.i. Although the symbol + has been used before to indicate the ordinary summation symbol in the field of integers, in the previous sentence and elsewhere it is also used to indicate the logical (Boolean) OR in which the operands are now the Boolean elements "1" and "0", and its particular meaning will be clear from context. The product of Boolean variables indicates the logical AND of the Boolean variables. In FIG. 1, the summation symbol .SIGMA. indicates the logical OR sum. By definition, gg.sub.0 =g.sub.0.
As shown in FIG. 1, the input data to PG generator 108 are the highest order group generate and group propagate terms from each PG generator in the first stage of the CLA. These quantities are operated on by PG generator 108 to provide new (effective) group generate and group propagate terms gg.sup.i and gp.sup.i, i=0, 1, . . . , n. These effective group generate and group propagate terms are interpreted as follows. Let a.sup.i denote group i of the components of a. Similarly for b.sup.i. For example, according to the grouping indicated in FIG. 1, a.sup.0 =(a.sub.j a.sub.j-1 . . . a.sub.0). Then, gg.sup.i =1 indicates that a carry-out term is generated when adding the two binary numbers (a.sup.i a.sup.i-1 . . . a.sup.0) and (b.sup.i b.sup.i-1 . . . b.sup.0), where these two binary numbers are formed from the concatenation of the first i+1 groupings of a and b, respectively. If gg.sup.i =0, then no carry-out term is generated. Similarly, gp.sup.i =1 indicates that a carry-in term is propagated when adding the two binary numbers (a.sup.i a.sup.i-1 . . . a.sup.0) and (b.sup.i b.sup.i-1 . . . b.sup.0). If gp.sup.i =0 , then no carry-in term is propagated.
As shown in FIG. 1, C generator 116 provides carry-out terms c.sub.out.sup.i for i=0, 1, . . . n. FIG. 3 also illustrates C generator 116 and provides the Boolean expression for the carry-out terms as a function of the effective group generate and group propagate terms and the carry-in term Cin . A carry-out term c.sub.out.sup.i for some i is the carry-out term obtained by adding (a.sup.i a.sup.i-1 . . . a.sup.0) and (b.sup.i b.sup.i-1 . . . b.sup.0) in which the carry-in term is c.sub.in. This carry-in term may result from the sum of other bits not shown in FIG. 1. For example, a.sub.0 and b.sub.0 need not be the least significant bits of the actual binary numbers to be added, in which case there may be other copies of the adder in FIG. 1 to provide other sum bits, or the adder of FIG. 1 may be used more than once in an iterative manner to obtain all sum bits.
As shown in FIG. 1, the carry-out terms from C generator 116 are provided to the CSS generators. For 0.ltoreq.i<n, the carry-out term c.sub.out.sup.i is the carry-in term to the CSS generator corresponding to group i+1. The carry-in term to CSS generator 114 for group 0 is c.sub.in. As shown in FIG. 1, the carry-out term c.sub.out.sup.0 is provided to CSS generator 112 corresponding to group 1 and the carry-out term c.sub.out.sup.n-1 is provided to CSS generator 110 corresponding to group n. Note that carry-out term c.sub.out.sup.n is available for other adders (not shown), or to indicate overflow, etc.
FIG. 4 illustrates CSS generator 114 and provides the Boolean expression for the i.sup.th sum bit, s.sub.i. The symbol .sym. denotes exclusive OR. The carry-in term c.sub.i is the carry-in term for bit position i, and its expression in terms of gg.sub.i, gp.sub.i, and c.sub.in (the carry-in term for CSS generator 114) is also given in FIG. 4. Similar expressions are easily generalized for the other CSS generators in the Kogge-Stone adder of FIG. 1. A circuit at the logic gate level for the CSS generator of FIG. 4 is provided in FIG. 5, where MUX 502 switches to line 504 if c.sub.in =0 and switches to line 506 if c.sub.in =1.
From the expression for gg.sub.i given in FIG. 2, it is seen that obtaining the highest order group generator term gg.sub.j for a PG generator of size j+1(i.e., a PG generator corresponding to groupings of a and b with j+1 bits each) requires evaluating the logical OR of j+1 product terms, where the most complicated product term is the logical AND of j+1 terms.
For example, a domino or dynamic logic gate realization for obtaining the group generator term gg.sub.4 is shown in FIG. 6. Transistors 602 and 604 are gated by a clock signal CLK, where the domino gate is in its precharge phase when CLK is LOW and is in its evaluation phase when CLK is HIGH. The output node of the domino gate is node 610. Transistors 606 and 608 constitute a static inverter gate. The stack depth of the domino gate in FIG. 6 is defined to be 5. That is, the clocked transistors are not counted. For some implementations, clocked transistor 602 is not needed. In general, a stack depth may be defined as the largest number of nFETs (n-Field Effect Transistors) in series between the output node and ground if no clocked nFET is present, or between the output node and the clocked nFET if a clocked nFET is present. For the general case, a domino gate providing gg.sub.i has a stack depth of j+1.
Because of the body effect of stacking nFETs in series, a logic gate tends to slow down as its stack depth increases. That is, the latency between output and input increases. Because not all paths in a domino gate between the output node and ground have the same number of nFETs, the increase in latency depends upon the particular input values. For example, in FIG. 6 the worst case scenario for increasing the latency is when all generator terms except g.sub.0 are 0 (LOW) and all propagate terms are 1 (HIGH). On average, latency will increase with increasing stack depth.
There are, however, no stack depth problems associated with domino gates for obtaining the group propagate terms because a simple NOR domino gate may be used in which the stack depth is only one.
Stack depths for obtaining the group generate terms can be reduced by employing more than one level of logic, but each additional level increases the over-all latency for computing the group generator terms. Thus, for many high-speed circuits the size of a PG generator according to FIG. 2 is limited to a fairly small number (e.g., not much more than four or five). However, decreasing the size of groupings (to decrease the size of PG generators in the first stage of a Kogge-Stone adder) leads to an increase in the number of groups in the first stage, which increases the size of the second stage (i.e., the size of functional unit 108 becomes too large).
It is therefore desirable to provide a 3x adder in which the stack depths associated with obtaining the group generate terms can be reduced.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
}
|
China's propaganda department 'not good enough at propaganda'
China's propaganda department, tasked with controlling the media and arts, has been given a slap on the wrist for not being good enough at shaping public opinion, according to a report on a government website.
The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) posted an article on its website Wednesday that described findings from its two-month-long probe of the ruling Communist party's propaganda department, which began in February.
Leaders in the department did not feel a sufficient sense of responsibility for undertaking ideological work, the piece cited CCDI member and investigation spokesman Wang Huaichen as saying.
China's President Xi Jinping (pictured, C) reminded top state media outlets to "strictly adhere to the orders of the Chinese Communist Party" during a series of high-profile visits to their headquarters in February ©Greg Baker (AFP/File)
Art was not directed clearly enough towards socialist aims and political thought not emphasised enough in universities, he was quoted as saying.
News propaganda was not targeted or effective enough, especially in the field of new media, where the department had failed to fully implement the principle of "the party controlling the media", the post cited him as saying.
Wang called upon the department to make propaganda appear more valid by enhancing its attractiveness and appeal, it said.
The Communist party tolerates no opposition to its rule and newspapers, websites, and broadcast media are strictly controlled. An army of censors patrols social media and many Western news websites are blocked.
President Xi Jinping reminded top state media outlets to "strictly adhere to the orders of the Chinese Communist Party" during a series of high-profile visits to their headquarters in February.
Xi has also in recent years called for higher education to play a larger role in "ideological guidance" and urged more teaching of Marxism in universities, where curricula remain tightly controlled and liberal scholars report increasing fears of censorship.
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{
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
}
|
Atlanta will soon be working on rewriting its zoning ordinance for the first time in over 30 years, possibly prompting big changes to the city’s parking and public transportation offerings.
Tim Keane, Atlanta’s planning commissioner, is designing the zoning rewrite on the basis of making the city more urban and downtown-based. Currently, Atlanta’s approach to zoning favors a more suburban style, which prioritizes driving over walking, according to Keane.
“Right now, the expectation within the zoning ordinance is that every person will drive to do everything and will park right where they want to go,” he said. “We have to eliminate that idea and replace it with the premise that people will get around Atlanta in many different kinds of ways. We have to begin to devote less space in our city to the storage and movement of vehicles.”
One way Keane is planning on making the city more accessible to walkers, bikers, and public transit users is by decreasing the amount of parking spaces building developers will have to create in order to encourage less driving around the city.
He said that, “If we as a city continue to enable this idea that people will be able to park everywhere, then we will have failed the citizens because it is impossible to achieve that. So what people can expect is for parking to become more and more constrained. The better, more convenient, affordable, and safe option for people will be to not drive.”
Instead of driving, Keane said wants more focus to be on public transportation. He says there needs to be space in the streets for transit-only lanes, so buses can move at quicker speeds than the cars. He also wants to improve bus route efficiency in an effort to expand use of public transportation in Atlanta.
Michael Dobbins, a Georgia Tech city planning professor, agrees with Keane.
“The city has been systematically moving in these directions with incremental zoning and development practice changes since after the Olympics in 1996,” he said. “I think these moves have been positive, as evidenced by the city’s growing population, especially in areas that have used these changes to their advantage. I believe that the new zoning initiatives will only propel these goals forward toward an ever more walkable, accessible city.”
Although making public transportation seems like a good idea to many, some people think that reduced parking availability could cause major problems within the city.
Hannah Wallace, an Atlanta citizen, driver and Georgia State student said, “Less parking in Atlanta seems like it would be a huge mess. I feel like it is already so difficult to find parking in this city, and MARTA doesn’t take you to every place you need to go.”
Implementing the zoning rewrite in Atlanta could be a multi-year process, but Keane said that changes around the city will be happening sooner than expected.
“Between now and then, there are many improvements that we can make to the existing zoning ordinance, including changes regarding parking, and those changes will begin this year,” he said.
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{
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
}
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Scanning electron microscopy of collecting lymphatic vessels and their comparison to arteries and veins.
The morphology of canine thoracic duct and peripheral collecting lymphatics was determined using light microscopy together with scanning and transmission electron microscopy (SEM and TEM). The thoracic duct was compared to the thoracic aorta and to the vena cava. Luminal surface detail was determined using the secondary imaging mode of the SEM. Subsurface nuclear and connective tissue detail was determined using back-scattered electron imagining combined with Willard's modification of Gomori's Methenamine Silver Stain. Central and peripheral lymphatic vessels have surface morphology distinct from either arteries or veins. The endothelial cell density in lymphatic vessels is less than in arteries or veins. The nuclear chromatin of lymphatic endothelial cells is coarsely granular and evenly distributed. This contrasts with nuclei from arteries or veins in which the chromatin is segmented. The distribution and orientation of lymphatic subsurface connective tissue fibers also differs from that seen in arteries and veins. It is concluded that canine lymphatic vessels have a unique surface and subsurface morphology and can be unequivocally identified by SEM.
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{
"pile_set_name": "PubMed Abstracts"
}
|
Q:
Right way to create a background job in an elixir phoenix app
def create(conn, %{"data" => %{"attributes" => user_params}}) do
changeset = User.changeset(%User{}, user_params)
case Repo.insert(changeset) do
{:ok, user} ->
UserMailer.send_welcome_email(user)
conn
|> put_status(:created)
|> render("show.json", model: user)
{:error, changeset} ->
conn
|> put_status(:unprocessable_entity)
|> render(MyApp.ChangesetView, "error.json", changeset: changeset)
end
end
In this controller action, UserMailer.send_welcome_email is synchronous, and the request waits.
I wanted to make it asynchronous, so spawned a process like this instead
spawn_link(fn ->
UserMailer.send_welcome_email(user)
end)
The request doesn't not wait until the mail has been sent.
Though it works, is it the right way to do ?
Are there any chances that these process become orphan or they just die after immediately executing?
Should we create a Supervisor instead?
Should we use a library like https://github.com/akira/exq instead? (I feel even if spawn_link fails, and logs it in our phoenix logs, it would do)
A:
Starting a process using spawn_link/1 will cause a bidirectional link, so whichever of the spawning process and the newly spawned process that happens to die first will kill the other one (unless it's trapping exits, which it probably shouldn't be). That's great in some cases, and not so great in others; if it takes a long time to send that e-mail, for example, the Phoenix request might finish first, and risk killing off the spawned process.
Due to the linking, however, there shouldn't be any risk of the processes getting orphaned.
A better approach is definitely to create a Supervisor (or using Task.Supervisor), and you could roll your own background job setup rather easily.
However, it might be worth looking at something like exq that you mentioned, or Toniq for example, that could possibly have everything you need already; especially things like retries in case of failure, and presistence. There are also some other interesting options in the Awesome Elixir list if you want to try out a few different alternatives.
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{
"pile_set_name": "StackExchange"
}
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{
"pile_set_name": "PubMed Central"
}
|
View Comment
Nt
Posted at 6:46 PM on December 28, 2013
I hate that this happened to Shain he was just amazing on Buckwild and I really enjoyed watching him and my heart goes out to all of his friends family and fans he will be sadly missed and may be gone but never forgotten R.I.P
i think buckwild should stay on the tv its great and it would make Shain happy to see that it still on there, he was really funny and very cute!!! he was an amazing guy that made everyone smile and laugh at the stupid stuff he came up with!!! he will be missed shain find my friend tori and give her a hug for me!! r.i.p!!!
We’re all gonna miss u shain! Its a good thing that they canceled the show cuz it will give the cast a chance to grieve without cameras in their faces. The show wont be the same without him but at least he’s in a better place than this world.
R.I.P shain! and everyone who says he maid WV a bad place your wrong! on there most recent episode one of the guest starts said the same!! its a damn lie! he brought that city joy!! he smile! his laugh was amazing!! i didn’t know him personally but… this makes me sad!! and the show shouldn’t be cancelled!! cause if there on TV or not there gonna still do the same stuff! i think that continuing the show will show respect to him!!! everyone always says there in a better place and that we shouldn’t cry and be sad! i think he would be happy if we kept the show going and people would smile when they do or say something shain would of loved to do or something he would of said! everyone would smile and laugh!! and that’s all hes ever wanted to make people do! is smile and laugh! hes already maid me do that and even know hes gone we should still smile and laugh at the things hes done to make us smile!! i love you shain!! R.I.P
Amen to that . I was born and raised in the bush mudding was a part of life and it was the best time I ever had” now I have 4 boys and I wish they could see how much FUN it is. one day I hope .have a good day to all who has mudding on there minds. And to do it with people you love and hot girls what more can you want as long as you are happy . lets go mudding AMEN.
Shain was an awsome guy with a big heart he will b missed…I have been a country girl all my life n outdoor fun is all we know, maybe some stuff is dangerous but that’s also the fun n it. U love life n love having a good time with friends, to all the country folk u understand. R.I.P. Shain. U will b missed n u were the best on the show n in life.
R.I.P shain, u were such an awesome person i loved watching u on buckwild. Im glad they
cancelled the show, it could never be the same
without u! To all of shains family, i am so very
sorry for your loss, you raised a great young man.
he was a great young man and he made the show my younger brother got killed when he was young it is very hard u never get over it u just remember them always sorry for his parents and their loss it isnt fair its a very sad thing rip shain u were the best james p.
The show should not go on withe Shane. It is not the same with somebody missing. How can they sit there and film and act like nothing happened when they’ve just lost such a close friend. Everybody got there session of fame and that should be enough. How dare them act like it can be the same without Shane. Rest in peace Shane you didn’t deserve you life to be tooken this early you were just beginning to live.
My heart is broken over the death of this young vibrant man. I will continue to pray for his family. As a mother of two, I could never imagine losing my child. Rest in peace Shane Gandee. You will never be forgotten. Watch over your parents. They need your guidance from above.
He was a wonderful guy. I just wish everyone could have been blessed enough to meet him. He was taken too soon. But that’s just it. He lived his life to its fullest and he never really was acting. Actors get paid to pretend to be someone else. Shain was always himself–selfless and able to make anyone laugh. He would be absolutely tickled though, to know that you favored him.
hoping they make a next sesson even though it wont be the same they should atleast do one in memory of shain.RIP shain u truly will be missed even though i never met u i still cry it feels like i lost a family member my son looks and acts just like u u were our favorite
aww we all miss u shain and we love you….hopes and prays for your family…. you were a great actor we all still love buckwild ! it wouldnt be the same without you…. watch over your family and you fans we all need your support .. we love you ;'{ you didnt deserve what happened but you died doing what you loved and were proud of what yoiu provided us with…THANK YOU Shain Gandee
Some people think that they were dumb for doing the stuff they did. I think that people do not understand what the meaning of life is all about. These crazy fun loving easy going young hot cool kids made the best of what they had . goes to show you that life is what you make it and they made it the best they no how . Amen to all god bless every 1 . R I P shain god bless you
|
{
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
}
|
Evaluation of the anticonvulsant activity of the essential oil of Eugenia caryophyllata in male mice.
In this study, the effect of an essential oil of Eugenia caryophyllata (Myrtaceae), an antiepileptic remedy in Iranian folk medicine, against seizures induced by maximal electroshock (MES) or pentylenetetrazole (PTZ) in male mice was studied. The essential oil exhibited anticonvulsant activity against tonic seizures induced by MES. Although it was not effective against clonic convulsions induced by intraperitoneal administration of PTZ, the seizure threshold which was determined by an increase in the dose of intravenously infused PTZ required to induce clonus, was elevated by the essential oil. In addition, at some anticonvulsant doses, the essential oil produced motor impairment on the rotarod.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "PubMed Abstracts"
}
|
Registration has been opposed by The NutraSweet Company, formerly G. D. Searle & Co. [FN2] As grounds for opposition, opposer asserts that it is the owner of the registered mark NUTRA-SWEET for a chemical compound used as a sweetening ingredient in the manufacture of food products and beverages; [FN3] that it has continuously used its mark in various forms such as NUTRASWEET, NUTRA-SWEET and NUTRA SWEET in connection with sweeteners used as ingredients for food products since prior to the date of first use alleged by applicant and that applicant's mark so resembles opposer's previously used and registered mark as to be likely, when applied to applicant's goods, to cause confusion, mistake or to deceive. Opposer further alleges, by way of an amended opposition, that registration should be refused because applicant has failed to use its mark in interstate commerce and/or that applicant has abandoned use of its mark.
Applicant, in its answer to the opposition, has denied the allegations therein.
The record consists of the pleadings, the file of applicant's application, a status and title copy of opposer's pleaded registration relied on by opposer, [FN4] applicant's answer to opposer's interrogatories relied on by opposer, portions of a discovery deposition of Mr. T. E. Stivers, applicant's executive vice president, relied on by opposer and testimony taken by both parties. Each party has filed a brief on the case and opposer has filed a reply brief. No oral hearing was requested.
Prior to the commencement of testimony periods, opposer moved for summary judgment on the ground that applicant's application was void ab initio for the reason that applicant's mark had not been used in commerce at the time the application was filed. The Board, in a ruling mailed January 4, 1985, held that genuine issues of material fact existed which precluded summary disposition of the case and the motion for summary judgment was denied. The Board, however, determined that no genuine issues of fact were in dispute as to opposer's standing to raise this issue and granted partial summary judgment in favor of opposer on the issue of standing.
We turn first to the question of nonuse and/or abandonment since if it is determined that the mark sought to be registered was not used at the time the application was filed, the application must be held void ab initio regardless of our determination of the question of likelihood of confusion. Similarly, if we determine that the mark was used as of the application filing date but was subsequently abandoned, registration must be refused regardless of whether we find likelihood of confusion from the contemporaneous use of the respective marks.
*2 Turning to the facts and circumstances surrounding applicant's use of the mark NUTRA SALT sought to be registered, the testimony shows that on May 29, 1981, T. E. Stivers, applicant's executive vice president located in Georgia, shipped one jar of salt with trace minerals bearing the NUTRA SALT trademark to Dr. Hilard Kravitz, applicant's president, located in California. [FN5] There was no charge made in connection with this shipment and no indication that any payment was made. Mr. Stivers testified that the label was made up for this shipment by taking a label for SUPER SALT, another trademark of applicant not involved herein used by applicant in connection with salt with trace minerals, blanking out the word SUPER and inserting the term NUTRA in its place. In response to a question asking whether the purpose of the May 29, 1981 shipment was to establish a date of use to support the trademark application, Mr. Stivers responded that the shipment was to get him (Kravitz) something that he could show to anybody he wanted to and develop business on the west coast. Stivers further testified that it was their understanding from their attorney that they had to ship something across state lines in order to qualify for the trademark. It further appears from the Stivers testimony that two jars of the product were made up with NUTRA SALT labels on May 29, 1981 with one jar's being shipped and the other's being kept in Georgia. The testimony states that Kravitz received the jar on June 2, 1981.
The making up of the two jars of NUTRA SALT product and the shipment of one of those jars to Dr. Kravitz in California were the only activities in connection with the mark prior to the filing of the application on August 5, 1981. On August 23, 1981, twelve additional jars of the product were made up with the NUTRA SALT label and six of those jars were shipped to Dr. Kravitz.
Applicant claims continuous efforts have been made to market the NUTRA SALT product since June 1981. Stivers testified that hundreds of contacts have been made by Kravitz and Stivers in connection with the product, with personal friends and acquaintances, and that numerous sample jars have been given away. Much of the testimony concerning marketing efforts by applicant is of an indefinite nature. One portion of Stivers testimony concerning an alleged marketing contact between a specific entity named the Jewel Company and Dr. Kravitz was properly objected to as constituting inadmissible hearsay. Applicant did introduce into the record in connection with the Stivers deposition a price list of, inter alia, NUTRA SALT salt prepared in May, June or July 1983 and a fact list on the NUTRA SALT product prepared around the same time.
Stivers testified that while there may have been a sale of the NUTRA SALT product in 1983, the earliest documented sale was June 29, 1984. This was a sale of one case of the product in the amount of $12.00. Other sales in 1984 total five cases to three customers in the total amount of $60.00. Sales in 1985 up until the Stivers deposition in September 1985 total some 31 cases of NUTRA SALT product in the amount of $372.00.
*3 No evidence exists as to any expenditure of money for any advertising or promotion of the product.
Section 1 of the Trademark Act states that:
'The owner of a trade mark used in commerce may register his mark . . ..' Section 45 of the Act states that a mark shall be deemed to be used in commerce when it is placed in any manner on the goods or their containers or on displays associated with the goods or on the tags and labels affixed thereto and the goods are sold or transported in commerce.
It is settled that a single sale or shipment in commerce may be sufficient to constitute use in commerce within the meaning of the Trademark Act provided that the sale or shipment was a bona fide commercial transaction and was accompanied by activities or circumstances tending to indicate a continuing effort to use and place the product on the market on a commercial scale. See: Avakoff v. Southern Pacific Co., 765 F.2d 1097, 226 USPQ 435 (Fed. Cir. 1985). The key element, as set forth by the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, is that the initial transaction must not be a sham transaction and must be followed by a continuing effort or intent to engage in commercial use. See: ITT v. International Mobile Machines Corp., 800 F.2d 1119, 231 USPQ 142 (Fed. Cir. 1986) and cases cited therein. The ITT case, citing Blue Bell, Inc. v. Jaymar-Ruby, Inc., 497 F.2d 433, 182 USPQ 65 (2nd Cir. 1974), noted the existence of a line of decisions holding that a minimal amount of interstate commerce primarily intended to satisfy the trademark laws is sufficient. However, none of the decisions endorses sham transactions exclusively designed to satisfy those laws. Rather, the use must be bona fide, with token transactions accepted where there is an accompanying intent to engage in subsequent continuing commercial use. The ITT case, reversing the Board's decision reported at 227 USPQ 713 (TTAB 1985), noted that a shipment was made to a director and investor in the company; that this person was interested in using the product (telephone system) in connection with a portable computer terminal in his insurance and financial planning business; that this person was interested in becoming a franchisee for the ULTRAPHONE telephone systems; that he used the product for a demonstration for others in Baltimore and that he used the product on trips to Philadelphia. The Court concluded that the Board decision holding that ITT met its burden of proving the registration invalid was clear error and the Board's decision was reversed.
In the present case, we believe the facts and circumstances surrounding the initial use of the NUTRA SALT product and the subsequent activities of applicant are of such a nature that the initial shipment cannot be considered a bona fide transaction. We think the import of the Stivers testimony is that the single shipment of the product from one corporate officer to another was an intracompany transaction done solely for the purpose of qualifying for registration. The record shows applicant had a salt product and was attempting to see whether it should use SUPER SALT or NUTRA SALT as its trademark. The label prepared was simply a blocking off of a portion of the SUPER SALT mark and substituting the term NUTRA for the term SUPER. The testimony relating to the marketing efforts of applicant is vague, and nonspecific, with much emphasis being placed on samples shown to and distributed to unspecified friends and acquaintances. We find this testimony to be unpersuasive. No sales of the product were documented until June 1984, almost three years after the filing date of the application. While such a delay might not be unreasonable in connection with a product costing a great deal of money such as an airplane or large piece of specialized machinery, the product involved herein is salt, selling at $12.00 per case.
*4 In short, looking at the total picture painted by the Stivers testimony, we do not believe the subsequent activities of applicant are of such nature as to warrant concluding that applicant was engaged in or intended to be engaged in a bona fide commercial activity at the time the application was filed. We conclude that the initial shipment from Stivers to Kravitz was nothing more than a sham transaction. Moreover, even if we found the initial transaction was an arm's length commercial transaction, we believe the subsequent activities of applicant, that is, the vague, indefinite marketing efforts, the lack of any advertising of the product, the complete absence of any sales for some three years after the initial shipment and the relatively insignificant, sporadic sales of the product since that first sale, warrant the conclusion that the record fails to show a continuing effort or intent to continue use and market the product on a reasonable commercial scale within a reasonable time. See: McCarthy, Trademarks and Unfair Competition, Section 19:37 (1984).
Under the circumstances, we agree with opposer that the application is void ab initio for the reason that the mark was not used in commerce prior to the application filing date.
While registration must be denied to applicant regardless of any decision on the issue of likelihood of confusion, we will nevertheless now rule on said issue in the interests of determining all issues properly before us in this case.
Opposer's priority in the NUTRASWEET mark has been established by competent testimony as well as by the introduction into evidence of status and title copies of a number of NUTRASWEET registrations. With respect to the marks and goods involved herein, the record shows that opposer manufactures and sells an artificial sweetener used in connection with a wide variety of foods, including, carbonated soft drinks, cereal, chewing gum, milk additives, cocoa mix, desserts, powdered soft drinks, tea, chewable vitamins, topping mix and shake mixes. In addition, opposer manufactures and sells a tabletop artificial sweetener under the EQUAL trademark which contains the NUTRASWEET ingredient. The NUTRASWEET mark appears on the packaging of most of the products containing the sweetening ingredient and most of the companies using the NUTRASWEET ingredient in their products mention the NUTRASWEET mark by name in their advertisements. The mark always appears on the packets of applicant's EQUAL sweetener.
Opposer has enjoyed considerable success in the marketing of the NUTRASWEET product. The record shows that sales of the NUTRASWEET product for use in various other products and for use in the EQUAL tabletop sweetener average $558 million annually with the EQUAL sweetener containing the NUTRASWEET ingredient accounting for approximately $125 million per year. The EQUAL product is sold through retail grocery stores as well as to the food service industry and appears in restaurants as well as in other institutional settings. Opposer's vice president of marketing and grocery products operations, Mr. Timothy Healy, testified that during the twelve months preceding the taking of his deposition (July 1, 1985), opposer spent approximately $25 million in advertising the NUTRASWEET mark on television, radio, in magazines and the like. Mr. Healy further testified that, during the same period, companies using the NUTRASWEET ingredient in their products have spent approximately $243 million advertising their products and that the majority of these advertisements mention the NUTRASWEET ingredient by name.
*5 Applicant, in its brief on the case, concedes that NUTRASWEET is a famous mark. It is applicant's contention, however, that no confusion is likely from the use of the respective marks on the goods for the reasons that the marks as a whole are distinguishable; that applicant's NUTRA SALT mark is always used as two separate terms with NUTRA appearing above the term SALT while opposer's NUTRASWEET mark is a single term; that the goods are different, opposer applying its mark to a food sweetening ingredient incorporated into other food products sold under different primary trademarks with the NUTRASWEET mark used as a secondary mark; that applicant's trade channels comprise the ultimate consumer while opposer markets its NUTRASWEET product to manufacturers; that many third parties utilize NUTRA as part of their trademarks for foods and additives for foods and that no instances of actual confusion have occurred.
We are satisfied from the record that NUTRASWEET is a well recognized trademark for an artificial sweetening ingredient. Opposer has testified to the results of studies showing that the NUTRASWEET mark enjoys a high degree of customer recognition and awareness. The record further shows that in addition to being incorporated in many varieties of products, the NUTRASWEET ingredient is used in opposer's own EQUAL artificial sweetener product and that both the marks EQUAL and NUTRASWEET are used on the package for the product and both marks are used in promoting and advertising the product. While artificial sweeteners and salt with trace minerals are obviously different products, we think it likely that they would be sold in the same sections of grocery stores and supermarkets and would appear side by side in restaurants and on kitchen tabletops of ordinary consumers. We further note that the respective products are low-cost impulse-type items where the purchasing decision is not likely to be as careful as it would be with a higher-priced product. [FN6] In short, we conclude that the artificial sweetener and salt products are closely related, complementary products and that the use of the same or of a similar mark in connection with these products would likely result in confusion as to source or sponsorship. [FN7]
Turning to the marks, it is clear that both marks share the identical prefix NUTRA. While the respective suffixes SWEET and SALT are obviously different in appearance and sound, these suffixes comprise generic designations as applied to the respective goods and are devoid of any source indicating capacity. We think it quite likely that purchasers familiar with the NUTRASWEET product, either as an ingredient in EQUAL artificial sweetener or as an ingredient in various other food products, would, upon viewing NUTRA SALT salt with trace minerals, be likely to believe that this was a new product line put out by the same producer as the NUTRASWEET producer or that the salt product was somehow associated with or sponsored by the people producing the NUTRASWEET product.
*6 Applicant's argument that its mark always is used in special form with NUTRA appearing above SALT is not persuasive if only for the reason that the mark sought to be registered, as shown in the drawing in the application, is not in special form but, rather, is simply a typed drawing showing the term NUTRA SALT.
Applicant's argument regarding third-party uses of marks containing the formative NUTRA is unsupported by any evidence. While applicant has made of record a few third-party registrations which include the term NUTRA, this is not evidence of use of these marks or evidence of the extent to which any of these marks have been in use. See, generally, Sams: Third Party Registrations in TTAB proceedings, 72 TMR 297 (1982). We note, moreover, that applicant itself indicated that the formative NUTRA has no signifiance or meaning in applicant's relevant trade or industry. [FN8] Accordingly, we find the common formative NUTRA in the respective marks to be a strong element and nothing in the record is to the contrary.
Finally, while applicant has argued that there have been no instances of actual confusion, this fact is of no significance where, as here, applicant's sales have been de minimis and it is clear that there have been no opportunities for such confusion to arise.
In view of the foregoing, we find the respective marks to be sufficiently similar that their use on or in connection with the respective goods is likely to cause confusion for purposes of Section 2(d) of the Act.
Decision: The opposition is sustained and registration to applicant refused on the ground that the application is void ab initio in view of applicant's failure to use the mark in commerce at the time the application was filed and on the Section 2(d) ground of likelihood of confusion.
L. E. Rooney
G. D. Krugman
R. F. Cissel
Members, Trademark Trial and Appeal Board
FN1. Application Serial No. 322,385 filed August 5, 1981.
FN2. While no request to substitute has been filed, the record shows that the name of G. D. Searle & Co. was changed to The NutraSweet Company and that the change of name was recorded in the Assignment Division of the Office and indexed against all of opposer's registered marks. Since no dispute exists as to the facts and circumstances surrounding this change of name, the NutraSweet Company is hereby substituted as party plaintiff herein to reflect opposer's name change.
FN3. Registration No. 1,262,746 issued January 3, 1984.
FN4. While the mark as registered was NUTRA-SWEET, the mark was amended on June 5, 1984 to NUTRASWEET.
FN5. Mr. Stivers testified that applicant's name K & S Foods, Inc. is derived from the names Kravitz and Stivers; that the corporation is owned by the waives of Kravitz and Stivers and that there are no salaried employees in the company, Messrs Kravitz and Stivers having done all the work of the company up to the present time.
FN6. Applicant introduced the testimony of a Mr. Arthur Montgomery, a retired Coca Cola bottling company executive who testified that the purchase of applicant's product is not an impulse type purchase. While applicant has characterized Mr. Montgomery as a disinterested third-party marketing expert, we agree with opposer that Mr. Montgomery has not been qualified as an expert in any area and that his testimony on this matter as well as on other matters relating to likelihood of confusion constitutes incompetent testimony entitled to no probative value whatsoever.
FN7. We further note that opposer has shown that, beginning in the early 1970's, opposer has engaged in ongoing research in developing a salt substitute product.
FN8. Applicant's response filed September 28, 1982 to the Examining Attorney's March 24, 1982 Office action in connection with the ex parte prosecution of applicant's application.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
}
|
Q:
How to calculate Fourier transform of this function?
the function is given by $$f(t)=\dfrac{1}{e^{at}-1}$$
Now, i know from the definition i've to evaluate this integral $$\begin{align}\mathcal{F}[f(t)]&=\int_{0}^{\infty}e^{-j \omega t}\left(\dfrac{1}{e^{at}-1}\right)\,dt \\&=\sum_{n=1}^{\infty}\int_{0}^{\infty}e^{-t(j\omega+an)}\,dt \\&=\sum_{n=1}^{\infty}\dfrac{1}{j\omega+an}\end{align}$$
Is it the right way to approach ?
A:
As far as I can tell, the integral diverges, but here's how one can attack the problem using known Fourier Transform pairs and Fourier Transform theorems.
I assume $a > 0$, $H(t)$ is the Heavyside unit step function, and I'll use the substitution $\omega = 2\pi s$ to use the Fourier Transform form with which I'm most comfortable.
$$I = \int_{0}^{\infty} e^{-2\pi ist}\left(\dfrac{1}{e^{at}-1}\right)dt$$
$$= \dfrac{1}{2} \int_{0}^{\infty} \dfrac{1}{e^{\frac{a}{2}t}}\cdot\dfrac{2}{e^{\frac{a}{2}t}-e^{-\frac{a}{2}t}}\cdot e^{-2\pi i st}dt$$
$$= \dfrac{1}{2} \int_{-\infty}^{\infty} H\left(\frac{a}{2}t\right) e^{-\frac{a}{2}t}\text{cosech}\left(\frac{a}{2}t\right)e^{-2\pi ist}dt$$
$$= \dfrac{1}{2} \mathscr{F}\left\{H\left(\frac{a}{2}t\right) e^{-\frac{a}{2}t}\right\}*\mathscr{F}\left\{\text{cosech}\left(\frac{a}{2}t\right)\right\}$$
Looking up the transform pairs in The Fourier Transform and Its Applications, by Ronald N. Bracewell, amd applying some Fourier Transform theorems found in that same text, we have
$$= \dfrac{1}{2}\dfrac{2}{a}\left[\dfrac{1-i2\pi s \frac{2}{a}}{1+\left(2\pi s\frac{2}{a}\right)^2}\right]*-i\dfrac{2\pi}{a}\tanh\left(\pi s \frac{2\pi}{a}\right)$$
Which after a bit of algebra and substituting $2\pi s = \omega$ yields
$$= -\left(\dfrac{\pi}{a}\right)^2\left(\dfrac{1}{\dfrac{\pi}{a}\omega -i\dfrac{\pi}{2}}\right) * \tanh\left(\dfrac{\pi}{a}\omega \right)$$
With a little thought, it's easy (for me at least) to see that the above convolution diverges.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "StackExchange"
}
|
Laca - What I was thinking before my goal External Link
|
{
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
}
|
Q:
How to get Canonical ID from GCM
I am trying to get a unique ID for my device so I can get push notifications from my server.
As all turorials say : I register using GMC:
GoogleCloudMessaging gcm = GoogleCloudMessaging.getInstance(context);
String regid = gcm.register(PROJECT_NUMBER); // <---- duplicated if uninstalled/ reinstalled
SendRegIdToServer(regId);
Now, I send the regId my server and save on device.
The problem comes when I uninstall and reinstall, since the local storage is lost, I ask GCM to register again and I get a new registration ID. Because of this, my server is having duplicates of the same device.
I looked at SO butlot of questions are on GCMRegistrar, which is deprecated now.
People say use Canonical ID, which is unique. But how do I get it ?
I am using gcm.register and using that ID, which obviously is duplicating on the server.
Appreciate any help.
A:
The Canonical id is returned in the response when you send a message from your server to google's gcm server.
https://developer.android.com/google/gcm/http.html#response
Interpreting a success response
When a JSON request is successful (HTTP status code 200), the response
body contains a JSON object with the following fields:
Field Description multicast_id Unique ID (number) identifying the
multicast message. success Number of messages that were processed
without an error. failure Number of messages that could not be
processed. canonical_ids Number of results that contain a canonical
registration ID. See Advanced Topics for more discussion of this
topic. results Array of objects representing the status of the
messages processed. The objects are listed in the same order as the
request (i.e., for each registration ID in the request, its result is
listed in the same index in the response) and they can have these
fields: message_id: String representing the message when it was
successfully processed. registration_id: If set, means that GCM
processed the message but it has another canonical registration ID for
that device, so sender should replace the IDs on future requests
(otherwise they might be rejected). This field is never set if there
is an error in the request. error: String describing an error that
occurred while processing the message for that recipient. The possible
values are the same as documented in the above table, plus
"Unavailable" (meaning GCM servers were busy and could not process the
message for that particular recipient, so it could be retried). If the
value of failure and canonical_ids is 0, it's not necessary to parse
the remainder of the response.
Update
Below is some more info on Canonical IDs. Basically, if somehow the device reg id becomes out of sync with what Google thinks it should be, then when your server sends a request with the out-of-sync id, the gcm server will include in it's response , the correct id to be used in the future.
Think about it, the way this works is; your server should have stored the reg id when the device registered with gcm. Your server sends a request to gcm with that id, gcm uses that id to send a message to your device. GCM can't the reg id on your device without telling the server about it. If it did your server would just keep sending the wrong reg id. Instead, gcm tell the server that the reg id it is using for a particular device is bad, your server can then send a message to the device to update its stored reg id to what it should be, and then the device can ack the change in REG IDs. The info below implies there is some time limit as too how long the "bad" id can still be used to send messages. I think the assumption is that it should be long enough for your server to change the device id (via a gcm message using the "bad" id)
Canonical IDs
On the server side, as long as the application is behaving well, everything should work normally. However, if a bug in the application triggers multiple registrations for the same device, it can be hard to reconcile state and you might end up with duplicate messages.
GCM provides a facility called "canonical registration IDs" to easily recover from these situations. A canonical registration ID is defined to be the ID of the last registration requested by your application. This is the ID that the server should use when sending messages to the device.
If later on you try to send a message using a different registration ID, GCM will process the request as usual, but it will include the canonical registration ID in the registration_id field of the response. Make sure to replace the registration ID stored in your server with this canonical ID, as eventually the ID you're using will stop working.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "StackExchange"
}
|
Q:
Poll about your proof of resolution of singularities and a request for advice
The questions first: What is the proof of resolution of singularities that you know?
Why am I asking?: There are a number of proofs of resolution of singularities of varieties over a field of characteristic zero, all with more or less similar flavor but different in technical details and in choices that the resolution algorithm allows us to make. When writing a proof that uses specific features of some of those details I can't stop being uneasy about assuming the reader read about the specific constructions elsewhere.
I would like to know from MOers what proof you have seen and if you have a reason for the choice, if it was a choice, I would like to hear it too.
Maybe asking about what you know is too invasive. I am just asking for the proof that you happened to find in your way, even you have only read a few lines of it.
The purpose of the question: The conspicuous one. To get a sense, by a rough approximation and a small sample, of what proofs are more culturally known. Have a concrete feeling when sending a reader to find the details in other paper, either of feeling OK with it or of guilt.
It is a question about fashion, which also has its role in mathematics... and knowing what the fashion is is useful.
What details?: Although I had in mind a specific detail of the proofs I didn't mention it because it is not the only one that changes from proof to proof and because the result of the poll gives information about all of them. Examples are: the resolution invariant, the ways of making the local descriptions of the centers of blowings-up match to form a globally defined smooth subvariety, the ways of getting functoriality and the different meanings that functoriality can have...
(edit) Forgot the "request for advise": If you have would like to give advise about how you have dealt with similar situations and describe your example that is welcomed.
It is a community wiki question, so feel free to change what is said here if needed or if you want the poll to also give information about other questions that you would like to be answered. (or for correcting the English!)
A:
All right. Since you ask, the only treatment of resolution of singularities that I have even glanced at is Herwig Hauser's 2003 Bulletin article:
http://www.ams.org/journals/bull/2003-40-03/S0273-0979-03-00982-0/S0273-0979-03-00982-0.pdf
I can't remember how much of it I ever read -- certainly less than half -- but I do remember enjoying the article when it came out, getting something out of it, and finding the pictures attractive and better-than-usually integrated into the text. (I am not a very visual thinker; when someone shows a fancy color portrait in their talk and claims it is a cross section of a K3 surface -- or whatever -- I wonder whether I am being put on.)
Because the article is freely available online, it would seem to make a good reference, provided of course that it contains the information you want to cite.
A:
Several years ago I looked carefully at several of these. The first that I looked carefully is:
http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/0401.5401 by Wlodarczyk. This article has the advantage that it is self-contained and complete and relatively short. It lacks discussion of examples in higher dimensions and motivation that other papers have, as it is quite to the point.
I also read http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/0206.5244 by Bravo, Encinas and Villamayor which has a lot more discussion (it's about 100 pages instead of about 30).
There is also Koll\'ar's quite recent book which I have only skimmed, and I've read large parts of Bierstone and Milman's paper. There have been a number of simplifications and improvements over the past decade (and a little more) so the more modern accounts are certainly more streamlined (and give better results in some directions).
I should point out that many of the more modern proofs incorporate ideas from each other, making the proof more and more streamlined.
A:
As a bit of an update on the subject in characteristic 0, there have been some more recent papers which try to vary the desingularization algorithm slightly to achieve a better resolution of singularities, for example algorithms which avoid simple normal crossings or semi-simple normal crossings or even "minimal" singularities. These proofs shed light on the original algorithm while showing how far we can push this approach. If you read through some of these articles, you will not only get a glimpse of the original algorithm, but you will see how the desingularization invariant can be used as a computational tool. Here are the more recent articles on the topic:
http://arxiv.org/pdf/1206.5316.pdf
http://arxiv.org/pdf/1109.3205.pdf
http://arxiv.org/pdf/1311.7156.pdf
http://arxiv.org/pdf/1107.5595.pdf
http://arxiv.org/pdf/1107.5598.pdf
I found the following two articles very enlightening when I was learning about the topic:
http://arxiv.org/pdf/alg-geom/9709028.pdf
http://arxiv.org/pdf/math/0702375.pdf
The first goes into great detail about some of the subtle points of the algorithm, while the second gives a rather concise proof of resolution of singularities.
Finally, the article below is quite distinct in that it is the first time (as far as I know) that the complexity of the desingularization algorithm has been studied - that is, how many steps in the algorithm occur before it terminates? Can we find an upper bound? You can read more about that here:
http://arxiv.org/pdf/1206.3090.pdf
|
{
"pile_set_name": "StackExchange"
}
|
Group Runs & Training Schedules
Who Runs
We Run welcomes anyone who wants to join us. Just be sure to sign at the check in table.
What We Run
We Run on roads, urban trails, technical trails and everything in between. We Run group runs also adhere to our house rule of NO RUNNER LEFT BEHIND. Everyone is welcome, whether you run, interval, or walk. Join us for one of our weekly runs and put the fun in your run!
Why We Run
We Run Owner's Brian and Kris' lives were transformed by eating healthier and getting active. Learn more about Brian's story on the about We Run page. In a nut shell, Brian was encouraged to start running at 374 lbs and lost over 200 lbs in total. Passing along their experiences and lessons learned has now become a passion and driving force behind We Run.
When We Run
*Wednesday and Tuesday group runs are generally one hour and we will run an out and back route on the trail with runners going 2-6.5 miles depending on desired distance and pace.
Where We Run
We Run will have various group runs for local events and just for the run of it. The runs will typically start and end at We Run locations in North Liberty and Cedar Rapids with refreshments provided after the run.
How We Run
Safety first: Runners must bring their own water, reflective gear and head lamp (after dusk) on route.
Sign our waiver: We Run needs your John Hancock to ensure you acknowledge responsibility for yourself.
Cancellation Policies
During Winter: If temp is below 0 the group run will be cancelled.
During Summer: If temp/humidity level is above 97 degrees group run will be cancelled.
We Run training schedules
Need a training plan? We Run has training plans that are 100% easy to edit to fit your needs. Training schedules range from 5K-50K. Running the CRANDIC this April, check out our 5K, 1/2, and marathon plans that have been predated to get you to the finish.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
}
|
Double balloon enteroscopy: a 2 year experience.
Double balloon enteroscopy is a new technique that enables deep intubation of the endoscope into the small bowel lumen. Through a channel in the endoscope, invasive procedures such as biopsy, polypectomy and hemostasis can be performed, avoiding the need for surgery. To prospectively analyze our results of the first 124 DBEs performed since February 2007. The study group comprised all patients who underwent DBE at the Sheba Medical Center between February 2007 and February 2009. Recorded were the patients' demographic data, comorbidities, indications for the examination, results of previous non-invasive small bowel imaging (computed tomography enterography, capsule endoscopy, etc), investigation time, and results of the procedure including findings, endoscopic interventions, complications and pathological report. A total of 124 procedures were performed in 109 patients. Of the 124 examinations, 57 (46%) were normal and 67 (54%) showed pathology. The main pathologies detected on DBE were polyps (14%), vascular lesions (17.6%) and inflammation (12%). Endoscopic biopsies and therapeutic interventions were required in 58 examinations (46%). A new diagnosis was established in 15% of patients, diagnosis was confirmed in 29% and excluded or corrected in 12%. One complication was observed: a post-polypectomy syndrome that was treated conservatively. DBE is a safe procedure and has a high diagnostic and therapeutic yield. Most of the examinations were performed under conscious sedation, and only a minority of patients required deeper sedation.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "PubMed Abstracts"
}
|
Q:
How do I retain an Android alertdialog sometime
I have an AlertDialog in the activity I used, as:
AlertDialog.Builder ad = new AlertDialog.Builder(this);
ad.setTitle("Unanswered Questions");
ad.setMessage("You have not answered all the questions.");
ad.setPositiveButton("OK", new DialogInterface.OnClickListener() {
public void onClick(DialogInterface dialog, int id) {
dialog.wait(5000);
dosometing();
}
});
ad.show();
I want click OK, it does not disappear. I click OK,and do dosometing(),then it disappear. I meet question, when i click OK,the dialog disappear. I know I can use activity and theme deal with this problem. if I can use the AlertDialog,
Thank you.
A:
what is it that you are waiting on before removing your dialog? If it is some sort of processing task, put it all in its own method that returns a boolean and call that method just before you call dialog.cancel(). Like so:
...
public void onClick(DialogInterface dialog, int id) {
boolean closeNow = dosometing();
if (closeNow) {
dialog.cancel();
}
}
...
that should work. The program should wait for dosomething() to return before continuing. If not try:
...
public void onClick(DialogInterface dialog, int id) {
recursiveMethod(dialog, id)
}
...
private void recursiveMethod(DialogInterface dialog, int id) {
boolean closeNow = dosometing();
if (closeNow) {
dialog.cancel();
} else {
recursiveMethod(dialog, id);
}
}
Edit: I'd love to know if the second one works. It might not be able to cancel the dialog, but I've never tried doing recursion like that in java before. If you give it a shot, let me know if it throws up an error.
Edit #2, that will actually spawn a bunch of calls to doSomething(). . . not the ideal situation.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "StackExchange"
}
|
Q:
How to create a Google Reader?
I need to create a web tool like Google Reader for my college project.
I have 2 question about it:
1) How Google Reader track the read and unread posts ?
2) Google Reader save every post in the db or load the feeds at the moment ?
A:
assign a hash to a single feed post (ie. date+url+??? = hash to identify a single post)
loads them on the fly would be my guess, maybe caches a limited number per user.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "StackExchange"
}
|
Slashdot videos: Now with more Slashdot!
View
Discuss
Share
We've improved Slashdot's video section; now you can view our video interviews, product close-ups and site visits with all the usual Slashdot options to comment, share, etc. No more walled garden! It's a work in progress -- we hope you'll check it out (Learn more about the recent updates).
I used skype as a ghetto surveillence system and it quit working around February. My gut feeling was it was microsoft playing with the backend, then i found out they were converting to linux, so they were fucking it up. It isn't reliable anymore for very long term use, like 10 hours or more. I switched to yawcam and vlc and it is better in some ways.
Seriously, to actually have a graphics-level crash these days, you have to purposefully screw your own code up.I've never had a single graphics crash besides 3 times where I done something a little obtuse in nature by making a Firefox window with Flash transparent.It is such a tiny use-case that I am surprised they even fixed it after I tested it another 2 times and reported the bug to both of them.Not with games, not a single Windows graphical error, nothing.But ever since Skype 5 and up, forced to use the video frame crap interface at the top of every call now, every so often it just fails to initialize for god knows what reason and then of course draws to nothing. And even then, that normally wouldn't do anything but kill the program. No, Skype goes a step ahead of everyone else and brings the entire OS down.It's not like I have the most generic system ever. Nothing special about it.
Sadly other idiots I know refuse to use much better things, so stuck with that crap.So now I have to keep a constantly running script that has a hotkey that instantly terminates Skype the moment I notice the video frame hasn't initialized.I literally have a 2 second window of opportunity to terminate it or crash.Seriously sucks. Every version from 5 onwards. Nothing done about it either. I've all but given up even caring about helping them anymore.Heard so many others with the issue as well, in fact pretty sure I saw someone mention it on here a good while back on the Skype protocol article.
Also, fix the constant "you have a message but you don't" bug! My god, most annoying bug in any program. More so than the crashing.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
}
|
// Copyright 2013 The Go Authors. All rights reserved.
// Use of this source code is governed by a BSD-style
// license that can be found in the LICENSE file.
// +build ignore
package main
// This program generates tables.go:
// go run maketables.go | gofmt > tables.go
// TODO: Emoji extensions?
// https://www.unicode.org/faq/emoji_dingbats.html
// https://www.unicode.org/Public/UNIDATA/EmojiSources.txt
import (
"bufio"
"fmt"
"log"
"net/http"
"sort"
"strings"
)
type entry struct {
jisCode, table int
}
func main() {
fmt.Printf("// generated by go run maketables.go; DO NOT EDIT\n\n")
fmt.Printf("// Package japanese provides Japanese encodings such as EUC-JP and Shift JIS.\n")
fmt.Printf(`package japanese // import "golang.org/x/text/encoding/japanese"` + "\n\n")
reverse := [65536]entry{}
for i := range reverse {
reverse[i].table = -1
}
tables := []struct {
url string
name string
}{
{"http://encoding.spec.whatwg.org/index-jis0208.txt", "0208"},
{"http://encoding.spec.whatwg.org/index-jis0212.txt", "0212"},
}
for i, table := range tables {
res, err := http.Get(table.url)
if err != nil {
log.Fatalf("%q: Get: %v", table.url, err)
}
defer res.Body.Close()
mapping := [65536]uint16{}
scanner := bufio.NewScanner(res.Body)
for scanner.Scan() {
s := strings.TrimSpace(scanner.Text())
if s == "" || s[0] == '#' {
continue
}
x, y := 0, uint16(0)
if _, err := fmt.Sscanf(s, "%d 0x%x", &x, &y); err != nil {
log.Fatalf("%q: could not parse %q", table.url, s)
}
if x < 0 || 120*94 <= x {
log.Fatalf("%q: JIS code %d is out of range", table.url, x)
}
mapping[x] = y
if reverse[y].table == -1 {
reverse[y] = entry{jisCode: x, table: i}
}
}
if err := scanner.Err(); err != nil {
log.Fatalf("%q: scanner error: %v", table.url, err)
}
fmt.Printf("// jis%sDecode is the decoding table from JIS %s code to Unicode.\n// It is defined at %s\n",
table.name, table.name, table.url)
fmt.Printf("var jis%sDecode = [...]uint16{\n", table.name)
for i, m := range mapping {
if m != 0 {
fmt.Printf("\t%d: 0x%04X,\n", i, m)
}
}
fmt.Printf("}\n\n")
}
// Any run of at least separation continuous zero entries in the reverse map will
// be a separate encode table.
const separation = 1024
intervals := []interval(nil)
low, high := -1, -1
for i, v := range reverse {
if v.table == -1 {
continue
}
if low < 0 {
low = i
} else if i-high >= separation {
if high >= 0 {
intervals = append(intervals, interval{low, high})
}
low = i
}
high = i + 1
}
if high >= 0 {
intervals = append(intervals, interval{low, high})
}
sort.Sort(byDecreasingLength(intervals))
fmt.Printf("const (\n")
fmt.Printf("\tjis0208 = 1\n")
fmt.Printf("\tjis0212 = 2\n")
fmt.Printf("\tcodeMask = 0x7f\n")
fmt.Printf("\tcodeShift = 7\n")
fmt.Printf("\ttableShift = 14\n")
fmt.Printf(")\n\n")
fmt.Printf("const numEncodeTables = %d\n\n", len(intervals))
fmt.Printf("// encodeX are the encoding tables from Unicode to JIS code,\n")
fmt.Printf("// sorted by decreasing length.\n")
for i, v := range intervals {
fmt.Printf("// encode%d: %5d entries for runes in [%5d, %5d).\n", i, v.len(), v.low, v.high)
}
fmt.Printf("//\n")
fmt.Printf("// The high two bits of the value record whether the JIS code comes from the\n")
fmt.Printf("// JIS0208 table (high bits == 1) or the JIS0212 table (high bits == 2).\n")
fmt.Printf("// The low 14 bits are two 7-bit unsigned integers j1 and j2 that form the\n")
fmt.Printf("// JIS code (94*j1 + j2) within that table.\n")
fmt.Printf("\n")
for i, v := range intervals {
fmt.Printf("const encode%dLow, encode%dHigh = %d, %d\n\n", i, i, v.low, v.high)
fmt.Printf("var encode%d = [...]uint16{\n", i)
for j := v.low; j < v.high; j++ {
x := reverse[j]
if x.table == -1 {
continue
}
fmt.Printf("\t%d - %d: jis%s<<14 | 0x%02X<<7 | 0x%02X,\n",
j, v.low, tables[x.table].name, x.jisCode/94, x.jisCode%94)
}
fmt.Printf("}\n\n")
}
}
// interval is a half-open interval [low, high).
type interval struct {
low, high int
}
func (i interval) len() int { return i.high - i.low }
// byDecreasingLength sorts intervals by decreasing length.
type byDecreasingLength []interval
func (b byDecreasingLength) Len() int { return len(b) }
func (b byDecreasingLength) Less(i, j int) bool { return b[i].len() > b[j].len() }
func (b byDecreasingLength) Swap(i, j int) { b[i], b[j] = b[j], b[i] }
|
{
"pile_set_name": "Github"
}
|
Q:
php Content-type: text/css not working
I have a style.css:
<link href="/file.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" property='stylesheet'/>
#menu{
background:red; //file.css content
}
and after that a php:
<link rel='stylesheet' type='text/css' href='/color.php' />
//color.php content:
header("Content-type: text/css", true);
include_once("mysqli.php");
session_start();
$userid=$_SESSION['id'];
$stmt = $mysqli_link->prepare("SELECT site FROM cores where user=? limit 1");
$stmt->bind_param('i', $userid);
$stmt->execute();
$stmt->bind_result($color);
$stmt->fetch();
$stmt->close();
if($color=="blue"){
$m="blue";
}
else if($color=="green"){
$m="green";
}
echo"
#menu{
background-color:$m;
}
";
If I open the color.php it prints well the colors. but in the page it is not overwritten the style.css #menu red color. What is wrong? any help?
thank you friends!
A:
Try to change the order of your first lines like this :
session_start();
include_once("mysqli.php");
header("Content-type: text/css");
The Content-type can be overrided by the script you are including (mysqli.php).
Also, a "session_start" should be ALWAYS the first thing you do in a php script that uses sessions. (The reason why I put session_start() in first position)
|
{
"pile_set_name": "StackExchange"
}
|
CNS drug targeting: have we travelled in right path?
Brain disorders, their prevalence and central nervous system (CNS) targeting are now at the rise. However, complexities of blood brain barrier (BBB) have limited the success of CNS targeting. Basic criteria necessary for passive diffusion were believed to influence the CNS drug delivery. However, often, BBB transportation has differed from the dogma of basic criteria. This communication resets the extent to which basic criteria influence the brain delivery, through commanding examples. Further, it appraises the intervention of ABC transporters in BBB transportation, with a special emphasis on P-glycoprotein; and also brings forth the successful CNS transportation of therapeutics achieved through chimeric peptide technology. As a right path to travel, it flickers light on the novel CNS molecular drug targets/biomarkers which are specially expressed by diseased cells. Screening for right molecular target is of great importance for cost and time effective drug discovery process. The principle of chimeric peptide technology should be applied for CNS targeting; and every diseased cell should be screened for its biomarker. Thanks to glycan/lectin arrays technique which scans expression pattern of transporter and their possible ligands, and paves way for a new dimensional research.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "PubMed Abstracts"
}
|
Characterization of the human cytochrome P450 forms involved in metabolism of tamoxifen to its alpha-hydroxy and alpha,4-dihydroxy derivatives.
Tamoxifen is a known hepatocarcinogen in rats and is associated with an increased incidence of endometrial cancer in patients. One mechanism for these actions is via bioactivation, where reactive metabolites are generated that are capable of binding to DNA or protein. Several metabolites of tamoxifen have been identified that appear to predispose to adduct formation. These include alpha-hydroxytamoxifen, alpha,4-dihydroxytamoxifen, and alpha-hydroxy-N-desmethyltamoxifen. Previous studies have shown that cytochrome P450 (P450) enzymes play an important role in the biotransformation of tamoxifen. The aim of our work was to determine which P450 enzymes were capable of producing alpha-hydroxylated metabolites from tamoxifen. When tamoxifen (18 or 250 microM) was used as the substrate, P450 3A4, and to a lesser extent, P450 2D6, P450 2B6, P450 3A5, P450 2C9, and P450 2C19 all produced a metabolite with the same HPLC retention time as alpha-hydroxytamoxifen at either substrate concentration tested. This peak was well-separated from 4-hydroxy-N-desmethyltamoxifen, which eluted substantially later under the chromatographic conditions used. No alpha,4-dihydroxytamoxifen was detected in incubations with any of the forms with tamoxifen as substrate. However, when 4-hydroxytamoxifen (100 microM) was used as the substrate, P450 2B6, P450 3A4, P450 3A5, P450 1B1, P450 1A1, and P450 2D6 all produced detectable concentrations of alpha,4-dihydroxytamoxifen. These studies demonstrate that multiple human P450s, including forms found in the endometrium, may generate reactive metabolites in women undergoing tamoxifen therapy, which could subsequently play a role in the development of endometrial cancer.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "PubMed Abstracts"
}
|
Misophonia: Harmless Sounds Drive You Nuts
Seemingly harmless sounds like crunching on a snack could be a real bother for suffers of Misophonia.
FOX's Alex Hein with details of a new study in your "Housecall for Health":
This is Housecall for Health.
Hidden between the political posts and Tom Brady devotion on Facebook you may have caught a headline or two about how seemingly harmless sounds to you can actually cause rage or anxiety in others. The noises can be as benign as breathing, popcorn munching or even nose sniffling, but for Misophonia sufferers it's enough to drive them crazy.
A study from Newcastle University in Britain said they may have an explanation for it, and it has to do with a particular part of the brain that processes emotions. In patients with the disorder this area of the brain goes into overdrive when triggered by the noises, and the region of the brain is also connected differently compared to normal brains.
The researchers say it could be heavily connected to recalling bad past memories, and experiences associated with the noises.
For the study researchers surveyed nearly 200 patients who said they first became aware of their symptoms around age 12.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
}
|
The increased angiotensin II (type 1) receptor density in myocardium of type 2 diabetic patients is prevented by blockade of the renin-angiotensin system.
The angiotensin II (type 1) (AT1) receptor mediates many biological effects of the renin-angiotensin system (RAS), leading to remodelling of cardiac tissue. The present study was designed to analyse changes in the function and expression of the AT1 receptor as principal effector of the RAS in myocardium from type 2 diabetic patients compared with non-diabetic myocardium as control. In addition, we determined the effect of treatment with ACE inhibitors or AT1 receptor blockers on expression levels of the receptor in diabetic patients. Gene expression of the AT1 receptor was analysed by quantitative RT-PCR and protein expression was determined by immunoblot analysis in human right atrial myocardium. We investigated functional coupling of the receptors by measuring contractility in isolated trabeculae stimulated with increasing concentrations of angiotensin II. Diabetic myocardium showed a significant increase in protein expression (170 +/- 16% of control) and median mRNA expression (186% of control) of the AT1 receptor. The additional receptors were functionally coupled, resulting in a stronger inotropic response upon stimulation with angiotensin II (89 +/- 5.5% vs 29 +/- 1.6% in controls), whereas receptor affinity was similar in both groups. However, myocardium from diabetic patients treated with ACE inhibitors or AT1 receptor blockers showed no increase in AT1 receptor expression. AT1 receptor expression in myocardium of type 2 diabetic patients is dynamic, depending on the level of glycaemic control and the activity of the RAS. These findings could at least in part explain the strong therapeutic benefit of RAS inhibition in diabetic patients.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "PubMed Abstracts"
}
|
Limited diagnostic value of laryngopharyngeal lesions in patients with gastroesophageal reflux during routine upper gastrointestinal endoscopy.
There is growing evidence that gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) may cause typical laryngeal/pharyngeal lesions secondary to tissue irritation. The prevalence of those lesions in GERD patients is not well established. The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of GERD signs in the laryngopharyngeal area during routine upper gastrointestinal endoscopy. Between July 2000 and July 2001, 1,209 patients underwent 1,311 upper gastrointestinal endoscopies and were enrolled in this study. The structured examination of the laryngopharyngeal area during upper gastrointestinal endoscopy was videotaped for review by three gastroenterologists and one otorhinolaryngologist, blinded to the endoscopic esophageal findings. From the 1,209 patients enrolled in this prospective study, all patients (group I, N = 132) with typical endoscopical esophageal findings of GERD (Savary-Miller I-IV) were selected. The sex- and age-matched control group II (N = 132) underwent upper gastrointestinal endoscopy for different reasons, had no reflux symptoms, and had normal esophagoscopy. In the two groups of patients, we found no difference in the prevalence of abnormal interarytenoid bar findings (32%vs 32%), arytenoid medial wall erythema (47%vs 43%), posterior commissure changes (36%vs 34%), or posterior cricoid wall edema (1%vs 3%). The only difference was noted in the posterior pharyngeal wall cobblestoning (66%vs 50%, P= 0.004). The results of this large systematic investigation challenge the diagnostic specificity of laryngopharyngeal findings attributed to gastroesophageal reflux.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "PubMed Abstracts"
}
|
featured INFLUENCERS
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We work with our network of influencers to enable them to grow their digital presence, build trusted communities and partner with like-minded brands.
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talent programs
Through our tailored talent programs we provide people with the information, tools and support to grow their profiles and attract commercial opportunities.
talent programs
Through our tailored talent programs we provide people with the information, tools and support to grow their profiles and attract commercial opportunities.
Victoria Jones - Founder and Director
Victoria is experienced in content marketing and digital strategy. She began her journalism career in London telling the stories of people behind Fanzines, and is passionate about supporting the growing community of digital influencers and food personalities in Australia.
Having worked for leading magazines including Tatler and Grazia as well as digital publishers including Yahoo!7, she is excited to launch The Insiders to promote, inspire and enable more people to turn their passion projects into sustainable businesses.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
}
|
Certain atmospheric conditions can lead to ice formation on aircraft surfaces. Ice formation on aircraft surfaces can increase the weight of the aircraft and can increase the drag of the aircraft. Increasing either the weight or the drag of an aircraft can result in a stall speed that is higher than it would otherwise be in an ice-free condition. Ice formation on lifting surfaces can result in a decrease in a wing's lift and/or a decrease in a propeller's thrust. Ice formation can also affect the controllability of an aircraft by affecting the airflow over control surfaces, such as ailerons.
Various atmospheric conditions can cause more or less ice formation on an aircraft. For example, water droplet density, total moisture content, air temperature, water droplet temperature, droplet size distribution, etc. all factor into risk of ice formation. Some atmospheric conditions can present little or no risk of ice formation on an aircraft.
Various aircraft flying conditions can affect locations and/or amounts of ice formation on aircraft surfaces. For example, airspeed, angle of attack, angle of side-slip, and presence of de-icing equipment all factor into location and/or risk of ice formation.
Some aircraft have been equipped with equipment intended to obtain metrics of the atmosphere so as to predict whether the atmosphere presents a risk of ice-formation on exterior surfaces. Ice formation on aircraft surfaces can be visually perceived by the pilot, should the ice form on a surface within view of the cockpit window.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
}
|
Car -1 -1 -10 626 180 684 221 1.46 1.62 4.22 1.66 1.76 28.26 -1.67 1.00
Car -1 -1 -10 793 184 1070 286 1.64 1.65 4.25 5.55 1.86 12.82 -0.11 0.99
Car -1 -1 -10 1016 196 1550 379 1.51 1.59 3.63 6.15 1.76 7.00 0.04 0.99
Car -1 -1 -10 874 184 1238 315 1.59 1.61 3.93 5.78 1.76 9.74 3.13 0.99
Car -1 -1 -10 306 180 455 232 1.52 1.61 4.10 -7.06 1.78 22.33 -3.14 0.98
Car -1 -1 -10 -29 145 313 295 2.10 1.73 4.10 -7.01 1.71 11.09 -0.06 0.98
Car -1 -1 -10 358 177 482 224 1.58 1.61 3.94 -6.71 1.77 25.57 -3.04 0.74
Car -1 -1 -10 609 177 645 204 1.54 1.60 3.72 0.96 1.82 43.14 -1.71 0.58
Car -1 -1 -10 1139 179 1347 353 1.53 1.51 3.44 7.12 1.63 8.27 2.29 0.58
Car -1 -1 -10 466 171 501 202 1.52 1.60 3.85 -6.48 1.46 37.16 -1.69 0.11
Car -1 -1 -10 483 176 517 199 1.52 1.59 3.73 -7.84 1.81 51.82 1.67 0.04
|
{
"pile_set_name": "Github"
}
|
There are either too many possible answers, or good answers would be too long for this format. Please add details to narrow the answer set or to isolate an issue that can be answered in a few paragraphs.
If this question can be reworded to fit the rules in the help center, please edit the question.
As this is encryption mode unclear what view will have the ciphertext. From this article it is clear just where to get auth tag.
–
user100552Oct 13 '13 at 18:35
I don't understand what you're asking... you understand the authentication part, but not the encryption? The encryption is based on counter mode (CTR). Directly from wikipedia: "As the name suggests, GCM mode combines the well-known counter mode of encryption with the new Galois mode of authentication".
–
hunterOct 13 '13 at 23:04
2 Answers
2
In addition to information on the wiki, add some explanations and definitions contained in RFC 4106 "The Use of Galois/Counter Mode (GCM)" (AES-GCM) can help them better understand the working of the mode.
The GCM
authenticated encryption operation has four inputs: a secret key, an
initialization vector (IV), a plaintext, and an input for additional
authenticated data (AAD). It has two outputs, a ciphertext whose
length is identical to the plaintext, and an authentication tag. In
the following, we describe how the IV, plaintext, and AAD are formed
from the ESP fields, and how the ESP packet is formed from the
ciphertext and authentication tag.
ESP also defines an IV. For clarity, we refer to the AES-GCM IV as a
nonce in the context of AES-GCM-ESP. The same nonce and key
combination MUST NOT be used more than once.
Because reusing an nonce/key combination destroys the security
guarantees of AES-GCM mode, it can be difficult to use this mode
securely when using statically configured keys. For safety's sake,
implementations MUST use an automated key management system, such as
the Internet Key Exchange (IKE) [RFC2409], to ensure that this
requirement is met.
ESP Payload Data
The ESP Payload Data is comprised of an eight-octet initialization
vector (IV), followed by the ciphertext. The payload field, as
defined in [RFC2406], along with the ICV associated with the payload.
Initialization Vector (IV)
The AES-GCM-ESP IV field MUST be eight octets. For a given key, the
IV MUST NOT repeat. The most natural way to implement this is with a
counter, but anything that guarantees uniqueness can be used, such as
a linear feedback shift register (LFSR). Note that the encrypter can
use any IV generation method that meets the uniqueness requirement,
without coordinating with the decrypter.
Ciphertext
The plaintext input to AES-GCM is formed by concatenating the
plaintext data described by the Next Header field with the Padding,
the Pad Length, and the Next Header field. The Ciphertext field
consists of the ciphertext output from the AES-GCM algorithm. The
length of the ciphertext is identical to that of the plaintext.
Implementations that do not seek to hide the length of the plaintext
SHOULD use the minimum amount of padding required, which will be less
than four octets.
Integrity Check Value (ICV)
The ICV consists solely of the AES-GCM Authentication Tag.
Implementations MUST support a full-length 16-octet ICV, and MAY
support 8 or 12 octet ICVs, and MUST NOT support other ICV lengths.
Although ESP does not require that an ICV be present, AES-GCM-ESP
intentionally does not allow a zero-length ICV. This is because GCM
provides no integrity protection whatsoever when used with a zero-
length Authentication Tag.
Packet Expansion
The IV adds an additional eight octets to the packet, and the ICV
adds an additional 8, 12, or 16 octets. These are the only sources
of packet expansion, other than the 10-13 octets taken up by the ESP
SPI, Sequence Number, Padding, Pad Length, and Next Header fields (if
the minimal amount of padding is used).
For more information you can contact to another RFC for examle 5647 which describe AES Galois Counter Mode for the Secure Shell Transport Layer Protocol. (AES-GCM in the TLS)
While I appreciate the effort - copying and pasting large portions of an RFC is not really appropriate as an answer - and is not helpful to the community. But then again, neither is asking a question which could be answered by simply reading the RFC.
–
hunterOct 13 '13 at 23:17
The best explanation is in Dan Bernstein's Poly1305 paper, where he provides references to the original works on Carter-Wegman authentication. AES-GCM works by viewing the message as a polynomial and evaluating it at a random point. The sole way to forge is to blindly chose a polynomial which is zero at that point, but you have no information to do so, since the tags are encrypted.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
}
|
• Created in 1974 in response to high plastic prices from oil crisis • More than 2bn of the 7.5cm-tall dolls have been sold worldwide
The German inventor of Playmobil toys, which became an instant success when they hit the market 35 years ago, has died at the age of 79.
Hans Beck, a furniture maker and model enthusiast, came up with the toy in 1974 after being asked to create a new and collectible play concept. It was initially suggested he might work on a range of cars. Instead Beck came up with the dolls and earned himself a place in toy history.
He worked according to his motto "no horror, no superficial violence, no short-lived trends", the Brandstätter Group, owners of Playmobil, said in a short statement.
Beck created a whole fantasy world of figures with moving arms and legs that bend at the hip, wear snap on clothes, and continue to capture the imagination of children all over the world.
More than 2.2bn figures have been produced and sold in over 70 countries. At 7.5cm tall, and promoted as "ideal for a child's grip", the figures are meant to represent real life average adult height of 175cm (5ft 7ins).
The original figures were a knight, a builder and a Native American. But the toy empire expanded hugely over the years and, alongside fairies, firefighters, nurses, jewel thieves, Egyptologists, prisoners, police tracking dogs and airport security staff are now part of the Playmobil firmament.
The trigger for the toy's creation was the global oil crisis of the early 1970s, when the price of plastics increased sixfold. Large toys which Brandstätter had produced up until then became prohibitively expensive and it was forced to rethink its product line.
Beck was asked to develop a "system of play which can be expanded and which through relatively small parts made out of the expensive synthetic material offers a high value product".
Beck worked for Brandstätter for 40 years until 1998. In that time he became head of design. He lived with his wife near Lake Constance in southern Germany where he died following a serious illness on Friday.
The success of Brandstätter, which employs 3,000 staff and posted €452m ($408m) in sales last year, is based on the continued popularity of Playmobil. The figures have won numerous prizes over the years for their quality as well as their educational potential. The company has resisted calls to equip the figures for the digital age by adding sound effects and mechanised features, arguing that it does not want to betray Beck's original concept.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
}
|
2" 3D Diecast Medals
2" Basketball Medals
Images
Description
Crown's Exclusive 2" 3D Diecast Basketball Medal Features A Basketball Net On The Right, A Flaming Basketball On The Left, And Basketball Text At The Bottom. There Are Stars Along The Rim Of The Basketball Medal. Award Your Basketball Athletes For Their Dedication, Practice, And Skill. Choose A Ribbon With Your Basketball Medal That Matches Your Event! Comes With Your Choice Of Engraving. Engraving Plates Are Packaged And Sold Separately.
Additional Info: Comes With A Free Sport Neck Ribbon!
Finish: Gold, Silver, And Bronze
Total Size:
2"
Engraving Plate Size:
1.48"W x .875"H
Catalog Page:
13
Packaging
Same Day Turnaround + Transit Time. Shipping Charges Apply.
Is this A Gift? Click Here For Packaging Options! Presentation Cases Packaged and Sold Separately.
Crown's Exclusive 2" 3D Diecast Basketball Medal Features A Basketball Net On The Right, A Flaming Basketball On The Left, And Basketball Text At The Bottom. There Are Stars Along The Rim Of The Basketball Medal. Award Your Basketball Athletes For Their Dedication, Practice, And Skill. Choose A Ribbon With Your Basketball Medal That Matches Your Event! Comes With Your Choice Of Engraving. Engraving Plates Are Packaged And Sold Separately.
Additional Info: Comes With A Free Sport Neck Ribbon!
Finish: Gold, Silver, And Bronze
Total Size:
2"
Engraving Plate Size:
1.48"W x .875"H
Catalog Page:
13
Packaging
Same Day Turnaround + Transit Time. Shipping Charges Apply.
Is this A Gift? Click Here For Packaging Options! Presentation Cases Packaged and Sold Separately.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
}
|
//
// SerialDisposable.swift
// RxSwift
//
// Created by Krunoslav Zaher on 3/12/15.
// Copyright © 2015 Krunoslav Zaher. All rights reserved.
//
/// Represents a disposable resource whose underlying disposable resource can be replaced by another disposable resource, causing automatic disposal of the previous underlying disposable resource.
public final class SerialDisposable : DisposeBase, Cancelable {
private var _lock = SpinLock()
// state
private var _current = nil as Disposable?
private var _isDisposed = false
/// - returns: Was resource disposed.
public var isDisposed: Bool {
return _isDisposed
}
/// Initializes a new instance of the `SerialDisposable`.
override public init() {
super.init()
}
/**
Gets or sets the underlying disposable.
Assigning this property disposes the previous disposable object.
If the `SerialDisposable` has already been disposed, assignment to this property causes immediate disposal of the given disposable object.
*/
public var disposable: Disposable {
get {
return _lock.calculateLocked {
return self.disposable
}
}
set (newDisposable) {
let disposable: Disposable? = _lock.calculateLocked {
if _isDisposed {
return newDisposable
}
else {
let toDispose = _current
_current = newDisposable
return toDispose
}
}
if let disposable = disposable {
disposable.dispose()
}
}
}
/// Disposes the underlying disposable as well as all future replacements.
public func dispose() {
_dispose()?.dispose()
}
private func _dispose() -> Disposable? {
_lock.lock(); defer { _lock.unlock() }
if _isDisposed {
return nil
}
else {
_isDisposed = true
let current = _current
_current = nil
return current
}
}
}
|
{
"pile_set_name": "Github"
}
|
Kurt Goldstein and his nonlocationist thoughts on aphasia-a pioneer of early network theories at the beginning of the twentieth century?
In between Carl Wernicke's locationist aphasia concept from 1874 and Norman Geschwind's new connectionist model of human brain functions in 1965, little notice was taken of the historical debate on aphasia and brain plasticity. Interestingly, Kurt Goldstein made long-forgotten, but highly relevant remarks on the connectionist model and thereby served as an important connecting link between Wernicke and Geschwind. With the original contributions of Goldstein and contemporary authors, we analyzed the historical background of the aphasia debate in the time period between Wernicke and Geschwind, which still influences current aphasia concepts and neurosurgical practice of today.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "PubMed Abstracts"
}
|
Q:
How to convert Int To String in C# without using library functions?
What is the most effective code to convert int to string without using a native convert function.
public static void Main(string[] args)
{
string y = Convert(990);
Console.WriteLine(y);
Console.ReadLine();
}
public static string Convert(int x)
{
char[] Str = new char[20];
int i = 0;
while (x != 0)
{
Str[i++] = x % 10 + '0';
x = x / 10;
}
return Str.ToString();// How do I handle this without the native function?
}
The above doesnt seem to work. Please advise.
A:
Here's a solution without a String constructor or a .ToString() call. This one handles negative numbers.
It's a bit too 'clever' for my taste, but it's an academic exercise anyway...
void Main()
{
Console.WriteLine(Convert(-5432));
}
String Convert(int i)
{
return String.Join("",Digits(i).Reverse());
}
IEnumerable<char> Digits(int i)
{
bool neg = false;
if(i==0) {yield return '0'; yield break;}
if(i<0) { i = -i; neg = true;}
while (i!=0)
{
char digit = (char)(i % 10 + '0');
i = i / 10;
yield return digit;
}
if(neg) yield return '-';
yield break;
}
|
{
"pile_set_name": "StackExchange"
}
|
Since his Twitter presence caused a ton of trouble for his company and forced him to step down as chairmen of Tesla, Elon Musk has a little bit of time on his hands. He's taken up the refuge hobby of middle-aged dudes everywhere: homebrewing. That's right, y'all. Tesla-branded tequila is coming.
Of course, this is no garage operation: You fix a project car; Elon launches a convertible into space. The mega-rich carmaker has already shared an appropriately futuristic bottle prototype for his new spirit, extending the pew-pew font of his brand for "Teslaquila."
Musk has not made it clear whether the bottles will be for sale or used as a promotional item for the company, though we'd have to question the logic giving away bottles of tequila with cars.
This is far from Musk's most outlandish idea: He notably sold $500 flamethrowers earlier this year. And Musk might be emboldened to pursue even more outlandish ideas because of his undying support from some A-listers. Kanye West recently felt so compelled to defend the magnate that he hopped on a table and shouted out a defense to anyone who would listen.
“Elon Musk? I don’t care who’s over at his house, leave that man the fuck alone,” Kanye told students at Detroit's College for Creative Studies. “Leave that man the fuck alone.”
|
{
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
}
|
Background {#Sec1}
==========
Breastfeeding is associated with a variety of positive health outcomes in children, such as: lower incidence of diarrhea; influenza; ear infections; and respiratory tract infections \[[@CR1]\]. It has been suggested that breast-fed infants have advanced immune system development compared to formula-fed infants \[[@CR2], [@CR3]\]. The microbiota acquired in early life has been reported to be important for mucosal immune response and tolerance, suggesting linkage to mucosal inflammation, autoimmunity, and allergy disorders \[[@CR2], [@CR3]\]. However, the underlying mechanisms remain to be fully elucidated. Complementary to human infant studies, formula-fed piglets compared to sow-fed piglets differed significantly in: diarrhea frequency; levels of mucosal IgG and IL-2; lactic acid bacteria/E.coli ratio \[[@CR4]\]; and counts of colonic *Clostridium cluster IV and Bacteroides vulgatus* \[[@CR5]\], all of which are consisent with microbiota differences found between human infants fed breast milk or formula. Comparison of infants' microbiota with piglet microbiota indicates that predominant phyla observed in breast-fed and formula-fed infants are *Bacteroides* and *Fimicutes,* which are also the abundant phyla in sow-fed and formula-fed piglets. However, *Actinobacteria* is also predominantly observed in breast-fed and formula-fed infants but very small percent was observed in sow-fed piglets and none in formula-fed piglets \[[@CR6]\]. Furthermore, previous report on metagenome profile comparison between porcine fecal and human fecal samples showed 70% functional similarity \[[@CR7]\]. Given the similarity of the infant and piglet intestine \[[@CR8]\], the neonatal piglet is arguably the most useful model to explore the interaction between infant diets and gut microbiota to understand the mechanisms underlying health complications in infants.
Although diet-associated alterations in the composition of the infant gut microbiota are well documented, the functional effect on gastrointestinal tract physiology and immune response remains to be fully elucidated. One potential mechanism is an interaction of the microbiota with the host gastrointestinal tract and beyond through "xeno-metabolites" produced through microbial metabolism. For example, lower levels of SCFAs (short-chain fatty acids) were correlated with *Bacteroides, Prevotella, Clostridium clusters XIVa and IV, Bifidobacterium spp*. and *Lactobacillus* from colons of formula fed piglets \[[@CR9]\]. Interestingly, Yano et al. reported that gut microbiota regulate host sertotonin biosythesis \[[@CR10]\]. Several exogenous factors including specific dietary components and microbiota alter serotonin release \[[@CR10], [@CR11]\]. However, it is not currently known whether the serotonergic pathway is altered by the microbiota in infants and, thus, may be a potential pathway influencing gut immune system development and function.
Previously, we demonstrated that neonatal pigs fed formula differed from sow-fed piglets in small intestine morphology and had decreased lymphoid follicle size and germinal centers in Peyer's patch and ileum tissue \[[@CR12]\]. Herein, we explore the effects of formula on the colon microbiota and the impact on colon morphology and immune response, as well as metabolites involved in the serotonin pathway and serotonin metabolism in the colon.
Methods {#Sec2}
=======
Animal housing and feeding {#Sec3}
--------------------------
Thirty-six Yorkshire/Duroc crossbreed piglets (2 days old, *n* = 6/group/gender) were used in this study. The animals were maintained by the ethical guidelines established and approved by Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) of University of Arkansas Medical Sciences. The Animal feeding and diet composition details and body weights are published in our previous paper \[[@CR12]\]. In brief, piglets were randomized into three groups, i.e., group 1-sow fed; group 2-soy-based formula (soy) (Enfamil Prosobee Lipil powder; Mead Johnson Nutritionals, Evansville, IN) fed; group 3-cow's milk-based formula (milk) fed (Similac Advance powder; Ross Products, Abbott Laboratories, Columbus, OH). Piglets were fed formula milk (1.047 MJ/kg/day) from small bowls on a fixed schedule (i.e., 1st week every 2 h, 2nd week every 4 h, and 3rd week every 6 h) until sacrifice on a postnatal day (PND) 21. These piglets were anesthetized with isoflurane, blood was collected and then sacrificed by exsanguination. All tissues and contents were flash frozen in liquid nitrogen and stored at −80 °C until use, while a portion of tissues was fixed in formalin for histomorphometric analyses.
Microbiota analysis using 16sRNA amplicon sequencing {#Sec4}
----------------------------------------------------
Distal colon contents were subjected to DNA isolation using Qiagen DNA isolation kit \[[@CR13]\]. Amplicons were generated by PCR of variable region 4 (V4) of bacterial 16S rRNA genes. Multiplex sequencing was carried out with an illumina platform. QIIME software was used for clustering of V4 rRNA reads at 97% nucleotide sequence. PiCRUST (phylogenetic investigation of communities by reconstruction of unobserved states) was used to generate a profile of putative functions (via metagenome prediction) from the 16srRNA OTU data \[[@CR14]\]. OTUs were picked from a demultiplexed fasta file containing the sequences for all distal colon contents samples using the closed-reference protocol where we searched sequences against the GG reference OTUs at 97% percent identity. These OTUs were normalized by the predicted 16S copy number. BIOM table containing the predicted metagenome for each sample was attained. We used STAMP (statistical analysis of metagenomics profiles) \[[@CR15], [@CR16]\] software to determine statistical significance of functional metagenomics prediction data \[[@CR15], [@CR16]\]. The significant differences in functional category relative abundances among sow, soy, and milk formula fed samples at level-3 profile were determined by ANOVA followed by Tukey-Kramer post-hoc test with effect size Eta-squared to test.
Colon morphology and immune response {#Sec5}
------------------------------------
Colon samples were embedded in paraffin after dehydration. Six-micrometer-thick sections were stained with hematoxylin and eosin and used for histomorphometric analysis. The digital images were captured using Aperio microscope scanner (Aperio CS) and were used to measure the crypt height, crypt density (crypt number per mm length of tissue), full thickness of membrane, thickness of granular muscularis, and colon circumference in the sections of distal colon using ImageScope (Version 12.1.0.5029, Aperio Technologies) and Image J (Image J 150b, NIH, USA). Gene expression was measured by real time PCR (Additional file [1](#MOESM1){ref-type="media"}: Table S2).
Western Blot {#Sec6}
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Frozen colon tissue (\~100 mg) was homogenized in cell lysis buffer (500 μl) (Cat EPX-99999-000 eBioscience, San Diego, USA) containing 0.1% proteinase inhibitor cocktail (Sigma, St. Louis, MO) and 1% NP40, in ceramic bead tubes using Fast Prep-24^TM^ 5G machine (M.P. Biomedical LLC, California, USA) at a speed 6.0 ms for 30 s (twice). Samples were centrifuged at 12,000 g for 15 min at 4 °C, supernatants were collected and protein concentration was determined using Bio-Rad protein estimation kit (BioRad). 100 μg of protein was subjected to Western Blot analyses using 8% acrylamide gel. Membranes were probed with anti-pig primary antibodies raised in rabbit overnight at 4 °C and subsequently incubated with 1:10,000 dilution of goat-anti-rabbit HRP for 1 h at room temperature (BioRad Laboratories Inc., California). We used 1:1000 dilution of anti-VE-cadherin, anti-catenin, anti-HSP 27 (Abcam, Cambridge, MA) as primary antibodies. Detection was performed using a chemiluminescence system (super signal west chemiluminescent substrate, Thermo Scientific). Image Quant software (Image Quant TL 8.1 Version) was used for densitometric analysis. Anti-rabbit vinculin (Abcam ab73412) that cross reacts with pigs was used as a housekeeping protein for normalization of a target protein.
Intestinal alkaline phosphatases activity measurement {#Sec7}
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The supernatants of distal colon contents, duodenum contents, and serum were used to measure intestinal alkaline phosphatases (ALP) using commercial kit (Anaspec CA, AS72146). This kit uses p-nitrophenyl phosphate (pNPP) as a phosphatase substrate which turns yellow (λmax = 405 nm) when dephosphorylated by ALP. In brief, 40 μl of sample, 10 μl of assay buffer and 50 μl of 5mM pNPP solution were mixed and incubated in the dark at room temperature for 30 to 60 min. The reactions were stopped by adding 50 μl Stop Solution and plates were read at 405 nm. The serial diluted pNP (5μ Mol) and pNPP (mM), ALP enzymes (2ng) were used for preparation of substrate, product and enzyme standard curves respectively. Absorbance readings were taken immediately and every 5 min for 60 min to obtain enzyme kinetics. Alkaline phosphatase activity in the test samples was calculated as enzyme activity (moles substrate/min) = (V × vol)/(e x l). V is reaction velocity (OD 405/min), vol is reaction volume in liters, e is the extinction coefficient of pNPP, 1.78 × 10^4^ M^−1^cm^−1^and l is the path length of light through the sample in cm (for 100 ml sample, *l* = 0.5 cm). This equation determines enzyme activity in terms of moles of substrate conversion per minute.
Immunohistochemistry and Immunofluorescence {#Sec8}
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To see the expression of HSP27, immunohistochemistry were carried out with 6 μm thick sections of distal colon. Anti-rabbit HSP27 (1:1000 dilution), ABC kit, DAB kit, and Texas Red labeled - anti-rabbit IgG (Vector Laboratories, Inc, Burlingame, CA) were used to perform immunohistochemistry. Olympus microscope (BX50) with 3CCD color camera (DCX-976MD) were used to capture the images. To see the expression of 5HT producing enterochromaffin cells in distal colon, 6 μm thick sections of distal colon were deparaffinized and rehydrated. Citra Plus or Dako Target Retrieval (pH6) solution was used for antigen retrieval. After blocking for 1hour (hr) with 5% donkey serum in PBS, tissue sections were incubated for 3hr at room temp with a cocktail of 1:2000 rabbit anti-5-HT antibody (ImmunoStar, 20080) and 1:250 mouse anti-chromogranin A (Abcam, ab199014), prepared in PBS with 5% donkey serum. Tissue sections were then incubated with secondary cocktail containing 1:100 donkey anti-rabbit Alexa 488 (Jackson Immuno, 711-545-152) and 1:100 donkey anti-mouse Alexa 594 (Jackson Immuno, 715-585-150) in 1x PBS for 1 h at room temp. The sections were mounted with prolong gold containing DAPI. The images were acquired using fluorescence microscope (Olympus BX51TRF). The green and red fluorescent cells indicated 5-HT and CgA expressing cells, respectively. We counted the number of 5-HT expressing EC cells (5HT+/CgA+) (yellow color) and a total number of EC cells (CgA+) cells.
Serotonin ELISA {#Sec9}
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Frozen distal colon tissues (\~80 mg/400 ul) or distal colon contents (\~50 mg/300 ul) or duodenum contents (\~50 mg/300 ul) were homogenized in ceramic bead tubes containing cell lysis buffer (Cat EPX-99999-000 eBioscience, San Diego, USA) with 0.1% proteinase inhibitor cocktail (Sigma, St. Louis, MO), 1% NP40 and 0.1% ascorbic acid using Fast Prep-24^TM^ 5G machine (M.P. Biomedical LLC, California, USA) at speed 6.0 ms for 30 s (twice). Samples were centrifuged at 12,000 g for 15 min at 4 °C, supernatants were collected, and total protein concentration was determined using Bio-Rad protein estimation kit (BioRad). Serotonin levels were detected in clear supernatant of distal colon tissues, distal colon contents, duodenum contents, diet samples, serum and urine by ELISA according to the manufacturer instructions (Eagle Biosciences SEU39-K01). The plate was read at 450 nm (reference wavelength 600 nm) using a microplate spectrophotometer (Benchmark plus, BioRad). The data were normalized with total protein and tissue weight.
Serotonin metabolites measurements {#Sec10}
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The presence and relative abundance of serotonin metabolites in serum, urine, and colon contents of neonatal piglets was determined using an ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography (UHPLC) system coupled to a high-resolution accurate mass spectrometer (HRAM). All instrumentation, columns, and software used are products of Thermo Fisher Scientific (Waltham, MA). All solvents used were of optimal grade and purchased from Fisher Scientific (Pittsburgh, PA). Analytical HPLC grade compounds were obtained from Sigma-Aldrich (St. Louis, MO).
Metabolites in serum (100 μl) were extracted in methanol (2:1); colon contents (\~50 mg) were homogenized in 50% aqueous methanol and extracted in acetonitrile (2:1). All extracts were dried under a nitrogen stream and reconstituted in 5% aqueous methanol spiked with an internal standard (Lorazepam, 500 ng/ml). Urine samples were first analyzed for creatinine using a commercially available assay (\#STA-378, Cell Biolabs, San Diego, CA). Urines were then normalized to the lowest creatinine concentration (0.036 mg/ml) by dilution in water before analysis.
For serum and colon content metabolites, chromatographic separation was performed on an Ultimate 3000 UHPLC system fitted with a Hypersil GOLD C18 reversed-phase column (100 × 2.1 mm, 1.9 μ). Mobile phases consisted of 0.1% formic acid in water (A) and 0.1% formic acid in acetonitrile (B). The flow rate was set at 0.4 ml/min with an elution gradient as follows: 0 to 1% B from 0.0 to 2.0 min; 1 to 20% B from 2.0 to 6.5 min; 20--95% B from 6.5 to 11.5 min; 95 to 99% B from 11.5 to 13.5 min; 99--1% B from 13.5--16.5 min; hold at 1% B until 20.0 min. Sample injection volume was 5 μl. Urine metabolites were separated using a Hypersil GOLD (50 × 2.1 mm, 1.9 μ) column using the following elution gradient: 0 to 20% B from 0.0 to 4.0 min; 20--100% B from 4.0 to 9.0 min; 100 to 0% B from 9.0 to 12.0 min. Sample injection volume was 5 μl.
Detection was carried out on a Q-Exactive Hybrid Quadrupole-Orbitrap mass spectrometer with data acquisition executed using Xcalibur 4.0 software. All samples were analyzed by positive electrospray ionization (ESI+) Full-MS scan mode. Nitrogen as sheath, auxiliary, and sweep gas was set at 50, 13, and 3 units, respectively. Other conditions included: resolution, 70,000 FWHM; AGC target, 3e6 ions; maximum injection time, 200 ms; scan range, 50--750 m/z; spray voltage, 3.50 kV; and capillary temperature, 320 °C. All data was then processed using TraceFinder 3.3 software. Raw files were imported and screened against a compound database generated from ESI+ Full-MS scans of standard mixtures of 5-hydroxytryptophan (5HTP), 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid (5HIAA) and tryptophan. Metabolites were identified by exact mass (±3 ppm) and a retention time (±15 s) as shown in Additional file [1](#MOESM1){ref-type="media"}: Table A. Following identification, all samples within each biological matrix were pooled together. These pooled samples were then analyzed by ESI+ Full-MS with PRM (parallel reaction monitoring) targeting the five compounds of interest. MS2 spectra was generated at three fixed collision energies-10, 30, and 45%. Raw files were imported and individual MS2 spectra were matched to an in-house MS2 database created in Library Manager 2.0 with a match score \>80% to the compound of interest (Additional file [1](#MOESM1){ref-type="media"}: Table S6).
Tryptamine and its metabolite measurements {#Sec11}
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Tryptamine levels were evaluated as previously described by Sangwan et al. (1998) \[[@CR17], [@CR18]\]. A homogenate of distal colon content or duodenum contents (\~50 mg) was prepared in assay buffer containing 0.1 M sodium phosphate (pH 7.5), 5 mM beta-mercaptoethanol, 5 mM thiourea and 1 mM ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid followed by centrifugation for 30 min at 10,000 g. The clear supernatant of distal colon contents (25 μl) or duodenum contents (25μl) or serum (75 μl) or urine (75 μl) or diet samples were diluted up to 250 μl with assay buffer and used for tryptamine analyses. Standard curve was generated by serial dilution of 1 mg/ml tryptamine (Sigma 193747) in assay buffer. The fluorescence intensity of samples was determined using a fluorescence spectrometer (Molecular Device Spectra Max Gemini XPS) with excitation and emission wavelengths at 280 and 360 nm, respectively.
Indole acetic acid (IAA) concentration was measured by using Salkowski method \[[@CR19], [@CR20]\]. 20 μl of the supernatant was diluted with 80 μl of phosphate buffer and 440 μl of reagent R1 was added. Reagent R1 (Salkowski reagent) contains 12 g of FeCl~3~ per liter of 7.9 M H~2~SO~4~. Red color formation was quantified as the absorbance at a wavelength of 540 nm in a microplate spectrophotometer (Benchmark plus, BioRad). Standard curve was generated by serial dilutions of a 5mM IAA stock solution in phosphate buffer.
Statistical Analysis {#Sec12}
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Microbiota OTU reads were imported into R version 3.2.1 and all statistical analysis were performed using the vegan and phyloseq packages unless specifically noted. OTU richness was measured by Chao1 and OTU diversity was measured by several diversity indices (Shannon, Simpson, Inverse Simpson, and Fisher). Group differences in α-diversity (richness and diversity) were assessed by ANOVA using the stats package. Between-specimen diversity (β-diversity) was assessed by calculating a matrix of dissimilarities using the Bray-Curtis method and then visualized using non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS). Group differences in β-diversity was assessed using permutational multivariate analysis of variance (PERMANOVA) with 999 permutations. Group differences among genus level OTUs were assessed by pairwise comparisons on read counts using Negative Binomial Wald Tests from the DESeq2 package. OTU relative abundance is given as median % relative abundance when described in text. All statistical tests used on 16S-rRNA gene sequencing data were considered significant at *α* ≤ 0.05. All tests were corrected for multiple comparisons using the false discovery rate (FDR) correction by Benjamini and Hochberg. Histomorphometry, protein expression, serotonin, and tryptamine measurements were analyzed by one/two way ANOVA followed by post hoc test (Tukey's) using GraphPad software. Data are presented as mean ± SEM and are considered significant at *p* \< 0.05. *n* = 12/group until/unless indicated. Associations among selected variables were assessed with Spearman's correlations.
Results {#Sec13}
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Formula alters microbiota diversity and relative abundance in piglet colon {#Sec14}
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Sample richness as evidenced by Chao1 index was significantly lower in formula groups' at all taxonomical levels except at the order level. Sample diversity (Shannon index) inferred significance only at the phylum level (Additional file [1](#MOESM1){ref-type="media"}: Table S1). Non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) plots of β-diversity revealed no dietary difference at the phylum level; however, a significant diet effect was observed at the genus level with sow-fed animals discriminated from soy- or milk-fed piglets (Fig. [1a](#Fig1){ref-type="fig"}). At the phylum level a total of 16 phyla were found in sow-fed, but not in soy- or milk-fed piglets, (Fig. [1b](#Fig1){ref-type="fig"}) suggesting a reduction of microbial diversity in formula-fed piglets. *Bacteroidetes* represented the most abundant phyla in all groups (52.9, 65.1, and 66.1% in sow-, soy- or milk-fed piglets, respectively), followed by *Firmicutes* (23.9, 22.6, 20.5%) and then *Proteobacteria* (9.3, 10.9, 10.8%), respectively (Fig. [1b](#Fig1){ref-type="fig"}). Detailed description of relative abundances for class, order, and family levels are discussed in supplemental results (Additional file [1](#MOESM1){ref-type="media"}: Figure S1A-1C). At the genus level, 50 total OTUs were differentially impacted by diet (Fig. [2](#Fig2){ref-type="fig"}). Relative to sow feeding, 40 OTUs were significantly altered with milk-formula feeding and 33 with soy formula feeding. Of these, 24 OTUs were differentially altered in both formula groups compared to sow-fed piglets. In addition, 18 OTUs were altered significantly in milk-fed piglets relative to soy-fed. *Streptococcus, Blautia, Citrobacter, Butrycimonas, Parabacteroides, Lactococcus* were all identified genera that were increased with soy or milk formula feeding relative to sow feeding. *Butrycimonas* and *Parabacteroides* were greater in formula-fed animals by at least a factor of five (*Butrycimonas:* 0.09, 1.95, and 3.63% in sow, soy, and milk, respectively; *Parabacteroides* 1.57, 8.52, 8.47% in sow, soy, and milk, respectively). In addition, relative to sow-fed piglets, *Biliophila, Ruminococcus, Clostridium* were greater with soy formula feeding while *Anaerotruncus, Akkermansia, Enterococcus, Acinetobacter, Christensenella, Holdemania* were greater with milk feeding. Almost half of significant OTUs were decreased in formula-fed piglets relative to those who were sow-fed (Fig. [2](#Fig2){ref-type="fig"}; 20 OTUs). Twelve genera, including *Treponema*, *Catenibacterium*, *RFN20*, *YRC22*, and 8 unassigned OTUs, were present only in sow-fed piglets (i.e., completely absent in soy and milk-fed piglets (Fig. [2](#Fig2){ref-type="fig"}). Altogether, changes in microbial composition and diversity indicate that neonatal diet shapes the colon microbiota.Fig. 1Formula diets alter the colon microbiota relative to sow diet in porcine neonates. **a** NMDA plot of microbial diversity displays the separation of sow, soy, and milk from each other at the phylum and the genus level. **b** *Stacked bar chart* shows sow, soy, and milk groups microbial relative abundance in the distal colon at the phylum level Fig. 2**a** Heat-map displays relative abundances of the genus that had a significant diet effect. Genera are ordered by hierarchical clustering of Bray-Curtis dissimilarities. Significant differences are expressed as *circles* in panel **b**. *Closed black circles* represent genus that were greater in the column numerator relative to the denominator. *White circles* represent genus that were lower in the column numerator relative to the denominator (\**p* \< 0.05)
Formula impact on colon morphology and immune response piglets {#Sec15}
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No differences were observed in gross colon-morphology among the diet groups (Additional file [1](#MOESM1){ref-type="media"}: Figure S2A). A significant increase in colon length (Additional file [1](#MOESM1){ref-type="media"}: Figure S1B) and circumference (Additional file [1](#MOESM1){ref-type="media"}: Figure S1E) and a decrease in crypt depth/tissue thickness ratio (Additional file [1](#MOESM1){ref-type="media"}: Figure S1C) were observed in soy-fed relative to sow-fed groups. No significant differences were observed in colon crypt counts (Additional file [1](#MOESM1){ref-type="media"}: Figure S2D). To determine the membrane integrity, several membrane proteins e.g. VE-Cadherin, β-catenin, HSP-27, and alkaline phosphatase were measured by western-blot and cytokine gene expression was measured by real time PCR. No significant difference in expression of cadherin proteins was observed among the groups (data not shown). Interestingly, HSP-27 and β-catenin showed a trend for an increased protein expression in soy relative to sow-fed piglets (Additional file [1](#MOESM1){ref-type="media"}: Figure S2F-H). We confirmed HSP-27 expression by Immuno-staining (Additional file [1](#MOESM1){ref-type="media"}: Figure S2H). We observed increased alkaline phosphatase activity in distal colon contents especially in milk group (Fig. [3a](#Fig3){ref-type="fig"}) with no difference in serum. Furthermore, in soy or milk group upregulation of BMP4, CCL21, CSF3, CCL25, and VEGFA and down regulation of TNFSF10 and CXCL11 was observed relative to sow-fed group, suggesting that formula diet impacts the immune system (Fig. [3b](#Fig3){ref-type="fig"}, Additional file [1](#MOESM1){ref-type="media"}: Table S2).Fig. 3Formula diets significantly alters tissue immune response relative to sow diet in porcine neonates. **a** *Bar graph* shows intestine alkaline phosphatase activity in distal colon (DC) contents and serum (analyzed by two-way ANOVA followed by tukey's post hoc test). **b** *Bar graph* shows the expression of different cytokines and chemokines in distal colon of sow-, soy-, and milk-fed piglets (analyzed by multiple *t* test). (\**p* \< 0.05, \*\*\*\* *p*\<0.0001 for formula diet in comparison to sow fed, ^\#^ *p* \<0.05 for milk diet in comparison to soy diet)
Predictive functional profiling of neonatal diet driven microbiota {#Sec16}
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As microbiota shift did not appear to impact the colon morphology or colon membrane protein expression, we assessed the functional significance of the microbiota using PICRUSt. The analyses predicted the functional composition of a metagenome using marker gene data and a database of reference genomes. A significant difference was observed in 43 pathways among the diet groups based on cellular process, environmental, genetic information processing, metabolism, and human diseases (Additional file [1](#MOESM1){ref-type="media"}: Figure S3). Our analyses predicted significant higher apoptosis, and bacterial invasion of epithelial cells in soy- or milk-fed groups in comparison to the sow-fed among the cellular and environmental pathways predicted (Additional file [1](#MOESM1){ref-type="media"}: Figure S3, level 1). Correlation analyses revealed a significant positive association of apoptosis with *Bacteroidetes* across diets (Fig. [4a](#Fig4){ref-type="fig"}). Moreover, the milk-fed group demonstrated a positive correlation to apoptosis with *Megasphaera,* and unassigned genus from *Firmicutes* and Synergistetes phyla*.* In the sow-fed group *Butyricimonas* was positively correlated with bacterial invasion of epithelial cells while in the soy fed *Enterococcus, Lactococcus* genera and unassigned genera from *Proteobacteria* and *Actinobacteria* phyla were positively correlated. In the milk group, *Acinetobacter, Citrobacter* genera and unassigned genera from *Bacteroidetes* and *Proteobacteria* phyla were positively correlated with bacterial invasion of epithelial cells.Fig. 4Correlation matrix of microbiota to tryptophan and cellular processes. **a** Significant correlations among genera and tryptophan metabolism, apoptosis, and bacterial invasion of epithelial cells are shown. The significant Spearman correlation coefficients are displayed as *ellipses. Let* and *right directions* of ellipses indicate positive and negative correlations, respectively. **b** The *bar graph* shows the prediction analyses of tryptophan metabolism. (\*\**p* \< 0.05 for milk diet in comparison to sow-fed, ^\#^ *p* \< 0.05 for milk diet in comparison to soy diet)
Impact of diet on tryptophan metabolism {#Sec17}
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Correlation analyses (Fig. [4a](#Fig4){ref-type="fig"}) indicates that *Akkermansia, Butyricimonas, Clostridium, Holdemania, and Bilophila* were positively correlated with tryptophan metabolism in the soy-fed, while only *Bilophila* genus correlated with tryptophan metabolism in the milk group. However, unassigned genus from phyla *Tenericutes, Proteobacteria, Bacteroides,* and *Lentisphaerae* in addition to *RFN20* genus from *Firmicutes* phylum were positively correlated with tryptophan metabolism in the sow-fed group but not in formula-fed groups. In addition, *Butyricimonas* was negatively correlated with tryptophan metabolism in the sow-fed group while unassigned genus from *Proteobacteria* and *Bacteriodetes* phyla were negatively correlated with tryptophan metabolism in the soy group. Among the metabolism pathways predicted, we explored mainly the tryptophan metabolism (Additional file [1](#MOESM1){ref-type="media"}: Figure S3, Fig. [4b](#Fig4){ref-type="fig"}).
Formula suppresses the host serotonin level in colon of piglets {#Sec18}
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Tryptophan is a precursor for both host serotonin and bacterial tryptamine biosynthesis. In the host, enterochromaffin (EC) cells synthesize \>90% of serotonin in the gastrointestinal tract \[[@CR21]\], where tryptophan is converted into 5-Hydroxytryptophan (5-HTP) and serotonin (5-HT) by the enzymes tryptophan hydroxylase (TPH) and aromatic acid decarboxylase (AADC). Serotonin catabolizes into 5-hydroxyindole aldehyde (5-HIA) and 5-hydroxyindole acetic acid (5-HIAA) in the presence of MAO (monoamine oxidase) and aldehyde dehydrogenase \[[@CR22]\] (Fig. [5a](#Fig5){ref-type="fig"}). To understand the impact of formula diet on serotonin synthesis, we determined EC cell and serotonin producing EC cell numbers by immunofluorescence staining. Both EC cells and 5HT- were significantly reduced in the distal colon of soy- and milk-fed piglets relative to sow, while the ratio of 5-HT/CgA reached significance only in milk-fed group in comparison to sow (Fig. [5b](#Fig5){ref-type="fig"}). To determine if EC cell number is truly changed because both EC cells and L cells stain positive for CgA \[[@CR23]\], we measured EC cell and serotonin transporter (VMAT~1~) expression by real time PCR (Tph1, Lmx1a, NKX2). No difference was observed in EC cell gene expression (Tph1, Lmx1a, NKX2) in all diet groups, however serotonin transporter (VMAT~1~) expression was decreased in both formula groups relative to sow (Fig. [5c](#Fig5){ref-type="fig"}). These data suggest that VMAT~1~ expression is possibly dependent on the amount of serotonin available and EC cell number is not affected by neonatal diet. Interestingly, distal colon tissue serotonin concentrations measured by ELISA were decreased, but no differences were found in the distal colon content (Fig. [5d](#Fig5){ref-type="fig"}). Diet groups did not differ in serum and urine serotonin levels (Additional file [1](#MOESM1){ref-type="media"}: Figure S4A) either. To determine serotonin regulation, 5-HTP and 5HIAA levels were measured. No significant differences in 5-HTP and 5HIAA levels were observed among diet groups in distal colon contents (Additional file [1](#MOESM1){ref-type="media"}: Figure S4B-D). In addition, increased tryptophan and 5HTP levels were noted in serum and urine of soy and milk groups (Additional file [1](#MOESM1){ref-type="media"}: Figure S4B-D), suggesting a diet effect in these piglets. To determine the diet contribution to serotonin levels observed, we measured serotonin in diet samples and noted that soy and milk groups have significantly more serotonin than sow diet (Fig. [4d](#Fig4){ref-type="fig"}). However, the amount of serotonin observed in three diet groups is very minimal (0.05--0.20 pg/mg) relative to distal colon tissue and contents (50--100 pg/mg; *p* \< 0.005) (Fig. [5d](#Fig5){ref-type="fig"}). Altogether these findings suggest that formula diets have impact on serotonin levels observed in colon.Fig. 5Formula diets alter the serotonin level in porcine neonates fed with soy or milk formula relative to sow diet. **a** *Cartoon* displays the tryptophan metabolism to serotonin and bacterial tryptamine and the enzymes involved in the pathway (**b**) The digital images show the immunostaining of EC cells in distal colon sections with 5-HT (*green*), CgA (*red*) and 5-HT/CgA (*yellow*). The *bar graph* displays the decrease in a number of EC cells in soy- and milk-fed groups relative to the sow-fed group. (**c**) Relative EC cell gene expression in distal colon tissue. (**d**) Serotonin level in diets (*n* = 3--4/diet group), distal colon tissue (normalized with tissue weight), distal colon contents of soy and milk groups in comparison to the sow-fed (*n* = 12/group). Data were analyzed by two-way ANOVA followed by post hoc test (Tukey's). (\**p* \< 0.05, \*\**p* \< 0.01, \*\*\**p* \< 0.001, \*\*\*\**p* \< 0.0001 for formula diet in comparison to sow-fed, ^\$^ *p* \< 0.005 comparison of serotonin levels in diets versus contents or tissue independent of treatment group). EC = Enterochormaffin cells, CgA = Chromogranin A
Formula promotes microbial tryptamine production {#Sec19}
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Tryptamine is produced by specific bacteria (*Clostridium, Ruminococcus*) (Fig. [5a](#Fig5){ref-type="fig"}) that utilize tryptophan. To understand if tryptophan is converted to tryptamine, distal colon contents and tissue tryptamine levels were measured. We observed signficantly more tryptamine in colon contents of formula-fed groups relative to the sow group, with no differences in distal colon tissue among diet groups (Fig. [6a](#Fig6){ref-type="fig"}). Furthermore, the level of tryptamine observed in distal colon contents (Fig. [6a](#Fig6){ref-type="fig"}) was significantly higher than in tissue in all diet groups (*p* \< 0.0001 contents vs tissue). In addition, amount of tryptamine observed in the diet is significantly lower than distal colon contents independent of diet groups (*p* \< 0.0001) (Fig. [6a](#Fig6){ref-type="fig"}). To determine if the small intestinal tract makes any contribution to tryptamine levels observed in distal colon contents, we measured tryptamine in duodenal contents (Additional file [1](#MOESM1){ref-type="media"}: Figure S4E). The levels of tryptamine in duodenum contents are significantly lower than in distal colon contents (*p* \< 0.0001 duodenum vs distal colon) in all diet groups. In addition, tryptamine metabolizes into indole acetic acid (IAA) in the presence of MAO enzyme (Fig. [6a](#Fig6){ref-type="fig"}) \[[@CR24]\]. Thus, we measured IAA levels in duodenum and distal colon contents, and noted significantly more IAA in distal colon contents of milk-fed group relative to the sow-fed group, but not in duodenum contents (Fig. [6b](#Fig6){ref-type="fig"}). Furthermore, in serum no significant differences were observed among groups in IAA levels, while in urine lower levels of IAA were observed in soy, and milk-fed relative to sow-fed piglets (Additional file [1](#MOESM1){ref-type="media"}: Figure S4F).Fig. 6Formula diet enhances the bacterial tryptamine biosynthesis relative to sow diet in porcine neonates. **a** The *bar graph* shows tryptamine levels in diets (*n* = 3-4/diet group), distal colon contents and distal colon tissue (**b**) The *bar graph* displays indole acetic acid (IAA) in distal colon (DC) (and duodenum (DD) contents (*n* ~sow~ = 7, *n* ~soy~ = 9, *n* ~milk~ = 11). The data were analyzed by two-way ANOVA followed by post hoc test (Tukey's) (\**p* \< 0.05, \*\**p* \< 0.01, for formula diet in comparison to sow-fed; ^\#^ *p* \< 0.05, for milk diet in comparison to soy-fed, ^\$^ *p* \< 0.0001 comparison of tryptamine levels in diets versus contents, and in tissue versus contents independent of treatment group).
Discussion {#Sec20}
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The gut microbiota plays an important role in health and development of infants and diet may be the most important environmental factor on gut bacterial composition. It is well known that the microbiota of breast-fed and formula-fed infants differ significantly \[[@CR3]\]. Very little information about the relationship of diet, microbiota and immune system development and function is available for infants. We have used a pig model to study these effects. Previous reports showed that cecum from the sow-fed group was enriched with *Prevotella, Oscillibacter, and Clostridium* \[[@CR21]\], while the formula group was enriched with *Bacteroides, Parabacteroides, and Alistipes* \[[@CR25]\]. However, our study found that relative to sow-fed piglets, those fed with formula showed increased *Streptococcus, Blautia, Citrobacter, Butrycimonas, Parabacteroides, Lactococcus*. In addition, in milk-fed piglets, *Anaerotruncus, Akkermansia, Enterococcus, Acinetobacter, Christensenella,* and *Holdemania* were increased, while in soy-fed group *Biliophila, Ruminococcus, Clostridium* were increased relative to those who were sow-fed. Furthermore, pooled ascending colon contents from day 9 and day 17 old sow-fed or formula-fed piglets were assessed for microbiota. Data showed *Bifidobacterium* higher counts in sow-fed while, formula-fed had higher counts of *Clostridium cluster IV, XIVa* and *Bacteroides vulgatus* and our study samples are collected on day 21. The differences observed in our study to reported studies could be explained by the specific location of the contents collected, differences in housing environment, and possibly the time point samples were collected. Collectively, these data suggest that bacterial diversity is much greater in colon than in cecum, and that the microbiota profiles differ based on the location of the gut. Thus, understanding microbiota differences at each location in the gastrointestinal tract and its impact on the gut will inform the physiology of the gut in detail. Furthermore, formula feeding reduced microbial richness and diversity relative to sow feeding in the distal colon. It is possible that the higher relative abundance of genera (e.g., *Streptococcus, Blautia, Citrobacter, Butrycimonas, Parabacteroides, Lactococcus),* are known to produce substances such as bacteriocins, enzymes, lactic acid, and fatty acids, prevent the colonization of certain commensal microorganisms \[[@CR26]\]. This may account for the lower diversity observed in formula-fed piglets. Bacterial diversity can impact the host immune system, for example, in the primate model \[[@CR27]\], dam-reared rhesus macaques had a distinct colonic microbiota compared to those bottle-fed, and disparate immune systems were observed even after weaning from neonatal diet, suggesting that initial microbial colonization impacts immune system.
Previously in small intestine we observed a significant morphological changes in formula-fed piglets along with an increased expression of cytokines and decreased expression of anti-inflammatory molecule IL-10 (mRNA and protein). Interestingly no major tissue morphological changes or membrane protein expression were noted in the colon with formula feeding. Thus, it is possible that tissue defense mechanisms protect the colon. For instance, alkaline phosphatase-detoxifes LPS, ameliorates intestinal inflammation, and regulates gut microbial communities and their translocation across the gut barrier \[[@CR28]\]. Interestingly, alkaline phosphatase activity is increased approximately threefold in distal colon contents of milk-fed piglets relative to the sow-fed group. Furthermore, dairy products contain a high concentration of alkaline phosphatase \[[@CR29]\] that may account for the increased alkaline phosphatase activity observed in the colon contents. The presence of more HSP-27 in the soy fed piglets may be an indication of another defense mechanism in this group. In addition, increased BMP4, (known to cause intestine barrier dysfunction), and CCL25, (a chemokine known to regulate the trafficking of gut-specific memory/effector T cells into gut mucosa) expression in soy- and milk-fed piglets was noted. Of relevance to these results are findings that an exclusively breastfed infants (at 3 months of age), but not exclusively formula-fed infants, showed down-regulation of genes such as KLRF1, BPL1, ALOX5, IL-1α, and AOC3 that prime mucosal inflammatory responses \[[@CR30]\]. Overall, data suggests that formula diet impacts immune response relative to breastfeeding.
The microbiota fuctional prediction analyses showed several pathways that differed significantly between the diet groups. We observed more genera in milk-fed piglets (3 vs 1) correlating with apoptosis relative to the sow-fed group, suggesting the colon microbiota may increase the exfoliation of epithelial cells from gut mucosa and possibly reduce EC cell number as we observed here. In the sow-fed group, only *Butyricimonas* was positively correlated with bacterial invasion of epithelial cells, while in soy and milk groups four genera were positvely correlated, suggesting a higher chance of epithelial cell invasion in formula groups. It is well accepted that gut microbiota-programming of host epithelial cell transcription is region-specific \[[@CR31]\]. Thus, the specific set of microbiota present in the colon could have diverse physiological effects on the host. However, it should be noted that the pathways are based on prediction analyses and future studies will be needed to confirm the impact on the specific pathways.
Based on microbiota prediction analyses, we focused on tryptophan metabolism and interestingly, several genera were correlated to tryptophan metabolism. Consistent with our data Poroyko et al. reported that formula group cecal microbiota was enriched with sequences for aromatic amino acid degradation. Thus, to understand tryptophan fate in the distal colon, we looked at the serotonin pathway and observed significantly lower levels of serotonin in colon tissue of formula-fed piglets. However, no differences were observed in serum serotonin levels, suggesting that the small intestine (and other tissue) contributed to the serum serotonin levels. Furthermore, serotonin precursors-tryptophan and 5HTP were unaffected in distal colon contents, but increased in serum and urine of soy and milk groups. It is possible that 5HTP from the colon is transported into serum more readily in soy and milk groups and excreted into urine and thus lower levels of serotonin were observed in these groups. Moreover, 5HIAA, a catabolic product of serotonin level was not altered in distal colon contents and urine and undetectable in serum, ruling out the possibility of low serotonin due to increased catabolism of serotonin into 5HIAA in formula-fed piglets. We also noted significantly increased levels of tryptamine in formula group relative to sow in colon contents, but not in tissue. However, to understand if proximal gut regions contribute to tryptamine levels present in the colon, tryptamine was measured from duodenum contents. These analyses showed lower level of tryptamine in duodenum contents in all groups. In addition, in serum and urine tryptamine levels did not differ among the diet groups. Moreover, the amount of tryptamine observed in the diet or distal colon tissues is minimal in comparison to distal colon contents, suggesting that diet or tissue possibly do not contribute to high levels of tryptamine observed and highlighting the fact that tryptamine is possibly produced by distal colon microbiota. Furthermore, *Clostridium, Ruminococcus, Bilophila, Butyrricimonas, and Blautia* genera are positively correlated with tryptophan metabolism. Interestingly, *Clostridium sporogenes and Ruminococcus gnavus* are known to consume tryptophan to produce tryptamine \[[@CR32]\]. However, mammals convert tryptophan to tryptamine \[[@CR33]\] and tryptamine produced by host cells could be readily transported to the blood and be released into the lumen. Thus, levels of tryptamine observed are possibly due to microbiota or host. Future studies are required to determine if tryptamine is derived from host or bacterial species under these conditions.
It is known that serotonin receptors contribute to the immune system regulation \[[@CR34]\]. Interestingly, the serotonergic receptor-mediated signaling pathway is not only activated by endogenous agonist serotonin, but also by an exogenous tryptamine. The relative affinity of serotonin and tryptamine for serotonin receptors could cause imbalance of local and systemic serotoninergic system and thereby affect the immune system and other physiological functions. Most recently, using the Ussing-chamber model it was reported that tryptamine causes ion release in intestinal epithelial cells, suggesting tryptamine might affect the food particles transit or gastric motility \[[@CR32]\]. In addition, an early study conducted in 1950 showed that tryptamine injection into skin flap or gastronemius muscle of cat resulted in histamine release \[[@CR35]\] and it is well known that increased histamine levels are reported in allergic conditions \[[@CR36]\]. Previous reports have indicated that tryptamine might play a role in mood and appetite \[[@CR37], [@CR38]\] as it can cross the blood brain barrier unlike serotonin (5-HT). Interestingly tryptamine could also promote 5-HT release from enterochromaffin cells, and possibly have impact locally on the GI tract \[[@CR37]\]. However, future studies are needed to determine the programming effect of the microbiota and the tryptophan metabolites observed during neonatal period and how that impacts host immune system and allergies. In addition, how tryptamine may differ from serotonin in the activation of cellular signaling pathways and the kyneurine pathway (another tryptophan pathway) and how this activation impacts in these piglets needs further investigation.
Conclusions {#Sec21}
===========
In summary, we studied the microbiota composition in distal colon and focused on aromatic amino acid metabolism (tryptophan). We demonstrated that relative to sow feeding, formula feeding: (1) alter colon microbiota richness and diversity; (2) affect colon cytokine response (3) reduce host serotonin levels; and (4) increase tryptamine production. In conclusion, these data suggest that the formula-associated colon microbiota possibly impacts sertonin biosynthesis and favors the bacterially-derived typtamine production, and thereby altering the colon's immune response. If recapitulates in human infants, these early changes in GI and immune system development due to formula feeding could have long-term health consequences.
Limitations {#Sec22}
-----------
Many factors other than diet can contribute to the development of gut microbiota composition such as housing environment, maternal proximity, pens, and mother's diet. In this study the sow-fed piglets were housed at the farm until day 21 and formula-fed were brought to the animal facility on day 2. There is a need to use more controlled environment to understand microbiota changes due to the dietary differences, which could be achieved by using human breast milk-fed piglet model. Thus, future studies will focus on human breast milk-fed piglet model.
Additional file {#Sec23}
===============
Additional file 1:Formula diet alters tryptophan metabolism. (ZIP 709 kb)
5-HIA
: 5-hydroxyindole aldehyde
5-HIAA
: 5-Hydroxyindole acetic acid
5-HT
: 5-Hydroxy tryptamine/serotonin
5-HTP
: 5-Hydroxytryptophan
AADC
: Aromatic acid decarboxylase
ADH
: Aldehyde dehydrogenase
ALOX5
: Arachidonate 5-lipoxygenase
AOC3
: Amine oxidase copper containing 3
BMP4
: Bone morphogenetic protein 4
BPL1
: Biotin protein ligase 1
CCL25
: C-C motif chemokine ligand 25
CgA
: Chromogrannin A
DC
: Distal colon
DD
: Duodenum
EC
: Enterochormaffin cells
GI
: Gastro-intestine
HSP-27
: Heat shock protein 27
IACUC
: Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee
IL-1α
: Interleukin-1α
KLRF1
: Killer cell lectin-like recetor F1
LPS
: Lipopolysaccharide
MAO
: Monoamine oxidase
TPH
: Tryptophan hydroxylase
**Electronic supplementary material**
The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s40168-017-0297-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
We thank our animal core personnel Matt Ferguson, Bobby Fay and Trae Pittman for vivarium help with the piglets and the ACH genomics core for microbiota DNA sequencing.
Funding {#FPar1}
=======
The research work was supported by USDA-ARS Project 6026-51000-010-05S.
Availability of data and materials {#FPar2}
==================================
Microbiota data are available at [https://qiita.ucsd.edu](https://qiita.ucsd.edu/), EBI accession \# ERP023002.
LY and TMB cotributed to the study concept and design. : MKS, AKB, KEM, KS, and SVC contributed to the data acquisition. MKS and LY contributed to the analyses and interpretation of the data. MKS and LY contributed to the drafting of the manuscript. : MKS, BDP, and LY contributed to the statistical analysis. All authors approved the final version of the manuscript.
Ethics approval and consent to participate {#FPar3}
==========================================
The study was approved by IACUC of UAMS, Little Rock (Protocol number 3471).
Consent for publication {#FPar4}
=======================
Not applicable.
Competing interests {#FPar5}
===================
The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
Publisher's Note {#FPar6}
================
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
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MORE than 1,000 young people from Coventry had a fun time dreaming up money-making ideas for a major competition yesterday.
About 180 teams of between four and six people took part in the Make Your Mark Challenge as part of Enterprise Week, which runs until Sunday.
It is the biggest nationwide enterprise and innovation competition in the UK.
The project urged contestants from schools and colleges, universities and businesses to come up with money-making ideas that were entertaining and fun.
Bob Pinner, head of the Make Your Mark in Coventry campaign, said: "This year's Make Your Mark Challenge is to come up with a plan to 'Make life fun and earn a ton' and we are encouraging everyone to be enterprising, innovative and creative in their response.
"In the past, creative ideas have produced the space hopper and the Rubik's cube, camera phones and MP3 players. All of these products originally stemmed from someone's imagination."
He spoke to the applied GCSE business studies class at President Kennedy School in Rookery Lane, Coventry, who were among those who took part in the challenge.
He added: "The students at President Kennedy School had some particularly good ideas. They thought automotive machines from an industry that is dying in Coventry could be used to make futuristic robots or that an ASBO centre could be set up for young people to take out their frustrations on recyclable goods such as washing machines and televisions.
"Everyone had six hours to outline how their product was innovative, produce a financial plan, outline the competition and suggest how they'd pitch their idea to a judging panel if they made it through to the next round."
|
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|
Sign up to receive free email alerts when patent applications with chosen keywords are publishedSIGN UP
Abstract:
The present teachings provide a fuser member. The fuser includes a layer
of a siloxyfluorocarbon networked polymer.
Claims:
1. A fuser member comprising a layer of a siloxyfluorocarbon networked
polymer.
2. The fuser member of claim 1 wherein the siloxyfluorocarbon networked
polymer is formed from siloxyfluorocarbon monomers represented by the
structure: ##STR00010## wherein Cf is an aliphatic or aromatic
fluorocarbon chain; L is a CnH2n linker group, where n is a
number between 0 and about 10; and X1, X2, and X3 are
reactive hydroxide functionalities, reactive alkoxide functionalities,
unreactive aliphatic functionalities of about 1 carbon atom to about 10
carbon atoms, unreactive aromatic functionalities of about 1 carbon atom
to 10 carbon atoms.
3. The fuser member of claim 2 wherein the silane siloxyfluorocarbon
monomers contain between about 5 carbon atoms to about 70 carbon atoms.
4. The fuser member of claim 2 wherein the siloxyfluorocarbon networked
polymer comprises a fluorine content of between about 30 weight percent
to about 70 weight percent.
5. The fuser member of claim 2 wherein the siloxyfluorocarbon monomers
are selected from the group consisting of: ##STR00011## where n is a
number between about 1 and about 20, and m is a number between about 1
and about 5.
6. The fuser member of claim 2 wherein the siloxyfluorocarbon monomers
further comprise monomers comprising the structure: ##STR00012##
wherein Cf represents a fluorocarbon chain, which may be aliphatic,
aromatic, or contain mixtures of aliphatic or aromatic fluorocarbon
chains; L is a CnH2n linker group, where n is a number between
0 and about 10; X1, X2, and X3 are selected from the group
consisting of reactive hydroxide functionalities, reactive alkoxide
functionalities, unreactive aliphatic functionalities and unreactive
aromatic functionalites.
7. The fuser member of claim 2 wherein the layer comprising a networked
siloxyfluorocarbon polymer, further comprises non-fluorinated silane
monomers selected from the group consisting of silicon tetraalkoxide and
branched pentasilylchloride.
8. The fuser member of claim 7 wherein the silicon tetraalkoxide and
branched pentasilylchloride are represented by the respective structures;
##STR00013## wherein R is an aliphatic or aromatic hydrocarbon chain of
from about 1 to about 10 carbons.
9. A polymer comprising: a siloxyfluorocarbon networked polymer having a
fluorine content of between about 30 weight percent to about 70 weight
percent.
10. The polymer of claim 9 formed by reacting in a solution of siloxane
terminated fluorocarbons, and a solvent and to form the networked
siloxyfluorocarbon wherein the siloxane terminated fluorocarbons are
represented by the structure: ##STR00014## wherein Cf is an
aliphatic or aromatic fluorocarbon chain; L is a CnH2n linker
group, where n is a number between 0 and about 10; and X1, X2,
and X3 are reactive hydroxide functionalities, reactive alkoxide
functionalities, unreactive aliphatic functionalities of about 1 carbon
atom to about 10 carbon atoms, unreactive aromatic functionalities of
about 1 carbon atom to 10 carbon atoms.
11. The polymer of claim 10 wherein reacting the solution is at a
temperature of from about 100.degree. C. to about 250.degree. C. for a
time of from about 15 minutes to about 20 hours until there is no weight
loss, and complete curing has occurred.
12. The polymer of claim 10 wherein the solvent is selected from the
group consisting of alcohols, ketones, water and mixtures thereof.
13. The polymer of claim 12 wherein an amount of water is from about 1 to
10 molar equivalents of water to the siloxane terminated fluorocarbons.
14. A fuser member comprising: a substrate; a resilient layer disposed on
the substrate; an adhesive layer comprising a networked
siloxyfluorocarbon polymer disposed on the resilient layer; and a release
layer comprising a fluoropolymer disposed on the adhesive layer.
15. The fuser member of claim 14 comprising a roller.
16. The fuser member of claim 14 comprising a belt.
17. The fuser member of claim 14 wherein the resilient layer comprises
silicone.
18. The fuser member of claim 17 further wherein the resilient layer
further comprises a networked siloxyfluorocarbon polymer.
19. The fuser member of claim 14 further wherein the release layer
further comprises a networked siloxyfluorocarbon polymer.
20. The fuser member of claim 14 wherein the adhesive layer has a
thickness of less than about 10 microns.
[0003] This disclosure is generally directed to fuser members useful in
electrophotographic imaging apparatuses, including digital, image on
image, and the like. In addition, the fuser member described herein can
also be used in a transfix apparatus in a solid ink jet printing machine.
[0004] 2. Background
[0005] In the electrophotographic printing process, a toner image can be
fixed or fused upon a support (e.g., a paper sheet) using a fuser roller.
Conventional fusing technologies apply release agents/fuser oils to the
fuser roller during the fusing operation, in order to maintain good
release properties of the fuser roller. For example, oil fusing
technologies have been used for all high speed products in the entry
production and production color market.
[0006] Extending oil-less fusing technologies to high speed printers, such
as 100 pages per minute (ppm) or faster, while meeting a series of
stringent system requirements such as image quality, parts cost,
reliability, long component life, etc. remains technically challenging.
[0007] While perfluoroalkoxy polymer resin (PFA) is currently used in many
topcoat formulations in fuser rollers and belts to yield excellent
release, issues such as surface cracking, denting, and delamination limit
the lifetime of PFA rollers and belts. It would be desirable to find a
material combination for fuser rollers and belts that mitigates surface
cracking, denting and delamination while providing excellent release. In
addition, adhesion between the intermediate layers and outer layer can be
a problem when using a PFA outer layer. It would be desirable to find a
material combination that eliminates the need for adhesion or primer
layers.
SUMMARY
[0008] According to an embodiment, a fuser member is provided. The fuser
member includes a layer of a siloxyfluorocarbon networked polymer.
[0009] According to another embodiment, there is disclosed a method for
producing a polymer comprising reacting in a solution of siloxane
terminated fluorocarbons, and a solvent to form a networked
siloxyfluorocarbon. The siloxyfluorocarbon networked polymer has a
fluorine content of between about 30 weight percent to about 70 weight
percent.
[0010] According to another embodiment there is provided a fuser member.
The fuser member includes a substrate and a resilient layer disposed on
the substrate. An adhesive layer comprising a networked
siloxyfluorocarbon polymer is disposed on the resilient layer. A release
layer comprising a fluoropolymer is disposed on the adhesive layer.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0011] The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute
a part of this specification, illustrate several embodiments of the
present teachings and together with the description, serve to explain the
principles of the present teachings.
[0012] FIG. 1 depicts an exemplary fusing member having a cylindrical
substrate in accordance with the present teachings.
[0013] FIG. 2 depicts an exemplary fusing member having a belt substrate
in accordance with the present teachings.
[0017] It should be noted that some details of the FIGS. have been
simplified and are drawn to facilitate understanding of the embodiments
rather than to maintain strict structural accuracy, detail, and scale.
DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS
[0018] Reference will now be made in detail to embodiments of the present
teachings, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying
drawings. Wherever possible, the same reference numbers will be used
throughout the drawings to refer to the same or like parts.
[0019] In the following description, reference is made to the accompanying
drawings that form a part thereof, and in which is shown by way of
illustration specific exemplary embodiments in which the present
teachings may be practiced. These embodiments are described in sufficient
detail to enable those skilled in the art to practice the present
teachings and it is to be understood that other embodiments may be
utilized and that changes may be made without departing from the scope of
the present teachings. The following description is, therefore, merely
exemplary.
[0020] Illustrations with respect to one or more implementations,
alterations and/or modifications can be made to the illustrated examples
without departing from the spirit and scope of the appended claims. In
addition, while a particular feature may have been disclosed with respect
to only one of several implementations, such feature may be combined with
one or more other features of the other implementations as may be desired
and advantageous for any given or particular function. Furthermore, to
the extent that the terms "including", "includes", "having", "has",
"with", or variants thereof are used in either the detailed description
and the claims, such terms are intended to be inclusive in a manner
similar to the term "comprising." The term "at least one of" is used to
mean one or more of the listed items can be selected.
[0021] Notwithstanding that the numerical ranges and parameters setting
forth the broad scope of embodiments are approximations, the numerical
values set forth in the specific examples are reported as precisely as
possible. Any numerical value, however, inherently contains certain
errors necessarily resulting from the standard deviation found in their
respective testing measurements. Moreover, all ranges disclosed herein
are to be understood to encompass any and all sub-ranges subsumed
therein. For example, a range of "less than 10" can include any and all
sub-ranges between (and including) the minimum value of zero and the
maximum value of 10, that is, any and all sub-ranges having a minimum
value of equal to or greater than zero and a maximum value of equal to or
less than 10, e.g., 1 to 5. In certain cases, the numerical values as
stated for the parameter can take on negative values. In this case, the
example value of range stated as "less than 10" can assume negative
values, e.g. -1, -2, -3, -10, -20, -30, etc.
[0022] The fixing member can include a substrate having one or more
functional layers formed thereon. The substrate can include, e.g., a
cylinder or a belt. The one or more functional layers includes an
outermost or top silicon textured surface having a surface wettability
that is hydrophobic and/or oleophobic; ultrahydrophobic and/or
ultraoleophobic; or superhydrophobic and/or superoleophobic by forming
textured features in the silicon. Such a fixing member can be used as an
oil-less fusing member for high speed, high quality electrophotographic
printing to ensure and maintain a good toner release from the fused toner
image on an image supporting material (e.g., a paper sheet), and further
assist paper stripping. In another embodiment, the silicon textured
surface can provide an oil-free, such as wax-free, toner design for the
oil-less fixing process.
[0023] In various embodiments, the fixing member can include, for example,
a substrate, with one or more functional layers formed thereon. The
substrate can be formed in various shapes, e.g., a cylinder (e.g., a
cylinder tube), a cylindrical drum, a belt, or a film, using suitable
materials that are non-conductive or conductive depending on a specific
configuration, for example, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2.
[0024] Specifically, FIG. 1 depicts exemplary a fixing or fusing member
100 having a cylindrical substrate 110 and FIG. 2 depicts another
exemplary fixing or fusing member 200 having a belt substrate 210 in
accordance with the present teachings. It should be readily apparent to
one of ordinary skill in the art that the fixing or fusing member 100
depicted in FIG. 1 and the fixing or fusing member 200 depicted in FIG. 2
represent generalized schematic illustrations and that other
layers/substrates can be added or existing layers/substrates can be
removed or modified.
[0025] In FIG. 1 the exemplary fixing member 100 can be a fuser roller
having a cylindrical substrate 110 with one or more functional layers 120
and an outer layer 130 formed thereon. In various embodiments, the
cylindrical substrate 110 can take the form of a cylindrical tube, e.g.,
having a hollow structure including a heating lamp therein, or a solid
cylindrical shaft. In FIG. 2, the exemplary fixing member 200 can include
a belt substrate 210 with one or more functional layers, e.g., 220 and an
outer surface 230 formed thereon. The belt substrate 210 and the
cylindrical substrate 110 can be formed from, for example, polymeric
materials (e.g., polyimide, polyaramide, polyether ether ketone,
polyetherimide, polyphthalamide, polyamide-imide, polyketone,
polyphenylene sulfide, fluoropolyimides or fluoropolyurethanes), metal
materials (e.g., aluminum or stainless steel) to maintain rigidity and
structural integrity as known to one of ordinary skill in the art.
[0027] Examples of functional layers 120 and 220 also include
fluoroelastomers. Fluoroelastomers are from the class of 1) copolymers of
two of vinylidenefluoride, hexafluoropropylene, and tetrafluoroethylene;
2) terpolymers of vinylidenefluoride, hexafluoropropylene, and
tetrafluoroethylene; and 3) tetrapolymer's of vinylidenefluoride,
hexafluoropropylene, tetrafluoroethylene, and cure site monomer. These
fluoroelastomers are known commercially under various designations such
as VITON A®, VITON B®, VITON E®, VITON E 60C®, VITON
E430®, VITON 910®, VITON GH®; VITON GF®; and VITON
ETP®. The VITON® designation is a Trademark of E.I. DuPont de
Nemours, Inc. The cure site monomer can be
4-bromoperfluorobutene-1,1,1-dihydro-4-bromoperfluorobutene-1,3-bromoperf-
luoropropene-1,1,1-dihydro-3-bromoperfluoropropene-1, or any other
suitable, known cure site monomer, such as those commercially available
from DuPont. Other commercially available fluoropolymers include FLUOREL
2170°, FLUOREL 2174®, FLUOREL 2176®, FLUOREL 2177® and
FLUOREL LVS 76®, FLUOREL® being a registered trademark of 3M
Company. Additional commercially available materials include AFLAS® a
poly(propylene-tetrafluoroethylene) and FLUOREL II® (LII900) a
poly(propylene-tetrafluoroethylenevinylidenefluoride) both also available
from 3M Company, as well as the Tecnoflons identified as FOR-60KIR®,
FOR-LHF®, NM® FOR-THF®, FOR-TFS®, TH®, NH®,
P757®, TNS®, T439®, PL958®, BR9151® and TN505®,
available from Ausimont.
[0028] Examples of three known fluoroelastomers are (1) a class of
copolymers of two of vinylidenefluoride, hexafluoropropylene, and
tetrafluoroethylene, such as those known commercially as VITON A®;
(2) a class Of terpolymers of vinylidenefluoride, hexafluoropropylene,
and tetrafluoroethylene known commercially as VITON B®; and (3) a
class of tetrapolymers of vinylidenefluoride, hexafluoropropylene,
tetrafluoroethylene, and cure site monomer known commercially as VITON
GH® or VITON GF®.
[0029] The fluoroelastomers VITON GH® and VITON GF® have
relatively low amounts of vinylidenefluoride. The VITON GF® and VITON
GH® have about 35 weight percent of vinylidenefluoride, about 34
weight percent of hexafluoropropylene, and about 29 weight percent of
tetrafluoroethylene, with about 2 weight percent cure site monomer.
[0030] For a roller configuration, the thickness of the functional layer
can be from about 0.5 mm to about 10 mm, or from about 1 mm to about 8
mm, or from about 2 mm to about 7 mm. For a belt configuration, the
functional layer can be from about 25 microns up to about 2 mm, or from
40 microns to about 1.5 mm, or from 50 microns to about 1 mm.
[0031] An exemplary embodiment of a release layer 130 or 230 includes
fluoropolymer particles. Fluoropolymer particles suitable for use in the
formulation described herein include fluorine-containing polymers. These
polymers include fluoropolymers comprising a monomeric repeat unit that
is selected from the group consisting of vinylidene fluoride,
hexafluoropropylene, tetrafluoroethylene, perfluoroalkylvinylether, and
mixtures thereof. The fluoropolymers may include linear or branched
polymers, and cross-linked fluoroelastomers. Examples of fluoropolymer
include polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE); perfluoroalkoxy polymer resin
(PFA); copolymer of tetrafluoroethylene (TFE) and hexafluoropropylene
(HFP); copolymers of hexafluoropropylene (HFP) and vinylidene fluoride
(VDF or VF2); terpolymers of tetrafluoroethylene (TFE), vinylidene
fluoride (VDF), and hexafluoropropylene (HFP); and tetrapolymers of
tetrafluoroethylene (TFE), vinylidene fluoride (VF2), and
hexafluoropropylene (HFP), and mixtures thereof. The fluoropolymer
particles provide chemical and thermal stability and have a low surface
energy. The fluoropolymer particles have a melting temperature of from
about 255° C. to about 360° C. or from about 280° C.
to about 330° C. These particles are melted to form the release
layer.
[0032] For the fuser member 200, the thickness of the outer surface layer
or release layer 230 can be from about 10 microns to about 100 microns,
or from about 20 microns to about 80 microns, or from about 40 microns to
about 60 microns.
[0033] Additives and additional conductive or non-conductive fillers may
be present in the intermediate layer substrate layers 110 and 210, the
intermediate layers 220 and 230 and the release layers 130 and 230. In
various embodiments, other filler materials or additives including, for
example, inorganic particles, can be used for the coating composition and
the subsequently formed surface layer. Conductive fillers used herein may
include carbon blacks such as carbon black, graphite, fullerene,
acetylene black, fluorinated carbon black, and the like; carbon
nanotubes; metal oxides and doped metal oxides, such as tin oxide,
antimony dioxide, antimony-doped tin oxide, titanium dioxide, indium
oxide, zinc oxide, indium oxide, indium-doped tin trioxide, and the like;
and mixtures thereof. Certain polymers such as polyanilines,
polythiophenes, polyacetylene, poly(p-phenylene vinylene),
poly(p-phenylene sulfide), pyrroles, polyindole, polypyrene,
polycarbazole, polyazulene, polyazepine, poly(fluorine), polynaphthalene,
salts of organic sulfonic acid, esters of phosphoric acid, esters of
fatty acids, ammonium or phosphonium salts and mixtures thereof can be
used as conductive fillers. In various embodiments, other additives known
to one of ordinary skill in the art can also be included to form the
disclosed composite materials.
[0034] Optionally, any known and available suitable adhesive layer may be
positioned between the outer layer or outer surface, the functional layer
and the substrate. The adhesive layer can be coated on the substrate, or
on the outer layer, to a thickness of from about 2 nanometers to about
10,000 nanometers, or from about 2 nanometers to about 1,000 nanometers,
or from about 2 nanometers to about 5000 nanometers. The adhesive can be
coated by any suitable known technique, including spray coating or
wiping.
[0035] FIGS. 3A-4B and FIGS. 4A-4B depict exemplary fusing configurations
for the fusing process in accordance with the present teachings. It
should be readily apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art that the
fusing configurations 300A-B depicted in FIGS. 3A-3B and the fusing
configurations 400A-B depicted in FIGS. 4A-4B represent generalized
schematic illustrations and that other
members/layers/substrates/configurations can be added or existing
members/layers/substrates/configurations can be removed or modified.
Although an electrophotographic printer is described herein, the
disclosed apparatus and method can be applied to other printing
technologies. Examples include offset printing and inkjet and solid
transfix machines.
[0036] FIGS. 3A-3B depict the fusing configurations 300A-B using a fuser
roller shown in FIG. 1 in accordance with the present teachings. The
configurations 300A-B can include a fuser roller 100 (i.e., 100 of FIG.
1) that forms a fuser nip with a pressure applying mechanism 335, such as
a pressure roller in FIG. 3A or a pressure belt in FIG. 3B, for an image
supporting material 315. In various embodiments, the pressure applying
mechanism 335 can be used in combination with a heat lamp 337 to provide
both the pressure and heat for the fusing process of the toner particles
on the image supporting material 315. In addition, the configurations
300A-B can include one or more external heat roller 350 along with, e.g.,
a cleaning web 360, as shown in FIG. 3A and FIG. 3B.
[0037] FIGS. 4A-4B depict fusing configurations 400A-B using a fuser belt
shown in FIG. 2 in accordance with the present teachings. The
configurations 400A-B can include a fuser belt 200 (i.e., 200 of FIG. 2)
that forms a fuser nip with a pressure applying mechanism 435, such as a
pressure roller in FIG. 4A or a pressure belt in FIG. 4B, for a media
substrate 415. In various embodiments, the pressure applying mechanism
435 can be used in a combination with a heat lamp to provide both the
pressure and heat for the fusing process of the toner particles on the
media substrate 415. In addition, the configurations 400A-B can include a
mechanical system 445 to move the fuser belt 200 and thus fusing the
toner particles and forming images on the media substrate 415. The
mechanical system 445 can include one or more rollers 445a-c, which can
also be used as heat rollers when needed.
[0038]FIG. 5 demonstrates a view of an embodiment of a transfix member 7
which may be in the form of a belt, sheet, film, or like form. The
transfix member 7 is constructed similarly to the fuser belt 200
described above. The developed image 12 positioned on intermediate
transfer member 1 is brought into contact with and transferred to
transfix member 7 via rollers 4 and 8. Roller 4 and/or roller 8 may or
may not have heat associated therewith. Transfix member 7 proceeds in the
direction of arrow 13. The developed image is transferred and fused to a
copy substrate 9 as copy substrate 9 is advanced between rollers 10 and
11. Rollers 10 and/or 11 may or may not have heat associated therewith.
[0039] Disclosed herein is fuser member that includes a siloxyfluorocarbon
networked polymer in any of the above described layers. The
siloxyfluorcarbon networked polymer is formed via sol-gel chemistry.
Siloxyfluorocarbon monomers are crosslinked via sol-gel chemistry, where
hydrolysis and condensation of alkoxide or hydroxide groups occurs and
upon curing at elevated temperatures, produces a coating used on fusing
surfaces. The siloxyfluorocarbon networked polymer can be present in one
or more of the intermediate layer, the outer layer, or the adhesive
layer. The siloxyfluorocarbon networked polymer can withstand high
temperature conditions without melting or degradation, is mechanically
robust under fusing conditions, and displays good release under fusing
conditions. The siloxyfluorocarbon (SFC) networked polymer is well suited
to serve as an adhesive layer for fuser rollers or belts. A SFC networked
polymer layer binds together the silicone rubber and the fusing topcoat.
Using SFC as an adhesive layer decreases the occurrence of failure due to
delamination, and suppresses defects occurring during processing by
forming a networked, reinforcing layer around the silicone rubber.
[0040] Monofunctional, difunctional, or trifunctional silane end groups
may be used to prepare a siloxyfluorocarbon networked polymer.
Siloxyfluorocarbon monomers are represented by the structure:
##STR00001##
wherein Cf is an aliphatic or aromatic fluorocarbon chain; L is a
CnH2n linker group, where n is a number between 0 and about 10;
and X1, X2, and X3 are reactive hydroxide functionalities,
reactive alkoxide functionalities, unreactive aliphatic functionalities
of about 1 carbon atom to about 10 carbon atoms, unreactive aromatic
functionalities of about 1 carbon atom to 10 carbon atoms.
[0041] In addition to the monomers listed above, the siloxyfluorocarbon
networked polymer can be prepared using monomers having the following
structure:
##STR00002##
wherein Cf represents a fluorocarbon chain, which may be aliphatic,
aromatic, or contain mixtures of aliphatic or aromatic fluorocarbon
chains; L is a CnH2n linker group, where n is a number between
0 and about 10 (most likely 0 to 2); X1, X2, and X3 may be
reactive hydroxide or alkoxide functionalities, or unreactive
functionalities (aliphatic or aromatic hydrocarbons).
[0042] In addition to the monomers listed above, the siloxyfluorocarbon
networked polymer can be prepared using monomers that include
non-fluorinated silane monomers selected from the group consisting of
silicon tetraalkoxide and branched pentasilylchloride. The silicon
tetraalkoxide and branched pentasilylchloride are represented by the
respective structures;
##STR00003##
[0043] The siloxyfluorocarbon networked polymer comprises a fluorine
content of between about 30 weight percent to about 70 weight percent or
from about 40 weight percent to about 70 weight percent or from about 50
weight percent to about 70 weight percent. The silicon content, by
weight, in the siloxyfluorocarbon networked polymer is from about 1
weight percent silicon to about 20 weight percent silicon, or from about
1.5 weight percent silicon to about 15 weight percent silicon or from
about 2 weight percent silicon to about 10 weight percent silicon.
[0044] The monomers are networked together so that all monomers are
molecularly bonded together in the cured coating via silicon oxide
(Si--O--Si) linkages. Therefore, a molecular weight can not be given for
the siloxyfluorocarbon networked polymer because the coating is
crosslinked into one system.
[0045] Solvents used for sol gel processing of siloxyfluorocarbon
precursors and coating of layers include organic hydrocarbon solvents,
and fluorinated solvents. Alcohols such as methanol, ethanol, and
isopropanol are typically used to promote sol gel reactions in solution.
Further examples of solvents include ketones such as methyl ethyl ketone,
and methyl isobutyl ketone. Mixtures of solvents may be used. The solvent
system included the addition of a small portion of water, such as from
about 1 molar equivalent to 10 molar equivalents of water compared to
siloxyfluorocarbon precursors or the siloxane terminated fluorocarbons,
or from about 2 molar equivalents to about 4 molar equivalents of water.
[0046] Upon the addition of water to the solution of sol gel precursors,
alkoxy groups react with water, and condense to form agglomerates that
are partially networked, and are referred to as a sol. Upon coating of
the partially networked sol onto a substrate, a gel is formed upon
drying, and with subsequent heat treatment, the fully networked SFC
coating (siloxyfluorocarbon networked polymer) is formed on the substrate
surface (fuser substrate).
[0047] A siloxyfluorocarbon networked polymer does not dissolve when
exposed to solvents (such as ketones, chlorinated solvents, ethers etc.)
and does not degrade at temperatures up to 350° C., and is stable
at higher temperatures, depending on the system. The siloxyfluorocrbon
networked polymer exhibits good release when exposed to toner or other
contaminants, so that toner and other printing-related materials do not
adhere to the fusing member.
[0048] Ceramic materials are well-known for their strength and durability;
however, they tend to be non-elastic and brittle. Therefore, ceramics
alone are not ideal for use as a fusing material. The use of metal
alkoxide sol-gel components allows the chemical incorporation of ceramic
domains into a hybrid system. It is desirable to couple sol-gel
components with fluorocarbon chains both to introduce flexibility into
the system, as well as to keep the fluorination content high for good
release.
[0049] In an embodiment, one can use metal alkoxide (M=Si, Al, Ti etc.)
functionalities as cross-linking components between fluorocarbon chains.
For cross-linking to occur efficiently throughout the composite,
bifunctional fluorocarbon chains are used. Mono-functional fluorocarbon
chains can also be added to enrich fluorination content.
CF3-terminated chains align at the fusing surface to reduce surface
energy and improve release.
[0050] Examples of precursors that may be used to form a composite system
include silicon tetraalkoxide and siloxane-terminated fluorocarbon chains
and are shown below. Siloxane-based sol-gel precursors are commercially
available. The addition of a silicon tetraalkoxide (such as a silicon
tetraalkoxide, below) introduces extra cross-linking and robustness to
the material, but is not necessary to form the sol-gel/fluorocarbon
composite system.
##STR00004##
[0051] Fluorocarbon chains include readily available dialkene precursors
which can then be converted to silanes via hydrosilation (Reaction 1).
Monofunctional fluorinated siloxane chains are commercially available as
methyl or ethyl siloxanes, or could be converted from chlorosilane or
dialkene precursors.
##STR00005##
[0052] Shown below are some fluorinated and siloxane precursors that are
commercially available. Fluorocarbon and siloxane materials are available
from a variety of vendors including Gelest, Synquest, Apollo Scientific,
Fluorochem, TCI America, Anachemica, Lancaster Synthesis Inc., and
Polysciences Inc.
##STR00006##
[0053] A representation of an example of a crosslinked composite system
incorporating both monofunctional and difunctional fluorinated siloxane
chains is shown in Structure 1. In this example, mechanical properties
and fluorination content can be modified by adjustment of the ratio of
mono- to difunctional precursors.
##STR00007##
[0054] Organic-inorganic hybrid materials have been prepared for flexible
optical waveguide applications using a trifunctional siloxane group, and
fluorinated bis-phenol-A, described in J. Mater. Chem. 2008, 18, 579-585.
The resulting materials were reported to be hard, yet flexible, and
crack-free. Hybrid materials of this type are often cited for optical
waveguide applications due to desirable refractive index properties of
fluorinated materials combined with the mechanical strength of ceramics.
However, these materials are not suitable for fuser applications where
mechanical strength, flexibility and low surface energy are required.
[0057] In a flow coating process, one pass of the SFC topcoat layer
solution was added to a bare Olympia roller and allowed to air-dry. Heat
treatment was carried out to 218° C. to ensure networking of the
topcoat layer,
[0058] The outer SFC topcoat could not be scraped away with a spatula or
peeled from the surface of the silicone rubber. In comparison, a PFA
topcoat of an Olympia control roller with primer can be peeled from the
silicone substrate. In addition, pressing with a spatula or a hard tip
did not result in a compressed area to the extent that is observed for a
PFA topcoat, and simulates surface damage that may occur during handling.
Fusing studies carried out with the SFC topcoat show that toner release
occurs with wax-containing toner and without requiring the aid of an oil
barrier between the topcoat layer and toner/paper surface.
[0059] A proportion of siloxy functionalities are bonded within the
siloxyfluorocarbon networked polymer and can be additionally bonded to
other fusing layer to the extent to allow for release with toner, and
remaining siloxy functionalities are present to a small extent that does
not result in surface contamination.
[0060] Fusing measures such as cold offset temperature and hot offset
temperature are influenced by the fluorocarbon chain length and the
fluorine content of the siloxyfluorocarbon topcoat. Hot offset
temperature is increased with increasing n of (CF2)n
fluorocarbon chain incorporated into the SFC networked polymer.
[0061] A coating of perfluoroalkoxy polymer resin (PFA) with 10 weight
percent of siloxyfluorocarbon networked polymer was applied over a primer
layer composed of siloxyfluorocarbon networked polymer. The structure of
the disiloxyperfluorohexane (SFC) is shown below.
[0063] In a flow coating process, one pass of the primer layer solution
was added to a bare Olympia roller and allowed to air-dry. Immediately
following, 4 successive passes of PFA topcoat dispersion were applied to
the surface with 5 minutes between passes. Heat treatment was carried out
to 218° C. to ensure networking of the primer layer, followed by
heat treated in a 350° C. oven for 15 minute to cure the PFA
topcoat.
[0064] The outer PFA coating could not be scraped away with a spatula or
peeled from the surface of the silicone rubber. In comparison, the PFA
topcoat of an Olympia control roller with primer can be peeled from the
silicone substrate. Cracking of the outer PFA topcoat was not observed.
[0065] The PFA with 10 weight percent SFC topcoat would not adhere as
strongly to the silicone rubber without the addition of the SFC primer
layer. It has been demonstrated that a composite coating of 25 weight
percent SFC/75 weight percent PFA can be peeled away from a silicone
substrate by force. The addition of the SFC primer layer with PFA
containing only 10 weight percent SFC produced a strongly bound topcoat.
[0066] In order to enhance adhesion to the primer layer, a small amount of
SFC networked polymer may be added to the topcoat formulation. SFC may be
added in the range of about 0.1 weight percent to about 10 weight
percent, or from about 1 weight percent to about 5 weight percent, or
about 2 weight percent to about 4 weight percent. The surface energy of
flow-coated SFC (disiloxyperfluorohexane), shown in Table 1, is
comparable to that of Viton and should not affect toner release in small
amounts.
[0067] Application of the adhesive layer may be carried out by
spray-coating, flow-coating, or by other coating methods. Typically, a
solution of SFC material in ethanol or another alcohol or mixture
containing alcohol can be prepared with the addition of 3-4 equivalents
of water and a catalytic amount of acid or base to initiate networking.
Following air-drying, the topcoat layer can be applied. The SFC primer
layer can fully network and adhere to both silicone and the topcoat layer
with heat treatment.
[0068] It will be appreciated that variants of the above-disclosed and
other features and functions or alternatives thereof may be combined into
other different systems or applications. Various presently unforeseen or
unanticipated alternatives, modifications, variations, or improvements
therein may be subsequently made by those skilled in the art, which are
also encompassed by the following claims.
Patent applications by Carolyn P. Moorlag, Mississauga CA
Patent applications by Edward G. Zwartz, Mississauga CA
Patent applications by Gordon Sisler, St. Catharines CA
Patent applications by Guiqin Song, Milton CA
Patent applications by Kurt I. Halfyard, Mississauga CA
Patent applications by Nan-Xing Hu, Oakville CA
Patent applications by Nicoleta D. Mihai, Oakville CA
Patent applications by Qi Zhang, Mississauga CA
Patent applications by T. Brian Mcaneney, Burlington CA
Patent applications by Yu Qi, Oakville CA
Patent applications by XEROX CORPORATION
Patent applications in class Including synthetic resin or polymer layer or component
Patent applications in all subclasses Including synthetic resin or polymer layer or component
|
{
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
}
|
Effect of intranasal administration of Lactobacillus fermentum CJL-112 on horizontal transmission of influenza virus in chickens.
The aim of this study was to determine whether intranasal administration of Lactobacillus sp. could prevent horizontal transmission of H9N2 avian influenza virus (AIV) in specific-pathogen-free chickens. Three-week-old chickens received 500 μL of 1.5 × 10(9) cfu of Lactobacillus fermentum CJL-112 strain (CJL) intranasally for 7 d before and 14 d after a challenge. Challenged chickens, each inoculated with H9N2 AIV, were kept in either direct or indirect contact with naive chickens, and morbidity and viral shedding were monitored. We demonstrated that the intranasal administration of CJL significantly decreased the number of chickens with viral shedding from the gastrointestinal tract in the indirect contact chickens (P < 0.001) and also significantly reduced viral shedding from the respiratory tract in the challenged (P < 0.05) and the direct contact chickens (P < 0.001) than those in the control group. Hence, the use of this lactobacilli strain may constitute a novel and effectively plausible alternative to prevent and control H9N2 AIV infection in chickens.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "PubMed Abstracts"
}
|
<?php
namespace WPGraphQL\Type\Enum;
use WPGraphQL\Type\WPEnumType;
class PostStatusEnum {
public static function register_type() {
$post_status_enum_values = [
'name' => 'PUBLISH',
'value' => 'publish',
];
$post_stati = get_post_stati();
if ( ! empty( $post_stati ) && is_array( $post_stati ) ) {
/**
* Reset the array
*/
$post_status_enum_values = [];
/**
* Loop through the post_stati
*/
foreach ( $post_stati as $status ) {
$post_status_enum_values[ WPEnumType::get_safe_name( $status ) ] = [
'description' => sprintf( __( 'Objects with the %1$s status', 'wp-graphql' ), $status ),
'value' => $status,
];
}
}
register_graphql_enum_type(
'PostStatusEnum',
[
'description' => __( 'The status of the object.', 'wp-graphql' ),
'values' => $post_status_enum_values,
]
);
}
}
|
{
"pile_set_name": "Github"
}
|
Solving chemical problems with pattern recognition.
Pattern Recognition is becoming established as a general data analysis tool which has widespread applications in chemistry. Whenever something must be learned from objects (elements, compounds, and mixtures) and a chemical/physical theory has not been sufficiently developed, pattern recognition may provide a solution. Materials production problems, screening applications, source identification and structure analysis are important areas of current interest. It is expected that many more areas of application will open up in the years to come. In short, the "educated guess" is being supported by the computer; at least that is our educated guess.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "PubMed Abstracts"
}
|
Assessing hydroxychloroquine toxicity by the multifocal ERG.
Twenty patients on Plaquenil treatment were evaluated for retinal toxicity using the (EOG) and the mfERG. Group 1 comprises 15 patients (30 eyes) with normal EOG. From these patients 11 (22 eyes) showed normal RRD of mfERG in area 1 and area 2. The rest four patients (8 eyes) the RRD were reduced. Six months after interruption of HC, the mfERG improved in three cases. Group 2 comprises 5 patients (10 eyes) with subnormal EOG. Four (8 eyes) of these showed a decrease of RRD of the mfERG in area 1 and 2. In the rest one (2 eyes) the RRD were normal. Six months after interruption of HC the mfERG and the EOG improved in 2 cases. These results postulate that the mfERG may be used as an alternative method, perhaps more sensitive, for the detection of the HC retinopathy and the follow up of the patients on hydroxychloroquine.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "PubMed Abstracts"
}
|
Q:
Photomosaic non-georefferenced images using open-source software
I have a directory of images that were captured by drone. The images have GPS info in the EXIF tags but are not georefferenced and do not have world files. I would like to merge these photos into a single mosaic file that I can then georefference in a GIS.
Are there any open-source application that will create the mosaic or am I stuck purchasing an expensive application like Agisoft Photoscan?
I want to create the mosaic automatically and not piece it together one image at a time with something like Photoshop.
A:
You have Open Drone Map to georeference photos and create Orthomosaic. You can do in you machine with Open drone Map desktop or ODMWeb.
ODM Desktop works in linux, so if you have a different OS you need to use a virtual machine, Docker or Vagrant.
This software works similar than PhotoScan, but the results aren't so good as PS and you can manage at the same level. But it's free and it'll generate:
3d model
Point cloud (.obj or .las file)
DSM
Orthomosaic
To improve the output, you can make an orthorectification with georeferencer plug-in in QGIS (also free)
|
{
"pile_set_name": "StackExchange"
}
|
496 F.2d 1119
Marc Aurele JEANTY and Maxence Jeanty, Plaintiffs-Appellants,v.McKEY & POAGUE, INC., et al., Defendants-Appellees.
No. 73-1634.
United States Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit.
Argued April 9, 1974.Decided May 23, 1974.
Douglas C. Nohlgren, Robert G. Schwemm, Chicago, Ill., for plaintiffs-appellants.
Raymond H. Groble, Jr., Joseph H. Taylor, Sr., Chicago, Ill., for defendants-appellees.
Before SWYGERT, Chief Judge, SPRECHER, Circuit Judge, and NOLAND,* District Judge.
NOLAND, District Judge.
This action under Title VIII of the Civil Rights Act of 1968 (42 U.S.C. 3601 et seq.) arises from plaintiffs' assertions that the defendants refused to rent an apartment to them on the basis of their race. After trial the District Court dismissed the complaint as to defendants McKey and Poague, Inc., and its employees, defendants George M. Hiles and H. M. Migely. The Court entered judgment against defendant Presbitero & Sons, Inc., awarding $701.64 in damages, costs and attorneys' fees.
Plaintiffs contend that the Trial Court erred in dismissing the defendant rental management company and its employees and in awarding inadequate damages and attorneys' fees.
With respect to the plaintiffs' first contention, the Trial Court found that the plaintiffs made application to lease the premises in question and were refused on the ground that the defendant owner would no longer rent to single men. The Court found further that the reason given was a subterfuge and concluded that the refusal to rent to the plaintiffs was racially discriminatory. On the basis of these findings the dismissal of the complaint as to McKey & Poague and its employees, Presbitero's exclusive rental agents, cannot be sustained. Though the management agreement between McKey and Poague and Presbitero states that 'Leases and tenants shall be approved by the owner,' the evidence disclosed that, whoever decided not to rent to the plaintiffs, the discriminatory acts alleged were performed by McKey & Poague's employees. It is well established that agents will be liable for their own unlawful conduct, even where their actions were at the behest of the principal. Sanborn v. Wagner, 354 F.Supp. 291, 295 (D.Md.1973); Young v. AAA Realty Co. of Greensboro, Inc., 350 F.Supp. 1382, 1387 (M.D.N.Car.1972); Williamson v. Hampton Management Company, 339 F.Supp. 1146, 1149 (N.D.Ill.1972).
Plaintiffs next contend that the Trial Court erred in limiting its award of compensatory damages to $100.00, representing plaintiffs' out-of-pocket expenses. It appears from the District Court's opinion that the Court considered only out-of-pocket costs in determining the amount of compensatory damages to be awarded. However, recovery may also be had for emotional distress and humiliation, Steele v. Title Realty Company, 478 F.2d 380, 384 (10th Cir. 1973); Smith v. Sol D. Adler Realty Company, 436 F.2d 344, 351 (7th Cir. 1970) and the Court therefore should have considered this element in arriving at the damage award figure.
The plaintiffs next contend that the Trial Court erred in refusing to award punitive damages. In making this determination the Court appears to have considered solely the personality of plaintiff Marc Aurele Jeanty as it appeared to the Trial Judge during that plaintiff's testimony. Upon remand, the appropriate consideration in deciding the issue of punitive damages is the motive and attitude of the defendants in refusing the apartment in question to the plaintiffs. Thus, while punitive damages are not to be allowed for every Title VIII violation, in each case the Court should consider whether or not the defendants acted wantonly and wilfully, Wright v. Kaine Realty, 352 F.Supp. 222, 223 (N.D.Ill.1972) or were motivated in their actions by ill will, malice, or a desire to injure the plaintiffs. Steele v. Title Realty Company, supra at 384.
Finally, plaintiffs assert that the Trial Court erred in limiting attorneys' fees awarded to $400. In view of the substantial time expenditure involved by plaintiffs' highly qualified counsel in bringing this action and the several hearings involved, we feel that the question of attorneys' fees should be reconsidered.
Plaintiffs have also requested in their brief that they be awarded attorney fees for the appeal.1 The court has the authority under 42 U.S.C. 3612(c) to award attorney fees when the plaintiff, as here, is financially unable to assume them. Steele v. Title Realty Company, 478 F.2d at 385. The general policy behind the award of attorney fees was set forth by the Supreme Court in Newman v. Piggie Park Enterprises, Inc., 390 U.S. 400, 88 S.Ct. 964, 19 L.Ed.2d 1263 (1968). Although that case was under Title II of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. 2000a-3(a), the language is equally applicable to a Title VIII action:
When the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed, it was evident that enforcement would prove difficult and that the Nation would have to rely in part upon private litigation as a means of securing broad compliance with the law.
If successful plaintiffs were routinely forced to bear their own attorneys' fees, few aggrieved parties would be in a position to advance the public interest by invoking the injunctive powers of the federal courts. Congress therefore enacted the provision for counsel fees-- not simply to penalize litigants who deliberately advance arguments they know to be untenable but, more broadly, to encourage individuals injured by racial discrimination to seek judicial relief under Title II, 390 U.S. at 401-02, 88 S.Ct. 966.
We accordingly award attorney fees for this appeal to the plaintiff in the sum of $1,000.
The judgment appealed from is therefore reversed and the cause remanded under terms of Circuit Rule 23 for further proceedings consistent with this order. Defendants are to bear the costs and attorney fees of this appeal except for the cost of the appendix which shall be borne by the plaintiffs.
Reversed and remanded.
*
District Judge James E. Noland of the Southern District of Indiana is sitting by designation
1
The defendant did not oppose this request
|
{
"pile_set_name": "FreeLaw"
}
|
For contact call 07964791663 or 07842765067
A large demonstration of around 300 students today took place on University of Birmingham campus. The students unfurled a banner on the clock tower and engaged in a brief sit-in in the Great Hall during the protest – while also maintaining their occupation of the Horton Grange conference center which has been in occupation for over a week.
The demonstration followed a national meeting of a large number of campus groups, which has put out a call for co-ordinated direct action from 6th February.
After the protest was over, a large group of 100 students were kettled upon exiting the Great Hall. The kettle lasted four hours, keeping protestors and press in the freezing cold. Around a dozen arrests were made as students were let out the kettle one by one.
Kirsty Haigh, an NCAFC activist and union officer at Edinburgh University said “What we saw from management and police today was utterly disgraceful. As far as we know the arrests were all for refusing to give their names to the police. Universities everywhere are losing the argument on staff exploitation and privatisation – and the only argument we saw from them today was brute force.”
The protest was calling for free education and living wages for staff on campus and is part of a series of protests that have been running since November.
Catie Garner, a student from Birmingham Defend Education, said “5 students currently face disciplinary and maybe expulsion for occupying the senate chamber for 8 days in November. Now more than a dozen protesters and students have been arrested for a peaceful sit-in in the Great Hall. The University has spent tens of thousands of pounds on two injunctions to ban our occupations, and the cost of dozens of police and security must be astronomical. It would only cost £80k a year to pay all staff on campus a living wage wouldn’t it be easier to do that rather than spend all this money trying to quash dissent?”.
Student dissent has been facing a crack-down for several months. Hannah Webb, from UCL student union and NCAFC said “Detention for a minor act of civil disobedience represents yet another attempt to criminalise peaceful protest and to dissuade people from taking part in increasingly popular movements to defend education, services and jobs.”
This episode comes after last term’s #copsoffcampus demonstrations, largely in reaction to heavy police repression, in particular at the University of London, where 41 arrests were made in 48 hours.
Strikes and student occupations are expected to intensify in coming weeks. The national meeting that preceded today’s demonstration also called for co-ordinated direct action from 6th February.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
}
|
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for preparing Fraction I protein from unpurified extracts of a variety of plant species by crystallization with polyethylene glycol, and more particularly to a method which provides for the removal of certain phosphorylated sugars from the polyethylene glycol solution and allows recycling of the solution.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Fraction I protein, the most abundant protein found in plants, has been identified as the enzyme ribulose 1, 5-bisphosphate carboxylase (RuBisCO). Fraction I protein is widely distributed in nature and constitutes up to 50% of the water soluble protein contained in leaves and approximately 20% of the total plant protein. The amino acid composition of Fraction I protein is well balanced in terms of the essential and non-essential amino acids, comparing favorably with soybean, casein, and animal proteins. The amounts of the essential amino acids in Fraction I protein, with the exception of methionine, meet and often exceed most published human nutritional requirements.
For some years, it has been the goal of a number of scientific and industrial researchers to provide a large-scale method for recovering Fraction I protein from a variety of plant sources. Much work has been done, and substantial steps have been taken toward this goal. See, e.g., Paulsen and Lane (1966) Biochem. 52:2350-2357, describing a method for purifying spinach RuBisCO on a laboratory scale. Compare the more recent work described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,347,324 and 4,268,632 to Wildman et al., U.S. Pat. No. 3,340,676 to Bourque, and particularly U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,334,024 and 4,400,471 to Johal, the inventor herein.
While the methods taught in these references hold much promise, until the methods can be improved to provide for the efficient production of Fraction I protein on a commercial scale, their promise cannot be realized. For example, heretofore, recycling of polyethylene glycol (PEG) used to crystallize the RuBisCO has been difficult because of the presence of other substances released during fractionation of the plant material. Thus, it would be highly desirable to provide improved methods for the recovery of Fraction I protein from various plant sources on a large scale with relatively low costs, particularly methods which allow recycling of the PEG.
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