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Grand Central Terminal The concourses are connected by two ramps, which comprise a west–east axis under an ceiling. They intersect a slight slope from the Dining Concourse just outside the Oyster Bar, under an archway covered with Guastavino tiling. The arch creates a whispering gallery: someone standing in one corner can hear someone speaking softly in the diagonally opposite corner. An overpass between the main concourse and the Vanderbilt Hall passes over the archway; from 1927 until 1998, the sides of the overpass were enclosed by walls about high. As part of the terminal's late-1990s renovation, stands and restaurants were installed in the concourse, and escalators added to link to the main concourse level. Additionally, the MTA spent $2.2 million to construct two 45-foot-wide circular designs in the concourse's floor. The designs were by David Rockwell and Beyer Blinder Belle, made of terrazzo, and installed over the concourse's original terrazzo floor. Since 2015, part of the Dining Concourse has been closed for the construction of structural framework to support stairways and escalators to the new LIRR terminal being built as part of East Side Access. A small square-framed clock is installed in the ceiling near Tracks 108 and 109. It was manufactured at an unknown time by the Self Winding Clock Company, which made several others in the terminal. The clock hung inside the gate at Track 19 until 2011, when it was moved so it would not be blocked by lights added during upper-level platform improvements | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=301591 | 219,281 |
Philip James Rutledge (October 15, 1925 – January 26, 2007) was a senior administrator during the presidency of Lyndon B. Johnson, and past President of the American Society for Public Administration, Rutledge was a professor of public and environmental affairs and political science at Indiana University Northwest, and he also was chair of the Department of Public Administration at Howard University. Rutledge was born October 15, 1925 in Dawson, Georgia. He received s bachelor's degree in political science and sociology from Roosevelt University in Chicago, and a master's of Public Health from the University of Michigan School of Public Health. In 1980, he received an Honorary Doctor of Laws from Indiana University Bloomington. He died on January 26, 2007. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=49505160 | 473,787 |
Adjustable-speed drive The transmitted torque is proportional to the pressure exerted by a hydraulic cylinder that presses the discs together. This effect may be used as a clutch, such at the Hele-Shaw clutch, or as a variable-speed drive, such as the Beier variable-ratio gear. Mechanical and hydraulic adjustable speed drives are usually called transmissions or continuously variable transmissions when they are used in vehicles, farm equipment and some other types of equipment. Control can mean either manually adjustable - by means of a potentiometer or linear hall effect device, (which is more resistant to dust and grease) or it can also be automatically controlled for example by using a rotational detector such as a Gray code optical encoder. There are three general categories of electric drives: DC motor drives, eddy current drives and AC motor drives. Each of these general types can be further divided into numerous variations. Electric drives generally include both an electric motor and a speed control unit or system. The term "drive" is often applied to the controller without the motor. In the early days of electric drive technology, electromechanical control systems were used. Later, electronic controllers were designed using various types of vacuum tubes. As suitable solid state electronic components became available, new controller designs incorporated the latest electronic technology. DC drives are DC motor speed control systems | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2769817 | 201,151 |
Movie projector A movie projector is an opto-mechanical device for displaying motion picture film by projecting it onto a screen. Most of the optical and mechanical elements, except for the illumination and sound devices, are present in movie cameras. The main precursor to the movie projector was the magic lantern. In its most common setup it had a concave mirror behind a light source to help direct as much light as possible through a painted glass picture slide and a lens, out of the lantern onto a screen. Simple mechanics to have the painted images moving were probably implemented since Christiaan Huygens introduced the apparatus around 1659. Initially candles and oil lamps were used, but other light sources, such as the argand lamp and limelight were usually adopted soon after their introduction. Magic lantern presentations may often have had relatively small audiences, but the very popular phantasmagoria and dissolving views shows were usually performed in proper theatres, large tents or especially converted spaces with plenty seats. Both Joseph Plateau and Simon Stampfer thought of lantern projection when they independently introduced stroboscopic animation in 1833 with a stroboscopic disc (which became known as the phenakistiscope), but neither of them intended to work on projection themselves. The oldest known successful screenings of stroboscopic animation were performed by Ludwig Döbler in 1847 in Vienna and taken on a tour to several large European cities for over a year | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=731779 | 421,218 |
Seasonal energy efficiency ratio The efficiency of air conditioners is often rated by the seasonal energy efficiency ratio (SEER) which is defined by the Air Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration Institute in its 2008 standard AHRI 210/240, "Performance Rating of Unitary Air-Conditioning and Air-Source Heat Pump Equipment".<ref name="ahri210/240"></ref> A similar standard is the European seasonal energy efficiency ratio (ESEER). The SEER rating of a unit is the cooling output during a typical cooling-season divided by the total electric energy input during the same period. The higher the unit's SEER rating the more energy efficient it is. In the U.S., the SEER is the ratio of cooling in British thermal unit (BTU) to the energy consumed in watt-hours. The coefficient of performance (COP), a more universal unit-less measure of efficiency, is discussed in the following section. For example, consider a 5000 BTU/h (1465 watts cooling capacity) air-conditioning unit, with a SEER of 10 BTU/W·h, operating for a total of 1000 hours during an annual cooling season (e.g., 8 hours per day for 125 days). The annual total cooling output would be: With a SEER of 10 BTU/W·h, the annual electrical energy usage would be about: The average power usage may also be calculated more simply by: If your electricity cost is 20¢/kW·h, then your cost per operating hour is: The energy efficiency ratio (EER) of a particular cooling device is the ratio of "output" cooling energy (in BTU/hr) to "input" electrical energy (in Watts) at a given operating point | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2189642 | 428,549 |
NGC 372 is a triple star located in the constellation Pisces. It was discovered on December 12, 1876 by Dreyer, who described it as "stellar, much brighter middle, mottled but not resolved." | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=52418330 | 8,341 |
Sono arsenic filter The was invented in 2006 by Abul Hussam, who is a chemistry professor at George Mason University (GMU) in Fairfax, Virginia. It was developed to deal with the problem of arsenic contamination of groundwater. The filter is now in use in Hussam's native Bangladesh. Farmers had been drinking fresh groundwater from wells, whereas previously they had had to use ponds and mudholes which were contaminated with bacteria and viruses. However, the wells were also contaminated with naturally occurring high concentrations of poisonous arsenic, causing skin ailments and cancers. Awareness of the problem developed through the 1990s. Allan Smith, an epidemiologist at the University of California at Berkeley, observed that the arsenic problem affects millions of people worldwide: Hussam developed his filter after years of testing hundreds of prototypes. The final version contains 20 pounds of shards of porous iron, which bonds chemically with arsenic. It also includes charcoal, sand and bits of brick. It filters nearly all of the arsenic from the well water. Hussam was awarded the 2007 Grainger challenge Prize for Sustainability by the National Academy of Engineering. Hussam plans to use 70% of the $1 million engineering prize to distribute filters to needy communities. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=9298279 | 47,982 |
Electron capture detector ECD detectors are particularly sensitive to halogens, organometallic compounds, nitriles, or nitro compounds. It is not immediately obvious why the capture of electrons by electronegative analytes reduces the current that flows between the anode and cathode: the molecular negative ions of the analyte carry the same charge as the electrons that were captured. The key to understanding why the current decreases is to ask where charged entities can go "besides" being collected at the anode and cathode. The answer is recombination of negative ions or electrons with the positive ions of the makeup gas before these charged entities can be collected at anode and cathode respectively. Negative and positive ions recombine much more rapidly than electrons and positive ions; it is this more rapid neutralization that is the origin of the observed decrease in current. Examination of the rate balance equation with all charge production and loss mechanisms considered reveals that the current collected when the electron capture detector is saturated with analyte is not zero: it is half the current collected when no analyte is present. To laboratory chromatographers this theoretical result is a well known experimental observation. Depending on the analyte, an ECD can be 10-1000 times more sensitive than a flame ionization detector (FID), and one million times more sensitive than a thermal conductivity detector (TCD). An ECD has a limited dynamic range and finds its greatest application in analysis of halogenated compounds | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2606066 | 280,946 |
Interdigital transducer An interdigital transducer (IDT) is a device that consists of two interlocking comb-shaped arrays of metallic electrodes (in the fashion of a zipper). These metallic electrodes are deposited on the surface of a piezoelectric substrate, such as quartz or lithium niobate, to form a periodic structure. IDTs primary function is to convert electric signals to surface acoustic waves (SAW) by generating periodically distributed mechanical forces via piezoelectric effect (an input transducer). The same principle is applied to the conversion of SAW back to electric signals (an output transducer). These processes of generation and reception of SAW can be used in different types of SAW signal processing devices, such as band pass filters, delay lines, resonators, sensors, etc. IDT was first proposed by Richard M. White and Voltmer in 1965. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=8535925 | 385,816 |
Cable grommet A cable grommet is a tube or ring through which an electrical cable passes. They are usually made of rubber or metal. The grommet is usually inserted in holes in certain materials in order to protect, improve friction or seal cables passing through it, from a possible mechanical or chemical attack. A grommet can be used in furniture to protect wires, cables or cords for computer equipment or other electronic equipment in homes or offices. At the same time, they are used decoratively to embellish the furniture and can be bought in a large variety of sizes, colors and finishes. The grommets usually consist of two pieces: A liner that goes into the hole of the furniture and a cap with a hole (often adjustable in size) for the cables to go through. When there is no need to use them they can be blanked either by turning one piece 90° against the other or by inserting an extra plastic piece designed to fit that purpose. A rubber grommet is made of a resilient material (typically rubber), with the molding designed to hold it in place, so as to help to absorb vibrations, for example, between a tandem radio and the chassis or between microphone and its tripod, keeping the two components "floating" mechanically decoupled one from another to prevent a characteristic coupling called "microphonism ". | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=39138768 | 412,568 |
Tcpcrypt Cryptography primitives are used in such a way to reduce load on the server side, because a single server usually has to provide services for far more clients than reverse. The current user space implementations are considered experimental and are reportedly unstable on some systems. It also does not support IPv6 yet, which is currently only supported by the Linux kernel version. It is expected that once tcpcrypt becomes a standard, operating systems will come with tcpcrypt support built-in, making the user space solution unnecessary. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=28572100 | 133,418 |
Computer graphics In 1967 Sutherland was recruited by Evans to join the computer science program at the University of Utah – a development which would turn that department into one of the most important research centers in graphics for nearly a decade thereafter, eventually producing some of the most important pioneers in the field. There Sutherland perfected his HMD; twenty years later, NASA would re-discover his techniques in their virtual reality research. At Utah, Sutherland and Evans were highly sought after consultants by large companies, but they were frustrated at the lack of graphics hardware available at the time so they started formulating a plan to start their own company. In 1968, Dave Evans and Ivan Sutherland founded the first computer graphics hardware company, Evans & Sutherland. While Sutherland originally wanted the company to be located in Cambridge, Massachussettes, Salt Lake City was instead chosen due to its proximity to the professors' research group at the University of Utah. Also in 1968 Arthur Appel described the first ray casting algorithm, the first of a class of ray tracing-based rendering algorithms that have since become fundamental in achieving photorealism in graphics by modeling the paths that rays of light take from a light source, to surfaces in a scene, and into the camera. In 1969, the ACM initiated A Special Interest Group on Graphics (SIGGRAPH) which organizes conferences, graphics standards, and publications within the field of computer graphics | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=18567210 | 118,147 |
Molecular clock Historical methods of clock calibration could only make use of a single fossil constraint (non-parametric rate smoothing), while modern analyses (BEAST and ) allow for the use of multiple fossils to calibrate the molecular clock. Simulation studies have shown that increasing the number of fossil constraints increases the accuracy of divergence time estimation. Sometimes referred to as tip dating, tip calibration is a method of molecular clock calibration in which fossils are treated as taxa and placed on the tips of the tree. This is achieved by creating a matrix that includes a molecular dataset for the extant taxa along with a morphological dataset for both the extinct and the extant taxa. Unlike node calibration, this method reconstructs the tree topology and places the fossils simultaneously. Molecular and morphological models work together simultaneously, allowing morphology to inform the placement of fossils. Tip calibration makes use of all relevant fossil taxa during clock calibration, rather than relying on only the oldest fossil of each clade. This method does not rely on the interpretation of negative evidence to infer maximum clade ages. This approach to tip calibration goes a step further by simultaneously estimating fossil placement, topology, and the evolutionary timescale. In this method, the age of a fossil can inform its phylogenetic position in addition to morphology. By allowing all aspects of tree reconstruction to occur simultaneously, the risk of biased results is decreased | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=250001 | 141,690 |
CSELT It was the second electronic switching system in Europe, but very advanced in design: e.g. in 1975 was introduced for the first time an architecture-independent automatic bootstrap from ROM composed from semiconductors, pushing a single button (and not by a long hand procedure input as in the past) and with the storage of the machine state of the switch, in order to have a quick automatic reboot of the switch in case of failure. In 1978, also gained notoriety due to its 3D images of the Shroud of Turin, supervised by prof. Giovanni Tamburelli: those images, the highest-resolution ones available at that time, followed the very first 3D images of the Shroud that had been provided by NASA earlier during the same year. Notably, that work made the native "3D structure" of the Shroud itself apparent for the first time. A second result from Tamburelli was the electronic removal from the image of what was term "blood" covering the man of the Shroud. 1975 saw the release of MUSA, the first Italian speech synthezer, and one of the very first in the world: later, the same group also contributed to research in speech recognition: both technologies were used for auto-responder systems in telco services. Since 1975 the group of Voice Technology, led by Giulio Modena, carried on the advanced researchers in the field, publishing for Springer (together with the consortium of Esprit project) the book in 1990: Pirani, Giancarlo, ed. Advanced algorithms and architectures for speech understanding. Vol. 1 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=44654065 | 218,302 |
Dialkylbiaryl phosphine ligands SPhos has also been used in the Pd-catalyzed borylation of aryl and heteroaryl chlorides. 3-Sulfonate variants of this ligand (sSPhos) have been shown to catalyze Suzuki-Miyaura couplings in aqueous media. One example of the application of SPhos to academia was its use in the 8 step total synthesis of (±)-geigerin. RuPhos was first reported in 2004 as part of a highly reactive catalyst system for the Pd-catalyzed Negishi coupling of organozincs with aryl halides. This ligands allows both extremely hindered substrates as well as substrates with a wide range of functional groups to undergo this reaction. This ligand has also been shown to be effective at catalyzing reactions such as the trifluoromethylation of aryl chlorides and aminations of aryl halides. BrettPhos was originally reported in 2008 for the Pd-catalyzed amination of aryl mesylates and aryl halides. This ligand helps promote the coupling of weak nucleophiles with aryl halides. Notably, this ligand is highly selective for the monoarylation of primary amines with minimal formation of the diarylated product. BrettPhos is also chemoselective for primary amines over secondary amines. Other applications of BrettPhos in catalysis include trifluoromethylation of aryl chlorides, the formation of aryl trifluoromethyl sulfides, and Suzuki-Miyaura Cross-couplings. Several modified versions of BrettPhos are also commercially available | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=53839046 | 45,396 |
History of capitalism Noting the various pre-capitalist features of mercantilism, Karl Polanyi argued that "mercantilism, with all its tendency toward commercialization, never attacked the safeguards which protected [the] two basic elements of production – labor and land – from becoming the elements of commerce." Thus mercantilist regulation was more akin to feudalism than capitalism. According to Polanyi, "not until 1834 was a competitive labor market established in England, hence industrial capitalism as a social system cannot be said to have existed before that date." The Muscovy Company was the first major chartered joint stock English trading company. It was established in 1555 with a monopoly on trade between England and Muscovy. It was an offshoot of the earlier "Company of Merchant Adventurers to New Lands", founded in 1551 by Richard Chancellor, Sebastian Cabot and Sir Hugh Willoughby to locate the Northeast Passage to China to allow trade. This was the precursor to a type of business that would soon flourish in England, the Dutch Republic and elsewhere. The British East India Company (1600) and the Dutch East India Company (1602) launched an era of large state chartered trading companies. These companies were characterized by their monopoly on trade, granted by letters patent provided by the state. Recognized as chartered joint-stock companies by the state, these companies enjoyed lawmaking, military, and treaty-making privileges | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2777609 | 478,149 |
BRICS The foreign ministers of the initial four BRIC General states (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) met in New York City in September 2006 at the margins of the General Debate of the UN Assembly, beginning a series of high-level meetings. A full-scale diplomatic meeting was held in Yekaterinburg, Russia, on 16 June 2009. The BRIC grouping's first formal summit, also held in Yekaterinburg, commenced on 16 June 2009, with Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Dmitry Medvedev, Manmohan Singh, and Hu Jintao, the respective leaders of Brazil, Russia, India and China, all attending. The summit's focus was on means of improving the global economic situation and reforming financial institutions, and discussed how the four countries could better co-operate in the future. There was further discussion of ways that developing countries, such as 3/4 of the BRIC members, could become more involved in global affairs. In the aftermath of the Yekaterinburg summit, the BRIC nations announced the need for a new global reserve currency, which would have to be "diverse, stable and predictable". Although the statement that was released did not directly criticise the perceived "dominance" of the US dollar – something that Russia had criticised in the past – it did spark a fall in the value of the dollar against other major currencies. In 2010, South Africa began efforts to join the BRIC grouping, and the process for its formal admission began in August of that year | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=32079419 | 502,945 |
Policy Simulation Model The (PSM) is a static microsimulation model which encapsulates the tax and benefits system, and population, of Great Britain. It is based on survey data from the Family Resources Survey (FRS) which is uprated to simulate the current year, together with several years into the future through a process of static uprating. The uprating process covers a complex range of processes, ranging from simple numerical uprating of financial values, to modelling the draw-down of old benefits through to the implications of the rising state pension age. The model is built using SAS and is owned by the GB Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). It produces outputs including the financial (and work-incentive) impacts on a representative sample of the GB population from hypothetical policy changes to the tax and benefits system. It is managed by a central team of analysts who both develop the model and provide year-round customer service to analytical users of the model spread across the DWP corporate centre. It is used for poverty and scenario analysis associated with the development of new policies, including Universal Credit. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=18189520 | 512,637 |
Body cavity The thoracic cavity contains the lungs and the heart, which is located in the mediastinum. The diaphragm forms the floor of the thoracic cavity and separates it from the more inferior abdominopelvic cavity. The abdominopelvic cavity is the largest cavity in the body. Although no membrane physically divides the abdominopelvic cavity, it can be useful to distinguish between the abdominal cavity, the division that houses the digestive organs, and the pelvic cavity, the division that houses the organs of reproduction. Together the cranial cavity and spinal (or vertebral) cavity can be referred to as the dorsal body cavity. In the posterior (dorsal) cavity, the cranial cavity houses the brain, and the spinal cavity encloses the spinal cord. Just as the brain and spinal cord make up a continuous, uninterrupted structure, the cranial and spinal cavities that house them are also continuous. The brain and spinal cord are protected by the bones of the skull and vertebral column and by cerebrospinal fluid, a colorless fluid produced by the brain, which cushions the brain and spinal cord within the posterior (dorsal) cavity. At the end of the third week, the neural tube, which is a fold of one of the layers of the trilaminar germ disc, called the ectoderm, appears. This layer elevates and closes dorsally, while the gut tube rolls up and closes ventrally to create a “tube on top of a tube | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=74941 | 185,271 |
Sweatshop As well as this governments are also enforcing stricter labor laws such as in 2013 after the collapse of Rana Plaza in Bangladesh, a large 5 storied sweatshops that killed 1135 people due to the building not being up to code, Bangladeshi police shut down many other factories after safety checks were completed and not met. However, no action has been as beneficial to the anti-sweatshop movement as that of the rise of social media. Social media has allowed for the world to see exactly what companies are doing and how they are doing it instantaneously, for free and is distributed to a wide audience. The platforms have allowed for viral videos, hundreds of thousands of retweets of quote's or statistic's, millions of liked and shared pictures etc. to be spread to consumers in regards to companies production methods without any censorship and thus forces brands to be more transparent and ethical with their production practices. This is because it is now very for a brands exemplary reputation to be completely destroyed by a bystander with a smart phone who happens to see a brands product being made in a sweatshop where its workers are treated inhumanely and simply uploading their findings. If a brands reputation is negative they are likely to lose customers as more and more consumers begin to care about sustainable and ethical products thus the fewer consumers the fewer sales and the less profit | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=102075 | 470,477 |
Chromatron In November 1966 Kazuo Iwama told Susumu Yoshida that the company was close to ruin, and that the team had to improve the yields by the end of the year, or the product would have to be cancelled. Meanwhile, RCA was making great progress improving their shadow mask technology, and new entrants like General Electric's "Porta-Color" offered other advantages. Sony was clearly falling behind the rest of the market by following the approach. Ibuka finally announced that he would personally lead the search for an alternative system. His team of 30 engineers and physicists explored a wide variety of approaches in the search for a uniquely Sony system. After reading several of the reports, Ibuka called 29-year-old physicist Miyaoka into his office along with Yoshida, and asked him if his single-gun approach could be made to work. Miyaoka was attempting to leave work for a cello rehearsal, and rashly stated that it would work. The result was the famed Trinitron system, which went on sale in 1968 to wide acclaim. Prior to sale of the first Trinitron televisions in the United States, a limited number of 7-inch Chromatrons were built and offered for sale in the United States starting in April 1968 as the KV 7010U. These were replaced about three months later by the KV 7010UA Trinitron tube. [1] The Sony KV 7010U CRT used the newly invented Trinitron gun combined with the PDA wire grid instead of a shadow mask or aperture grill | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=21686501 | 405,364 |
White House Big Dig The was the name used in press reports to describe a multi-year construction project at the White House that began in September 2010 and temporarily concluded in 2012, with a second phase planned for the future. According to the General Services Administration (GSA), the $376-million project, which involved a multi-story excavation adjacent to the West Wing, was to replace electrical wiring and update air conditioning. A second phase of the project, with an unannounced start date, will involve a similar excavation adjacent to the East Wing. Funds for the were allocated by a congressional appropriation made in late 2001. Despite the utilitarian description of its purpose, the project came to be the object of intense media speculation. "The Washington Post" characterized the GSA description of the project as a "nothing to see here story" while "The New York Times", citing an anonymous source, claimed it was "security-related construction." The Associated Press reported that a privacy screen was placed around the construction site for its duration and sub-contractors on the project were required to cover identifying marks or logos on their company vehicles, measures it implied were unusual. ABC News, meanwhile, equated the construction project as a "mystery" on-par with "what happened to the dinosaurs". In a story set to the theme song from the science fiction television program "The X-Files", reporter John Berman sarcastically commented "maybe it is a bunch of pipes and wires ... just like Area 51" | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=49214944 | 298,794 |
Cannabinoid receptor antagonist Additional endocannabinoids include virodhamine (O-arachidonoyl ethanolamine), noladin ether (2-arachidonoyl glyceryl ether) and NADA (N-arachidonoyl dopamine). CB receptors are coupled through G proteins and inhibit adenylyl cyclase and activate mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinase. In addition, CB receptors inhibit presynaptic N- and P/Q-type calcium channels and activate inwardly rectifying potassium channels. CB antagonists produce inverse cannabimimetic effects that are opposite in direction from those produced by agonists for these receptors. CB receptors are highly expressed in hypothalamic areas which are involved in central food intake control and feeding behavior. This strongly indicates that the cannabinoid system is directly involved in feeding regulation. These regions are also interconnected with the mesolimbic dopamine pathway, the so-called "reward" system. Therefore, CB antagonists might indirectly inhibit the dopamine-mediated rewarding properties of food. Peripheral CB receptors are located in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract, liver and in adipose tissue. In the GI, CB receptors are located on nerve terminals in the intestines. Endocannabinoids act at the CB receptors to increase hunger and promote feeding and it is speculated that they decrease intestinal peristalsis and gastric emptying. Thus, antagonism at these receptors can inverse these effects. Also, in peripheral tissues, antagonism of CB receptors increases insulin sensitivity and oxidation of fatty acids in muscles and the liver | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=20207596 | 73,873 |
Hinged expansion joint A hinged expansion joint is a metallic assembly, that can rotate in a single plane, used to absorb changes resulting from piping thermal expansion or contraction. They include hinges, attached to the expansion joint ends with a pair of pins, which allow angular movement in a single plane, restrain the pressure thrust, and prevent the expansion joint from deflecting axially, either in extension or compression. It is recommended that the hinges should be used in sets of two or three. The expansion joint hinges provide for angular movement and will resist pressure thrust forces. Individual hinged expansion joints used in piping systems are restricted to pure angular rotation by its hinges. As a pair, hinged expansion joints will function together to absorb lateral deflection. Advantages of hinged expansion joints are that they are typically compact in size and structurally rigid. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=29433936 | 353,391 |
Unresolved complex mixture The use of GC×GC for the characterization of complex petrochemical mixtures has been extensively reviewed. Most research into petrochemical hydrocarbons using GC×GC has utilised flame ionisation detection (FID) but mass spectrometry (MS) is necessary to obtain the structural information necessary to identify unknown compounds. Currently, only time-of-flight MS (ToF-MS) can deliver the high acquisition rates required to analyse GC×GC. There is compelling evidence that components within some UCMs are toxic to marine organisms. The clearance rate (also known as feeding feed) of mussels was reduced by 40% following exposure to a monoaromatic UCM derived from a Norwegian crude oil. The toxicity of monoaromatic UCM components was further evidenced by an elegant set of experiments using transplantations of clean and polluted mussels. Recent analysis by GC×GC-ToF-MS of UCMs extracted from the mussel tissues, has shown that they contain a vast array of both known and unknown compounds. The comparative analysis of UCMs extracted from mussels known to possess high, moderate and low Scope for Growth (SfG), a measure of the capacity for growth and reproduction, revealed that branched alkylbenzenes represented the largest structural class within the UCM of mussels with low SfG; also, branched isomers of alkyltetralins, alkylindans and alkylindenes were prominent in the stressed mussels | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=16638855 | 51,763 |
Brain transplant In the ""Star Wars" expanded universe" the shadow droids were created by taking the brains of grievously wounded TIE fighter pilot aces. After surgically transplanting them into a protective cocoon filled with nutrient fluids. they were surgically connected to cybernetic hardware that gave them external sensors, flight control and tactical computers that augmented their reflexes beyond the biological limit; at the cost of their humanity. Emperor Palpatine also imbued them with the dark side giving them a sixth sense, and making them into extensions of his own will. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=167132 | 280,263 |
Negative-feedback amplifier Commenting upon the signal-flow approach, Choma says: Following up on this suggestion, a signal-flow graph for a negative-feedback amplifier is shown in the figure, which is patterned after one by D'Amico "et al.". Following these authors, the notation is as follows: Using this graph, these authors derive the generalized gain expression in terms of the control parameter "P" that defines the controlled source relationship "x" = "Px": Combining these results, the gain is given by To employ this formula, one has to identify a critical controlled source for the particular amplifier circuit in hand. For example, "P" could be the control parameter of one of the controlled sources in a two-port network, as shown for a particular case in D'Amico "et al." As a different example, if we take "a" = "a" = 1, "P" = "A", "a" = –β (negative feedback) and "a" = 0 (no feedforward), we regain the simple result with two unidirectional blocks. Although, as mentioned in the section "Signal-flow analysis", some form of signal-flow analysis is the most general way to treat the negative-feedback amplifier, representation as two two-ports is the approach most often presented in textbooks and is presented here. It retains a two-block circuit partition of the amplifier, but allows the blocks to be bilateral. Some drawbacks of this method are described at the end. Electronic amplifiers use current or voltage as input and output, so four types of amplifier are possible (any of two possible inputs with any of two possible outputs) | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=181384 | 409,188 |
Instructional design coordinator Instructional design coordinators are responsible for overseeing the development and distribution of web-based course content, working with instructors to develop and maintain functional web pages and facilitate the use of dynamic web applications for the distribution of course content, assessments, communication, grade reporting, as well as other tasks required to conduct a complete online learning program via the web. The advantages to this form of instruction include flexibility for both the students and the instructor in regards to the time spent towards the course, as students are able to log on to the course web site at any time of the day or night. They also enjoy the freedom of being able to complete coursework from any location, as students are generally not required to come to campus at all for courses that are taught fully online. Due to their increased adoption among educational institutions, distance learning programs drive the demand for powerful hardware and software to host educational applications, often for thousands of users per institution. Current popular learning management systems include Blackboard and Moodle, which are both widely used on campuses nationwide. These software suites provide course home pages for instructors which can be easily edited via online forms. The software allows instructors to easily add content via online text editors or using HTML markup | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=7310778 | 299,764 |
Sputnik 1 The Soviets had kept quiet about their earlier accomplishments in rocketry, fearing that it would lead to secrets being revealed and failures being exploited by the West. When the Soviets began using Sputnik in their propaganda, they emphasized pride in the achievement of Soviet technology, arguing that it demonstrated the Soviets' superiority over the West. People were encouraged to listen to Sputnik's signals on the radio and to look out for Sputnik in the night sky. While Sputnik itself had been highly polished, its small size made it barely visible to the naked eye. What most watchers actually saw was the much more visible 26-metre core stage of the R-7. Shortly after the launch of PS-1, Khrushchev pressed Korolev to launch another satellite to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the October Revolution, on 7 November 1957. The launch of surprised the American public, and shattered the perception created by American propaganda of the United States as the technological superpower, and the Soviet Union as a backward country. Privately, however, the CIA and President Eisenhower were aware of progress being made by the Soviets on Sputnik from secret spy plane imagery. Together with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), the Army Ballistic Missile Agency built Explorer 1, and launched it on 31 January 1958. Before work was completed, however, the Soviet Union launched a second satellite, Sputnik 2, on 3 November 1957 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=28484 | 419,702 |
ISRO spinoffs technologies It is made up of special alloy of titanium the device which is ‘bio-compatible’ and can pump 3-5 litres of blood every minute. This heart assist device has been experimented with animals and found to be successful. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=61823627 | 494,729 |
Slide rule The first included the Wang Laboratories LOCI-2, introduced in 1965, which used logarithms for multiplication and division; and the Hewlett-Packard HP 9100A, introduced in 1968. Both of these were programmable and provided exponential and logarithmic functions; the HP had trigonometric functions (sine, cosine, and tangent) and hyperbolic trigonometric functions as well. The HP used the CORDIC (coordinate rotation digital computer) algorithm, which allows for calculation of trigonometric functions using only shift and add operations. This method facilitated the development of ever smaller scientific calculators. As with mainframe computing, the availability of these machines did not significantly affect the ubiquitous use of the slide rule until cheap hand held scientific electronic calculators became available in the mid-1970s, at which point, it rapidly declined. The pocket-sized Hewlett-Packard HP-35 scientific calculator was the first handheld device of its type, but it cost US$395 in 1972. This was justifiable for some engineering professionals but too expensive for most students. By 1975, basic four-function electronic calculators could be purchased for less than $50, and by 1976 the TI-30 scientific calculator was sold for less than $25 ($ adjusted for inflation). Most people find slide rules difficult to understand and use. Even during their heyday, they never caught on with the general public | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=28743 | 434,813 |
John von Neumann The reason for this is that a quantum disjunction, unlike the case for classical disjunction, can be true even when both of the disjuncts are false and this is, in turn, attributable to the fact that it is frequently the case, in quantum mechanics, that a pair of alternatives are semantically determinate, while each of its members are necessarily indeterminate. This latter property can be illustrated by a simple example. Suppose we are dealing with particles (such as electrons) of semi-integral spin (spin angular momentum) for which there are only two possible values: positive or negative. Then, a principle of indetermination establishes that the spin, relative to two different directions (e.g., "x" and "y") results in a pair of incompatible quantities. Suppose that the state ɸ of a certain electron verifies the proposition "the spin of the electron in the "x" direction is positive." By the principle of indeterminacy, the value of the spin in the direction "y" will be completely indeterminate for ɸ. Hence, ɸ can verify neither the proposition "the spin in the direction of "y" is positive" nor the proposition "the spin in the direction of "y" is negative." Nevertheless, the disjunction of the propositions "the spin in the direction of "y" is positive or the spin in the direction of "y" is negative" must be true for ɸ. In the case of distribution, it is therefore possible to have a situation in which "formula_6", while formula_7 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=15942 | 419,159 |
Pinhas Rutenberg After Gapon had repeated his collaboration proposal, Rutenberg called the comrades into the room and he left. When he returned, Gapon was dead. However, the S.R. party leadership refused to assume responsibility, announcing that the execution was undertaken by Rutenberg individually and the cause was a personal one, denying ever having sent their comrades to the meeting on 26 March. Rutenberg was then condemned and expelled from the party. Forced to emigrate, Rutenberg settled in Italy. Away from politics, he concentrated on hydraulic engineering. Pondering on specific Jewish problems, he became convinced that the solution was to establish a national home for the Jewish people. After World War I broke out, the Zionist movement mainly supported the Entente Powers. Rutenberg set the goal to create a Jewish armed force to fight for the Land of Israel. He visited European capitals, met prominent politicians and Zionist leaders, and finally joined the efforts of Jabotinsky and Trumpeldor to set up the Jewish Legion. In May 1915, on Jabotinsky’s approval, Rutenberg travelled to the United States to promote this idea among the American Jewry. He found strong support among Jewish organizations in New York City. Rutenberg endorsed the labour party (Poalei Zion) and cooperated with David Ben-Gurion, Itzhak Ben-Zvi, and Ber Borochov. Together with Chaim Zhitlowsky, he founded the American Jewish Congress | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2724404 | 317,346 |
Plaster is widely used as a support for broken bones; a bandage impregnated with plaster is moistened and then wrapped around the damaged limb, setting into a close-fitting yet easily removed tube, known as an orthopedic cast. is also used in preparation for radiotherapy when fabricating individualized immobilization shells for patients. bandages are used to construct an impression of a patient's head and neck, and liquid plaster is used to fill the impression and produce a plaster bust. The transparent material polymethyl methacrylate (Plexiglas, Perspex) is then vacuum formed over this bust to create a clear face mask which will hold the patient's head steady while radiation is being delivered. In dentistry, plaster is used for mounting casts or models of oral tissues. These diagnostic and working models are usually made from dental stone, a stronger, harder and denser derivative of plaster which is manufactured from gypsum under pressure. is also used to invest and flask wax dentures, the wax being subsequently removed by "burning out," and replaced with flowable denture base material. The typically acrylic denture base then cures in the plaster investment mold. investments can withstand the high heat and pressure needed to ensure a rigid denture base | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=331731 | 321,371 |
Amino acid replacement Smaller distance between amino acids indicates that they are more likely to undergo replacement. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=53891403 | 187,265 |
Thin-film composite membrane Thin-film composite membranes (TFC or TFM) are semipermeable membranes manufactured principally for use in water purification or water desalination systems. They also have use in chemical applications such as batteries and fuel cells. A TFC membrane can be considered as a molecular sieve constructed in the form of a film from two or more layered materials. TFC membranes are commonly classified as nanofiltration (NF) and reverse osmosis (RO) membranes. Both types are typically made out of a thin polyamide layer (<200 nm) deposited on top of a polyethersulfone or polysulfone porous layer (about 50 microns) on top of a non-woven fabric support sheet. The three layer configuration gives the desired properties of high rejection of undesired materials (like salts), high filtration rate, and good mechanical strength. The polyamide top layer is responsible for the high rejection and is chosen primarily for its permeability to water and relative impermeability to various dissolved impurities including salt ions and other small, unfilterable molecules. The first viable reverse osmosis membrane was made from cellulose acetate as an integrally skinned asymmetric semi-permeable membrane. This membrane was made by Loeb and Sourirajan at UCLA in 1959 and patented in 1960. The current generation of reverse osmosis (RO) membrane materials are based on a composite material patented by FilmTec Corporation in 1970 (now part of DuPont). As is suggested by the name, TFC membranes are composed of multiple layers | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=5563726 | 284,991 |
Scrap Great potential exists in the scrap metal industry for accidents in which a hazardous material present in scrap causes death, injury, or environmental damage. A classic example is radioactivity in scrap; the Goiânia accident and the Mayapuri radiological accident were incidents involving radioactive materials. Toxic materials such as asbestos, and toxic metals such as beryllium, cadmium, and mercury may pose dangers to personnel, as well as contaminating materials intended for metal smelters. Many specialized tools used in scrapyards are hazardous, such as the alligator shear, which cuts metal using hydraulic force, compactors, and scrap metal shredders. According to research conducted by the US Environmental Protection Agency, recycling scrap metals can be quite beneficial to the environment. Using recycled scrap metal in place of virgin iron ore can yield: Every ton of new steel made from scrap steel saves: Energy savings from other metals include: The metal recycling industry encompasses a wide range of metals. The more frequently recycled metals are scrap steel, iron (ISS), lead, aluminium, copper, stainless steel and zinc. There are two main categories of metals: ferrous and non-ferrous. Metals which contain iron in them are known as "ferrous". Metals without iron are "non-ferrous". Non-ferrous metals also include precious and exotic metals: OSHA guidelines should be followed when recycling any type of scrap metal to ensure safety | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1068262 | 38,741 |
Treadwheel crane Contrary to a popularly held belief, cranes on medieval building sites were neither placed on the extremely lightweight scaffolding used at the time nor on the thin walls of the Gothic churches which were incapable of supporting the weight of both hoisting machine and load. Rather, cranes were placed in the initial stages of construction on the ground, often within the building. When a new floor was completed, and massive tie beams of the roof connected the walls, the crane was dismantled and reassembled on the roof beams from where it was moved from bay to bay during construction of the vaults. Thus, the crane ‘grew’ and ‘wandered’ with the building with the result that today all extant construction cranes in England are found in church towers above the vaulting and below the roof, where they remained after building construction for bringing material for repairs aloft. Less frequently, medieval illuminations also show cranes mounted on the outside of walls with the stand of the machine secured to putlogs. In contrast to modern cranes, medieval cranes and hoists - much like their counterparts in Greece and Rome - were primarily capable of a vertical lift, and not used to move loads for a considerable distance horizontally as well. Accordingly, lifting work was organized at the workplace in a different way than today | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=24864939 | 284,304 |
Dynamic mechanical analysis In the rubbery region, SBR shows the highest storage modulus resulting from its ability to resist intermolecular slippage. When compared to sulfur, the higher storage modulus occurred for blends cured with dicumyl peroxide (DCP) because of the relative strengths of C-C and C-S bonds. Incorporation of reinforcing fillers into the polymer blends also increases the storage modulus at an expense of limiting the loss tangent peak height. DMA can also be used to effectively evaluate the miscibility of polymers. The ES blend had a much broader transition with a shoulder instead of a steep drop-off in a storage modulus plot of varying blend ratios, indicating that there are areas that are not homogeneous. The instrumentation of a DMA consists of a displacement sensor such as a linear variable differential transformer, which measures a change in voltage as a result of the instrument probe moving through a magnetic core, a temperature control system or furnace, a drive motor (a linear motor for probe loading which provides load for the applied force), a drive shaft support and guidance system to act as a guide for the force from the motor to the sample, and sample clamps in order to hold the sample being tested. Depending on what is being measured, samples will be prepared and handled differently. A general schematic of the primary components of a DMA instrument is shown in figure 3. There are two main types of DMA analyzers used currently: forced resonance analyzers and free resonance analyzers | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=258827 | 356,059 |
Planetary protection These need to be similar to levels implemented on the Viking landers, which were sterilized for a surface which, at the time, was thought to be potentially hospitable to life similar to special regions on Mars today. In microbiology, it is usually impossible to prove that there are no microorganisms left viable, since many microorganisms are either not yet studied, or not cultivable. Instead, sterilization is done using a series of tenfold reductions of the numbers of microorganisms present. After a sufficient number of tenfold reductions, the chance that there any microorganisms left will be extremely low. The two Viking Mars landers were sterilized using dry heat sterilization. After preliminary cleaning to reduce the bioburden to levels similar to present day Category IVa spacecraft, the Viking spacecraft were heat-treated for 30 hours at 112 °C, nominal 125 °C (five hours at 112 °C was considered enough to reduce the population tenfold even for enclosed parts of the spacecraft, so this was enough for a million-fold reduction of the originally low population). Modern materials however are often not designed to handle such temperatures, especially since modern spacecraft often use "commercial off the shelf" components. Problems encountered include nanoscale features only a few atoms thick, plastic packaging, and conductive epoxy attachment methods. Also many instrument sensors cannot be exposed to high temperature, and high temperature can interfere with critical alignments of instruments | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1612742 | 249,685 |
Neuroenhancement A study among German university teachers (including professors) found a very low prevalence of neuroenhancement drug use. Only 0.9% of the respondents reported the use of such drugs. However, 10% of the respondents are willing to take such drugs in the future, what might indicate a potential increase of the prevalence. One reason to use such drugs was work-related stress. Physicians play an important role in determining the potential abuse of neuroenhancing drugs. While some neuroenhancing drugs do not require a prescription and are easily available, others that require prescription are up to the discretion of the physician. In a survey conducted among Swiss psychiatrists and general practitioners, the majority of surveyed physicians agreed that their criteria to determine whether or not a dysfunction should be considered a disease is if the patient indicates subjective suffering and/or negative consequences for everyday ability to work. The surveyed physicians, however, were in majority agreement that they do not prescribe medication without a clear indication of such a dysfunction. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=40568034 | 274,458 |
Implant (medicine) In United Kingdom, Prof Derek Alderson, president of the Royal College of Surgeons, concludes: "All implantable devices should be registered and tracked to monitor efficacy and patient safety in the long-term." | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1910996 | 70,525 |
Blue Flag beach They include for example approach distances to different animal species, the correct use of equipment and the humane handling of animals that are caught during recreational fishing tours. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=3292621 | 483,405 |
Heater core A heater core is a radiator-like device used in heating the cabin of a vehicle. Hot coolant from the vehicle's engine is passed through a winding tube of the core, a heat exchanger between coolant and cabin air. Fins attached to the core tubes serve to increase surface area for heat transfer to air that is forced past them by a fan, thereby heating the passenger compartment. The internal combustion engine in most cars and trucks is cooled by a water and antifreeze mixture that is circulated through the engine and radiator by a water pump to enable the radiator to give off engine heat to the atmosphere. Some of that coolant can be diverted through the heater core to give some engine heat to the cabin, or adjust the temperature of the conditioned air. A heater core is a small radiator located under the dashboard of the vehicle, and it consists of conductive aluminium or brass tubing with cooling fins to increase surface area. Hot coolant passing through the heater core gives off heat before returning to the engine cooling circuit. The squirrel cage fan of the vehicle's ventilation system forces air through the heater core to transfer heat from the coolant to the cabin air, which is directed into the vehicle through vents at various points. Once the engine has warmed up, the coolant is kept at a more or less constant temperature by the thermostat. The temperature of the air entering the vehicle's interior can be controlled by using a valve limiting the amount of coolant that goes through the heater core | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=7126735 | 322,547 |
Atmospheric physics is the application of physics to the study of the atmosphere. Atmospheric physicists attempt to model Earth's atmosphere and the atmospheres of the other planets using fluid flow equations, chemical models, radiation budget, and energy transfer processes in the atmosphere (as well as how these tie into other systems such as the oceans). In order to model weather systems, atmospheric physicists employ elements of scattering theory, wave propagation models, cloud physics, statistical mechanics and spatial statistics which are highly mathematical and related to physics. It has close links to meteorology and climatology and also covers the design and construction of instruments for studying the atmosphere and the interpretation of the data they provide, including remote sensing instruments. At the dawn of the space age and the introduction of sounding rockets, aeronomy became a subdiscipline concerning the upper layers of the atmosphere, where dissociation and ionization are important. Remote sensing is the small or large-scale acquisition of information of an object or phenomenon, by the use of either recording or real-time sensing device(s) that is not in physical or intimate contact with the object (such as by way of aircraft, spacecraft, satellite, buoy, or ship). In practice, remote sensing is the stand-off collection through the use of a variety of devices for gathering information on a given object or area which gives more information than sensors at individual sites might convey | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=801420 | 437,904 |
Seleninic acid A seleninic acid is an organoselenium compound and an oxoacid with the general formula RSeOH, where R ≠ H. It is a member of the family of organoselenium oxoacids, which also includes selenenic acids and selenonic acids, which are RSeOH and RSeOH, respectively. The parent member of this family of compounds is methaneseleninic acid (CHSeOH), also known as methylseleninic acid or "MSA". Seleninic acids (particularly areneseleninic acids) are useful catalysts for hydrogen peroxide epoxidations, Baeyer–Villiger oxidations, oxidations of thioethers, etc.; peroxyseleninic acids (RSe(O)OOH) are thought to be the active oxidants. Methaneseleninic acid has been characterized by X-ray crystallography. The configuration about the selenium atom is pyramidal, with Se-C = 1.925(8) Å, Se-O = 1.672(7) Å, Se-OH = 1.756(7) Å, the angle OSeO = 103.0(3)°, the angle HO-Se-C = 93.5(3)°, and the angle OSeC = 101.4(3)°. The structure is isomorphous to that of methanesulfinic acid Benzeneseleninic acid (CHSeOH) had been previously characterized by X-ray methods and its optical resolution reported. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=37942477 | 32,514 |
OpenMusic (OM) is an object-oriented visual programming environment for musical composition based on Common Lisp. It may also be used as an all-purpose visual interface to Lisp programming. At a more specialized level, a set of provided classes and libraries make it a very convenient environment for music composition. is the last in a series of computer-assisted composition software designed at Ircam. Versions of are currently available for Mac OS X (PowerPC and Intel), Windows and Linux. The source code has been released under the GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL). Programs in are created by connecting together (a process known as 'patching') either pre-defined or user-defined modules, in a similar manner to graphical signal-processing environments such as Max/MSP or Pd. Unlike such environments, however, the result of an computation will typically be displayed in conventional music notation, which can then be directly manipulated, if so required, via an editor. A substantial body of specialized libraries has been contributed by users, which extends OpenMusic's functionality into such areas as constraint programming, aleatoric composition, spectral music, minimalist music, music theory, fractals, music information retrieval, sound synthesis etc. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=4333062 | 121,624 |
DNA barcoding border control, where rapid and accurate morphological identification is often not possible due to similarities between different species, lack of sufficient diagnostic characteristics and/or lack of taxonomic expertise. Barcoding and metabarcoding can also be used to screen ecosystems for invasive species, and to distinguish between an invasive species and native, morphologically similar, species. enables the identification and recognition of cryptic species. The results of analyses depend however upon the choice of analytical methods, so the process of delimiting cryptic species using DNA barcodes can be as subjective as any other form of taxonomy. Hebert "et al."(2004) concluded that the butterfly "Astraptes fulgerator" in north-western Costa Rica actually consists of 10 different species. These results, however, were subsequently challenged by Brower (2006), who pointed out numerous serious flaws in the analysis, and concluded that the original data could support no more than the possibility of three to seven cryptic taxa rather than ten cryptic species. Smith et al. (2007) used cytochrome "c" oxidase I DNA barcodes for species identification of the 20 morphospecies of "Belvosia" parasitoid flies (Diptera: Tachinidae) reared from caterpillars (Lepidoptera) in Area de Conservación Guanacaste (ACG), northwestern Costa Rica | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=30872162 | 156,188 |
Safety and security window film Manufacturers recommend 100 micrometer film (2 ply) for glass up to 3 mm (1/8 in) and 175 micrometer film for glass over 6 mm (1/4 in). These films can be applied for security applications, where a delay of forced entry is desired. The performance of these films is affected by adhesive bond strength, thickness of the polyester, quality of application, and window structure/frame. These films can be applied in food processing facilities where glass needs to be contained should it fracture and not fall into the food/s processing facilities. Shatter Safe Films are approved and applied in many food and beverage processors throughout North America. The films are adhesive coated to bond them to the glass. The better safety films are those that are smooth-coated, because they have far superior optical clarity. Safety and security films can have components added, such as for solar control and decorative effects. However, as mentioned before, it is their physical properties that allow them to be used in various applications, such as: Toughened glass When float glass is broken (normal window glass), it breaks into sharp shards that are dangerous to anyone in the vicinity. This is particularly hazardous if the window is broken by human impact. Toughened (tempered) glass can produce showers of small glass pellets that can cause serious injury; especially in the event of a car crash (because most automotive side glass is tempered) | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=10347740 | 252,793 |
Viral neuronal tracing In nature, neurotropic viruses are usually transmitted through bites or scratches, as in the case of Rabies virus or certain strains of Herpes viruses. In tracing studies, this step occurs artificially, typically through the use of a syringe. The next stage of the viral life cycle is called viral replication. During this stage, the virus takes over the host cell's machinery to cause the cell to create more viral proteins and assemble more viruses. Once the cell has produced a sufficient number of viruses, the virus enters the viral shedding stage. During this stage, viruses leave the original host cell in search of a new host. In the case of neurotropic viruses, this transmission typically occurs at the synapse. Viruses can jump across the relatively short space from one neuron to the next. This trait is what makes viruses so useful in tracer studies. Once the virus enters the next cell, the cycle begins anew. The original host cell begins to degrade after the shedding stage. In tracer studies, this is the reason the timing must be tightly controlled. If the virus is allowed to spread too far, the original microcircuitry of interest is degraded and no useful information can be retrieved. Typically, viruses can infect only a small number of organisms, and even then only a specific cell type within the body. The specificity of a particular virus for a specific tissue is known as its tropism. Viruses in tracer studies are all neurotropic (capable of infecting neurons) | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=33826069 | 188,649 |
Psophometer In telecommunications, a psophometer is an instrument that measures the perceptible noise of a telephone circuit. The core of the meter is based on a true RMS voltmeter, which measures the level of the noise signal. This was used for the first psophometers, in the 1930s. As the human-perceived level of noise is more important for telephony than their raw voltage, a modern psophometer incorporates a weighting network to represent this perception. The characteristics of the weighting network depend on the type of circuit under investigation, such as whether the circuit is used to normal speech standards (300 Hz – 3.3 kHz), or for high-fidelity broadcast-quality sound (50 Hz – 15 kHz). The name was coined in the 1930s, on a basis from , itself derived from . It is unrelated to . The '-meter' suffix was already widely used in English, but also derives originally from Greek. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=41595 | 303,942 |
List of types of systems engineering This list of types of systems engineering gives an overview of the types of systems engineering. The reference section gives an overview of major publications in each field and the universities that offer these programs. Universities can be listed here under multiple specialism. A general list of universities that offer SE programs is given in the List of systems engineering at universities. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=16600724 | 197,156 |
DIBOL or Digital's Business Oriented Language is a general-purpose, procedural, imperative programming language, designed for use in Management Information Systems (MIS) software development. It has a syntax similar to FORTRAN and BASIC, along with BCD arithmetic. It shares the COBOL program structure of data and procedure divisions. was originally marketed by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) in 1970. The original version, DIBOL-8, was produced for PDP-8 systems running COS-300. The PDP-8-like DECmate II, supports the COS-310 Commercial Operating System, featuring DIBOL. DIBOL-11 was developed for the PDP-11 running COS-350 operating system. It also ran on RSX-11, RT-11, and from 1978 on RSTS/E. DIBOL-32 runs on VAX/VMS systems, although it can also be used on other systems through emulators. ANSI Standards were released in 1983, 1988 and 1992 (ANSI X3.165-1992). The 1992 standard was revised in 2002. compilers were developed by several other companies, including DBL from DISC (later Synergex), Softbol from Omtool, and Unibol from Software Ireland, Ltd. Development of effectively ceased after 1993, when an agreement between DEC and DISC replaced with DBL on OpenVMS, OSF/1, and SCO Unix. Rather than code either or COBOL, an alternative was to use Business Controls Corporation's SB-5 package, which could generate COBOL code for the PDP-11, DECsystem-10/DECSYSTEM-20. or VAX, including an option for COBOL inserts and overrides. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=598142 | 120,183 |
Adhesion Naturally this applies very strongly to wetting liquids, but also to gas molecules that could adsorb onto the surface in question, thereby occupying potential adhesion sites. This last point is actually fairly intuitive: Leaving an adhesive exposed to air too long gets it dirty, and its adhesive strength will decrease. This is observed in the experiment: when mica is cleaved in air, its cleavage energy, W or W, is smaller than the cleavage energy in vacuum, W, by a factor of 13. Lateral adhesion is the adhesion associated with sliding one object on a substrate such as sliding a drop on a surface. When the two objects are solids, either with or without a liquid between them, the lateral adhesion is described as friction. However, the behavior of lateral adhesion between a drop and a surface is tribologically very different from friction between solids, and the naturally adhesive contact between a flat surface and a liquid drop makes the lateral adhesion in this case, an individual field. Lateral adhesion can be measured using the centrifugal adhesion balance (CAB), which uses a combination of centrifugal and gravitational forces to decouple the normal and lateral forces in the problem. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=835157 | 310,139 |
Al-Mahdi Mosque The Mosque of the Dome of the Mahdi or () is one of the historical mosques in the historic old city of Sana'a, Yemen. It forms a part of UNESCO World Heritage Site Old City of Sana'a. It is located in the Al-Kareem Al-Mahdi neighborhood in the western Sarar district. It was built in 1651 by the order of Imam Mahdi Abbas bin Mansour. The tomb was built after the death of Imam Mahdi Abbas in 1768. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=54700902 | 342,487 |
Micro-mechanics of failure Fiber is taken as transversely isotropic, and there are two alternative failure criteria for it: a simple maximum stress criterion and a quadratic failure criterion extended from Tsai-Wu failure criterion: The Coefficients involved in the quadratic failure criterion are defined as follows: where formula_23, formula_24, formula_25, formula_26, formula_27, and formula_28 denote longitudinal tensile, longitudinal compressive, transverse tensile, transverse compressive, transverse (or through-thickness) shear, and in-plane shear strength of the fiber, respectively. Stresses used in two preceding criteria should be micro stresses in the fiber, expressed in such a coordinate system that 1-direction signifies the longitudinal direction of fiber. The polymeric matrix is assumed to be isotropic and exhibits a higher strength under uniaxial compression than under uniaxial tension. A modified version of von Mises failure criterion suggested by Christensen is adopted for the matrix: Here formula_30 and formula_31 represent matrix tensile and compressive strength, respectively; whereas formula_32 and formula_33 are von Mises equivalent stress and the first stress invariant of micro stresses at a point within matrix, respectively | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=28252413 | 362,500 |
ASIL accuracy describes the maximum possible deviation of a measurement in a system in which a single point fault occurred before some diagnostic detects this fault. This concept applies to automotive systems designed under the ISO-26262 methodology for automotive functional safety, which defines Automotive Safety Integrity Levels (ASILs) to classify risks. While accuracy refers to a single measurement, considers variation in the primary measurement being assessed as well as variation in the diagnostic measurement or measurements used to detect single point faults. A conceptually simple implementation incorporates a fully redundant measurement. A fault in the primary measurement can be detected by comparing the primary and diagnostic measurements, and signaling a fault if the difference is outside the expected operating range. If the two measurements are truly independent and uncorrelated, in normal operation they can be at opposite ends of their operating ranges. If the primary measurement has an accuracy V1, and if the redundant diagnostic measurement has an accuracy V2, then the fault detection limit should be set to at least VLIM=V1+V2 to avoid false positives. The system shall flag a fault if the difference between V1 and V2 is greater than VLIM. The fault detection limit, however, should not be confused with ASIL accuracy. Consider the case of a single point fault in which the primary measurement drifts to an incorrect value. describes the maximum such drift before the fault is flagged | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=62997637 | 296,586 |
Pathology Oral and Maxillofacial is one of nine dental specialties recognized by the American Dental Association, and is sometimes considered a specialty of both dentistry and pathology. Oral Pathologists must complete three years of post doctoral training in an accredited program and subsequently obtain diplomate status from the American Board of Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology. The specialty focuses on the diagnosis, clinical management and investigation of diseases that affect the oral cavity and surrounding maxillofacial structures including but not limited to odontogenic, infectious, epithelial, salivary gland, bone and soft tissue pathologies. It also significantly intersects with the field of dental pathology. Although concerned with a broad variety of diseases of the oral cavity, they have roles distinct from otorhinolaryngologists ("ear, nose, and throat" specialists), and speech pathologists, the latter of which helps diagnose many neurological or neuromuscular conditions relevant to speech phonology or swallowing. Owing to the availability of the oral cavity to non-invasive examination, many conditions in the study of oral disease can be diagnosed, or at least suspected, from gross examination, but biopsies, cell smears, and other tissue analysis remain important diagnostic tools in oral pathology. Becoming a pathologist generally requires specialty-training after medical school, but individual nations vary some in the medical licensing required of pathologists | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=48791 | 191,072 |
Akihiro Kusumi Akihiro Kusumi | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=4489461 | 143,224 |
Television The brightness of the neon lamp was varied in proportion to the brightness of each spot on the image. As each hole in the disk passed by, one scan line of the image was reproduced. Baird's disk had 30 holes, producing an image with only 30 scan lines, just enough to recognize a human face. In 1927, Baird transmitted a signal over of telephone line between London and Glasgow. In 1928, Baird's company (Baird Development Company/Cinema Television) broadcast the first transatlantic television signal, between London and New York, and the first shore-to-ship transmission. In 1929, he became involved in the first experimental mechanical television service in Germany. In November of the same year, Baird and Bernard Natan of Pathé established France's first television company, Télévision-Baird-Natan. In 1931, he made the first outdoor remote broadcast, of The Derby. In 1932, he demonstrated ultra-short wave television. Baird's mechanical system reached a peak of 240-lines of resolution on BBC television broadcasts in 1936, though the mechanical system did not scan the televised scene directly. Instead a 17.5mm film was shot, rapidly developed and then scanned while the film was still wet. An American inventor, Charles Francis Jenkins, also pioneered the television | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=29831 | 409,808 |
Power factor One can relate the various components of AC power by using the power triangle in vector space. Real power extends horizontally in the î direction as it represents a purely real component of AC power. Reactive power extends in the direction of ĵ as it represents a purely imaginary component of AC power. Complex power (and its magnitude, Apparent power) represents a combination of both real and reactive power, and therefore can be calculated by using the vector sum of these two components. We can conclude that the mathematical relationship between these components is: As the power factor (i.e. cos "θ") increases, the ratio of real power to apparent power (which = cos "θ"), increases and approaches unity (1), while the angle "θ" decreases and the reactive power decreases. [As cos "θ" → 1, its maximum possible value, "θ" → 0 and so Q → 0, as the load becomes less reactive and more purely resistive]. As the power factor decreases, the ratio of real power to apparent power also decreases, as the angle θ increases and reactive power increases. There is also a difference between a lagging and leading power factor. The terms refer to whether the phase of the current is lagging or leading the phase of the voltage. A lagging power factor signifies that the load is inductive, as the load will “consume” reactive power, and therefore the reactive component formula_2 is positive as reactive power travels through the circuit and is “consumed” by the inductive load | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=41568 | 379,653 |
Configurable Network Computing The CNC function entails a number of responsibilities or functions. Large companies may have an entire staff of CNCs, some working on security, others software change management which deploy changes in the JDE ERP system through the various stages of development, testing and production. Other CNCs will troubleshoot performance issues, other will work on batch process automatization and finally a Senior CNC will manage the entire group and, in that capacity, will often function as the chief JDE systems architect. In order to support this architecture, CNC analysts perform a wide variety of tasks. A frequent criticism of the CNC field is that it is too complicated to be learned in any less than 2–3 years. A number of overlapped functions are involved. Some or all of the following functions: Because of the scope of the CNC functionality, the CNC function requires intensive training. Oracle JD Edwards manages the officially required coursework but many JDE business partners also offer training. A frequent criticism of CNC training is that far too many trainers and the syllabuses that they employ are so complicated as to be almost indecipherable to an incoming novice. The training is couched in techno-speak: terms such as "path code", "environment", OCM mappings are bantered about with overlapping and circular explanations that leave novices and introductory CNC students quite confused. As of 2000, there is no official certification program | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=12424671 | 490,710 |
Mecca Gate On its sides there is fine-cut boxwood inside tidy gardens, with shaped and perimeter fences, small parking lots and other auxiliary facilities extending into a big complex. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=50451288 | 333,509 |
National Polytechnic School (Ecuador) In October 1999, Pichincha Volcano erupted in Quito and covered the city with several inches of ash. Prior to that, the last major eruptions were in 1553 and in 1660, when about 30 cm of ash fell on the city. At 5230 meters, Sangay Volcano) is an active stratovolcano in central Ecuador and is one of the highest active volcanoes in the world and one of Ecuador's most active ones, erupting three times in recorded history. It exhibits mostly strombolian activity; the most recent eruption, which started in 1934, is still ongoing. Geologically, Sangay marks the southern bound of the Northern Volcanic Zone, and its position straddling two major pieces of crust accounts for its high level of activity. Sangay's approximately 500,000-year-old history is one of instability; two previous versions of the mountain were destroyed in massive flank collapses, evidence of which still litters its surroundings today. Sangay is one of two active volcanoes located within the namesake Sangay National Park, the other being Tungurahua to the north. As such it has been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1983. Reventador is an active stratovolcano which lies in the eastern Andes of Ecuador. Since 1541 it has erupted over 25 times with most recent eruption in 2009, but the largest historical eruption occurred in 2002. During that eruption the plume from the volcano reached a height of 17 km and pyroclastic flows went up to 7 km from the cone. On March 30, 2007, the mountain spewed ash again | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=17286568 | 297,964 |
Hyde Park Obelisk It is historically significant as one of the oldest items of infrastructure in the early City sewerage system. It has landmark qualities, providing a fitting terminus to the eastern end of Bathurst Street. It is also significant for its contribution to the streetscape of Elizabeth Street, its visual role in the axial vistas of Sydney, and as a significant object within Hyde Park. Sewer Vent was listed on the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 15 November 2002 having satisfied the following criteria. The place is important in demonstrating the course, or pattern, of cultural or natural history in New South Wales. The Obelisk was the first sewer ventshaft built to eliminate noxious gases from the sewer at levels that would not be detected by the residents of the city. The vent shaft was built to replace the street gratings that had been used to ventilate the sewer system. The place is important in demonstrating aesthetic characteristics and/or a high degree of creative or technical achievement in New South Wales. The Obelisk is a sandstone vent shaft which displays the classical architecture and technology of the late nineteenth century. It is a landmark feature within Hyde park and Sydney, which is visible as a major feature at the end of Bathurst Street. The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group in New South Wales for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=15838584 | 314,359 |
Charles Darwin The show toured European theatres in 2010. The Darwins had ten children: two died in infancy, and Annie's death at the age of ten had a devastating effect on her parents. Charles was a devoted father and uncommonly attentive to his children. Whenever they fell ill, he feared that they might have inherited weaknesses from inbreeding due to the close family ties he shared with his wife and cousin, Emma Wedgwood. He examined inbreeding in his writings, contrasting it with the advantages of outcrossing in many species. Despite his fears, most of the surviving children and many of their descendants went on to have distinguished careers. Of his surviving children, George, Francis and Horace became Fellows of the Royal Society, distinguished as astronomer, botanist and civil engineer, respectively. All three were knighted. Another son, Leonard, went on to be a soldier, politician, economist, eugenicist and mentor of the statistician and evolutionary biologist Ronald Fisher. Darwin's family tradition was nonconformist Unitarianism, while his father and grandfather were freethinkers, and his baptism and boarding school were Church of England. When going to Cambridge to become an Anglican clergyman, he did not doubt the literal truth of the Bible. He learned John Herschel's science which, like William Paley's natural theology, sought explanations in laws of nature rather than miracles and saw adaptation of species as evidence of design | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=8145410 | 162,648 |
Bridge Rope bridges, a simple type of suspension bridge, were used by the Inca civilization in the Andes mountains of South America, just prior to European colonization in the 16th century. During the 18th century there were many innovations in the design of timber bridges by Hans Ulrich Grubenmann, Johannes Grubenmann, and others. The first book on bridge engineering was written by Hubert Gautier in 1716. A major breakthrough in bridge technology came with the erection of the Iron in Shropshire, England in 1779. It used cast iron for the first time as arches to cross the river Severn. With the Industrial Revolution in the 19th century, truss systems of wrought iron were developed for larger bridges, but iron does not have the tensile strength to support large loads. With the advent of steel, which has a high tensile strength, much larger bridges were built, many using the ideas of Gustave Eiffel. In Canada and the United States, numerous timber covered bridges were built in the late 1700s to the late 1800s, reminiscent of earlier designs in Germany and Switzerland. Some covered bridges were also built in Asia. In later years, some were partly made of stone or metal but the trusses were usually still made of wood; in the United States, there were three styles of trusses, the Queen Post, the Burr Arch and the Town Lattice. Hundreds of these structures still stand in North America. They were brought to the attention of the general public in the 1990s by the novel, movie, and play "The Bridges of Madison County" | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=3397 | 359,560 |
Stokes problem If the cylinder oscillates in the axial direction with velocity formula_35, then the velocity field is where formula_37 is the modified Bessel function of the second kind. In the Couette flow, instead of the translational motion of one of the plate, an oscillation of one plane will be executed. If we have a bottom wall at rest at formula_3 and the upper wall at formula_17 is executing an oscillatory motion with velocity formula_35, then the velocity field is given by The frictional force per unit area on the moving plane is formula_42 and on the fixed plane is formula_43. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=53946357 | 450,288 |
Market fundamentalism Critics claim that in modern society with worldwide conglomerates, or even merely large companies, the individual has no protection against fraud nor harm caused by products that maximize income by imposing externalities on the individual consumer as well as society. Historian Edward E. Baptist contends that "unrestrained domination of market forces can sometimes amplify existing forms of oppression into something more horrific" such as slavery and that "market fundamentalism doesn't always provide the best solution for every economic or social problem". | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=744849 | 476,573 |
Robert H. Brill Further lead isotope analysis, this time on Chinese and central Asian pigments, was conducted with a larger team for the Getty's Conservation of Ancient Sites on the Silk Road, which saw Brill et al. launching studies that held incredible potential for understanding ‘chronological or stylistic differences among Buddhist cave paintings’, or ‘distinguish[ing] between original and repainted parts of individual works’ (1993, 371). In 1999, Brill published the sum of 39 years worth of results from his chemical investigations at Corning in two volumes of reference material with a third forthcoming (Brill 1999). Brill was reluctant to publish the data without any accompanying interpretation, but he felt that the most important factor was to quickly release the material into a wider sphere, made ‘readily accessible to the scientific community’ (1999, 8). Of Corning's 10,000 research artefacts, the master catalogue contains 6,400 samples, an abbreviated catalogue, or AbbCat, of which is presented in the two volumes (1999, 11). Nineteen geographical, typological or chronological categories of glass samples are recorded, spanning Brill's various research projects and collaborations, from Egypt to the East (Brill 1999). It also records the results of oxygen isotope analyses, reminding us that Brill was ever one for the integration of different investigative methods. Since 2000, Dr Brill's interest in Silk Road studies and ancient glass compositions has continued, but his publication rate has slowed somewhat | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=22222088 | 266,515 |
Cultural synergy Moreover, the flow of immigrants coming to work in the USA contributed to the change of conducting management, as the managers started to consider Cultural Pluralism , a completely different view from what they were used to have, known as the "melting-pot", which was based on forcing the immigrant workforce to adapt to the American culture. The word comes from ancient Greek: "synergia" means working together. Andrew Campbell and Michael Goold, two British academics, define it as “links between business units that result in additional value creation”. It is, they go on to say, “a Holy Grail for large multi-unit companies”. It is something akin to the philosopher's stone: seeming to create extra value without consuming resources. Synergy means cooperation that occurs between diverse groups of people with different viewpoints that work together. The aim of synergy is to increase effectiveness by combining various knowledge, perceptions and viewpoints together. It is a common belief that “when solving problems, groups are often smarter than the smartest people within them”. Synergy is extremely important in business, as it gathers resources needed for successful operations and it complies with our present society where diversity is considered to be a value. Organizational Change has a very broad meaning and it can be major or minor, depending on the number or individuals from a specific organization it affects | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=20035439 | 481,720 |
CRISPR gene editing Early research in animal models suggest that therapies based on CRISPR technology have potential to treat a wide range of diseases, including cancer, beta-thalassemia, sickle cell disease, hemophilia, cystic fibrosis, Duchenne's muscular dystrophy, Huntington's disease, and heart disease. CRISPR may also have applications in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine, such as by creating human blood vessels that lack expression of MHC class II proteins, which often cause transplant rejection. CRISPR-Cas-based "RNA-guided nucleases" can be used to target virulence factors, genes encoding antibiotic resistance, and other medically relevant sequences of interest. This technology thus represents a novel form of antimicrobial therapy and a strategy by which to manipulate bacterial populations. Recent studies suggest a correlation between the interfering of the CRISPR-Cas locus and acquisition of antibiotic resistance. This system provides protection of bacteria against invading foreign DNA, such as transposons, bacteriophages, and plasmids. This system was shown to be a strong selective pressure for the acquisition of antibiotic resistance and virulence factor in bacterial pathogens. Therapies based on CRISPR–Cas3 gene editing technology delivered by engineered bacteriophages could be used to destroy targeted DNA in pathogens. Cas3 is more destructive than the better known Cas9. Research suggests that CRISPR is an effective way to limit replication of multiple herpesviruses | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=59990826 | 9,832 |
Fortaleza de Santo António da Ponta da Mina or Forte de Ponta da Mina is a ruined fort located east of the island capital Santo António in the island of Príncipe in São Tomé and Príncipe. It is located at the headland Ponta da Mina. The fortress consisted of two parts: the Bateria Real and the Bateria do Príncipe. The fort was built in 1695. In 1706, the city of Santo António was invaded by the French during the Spanish War of Succession, destroying the town and its fortress. It was repaired several times, and was finally abandoned in the early 20th century. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=54014188 | 337,064 |
Feed forward (control) Feed-forward control can be likened to learned anticipatory responses to known cues (predictive coding). Feedback regulation of the heartbeat provides further adaptiveness to the running eventualities of physical exertion. Feedforward systems are also found in biological control of other variables by many regions of animals brains. Even in the case of biological feedforward systems, such as in the human brain, knowledge or a mental model of the plant (body) can be considered to be mathematical as the model is characterized by limits, rhythms, mechanics and patterns. A pure feed-forward system is different from a homeostatic control system, which has the function of keeping the body's internal environment 'steady' or in a 'prolonged steady state of readiness.' A homeostatic control system relies mainly on feedback (especially negative), in addition to the feedforward elements of the system. The cross regulation of genes can be represented by a graph, where genes are the nodes and one node is linked to another if the former is a transcription factor for the latter. A motif which predominantly appears in all known networks (E. coli, Yeast...) is A activates B, A and B activate C. This motif has been shown to be a feed forward system, detecting non-temporary change of environment. This feed forward control theme is commonly observed in hematopoietic cell lineage development, where irreversible commitments are made | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=574759 | 120,032 |
Posterior median line The posterior median line is a sagittal line on the posterior torso at the midline. A similar term is "vertebral line", which defined by the spinous processes. However, this term is not in Terminologia Anatomica. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=24651881 | 176,806 |
Covered interest arbitrage Fung, examined the relationship of covered interest rate parity arbitrage opportunities with market liquidity and credit risk using a dataset of tick-by-tick spot and forward exchange rate quotes for the Hong Kong dollar in relation to the United States dollar. Their empirical analysis demonstrates that positive deviations from covered interest rate parity indeed compensate for liquidity and credit risk. After accounting for these risk premia, the researchers demonstrated that small residual arbitrage profits accrue only to those arbitrageurs capable of negotiating low transaction costs. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1681652 | 455,409 |
Barbara J. Grosz CorrFRSE (Philadelphia, July 21, 1948) is an American computer scientist and Higgins Professor of Natural Sciences at Harvard University. She has made seminal contributions to the fields of natural language processing and multi-agent systems. Grosz earned a bachelor's degree in mathematics from Cornell University in 1969, and master's and doctoral degrees in computer science from the University of California at Berkeley in 1971 and 1977, respectively. Grosz established and led interdisciplinary institutions, and advanced the role of women in science. From 2007-2011 Grosz served as interim dean and then dean of Harvard’s Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, and from 2001-2007 she was the Institute’s first dean of science, designing and building its science program. She currently serves on the Science Board and Science Steering Committee at the Santa Fe Institute. She is responsible for Harvard being one of the first universities to integrate philosophy across different computer science courses. Grosz is a member of the American Philosophical Society (2003), the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2004), and the National Academy of Engineering (2008). She is a fellow of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) (1990), the American Association for the Advancement of Science (1990), and the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) (2004). In 1993, she became the first woman president of the AAAI | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=42124868 | 105,470 |
Planning Domain Definition Language It adds the possibility to distinguish between the possibly different actions of different agents (i.e. different capabilities). Similarly different agents may have different goals and/or metrics. The preconditions of actions now may directly refer to concurrent actions (e.g. the actions of other agents) and thus actions with interacting effects can be represented in a general, flexible way (e.g. suppose that at least 2 agents are needed to execute a codice_2 action to lift a heavy table into the air, or otherwise the table would remain on the ground (this is an example of constructive synergy, but destructive synergy can be also easily represented in MA-PDDL)). Moreover, as kind of syntactic sugar, a simple mechanism for the inheritance and polymorphism of actions, goals and metrics was also introduced in MA-PDDL (assuming codice_3 is declared). Since PDDL3.1 assumes that the environment is deterministic and fully observable, the same holds for MA-PDDL, i.e. every agent can access the value of every state fluent at every time-instant and observe every previously executed action of each agent, and also the concurrent actions of agents unambiguously determine the next state of the environment. This was improved later by the addition of partial-observability and probabilistic effects (again, in form of two new modular requirements, codice_4 and codice_5, respectively, the latter being inspired by PPDDL1.0, and both being compatible with all the previous features of the language, including codice_1) | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1530548 | 109,561 |
Wood shaper In addition to aiding productivity and setting a consistent rate of milling, a power feeder keeps appendages and garments out of harm's way. They may be multi-speed, and employ rubber wheels to feed stock past the cutter head. Before machines, men worked as "moulders" shaping wood by hand. Multi Head Moulder: Standing from in front of the infeed side of the machine where the stock is fed into the machine. A common cutter head configuration is; Bottom horizontal head, a right hand vertical side head, a Left hand vertical side head, and a top horizontal head. This is a common configuration (in order of layout), but there are countless other configurations available. For instance; a multi head moulder may have two bottom heads and two top heads in order to size the lumber with the first top and the first bottom head, and then finish cut the lumber with the remaining top and bottom head. Machines with two or more right heads more common in the furniture industry to give the ability to run shorter stock and more detailed, deeper cuts on the edge of the stock. Tooling refers to cutters, knives, blades, as well as planer blades, and cutter heads. Most blades are made from either a type of tool steel known as high speed steel (HSS), or from carbide. Cutter heads are normally made from either steel or aluminum. High Speed Steel, carbide, aluminium, and steel for the cutter heads all come in a wide variety of grades. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1627370 | 437,448 |
Hubert Dreyfus's views on artificial intelligence Hubert Dreyfus has been a critic of artificial intelligence research since the 1960s. In a series of papers and books, including Alchemy and AI (1965), What Computers Can't Do (1972; 1979; 1992) and Mind over Machine (1986), he presented a pessimistic assessment of AI's progress and a critique of the philosophical foundations of the field. Dreyfus' objections are discussed in most introductions to the philosophy of artificial intelligence, including , the standard AI textbook, and in , a survey of contemporary philosophy. Dreyfus argued that human intelligence and expertise depend primarily on unconscious processes rather than conscious symbolic manipulation, and that these unconscious skills can never be fully captured in formal rules. His critique was based on the insights of modern continental philosophers such as Merleau-Ponty and Heidegger, and was directed at the first wave of AI research which used high level formal symbols to represent reality and tried to reduce intelligence to symbol manipulation. When Dreyfus' ideas were first introduced in the mid-1960s, they were met with ridicule and outright hostility. By the 1980s, however, many of his perspectives were rediscovered by researchers working in robotics and the new field of connectionism—approaches now called "sub-symbolic" because they eschew early AI research's emphasis on high level symbols | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=8919856 | 103,989 |
Cybernetics and Human Knowing Cybernetics and Human Knowing: A Journal of Second Order Cybernetics, Autopoiesis & Cyber-Semiotics is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal covering autopoiesis, biosemiotics, cognition, complexity, cybersemiotics, hermeneutics, information theory, linguistics, second-order cybernetics, semiotics, and systems theory, among others. The journal was established in 1992 and is published by Imprint Academic with Søren Brier (Copenhagen Business School) as editor-in-chief. The journal's inception was initially supported by the Danish Academy for Practical Philosophy and the American Society for Cybernetics (ASC) with contributing editors and funding (ASC). The journal usually contains six different sections: the issue editors' foreword, peer-reviewed articles, an expert column, an ASC column, book reviews, and a featured artist artworks. Occasionally the journal dedicates an issue to publish conference proceedings and special topics. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=43074177 | 105,782 |
Open allocation Additionally, open allocation's strongest successes are in businesses in the areas of science, technology, and in particular, software - the most successful of which are typically staffed by highly competent and educated people. Whether the successes of open allocation apply more generally to other types of organizations is an open question. Finally, terminating employees in an open-allocation environment can be challenging, because establishing a performance-based case in such a flexible environment is difficult. While open allocation generally creates fewer of the "unlucky" low-performers who landed on the poorly-fitting projects or with incompatible managers, and therefore tends to reduce turnover (voluntary and involuntary) dramatically, it doesn't provide a mechanism for getting rid of severe under- or non-performers who "hide" in the organization. This has not been an issue to this point, if only because the companies using open allocation have been highly selective ones that can hire people with strong track records. Furthermore, the increase in performance among high performers under open allocation is typically so dramatic as to counteract any risk of decline among the lower performers. At Valve, employees' desks have wheels under them, allowing them to move to another team with ease - a symbolic as well as practical marker of Valve's open allocation approach - and physically reorganize as their projects demand | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=40917237 | 487,759 |
Trellis quantization is an algorithm that can improve data compression in DCT-based encoding methods. It is used to optimize residual DCT coefficients after motion estimation in lossy video compression encoders such as Xvid and x264. reduces the size of some DCT coefficients while recovering others to take their place. This process can increase quality because coefficients chosen by Trellis have the lowest rate-distortion ratio. effectively finds the optimal quantization for each block to maximize the PSNR relative to bitrate. It has varying effectiveness depending on the input data and compression method. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=11676290 | 403,352 |
Apple S4 The is the integrated computer in the Apple Watch Series 4 and is a custom-designed "System in Package" (SiP) by Apple Inc. The S4 introduced 64-bit ARMv8 cores to the Apple Watch. The chip contains two Tempest cores, which are the energy-efficient cores from the A12. Despite the small size, Tempest still uses a 3-wide decode out-of-order superscalar design, which make them much more powerful than previous in-order cores. The S4 contains a Neural Engine that is able to run Core ML. Third-party apps can use it starting from watchOS 6. The SiP includes new accelerometer and gyroscope functionality that has twice the dynamic range in measurable values of its predecessor, as well as being able to sample data at 8 times the speed. It also contains a new custom GPU, which can use the Metal API. The S4 was succeeded by the Apple S5. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=58585997 | 255,464 |
Museum of Lands, Mapping and Surveying In late 1905 Brisbane article Oscar Fristrom sculpted a bust of Augustus Charles Gregory, the first Surveyor-General of Queensland. In February 1906, Fristrom offered to sell the bust to the Royal Geographical Society of Queensland but the society decided not to buy it; however, they did display it at an event in June 1906. For many years the bust was displayed at Freemasons’ Gregory Lodge in Cairns (Gregory being depicted wearing his Masonic regalia). In 2018, the Freemasons donated the bust to the museum. As at 10 March 2020, the bust is at the entrance of the museum. This article was based on material from Collections and Services and Museum history published by The State of Queensland 2018 under CC-BY-4.0 license, accessed on 3 October 2018. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=58642133 | 194,807 |
Originality Corel Corp "case", the court held that the copies of public domain photographs could not be copyrighted since they lacked originality and while such reproductions may have involved skill and labour, no protection could be granted to them, on account of lack of originality. While the current legal requirements of originality viz. minimum level of creativity and independent labour can be easily assessed and applied in case of literary works, the courts are required to undertake a deeper legal and factual inquiry in photographic works. The United States District Court for Southern District of New York in Mannion v. Coors Brewing Company considered originality in terms of timing, subject and rendition, and held that the nature and extent of the copyright would be independent in the three aspects. The requirement for originality was incorporated in the statute only in the Copyright Act, 1976 and over the course of time, the courts have evolved various metrics to apply the test. Unlike, Patents, novelty is not required for a work to be considered as original. The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in Sheldon (1936) had clarified that sometimes it is relevant for other purposes. Therefore, if the work created by you is identical to a pre-existing work but you are unaware of the latter's existence, you may still enjoy copyright protection for your work. Apart from novelty, the work is not required to be made with an intent to be original | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1127541 | 461,788 |
Exit planning is the preparation for the exit of an entrepreneur from his company to maximize the enterprise value of the company in a mergers and acquisitions transaction and thus his shareholder value, although other non-financial objectives may be pursued including the transition of the company to the next generation, sale to employees or management, or other altruistic, non-financial objectives. differs from succession planning in that the later is a sub-component of exit planning, and refers to the hiring, training and retention of a successor President/CEO of the company in a planned manner. Succession Planning is but one of the many considerations when conducting exit planning. Company owners commonly do not see their company from the standpoint of a potential buyer, and thus, ignore the strategic management of the company. However, other authors define exit planning in a broader sense. For example, Business Exit Planning is the process of explicitly defining exit-related objectives for the owner(s) of a business, followed by the design of a comprehensive strategy and road map that take into account all personal, business, financial, legal, and taxation aspects of achieving those objectives, usually in the context of planning the leadership succession and continuity of a business. Objectives may include maximizing (or setting a goal for) proceeds, minimizing risk, closing a Transaction quickly, or selecting an investor that will ensure that the business prospers | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=38157907 | 496,013 |
List of digital camera brands This is a list of digital camera brands. Former and current brands are included in this list. With some of the brands, the name is licensed from another company, or acquired after the bankruptcy of an older photographic equipment company. The actual manufacture of a camera model is performed by a different company in many cases. In many cases brands are limited to certain countries. Not all brands of devices that can take digital images are listed here, including many industrial digital camera brands, some webcam brands, brands of cell phones that feature cameras, and brands of video cameras that can take digital stills. Defunct brands are listed separately. , these brands offer some combination of compact digital cameras, bridge camera, digital single-lens reflex cameras (DSLRs), and mirrorless interchangeable lens cameras (MILCs): These brands offer only non-camera digital imaging devices, or non-consumer digital cameras: These brands no longer produce digital imaging products: | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2087425 | 107,704 |
Minimum-weight triangulation A more sophisticated technique called the LMT-skeleton was proposed by . It is formed by an iterative process, in which two sets of edges are maintained, a set of edges known to belong to the minimum-weight triangulation and a set of edges that are candidates to belong to it. Initially, the set of known edges is initialized to the convex hull of the input, and all remaining pairs of vertices form candidate edges. Then, in each iteration of the construction process, candidate edges are removed whenever there is no pair of triangles formed by the remaining edges forming a quadrilateral for which the candidate edge is the shortest diagonal, and candidate edges are moved to the set of known edges when there is no other candidate edge that crosses them. The LMT-skeleton is defined to be the set of known edges produced after this process stops making any more changes. It is guaranteed to be a subgraph of the minimum-weight triangulation, can be constructed efficiently, and in experiments on sets of up to 200 points it was frequently connected. However it has been shown that on the average for large point sets it has a linear number of connected components. Other heuristics that have been applied to the minimum weight triangulation problem include genetic algorithms branch and bound, and ant colony optimization algorithms. A polygon triangulation of minimal weight may be constructed in cubic time using the dynamic programming approach, reported independently by and | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=22231180 | 113,134 |
Mortzenhaus The was one of the largest and most well known city palaces in Hamburg. It was built in 1621 by the brothers and arms dealers Jacob and Hans Moers, who were among the wealthiest people in Hamburg in their lifetime. Built as a palace in renaissance style and occupying the addresses Alter Wandrahm 19–23, it was markedly different from most other buildings in Hamburg. The was demolished in 1886 as part of the construction of the "Speicherstadt". | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=41499837 | 327,599 |
Measuring poverty In the early 1990s the transition economies of Europe and Central Asia experienced a sharp drop in income. Poverty rates rose to 6 percent at the end of the decade before beginning to recede. There are criticisms of these measurements. Some economists, such as Guy Pfeffermann, say that other non-monetary indicators of "absolute poverty" are also improving. Life expectancy has greatly increased in the developing world since World War II and is starting to close the gap to the developed world where the improvement has been smaller. Even in Sub-Saharan Africa, the least developed region, life expectancy increased from 30 years before World War II to a peak of about 50 years — before the HIV pandemic and other diseases started to force it down to the current level of 47 years. Child mortality has decreased in every developing region of the world. The proportion of the world's population living in countries where per-capita food supplies are less than 2,200 calories (9,200 kilojoules) per day decreased from 56% in the mid-1960s to below 10% by the 1990s. Between 1950 and 1999, global literacy increased from 52% to 81% of the world. Women made up much of the gap: Female literacy as a percentage of male literacy has increased from 59% in 1970 to 80% in 2000. The percentage of children not in the labor force has also risen to over 90% in 2000 from 76% in 1960. There are similar trends for electric power, cars, radios, and telephones per capita, as well as the proportion of the population with access to clean water | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=8921769 | 502,273 |
Santa Justa Lift The elevator is a vertical structure, developed along the "Rua de Santa Justa", consisting of a metal tower, observation platform, walkway and base. Its base includes four vertical columns, each composed of two pillars. The largest part of the structure runs parallel to the "Rua de Santa Justa". With a height of 45 metres, covering seven stories, the tower includes two elevator cabins, decorated in wood, mirrors and windows, and with an initial capacity for 24 passengers in each (updated to 29 people later). The structure includes a dozen transverse beams, forming a double lattice, supported at the top by foundations at the "Escadinhas de Santa Justa." On the sides of the elevator, the walkway is articulated by means of bearings, as well as on the pillars, which is articulated at the base. The top floor is a lookout, with panoramic views of the city, while connections to the floors below are made (in addition to the elevator) by two spiral staircases, with different patterns on each storey. The main machinery was installed at the base of the Elevator, while at the exit to the "Largo do Carmo" there is a veranda to allow circulation. The corridor that passes above the structure, was transformed into a terrace, and exits to "Largo do Carmo" through an iron gate. The space destined the electrical equipment was located under the "Escadinhas", in a space set aside for this purpose, under a vaulted ceiling. The lift is decorated in a Neo-Gothic style in iron | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1873761 | 340,314 |
Holophonics According to the hypothesis, the cochlea detects and analyzes this pattern as if it were an acoustic hologram. The brain then interprets this data and infers the direction of the sound. An article from Zuccarelli presenting this theory was printed in the magazine "New Scientist" in 1983. This article was soon followed by two letters, casting doubt on Zuccarelli's theory and his scientific abilities. To date, there has been no evidence provided that any acoustic emissions are used for sound localization. Holophonics, like binaural recording, instead reproduces the interaural differences (arrival time and amplitude between the ears), as well as rudimentary head-related transfer functions (HRTF). These create the illusion that sounds produced in the membrane of a speaker emanate from specific directions. While otoacoustic emissions do exist, there is no evidence to support the assertion that these play a role in sound localization, nor is any mechanism for this "interference" effect claimed by Zuccarelli supported. On the contrary, there is abundant literature proving that properly presented spatial cues via HRTF synthesis (mimicking binaural heads) or binaural recording is adequate to reproduce realistic spatial recordings comparable to real listening, and comparable to the demonstrations. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=9834288 | 200,618 |
Drug discovery In an estimate from 2011, 435 human genome products were identified as therapeutic drug targets of FDA-approved drugs. "Established targets" are those for which there is a good scientific understanding, supported by a lengthy publication history, of both how the target functions in normal physiology and how it is involved in human pathology. This does not imply that the mechanism of action of drugs that are thought to act through a particular established target is fully understood. Rather, "established" relates directly to the amount of background information available on a target, in particular functional information. In general, "new targets" are all those targets that are not "established targets" but which have been or are the subject of drug discovery efforts. The majority of targets selected for drug discovery efforts are proteins, such as G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) and protein kinases. The process of finding a new drug against a chosen target for a particular disease usually involves high-throughput screening (HTS), wherein large libraries of chemicals are tested for their ability to modify the target. For example, if the target is a novel GPCR, compounds will be screened for their ability to inhibit or stimulate that receptor (see antagonist and agonist): if the target is a protein kinase, the chemicals will be tested for their ability to inhibit that kinase | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=571274 | 26,361 |
Photoconductive atomic force microscopy The combination of the conductive tip and illumination laser provides photocurrent images with vertical resolutions in the range of 0 to 10 pA when overlaid with the topographical data obtained. Also unique to this modification are the spectra data gathered by comparing the current between the tip and sample to a variety of parameters including: laser wavelength, applied voltage and light intensity. The pc-AFM technique was also reported to detect local surface oxidation at a vertical resolution of 80 nm. The instrumentation involved for pc-AFM is very similar to that necessary for traditional AFM or the modified conductive AFM. The main difference between pc-AFM and other types of AFM instruments is the illumination source that is focused through the inverted microscope objective and the neutral density filter that is positioned adjacent to the illumination source. The technical parameters of pc-AFM are identical to those of traditional AFM techniques. This section will focus on the instrumentation necessary for AFM and then detail the requirements for pc-AFM modification. The main instrumental components to all AFM techniques are the conductive AFM cantilever and tip, the modified piezo components and the sample substrate. The components for photoconductive modification include: the illumination source (532 nm laser), filter and inverted microscope | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=31698140 | 31,943 |
Early completion By extending this approach to carry look-ahead adders, it is possible to add in O(log log n) time. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2817719 | 374,203 |
Mud Springs Station Archeological District The telegraph station, that served till 1876 proved a savior for Mud Spring Station, when an impending attack by the Sioux and Cheyenne Indians was thwarted by a SOS telegraph sent to the US troops. Today, as the last vestige of the Mud Spring Station, a stone monument, inlaid with a bronze Pony Express plaque, stands at the historic site. Currently, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, originally, the Pony Express Station site was donated in 1939 to the Nebraska State Historical Society, by the then site-owner, Mrs. Scherer. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=39446421 | 329,717 |
Soil-structure interaction The effect of SSI, however, becomes prominent for heavy structures resting on relatively soft soils for example nuclear power plants, high-rise buildings and elevated-highways on soft soil. Damage sustained in recent earthquakes, such as the 1995 Kobe earthquake, have also highlighted that the seismic behavior of a structure is highly influenced not only by the response of the superstructure, but also by the response of the foundation and the ground as well. Hence, the modern seismic design codes, such as Standard Specifications for Concrete Structures: Seismic Performance Verification JSCE 2005 stipulate that the response analysis should be conducted by taking into consideration a whole structural system including superstructure, foundation and ground. It is conventionally believed that SSI is a purely beneficial effect, and it can conveniently be neglected for conservative design. SSI provisions of seismic design codes are optional and allow designers to reduce the design base shear of buildings by considering soil-structure interaction (SSI) as a beneficial effect. The main idea behind the provisions is that the soil-structure system can be replaced with an equivalent fixed-base model with a longer period and usually a larger damping ratio. Most of the design codes use oversimplified design spectra, which attain constant acceleration up to a certain period, and thereafter decreases monotonically with period | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=17568082 | 313,722 |
List of Italian-American business people To be included in this list of Italian-American business people, individuals must have a Wikipedia article showing they are Italian-American business people, or must have other published references showing they are Italian-American business people and are notable. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=9904552 | 471,692 |
Studio monitor When there was no original performance outside what existed on the tape, the monitor became the touchstone of all engineering and production decisions. As a result, accuracy and transparency became paramount and the conservatism evident in the retention of the 604 as the standard for over twenty years began to give way to fresh technological development. Despite this, the 604 continued to be widely used - mainly because many engineers and producers were so familiar with their sonic signature that they were reluctant to change. In a BBC white paper published in January 1963, the authors explored two-channel stereophony, and remarked that it was at a disadvantage compared with multi-channel stereophony that was already available in cinemas in that "the full intended effects is apparent only to observers located within in a restricted area in front of the loudspeakers". The authors expressed reservations about dispersion and directionality in 2-channel systems, noting that the "face-to-face listening arrangement" was not able to give an acceptable presentation for a centrally-located observer in a domestic setting. The paper concluded: The achievement of suitable directional characteristics within the aesthetic and economic limitations applying to domestic equipment will however require a much greater research effort than either the corporation or the radio industry have so far been able to devote to the subject | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=5996696 | 386,281 |
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