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Bushing (isolator) Disadvantages include that the rubber bushings can deteriorate quickly in the presence of oils (e.g., motor oil, mineral oil) and extreme heat and cold. Also, the flexibility of rubber also introduces an element of play in the suspension system. This may result in camber, caster, or toe changes in the wheels of the vehicle during high-load conditions (cornering and braking), adversely affecting the vehicle's handling. For this reason, a popular aftermarket performance upgrade is the replacement of rubber suspension bushings with bushings made of more rigid materials, such as polyurethane. Polyurethane bushings are also available for many vehicles with approximately the same characteristics as the manufacturers original bushings, but with greatly increased durability. This is useful on vehicles that have a reputation for wearing out standard rubber bushings, but for which harder bushings with increased harshness of ride are not wanted. Charles E. Sorensen credits Walter Chrysler as being a leader in encouraging the adoption of rubber vibration-isolating mounts. In his memoir (1956), he says that, on March 10, 1932, Chrysler called at Ford headquarters to show off a new Plymouth model. Lee Iacocca credits Chrysler's chief of engineering during that era, Frederick Zeder, with leading the effort. Iacocca said that Zeder "was the first man to figure out how to get the vibrations out of cars. His solution? He mounted their engines on a rubber base | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=802190 | 212,711 |
Layer 2 Tunneling Protocol See example of reseller ISPs using L2TP. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=350705 | 111,375 |
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder Psychological therapies used include: psychoeducational input, behavior therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), interpersonal psychotherapy, family therapy, school-based interventions, social skills training, behavioral peer intervention, organization training, parent management training, and neurofeedback. Parent training may improve a number of behavioral problems including oppositional and non compliant behaviors. It is unclear if neurofeedback is useful. There is little high quality research on the effectiveness of family therapy for ADHD, but the evidence that exists shows that it is similar to community care and better than a placebo. ADHD-specific support groups can provide information and may help families cope with ADHD. Training in social skills, behavioral modification and medication may have some limited beneficial effects. The most important factor in reducing later psychological problems, such as major depression, criminality, school failure, and substance use disorders is formation of friendships with people who are not involved in delinquent activities. Regular physical exercise, particularly aerobic exercise, is an effective add-on treatment for ADHD in children and adults, particularly when combined with stimulant medication, although the best intensity and type of aerobic exercise for improving symptoms are not currently known | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=64976 | 184,961 |
Galcanezumab Patients were assigned to receive galcanezumab-gnlm or placebo injections once a month for six months. Neither the patients nor the health care providers knew which treatment was being given until after the trial was completed. The benefit of galcanezumab-gnlm was assessed based on the change from baseline in the number of migraine days per month during the six-month treatment period, comparing patients in the galcanezumab-gnlm and placebo groups. Trial three enrolled patients with a history of chronic migraine headaches. Patients were assigned to receive galcanezumab-gnlm or placebo injection once a month for three months. Neither the patients nor the health care providers knew which treatment was being given until after the trial was completed. The benefit of galcanezumab-gnlm was assessed based on the change from baseline in the number of migraine days per month during the three-month treatment period, comparing the galcanezumab-gnlm and placebo groups. In November 2018, galcanezumab was approved for use in the European Union for the prophylaxis of migraine in adults who have at least four migraine days per month. was shown to be effective at reducing the number of days participants suffer migraines in three main studies. Overall, galcanezumab led to two fewer days with migraines per month compared with placebo (a dummy treatment) | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=50977642 | 181,455 |
Payback period does not specify any required comparison to other investments or even to not making an investment. is usually expressed in years. Start by calculating Net Cash Flow for each year: Net Cash Flow Year 1 = Cash Inflow Year 1 - Cash Outflow Year 1. Then Cumulative Cash Flow = (Net Cash Flow Year 1 + Net Cash Flow Year 2 + Net Cash Flow Year 3, etc.) Accumulate by year until Cumulative Cash Flow is a positive number: that year is the payback year. To calculate a more exact payback period: Payback Period = Amount to be Invested/Estimated Annual Net Cash Flow. It can also be calculated using the formula: Where n= The number of years after the initial investment at which the last negative value of cumulative cash flow occurs. n= The value of cumulative cash flow at which the last negative value of cumulative cash flow occurs. p= The value of cash flow at which the first positive value of cumulative cash flow occurs. This formula can only be used to calculate the soonest payback period; that is, the first period after which the investment has paid for itself. If the cumulative cash flow drops to a negative value some time after it has reached a positive value, thereby changing the payback period, this formula can't be applied. This formula ignores values that arise after the payback period has been reached. Additional complexity arises when the cash flow changes sign several times; i.e., it contains outflows in the midst or at the end of the project lifetime. The modified payback period algorithm may be applied then | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=8294303 | 464,085 |
List of multi-level marketing companies This is a list of companies which use multi-level marketing (also known as network marketing, direct selling, referral marketing, and pyramid selling) for most of their sales. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=21619 | 471,045 |
Life-cycle assessment The results of the inventory is an LCI which provides information about all inputs and outputs in the form of elementary flow to and from the environment from all the unit processes involved in the study. Inventory flows can number in the hundreds depending on the system boundary. For product LCAs at either the generic (i.e., representative industry averages) or brand-specific level, that data is typically collected through survey questionnaires. At an industry level, care has to be taken to ensure that questionnaires are completed by a representative sample of producers, leaning toward neither the best nor the worst, and fully representing any regional differences due to energy use, material sourcing or other factors. The questionnaires cover the full range of inputs and outputs, typically aiming to account for 99% of the mass of a product, 99% of the energy used in its production and any environmentally sensitive flows, even if they fall within the 1% level of inputs. One area where data access is likely to be difficult is flows from the technosphere. The technosphere is more simply defined as the human-made world. Considered by geologists as secondary resources, these resources are in theory 100% recyclable; however, in a practical sense, the primary goal is salvage | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=604896 | 347,496 |
Theories of technology Finally, there are theories of technology which are not defined or claimed by a proponent, but are used by authors in describing existing literature, in contrast to their own or as a review of the field. For example, Markus and Robey (1988) propose a general technology theory consisting of the causal structures of agency (technological, organizational, imperative, emergent), its structure (variance, process), and the level (micro, macro) of analysis. Orlikowski (1992) notes that previous conceptualizations of technology typically differ over scope (is technology more than hardware?) and role (is it an external objective force, the interpreted human action, or an impact moderated by humans?) and identifies three models: DeSanctis and Poole (1994) similarly write of three views of technology's effects: Bimber (1998) addresses the determinacy of technology effects by distinguishing between the: | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1831083 | 293,075 |
RecQ helicase The importance of RecQ for genomic integrity is exemplified by the diseases that arise as a consequence of mutations or malfunctions in RecQ helicases; thus it is crucial that RecQ is present and functional to ensure proper human growth and development. The Werner syndrome ATP-dependent helicase (WRN helicase) is unusual among RecQ DNA family helicases in having an additional exonuclease activity. WRN interacts with DNA-PKcs and the Ku protein complex. This observation, combined with evidence that WRN deficient cells produce extensive deletions at sites of joining of non-homologous DNA ends, suggests a role for WRN protein in the DNA repair process of non-homologous end joining (NHEJ). WRN also physically interacts with the major NHEJ factor X4L4 (XRCC4-DNA ligase 4 complex). X4L4 stimulates WRN exonuclease activity that likely facilitates DNA end processing prior to final ligation by X4L4. WRN also appears to play a role in resolving recombination intermediate structures during homologous recombinational repair (HRR) of DNA double-strand breaks. WRN participates in a complex with RAD51, RAD54, RAD54B and ATR proteins in carrying out the recombination step during inter-strand DNA cross-link repair. Evidence was presented that WRN plays a direct role in the repair of methylation induced DNA damage. The process likely involves the helicase and exonuclease activities of WRN that operate together with DNA polymerase beta in long patch base excision repair | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1013718 | 145,763 |
RSCS “VNET passed 1000 nodes in 1983 and 3000 nodes in 1989. It currently (1990s) connects somewhat more than 4000 nodes, about two-thirds of which are VM systems.” In comparison, by 1981 the ARPANET consisted of 213 host computers. Both ARPANET and VNET continued to grow rapidly. By 1986, IBM’s Think magazine estimated that VNET was saving the company $150,000,000 per year as the result of increased productivity. Due to the key role played in building networks, the line drivers became known as the "Protocols". The supported protocols were drawn from other programs. The CPREMOTE protocol may have been the very first symmetrical protocol (sometimes called a "balanced" protocol). To expand the network to include MVS, Hartmann reverse-engineered the HASP Network Job Interface protocol, which enabled the network to grow rapidly. He later added the JES2 Network Job Entry as an RSCS/VNET line driver. BITNET was a cooperative United States university network founded in 1981 by Ira Fuchs at the City University of New York (CUNY) and Greydon Freeman at Yale University which was based on VNET. The first network link was between CUNY and Yale. The BITNET (RSCS) protocols were eventually ported to non-IBM computer systems, and became widely implemented under VAX/VMS in addition to DECnet. At its zenith around 1991, BITNET extended to almost 500 organizations and 3,000 nodes, all educational institutions | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=33090200 | 378,439 |
Coagulase Bound coagulase, otherwise known as "clumping factor", can be detected by carrying out a slide coagulase test, and free coagulase can be detected using a tube coagulase test. A slide coagulase test is run with a negative control to rule out autoagglutination. Two drops of saline are put onto the slide labeled with sample number, Test (T) and control (C). The two saline drops are emulsified with the test organism using a wire loop, straight wire, or wooden stick. A drop of plasma (rabbit plasma anticoagulated with EDTA is recommended) is placed on the inoculated saline drop corresponding to test, and mixed well, then the slide is rocked gently for about 10 seconds. If the slide coagulase test is negative, a tube test should follow as a confirmation. Clumping in both drops is an indication of autoagglutination, so a tube test should be carried out. Tube test is not performed each institutions but most of the result depends on blood cultures from lab. The tube test uses rabbit plasma that has been inoculated with a staphylococcal colony (i.e., Gram-positive cocci which are catalase positive). The tube is then incubated at 37 °C for 1.5 hours. If negative, then incubation is continued up to 18 hours. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=982822 | 145,639 |
Fierce Conversations Fierce Conversations: Achieving Success at Work and in Life One Conversation at a Time () is a self-help book written by Susan Scott, founder and CEO of Fierce Inc., about how to have a difficult conversation. The introduction states that "Fierce Conversations" is a "guide to tackling your toughest challenges and enriching relationships with everyone important to your success and happiness through principles, tools, and assignments designed to direct you through your first fierce conversations with yourself on to the most challenging and important conversations facing you." The author states that the book is based on her experience running think tanks and designing and delivering training. The book was published by Viking in 2002 (hardcover version) and then by the Berkley Publishing Group in 2004 (paperback version). It has since become a Wall Street Journal and UPI bestseller. The author defines a fierce conversation as "One in which we come out from behind ourselves, into the conversation and make it real." She believes that interpersonal difficulties are a direct result of our inability to communicate well. Michael Brisciana has stated that "I worry that some of their most enthusiastic adherents can seem more eager for the 'fierce' (i.e., 'confrontational') part of the concept than the 'conversation'". Perhaps due to a misunderstanding of the book, they have the wrong kind of conversation. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=27711371 | 480,801 |
Rubber toughening The damage competition theory models the relative contributions of shear yielding and craze failure, when both are present. there are two main assumptions: crazing, microcracks, and cavitation dominate in brittle systems, and shearing dominates in the ductile systems. Systems that are in between brittle and ductile will show a combination of these. The damage competition theory defines the brittle-ductile transition as the point at which the opposite mechanism (shear or yield damage) appears in a system dominated by the other mechanism. The dominant failure mechanism can usually be observed directly using TEM, SEM and light microscopy. If cavitation or crazing is dominant, tensile dilatometry ("see dilatometer") can be used to measure the extent of the mechanism by measuring volume strain. However, if multiple dilatational mechanisms are present, it is difficult to measure the separate contributions. Shear yielding is a constant volume process and cannot be measured with tensile dilatometry. Voiding can be seen with optical microscopy, however one of two methods, using polarized light or low angle light scattering are necessary to observe the connection between cavitation and shear bands. In order to gauge the toughening effects of a dispersed secondary phase, it is important to understand the relevant characteristics of the continuous polymer phase. The mechanical failure characteristics of the pure polymeric continuous phase will strongly influence how rubber toughened polymer failure occurs | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=16085319 | 51,429 |
Biedermeier The term "Biedermeier" is also used to refer to a style of clocks made in Vienna in the early 19th century. The clean and simple lines included a light and airy aesthetic, especially in Viennese regulators of the "" and "Dachluhr" styles. "Biedermeier" architecture was marked by simplicity and elegance, exemplified by the paintings of Jakob Alt and Carl Spitzweg. Through the unity of simplicity and functionality, the "Biedermeier" neoclassical architecture created tendencies of crucial influence for the "Jugendstil", "Bauhaus", and 20th century architecture. Austrian paintings during this era were characterized by the commitment to portray a sentimental and pious view of the world in a realistic way. "Biedermeier" themes reinforced feelings of security, "Gemütlichkeit", traditional pieties, and simplicity, eschewing political and social commentary during the epoch. Thus, the techniques, while classic in nature were of the utmost importance to reach a realistic rendering. Regarding the theme, the technique was seen not only as a narrative medium to tell the past in anecdotal vignettes, but also to represent the present. This formed an aesthetic unity most evidenced in the portraits (e.g., "Portrait of the Arthaber Family", 1837, by Friedrich von Amerling), landscapes (e.g. see Waldmüller or Gauermann landscapes) and contemporary-reporting genre scenes (e.g., "Controversy of the Coachmen", 1828, by Michael Neder) | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1613162 | 195,997 |
APS-C In addition, they can be mounted on Sony full-frame MILCs (α7/α7R/α7S, α7R II, α7S II) in "crop" mode (the company also produces E-mount lenses designated as "FE", which cover the entire full-frame image circle). | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2006103 | 107,540 |
Acicular ferrite is a microstructure of ferrite in steel that is characterised by needle-shaped crystallites or grains when viewed in two dimensions. The grains, actually three-dimensional in shape, have a thin lenticular shape. This microstructure is advantageous over other microstructures because of its chaotic ordering, which increases toughness. is formed in the interior of the original austenitic grains by direct nucleation on the inclusions, resulting in randomly oriented short ferrite needles with a 'basket weave' appearance. is also characterised by high angle boundaries between the ferrite grains. This further reduces the chance of cleavage, because these boundaries impede crack propagation. In C-Mn steel weld metals, it is reported that nucleation of various ferrite morphologies is aided by non-metallic inclusion; in particular oxygen-rich inclusions of a certain type and size are associated with the intragranular nucleation of acicular ferrite, as observed, for example, by. is a fine Widmanstätten constituent, which is nucleated by an optimum intragranular dispersion of oxide/sulfide/silicate particles. The interlocking nature of acicular ferrite, together with its fine grain size (0.5 to 5 um with aspect ratio from 3:1 to 10:1), provides maximum resistance to crack propagation by cleavage. Composition control of weld metal is often performed to maximise the volume fraction of acicular ferrite due to the toughness it imparts | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=9826766 | 55,032 |
Rocket Racer finally formally joined the Outlaws, to rescue the kidnapped daughter of a Canadian official. Robert is identified as one of the 142 registered superheroes who appear on the cover of the comic book #1. As a registered hero, he reported to Camp Hammond for training. Despite this, he needed money to support his comatose mother and prevent repossession of their house, so he was seen working for MODOK. He "appeared" to have been tempted back into crime, and reduced to a state of stuttering nervousness by the situation. He turned out to have been working for S.H.I.E.L.D. all along, with a deal that they will give him the money he needs in return for the Hypernova - he failed in this and it's unknown yet what's happened with his mother. is part of the new class of students when the Avengers Academy moves to the former headquarters of the West Coast Avengers. later leaves the Avengers Academy alongside Machine Teen to join child genius Jeremy Briggs. Another first appeared in "Amazing Spider-Man" (vol.2) #13 (January 2000). Henry Sleeman was hired by an unnamed employer to befriend Robert Farrell and steal his gear. He did so, taking the name "Troy" and posing as Farrell's friend for months. When Farrell finally showed him where he kept the gear, 'Troy' tied him up and stole it, pursuing Spider-Man with the intention of fighting him, only to be defeated when restaurateur Harry Sloane opened a door at just the right time for 'Troy' to run into the door and knock himself unconscious | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2306128 | 199,011 |
Seawater greenhouse The original pilot design evolved into a lower cost solution using a lighter steel structure, similar to a multi-span polytunnel. This structure was designed to be cost effective and suitable for local sourcing. The design was first tested and validated through a second seawater greenhouse that was constructed on Al-Aryam Island, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates in 2000. The year 2004 saw the completion of a third pilot seawater greenhouse near Muscat, Oman in collaboration with Sultan Qaboos University, providing an opportunity to develop a sustainable horticultural sector on the Batinah coast. These projects have enabled the validation of a thermodynamic simulation model which, given appropriate meteorological data, accurately predict and quantify how the seawater greenhouse will perform in other parts of the world. In 2010, Seawater Greenhouse built a new commercial installation in Australia. The enterprise is now independently operating with an evolved set of technologies as Sundrop Farms. A seawater greenhouse uses the sun, the sea and the atmosphere to produce fresh water and cool air. The process recreates the natural hydrological cycle within a controlled environment. The front wall of the building is a seawater evaporator. It consists of a honeycomb lattice and faces the prevailing wind. Fans control air movement. Seawater trickles down over the lattice, cooling and humidifying the air passing through into the planting area. Sunlight is filtered through a specially constructed roof | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=17007606 | 43,140 |
Marine life Jawed fish fall into two main groups: fish with bony internal skeletons and fish with cartilaginous internal skeletons. Cartilaginous fish, such as sharks and rays, have jaws and skeletons made of cartilage rather than bone. Megalodon is an extinct species of shark that lived about 28 to 1.5 Ma. It looked much like a stocky version of the great white shark, but was much larger with fossil lengths reaching . Found in all oceans it was one of the largest and most powerful predators in vertebrate history, and probably had a profound impact on marine life. The Greenland shark has the longest known lifespan of all vertebrates, about 400 years. Some sharks such as the great white are partially warm blooded and give live birth. The manta ray, largest ray in the world, has been targeted by fisheries and is now vulnerable. Bony fish have jaws and skeletons made of bone rather than cartilage. Bony fish also have hard, bony plates called operculum which help them respire and protect their gills, and they often possess a swim bladder which they use for better control of their buoyancy. Bony fish can be further divided into those with lobe fins and those with ray fins. The approximate dates in the phylogenetic tree are from Near et al., 2012 and Zhu et al., 2009. Lobe fins have the form of fleshy lobes supported by bony stalks which extend from the body. "Guiyu oneiros", the earliest-known bony fish, lived during the Late Silurian 419 million years ago | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2056572 | 169,641 |
ORCA (computer system) While political scientists have rebutted these claims, suggested that it probably did not have a decisive effect on the outcome, it may have negatively affected turnout figures. ORCA has been compared unfavorably with a "get out the vote" and data effort from President Obama, including Project Narwhal, seen as more robust. In the 2008 US presidential election, the Obama campaign utilized a system called Houdini to enable volunteers to report voting data to a national hotline. While this system encountered problems, the 2012 Romney campaign's ORCA system aimed to go further by enabling volunteers to report such data to campaign headquarters in real time via their smartphones. It was intended to be rolled out to around 37,000 volunteers at polling places in swing states. Gail Gitcho, the Romney campaign's communications director, told PBS on November 5 that with the deployment of ORCA on election day, the campaign would be able to tell who had voted in which precincts. She described the system's key function as not being to predict the outcome, but to identify low turnouts in target precincts so that the campaign could take action by contacting missing voters and urging them to go to the polls. Gitcho commented: "The Obama campaign likes to brag about their ground operation, but it's nothing compared to this." The name ORCA was chosen to reference the Obama GOTV system, called Project Narwhal; in nature, the orca or killer whale is the only known non-human predator of narwhals | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=37597038 | 286,409 |
Uranium glass Specialized collectors still define Vaseline glass as transparent or semi-transparent uranium glass in this specific color. Vaseline glass is sometimes used as a synonym for any uranium glass, especially in the United States, but this usage is frowned on, since Vaseline brand petroleum jelly was only yellow, not other colors. The term is sometimes carelessly applied to other types of glass based on certain aspects of their superficial appearance in normal light, regardless of actual uranium content which requires a blacklight test to verify the characteristic green fluorescence. In the United Kingdom and Australia, the term vaseline glass can be used to refer to any type of translucent glass. Several other common subtypes of uranium glass have their own nicknames: However, like "vaseline", the terms "custard" and "jad(e)ite" are often applied on the basis of superficial appearance rather than uranium content. Similarly, Depression glass is also a general description for any piece of glassware manufactured during the Great Depression regardless of appearance or formula. The use of uranium glass dates back to at least 79 AD, the date of a mosaic containing yellow glass with 1% uranium oxide found in a Roman villa on Cape Posillipo in the Bay of Naples, Italy by R. T. Gunther of the University of Oxford in 1912 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=984355 | 85,141 |
Solvent This allows for rational formulations knowing, for example, that there is a good HSP match between a solvent and a polymer. Rational substitutions can also be made for "good" solvents (effective at dissolving the solute) that are "bad" (expensive or hazardous to health or the environment). The following table shows that the intuitions from "non-polar", "polar aprotic" and "polar protic" are put numerically – the "polar" molecules have higher levels of δP and the protic solvents have higher levels of δH. Because numerical values are used, comparisons can be made rationally by comparing numbers. For example, acetonitrile is much more polar than acetone but exhibits slightly less hydrogen bonding. If, for environmental or other reasons, a solvent or solvent blend is required to replace another of equivalent solvency, the substitution can be made on the basis of the Hansen solubility parameters of each. The values for mixtures are taken as the weighted averages of the values for the neat solvents. This can be calculated by trial-and-error, a spreadsheet of values, or HSP software. A 1:1 mixture of toluene and 1,4 dioxane has δD, δP and δH values of 17.8, 1.6 and 5.5, comparable to those of chloroform at 17.8, 3.1 and 5.7 respectively. Because of the health hazards associated with toluene itself, other mixtures of solvents may be found using a full HSP dataset. The boiling point is an important property because it determines the speed of evaporation | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=37431 | 38,015 |
Jeanne Guillemin After 9/11, with the advent of the anthrax letter attacks, Guillemin was frequently asked by the media to explain the disease, based on her experience in Russia. In 2005 she published "Biological Weapons: From State-sponsored Programs to Contemporary Bioterorism", Columbia U Press) which offers a concise, comprehensive history of how anthrax and other microbes were developed as weapons over the course of the 20th century, resulting in potential bioterrorism. She turned her attention to the 2001 anthrax letter attacks after the 2008 suicide of the FBI's prime suspect, an anthrax scientist who worked for the U.S. Army at Fort Detrick, Maryland. Her third book on biological weapons is about the letters and their impact on victims and government organizations. It is called "American Anthrax: Fear, Crime, and the Investigation of the Nation's Deadliest Bioterror Attack", (Macmillan/Holt/Times, 2011). Guillemin joined the MIT Center for International Studies in 2006 as a research associate and senior advisor. In October 2019, she established an endowed fund to provide financial support to female PhD candidates studying international affairs. Guillemin died on November 15, 2019 at the age of 76. "Guillemin wrote introductions to new editions of:" "Guillemin edited:" | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=9721493 | 153,635 |
Jonnie Penn (born January 2, 1987) is a bestselling Canadian non-fiction author and artificial intelligence researcher. Jonnie is the creator of the MTV documentary series "The Buried Life" and co-author of the book "What Do You Want To Do Before You Die?", which became a No. 1 New York Times Best Seller. After the death of a friend, Jonnie dropped out of university to start The Buried Life with his friends Ben Nemtin, Dave Lingwood and brother Duncan Penn. The Buried Life asks, ""What do you want to do before you die?"" Penn appeared on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" on April 9, 2010 to announce a new season of "The Buried Life" documentary series and to discuss crossing off #95: Play Ball with President Obama. He was recorded by the Guinness World Records for the largest roulette spin in Las Vegas history with all benefits going to World Food Programme. He also helped organize the biggest speed dating event in history with the University of South Florida. In July 2011, the cast helped make a $300,000 donation to The Keep America Beautiful foundation. In high school, Jonnie was selected to represent Canada at the Oxford University Debate Championships. He enrolled at McGill University in Montreal, with a double major in History and English. He then studied Philosophy of Physics and Logic at the University of Cambridge. He is currently a Rausing, Williamson and Lipton trust and Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence PhD researcher in the History and Philosophy of Science Department at the University of Cambridge | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=36284471 | 98,440 |
LM13700 The is an integrated circuit consisting of two current controlled operational transconductance amplifiers (OTA), each having differential inputs and a push-pull output. The is like a standard op-amp: each has a pair of differential inputs and a single output, but an OTA is voltage in and current out rather than voltage in and voltage out; and OTAs are programmable via the IABC pin. Linearizing diodes at the input reduce distortion and allow increased input levels. The darlington output buffers provided are specifically designed to complement the wide dynamic range of the OTA. This chip is very useful in audio electronics especially in analog synthesizer circuits like voltage controlled oscillators, voltage controlled filters, and voltage controlled amplifiers. The darlington output buffers on the are different from those on the LM13600 in that their bias currents (and hence their output DC levels) are independent of IABC pin. This usually results in performance superior to that of the LM13600 in audio applications. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=5562362 | 401,390 |
Educational technology , by pointing out which students require the most help), but can only operate in the pre-specified domain and cannot handle tasks such as providing emotional support or remedial lessons to students in need. However, existing systems were designed under the assumption that students progress at the same pace. Understanding how to support teachers in a realistic, highly differentiated, self-paced classroom, remains an open research problem. Various forms of electronic media can be a feature of preschool life. Although parents report a positive experience, the impact of such use has not been systematically assessed. The age when a given child might start using a particular technology such as a cellphone or computer might depend on matching a technological resource to the recipient's developmental capabilities, such as the age-anticipated stages labeled by Swiss psychologist, Jean Piaget. Parameters, such as age-appropriateness, coherence with sought-after values, and concurrent entertainment and educational aspects, have been suggested for choosing media. At the preschool level, technology can be introduced in several ways. At the most basic is the use of computers, tablets, and audio and video resources in classrooms. Additionally, there are many resources available for parents and educators to introduce technology to young children or to use technology to augment lessons and enhance learning | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1944675 | 304,731 |
Bausch Health In 2003, not long after Panić's ouster, ICN changed its name to Valeant. In 2006, the company received approval in the U.S. to market Cesamet (nabilone), a synthetic cannabinoid. The company also acquired the European rights to the drug for $14 million. In 2008, the Swedish pharmaceutical company Meda AB bought Western and Eastern Europe branches from Valeant for $392 million. In September 2008, Valeant acquired Coria Laboratories for $95 million. In November 2008, Valeant acquired DermaTech for $12.6 million. In January 2009, Valeant acquired Dow Pharmaceutical Sciences for $285 million. In July 2009, Valeant announced its acquisition of Tecnofarma, a Mexican generic drug company. In December 2009, Valeant announced its Canadian subsidiary would acquire Laboratoire Dr. Renaud, for C$23 million. In March 2010, Valeant announced its acquisition of a Brazilian generics and over-the-counter company for $28 million and manufacturing plant for a further $28 million. In April 2010, Valeant announced that its Canadian subsidiary would acquire Vital Science Corp. for C$10.5 million. In May 2010, Valeant acquired Aton Pharmaceuticals for $318 million. On September 28, 2010, Valeant merged with Biovail. The company retained the Valeant name and J. Michael Pearson as CEO, but was incorporated in Canada and temporarily kept Biovail's headquarters. Setting on a path of aggressive acquisitions, Pearson would ultimately turn Valeant into a platform company that grows by systematically acquiring other companies | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2350163 | 168,880 |
Spinor e. fix a convention for the gamma matrices). Then the assignment extends uniquely to an algebra homomorphism by sending the monomial in the Clifford algebra to the product of matrices and extending linearly. The space on which the gamma matrices act is now a space of spinors. One needs to construct such matrices explicitly, however. In dimension 3, defining the gamma matrices to be the Pauli sigma matrices gives rise to the familiar two component spinors used in non relativistic quantum mechanics. Likewise using the Dirac gamma matrices gives rise to the 4 component Dirac spinors used in 3+1 dimensional relativistic quantum field theory. In general, in order to define gamma matrices of the required kind, one can use the Weyl–Brauer matrices. In this construction the representation of the Clifford algebra , the Lie algebra , and the Spin group , all depend on the choice of the orthonormal basis and the choice of the gamma matrices. This can cause confusion over conventions, but invariants like traces are independent of choices. In particular, all physically observable quantities must be independent of such choices. In this construction a spinor can be represented as a vector of 2 complex numbers and is denoted with spinor indices (usually "α", "β", "γ"). In the physics literature, abstract spinor indices are often used to denote spinors even when an abstract spinor construction is used. There are at least two different, but essentially equivalent, ways to define spinors abstractly | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=29276 | 434,957 |
Index of robotics articles Robotics is the branch of technology that deals with the design, construction, operation, structural disposition, manufacture and application of robots. Robotics is related to the sciences of electronics, engineering, mechanics, and software. The word "robot" was introduced to the public by Czech writer Karel Čapek in his play R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots), published in 1920. The term "robotics" was coined by Isaac Asimov in his 1941 science fiction short-story "Liar!" Articles related to robotics include: | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=7119987 | 299,453 |
Haplogroup pre-JT is a human mitochondrial DNA haplogroup (mtDNA). It is also called R2'JT. is a descendant of the haplogroup R. It is characterised by genetic marker at 4216. The pre-JT clade has two direct descendant lineages, haplogroup JT and haplogroup R2. Its subclade is Haplogroup JT, which further divides into Haplogroup J and Haplogroup T. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=10685970 | 182,797 |
Convergent extension (CE), sometimes called convergence and extension (C&E), is the process by which the tissue of an embryo is restructured to converge (narrow) along one axis and extend (elongate) along a perpendicular axis by cellular movement. An example of this process is where the anteroposterior axis (the axis drawn between the head and tail end of an embryo) becomes longer as the lateral tissues (those that make up the left and right sides of the embryo) move in towards the dorsal midline (the middle of the back of the animal). This process plays a crucial role in shaping the body plan during embryogenesis and occurs during gastrulation, neurulation, axis elongation, and organogenesis in both vertebrate and invertebrate embryos. In chordate animals, this process is utilized within a vast population of cells; from the smaller populations in the notochord of the sea squirt (ascidian) to the larger populations of the dorsal mesoderm and neural ectoderm of frogs (Xenopus) and fish. Many characteristics of convergent extension are conserved in the teleost fish, the bird, and very likely within mammals at the molecular, cellular, and tissue level. has been primarily studied in frogs and fish due to their large embryo size and their development outside of a maternal host (in egg clutches in the water, as opposed to in a uterus). Within frogs and fish, however, there exist fundamental differences in how convergent extension is achieved. Frog embryogenesis utilizes cell rearrangement as the sole player of this process | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=10959358 | 182,974 |
Feature creep Even after reaching stability and attaining some necessary new features, the open-source Mozilla Application Suite (then named just Mozilla), on which AOL built Netscape, was viewed as "bloated". Just a year later, a group of Mozilla developers decided to separate the browser component, which eventually became Firefox. Double Fine Adventures' Kickstarter project "Broken Age" is another example of a project being delayed by feature creep. Originally supposed to have a release date of October 2012, the first half of the game was released in January 2014 while the second half followed late April 2015, and required two separate funding rounds to complete. combined with short deadlines will often lead to a "hacky solution". The desired change may be large enough to warrant a redesign of the existing project foundation, but deadline pressure instead requires developers to just "make it work" with a less elegant approach. The humorous spoonerism "feeping creaturism" was coined to emphasize a developer's dislike of this situation, personifying the scope-crept product as "a misshapen creature of hacks ... prowling about in the dark", and the harbinger of more creep to come. ("Feeping" is a jargon synonym of "beeping".) | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=73528 | 136,897 |
Siderophore However, many heterotrophic marine bacteria do produce siderophores, albeit with properties different from those produced by terrestrial organisms. Many marine siderophores are surface-active and tend to form molecular aggregates, for example aquachelins. The presence of the fatty acyl chain renders the molecules with a high surface activity and an ability to form micelles. Thus, when secreted, these molecules bind to surfaces and to each other, thereby slowing the rate of diffusion away from the secreting organism and maintaining a relatively high local siderophore concentration. Phytoplankton have high iron requirements and yet the majority (and possibly all) do not produce siderophores. Phytoplankton can, however, obtain iron from siderophore complexes by the aid of membrane-bound reductases and certainly from iron(II) generated via photochemical decomposition of iron(III) siderophores. Thus a large proportion of iron (possibly all iron) absorbed by phytoplankton is dependent on bacterial siderophore production. Most plant pathogens invade the apoplasm by releasing pectolytic enzymes which facilitate the spread of the invading organism. Bacteria frequently infect plants by gaining entry to the tissue via the stomata. Having entered the plant they spread and multiply in the intercellular spaces. With bacterial vascular diseases, the infection is spread within the plants through the xylem | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1065475 | 38,717 |
Mars Rafikov Mars Zakirovich Rafikov (, 29 September 1933 – 23 July 2000) was a Soviet cosmonaut who was dismissed from the Soviet space program for disciplinary reasons. Senior Lieutenant Rafikov, age 26, was selected as one of the original 20 cosmonauts on 7 March 1960 along with Yuri Gagarin. On 24 March 1962, Rafikov was dismissed from the cosmonaut corps, officially for "a variety of offenses, including womanizing and 'gallivanting' in Moscow restaurants, and so forth". Other cosmonauts (notably Gagarin) had exhibited similar behavior, but could not be officially disciplined because of their stature and international reputation. Gherman Titov later suggested that the real reason for his dismissal was because he and his wife had divorced. He remained in the military, serving as a pilot in the Soviet–Afghan War. To protect the image of the space program, efforts were made to cover up the reason for Rafikov's dismissal. His image, like that of others who were dismissed, was airbrushed out of cosmonaut photos. This airbrushing led to speculation about "lost cosmonauts" even though the actual reasons were often mundane. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=26386980 | 11,239 |
Computational anatomy In this setting metamorphosis combines both the diffeomorphic coordinate system transformation of computational anatomy as well as the early morphing technologies which only faded or modified the photometric or image intensity alone. Then the matching problem takes a form with equality boundary conditions: Transforming coordinate systems based on Landmark point or fiducial marker features dates back to Bookstein's early work on small deformation spline methods for interpolating correspondences defined by fiducial points to the two-dimensional or three-dimensional background space in which the fiducials are defined. Large deformation landmark methods came on in the late 1990s. The above Figure depicts a series of landmarks associated three brain structures, the amygdala, entorhinal cortex, and hippocampus. Matching geometrical objects like unlabelled point distributions, curves or surfaces is another common problem in computational anatomy. Even in the discrete setting where these are commonly given as vertices with meshes, there are no predetermined correspondences between points as opposed to the situation of landmarks described above. From the theoretical point of view, while any submanifold formula_161 in formula_20, formula_163 can be parameterized in local charts formula_164, all reparametrizations of these charts give geometrically the same manifold. Therefore, early on in computational anatomy, investigators have identified the necessity of parametrization invariant representations | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=48520204 | 123,594 |
Valve audio amplifier technical specification This construction style is satisfactory due to ease of construction, adapted to the number of physically large and chassis mounted components (valve sockets, large supply capacitors, transformers), the need to twist heater wiring to minimise hum, and as a side effect benefiting from the fact that "flying" wiring minimises capacitive effects. One picture below shows circuit constructed using "standard" modern industrial parts (630 V MKP capacitors/metal film resistors). One advantage a hobbyist has over a commercial producer is the ability to use higher quality parts that are not reliably available in production volumes (or at a commercially viable cost price). For example, the "silver top getter" Sylvania brown base 6SN7s in use in the external picture date from the 1960s. Another picture shows exactly the same circuit constructed using Russian military production Teflon capacitors and non-inductive planar film resistors, of the same values. The wiring of a commercial amplifier is also shown for comparison Very occasionally, very-high-power valves (usually designed for use in radio transmitters) from decades ago are pressed into service to create one-off SET designs (usually at very high cost). Examples include valves 211 and 833. The main problem with these designs is constructing output transformers able to sustain the plate current and resultant flux density without core saturation over the full audio-frequency spectrum. This problem increases with power level | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=11347091 | 263,343 |
Baopuzi When asked, "Which has the priority, Confucianism or Taoism?" – replies, "Taoism is the very trunk of Confucianism, but Confucianism is only a branch of Taoism." While the "Baopuzi" Inner and Outer Chapters differ in content, they share a general format with an unnamed interlocutor posing questions and Ge Hong providing answers. The conventional syntax is "Huowen yue" "Someone asked, saying" and "da yue" "answered, saying". The twenty "Neipian" "Inner Chapters" record arcane techniques for achieving "hsien" "transcendence; immortality". These techniques span two types of Chinese alchemy that Tang Dynasty scholars later differentiated into "neidan" "internal elixir; internal alchemy" and "waidan" "external elixir; external alchemy". The word "dan" "cinnabar; red; pellet; [Chinese medicine] pill" means "pill of immortality, or elixir of life. Ge Hong details his researches into the arts of transcendence and immortality. "Internal alchemy" concerns creating an "immortal body" within the corporeal body through both physiological methods (dietary, respiratory, martial, etc.) and mental practices (meditation, extracorporeal visualization, etc.). "External" or "laboratory alchemy" concerns compounding elixirs (esp. from minerals and metals), writing "fu" talismans or amulets, herbalism, and exorcism. Lai outlines the Inner Chapters subjects: Several chapters have specific themes. Chapters 4, 8, 11, and 16 describe "waidan" "external alchemy". Inner Chapter 18 details meditation practices | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=27837389 | 71,852 |
Conflict of interest This is required by law under Continental civil law systems and by the Rome Statute, organic law of the International Criminal Court. Consider a situation where the owner of a majority of a public companies decides to buy out the minority shareholders and take the corporation private. What is a fair price? Obviously it is improper (and, typically, illegal) for the majority owner to simply state a price and then have the (majority-controlled) board of directors approve that price. What is typically done is to hire an independent firm (a third party), well-qualified to evaluate such matters, to calculate a "fair price", which is then voted on by the minority shareholders. Third-party evaluations may also be used as proof that transactions were, in fact, fair ("arm's-length"). For example, a corporation that leases an office building that is owned by the CEO might get an independent evaluation showing what the market rate is for such leases in the locale, to address the conflict of interest that exists between the fiduciary duty of the CEO (to the stockholders, by getting the lowest rent possible) and the personal interest of that CEO (to maximize the income that the CEO gets from owning that office building by getting the highest rent possible) | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=236850 | 489,806 |
Closed captioning For ATSC (digital television) programming, three streams are encoded in the video: two are backward compatible "line 21" captions, and the third is a set of up to 63 additional caption streams encoded in EIA-708 format. Captioning is modulated and stored differently in PAL and SECAM 625 line 25 frame countries, where teletext is used rather than in EIA-608, but the methods of preparation and the line 21 field used are similar. For home Betamax and VHS videotapes, a shift down of this line 21 field must be done due to the greater number of VBI lines used in 625 line PAL countries, though only a small minority of European PAL VHS machines support this (or any) format for closed caption recording. Like all teletext fields, teletext captions can't be stored by a standard 625 line VHS recorder (due to the lack of field shifting support); they are available on all professional S-VHS recordings due to all fields being recorded. Recorded Teletext caption fields also suffer from a higher number of caption errors due to increased number of bits and a low SNR, especially on low-bandwidth VHS. This is why Teletext captions used to be stored separately on floppy disk to the analogue master tape. DVDs have their own system for subtitles and captions, which are digitally inserted in the data stream and decoded on playback into video. For older televisions, a set-top box or other decoder is usually required | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=40883 | 295,612 |
Electronic instrument cluster The French manufacturer Citroën, is using digital indicators as speedometer for many models in its range, including the C2, C3, C4 and C6. Vehicle instruments have been augmented by software-powered display panels conveying information on display panels. Digital instruments present data in the form of numeric parameters, textual messages, or graphical gauges. Unlike the electro-mechanical instrument clusters of the past, these interactive displays are much more versatile and flexible. In 2014, Audi launched its 'virtual cockpit' on Audi TT, and has later introduced it to the several other models. The technology has been developed together with the Finnish company Rightware, using its Kanzi software suite. Electronic instrument clusters are being increasingly common features on railway vehicles, in which individual instruments are replaced by various forms of digital readouts. Early uses of instrument clusters often employed LEDs to display analog-type or numeric readings for pressure gauges, electrical gauges, and other displays. They have been increasingly integrated with various cab signalling systems and together with the installation of multi-function displays, have simplified the cab layout and improved user interaction with the engineer. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=12073853 | 373,426 |
History of botany He was also among the first experimental physiologists. The ' can be regarded as the first botanical synthesis and textbook for modern botany. According to botanical historian Alan Morton, Ray "influenced both the theory and the practice of botany more decisively than any other single person in the latter half of the seventeenth century". Ray's family system was later extended by Pierre Magnol (1638–1715) and Joseph de Tournefort (1656–1708), a student of Magnol, achieved notoriety for his botanical expeditions, his emphasis on floral characters in classification, and for reviving the idea of the genus as the basic unit of classification. Above all it was Swedish Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778) who eased the task of plant cataloguing. He adopted a sexual system of classification using stamens and pistils as important characters. Among his most important publications were Systema Naturae (1735), Genera Plantarum (1737), and Philosophia Botanica (1751) but it was in his Species Plantarum (1753) that he gave every species a binomial thus setting the path for the future accepted method of designating the names of all organisms. Linnaean thought and books dominated the world of taxonomy for nearly a century. His sexual system was later elaborated by Bernard de Jussieu (1699–1777) whose nephew Antoine-Laurent de Jussieu (1748–1836) extended it yet again to include about 100 orders (present-day families) | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=25007304 | 177,024 |
Aggregate modulus In relation to biomechanics, the aggregate modulus (Ha) is a measurement of the stiffness of a material at equilibrium when fluid has ceased flowing through it. The aggregate modulus can be calculated from Young's modulus (E) and the Poisson ratio (v). The aggregate modulus of a similar specimen is determined from a unidirectional "deformational" testing configuration, i.e., the only non-zero strain component is E, as opposed to the Young's modulus, which is determined from a unidirectional "loading" testing configuration, i.e., the only non-zero stress component is, say, in the e direction. In this test, the only non-zero component of the stress tensor is T. Reference: Biomechanics of Cartilage by Mansour | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=31117483 | 1,587 |
Biology of depression Monoamines are neurotransmitters that include serotonin, dopamine, norepinephrine, and epinephrine. Many antidepressant drugs acutely increase synaptic levels of the monoamine neurotransmitter, serotonin, but they may also enhance the levels of two other neurotransmitters, norepinephrine and dopamine. The observation of this efficacy led to the "monoamine hypothesis of depression", which postulates that the deficit of certain neurotransmitters is responsible for depression, and even that certain neurotransmitters are linked to specific symptoms. Normal serotonin levels have been linked to mood and behaviour regulation, sleep, and digestion; norepinephrine to the fight-or-flight response; and dopamine to movement, pleasure, and motivation. Some have also proposed the relationship between monoamines and phenotypes such as serotonin in sleep and suicide, norepinephrine in dysphoria, fatigue, apathy, cognitive dysfunction, and dopamine in loss of motivation and psychomotor symptoms. The main limitation for the monoamine hypothesis of depression is the therapeutic lag between initiation of antidepressant treatment and perceived improvement of symptoms. One explanation for this therapeutic lag is that the initial increase in synaptic serotonin is only temporary, as firing of serotonergic neurons in the dorsal raphe adapt via the activity of 5-HT autoreceptors | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19477293 | 147,205 |
Equilibrium chemistry This property was used in the past for separating uranium from other metals whose salts are not soluble in ether. Currently extraction into kerosene is preferred, using a ligand such as tri-"n"-butyl phohsphate, TBP. In the PUREX process, which is commonly used in nuclear reprocessing, uranium(VI) is extracted from strong nitric acid as the electrically neutral complex [UO(TBP)(NO)]. The strong nitric acid provides a high concentration of nitrate ions which pushes the equilibrium in favour of the weak nitrato complex. Uranium is recovered by back-extraction (stripping) into weak nitric acid. Plutonium(IV) forms a similar complex, [PuO(TBP)(NO)] and the plutonium in this complex can be reduced to separate it from uranium. Another important application of solvent extraction is in the separation of the lanthanoids. This process also uses TBP and the complexes are extracted into kerosene. Separation is achieved because the stability constant for the formation of the TBP complex increases as the size of the lanthanoid ion decreases. An instance of ion-pair extraction is in the use of a ligand to enable oxidation by potassium permanganate, KMnO, in an organic solvent. KMnO is not soluble in organic solvents. When a ligand, such as a crown ether is added to an aqueous solution of KMnO, it forms a hydrophobic complex with the potassium cation which allows the uncharged ion pair [KL][MnO] to be extracted into the organic solvent. See also: phase-transfer catalysis. More complex partitioning problems (i.e | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=26707415 | 63,076 |
Bacterial display systems were first introduced by Freudl et al. and Charbit et al. in 1986, when they used bacterial surface proteins OmpA and LamB to display peptides. Freudl et al. fused peptides with linkers with the "ompA" gene, causing the peptides to be expressed in the OmpA proteins. They showed that the proteins were now subject to cleavage by proteinase K. The non-OmpA peptides inserted were therefore a target of proteinase K. Insertion of the foreign peptides did not affect bacterial cell growth. Charbit et al. firstly defined the areas of the LamB protein that were "permissive" for foreign petide insertion ("ie" that did not lead to a complete loss of functionality of the protein). Then, they explored the versatility of the permissive sites (size limit, nature of the epitope...) that were all located in surface-exposed loops of the trimeric outer membrane porin, aiming at developing multivalent live bacterial vaccines (12-15). This was the first evidence of using bacterial surface display techniques to express proteins on the surface of cells, without altering the function of the cell. Peptides are very useful as therapeutic and diagnostic substances. Their use is getting more popular, and display systems offer a useful way to engineer peptides and optimise their binding capabilities. Cells express surface proteins which can be involved in a whole host of responses including recognition of other cells, interaction with other cells, and cell signalling | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=3777533 | 75,275 |
Palau Reial Major The (; "Grand Royal Palace") is a complex of historic buildings located in Plaça del Rei, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. It was a residence of the counts of Barcelona and kings of Aragon. It is composed of three distinct edifices: The "Saló del Tinell" was built in the 14th century under the direction of architect Guillem Carbonell. Its gothic round arches are founded over 11th-century vaults (built themselves over a pre-existing monumental structure dating to the Visigoth age). The Chapel of St. Agatha was designed by architect Bertran Riquer to act as the royal chapel, replacing a previous oratory. It has an octagonal tower from the early 14th century, and it consists of a single aisle with a roof ceiling and ends with a polygonal apse. The sacristy is built within the ancient Roman walls. By commission of Peter V of Aragon (1463–1466) painter Jaume Huguet made the chapel altarpiece dedicated to the Epiphany. Both "Saló del Tinell" and St. Agatha Chapel are valuated as Catalan Gothic architecture masterpieces. The Epiphany altarpiece is also an outstanding gothic painting. They can be visited as a part of the Barcelona City History Museum MUHBA. Temporary exhibitions are held in them. After the 16th century, the edifice was no longer used as a royal residence and was divided between the Inquisition and the royal administration. In this period, the door leading to the Royal Audience Hall was built, with a triangular tympanum (currently at the entrance of the Museu Frederic Marès) | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=28868343 | 353,128 |
Polymer capacitor An advantage of the polymer e-caps over non-solid Al-e-caps is low temperature dependence and almost linear curve of the ESR over the specified temperature range. This applies both to polymer tantalum, polymer aluminum, as well as for hybrid polymer aluminum e-caps. Impedance and ESR are also dependent on design and materials of the capacitors. Cylindrical Al-e-caps with the same capacitance as rectangular Al-e-caps have higher inductance than rectangular Al-e-caps with layered electrodes and therefore they have a lower resonant frequency. This effect is amplified by multi-anode construction, in which individual inductances are reduced by their parallel connection and the "face-down" technique. A "ripple current" is the root mean square (RMS) value of a superimposed AC current of any frequency and any waveform of the current curve for continuous operation within the specified temperature range. It arises mainly in power supplies (including switched-mode power supplies) after rectifying an AC voltage and flows as charge and discharge current through the decoupling or smoothing capacitor. Ripple currents generates heat inside the capacitor body. This dissipation power loss "P" is caused by "ESR" and is the squared value of the effective (RMS) ripple current "I". This internally generated heat, additional to the ambient temperature and other external heat sources, leads to a higher capacitor body temperature with a temperature difference of "Δ T" against the ambient | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=27956705 | 383,199 |
Proxy bid Proxy bidding is an implementation of an English second-price auction used on eBay, in which the winning bidder pays the price of the second-highest bid plus a defined increment. It differs from a Vickrey auction in that bids are not sealed; the "current highest bid" (defined as second-highest bid plus bid increment) is always displayed. eBay uses the term "proxy bidding" to refer to their implementation of an English second-price auction, in which the winning bidder pays the price of the second-highest bid, in addition to a defined increment. Though similar to a Vickrey auction, the bids are not sealed. The "current highest bid" (defined as second-highest bid plus bid increment) is always displayed. In a standard English auction, the winner pays the amount of their bid—regardless of competitors' bids—and it is therefore desirable to place a bid that exceeds the current highest bid by the smallest possible increment. Conversely, under proxy bidding, the price paid is determined only by competitors' bids and not by the amount of the new bid; this eliminates the economically rational incentive to place a bid below the amount one is willing to pay or to place multiple increasing bids. An "economically rational" bidder will therefore bid the maximum amount they are willing to pay on their first bid, and never raise their bid | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=6204915 | 507,023 |
Philippine ceramics First pot Second pot Third pot In Japan, pottery from Luzon became especially esteemed and was used in Japanese tea ceremony as "shimamono". | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=56319049 | 264,044 |
Karyotype The fundamental autosomal number or autosomal fundamental number, "FNa" or "AN", of a karyotype is the number of visible major chromosomal arms per set of autosomes (non-sex-linked chromosomes). Ploidy is the number of complete sets of chromosomes in a cell. Aneuploidy is the condition in which the chromosome number in the cells is not the typical number for the species. This would give rise to a chromosome abnormality such as an extra chromosome or one or more chromosomes lost. Abnormalities in chromosome number usually cause a defect in development. Down syndrome and Turner syndrome are examples of this. Aneuploidy may also occur within a group of closely related species. Classic examples in plants are the genus "Crepis", where the gametic (= haploid) numbers form the series x = 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7; and "Crocus", where every number from x = 3 to x = 15 is represented by at least one species. Evidence of various kinds shows that trends of evolution have gone in different directions in different groups. In primates, the great apes have 24x2 chromosomes whereas humans have 23x2. Human chromosome 2 was formed by a merger of ancestral chromosomes, reducing the number. Some species are polymorphic for different chromosome structural forms. The structural variation may be associated with different numbers of chromosomes in different individuals, which occurs in the ladybird beetle "Chilocorus stigma", some mantids of the genus "Ameles", the European shrew "Sorex araneus" | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=152038 | 193,196 |
Hydraulic engineering The same is true for many of our world's largest cities. In much the same way, the central valley of California could not have become such an important agricultural region without effective water management and distribution for irrigation. In a somewhat parallel way to what happened in California, the creation of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) brought work and prosperity to the South by building dams to generate cheap electricity and control flooding in the region, making rivers navigable and generally modernizing life in the region. Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) performed experiments, investigated and speculated on waves and jets, eddies and streamlining. Isaac Newton (1642–1727) by formulating the laws of motion and his law of viscosity, in addition to developing the calculus, paved the way for many great developments in fluid mechanics. Using Newton's laws of motion, numerous 18th-century mathematicians solved many frictionless (zero-viscosity) flow problems. However, most flows are dominated by viscous effects, so engineers of the 17th and 18th centuries found the inviscid flow solutions unsuitable, and by experimentation they developed empirical equations, thus establishing the science of hydraulics. Late in the 19th century, the importance of dimensionless numbers and their relationship to turbulence was recognized, and dimensional analysis was born | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=521843 | 346,812 |
Banco Nossa Caixa (BM&F Bovespa: BNCA3) was a Brazilian bank listed since 2005 on the BM&F Bovespa and focused on State of São Paulo, but active in other Brazilian States. Founded in 1916 originating from "Caixas Economicas Paulista", used to have 547 branches. The Bank was incorporated into the Banco do Brasil in 2008 maintaining 99.32% of its stock owned and 0.78% in the market. was the exclusive financial agent of the State of São Paulo to manage government's resources, promoting transfers to their municipalities and payments to suppliers and government officials and retirees, in addition, makes the payment of charges, obligations or liabilities of any nature including those arising from judicial decisions, service debt and transfers processed by the units and institutions participating in the direct administration of the State of São Paulo. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=23125839 | 510,200 |
Piezoelectricity Tire company Goodyear has plans to develop an electricity generating tire which has piezoelectric material lined inside it. As the tire moves, it deforms and thus electricity is generated. The efficiency of a hybrid photovoltaic cell that contains piezoelectric materials can be increased simply by placing it near a source of ambient noise or vibration. The effect was demonstrated with organic cells using zinc oxide nanotubes. The electricity generated by the piezoelectric effect itself is a negligible percentage of the overall output. Sound levels as low as 75 decibels improved efficiency by up to 50%. Efficiency peaked at 10 kHz, the resonant frequency of the nanotubes. The electrical field set up by the vibrating nanotubes interacts with electrons migrating from the organic polymer layer. This process decreases the likelihood of recombination, in which electrons are energized but settle back into a hole instead of migrating to the electron-accepting ZnO layer. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=24975 | 96,817 |
Rajamanthri Walauwa These either were land grants from kings since the beginning of the Sinhalese kingdom until the Kandyan era or government service during the Colonial era, or were acquired by a successful enterprise and passed down through generations. The owners were the landed elites of Ceylon; as such they gained a status of power and wealth. There is another theory that "walauwa" means a place of judgement. Those people who occupied the "walauwa" had the authority to pass judgement over people with the authority provided by Royal Decree. Mansions replaced the "walauwa" in the urban areas towards the latter part of the nineteenth century. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=34209456 | 336,145 |
Disk array controller 0 (2009), as well as codice_3/codice_4 since 2015, each supporting only their respective device drivers, this latter fact contributing to code bloat. Some other operating systems have implemented their own generic frameworks for interfacing with any RAID controller, and provide tools for monitoring RAID volume status, as well as facilitation of drive identification through LED blinking, alarm management, hot spare disk designations and from within the operating system without having to reboot into card BIOS. For example, this was the approach taken by OpenBSD in 2005 with its bio(4) pseudo-device driver and the bioctl utility, which provide volume status, and allow LED/alarm/hotspare control, as well as the sensors (including the drive sensor) for health monitoring; this approach has subsequently been adopted and extended by NetBSD in 2007 as well. With bioctl, the feature set is intentionally kept to a minimum, so that each controller can be supported by the tool in the same way; the initial configuration of the controller is meant to be performed through card BIOS, but after the initial configuration, all day-to-day monitoring and repair should be possible with unified and generic tools, which is what bioctl is set to accomplish. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=475505 | 418,087 |
Vacuum fluorescent display These more sophisticated displays offer the flexibility of displaying arbitrary images, and may still be a useful choice for some types of consumer equipment. Several radio amateurs have experimented with the possibilities of using VFDs as triode amplifiers. In 2015, Korg released the Nutube, an analogue audio amplifier component based on VFD technology. The Nutube is used in applications such as guitar amplifiers from Vox and the Apex Sangaku headphone amplifier. Fading is sometimes a problem with VFDs. Light output drops over time due to falling emission and reduction of phosphor efficiency. How quickly and how far this falls depends on the construction and operation of the VFD. In some equipment, loss of VFD output can render the equipment inoperable. Emission may usually be restored by raising filament voltage. Thirty-three percent voltage boost can rectify moderate fade, and 66% boost severe fade. This can make the filaments visible in use, though the usual green-blue VFD filter helps reduce any such red or orange light from the filament. Of the three prevalent display technologies – VFD, LCD, and LED – the VFD was the first to be developed. It was used in early handheld calculators. LED displays displaced VFDs in this use as the very small LEDs used required less power, thereby extending battery life, though early LED displays had problems achieving uniform brightness levels across all display segments. Later, LCDs displaced LEDs, offering even lower power requirements | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=497899 | 418,193 |
Carpet As nylon is petroleum-based it varies in price with the price of oil. Polypropylene, a polyolefin stiffer than the cheaper polyethylene, is used to produce carpet yarns because it is still less expensive than the other materials used for carpets. It is difficult to dye and does not wear as well as wool or nylon. Polypropylene, sometimes referred to simply as "olefin", is commonly used to construct berber carpets. Large looped olefin berber carpets are usually only suited for light domestic use and tend to mat down quickly. Berber carpets with smaller loops tend to be more resilient and retain their new appearance longer than large looped berber styles. Commercial grade level-loop carpets have very small loops, and commercial grade cut-pile styles can be well constructed. When made with polypropylene, commercial grade styles wear very well, making them very suitable for areas with heavy foot traffic such as offices. Polypropylene carpets are known to have good stain resistance, but not against oil- based agents. If a stain does set, it can be difficult to clean. Commercial grade carpets can be glued directly to the floor or installed over a 1/4" thick, 8-pound density padding. Outdoor grass carpets are usually made from polypropylene. Wool has excellent durability, can be dyed easily and is fairly abundant. When blended with synthetic fibres such as nylon the durability of wool is increased | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=264268 | 238,451 |
Artificial enzyme They have been widely explored for various applications, such as biosensing, bioimaging, tumor diagnosis and therapy, antibiofouling. In 1996 and 1997, Dugan et al. discovered the superoxide dismutase (SOD) mimicking activities of fullerene derivatives. A "short review" article appeared in 2005. It attributed the term "nanozyme"s to "analogy with the activity of catalytic polymers (synzymes)", based on the "outstanding catalytic efficiency of some of the functional nanoparticles synthesized". The term was coined the previous year by Flavio Manea, Florence Bodar Houillon, Lucia Pasquato, and Paolo Scrimin. In 2006, nanoceria (i.e., CeO nanoparticles) was reported as observed, in rat experiments, preventing retinal degeneration induced by intracellular peroxides (toxic reactive oxygen intermediates). This was seen as indicating a possible route to an eventual treatment for causes of blindness. In 2007 intrinsic peroxidase-like activity of ferromagnetic nanoparticles was reported as suggesting a wide range of applications in, for example, medicine and environmental chemistry, and the authors reported an immunoassay based on this property. Hui Wei and Erkang Wang then (2008) used this mimetic property of easily-prepared magnetic nanoparticles (MNP) to demonstrate analytical applications to bioactive molecules, describing a colorimetric assay for hydrogen peroxide () and a sensitive and selective platform for glucose detection. review articles are appearing every year, in a range of journals | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=11448262 | 81,807 |
List of Polaroid instant cameras This is a list of the instant cameras sold by the Polaroid Corporation as well as Polaroid Originals models. Cameras are ordered by type. These cameras took Polaroid Picture Roll Land film, which was discontinued in 1992. Some of these cameras can be converted to take pack film, but others cannot. These cameras included both folding SLRs and less expensive nonfolding models. They take the SX-70 film, a format with a ~3.1 x 3.1 in² (77 x 77 mm) square image area and a ~4.2 x 3.5 in² (108 x 88 mm²) total area, and a sensitivity around ISO 160. They come with a built-in 6-volt zinc chloride "PolaPulse" battery pack, replaced with a lithium-ion pack in Polaroid Original remakes. The 600 film have the same dimensions as that of the SX-70. The sensitivity is higher at around ISO 640. It also has a battery pack, for which Polaroid has released a small radio. The Spectra has an image area of 2.9 x 3.6 in² (73 x 91 mm²) and a total area of 4.05 x 4.0 in² (103 x 102 mm²). The i-Type is a new format introduced by the Impossible Project, or Polaroid Originals. It is Polaroid 600 with battery moved out of the film pack. These are units that expose films using a smartphone display. They are optimized for 600/i-Type film packs, although SX-70 is also supported. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=3058419 | 232,901 |
On-screen display Akai produced consumer video cassette recorders (VCR) during the 1980s. The Akai VS-2 was the first VCR with an on-screen display, originally named the Interactive Monitor System. By displaying the information directly on the television screen, this innovation eliminated the need for the user to be physically near the VCR to program recording, read the tape counter, or perform other common features. Within a few years, all competing manufacturers had adopted on-screen display technology in their own products. Some computer software also uses OSDs, especially support programs for so-called "enhanced keyboards", which often had additional medias like skipping through music tracks and volume adjustment. Their use outside this field is still uncommon. On-screen displays are also used in camcorders, and can display various information both on the viewfinder and on the TV set the camcorder is connected to. The complexity of graphics offered by such displays has greatly increased over the years, from simple monochrome images to intricate graphical user interfaces. Several problems exist with regard to on-screen displays. One of them is diagnostics if a television's display system is damaged. Without any external screens, it is almost impossible (without opening the TV) to determine the source of the error. TV accessories that depend heavily on OSDs, such as VCRs or DVD players, are also difficult to configure without the use of a TV | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1306721 | 249,314 |
Semantic desktop Neither has anything to do with tasks, notes or planned activities that may be stored in a calendar program. Contacts might be stored in another program. However, all these forms of information might simultaneously be relevant and necessary for a particular task. Related to this, a user will often access a lot of data from the Internet which are segregated from the data stored locally on the computer and accessed through a browser or other program. As well as accessing data, a user has to share data, often through e-mail or separate file transfer programs. The semantic desktop is an attempt to solve some or all of these problem by extending the operating system's capabilities to handle all data using Semantic Web technologies. Based on this data integration, improved user interfaces (or plugins to existing applications) can give the user an integrated view on stored knowledge. Some operating systems such as BeOS have database filesystems which store metadata about a document natively in the filesystem, which is a move towards a more semantic desktop. A definition of Semantic Desktop was given (Sauermann et al. 2005): A Semantic Desktop is a device in which an individual stores all her digital information like documents, multimedia and messages. These are interpreted as Semantic Web resources, each is identified by a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) and all data is accessible and queryable as Resource Description Framework (RDF) graph | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=10218448 | 252,653 |
Normalized Difference Red Edge Index The normalized difference red edge index (NDRE) is a metric that can be used to analyse whether images obtained from multi-spectral image sensors contain healthy vegetation or not. It is similar to Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) but uses the ratio of Near-Infrared and the edge of Red as follows: The red edge is the part of the spectrum centred around 715 nm. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=52801011 | 8,429 |
Test design technique In software engineering, test design technique is a procedure for determining test conditions, test cases and test data during software testing. Test design techniques always include test selection criteria determining when to stop designing more test cases. They differ from test creation, which are based on the test data adequacy criteria by selecting appropriate test data in order to reduce the risks to an acceptable level. Test design techniques relates to different test design categories and test basis. For example, specification-based techniques are based on some available information about the software to be implemented such as requirements, user stories, etc. Experience-based techniques are based on the tester knowledge, the running application and experience gained during the testing process. Test design techniques should be applied systematically. Software test design refers to the process of designing different tests answering the questions: Which test case? How many? How to get these test cases? Each test design technique is suitable for identifying a particular type of software defect. The selected test design technique should meet the testing objectives and the result of risk and complexity analysis. In most cases, one should apply more than one test design technique together. In some test design techniques, an appropriate test selection criterion should also be selected. For example, in state transition testing we can select several test selection criteria | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=62400075 | 200,115 |
Direct fluorescent antibody As with all types of fluorescence microscopy, the correct absorption wavelength needs to be determined in order to excite the fluorophore tag attached to the antibody, and detect the fluorescence given off, which indicates which cells are positive for the presence of the virus or bacteria being detected. Direct immunofluorescence can be used to detect deposits of immunoglobulins and complement proteins in biopsies of skin, kidney and other organs. Their presence is indicative of an autoimmune disease. When skin not exposed to the sun is tested, a positive direct IF (the so-called Lupus band test) is an evidence of systemic lupus erythematosus. can also be used to detect parasitic infections, as was pioneered by Sadun, et al. (1960). | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2206783 | 21,384 |
Isogrid is a type of partially hollowed-out structure formed usually from a single metal plate (or face sheet) with triangular integral stiffening ribs (often called stringers). It was patented by McDonnell Douglas (now part of Boeing). It is extremely light and stiff. Compared to other materials, it is expensive to manufacture, and so it is restricted to spaceflight applications and some particularly critical parts of more general aerospace use. structures are related to sandwich-structured composite panels; both can be modeled using sandwich theory, which describes structures with separated, stiff face sheets and a lighter interconnecting layer. Isogrids are manufactured from single sheets of material and with large-scale triangular openings, and an open pattern to the flanges, compared to closed sheets and foam or honeycomb structures for the sandwich-composite structures. structures are constituted by a thin skin reinforced with a lattice structure. Such structures are adopted in the aeronautical industry since they present both structural resistance and lightness. The triangular pattern is very efficient because it retains rigidity while saving material and therefore weight. The term isogrid is used because the structure acts like an isotropic material, with equal properties measured in any direction, and grid, referring to the sheet and stiffeners structure. A similar variant is the Orthogrid (sometimes called a waffle grid), which uses rectangular rather than triangular openings | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=6249276 | 252,526 |
Triangulation (surveying) In surveying, triangulation is the process of determining the location of a point by measuring only angles to it from known points at either end of a fixed baseline, rather than measuring distances to the point directly as in trilateration. The point can then be fixed as the third point of a triangle with one known side and two known angles. Triangulation can also refer to the accurate surveying of systems of very large triangles, called triangulation networks. This followed from the work of Willebrord Snell in 1615–17, who showed how a point could be located from the angles subtended from "three" known points, but measured at the new unknown point rather than the previously fixed points, a problem called resectioning. Surveying error is minimized if a mesh of triangles at the largest appropriate scale is established first. Points inside the triangles can all then be accurately located with reference to it. Such triangulation methods were used for accurate large-scale land surveying until the rise of global navigation satellite systems in the 1980s. Triangulation may be used to find the position of the ship when the positions of A and B are known. An observer at "A" measures the angle "α", while the observer at "B" measures "β" .(remember that in triangulation only one angle is measured) The position of any vertex of a triangle can be calculated if the position of one side, and two angles, are known. The following formulae are strictly correct only for a flat surface | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=50691950 | 214,584 |
Reference Daily Intake For instance, the National Research Council found that 500 milligrams of sodium per day (approximately 1,250 milligrams of table salt) is a safe minimum level. In the United Kingdom, the daily allowance for salt is 6 g (approximately 2.5 teaspoons, about the upper limit in the U.S.), an amount considered "too high". The Institute of Medicine advisory stated (daily intake basis): "Americans consume more than 3,400 milligrams of sodium – the amount in about 1.5 teaspoons of salt (8.7 g) – each day. The recommended maximum daily intake of sodium – the amount above which health problems appear – is 2,300 milligrams per day for adults, about 1 teaspoon of salt (5.9 g). The recommended adequate intake of sodium is 1,500 milligrams (3.9 g salt) per day, and people over 50 need even less." | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=267488 | 141,997 |
Electroporation For a further detailed investigation of the process, more attention should be paid to the output impedance of the porator device and the input impedance of the cells suspension (e.g. salt content). Since the cell membrane is not able to pass current (except in ion channels), it acts as an electrical capacitor. Subjecting membranes to a high-voltage electric field results in their temporary breakdown, resulting in pores that are large enough to allow macromolecules (such as DNA) to enter or leave the cell. Additionally, electroporation can be used to increase permeability of cells during in Utero injections and surgeries. Particularly, the electroporation allows for a more efficient transfection of DNA, RNA, shRNA, and all nucleic acids into the cells of mice and rats. The success of in vivo electroporation depends greatly on voltage, repetition, pulses, and duration. Developing central nervous systems are most effective for in vivo electroporation due to the visibility of ventricles for injections of nucleic acids, as well as the increased permeability of dividing cells. of injected in utero embryos is performed through the uterus wall, often with forceps-type electrodes to limit damage to the embryo. In vivo gene electrotransfer was first described in 1991 and today there are many preclinical studies of gene electrotransfer | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=39619 | 295,466 |
Tempio Ossario dei Caduti d'Italia The Tempio Ossario ai Caduti d'Italia is a church built in 1931 in Udine, in north-eastern Italy. The architects who realised the project are Limongelli and Gino Valle. In front of the facade there are four sculptures: a member in the service of the navy, one of the air force, one of the army and one of the Alpini. The remains of 25,000 Italian soldiers who died during the First World War are buried in the walls of the church's chapels and in the crypt, which is the biggest in Italy. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=40413036 | 335,164 |
Roger Kaufman Roger Kaufman, Ph.D. is an influential figure in the history of the educational technology (see also Instructional design) and performance improvement fields as well as strategic thinking and planning for public- and private-sector organizations. Regarded as one of the founding figures of the field, he is referred to as the father of needs assessment. While needs assessment is such common practice today that many new practitioners may not be able to envision a time when it was not part of the standard process, his work in this area established one of the foundational concepts that sets professional practice apart. The core tenets of his work are reflected in the professional standards for certifying performance technologists, such as the emphasis on system thinking and planning and sound evaluation of outcomes. Over his 40 years of work Kaufman developed what he considers to be his essential work - the Mega Planning model, a framework for adding measurable value to society. In 2014, the International Society for Performance Improvement created an honorary award named the Award for Societal Impact honoring the work of individuals or groups who apply this systemic performance assessment and planning process with clear impact on societal outcomes. Kaufman currently works with a variety of organizations around the globe implementing the Mega Planning model for strategic organizational planning, including educational institutions, government organizations, and corporations | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=25450748 | 243,674 |
The Microtransat Challenge is a competition to design and build an autonomous sailboat under 4 meters in length, which is capable of crossing the Atlantic Ocean without human interaction. The challenge was originally conceived in 2005 by Mark Neal of Aberystwyth University and Yves Briere of ISAE. The first attempt was made on September 11, 2010, by Pinta from Aberystwyth University. The challenge requires entries to use one of two predefined sets of end points. The first is to sail between a start line off the coast of Great Britain and a finish between the Bahamas and Florida, whilst the second is from a start line off the east coast of North America and a finish line on the west coast of Ireland. The competition rules specify that boats should report their position to competition organisers at least once every six hours. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=37901726 | 286,541 |
Segre classification The is an algebraic classification of rank two symmetric tensors. The resulting types are then known as Segre types. It is most commonly applied to the energy-momentum tensor (or the Ricci tensor) and primarily finds application in the classification of exact solutions in general relativity. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2045451 | 203,011 |
Biofuel A study by researchers at the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) found that growing sweet sorghum instead of grain sorghum could increase farmers incomes by US$40 per hectare per crop because it can provide fuel in addition to food and animal feed. With grain sorghum currently grown on over 11 million hectares (ha) in Asia and on 23.4 million ha in Africa, a switch to sweet sorghum could have a considerable economic impact. Several groups in various sectors are conducting research on "Jatropha curcas", a poisonous shrub-like tree that produces seeds considered by many to be a viable source of biofuels feedstock oil. Much of this research focuses on improving the overall per acre oil yield of Jatropha through advancements in genetics, soil science, and horticultural practices. SG Biofuels, a San Diego-based jatropha developer, has used molecular breeding and biotechnology to produce elite hybrid seeds that show significant yield improvements over first-generation varieties. SG Biofuels also claims additional benefits have arisen from such strains, including improved flowering synchronicity, higher resistance to pests and diseases, and increased cold-weather tolerance. Plant Research International, a department of the Wageningen University and Research Centre in the Netherlands, maintains an ongoing Jatropha Evaluation Project that examines the feasibility of large-scale jatropha cultivation through field and laboratory experiments | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=188543 | 366,639 |
Robb Engineering was a metals manufacturer that was located in Amherst, Nova Scotia, Canada in the early 1900s. Originally started as a tinsmithy, the factory eventually expanded to the manufacture of Boilers, electric engines and small generator plants. Some evidence exists that attempts were also made by the company to design and manufacture locomotive engines as well as a small venture into shipwork. In 1964 was acquired by the Dominion Bridge Company. Its assets were merged into Dominion's Canada Car and Foundry subsidiary. These corporate changes saw the workforce at Dominion Bridge Company's operations in Amherst undergo major changes following the dissolution of Robb Engineering. gained notoriety during the 1990s after being blamed as the maker of faulty open web steel joists. Poor welds weakened the joists. In some cases the roof joists have experienced catastrophic failure, resulting in at least 1 roof collapse. With the collapse of 3 joists in 3 separate buildings confirmed, an inspection of all governmental structures was conducted in eastern Canada surveying how many of Robb Engineering's joists were being used. Inspections costing into the millions of dollars, found that several thousand government buildings, in several provinces across eastern Canada, were involved. An unknown number of private buildings could also be involved, however no statistical information was recorded reflecting this data. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=16774444 | 426,471 |
Personal guarantee The issuer of the guarantee, in effect, provides joint and several responsibility for the debt so that while the organization, as the debtor, is primarily liable to pay the debt; the creditor can also go after the guarantor as a secondary responsible party if the debtor is unwilling or unable to pay the debt. A personal guarantee means that even if the debtor declares bankruptcy and is discharged from responsibility for the debt, the guarantor is still liable for it. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=43531915 | 504,319 |
Eugène Freyssinet () (13 July 1879 – 8 June 1962) was a French structural and civil engineer. He was the major pioneer of prestressed concrete. Freyssinet was born in at Objat, Corrèze, France. He worked in the "École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées" in Paris, France where he designed several bridges until the First World War intervened. His tutors included Charles Rabut. He served in the French Army from 1904–1907 and again from 1914-1918 as a road engineer. His most significant early bridge was the three span Pont le Veurdre near Vichy, built in 1911. At the time, the 72.5 metre (238 ft) spans were the longest so far constructed in France although Grafton Bridge a 97.6 metre reinforced concrete bridge had been opened in April 1910 and the Rocky River Bridge in Cleveland Ohio, an 85.34 metre unreinforced bridge had been opened in October 1910. Freyssinet's proposal was for three reinforced concrete truss spans, and was significantly less expensive than the standard masonry arch design. The design used jacks to raise and connect the arches, effectively introducing an element of prestress. The bridge also enabled Freyssinet to discover the phenomenon of creep in concrete, whereby the concrete deforms with time when placed under stress. Regarding this bridge, Freyssinet wrote: "I have always loved it more than any other of my bridges, and of all that the War has destroyed, it is the only one whose ruin has caused me real grief". He served as the director of Public Works in Moulins starting in 1905 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=461605 | 339,468 |
Eiffel Tower One lift car was mounted on top of these rams: cables ran from the top of this car up to sheaves on the third level and back down to a second car. Each car only travelled half the distance between the second and third levels and passengers were required to change lifts halfway by means of a short gangway. The 10-ton cars each held 65 passengers. The main structural work was completed at the end of March 1889 and, on 31 March, Eiffel celebrated by leading a group of government officials, accompanied by representatives of the press, to the top of the tower. Because the lifts were not yet in operation, the ascent was made by foot, and took over an hour, with Eiffel stopping frequently to explain various features. Most of the party chose to stop at the lower levels, but a few, including the structural engineer, Émile Nouguier, the head of construction, Jean Compagnon, the President of the City Council, and reporters from "Le Figaro" and "Le Monde Illustré", completed the ascent. At 2:35 pm, Eiffel hoisted a large Tricolour to the accompaniment of a 25-gun salute fired at the first level. There was still work to be done, particularly on the lifts and facilities, and the tower was not opened to the public until nine days after the opening of the exposition on 6 May; even then, the lifts had not been completed. The tower was an instant success with the public, and nearly 30,000 visitors made the 1,710-step climb to the top before the lifts entered service on 26 May | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=9232 | 359,978 |
Common Vulnerability Scoring System 1 specification include clarification of the definitions and explanation of existing base metrics such as Attack Vector, Privileges Required, Scope, and Security Requirements. A new standard method of extending CVSS, called the CVSS Extensions Framework, was also defined, allowing a scoring provider to include additional metrics and metric groups while retaining the official Base, Temporal, and Environmental Metrics. The additional metrics allow industry sectors such as privacy, safety, automotive, healthcare, etc., to score factors that are outside the core CVSS standard. Finally, the CVSS Glossary of Terms has been expanded and refined to cover all terms used throughout the CVSS version 3.1 documentation. The CVSSv2 base score has been adopted as primary method for quantifying the severity of vulnerabilities by a wide range of organisations and companies, including: The NVD plans to begin scoring vulnerabilities using CVSSv3.0 in addition to CVSSv2 sometime in Fall 2015. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=8105109 | 103,581 |
John Galt From 2011 to 2014, a movie adaptation of "Atlas Shrugged" was released in three parts. A different actor portrayed Galt in each film. In "", director Paul Johansson played the role, albeit with limited screen time and in shadow. Actor D. B. Sweeney took over the role for "", released in 2012. For the 2014 release of "", the role was again recast, this time with Kristoffer Polaha. is the name of a poet in the novel 'Hollywood', by Charles Bukowski. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=10239178 | 200,811 |
Gene targeting (also, replacement strategy based on homologous recombination) is a genetic technique that uses homologous recombination to modify an endogenous gene. The method can be used to delete a gene, remove exons, add a gene and modify individual base pairs (introduce point mutations). can be permanent or conditional. Conditions can be a specific time during development / life of the organism or limitation to a specific tissue, for example. requires the creation of a specific vector for each gene of interest. However, it can be used for any gene, regardless of transcriptional activity or gene size. In general, DNA containing part of the gene to be targeted, a reporter gene, and a (dominant) selectable marker is assembled in bacteria. methods are established for several model organisms and may vary depending on the species used. To target genes in mice, the DNA is inserted into mouse embryonic stem cells in culture. Cells with the insertion can contribute to a mouse's tissue via embryo injection. Finally, chimeric mice where the modified cells make up the reproductive organs are bred. After this step the entire body of the mouse is based on the selected embryonic stem cell. To target genes in moss, the DNA is incubated together with freshly isolated protoplasts and with polyethylene glycol. As mosses are haploid organisms, moss filaments (protonema) can be directly screened for the target, either by treatment with antibiotics or with PCR | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=10438744 | 44,247 |
Thermal comfort This is mainly due to a more sluggish response of the counteraction mechanisms in lower parts of the body that are used to maintain the core temperature of the body at ideal values. Seniors prefer warmer temperatures than young adults (76 vs 72 degrees F). Situational factors include the health, psychological, sociological, and vocational activities of the persons. While thermal comfort preferences between sexes seems to be small, there are some average differences. Studies have found males on average report discomfort due to rises in temperature much earlier than females. Males on average also estimate higher levels of their sensation of discomfort than females. One recent study tested males and females in the same cotton clothing, performing mental jobs while using a dial vote to report their thermal comfort to the changing temperature. Many times, females will prefer higher temperatures. But while females tended to be more sensitive to temperatures, males tend to be more sensitive to relative-humidity levels. An extensive field study was carried out in naturally ventilated residential buildings in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia. This investigation explored the sexes thermal sensitivity to the indoor environment in non-air-conditioned residential buildings | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=7455643 | 322,973 |
Organizational conflict Such settlements may be resisted and the winner defeated in underground ways that are difficult to detect and to counter. When this happens, neither side wins; both are losers. If the conflict is left unresolved, as when both sides withdraw from the scene, intergroup cooperation and effectiveness may be seriously impaired to the detriment of the entire organization. Disputes that are settled by higher authority also may cause resentment and what is called "lose-lose" consequences. Such settlements are invariably made on the basis of incomplete information — without data that the conflict itself obscures — and therefore are poor substitutes for mutually reasoned solutions. Again, both sides have lost. A specific approach to resolving intergroup conflict is outlined in the next chapter on organization development. Interorganizational relationships, such as buyer-supplier relationships, joint ventures, or strategic alliances, often involve conflicts. Conflicts between organizations differ from interpersonal conflicts on several dimensions. Among the distinguishing features of interorganizational conflicts are decision-making parties with specific incentives and motivations as well as the presence of a governance structure to prevent and manage conflicts. Scholars in business and management have also noted the importance of the institutional context on the development and repair of interorganizational conflicts. One fact of personal conflict includes the multiple roles people play in organizations | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=15206066 | 492,472 |
History of accounting Pacioli wrote primarily for, and sold mainly to, merchants who used the book as a reference text, as a source of pleasure from the mathematical puzzles it contained, and to aid the education of their sons. His work represents the first known printed treatise on bookkeeping; and it is widely believed to be the forerunner of modern bookkeeping practice. In "Summa de arithmetica", Pacioli introduced symbols for plus and minus for the first time in a printed book, symbols which became standard notation in Italian Renaissance mathematics. "Summa de arithmetica" was also the first known book printed in Italy to contain algebra. Ragusan economist Benedetto Cotrugli's 1458 treatise "Della mercatura e del mercante perfetto" contained the earliest known manuscript of a double-entry bookkeeping system, however Cotrugli's manuscript was not officially published until 1573. In fact even at the time of writing his work in 1494 Pacioli was aware of Cotrugli's efforts and credited Cortrugli with the origination of the double entry book keeping system. Although Luca Pacioli did not invent double-entry bookkeeping, his 27-page treatise on bookkeeping contained the first known published work on that topic, and is said to have laid the foundation for double-entry bookkeeping as it is practiced today. Even though Pacioli's treatise exhibits almost no originality, it is generally considered as an important work, mainly because of its wide circulation; it was written in the vernacular Italian language, and it was a printed book | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=41481285 | 488,043 |
Guillaume Henri Dufour From 1819 to 1830 he was chief instructor in the military school of Thun, which had been founded mainly through his efforts. Among other distinguished foreign pupils he instructed Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte, nephew of the former Emperor. In 1827 he was raised to the rank of colonel, and commanded the Federal army in a series of field manoeuvres. In 1831 he became chief of the staff, and soon afterwards he was appointed quartermaster-general. Two years later the (diet) commissioned him to superintend the execution of a complete trigonometrical survey of Switzerland. He had already made a cadastral survey of the canton of Geneva, and published a map of the canton on the scale of 1⁄25000. The final map in 25 sheets on the scale of 1⁄100000 was published at intervals between 1842 and 1865. In 1847 the Catholic cantons of Switzerland attempted to form a separate alliance of their own, known as the Sonderbund, effectively splitting from the rest of the country. The Tagsatzung appointed Dufour General on 21 October 1847, and he led the federal army of 100,000 and defeated the Sonderbund under Johann-Ulrich von Salis-Soglio in a campaign that lasted only from 3 to 29 November, and claimed fewer than a hundred victims. He ordered his troops to spare the injured. His success, and the moderation with which he treated his vanquished fellow-countrymen, were acknowledged by a gift of 60,000 francs from the Tagsatzung and various honours from different cities and cantons of the confederation | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=978818 | 319,855 |
Craig Partridge Dr. is an American computer scientist, best known for his contributions to the technical development of the Internet. Partridge graduated in 1979 from Woodrow Wilson High School in Washington D.C. He received his A.B. in history in 1983, and in 1992 received his Ph.D. in computer science, from Harvard University. Starting in 1983, Partridge was a researcher at BBN Technologies, where he eventually became Chief Scientist for networking research. During the 1980s, Dr. Partridge designed the method of email routing using domain names, and, in collaboration with Phil Karn, made contributions to the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) round-trip time estimation by inventing Karn's algorithm. In the 1990s he co-invented anycast addressing, led the team that developed the first multi-gigabit router. Partridge served on the first Internet Engineering Steering Group, has chaired the Association for Computing Machinery's Special Interest Group on Data Communications (SIGCOMM), been editor-in-chief of both the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) "Network Magazine" and SIGCOMM's "Computer Communication Review", and served on the National Science Foundation's Computer, Information Science and Engineering (CISE) Advisory Committee, and on the National Research Council's Computer Science and Telecommunications Board. He has held adjunct faculty positions at Stanford University and the University of Michigan, and currently chairs the Department of Computer Science in Colorado State University | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=61369269 | 115,063 |
BBM (software) BBM, formerly known by its full name BlackBerry Messenger, was a proprietary mobile instant messenger and videotelephony application included on BlackBerry devices that allows messaging and voice calls between BlackBerry OS, BlackBerry 10, iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users. The consumer edition for iOS and Android, BBM Consumer, was developed by Indonesian company Emtek under license from BlackBerry Limited (formerly known as Research In Motion). The consumer edition for BlackBerry OS and BlackBerry 10, as well as the paid enterprise edition, called BBM Enterprise (formerly known as BBM Protected), were developed fully by BlackBerry Limited. BBM Consumer shut down on 31 May 2019, however the paid enterprise version of the software, BBMe, is still running. Messages sent via BBM were sent over the Internet and used the BlackBerry PIN system. In the past, many service providers allowed sign-in to BBM using a dedicated BlackBerry data plan. Exchanging messages was possible to a single person or via dedicated discussion or chat groups, which allowed multiple BlackBerry devices to communicate in a single session. In addition to offering text-based instant messages, BBM also allowed users to send pictures, voicenotes (audio recordings), files (up to 16 MB), share real time location on a map, stickers and a wide selection of emojis. Communication was only possible between BlackBerry devices, until late 2013 when BBM was released on iOS and Android systems. Over 300 million Stickers were shared | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=17932449 | 289,575 |
History of IBM magnetic disk drives Developed at IBM's Hursley, UK, laboratory under the code name Redwing. It was an up to 857 MB full height 5¼-inch HDD using up to 12 130 mm disks. It was the first HDD to use PRML decoding of data. It was the drive component of the 9333 Disk Drive Subsystem which first shipped in early 1992. A higher density, 1.07 GB, version was incorporated into the 9333 subsystem in May 1992. The 0663 first shipped in late 1991. Developed under the code name "Corsair", it was a 3½-inch HDD with the height of a 5½-inch half-height device (1.6-inch high) and up to 1 GB on up to 8 95 mm disks. It was offered as a feature on certain models of the PS/2 and RS/6000. It was the first OEM disk drive to use MR Heads. The 0664 first shipped in November 1992. Developed under the code name "Allicat" at IBM Rochester, MN, it was a full-height 5½-inch HDD (3.25-inch high) that combined two 3½-inch devices in one, with up to 2.013 GB capacity on up to 8 95 mm disks. The 0662 first shipped in June 1993. Developed under the code name "Spitfire" at IBM Rochester, MN, it was a full-height (1-inch high) 3½-inch HDD with 1.05 GB on 3 disks or 5 disk surfaces. It was the HDD internal to the 9336 Disk Unit and the 9337 Disk Array. Another important IBM innovation is the floppy disk drive. IBM first introduced the 8-inch FDD in 1971 as a read only program load device. In 1973 IBM shipped its first read/write floppy disk drive as a part of the 3740 Data Entry System | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=861211 | 417,154 |
Salt poisoning is an intoxication resulting from the excessive intake of sodium (usually as sodium chloride) in either solid form or in solution (saline water, including brine, brackish water, or seawater). In medicine, the circumstance of salt poisoning is most frequently encountered in children or infants who may be made to consume excessive amounts of table salt. At least one instance of murder of a hospitalized child by salt poisoning has been reported. Too much salt intake in adults can also occur from the drinking of seawater in survival situations or the drinking of soy sauce. has also been seen in a number of adults with mental health problems. typically results in a feeling of confusion and jitteriness; more severe degrees of intoxication can cause seizures and coma. Death can result if medical intervention is not forthcoming. These symptoms are generally a consequence of hypernatremia—an abnormally high sodium level in the blood. (There are myriad causes of hypernatremia, which is frequently encountered in medical practice; salt poisoning is not a common cause.) Early on, the intoxicant will cause a strong feeling of thirst, followed by weakness, nausea, and loss of appetite. More severe symptoms ensue, including confusion, muscle twitching, and bleeding in or around the brain. Death results by the swelling of the brain against the skull. (Normal serum sodium levels are 135 – 145 mEq/liter (135 – 145 mmol/L). Severe symptoms typically only occur when levels are above 160 mEq/L | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=51295444 | 53,837 |
Safety data sheet These guidelines prescribed by the international authorities are applicable to the South African land, sea and air transportation of hazardous materials and goods. In addition to these rules and regulations to International best practice, South Africa has also implemented common laws which are laws based on custom and practise. Common laws are a vital part of maintaining public order and forms the basis of case laws. Case laws, using the principles of common law are interpretations and decisions of statutes made by courts. Acts of parliament are determinations and regulations by parliament which form the foundation of statutory law. Statutory laws are published in the government gazette or on the official website. Lastly, subordinate legislation are the bylaws issued by local authorities and authorised by parliament. Statutory law gives effect to the Occupational Health and Safety Act of 1993 and the National Road Traffic Act of 1996. The Occupational Health and Safety Act details the necessary provisions for the safe handling and storage of hazardous materials and goods whilst the transport act details with the necessary provisions for the transportation of the hazardous goods. Relevant South African legislation includes the Occupational Health and Safety Act of 1993, the National Road Traffic Act of 1996, and the Standards Act of 2008. There has been selective incorporation of aspects of the Globally Harmonised System (GHS) of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals into South African legislation | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=337353 | 219,600 |
Construction loan The reason for this is both to psychologically and economically tie in the owner with the project (hopefully making it less likely that they would walk away from the project if something goes wrong), and to give the lender a cushion whereby if something goes wrong they are more likely to be able to sell the real estate at a value that would better cover the loan amount. This guideline is often termed a "loan to cost" requirement, i.e. the lender will only loan up to 85% of the project costs. The final major guideline is the maximum loan amount the lender will allow relative to the completed value of the project. This rule is designed to help ensure that, after the project is completed, if the borrower stops paying the payment, the lender can sell the property and hopefully recoup all the funds loaned. Construction Loans are often extended for developers who are seeking to build something but sell it immediately after building it. In this case, a special appraisal is ordered to attempt to predict the future sales value of the project. The first guideline above, affordability, is usually not used because the owner would immediately attempt to sell the property. However, it is used sometimes for example when a developer is building condominia, the lender might evaluate whether if the project was changed from condominia to apartments if the rents received would more than repay the loan each month. Cash injection requirements are often higher due to the added risk (the immediate need to sell) | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=8408885 | 216,398 |
Applied unified communications Applied Unified Communications is the application of unified communications (SMS, e-mail, VoIP, Letters, IVR) to solve business problems by helping enterprises to increase profitability and operational efficiencies using targeted and personalised communications with their customers. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=31619836 | 272,890 |
Cameron ram-type blowout preventer The was the first successful blowout preventer (BOP) for oil wells. It was developed by James S. Abercrombie and Harry S. Cameron in 1922. The device was issued on January 12, 1926. The blowout preventer was designated as a Mechanical Engineering Landmark in 2003. While drilling an oil or gas well, the top of the wellbore is lined with a casing. The drill string runs through the casing. The annular (ring-shaped) region between the casing and the drill stem is filled with drilling mud which provides hydrostatic pressure to keep the formation fluid from coming up the wellbore. If the pressure of the formation fluid exceeds the hydrostatic pressure of the drilling mud, the oil or gas can blow out of the wellbore. This has caused spills of large quantities of oil and fires on drilling rigs. The blowout of the Lucas well at the Spindletop field in 1901 lasted for over nine days and spilled over of oil. James Smither Abercrombie (1891–1975), a Texas oil driller, and Harry S. Cameron (1872–1928), who operated a machine shop, formed the Cameron Iron Works in 1920. Abercrombie had an idea for a blowout preventer and took it to Cameron. They designed and built the device at the Cameron Iron works. This resulted in the first ram-type blowout preventer, which they called the MO BOP. Cameron Iron Works successfully marketed their blowout preventer and developed other tools for petroleum exploration. In 1990, Cooper Industries acquired the company | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=27305835 | 228,739 |
Mysterio The Zombie Spider-Man pulls parts of this Mysterio's brain out of his dome and head, which infects with the zombie virus, causing him to participate with other zombie members in eating Spider-Man's friends. Angered, the Zombie Spider-Man kills him. In an alternate future of the Marvel Universe, casts an illusion which makes Wolverine believe that the X-Men are various deadly villains of the Marvel Universe while matching their scents. Wolverine slaughters them all, only discovering the trick after he killed the last "villain" (Jubilee who appeared as Bullseye) and the illusion cleared up. Without the X-Men, the Red Skull's alliance of villains manages to conquer America and kill most of the heroes. In the "" alternate reality, an older works with the 'Sinner Six' to stop Spider-Man's rebellious assault. Mysterio's fear-inducing powers fail to work, for Spider-Man had already confronted and become bored by his personal demons. The Ultimate Marvel version of was introduced in "Ultimate Spider-Man Annual" #3. His appearance is drastically changed from his 616 counterpart. He wears all black with a green neck brace that produces blue smoke that envelopes his face. In his first appearance, he had a police technician to set up surveillance equipment to the police department. However, after NYPD's police captain Frank Quaid asked Spider-Man to aid them to find the crook who was somehow able to stay ahead of his unit | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=315916 | 67,976 |
Specialty drugs in the United States Health plans consider "high cost" (on average a minimum monthly costs of $US1,200) to be is a determining factor in identifying a specialty drug. Tom Westrich, of St. Louis, Missouri-based Centric Health Resources, a specialty pharmacy, described how their specialty drugs treat ultra-orphan diseases with a total patient population of 20,000 nationwide. The top ten specialty pharmacies in 2014 were CVS Specialty parent company CVS Health with $20.5B in sales, Express Scripts's Accredo at $15B, Walgreens Boots Alliance's Walgreens Specialty at $8.5B, UnitedHealth Group's OptumRx at $2.4B, Diplomat Pharmacy at $2.1B, Catamaran's BriovaRx at $2.0B, Specialty Prime Therapeutics's Prime Therapeutics at $1.8B, Omnicare's Advanced Care Scripts at $1.3B, Humana's RightsourceRx at $1.2B, Avella at $0.8B. All the other specialty pharmacies accounted for $22.4B of sales in 2014 with a total of $78B. In 2010 the United States enacted a new health law which had unintended consequences. Because of the 2010 law, drug companies like Genentech informed children's hospitals that they would no longer get discounts for certain cancer medicines such as the orphan drugs Avastin, Herceptin, Rituxan, Tarceva, or Activase. This cost hospitals millions of dollars. There is a debate about whether specialty drugs should be managed as a medical benefit or a pharmaceutical benefit. Infused or injected medications are usually covered under the medical benefit and oral medications are covered under the pharmacy benefit | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=48172434 | 7,443 |
Electroactive polymers Ferroelectric polymers, such as polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF), are used in acoustic transducers and electromechanical actuators because of their inherent piezoelectric response, and as heat sensors because of their inherent pyroelectric response. Electrostrictive graft polymers consist of flexible backbone chains with branching side chains. The side chains on neighboring backbone polymers cross link and form crystal units. The backbone and side chain crystal units can then form polarized monomers, which contain atoms with partial charges and generate dipole moments, shown in Figure 2. When an electrical field is applied, a force is applied to each partial charge and causes rotation of the whole polymer unit. This rotation causes electrostrictive strain and deformation of the polymer. Main-chain liquid crystalline polymers have mesogenic groups linked to each other by a flexible spacer. The mesogens within a backbone form the mesophase structure causing the polymer itself to adopt a conformation compatible with the structure of the mesophase. The direct coupling of the liquid crystalline order with the polymer conformation has given main-chain liquid crystalline elastomers a large amount of interest. The synthesis of highly oriented elastomers leads to have a large strain thermal actuation along the polymer chain direction with temperature variation resulting in unique mechanical properties and potential applications as mechanical actuators | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1490017 | 84,467 |
Creatures 3 is the third game in the "Creatures" a-life game series made by Creature Labs. In this installment, the Shee have left Albia in a spaceship, the Shee Ark, to search for a more spherical world. The Ark was abandoned by the Shee because a meteor hit the ship, but the infrastructure still remains in working order. There are 6 main "metarooms" on the ship; the Norn Terranium, Grendel Jungle, Ettin Desert, Marine area, Bridge, and Engineering Room. The Norn Terranium is where you can safely hatch and raise your norns. The Grendel Jungle is where the Grendel mother (egg-layer) is, and it is well suited for Grendels. The Ettin Desert is where the Ettin mother is; it is a dry, harsh environment for all creatures. The Bridge is where you will find the most gadgets, and also the most Ettins. The Engineering Room is where the Agent Creator is, with which you can create objects for your world. Grendels are now vicious, unlike the original "Creatures" Grendels; these Grendels enjoy hunting down, and then killing norns. The Ettins, which first appeared in "Creatures 2", love gathering gadgets and taking them back to the Ettin Desert. "Creatures 3" runs on the CAOS engine, making it highly moddable, but now it is retired and outdated. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=557186 | 167,391 |
Aquatic feeding mechanisms In filter feeding, the water flow is primarily generated by the organism itself, for example by creating a pressure gradient, by active swimming, or by ciliary movements. In suspension feeding, the water flow is primarily external and the particles themselves move with respect to the ambient water flow, such as in sea lilies. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=28103715 | 449,398 |
Nuclear reactor However, Szilárd's idea did not incorporate the idea of nuclear fission as a neutron source, since that process was not yet discovered. Szilárd's ideas for nuclear reactors using neutron-mediated nuclear chain reactions in light elements proved unworkable. Inspiration for a new type of reactor using uranium came from the discovery by Lise Meitner, Fritz Strassmann and Otto Hahn in 1938 that bombardment of uranium with neutrons (provided by an alpha-on-beryllium fusion reaction, a "neutron howitzer") produced a barium residue, which they reasoned was created by the fissioning of the uranium nuclei. Subsequent studies in early 1939 (one of them by Szilárd and Fermi) revealed that several neutrons were also released during the fissioning, making available the opportunity for the nuclear chain reaction that Szilárd had envisioned six years previously. On 2 August 1939 Albert Einstein signed a letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt (written by Szilárd) suggesting that the discovery of uranium's fission could lead to the development of "extremely powerful bombs of a new type", giving impetus to the study of reactors and fission. Szilárd and Einstein knew each other well and had worked together years previously, but Einstein had never thought about this possibility for nuclear energy until Szilard reported it to him, at the beginning of his quest to produce the Einstein-Szilárd letter to alert the U.S. government. Shortly after, Hitler's Germany invaded Poland in 1939, starting World War II in Europe. The U.S | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=22151 | 364,048 |
Hoover Dam Following an uprating project from 1986 to 1993, the total gross power rating for the plant, including two 2.4 megawatt Pelton turbine-generators that power Hoover Dam's own operations is a maximum capacity of 2080 megawatts. The annual generation of varies. The maximum net generation was 10.348 TWh in 1984, and the minimum since 1940 was 2.648 TWh in 1956. The average power generated was 4.2 TWh/year for 1947–2008. In 2015, the dam generated 3.6 TWh. The amount of electricity generated by has been decreasing along with the falling water level in Lake Mead due to the prolonged drought in the 2010s and high demand for the Colorado River's water. Lake Mead fell to a new record low elevation of on July 1, 2016 before beginning to rebound slowly. Under its original design, the dam would no longer be able to generate power once the water level fell below , which might have occurred in 2017 had water restrictions not been enforced. To lower the minimum power pool elevation from , five wide-head turbines, designed to work efficiently with less flow, were installed. Due to the low water levels, by 2014 it was providing power only during periods of peak demand. Water levels were maintained at over in 2018 and 2019. Control of water was the primary concern in the building of the dam. Power generation has allowed the dam project to be self-sustaining: proceeds from the sale of power repaid the 50-year construction loan, and those revenues also finance the multimillion-dollar yearly maintenance budget | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=14308 | 363,670 |
Pugmill A pugmill or pug mill is a machine in which clay or other materials are mixed into a plastic state or a similar machine for the trituration of ore. Industrial applications are found in pottery, bricks, cement and some parts of the concrete and asphalt mixing processes. A pugmill may be a fast continuous mixer. A continuous pugmill can achieve a thoroughly mixed, homogeneous mixture in a few seconds, and the right machines can be matched to the right application by taking into account the factors of agitation, drive assembly, inlet, discharge, cost and maintenance. Mixing materials at optimum moisture content requires the forced mixing action of the pugmill paddles, while soupy materials might be mixed in a drum mixer. A typical pugmill consists of a horizontal boxlike chamber with a top inlet and a bottom discharge at the other end, 2 shafts with opposing paddles, and a drive assembly. Some of the factors affecting mixing and residence time are the number and the size of the paddles, paddle swing arc, overlap of left and right swing arc, size of mixing chamber, length of pugmill floor, and material being mixed. Road Base - Dense well-graded aggregate, uniformly mixed, wetted, and densely compacted for building the foundation under a pavement. Lime Addition to asphalt – Lime may be added to the cold feed of an asphalt plant to strengthen the binding properties of the asphalt. Flyash Conditioning – Wetting fly ash in a pugmill to stabilize the ash so that it won’t create dust | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=7301525 | 299,760 |
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