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Rare biosphere This limits the likelihood of death by ingestion, as grazers prefer larger or more active microbes. It is important to note that just because these taxa are “rare” now does not mean that under previous conditions in our planet’s history they were “rare”. These taxa could be have been episodically abundant, resulting in either global changes in biogeochemical cycles or a small change of the conditions in their current environment. Given the persistence of these taxa under the right conditions they have the potential to dominate, and become the more abundant taxa. The occurrence of such conditions may occur on many temporal scales. It may be possible that some rare taxa dominate only during anomalous years, such as during El Niño. Change in abundance may occur on a seasonal scale. Global climate change may provide some of these rare taxa with the conditions necessary to increase in abundance. Even in their low abundance, taxa belonging to the rare biosphere may be affecting global biogeochemical cycles. For example, recent evidence implicates that a rare minority may be responsible for fixing more cumulative nitrogen than the abundant majority of microbial cells in marine environment. A subtle and less direct manner the rare biosphere may be affecting ecosystems, in terms of biodiversity and biogeochemical cycles, is by acting as an unlimited source of genetic diversity and material | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=29393471 | 155,502 |
GLARE This material had some cost, manufacturing, and application problems; while it had very high tensile strength, the material proved suboptimal in compressive strength, off-axis loading, and cyclic loading. These issues led to an improved version with glass fiber instead of aramid fibers. Over the course of the development of the material, which took more than 30 years from start to the major application on the Airbus A380, many other production and development partners have been involved, including Boeing, McDonnell Douglas, Bombardier, and the US Air Force. Over the course of time, companies withdrew from this involvement, sometimes to come back after a couple of years. For example, Alcoa departed in 1995, returned in 2004, and withdrew again in 2010. It is alleged that disagreements between some of these partners caused Boeing to remove from the cargo floor of the Boeing 777 in 1993 (before the aircraft's service entry in 1995) and blocked Bombardier's plans to use in its CSeries aircraft in 2005. These strategic decisions show the dynamic nature of innovation processes. has been most often applied in the aviation field. It forms part of the Airbus A380 fuselage and the leading edge of the tail surfaces | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=908694 | 84,807 |
High-dynamic-range imaging Also in 1991, Georges Cornuéjols introduced the HDR+ image principle by non-linear accumulation of images to increase the sensitivity of the camera: for low-light environments, several successive images are accumulated, thus increasing the signal to noise ratio. In 1993, another commercial medical camera producing an HDR video image, by the Technion. Modern HDR imaging uses a completely different approach, based on making a high-dynamic-range luminance or light map using only global image operations (across the entire image), and then tone mapping the result. Global HDR was first introduced in 1993 resulting in a mathematical theory of differently exposed pictures of the same subject matter that was published in 1995 by Steve Mann and Rosalind Picard. On October 28, 1998, Ben Sarao created one of the first nighttime HDR+G (High Dynamic Range + Graphic image) of STS-95 on the launch pad at NASA's Kennedy Space Center. It consisted of four film images of the space shuttle at night that were digitally composited with additional digital graphic elements. The image was first exhibited at NASA Headquarters Great Hall, Washington DC in 1999 and then published in "Hasselblad Forum", Issue 3 1993, Volume 35 ISSN 0282-5449. The advent of consumer digital cameras produced a new demand for HDR imaging to improve the light response of digital camera sensors, which had a much smaller dynamic range than film | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=173272 | 134,180 |
NetWare x, the dirty disk cache delay time and dirty directory cache delay time settings controlled the amount of time the server would cache changed ("dirty") data before saving (flushing) the data to a hard drive. The default setting of 3.3 seconds could be decreased to 0.5 seconds but not reduced to zero, while the maximum delay was 10 seconds. The option to increase the cache delay to 10 seconds provided a significant performance boost. Windows 2000 and 2003 server do not allow adjustment to the cache delay time. Instead, they use an algorithm that adjusts cache delay. Most network protocols in use at the time was developed didn't trust the network to deliver messages. A typical client file read would work something like this: In contrast, NCP was based on the idea that networks worked perfectly most of the time, so the reply to a request served as the acknowledgement. Here is an example of a client read request using this model: All requests contained a sequence number, so if the client didn't receive a response within an appropriate amount of time it would re-send the request with the same sequence number. If the server had already processed the request it would resend the cached response, if it had not yet had time to process the request it would only send a "positive acknowledgement". The bottom line to this 'trust the network' approach was a 2/3 reduction in network transactions and the associated latency | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=363188 | 111,522 |
Tellurometer The tellurometer was the first successful microwave electronic distance measurement equipment. The name derives from the Latin "tellus", meaning Earth. The original tellurometer, known as the Micro-Distancer MRA 1, was introduced in 1957. It was invented by Dr. Trevor Lloyd Wadley of the Telecommunications Research Laboratory of the South African Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), also responsible for the Wadley Loop receiver, which allowed precision tuning over wide bands, a task that had previously required switching out multiple crystals. The tellurometer emits a microwave-frequency radio wave: the remote station reradiates the incoming wave in a similar wave of more complex modulation, and the resulting phase shift is a measure of the distance travelled. The results appear on a cathode ray tube with circular sweep. The instrument penetrates haze and mist in daylight or darkness and has a normal range of 30–50 km but can extend up to 70 km. The tellurometer design yields high accuracy distance measurements over geodetic distances, but it is also useful for second order survey work, especially in areas where the terrain was rough and/or the temperatures extreme. Examples of remote locations mapped using surveys are Adams Bluff, Churchill Mountains, Cook Mountains, Jacobsen Glacier, Mount Albright, Mount Predoehl, Mount Summerson, Sherwin Peak and Vogt Peak | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=20855147 | 221,237 |
Backmasking Meanwhile, Klaatu used the reversed vocals from "Anus of Uranus" (from their first album, "") as the vocals for the song "Silly Boys" (on their third album, "Sir Army Suit"). The lyrics for "Silly Boys" on the lyric sheet from "Sir Army Suit" are accordingly printed backwards. Danish band Mew's 2009 album "No More Stories..." contains a track, "New Terrain", which, when listened to in reverse, reveals a new song, entitled "Nervous". Soul duo Gnarls Barkley released a companion version of their album "The Odd Couple", an instrumental album called "elpuoc ddo eht", consisting of the original album, fused into a single 38:44-long track, and reversed. This album can be legally obtained by owners of the original, as it is meant to complement it, and be a resource to samplers. Artists often use backmasking of sounds or instrumental audio to produce interesting sound effects. One such sound effect is the reverse echo. When done on tape, such use of backmasking is known as "reverse tape effects". One example is Matthew Sweet's 1999 album "In Reverse", which includes reversed guitar parts which were played directly onto a tape running in reverse. For live concerts, the guitar parts were played live on stage using a backward emulator. A common use of backmasking is hiding a comedic or parodical message backwards in a song. The B-side of the 1966 Napoleon XIV single "They're Coming to Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa!" is a reversed version of the entire forwards record, titled "!aaaH-aH ,yawA eM ekaT oT gnimoC er'yehT" | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=18589482 | 369,917 |
Tolerance interval A tolerance interval is a statistical interval within which, with some confidence level, a specified proportion of a sampled population falls. "More specifically, a 100×p%/100×(1−α) tolerance interval provides limits within which at least a certain proportion (p) of the population falls with a given level of confidence (1−α)." "A (p, 1−α) tolerance interval (TI) based on a sample is constructed so that it would include at least a proportion p of the sampled population with confidence 1−α; such a TI is usually referred to as p-content − (1−α) coverage TI." "A (p, 1−α) upper tolerance limit (TL) is simply a 1−α upper confidence limit for the 100 p percentile of the population." A tolerance interval can be seen as a statistical version of a probability interval. "In the parameters-known case, a 95% tolerance interval and a 95% prediction interval are the same." If we knew a population's exact parameters, we would be able to compute a range within which a certain proportion of the population falls. For example, if we know a population is normally distributed with mean formula_1 and standard deviation formula_2, then the interval formula_3 includes 95% of the population (1.96 is the z-score for 95% coverage of a normally distributed population). However, if we have only a sample from the population, we know only the sample mean formula_4 and sample standard deviation formula_5, which are only estimates of the true parameters | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=833690 | 237,592 |
Numerical response They are much closer to the ratio dependent extreme, so if a simple model is needed one can use the Arditi-Ginzburg model as the first approximation. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=27164953 | 177,467 |
Strengthening mechanisms of materials Tensile strengths of TRIP steels are in the range of 600-960 MPa. Martensitic steels are also high in C and Mn. These are fully quenched to martensite during processing. The martensite structure is then tempered back to the appropriate strength level, adding toughness to the steel. Tensile strengths for these steels range as high as 1500 MPa. Polymers fracture via breaking of inter- and intra molecular bonds; hence, the chemical structure of these materials plays a huge role in increasing strength. For polymers consisting of chains which easily slide past each other, chemical and physical cross linking can be used to increase rigidity and yield strength. In thermoset polymers (thermosetting plastic), disulfide bridges and other covalent cross links give rise to a hard structure which can withstand very high temperatures. These cross-links are particularly helpful in improving tensile strength of materials which contain lots of free volume prone to crazing, typically glassy brittle polymers. In thermoplastic elastomer, phase separation of dissimilar monomer components leads to association of hard domains within a sea of soft phase, yielding a physical structure with increased strength and rigidity. If yielding occurs by chains sliding past each other (shear bands), the strength can also be increased by introducing kinks into the polymer chains via unsaturated carbon-carbon bonds. Adding filler materials such as fibers, platelets, and particles is a commonly employed technique for strengthening polymer materials | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=14369650 | 81,186 |
Manuel Hornibrook In 1914 Hornibrook had joined the Queensland Master Builders' Association and was its president in 1922 and 1923; he was president (1926) and a life member (1959) of the Master Builders Federation of Australia; he was also a foundation fellow (1951), councillor and National President (1952-56) of the Australian Institute of Builders (now Building), and a driving force in the construction of its headquarters at Milson's Point, Sydney. For his contribution to the science and the practice of building, he was awarded the A.I.B.'s first medal of merit (the AIB Medal, 1955). President (1953-59) of the Queensland Civil Engineering Contractors' Association, he was an honorary member (1968) of the Australian Federation of Civil Engineering Contractors and an honorary fellow (1969) of the Chartered Institute of Building (Britain)—the first Australian to be so honoured. He was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (O.B.E.) in 1957 and knighted (as a Knight Bachelor) in 1960. Sir was the Chief Engineer during construction of the Hornibrook Bridge which was named after him. Sir Manuel was posthumously inducted into the Queensland Business Leaders Hall of Fame in 2016. Australian Dictionary of Biography | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=25876191 | 337,318 |
Microsoft Intune It can record and administer volume, retail and OEM licenses, and licenses which are administered by third parties. Upgrades to newer versions of the Intune software are also controlled. Information about inventory is recorded automatically. Managed computers can be grouped together when problems occur. Intune notifies support staff as well as notifying an external dealer via e-mail. Beta version 2.0 requires an additional 2 GB of memory. "Der Standard" praised the application, saying "the cloud service Intune promises to be a simple PC Management tool via Web console. The interface provides a quick overview of the system of state enterprise." German "PC World" positively evaluated "usability" saying that it: "kept the interface simple." "Business Computing World" criticized the program, saying "Although Windows Intune worked well in our tests and did everything expected of it, we didn't find it all that easy to get to grips with", blaming the unintuitive "deceptively simple" management interface. ITespresso rated it "good", adding some criticisms. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=32711871 | 128,280 |
Visual indexing theory Some subset of these objects (up to five) are then designated as targets — usually by flashing or changing colour momentarily — before returning to being indistinguishable from the non-target objects. All of the objects then proceed to move randomly around the screen for between 7 and 15 seconds. The subject's task it to identify, once the objects have stopped moving, which objects were the targets. Successful completion of the task thus requires subjects to continually track each of the target objects as they move, and ignore the distractors. Results Under such experimental conditions, it has been repeatedly found that subjects can track multiple moving objects simultaneously. In addition to consistently observing a high rate of successful target tracking, researchers have shown that subjects can: Two defining properties of FINSTs are their plurality, and their capacity to track indexed objects as they move around a visually cluttered scene. "Thus multiple-item tracking studies provide strong support for one of the more counterintuitive predictions of FINST theory — namely, that the identity of items can be maintained by the visual system even when the items are visually indiscriminable from their neighbors and when their locations are constantly changing." Subitizing refers to the rapid and accurate enumeration of small numbers of items | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=50730824 | 181,267 |
Iodine Iodine-123 has a half-life of thirteen hours and decays by electron capture to tellurium-123, emitting gamma radiation; it is used in nuclear medicine imaging, including single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) and X-ray computed tomography (X-Ray CT) scans. Iodine-125 has a half-life of fifty-nine days, decaying by electron capture to tellurium-125 and emitting low-energy gamma radiation; the second-longest-lived iodine radioisotope, it has uses in biological assays, nuclear medicine imaging and in radiation therapy as brachytherapy to treat a number of conditions, including prostate cancer, uveal melanomas, and brain tumours. Finally, iodine-131, with a half-life of eight days, beta decays to an excited state of stable xenon-131 that then converts to the ground state by emitting gamma radiation. It is a common fission product and thus is present in high levels in radioactive fallout. It may then be absorbed through contaminated food, and will also accumulate in the thyroid. As it decays, it may cause damage to the thyroid. The primary risk from exposure to high levels of iodine-131 is the chance occurrence of radiogenic thyroid cancer in later life. Other risks include the possibility of non-cancerous growths and thyroiditis. The usual means of protection against the negative effects of iodine-131 is by saturating the thyroid gland with stable iodine-127 in the form of potassium iodide tablets, taken daily for optimal prophylaxis | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=14750 | 48,088 |
World Checklist of Selected Plant Families The (usually abbreviated to WCSP) is an "international collaborative programme that provides the latest peer reviewed and published opinions on the accepted scientific names and synonyms of selected plant families." Maintained by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, it is available online, allowing searches for the names of families, genera and species, as well as the ability to create checklists. The project traces its history to work done in the 1990s by Kew researcher Rafaël Govaerts on a checklist of the genus "Quercus". Influenced by the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation, the project expanded. , 173 families of seed plants were included. Coverage of monocotyledon families is complete; other families are being added. There is a complementary project called the International Plant Names Index (IPNI), in which Kew is also involved. The IPNI aims to provide details of publication and does not aim to determine which are accepted species names. After a delay of about a year, newly published names are automatically added from the IPNI to the WCSP. The WCSP is also one of the underlying databases for The Plant List, created by Kew and the Missouri Botanical Garden, which was unveiled in 2010. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=38145616 | 656 |
Nanogenerator Zhong Lin Wang at Georgia Institute of Technology in 2012. By harvesting the waste heat energy, this new type of nanogenerator has the potential applications such as wireless sensors, temperature imaging, medical diagnostics, and personal electronics. The working principle of pyroelectric nanogenerator will be explained for 2 different cases: the primary pyroelectric effect and the secondary pyroelectric effect. The working principle for the first case is explained by the primary pyroelectric effect, which describes the charge produced in a strain-free case. The primary pyroelectric effect dominates the pyroelectric response in PZT, BTO, and some other ferroelectric materials. The mechanism is based on the thermally induced random wobbling of the electric dipole around its equilibrium axis, the magnitude of which increases with increasing temperature. Due to thermal fluctuations under room temperature, the electric dipoles will randomly oscillate within a degree from their respective aligning axes. Under a fixed temperature, the total average strength of the spontaneous polarization form the electric dipoles is constant, resulting in no output of the pyroelectric nanogenerator. If we apply a change in temperature in the nanogenerator from room temperature to a higher temperature, the increase in temperature will result in that the electric dipoles oscillate within a larger degree of spread around their respective aligning axes | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=30057479 | 18,517 |
San Vivaldo Monastery, Montaione San Vivaldo Monastery is a Roman Catholic convent, church, and sanctuary complex located outside of the town of Montaione, region of Tuscany, Italy. The eighteen distinct chapels on this hill, putatively corresponding to sites of the Holy Land, and containing vivid polychrome statuary groupings recalling events of the New Testament, specially the Passion of Jesus, are one of the few examples of the Sacri Monti complexes in Tuscany. Sacri Monti are more characteristic expressions of veneration in the Piedmont and Lombardy. The convent still houses the franciscan order. The origins of San Vivaldo date the 1325, when a chapel was built at the site where the blessed Vivaldo, a Franciscan tertiary, had recently died. Located in a rural hillside, outside the town, the former hermitage site soon collected a monastery; and in 1326 to 1355, a church was built. In 1500, the arrival of the Franciscan Minor Friars to the site propelled the construction of the Sacro Monti, attempting to reproduce for the pilgrims, a replica of the topography of the holy places of Jerusalem, hence the site was also called the "Jerusalem of Tuscany". Franciscans were at the time intermediaries for arranging pilgrimages to the Holy Land, as well as custodians of the sites | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=50080504 | 333,384 |
Retentions in the British construction industry The Build UK industry group wants to secure abolition of retentions by 2025, following an ambition outlined by the Construction Leadership Council in 2014. Build UK put forward proposals that retentions by the main contractor on sub-contractors should be no more onerous than those imposed by the client on the main contractor. They also proposed that retentions should only apply to permanent works, as temporary works are unlikely to lead to defects. The organisation also wants small value contracts (less than £100,000) to become retention-free by 2021, as the risk to the main works is lower for these contracts. Following the 2018 collapse of Carillion there have been increased calls for retention reform. Some propose retention deposit schemes, whereby money is deposited with a third party, though these lead to increased fees and bureaucracy and do not solve disputes between parties over when retention should be released. The Scottish Government began a consultation on retentions in 2019. Its stated that the UK was behind other countries by continuing the practice, despite the matter having been looked into several times by the UK Government | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=62070340 | 494,757 |
Kryptos After Gillogly's announcement, the CIA revealed that their analyst David Stein had solved the same passages in 1998 using pencil and paper techniques, although at the time of his solution the information was only disseminated within the intelligence community. No public announcement was made until July 1999, although in November 1998 it was revealed that "a CIA analyst working on his own time [had] solved "the lion's share" of it". The NSA also claimed that some of their employees had solved the same three passages, but would not reveal names or dates until March 2000, when it was learned that an NSA team led by Ken Miller, along with Dennis McDaniels and two other unnamed individuals, had solved passages 1–3 in late 1992. In 2013, in response to a Freedom of Information Act request by Elonka Dunin, the NSA released documents which show the NSA became involved in attempts to solve the "Kryptos" puzzle in 1992, following a challenge by Bill Studeman, then Deputy Director of the CIA. The documents show that by June 1993, a small group of NSA cryptanalysts had succeeded in solving the first three passages of the sculpture. The above attempts to solve "Kryptos" found that passage 2 ended with WESTIDBYROWS, but in 2005, Monet Friedrich, a logician, philosopher, and computer scientist from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, determined that another possible plaintext was: WESTXLAYERTWO | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=456619 | 270,257 |
WormBase These species therefore do not have sequence names for CDSs and gene transcripts that are based on cosmid names. Instead they have unique alphanumeric identifiers constructed like the names in the table below. The protein products of gene are created by translating the CDS sequences. Each unique protein sequence is given a unique identifying name like WP:CE40440. Examples of the protein identifier names for each species in is given in the table, below. It is possible for two CDS sequences from separate genes, within a species, to be identical and so it is possible to have identical proteins coded for by separate genes. When this happens, a single, unique identifying name is used for the protein even though it is produced by two genes. ParaSite is a sub-portal for approximately 100 draft genomes of parasitic helminths (nematodes and platyhelminthes) developed at the European Bioinformatics Institute and Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute. All genomes are assembled and annotated. Additional information such as protein domains and Gene Ontology terms are also available. Gene trees allow the alignment of orthologues between parasitic worms, other nematodes and non-worm comparator species. A BioMart data-mining tool is offered to permit large scale access to the data. is a collaboration among the European Bioinformatics Institute, Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Ontario Institute for Cancer Research, Washington University in St. Louis, and the California Institute of Technology | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=43010228 | 158,999 |
2000s in science and technology This article is a summary of the 2000s in science and technology. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=9422319 | 265,506 |
Narco-state The nephews and sons of Venezuela's president Nicolas Maduro are also being accused of financing drug trades and being involved in the Narcosobrinos affair. In November 2017, the United States's UN ambassador Nikki Haley accused Venezuela of being a "dangerous narco-state". | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=925048 | 453,905 |
Crystallization of polymers Dislocations result in coarse or fine slips in the polymer and lead to crystalline fragmentation and yielding. Fine slip is defined as a small amount of slip occurring on a large number of planes. Conversely, coarse slip is a large amount of slip on few planes. The yield stress is determined by the creation of dislocations and their resistance to motion. After yielding, a neck is formed in the amorphous region and propagates down the sample length. During necking, the disordered chains align along the tensile direction, forming an ordered structure that demonstrates strengthening due to the molecular reorientation. The flow stress now increases significantly following neck propagation. Mechanical anisotropy increases and the elastic modulus varies along different directions, with a high modulus observed in the draw direction. Drawn semi-crystalline polymers are the strongest polymeric materials due to the stress-induced ordering of the molecular chains. Other defects, such as voids, occur in the semi-crystalline polymer under tensile stress and can drive the formation of the neck. The voids can be observed via small angle x-ray scattering. Unlike crazes these voids do not transfer stresses.. Notably, cavitation is not observed under compressive stress or shearing. Evidence suggests that cavitation also impacts the onset of yielding. The voids are associated with the breaking of the amorphous phase. The strength of the crystalline phase determines the importance of cavitation in yielding | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=27535205 | 71,658 |
Skew arch Nicholson never pretended to have invented the skew arch but in his later work "The Guide to Railway Masonry, containing a Complete Treatise on the Oblique Arch" (1839), he does claim to have invented the method for producing the templates that enabled the accurate cutting of the voussoir stones used in all skew bridges built between the years 1828 and 1836, citing testimonials from the builders of major works, such as the Croft Viaduct at Croft-on-Tees near Darlington. However, by 1836 a young engineer called Charles Fox had improved on Nicholson's helicoidal method and other writers were proposing alternative approaches to the problem. In performing his calculations Nicholson considered the arch barrel to be made from one ring of stones and of negligible thickness and therefore he developed only the intrados. The idea was expanded in Charles Fox's 1836 publication "On the Construction of Skew Arches", in which he considered the intrados of the barrel and the extrados as separate surfaces mapped onto concentric cylinders by drawing a separate development for each. This approach had two advantages. Firstly, he was able to develop a theoretical third, intermediate surface midway between the intrados and the extrados, which allowed him to align the centre of each voussoir, rather than its inner surface, along the desired line, thereby better approximating the ideal placement than Nicholson was able to achieve | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=20224056 | 220,934 |
Expansion path In economics, an expansion path (also called a scale line) is a curve in a graph with quantities of two inputs, typically physical capital and labor, plotted on the axes. The path connects optimal input combinations as the scale of production expands. A producer seeking to produce a given number of units of a product in the cheapest possible way chooses the point on the expansion path that is also on the isoquant associated with that output level. Economists Alfred Stonier and Douglas Hague defined “expansion path” as "that line which reflects the least–cost method of producing different levels of output, when factor prices remain constant." The points on an expansion path occur where the firm's isocost curves, each showing fixed total input cost, and its isoquants, each showing a particular level of output, are tangent; each tangency point determines the firm's conditional factor demands. As a producer's level of output increases, the firm moves from one of these tangency points to the next; the curve joining the tangency points is called the expansion path. If an expansion path forms a straight line from the origin, the production technology is considered homothetic (or homoethetic). In this case, the ratio of input usages is always the same regardless of the level of output, and the inputs can be expanded proportionately so as to maintain this optimal ratio as the level of output expands | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=33311036 | 503,118 |
Frederick Mills (engineer) The War in the Pacific had turned Australia into a military base, with no state more affected than Queensland due to its strategic location vis á vis the Pacific theatre. The Australian and American military machines required of the Queensland Railways (QR) a logistical task that they were hard-pressed to accommodate; in fact a worse situation could scarcely be imagined. When the military forces needed machinery, people, and supplies moved in vast quantities as a matter of priority they had at their disposal the modest infrastructure of QR; light-weight track and structures, a tortuous geographic profile, unpretentious locomotives with low axle-loads, and train lengths limited by these factors. Added to that was the proportion of current QR motive-power that was rotating through overhaul and repair. Against this background, the requirement for extra, effective motive-power in Queensland (and to a slightly lesser-extent, the rest of the nation) was identified as a critical requirement. Mills was an eminent locomotive engineer and had considerable experience in locomotive design but he lacked one quality that was to increase the friction that was later to develop between his new employer (the Commonwealth Ministry of Munitions) and QR in the design and introduction of the ASG. Mills was not overly-tolerant or possessed of an excess of humility; in fact he was arrogant, authoritarian and obstinate | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=20871737 | 429,453 |
Berkeley IRAM project For this reason, the integration of memory and processor in the same chip has (for the most part) been limited to static random-access memory (SRAM), which may be implemented using circuit technology optimized for logic performance, rather than the denser and lower-cost dynamic random-access memory (DRAM), which is not. Microprocessor access to off-chip memory costs time and power, however, significantly limiting processor performance. For this reason computer architecture employing a hierarchy of memory systems has developed, in which static memory is integrated with the microprocessor for temporary, easily accessible storage (or cache) of data which is also retained off-chip in DRAM. Since the on-chip cache memory is redundant, its presence adds to cost and power. The purpose of the IRAM research project was to find if (in some computing applications) a better trade-off between cost and performance could be achieved with an architecture in which DRAM was integrated on-chip with the processor, thus eliminating the need for a redundant static memory cache—even though the technology used was not optimum for DRAM implementation. While it is fair to say that Berkeley IRAM did not achieve the recognition that Berkeley RISC received, the IRAM project was nevertheless influential. Although initial IRAM proposals focused on trade-offs between CPU and DRAM, IRAM research came to concentrate on vector instruction sets | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=23469224 | 393,051 |
NACA duct Famous sports cars featuring prominent NACA ducts include the Ferrari F40, the Lamborghini Countach, the 1971-1973 Ford Mustang, the 1973 Pontiac GTO, Porsche 911 GT2, the 1979 Porsche 924 Turbo, Nissan S130. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2506410 | 280,591 |
Vehicle tracking system Data collected as a transit vehicle follows its route is often continuously fed into a computer program which compares the vehicle's actual location and time with its schedule, and in turn produces a frequently updating display for the driver, telling him/her how early or late he/she is at any given time, potentially making it easier to adhere more closely to the published schedule. Such programs are also used to provide customers with real-time information as to the waiting time until arrival of the next bus or tram/streetcar at a given stop, based on the nearest vehicles' actual progress at the time, rather than merely giving information as to the "scheduled" time of the next arrival. Transit systems providing this kind of information assign a unique number to each stop, and waiting passengers can obtain information by entering the stop number into an automated telephone system or an application on the transit system's website. Some transit agencies provide a virtual map on their website, with icons depicting the current locations of buses in service on each route, for customers' information, while others provide such information only to dispatchers or other employees. Other applications include monitoring driving behavior, such as an employer of an employee, or a parent with a teen driver. Vehicle tracking systems are also popular in consumer vehicles as a theft prevention, monitoring and retrieval device. Police can simply follow the signal emitted by the tracking system and locate the stolen vehicle | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=25143921 | 284,471 |
Digital camera Other file types include Tagged Image File Format (TIFF) and various Raw image formats. Many cameras, especially high-end ones, support a raw image format. A raw image is the unprocessed set of pixel data directly from the camera's sensor, often saved in a proprietary format. Adobe Systems has released the DNG format, a royalty-free raw image format used by at least 10 camera manufacturers. Raw files initially had to be processed in specialized image editing programs, but over time many mainstream editing programs, such as Google's Picasa, have added support for raw images. Rendering to standard images from raw sensor data allows more flexibility in making major adjustments without losing image quality or retaking the picture. Formats for movies are AVI, DV, MPEG, MOV (often containing motion JPEG), WMV, and ASF (basically the same as WMV). Recent formats include MP4, which is based on the QuickTime format and uses newer compression algorithms to allow longer recording times in the same space. Other formats that are used in cameras (but not for pictures) are the Design Rule for Camera Format (DCF), an ISO specification, used in almost all camera since 1998, which defines an internal file structure and naming. Also used is the Digital Print Order Format (DPOF), which dictates what order images are to be printed in and how many copies. The DCF 1998 defines a logical file system with 8 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=52797 | 115,903 |
Peak uranium For political, economic and nuclear proliferation reasons, the plutonium economy never materialized. Without it, uranium is used up in a once-through process and will peak and run out much sooner. However, at present, it is generally found to be cheaper to mine new uranium out of the ground than to use reprocessed uranium, and therefore the use of reprocessed uranium is limited to only a few nations. The OECD estimates that with the world nuclear electricity generating rates of 2002, with LWR, once-through fuel cycle, there are enough conventional resources to last 85 years using known resources and 270 years using known and as yet undiscovered resources. With breeders, this is extended to 8,500 years. If one is willing to pay $300/kg for uranium, there is a vast quantity available in the ocean. It is worth noting that since fuel cost only amounts to a small fraction of nuclear energy total cost per kWh, and raw uranium price also constitutes a small fraction of total fuel costs, such an increase on uranium prices wouldn't involve a very significant increase in the total cost per kWh produced. In 1983, physicist Bernard Cohen proposed that uranium is effectively inexhaustible, and could therefore be considered a renewable source of energy. He claims that fast breeder reactors, fueled by naturally replenished uranium extracted from seawater, could supply energy at least as long as the sun's expected remaining lifespan of five billion years | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=15624586 | 51,061 |
Tacoma Narrows Bridge (1940) Since the structure experienced considerable vertical oscillations while it was still under construction, several strategies were used to reduce the motion of the bridge. They included The Washington Toll Bridge Authority hired Professor Frederick Burt Farquharson, an engineering professor at the University of Washington, to make wind-tunnel tests and recommend solutions in order to reduce the oscillations of the bridge. Professor Farquharson and his students built a 1:200-scale model of the bridge and a 1:20-scale model of a section of the deck. The first studies concluded on November 2, 1940—five days before the bridge collapse on November 7. He proposed two solutions: The first option was not favored because of its irreversible nature. The second option was the chosen one, but it was not carried out, because the bridge collapsed five days after the studies were concluded. The wind-induced collapse occurred on November 7, 1940, at approximately 11:00 a.m. (PST), and was caused by a physical phenomenon known as aeroelastic flutter. Leonard Coatsworth, a "Tacoma News Tribune" editor, was the last person to drive on the bridge: Tubby, Coatsworth's cocker spaniel, was the only fatality of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge disaster; he was lost along with Coatsworth's car. Professor Farquharson and a news photographer attempted to rescue Tubby during a lull, but the dog was too terrified to leave the car and bit one of the rescuers. Tubby died when the bridge fell and neither his body nor the car was ever recovered | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=301135 | 320,965 |
Electrocaloric effect The device structure consisted of a thin film (PZT) on top of a much thicker substrate, but the figure of 12 K represents the cooling of the thin film only. The net cooling of such a device would be lower than 12 K due to the heat capacity of the substrate to which it is attached. Along the same lines, in 2008, it was shown that a ferroelectric polymer can also achieve 12 K of cooling, nearer room temperature. With these new, larger responses, practical applications may be more likely, such as in computer cooling or batteries. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=4306334 | 282,116 |
Bioceramic The ceramic particulate reinforcement has led to the choice of more materials for implant applications that include ceramic/ceramic, ceramic/polymer, and ceramic/metal composites. Among these composites ceramic/polymer composites have been found to release toxic elements into the surrounding tissues. Metals face corrosion related problems, and ceramic coatings on metallic implants degrade over time during lengthy applications. Ceramic/ceramic composites enjoy superiority due to similarity to bone minerals, exhibiting biocompatibility and a readiness to be shaped. The biological activity of bioceramics has to be considered under various "in vitro" and "in vivo" studies. Performance needs must be considered in accordance with the particular site of implantation. Technically, ceramics are composed of raw materials such as powders and natural or synthetic chemical additives, favoring either compaction (hot, cold or isostatic), setting (hydraulic or chemical), or accelerating sintering processes. According to the formulation and shaping process used, bioceramics can vary in density and porosity as cements, ceramic depositions, or ceramic composites. A developing material processing technique based on the biomimetic processes aims to imitate natural and biological processes and offer the possibility of making bioceramics at ambient temperature rather than through conventional or hydrothermal processes [GRO 96] | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=22183423 | 16,884 |
Pharmacology Those with a narrow margin are more difficult to dose and administer, and may require therapeutic drug monitoring (examples are warfarin, some antiepileptics, aminoglycoside antibiotics). Most anti-cancer drugs have a narrow therapeutic margin: toxic side-effects are almost always encountered at doses used to kill tumors. The effect of drugs can be described with Loewe additivity. Pharmacokinetics is the study of the bodily absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion of drugs. When describing the pharmacokinetic properties of the chemical that is the active ingredient or active pharmaceutical ingredient (API), pharmacologists are often interested in "L-ADME": Drug metabolism is assessed in pharmacokinetics and is important in drug research and prescribing. In the United States, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is responsible for creating guidelines for the approval and use of drugs. The FDA requires that all approved drugs fulfill two requirements: Gaining FDA approval usually takes several years. Testing done on animals must be extensive and must include several species to help in the evaluation of both the effectiveness and toxicity of the drug. The dosage of any drug approved for use is intended to fall within a range in which the drug produces a therapeutic effect or desired outcome. The safety and effectiveness of prescription drugs in the U.S. are regulated by the federal Prescription Drug Marketing Act of 1987 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=24354 | 86,813 |
Mucoadhesion Some advanced eye drop formulations may also turn from a liquid to a gel (so called in situ gelling systems) upon drug administration. For example, gel-forming solutions containing Pluronics could be used to improve the efficiency of eye drops and provide better retention on ocular surfaces. With a 0.1-0.7 mm thick mucus layer, the oral cavity serves as an important route of administration for mucoadhesive dosages. Permeation sites can be separated into two groups: sublingual and buccal, in which the former is much more permeable than the latter. However, the sublingual mucosa also produces more saliva, resulting in relatively low retention rates. Thus, sublingual mucosa is preferable for rapid onset and short duration treatments, while the buccal mucosa is more appropriate for longer dosage and onset times. Because of this dichotomy, the oral cavity is suitable for both local and systemic administration. Some common dosage forms for the oral cavity include gels, ointments, patches, and tablets. Depending on the dosage form, some drug loss can occur due to swallowing of saliva. This can be minimized by layering the side of the dosage facing the oral cavity with an impermeable coating(,) commonly seen in patches. With an active surface area of 160 cm, the nasal cavity is another noteworthy route of mucoadhesive administration. Due to the sweeping motion of the cilia that lines the mucosa, nasal mucus has a quick turnover of 10 to 15 minutes | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=21017672 | 33,223 |
Cell cycle analysis Aside from propidium iodide and acridine orange, quantifiable dyes that are frequently used include (but are not limited to) DRAQ5, 7-Aminoactinomycin D, DAPI and Hoechst 33342. Since cells and especially fixed cells tend to stick together, cell aggregates have to be excluded from analysis through a process called "doublet discrimination". This is important because a doublet of two G/G cells has the same total content of DNA and thus the same fluorescence intensity as a single G/M cell. Unless recognized as such the G/G doublets would contribute to false positive identification and count of G/M cells. The Nicoletti assay, named after its inventor, the Italian physician Ildo Nicoletti, is a modified form of cell cycle analysis. It is used to detect and quantify apoptosis, a form of programmed cell death, by analysing cells with a DNA content less than 2n ("sub-G/G cells"). Such cells are usually the result of apoptotic DNA fragmentation: during apoptosis, the DNA is degraded by cellular endonucleases. Therefore, nuclei of apoptotic cells contain less DNA than nuclei of healthy G/G cells, resulting in a sub-G/G peak in the fluorescence histogram that can be used to determine the relative amount of apoptotic cells in a sample.This method was developed and first described in 1991 by Nicoletti and co-workers at Perugia University School of Medicine. An optimised protocol developed by two of the authors of the original publication was published in 2006 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=27382300 | 71,494 |
Fungicide Such resistance is polygenic – an accumulation of many mutations in different genes, each having a small additive effect. This type of resistance is known as quantitative or continuous resistance. In this kind of resistance, the pathogen population will revert to a sensitive state if the fungicide is no longer applied. Little is known about how variations in fungicide treatment affect the selection pressure to evolve resistance to that fungicide. Evidence shows that the doses that provide the most control of the disease also provide the largest selection pressure to acquire resistance, and that lower doses decrease the selection pressure. In some cases when a pathogen evolves resistance to one fungicide, it automatically obtains resistance to others – a phenomenon known as cross resistance. These additional fungicides are normally of the same chemical family or have the same mode of action, or can be detoxified by the same mechanism. Sometimes negative cross resistance occurs, where resistance to one chemical class of fungicides leads to an increase in sensitivity to a different chemical class of fungicides. This has been seen with carbendazim and diethofencarb. There are also recorded incidences of the evolution of multiple drug resistance by pathogens – resistance to two chemically different fungicides by separate mutation events. For example, "Botrytis cinerea" is resistant to both azoles and dicarboximide fungicides. There are several routes by which pathogens can evolve fungicide resistance | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=515758 | 167,035 |
Gerard Verschuuren He further specialized in philosophy of science, in particular in philosophy of biology, at VU University Amsterdam. Verschuuren concluded his post-graduate studies with a doctoral thesis on the use of models in the sciences. In this work, he analyzes how all sciences use models, which are simplified replicas of the dissected original, made for research purposes by reducing the complexity of the original to a manageable model related to a soluble problem. Verschuuren taught biology, biological anthropology, genetics, human genetics, statistics, philosophy, philosophy of biology, logic, and programming at Leiden University, Utrecht University, the Dutch Open University, Merrimack College, and Boston College. Currently, he focuses almost exclusively on writing, consulting, and on speaking engagements. Verschuuren became the leader of a team of textbook writers that developed three consecutive series of biology textbooks for high-schools and colleges under the names "Biosfeer" (1975–1983), "Oculair" (1984–1994), and "Grondslagen van de Biologie"(Foundations of Biology; 1985–present). He also became a member of the "College Admission Test" team for biology in the Netherlands (1976–1982) | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=22453344 | 170,853 |
Self-healing material A vascular or fibre-based approach may be more appropriate for self-healing impact damage in fibre-reinforced polymer composite materials. In this method, a network of hollow channels known as vascules, similar to the blood vessels within human tissue, are placed within the structure and used for the introduction of a healing agent. During a damage event cracks propagate through the material and into the vascules causing them to be cleaved open. A liquid resin is then passed through the vascules and into the damage plane, allowing the cracks to be repaired. Vascular systems have a number of advantages over microcapsule based systems, such as the ability to continuously deliver large volumes of repair agents and the potential to be used for repeated healing. The hollow channels themselves can also be used for additional functionality, such as thermal management and structural health monitoring. A number of methods have been proposed for the introduction of these vascules, including the use of hollow glass fibres (HGFs), Coatings allow the retention and improvement of bulk properties of a material. They can provide protection for a substrate from environmental exposure. Thus, when damage occurs (often in the form of microcracks), environmental elements like water and oxygen can diffuse through the coating and may cause material damage or failure | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=5824713 | 77,970 |
Anarcho-syndicalism The FAI would play an important role during the following years through the so-called "trabazón" (connection) with the CNT; that is, the presence of FAI elements in the CNT, encouraging the labor union not to move away from its anarchist principles, an influence that continues today. On 1 June 1936, the CNT joined the UGT in declaring a strike of "building workers, mechanics, and lift operators". A demonstration was held, 70,000 workers strong. Members of the Falange attacked the strikers. The strikers responded by looting shops, and the police reacted by attempting to suppress the strike. By the beginning of July, the CNT was still fighting while the UGT had agreed to arbitration. In retaliation to the attacks by the Falangists, anarchists killed three bodyguards of the Falangist leader José Antonio Primo de Rivera. The government then closed the CNT's centers in Madrid and arrested David Antona and Cipriano Mera, two CNT militants. George Orwell wrote of the nature of the new society that arose in the communities: Some of the most important communities in this respect were those of Alcañiz, Calanda, Alcorisa, Valderrobres, Fraga or Alcampel. Not only were the lands collectivized, but collective labours were also undertaken, like the retirement home in Fraga, the collectivization of some hospitals (such as in Barbastro or Binéfar) and the founding of schools such as the School of Anarchist Militants. These institutions would be destroyed by the Nationalist troops during the war | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=49938 | 509,768 |
Wheel hub motor The wheel hub motor (also called wheel motor, wheel hub drive, hub motor or in-wheel motor) is an electric motor that is incorporated into the hub of a wheel and drives it directly. The electric wheel hub motor was raced by Ferdinand Porsche in 1897 in Vienna, Austria. Porsche's first engineering training was electrical, not internal combustion based. As a result, he developed his first cars as electric cars with electric wheel hub motors that ran on batteries. The Lohner Porsche, fitted with one wheel motor in each of the front wheels, appeared at the World Exhibition in Paris in 1900 and created a sensation in the young automobile world. In the following years, 300 Lohner Porsches were made and sold to wealthy buyers. Eventually the growth in power of the gasoline engine overtook the power of the electric wheel hub motors and this made up for any losses through a transmission. As a result, autos moved to gasoline engines with transmissions, but they were never as efficient as electric wheel hub motors. A potential exception to this history occurred on 17 January 2012 with the granting of , The General Wheel Rotation Power Motor, a pressure driven three cylinder wheel motor contained in the hub that applies this force through crank wheels directly to the rotating rim surrounding the hub. Several concept cars have been developed using in-wheel motors: Hub motor electromagnetic fields are supplied to the stationary windings of the motor | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=23715125 | 393,172 |
Discharge coefficient Therefore, engineers assume that the pressure is zero at the gate opening and following equation is obtained for discharge: where: However, the pressure is not actually zero at the gate; therefore, discharge coefficient, "C" is used as follows: | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=25584664 | 423,656 |
Complete set of commuting observables Thus we may also specify a unique basis state in the Hilbert space of the complete system by the set of eigenvalues formula_138, and the corresponding CSCO is formula_139. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1638376 | 437,514 |
Allopatric speciation However, it can often be difficult for researchers to determine if peripatric speciation occurred as vicariant explanations can be invoked due to the fact that both models posit the absence of gene flow between the populations. The size of the isolated population is important because individuals colonizing a new habitat likely contain only a small sample of the genetic variation of the original population. This promotes divergence due to strong selective pressures, leading to the rapid fixation of an allele within the descendant population. This gives rise to the potential for genetic incompatibilities to evolve. These incompatibilities cause reproductive isolation, giving rise to rapid speciation events. Models of peripatry are supported mostly by species distribution patterns in nature. Oceanic islands and archipelagos provide the strongest empirical evidence that peripatric speciation occurs. Centrifugal speciation is a variant, alternative model of peripatric speciation. This model contrasts with peripatric speciation by virtue of the origin of the genetic novelty that leads to reproductive isolation. When a population of a species experiences a period of geographic range expansion and contraction, it may leave small, fragmented, peripherally isolated populations behind. These isolated populations will contain samples of the genetic variation from the larger parent population. This variation leads to a higher likelihood of ecological niche specialization and the evolution of reproductive isolation | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=334986 | 168,324 |
Office of Gas and Electricity Markets The duties of the regulators were prescribed in Section 4 of Gas Act 1986 and Section 3 of the Electricity Act 1989. Starting in the 1990s, the supply of electricity and gas to end consumers in the UK has been unbundled from the rest of the industry. At the time of privatisation, British Gas and one regional public electricity supplier (PES) held a monopoly on supplying all domestic gas and electricity consumers respectively in Great Britain. Between 1996 and 1999, domestic energy consumers were gradually able to choose their supplier, and finally in May 1998, the domestic gas market was fully opened to competition, closely followed by the domestic electricity market in May 1999. Before there was competition on domestic markets, the regulators set price controls fixing maximum price that the monopoly suppliers could charge domestic customers. These price controls remained in place when markets started to get liberalised, and were then gradually removed between 2000 and 2002. Ofgem’s decision to remove price controls was based on the assessment that competition was developing well at that time and that the Competition Act 1998, being effective since March 2000, would deter companies from the abuse of market power, and provide Ofgem with sufficient power to tackle any abuse. Moreover, consumer surveys showed good awareness of the ability to switch, high and rising switching rates away from the former monopoly supplies, and substantial and continuing falls in their market shares | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2014309 | 375,957 |
Fintech Valley Vizag is an initiative of the Government of Andhra Pradesh to promote business infrastructure in the state, and attract investors and multinational corporations to set up offices. Fintech Valley was founded by N. Chandrababu Naidu then Chief Minister of the Andhra Pradesh state in December 2016 with the goal of enhancing Visakhapatnam City as a financial technology capital in Andhra Pradesh. In September 2016, Chief Minister Naidu declared the Fintech Valley Project through a document titled 'Sunrise Andhra Pradesh Vision 2029' stating its objectives and the proposed state growth achievable by 2029 and in focusing on Fintech Valley will be developed as an innovation valley, and as one of the best financial centers in the world. Visakhapatnam, also known as Vizag, was chosen as the city to host the projects of financial technology due to its size and potential for attracting investment. Endeavouring to be a “happy and globally-competitive society” by 2029, Andhra Pradesh state envisages transforming into an inclusive, accountable, and competitively innovative society. Initiating structural transformations and committing to sustain high economic growth, the Government of Andhra Pradesh placed FinTech as the epicentre of a focus to create an ecosystem of digital banking, financial analytics, cybersecurity, and blockchain (database) technology | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=53421005 | 256,497 |
James Arthur Banks (1897 – 1 December 1967) was a Scottish civil engineer. Banks was born in Glasgow in 1897. He attended Woodside Higher Grade School in Glasgow. During World War I he served in the Royal Marine Engineers, from 1914 to 1918. He initially trained as a structural engineer and then joined Babtie, Shaw and Morton in 1921 to train as a civil engineer. He worked in England and the USA and returned to Babtie, Shaw and Morton in 1929. His speciality was the design and construction of dams for water supply and power generation, commencing with Afton Reservoir. He became a partner of the firm in 1931 and was senior partner from 1940 to 1966. He was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire in 1944. He was appointed an officer of the same order in the New Year Honours of 1947 and a Commander of the Royal Victorian Order on 31 May 1963. From 1961 Banks was chairman of the International Commission on Large Dams and was Consulting Engineer to Queen Elizabeth II for the Balmoral Estate and a member of the Court of the University of Strathclyde. He served as president of the Institution of Civil Engineers from November 1965 to November 1966 and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh on 6 March 1967. He died on 1 December 1967 after a routine operation went tragically wrong. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=18797612 | 308,383 |
Cultural Palace of Nationalities The (民族文化宫) is located in Beijing's Xicheng District, on West Chang'an Avenue. It was built in September 1959 and is one of the Ten Great Buildings. It was registered as the first of 55 museums in the city. It consists of a museum, gallery, library, art institute, theater, guesthouse, and other facilities. As a cultural institution, it is under the administration of the State Ethnic Affairs Commission of the People's Republic of China. The was built by the master of contemporary Chinese architecture Zhang Bo, whose well-known works include the Great Hall, Beijing Hotel, Friendship Hotel and Diaoyutai State Guesthouse. The building's architecture was widely praised when it was unveiled. The building has a construction area of 32,000 m², the main building for the tower has 13 floors, and is 67 meters high. East and west sides are surrounded by wings, stretching north central exhibition hall. House body are white, with peacock blue glazed tile roof eaves decoration. Central Hall 2 entrance letter "solidarity", "progress." The mission of the Culture Palace is to serve and educate the various minority cultures of the country. The collection of National Culture Palace includes literature and science text books of more than 60 million copies. The basic display for the "Chinese Traditional Culture Series" exhibition, and theater performances will be from time to time various national art. In recent years, the community also to provide exhibition space to other types of exhibitions organized | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=26817011 | 337,888 |
Challenges in Islamic finance Furthermore, when external Shariah audits are carried out, "many of these auditors frequently complain about the amount of violations that they witness and cannot discuss" because the records they have examined "have been tampered with". Although Islamic banking forbids interest, its "profit rates" often are benchmarked to interest rates. Islamic banker Harris Irfan states "there is no question" that benchmarks such as LIBOR "continue to be a necessary metric" for Islamic banks, and that the "overwhelming majority of scholars have come to accept this, however imperfect a solution this may seem", but Muhammad Akram Khan writes that following the conventional banking benchmark LIBOR "defeats the very purpose for which the Islamic financial products were designed and offered" in the first place. In addition skeptics have complained that the rates of return on accounts in Islamic banks are suspiciously close to those of conventional banks, when (in theory) their different mechanisms should lead to different numbers. A 2014 study (using "the most recent econometric techniques") of the long-term relationship between term-deposit rates at conventional banks and "participation banks" (i.e. Islamic Banks) in Turkey found three of four participation banks term-deposit rates "significantly cointegrated" with those of the conventional banks, and that the "causality" of the Islamic banks rate of return following the conventional banks was "permanent" | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=56339824 | 468,945 |
Z-Wave The alliance aims to create for the smart home a secure mesh network that works across different platforms. is designed to achieve reliable communication and operation between devices and sensor-enabled objects from various manufacturers in the Alliance, which consists of over 700 members. Principal members of the alliance include ADT Corporation, Alarm.com, Assa Abloy, Fibaro, Huawei, Ingersoll Rand, Jasco, Leedarson, LG Uplus, Nortek Security & Control, Silicon Labs, and SmartThings. In 2016, the Alliance launched a Certified Installer Training program to give installers, integrators and dealers the tools to deploy networks and devices in their residential and commercial jobs. That year, the Alliance announced the Certified Installer Toolkit (Z-CIT), a diagnostics and troubleshooting device that can be used during network and device setup and can also function as a remote diagnostics tool. Alliance maintains the certification program. There are two components to certification: technical certification, managed through Silicon Labs, and market Certification, managed through the Alliance. is designed to provide reliable, low-latency transmission of small data packets at data rates up to 100kbit/s. The throughput is 40kbit/s (9.6kbit/s using old chips) and suitable for control and sensor applications, unlike Wi-Fi and other IEEE 802.11-based wireless LAN systems that are designed primarily for high data rates | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2685825 | 276,663 |
Quantum logic The similarities of the quantum logic formalism to a system of deductive logic may then be regarded more as a curiosity than as a fact of fundamental philosophical importance. A more modern approach to the structure of quantum logic is to assume that it is a diagram—in the sense of category theory—of classical logics (see David Edwards). has some properties that clearly distinguish it from classical logic, most notably, the failure of the distributive law of propositional logic: where the symbols "p", "q" and "r" are propositional variables. To illustrate why the distributive law fails, consider a particle moving on a line and (using some system of units where the reduced Planck's constant is 1) let "Note": The choice of "p", "q", and "r" in this example is intuitive but not formally valid (that is, "p" and ("q" or "r") is also false here); see section "as the logic of observables" below for details and a valid example. We might observe that: in other words, that the particle's momentum is between 0 and +1/6, and its position is between −1 and +3. On the other hand, the propositions ""p" and "q"" and ""p" and "r"" are both false, since they assert tighter restrictions on simultaneous values of position and momentum than is allowed by the uncertainty principle (they each have uncertainty 1/3, which is less than the allowed minimum of 1/2). So, Thus the distributive law fails | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=663426 | 421,694 |
Short circuit Wire gauges specified in building and electrical codes are chosen to ensure safe operation in conjunction with the overload protection. An overcurrent protection device must be rated to safely interrupt the maximum prospective short-circuit current. In an improper installation, the overcurrent from a short circuit may cause ohmic heating of the circuit parts with poor conductivity (faulty joints in wiring, faulty contacts in power sockets, or even the site of the short circuit itself). Such overheating is a common cause of fires. An electric arc, if it forms during the short circuit, produces high amount of heat and can cause ignition of combustible substances as well. In industrial and utility distribution systems, dynamic forces generated by high short-circuit currents cause conductors to spread apart. Busbars, cables, and apparatus can be damaged by the forces generated in a short circuit. In electronics, the ideal model (infinite gain) of an operational amplifier is said to produce a "virtual short circuit" between its input terminals because no matter what the output voltage is, the difference of potential between its input terminals is zero. If one of the input terminals is connected to the ground, then the other one is said to provide a virtual ground because its potential is (ideally) identical to that of the ground. An ideal operational amplifier also has infinite input impedance, so unlike a real short circuit, no current flows between the terminals of the virtual short. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=235898 | 398,966 |
Doubly-fed electric machine But the inverters required for megawatt-scale wind turbines are large and expensive. Doubly fed generators are another solution to this problem. Instead of the usual field winding fed with DC, and an armature winding where the generated electricity comes out, there are two three-phase windings, one stationary and one rotating, both separately connected to equipment outside the generator. Thus the term "doubly fed". One winding is directly connected to the output, and produces 3-phase AC power at the desired grid frequency. The other winding (traditionally called the field, but here both windings can be outputs) is connected to 3-phase AC power at variable frequency. This input power is adjusted in frequency and phase to compensate for changes in speed of the turbine. Adjusting the frequency and phase requires an AC to DC to AC converter. This is usually constructed from very large IGBT semiconductors. The converter is bidirectional, and can pass power in either direction. Power can flow from this winding as well as from the output winding. With its origins in wound rotor induction motors with multiphase winding sets on the rotor and stator, respectively, that was invented by Nikola Tesla in 1888, the rotor winding set of the doubly-fed electric machine is connected to a selection of resistors via multiphase slip rings for starting. However, the slip power was lost in the resistors. Thus means to increase the efficiency in variable speed operation by recovering the slip power were developed | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=7903176 | 385,587 |
Gilbert Froment Since 2015 he concentrated on the kinetics and design of the Fisher-Tropsch process Froment has established a record of excellence for instruction of chemical engineering and reaction engineering. His dedication to teaching has led him all over the world as a visiting professor at other Belgian universities, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (1967–77) and Universite Libre de Bruxelles (1967–69), and at Yale University (1969), University of Houston (1973 and 1981), Universidad Nacional del Sur, Bahia Blanca, Argentina (1977), University of Buenos Aires, Argentina (1981), Universidad de Salta (since 1983), University of Santa Fe, Argentina (1983), and University of Stanford (1984). He also was an adjunct professor at University of Delaware (1980–85). In collaboration with his co-author, Dr. Kenneth Bischoff, Froment published his highly influential textbook entitled, "Chemical Reactor Analysis and Design," in 1970. A second edition was published in 1990, followed by a third edition in 2010. The textbook has been utilized around the world in the instruction of chemical reaction engineering within chemical engineering curricula. The impact of the textbook has been attributed to the extensive background of Froment and Bischoff, which provides context into the connections between the macro- and micro-scale phenomena of transport and reaction engineering. has been active in professional organizations and supportive of the chemical reaction engineering community | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=48957856 | 51,990 |
Coalbed methane extraction Outcrop ash content appears to be less than ash content of subsurface samples. Lower ash contents of outcrop samples may be due to coal deposits being up dip and further away from a marine influence than samples down-dip. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=67458 | 69,634 |
Structure factor The value of the structure factor is the same for all these reciprocal lattice points, and the intensity varies only due to changes in formula_53 with formula_17. The units of the structure-factor amplitude depend on the incident radiation. For X-ray crystallography they are multiples of the unit of scattering by a single electron (2.82formula_55 m); for neutron scattering by atomic nuclei the unit of scattering length of formula_56 m is commonly used. The above discussion uses the wave vectors formula_57 and formula_58. However, crystallography often uses wave vectors formula_59 and formula_60. Therefore, when comparing equations from different sources, the factor formula_61 may appear and disappear, and care to maintain consistent quantities is required to get correct numerical results. In crystallography, the basis and lattice are treated separately. For a perfect crystal the lattice gives the reciprocal lattice, which determines the positions (angles) of diffracted beams, and the basis gives the structure factor formula_63 which determines the amplitude and phase of the diffracted beams: where the sum is over all atoms in the unit cell, formula_64 are the positional coordinates of the formula_28-th atom, and formula_66 is the scattering factor of the formula_28-th atom. The coordinates formula_64 have the directions and dimensions of the lattice vectors formula_69 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=4924578 | 91,855 |
Homology modeling "Profile-profile" alignments that first generate a sequence profile of the target and systematically compare it to the sequence profiles of solved structures; the coarse-graining inherent in the profile construction is thought to reduce noise introduced by sequence drift in nonessential regions of the sequence. Given a template and an alignment, the information contained therein must be used to generate a three-dimensional structural model of the target, represented as a set of Cartesian coordinates for each atom in the protein. Three major classes of model generation methods have been proposed. The original method of homology modeling relied on the assembly of a complete model from conserved structural fragments identified in closely related solved structures. For example, a modeling study of serine proteases in mammals identified a sharp distinction between "core" structural regions conserved in all experimental structures in the class, and variable regions typically located in the loops where the majority of the sequence differences were localized. Thus unsolved proteins could be modeled by first constructing the conserved core and then substituting variable regions from other proteins in the set of solved structures. Current implementations of this method differ mainly in the way they deal with regions that are not conserved or that lack a template. The variable regions are often constructed with the help of fragment libraries | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=7026278 | 152,898 |
In vitro fertilisation Epigenetic modifications caused by extended culture leading to the death of more female embryos has been theorised as the reason why blastocyst transfer leads to a higher male sex ratio, however adding retinoic acid to the culture can bring this ratio back to normal. By sperm washing, the risk that a chronic disease in the male providing the sperm would infect the female or offspring can be brought to negligible levels. In males with hepatitis B, The Practice Committee of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine advises that sperm washing is not necessary in IVF to prevent transmission, unless the female partner has not been effectively vaccinated. In females with hepatitis B, the risk of vertical transmission during IVF is no different from the risk in spontaneous conception. However, there is not enough evidence to say that ICSI procedures are safe in females with hepatitis B in regard to vertical transmission to the offspring. Regarding potential spread of HIV/AIDS, Japan's government prohibited the use of IVF procedures for couples in which both partners are infected with HIV. Despite the fact that the ethics committees previously allowed the Ogikubo, Tokyo Hospital, located in Tokyo, to use IVF for couples with HIV, the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare of Japan decided to block the practice. Hideji Hanabusa, the vice president of the Ogikubo Hospital, states that together with his colleagues, he managed to develop a method through which scientists are able to remove HIV from sperm | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=57880 | 59,050 |
River delta The combination of processes that create a tidal freshwater delta result in a distinct morphology and unique environmental characteristics. Many tidal freshwater deltas that exist today are directly caused by the onset of or changes in historical land use, especially deforestation, intensive agriculture, and urbanization. These ideas are well illustrated by the many tidal freshwater deltas prograding into Chesapeake Bay along the east coastline of the United States. Research has demonstrated that the accumulating sediments in this estuary derive from post-European settlement deforestation, agriculture, and urban development. Other rivers, particularly those on coasts with significant tidal range, do not form a delta but enter into the sea in the form of an estuary. Notable examples include the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and the Tagus estuary. In rare cases the river delta is located inside a large valley and is called an inverted river delta. Sometimes a river divides into multiple branches in an inland area, only to rejoin and continue to the sea. Such an area is called an "inland delta", and often occurs on former lake beds. The Inner Niger Delta and Peace–Athabasca Delta are notable examples. The Amazon also has an inland delta before the island of Marajó, and the Danube has one in the valley on the Slovak-Hungarian border between Bratislava and Iža. In some cases, a river flowing into a flat arid area splits into channels that evaporate as it progresses into the desert | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=166931 | 181,669 |
Plant development OOMT1 and OOMT2 help to synthesize orcinol O-methyltransferases (OOMT), which catalyze the last two steps of the DMT pathway, creating 3,5-dimethoxytoluene (DMT). DMT is a scent compound produced by many different roses yet, some rose varieties, like "Rosa" "gallica" and Damask rose "Rosa" "damascene", do not emit DMT. It has been suggested that these varieties do not make DMT because they do not have the OOMT genes. However, following an immunolocalization experiment, OOMT was found in the petal epidermis. To study this further, rose petals were subjected to ultracentrifugation. Supernatants and pellets were inspected by western blot. Detection of OOMT protein at 150,000g in the supernatant and the pellet allowed for researchers to conclude that OOMT protein is tightly associated with petal epidermis membranes. Such experiments determined that OOMT genes do exist within "Rosa gallica" and Damask rose "Rosa damascene" varieties, but the OOMT genes are not expressed in the flower tissues where DMT is made. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=14126223 | 190,727 |
Constitution Center (Washington, D.C.) Kirwan, chief of GSA's leasing division, knew Nassif from a previous lease negotiation, and discussed with him the siting of a building and its size. Nassif approached the RLA on April 21, 1966, and asked to buy the newly razed block of land bounded by 6th, 7th, D, and E Streets SW. In May 1967, GSA sent a letter to Nassif advising him that it was likely to lease the entire structure he intended to build. The $5.9 million land purchase was finalized on October 30, 1967. The cost of the structure is unclear. On November 15, 1967, Nassif had secured a $39 million construction loan. But "The Washington Post" pegged the cost of the building at $27 million in July 1968. The newspaper said in August 1970 that the cost of the structure was $26.5 million. The building was designed by architect Edward Durrell Stone, who also designed the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. On April 11, 1968, GSA leased the entire building from Nassif for 20 years for $98 million. John A. Volpe Construction was the chief contractor. Construction began in July 1968 (although it was delayed for a very short time when unionized ironworkers at the site went on strike) and was completed in 1969. The main entrance faced 7th Street SW. It included a central courtyard (open to the sky) which featured a fountain, footpaths, benches, and landscaping. Four high arcades pierced the building in the center of the block on each side, creating access to the courtyard | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=13863187 | 344,371 |
War of the currents In late 1887, when death penalty commission member Southwick contacted Edison, the inventor stated he was against capital punishment and wanted nothing to do with the matter. After further prompting, Edison hit out at his chief electric power competitor, George Westinghouse, in what may have been the opening salvo in the war of currents, stating in a December 1887 letter to Southwick that it would be best to use current generated by "'alternating machines,' manufactured principally in this country by Geo. Westinghouse". Soon after the execution by electricity bill passed in June 1888, Edison was asked by a New York government official what means would be the best way to implement the state's new form of execution. "Hire out your criminals as linemen to the New York electric lighting companies" was Edison's tongue in cheek answer. As the number of deaths attributed to high voltage lighting around the country continued to mount, a cluster of deaths in New York City in the spring of 1888 related to AC arc lighting set off a media frenzy against the "deadly arc-lighting current" and the seemingly callous lighting companies that used it. These deaths included a 15-year-old boy killed on April 15 by a broken telegraph line that had been energized with alternating current from a United States Illuminating Company line, a clerk killed two weeks later by an AC line, and a Brush Electric Company lineman killed in May by the AC line he was cutting | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=342086 | 219,652 |
LED circuit LEDs can be operated on an alternating current voltage, but they will only light with positive voltage, causing the LED to turn on and off at the frequency of the AC supply. Most LEDs have low reverse breakdown voltage ratings, so they will also be damaged by an applied reverse voltage above this threshold. The cause of damage is overcurrent resulting from the diode breakdown, not the voltage itself. LEDs driven directly from an AC supply of more than the reverse breakdown voltage may be protected by placing a diode (or another LED) in inverse parallel. The manufacturer will normally advise how to determine the polarity of the LED in the product datasheet. However, there is no standardization of polarity markings for surface mount devices. Many systems pulse LEDs on and off, by applying power periodically or intermittently. So long as the flicker rate is greater than the human flicker fusion threshold, and the LED is stationary relative to the eye, the LED will appear to be continuously lit. Varying the on/off ratio of the pulses is known as pulse-width modulation. In some cases PWM-based drivers are more efficient than constant current or constant voltage drivers. Most LED data sheets specify a maximum DC current that is safe for continuous operation. Often they specify some higher maximum pulsed current that is safe for brief pulses, as long as the LED controller keeps the pulse short enough and then turns off the power to the LED long enough for the LED to cool off | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=5536529 | 388,000 |
Mold health issues Following hurricanes, homes with greater flood damage, especially those with more than of indoor flooding, demonstrated higher levels of mold growth compared with homes with little or no flooding. The aftermath of a hurricane is the worst-case scenario, but the concept of water damage supporting widespread mold growth is more generally applicable. It is useful to perform an assessment of the location and extent of the mold hazard in a structure. Various practices of remediation can be followed to mitigate mold issues in buildings, the most important of which is to reduce moisture levels. Removal of affected materials after the source of moisture has been reduced and/or eliminated may be necessary. Thus, the concept of mold growth, assessment, and remediation is essential in prevention of mold health issues. A common issue with mold hazards in the household is the placement of furniture, and the lack of ventilation which this causes to certain parts of the wall. The simplest method of avoiding mold in a home so affected is to move the furniture in question. Adverse respiratory health effects are associated with occupancy in buildings with moisture and mold damage. Molds may excrete liquids or low-volatility gases, but the concentrations are so low that frequently they cannot be detected even with sensitive analytical sampling techniques | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=42676 | 22,972 |
Turned chair Turned chairs — sometimes called thrown chairs or spindle chairs — represent a style of Elizabethan or Jacobean turned furniture that had a vogue in late 16th and early 17th century England, New England and Holland. (In turned furniture, the individual wooden spindles of the piece were made by shaping them with chisels and gouges while they were being spun (or turned) between the center points of a lathe. The workers subcontracted to the joiners, or carpenters, who made such furniture were termed "turners", or "bodgers", hence the surname Turner. Today, turned chairs — as well as various turned decorative elements — are still commonly made, but by automated machinery rather than by hand.) The earliest turned chairs are of uncertain date, but they became common in the 17th century. Before this date there are rare examples that claim to date back to before 1300, but most of these early examples are from manuscripts. The characteristics of a turned chair are that the frame members are turned cylindrical on a lathe. The main uprights are usually heavier and plainly turned, the lighter spindles infilling between them are more decoratively turned, often with repeated bobbin turning, so as to appear as a series of balls, beads or bails. The complexity of this turning varies widely, and is used as a guide to identifying the region of origin. Some chairs have so many spindles that their backs and sides form an almost solid latticework, akin to the Arabic lattice windows or Mashrabiya | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=17188599 | 297,887 |
Dimensional analysis Multiplying any quantity (physical quantity or not) by the dimensionless 1 does not change that quantity. Once this and the conversion factor for seconds per hour have been multiplied by the original fraction to cancel out the units "mile" and "hour", 10 miles per hour converts to 4.4704 meters per second. As a more complex example, the concentration of nitrogen oxides (i.e., formula_6) in the flue gas from an industrial furnace can be converted to a mass flow rate expressed in grams per hour (i.e., g/h) of formula_7 by using the following information as shown below: After canceling out any dimensional units that appear both in the numerators and denominators of the fractions in the above equation, the NO concentration of 10 ppm converts to mass flow rate of 24.63 grams per hour. The factor-label method can also be used on any mathematical equation to check whether or not the dimensional units on the left hand side of the equation are the same as the dimensional units on the right hand side of the equation. Having the same units on both sides of an equation does not ensure that the equation is correct, but having different units on the two sides (when expressed in terms of base units) of an equation implies that the equation is wrong. For example, check the Universal Gas Law equation of , when: As can be seen, when the dimensional units appearing in the numerator and denominator of the equation's right hand side are cancelled out, both sides of the equation have the same dimensional units | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=8267 | 359,942 |
Social democracy Despite advocating reformism rather than revolution as means for socialism, those social democrats had supported political revolutions to establish liberal democracy such as in Russia and social democratic parties both in exile and in parliaments supported the forceful overthrow of fascist regimes such as in Germany, Italy and Spain. In the 1930s, the SPD began to transition away from revisionist Marxism towards liberal socialism. After the party was banned by the Nazis in 1933, the SPD acted in exile through Sopade. In 1934, the Sopade began to publish material that indicated that the SPD was turning towards liberal socialism. Curt Geyer, who was a prominent proponent of liberal socialism within the Sopade, declared that Sopade represented the tradition of Weimar Republic social democracy, liberal democratic socialism and stated that the Sopade had held true to its mandate of traditional liberal principles combined with the political realism of socialism. Willy Brandt is a social democrat that has been identified as a liberal socialist. The only social democratic governments in Europe that remained by the early 1930s were in Scandinavia. In the 1930s, several Swedish social democratic leadership figures, including former Swedish prime minister and secretary and chairman of the Socialization Committee Rickard Sandler and Nils Karleby, rejected earlier SAP socialization policies pursued in the 1920s for being too extreme | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=18247265 | 512,711 |
Machine tool But it was not until the later Middle Ages and the Age of Enlightenment that the modern concept of a machine tool—a class of machines used as tools in the making of metal parts, and incorporating machine-guided toolpath—began to evolve. Clockmakers of the Middle Ages and renaissance men such as Leonardo da Vinci helped expand humans' technological milieu toward the preconditions for industrial machine tools. During the 18th and 19th centuries, and even in many cases in the 20th, the builders of machine tools tended to be the same people who would then use them to produce the end products (manufactured goods). However, from these roots also evolved an industry of machine tool builders as we define them today, meaning people who specialize in building machine tools for sale to others. Historians of machine tools often focus on a handful of major industries that most spurred machine tool development. In order of historical emergence, they have been firearms (small arms and artillery); clocks; textile machinery; steam engines (stationary, marine, rail, and otherwise) (the story of how Watt's need for an accurate cylinder spurred Boulton's boring machine is discussed by Roe); sewing machines; bicycles; automobiles; and aircraft. Others could be included in this list as well, but they tend to be connected with the root causes already listed | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=191490 | 268,644 |
Batman James Gordon donned a mech-suit after the events of "", and served as in 2015 and 2016. Additionally, members of the group Batman, Incorporated, Bruce Wayne's experiment at franchising his brand of vigilantism, have at times stood in as the official in cities around the world. Various others have also taken up the role of in stories set in alternative universes and possible futures, including, among them, various former proteges of Bruce Wayne. Batman's interactions with both villains and cohorts have, over time, developed a strong supporting cast of characters. faces a variety of foes ranging from common criminals to outlandish supervillains. Many of them mirror aspects of the Batman's character and development, often having tragic origin stories that lead them to a life of crime. These foes are commonly referred to as Batman's "rogues gallery". Batman's "most implacable foe" is the Joker, a homicidal maniac with a clown-like appearance. The Joker is considered by critics to be his perfect adversary, since he is the antithesis of in personality and appearance; the Joker has a maniacal demeanor with a colorful appearance, while has a serious and resolute demeanor with a dark appearance. As a "personification of the irrational", the Joker represents "everything [opposes]". Other long-time recurring foes that are part of Batman's rogues gallery include Catwoman (a cat burglar anti-heroine who is an occasional ally and romantic interest), the Penguin, Ra's al Ghul, Two-Face, the Riddler, the Scarecrow, Mr | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=4335 | 223,280 |
Irmgard Flügge-Lotz By the mid-1950s, it became evident that Flügge-Lotz was performing all the duties of a full Professor but without official recognition. In fact, it was hard for students to understand why she was a Lecturer rather than a Professor, or even what the difference meant. The disparity of her status as a Lecturer became more apparent when she was the only female delegate from the United States at the first Congress of the International Federation of Automatic Control in Moscow. To address the issue before school opened for the fall quarter, she was appointed a full Professor in both Engineering Mechanics and in Aeronautics and Astronautics in 1961. Flügge-Lotz retired in 1968 at age 65, but continued to conduct research on satellite control systems, heat transfer, and high-speed vehicle drag. During her lifetime, she received many honors for her work. In 1970, she was elected a Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) and chosen to give the von Kármán lecture to the AIAA in 1971. She received the Achievement Award by the Society of Women Engineers in 1970, and received an honorary doctorate from the University of Maryland in 1973. The citation for her honorary degree stated: She was also a senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), a member of Sigma Xi, and a member of the advisory boards of several scientific journals | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=12972835 | 371,414 |
Investment protection is a broad economic term referring to any form of guarantee or insurance that investments made will not be lost, which may be through fraud or otherwise. For example, the Investment Protection Bureau is a New York state legal body which is charged, according to the New York State Securities Law (the Martin Act), to protect the public from fraud by monitoring and limiting investment. Most other protection is of this form, monitoring brokers and comparable individuals, and legally preventing them from misusing investment. treaties (also called Bilateral Investments Protection and Promotion Agreements (BIPA) or Investments Protection and Promotion Agreements (IPPA)) are widely used in bilateral agreements between two states, as a means of making foreign investment more attractive. A similar multilateral agreement can exist under the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA). There are approximately 2500 BIPA among states. Attempts to create an all-encompassing multilateral investment treaty that covers and regulates most such exchanges have thus far failed to materialize. On 21 October 2011, Nepal entered into BIPA with India during an official visit of Prime-minister Dr. Baburam Bhattarai. Returning home, he faced political obstacles from his own ruling party chauvinist wing. In the airport he faced black-flags welcome and was criticized in parliamentary meeting as well as in party meeting. No one knew that Nepal already had another 5 BIPAs since 1983. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1464137 | 514,893 |
FedEx Office To ease customer confusion during the transition period, many stores displayed a large purple sign in the window that said "Kinko's Printing Inside." Brian Phillips is the President and Chief Executive Officer, following Ken May's departure on March 7, 2008. The company's primary clientele are small business and home office clients. According to the company, it has approximately 1,900 operating facilities. With over $2 billion in revenues, the company is the 7th largest printing company in North America. The company's primary competitors in the crowded North American market include The UPS Store, Office Depot, OfficeMax, AlphaGraphics, Staples, Sir Speedy, and Vistaprint. Kinko's pursued an international expansion strategy during the boom years of the 1990s and early 2000s. Countries hosting centers outside the U.S. include Kuwait, Lebanon, and the United Arab Emirates. Kinko's formerly operated in Australia, Mexico, and the Netherlands but withdrew from those markets in late 2008 due to low demand. During the 2008–2012 global recession, subsequently withdrew from China, Japan, South Korea and the United Kingdom. Konica Minolta bought the Japanese and South Korean operations from FedEx. On July 24, 2017, Fedex announced that its 24 Canadian stores, a manufacturing plant in Markham, Ontario, and its head office in Toronto, will be closing on August 18, 2017 after 32 years of operation with 214 employees being laid off. FedEx's Canadian shipping operations will continue, however | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=18928104 | 290,302 |
Nature Detectives is an online phenology research and education project for 4–18-year-olds in the UK. It is run by the Woodland Trust, as part of the UK Phenology Network. Participants record the dates they see seasonal events, such as leafing, flowering, bird migration, nesting or fruit ripening in their own recording form on the website. The data they collect is fed into the UKPN national database, which has over 11,000 contributors and now contains over one million records. The project monitors the activity of birds, insects, amphibians, grasses, fungi, flowers and trees, all of which are being affected by climate change. There is also information on phenology, climate change and "doing your bit for the environment". Schools, youth groups, families and individuals all take part, and it is proving a great way to involve children in the natural world and teach them about plants and wildlife and environmental issues. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1347560 | 144,053 |
Casa Martí Another of his “presents” was the painting showing two men, the owner of the establishment Pere Romeu and Casas himself, pedalling a tandem; the one now in the bar is a copy, the original being in the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya. Between 1903 and 1936, was hosting the Cercle Artístic de Sant Lluc. The building was declared an Asset of National Cultural Interest on 9 January 1976. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=23145875 | 341,814 |
Pipeline transport At least sixty-six people were reported to have been killed. In war, pipelines are often the target of military attacks, as destruction of pipelines can seriously disrupt enemy logistics. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=51111 | 432,700 |
Faster Payment System (FPS; , more commonly known as 轉數快) is a real-time gross settlement payment system in Hong Kong that connects traditional banks and electronic payment and digital wallet operators. Users are able to perform instant money transfer or make payment to merchants by using the recipient's phone number, e-mail or QR code that contains the user's numeric identifier. Using the "traditional way" of full name and account number to make interbank transfer is also allowed. The system was implemented by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority and operated by Hong Kong Interbank Clearing Limited (HKICL). It was launched for pre-registration on 17 September 2018. Transfers and payments is available since 30 September 2018. Traditional interbank transfers required payment of fees between 50 HKD and 200 HKD, or a waiting time of up to two days before the payment clears. FPS provides an instant, round-the-clock and cheap way of transferring funds. For personal banks accounts, interbank fund transfer through FPS is normally free of service charges. Participants in the FPS share a common standard for the QR code which allows paying to merchants using a variety of payment methods like bank cards, stored value facilities or direct debit from bank accounts. HKMA has released a tool for merchants to convert QR codes from different payment providers into a single standard QR code. FPS supports payments in Hong Kong dollars (HKD) and Chinese Yuan Renminbi (CNY) | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=58505763 | 255,442 |
Lugol's iodine Potassium iodide renders the elementary iodine soluble in water through the formation of the triiodide () ion. It is not to be confused with tincture of iodine solutions, which consist of elemental iodine, and iodide salts dissolved in water and alcohol. Lugol's solution contains no alcohol. Other names for Lugol's solution are (iodine-potassium iodide); Markodine, Strong solution (Systemic); and Aqueous Iodine Solution BP. In the United Kingdom the NHS pays £9.57 per 500 ml of solution. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1541301 | 97,605 |
Simulation For testing receivers that will use the new Galileo (satellite navigation) there is no alternative, as the real signals do not yet exist. Predicting weather conditions by extrapolating/interpolating previous data is one of the real use of simulation. Most of the weather forecasts use this information published by Weather bureaus. This kind of simulations helps in predicting and forewarning about extreme weather conditions like the path of an active hurricane/cyclone. Numerical weather prediction for forecasting involves complicated numeric computer models to predict weather accurately by taking many parameters into account. Strategy games—both traditional and modern—may be viewed as simulations of abstracted decision-making for the purpose of training military and political leaders (see History of Go for an example of such a tradition, or Kriegsspiel for a more recent example). Many other video games are simulators of some kind. Such games can simulate various aspects of reality, from business, to government, to construction, to piloting vehicles (see above). Historically, the word had negative connotations: However, the connection between simulation and dissembling later faded out and is now only of linguistic interest. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=43444 | 509,576 |
Fractional Schrödinger equation In regions (i) and (iii), the fractional Schrödinger equation can be satisfied only if we take formula_60. In the middle region (ii), the time-independent fractional Schrödinger equation is (see, Ref.[6]). This equation defines the wave functions and the energy spectrum within region (ii), while outside of the region (ii), x<-a and x>a, the wave functions are zero. The wave function formula_59 has to be continuous everywhere, thus we impose the boundary conditions formula_63 for the solutions of the "time-independent fractional Schrödinger equation" (see, Ref.[6]). Then the solution in region (ii) can be written as To satisfy the boundary conditions we have to choose and It follows from the last equation that Then the even (formula_68 under reflection formula_69) solution of the time-independent fractional Schrödinger equation formula_70 in the infinite potential well is The odd (formula_72 under reflection formula_69) solution of the time-independent fractional Schrödinger equation formula_70 in the infinite potential well is The solutions formula_70 and formula_77 have the property that where formula_79 is the Kronecker symbol and The eigenvalues of the particle in an infinite potential well are (see, Ref.[6]) It is obvious that in the Gaussian case ("α" = 2) above equations are ö transformed into the standard quantum mechanical equations for a particle in a box (for example, see Eq.(20 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=23404175 | 422,958 |
Multistate Professional Responsibility Examination The questions are based on the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct and the ABA Model Code of Judicial Conduct, as well as controlling constitutional decisions and generally accepted principles established in leading federal and state cases and in procedural and evidentiary rules (courtesy American Bar Association website and National Conference of Bar Examiners MPRE website). State rules and laws which may or may not differ from the ABA rules are not tested. California uses the MPRE even though it is the only jurisdiction that has not adopted either of the two sets of professional responsibility rules proposed by the American Bar Association – and California rules differ from the ABA rules in many ways. The MPRE differs from the remainder of the bar examination in two ways: The passing score varies between jurisdictions. The lowest score accepted by any jurisdiction is 75 (several). The highest required by any state is 86 (Utah and California. All states have a window either preceding or surrounding the bar exam outside of which MPRE scores are not recognized. Passing Scores (in 2005) by State: | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=846590 | 477,098 |
Sandbag Some of the World War I memorial trenches were rebuilt with concrete sandbags after the First World War—although criticized as looking unnatural, they have lasted well. During World War II in Great Britain, some aircraft revetments and pillboxes were made from concrete filled sandbags, again these have lasted well. Sandbags have been used since at least the late 18th century. For example, British loyalists used sandbag and log fortifications in the 1781 Siege of Ninety-Six during the American Revolutionary War. Nathanael Greene was familiar enough with the fortification technique to equip his troops with hooks to pull down the sandbag and log walls when they stormed the Star Redoubt in Ninety Six, South Carolina. Sandbags have traditionally been filled manually using shovels. Since the 1990s, machine filling has become more common, allowing the work to be done more quickly and efficiently. Bulk bags, also known as big bags, are much larger than traditional sandbags. Moving a bag of this size typically requires a forklift truck. Thailand utilized bulk bags filled with sand to erect temporary walls to protect against the 2011 Thailand floods. Sandbags are also used for disposable ballast in gas balloons, and as counterweights for theatre sets. Some temporary construction signs or advertising signs are held in place and secured against being blown over with sandbags | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=723712 | 338,633 |
Kahn system Another significant feature of the Kahn Trussed Bar and Kahn System of reinforced concrete was its resistance to fire. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=43431600 | 355,581 |
Gallium(III) selenide (GaSe) is a chemical compound. It has a defect sphalerite (cubic form of ZnS) structure. It is a p-type semiconductor It can be formed by union of the elements. It hydrolyses slowly in water and quickly in mineral acids to form toxic hydrogen selenide gas. The reducing capabilities of the selenide ion make it vulnerable to oxidizing agents. It is advised therefore that it not come into contact with bases. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=5291586 | 78,538 |
Reference materials for stable isotope analysis As in the case of hydrogen, the oxygen isotopic scale is defined by two materials, VSMOW2 and SLAP2. Measurements of sample δO vs. VSMOW can be converted to the VPDB reference frame through the following equation: δO = 0.97001*δO - 29.99‰ (Brand "et al.," 2014). Nitrogen gas (N) makes up 78% of the atmosphere and is extremely well mixed over short time-scales, resulting in a homogenous isotopic distribution ideal for use as a reference material. Atmospheric N is commonly called AIR when being used as an isotopic reference. In addition to atmospheric N there are multiple N isotopic reference materials. The original sulfur isotopic reference material was the Canyon Diablo Troilite (CDT), a meteorite recovered from Meteor Crater in Arizona. The Canyon Diablo Meteorite was chosen because it was thought to have a sulfur isotopic composition similar to the bulk Earth. However, the meteorite was later found to be isotopically heterogeneous with variations up to 0.4‰ (Beaudoin "et al.," 1994). This isotopic variability resulted in problems for the interlaboratory calibration of sulfur isotope measurements. A meeting of the IAEA in 1993 defined Vienna Canyon Diablo Troilite (VCDT) in an allusion to the earlier establishment of VSMOW. Like the original SMOW and VPDB, VCDT was never a physical material that could be measured but was still used as the definition of the sulfur isotopic scale. For the purposes of actually measuring S/S ratios, the IAEA defined the δS of IAEA-S-1 (originally called IAEA-NZ1) to be -0 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=52796143 | 44,715 |
The Maritime Rescue Museum In 1940 the rescue of wrecked ships was in the hands of the Navy, and in 1971 it was part of the Creu Roja del Mar. The rescue station was no longer used due to its height above sea level. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=55057784 | 342,593 |
Multi-scale camouflage The US Army's Universal Camouflage Pattern (UCP), for example, adopted after limited testing in 2003–4, performed poorly because of low pattern contrast ("isoluminance"—beyond very close range, the design looks like a field of solid light grey, failing to disrupt an object's outlines) and arbitrary colour selection, neither of which could be saved by quantizing (digitizing) the pattern geometry. The design was replaced from 2015 with Operational Camouflage Pattern, a non-pixellated pattern. The idea of patterned camouflage extends back to the interwar period in Europe. The first printed camouflage pattern was the 1929 Italian "telo mimetico", which used irregular areas of three colours at a single scale. During the Second World War, Johann Georg Otto Schick designed a series of patterns such as "Platanenmuster" (plane tree pattern) and "erbsenmuster" (pea-dot pattern) for the Waffen-SS, combining micro- and macro-patterns in one scheme. The German Army developed the idea further in the 1970s into Flecktarn, which combines smaller shapes with dithering; this softens the edges of the large scale pattern, making the underlying objects harder to discern. Pixel-like shapes pre-date computer-aided design by many years, already being used in Soviet Union experiments with camouflage patterns, such as "TTsMKK" developed in 1944 or 1945. The pattern uses areas of olive green, sand, and black running together in broken patches at a range of scales. In 1976, Timothy O'Neill created a pixellated pattern named "Dual-Tex" | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=15955754 | 296,977 |
Operating point In an electronic amplifier, an operating point is a combination of current and voltage at "no signal" conditions; application of a signal to the stage - changes voltage and current in the stage. The operating point in an amplifier is set by the intersection of the load line with the non-linear characteristics of the device. By adjusting the bias on the stage, an operating point can be selected that maximizes the signal output of the stage and minimizes distortion. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=25056597 | 211,097 |
Sulfur sticks are used in industrial ammonia refrigeration systems to detect minor ammonia leaks. A sulfur stick is made from a wick which contains particles of sulfur. The sulfur stick is lit and smolders, something like the taper that is used to light fireworks. The color of the sulfur smoke is used to find the leak. When there is no ammonia the smoke is colorless but when ammonia is present the combined sulfur and ammonia vapors produce a white smoke. have been used to find ammonia leaks for at least 100 years. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2559292 | 429,163 |
Cunninghamella elegans is a species of fungus in the genus "Cunninghamella" found in soil. It can be grown in Sabouraud dextrose broth, a liquid medium used for cultivation of yeasts and molds from liquid which are normally sterile. As opposed to "C. bertholletiae", it is not a human pathogen, with the exception of two documented patients. "C. elegans" is a filamentous fungus that produces purely gray colonies. Electron microscopy studies show that the conidia are covered with spines. "Cunninghamella elegans" is able to degrade xenobiotics. It has a variety of enzymes of phases I (modification enzymes acting to introduce reactive and polar groups into their substrates) and II (conjugation enzymes) of the xenobiotic metabolism, as do mammals. Cytochrome P450 monooxygenase, aryl sulfotransferase, glutathione S-transferase, UDP-glucuronosyltransferase, UDP-glucosyltransferase activities have been detected in cytosolic or microsomal fractions. Cytochrome P-450 and cytochrome P-450 reductase in "C. elegans" are part of the phase I enzymes. They are induced by the corticosteroid cortexolone and by phenanthrene. "C. elegans" also possesses a lanosterol 14-alpha demethylase, another enzyme in the cytochrome P450 family. "C. elegans" also possesses a glutathione S-transferase. "Cunninghamella elegans" is a microbial model of mammalian drug metabolism. The use of this fungus could reduce the over-all need for laboratory animals. "C | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=31144433 | 286,024 |
Bisphenol A At low doses of BPA, the growth of roots were improved, the amount of nitrate in roots increased, the amount of ammonium in roots decreased, and the nitrate and nitrite reductase activities remained unchanged. However, at considerably higher concentrations of BPA, the opposite effects were seen for all but an increase in nitrate concentration and a decrease in nitrite and nitrate reductase activities. Nitrogen is both a plant nutritional substance, but also the basis of growth and development in plants. A 2005 study conducted in the United States had found that 91–98% of BPA may be removed from water during treatment at municipal water treatment plants. A more detailed explanation of aqueous reactions of BPA can be observed in the Degradation of BPA section below. Nevertheless, a 2009 meta-analysis of BPA in the surface water system showed BPA present in surface water and sediment in the U.S. and Europe. According to Environment Canada in 2011, "BPA can currently be found in municipal wastewater. […]initial assessment shows that at low levels, bisphenol A can harm fish and organisms over time." BPA affects growth, reproduction, and development in aquatic organisms. Among freshwater organisms, fish appear to be the most sensitive species. Evidence of endocrine-related effects in fish, aquatic invertebrates, amphibians, and reptiles has been reported at environmentally relevant exposure levels lower than those required for acute toxicity | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1001430 | 85,243 |
Royal Palace of La Almudaina La Almudaina was the seat of the prosperous Majorcan kingdom of 14th century, during the reigns of the aforementioned monarch and his successors Sancho of Majorca and James III of Majorca, until passing to the Crown of Aragon with Peter IV in 1349. During the first half of 16th century the upper floor was built by order of the king Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor. In the same way as in the Royal Palace of Madrid, the Royal Palace of La Almudaina, is the official summer residence of the King, as well as other members of the Spanish Royal Family, who also reside in the Palau de Marivent and in the Palacio de la Zarzuela in Madrid. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=18466321 | 308,117 |
Altes Stadthaus, Bonn Bestelmayer's building was intended to be the nucleus of future development in the centre of Bonn. However, the only other construction there was the tax office on the corner of Mülheimer Platz and Münsterstraße, built in 1937, and some further building on Bottlerplatz. After the Neues Stadthaus—the new city administration building—was built, the main floor of the section of Altes Stadthaus facing Mühlheimer Platz was rebuilt to house the library. In the course of this restructuring, the two courtyards were roofed over and several interior walls replaced with columns. The east wing of the building was demolished to make way for a C&A department store. After World War II, the Bundesministerium für gesamtdeutsche Fragen was housed in the Altes Stadthaus between 1949 and 1957, primarily in the now demolished section of the building. In the summer of 2006, the mayor and the speaker of the Social Democratic Party of Germany group in the city council announced plans to sell the Altes Stadthaus, relocating the library, the community college, and the city museum to a new building in Quantiusstraße, near the station. The Stadthaus was to be used as retail space. The announcement to sell the building sparked a fierce public debate. The Green Party, at the time in a coalition with the SPD, strongly disagreed with the plan. The Christian Democratic Union party held a meeting in October 2006 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=36511928 | 333,730 |
Metcalfe's law Despite many arguments about Metcalfe' law, no real data based evidence for or against was available for more than 30 years. Only in July 2013, Dutch researchers managed to analyze European Internet usage patterns over a long enough time and found "n" proportionality for small values of "n" and ("n" log "n") proportionality for large values of "n". A few months later, Metcalfe himself provided further proof, as he used Facebook's data over the past 10 years to show a good fit for (the model is "n" ). In 2015, Zhang, Liu and Xu extend Metcalfe's results utilizing data from Tencent, China's largest social network company, and Facebook. Their work showed that held for both, despite the difference in audience between the two sites; Facebook serving a worldwide audience and Tencent serving only Chinese users. The Metcalfe's functions of the two sites given in the paper were formula_4 and formula_5 respectively. In 2018, Peterson applied to the cryptocurrency Bitcoin, and showed that determined over 70% of Bitcoin's value. In a yet unpublished work, Peterson provided a mathematical derivation that linked traditional time-value-of-money concepts to Metcalfe value, and used Bitcoin and Facebook as numerical examples of the proof. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=65776 | 507,130 |
Green building Buildings account for a large amount of land. According to the National Resources Inventory, approximately of land in the United States are developed. The International Energy Agency released a publication that estimated that existing buildings are responsible for more than 40% of the world’s total primary energy consumption and for 24% of global carbon dioxide emissions. The concept of sustainable development can be traced to the energy (especially fossil oil) crisis and environmental pollution concerns of the 1960s and 1970s. The Rachel Carson book, “Silent Spring”, published in 1962, is considered to be one of the first initial efforts to describe sustainable development as related to green building. The green building movement in the U.S. originated from the need and desire for more energy efficient and environmentally friendly construction practices. There are a number of motives for building green, including environmental, economic, and social benefits. However, modern sustainability initiatives call for an integrated and synergistic design to both new construction and in the retrofitting of existing structures. Also known as sustainable design, this approach integrates the building life-cycle with each green practice employed with a design-purpose to create a synergy among the practices used. brings together a vast array of practices, techniques, and skills to reduce and ultimately eliminate the impacts of buildings on the environment and human health | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1344439 | 311,245 |
Bandsaw box Band saw boxes are boxes made out of wood using only a bandsaw for cutting them out. The wood may be a solid block, a laminated block or a log from the woodpile. Whereas most boxes have straight sides and square corners, band saw boxes have virtually no restrictions as to shape. They can be oval, heart-shaped, lizard-shaped, or any shape the maker can think of. Other tools such as belt sanders and drum sanders can be used to shape and sand the box smooth. Relief cuts are always needed if you are going to make a bandsaw box. If you don't, the box always seems to fall apart. If the bandsaw has a little hitch in it the box usually snaps in two. There are multiple techniques for constructing band saw boxes. The primary technique starts by cutting the main shape of the box. Then a 1/8" to 1/4" piece of wood is cut off what is to become the back. The drawer shape is cut within the main shape, which involves cutting through the main body, and the body must be glued back together. Once the drawer shape is cut, the usual technique is to remove 1/8" to 1/4" of material from both the front and rear of the drawer shape to be used as faces. The remaining stock is then reduced or hollowed out to produce a drawer or cavity. The front and rear drawer faces are glued back to the remaining hollowed drawer stock, and the back that was cut off is glued to the main body. A handle can be added to the front of the drawer if desired. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=5133659 | 271,526 |
Video sculpture In May 1963 Wolf Vostell shows his installation "6 TV-Dé-coll/age" at the Smolin Gallery in New York utilized six televisions, each with an anomaly. Shigeko Kubota was also an innovator in the use of video in sculptural form. Her "Duchampiana: Nude Descending a Staircase" was the first video sculpture acquired by the Museum of Modern Art. This work is a reference to Marcel Duchamp's "Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2" (1912) Video sculpturist are becoming influential among early 21st century artists. One of Paik's video sculptures in which the six windows of a 1936 Chrysler Airstream were replaced with video monitors sold for $75,000 in 2002. Charlotte Moorman was a notable subject of video sculptures as a renowned topless cellist. There are several developments in current video sculptures. The proliferation of powerful projectors and pixel-bending technology has enabled large-scale works often created for specific events and locations. Other artists like make use of multiple LCD screens or video walls and incorporate computer generated images. A different approach is used by artists like Madeleine Altmann, who creates sculptures with recycled cathode ray tube monitors. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=18749313 | 402,322 |
Thompson sampling In practice, the Bayesian control amounts to sampling, in each time step, a parameter formula_19 from the posterior distribution formula_33, where the posterior distribution is computed using Bayes' rule by only considering the (causal) likelihoods of the observations formula_25 and ignoring the (causal) likelihoods of the actions formula_23, and then by sampling the action formula_41 from the action distribution formula_42. and upper-confidence bound algorithms share a fundamental property that underlies many of their theoretical guarantees. Roughly speaking, both algorithms allocate exploratory effort to actions that might be optimal and are in this sense "optimistic." Leveraging this property, one can translate regret bounds established for UCB algorithms to Bayesian regret bounds for or unify regret analysis across both these algorithms and many classes of problems. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=34130293 | 123,906 |
Barnacle (slang) On printed circuit boards, a barnacle may be as simple as cutting a trace, soldering a wire in order to connect two points on the circuit board, or adding a component such as a resistor or capacitor. A barnacle may also be a complex subassembly or daughterboard. Barnacles in hardware assemblies allow an engineer to repair design errors, experiment with design changes or enhancements, or otherwise alter circuit behaviour. Although usually a barnacle-implemented change is incorporated into a new fabrication cycle circuit before production, occasionally there are final-assembly barnacles. In such cases it is determined to be less expensive to add a barnacle to a final, shipping product rather than re-spin the circuit to ship without these interventions left in place. The normal development cycle for electronic hardware contains two main phases. The first phase is the development and prototype phase in which the hardware is first designed (and often simulated using a computer program such as PSpice) and the design manufactured in low quantity as prototypes for testing. The second phase is the updating of design documents based on the testing experience and the beginning of general manufacturing of the product. During the testing phase, problems are usually found as the design and simulation tools can not duplicate some types of environmental as well as electrical circumstances in which the product may be used | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=23716350 | 393,177 |
The Sports Network As of 2015, major programming rights held by TSN include exclusive coverage of the Canadian Football League and Curling Canada's national championships, coverage of the NBA and the Toronto Raptors, coverage of Major League Soccer and exclusive rights to Toronto FC and Vancouver Whitecaps FC, along with Canadian rights to the tournaments of FIFA (soccer) and the IIHF (ice hockey), the NFL (shared with sister network CTV), Formula One, NASCAR, Ultimate Fighting Championship, and the Grand Slam tennis tournaments, among others. TSN also receives a large amount of programming through its minority partner, ESPN. The TSN licence currently comprises five 24-hour programming services; from its launch until 2006, TSN operated as a single, national service. In 2006, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) ruled that TSN could operate multiple feeds with a limited amount of alternative national programming—this was followed by the launch of TSN2—a second 24-hour network under the TSN licence that was legally considered a west coast feed of TSN. As of 2010, TSN has been subject to deregulated Category C licensing by the CRTC, which allows multiple feeds to be operated under the TSN licence with no restrictions on alternate programming; TSN used this new ability to operate an autonomous TSN2, along with part-time feeds for regional NHL coverage | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=354723 | 453,184 |
Solar still The method is very similar to that described above, but a single sheet of plastic is used instead of branches and leaves. The greater efficiency of this type of trap arises from the waterproof nature of the plastic, which doesn't let any water vapour pass through it (some water vapour escapes through the leaves and branches of the first method). This efficiency requires a certain amount of diligence of the part of the user, in that the plastic sheet must be firmly attached to the ground on all sides; this is often accomplished by using stones to weight the sheet down and/or covering the edges of the plastic sheet with earth (such as that dug out to make the hole in which the trap sits). Weighting the centre of the plastic sheet down with a stone forms the funnel via which the condensed water will run into the receptacle. Water can be obtained by placing clear plastic bags over the leafy branch of a "non-poisonous" tree and tightly closing the bag's open end around the branch. Any holes in the bag must be sealed to prevent the loss of water vapour. During photosynthesis plants lose water through a process called transpiration. A clear plastic bag sealed around a branch allows photosynthesis to continue, but traps the evaporating water causing the vapour pressure of water to rise to a point where it begins to condense on the surface of the plastic bag. Gravity then causes the water to run to the lowest part of the bag. Water is collected by tapping the bag and then resealing it | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1467246 | 261,235 |
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