Fuji released their new flagship camera this month, the X-Pro2. It is the first X-series camera to feature a 24MP sensor (compared to 16MP before) and it has a very interesting hybrid optical & electronic view finder. When I first […]

Are there still folks among you who, like me, prefer handwriting to typing? If you’re in this group, you’ll love this new feature on Google Lens. The app now lets you scan your handwritten notes, copy them, and paste them straight to your computer. I gave it a spin, and I bring you my impressions […]

The post Google Lens now copies handwritten text and pastes it straight to your computer appeared first on DIY Photography.

The Godox SL series LED lights have proven to be extremely popular due to their low cost. Two of the models in that range, the SL150 and SL200 have seen a Mark II update today, according to an email that Godox has been sending out today. One of the features of the new SL150II and […]

The post Godox’s new SL150/SL200 Mark II LED lights offer fanless “silent mode” operation appeared first on DIY Photography.

In this article, we prove that the completeness of the Hamilton flow and essential self-dajointness are equivalent for real principal type operators on the circle. Moreover, we study spectral properties of these operators.

We show that the local equivalence class of the collapsed link Floer complex $cCFL^infty(L)$, together with many $Upsilon$-type invariants extracted from this group, is a concordance invariant of links. In particular, we define a version of the invariants $Upsilon_L(t)$ and $ u^+(L)$ when $L$ is a link and we prove that they give a lower bound for the slice genus $g_4(L)$. Furthermore, in the last section of the paper we study the homology group $HFL'(L)$ and its behaviour under unoriented cobordisms. We obtain that a normalized version of the $upsilon$-set, introduced by Ozsv'ath, Stipsicz and Szab'o, produces a lower bound for the 4-dimensional smooth crosscap number $gamma_4(L)$.

In this paper, we provide some topological criteria for the Poisson Dixmier-Moeglin equivalence for $A$ in terms of the poset $({ m P. spec A}, subseteq)$ and the symplectic leaf or core stratification on its maximal spectrum. In particular, we prove that the Zariski topology of the Poisson prime spectrum and of each symplectic leaf or core can detect the Poisson Dixmier-Moeglin equivalence for any complex affine Poisson algebra. Moreover, we generalize the weaker version of the Poisson Dixmier-Moeglin equivalence for a complex affine Poisson algebra proved in [J. Bell, S. Launois, O.L. S'anchez, and B. Moosa, Poisson algebras via model theory and differential algebraic geometry, J. Eur. Math. Soc. (JEMS), 19(2017), no. 7, 2019-2049] to the general context of a commutative differential algebra.

In this work, the generalized $N$-component Fokas-Lenells(FL) equations, which have been studied by Guo and Ling (2012 J. Math. Phys. 53 (7) 073506) for $N=2$, are first investigated via Riemann-Hilbert(RH) approach. The main purpose of this is to study the soliton solutions of the coupled Fokas-Lenells(FL) equations for any positive integer $N$, which have more complex linear relationship than the analogues reported before. We first analyze the spectral analysis of the Lax pair associated with a $(N+1) imes (N+1)$ matrix spectral problem for the $N$-component FL equations. Then, a kind of RH problem is successfully formulated. By introducing the special conditions of irregularity and reflectionless case, the $N$-soliton solution formula of the equations are derived through solving the corresponding RH problem. Furthermore, take $N=2,3$ and $4$ for examples, the localized structures and dynamic propagation behavior of their soliton solutions and their interactions are discussed by some graphical analysis.

Let $H$ be a Krull monoid with finite class group $G$ such that every class contains a prime divisor. We consider the system $mathcal L (H)$ of all sets of lengths of $H$ and study when $mathcal L (H)$ contains or is contained in a system $mathcal L (H')$ of a Krull monoid $H'$ with finite class group $G'$, prime divisors in all classes and Davenport constant $mathsf D (G')=mathsf D (G)$. Among others, we show that if $G$ is either cyclic of order $m ge 7$ or an elementary $2$-group of rank $m-1 ge 6$, and $G'$ is any group which is non-isomorphic to $G$ but with Davenport constant $mathsf D (G')=mathsf D (G)$, then the systems $mathcal L (H)$ and $mathcal L (H')$ are incomparable.

Digital Twin technology is an emerging concept that has become the centre of attention for industry and, in more recent years, academia. The advancements in industry 4.0 concepts have facilitated its growth, particularly in the manufacturing industry. The Digital Twin is defined extensively but is best described as the effortless integration of data between a physical and virtual machine in either direction. The challenges, applications, and enabling technologies for Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Things (IoT) and Digital Twins are presented. A review of publications relating to Digital Twins is performed, producing a categorical review of recent papers. The review has categorised them by research areas: manufacturing, healthcare and smart cities, discussing a range of papers that reflect these areas and the current state of research. The paper provides an assessment of the enabling technologies, challenges and open research for Digital Twins.

In response to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, there is an ever-increasing number of national governments that are rolling out contact-tracing Apps to aid the containment of the virus. The first hugely contentious issue facing the Apps is the deployment framework, i.e. centralised or decentralised. Based on this, the debate branches out to the corresponding technologies that underpin these architectures, i.e. GPS, QR codes, and Bluetooth. This work conducts a pioneering review of the above scenarios and contributes a geolocation mapping of the current deployment. The vulnerabilities and the directions of research are identified, with a special focus on the Bluetooth-based decentralised scheme.

This paper reviews the NTIRE 2020 Challenge on NonHomogeneous Dehazing of images (restoration of rich details in hazy image). We focus on the proposed solutions and their results evaluated on NH-Haze, a novel dataset consisting of 55 pairs of real haze free and nonhomogeneous hazy images recorded outdoor. NH-Haze is the first realistic nonhomogeneous haze dataset that provides ground truth images. The nonhomogeneous haze has been produced using a professional haze generator that imitates the real conditions of haze scenes. 168 participants registered in the challenge and 27 teams competed in the final testing phase. The proposed solutions gauge the state-of-the-art in image dehazing.

This paper reviews the second challenge on spectral reconstruction from RGB images, i.e., the recovery of whole-scene hyperspectral (HS) information from a 3-channel RGB image. As in the previous challenge, two tracks were provided: (i) a "Clean" track where HS images are estimated from noise-free RGBs, the RGB images are themselves calculated numerically using the ground-truth HS images and supplied spectral sensitivity functions (ii) a "Real World" track, simulating capture by an uncalibrated and unknown camera, where the HS images are recovered from noisy JPEG-compressed RGB images. A new, larger-than-ever, natural hyperspectral image data set is presented, containing a total of 510 HS images. The Clean and Real World tracks had 103 and 78 registered participants respectively, with 14 teams competing in the final testing phase. A description of the proposed methods, alongside their challenge scores and an extensive evaluation of top performing methods is also provided. They gauge the state-of-the-art in spectral reconstruction from an RGB image.

A big part of the video content we consume from video providers consists of genres featuring low-light aesthetics. Low light sequences have special characteristics, such as spatio-temporal varying acquisition noise and light flickering, that make the encoding process challenging. To deal with the spatio-temporal incoherent noise, higher bitrates are used to achieve high objective quality. Additionally, the quality assessment metrics and methods have not been designed, trained or tested for this type of content. This has inspired us to trigger research in that area and propose a Grand Challenge on encoding low-light video sequences. In this paper, we present an overview of the proposed challenge, and test state-of-the-art methods that will be part of the benchmark methods at the stage of the participants' deliverable assessment. From this exploration, our results show that VVC already achieves a high performance compared to simply denoising the video source prior to encoding. Moreover, the quality of the video streams can be further improved by employing a post-processing image enhancement method.

This paper reviews the Challenge on Image Demoireing that was part of the New Trends in Image Restoration and Enhancement (NTIRE) workshop, held in conjunction with CVPR 2020. Demoireing is a difficult task of removing moire patterns from an image to reveal an underlying clean image. The challenge was divided into two tracks. Track 1 targeted the single image demoireing problem, which seeks to remove moire patterns from a single image. Track 2 focused on the burst demoireing problem, where a set of degraded moire images of the same scene were provided as input, with the goal of producing a single demoired image as output. The methods were ranked in terms of their fidelity, measured using the peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) between the ground truth clean images and the restored images produced by the participants' methods. The tracks had 142 and 99 registered participants, respectively, with a total of 14 and 6 submissions in the final testing stage. The entries span the current state-of-the-art in image and burst image demoireing problems.

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After Governor Jay Inslee announced a prohibition on gatherings of 250 people or more in three Washington counties (Snohomish, King, Pierce) on Wednesday, and with public health concerns growing over the COVID-19 pandemic, many organizations in Spokane are following suit. The Inlander will be frequently updating its online calendar of events to reflect local cancelations as we hear of them.…

In my old life — well, who cares anymore. But in my old life, I used to travel pretty extensively.…

Forty years ago, Mount St. Helens in southwestern Washington was just days away from a devastating eruption. When the mountain finally did blow, after weeks of frequent quakes and ash belching, on the morning of May 18, 1980, it caused the deadliest and most economically destructive volcanic event in U.S. history.…

Virtually every musician starts out trying to copy their heroes.…

While events around the country have been put on hold, Coeur d’Alene’s Summer Theatre is still slated for a show at the end of the month. But it won’t be in the usual format.…

If you've ever been compelled to visit Chewelah, it has likely been related to a trip to 49 Degrees North.…

The Inlander is a community newspaper covering news, politics, events, happy hour, everything that's happening today, things to do on the weekend, in Spokane, Coeur d'Alene, the greater Inland Northwest and beyond.

[IMAGE-1] Midtown Coeur d'Alene. The pedestrian-friendly strip of restaurants and shops that runs north-south along Fourth Street in between Garden and Harrison avenues.…

Don't be caught empty-handed (or empty-hearted) this Valentine's Day, coming up Friday, Feb. 14.…

Provided is a method for stably and economically producing xylylenediamine with a high yield and long catalyst service life by hydrogenating dicyanobenzene that is obtained by ammoxidating xylene. By bringing an aqueous basic solution into contact with a dicyanobenzene-absorbed liquid, which is obtained by bringing an ammoxidation reaction gas into contact with an organic solvent, under specified temperature conditions, and subjecting a base and a carboxylic acid in the dicyanobenzene-absorbed liquid to a neutralization reaction so as to form an aqueous phase that contains a water-soluble salt, and then subjecting an organic phase and the aqueous phase to liquid-liquid separation so as to remove the aqueous phase, it is possible to remove the carboxylic acid contained in the dicyanobenzene-absorbed liquid with high selectivity while inhibiting loss of the dicyanobenzene. By subjecting the raw material dicyanobenzene, which is obtained by separating low boiling point compounds from the post liquid-liquid separation organic phase by distillation under reduced pressure, to hydrogenation, xylylenediamine is produced with a high yield and the service life of the hydrogenation catalyst is extended.

A branched hetero polyfunctional polyoxyalkylene compound represented by the following formula (1): wherein Z represents a hydroxyl group-removed residue of pentaerythritol or dipentaerythritol, OA1 and OA2 represent an oxyalkylene group having 2 to 4 carbon atoms, L1, L2 and L3 represent an alkylene group or an alkylene group that contains an ester bond, a urethane bond, an amide bond, an ether bond, a carbonate bond, a secondary amino group or a urea bond, X and Y are different from each other and represent a functional group capable of a chemical reaction; m and n are an average number of moles of the oxyalkylene group added, m represents 5 to 1,000, n represents 0 to 1,000, and p, q and r represent 0 or 1; and s1 is an integer of 2 or more and s1+s2=4 or 6.

A process for preparing alkylated p-phenylenediamine having the steps of reacting aniline and nitrobenzene in presence of a complex base catalyst to obtain 4-aminodiphenylamine intermediates, hydrogenating the 4-aminodiphenylamine intermediates to 4-aminodiphenylamine in presence of a hydrogenation catalyst, and reductively alkylating the 4-aminodiphenylamine to alkylated p-phenylenediamine.

Disclosed is a process for preparing an aryloxyalkylene amine compound via an aminoethylation reaction comprising: a) reacting an aromatic hydroxyl compound in the presence of a basic catalyst with a 2-oxazolidinone compound of the formula II to form an intermediate reaction product; wherein R3 is selected from the group consisting of hydrogen or lower alkyl having 1 to 6 carbon atoms, R4 is selected from the group consisting of hydrogen, straight or branched chain alkyl having from one to six carbon atoms, phenyl, alkaryl, or arylalkyl; and b) reacting the intermediate product of step a) with a polyalkylene polyamine.

A method for producing a high viscosity, low volatiles blown stripped oil blend is provided. The method may include the steps of: (i) obtaining an oil blend of corn stillage oil and soybean oil having a weight ratio of corn stillage oil to soybean oil of from about 1:2 to 3:1; (ii) heating the oil blend to at least 90° C.; (iii) passing air through the heated oil blend to produce a blown oil having a viscosity of at least 50 cSt at 40° C.; and (iv) stripping the blown oil from step (iii) to reduce an acid value of the blown oil to less than 5.0 mg KOH/gram.

Injection molded articles and process of forming the same are described herein. The processes generally include providing a polyolefin including one or more propylene heterophasic copolymers, the polyolefin having an ethylene content of at least 10 wt. % based on the total weight of the polyolefin; contacting the polyolefin with a polylactic acid and a reactive modifier to form a compatiblized polymeric blend, wherein the reactive modifier is produced by contacting a polypropylene, a multifunctional acrylate comonomer, and an initiator under conditions suitable for the formation of a glycidyl methacrylate grafted polypropylene (PP-g-GMA) having a grafting yield in a range from 1 wt. % to 15 wt. %; and injection molding the compatibilized polymeric blend into an article.

Beta-lactamase inhibiting compounds of the formula ##STR1## or a pharmaceutically acceptable acid addition or carboxylate salt thereof; where n is zero, 1 or 2; X3 is H or Br, R1 is H, the residue of certain carboxy-protecting groups or the residue of an ester group readily hydrolyzable in vivo; one of R12 and R13 is H and the other is vinyl, certain aryl, alkylthio, alkylsulfonyl or certain heterocyclyl, aminomethyl, thiocarboxyamido or amidino groups; one of R2 and R3 is H and the other is as disclosed for the other of R12 and R13, or is Cl or CH2 OH, and R18 is H or certain acyl groups; intermediates useful in their production, methods for their preparation and use, and pharmaceutical compositions containing them.

The present invention relates to a process for preparing a methylene-bridged biscyclopentadienyl compound having the formula I ##STR1##where L are, independently of one another, identical or different and are each a cyclopentadienyl group, by reacting one or two cyclopentadienyl compounds LH with formaldehyde in monomeric, oligomeric or polymeric form or formaldehyde-generating reagents in the presence of at least one base and at least one phase transfer catalyst.

A process to separate a multi-component hydrocarbon stream which includes ethylene and other components with at least some of the components being present in a number of phases, is provided. The process includes in a first flash stage, flashing the multi-component hydrocarbon stream, from an elevated pressure and temperature to a pressure in the range of 10-18 bar(a), producing a first ethylene-containing vapor stream at a pressure in the range of 10-18 bar(a) and a multi-phase stream which includes some ethylene. In a second flash stage, the multi-phase stream is flashed to a pressure of less than 6 bar(a), producing a second vapor stream at a pressure of less than 6 bar(a) and a bottoms stream. The first ethylene-containing vapor stream is removed from the first flash stage, the second vapor stream is removed from the second flash stage and the bottoms stream is removed from the second flash stage.

The present invention relates to a catalyst composition for oligomerization of ethylene, comprising a chromium compound; a ligand of the general structure R1R2P—N(R3)—P(R4)—N(R5)—H, wherein R1, R2, R3, R4 and R5 are independently selected from halogen, amino, trimethylsilyl, C1-C10-alkyl, aryl and substituted aryl; a modifier containing organic or inorganic halide; and an activator or co-catalyst; and a process for oligomerization utilizing that catalyst.

Disclosed is a method for producing p-xylene and/or p-tolualdehyde with high yield through a short process using biomass resource-derived substances as raw materials. The method for producing p-xylene and/or p-tolualdehyde of the present invention comprises: a cyclization step of producing 4-methyl-3-cyclohexenecarboxaldehyde from isoprene and acrolein; and an aromatization step of producing p-xylene and/or p-tolualdehyde from 4-methyl-3-cyclohexenecarboxaldehyde by gas-phase flow reaction using a catalyst(s).

A process for the double-bond isomerization of olefins is disclosed. The process may include contacting a fluid stream comprising olefins with a fixed bed comprising an activated basic metal oxide isomerization catalyst to convert at least a portion of the olefin to its isomer. The isomerization catalysts disclosed herein may have a reduced cycle to cycle deactivation as compared to conventional catalysts, thus maintaining higher activity over the complete catalyst life cycle.

The invention is directed to a matting and/or frosting additive concentrate for polymers or polymer blends, said additive comprising to 75% by weight of hollow glass microspheres and 20 to 95% by weight of a liquid or waxy carrier material and optionally up to 75% by weight of additives.

Provided is a polymer material having superior water wettability and lubricity, and enabling persistence of the same by allowing the surfactant to be retained by the polymer material so as not to be gradually released. The present invention is directed to a polymer material including: [I] a polymer having a constitutional unit derived from (A) a polymerizable compound having an acryloyloxy group and not having a silicon atom; and [II] a surfactant. The content of the surfactant [II] is preferably 0.05% by mass or greater and 1% by mass or less. The surfactant [II] is preferably a nonionic surfactant having a polyoxyethylene group.

A method for preparing poly(butylene terephthalate-co-adipate) copolymer by polymerizing 1,4-butane diol, an adipic acid component and an aromatic dicarboxy compound derived from polyethylene terephthalate, and a polyester component residue in the presence of a catalyst under conditions effective to form poly(butylene terephthalate-co-adipate) oligomers; adding a quencher; and reacting the quenched poly(butylene terephthalate-co-adipate) oligomers with a chain extender.

A communication device includes a storage unit to store quotients and remainders associated with multiplication values obtained by multiplying a specified integer number, which is expressed in a form of (2β+α) where β is a positive integer number and α is a positive integer number other than integral multiples of 2, respectively, the quotients and the remainders being obtained by dividing the multiplication values by 2β, respectively, a first unit to divide a dividend by 2βand calculate a quotient and a remainder, a second unit to obtain a quotient, which corresponds to the remainder from the storage unit, and a third unit to determine that the data length of the packet data is normal, when a combination of the quotient and the remainder calculated by the first unit is in the storage unit.

A durable ambient light curable waterproof liquid rubber coating with volatile organic compound (VOC) content of less than 450 grams per liter made from ethylene propylene diene terpolymer (EPDM) in a solvent, a photoinitiator, an additive, pigments, and fillers, and a co-agent and a method for making the formulation, wherein the formulation is devoid of thermally activated accelerators.

A durable ambient light curable waterproof liquid rubber coating with volatile organic compound (VOC) content of less than 450 grams per liter made from ethylene propylene diene terpolymer (EPDM) in a solvent, a photoinitiator, an additive, pigments, and fillers, and a co-agent and a method for making the formulation, wherein the formulation is devoid of thermally activated accelerators.

Methods or preparing para-xylene from biomass by carrying out a Diels-Alder cycloaddition at controlled temperatures and activity ratios. Methods of preparing bio-terephthalic acid and bio-poly(ethylene terephthalate (bio-PET) are also disclosed, as well as products formed from bio-PET.

This invention provides a method related to the preparation of derivatives of poly(ethylene glycol), wherein the method comprises increasing the pH of an aqueous composition comprising a poly(ethylene glycol) bearing a —O—(CH2)n—CO2R3 functional group to result in an aqueous composition comprising a poly(ethylene glycol) bearing a —O—(CH2)n—CO2H functional group, wherein R3 is alkyl and (n) in each instance is 1-6.

The present invention relates to compositions for use in refrigeration, air-conditioning, and heat pump systems wherein the composition comprises E-1,2-difluoroethylene. The compositions of the present invention are useful in processes for producing cooling or heat, as heat transfer fluids, foam blowing agents, aerosol propellants, and power cycle working fluids.

The present invention relates to compositions for use in refrigeration, air-conditioning, and heat pump systems wherein the composition comprises Z-1,2-difluoroethylene (Z-HFO-1132a). The compositions of the present invention are useful in processes for producing cooling or heat, as heat transfer fluids, foam blowing agents, aerosol propellants, and power cycle working fluids.

It is to provide a technique for preventing aggregation or caking of menthol at the time of its keeping. In addition, it is to provide a lipid composition, which can show excellent thermal stability even in the case of high temperature at the time of keeping menthol and at the time of blending in a product, does not cause mutual aggregation of powders, particles, flakes, pellets, sticks and the like of menthol, and can maintain its shape retention property. From 10 to 50% by mass of sterols are added to and mixed with from 50 to 90% by mass of menthol, and the resultant is melted with heating. Paraffins may be further added and mixed in an amount of 20% by mass or less, based on the lipid composition.

(3S,5R)-3,8-dimethyl-5-(prop-1-en-2-yl)-octahydroazulen-1-ols, their use as flavor or fragrance ingredient, and a process of their production by oxidation in the presence of laccase.

Processes are disclosed for the conversion of a carbohydrate source to hexamethylenediamine (HMDA) and to intermediates useful for the production of hexamethylenediamine and other industrial chemicals. HMDA is produced by direct reduction of a furfural substrate to 1,6-hexanediol in the presence of hydrogen and a heterogeneous reduction catalyst comprising Pt or by indirect reduction of a furfural substrate to 1,6-hexanediol wherein 1,2,6-hexanetriol is produced by reduction of the furfural substrate in the presence of hydrogen and a catalyst comprising Pt and 1,2,6-hexanediol is then converted by hydrogenation in the presence of a catalyst comprising Pt to 1,6 hexanediol, each process then proceeding to the production of HMDA by known routes, such as amination of the 1,6 hexanediol. Catalysts useful for the direct and indirect production of 1,6-hexanediol are also disclosed.

A system, method, and computer program product for automatically generating equivalent assertions in different forms for different verification tools, which may be analog or digital. A user submits a set of logic assertions that, if unclocked, are converted to clocked assertions by generating and skewing clocks to ensure simulator uniformity. A stimulus is generated, perhaps at random, or input. A test bench is either input or synthesized. For each verification tool, the test bench is simulated and simulation results are captured. An assertion status difference engine evaluates result differences between the verification tools, and identifies and outputs differences indicating a significant inconsistency. Errors in verification tool implementation and user assertion coding can be detected. The simulators used may include SPICE and Verilog, or any other simulators that differ in type, simulation algorithm, input format, or vendor implementation.