2018/19 U19 EURO qualifying round draw made
The 2018/19 UEFA European Under-19 Championship qualifying round draw has been made in Nyon, starting the road to the July 2019 finals in Armenia.
U19 EURO qualifying round report
The 13 qualifying round groups are complete, with 26 teams through to join top seeds Portugal and Germany in the elite round.
U19 qualifying round latest
See who is through after October's mini-tournaments; the remaining groups run from 13 to 19 November.
All October's qualifying results
Switzerland, England, Spain, Denmark, Germany, Netherlands and France extended their 100% starts.
Draws for the third qualifying round of UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League
2018/19 U17 EURO qualifying round draw made
The road to the 16-team 2018/19 U17 EURO finals in the Republic of Ireland has begun with the qualifying round draw made, involving 52 of the hopefuls.
U17 EURO qualifying round report
2019/20 U17 qualifying round draw
2018/19 Women's U19 EURO qualifying round draw
The 2018/19 qualifying round draw has been made in Nyon involving 48 of the record entry of 51, with Liechtenstein making their debut in a women's football competition.
Women's U19 EURO qualifying round report
The elite round line-up is complete with best third-placed teams Greece and Bulgaria joining the top two in each group.
#UWCL qualifying round report
Breidablik, Mitrovica, Hibernian, Minsk, ŽFK Spartak, BIIK-Kazygurt, Braga, Anderlecht, Twente and Vllaznia made it through.
Women's U19 qualifying round report
See which 28 teams are through to the elite round after the 11 qualifying round groups ended.
Women's EURO 2021 qualifying: how it stands
See how the groups are unfolding and how the 15 sides to join England in the finals will be decided.
Futsal World Cup qualifying draws made
Spain will travel to the Netherlands as they begin their bid to win a third title while debutants Denmark and Wales will meet after the preliminary and main round draws were made.
Qualifying top scorer: Eriksen finishes third
Poland striker Robert Lewandowski finished top scorer in the European Qualifiers with a record 16 goals ahead of Cristiano Ronaldo, Romelu Lukaku and Christian Eriksen.
UEFA EURO 2020 qualifying schedule: fixtures, results
Glorifying God through an unexpected gift
An OMer in Kazakhstan tells of a Kazakh friend and believer who, finding herself pregnant again before she is ready, wrestles with cultural norms.
Book Review: Simplifying Corona – A timely book that satisfies curiosity of children about pandemic
A timely book that explains the pandemic to children, helping satisfy their curiosity about it.
Dimensions to Verifying a USB4 Design
Verification of a USB4 router design is not just about USB4 but also about the inclusion of the three other major protocols namely, USB3, DisplayPort (DP), and PCI Express (PCIe). These protocols can be simultaneously tunneled through a USB4 router. Put in simple terms, such tunneling involves the conversion of the respective native USB3, DP, or PCIe protocol traffic into the USB4 transport layer packets, which are tunneled through a USB4 fabric, and converted back into the respective original native protocol traffic.
It may sound simple but is perhaps not.
There are several aspects in a router that come into picture to carry out this task of conversion of native protocol traffic, route it to the intended destination, and then convert it back to the original form. Some of those are the USB3, DP and PCIe protocol adapters, transport mechanism using routing, flow control, paths, path set-up and teardown, control and configuration, configuration spaces.
That is not all. There are core USB4 specific logical layer intricacies as well, which carry out the tasks of ensuring that all the USB4 ports and links are working as desired to provide up to 40Gbps speed and that the USB4 traffic flows through out the fabric in the intended way. These bring on the table features like High Speed link, ordered sets, lane initialization, lane adapter state machine, low power, lane bonding, RS-FEC, side band channel, sleep and wake, error checking.
All of these put together give rise to a very large verification space against which a USB4 router design should be verified. If we were to break down this space it can be broadly put in the following major dimensions,
- Protocol Adapter Layer
- USB3 tunneling
- DP tunneling
- PCIe tunneling
- Host Interface Adapter Layer
- Transport Layer
- Flow control
- Routing
- Paths
- Configuration layer and control packet protocol
- Configuration spaces
- Logical Layer
The independent verification of these dimensions is not all that would qualify the design as verified. They have to be verified in various combinations of each other too. Overall, all the parts of a USB4 router system need to be working together coherently.
For example, the following diagram depicts the various layers that a USB4 router may comprise of,
A USB4 router or a domain of routers does not work on its own. There is a Connection Manager per domain, which is a software-based entity managing a domain. A router provides the various capabilities for a Connection Manager to carry out its responsibilities of managing a domain.
It would not be an exaggeration to say that the spectrum of verification of a USB4 router ranges from the very minute details of logical layer to the system-level like multiple dependencies as the whole USB4 system is brought up layer by layer, step-by-step.
Cadence has a mature Verification IP solution that can help in the verification of USB4 designs. Cadence has taken an active part in the working group that defined the USB4 specification and has created a comprehensive Verification IP that is being used by multiple members in the last two years.
If you plan to have a USB4 compatible design, you can reduce the risk of adopting a new technology by using our proven and mature USB4 Verification IP. Please contact your Cadence local account team for more details and to get connected.
Verifying Power Intent in Analog and Mixed-Signal Designs Using Formal Methods
Analog and Mixed-signal (AMS) designs are increasingly using active power management to minimize power consumption. Typical mixed-signal design uses several power domains and operate in a dozen or more power modes including multiple functional, standby and test modes. To save power, parts of design not active in a mode are shut down or may operate at reduced supply voltage when high performance is not required. These and other low power techniques are applied on both analog and digital parts of the design. Digital designers capture power intent in standard formats like Common Power Format (CPF), IEEE1801 (aka Unified Power Format or UPF) or Liberty and apply it top-down throughout design, verification and implementation flows. Analog parts are often designed bottom-up in schematic without upfront defined power intent. Verifying that low power intent is implemented correctly in mixed-signal design is very challenging. If not discovered early, errors like wrongly connected power nets, missing level shifters or isolations cells can cause costly rework or even silicon re-spin.
Mixed-signal designers rely on simulation for functional verification. Although still necessary for electrical and performance verification, running simulation on so many power modes is not an effective verification method to discover low power errors. It would be nice to augment simulation with formal low power verification but a specification of power intent for analog/mixed-signal blocs is missing. So how do we obtain it? Can we “extract” it from already built analog circuit? Fortunately, yes we can, and we will describe an automated way to do so!
Virtuoso Power Manager is new tool released in the Virtuoso IC6.1.8 platform which is capable of managing power intent in an Analog/MS design which is captured in Virtuoso Schematic Editor. In setup phase, the user identifies power and ground nets and registers special devices like level shifters and isolation cells. The user has the option to import power intent into IEEE1801 format, applicable for top level or any of the blocks in design. Virtuoso Power Manager uses this information to traverse the schematic and extract complete power intent for the entire design. In the final stage, Virtuoso Power Manager exports the power intent in IEEE1801 format as an input to the formal verification tool (Cadence Conformal-LP) for static verification of power intent.
Cadence and Infineon have been collaborating on the requirements and validation of the Virtuoso Power Manager tool and Low Power verification solution on real designs. A summary of collaboration results were presented at the DVCon conference in Munich, in October of 2018. Please look for the paper in the conference proceedings for more details. Alternately, can view our Cadence webinar on Verifying Low-Power Intent in Mixed-Signal Design Using Formal Method for more information.
Demystifying bank solar asset management with U.S. Bank, Wells Fargo, and kWh Analytics
Bank asset management is known to be an opaque subject. Thankfully, Diana Weis and Sarah Disch, each co-heads of the Solar Asset Management groups at their organizations, U.S. Bank and Wells Fargo Bank respectively, shared their expertise with me at SAMNA 2019. They each have over a decade of experience in solar finance. Here are three key takeaways bank asset management experts Weis and Disch shared:
Lawbite: Less is not more when it comes to Qualifying Long Term Agreements
Bracken Hill Court at Ackworth Management Company Ltd v Dobson [2018] UKUT 333 (LC) The Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber) has upheld an appeal from a management company and determined that contracts of less than 12 months are not Qualifying Long T...
Case E-16/16, Fosen-Linjen AS and AtB: An EFTA Court case clarifying key aspects of EU procurement legislation
Introduction Relevant facts The Court’s decision Whether the Remedies Directive permits the imposition of conditions for claiming damages Clarifying the burden of proof when claiming damages for loss of profit Grounds on which a contracting...
How Covid-19 is de-mystifying online learning
In an interview with Natasa Meli, SACAP’s Head of Online Campus, she discusses how resistance to online learning has changed.
Amplifying the Connected Lifestyle: Behind Samsung and HARMAN’s Digital Revolution
Since Samsung’s acquisition of HARMAN less than two years ago, the two companies have worked closely to create and implement connective technologies that align with what consumers want today – and in the future. As technology grows ever more capable,...
Ancient Earth reveals terrifying consequences of future global warming
Lessons from the deep past reveal that human-induced warming could create more extreme conditions than Earth has ever experienced
Umami: How to maximise the savoury taste that makes food so satisfying
Food tastes satisfying thanks to the amino acid glutamate, which stimulates the umami taste. Sam Wong explains how to boost it in your recipes
Gamifying hate: How alt-right extremists recruit and mobilise online
Julia Ebner infiltrated the hidden forums that extremists use. Her experiences lay bare how they hijack social media and video games to spread hate – and how to beat them
Amplifying the Connected Driving Experience with the Cloud
Cloud technology, big data and artificial intelligence are empowering automakers to create in-car experiences that rival the at-home experience for end users. Automakers themselves can leverage these technologies over time to consistently and ...
Gamifying hate: How alt-right extremists recruit and mobilise online
Julia Ebner infiltrated the hidden forums that extremists use. Her experiences lay bare how they hijack social media and video games to spread hate – and how to beat them
Toward an Evolutionarily Appropriate Null Model: Jointly Inferring Demography and Purifying Selection [Population and Evolutionary Genetics]
The question of the relative evolutionary roles of adaptive and nonadaptive processes has been a central debate in population genetics for nearly a century. While advances have been made in the theoretical development of the underlying models, and statistical methods for estimating their parameters from large-scale genomic data, a framework for an appropriate null model remains elusive. A model incorporating evolutionary processes known to be in constant operation, genetic drift (as modulated by the demographic history of the population) and purifying selection, is lacking. Without such a null model, the role of adaptive processes in shaping within- and between-population variation may not be accurately assessed. Here, we investigate how population size changes and the strength of purifying selection affect patterns of variation at "neutral" sites near functional genomic components. We propose a novel statistical framework for jointly inferring the contribution of the relevant selective and demographic parameters. By means of extensive performance analyses, we quantify the utility of the approach, identify the most important statistics for parameter estimation, and compare the results with existing methods. Finally, we reanalyze genome-wide population-level data from a Zambian population of Drosophila melanogaster, and find that it has experienced a much slower rate of population growth than was inferred when the effects of purifying selection were neglected. Our approach represents an appropriate null model, against which the effects of positive selection can be assessed.
Identifying and Classifying Shared Selective Sweeps from Multilocus Data [Population and Evolutionary Genetics]
Positive selection causes beneficial alleles to rise to high frequency, resulting in a selective sweep of the diversity surrounding the selected sites. Accordingly, the signature of a selective sweep in an ancestral population may still remain in its descendants. Identifying signatures of selection in the ancestor that are shared among its descendants is important to contextualize the timing of a sweep, but few methods exist for this purpose. We introduce the statistic SS-H12, which can identify genomic regions under shared positive selection across populations and is based on the theory of the expected haplotype homozygosity statistic H12, which detects recent hard and soft sweeps from the presence of high-frequency haplotypes. SS-H12 is distinct from comparable statistics because it requires a minimum of only two populations, and properly identifies and differentiates between independent convergent sweeps and true ancestral sweeps, with high power and robustness to a variety of demographic models. Furthermore, we can apply SS-H12 in conjunction with the ratio of statistics we term
Machine Learning Techniques for Classifying the Mutagenic Origins of Point Mutations [Methods, Technology, [amp ] Resources]
There is increasing interest in developing diagnostics that discriminate individual mutagenic mechanisms in a range of applications that include identifying population-specific mutagenesis and resolving distinct mutation signatures in cancer samples. Analyses for these applications assume that mutagenic mechanisms have a distinct relationship with neighboring bases that allows them to be distinguished. Direct support for this assumption is limited to a small number of simple cases, e.g., CpG hypermutability. We have evaluated whether the mechanistic origin of a point mutation can be resolved using only sequence context for a more complicated case. We contrasted single nucleotide variants originating from the multitude of mutagenic processes that normally operate in the mouse germline with those induced by the potent mutagen N-ethyl-N-nitrosourea (ENU). The considerable overlap in the mutation spectra of these two samples make this a challenging problem. Employing a new, robust log-linear modeling method, we demonstrate that neighboring bases contain information regarding point mutation direction that differs between the ENU-induced and spontaneous mutation variant classes. A logistic regression classifier exhibited strong performance at discriminating between the different mutation classes. Concordance between the feature set of the best classifier and information content analyses suggest our results can be generalized to other mutation classification problems. We conclude that machine learning can be used to build a practical classification tool to identify the mutation mechanism for individual genetic variants. Software implementing our approach is freely available under an open-source license.
Modifying Provider Vitamin D Screening Behavior in Primary Care
Clinical evidence shows minimal benefit to vitamin D screening and subsequent treatment in the general population. This study aims to assess the effectiveness of 2 light-touch interventions on reducing vitamin D test orders.
The outcomes were weekly average vitamin D rates, computed from adult primary care encounters (preventive or nonpreventive) with a family medicine (FM) or internal medicine (IM) provider from June 14, 2018 through December 12, 2018. We conducted an interrupted time series analysis and estimated the cost impact of the interventions. The interventions consisted of an educational memo (August 9, 2018) distributed to providers and removal of the vitamin D test (FM: August 15, 2018; IM: October 17, 2018) from the providers’ quick order screen in the electronic health record. Change in order rates were analyzed among physicians (MDs and DOs), physician assistants (PAs), and nurse practitioners (NPs).
There were 587,506 primary care encounters (FM = 367,947; IM = 219,559). Vitamin D order rates decreased from 6.9% (FM = 5.1%; IM = 9.9%) to 5.2% (FM = 4% [P < .01], IM = 7.9% [P < .01]). For FM, the vitamin D test order rate continued to fall at a 0.08% per week rate after the interventions (end of study: 2.73%). The education intervention showed a relative decrease in each provider type (FM-physician = 16% [P < .01], FM-PA = 47% [P < .01], FM-NP = 20% [P = .01], IM-physician = 14% [P = .02], IM-PA = 52% [P < .01], IM-NP = 34% [P = .04]). Annualized savings was approximately 1 million dollars.
Emailed evidence-based provider education may be an effective tool for modifying providers’ vitamin D test ordering behavior. The lack of the effectiveness of the vitamin D test removal from the quick order screen found for IM highlights the challenges facing simple electronic health record interventions when multiple alternate ordering pathways exist.
A Simple Clinical Tool for Stratifying Risk of Clinically Significant CKD after Nephrectomy: Development and Multinational Validation
Clinically significant CKD following surgery for kidney cancer is associated with increased morbidity and mortality, but identifying patients at increased CKD risk remains difficult. Simple methods to stratify risk of clinically significant CKD after nephrectomy are needed.
To develop a tool for stratifying patients’ risk of CKD arising after surgery for kidney cancer, we tested models in a population-based cohort of 699 patients with kidney cancer in Queensland, Australia (2012–2013). We validated these models in a population-based cohort of 423 patients from Victoria, Australia, and in patient cohorts from single centers in Queensland, Scotland, and England. Eligible patients had two functioning kidneys and a preoperative eGFR ≥60 ml/min per 1.73 m2. The main outcome was incident eGFR <45 ml/min per 1.73 m2 at 12 months postnephrectomy. We used prespecified predictors—age ≥65 years old, diabetes mellitus, preoperative eGFR, and nephrectomy type (partial/radical)—to fit logistic regression models and grouped patients according to degree of risk of clinically significant CKD (negligible, low, moderate, or high risk).
Absolute risks of stage 3b or higher CKD were <2%, 3% to 14%, 21% to 26%, and 46% to 69% across the four strata of negligible, low, moderate, and high risk, respectively. The negative predictive value of the negligible risk category was 98.9% for clinically significant CKD. The c statistic for this score ranged from 0.84 to 0.88 across derivation and validation cohorts.
Our simple scoring system can reproducibly stratify postnephrectomy CKD risk on the basis of readily available parameters. This clinical tool’s quantitative assessment of CKD risk may be weighed against other considerations when planning management of kidney tumors and help inform shared decision making between clinicians and patients.
Establishing and quantifying the causal linkage between drainage and earthworks performance for Highways England
Transportation infrastructure owners manage an array of different asset types such as bridges, road pavements, earthworks and drainage. Currently, most organization management procedures are siloed by asset type; however, there are important interactions between these asset groups that need to be managed in a cross-asset way. Although these interactions are known, there is little or no quantification of these interactions. For the first time, this paper quantifies that 74% of Highways England's earthwork failures are a result of drainage-related problems, either the lack of drainage infrastructure or the poor performance of it. The analysis undertaken is an important first step not only in moving towards more connected asset management planning for earthworks and drainage, but to also provide guidance for other owners of earthwork infrastructure assets to improve their strategic asset management procedures.
Thematic collection: This article is part of the Ground-related risk to transportation infrastructure collection available at https://www.lyellcollection.org/cc/Ground-related-risk-to-transportation-infrastructure
Quantifying the Vial-Capping Process: Reexamination Using Micro-Computed Tomography
A vial-capping process for lyophilization stopper configurations was previously quantified using residual seal force (RSF). A correlation between RSF and container closure integrity (CCI) was established, and component positional offsets were identified to be the primary source of variability in RSF measurements.
To gain insight into the effects of stopper geometry on CCI, serum stoppers with the same rubber formulation were investigated in this study. Unlike lyophilization stoppers that passed CCI (per helium leak testing) even with RSF of 0 N owing to their excellent valve seal, serum stoppers consistently failed CCI when RSF was <15.8 N. When the plug was removed, both types of stoppers exhibited a comparable critical lower RSF limit (19–20 N), below which CCI could not be maintained. When CCI was retested at later time points (up to 6 mo), some previously failed vials passed CCI, suggesting that CCI improvement might be related to rubber relaxation (viscous flow), which can fill minor imperfections on the vial finish.
To confirm component positional offsets are the primary sources of RSF variability, a novel quantification tool—micro-computed tomography (micro-CT)—was used in this study. Micro-CT provided images for quantification of positional offsets of the cap and stopper that directly correlated with RSF fluctuations. Serum stoppers and lyophilization stoppers are comparable in RSF variations, although lyophilization stoppers are more robust in CCI. The use of micro-CT provides a nondestructive and innovative tool in quantitatively analyzing component features of capped vials that would otherwise be difficult to investigate.
Identifying Outcomes Important to Patients with Glomerular Disease and Their Caregivers
Shared decision making in patients with glomerular disease remains challenging because outcomes important to patients remain largely unknown. We aimed to identify and prioritize outcomes important to patients and caregivers and to describe reasons for their choices.
We purposively sampled adult patients with glomerular disease and their caregivers from Australia, Hong Kong, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Participants identified, discussed, and ranked outcomes in focus groups using the nominal group technique; a relative importance score (between zero and one) was calculated. Qualitative data were analyzed thematically.
Across 16 focus groups, 134 participants (range, 19–85 years old; 51% women), including 101 patients and 33 caregivers, identified 58 outcomes. The ten highest-ranked outcomes were kidney function (importance score of 0.42), mortality (0.29), need for dialysis or transplant (0.22), life participation (0.18), fatigue (0.17), anxiety (0.13), family impact (0.12), infection and immunity (0.12), ability to work (0.11), and BP (0.11). Three themes explained the reasons for these rankings: constraining day-to-day experience, impaired agency and control over health, and threats to future health and family.
Patients with glomerular disease and their caregivers highly prioritize kidney health and survival, but they also prioritize life participation, fatigue, anxiety, and family impact.
Identifying real estate investment opportunities post-pandemic
Premier industry experts also share an overview of the first quarter of the year, as well as brief market forecasts.
Gamifying hate: How alt-right extremists recruit and mobilise online
Julia Ebner infiltrated the hidden forums that extremists use. Her experiences lay bare how they hijack social media and video games to spread hate – and how to beat them
COVID-19 live updates: People defying public health orders a concern in north
The ongoing COVID-19 outbreak in La Loche is being attributed to citizens who've ignored physical distancing measures.
The Press Is Amplifying a Dangerous Know-Nothing Ideology
Eric Alterman
The post The Press Is Amplifying a Dangerous Know-Nothing Ideology appeared first on The Nation.
Quiz: Charles Ingram calls ITV drama 'terrifyingly accurate' and 'excruciatingly enjoyable'
Former 'Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?' contestant also branded original host Tarrant a 'liar'
Music Canada applauds Government of Canada for clarifying CERB guidelines for artists and musicians
April 16, 2020, Toronto: Music Canada welcomes the recent clarification from the Federal Government on the guidelines for eligibility for the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB). Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has responded to concerns around the preliminary rules that excluded people working reduced hours. These needed changes will help support artists and musicians who in […]
The post Music Canada applauds Government of Canada for clarifying CERB guidelines for artists and musicians appeared first on Music Canada.
Arsenal contract talks with Aubameyang 'terrifying' as striker is tipped to join Manchester City
Charlie Nicholas says Arsenal's inability to convince big stars to extend their contracts is "terrifying" but doubts that Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang actually wants to leave Emirates Stadium.
Angus Taylor to apologise to Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore over 'not clarifying' figures
The Federal Energy Minister says he will apologise to Sydney's Lord Mayor for "not clarifying" figures he used to criticise her over the council's travel costs.