1. Senators Release Water Infrastructure Legislation

The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, chaired by Senator John Barrasso (R-Wy.) and Ranking Member Tom Carper (D-Del.), released two NECA-supported water infrastructure bills, the America’s Water Infrastructure Act of 2020 (AWIA 2020) and Drinking Water Infrastructure Act of 2020.

NECA’s Look Ahead: These bipartisan bills address the critical need to secure water infrastructure. The are successor bills to the NECA-supported America’s Water Infrastructure Act of 2018 that easily passed through Congress and was signed into law in 2018. NECA will continue to monitor this important legislation as it moves through Congress.

• Read the section-by-section of the draft AWIA 2020 here.
• Read the section-by-section of the Drinking Water Infrastructure Act here.

2. Senate Returns to Washington Next Week

The Senate is scheduled to return to D.C. on Monday, May 4, 2020, to begin filling judicial vacancies and continue work on new coronavirus legislation. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), released the following statement on this decision. The House has decided to postpone returning until further notice. Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) is expected to release an anticipated return date soon.  

NECA’s Look Ahead: NECA looks forward to the Senate being in session to work on additional coronavirus legislation. The government affairs team continues to advocate on behalf of our contractors during this period.

3. Register Today for the Upcoming Government Affairs Webinar

On May 5, 2020 at 2 p.m. EDT, NECA’s Government Affairs team will brief participants on NECA’s requests for Congress in the Phase IV coronavirus response legislation. During this webinar, participants can take action and send a letter to their Member of Congress requesting help for the electrical construction industry to remain viable during this crisis. Participants will also hear messages from key Members of Congress on the current legislative response to the coronavirus pandemic. 

Register Today!

NECA’s Look Ahead: NECA is committed to ensuring the voices of our industry are heard during this time. We continue to advocate for the needs our contractors daily and remain devoted to keeping our members well informed on the policies impacting them.  

Special thanks to Mark Huston of Lone Star Electric for renewing his PLC membership!

Personal Contributions = 147
Corporate Contributions = 361

NECAPAC Fund to 5-8-20 = $134,517
ADMIN Fund to 5-8-20 = $50,535

Total Contributions to Date = 508
Total Dollars to Date = $185,052

1. PPP Safe Harbor Deadline Extended

On May 5, 2020, the U.S. Treasury Department extended the safe harbor date for those that applied for a PPP loan prior to April 24, 2020. The original date, May 7, 2020, has been pushed back to May 14, 2020. Borrowers will not need to apply for the extension and additional guidance on how the SBA will review the certification will be provided shortly. NECA released the following alert pertaining to the extension and forthcoming guidance.

NECA’s Look Ahead: NECA is pleased by this extension after sending a letter to the Treasury department last week. We continue to advocate for NECA contractors as we move forward during this time.

2. Bill Introduced to Make 501(c)(6) organizations Eligible for PPP Loans

On May 5, 2020, Representatives Chris Papas (D-NH), Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA), and Greg Steube (R-FL) introduced H.R.6697 – “Local Chamber, Tourism, and 501(c)(6) Protection Act of 2020”. This NECA supported legislation would expand the Paycheck Protection Program by allowing 501(c)(6) organizations, such as NECA Chapters, to access the Paycheck Protection Program to meet payroll and other necessary expenses during this crisis. 

NECA’s Look Ahead: NECA will encourage the inclusion of this bill in any future COVID-19 relief package along with additional PPP reforms such as:

• Extending the PPP to more than eight weeks or allow companies to apply again after the first eight-week period ends.

• Increasing the qualified expenses covered under the Paycheck Protection Program to include nonpayroll expenses.

3. NECA Requests Infrastructure Support in Next COVID-19 Bill

NECA joined 71 trade associations and labor unions in a coalition letter to President Trump to encourage continued support for infrastructure in the next Phase of COVID-19 legislation.

NECA’s Look Ahead: NECA continues to advocate before the Administration and Congressional leaders for the inclusions of major infrastructure investment as a corner stone for the next phase of COVID-19 legislation, often referred to as Phase IV.

Heightens performance of information workers in the digital workplace?

NECA 2020 Safety Professionals Conference Postponed Until October aconstanza Thu, 04/30/2020 - 21:27

Against the backdrop of instances of independent and non-executive directors coming under the scanner for alleged corporate misdoings, the ministry has sent out a circular to its Regional Directors, Registrars of Companies and official liquidators with respect to prosecution proceedings. Any such proceedings must be initiated after receiving due sanction from the ministry.

The Justice Department announced today that Juan Carlos Pagán Bonilla (Pagan), 21, and Sean Díaz de León (Diaz), 19, have been charged by a criminal complaint in federal district court with carjacking and with using and carrying a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence in connection with the death of two transgender individuals. Pagan and Diaz are now in federal custody.

Are you one of those people who have given their camera a name? If the answer is yes, .. this might be one of the most normal things in the world. Today i’d like to explore the emotional relationship between us and our photographic machines. Special guest: Monika Andrae. Photo by William Daigneault Links: Photo … Continue reading "883 The Man Machine Connection"

The post 883 The Man Machine Connection appeared first on PHOTOGRAPHY TIPS FROM THE TOP FLOOR.

At just 33 years of age, Juan Alvarado was already among the top echelon of trainers in his native Dominican Republic. He had trained a Triple Crown winner, Dr. Calderon, in 1985, and had saddled the winners of some of the country's most prestigious stakes races. But in 1992, tragedy struck the local horse racing […]

The post Breeders’ Cup Presents Connections: ‘Sometimes You Need To Take The Pride And Put It In The Back’ appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

The national attention focused on Fonner Park over the past month hasn't encouraged the Nebraska racetrack's perennial leading rider Jake Olesiak to quit his day job. Olesiak works 40 hours per week as a supervisor at an ethanol plant, E. Energy Adams, located near his home in Firth, nearly two hours away from Fonner in […]

The post Breeders’ Cup Presents Connections: ‘Lucky’ Jake Olesiak Working Overtime At Fonner appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Progress on a multi-use Greenway trail linking Grand Canyon National Park with the gateway town of Tusayan continues. The eight mile trail passes through both Grand Canyon National Park and Kaibab National https://www.nps.gov/grca/learn/news/progress-on-multi-use-trail-connecting-grand-canyon-national-park-with-gateway-town-of-tusayan-continues.htm

The procedure, which has only been conducted a few times in history, could be a groundbreaking new treatment for patients suffering from lung cancer.

The post In a Revolutionary Medical Treatment, Man’s Lung Was Removed, Cleaned, and Replaced—No Transplant Necessary appeared first on Good News Network.

If you need some help to be happier during these trying times, these studies show various ways that loving from a distance can help.

The post How to Be Happier During COVID: Decades of Science Shows That Gratitude, Love, and Connection Can Save Your Life appeared first on Good News Network.

Despite these Indiana neighbors being forced to stay isolated during the COVID-19 crisis, they have come up with a clever way of staying connected.

The post This Neighborhood Has Been Staying Connected During Social Distancing With Creative ‘I Spy’ Game appeared first on Good News Network.

A logic version of Connect Four using just CSS3 for two players.

Millions of miles of highway crisscross the United States. Highways fragment the landscape, affecting the distribution of animal populations and limiting the ability of individuals to disperse between those populations. Moreover, animal-vehicle collisions are a serious hazard to wildlife, not to mention people.

The H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest (Andrews Forest) is both an idea and a particular place. It is an experimental landscape, a natural resource, and an ecosystem that has long inspired many people. On the landscape of the Andrews Forest, some of those people built the foundation for a collaborative community that fosters closer communication among the scientists and managers who struggle to understand how that ecosystem functions and to identify optimal management strategies for this and other national forest lands in the Pacific Northwest. People who worked there generated new ideas about forest ecology and related ecosystems. Working together in this place, they generated ideas, developed research proposals, and considered the implications of their work. They functioned as individuals in a science-based community that emerged and evolved over time. Individuals acted in a confluence of personalities, personal choices, and power relations. In the context of this unique landscape and serendipitous opportunities, those people created an exceptionally potent learning environment for science and management. Science, in this context, was largely a story of personalities, not simply a matter of test tubes, experimental watersheds, or top-down management sponsored by a large federal agency or university. Ideas flowed in a constructed environment that eventually linked people, place, and community with an emerging vision of ecosystem management. Drawing largely on oral history, this book explores the inner workings and structure of that science-based community. Science themes, management issues, specific research programs, the landscape itself, and the people who work there are all indispensable components of a complex web of community, the Andrews group. The first four chapters explore the origins of the Forest Service decision to establish an experimental forest in the west-central Oregon Cascades in 1948 and the people and priorities that transformed that field site into a prominent facility for interdisciplinary research in the coniferous biome of the International Biological Programme in the 1970s. Later chapters explore emerging links between long-term research and interdisciplinary science at the Andrews Forest. Those links shaped the group's response to concerns about logging in old-growth forests during the 1980s and 1990s. Concluding chapters explore how scientists in the group tried to adapt to new roles as public policy consultants in the 1990s without losing sight of the community values that they considered crucial to their earlier accomplishments.

Stop by the message board on the ALL ACCESS Country section, the Country Forum. It's fun to read and even more fun to tell everyone what you think. ou can also be a part of the ALL ACCESS … more

On WEDNESDAY (5/6) iHEARTMEDIA CONNECTICUT celebrated NATIONAL NURSE'S DAY as well as continued their food drive efforts across the state. Working alongside HARTFORD HEALTHCARE, … more

NIELSEN HOLDINGS has filed an initial Form 10 Registration Statement with the U.S. SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION in connection with the Company's proposed separation of the NIELSEN … more

Research Highlights: Adding cilostazol, an antiplatelet medication for leg pain, to other drugs tended to prevent re-blockage of carotid artery stents within two years. This is the first trial to show potential effectiveness of medical management for...

DALLAS, April 29, 2020 — As the shortage of many goods, resources and services grows during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the American Heart Association, the leading nonprofit organization focused on a world of healthier lives for all, has launched ...

If you're a new iPhone owner, one of the first things you'll want to learn how to do is connect your iPhone to a wireless network. That's because there are certain times when your cellular data connection just won't cut it, even if you're lucky enough to have an unlimited data plan. Using Facetime, downloading content from iTunes, and even surfing the web can be painfully slow without a wi-fi connection.

Fortunately, it's a relatively simple process to connect an iPhone to a wi-fi network. Just be sure to commit this process to memory, because it's something you'll need to do over and over again, unless you set your iPhone to automatically detect and prompt you to connect to wi-fi networks.

Here's how to connect an iPhone to a wi-fi network:

1. From the home screen, tap Settings.
   
   
2. Tap Wi-Fi. The window shown below appears.
   
   
3. Verify that the Wi-Fi slider is in the On position. This allows your iPhone to detect and connect to wireless networks.
   
   
4. Tap the wireless network you want to join. If the network is not password protected, the iPhone will connect immediately.
   
   
5. If the wireless network you selected is protected with a password, you will be prompted to enter a password, as shown below. Enter the password and then click Join to connect to the network.
   
   
6. If the wireless network you selected is protected with a captive portal, you will be prompted to enter a password, or a username and password combination. These are increasingly common in hotels, airports, and on college campuses.

Congratulations! Your iPhone is now connected to the wi-fi network. From now on, the iPhone will automatically connect to this network when it is in range. If you accidentally selected the wrong wi-fi network, you can tell your iPhone to forget it.

How to Tell if Your iPhone is Connected to a Wi-Fi Network

There are several indicators you can use to verify that your iPhone is connected to a wi-fi network. The easiest way to visually check to the status bar in the upper-left corner of the iPhone's screen. The wi-fi symbol is displayed when you are connected to a network, as shown below.

If you're curious about which wi-fi network the iPhone is connected to, open the Wi-Fi settings. The network name is displayed in the sidebar, and a checkmark is also displayed next to the connected network, as shown above.

Related Articles

• Tell Your iPhone to Forget a Wireless Network
• Make Your iPhone Ask to Join Wi-Fi Networks

Meet Your Macinstructor

Matt Cone, the author of Master Your Mac, has been a Mac user for over 20 years. A former ghost writer for some of Apple's most notable instructors, Cone founded Macinstruct in 1999, a site with OS X tutorials that boasts hundreds of thousands of unique visitors per month. You can email him at: matt@macinstruct.com.

CEDAR RAPIDS — Like other members of the United States House, the “new normal” for Rep. Dave Loebsack involves a lot of time on the phone and in video conferences.

Although the Senate returned to Washington this past week, the House may not return to the Capitol until mid-May. As representatives work from their districts, many face the same challenges as their constituents who are working from home via various phone and video meeting platforms.

“They’re clunky, difficult, frustrating at times,” the 2nd District Democrat said after a 90-minute Energy and Commerce Committee teleconference meeting, “but we can get a lot of things done that way without necessarily going into Washington. It’s not the same by any means ... but I think we can get a lot of our work done that we have to get done even though were not there.”

If there’s an upside to the telecommuting downside, it’s that the poor connections, dropped calls and sometimes spotty internet signals highlight an issue Loebsack has been working on — Congress and the country need better broadband connectivity. A member of the Communications and Technology subcommittee of the Energy and Commerce Committee, which has jurisdiction over telecommunications issues, Loebsack also serves as a co-chair of the Rural Broadband Caucus.

In one meeting, Loebsack said, a fellow committee member was unable to ask questions because the Wi-Fi signal at his home outside of a southwestern city was so poor.

“So I think we’re going to make some progress” convincing congressional colleagues of the need to connect all Americans to reliable and affordable broadband internet, Loebsack said.

“In times like these, when families are at home, millions of K-12 students do not have access to the high-speed internet needed to take classes and complete their assignments online,” he said in an announcement with House Majority Whip James Clyburn and others of a House Democratic plan to connect all Americans to high-speed internet.

When the transmission of COVID-19 slows, the need for high-speed internet connectivity will remain as well as the need for Congress to provide incentives for internet service providers to close the “broadband gap” by extending service to the las mile in rural areas and eliminate what he called “internet deserts” that exist in cities.

The plan calls for an investment of $80 billion over five years for internet infrastructure and another $5 billion over five years for low-interest financing of projects.

With more reliable connectivity, Congress could consider remote voting at times like this when members don’t want to gather in Washington. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has been cool to the idea, but Loebsack thinks members are “more open” to voting remotely.

“But we have to make sure that it’s completely secure, that the system can’t get hacked, and that votes are recorded properly,” he said.

Remote voting may be a may be a generational issue, “but I think this is doable.”

“I’m not making that prediction, but I would not be shocked if we move in that direction, especially the longer this (isolation) goes on,” Loebsack said.

Comments: (319) 398-8375; james.lynch@thegazette.com

Facebook is not only a social media giant, the company also provides valuable tools for broadcasting. Today we release a connection to Facebook, which allows to use the Facebook tools for video/audio production and publishing within Auphonic and our connected services.

• Use Facebook for live streaming, then import, process and distribute the audio/video with Auphonic.
• Post your Auphonic audio or video productions directly to the news feed of your Facebook Page or User.
• Use Facebook as a general media hosting service and share the link or embed the audio/video on any webpage (also visible to non-Facebook users).

Connect to Facebook

First you have to connect to a Facebook account at our External Services Page, click on the "Facebook" button.

Select if you want to connect to your personal Facebook User or to a Facebook Page:

It is always possible to remove or edit the connection in your Facebook Settings (Tab Business Integrations).

Import (Live) Videos from Facebook to Auphonic

Facebook Live is an easy (and free) way to stream live videos:

We implemented an interface to use Facebook as an Incoming External Service. Please select a (live or non-live) video from your Facebook Page/User as the source of a production and then process it with Auphonic:

This workflow allows you to use Facebook for live streaming, import and process the audio/video with Auphonic, then publish a podcast and video version of your live video to any of our connected services.

Export from Auphonic to Facebook

Similar to Youtube, it is possible to use Facebook for media file hosting.
Please add your Facebook Page/User as an External Service in your Productions or Presets to upload the Auphonic results directly to Facebook:

• Distribution Settings
  • Post to News Feed: The exported video is posted directly to your news feed / timeline.
  • Exclude from News Feed: The exported video is visible in the videos tab of your Facebook Page/User (see for example Auphonic's video tab), but it is not posted to your news feed (you can do that later if you want).
  • Secret: Only you can see the exported video, it is not shown in the Facebook video tab and it is not posted to your news feed (you can do that later if you want).
• Embeddable
  Choose if the exported video should be embeddable in third-party websites.

It is always possible to change the distribution/privacy and embeddable options later directly on Facebook. For example, you can export a video to Facebook as Secret and publish it to your news feed whenever you want.

If your production is audio-only, we automatically generate a video track from the Cover Image and (possible) Chapter Images.
Alternatively you can select an Audiogram Output File, if you want to add an Audiogram (audio waveform visualization) to your Facebook video - for details please see Auphonic Audiogram Generator.

Auphonic Title and Description metadata fields are exported to Facebook as well.
If you add Speech Recognition to your production, we create an SRT file with the speech recognition results and add it to your Facebook video as captions.
See the example below.

Facebook Video Hosting Example with Audiogram and Automatic Captions

Facebook can be used as a general video hosting service: even if you export videos as Secret, you will get a direct link to the video which can be shared or embedded in any third-party websites. Users without a Facebook account are also able to view these videos.

In the example below, we automatically generate an Audiogram Video for an audio-only production, use our integrated Speech Recognition system to create captions and export the video as Secret to Facebook.
Afterwards it can be embedded directly into this blog post (enable Captions if they don't show up per default) - for details please see How to embed a video:

It is also possible to just use the generated result URL from Auphonic to share the link to your video (also visible to non-Facebook users):
https://www.facebook.com/auphonic/videos/1687244844638091/

Important Note:
Facebook needs some time to process an exported video (up to a few minutes) and the direct video link won't work before the processing is finished - please try again a bit later!
On Facebook Pages, you can see the processing progress in your Video Library.

Conclusion

Facebook has many broadcasting tools to offer and is a perfect addition to Auphonic.
Both systems and our other external services can be used to create automated processing and publishing workflows. Furthermore, the export and import to/from Facebook is also fully supported in the Auphonic API.

Please contact us if you have any questions or further ideas!

Andrew Rickmann posted a photo:

Let $Isubseteq S=K[x_1,ldots,x_n]$ be a homogeneous ideal equipped with a monomial order $<$. We show that if $operatorname{in}_<(I)$ is a square-free monomial ideal, then $S/I$ and $S/operatorname{in}_<(I)$ have the same connectedness dimension. We also show that graphs related to connectedness of these quotient rings have the same number of components. We also provide consequences regarding Lyubeznik numbers. We obtain these results by furthering the study of connectedness modulo a parameter in a local ring.

We consider two special cases of the connection problem for the second Painlev'e equation (PII) using the method of uniform asymptotics proposed by Bassom et al.. We give a classification of the real solutions of PII on the negative (positive) real axis with respect to their initial data. By product, a rigorous proof of a property associate with the nonlinear eigenvalue problem of PII on the real axis, recently revealed by Bender and Komijani, is given by deriving the asymptotic behavior of the Stokes multipliers.

In 1978, Dwight Duffus---editor-in-chief of the journal "Order" from 2010 to 2018 and chair of the Mathematics Department at Emory University from 1991 to 2005---wrote that "it is not obvious that $P$ is connected and $P^P$ isomorphic to $Q^Q$ implies that $Q$ is connected," where $P$ and $Q$ are finite non-empty posets. We show that, indeed, under these hypotheses $Q$ is connected and $Pcong Q$.

How to generate testing scenario libraries for connected and automated vehicles (CAVs) is a major challenge faced by the industry. In previous studies, to evaluate maneuver challenge of a scenario, surrogate models (SMs) are often used without explicit knowledge of the CAV under test. However, performance dissimilarities between the SM and the CAV under test usually exist, and it can lead to the generation of suboptimal scenario libraries. In this paper, an adaptive testing scenario library generation (ATSLG) method is proposed to solve this problem. A customized testing scenario library for a specific CAV model is generated through an adaptive process. To compensate the performance dissimilarities and leverage each test of the CAV, Bayesian optimization techniques are applied with classification-based Gaussian Process Regression and a new-designed acquisition function. Comparing with a pre-determined library, a CAV can be tested and evaluated in a more efficient manner with the customized library. To validate the proposed method, a cut-in case study was performed and the results demonstrate that the proposed method can further accelerate the evaluation process by a few orders of magnitude.

MineRL 2019 competition challenged participants to train sample-efficient agents to play Minecraft, by using a dataset of human gameplay and a limit number of steps the environment. We approached this task with behavioural cloning by predicting what actions human players would take, and reached fifth place in the final ranking. Despite being a simple algorithm, we observed the performance of such an approach can vary significantly, based on when the training is stopped. In this paper, we detail our submission to the competition, run further experiments to study how performance varied over training and study how different engineering decisions affected these results.

Wireless sensor networks have attracted much attention because of many applications in the fields of industry, military, medicine, agriculture, and education. In addition, the vast majority of researches has been done to expand its applications and improve its efficiency. However, there are still many challenges for increasing the efficiency in different parts of this network. One of the most important parts is to improve the network lifetime in the wireless sensor network. Since the sensor nodes are generally powered by batteries, the most important issue to consider in these types of networks is to reduce the power consumption of the nodes in such a way as to increase the network lifetime to an acceptable level. The contribution of this paper is using topology control, the threshold for the remaining energy in nodes, and two of the meta-algorithms include SA (Simulated annealing) and VNS (Variable Neighbourhood Search) to increase the energy remaining in the sensors. Moreover, using a low-cost spanning tree, an appropriate connectivity control among nodes is created in the network in order to increase the network lifetime. The results of simulations show that the proposed method improves the sensor lifetime and reduces the energy consumed.

Cassava a major food crop in many parts of Africa, has majorly been affected by Cassava Brown Streak Disease (CBSD). The disease affects tuberous roots and presents symptoms that include a yellow/brown, dry, corky necrosis within the starch-bearing tissues. Cassava breeders currently depend on visual inspection to score necrosis in roots based on a qualitative score which is quite subjective. In this paper we present an approach to automate root necrosis scoring using deep convolutional neural networks with semantic segmentation. Our experiments show that the UNet model performs this task with high accuracy achieving a mean Intersection over Union (IoU) of 0.90 on the test set. This method provides a means to use a quantitative measure for necrosis scoring on root cross-sections. This is done by segmentation and classifying the necrotized and non-necrotized pixels of cassava root cross-sections without any additional feature engineering.

In this paper we analyze a continuous version of the maximal covering location problem, in which the facilities are required to be interconnected by means of a graph structure in which two facilities are allowed to be linked if a given distance is not exceed. We provide a mathematical programming framework for the problem and different resolution strategies. First, we propose a Mixed Integer Non Linear Programming formulation, and derive properties of the problem that allow us to project the continuous variables out avoiding the nonlinear constraints, resulting in an equivalent pure integer programming formulation. Since the number of constraints in the integer programming formulation is large and the constraints are, in general, difficult to handle, we propose two branch-&-cut approaches that avoid the complete enumeration of the constraints resulting in more efficient procedures. We report the results of an extensive battery of computational experiments comparing the performance of the different approaches.

Ask any working musician why they play live, why they lug their equipment to and from bars and restaurants and wine-tasting rooms week after week, and they'll point to the same nebulous thing: It's the connection with an audience.…

A bridge includes a Peripheral Component Interconnect Express interface supporting at least two lanes, an Extensible Host Controller Interface, and a Universal Serial Bus 3.0 root hub. The Peripheral Component Interconnect Express interface is used for coupling to a host. Each lane of the at least two lanes provides a highest data transmission speed. The Extensible Host Controller Interface is coupled to the Peripheral Component Interconnect Express interface for storing data transmitted by the Peripheral Component Interconnect Express interface. The Universal Serial Bus 3.0 root hub includes a first controller and a second controller. The first controller and the second controller are used for controlling data transmission of four ports, and a highest data transmission speed provided by each port of the four ports is not more than the highest data transmission speed provided by the lane.

A detection device for detecting the manner in which a peripheral device is removed from an electronic device is proposed. The detection device can be on the peripheral device or the electronic device and detects whether the peripheral device was removed in a manner that indicates the removal was intentional or unintentional.

Embodiments of the invention are generally directed to determination of physical connectivity status of devices based on electrical measurement. An embodiment of a method includes discovering a connection of a first device with a second device, and performing an electrical measurement of the second device by the first device via the connection between the first device and the second device, where performing the electrical measurement includes sensing by the first device of an element of the second device. The method further includes, if the sensing by the first device fails to detect the element of the second device and a predetermined condition for the electrical measurement is enabled, then determining by the first device that the connection with the second device has been lost.

A via disposition information acquiring unit acquires via disposition information indicating a disposition of the plurality of first vias (212). A second conductor information acquiring unit acquires second conductor information indicating disposition positions of a plurality of second conductors (232) repeatedly disposed in the second conductor layer (230). A via extracting unit extracts an extraction via with respect to each of the plurality of second conductors (232). The extraction via is each of the first vias (212) overlapping the second conductor (232). A via selecting unit selects a selection via with respect to each of the plurality of second conductors (232). The selection via is each of first vias (212) selected in a predetermined number from the extraction vias. An opening introducing unit introduces a first opening (234) to each of the plurality of second conductors (232). The first opening (234) overlaps the extraction via not selected by the via selecting unit in plan view.

A method, an apparatus, and a computer program product for wireless communication are provided. The apparatus generates a plurality of interconnect patterns for a set of longitudinal channels that are occupied by horizontal interconnects. Each interconnect pattern may be different from the other interconnect patterns. Each interconnect pattern may define relative locations for the set of horizontal interconnects and gap channels. Highest crosstalk is determined for each of the interconnect patterns and the interconnect pattern with the minimum highest crosstalk is selected as a preferred pattern. The highest crosstalk may comprise far-end crosstalk or near-end crosstalk and may be calculated for a range of frequencies or for a plurality of frequencies. The crosstalk may be calculated by modeling the interconnects as transmission lines.

Disclosed are methods, systems, and articles of manufactures for implementing physical designs by using multiple force models to iteratively morph a layout decomposition. In addition to attractive force model(s) or repulsive force model(s), the physical implementation also uses a containment force model for grouping multiple design blocks or for confining a node of a cell within the boundary of a container. Another aspect is directed at deriving a first force model at the first hierarchical level from a second force model at the second hierarchical level by directly modifying the second model based at least in part on characteristic(s) of the first hierarchical level and of the second hierarchical level. In a design with multiple hierarchies, a cell-based force model is also used to ensure child nodes of a parent cell stay within a close proximity of the parent node of the parent cell.

Routing methods for an integrated circuit design layout are disclosed. The layout can include design netlists and library cells. A multiple-level global routing can generate topological wire for each net. An area oriented graph-based detail routing on the design can be performed. A post route optimization after the detail routing can be performed to further improve the routing quality. Some methods can be single threaded all or some of the time, and/or multi-threaded some or all of the time.

A rinse-off composition, such as a shampoo, hair conditioner or shower gel, comprising a rinse-off composition base, lactoyl ethanolamine and at least one compound selected from the group consisting of N-(4-cyanomethylphenyl) p-menthanecarboxamide and N-(2-pyridin-2-ylethyl) p-menthanecarboxamide. The compositions provide a pleasant, long-lasting cooling sensation.

In an intermediate connecting unit 50 of superconducting cables, by forming the connecting superconducting wires 101 in a trapezoid shape tapered in the direction of the electric insulating layer 113 (the superconducting shield layers 114) sides from the large radius section 213a side of the reinforcement insulating layer 213, the inclined surface sections 213b can be covered without spaces and without the plurality of connecting superconducting wires overlapping. The plurality of connecting superconducting wires 101 cover the inclined surface sections 213b of the reinforcement insulating layer 213 formed thicker than the radius of the cable cores 11 of the superconducting cables 10. The connecting superconducting wires 101 further connects the superconducting wires 10 arranged on the outer periphery of the large radius section 213a of the reinforcement insulating layer 213 and the superconducting wires 100 constituting the superconducting shield layers 114.

A method and apparatus for using an ad hoc peer-to-peer distributed message bus is provided. The method may include determining, by a local bus node, using a first power level communication protocol, that a remote bus node is available, obtaining, by the local bus node, connection information from the remote bus node using a second power level communication protocol, wherein the connection information comprises connection information for one or more remote endpoints associated with the remote bus node, and generating one or more local virtual endpoints, wherein each of the one or more local virtual endpoints corresponds to each of the one or more remote endpoints, and wherein the remote endpoint is described with reference to a well-known name, unique to the remote endpoint.