The Chicago Cubs are just a couple of pieces away from finally returning to the playoffs. In 2024, the Cubs were profoundly mediocre on both sides of the ball. Improving the rotation is a worthy objective for the Cubs, because Imanaga could be due for regression as the league adjusts to his unique high-spin fastball. Chicago may try for the Corbin Burneses and Max Frieds of the world, but perhaps a lower-budget option could turn out to be the perfect Cubs addition.

From eyesore to public amenity – that’s the journey an unusual site has taken alongside St. Paul, Minnesota’s Mississippi riverfront as just one element in the city’s efforts to turn a former industrial area into a new center for housing and outdoor recreation.

Doing more for less is tricky to achieve. Liam Kay explores how charities can get more bang for their buck and keep more money for their charitable work

Washington — Representatives from two labor unions are bringing attention to resources intended to protect workers in “frontline industries” from exposure to the new coronavirus and are calling on the federal government to provide coordinated guidance.

In any connected or IP-based security solution today, cybersecurity is — or should be — a primary focus, both for the security provider and your customer.

This Heavyweight Pullover FR Sweatshirt is available in navy and gray, and in zip-front and crew neck styles.

Installing security contractors share guidance and wisdom — hard earned and battle proven — to help pave the way for other industry brethren excel in the exciting realm of remote video monitoring.

As digital threats loom large, manufacturers and security integrators are uniting to fortify the defenses of physical security systems. Discover how these industry players are navigating varied complexities and helping safeguard end users in the evolving realm of cybersecurity.

What role should frontline employees play in an organization’s safety and health management system efforts?

A 61-year-old loader operator was killed while attempting to repair a hydraulic line on a front-end loader used to move logs. The company had a written lockout/tagout program, but the program did not contain specific procedures for the front-end loader maintenance.

Sacramento, CA — The California Senate has approved legislation aimed at preventing workplace violence, particularly by banning employer policies that direct non-security personnel to confront shoplifters.

San Mateo, CA — Nearly 2 out of 3 frontline workers don’t feel safe on the job, results of a recent survey show.

Pleasanton, CA — The transportation, health care and government sectors have experienced the greatest increases of “higher worker burnout risk” over the past year, according to a recently released report from software provider Workday.

New York — Women in frontline jobs say their safety and well-being needs often go unacknowledged, according to a recently published report.

Fermented foods other than dairy are trending, with sauerkraut, kimchi, pickles, and other vegetables; kombucha; sourdough; natto and tempeh leading the pack. Yet with cultured dairy still at the forefront, there are multiple fermented dairy products that offer benefits besides the immunity support of probiotics.

At the IFT FIRST Conference, Mimi Bonnett of Innova Market Insights spotlighted the top food trends in the U.S. and Canada, while Michael Warter of Ruiz Foods delivered insights on machine learning and AI.

Children's Geographies; 08/01/2022
(AN 158427715); ISSN: 14733285
Academic Search Premier

Ann Barish, a socialite who is married to Planet Hollywood co-founder and film producer Keith Barish, secured a buyer for her waterfront Miami Beach home.  Barish, whose full name is Edith Ann Barish, owns the nearly half-acre property at 4810 North Bay Road via a trust, property records show. The two-story, six-bedroom Mediterranean-style house is […]

The post Wife of Planet Hollywood co-founder finds buyer for waterfront Miami Beach home appeared first on The Real Deal.

Fort Partners is forging ahead with plans for another oceanfront condo development in Surfside.  The Fort Lauderdale-based firm, led by Nadim Ashi, secured a $110.7 million construction loan for Surf House, an 11-story, 17-unit building planned for 8995 Collins Avenue, property records show. Athene Annuity & Life Company, managed by its investment adviser Apollo Global […]

The post Fort Partners nabs $111M construction loan for oceanfront Surfside condos appeared first on The Real Deal.

I’d first driven by this land en route to elsewhere. When I saw the bunkers—over a thousand set upon the desert—I was so stunned by the terrain’s alien disfigurement that I stopped at an overpass to absorb the view. To my eye, the concrete bunkers were dystopian in their sum and structure and sprawl—scarring nine […]

The post A Golden Land? Questioning Frontiers, Fantasies and Fulfillment in the Pacific Northwest was curated by information for practice.

Imagine there's a virus living inside you. This virus is harmless. Most of the time. But then, something causes it to change and it could kill you unless you take one dose of a powerful drug. Now imagine there is a critical shortage of this drug. This is the scary scenario at the heart of the debut novel by Hanover resident and Dartmouth professor Charles Wheelan. It's called The Rationing, but this isn't a book about a disease. It's a political satire about how the United States government handles the unfolding public health crisis. Personalities clash. Political ambitions get in the way of productive discussion. Fake News opportunists muddy the waters and foreign countries take advantage of a vulnerable United States. Charles Wheelan joined NHPR's Peter Biello to talk about his new book.

Trampled By Turtles will be headlining an all-day concert Saturday at Bayfront Park in Duluth.

The Minnesota Twins will promote Derek Falvey to president of baseball and business operations and Jeremy Zoll to general manager as part of a front office succession plan initiated by current club president Dave St. Peter’s move into a strategic adviser role. 

Kremlin's official spokesman Dmitry Peskov gave an interview to the MGIMO 360 news channel, in which he answered questions about the presidential election, Russia's nuclear rhetoric and enemies. According to Peskov, Russia's next president should be "the same as [Vladimir] Putin… or different, but the same." "Putin has not announced his intention to run. But I sincerely want to believe that he will do it. I have no doubt that he will win the election, I have no doubt that he will continue to be our president. We'll see," Peskov said.

By Aviram Ganor, General Manager EMEA, Riskified.

Retailers have plenty to keep them awake at night, whether it’s enticing consumers to shop,  utdoing their competition or – most worrying of all – how to ensure their long-term survival in a rocky economy. Yet the latest insight from the British Retail Consortium offers some hope.

The Co-op Media Network (CMN) is to install 300 new front-of-store digital media screens to turbo-charge its retail media offering, taking the total number of screens to over 9,000 across its store estate.

[Inter-Korea] :
South Korea’s intelligence agency believes some of the North Korean troops deployed to Russia in support of its military offensive in Ukraine may have been transported to the front lines, including high-ranking generals. According to senior members of the rival political parties on the parliamentary ...

[more...]

[Inter-Korea] :
The South Korean military says it believes more than ten-thousand North Korean troops have been deployed to Russia in support of the military offensive in Ukraine. At a press briefing Tuesday, defense ministry spokesperson Jeon Ha-kyu said intelligence authorities in South Korea and the U.S. believe a ...

[more...]

At-wavelength metrology of X-ray optics plays a crucial role in evaluating the performance of optics under actual beamline operating conditions, enabling in situ diagnostics and optimization. Techniques utilizing a wavefront random modulator have gained increasing attention in recent years. However, accurately mapping the measured wavefront slope to a curved X-ray mirror surface when the modulator is downstream of the mirror has posed a challenge. To address this problem, an iterative method has been developed in this study. The results demonstrate a significant improvement compared with conventional approaches and agree with offline measurements obtained from optical metrology. We believe that the proposed method enhances the accuracy of at-wavelength metrology techniques, and empowers them to play a greater role in beamline operation and optics fabrication.

Synchrotron light sources can provide the required spatial coherence, stability and control to support the development of advanced lithography at the extreme ultraviolet and soft X-ray wavelengths that are relevant to current and future fabricating technologies. Here an evaluation of the optical performance of the soft X-ray (SXR) beamline of the Australian Synchrotron (AS) and its suitability for developing interference lithography using radiation in the 91.8 eV (13.5 nm) to 300 eV (4.13 nm) range are presented. A comprehensive physical optics model of the APPLE-II undulator source and SXR beamline was constructed to simulate the properties of the illumination at the proposed location of a photomask, as a function of photon energy, collimation and monochromator parameters. The model is validated using a combination of experimental measurements of the photon intensity distribution of the undulator harmonics. It is shown that the undulator harmonics intensity ratio can be accurately measured using an imaging detector and controlled using beamline optics. Finally, the photomask geometric constraints and achievable performance for the limiting case of fully spatially coherent illumination are evaluated.

Knife-edge imaging is a successful method for determining the wavefront distortion of focusing optics such as Kirkpatrick–Baez mirrors or compound refractive lenses. In this study, the wavefront error of an imperfect elliptical mirror is predicted by developing a knife-edge program using the SHADOW/OASYS platform. It is shown that the focusing optics can be aligned perfectly by minimizing the parabolic and cubic coefficients of the wavefront error. The residual wavefront error provides precise information about the figure/height errors of the focusing optics suggesting it as an accurate method for in situ optical metrology. A Python program is developed to design a customized wavefront refractive corrector to minimize the residual wavefront error. Uniform beam at and out of focus and higher peak intensity are achieved by the wavefront correction in comparison with ideal focusing. The developed code provides a quick way for wavefront error analysis and corrector design for non-ideal optics especially for the new-generation diffraction-limited sources, and saves considerable experimental time and effort.

A reliable `in situ' method for wavefront sensing in the soft X-ray domain is reported, developed for the characterization of rotationally symmetric optical elements, like an ellipsoidal mirror shell. In a laboratory setup, the mirror sample is irradiated by an electron-excited (4.4 keV), micrometre-sized (∼2 µm) fluorescence source (carbon Kα, 277 eV). Substantially, the three-dimensional intensity distribution I(r) is recorded by a CCD camera (2048 × 512 pixels of 13.5 µm) at two positions along the optical axis, symmetrically displaced by ±21–25% from the focus. The transport-of-intensity equation is interpreted in a geometrical sense from plane to plane and implemented as a ray tracing code, to retrieve the phase Φ(r) from the radial intensity gradient on a sub-pixel scale. For reasons of statistical reliability, five intra-/extra-focal CCD image pairs are evaluated and averaged to an annular two-dimensional map of the wavefront error {cal W}. In units of the test wavelength (C Kα), an r.m.s. value sigma_{cal{W}} = ±10.9λ0 and a peak-to-valley amplitude of ±31.3λ0 are obtained. By means of the wavefront, the focus is first reconstructed with a result for its diameter of 38.4 µm, close to the direct experimental observation of 39.4 µm (FWHM). Secondly, figure and slope errors of the ellipsoid are characterized with an average of ±1.14 µm and ±8.8 arcsec (r.m.s.), respectively, the latter in reasonable agreement with the measured focal intensity distribution. The findings enable, amongst others, the precise alignment of axisymmetric X-ray mirrors or the design of a wavefront corrector for high-resolution X-ray science.

In situ wavefront sensing plays a critical role in the delivery of high-quality beams for X-ray experiments. X-ray speckle-based techniques stand out among other in situ techniques for their easy experimental setup and various data acquisition modes. Although X-ray speckle-based techniques have been under development for more than a decade, there are still no user-friendly software packages for new researchers to begin with. Here, we present an open-source Python package, spexwavepy, for X-ray wavefront sensing using speckle-based techniques. This Python package covers a variety of X-ray speckle-based techniques, provides plenty of examples with real experimental data and offers detailed online documentation for users. We hope it can help new researchers learn and apply the speckle-based techniques for X-ray wavefront sensing to synchrotron radiation and X-ray free-electron laser beamlines.

Achieving diffraction-limited performance in fourth-generation synchrotron radiation sources demands monochromator crystals that can preserve the wavefront across an unprecedented extensive range. There is an urgent need for techniques of absolute crystal diffraction wavefront measurement. At the Beijing Synchrotron Radiation Facility (BSRF), a novel edge scan wavefront metrology technique has been developed. This technique employs a double-edge tracking method, making diffraction-limited level absolute crystal diffraction wavefront measurement a reality. The results demonstrate an equivalent diffraction surface slope error below 70 nrad (corresponding to a wavefront phase error of 4.57% λ) r.m.s. within a nearly 6 mm range for a flat crystal in the crystal surface coordinate. The double-edge structure contributes to exceptional measurement precision for slope error reproducibility, achieving levels below 15 nrad (phase error reproducibility < λ/100) even at a first-generation synchrotron radiation source. Currently, the measurement termed double-edge scan (DES) has already been regarded as a critical feedback mechanism in the fabrication of next-generation crystals.

Advances in physics have been significantly driven by state-of-the-art technology, and in photonics and X-ray science this calls for the ability to manipulate the characteristics of optical beams. Orbital angular momentum (OAM) beams hold substantial promise in various domains such as ultra-high-capacity optical communication, rotating body detection, optical tweezers, laser processing, super-resolution imaging etc. Hence, the advancement of OAM beam-generation technology and the enhancement of its technical proficiency and characterization capabilities are of paramount importance. These endeavours will not only facilitate the use of OAM beams in the aforementioned sectors but also extend the scope of applications in diverse fields related to OAM beams. At the FERMI Free-Electron Laser (Trieste, Italy), OAM beams are generated either by tailoring the emission process on the undulator side or, in most cases, by coupling a spiral zone plate (SZP) in tandem with the refocusing Kirkpatrick–Baez active optic system (KAOS). To provide a robust and reproducible workflow to users, a Hartmann wavefront sensor (WFS) is used for both optics tuning and beam characterization. KAOS is capable of delivering both tightly focused and broad spots, with independent control over vertical and horizontal magnification. This study explores a novel non-conventional `near collimation' operational mode aimed at generating beams with OAM that employs the use of a lithographically manufactured SZP to achieve this goal. The article evaluates the mirror's performance through Hartmann wavefront sensing, offers a discussion of data analysis methodologies, and provides a quantitative analysis of these results with ptychographic reconstructions.

We report on the latest advancements in Microcrystal Electron Diffraction (3D ED/MicroED), as discussed during a symposium at the National Center for CryoEM Access and Training housed at the New York Structural Biology Center. This snapshot describes cutting-edge developments in various facets of the field and identifies potential avenues for continued progress. Key sections discuss instrumentation access, research applications for small mol­ecules and biomacromolecules, data collection hardware and software, data reduction software, and finally reporting and validation. 3D ED/MicroED is still early in its wide adoption by the structural science community with ample opportunities for expansion, growth, and innovation.

The upgrade of the Swiss Light Source, called SLS 2.0, necessitates comprehensive updates to all 18 user front ends. This upgrade is driven by the increased power of the synchrotron beam, reduced floor space, changing source points, new safety regulations and enhanced beam properties, including a brightness increase by up to a factor of 40. While some existing front-end components are being thoroughly refurbished and upgraded for safety reasons, other components, especially those designed to tailor the new synchrotron beam, are being completely rebuilt. These new designs feature innovative and enhanced cooling systems to manage the high-power load and meet new requirements such as mechanical stability and compact footprints.

Drew Arriola Sands, left, sings in the South Gate band Trap Girl at La Conxa, 2017.; Credit: Amina Cruz

Growing up, Drew Arriola-Sands' music was "too weird for the weird kids." Her first band couldn't even get a backyard gig, but since Sands transitioned in 2013, her current band, Trap Girl, have been at the center of an exploding queer hardcore scene in Los Angeles. 

NOTE: Trans Pride L.A. is taking place this weekend, Saturday June 17, at the Los Angeles LGBT Center. To hear a preview of the event with organizer Gina Bigham, listen to the extra audio on this post.

Sands is 28 now, but she's always been drawn to glamorous women with big hair. Her mirror is adorned with pictures of Ronnie Spector, Dolly Parton, and Jayne Mansfield. Wig idols, she calls them. Sands has a large collection of wigs, and even makes her own, but it all started 20 years ago.

"When I was a little kid, my mom always had short black hair," Sands remembers. "And then one day, getting ready for school, she walked out of the bathroom with a long, thick, black braid with a ribbon on it, and it freaked me out, because I never saw her with long hair. So I was like, 'That’s weird! What is it?'" She was eight years old. For weeks to come, Sands would lock herself in the bathroom and stare at the extension braid in it's clear, Avon box until her mother threw it away without warning. The seed had been planted, though.

Her love of singing came at an early age too. As a child, Sands would stand up on a chair while watching baseball with her father to sing the national anthem. Her mother would scold her for being loud and tell her that she could sing at a baseball game when she was older. At 11, her father put her in little league.

We look at a picture of young Drew in a baseball jersey. Sands was a chubby little kid, biting down a smile, and burying her hand in her mitt. "I was a 'catcher' even then," laughs Sands.

"I was told I was gay before I even knew I was gay, because people saw I was feminine, did things a little different, spoke a little different, a little more sensitive," says Sands. Bullying was a consistent part of her childhood, with no one incident standing out because there was always "80 more horrible ones," she says. But she found ways to cope through her hobbies.

Her father said if she wasn't going to play a sport, she had to play an instrument. The first instrument she started with in earnest was the guitar, before picking up bass and more. "Nirvana was still the biggest band in the world. Everyone at my junior high who played guitar learned how to play 'Rape Me' or 'Smells like Teen Spirit' as their first song" says Sands. The first song sands learned on guitar was Nirvana's "About a Girl," and the first album she bought was Hole's "Live Through This."

"One of my first jobs, actually, was making burnt cd’s for a guy who sold them at the alley, and he made me copy Trina cd’s, ten at a time. She had songs on there like 'Nasty Bitch,' things like that, and I just loved it! But it was like a guilty pleasure, 'cause I was still a rock kid."  - Drew Arriola-Sands

By her early twenties, she started her first real band, The Glitter Path; Sands describes it as something like Daniel Johnston, the schizophrenic outsider musician, mixed with Patsy Cline - extremely emotional, "lying across the road, ready to die type of music." It didn't fit in in the "very straight, very cis, surf rock-indie" backyard scene, says Sands. She can't remember the band playing more than two or three shows, anywhere, but she says she doesn't hold any grudges.

The Glitter Path's "Wear a Wig"

We look at another photo of Sands from her Glitter Path days. She points out the increasing number of women’s accessories she was wearing at the time. She was starting to feel a change coming.

"I was in a relationship in 2013 with an artist, but I was male presenting, and I had these feelings of identity and gender, and I expressed them to him, and he accepted them," Sands says,  "but didn’t know how to deal with me and I didn’t know how to deal with myself." Sands boyfriend broke up with her, and she reevaluated her emotional state. "My mental health was not going to get better if I did not come out [as a trans person]," she decided.

She had a much easier time dating after transitioning, and one chance hook-up set Sands down a new musical road.

"So this guy I was hooking up with at the time would play the Damned in the room while we were hooking up. I had a guitar in the room, and he didn’t know I played music and said, 'Do you play guitar?' I said, 'Yeah.' He said, 'Well, you should start a band, like the Damned, and play guitar. It’d be good, looking the way you do, and wear ball gowns.'” - Drew Arriola-Sands

Sands started Trap Girl, not as guitarist, but as lead singer, in 2014.

The early shows were backyard gigs in South Central. Songs like “Dead Men Don’t Rape” went over well, but Sands wasn’t out as a trans performer yet. Maybe people could read between the lines though, with a name like Trap Girl. Sands offers a few definitions for Trap Girls/Trap Queens (though she has never settled on just one).

• A woman who helps out a "trap lord," or drug dealer
• A very convincing transvestite
• A girl trapped in a man's body

Throughout 2015, Trap Girl built their following Downtown and on the Eastside, with Sands finally out as a trans artist.

Trap Girl live at Xicana PUNK Night

"I started this band alone," explains Sands. "I didn’t know any queer people, I didn’t know any trans people, I didn’t know who was gonna help this band. Who was gonna give us a shot? So, I was ready to defend this band, even though there was no one defend it from."

Rather, Trap Girl were embraced and found sisterhood in bands like Sister Mantos and Yaawn. In 2016, Sands took it a step further and organized the first annual Transgress Fest (at the Santa Ana LGBT Center), for trans performers. "We had people as young as twelve to people as old as sixty in the audience," she says. "We had a huge turnout. I never expected that."

Transgress Fest is coming back in November. In the meantime, Trap Girl are getting ready to release their second EP, "The Black Market." The title track grapples with the question of whether or not a trans person needs surgery.

"Being a woman doesn’t mean you have to look like a woman. I didn’t know any trans people at all before I transitioned, so automatically, my idea was to think that I needed to present as feminine to be accepted as a trans person, but little did I know, that that’s the last thing you need to be a trans person. Not all people can pass, and that’s ok." - Drew Arriola-Sands

Sands says the takeaway from "The Black Market" is not to risk your life with black market cosmetic procedures. "These girls are killing themselves to achieve their looks," says Sands. "They’re getting it offline [sic], off Craigslist. You know, they go to someone’s basement and get their ass injected with cement, and then they go home and get a blood clot in their lungs, and they die." "The Black Market" EP is due for release this summer.

Trap Girl is singer Drew Arriola-Sands, bassist Ibette Ortiz, drummer Jorge Reveles, and guitarist Estevan Moreno.

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

The National Academy of Sciences, in partnership with The Kavli Foundation and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, will host a symposium to consider the future of science in the U.S. and how it can best serve society in the 21st century.

National Academies host three events to explore ways to expand the reach of accurate science and health information online

The National Academy of Sciences today released a new proceedings of a symposium that explored whether the modern research architecture that fuels U.S. innovation needs to be reconfigured to meet the challenges of our time.

In advance of the National Academy of Medicine’s annual meeting on Oct. 17-18, NAM President Victor Dzau sat down to talk about the compounding crises of COVID-19, climate change, and systemic racism — and how health and medicine can help respond to these threats.

India's digital economy is booming, with fintech driving digital payments and e-markets expanding rapidly. Deputy Governor of Reserve Bank of India, Michael Debabrata Patra, stated that the digital economy currently makes up a tenth of India's GDP and is projected to reach a fifth by 2026.

Recognizing that proper cooking oil management plays a critical role in achieving both objectives, Cargill has joined with Frontline International to develop the Kitchen Controller end-to-end, automated oil management system.

Connected Hydration is a sweat-sensing wearable biosensor and cloud analytics solution that measures sweat loss, sodium loss, skin temperature, and movement to provide actionable rehydration strategies in real time to industrial workers ahead of adverse dehydration events. 

The union steward had just recounted an incident where a supervisor asked one of his workers to step into standing water to work on corroded gauges near the coker. The work needed to be done immediately as it would delay ongoing maintenance on the fractionator to take on different stock feed.

Why is ANVL’s product called an analysis and communications platform? Because it is a software solutions product with mobile apps in the hands of front line users, an app web-based for managers, and the back-end part is a platform to analyze data from workers. It’s a logic engine.

Pompano Beach Emerges as Florida's Next Waterfront Real Estate Gem

Front Signs introduces their most recent collection of signage trends. This time, they're using their own projects to share the most popular sign types of the 2022 winter/spring season.