For Keagan Johnson and his family, the decision to play football at the University of Iowa was theirs. A personal decision that set a course for a fairly massive three or four or five years. When...

CEDAR RAPIDS — This was his alma mater, a place he had a ton of success at as a player. The future of the program is clearly bright. But Matt Lesan has a clear plan for his own future, which...

CEDAR FALLS — Like many high school seniors across the country, Norwalk’s Bowen Born is unsure when he’ll be able to get on campus at the University of Northern Iowa and begin...

MARION — Marion’s 14-member COVID-19 Economic Recovery Task Force is beginning to work on recommendations of how to get people back to work, while keeping everyone...

DES MOINES — The Iowa Supreme Court has asked a group of criminal and civil lawyers, judges and court staff from judicial districts across the state to make recommendations on how criminal and...

When I wear a mask to go into the grocery store or the post office, it’s not because I think it protects me from coming down with the coronavirus. I wear it to protect the people around me.

I am lucky to be in a position where I can follow the CDC guidelines to maintain social distancing, practice vigilant hygiene and stay at home for the most part. When I am in the grocery store I am grateful for the measures taken to protect customers and employees as much as possible from exposure to the virus. I wear a mask so I do not defeat the safeguards in place to protect public health. I have no symptoms. But I have not been tested. I cannot guarantee that I am not an asymptomatic carrier. By wearing a mask when I shop, making sure I wash and sanitize my hands before I go to the store, handling as few items on the shelves as possible, and maintaining a six foot distance from my fellow shoppers, I can guarantee I have done my part to protect them and the dedicated store employees serving us. But even more important, I am protecting the people at home where these customers and workers return when they leave the store. It is a very small thing to do but it is my duty to do it.

Joe Mischka

Cedar Rapids

By default, your iPhone automatically connects to known wi-fi networks. (To stop an iPhone from automatically connecting, you can tell your iPhone to forget a wi-fi network.) But what happens if you take your iPhone to a new location? You'll need to manually connect your iPhone to a wi-fi network.

That's a hassle. But if you have the foresight and inclination, you can save yourself time in the future by making your iPhone ask to join wi-fi networks when no known networks are available. Instead of having to open settings to join a network, you'll be able to easily select a network from an on-screen prompt.

Here's how to make your iPhone ask to join wi-fi networks:

1. From the home screen, tap Settings.
   
   
2. Tap Wi-Fi. The window shown below appears.
   
   
3. Move the Ask to Join Networks slider to the On position.
   
   
4. The next time you're in a location with no known networks, your iPhone will prompt you to connect to an available wi-fi network, as shown below.
   
   

In the future, this prompt will be displayed when no known networks are available. (To actually see the prompt, you'll need to do something that requires network access, like try to check your email or open a webpage.) To connect to a wi-fi network, select a network and enter a password, if one is required.

Related Articles

• How to Connect an iPhone to a Wi-Fi Network
• Tell Your iPhone to Forget a Wireless Network

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.

MARION — Marion’s 14-member COVID-19 Economic Recovery Task Force is beginning to work on recommendations of how to get people back to work, while keeping everyone safe.

“It’s hard to know right now at the beginning the various outcomes that are going to come out of this,” Marion Mayor Nick AbouAssaly told task force members in a meeting held this week via Zoom.

“Community sectors will work independently and report to the steering committee with ideas, strategies or policy recommendations,” he said.

In turn, the task force will consider recommendations to the Marion City Council, and AbouAssaly said he will update the council on the task force meetings.

“Unfortunately, we have to accept that the virus is here to stay,” AbouAssaly said. “It’s part of our life for the time being. We have to be able to plan for getting back to doing things and leading our lives in a way that allows us to exist with the virus in our community.”

Elizabeth Cwik, a Marion resident who works for the Greater Cedar Rapids Community Foundation, said there’s a “strong interest” among task force members to provide accurate information to the public about the virus.

“I see clear, consistent messaging from a variety of sectors from the schools, government, businesses and nonprofits. Then that message gets through,” Cwik said. “If that message is, ‘We care, and we want you to come out whole, and we want there to be a vibrant economy to be continued with every citizen’s effort,’ I think that’s a valuable contribution to the recovery.”

In joining the task force, Dr. Jaclyn Price said she hopes to dispel inaccurate information about the coronavirus and help businesses find ways to safely bring their employees back to work.

“I anticipate businesses will be operating at reduced capacities,” she said. “Maybe doing appointments rather than walk-in business, and cleaning more routinely.”

If businesses require employees and customers to wear masks, it will protect others from asymptomatic spread of the virus, she said.

“We will still see virus activity until we get a vaccine or herd immunity,” Price said. “This is going to be a problem for months to come. We’re trying to find ways to open slowly, but also understanding if we reopen everything and have to close it again, that could be more detrimental to people’s psychology or finances of businesses.”

The Rev. Mike Morgan of Marion United Methodist Church said “greater conversation” with government, business, education and health care leaders will help.

“Marion has become a town that is proactive,” Morgan said. “We really seek to have good things happen to our citizenry rather than let things happen and we react to them. ... As a person in the faith community, it’s important for us to be tending to people’s emotional, psychological, spiritual and, to some degree, physical needs.”

Comments: (319) 368-8664; grace.king@thegazette.com

Those serving on the Marion COVID-19 Economic Recovery Task Force, all Marion residents and volunteers, are:

• Nick AbouAssaly, Marion mayor

• Jill Ackerman, president, Marion Chamber of Commerce

• Shannon Bisgard, Linn-Mar schools superintendent

• Amber Bisinger, communications officer for the city

• Elizabeth Cwik, Greater Cedar Rapids Community Foundation

• Lee Eilers, executive committee member, Marion Economic Development Corp.

• Nick Glew, president, Marion Economic Development Corp.

• Amber Hoff, marriage and family therapist

• Steve Jensen, Marion City Council member

• Mike Morgan, pastor, Marion United Methodist Church

• Brent Oleson, Linn County supervisor

Lon Pluckhahn, Marion city manager

• Jaclyn Price, M.D., Mercy Clinic-Marion

• Brooke Prouty, program director, Marion Chamber of Commerce

DES MOINES — The Iowa Supreme Court has asked a group of criminal and civil lawyers, judges and court staff from judicial districts across the state to make recommendations on how criminal and civil jury trials will resume with coronavirus health restrictions.

The court is asking the 17-member Jumpstart Jury Trials Task Force to develop temporary policies and procedures for jury trials that will ensure the “fundamental rights of a defendant” to a jury trial, while at the same time “protecting the health and safety” of the jurors, attorneys, judges and the public, said Des Moines lawyer Guy Cook, co-chairman of the task force.

The court, Cook said Thursday, has put together a “good cross-section” of professionals who have experience with civil and criminal trials.

Task force members are:

• Associate Supreme Court Justice Mark McDermott, chairman

• Guy Cook, Des Moines criminal and civil attorney, co-chairman

• 4th Judicial District Judge Michael Hooper

• 5th Judicial District Judge David Porter

• Angela Campbell, Des Moines criminal defense attorney

• Jim Craig, Cedar Rapids civil attorney, president of Iowa Defense Counsel Association

• Janietta Criswell, clerk and jury manager, 8th Judicial District, Ottumwa

• Kathy Gaylord, district court administrator, 7th Judicial District, Davenport

• Patrick Jennings, Woodbury county attorney, Sioux City

• Julie Kneip, clerk of court, 2nd Judicial District, Fort Dodge

• Bill Miller, Des Moines civil attorney, chairman of Iowa State Bar Association litigation

• Todd Nuccio, Iowa state court administrator

• Jerry Schnurr, Fort Dodge civil attorney and president-elect of Iowa State Bar Association

• Jennifer Solberg, Woodbury County chief public defender

• Chad Swanson, Waterloo civil attorney, president of Iowa Association of Justice

• Brian Williams, Black Hawk county attorney

• Mark Headlee, information technology director of Iowa Judicial Branch

The committee will review the current schedule to resume jury trials that the court has established in consultation with public health officials and other health care providers, and recommend whether the schedule should be altered, according to the court’s order.

Jury criminal trials can resume July 13 and civil trials Aug. 3, according to the order.

The task force also will make recommendations for how those trials should proceed, according to the court’s order.

Members should develop policies and procedures aimed at protecting the health and safety of jurors, court staff, attorneys, judges and visitors throughout the trial process, particularly during the identification of potential jurors, summons of potential jurors, jury selection, trials, jury instructions and jury deliberations.

Cook said members will have to consider the challenges for each type of trial. More jurors, for example, are needed in a criminal case, so space and logistics will have to be considered with social distancing requirements.

That will be more difficult in the rural courthouses that have less space.

A pool of 80 to 100 potential jurors are sometimes summoned for felony trials in larger counties, but that, too, may be a challenge with social distancing.

Another possibility would be requiring masks, but how will a mask affect the credibility of a witness if it hides the person’s facial expressions, Cook said.

These are all issues the members may encounter.

Steve Davis, Iowa Judicial Branch spokesman, said the goal is one uniform statewide plan, but it’s possible that each district may have some discretion, as in the previous orders issued during this pandemic, because of the differences in each county.

Davis said the task force members were chosen based on gender, background and geographic area.

The recommendations should be submitted to the court the first week in June.

Davis said he didn’t yet know when the task force would start meeting by phone or video conference or how often.

Comments: (319) 398-8318; trish.mehaffey@thegazette.com

Writing is a quite ambivalent word. For some students, it causes their worst nightmares to come to mind (or it is just a boring assignment) and for some, it’s the fun way to express their thoughts to...

We imagine the what-ifs as a worst case scenario, our worst nightmare happening to us, our life falling apart. But here’s another way of looking at it.

Back in 2017, the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published this infographic on the Facial Hairstyles and Filtering Facepiece Respirators to help men understand that beards can make facemasks ineffective. With the daily news about the Coronavirus (Covid-19) bordering on panic, this infographic has resurfaced, and is being widely republished.

NOTE: The CDC does not recommend that people who are well wear a facemask to protect themselves from COVID-19.

From the CDC FAQ:

Does the CDC recommend the use of facemask to prevent COVID-19?

CDC does not recommend that people who are well wear a facemask to protect themselves from respiratory illnesses, including COVID-19. You should only wear a mask if a healthcare professional recommends it. A facemask should be used by people who have COVID-19 and are showing symptoms. This is to protect others from the risk of getting infected. The use of facemasks also is crucial for health workers and other people who are taking care of someone infected with COVID-19 in close settings (at home or in a health care facility).

From the original CDC blog post on November 2, 2017:

The month of November is full of fun, interesting, and thought-provoking observances. November is National Raisin Bread Month, Historic Bridge Awareness Month, and Inspirational Role Models Month among so much more. November is also the host month to campaigns like No-Shave November and Movember. Campaigns such as these are working hard to raise money for important causes such as cancer research, education, and awareness. These increasingly popular campaigns are a great way to demonstrate your support … unless you need to wear a tight-fitting respirator for your job.

Don’t despair! We will not completely ruin your plans to compete for facial hair bragging rights. But we’re going to have to get creative about it…

I do love that the CDC is using infographics to spread valuable information in a fun, easy-to-digest way that informs people using visual explanations. They also specifically call out the designer of the beard and moustache vector art they used from ShutterStock, fredrisher

Usability tests are unique. We ask people to do real tasks with the system and watch. As the person completes the task, we watch their behaviour and listen to their stream-of-consciousness narrative. But what makes a good usability task scenario?

For this years fishing trip to Alaska, I opted to upgrade my GoPro to a Panasonic GH-5 with Leica 12-60mm lense package at the local Best Buy. This would then accompany the Mavic drone footage. We had a couple sunny days for flying the drone, but really surprised how good the GH-5 footage turned out […]

If extra time on a test or memory aids can make life easier during college, why not use them? Adam talks about moving past the "stigma" of using disability services and getting the help you need to succeed in college.

In this work, we investigate multi-task learning as a way of pre-training models for classification tasks in digital pathology. It is motivated by the fact that many small and medium-size datasets have been released by the community over the years whereas there is no large scale dataset similar to ImageNet in the domain. We first assemble and transform many digital pathology datasets into a pool of 22 classification tasks and almost 900k images. Then, we propose a simple architecture and training scheme for creating a transferable model and a robust evaluation and selection protocol in order to evaluate our method. Depending on the target task, we show that our models used as feature extractors either improve significantly over ImageNet pre-trained models or provide comparable performance. Fine-tuning improves performance over feature extraction and is able to recover the lack of specificity of ImageNet features, as both pre-training sources yield comparable performance.

This paper addresses the problem of efficiently achieving visual predictive control tasks. To this end, a memory of motion, containing a set of trajectories built off-line, is used for leveraging precomputation and dealing with difficult visual tasks. Standard regression techniques, such as k-nearest neighbors and Gaussian process regression, are used to query the memory and provide on-line a warm-start and a way point to the control optimization process. The proposed technique allows the control scheme to achieve high performance and, at the same time, keep the computational time limited. Simulation and experimental results, carried out with a 7-axis manipulator, show the effectiveness of the approach.

In this paper, we focus on the task of small-footprint keyword spotting under the far-field scenario. Far-field environments are commonly encountered in real-life speech applications, and it causes serve degradation of performance due to room reverberation and various kinds of noises. Our baseline system is built on the convolutional neural network trained with pooled data of both far-field and close-talking speech. To cope with the distortions, we adopt the multi-task learning scheme with alignment loss to reduce the mismatch between the embedding features learned from different domains of data. Experimental results show that our proposed method maintains the performance on close-talking speech and achieves significant improvement on the far-field test set.

The paper develops a robotic manipulation system to treat the pressing needs for handling a large number of test tubes in clinical examination and replace or reduce human labor. It presents the technical details of the system, which separates and arranges test tubes in racks with the help of 3D vision and artificial intelligence (AI) reasoning/planning. The developed system only requires a person to put a rack with mixed and non-arranged tubes in front of a robot. The robot autonomously performs recognition, reasoning, planning, manipulation, etc., and returns a rack with separated and arranged tubes. The system is simple-to-use, and there are no requests for expert knowledge in robotics. We expect such a system to play an important role in helping managing public health and hope similar systems could be extended to other clinical manipulation like handling mixers and pipettes in the future.

Learning-based techniques are increasingly effective at controlling complex systems using data-driven models. However, most work done so far has focused on learning individual tasks or control laws. Hence, it is still a largely unaddressed research question how multiple tasks can be learned efficiently and simultaneously on the same system. In particular, no efficient state space exploration schemes have been designed for multi-task control settings. Using this research gap as our main motivation, we present an algorithm that approximates the smallest data set that needs to be collected in order to achieve high control performance for multiple learning-based control laws. We describe system uncertainty using a probabilistic Gaussian process model, which allows us to quantify the impact of potentially collected data on each learning-based controller. We then determine the optimal measurement locations by solving a stochastic optimization problem approximately. We show that, under reasonable assumptions, the approximate solution converges towards that of the exact problem. Additionally, we provide a numerical illustration of the proposed algorithm.

Dialogue engines that incorporate different types of agents to converse with humans are popular.

However, conversations are dynamic in the sense that a selected response will change the conversation on-the-fly, influencing the subsequent utterances in the conversation, which makes the response selection a challenging problem.

We model the problem of selecting the best response from a set of responses generated by a heterogeneous set of dialogue agents by taking into account the conversational history, and propose a emph{Neural Response Selection} method.

The proposed method is trained to predict a coherent set of responses within a single conversation, considering its own predictions via a curriculum training mechanism.

Our experimental results show that the proposed method can accurately select the most appropriate responses, thereby significantly improving the user experience in dialogue systems.

The purpose of this container is to be able to use the Amazon ASK CLI and Amazon AWS CLI in a Docker container in DevOps pipelines.

Note: This is a fork from the martindsouza image with these changes:

Summer Camps 2020 Breakthrough Basketball: Elite Guard Camp A three-day basketball camp for intermediate to advanced players, covering essential skills, techniques, habits and drills to become an elite player and to develop an elite mindset.…

Agencies, local authorities and national governments do not agree on who should be quarantined or what that should actually look like. Here’s what we do know. By Maya Miller, Caroline Chen and Joshua Kaplan ProPublica People who have been exposed to the coronavirus are being given incomplete or misleading information about whether they should quarantine themselves, exposing major gaps in the public health response to the pandemic and illuminating disagreement among officials about how useful the tactic even is at this point in the disease’s spread.…

Sewing is my new coping mechanism.…

Erin Haskell Gourde isn't afraid to mix it up a little.…

According to an embodiment, based on task border information, and first-type dependency relationship information containing N number of nodes corresponding to data accesses to one set of data, containing edges representing dependency relationship between the nodes, and having at least one node with an access reliability flag indicating reliability/unreliability of corresponding data access; task border edges, of edges extending over task borders, are identified that have an unreliable access node linked to at least one end, and presentation information containing unreliable access nodes is generated. According to dependency existence information input corresponding to the set of data, conversion information indicating absence of data access to the unreliable access nodes is output. According to the conversion information, the first-type dependency relationship information is converted into second-type dependency relationship information containing M number of nodes (0≦M≦N) corresponding to data accesses to the set of data and containing edges representing inter-node dependency relationship.

Disclosed is an information processing device and a task switching method that can reduce the time required for switching of tasks in a plurality of coprocessors. The information processing device (30) includes a processor core (301); coprocessors (311 to 31n) including operation units (321 to 32n) that perform operation in response to a request from the processor core (301) and operation storage units (331 to 22n) that store the contents of operation of the operation units (321 to 32n), save storage units (351 to 35n) that store the saved contents of operation, a task switching control unit (302) that outputs a save/restore request signal when switching a task on which operation is performed by the coprocessors (311 to 31n), and save/restore units (341 to 34n) that perform at least one of saving of the contents of operation in the operation storage units (331 to 33n) to the save storage units (351 to 35n) and restoration of the contents of operation in the save storage units (351 to 35 n) to the operation storage units (331 to 33n) in response to the save/restore request signal.

The disclosure relates to the implementation of multi-tasking on a digital signal processor. Blocking functions are arranged such that they do not make use of a processor's hardware stack. Respective function calls are replaced with a piece of inline assembly code, which instead performs a branch to the correct routine for carrying out said function. If a blocking condition of the blocking function is encountered, a task switch can be done to resume another task. Whilst the hardware stack is not used when a task switch might have to occur, mixed-up contents of the hardware stack among function calls performed by different tasks are avoided.

An individual alkamide and/or a mixture having two or more different alkamides, is disclosed for changing, masking or reducing the unpleasant flavor impression of an unpleasant-tasting substance or mixture of substances. The alkamide can be trans-pellitorine; cis-pellitorine; 2Z,4Z- or 2Z,4E-decadienoic acid-N-isobutylamide; 2E,4E-decadienoic acid-N-([2S]-2-methylbutyl)amide; 2E,4E-decadienoic acid-N-([2R]-2-methylbutylamide); 2E,4Z-decadienoic acid-N-(2-methylbutyl)amide; achilleamide; sarmentine; 2E- or 3E-decenoic acid-N-isobutylamide; 3E-nonenoic acid-N-isobutylamide; spilanthol; homospilanthol; 2E,6Z,8E-decatrienoic acid-N-([2R]-2-methylbutyl)amide; 2E- or 2Z-decen-4-oic acid-N-isobutylamide; α-sanshool; α-hydroxysanshool; γ-hydroxysanshool; γ-hydroxysanshool; γ-hydroxyisosanshool; γ-dehydrosanshool; γ-sanshool; bungeanool; isobungeanool; dihydrobungeanool; or tetrahydrobungeanool, or combinations thereof.

A controller receives a request to perform a release space operation. A determination is made that a new discard scan has to be performed on a cache, in response to the received request to perform the release space operation. A determination is made as to how many task control blocks are to be allocated to the perform the new discard scan, based on how many task control blocks have already been allocated for performing one or more discard scans that are already in progress.

A proposed feature vector for a first deign is received and an existing feature vector for an existing design is retrieved for a given task. The proposed design is evaluated against the existing design using task-based scores associated with each design and based on their performances for the given task.

An extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUVL) process is performed on a target, such as a semiconductor wafer, having a photosensitive layer. The method includes providing a one-dimensional patterned mask along a first direction. The patterned mask includes a substrate including a first region and a second region, a multilayer mirror above the first and second regions, an absorption layer above the multilayer mirror in the second region, and a defect in the first region. The method further includes exposing the patterned mask by an illuminator and setting the patterned mask and the target in relative motion along the first direction while exposing the patterned mask. As a result, an accumulated exposure dose received by the target is an optimized exposure dose.

A mask includes a substantially transparent portion. The mask further includes a halftone portion abutting the substantially transparent portion, a light transmittance of the halftone portion being greater than 0% and less than 100%. The mask further includes a blocking portion abutting the halftone portion, a light transmittance of the blocking portion being less than the light transmittance of the halftone portion.

A method includes scanning a lithography mask with a repair process, and measuring back-scattered electron signals of back-scattered electrons generated from the scanning. An endpoint is determined from the back-scattered electron signals. A stop point is calculated from the endpoint. The step of scanning is stopped when the calculated stop point is reached.

A method of tilting liquid crystal molecules is presented. The method entails providing a substrate including a photoalignment layer on top of a layer of liquid crystal molecules. The photoalignment layer is exposed to patterned light that is incident on the substrate at a substantially normal angle. The patterned light is polarized in a polarization direction that is non-parallel to an incident surface of the substrate.

Techniques for reducing the number of shots required by a radiation beam writing tool to write a pattern, such as fractured layout design, onto a substrate. One or more apertures are employed by a radiation beam writing tool to write a desired pattern onto a substrate using L-shaped images, T-shaped images, or some combination of both. By reducing the number of shots required to write a pattern onto a substrate, various implementations of the invention may reduce the write time and/or write complexity of the write process.

A mask blank for use in the manufacture of a binary mask adapted to be applied with ArF excimer laser exposure light has, on a transparent substrate, a light-shielding film for forming a transfer pattern. The light-shielding film has a laminated structure of a lower layer and an upper layer and has an optical density of 2.8 or more for exposure light and a thickness of 45 nm or less. The lower layer is made of a material in which the total content of a transition metal and silicon is 90 at % or more, and has a thickness of 30 nm or more. The upper layer has a thickness of 3 nm or more and 6 nm or less. The phase difference between exposure light transmitted through the light-shielding film and exposure light transmitted in air for a distance equal to the thickness of the light-shielding film is 30 degrees or less.

In a multitasking machine tool, a first tool post including a tool spindle configured to allow a tool to be detachably attached thereto is configured to be slidable in predetermined directions, while a second tool post is configured to allow a tool to be detachably attached thereto. A tool-change part includes at least one gripper configured to hold a tool to be attached to the second tool post. An automatic tool changer is configured to detachably attach the tool-change part (as well as to change the tool installed) to the tool spindle of the first tool post positioned in a first tool-change region. Change of the tool attached to the second tool post is carried out by a motion (sliding and/or rotation of the tool spindle) of the first tool post (with the tool-change part attached to the tool spindle thereof) located in a second tool-change region.

Provided is a masking system of masks for use with multiwell plates such as microtiter plates to facilitate sample dispensing and assay accuracy, especially when dispensing more than one solution into the wells. One or more masks, adapted in size to fit snugly over a multiwell plate and the mask formed with openings each aligned with a subset of one or more wells of the plate beneath, aids the user in sample and/or reagent administration. Advantageously, the masks contain registration aids so that proper orientation with respect to the plate below is achieved; the registration aid may be a cut corner, registration peg or mark, or visual marking or stamping.

A sleep apnea prevention sleep-aid mask is described. The sleep-aid mask is configured to secure the lips of a user together in a natural state, in order to encourage the respiratory system of the user to employ the nasal passages rather than the mouth for respiration. A pad equipped with a perforated mesh or channel is positioned over the lips and mouth of the user, and secured in position on the user via an adhesive, which temporarily affixes the pad to the face of the user. The sleep-aid mask is preferably shaped and sized according to the specific size of the user's face, and is configured to limit the effective diameter of the mouth of the user, in order to cause continued use of respiration via the nasal passages.

For each totally black pixel of image data to be printed using a fluid-ejection printing device, it is determined whether the pixel is part of a line feature or an area fill feature of the image data. Where the pixel is part of a line feature, a first printing mask selected that is optimized for printing line features. Where the pixel is part of an area fill feature, a second printing mask is selected that is optimized for printing area fill features. Each mask specifies a number of fluid droplets to be printed and positions where the fluid droplets are to be printed. The selected mask is applied to the pixel. The pixel is printed using the mask that has been applied. The fluid-ejection printing device prints the pixel by ejecting the number of fluid droplets specified by the mask at the positions specified by the mask.

A synergy-based human-machine interface that uses low-dimensional command signals to control a high dimensional virtual, robotic or paralyzed human hand is provided. Temporal postural synergies are extracted from angular velocities of finger joints of five healthy subjects when they perform hand movements that are similar to activities of daily living. Extracted Synergies are used in real-time brain control, where a virtual, robotic or paralyzed human hand is controlled to manipulate virtual or real world objects.

A mask for forming polysilicon has a first slit region where a plurality of horizontal slit patterns are arranged in the vertical direction while bearing the same width, a second slit region where a plurality of horizontal slit patterns are arranged in the vertical direction while bearing the same width, a third slit region where a plurality of horizontal slit patterns are arranged in the vertical direction while bearing the same width, and a fourth slit region where a plurality of horizontal slit patterns are arranged in the vertical direction while bearing the same width. The slit patterns arranged at the first to fourth slit regions are sequentially enlarged in width in the horizontal direction in multiple proportion to the width d of the slit pattern at the first slit region. The centers of the slit patterns arranged at the first to fourth slit regions in the horizontal direction are placed at the same line. The slit patterns arranged at the respective slit regions in the vertical direction are spaced from each other with a distance of 8*d. Alternatively, the first to fourth slit regions may be arranged in reverse order, or in the vertical direction.