This film is from the collections of the Human Studies Film Archives, Smithsonian Institution. Clip from silent film, Beautiful Japan (1917-18), by travel-lecturer Benjamin Brodsky. Benten Festival is celebrated on Shiraishi Island. Benten (Benzaiten) is the Goddess of the Sea and one of the Seven Lucky Gods of Japan.

The post Beautiful Japan: Benten Festival 1917-1918, from the Smithsonian’s Human Studies Film Archive appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Realising that Public Cloud is not the single solution towards their digital journey, 91 per cent of Indian enterprises are already in the process of rebalancing their Cloud strategy, a new report said on Thursday.

Insect-eating bats are estimated to be worth US$ 1 billion (€0.91 billion) a year to maize farmers around the world, a new study has revealed. Not only do bats reduce crop damage by eating adult corn earworm crop pests, they also suppress fungal infections in maize ears. Bats and their habitats need to be better protected for their ecological and economic contributions, say the study’s authors.

Grey is stuck in a time paradox, Myke shares how many journals he ordered, and they both watch Jiro Dreams of Sushi.

 
 000
 FKPZ24 KNHC 210234
 TCAPZ4
 
 REMNANTS OF PRISCILLA ICAO ADVISORY NUMBER   4
 NWS NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL       EP192019
 0300 UTC MON OCT 21 2019
 
 TC ADVISORY
 DTG:                      20191021/0300Z
 TCAC:                     KNHC
 TC:                       PRISCILLA
 NR:                       004
 PSN:                      N2000 W10442
 MOV:                      NNW 09KT
 C:                        1005HPA
 MAX WIND:                 025KT
 FCST PSN +6 HR:           21/0900Z N2036 W10450
 FCST MAX WIND +6 HR:      020KT
 FCST PSN +12 HR:          21/1500Z N//// W/////
 FCST MAX WIND +12 HR:     ///KT
 FCST PSN +18 HR:          21/2100Z N//// W/////
 FCST MAX WIND +18 HR:     ///KT
 FCST PSN +24 HR:          22/0300Z N//// W/////
 FCST MAX WIND +24 HR:     ///KT
 RMK:                      THE FORECAST POSITION INFORMATION IN
                           THIS PRODUCT IS INTERPOLATED FROM
                           OFFICIAL FORECAST DATA VALID AT 0000...
                           0600...1200...AND 1800Z.
 NXT MSG:                  NO MSG EXP
 
 ..
 
 

 
 000
 FKPZ22 KNHC 161752
 TCAPZ2
 
 POTENTIAL TROPICAL CYCLONE SEVENTEEN-E
 SPECIAL ICAO ADVISORY NUMBER   4
 NWS NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL       EP172019
 1800 UTC WED OCT 16 2019
 
 TC ADVISORY
 DTG:                      20191016/1800Z
 TCAC:                     KNHC
 TC:                       SEVENTEEN-E
 NR:                       004
 PSN:                      N1636 W09636
 MOV:                      NW 12KT
 C:                        1007HPA
 MAX WIND:                 025KT
 FCST PSN +6 HR:           16/2100Z N1657 W09706
 FCST MAX WIND +6 HR:      025KT
 FCST PSN +12 HR:          17/0300Z N//// W/////
 FCST MAX WIND +12 HR:     ///KT
 FCST PSN +18 HR:          17/0900Z N//// W/////
 FCST MAX WIND +18 HR:     ///KT
 FCST PSN +24 HR:          17/1500Z N//// W/////
 FCST MAX WIND +24 HR:     ///KT
 RMK:                      THE FORECAST POSITION INFORMATION IN
                           THIS PRODUCT IS INTERPOLATED FROM
                           OFFICIAL FORECAST DATA VALID AT 0000...
                           0600...1200...AND 1800Z.
 NXT MSG:                  NO MSG EXP
 
 ..
 
 

 
 000
 FKNT23 KNHC 281439
 TCANT3
  
 POST-TROPICAL CYCLONE PABLO ICAO ADVISORY NUMBER  12
 NWS NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL       AL182019
 1500 UTC MON OCT 28 2019
  
 TC ADVISORY
 DTG:                      20191028/1500Z
 TCAC:                     KNHC
 TC:                       PABLO
 NR:                       012
 PSN:                      N4648 W01742
 MOV:                      N 04KT
 C:                        0995HPA
 MAX WIND:                 035KT
 FCST PSN +6 HR:           28/2100Z N4712 W01750
 FCST MAX WIND +6 HR:      035KT
 FCST PSN +12 HR:          29/0300Z N4740 W01800
 FCST MAX WIND +12 HR:     035KT
 FCST PSN +18 HR:          29/0900Z N4813 W01811
 FCST MAX WIND +18 HR:     035KT
 FCST PSN +24 HR:          29/1500Z N//// W/////
 FCST MAX WIND +24 HR:     ///KT
 RMK:                      THE FORECAST POSITION INFORMATION IN
                           THIS PRODUCT IS INTERPOLATED FROM
                           OFFICIAL FORECAST DATA VALID AT 0000...
                           0600...1200...AND 1800Z.
 NXT MSG:                  NO MSG EXP
  
 $$
 

 
 000
 FKNT22 KNHC 260251
 TCANT2
  
 POST-TROPICAL CYCLONE OLGA ICAO ADVISORY NUMBER   3
 NWS NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL       AL172019
 0300 UTC SAT OCT 26 2019
  
 TC ADVISORY
 DTG:                      20191026/0300Z
 TCAC:                     KNHC
 TC:                       OLGA
 NR:                       003
 PSN:                      N2748 W09212
 MOV:                      NE 15KT
 C:                        0999HPA
 MAX WIND:                 045KT
 FCST PSN +6 HR:           26/0900Z N3027 W09100
 FCST MAX WIND +6 HR:      040KT
 FCST PSN +12 HR:          26/1500Z N3321 W08955
 FCST MAX WIND +12 HR:     035KT
 FCST PSN +18 HR:          26/2100Z N3627 W08858
 FCST MAX WIND +18 HR:     030KT
 FCST PSN +24 HR:          27/0300Z N3922 W08715
 FCST MAX WIND +24 HR:     030KT
 RMK:                      THE FORECAST POSITION INFORMATION IN
                           THIS PRODUCT IS INTERPOLATED FROM
                           OFFICIAL FORECAST DATA VALID AT 0000...
                           0600...1200...AND 1800Z.
 NXT MSG:                  NO MSG EXP
  
 $$
 

 
 000
 FKPZ25 KNHC 171432
 TCAPZ5
 
 POST-TROPICAL CYCLONE RAYMOND ICAO ADVISORY NUMBER  11
 NWS NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL       EP202019
 1500 UTC SUN NOV 17 2019
 
 TC ADVISORY
 DTG:                      20191117/1500Z
 TCAC:                     KNHC
 TC:                       RAYMOND
 NR:                       011
 PSN:                      N1906 W11106
 MOV:                      N 14KT
 C:                        1001HPA
 MAX WIND:                 025KT
 FCST PSN +6 HR:           17/2100Z N2022 W11102
 FCST MAX WIND +6 HR:      020KT
 FCST PSN +12 HR:          18/0300Z N2137 W11115
 FCST MAX WIND +12 HR:     020KT
 FCST PSN +18 HR:          18/0900Z N2252 W11145
 FCST MAX WIND +18 HR:     020KT
 FCST PSN +24 HR:          18/1500Z N//// W/////
 FCST MAX WIND +24 HR:     ///KT
 RMK:                      THE FORECAST POSITION INFORMATION IN
                           THIS PRODUCT IS INTERPOLATED FROM
                           OFFICIAL FORECAST DATA VALID AT 0000...
                           0600...1200...AND 1800Z.
 NXT MSG:                  NO MSG EXP
 
 ..
 
 

 
 000
 FKNT24 KNHC 010832
 TCANT4
 
 POST-TROPICAL CYCLONE REBEKAH ICAO ADVISORY NUMBER   7
 NWS NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL       AL192019
 0900 UTC FRI NOV 01 2019
 
 TC ADVISORY
 DTG:                      20191101/0900Z
 TCAC:                     KNHC
 TC:                       REBEKAH
 NR:                       007
 PSN:                      N4036 W02900
 MOV:                      E 17KT
 C:                        1005HPA
 MAX WIND:                 030KT
 FCST PSN +6 HR:           01/1500Z N4019 W02604
 FCST MAX WIND +6 HR:      025KT
 FCST PSN +12 HR:          01/2100Z N//// W/////
 FCST MAX WIND +12 HR:     ///KT
 FCST PSN +18 HR:          02/0300Z N//// W/////
 FCST MAX WIND +18 HR:     ///KT
 FCST PSN +24 HR:          02/0900Z N//// W/////
 FCST MAX WIND +24 HR:     ///KT
 RMK:                      THE FORECAST POSITION INFORMATION IN
                           THIS PRODUCT IS INTERPOLATED FROM
                           OFFICIAL FORECAST DATA VALID AT 0000...
                           0600...1200...AND 1800Z.
 NXT MSG:                  NO MSG EXP
 
 ..
 
 

 
 000
 FKNT21 KNHC 192041
 TCANT1
 
 POST-TROPICAL CYCLONE NESTOR ICAO ADVISORY NUMBER  10
 NWS NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL       AL162019
 2100 UTC SAT OCT 19 2019
 
 TC ADVISORY
 DTG:                      20191019/2100Z
 TCAC:                     KNHC
 TC:                       NESTOR
 NR:                       010
 PSN:                      N3024 W08406
 MOV:                      NE 20KT
 C:                        0999HPA
 MAX WIND:                 035KT
 FCST PSN +6 HR:           20/0300Z N3139 W08218
 FCST MAX WIND +6 HR:      040KT
 FCST PSN +12 HR:          20/0900Z N3258 W08013
 FCST MAX WIND +12 HR:     040KT
 FCST PSN +18 HR:          20/1500Z N3419 W07752
 FCST MAX WIND +18 HR:     040KT
 FCST PSN +24 HR:          20/2100Z N3527 W07531
 FCST MAX WIND +24 HR:     040KT
 RMK:                      THE FORECAST POSITION INFORMATION IN
                           THIS PRODUCT IS INTERPOLATED FROM
                           OFFICIAL FORECAST DATA VALID AT 0000...
                           0600...1200...AND 1800Z.
 NXT MSG:                  NO MSG EXP
 
 ..
 
 

 
 000
 FKPZ23 KNHC 192039
 TCAPZ3
 
 POST-TROPICAL CYCLONE OCTAVE ICAO ADVISORY NUMBER   9
 NWS NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL       EP182019
 2100 UTC SAT OCT 19 2019
 
 TC ADVISORY
 DTG:                      20191019/2100Z
 TCAC:                     KNHC
 TC:                       OCTAVE
 NR:                       009
 PSN:                      N1136 W12542
 MOV:                      ENE 02KT
 C:                        1009HPA
 MAX WIND:                 030KT
 FCST PSN +6 HR:           20/0300Z N1127 W12542
 FCST MAX WIND +6 HR:      025KT
 FCST PSN +12 HR:          20/0900Z N1119 W12542
 FCST MAX WIND +12 HR:     025KT
 FCST PSN +18 HR:          20/1500Z N1110 W12542
 FCST MAX WIND +18 HR:     025KT
 FCST PSN +24 HR:          20/2100Z N1101 W12542
 FCST MAX WIND +24 HR:     025KT
 RMK:                      THE FORECAST POSITION INFORMATION IN
                           THIS PRODUCT IS INTERPOLATED FROM
                           OFFICIAL FORECAST DATA VALID AT 0000...
                           0600...1200...AND 1800Z.
 NXT MSG:                  NO MSG EXP
 
 ..
 
 

 
 000
 FKNT25 KNHC 250232
 TCANT5
  
 POST-TROPICAL CYCLONE SEBASTIEN ICAO ADVISORY NUMBER  23
 NWS NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL       AL202019
 0300 UTC MON NOV 25 2019
  
 TC ADVISORY
 DTG:                      20191125/0300Z
 TCAC:                     KNHC
 TC:                       SEBASTIEN
 NR:                       023
 PSN:                      N4100 W02854
 MOV:                      NE 35KT
 C:                        0993HPA
 MAX WIND:                 050KT
 FCST PSN +6 HR:           25/0900Z N4244 W02445
 FCST MAX WIND +6 HR:      050KT
 FCST PSN +12 HR:          25/1500Z N4443 W02034
 FCST MAX WIND +12 HR:     050KT
 FCST PSN +18 HR:          25/2100Z N4658 W01619
 FCST MAX WIND +18 HR:     050KT
 FCST PSN +24 HR:          26/0300Z N//// W/////
 FCST MAX WIND +24 HR:     ///KT
 RMK:                      THE FORECAST POSITION INFORMATION IN
                           THIS PRODUCT IS INTERPOLATED FROM
                           OFFICIAL FORECAST DATA VALID AT 0000...
                           0600...1200...AND 1800Z.
 NXT MSG:                  NO MSG EXP
  
 $$
 

The plug-in hybrid drivetrain, a first for Porsche, can move the car 15.5 miles on battery power alone. But is the mileage figure all smoke and mirrors?

Porsche revealed the 918 Spyder Hybrid at this year's Geneva Auto Show and may be producing the vehicle sooner than originally expected.

After receiving positive feedback from the public, Porsche has given the green light to the 918 Spyder plug-in hybrid.

Earth911 is hosting a week-long series of Google+ Hangouts to encourage everyone to make eco-friendly choices during the holiday season. You're invited!

Collectible Pistols From Outer Space

Eigen received AS 9100 D certification for Peenya Location.

Military-Fasteners, a company based out of Ponte Vedra that distributes aerospace and mil-spec hardware received the AS9120 Rev B certification. Quality Management Systems, Requirements for Aviation, Space and Defense Distributors.

Effective January 1, 2020 all business and government locations in Michigan will be required to implement "Enhanced 911" service in their Multi Line Telephone Systems (MLTS).

At the Mid-America Trucking Show in Louisville, Kentucky, drivers from all over the country converge each year to show off their chrome and exchange stories, tips and gripes. One thing unites most in attendance this year: concerns about the steady march of technology, especially the recently imposed, mandatory electronic logging device, or ELD, which records every detail of a driver’s working hours.

Over the Road is an eight-part series that gives voice to the trials and triumphs of America’s long haul truckers. Host “Long Haul Paul” Marhoefer, a musician, storyteller and trucker for nearly 40 years, takes you behind the wheel to explore a devoted community and a world that’s changing amidst new technologies and regulations.

Listen to more episodes at OvertheRoad.fm.

Folafoluwa O. Odetola, MD, MPH, discusses an article published in the January 2008 issue of Pediatric Critical Care Medicine, "Do outcomes vary according to the source of admission to the pediatric intensive care unit?" Dr. Odetola is from Mott Children's Hospital, University of Michigan Health System, and from the Child Health Evaluation and Research Unit Department of Pediatrics and Communicable Diseases at the University of Michigan Ann Arbor. (Pediatr Crit Care Med. 2008;9[1]:20)

Margaret M. Parker, MD, MCCM, and Elizabeth Emrath, MD, discuss Dr. Emrath's talk on the new pediatric nutritional guidelines from the 48th Critical Care Congress precourse Current Concepts in Pediatric Critical Care

Sun Pharma Q3 net profit tanks 26% to Rs 913 crore

Chris gets a voicemail from a listener (Brenie) discussing the new show format. And Mark helps Chris encourage more engagement for the alphabet photo challenges. Download the MP3 for this episode Receive TFTTF updates via email Support the show on Patreon or via SEPA

The post 891 Snips from the Top Floor? (Slice) appeared first on PHOTOGRAPHY TIPS FROM THE TOP FLOOR.

More than 30 buildings, many dating to the 1880s or earlier, had to be torn down or have their front lopped off 20 feet.

This publication provides estimates of total softwood harvest by owner for Alaska for 1910-2006. This information is a mix of reported and estimated data. These data are being used to develop assumptions needed in forest planning by both public and private forest managers.

DALLAS, April 22, 2020 — Reports from the front lines of hospitals indicate a marked drop in the number of heart attacks and strokes nationally. But, COVID-19 is definitely not stopping people from having heart attacks, strokes and cardiac arrests. We ...

DALLAS, 22 de abril de 2020 — Informes de las líneas del frente de los hospitales indican que la cantidad de ataques del corazón y ataques cerebrales a nivel nacional ha caído en forma precipitosa. Sin embargo, es claro que COVID-19 no hace que las ...

Circulation Journal Report AHA COVID-19 Newsroom   FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 4 a.m. CT/5 a.m. ET, Saturday, May 2, 2020   DALLAS, May 2, 2020 — American Heart Association volunteer experts issued Temporary Emergency Guidance to STEMI Systems of Care...

In August 1919, the Cedar Rapids Evening Gazette opined in favor of the passage of a $5 million congressional appropriation to “investigate influenza, its cause, prevention and...

In August 1919, the Cedar Rapids Evening Gazette opined in favor of the passage of a $5 million congressional appropriation to “investigate influenza, its cause, prevention and cure.”

“We all remember without effort the darkness and terror which engulfed the land last fall and winter as death stalked swiftly from seaboard to seaboard, into crowded city and unto lonely plain, sparing not the cottage of the poor nor the mansion of the rich,” the editorial said. “In four short months, influenza claimed a half million lives and pressed millions of others onto beds of sickness, suffering and helplessness. The nation’s mortality rate leapt high and with astounding speed. The nation was unprepared to cope with a disease calamity such as it has never known.”

The Gazette lamented that billions of dollars in loss were wrought by the pandemic of so-called Spanish influenza, compared with only $5 million being spent to investigate the virus.

“More has been spent in studying diseases of hogs,” the editorial argued.

Just less than a year earlier, The Evening Gazette did not see “darkness and terror” coming. A front page, above-the-fold story Sept. 25, 1918, asked: “Spanish Influenza just the old-fashioned grippe?” “Grippe” is an old-time term for the flu, by the way.

“As a matter of fact, in the opinion of City Physician Beardsley, and a good many other Cedar Rapids men in the same profession, Spanish influenza is just another name for the regular old fashioned influenza and is no different from the influenza we have always had. A bad cold is a bad cold, and a worse cold is grippe, which covers a multitude of things ...,” The Gazette reported, optimistically.

An earlier strain of influenza in the spring of 1918 had been less virulent and deadly. But the second wave was no ordinary grippe.

By mid-October, according to reports in The Evening Gazette, influenza caseloads exploded. On Oct. 12, 1918, the local health board shut down pool rooms, billiard halls and bowling alleys. It pleaded with store owners to avoid allowing crowds to linger. On Oct. 16, stores were ordered to discontinue any special sales that might draw more shoppers.

Restrictions tightened as the pandemic worsened.

Death notices were stacking up on Gazette pages, in rows reminiscent of small tombstones. Many victims were cut down in the prime of life by a virus that struck young, healthy people hardest. Mothers and fathers died, leaving young children. Soldiers serving in World War I died far away from home. Visitors to town never returned home.

Young brothers died and were mourned at a double funeral. A sister who came to care for a sick brother died, and so did her brother.

Ray Franklin Minburn, 24, died of influenza, leaving behind six sisters and two brothers. “Mr. Minburn was a faithful son, a devoted companion, a good neighbor,” concluded his death announcement on Oct. 21, 1918.

On the same page that day came news, tucked among the tombstones, reporting that Iowa Gov. William Harding had recovered from influenza, in the midst of his reelection campaign, and was back in the office. You might remember Harding as the governor who banned German and other languages during World War I and who was nearly impeached for bribery in 1919.

Not far from Harding’s update came news from the prison in Anamosa that “whisky and quinine” were being deployed to attack the grippe.

The pages of The Evening Gazette also were dotted with advertisements for supposed cures and treatments.

“Danger of infection from influenza or any contagious disease can be eliminated by using preventive measures,” prescribed by Ruby S. Thompson, chiropractor and naturopathic physician. Those included “Sulphur-vapor baths, Carlsbad mineral bath.”

You could build up your blood using “Gude’s Pepto-Mangan,” the “Red Blood Builder.” Keep your strength up with Horlick’s Malted Milk.

One ad looked exactly like a news story, carrying the bold headline “Druggists still asked to conserve stocks of VapoRub needed in ‘flu’ districts.” In a tiny notation at the end of the “story” were the words “The Vicks Chemical Co.”

That August 1919 Gazette editorial I mentioned makes me wonder what we’ll be writing in a year or so after our current pandemic.

Death stalking us swiftly from seaboard to seaboard in an unprepared nation, preceded by the casual insistence it’s no worse than the seasonal flu, sounds eerily familiar in 2020. More attention is being paid to hogs than the health of humans working in meatpacking plants.

Will we be writing in 2021 how reopening states and counties too soon led to our own second wave? Here in Iowa, reopening began before we had a fully working predictive model to chart the pandemic’s course and before new testing efforts had a chance to ramp up. Will decisions made without crucial information look smart in 2021? Or will we wish we’d waited just a couple more weeks?

What of the protesters demanding liberation? What about the president, running for reelection in a nation harmed by his crisis mismanagement? What will a new normal look like?

Will there be newspapers around to editorialize in the aftermath? After all, most of the pitches for fake cures are online now, some even extolled at White House briefings.

And will we be better prepared next time? I bet editorial writers in 1919 figured we’d have this pandemic response thing down to a science by now.

Little did they know that in 2020 we’d have so little respect for science. And after a century-plus, the darkness and terror apparently slipped our minds.

(319) 398-8262; todd.dorman@thegazette.com

In August 1919, the Cedar Rapids Evening Gazette opined in favor of the passage of a $5 million congressional appropriation to “investigate influenza, its cause, prevention and cure.”

“We all remember without effort the darkness and terror which engulfed the land last fall and winter as death stalked swiftly from seaboard to seaboard, into crowded city and unto lonely plain, sparing not the cottage of the poor nor the mansion of the rich,” the editorial said. “In four short months, influenza claimed a half million lives and pressed millions of others onto beds of sickness, suffering and helplessness. The nation’s mortality rate leapt high and with astounding speed. The nation was unprepared to cope with a disease calamity such as it has never known.”

The Gazette lamented that billions of dollars in loss were wrought by the pandemic of so-called Spanish influenza, compared with only $5 million being spent to investigate the virus.

“More has been spent in studying diseases of hogs,” the editorial argued.

Just less than a year earlier, The Evening Gazette did not see “darkness and terror” coming. A front page, above-the-fold story Sept. 25, 1918, asked: “Spanish Influenza just the old-fashioned grippe?” “Grippe” is an old-time term for the flu, by the way.

“As a matter of fact, in the opinion of City Physician Beardsley, and a good many other Cedar Rapids men in the same profession, Spanish influenza is just another name for the regular old fashioned influenza and is no different from the influenza we have always had. A bad cold is a bad cold, and a worse cold is grippe, which covers a multitude of things ...,” The Gazette reported, optimistically.

An earlier strain of influenza in the spring of 1918 had been less virulent and deadly. But the second wave was no ordinary grippe.

By mid-October, according to reports in The Evening Gazette, influenza caseloads exploded. On Oct. 12, 1918, the local health board shut down pool rooms, billiard halls and bowling alleys. It pleaded with store owners to avoid allowing crowds to linger. On Oct. 16, stores were ordered to discontinue any special sales that might draw more shoppers.

Restrictions tightened as the pandemic worsened.

Death notices were stacking up on Gazette pages, in rows reminiscent of small tombstones. Many victims were cut down in the prime of life by a virus that struck young, healthy people hardest. Mothers and fathers died, leaving young children. Soldiers serving in World War I died far away from home. Visitors to town never returned home.

Young brothers died and were mourned at a double funeral. A sister who came to care for a sick brother died, and so did her brother.

Ray Franklin Minburn, 24, died of influenza, leaving behind six sisters and two brothers. “Mr. Minburn was a faithful son, a devoted companion, a good neighbor,” concluded his death announcement on Oct. 21, 1918.

On the same page that day came news, tucked among the tombstones, reporting that Iowa Gov. William Harding had recovered from influenza, in the midst of his reelection campaign, and was back in the office. You might remember Harding as the governor who banned German and other languages during World War I and who was nearly impeached for bribery in 1919.

Not far from Harding’s update came news from the prison in Anamosa that “whisky and quinine” were being deployed to attack the grippe.

The pages of The Evening Gazette also were dotted with advertisements for supposed cures and treatments.

“Danger of infection from influenza or any contagious disease can be eliminated by using preventive measures,” prescribed by Ruby S. Thompson, chiropractor and naturopathic physician. Those included “Sulphur-vapor baths, Carlsbad mineral bath.”

You could build up your blood using “Gude’s Pepto-Mangan,” the “Red Blood Builder.” Keep your strength up with Horlick’s Malted Milk.

One ad looked exactly like a news story, carrying the bold headline “Druggists still asked to conserve stocks of VapoRub needed in ‘flu’ districts.” In a tiny notation at the end of the “story” were the words “The Vicks Chemical Co.”

That August 1919 Gazette editorial I mentioned makes me wonder what we’ll be writing in a year or so after our current pandemic.

Death stalking us swiftly from seaboard to seaboard in an unprepared nation, preceded by the casual insistence it’s no worse than the seasonal flu, sounds eerily familiar in 2020. More attention is being paid to hogs than the health of humans working in meatpacking plants.

Will we be writing in 2021 how reopening states and counties too soon led to our own second wave? Here in Iowa, reopening began before we had a fully working predictive model to chart the pandemic’s course and before new testing efforts had a chance to ramp up. Will decisions made without crucial information look smart in 2021? Or will we wish we’d waited just a couple more weeks?

What of the protesters demanding liberation? What about the president, running for reelection in a nation harmed by his crisis mismanagement? What will a new normal look like?

Will there be newspapers around to editorialize in the aftermath? After all, most of the pitches for fake cures are online now, some even extolled at White House briefings.

And will we be better prepared next time? I bet editorial writers in 1919 figured we’d have this pandemic response thing down to a science by now.

Little did they know that in 2020 we’d have so little respect for science. And after a century-plus, the darkness and terror apparently slipped our minds.

(319) 398-8262; todd.dorman@thegazette.com

We study two notions of topological entropy of correspondences introduced by Friedland and Dinh-Sibony. Upper bounds are known for both. We identify a class of holomorphic correspondences whose entropy in the sense of Dinh-Sibony equals the known upper bound. This provides an exact computation of the entropy for rational semigroups. We also explore a connection between these two notions of entropy.

The paper considers constrained linear systems with stochastic additive disturbances and noisy measurements transmitted over a lossy communication channel. We propose a model predictive control (MPC) law that minimizes a discounted cost subject to a discounted expectation constraint. Sensor data is assumed to be lost with known probability, and data losses are accounted for by expressing the predicted control policy as an affine function of future observations, which results in a convex optimal control problem. An online constraint-tightening technique ensures recursive feasibility of the online optimization and satisfaction of the expectation constraint without bounds on the distributions of the noise and disturbance inputs. The cost evaluated along trajectories of the closed loop system is shown to be bounded by the optimal predicted cost. A numerical example is given to illustrate these results.

This paper considers the distributed nonconvex optimization problem of minimizing a global cost function formed by a sum of local cost functions by using local information exchange. We first propose a distributed first-order primal-dual algorithm. We show that it converges sublinearly to the stationary point if each local cost function is smooth and linearly to the global optimum under an additional condition that the global cost function satisfies the Polyak-{L}ojasiewicz condition. This condition is weaker than strong convexity, which is a standard condition for proving the linear convergence of distributed optimization algorithms, and the global minimizer is not necessarily unique or finite. Motivated by the situations where the gradients are unavailable, we then propose a distributed zeroth-order algorithm, derived from the proposed distributed first-order algorithm by using a deterministic gradient estimator, and show that it has the same convergence properties as the proposed first-order algorithm under the same conditions. The theoretical results are illustrated by numerical simulations.

We investigate quasistatic evolution in finite plasticity under the assumption that the plastic strain is compatible. This assumption is well-suited to describe the special case of dislocation-free plasticity and entails that the plastic strain is the gradient of a plastic deformation map. The total deformation can be then seen as the composition of a plastic and an elastic deformation. This opens the way to an existence theory for the quasistatic evolution problem featuring both Lagrangian and Eulerian variables. A remarkable trait of the result is that it does not require second-order gradients.

In this paper we design suboptimal control laws for an unknown linear system on the basis of measured data. We focus on the suboptimal linear quadratic regulator problem and the suboptimal H2 control problem. For both problems, we establish conditions under which a given data set contains sufficient information for controller design. We follow up by providing a data-driven parameterization of all suboptimal controllers. We will illustrate our results by numerical simulations, which will reveal an interesting trade-off between the number of collected data samples and the achieved controller performance.

We study a mean field approximation for the 2D Euler vorticity equation driven by a transport noise. We prove that the Euler equations can be approximated by interacting point vortices driven by a regularized Biot-Savart kernel and the same common noise. The approximation happens by sending the number of particles $N$ to infinity and the regularization $epsilon$ in the Biot-Savart kernel to $0$, as a suitable function of $N$.

Starting from the Hamiltonian formulation of ${cal N}{=},2$ supersymmetric Calogero models associated with the classical $A_n, B_n, C_n$ and $D_n$ series and their hyperbolic/trigonometric cousins, we provide their superspace description. The key ingredients include $n$ bosonic and $2n(n{-}1)$ fermionic ${cal N}{=},2$ superfields, the latter being subject to a nonlinear chirality constraint. This constraint has a universal form valid for all Calogero models. With its help we find more general supercharges (and a superspace Lagrangian), which provide the ${cal N}{=},2$ supersymmetrization for bosonic potentials with arbitrary repulsive two-body interactions.

Yang-Mills gauge theory on Minkowski space supports a Batalin-Vilkovisky-infinity algebra structure, all whose operations are local. To make this work, the axioms for a BV-infinity algebra are deformed by a quadratic element, here the Minkowski wave operator. This homotopy structure implies BCJ/color-kinematics duality; a cobar construction yields a strict algebraic structure whose Feynman expansion for Yang-Mills tree amplitudes complies with the duality. It comes with a `syntactic kinematic algebra'.

We study the dependence of the first eigenvalue of the Finsler $p$-Laplacian and the corresponding eigenfunctions upon perturbation of the domain and we generalize a few results known for the standard $p$-Laplacian. In particular, we prove a Frech'{e}t differentiability result for the eigenvalues, we compute the corresponding Hadamard formulas and we prove a continuity result for the eigenfunctions. Finally, we briefly discuss a well-known overdetermined problem and we show how to deduce the Rellich-Pohozaev identity for the Finsler $p$-Laplacian from the Hadamard formula.

We first give a sufficient condition, issued from pluripotential theory, for an unbounded domain in the complex Euclidean space $mathbb C^n$ to be Kobayashi hyperbolic. Then, we construct an example of a rigid pseudoconvex domain in $mathbb C^3$ that is Kobayashi hyperbolic and has a nonempty core. In particular, this domain is not biholomorphic to a bounded domain in $mathbb C^3$ and the mentioned above sufficient condition for Kobayashi hyperbolicity is not necessary.

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

Motivated by quotient algorithms, such as the well-known $p$-quotient or solvable quotient algorithms, we describe how to compute extensions $ ilde H$ of a finite group $H$ by a direct sum of isomorphic simple $mathbb{Z}_p H$-modules such that $H$ and $ ilde H$ have the same number of generators. Similar to other quotient algorithms, our description will be via a suitable covering group of $H$. Defining this covering group requires a study of the representation module, as introduced by Gasch"utz in 1954. Our investigation involves so-called Fox derivatives (coming from free differential calculus) and, as a by-product, we prove that these can be naturally described via a wreath product construction. An important application of our results is that they can be used to compute, for a given epimorphism $G o H$ and simple $mathbb{Z}_p H$-module $V$, the largest quotient of $G$ that maps onto $H$ with kernel isomorphic to a direct sum of copies of $V$. For this we also provide a description of how to compute second cohomology groups for the (not necessarily solvable) group $H$, assuming a confluent rewriting system for $H$. To represent the corresponding group extensions on the computer, we introduce a new hybrid format that combines this rewriting system with the polycyclic presentation of the module.

We examine Chern-Simons theory as a deformation of a 3-dimensional BF theory that is partially holomorphic and partially topological. In particular, we introduce a novel gauge that leads naturally to a one-loop exact quantization of this BF theory and Chern-Simons theory. This approach illuminates several important features of Chern-Simons theory, notably the bulk-boundary correspondence of Chern-Simons theory with chiral WZW theory. In addition to rigorously constructing the theory, we also explain how it applies to a large class of closely related 3-dimensional theories and some of the consequences for factorization algebras of observables.

This work has been motivated by recent papers that quantify the density of values of generic quadratic forms and other polynomials at integer points, in particular ones that use Rogers' second moment estimates. In this paper we establish such results in a very general framework. Namely, given any subhomogeneous function (a notion to be defined) $f: mathbb{R}^n o mathbb{R}$, we derive a necessary and sufficient condition on the approximating function $psi$ for guaranteeing that a generic element $fcirc g$ in the $G$-orbit of $f$ is $psi$-approximable; that is, $|fcirc g(mathbf{v})| le psi(|mathbf{v}|)$ for infinitely many $mathbf{v} in mathbb{Z}^n$. We also deduce a sufficient condition in the case of uniform approximation. Here, $G$ can be any closed subgroup of $operatorname{ASL}_n(mathbb{R})$ satisfying certain axioms that allow for the use of Rogers-type estimates.

We show that every 4-uniform hypergraph with $n$ vertices and minimum pair degree at least $(5/9+o(1))n^2/2$ contains a tight Hamiltonian cycle. This degree condition is asymptotically optimal.