The other day we posted some Stan models of coronavirus infection rate from the Stanford study in Santa Clara county. The Bayesian setup worked well because it allowed us to directly incorporate uncertainty in the specificity, sensitivity, and underlying infection rate. Mitzi Morris put all this in a Google Collab notebook so you can run […]

See here. Please share your reactions and suggestions in comments. I’ll be talking with Seth Flaxman tomorrow, and we’d appreciate all your criticisms and suggestions. All this is important not just for Italy but for making sensible models to inform policy all over the world, including here.

Bruising convention battle calls into question party unity behind the Peterson challenger.

Man Collapses and Dies on Bright Angel Trail in Grand Canyon National Park https://www.nps.gov/grca/learn/news/man-collapses-and-dies-on-bright-angel-trail-in-grand-canyon-national-park.htm

The man who collapsed and died on the Bright Angel Trail in Grand Canyon yesterday has been identified as 72 year-old David Roberts of Cleveland, Tennessee. https://www.nps.gov/grca/learn/news/man-who-collapsed-and-died-on-bright-angel-trail-in-grand-canyon-national-park-is-identified.htm

A New York company called Veles is selling an all-purpose cleaner made of food waste collected from Manhattan cafeterias, and ditches plastic spray bottles.

The post All-Purpose Cleaner is Made Entirely of Food Waste Collected in NYC—and Ditches Plastic Spray Bottles appeared first on Good News Network.

Dyper, maker of biodegradable disposable bamboo diapers, now offers a composting service that lets you ship off your baby's diapers in a box for recycling.

The post The World’s First Disposable Diaper Company That Collects The Dirty Ones For Composting appeared first on Good News Network.

A driver of a car collided with a bridge barrier and two lorries

The Pacific Northwest Research Station launched a Biodiversity Initiative to assist natural resource professionals in integrating complex biodiversity concepts into natural resource management processes. We canvassed clients from various affiliations to determine the main challenges they face in biodiversity management, to define their information needs, and to understand how best to deliver biodiversity information within a collaborative framework. The biodiversity management challenges that emerged included (1) the lack of well-defined biodiversity management policies, (2) understanding and quantifying the interaction effects between a number of factors (e.g., disturbance types, management practices) and biodiversity, (3) the lack of applied biodiversity monitoring strategies, (4) difficulty in locating and accessing biodiversity information, and (5) balancing conflicting values relating to biodiversity. We also list the biodiversity information product needs of clients, as well as preferred technology transfer methods, and we discuss the future direction of the Biodiversity Initiative.

The compilation of papers in this proceedings is based on a symposium sponsored by the Insect and Diseases Working Group (D5) at the 2007 Society of American Foresters (SAF) convention in Portland, Oregon. The selection of topics parallels the research priorities of the Western Bark Beetle Research Group (WBBRG) (USDA Forest Service, Research and Development), which had been recently formed at the time of the symposium. Reflecting a unique partnership within the Forest Service, each paper was jointly prepared by a research scientist with the WBBRG and one or more entomologists with Forest Health Protection (USDA Forest Service, State and Private Forestry). Among these papers is a description of the currently elevated impacts of bark beetles in the Western United States; descriptions of the current state of knowledge of bark beetle response to vegetation management and also to climate change; discussions of the complex interactions of bark beetles and fire and of the complex ecological and socioeconomic impacts of infestations; an overview of the use of semiochemical (behavioral chemicals)-based technology for conifer protection; and a case study exemplifying efforts to assess risks posed by nonnative invasive bark beetles.

The Forest Service system of experimental forests and ranges (EFRs) and other sites of long-term silvicultural, watershed, and ecological research have contributed to science and natural resource management for more than a century. An important aspect of the success of EFR programs is strong collaboration between the research and land manager communities. This guide offers suggestions for effective research management partnerships based at EFRs and other long-term research sites. Keys to success include mutual understanding and respect, shared commitment to learning, and joint projects and communications programs.

The Pacific Northwest Research Station launched a Biodiversity Initiative to assist natural resource professionals in integrating complex biodiversity concepts into natural resource management processes. We canvassed clients from various affiliations to determine the main challenges they face in biodiversity management, to define their information needs, and to understand how best to deliver biodiversity information within a collaborative framework. The biodiversity management challenges that emerged included (1) the lack of well-defined biodiversity management policies, (2) understanding and quantifying the interaction effects between a number of factors (e.g., disturbance types, management practices) and biodiversity, (3) the lack of applied biodiversity monitoring strategies, (4) difficulty in locating and accessing biodiversity information, and (5) balancing conflicting values relating to biodiversity. We also list the biodiversity information product needs of clients, as well as preferred technology transfer methods, and we discuss the future direction of the Biodiversity Initiative.

While sheltering-at-home in UPSTATE NEW YORK, GLASSNOTE Head Of Promotion NICK PETROPOULOS sent KCMP (89.3 THE CURRENT)/MINNEAPOLIS PD JIM MCGUINN a song of guitar riffs and an email about … more

DALLAS, April 14, 2020 – The American Heart Association has extended the deadline for individual scholarships and school grants offered through Kids Heart Challenge and American Heart Challenge to June 30. As schools nationwide moved to remote learning,...

Not many of the present readers might know me very well, and that in part, is the reason that I have made the decision to transfer WLTC to more willing and presently capable hands. I am a stranger on my blog and the time has come for me to make sure that this blog, its contents and its knowledge are archived and preserved and maybe rejuvenated at a later time. I delved into blogging tools back in 2004 when I started my Masters degree in CS. I wanted some code to mess around with in my free time and everyone was talking about blogging. I looked into a variety of tools, built a small Linux server for myself at home, and installed a few of the tools that were freely available at that time. I had a heck of a time getting a hold of MT (Moveable Type, the most well-known name) and […]

Iowa athletics director Gary Barta began Thursday’s meeting of the UI’s presidential committee on athletics with two numbers: It’s been 56 days since the coronavirus pandemic shut...

Editor’s note: The Gazette sports staff has compiled lists of its top 15 favorite sports movies. Each day, a different staffer will share some insight into one of their favorites. Some of them...

“I pledge my Head to clearer thinking, my Heart to greater loyalty, my Hands to larger service, and my Health to better living, for my club, my community, my country, and my world.”...

I would be honored to serve this great county as your next Linn County Auditor. This role serves as the commission of elections and has oversight of all accounting functions, payroll, and oversight of property tax and real estate services. The position naturally requires someone of high integrity and strong work ethic, and it also requires strong leadership and someone willing to be a collaborative partner with the many Linn County residents, vendors, communities and staff who interface with the office.

I spent almost 14 years serving as Linn County Supervisor. I remain committed to helping Linn County be the most collaborative service provider possible. This takes a strong leader with a solid sense of what partnership and customer service mean to the many audiences Linn County serves.

My leadership and collaboration skills were demonstrated as we worked with many local, state and federal government partners to help Linn County successfully manage the devastation of the 2008 Flood, and the national recession that followed. During my tenure at the National Association of Counties, I trained counties and communities throughout the U.S. in post-disaster management. Our success in Linn County happened with collaborative efforts among many people and organizations. I took our “lessons learned” and shared what leadership and collaboration really look like when faced with a crisis.

While working for the National Association of Counties, I worked with the Cybersecurity Advisory Council of the Department of Homeland Security to advise on county-level election issues. Cybersecurity and elections security will be critical issues for all future elections. Engaging voters, helping to restore felons voting rights and making elections easier and more accessible are also key goals I have.

When I considered running for Auditor, Joel Miller had announced he wouldn’t be running again. Then he changed his mind. Two years ago, Mr. Miller changed his party affiliation to run against Supervisor Ben Rogers. Then he changed back to Democrat again, although the Linn County Web page still lists him as no-party. This does not represent the leadership Linn County’s partners need at any time, but especially not now.

These are unique times and there are many challenges ahead. I would be honored to bring my leadership and collaboration to serve Linn County. I ask for your vote in the June 2 primary for Linn County Auditor. Please request your absentee ballot, vote your ballot, and protect yourselves and our poll workers.

Linda Langston is a candidate in the Democratic primary for Linn County autidor.

Jeff Chandler has done a great interview with Dan Milward of Instinct. Check it out here.

The post Weblog Tools Collection: WP-commerce Podcast appeared first on WPCult.

“I pledge my Head to clearer thinking, my Heart to greater loyalty, my Hands to larger service, and my Health to better living, for my club, my community, my country, and my world.” — 4-H pledge

The Johnson County 4-H program is living up to these words, teaming up with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Johnson County to assemble Camp-in-a-Bag kits for the youngest “Littles” enrolled in the BBBS mentoring program.

Big Brothers Big Sisters creates one-on-one opportunities between adult volunteer mentors and at-risk youths ages 6 to 18. Known as “Bigs” and “Littles,” they meet for at least six hours a month for 18 months. But those in-person outings to movies, museums, restaurants, recreational activities and new adventures, as well as monthly events and school-based programs organized by the agency, are on hold during the COVID-19 pandemic.

So the kits became an outreach outlet.

“I was thinking about ways that we would be able to connect with our Littles, to let them know that we’re thinking about them,” said Dina Bishara, program specialist for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Johnson County. “And also in a very small way, to try to fill that gap that so many kids are experiencing right now. They’re used to the structure and activity of school and extracurricular activities and playing with friends.”

The bags contain more than six hours of STEAM — science, technology, engineering, arts and math — activities, from the pieces needed for building gliders and balloon flyers, to conducting scientific experiments, planting seeds, choosing healthy snacks and writing down their thoughts.

Those activities also reflect the other contributing partners: Johnson County Master Gardeners, Johnson County Extension and Outreach’s Pick a Better Snack program, O’Brien Family McDonalds and Forever Green Garden Center.

“(We wanted to) just give them something really fun and also educational and engaging, to help them spend time with their siblings, if they have them, and get their parents involved, if possible — and just really keep them connected to that learning and the fun, but also to Big Brothers Big Sisters,” Bishara said. “Camp-in-a-Bag helps us structure things in an intentional and thoughtful way.”

Partnering with 4-H, known for its summer camps, fairs and educational programs, “was a really great way to make sure that the activities we were including were really robust, so it was not going to be a hodgepodge, throw-some-things-in-a-bag,” Bishara added. “We really needed to be deliberate about it, to have the directions nicely laid out.”

The first wave is being distributed to 20 elementary-age children, and officials are hoping to expand the project.

“Funding is always a question,” Bishara said. “We would love to expand to 20 or 40 for more. ... We’d sure like to be able to target the kits to a little older kids, who have different interests.”

Bishara and Kate Yoder, who works with 4-H out of the Iowa State University Extension office in Johnson County, are eager to continue their collaborative efforts.

“It really great,” Yoder said. “When you work together, things comes together and amazing things happen. I’m excited to see what the future holds — what partnerships we can build on and grow.”

Comments: (319) 368-8508; diana.nollen@thegazette.com

• What: Big Brothers Big Sisters Camp-in-a-Bag kit contributions

• Contact: Email Dina Bishara at dina@bbbsjc.org

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Whether taking classes online or finding a seat in a lecture hall that makes you feel safe, Adam shares ideas for vets with TBI and PTSD returning to school.

Returning to school as a veteran — especially with a brain injury — can be difficult. Adam suggests strategies like starting slowly or taking a smaller course load that balances better with work and life.

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.

Did you remember how was your life before Freepik and Flaticon. No I can’t remember the dark ages either. To celebrate this golden times, they are giving away once more an incredible package of 210 User Interface Icons in 3 versions: Flat, filled and lineal.  Download This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License …

Cute Collection of 210 User Interface Icons Read More »

Taking your first steps in programming is like picking up a foreign language. At first, the syntax makes no sense, the vocabulary is unfamiliar, and everything looks and sounds unintelligible. If you’re anything like me when I started, fluency feels impossible. I promise it isn’t. When I began coding, the learning curve hit me — hard. I spent ten months teaching myself the basics while trying to stave off feelings of self-doubt that I now recognize as imposter syndrome.

Here we prove that under a lower sectional curvature bound, a sequence of manifolds diffeomorphic to the standard $m$-dimensional torus cannot converge in the Gromov-Hausdorff sense to a closed interval.

Given spherically symmetric characteristic initial data for the Einstein-scalar field system with a positive cosmological constant, we provide a criterion, in terms of the dimensionless size and dimensionless renormalized mass content of an annular region of the data, for the formation of a future trapped surface. This corresponds to an extension of Christodoulou's classical criterion by the inclusion of the cosmological term.

We propose protocols to resolve the tension between anonymity and accountability in a peer-to-peer manner. Law enforcement can adopt this approach to solve crimes involving cryptocurrency and anonymization techniques. We illustrate how the protocols could apply to Monero rings and CoinJoin transactions in Bitcoin.

In this work, we consider a group of robots working together to manipulate a rigid object to track a desired trajectory in $SE(3)$. The robots have no explicit communication network among them, and they do no know the mass or friction properties of the object, or where they are attached to the object. However, we assume they share data from a common IMU placed arbitrarily on the object. To solve this problem, we propose a decentralized adaptive control scheme wherein each agent maintains and adapts its own estimate of the object parameters in order to track a reference trajectory. We present an analysis of the controller's behavior, and show that all closed-loop signals remain bounded, and that the system trajectory will almost always (except for initial conditions on a set of measure zero) converge to the desired trajectory. We study the proposed controller's performance using numerical simulations of a manipulation task in 3D, and with hardware experiments which demonstrate our algorithm on a planar manipulation task. These studies, taken together, demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed controller even in the presence of numerous unmodelled effects, such as discretization errors and complex frictional interactions.

I am back in the collecting game. After several months of work and keeping an eye on deals, I am now inching closer toward 100 titles and have built a pretty nice 4K UHD collection. It started with my first DVD…

Drink Local For the majority of regional craft breweries, most revenue comes from two avenues: direct-to-consumer sales out of a tasting room and selling beer to local bars and restaurants.…

Every serious pinball player remembers their first machine.…

A method of identifying one or more particular images from an image collection, includes indexing the image collection to provide image descriptors for each image in the image collection such that each image is described by one or more of the image descriptors; receiving a query from a user specifying at least one keyword for an image search; and using the keyword(s) to search a second collection of tagged images to identify co-occurrence keywords. The method further includes using the identified co-occurrence keywords to provide an expanded list of keywords; using the expanded list of keywords to search the image descriptors to identify a set of candidate images satisfying the keywords; grouping the set of candidate images according to at least one of the image descriptors, and selecting one or more representative images from each grouping; and displaying the representative images to the user.

Embodiments of the disclosure include a method for partitioning a deterministic finite automaton (DFA) into a plurality of groups. The method includes selecting, with a processing device, a subset of the plurality of states and mapping each state of the subset onto a group of the plurality of groups by assigning one or more transition rules associated with each state to a rule line of the group, wherein each rule line is assigned at most two transition rules and an extended address associated with one of the at most two transition rules. The method also includes iteratively processing each state of the subset mapped onto the group by removing the extended address from each rule line in the group with transition rules referring to a current state if the transition rules in the rule line branch within the group.

The invention relates to the use of a composition of A) at least one quaternary ammonia compound comprising at least one organic radical bonded to the ammonia nitrogen atom and optionally comprising heteroatoms and having 1 to 36 carbon atoms, and B) at least one amine alkoxylate ester of formula (1) or a salt thereof, where A, B are, independently of each other, a C2- through C5-alkylene radical R1, a C8- through C24-alkyl radical or alkenyl radical R2, R3, R4 independent of each other, H, or a C8- through C24-acyl radical, with the stipulation that at least one of the radicals R2, R3 or R4 stands for a C8- through C24-acyl radical, and x, y, z, independently of each other, stand for a whole number from 0 through 50, with the stipulation that x+y+z is a whole number from 1 through 100, in quantities of 10 through 5000 g/tonne of ore as a collector in silicate floation.

The present invention relates to a subsurface refuse collection system comprising an underground bunker (4), a refuse container (3), a deposit bin (1) and a cover (2) with automatic opening and closing which can be powered electrically using a solar system. The container (3) is collected by means of an automated crane (18) with automatic hitching to facilitate collection. The system is equipped with multiple devices to measure volume and weight of the refuse deposited in the deposit bin (1), for the purpose of system monitoring or improvements to the management of truck routes. It also includes a safety device to prevent accidental fails into the underground bunker during collection.

A data collection unit obtains physiological data from a subject interface on a subject. The subject interface can be connected to the data collection unit. When the subject interface is connected to the data collection unit, subject interface contacts on the subject interface make contact with data collection unit contacts on the data collection unit. Some of the data collection unit contacts are for communicating physiological data from the subject interface to the data collection unit. Some of the contacts are for powering the data collection unit upon the subject interface being connected to the data collection unit and for powering down the data collection unit upon the subject interface being disconnected from the data collection unit.

The disclosure provides a method for crosslinking a colloid, including: (a) providing a colloid solution; (b) adding a crosslinking agent and solid particles to the colloid solution, wherein the amount of solid particles added is enough to convert the colloid solution into a solid mixture, and wherein a crosslinking reaction proceeds in the solid mixture; and (c) removing the solid particles from the solid mixture.

Some embodiments of the inventive subject matter include a method for detecting speech loss and supplying appropriate recollection data to the user. Such embodiments include detecting a speech stream from a user, converting the speech stream to text, storing the text, detecting an interruption to the speech stream, wherein the interruption to the speech stream indicates speech loss by the user, searching a catalog using the text as a search parameter to find relevant catalog data and, presenting the relevant catalog data to remind the user about the speech stream.

In accordance with one or more embodiments of the present disclosure, methods and apparatus are provided for flexible and user-friendly position editing of loaded media in a multi-media presentation. In one embodiment, a method for editing the position of loaded media comprises loading a page of a collage document to a client device, the page having a plurality of layers with each layer being associated with a media object, and creating a list of layers of the loaded page with each layer indexed by at least a position in the collage document. The method further includes selecting a first media object, selecting a position editing tool to group the first media object and at least one other media object adjacent to the first media object; and moving the grouped first media object and the at least one other media object to a different position in the collage document. A client device for position editing loaded media is also disclosed.

Described herein are systems and methods for enabling a collaborative remote desktop environment. The system includes a computing device and a first application instance that has an application state associated therewith. The first application instance includes, or is associated with, a current state component and application data/data files. The system further includes an application launcher that is used to instantiate a second application instance operating either on the same or on a different computing device. The second application instance similarly has an application state associated therewith and is associated with the application launcher. Upon receiving a request from the second user to interact with the first application instance, the application state and the application data/data files are communicated to the application launcher, and the application launcher instantiates the second application instance so that its state is substantially identical to that of the first application instance.

An application framework including different application programming interfaces (APIs) is described which performs a variety of mobile device functions in response to API calls from applications. For example, in response to relatively simple API calls made by applications the application framework manages the complex tasks associated with invitations and matchmaking. By way of example, the details of complex transactions such as establishing peer-to-peer connections between mobile devices may be transparent to the application developer, thereby simplifying the application design process. The application framework may include an application daemon for communicating with a first set of services and an applications services module for communicating with a separate set of services. The application framework may also include a cache for caching data for each of the services based on different cache management policies driven by each of the services. The cache may be updated by push notification cache updates sent from each of the services.

A device for the collection and processing of information relating to the exposure of one or more persons to one or more products of chemical or biological origin has: at least one coded sensor for automatic or semi-automatic identification of a person likely to be exposed to at least one product,at least one coded sensor for the collection of information relating to the handling of at least one product by the person likely to be exposed to the product,at least one sensor for validating the information collected by the identification and collection sensors,at least one module for reading at least one coded sensor, anda module for processing information collected by the sensors.

Disclosed is a grinding tool, which includes a first disk having an installation hole in a center portion thereof such that the grinding tool is installed on a grinder, a second disk forming a discharge passage with partitions on a bottom surface of the first disk, wherein air intaken from a central lower portion of the grinding tool is discharged to an outside thereof through the discharge passage, and a ring-shaped shank disposed under the second disk and including grinding tips to grind a target.

A dust collecting attachment that is mounted on a sander includes a suction portion mounted on a portion of a front housing where an output shaft projects, a flexible hose having a front end of the flexible hose connected to the suction portion, a discharge portion connected to a rear end of the flexible hose and a changeable member placed on both a motor housing and the discharge portion. The changeable member allows the discharge portion to be mounted at any position around an axis of the motor housing.

An automatic collimator changer of a radiation treatment system.

This disclosure is directed to an apparatus, system and method for retrieving a target material from a suspension. A system includes a processing vessel, such as an Eppendorf tube, a syringe or a test tube, and a collector. The collector is sized and shaped to fit into a primary vessel, such as a test tube. The collector funnels the target material from the suspension through a cannula and into the processing vessel. The cannula extends into a cavity at a first end of the collector that holds the processing vessel. The collector includes a funnel at a second end in fluid communication with the cannula. In one implementation, the processing vessel includes at least one displacement fluid to be expelled, such that the at least one displacement fluid pushes the target material into the collector.