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Quasistatic evolution for dislocation-free finite plasticity. (arXiv:1912.10118v2 [math.AP] UPDATED)

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.




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Locally equivalent Floer complexes and unoriented link cobordisms. (arXiv:1911.03659v4 [math.GT] UPDATED)

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 $gamma_4(L)$.




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Local Moduli of Semisimple Frobenius Coalescent Structures. (arXiv:1712.08575v3 [math.DG] UPDATED)

We extend the analytic theory of Frobenius manifolds to semisimple points with coalescing eigenvalues of the operator of multiplication by the Euler vector field. We clarify which freedoms, ambiguities and mutual constraints are allowed in the definition of monodromy data, in view of their importance for conjectural relationships between Frobenius manifolds and derived categories. Detailed examples and applications are taken from singularity and quantum cohomology theories. We explicitly compute the monodromy data at points of the Maxwell Stratum of the A3-Frobenius manifold, as well as at the small quantum cohomology of the Grassmannian G(2,4). In the latter case, we analyse in details the action of the braid group on the monodromy data. This proves that these data can be expressed in terms of characteristic classes of mutations of Kapranov's exceptional 5-block collection, as conjectured by one of the authors.




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Local mollification of Riemannian metrics using Ricci flow, and Ricci limit spaces. (arXiv:1706.09490v2 [math.DG] UPDATED)

We use Ricci flow to obtain a local bi-Holder correspondence between Ricci limit spaces in three dimensions and smooth manifolds. This is more than a complete resolution of the three-dimensional case of the conjecture of Anderson-Cheeger-Colding-Tian, describing how Ricci limit spaces in three dimensions must be homeomorphic to manifolds, and we obtain this in the most general, locally non-collapsed case. The proofs build on results and ideas from recent papers of Hochard and the current authors.




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Categorification via blocks of modular representations for sl(n). (arXiv:1612.06941v3 [math.RT] UPDATED)

Bernstein, Frenkel, and Khovanov have constructed a categorification of tensor products of the standard representation of $mathfrak{sl}_2$, where they use singular blocks of category $mathcal{O}$ for $mathfrak{sl}_n$ and translation functors. Here we construct a positive characteristic analogue using blocks of representations of $mathfrak{sl}_n$ over a field $ extbf{k}$ of characteristic $p$ with zero Frobenius character, and singular Harish-Chandra character. We show that the aforementioned categorification admits a Koszul graded lift, which is equivalent to a geometric categorification constructed by Cautis, Kamnitzer, and Licata using coherent sheaves on cotangent bundles to Grassmanians. In particular, the latter admits an abelian refinement. With respect to this abelian refinement, the stratified Mukai flop induces a perverse equivalence on the derived categories for complementary Grassmanians. This is part of a larger project to give a combinatorial approach to Lusztig's conjectures for representations of Lie algebras in positive characteristic.




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A reaction-diffusion system to better comprehend the unlockdown: Application of SEIR-type model with diffusion to the spatial spread of COVID-19 in France. (arXiv:2005.03499v1 [q-bio.PE])

A reaction-diffusion model was developed describing the spread of the COVID-19 virus considering the mean daily movement of susceptible, exposed and asymptomatic individuals. The model was calibrated using data on the confirmed infection and death from France as well as their initial spatial distribution. First, the system of partial differential equations is studied, then the basic reproduction number, R0 is derived. Second, numerical simulations, based on a combination of level-set and finite differences, shown the spatial spread of COVID-19 from March 16 to June 16. Finally, scenarios of unlockdown are compared according to variation of distancing, or partially spatial lockdown.




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A regularity criterion of the 3D MHD equations involving one velocity and one current density component in Lorentz. (arXiv:2005.03377v1 [math.AP])

In this paper, we study the regularity criterion of weak solutions to the three-dimensional (3D) MHD equations. It is proved that the solution $(u,b)$ becomes regular provided that one velocity and one current density component of the solution satisfy% egin{equation} u_{3}in L^{frac{30alpha }{7alpha -45}}left( 0,T;L^{alpha ,infty }left( mathbb{R}^{3} ight) ight) ext{ with }frac{45}{7}% leq alpha leq infty , label{eq01} end{equation}% and egin{equation} j_{3}in L^{frac{2eta }{2eta -3}}left( 0,T;L^{eta ,infty }left( mathbb{R}^{3} ight) ight) ext{ with }frac{3}{2}leq eta leq infty , label{eq02} end{equation}% which generalize some known results.




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Some local Maximum principles along Ricci Flow. (arXiv:2005.03189v1 [math.DG])

In this note, we establish a local maximum principle along Ricci flow under scaling invariant curvature condition. This unifies the known preservation of nonnegativity results along Ricci flow with unbounded curvature. By combining with the Dirichlet heat kernel estimates, we also give a more direct proof of Hochard's localized version of a maximum principle given by R. Bamler, E. Cabezas-Rivas, and B. Wilking on the lower bound of curvature conditions.




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A Quantum Algorithm To Locate Unknown Hashes For Known N-Grams Within A Large Malware Corpus. (arXiv:2005.02911v2 [quant-ph] UPDATED)

Quantum computing has evolved quickly in recent years and is showing significant benefits in a variety of fields. Malware analysis is one of those fields that could also take advantage of quantum computing. The combination of software used to locate the most frequent hashes and $n$-grams between benign and malicious software (KiloGram) and a quantum search algorithm could be beneficial, by loading the table of hashes and $n$-grams into a quantum computer, and thereby speeding up the process of mapping $n$-grams to their hashes. The first phase will be to use KiloGram to find the top-$k$ hashes and $n$-grams for a large malware corpus. From here, the resulting hash table is then loaded into a quantum machine. A quantum search algorithm is then used search among every permutation of the entangled key and value pairs to find the desired hash value. This prevents one from having to re-compute hashes for a set of $n$-grams, which can take on average $O(MN)$ time, whereas the quantum algorithm could take $O(sqrt{N})$ in the number of table lookups to find the desired hash values.




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Global Locality in Biomedical Relation and Event Extraction. (arXiv:1909.04822v2 [cs.CL] UPDATED)

Due to the exponential growth of biomedical literature, event and relation extraction are important tasks in biomedical text mining. Most work only focus on relation extraction, and detect a single entity pair mention on a short span of text, which is not ideal due to long sentences that appear in biomedical contexts. We propose an approach to both relation and event extraction, for simultaneously predicting relationships between all mention pairs in a text. We also perform an empirical study to discuss different network setups for this purpose. The best performing model includes a set of multi-head attentions and convolutions, an adaptation of the transformer architecture, which offers self-attention the ability to strengthen dependencies among related elements, and models the interaction between features extracted by multiple attention heads. Experiment results demonstrate that our approach outperforms the state of the art on a set of benchmark biomedical corpora including BioNLP 2009, 2011, 2013 and BioCreative 2017 shared tasks.




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ZebraLancer: Decentralized Crowdsourcing of Human Knowledge atop Open Blockchain. (arXiv:1803.01256v5 [cs.HC] UPDATED)

We design and implement the first private and anonymous decentralized crowdsourcing system ZebraLancer, and overcome two fundamental challenges of decentralizing crowdsourcing, i.e., data leakage and identity breach.

First, our outsource-then-prove methodology resolves the tension between the blockchain transparency and the data confidentiality to guarantee the basic utilities/fairness requirements of data crowdsourcing, thus ensuring: (i) a requester will not pay more than what data deserve, according to a policy announced when her task is published via the blockchain; (ii) each worker indeed gets a payment based on the policy, if he submits data to the blockchain; (iii) the above properties are realized not only without a central arbiter, but also without leaking the data to the open blockchain. Second, the transparency of blockchain allows one to infer private information about workers and requesters through their participation history. Simply enabling anonymity is seemingly attempting but will allow malicious workers to submit multiple times to reap rewards. ZebraLancer also overcomes this problem by allowing anonymous requests/submissions without sacrificing accountability. The idea behind is a subtle linkability: if a worker submits twice to a task, anyone can link the submissions, or else he stays anonymous and unlinkable across tasks. To realize this delicate linkability, we put forward a novel cryptographic concept, i.e., the common-prefix-linkable anonymous authentication. We remark the new anonymous authentication scheme might be of independent interest. Finally, we implement our protocol for a common image annotation task and deploy it in a test net of Ethereum. The experiment results show the applicability of our protocol atop the existing real-world blockchain.




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Seismic Shot Gather Noise Localization Using a Multi-Scale Feature-Fusion-Based Neural Network. (arXiv:2005.03626v1 [cs.CV])

Deep learning-based models, such as convolutional neural networks, have advanced various segments of computer vision. However, this technology is rarely applied to seismic shot gather noise localization problem. This letter presents an investigation on the effectiveness of a multi-scale feature-fusion-based network for seismic shot-gather noise localization. Herein, we describe the following: (1) the construction of a real-world dataset of seismic noise localization based on 6,500 seismograms; (2) a multi-scale feature-fusion-based detector that uses the MobileNet combined with the Feature Pyramid Net as the backbone; and (3) the Single Shot multi-box detector for box classification/regression. Additionally, we propose the use of the Focal Loss function that improves the detector's prediction accuracy. The proposed detector achieves an AP@0.5 of 78.67\% in our empirical evaluation.




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A Local Spectral Exterior Calculus for the Sphere and Application to the Shallow Water Equations. (arXiv:2005.03598v1 [math.NA])

We introduce $Psimathrm{ec}$, a local spectral exterior calculus for the two-sphere $S^2$. $Psimathrm{ec}$ provides a discretization of Cartan's exterior calculus on $S^2$ formed by spherical differential $r$-form wavelets. These are well localized in space and frequency and provide (Stevenson) frames for the homogeneous Sobolev spaces $dot{H}^{-r+1}( Omega_{ u}^{r} , S^2 )$ of differential $r$-forms. At the same time, they satisfy important properties of the exterior calculus, such as the de Rahm complex and the Hodge-Helmholtz decomposition. Through this, $Psimathrm{ec}$ is tailored towards structure preserving discretizations that can adapt to solutions with varying regularity. The construction of $Psimathrm{ec}$ is based on a novel spherical wavelet frame for $L_2(S^2)$ that we obtain by introducing scalable reproducing kernel frames. These extend scalable frames to weighted sampling expansions and provide an alternative to quadrature rules for the discretization of needlet-like scale-discrete wavelets. We verify the practicality of $Psimathrm{ec}$ for numerical computations using the rotating shallow water equations. Our numerical results demonstrate that a $Psimathrm{ec}$-based discretization of the equations attains accuracy comparable to those of spectral methods while using a representation that is well localized in space and frequency.




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QuickSync: A Quickly Synchronizing PoS-Based Blockchain Protocol. (arXiv:2005.03564v1 [cs.CR])

To implement a blockchain, we need a blockchain protocol for all the nodes to follow. To design a blockchain protocol, we need a block publisher selection mechanism and a chain selection rule. In Proof-of-Stake (PoS) based blockchain protocols, block publisher selection mechanism selects the node to publish the next block based on the relative stake held by the node. However, PoS protocols may face vulnerability to fully adaptive corruptions. In literature, researchers address this issue at the cost of performance.

In this paper, we propose a novel PoS-based blockchain protocol, QuickSync, to achieve security against fully adaptive corruptions without compromising on performance. We propose a metric called block power, a value defined for each block, derived from the output of the verifiable random function based on the digital signature of the block publisher. With this metric, we compute chain power, the sum of block powers of all the blocks comprising the chain, for all the valid chains. These metrics are a function of the block publisher's stake to enable the PoS aspect of the protocol. The chain selection rule selects the chain with the highest chain power as the one to extend. This chain selection rule hence determines the selected block publisher of the previous block. When we use metrics to define the chain selection rule, it may lead to vulnerabilities against Sybil attacks. QuickSync uses a Sybil attack resistant function implemented using histogram matching. We prove that QuickSync satisfies common prefix, chain growth, and chain quality properties and hence it is secure. We also show that it is resilient to different types of adversarial attack strategies. Our analysis demonstrates that QuickSync performs better than Bitcoin by an order of magnitude on both transactions per second and time to finality, and better than Ouroboros v1 by a factor of three on time to finality.




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Computing with bricks and mortar: Classification of waveforms with a doped concrete blocks. (arXiv:2005.03498v1 [cs.ET])

We present results showing the capability of concrete-based information processing substrate in the signal classification task in accordance with in materio computing paradigm. As the Reservoir Computing is a suitable model for describing embedded in materio computation, we propose that this type of presented basic construction unit can be used as a source for "reservoir of states" necessary for simple tuning of the readout layer. In that perspective, buildings constructed from computing concrete could function as a highly parallel information processor for smart architecture. We present an electrical characterization of the set of samples with different additive concentrations followed by a dynamical analysis of selected specimens showing fingerprints of memfractive properties. Moreover, on the basis of obtained parameters, classification of the signal waveform shapes can be performed in scenarios explicitly tuned for a given device terminal.




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Semantic Signatures for Large-scale Visual Localization. (arXiv:2005.03388v1 [cs.CV])

Visual localization is a useful alternative to standard localization techniques. It works by utilizing cameras. In a typical scenario, features are extracted from captured images and compared with geo-referenced databases. Location information is then inferred from the matching results. Conventional schemes mainly use low-level visual features. These approaches offer good accuracy but suffer from scalability issues. In order to assist localization in large urban areas, this work explores a different path by utilizing high-level semantic information. It is found that object information in a street view can facilitate localization. A novel descriptor scheme called "semantic signature" is proposed to summarize this information. A semantic signature consists of type and angle information of visible objects at a spatial location. Several metrics and protocols are proposed for signature comparison and retrieval. They illustrate different trade-offs between accuracy and complexity. Extensive simulation results confirm the potential of the proposed scheme in large-scale applications. This paper is an extended version of a conference paper in CBMI'18. A more efficient retrieval protocol is presented with additional experiment results.




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Regression Forest-Based Atlas Localization and Direction Specific Atlas Generation for Pancreas Segmentation. (arXiv:2005.03345v1 [cs.CV])

This paper proposes a fully automated atlas-based pancreas segmentation method from CT volumes utilizing atlas localization by regression forest and atlas generation using blood vessel information. Previous probabilistic atlas-based pancreas segmentation methods cannot deal with spatial variations that are commonly found in the pancreas well. Also, shape variations are not represented by an averaged atlas. We propose a fully automated pancreas segmentation method that deals with two types of variations mentioned above. The position and size of the pancreas is estimated using a regression forest technique. After localization, a patient-specific probabilistic atlas is generated based on a new image similarity that reflects the blood vessel position and direction information around the pancreas. We segment it using the EM algorithm with the atlas as prior followed by the graph-cut. In evaluation results using 147 CT volumes, the Jaccard index and the Dice overlap of the proposed method were 62.1% and 75.1%, respectively. Although we automated all of the segmentation processes, segmentation results were superior to the other state-of-the-art methods in the Dice overlap.




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Continuous maximal covering location problems with interconnected facilities. (arXiv:2005.03274v1 [math.OC])

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




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On Optimal Control of Discounted Cost Infinite-Horizon Markov Decision Processes Under Local State Information Structures. (arXiv:2005.03169v1 [eess.SY])

This paper investigates a class of optimal control problems associated with Markov processes with local state information. The decision-maker has only local access to a subset of a state vector information as often encountered in decentralized control problems in multi-agent systems. Under this information structure, part of the state vector cannot be observed. We leverage ab initio principles and find a new form of Bellman equations to characterize the optimal policies of the control problem under local information structures. The dynamic programming solutions feature a mixture of dynamics associated unobservable state components and the local state-feedback policy based on the observable local information. We further characterize the optimal local-state feedback policy using linear programming methods. To reduce the computational complexity of the optimal policy, we propose an approximate algorithm based on virtual beliefs to find a sub-optimal policy. We show the performance bounds on the sub-optimal solution and corroborate the results with numerical case studies.




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Fast Mapping onto Census Blocks. (arXiv:2005.03156v1 [cs.DC])

Pandemic measures such as social distancing and contact tracing can be enhanced by rapidly integrating dynamic location data and demographic data. Projecting billions of longitude and latitude locations onto hundreds of thousands of highly irregular demographic census block polygons is computationally challenging in both research and deployment contexts. This paper describes two approaches labeled "simple" and "fast". The simple approach can be implemented in any scripting language (Matlab/Octave, Python, Julia, R) and is easily integrated and customized to a variety of research goals. This simple approach uses a novel combination of hierarchy, sparse bounding boxes, polygon crossing-number, vectorization, and parallel processing to achieve 100,000,000+ projections per second on 100 servers. The simple approach is compact, does not increase data storage requirements, and is applicable to any country or region. The fast approach exploits the thread, vector, and memory optimizations that are possible using a low-level language (C++) and achieves similar performance on a single server. This paper details these approaches with the goal of enabling the broader community to quickly integrate location and demographic data.




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Optimal Location of Cellular Base Station via Convex Optimization. (arXiv:2005.03099v1 [cs.IT])

An optimal base station (BS) location depends on the traffic (user) distribution, propagation pathloss and many system parameters, which renders its analytical study difficult so that numerical algorithms are widely used instead. In this paper, the problem is studied analytically. First, it is formulated as a convex optimization problem to minimize the total BS transmit power subject to quality-of-service (QoS) constraints, which also account for fairness among users. Due to its convex nature, Karush-Kuhn-Tucker (KKT) conditions are used to characterize a globally-optimum location as a convex combination of user locations, where convex weights depend on user parameters, pathloss exponent and overall geometry of the problem. Based on this characterization, a number of closed-form solutions are obtained. In particular, the optimum BS location is the mean of user locations in the case of free-space propagation and identical user parameters. If the user set is symmetric (as defined in the paper), the optimal BS location is independent of pathloss exponent, which is not the case in general. The analytical results show the impact of propagation conditions as well as system and user parameters on optimal BS location and can be used to develop design guidelines.




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Heterogeneous Facility Location Games. (arXiv:2005.03095v1 [cs.GT])

We study heterogeneous $k$-facility location games. In this model there are $k$ facilities where each facility serves a different purpose. Thus, the preferences of the agents over the facilities can vary arbitrarily. Our goal is to design strategy proof mechanisms that place the facilities in a way to maximize the minimum utility among the agents. For $k=1$, if the agents' locations are known, we prove that the mechanism that places the facility on an optimal location is strategy proof. For $k geq 2$, we prove that there is no optimal strategy proof mechanism, deterministic or randomized, even when $k=2$ there are only two agents with known locations, and the facilities have to be placed on a line segment. We derive inapproximability bounds for deterministic and randomized strategy proof mechanisms. Finally, we focus on the line segment and provide strategy proof mechanisms that achieve constant approximation. All of our mechanisms are simple and communication efficient. As a byproduct we show that some of our mechanisms can be used to achieve constant factor approximations for other objectives as the social welfare and the happiness.




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I Always Feel Like Somebody's Sensing Me! A Framework to Detect, Identify, and Localize Clandestine Wireless Sensors. (arXiv:2005.03068v1 [cs.CR])

The increasing ubiquity of low-cost wireless sensors in smart homes and buildings has enabled users to easily deploy systems to remotely monitor and control their environments. However, this raises privacy concerns for third-party occupants, such as a hotel room guest who may be unaware of deployed clandestine sensors. Previous methods focused on specific modalities such as detecting cameras but do not provide a generalizable and comprehensive method to capture arbitrary sensors which may be "spying" on a user. In this work, we seek to determine whether one can walk in a room and detect any wireless sensor monitoring an individual. As such, we propose SnoopDog, a framework to not only detect wireless sensors that are actively monitoring a user, but also classify and localize each device. SnoopDog works by establishing causality between patterns in observable wireless traffic and a trusted sensor in the same space, e.g., an inertial measurement unit (IMU) that captures a user's movement. Once causality is established, SnoopDog performs packet inspection to inform the user about the monitoring device. Finally, SnoopDog localizes the clandestine device in a 2D plane using a novel trial-based localization technique. We evaluated SnoopDog across several devices and various modalities and were able to detect causality 96.6% percent of the time, classify suspicious devices with 100% accuracy, and localize devices to a sufficiently reduced sub-space.




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Is My WordPress Site Secure? 13 Tips for Locking Down Your WordPress Site

WordPress powers 35% of all websites, which makes WordPress sites a go-to target for hackers. If you’re like most WordPress site owners, you’re probably asking the same question: Is my WordPress site secure? While you can’t guarantee site security, you can take several steps to improve and maximize your WordPress security. Keep reading to learn […]

The post Is My WordPress Site Secure? 13 Tips for Locking Down Your WordPress Site appeared first on WebFX Blog.




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Syncing Local Alexa Skills JSON Files With Alexa Developer Console Settings

In the Alexa Skills for Node.JS ASK SDK development world, the Alexa Skills Kit (ASK) Command-Line Interface (CLI) is one of the most overlooked tools.

Boosting Developer Productivity

With proper use, one could really increase productivity when developing Alexa Skills. This is especially so if you are creating many Alexa Skills, either because you are in the learning process or you are just managing multiple Alexa Skills projects for yourself or your clients.




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Day Clock ( vue.js )

See the Code - See it Full Page - See Details

Do you sometimes get lost in what day it is today? This Day Clock shows the progress of the current day and for the week. Click the center clock knot to toggle display. Double click the letter D to activate the debug mode. Also available at github.com/kunukn/dayclock

This Pen uses: HTML, CSS, Vue, and Vue




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New music and live streams for your self-isolation pleasure, and ways to support the local music scene

Welcome to the quarantine.…




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With a new compilation from his label CorpoRAT Records, Kris Martin gives his roster of local rockers a sonic platform

When he was putting together the latest compilation CD for his label CorpoRAT Records, Kris Martin had intended to hand out promotional discs at Boise's Treefort Music Festival, where several artists from the Spokane label were scheduled to perform, and then officially release the album in April for Record Store Day.…




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SOUND ADVICE: New local music releases you can listen to right now

The future of live music might still be a big question mark, but local musicians aren't merely sitting on their hands during quarantine: A lot of them are finding a way to connect with their fans and putting out new material, even without the benefit of physical congregation. Here's a batch of some of our favorite new releases from the past month, and there will no doubt be more in the coming weeks.…




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Spokane Symphony launches Musicians' Relief Fund to help local classical stars survive the pandemic

You might not know it from the fancy attire they wear on stage at the Fox Theater, but for the musicians in the Spokane Symphony, it's a part-time gig. It's a prestigious gig, to be sure, but like most artists, for the musicians, it's just one piece of a puzzle full of hustle they have to solve to make a living.…



  • Arts & Culture

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The Art on the Go drive-by art show provides local artists and art lovers a safe outlet this weekend

Perhaps you've heard people banging on pans to support health care workers, or howling into the abyss just to let other humans know they were alive. We've gone to some extreme measures to keep ourselves entertained since much of the country went on lockdown to combat COVID-19, and here's another one that can get you out of the house while remaining safely social-distanced and supporting local artists at the same time.…



  • Arts & Culture

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Sneak Peek: Idaho’s DIY approach to COVID; Drink Local; mood music; Mother’s Day; and more!

The latest issue of the Inlander is hitting newsstands today. Find it at your local grocery store and hundreds of other locations; use this map to find a pickup point near you.…




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How local wineries are trying to adjust to the new business landscape

Drink Local Life under the COVID-19 pandemic is rough for everyone, individuals and businesses alike.…



  • Food/Food News

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Local distilleries are relying on curbside bottle sales - and small batches of hand sanitizer - to stay afloat

Drink Local In tumultuous times, one thing remains true: People still want their spirits.…



  • Food/Food News

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Soothing sounds: Fixtures of the local music scene weigh in on their go-to comfort listens

In times of trouble, escaping into the art that calms you is key to keeping your sanity.…



  • Music/Music News

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Local breweries are forced to adapt and an upcoming beer collaboration aims to support the industry

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.…



  • Food/Food News

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Best Local Coffee Roaster & Best Local Coffee Chain: Thomas Hammer Coffee

During the late '80s, Thomas Hammer got a job at the mobile coffee bar outside Nordstrom in downtown Spokane.…




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Best Local YouTube/Internet Star: Genus Brewing

[IMAGE-1] If you think about it, the art of brewing beer is as visually interesting as it is delicious — the way the hops and the yeast and the grain all swirl together to create that sweet amber-colored goodness. Spokane's Genus Brewing has taken full advantage of that, and they've taken their passion for beer to the internet with great results.…




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Best of Local Drinks

Best Local Winery ARBOR CREST WINE CELLARS A great wine is as much about context as flavor.…




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Sugar, spice and everything nice, plus where to find it locally this Valentine's Day

Don't be caught empty-handed (or empty-hearted) this Valentine's Day, coming up Friday, Feb. 14.…



  • Food/Food News

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Local bakery miFlavour is flourishing at its chic new bakery and cafe in east Spokane

A little more than a year ago, local French-inspired bakery miFlavour moved into a building on East Sprague Avenue after two years in a shared commercial kitchen.…



  • Food/Food News

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Community leaders are feeding Spokane and supporting local restaurants at the same time

As soon as state Rep. Marcus Riccelli returned home from Olympia, he jumpstarted a community-wide effort to feed Spokane constituents deeply affected by the COVID-19 crisis.…



  • Food/Food News

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GOOD NEWS: These local insects never murdered anybody that we know of

Last week, the New York Times dropped a terrifying story: Asian Giant Hornets, or "murder hornets" as more J. Jonah Jameson-esque researchers like to call them, have been identified in Western Washington. These insects can grow up to 2 inches long, can rip the heads off an entire hive of honeybees in a matter of hours, and have dagger-like stingers that pierce beekeeper suits to deliver a sting that sears like molten acid.…



  • News/Local News

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Bleed resistant, oil-extended olefin block copolymer composition with precipitated silica

Disclosed are oil-extended olefin block copolymer compositions with precipitated silica. The precipitated silica reduces oil-bleed while maintaining composition softness.




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Bleed resistant, oil-extended olefin block copolymer composition with microcrystalline wax

Disclosed are oil-extended olefin block copolymer compositions with microcrystalline wax. The microcrystalline wax reduces oil-bleed while maintaining composition softness.




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Germanium bridged metallocenes producing polymers with increased melt strength

This invention relates to a process for polymerizing ethylene comprising contacting ethylene and optional comonomers with a catalyst system comprising an activator and a transition metal compound represented by the formula: ##STR1## Wherein R1 and R2 are independently hydrogen or a group having up to 100 carbon atoms, Cp1 is a bulky ligand; Cp2 is a bulky ligand or a heteroatom optionally bound to a C1 to C50 hydrocarbyl group, n is the valence state of the transition metal, Tm is a Group 3 to 10 metal, and each X is independently an anionic leaving group.




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Bridged bis-fluorenyl metallocenes, process for the preparation thereof and use thereof in catalysts for the polymerization of olefins

Metallocene compounds having two fluorenyl ligands bridged with a single silicon or germanium atom, said atom having two substituent groups containing a total of at least four carbon atoms, are useful as catalyst components for the polymerization of olefins. Particularly, it is possible to prepare high molecular weight atactic polypropylene with improved yields with respect to the known catalysts.




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Metallocene compounds, processes for the preparation thereof, catalyst components for olefin polymerization, and processes for the production of olefin polymers

A metallocene compound is provided wherein to a transition metal compound is bonded a multidentate compound wherein a substituted cycloalkadienyl ring CA1 having therein a heteroaromatic group Ra containing an oxygen, sulfur or nitrogen atom on a cycloalkadienyl ring, preferably the five-membered ring thereof, and an unsubstituted or substituted cycloalkadienyl group CA2 or --(R1)N--, --O--, --S-- or --(R1)P--, preferably CA2, more preferably a substituted cycloalkadienyl group identical with CA1 are bonded through a divalent linking group. The metallocene compound is suitable as a principal ingredient of a catalyst for the polymerization of olefins, particularly achieving a very high effect in making the molecular weight of a polypropylene higher.




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Metallocene production process

A number of process steps are provided that can be combined to produce bridged cyclopentadienyl-fluorenyl metallocenes. The process steps include production of a cyclopentadiene compound from dicyclopentadiene; production and recovery of a fulvene compound using the cyclopentadiene compound; production of a raw metallocene product using the fulvene compound; and recovery of the pure metallocene from the raw product.




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Preparation of silicon-bridged metallocene compounds

A process for obtaining silicon-bridged metallocene compounds comprising the following steps: a) reacting, at a temperature of between −10° C. and 70° C., the starting ligand with about 2 molar equivalents of an alkylating agent;b) after the reaction has been completed, adding at least 2 molar equivalents of an alkylating agent that can be also different from the first one; andc) reacting, at a temperature of between −10° C. and 70° C., the product obtained from step b) with at least 1 molar equivalent of a compound of formula ML's, wherein M is a transition metal; s is an integer corresponding to the oxidation state of the metal; and L' is an halogen atom selected from chlorine, bromine and iodine.