SAGA COMMUNICATIONS Classic Rock WYMG/SPRINGFIELD, IL morning "LYNCH & LARA" co-host LARA THOMAS exited the show on MARCH 30th in a COVID-19 cutback move. SAGA VP/Programming … more

ALL ACCESS has learned that SHAMROCK Classic Rock WZBA (100.7 THE BAY)/BALTIMORE morning personality STEVE "STASH" ASH has left the station. NASH posted the following on his … more

After a year as DANGERBIRD RECORDS VP/Promotion, ROZE BRAUNSTEIN is out and about and on a walkabout looking for her next promotion, management or marketing opportunity. ROZE's impressive … more

MAX MEDIA/DENVER VP/Programming RICK THOMAS has made a move with his morning show on Top 40/Rhythmic KFCO (FLO 107.1) as LARRY ULIBARRI and KATHIE J., the venerable DENVER morning team, exit … more

Dense kernel matrices $Theta in mathbb{R}^{N imes N}$ obtained from point evaluations of a covariance function $G$ at locations ${ x_{i} }_{1 leq i leq N} subset mathbb{R}^{d}$ arise in statistics, machine learning, and numerical analysis. For covariance functions that are Green's functions of elliptic boundary value problems and homogeneously-distributed sampling points, we show how to identify a subset $S subset { 1 , dots , N }^2$, with $# S = O ( N log (N) log^{d} ( N /epsilon ) )$, such that the zero fill-in incomplete Cholesky factorisation of the sparse matrix $Theta_{ij} 1_{( i, j ) in S}$ is an $epsilon$-approximation of $Theta$. This factorisation can provably be obtained in complexity $O ( N log( N ) log^{d}( N /epsilon) )$ in space and $O ( N log^{2}( N ) log^{2d}( N /epsilon) )$ in time, improving upon the state of the art for general elliptic operators; we further present numerical evidence that $d$ can be taken to be the intrinsic dimension of the data set rather than that of the ambient space. The algorithm only needs to know the spatial configuration of the $x_{i}$ and does not require an analytic representation of $G$. Furthermore, this factorization straightforwardly provides an approximate sparse PCA with optimal rate of convergence in the operator norm. Hence, by using only subsampling and the incomplete Cholesky factorization, we obtain, at nearly linear complexity, the compression, inversion and approximate PCA of a large class of covariance matrices. By inverting the order of the Cholesky factorization we also obtain a solver for elliptic PDE with complexity $O ( N log^{d}( N /epsilon) )$ in space and $O ( N log^{2d}( N /epsilon) )$ in time, improving upon the state of the art for general elliptic operators.

In recent years there has been a burgeoning interest in the use of computational methods to distinguish between elicited speech samples produced by patients with dementia, and those from healthy controls. The difference between perplexity estimates from two neural language models (LMs) - one trained on transcripts of speech produced by healthy participants and the other trained on transcripts from patients with dementia - as a single feature for diagnostic classification of unseen transcripts has been shown to produce state-of-the-art performance. However, little is known about why this approach is effective, and on account of the lack of case/control matching in the most widely-used evaluation set of transcripts (DementiaBank), it is unclear if these approaches are truly diagnostic, or are sensitive to other variables. In this paper, we interrogate neural LMs trained on participants with and without dementia using synthetic narratives previously developed to simulate progressive semantic dementia by manipulating lexical frequency. We find that perplexity of neural LMs is strongly and differentially associated with lexical frequency, and that a mixture model resulting from interpolating control and dementia LMs improves upon the current state-of-the-art for models trained on transcript text exclusively.

We analyze the computational complexity of motion planning through local "input/output" gadgets with separate entrances and exits, and a subset of allowed traversals from entrances to exits, each of which changes the state of the gadget and thereby the allowed traversals. We study such gadgets in the 0-, 1-, and 2-player settings, in particular extending past motion-planning-through-gadgets work to 0-player games for the first time, by considering "branchless" connections between gadgets that route every gadget's exit to a unique gadget's entrance. Our complexity results include containment in L, NL, P, NP, and PSPACE; as well as hardness for NL, P, NP, and PSPACE. We apply these results to show PSPACE-completeness for certain mechanics in Factorio, [the Sequence], and a restricted version of Trainyard, improving prior results. This work strengthens prior results on switching graphs and reachability switching games.

Method for preparing diamino-dianhydro-dideoxyhexitols, particularly 2,5-diamino-1,4:3,6-dianhydro-2,5-dideoxy-D-hexitol. The invention related to a method for preparing diamino-dianhydro-dideoxyhexitols, particularly preferably 2,5-diamino-1,4:3,6-dianhydro-2,5-dideoxy-D-hexitol.

A system and method for transmitting compressed video. A transmitter receives uncompressed video data from a video source, and compresses it using one or more reference frames. A receiver receives the compressed video data and decodes it, using the same reference frames, to form display data. The reference frames are stored in compressed form in both the transmitter and the receiver. Each frame of display data becomes a reference frame for the decoding of a subsequent frame.

An apparatus and method for minimizing cold spots on plates of a plate-type fluid-to-fluid heat exchanger averages the plate temperature at a hot-fluid exit plane of the heat exchanger. The heat exchanger matrix is constructed to internally vary the flow patterns of opposing hot and cold fluid streams so that the heat transfer coefficient values of one or both fluid streams, designated as h, are optimized so the hot fluid value is a greater value than that of a cold fluid value. Plate variable flow structures are arranged in a manner that allows higher velocity hot fluid flow and possible lower velocity cold fluid flow in areas where the plate temperatures are coolest and the opposite configuration where plate temperatures are hottest.

Clothing iron including a sole (1) having a bottom side with a sliding surface (11) coming into contact with cloth and comprising at least one steam-supplied recess (10), the recess (10) being bounded on its entire periphery by the sliding surface (11) in such a manner that the recess (10) forms a steam diffusion cavity that is surrounded by the sliding surface (11) when the sole (1) is applied to the cloth being ironed, characterized in that the depth of the recess (10) is greater than or equal to 1 mm.

An exit device includes a rail having opposite first and second ends and a rear portion with a first opening adjacent the first rail end for attachment to the door surface, the first rail end further having a front portion that inhibits access to the first rail opening in a direction normal to the rail rear portion. The method for installing it includes securing a mount having a cantilevered portion extending therefrom to the door at the surface first end such that the mount cantilevered portion provides a space between the cantilevered portion and the door and placing the rail against the door surface such that the mount extends through the first rail opening, sliding the rail to engage the rail rear portion adjacent the first rail opening between the mount cantilevered portion and the door and securing the second rail end to the door surface.

The storing and destocking of hydrogen in a hydride tank (10) comprises purification performed in at least one trap (1, 1A, 1B) filtering the impurities contained in the hydrogen entering the tank to be stored and regeneration of said at least one trap, using the heat carried by the hydrogen exiting the tank after it has been destocked.

A discharge system that includes a flexitank having product stored therein and a discharge port. The discharge port is selectively fluidly connected to a first or second heat exchanger input port. The first heat exchanger has an outlet port that is in selective communication with either a second heat exchanger input port, or a discharge location. The second heat exchanger has an outlet port in selective fluid communication with discharge location. The first heat exchanger transfers heat to product flowing through the first heat exchanger; and the second heat exchanger removes heat from product flowing through the second heat exchanger.

MARCUS Barnes scored a stunning consolation goal as Eastleigh’s FA Cup run ended with a 3-1 defeat at League Two Crewe Alexandra.

MARIO Lemina wants to remain at Galatasaray beyond the end of the season.

HAMPSHIRE civic chiefs are swinging their no-deal Brexit plans into action next week in case the UK crashes out of the EU on October 31.

HAMPSHIRE civic chiefs have postponed their no-deal Brexit traffic plan after the UK was granted an extension.

IN ONE of the most historic weeks in British history MPs voted in favour of triggering article 50 - Britain’s formal notification of our intention to leave the EU.

Richard Lutz checks into Hotel Ballotbox.

A negative list will clearly spell out what’s not allowed, allowing other activities to resume.

A negative list will clearly spell out what’s not allowed, allowing other activities to resume.

GLASGOW CLAN have been eliminated from the Challenge Cup after a 4-0 defeat to Sheffield Steelers last night.

THE Standard Life Foundation (SLF) has published the results of its UK financial impact tracker.

THE message from our medical experts leading the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic has been crystal clear in recent days: we have come too far together to drop our guard now.

After more than two years of debates and one deadline extension, the United Kingdom is set to leave the European Union on October 31st. Last week, with no Brexit deal in sight, Prime Minister Boris Johnson moved to suspend Parliament for five weeks leading up to that deadline. The move outraged members of Parliament and spurred a revolt in Johnson’s own party, resulting in legislation that may prohibit him from executing a no-deal Brexit. Johnson has called for a general election, though he no longer has the legislative majority he needs to force a vote. Sam Knight joins Dorothy Wickenden to discuss the week in Parliament and what it might mean for the future of British democracy.

An exodus is under way in the House of Representatives: not even halfway into the congressional term, fifteen Republicans have announced that they will not run in 2020. One of the exiting members is Will Hurd, a former C.I.A. officer who was elected in 2014. His district in Texas includes nearly a third of the state’s border with Mexico. Although he is reluctant to criticize the G.O.P. directly, Hurd tells the Washington correspondent Susan B. Glasser that he thinks the President’s border policy is ineffective: a wall isn’t the answer, Border Patrol is underfunded relative to the area it covers, and the technology in use for border security is both out of date and overly complicated, “requiring a Ph.D. in computer science to operate,” he says. “I wish I could pass a piece of legislation,” Hurd tells Glasser, “that says you can’t talk about the border unless you’ve been down to the border a few times.” Hurd’s departure is particularly significant because he is—for the sixteen months he has left to serve—the only African-American in the House Republican caucus, and he worries that the President’s negative rhetoric toward people of color is contributing to a demographic shift that’s turning Texas from deep red to purple. “When you have statements the equivalent of, ‘go back to Africa,’ ” Hurd notes, “that is not helpful.” 

One of the almost unsolvable problems with the U.K.’s exit from the E.U. is that it would necessitate a “hard border” between Northern Ireland, which is part of the U.K., and the Republic of Ireland, which would remain a member nation in Europe. The border was the epicenter of bloody conflict during the decades-long Troubles, and was essentially dismantled during the peace established by the Good Friday Agreement, in 1998. The prospect of fortifying it, with customs-and-immigration checks, has already brought threats of violence from paramilitaries such as the New I.R.A. At the same time, moving the customs border to ports along the coast of Northern Ireland—as the U.K.’s Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, has proposed—strikes Northern Irish loyalists as a step toward unification with the Republic, which they would view as an abandonment by Britain. Patrick Radden Keefe, who wrote about the Troubles in his book “Say Nothing,” discusses the intensely fraught issues of the border with Simon Carswell, the public-affairs editor of the Irish Times.

Writers have been creating worlds for centuries. J.R.R. Tolkien, Stephen King, H.P Lovecraft, they all shaped worlds and mythologies and civilisations out of words. Few musicians, however, have created new worlds out of their music. Kraftwerk's albums and aesthetics form a unique world of Pop Art, industrialism, rhythms and electricity... [ read more ]

Interviewing for the 2004 exit polls was the most inaccurate of any in the past five presidential elections as procedural problems compounded by the refusal of large numbers of Republican voters to be surveyed led to inflated estimates of support for John F. Kerry, according to a report released Wednesday by the research firms responsible for the flawed surveys.

Bad weather in Sydney means India goes through to T20 World Cup final without a ball being bowled — and Australia will lose out if the second semi does not go ahead.

The national cabinet is looking at a range of strategies to get us out of lockdown, ahead of a crunch meeting tomorrow.

A threat to close the Yallourn coal-fired power station earlier than planned has some asking whether Australia should look to Germany as a model for transition.

Free goods movement restrictions, imposed by the majority of EU countries at their borders to control the spread COVID-19, are disrupting supply chains, including crucial drug and medical equipment supplies.

The Federal Government is unlikely to adopt the National Farmers' Federation call for exit packages for drought-ravaged farmers. But even if it did, history suggests they're unlikely to have much impact.

London's Metropolitan Police have finally dropped their investigations into working-class Brexit campaigner Darren Grimes and Vote Leave's Alan Halsall, in another defeat for the supposedly neutral Electoral Commission.

With only 37 days until Britain leaves the EU, its biggest foreign and trade policy shift in more than 40 years, divisions over Brexit are redrawing the political landscape.

European Union leaders have offered Britain a Brexit extension until May 22.

I'm getting so very tired of safety/accident researchers claiming that root cause analysis is an invalid, blame-focused practice that ignores systems and complexity. Most root cause investigators that I know are pretty well oriented towards process, organization, and system issues as the fundamental sources underlying problems and accidents... and even some of our simplest analysis […]

My previous post about root causes in complex systems, in retrospect, looks a little bit like a rant. That doesn't bother me too much, really... but I wish I had included the following info: it is one way to go about resolving the mess that complex systems can make of your root cause analysis. Basically, when […]

Less than half of global CEOs believe their enterprises are adequately prepared to handle a highly volatile, increasingly complex business environment, according to a major new survey by IBM of more than 1,500 Chief Executive Officers from 60 countries and 33 industries worldwide, including 22 respondents from New Zealand – the largest number of respondents in eight years of research.

Let's take a moment to talk about the series Exit: The Game, which debuted in the United States in 2016.

Designed by Inka and Marcus Brand and published by Thames and Kosmos, the games are advertised as an Escape Room in a box. In an escape room, you and a group a friends are placed into a room (you may literally be locked in, depending on the fire code of the city where you book the room). Then,  a timer is set, a story is told to you to provide context and atmosphere for your puzzling adventure, and you attempt to solve a series of puzzles, the answers to which will eventually lead you to a key or combination to escape the room - hopefully before time runs out. These rooms typically book for $30+ per person, so the promise of replicating the escape room experience out of a tiny little box for a fraction of the cost is very appealing.

But does Exit: The Game live up to its promise? It does. It absolutely does, with one caveat - some of the games have you puzzling to solve a mystery within the time limit, but you aren't trying to escape anything.

Earlier titles in the series are fairly straightforward. A paper booklet of puzzles; a set each of riddle cards (pair with the booklet to solve the puzzles), answer cards (used to validate puzzle solutions and lead you to new riddle cards),  and help cards (hints for solving the puzzles); a decoder wheel (used to input codes derived from the puzzles); a simple rulebook; and various accessories (usually constructed of cardboard or paper) provide the core of the game experience. Players need to come equipped with scissors (destruction of components is required in nearly every game), pens/pencils, rulers, and a sharp wit to finish the game and calculate their score (measured in stars). The puzzle mechanisms vary, but they will be at least somewhat familiar to players who have done escape rooms or puzzle hunts before.  Depending on the title chosen, the puzzles also vary in difficulty. There is a difficulty rating printed on each box. We found that on average, we finish every Exit title in about 75 minutes; what varies for us across difficulty ratings is how many hint cards we lean on to solve the puzzles.

As the series has progressed in maturity, Inka and Marcus have been able to deliver titles with creative new puzzle mechanisms, changes in solving methodology (such as varying whether the puzzles in the paper booklet must be completed in sequential order or not), and meta puzzles. Meta puzzles are those which you cannot solve without getting a piece of the solution from some or all of the other puzzles included. For example, a puzzle that has you solve for a sentence comprised of words derived from other puzzle solutions is a meta puzzle. A good example of a title from the Exit: The Game series with a meta puzzle is Exit: The Game  - Dead Man on the Orient Express. It includes a meta puzzle that requires players to pay close attention to the passengers, their possessions, and locations throughout the game in order to solve it successfully. That game also introduced envelopes to open as the game progressed and it’s one of the titles that doesn’t see players escaping anything; instead they are trying to issue a code at the end to transmit the identity of a killer to authorities.

By the time the series release of Exit: The Game – The Catacombs of Horror  came around, I really thought the Brands couldn’t have any new tricks up their sleeve. I was wrong. With Catacombs of Horror, they have introduced the two part adventure, giving players a longer puzzling experience in one box. You can play straight through the entire game (allot yourself at least 2 hours) or play the first half and come back to the second half another time. There are also some fantastic new twists on the puzzling mechanisms (a candle is included and must be lit to solve one of the puzzles, for example), and the components got an upgrade (I’m holding onto the adorable little skulls indefinitely). Alongside the puzzle elements, the theming in the series has gotten better and better as new titles are released. Catacombs of Horror provides a well written narrative, albeit very very dark. As we solve puzzles, we find ourselves chasing down what happened to a friend of ours who disappeared into the Catacombs of Paris. It seems he may have met a dark end after having crossed paths with some demonic forces. This title is definitely not for the kiddos, which might be its only drawback. We have clever tweens who enjoy puzzle games, and this isn’t something we can share with them.

There have been at least three more titles released in the Exit: The Game series since Catacombs of Horror  was published in 2018 and more are on the way for 2020. If you’ve previously purchased any of the series, I’d strongly recommend adding Catacombs of Horror  to your must-play list. If this is the first you’ve heard of the series, do yourself a favor, and start with one of the easier titles, such as Exit: The Game – The Sunken Treasure. Then if you have a good time, move onto Exit: The Game – The Pharoh’s Tomb, before sinking your teeth into the most difficult titles like Exit: The Game  - Dead Man on the Orient Express or this one (Exit: The Game – The Catacombs of Horror ).

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Publisher: Thames and Kosmos
Players: 1-4 (we always play with 2)
Actual Playing Time (vs the guideline on the box): About 2 and a half hours
Game type: puzzle, cooperative
Rating:

Jenni’s rating scale:
OUI: I would play this game again; this game is ok. I probably would not buy this game myself but I would play it with those who own it and if someone gave it to me I would keep it.
OUI OUI: I would play this game again; this game is good. I would buy this game.
OUI OUI OUI: I LOVE THIS GAME. I MUST HAVE THIS GAME.
NON: I would not play this game again. I would return this game or give it away if it was given to me.

All the latest rumours and gossip coming out of Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal, Barcelona and Real Madrid.

Liverpool ace Rhian Brewster has joined Swansea on loan until the end of the season.

Chelsea transfer news is coming in thick and fast and Express Sport is on hand to bring you all the very latest from Stamford Bridge.

BREXIT was almost thwarted before it could even begin as former Prime Minister David Cameron planned legislation that could have significantly damaged Vote Leave's referendum campaign, a book claims.

THE UK's chief Brexit negotiator has hit back after his EU counterpart Michel Barnier said progress in trade talks had been "disappointing" and accused Britain of refusing to commit "seriously" on a number of key points.

BREXIT was almost thwarted before it could even begin as former Prime Minister David Cameron planned legislation that could have significantly damaged Vote Leave's referendum campaign, a book claims.

JOHN HUGHES has told Anthony Stokes a loan move to Inverness could help him save his Celtic career.

The January transfer window is just around the corner, so which players are most likely to move?