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Theistic Arguments: Argument from Complexity
The Argument from Complexity is little more than a rephrasing of the First Cause argument with a hint of the Argument from Design mixed in. It is in fact far weaker than any of these because it's fundamental axioms are very doubtful, but it is still used sometimes (though as far as I know not by any theologians or philosophers). The basic reasoning is, or is implied to be:
1. Every system has a certain amount of complexity. (Axiom)
2. If a system A has a complexity CA and a system B has a complexity CB, then system B can only 'come from' system A if CA is greater than CB. (Axiom)
3. The Universe has a complexity, CU (From 1).
4. At some point the Universe 'came from' something. (Axiom)
5. Hence, there must be a system G with a complexity CG that is greater than CU, from which the Universe came. (From 2, 3 and 4)
6. This system G can be identified with God.
With the phrase 'come from' any number of things are implied, including, but not necessarily limited to, 'evolved from', 'caused by' and 'created by'. The reasoning is okay, so any attack on the argument must be an attack on it's premises. Axiom 4 is readily accepted by present day science, and I will not dispute it here. The Axioms 1 and 2, on the other hand, I will attack.
The first axiom claims that every system has a certain amount of complexity. And this is in fact a pretty unclear statement, for what is complexity? I've asked a number of people, but no-one could give me a satisfactory definition. Is it the amount of information a system carries? The number of possible microstates or macrostates of a system? The energy of the system? The intelligence of the system? Is it measured by the intelligence or space needed to comprehend or describe a system? What is complexity? Until and unless a good definition is coming forth, I declare myself to be a complexity-noncognitivist.
But continuing with a certain 'intuitive' definition of complexity, we can look at the second premise. It doesn't really seem to make sense, does it? By some definitions simple thermodynamic processes would increase complexity. By other definitions I myself would be perfectly able to increase the complexity of things with a complexity just a little less than my own, so that by increasing this complexity I would create a system more complex than me. And so forth. The second premise, despite being pretty meaningless because of the use of the word 'complexity' also seems to be false as far as it can be comprehended.
My personal guess is that those theists who claim that 'the Universe is just to complex to have come about by chance' are in fact trying to talk about the Argument from Design. The argument as stated here is useless.
As an additional feature one could use the 'Gods ad infinitum'-argument here to refute the claim, but it's not really necessary.
Victor Gijsbers


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subset: commoncrawl


text:
RADNOR Pa. (June 16, 2011) — Dr. Beverly Bryde, chair and associate professor of education at Cabrini College, received the 2011 Lindback Award for Excellence in Teaching.
The award was presented to Dr. Bryde during the College's 51st Commencement exercises in May.
Dr. Bryde was a Cabrini faculty member from 1990 to 1995, and returned in 2006; she attributed her return to Cabrini to her belief in the College's dedication to service.
As a leader in the Education Department, Bryde has presented and published on a variety of topics, including using technology to supervise student teachers; how to implement web-based portfolios; and how to use video-phones and the Internet to tutor.
In June 2010, Dr. Bryde traveled to the Cabrini Ministries St. Philip's Mission in Swaziland as part of a six-person Cabrini College delegation. The team helped forge a partnership between the College and the Mission, which provides a hostel, health care, education, food, and skills-training.
Over the next three years, the College's Education Department will further develop the partnership with the Cabrini Ministries education staff in the areas of reading, English language learning strategies, mathematics and the use of technology to enhance learning.
Dr. Bryde earned a bachelor's and a master's degree at Villanova University, and a doctorate in education at Widener University. The Lindback Award for Excellence in Teaching, funded by the Christian R. and Mary F. Lindback Foundation of Philadelphia, provides grants to institutions of higher education for the promotion of teaching excellence, and recognizes academic excellence and outstanding teaching. At Cabrini, it is presented every other year.
About Cabrini College Students do extraordinary things at Cabrini College, a residential Catholic college welcoming learners of all faiths, cultures and backgrounds. Since its founding in 1957 by the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the College has provided a transformational "education of the heart," focusing on academic excellence, leadership development and a commitment to social justice.
Cabrini offers more than 30 majors, pre-professional programs, concentrations and minors. The College also has graduate and professional studies programs at its main campus in Radnor, Pa., and at 15 off-site locations. The College's serene 112-acre campus is located 30 minutes from Philadelphia.
© 2012


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I'm an elementary school teacher who noticed a strong lack of child friendly readings and curriculum in math, science, and social studies. Essentially, many of the skills needed for success in the contemporary era are not assessed by the standardized testing systems by which schools are judged. Thus, they are often overlooked or not taught at all. Hence, to fill this void I'm attempting to suppplement some of the subject areas that are lacking.
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Lake Michigan Published March 15, 2014
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Our Place, Our Universe Published April 27, 2013
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P&B Textile's Suede Brights: Finally! A collection of 100% cotton blenders you can trust! P&B Textile's Suede Brights is a wonderful selection of stylish basic coordinates available in an array of dazzling color choices that all boast the collection's trademark suede-marble look! And as an added bonus, all Suede Brights are printed on P&B Textile's remarkably soft and dependable 100% cotton! Allowing these highly functional coordinates to handle just about any creative endeavor with ease! In a nutshell, Seude Brights is one more exceptional line of high quality cotton blenders that we here at Beverly's online fabric store are delighted to provide!


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Nov. 13, 2012
|WASHINGTON at COLORADO
Saturday, Nov. 17 | 10:30 am (PT) | Boulder, Colo.
Gameday Central | TV: FX (Channel Finder) | Radio: KJR (Affiliates)
UW Game Notes (at CU)
Sunny Again For Dawgs
ASJ A Mackey Semi-Finalist
By Gregg Bell UW Director of Writing
SEATTLE - Austin Seferian-Jenkins leaping and tapping catches to himself as the nation's leading tight end - then on the next series zooming through left tackles as a situational pass rusher at defensive end.
Kasen Williams muscling through defensive backs to seize passes as Washington's leader in receptions - then lining up at the back of the defense ready to knock down passes on the game's final play.
Linebacker-safety Shaq Thompson potentially as a running back. Defensive lineman Pio Vatuvei as a fullback.
As the Huskies' season has revived into a chance at eight regular-season wins for the first time since 2001, UW coaches are finding more ways to put their best, most athletic players on the field in as many specialty situations as possible.
Some argue it exposes valuable starters - and in the case of Seferian-Jenkins, the only sophomore among eight semifinalists for the Mackey Award as the nation's best tight end - to more chances for injury.
Steve Sarkisian argues it exposes UW to more chances for winning.
"This is obviously we know this is a violent sport. But guys can get injured doing stuff that there is nobody around them -- and we saw that early in the season," Sarkisian said, alluding to running backs Deontae Cooper in August and Jesse Callier in the open field during the opening game shredding knee ligaments. "So I am not as concerned (about that)."
Seferian-Jenkins, UW's new career receptions leader among tight ends, became a defensive end for the first time in his life last weekend in the win over Utah. He brought 6 feet 6 and 260 pounds of pass rush on about a half dozen snaps in the nickel, five-defensive backs defense on obvious passing downs.
Seferian-Jenkins said the only defense he played while as a star receiver at Gig Harbor High School was as a defensive back. In his freshman season at Washington last fall he worked some at defensive end during practices. Then early last week, defensive-line coach Tosh Lupoi informed ASJ he would be getting game time as a pass rusher to help fill in for injured ends Talia Crichton and Pio Vatuevei.
"Let's do it!" Seferian-Jenkins enthusiastically answered.
"I'll do whatever the coaches need me to do to help the team win."
Crichton and Vatuvei are still hurt, with Sarkisian saying Vatuvei may not play again this season. So Sarkisian and defensive coordinator Justin Wilcox say it's possible Seferian-Jenkins will line up at defensive end Saturday in long-yardage situations at Folsom Field in Boulder if Washington gets Colorado in long-yardage situations on third downs, as it did to Utah.
"It's not as if he's in there taking on run blocks and different things and he's not in on goal line. He's in there on obvious passing downs where he's rushing the passer," Sarkisian said. "If we are coaching afraid to get hurt then we are afraid to lose, too. We've got to coach to win, too, and play to win and expect to do that and stay aggressive. This is just another example of that."
Imagine Wilcox's view. How many weeks does a 6-6, 260-pound star with strength and speed that is among the best in country in his position simply fall out of the sky onto his defensive line?
"Austin is a big, talented individual. He picks things up pretty quickly," Wilcox said after Tuesday's practice at Dempsey Indoor.
"There's a definite possibility we could see him there again. It's always going to be up to Coach Sark and what he sees fit for the team. He did a good job when he was in there, but he wasn't perfect. A good rush doesn't always end up in a sack. A good rush is you set the tackle into the quarterback's feet. Those things make a difference. And Austin's a big, strong, athletic guy who's got good quickness. So he has the tools."
Again, Sarkisian and Wilcox emphasis ASJ at DE is never going to be an every-down thing.
"We didn't give Austin a whole lot of different things. We put him in a specific situation: You are going to be an edge rusher, in our nickel defense, passing situations. Specialty (situations)," Wilcox said.
As for pass-rush technique, that's a work in progress.
"Yeah, he hasn't done it a lot. He's spent time with Coach Lupoi on that - and he will continue to as much as Coach Lupoi and Coach Sark see fit," Wilcox said.
Seferian-Jenkins isn't the only offensive standout that has been moonlighting on defense. At the end of the 21-13 win at California, with the Golden Bears trying a final, desperation pass towards the end zone, top wide receiver Williams was back as a deep defensive back ready to leap and bat down a pass that never came his way.
Then again, why wouldn't the Huskies use Williams in that role? His is 6-2 and high jumped 6 feet, 10 inches to win the Washington Class 4A track title in that event for Skyline High School in Sammamish in the spring of 2011.
Ever since his cameo on D at the end of the Cal game, Williams has been asking defensive backs coach Keith Hayward for more snaps in the secondary beyond the "last-play" defense to which Williams is assigned.
"Yeah, we've got to make a tackle (before that happens)," Wilcox joked.
"We are always going to utilize the guys we that we feel like give us the best chance to win, and sometimes we will play them both ways."
Wilcox cautioned there is a limit to how much the coaches are willing to experiment in specialty situations, though.
"Every DB thinks he's the best wide receiver on the team. And ever wide out thinks they are the best (DB)," he said. "It's just how they are; it's their nature."


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WASHINGTON (CNS) — A deep appreciation for religious liberty brought Anh Thu Vu of the Binh Thuan province of Vietnam to the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception for the Fortnight for Freedom closing Mass July 4.
She told Catholic News Service about her experience with religious persecution. "We lived in a small town and in school they would teach us that there is no God, and they would make it hard for us to go to church because exams would be on Christmas Day," she said.
"So after experiencing those things, I think religious liberty is important. I think it should be a right inherent to all humans," said the 23-year-old Vu. "I have been here (in the U.S.) for almost six years as an international student, and I appreciate (religious freedom)."
Hundreds gathered at the national shrine as the two weeks dedicated by the U.S. bishops to prayer, celebration and awareness of religious freedom drew to a close, just days after the Supreme Court ruled that closely held companies cannot be required to cover contraceptives and abortion-inducing drugs in employee health plans.
Prior to the beginning of Mass, members of the Neocatechumenal Way gathered in front of the shrine and sang hymns. An American flag billowed from the Knights Tower of the shrine. Lay men and women, families, priests, deacons, and consecrated men and women religious filled the Upper Church for the Mass.
Rossnat Rodriguez, originally from Lima, Peru, told CNS, "Religious liberty is the whole essence of being free. You should be able to practice your faith. I don't think that's something we can compromise."
"When you think about the United States and freedom, the pursuit of happiness, this is what it's all about. I come from a Third World country with a history of violence … (religious freedom) is very dear to my heart."
Cardinal Donald W. Wuerl of Washington was the principal celebrant of the Mass; Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz of Louisville, Kentucky, was the homilist.
In his homily, Archbishop Kurtz, who is president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, reminded Catholics of the theme of this year's fortnight: the freedom to serve.
"People of faith have had a tremendous impact on the fabric of the United States of America," he said. "And (that is) precisely because so many have used the freedom that is ours as a freedom to serve."
This faith-filled service, said Archbishop Kurtz, is good for America because thousands of religious communities, Catholic charities and hospitals have put their faith into action in order to serve others, allowing the "light of Christ to shine in our world."
Archbishop Kurtz made clear that threats to religious liberty still exist and for the sake of faith and charity, this freedom must vigilantly be defended.
"You and I are gathered here today because we know that there are real threats to religious freedom. We're gathered to pray because of a certain urgency. There are threats throughout the world. (And) this assault on religious freedom is also sadly at our doorstep," he said.
He cited the Little Sisters of the Poor and their ongoing lawsuit against the Health and Human Services mandate requiring them and most other religious employers to provide contraceptives and abortion-inducing drugs in health care plans for their lay employees.
Archbishop Kurtz said the Little Sisters of the Poor need not and cannot choose between continuing to serve and compromising the convictions of their faith.
"We can't stand by and allow anyone to separate acts of service from the living faith that motivates these acts. And we can't allow anyone to force us to facilitate immoral acts that go against our clearly demonstrated living faith," he said.
Archbishop Kurtz entreated Catholics to continue to pray for the defense of religious freedom. "We seek only to be good citizens. Good citizens of heaven and good citizens of earth. We're free, and we want to be free to serve," he concluded.
Msgr. Vito Buonanno, director of pilgrimages at the national shrine, is one of many who believe the fight for religious freedom is far from over, but he was encouraged by the enthusiasm shown for the fortnight's closing Mass.
"Religious liberty is something that our forefathers put into the founding laws of our nation. It allows us to recognize the human, God-given dignity of every human being and to be able to worship God," he told CNS in an interview before Mass began.
He looked around the Upper Church, nearly every pew filled with people. The response of the people to the fortnight and to the closing Mass, he said, was "tremendous."
"I think opportunities like this provide a great witness that the church and the world need to see, the witness of our beliefs."
— By Sarah Hinds, Catholic News Service
One can only speculate why we didn"t have a Fortnight for Freedom in Tucson.
One can only speculate why we didn't have a Fortnight for Freedom event here in Tucson this year.
One can only speculate as to why we did not have A Fortnight for Freedom event here in Tucson this year
Hundreds? Should have been millions.
Exactly! The Bishops just don't get it: IT IS ONLY THROUGH THE BLESSED MOTHER THAT WE ARE PROTECTED. Last Fall Archbishop Cordileone of San Francisco told a gathered crowd of believers at the Un Plaza before City Hall that the ROSARY was very powerful. He pointed out that after WWII the Soviets had taken the Eastern quarter of Austria. The faithful of Austria began a large and unrelenting PUBLIC Rosary Crusade involving 10% of the Country's population (700,00). Then the Soviet troops just up and left the Country (late 1940s)! IOW Bishops wake up: LEAD our Church in a massive public Rosary Crusade culminating in a Consecration of our Nation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary by all the Bishops in the National Basilica . These infrequent Fortnights are PATHETIC. and TOTALLY UNAWARE OF HEAVEN'S PLAN FOR PEACE. Fatima revealed irreversibly that Peace will come ONLY THROUGH RECOURSE TO THE BLESSED MOTHER IN A PUBLIC WAY. Before Austria was Portugal in 1930, Their Hierarchy did just that and were spared both the overflow of the Spanish Civil War and WWII. It happened again in Brazil 1960, preventing a Communist takeover.
The Hierarchy have their own plans, BUT DO NOT LISTEN TO GOD'S PLANS. I am afraid the Popes have been negligent in leading the Church to follow the Fatima Prophecy, such that having already seen WWII follow the failure to obey Our Lady WE ARE ABOUT TO MAKE THE SAME ERROR NOW IN IGNORING HER SPECIFIC COMMANDS ALL OVER AGAIN AS WWIII THREATENS US! This is just like Israel before the Babylonian invasion and first destruction of the Temple. Akita re-enforced Fatima.
If our national hierarchy had paid attention to the Our L. of America prophecy, we would not have gone on the religious and moral decline that has gotten us where we are now.
It happened again in Brazil 1960.
Perhaps there should have been millions….But maybe they were training or preparing to serve in another way……
For the Exaltation of Christ the King and the rights of Holy Mother Church and of God's liberty throughout the land!
Would be nice if the Church was this patriotic all the time. Of course, the bishops resort to patriotism now just because they're in trouble. Otherwise all you hear is criticism of the nation by the commie hate America crowd that makes up far too much of the Church and its leadership today.


text:
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How do I change the design of Facebook?
|Technology - Software
|Saturday, 20 February 2010 01:00
If you are someone who quickly tires of the appearance of Web services, such as the Facebook, there is a solution for change, although the subject "is tricky" as we know Facebook does not natively support themes.
So? So always be Firefox and its great extensions. The I bring this time is called Stylish and basically serves to modify the design of any site such as Facebook.
Once installed the extension you only have to spend the web Userstyles.org where to find assortment of topics, among other sites, Facebook, choose the ones you like best and put it to work through Stylish. It is the perfect solution but it's something.
Via: Punto Geek


text:
I received my Ph.D. in Computer Science from the Australian National University (ANU) in 2006 focusing theoretical computer science. During my Ph.D. I developed the Tableau WorkBench, a generic theorem prover that is both easy to use and flexible accepting specification in different formats. The TWB has been used to experiment with a number of modal logics and in particular with fix-point logics.
In the last 5 years I've been involved with two academic research projects, Cduce and Mancoosi founded by European community at the university Paris Direrot (Paris 7), laboratoire PPS. Recently I have joined the center for research and innovation on Free Software (IRILL). I'm a strong supporter of the Debian project (despite I never officially joined it ).
My current academic interests are software engineering, theorem proving, functional programming, modal logic. My focus at the moment is on open source and in particular in relation to quality assurance aspects of software distribution and component based system.
Detailed CV on request.


text: [ What Is A 3D Printer? We Shed Some Light On A Little Talked About Technology By Jeff Monaski February 22, 2013 Are you just hearing about 3D printing and wondering what it is? Read More Category: Morning Show, National News Tags: 3d printing, additive manufacturing Send to a friend! Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Pin it! Reddit This! Share on Tumblr!


text:
Is there is a way to upload my own panoramic images of our hours/building using Google Street View API, then use Google Street View Engine to navigate through them?
Officially you have to create tiles for your Panoramic image to become streetview controlled:
Providing Custom StreetView Panoramas
The Maps Javascript API V3 supports the display of custom panoramas within the StreetViewPanorama object. Using custom panoramas, you can display the interior of buildings, views from scenic locations, or anything from your imagination. You can even link these custom panoramas to Google's existing Street View panoramas.
Setting up a set of custom panorama imagery involves the following steps:
Source: https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/javascript/streetview#CustomStreetView
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text:
Captain Marlyn Dietz Announces Retirement; Accepts Administrative Engineer Position with Public Works
Posted on 01/03/2013 2:05 pm
On Friday, January 4, at 2:00 p.m., Captain Marlyn Dietz will conclude 31 years of service with a walk out ceremony at Wilmington Police Headquarters.
Captain Marlyn Dietz began his career with the Wilmington Police Department in 1982 where he served as a patrol officer. Dietz went on to become a detective in the Vice unit in 1987. Promoted to Patrol Sergeant in 1989 he later became a Sergeant for the Office of Professional Standards. In November 1994 Dietz was promoted to Patrol Lieutenant and was later transferred to the Special Operations Division. Dietz received the honor of attending the prestigious FBI National Academy and graduated with the 192nd class in 1998.
That same year Dietz was promoted to Captain of the Uniformed Services Division. Dietz oversaw the Uniformed Services Division for five years before moving on to become the Captain of Communications Division. After serving five years as Captain of Communications, Dietz returned to the Uniformed Services Division where he supervised patrol, community policing, and the K9 unit.
Captain Maryln Dietz is married to retired Inspector Nancy Dietz who recently left the department upon her appointment as the Director of the Division of Youth Rehabilitative Services (DYRS). Together they gave 64 years of service to the City of Wilmington. Marlyn and Nancy Dietz are both graduates of the FBI National Academy, a rare achievement for spouses in law enforcement.
Chief Michael Szczerba thanked Captain Marlyn Dietz for his 31 years of service, describing him as "A leader dedicated to the officers he served with and to the Wilmington community at large. The absence of his leadership style and assignment ownership will create an opportunity for the younger officers that he has mentored throughout his career."
Dietz announced his retirement after accepting a position with the City of Wilmington Public Works as an Administrative Engineer and leaves with the pride that comes with a career of service, "I'm proud to have been a part of this brotherhood for over 30 years and am most proud to be able to walk out under Chief Szczerba." Marlyn Dietz retires as the highest ranking Captain in the Wilmington Police Department.


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The last couple of weeks have been a wonderful blur… from Woodstock and the Midnight Ramble, Big Pink and Overlook Mountain to SXSW and the FP Heart Strings tour. It's hard to pick a memorable moment when all of them are just that… (…) Read more
Tagged: woodstock
Blogger Diary: OuttakesMar 26, 2012
Overlook MountainMar 14, 2012
Throughout my weekend in Woodstock, Overlook Mountain loomed gracefully in the background of the town, reminding me of its presence and my prior agreement to hike to its peak. It's not that I didn't want to do it, (…) Read more
Woodstock Photo DiaryMar 12, 2012
This past weekend was one of the best I've had…ever. My boyfriend and I drove up to Woodstock, NY on Friday evening, where we spent two nights in a charming bed and breakfast. (…) Read more
Happy Friday!Mar 09, 2012
One of our designers sent along these lovely photos from the Philadelphia flower show – if you're in the area, check it out! I am off to Woodstock in a little bit for a nice relaxing weekend… can't wait :) (…) Read more
Blogger Diary: Can You Hear The Music?Mar 05, 2012
It seems like music has been taking over my life lately, and I'm totally ok with it. Music is pretty much always playing in the back of my mind, a constant presence, maybe just turned down to a quieter volume at times, but lately it is blasting into my ear drums and I can't seem (…) Read more
back to the gardenAug 18, 2010
i have a really wierd obsession with woodstock. i wasn't even alive back then but it pains me to think i wasn't able to be a part of that experience. our vintage buyer took a trip to bethel, new york, and brought back some photos of the festival site and her friend's place – i (…) Read more
woodstock handmade housesApr 07, 2010
before woodstock became known worldwide for the most famous music festival of all time, it was a quiet town in rural new york that artisans, painters, musicians and freethinkers called home. they lived off the land and made things by hand- even their homes. they used local stone, wood and scavenged materials to create shelters (…) Read more


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Edith A. Graves (nee Sylvester), 98,was born March 19, 1916, and passed away Wednesday, March 19, 2014.
She was the cherished daughter of the late Fred and Clara Sylvester; devoted wife of the late Alfred "Jiggs" Graves; loving mother of Ralph C. Graves (Nancy) of Colorado and Roberta J. Carpenter (Dan); sister of the late Tom Sylvester, Ellsworth Sylvester, Mary Shaver, Helen Yost, Agnes Thompson, Francine Davison, and Mabel Feather; proud grandmother of Dale Graves, Paul Graves, and James Carpenter; and great-grandmother of seven.
Visitation will be Sunday, March 23, 2014, 2 until 6 P.M., at Jardine Funeral Home, 15822 Pearl Rd., Strongsville. Funeral Service will be Monday, March 24, 2014, 11 A.M., at Strongsville United Church of Christ, 13740 Pearl Rd., Strongsville. Interment will be at Strongsville Cemetery.
Memorial contributions may be made to the Strongsville United Church of Christ.


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Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 line and X8 won't get Froyo
Sony Ericsson are stuck in Android 1.6 land for now, with all their smartphones powered by Google's mobile operating system. If that wasn't lame enough, they keep talking about an upcoming update to Android 2.1 (and basically that's all they've done – talk about it, since it's still not out), in a time when all their competitors are rushing updates to Android 2.2, also known as Froyo.
Sad. But owners of Xperia-branded devices running Android have always been hopeful that one day (perhaps in 2011) their smartphones will run Froyo.
Apparently, that assumption may have been wrong. A Sony Ericsson Android update roadmap (seen in German above) has leaked, and it's not good news. Yes, it looks like there will be not one, but two Android 2.1-based updates coming to the Xperia X10, Xperia X10 Mini, Xperia X10 Mini Pro and Xperia X8.
However, there's no Froyo anywhere to be seen on said roadmap. Sure enough, this document may not even be real. Or if it is real, it may just be part of a bigger document that does mention Froyo.
But, I have to say, not releasing Froyo upgrades for their devices is perfectly in line with what Sony Ericsson have done with Android so far. And it's too bad, because I hear that their hardware is quite decent.
And it sure looks like that's going to have to keep you warm at night if you own a Sony Ericsson Android device, since they don't really care about concepts such as "up to date software".
What a mess.
Anyway, it's not all bad, as the 2.1 update for the Xperia X10 will bring along some goodies, such as:
- 720p HD video recording with continuous autofocus
- 5 homescreens
- HTML5 support
- A social phonebook that will link Facebook and Twitter with your Contacts
As for the X10 Mini, X10 Mini Pro and X8, their updates won't be as filled with new features. In fact, they will only bring an incremental change in the four corner navigation and Bluetooth 2.1.
After the initial 2.1 update, Sony Ericsson will release another one that will improve their UI overlays, Timescape and Mediascape.
And that's it. So if you like to keep your gadgets always up to date with the latest software, perhaps you should avoid buying a Sony Ericsson smartphone.
Via Xperia X10 Blog Via Android Central


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April 14, 2011
Coach Sark Post-Practice Video
By Gregg Bell
UW Director of Writing
SEATTLE - Coordinator Nick Holt twice called a defensive time out just as kicker Erik Folk was lined up to attempt a long field goal.
Unnerved by the "icing" and perhaps ignorant to the hip-hop music blaring through another Huskies spring practice, Folk finally drilled the kick between the black lines taped onto a white net representing goal posts inside the Dempsey indoor facility. His teammates on offense roared and mobbed him in a semi-mock celebration for his latest "game-winning" kick.
"Great stuff. Great stuff," Kevin Sumlin said, walking down the sideline and smiling at Huskies athletic director Scott Woodward.
Sumlin is the coach at the University of Houston. He is in town to speak at Steve Sarkisian's coach's clinic this weekend, at the invitation of his friend and fellow first-time college head coach. Thursday, he stopped by to see how the 37-year-old Sarkisian runs Huskies practices.
Sumlin, 46, came away so impressed with the fun, pulsating workout, his Cougars may soon be practicing the same way back in Texas.
"Love it," Sumlin said of UW's practice atmosphere. "We have music on Thursday at Houston, but I like it the whole time. That's something I was just talking about, I said, `Everyone will be happier because it will put me in a better mood, instead of me yelling all the time.'"
By now, in this third set of spring practices of Sarkisian's open UW regime, the Huskies are used to the eclectic mix of rap and rock. From April, through preseason camp in August all the way past the winter's Apple Cup, Jay Z thumps one series, Journey blares the next.
It's modeled after what Sarkisian's mentor, Pete Carroll, did while winning national championships at USC just before Sarkisian got to Washington.
But to the many visitors from all walks of life who attend each of the Dawgs' practices, it's still a refreshing way to conduct football business. So are drills such as the icing-the-kicker scenario Sarkisian had the Huskies do Thursday, to replicate what USC did to Folk before he kicked the game winner in Los Angeles last October.
"I like it. I like the energy. I like the tempo," Sumlin said after the Huskies' eighth practice of the spring. "That's why you come to this, basically, to see how other guys do this. You see the energy level of the coaches, of the players, the tempo, the different practice situations, you can tell the influence of Pete.
"Football is more than just running plays. It's situations, and how you as a team handle situations better than the other team. You've got to practice that."
Sarkisian is gathering ideas from Sumlin this week as much as he is giving them to the 2009 Conference USA coach of the year.
"I've always appreciated our talks - on every level," Sarkisian said. "To have the opportunity for him to be up here, one to speak at our clinic but two, to spend some time and share ideas on what they do and how they do things, it's just insightful.
"You know, we always do things to try to get better -- because if you are not getting better, you are getting worse."
Sarkisian also goes on the same road Sumlin is on now. Next week, Sarkisian will be at Portland State speaking at its coaches' clinic.
"That's part of our profession. There's a lot of that going on," Sarkisian said. "It's hard, because there has to be some give and take. You can't be all just take-take-take-take. There has to be some give. There's some strategy involved in who you are meeting with and why you are meeting with them and all that. But through it all, I just want to be around good people."
Some of those good people who have come to Seattle and visited with the Huskies' staff recently have included New Mexico State coach DeWayne Walker, who discussed defensive principles, and Montana coach Robin Pflugrad, who talked offense.
"And obviously we have done quite a bit of stuff with the Seahawks," Sarkisian said of Seattle's NFL team Carroll now coaches.
"You are just always trying to get better ... maybe find one thing here, one tweak there that might make you better."
Sumlin has numerous ties to the Huskies' staff beyond Sarkisian. UW running backs coach Joel Thomas was a graduate assistant at Purdue during Sumlin's time as the Boilermakers' wide receivers coach from 1998-2000. Huskies offensive coordinator Doug Nussmeier was a star quarterback at Idaho and UW linebackers coach Mike Cox was an assistant with the Vandals in the early 1990s, when Sumlin was eight miles down the road finishing his first coaching job as a graduate assistant at Washington State. And Huskies line coach Dan Cozzetto was ending a stint on Idaho's staff when Sumlin started as a WSU assistant.
"I know all these guys." Sumlin said with a laugh, waving his hand across the field.
And now, thanks to Sarkisian, he knows a new way to have his guys practice back in Houston.


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The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim - PC Cd Key
Customer Reviews
7 Item(s)
per page
- Awesome Game! Review by AWFordJr
- I have this game on one of my steam accounts as well as on XBox 360. It is an awesome game that keeps me busy for hours on end & even sometimes for days. If you get the steam key version you also get the workshop kit free with the game which allows for you to create or edit in game items, gears, and so on for making your own items to share on the workshop. You also can not beat the shown price here as the game retails for $59.99 & its hard to catch it on Steam while on sale so take advantage of this great deal & get your copy now! (Posted on 2/22/13)
- help Review by Finnick
- OK, I have the game for Xbox 360 and want it for PC. Im a little confused, is this the game that they are selling like the cd that I put in my computer and download. Please reply and sorry if it is a dump question just wanted to make sure before I bought it. (Posted on 1/21/13)
- Unbelievable, so great Review by Coilah
Another pearl from Bethesda, You can literally spend hundreds of hours playing and still its not completely finished. Such a huge map with so many quests and side-quests.
Everybody that likes roleplaying games will want to play this.
(Posted on 1/15/13)
- Must buy for RPG fans Review by Lars
- Unlike the others my score for Skyrim is a little bit lower. I was really looking forward to play this game and hell yes I did. But the game never took me away in the created paradise by Bethesda. I've been playing a lot of Oblivion and for me that was the better game. Although Skyrim doesn't top Oblivion in my opinion, it doesn't mean you shouldn't buy Skyrim if you're thinking of doing it. I only want you to be aware you might be over excited for this game and some things won't be as good as you hoped. For a fan of the RPG-genre this is a must buy. (Posted on 12/28/12)
- The best RPG Review by jesus
This is the best game I ever played, more than 500 hours to finish it 100%, a lot of ways to make it and dinamic world. What more do you want?
Este es el mejor juego que he jugado nunca. Mas de 500 horas de juego para acabarlo al 100%, muchas formas de hacerlo y un mundo dinámico. ¿Qué mas se puede pedir? (Posted on 12/3/12)
- awesome! Review by Mario
- My choice of best game for 2012.Still havent finished it...and i've been playing it for months. (Posted on 10/19/12)
- EPIC Review by Adam
- Skyrim is a must play in my opinion a brilliant game and has great graphics and design which can keep you entertained for weeks this game Must be played by any who like open world action game such as fallout 3 and Just cause (Posted on 10/4/12)
7 Item(s)
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- About this Journal ·
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International Journal of Distributed Sensor Networks
Volume 2012 (2012), Article ID 672436, 15 pages
Self-Organized Connectivity Control and Optimization Subjected to Dispersion of Mobile Ad Hoc Sensor Networks
School of Computer and Communication Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, China
Received 3 May 2012; Revised 11 July 2012; Accepted 29 July 2012
Academic Editor: Zhiguo Ding
Copyright © 2012 Zhenqiang Mi et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
This paper addresses the problem of the connectivity control and the self-organized deployment/dispersion of a team of mobile ad hoc sensor nodes. First, to reduce redundant communication links while preserving global connectivity, a distributed link removal algorithm is developed that only requires local information of no more than two-hop neighbors. Secondly, for the purpose of preserving essential links while avoiding collisions, a combined piecewise-continuous motion controller is designed to regulate the motion of mobile sensors between two consecutive switches. The proposed hybrid control system can autonomously disperse a team of mobile sensors towards their final configuration with guaranteed connectivity and collision avoidance. Theoretical analysis and computer simulations have confirmed the efficiency and scalability of the proposed schemes.
1. Introduction
The self-organized connectivity control and dispersion of mobile ad hoc sensor networks (MASNs) has been extensively investigated due to its promising potential applications in various fields, such as remote supervision of hazard substances, exploration of unknown fields, and cooperative sensing. Enhancing the coverage of the MASNs could be beneficial, if not critical, for a variety of missions, such as environmental monitoring and disaster management. Moreover, from the wireless communication point of view, the sparse network structure resulted from the enhanced coverage can effectively reduce radio interferences, which is critical for the elimination of excessive message overheads and the reduction of the latency [1]. Furthermore, in energy critical wireless sensor networks, the reduction of message overheads as well as the complexity of the self-organizing algorithms can extend the service lifetime of the systems.
In a mobile sensor network, the mobility of sensor nodes provides the possibility for the nodes to deploy to a configuration with desired properties from an arbitrary initial distribution in a self-organized manner. The aforementioned concept of MASNs has attracted numerous research efforts. Among various topics that have been covered, emphasis is placed on the consensus of a group of mobile sensors, such as flocking and rendez-vous, with a particular interest in coverage and connectivity control. Self-organized dispersion, on the other hand, is another fundamentally essential aspect of the system and requires more research efforts.
Self-organized dispersion of MASNs can be loosely defined as maximizing coverage with a minimum number of mobile sensors [2]. Significant application potentials of self-organized dispersion have recently led to a surge of research attentions. Techniques including inverse agreement control law [3], clique-intensity algorithm [2], and "artificial physics" frame-work [4] have been developed to regulate the evolution of the underlying networks. Coverage control of mobile networks is another promising research area that is closely related to self-organized dispersion, and numerous efforts have concentrated on the deployment of mobile sensors [5–8], coverage control in stationary WASN [9], and coverage control of autonomous agents [10]. Commonly used models include Voronoi diagrams [7, 8] and potential functions [10, 11]. Voronoi diagrams method can partition the field into many subareas dedicated to each mobile sensor, allowing sensors to move to maximize coverage in its own subarea. However, the assumption that mobile sensors can easily detect most of its Voronoi neighbors through local communication may not be satisfied in a real network, due to the limited communication range of the mobile sensors, which may not be sufficient for covering all Voronoi neighbors. Potential function, on the other hand, is able to fulfill the self-organized coverage control of mobile sensor nodes in a more local and distributed manner. The concept of this approach is to imitate the behavior of electromagnetic particles: whenever two electromagnetic particles are too close in proximity, a repulsive force pushes them apart. In mobile ad hoc sensor networks, this method can help move sensors from high density to low density areas, thereby dispersing the team to improving the overall network coverage.
Connectivity control of MASNs is rapidly becoming a hot research topic in the field of multiagent systems, and various strategies have been developed in recent years, including both centralized [12, 13] and decentralized [14–20] approaches. A common way to maintain connectivity in mobile networks is to shrink the communication links between any two neighbors whenever they tend to break [21]. Most studies have attempted to maximize Fiedler value [13] and to add communication links to increase connectivity [22]. However, these approaches often result in a tight network structure with dense communication links, which may largely restrict the mobility of mobile sensors and jeopardize the coverage and cooperation efficiency. More importantly, from the wireless communication point of view, high network density can severely aggravate radio interferences [1]. To deal with these problems, Zavlanos and Pappas [15] proposed a distributed market-based control strategy, which is able to reduce redundant communication links based on local estimation of spanning subgraph. This strategy, however, requires full knowledge of the network structure, which may cause large delay in dense and large-scale networks [23]. In [17], a connectivity control strategy is presented with a particular consideration of the relationship between the communication range and the sensing range, that is, radio range is at least twice the sensing range. The proposed control scheme can guaranteed a connected network with optimized sensing coverage. How to disperse the networked sensors to achieve a sparse topology is not yet discussed. It is also worthwhile to mention that certain topology control methods [24, 25] in ad hoc senor networks have been developed that similarly deal with the issue of removing redundant communication links. However, these works are mainly based on stationary network structure. The important issues of combing global connectivity and dispersion of mobile sensors with respect to mobility control strategy have not been addressed properly.
Aiming at bridging the gap between dispersion and connectivity, we first present a distributed link removal algorithm (DLRA) to reduce redundant communication links while preserving global connectivity. The proposed algorithm is fully distributed and only requires local information of no more than two-hop neighbors. Then, by integrating DLRA with a novel combined piecewise-continuous potential function, a distributed connectivity control system is developed to disperse a team of mobile sensors with guaranteed connectivity and collisions avoidance. The present work provides answers to the following questions.(1)How to remove communication links with respect to global connectivity based only on local information of neighbor status?(2)How to disperse a team of sensors with connectivity preservation, collision avoidance, and limited actuation?(3)Is the generated network structure sparse enough to fulfill dispersion requirement?
The rest of the paper is organized as follows: Section 2 provides necessary terminologies and notations. Section 3 presents the DLRA algorithm that is developed to address the link removal problem with respect to global connectivity. Section 4 introduces a distributed combined piecewise-continuous potential function to control the motion of mobile sensors. Computer simulations are included in Section 5, and this paper is concluded in Section 6 with a discussion of future research works.
2. Problem Formulation
Let the dynamic graph denote a mobile network of mobile sensor nodes with integrated wireless communication capabilities, where denotes the set of vertices indexed by the set of mobile sensors and , denotes the time-variant set of communication links. We define to be a normalized nonnegative weighting function symmetric in its arguments, that is, , and assume that , . In this case, the adjacency matrix (we define for all , thus there are no self-loops in the network) can be defined as follows:
Note that any normalized nonnegative function can be treated as a weighting function. Nevertheless, to associate with the link quality, it is rather a natural choice that denotes received signal strength. Moreover, as indicated in radio propagation theory [1], in obstacle-free environment, signal fading can be treated as an exponential decay function of the Euclidean distance between and . In particular, we have the following definitions.
Definition 1. For any node in , the normalized received signal strength from node is set to be: where (the value of depends on the radio frequency, antenna gain, system loss, and environmental factors, etc.) is positive path-loss value, and is reference distance (see Figure 1).
Definition 2. An undirected weighted dynamic graph is defined as connected at time if and only if there is at least one communicative path between any two vertices within it.
Furthermore, consider the vertices in as mobile sensors with single-integrator kinematic model given by the following: where and denotes the position and velocity of node , respectively.
Now the main objectives of this paper can be described as follows:(1)for any nodes and in , determine whether link is an essential communication link for connectivity maintenance, and then remove redundant communication links. The generated subgraph contains only essential communication links, that is, ;(2)for the corresponding kinematic system , derive a dynamic motion controller for all sensors between any two consecutive switches, so that for any , it is guaranteed that ; for any , nodes and are dispersed into the set (see Figure 2).
3. Distributed Link Removal Algorithm with Respect to Global Connectivity
The objective of this section is to develop a distributed local connectivity control algorithm, aiming at removing redundant communication links to facilitate the self-organized dispersion of mobile sensors with respect to global connectivity.
3.1. Principle of DLRA
Let us first introduce the following definitions which categorize neighboring sensors into two distinctive neighbor relationship sets, namely, physical neighbor set and logical neighbor set.
Definition 3. Node is in the physical neighbor set of , denoted , if and only if .
Definition 4. Node is the logical neighbor set of , denoted , if and only if .
Definition 5. For any node in the network, we denote as the neighbor relationship matrix (NRM) at time , where and .
Based on the aforementioned definitions, the proposed DLRA is described as follows.
Information Exchange
The information that sensor requires for the link removal algorithm is obtained by periodically receiving Heartbeat messages from all its neighbors in . The periodical messages sent by neighbor should at least contain the following information: node ID, position, logical neighbor set , and link weight with all its logical neighbors. After exchanging information with all its neighbors, each node is only aware of the status of its one-hop physical neighbors and two-hop logical neighbors.
Selecting Candidate Links to Be Removed
Upon receiving Heartbeat message from each individual physical neighbor, node updates . As it is assumed that the initial network is connected, DLRA starts at time . Then, the process is started with initial condition that , and is constructed for each . The selection of candidate links is as follows.
Step 1. Look up neighbor relationship matrix . If , where , there exists a triangle consist of sensor , , . If and only if , then denote link as candidate link to be removed from , put sensor into candidate removal set , and remove corresponding row vector in (cf. line 2–7 in Algorithm 1).
Step 2. Update , so that there is no triangle in the updated topology. Let be the column vector of , where . Check for every , if , and , and , compare link weights , , , and , if , then denote link as candidate link to be removed from , and put into and remove corresponding row vector in (cf. line 8–15 in Algorithm 1 ( is the execution time for node in every edge removal procedure, we assume is constant for any node).
Synchronized Local Coordination for DLRA (Algorithm 2)
A major challenge when dealing with dynamic network is that, the network topology may be changed during any consecutive switches, due to the movement and leaving/joining of the mobile sensors. Meanwhile, an unpredictable message delay may occur at any time. Therefore, a synchronization process is required for such situations. In particularly, a request and acknowledge mechanism is utilized to dynamically synchronize the disconnection of any redundant communication links between the corresponding vertices. That is, upon the determination of redundant communication link, for example, , a request message will be sent from to . Upon receiving sensor will remove sensor from the logical neighbor set and send back a acknowledge message based on the condition that . The network structure will be constructed based on the subgraph , which is generated from the proposed local coverage enhancement algorithm (cf. Algorithm 2).
3.2. Capabilities and Message Complexity of DLRA
We first prove that the connectivity is guaranteed while the redundant links are removed from the underlying network.
Theorem 6. Given a network with initial connectedness and controllable links, the subgraph generated from DLRA is connected all the time.
Proof. Since neighbor discovery procedure and adding redundant links into do not violate network connectivity, we only need to consider the link removal mechanism for connectivity preservation.
Consider two nodes , where , are initially connected in through a series of vertices, for example, . Suppose that , and are disconnected in , we have the following.
Case 1. where and , since . According to step 2 in Algorithm 1, we have , so , contradiction reached.
Case 2. where , and , since , , so we have , contradiction reached.
The proof of Theorem 6 is completed.
In addition, for Case 1, suppose that there exists a path , and . From Algorithm 1 it can be seen that , so contra-diction reached. Similarly, for Case 2, suppose there exists , same contradiction can also be met, which leads to the following corollary.
Corollary 7. For any generated subgraph , the shortest cycle is 5, that is, there are no such links as or .
Furthermore, through removing redundant links, node degree in can be constrained within a certain spectrum. In particular, one has the following.
Corollary 8. For a generated subgraph where , the upper bound of node degree is 5.
Proof. To see contradiction, it is assumed that there are two links and in , where and enclose an angle at node . Furthermore, suppose that and , from Definition 1 we know that link weight is a monotonic function of vertices' Euclid distance, for example, . Since and , it is straightforward that , see Figure 3, which leads to . Consequently, we can conclude from Algorithm 1 that , for example, , thus we reach a contradiction to the assumption that . This proved that no adjacent links in enclose an angle equal or less that , from which the corollary follows.
In addition, the request and acknowledge mechanism in Algorithm 2 guarantees that, despite of trivial one-hop delays of the acknowledge information, the communication links in remain symmetric all the time. Moreover, DLRA depends only on local information of no more than two-hop neighbors, so that the information exchange between mobile sensors will not invite large delay and communication overhead. In particular, we have the following.
Theorem 9. The worst-case message complexity of DLRA is , where is the number of sensors.
Proof. Since DLRA depends only on two-hop neighbor information to determine redundant communication links, this requires two messages per sensor, and total messages will be sent. In addition, request and acknowledge mechanism requires two messages to remove each redundant link. In the worst case where is a undirected complete graph (UCG), and , the maximum redundant communication links to be removed is , so the total messages to be sent is . In conclusion, DLRA has a total message complexity of .
Note that for large scale mobile networks with limited communication range, it is an unlikely case that the initial configuration is a UCG. Therefore, the message complexity can be reduced dramatically, which makes DLRA scalable to MASNs with a large number of mobile sensors.
4. Dispersion of Mobile Sensors
The invariance of network structure between any two cons-cutive switches in is prerequisite for the realization of connectivity preserving dispersion of mobile sensors. The aim of this section is to develop a distributed motion controller that regulates the dispersion of mobile sensors in continuous space. First, we utilize a combined potential function to ensure that all essential links are remained connected and interagent collisions are avoided all the time during the self-organized dispersion of mobile sensors between any two consecutive topology updates.
We first introduce a repulsive potential function to deal with the collision avoidance between sensor and all its physical neighbors , defined as , where . In particular, we have where , and in this paper, associated with in (2), it yields
It is straight forward that, whenever two mobile sensors approach to each other, the repulsive potential will continuously grow until , where the potential , so that intersensor collision is avoided. Similarly, to restrict all essential communication links within for all , we introduce an attractive potential function, denote as , where . Specifically, we have
It can be seen from (6) that whenever two mobile sensors with critical communication links move away from each other, the attractive potential will continuously grow until , where the potential , so that the intersensor connection is guaranteed.
The proposed potential functions entitle us to assign each node in the network a distributed control law, which is given as the combination of the negative gradients of the two potentials in the direction
It is easy to observed from (7) that, the potential force can become infinite between pairs of sensors whenever or . In practice, such unbounded actuation is unrealistic for most mobile sensor systems. In this paper, a piecewise-continuous function method is proposed with respect to sensors' actuation to approach the objective of bounded input.
Denote as the upper bound of velocity for node , in particular, for homogeneous systems, we have , where .
Definition 10. Given a mobile sensor networks with fixed underlying network structure , a distributed piecewise-continuous control law is assigned to each mobile sensor as follows:
where represents the unit vector of .
The definition of piecewise-continuous control law gives rise to the development of hybrid connectivity control system , as is described in Figure 4. In the connectivity control system, the proposed DLRA algorithm will first take every updated location of the mobile sensors as its input matrix to calculate the topology of the network. Therefore, after every interaction process, the redundant communication links will be determined and updated. Meanwhile, the output value of network topology from DLRA will in turn be utilized by the motion controller in every mobile sensor to assign different control functions to every neighboring sensor according to their neighboring types, that is, physical or logical neighbor. And the final output of the system is sensors' velocity and moving direction in the next step. The bounded velocity is implemented by comparing the output velocity from the controller with the designated maximum speed in the mobile sensor systems.
Now we can conclude the main result of this paper.
Theorem 11. Given a MASNs with initially connected underlying network , the distributed connectivity control system guarantees that the connectivity of is maintained, interagent collisions are avoided and sensors' velocities are bounded for all time .
Proof. See Appendix.
Furthermore, preserving connectivity without removing redundant communication links often results in a restricted network structure, as indicated in Figure 5(a). We argue that the restriction can be avoided by utilizing DLRA. In particular, from Corollary 7 we proved that the generated core structure (core structure is a subgraph of that contains only the logical neighbor links) of is a substructure of -Lattice [4, 26] (pentagon), and the absence of cycle shorter than 5 guarantees that no mutual influences exist between any distinctive links. Therefore, for any two logical neighbors and , we have deriving the equilibrium distance between and from the denotation that , we have Integrating (3) with the aforementioned equation and after some algebra manipulation, it yields where .
The aforementioned ratiocinations bring us the following result.
Corollary 12. Considering a MASNs with initially connected underlying network , where the position of vertices . The evolution of the system under the control system can reach a set of condition within finite time .
5. Simulations
To evaluate the performance of the proposed control system for the self-organized dispersion of mobile sensor networks, a variety of simulations have been conducted, and the results are presented in this section. The simulations are focused on the connectivity control and dispersion of mobile sensor networks in and spaces. General parameters are set as in Table 1.
First, to evaluate the correctness and efficiency of the proposed DLRA, a static simulation is conducted. In the first scenario, 15 static sensors are initially deployed within an area of 20 m × 20 m, as can be seen from Figure 6(a), where dense communication links are observed, after the execution of DLRA, the topology of the wireless sensor network is finally simplified with only 15 communication links (cf. Figure 6(b)). In case of large sensor networks, a 100 sensors scenario is then performed, the initial configuration of the network topology can be found in Figure 6(c). The final results from DLRA is shown in Figure 6(d), where the sensor network becomes extremely sparse with only a few redundancy.
To evaluate the proposed connectivity control system . We first simulate the dispersion of 10 sensors initially located within 20 m × 20 m space. The evaluation of mobile sensor network is shown as in Figures 7(a)–7(d). For the purpose of illustration, the diamonds represent mobile sensors, and the circles represent the semidistance (semidistance represents a value that is 5% shorter than half of the communication range. The use of it here is for the sake of facilitating the observation) of communication range. Sensors are under the communication range of each other if and only if the two corresponding circles overlap. The total trajectories of mobile sensors are shown in Figure 7(e), where the solid diamonds denote the initial position of the sensors, final position is represented as hollow ones, and the trajectory is shown as the dotted lines. Furthermore, upon removal of redundant communication links, sensors are dispersed into space, and the network reaches its final configuration within 30 seconds (see Figure 8(a)). Moreover, the average velocity of the sensors is decreased from the peak that is 5 m s−1 (see Figure 8(c)), the bounded velocity is guaranteed.
We further conduct a simulation for 100 sensors to verify the scalability of the proposed approach. Similarly to the case of 10 sensors, sensors are initially location in a space, the trajectories of networked sensors evolve as in Figures 6(f)–6(i). It is noticeable that the average degree of node in both simulations are between 2 and 3, this phenomenon indicates that an asymptotically 1-connectivity (graph is 1-connected if it contains only one path between any pair of distinct vertices) graph structure is generated during the evolution of the network, such that the final configurations are sparse with only trivial signal conflictions.
The self-organized dispersion of MASNs in space is also evaluated with similar simulation methodology. Sensors locate within 95% communication range of each other is connected by a blue line (see Figure 9), networks with 10 and 100 sensors are all investigated, and in both case, the initial locations are within 20 m × 20 m × 20 m space. Note that Corollary 12 may not hold in the case of 3-dimensional space coverage optimization, this is due to fact that the lower bound of the node degree cannot be obtained and a certain freedom of mobile sensors may not exist with respect to the uncertain structure of the networks. Therefore, we then conducted a simulation to study the coverage efficiency of proposed system with respect to different number of sensors. As it can be seen from Figure 10(c), with the aid of the proposed coverage enhancement system, 7 mobile sensors can cover an area up to 25000 m2 in size (nearly the size of total 4 standard football fields), under the constrain of limited communication range ( m). The interagent distances between logical neighbors are converged into a constant value, which is above the minimum distance derived from Corollary 12, and the distances between nonlogical neighboring sensors are strictly above the communication range (see either Figures 10(a) or 10(b)). The results verified the proposed control system in its capability of coverage enhancement. Moreover, as it can be seen from Figures 10(a) and 10(b), no interagent distance whatsoever can reach zero, which indicates that the proposed method can also effectively handle the issue of collision avoidance. Moreover, the simulation results unfolded in Figure 10 suggest that the lower bound of the neighbors' distance can also be guaranteed in a network of 10 mobile sensors. The question of whether this is a common case in 3-dimensional space coverage enhancement will be investigated in our future research. Nonetheless, the capability of the coverage enhancement system in 3-dimensional space, for example, can cover up to 1.4 × 106 m3 with 7 mobile sensors, is still fairly convincing.
It is worthwhile to notice that simulation results in space are analogous to that in the case of (see Figure 7), which entitles us to obtain the following conclusions.
A variety of simulations in and spaces verified the correctness of the distributed control system for self-organized sensor dispersion, so that objectives can be achieved.
The required time for reaching the final configuration is distinctive in and spaces. The dimension-sensible property shows a better performance in spatial dispersion.
Despite of dimension and network capacity, the final configurations of the networks are always sparse with small node degrees.
6. Conclusions
Self-organized dispersion of mobile ad hoc sensor networks with guaranteed connectivity and collision avoidance is studied in this paper. A distributed self-organized control system combined with a local dynamic link removal algorithm, namely, DLRA, is proposed to reduce redundant communication links and regulate the dispersion of mobile sensors. The proposed control system can disperse a team of mobile sensors with guaranteed connectivity and collision avoidance, and the DLRA does not require access to the whole topology information, and thus, the proposed approach is scalable and will not invite excessive delays and communication overhead in large scale networks.
Several extensions to this presented work will be studied in future research: to apply the mobile sensor networks into indoor environment, we plan to study the dispersion of networked mobile sensors in nonconvex environments; the impact of wireless communication on the connectivity of multiagent system is another promising topic. The proposed approach can also be extended for dispersion in leader-follower system and potential applications in hazardous and battlefield environments.
Proof of Theorem 11
To facilitate the proof of Theorem 11, we first unfold the following lemmas.
Lemma A.1. For a mobile sensor network driven by the distributed control law defined by (2) and (8) with a set of initial condition , then is invariant for the trajectory of the closed-loop system.
Proof. Suppose that varied at time , further-more, assume the variant was irritated by , thus there exist a small positive constant , that in every . Whereas, from the definition of (7), we know that , thus there exist a small positive constant , that in every , contradiction is reached, this completes the proof.
Lemma A.1 established collision avoidance between any pairs of sensors within each other's physical neighbor set. Now we investigate the connectivity preservation capability of the motion controller in .
Lemma A.2. For a MASNs driven by the distributed control law defined by (2) and (8) with a set of initial condition , then is invariant for the trajectory of the closed-loop system.
Proof. Following the same methodology in the proof of Lemma A.1, we assume a variant of was irritated by , thus there exist a small positive constant , that in every . Whereas, from the definition of (8), we know that and , thus there exist a small positive constant , that in every . We choose , contradiction is reached, which completes the proof.
Lemmas A.1 and A.2 guaranteed that link connections are all preserved and interagent collisions are avoided during the dispersion between any two consecutive topology updates. On the other hand, the synchronization mechanism in DLRA causes delays in both link addition and link removal procedures in . We now show that the ineluctable delays cannot jeopardize network connectivity. Assume the interval time between two consecutive switches is , where , , we have the following cases.
Case 1. at time , considering a small positive time-interval , assume , thus is invariant for , where the communication links are rather unnecessarily maintained than disconnected.
Case 2. and at time , assume that and , thus . Since candidate link for link addition is redundant, connectivity is not violated. This result also hold for the case that and , while hypostatically we assuming that and .
Derived directly from the aforementioned analysis and Theorem 6, we conclude the proof of Theorem 11.
The work is cosponsored by Nature Science Foundation of China (Grant nos. 61272432, 61202508), and China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (Grant no. 2011M500243). The authors would like to gratefully acknowledge the constructive and thorough comments of the reviewers, which is very helpful for improving the quality of the paper. The authors appreciate the constructive suggestions in the simulation methodology from Professor Michael M. Zavlanos. They also thank Dr. Yan C. Wang for the enlightening discussions in topology control algorithms.
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Danny Sullivan wondered aloud as to why Google spent big money on a Superbowl ad. The latest numbers from comScore and RKG might answer that question.
According to one industry observer, comScore is about to release numbers indicating Bing's share has jumped 0.6% in the last month and a half, while Google and Yahoo each lost 0.3%. Now share of search volume and share of advertising revenue (factoring in syndication partners) are different animals, but from our data, comScore may be under-reporting the shift.
These data are aggregated so our higher spend clients dominate the results. We'll take this apart to study medians later.
MSN/Bing's growth from 5.3% in February of 2009, to 9.0% in February to date is highly impressive. Where much of that growth seemed to come at the expense of Yahoo early on after Bing's launch, January and February show Google starting to feel the heat. Google's share of paid search advertising dollars dropped from almost 81% in December to under 78% in the first week + of February.
Questions abound:
- Did Google buy a Superbowl ad because they're seeing erosion of paid search share?
- Is Bing's growth solely a function of Cashback, and is Cashback financially sustainable for them?
- While we and others have criticized Bing's commercials, are they starting to have an impact?
- Has Google been distracted by all its other endeavors and taken its eye off its core product?
- Is there something screwy in our data that we haven't accounted for?
Given that I pulled the data myself the odds of the last question being salient aren't bad. One of our far more careful, thoughtful, judicious analysts will probably "tut, tut" me later.
Folks who budget search, and go so far as to budget by engine, might cause a shift in share simply by executive decision. But that's not what we see in our data. Our clients don't budget for the most part and don't budget by engine at all. We're spending more on Bing because the quantity and value of the traffic dictates spending more.
Paid search is only one piece of the advertising mix for Google, but it is a big piece. If this trend continues expect to see some refocusing from Google.
Love to hear if others are seeing similar trends!


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Faculty Advisors
Our Public Interest Scholars work closely with faculty and staff at Penn Law to bring the theory and practice of public interest law together. Our faculty advisors have a depth and breadth of experience and expertise that enables them to mentor and support our scholars. Scholars engage with our faculty advisors, both formally and informally, throughout their time at Penn Law.
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Senior Fellow
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Practice Professor of Law and Clinical Director


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Montgomery County police are investigating the murder of two men in two separate incidents during the past two days.
The most recent killing was reported around 10 p.m. Tuesday on North Frederick Road at Oxbridge Drive near the Montgomery College Germantown campus. That is where police found a man who had been shot through his chest. He was taken to Suburban Hospital where he was pronounced dead.
About 24 hours earlier, police responded to the 15800 block of Laughlin Lane off Norbeck Road for another shooting. That is where police discovered a man slumped over the steering wheel of a car. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
In addition to the dead man, police say officers were notified of an adult male who was taken to a Montgomery County hospital by a citizen. This victim, police say, was also suffering from gunshot wounds and was last reported in critical condition.
Police say detectives believe his injuries are a result of the incident at Laughlin Lane and investigators are waiting to speak with him.
Detectives are interviewing subjects who were in the house at the time of the crime to determine the circumstances surrounding this event. No names or motives have been released.
Police have not said if there is any connection between the two homicides.
Detectives are asking anyone who has information about these crimes to call Crime Solvers of Montgomery County toll-free at 1-866-411-TIPS (8477) or leave a Crime Solvers tip here. Crime Solvers will pay a cash reward of up to $10,000 for information provided to Crime Solvers that leads to an arrest and/or indictment for this felony crime. Tipsters will remain anonymous.


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Virginia Birding and Wildlife Trail
Site Information
- Site Contact: (828) 298-0398
- Site Access: Free, Daily
- Visit Website
Report Bird Observations [New]
Site MSL08: Saddle Overlook, Blue Ridge Parkway
Elevation: 3388 ft. This overlook offers a short trail to an open field from which hawk watchers enjoy the migration of raptors in the fall. While broad-winged hawks comprise the majority of raptors migrating southward, one could also spy osprey, bald eagle, Cooper's, sharp-shinned, and red-tailed hawks, and American kestrel. During the spring and summer, this area is alive with other avian activity. Look for indigo bunting, American goldfinch, chipping sparrow, eastern towhee, and gray catbird. Blooming milkweeds and asters attract eastern tiger swallowtail and other vibrant butterflies. Most services listed for this site are available at M.P. 169.
From Rocky Knob/Rock Castle Gorge Trails, continue northeast along the Blue Ridge Parkway 1.0 mile to the parking lot for the trailhead on the right.


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Racquel Ricci and her husband, Raemon Gurule, began a home health care provider service in Albuquerque, New Mexico in 2011 as they saw the need for credited and responsible home health care was in demand. We decided to speak on Wednesday due to statements issued by the Bank of Mexico on Wednesday and reported to CoinDesk.
Racquel, who is a Psychology major from the University of New Mexico at Albuquerque, came in contact with services that provided referrals to home health care givers. She runs the family owned business from an office in Albuquerque which now has nine locations of service in New Mexico and a second office in Santé Fe. They will be opening an office in Phoenix, Arizona this month and already provide service in Flagstaff, Ariz.
Raemon, a math major, from the UNM is the CFO of the company and became aware of Bitcoin as a source of payment at a very reasonable low fee. Racquel was able to spend some time with me on the phone to provide an interview on how this home health care service is rapidly growing and the role Bitcoin plays in the ease of payment for their clients while making running the business cost efficient.
When Racquel spoke with me on Wednesday she noticed that a judge in Chicago had frozen the US-based assets of Mark Karpeles, the CEO of the now bankrupt Mt.Gox exchange in Tokyo. She was up on the latest information pieces and Bitcoin pricing from CoinDesk.
The Bank of Mexico on Wednesday issued a statement of warning regarding caution in use of Bitcoin, reported also on CoinDesk and we discussed the need for attention to the exchange that a business owner uses.
Q: Let's start with your business services and client base so our readers can understand the range of services provided and how your website provides information that includes how to pay in Bitcoin.
Racquel: We provide in home health care at client's homes. Out staff ranges from home health aides trained for basic assistance to skilled staff such as registered nurses, occupational, physical and speech therapist. Many of our clients are private pay and often times their family assist them with funding. Most often the families of our clients live out of state or sometimes out of the country. Bitcoin allows them to pay bills quickly and if they are out of the country there are no exchange rates or other fees to deal with in the process.
We have on our website, www.micasahomehealth.com , an icon that states: Pay with Bitcoin.
Currently, we have 70 staff members assisting 40 clients this month. Some are ongoing and some require home care due to recuperating from surgery on a limited time arrangement.
New clients find us mostly through word of mouth which is great to have good references. We feel that we can provide a service in a growing industry that needs home health care and we feel good about doing it. It was a little scary at first to begin the business but it is very exciting.
Q: Let's talk about your introduction to Bitcoin and how the process helps your growing business.
Racquel: My husband, the math major, is very good at financial details. He began to review our cost of fees in providing credit card processing. Various insurances provide for about half of our clients. The other half need to pay from their own resources and this is when family becomes important.
First, when we use credit cards for that transaction, it can be entered on our website from the payer of an invoice. It is costly at about 3-4% of the transaction amount. My husband began to research payment options. Now, when a payer of an invoice wants to remit a payment they can go to our website, enter their email address and dollar amount of payment and click submit. After that they go to a screen that has a payment address that they can copy and paste into their wallets to send the funds. Alternatively a QR code is given for the people that have a wallet connected to a QR scanner. Most smartphones have that ability now.
Mi Casa Home Health Care uses Coinbase. When a payment processes Coinbase, initiates a deposit into your banking account. We only have one administration office based here in Albuquerque that handles all billing and payments.
Q: How has the recording and payment to accounting records been to facilitate ease of use?
Racquel: Recording of payments is very simple; our accounting system has payer's email addresses and invoices. Payments go to the oldest open invoice unless otherwise specified. It is very similar to receiving a wire to pay for service. But the client or family members making the payment, especially out of state or country have little expense compared to a wire fee.
Tomorrow we will have Part two of the interview with Raquel Ricci of Mi Casa Home Health Care and find out more about the advantages of Bitcoin for the small to medium size business owner.
To find out about Bitcoin advantages see the video atop this article from WSJ, Simon Constable, and his interview with international crypto-currency expert, David Birch on why Bitcoin is becoming so popular for business owners around the world.
Twitter: Victoria Wagner@victoriaross888