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This article is an open-access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/).
Attenuation of radar signals by vegetation can be a problem for target detection and GPS reception, and is an important parameter in models describing vegetation backscatter. Here we first present a model describing the 3D distribution of stem and foliage structure based on small footprint scanning LIDAR data. Secondly we present a model that uses ray-tracing methodology to record detailed interactions between simulated radar beams and vegetation components. These interactions are combined over the SAR aperture and used to predict two-way attenuation of the SAR signal. Accuracy of the model is demonstrated using UHF SAR observations of large trihedral corner reflectors in coniferous forest stands. Our study showed that the model explains between 66% and 81% of the variability in observed attenuation.
Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) signals interact with objects on the scale of their wavelength. In a forested setting, Ultra High Frequency (UHF) SAR signals from the FOliage PENetration (FOPEN) sensor (λ = 88cm) interact primarily with tree trunks, the ground and larger branches. As the signal passes through the vegetation, these interactions attenuate the signal, so that the return from objects within the canopy is diminished. Predicting this attenuation is of interest to those who wish to relate backscatter to forest parameters, users of global positioning system (GPS) equipment, and to those whose goal is the detection of targets concealed by forest.
As numerous authors have noted, UHF sensors respond strongly to forest structure [
Numerous researchers have characterized vegetation attenuation at UHF frequencies [
Attenuation is a critical issue for GPS systems operating on L-band (λ = 23 cm) signals from satellites, causing poor reception in forested areas. The model we present is capable of predicting GPS signal attenuation.
For detection of objects within the forest canopy, vegetation interactions clutter the SAR image and attenuate returns from the object in question, making detection difficult. This makes prediction of target attenuation a concern of those developing and evaluating target detection algorithms.
In this paper we present a method for accurately predicting FOPEN UHF attenuation by coniferous forest canopy using a small-footprint scanning Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) imagery. Since the different components of vegetation attenuate UHF SAR at different rates, our method includes a forest vegetation model with two distinct components: stem and foliage. A ray tracing algorithm is used to track the path of SAR beams as they pass through the vegetation model, bounce through a corner reflector, and return to the sensor. Vegetation interactions are recorded and used to predict attenuation.
The FOPEN sensor is a low frequency SAR sensor operating at Ultra High Frequency (UHF) (∼340 MHz) and Very High Frequency (VHF) (∼39 MHz) bands. We have focused our attenuation modeling efforts on the UHF band. The sensor is mounted on an Army RC-12 twin-engine aircraft. It is fully polarimetric at UHF frequencies. High bandwidth (∼210 MHz) and wide synthetic aperture (∼39 degrees) allow a resolution of ∼0.5 m. The wide aperture means that a given point on the ground is imaged repeatedly along the flight path of the sensor, and these lower-resolution images are combined to synthesize the final, higher resolution image.
In the summer of 2003 the FOPEN sensor was flown for 36 passes over our study area, near the northeast corner of Yellowstone National Park (YNP). The look direction of passes varied by day. One image was very blurry and was excluded from this analysis. Depression angle (angle below the horizontal) at image center ranged from 15.0 to 27.1 degrees.
Twelve large trihedral radar reflectors were placed in varying degrees of vegetation obscurity during these flights. The reflectors were constructed out of aluminum mesh panels supported by a frame of tubular aluminum, and had a dimension of 5 meters. Each reflector was oriented so that its bottom plate was level and its front edge was parallel to the flight path of the sensor on that particular day.
At six of the reflector sites and five other sites, extensive vegetation measurements were made. At the six reflector sites a 50 m × 50 m grid was established and divided into 25 10 m × 10 m subplots. At the five other sites, a 30 m × 30 m grid was established and divided into nine 10 m × 10 m subplots. This resulted in 138 subplots containing large trees. The dominant tree species found throughout the study plots was subalpine fir (
LIDAR data were collected over the study site with an Optech Airborne Laser Topographic Mapping (ALTM) 1233 sensor on August 1, 2003. The ALTM 1233 sensor is a small-footprint scanning LIDAR that utilizes a 1,064 nm wavelength yttrium aluminum garnet (YAG) laser pulsed at a repetition rate of 33 KHz. The scan angle was +/− 8 degrees and the scan frequency was 39 Hz, creating an average swath width of 422 meters. Average hit density was 0.88 hits per square meter. These data were supplied as a 32-bit floating point first return Digital Surface Model (DSM) raster at a spatial resolution of 1m. A local minima routine [
Our method consists of the following steps:
Attenuation is estimated for each obscured reflector (3.1). A 3D representation of foliage and stem volume is created from a small-footprint scanning LIDAR image (3.2). A 3D model of a 5 m trihedral corner reflector is generated and placed within the vegetation model (3.3). Numerous (n=1024) simulated SAR beams, evenly distributed over the opening of the reflector, are tracked as they pass through the vegetation model, interact with the corner reflector, and return through the vegetation. All vegetation interactions are recorded. This step is repeated for numerous positions along the flight path of the sensor, giving full representation to the FOPEN aperture. These values are averaged across the reflector surface and the FOPEN aperture to give mean foliage and stem obstruction for each attenuation observation (3.4). Mean foliage and stem obstruction are used in a linear model to predict attenuation (3.5).
Attenuation is estimated for each obscured reflector (3.1).
A 3D representation of foliage and stem volume is created from a small-footprint scanning LIDAR image (3.2).
A 3D model of a 5 m trihedral corner reflector is generated and placed within the vegetation model (3.3).
Numerous (n=1024) simulated SAR beams, evenly distributed over the opening of the reflector, are tracked as they pass through the vegetation model, interact with the corner reflector, and return through the vegetation. All vegetation interactions are recorded. This step is repeated for numerous positions along the flight path of the sensor, giving full representation to the FOPEN aperture. These values are averaged across the reflector surface and the FOPEN aperture to give mean foliage and stem obstruction for each attenuation observation (3.4).
Mean foliage and stem obstruction are used in a linear model to predict attenuation (3.5).
Attenuation of obscured reflectors was estimated by comparing their expected brightness (in the absence of vegetation) to their observed brightness. The expected brightness was derived by modeling the observed brightness of control reflectors as a function of depression angle.
All reflectors' locations were visually identified in slant range single look complex (SLC) images. This is reliable because in all cases the reflectors were slightly brighter than the surrounding vegetation. Small image chips (150 by 150 pixels) centered on each reflector were extracted and upsampled 3X before measuring the peak brightness. Upsampling was accomplished by converting the image chips to frequency space using a fast Fourier transform, padding with zeroes to create a chip with a dimension of 450 by 450 pixels, then back-transforming into Euclidian geometry using an inverse fast Fourier transform. The upsampled chips were then converted to decibels, and peak brightness from a small region surrounding the reflector location was recorded.
Attenuation of obscured reflectors was estimated as the difference between expected (in the absence of vegetation) and observed brightness. Expected brightness was determined by modeling the brightness of control reflectors as a function of local depression angle, which varied between images and between reflectors within images. Since the reflectors were always oriented with their bottom plate level, changes in local depression angle affected their effective radar cross section (RCS). This effect was modeled as a linear function of
Tree trunks, or stems, attenuate long wavelength SAR far more strongly than other components of vegetation [
These models were created from the 2D LIDAR using the following scheme:
A 3D byte array for the area surrounding a reflector is generated to hold the vegetation model. Each column of the 3D array is populated based on the corresponding height value of the 2D DSM and DEM images. Voxels (volume pixels) below the DEM are encoded as ground. Voxels between the DEM and the DSM are encoded as vegetation using an encoding scheme that identifies each voxel's vertical position within its vegetation column. Voxels above the DSM are encoded as air.
A 3D byte array for the area surrounding a reflector is generated to hold the vegetation model.
Each column of the 3D array is populated based on the corresponding height value of the 2D DSM and DEM images. Voxels (volume pixels) below the DEM are encoded as ground. Voxels between the DEM and the DSM are encoded as vegetation using an encoding scheme that identifies each voxel's vertical position within its vegetation column. Voxels above the DSM are encoded as air.
We used two methods to model the distribution of stems within the volume of vegetation. The discrete stem model places stems discretely within the vegetation layer while the probabilistic stem model distributes stems throughout the vegetation layer. Both models will serve as input to the attenuation model we present later. Their ability to explain attenuation will provide an objective means of comparison.
In high resolution scanning LIDAR imagery, individual trees are often clearly visible, especially when they stand apart from adjacent trees. The discrete stem model uses a local maxima filter to identify pixels of the CHM which are higher than all of their immediate neighbors. The vegetation columns below these local maxima are then encoded as stem.
The local maxima filter can identify the location and height of stems, but tells us nothing about their shape. The stem of a tree is widest at the bottom and tapers to a point at the top. The shape of this taper has been estimated for the tree species (as a function of DBH and height) in our study area by Flewelling and Raynes [
The Flewelling profile models are region- and species-specific, and require height and DBH to produce an estimated stem profile. Since height and DBH are highly correlated, we used a regression analysis of field-measured trees to model DBH as a function of height. Flewelling stem profiles for a series of stems with DBH predicted from height were created for Subalpine Fir, the most common species in our study area.
Examination of these profiles, shown in
Comparison to field data revealed that the local maxima filter was missing a large number of trees. Individual trees distinct from their neighbors are easily identified, but trees very close to a taller neighbor were not reliably separated. To overcome this difficulty we developed a 'probabilistic' stem model that distributes stem biomass throughout the vegetation volume.
This model is similar to the discrete stem model, except that instead of discretely placing stems under local maxima, every column of vegetation is modeled as containing a stem. As with the discrete stem model, a parabolic model is used to describe stem diameter, but with coefficients that were derived from field data using a two step procedure as follows.
For each of our 138 10 m × 10 m forest plots, Flewelling stem profile models [
To simulate the shape and reflective properties of the trihedral reflectors, we developed a 3D model. This model specifies the three active planes of the reflector and distributes 1,024 nodes over the opening plane using a recursive splitting algorithm. A ray tracing algorithm was developed to track the reflection of simulated SAR beams off the active planes.
To model attenuation of the SAR signal, we simulate the passage of SAR beams though the LIDAR vegetation models to estimate a series of stem and foliage path length over the SAR aperture. This can be interpreted as the average (averaged over the reflector opening) distance of stem and foliage that a beam must pass through on its way to and from the reflector. Since available power varies throughout the aperture, set weights, which mimic the pattern of variations in power, were derived. Weighted mean stem and foliage path lengths are then used a linear model to predict attenuation.
Synthetic aperture radar integrates information from a series of points along a flight path to form an image. With the FOPEN sensor, the integration angle is approximately 39 degrees, so vegetation in a wedge-shaped area in front of the reflector can potentially contribute to attenuation. To simulate the motion of the sensor, we made vegetation measurements for 80 points along the aircraft flight line, representing the full aperture. At each point along the flight line we tracked 1,024 simulated SAR beams distributed over the opening plane of the 3D reflector model. For each beam that successfully passed through the reflector model, all vegetation interactions were recorded along its path to the reflector and its return to the sensor. To perform this calculation, each foliage voxel that a beam passed through was examined, and the exact distance of both foliage and bole were calculated based on the bole diameter in that voxel (assumed to be in located the center of the voxel) and the trajectory of the beam. Meters of foliage and meters of stem were estimated for each valid beam, and these values were averaged over all valid beams at each azimuth increment. This resulted in a matrix containing 80 measurements of stem and 80 measurements of foliage obstruction for each reflector observation.
Available power of a SAR sensor varies throughout the aperture, with the most power available in the center. This variation in power is due to a number of factors:
The antenna puts out greater power mid-aperture than at the edges. A target is further from the sensor at the edges of aperture and thus receives less energy. Taylor weighting, applied during image formation, down-weights the edges of aperture. The RCS of a trihedral reflector is largest mid-aperture, tapering near the edges.
The antenna puts out greater power mid-aperture than at the edges.
A target is further from the sensor at the edges of aperture and thus receives less energy.
Taylor weighting, applied during image formation, down-weights the edges of aperture.
The RCS of a trihedral reflector is largest mid-aperture, tapering near the edges.
Since more power is available near the center of the aperture, vegetation in that region has a stronger effect on attenuation. To account for this, our model weights vegetation interactions based on their position in the aperture. We have taken an empirical approach to derive weights based on available power, using a series of directional filters to estimate subaperture response of control reflectors as a function of azimuth.
Our method of estimating subaperture response is similar to that used by Runkel
Mean foliage and stem were used in a linear model to predict attenuation. Errors for repeated observations of the same reflector (from a given look direction), although varying in depression angle, can be assumed to lack independence, since geolocational errors and errors in the LIDAR vegetation models will affect individual repeated observations similarly. This lack of independence violates the assumptions of simple linear regression, but can be modeled efficiently by including a random effect for each reflector/look direction combination. This model is specified as:
This mixed linear model was fit with the R language for statistical computing [
Vegetation attenuation coefficients were estimated for the HH polarization, the VV polarization, and for total power (
In this paper we present a model that, given a 3D canopy height model, can be used to predict the attenuation of a SAR signal as it passes through a forest canopy. Our attenuation coefficient estimates are roughly similar to those reported by Cadvar [
Our results show greater attenuation in vertical polarization than for horizontal. This is in agreement with the literature, where it has been attributed to the greater cross-sectional area of tree-trunks in the vertical plane [
For comparison of stem models we focus on the VV polarization since stem is not statistically significant in the HH models. The AIC values in Table 2 indicate that the probabilistic stem model better fits the data than the discrete stem model for the VV polarization. The stem attenuation coefficients for the probabilistic stem model are much more realistic since we know that the discrete model significantly underestimates forest stem volume. Interestingly, the discrete stem model result in better R-squared values despite inferior AIC values. This is because the likelihood function (on which the AIC score is based) for mixed effects models places a greater penalty on residual standard error (RSE) than on the standard error of the random effect. The discrete model has a lower SE for the random effect but a higher RSE, so it produces better population-level predictions (which do not include random effects for individual reflector/look combinations), but has a higher (worse) AIC score.
Our coefficient estimates suffer somewhat from multicollinearity between the stem and foliage path-length estimates. The correlation coefficients for these two metrics are 0.92 for the probabilistic stem model and 0.81 for the discrete stem model. This results in instability of our coefficient estimates, but cannot be avoided given the design of our study.
In conclusion, our model does a very good job of predicting UHF attenuation. We prefer the discrete stem model for making attenuation predictions with our LIDAR data, but place more trust in the stem attenuation coefficient estimates from the probabilistic model. For making predictions with LIDAR data of differing resolution, we would prefer the probabilistic model for prediction since the discrete stem model would place a greater or lesser number of stems.
This work was done under the financial support from Air Force Research Lab (No F33615-03-C-1432). We would like to thank Mike Bakich and Jim Leonard for their support with the reflector model.
Large trihedral corner reflector. These reflectors are 5 m tall.
Control reflector brightness as a function of local depression angle. The x-axis is cosine of local depression angle minus 35.26 degrees, which is the fractional change in the size of the reflector opening relative to its maximum at a local depression angle of 35.26 degrees. The orange lines represent linear fits. These models, respectively, explained 31, 50 and 67 percent of the variability in control reflector brightness. Residual standard error was 2.79, 1.45, and 1.12 dB respectively.
Voxel representation a forest scene with treetops identified using the local maxima filter colored red.
Estimated stem profiles for Subalpine firs of five different heights. These were generated using Flewelling profile models for trees with DBH proportional to height.
3D diagram showing the path of a simulated sar beam as it passes through a modeled trihedral reflector.
Frequency space image of an unobscured trihedral reflector. The frequency extends from 235–445 Mhz and aperture extends from −19.75 to +19.75 degrees. The black region is 1-degree slice centered on 10.25 degrees.
Subaperture weights. The points are the empirical average of subaperture observations on eighteen control reflectors. The line represents a 6th degree polynomial fit of the points.
Attenuation model predictions using the discrete stem model.
Attenuation model predictions using the probabilistic stem model.
This table gives coefficient estimates for a series of linear mixed-effects model that were used to predict attenuation as a function of foliage and stem obscuration. For each polarization and total power, three stem models were compared. R-squared is given for predictions which do not include random effects.
|no stem
|no stem
|no stem


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Willie Nelson And His Daughter Paula Sing 'Have You Ever Seen The Rain' [VIDEO]
Willie Nelson is one of the most legendary artists in country music. There is no doubt he's one talented guy. It's no surprise that his daughter has some pipes as well. They got together for a little daddy and daughter duet!
Here's Willie and Paula Singing "Have You Ever Seen The Rain?"
Subscribe to Big Frog 104 on
Love that song, love Willie, and now I love his daughter Paula! They sing this song together on Willie's new album "To All The Girls."


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American pianist Keith Jarrett, considered by many to be a genius, is among the most creative musicians working in contemporary jazz. He burst onto the scene in the early 1960s, first with Charles Lloyd and then with Miles Davis. Continue reading
Tag Archives: Piano
35 Years of Legends: Dave Brubeck
This American pianist and composer established his reputation in the mid-1950s. His music had an original quality, informed by classical music influences. In his landmark compositions, he imposes his complex ideas and atypical rhythms on the music. The CD Time Out, featuring the classics Take Five and Blue Rondo à la Turk, confirmed once and for all his quartet's place in jazz history. Continue reading
35 Years of Legends: Oliver Jones
Remember the year: 1981. The 2nd edition of the Festival marks Oliver Jones' first appearance at the Festival International de Jazz de Montréal. He would return almost every year afterwards, taking part in opening and closing festivities on several occasions. Continue reading


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The king of Koen, a small region in Eastern Africa. Wears a magic hat and drinks the semen of virgins.
by Mod Hebeee July 14, 2010
The Urban Dictionary Mug
One side has the word, one side has the definition. Microwave and dishwasher safe. Lotsa space for your liquids.Buy the mug


text: п»ї Fashionable people, man and woman - Stock Photo » GFX.Alldaydesing.net - Download free design elements vector and stock images Processing, Please wait... GFX.Alldaydesing.net - Download free graphic arts and design elements Register Login Username: Password (Forgot?): Do not remember me Login Fashionable people, man and woman - Stock Photo Author: wertyozka on 26-05-2014, 22:36, Views: 291 Fashionable people, man and woman - Stock Photo 5 JPG | max 8000x8000 | 300 dpi | 72 Mb Beautiful little girl with long hair - Stock PhotoGirl, beautiful woman - Stock PhotoGirl in black dress, red roses - Stock PhotoHappy family, outdoor recreation - Stock photoPeople and sports, men and women - Stock Photo If you liked the news and useful material, please rate it: an asterisk or write a comment. If the news links do not work, be sure to write about it in the comments and, preferably, in a personal message to the author. Whenever possible, we will try to update the links. Tags: fashionable people, man, woman 0 1 2 3 4 5 Category:Stock Images Related Posts: Fashionable girls, girls in lingerie - Stock PhotoBeautiful and fashionable woman with long hair - Stock PhotoFashionable and glamorous young woman - Stock PhotoBeautiful and fashionable girl - Stock Photo Dear visitor, you are browsing our website as Guest. We strongly recommend you to register and login to view hidden contents. Add comments Your Name:* E-Mail: Message: Security Code: * Submit Categories List Russian version Site: Stock Images Stock Vector Photoshop Web Templates Footages Top Rated Articles Raw italian pasta and ingredients composition on white ...Beautiful beach with starfish palm leaves rope and wood ...Signage Design: Billboard, Rollup BannerVapetla is modern script fontCorporate flyer #8Ingredients for a sandwich - hamburger burger with beef ...Food Menu #3Corporate flyer #7Grunge Sky Clouds BackgroundsWet Glass Photoshop ActionBeige Patterns CollectionHandyman Vector FlyerBusiness Vector Card #5Corporate flyer #2Corporate flyer #3Fitness postcardHotel Flyer #2CV Resume PortfolioInterior Design Brochure #2Corporate flyer #1Luxury Yoga FlyerThe Best Time To Travel Around The World50 Yoga Poses Flat Multicolor IconsClean Signage Solution PackWrench : Car Repair & Auto Repair Logo #2Businessman using computer laptop workspaceTraditional Japanese food sushi, rolls and sauce on a b ...Beautiful stock images with animals, elephants, lion, z ...Happy birthday vector greeting card, party colorful bal ...Gold logo business vector illustration # 22Comb Bound Book MockupsSquare Trifold BrochureSmash Destructive PatternsSet of Tropical PatternsCorporate Vector Flyer #6Corporate Vector Flyer #7Corporate flyer #4Corporate flyer #5Corporate flyer #6Creative summer flyer Search Engines Nigma: 10© DLE Solutions и спонсор Disclaimer Privacy Policy GFX.Alldaydesing.net Rules DMCA Policy background, backgrounds, beautiful, borders, business, charming, Christmas, decorations, design, elements, figure, floral patterns, flowers, frames, girl, hair, holiday, icon, infographic, Labels, logo, make-up, new year, ornaments, patterns, PSD, sea, snowflake, snowflakes, source, spring, Stickers, template, textures, tree, underwear, vector, vintage, winter, woman» Show all tags Download free graphic and design elements Copyright © 2013-2014 Download free graphic and design elements Free Stock Images GFX.Alldaydesing.net © 2014 Back to Top


text: To get from Modugno a Mascalucia by train you can catch one of the 6 trains that everyday travel between Modugno Citta and Salerno, the closest station to the city. The first train to Salerno leaves from Modugno Citta at 06:39 and the last train departs at 16:25. If you choose a local train the trip lasts on average 04:57 hours. On Wanderio you can compare all schedules, fares and railway companies to Salerno and book the best itinerary starting from Modugno Citta.


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SXSWi 2012: John Tolva: Social media should be a conversation
Kane Scarlett 270002Y2HJ Visits (3011)
CityForward, a free, web-based platform that enables users -- officials, researchers, academics, and interested citizens worldwide -- to view and interact with city data while engaging in an ongoing public dialogue. John discusses his transition from private to public sector, including mining a city service request (about a downed tree) from Tweets. Technology in Public Service session. From the IBM Future of Social Lounge. 12:19
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WARNING : 2016-2017 version of the course specifications
|Media education
Duration :
|15h Th
Number of credits :
Lecturer :
|Jérémy Hamers
Language(s) of instruction :
|French language
Organisation and examination :
|Teaching in the first semester, review in January
Units courses prerequisite and corequisite :
|Prerequisite or corequisite units are presented within each program
Learning unit contents :
|The course will address the following points: the distinction between media studies and education by the media; necessity, objectives and main methodologies of media studies; analysis of media-related messages (language used, presentation, typologies, technology, audiences, producers).
Learning outcomes of the learning unit :
|Because the media shapes public opinion, has an impact on our view of the world and has a role to play in the construction of identity, teachers have to contribute, regardless of the subject matter they are teaching, to creating responsible citizens, active spectators who are conscious of the process of how media-related messages are constructed; capable of distinguishing the mechanisms of representation and of defining the challenges they pose.
The course will not, however, present a series of "pedagogical recipes" applicable wholesale to higher secondary education. Rather, it will set out the possible paths which can stimulate a desire to learn about and with the media and how to teach them using a methodology constructed by teachers themselves and in line with their own objectives and interests.
Prerequisite knowledge and skills :
Planned learning activities and teaching methods :
Mode of delivery (face-to-face ; distance-learning) :
|The course will be divided into 5 sessions, each addressing a particular type of media. Most theoretical ideas will be developed from the analysis of media documents requiring students' active participation. Attendance in class is therefore highly recommended.
The class will take place on Wednesdays from 6pm to 8:30pm in the GOTHOT Room (Place du 20 Août, Building A1).
Recommended or required readings :
|- The ppt presentations will be available online (MyULg) after each session.
- The day after each session, a general plan of the session will be available online (MyULg).
Assessment methods and criteria :
|Students are assessed on their knowledge of the key notions and concepts presented in class, and their ability to use them in order to develop a critical analysis of a media document - i.e. on their ability to deconstruct the media document so as to understand its mechanisms (production, diffusion, reception).
The 2 hours written exam (MCQ) will take place in January 2017.
Work placement(s) :
Organizational remarks :
Contacts :
|Jeremy Hamers: firstname.lastname@example.com


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A c-Myc and N-Myc double knockout P6 cerebellum, stained in green for the tumor suppressor p27KIP1, exhibits dramatically elevated KIP1. This data from the Knoepfler Laboratory suggest that excess Myc may cause the pediatric brain tumor medulloblastoma in part through suppressing KIP1 leading to cancer stem cell formation.
The NIH funded T32 fellowship program in Oncogenic Signals and Chromosome Biology (OSCB) has developed from a general interest in cellular responses and signal pathways integrating both responses to the cellular environment mediated by cell surface receptors and to signals initiated inside of the cell nucleus such as damage to DNA. While diverse in nature, these signals are often inseparable and interconnected by kinases and cascades of phosphorylation. The majority of the research projects among Mentors in the OSCB Fellowship Program involve detailed mechanistic studies in vitro which complement in vivo studies using animal models. Mentors are drawn both from the UC Davis cancer research community and from scientists at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory; a formal collaborative agreement brings the two institutions together for cancer-related research.
Download fellowship brochure (pdf.)
At the UC Davis Postdoctoral Research Symposium of May 18, 2016, two T32 OSCB fellows were recognized for their achievements at the University of California, Davis. Firstly, Amy Rand was nominated for the Excellence in Postdoctoral Research award, a highly competitive internal award recognizing contributions of UC Davis postdocs to their fields of study. Secondly, Ashley Rowson-Hodel received an award for Best Speaker at the symposium. Congratulations to Amy and Ashley!


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did you write your xorg.conf on your own ? did you try to use the vesa conf ? please post your xorg.conf . As you mentionend your display is starting to get black when you "startx" so i think it maybe you installed new drivers and didn change em like the standart nvidia drivers are called "nv" in xorg and after installing the proper drivers i had to change to "nvidia".
I'm also having a problem with my screen(s) Using 2 displays The external samsung display is working fine but the display of my laptop is waaaay to dark i tried to light it up by changing the Gamma value in the xorg.conf - didn help much just a slight difference -
then i tried to use xgamma didn help much either if you know anything please let me help for info here my xorg.conf (which was configured by the nvidia setup )
i also found one thing surprising the 3.rd Section Device with the identifier "card0".
Code:# nvidia-settings: X configuration file generated by nvidia-settings # nvidia-settings: version 1.0 (buildmeister@builder3) Thu Feb 14 18:21:33 PST 2008 # nvidia-xconfig: X configuration file generated by nvidia-xconfig # nvidia-xconfig: version 1.0 (buildmeister@builder3) Thu Feb 14 18:20:37 PST 2008 Section "ServerLayout" Identifier "X.org Configured" Screen 0 "Screen0" 0 0 InputDevice "Mouse0" "CorePointer" InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard" EndSection Section "Files" RgbPath "/usr/share/X11/rgb" ModulePath "/usr/lib/xorg/modules" FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/TTF" FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/OTF" FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/Type1" FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/misc" FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/75dpi/:unscaled" EndSection Section "Module" Load "dbe" Load "extmod" Load "glx" Load "record" Load "xtrap" Load "freetype" Load "type1" EndSection Section "ServerFlags" Option "Xinerama" "0" EndSection Section "InputDevice" Identifier "Keyboard0" Driver "kbd" EndSection Section "InputDevice" Identifier "Mouse0" Driver "mouse" Option "Protocol" "auto" Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice" Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5 6 7" EndSection Section "Monitor" Identifier "Monitor0" VendorName "Unknown" ModelName "Samsung S/M 755DFT" HorizSync 30.0 - 85.0 VertRefresh 50.0 - 160.0 Option "DPMS" EndSection Section "Monitor" Identifier "Monitor1" VendorName "Unknown" ModelName "Samsung S/M 755DFT" HorizSync 30.0 - 85.0 VertRefresh 50.0 - 160.0 EndSection Section "Device" Identifier "Card0" Driver "nvidia" VendorName "nVidia Corporation" BoardName "NV34M [GeForce FX Go5200 32M/64M]" EndSection Section "Device" Identifier "Videocard0" Driver "nvidia" VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation" BoardName "GeForce FX Go5200 32M/64M" EndSection Section "Device" Identifier "Videocard1" Driver "nvidia" VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation" BoardName "GeForce FX Go5200 32M/64M" BusID "PCI:1:0:0" Screen 1 EndSection Section "Screen" # Removed Option "metamodes" "DFP: nvidia-auto-select +0+0" # Removed Option "TwinView" "0" # Removed Option "metamodes" "DFP: 1280x800 +0+0" # Removed Option "metamodes" "CRT: 1280x1024 +1280+0, DFP: 1280x800 +0+0" Identifier "Screen0" Device "Videocard0" Monitor "Monitor0" DefaultDepth 24 Option "TwinView" "1" Option "metamodes" "CRT: 1280x1024 +0+0, DFP: 1280x800 +1280+0" SubSection "Display" Depth 24 EndSubSection EndSection Section "Screen" # Removed Option "metamodes" "CRT: nvidia-auto-select +0+0" Identifier "Screen1" Device "Videocard1" Monitor "Monitor1" DefaultDepth 24 Option "TwinView" "0" Option "TwinViewXineramaInfoOrder" "CRT-0" Option "metamodes" "CRT: 1280x1024 +0+0" EndSection


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Video Game History Casebook
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Ultima, Wizardry, The Black Onyx and the origin of JRPGs
Update 1/28/2014: Concerning the release dates of Ultima and Wizardry, both articles on Wikipedia have been adjusted in the meantime to reflect the dates unearthed here. This article remains largely as is to document the process by which these were obtained.
While researching for an article about the Wizardry series of games, I've come across an annoying issue. The computer RPG market in the Western world was for the better part of the 1980s dominated by the rivalry of two great series, Richard Garriott's Ultima, and Wizardry by Robert Woodhead and Andrew Greenberg. When writing about the one, we therefore have to take into account and compare with the other, and of course it all starts with the first game in each series.
But which of the two came first? Wikipedia tells us that the game which became counted later as Ultima I "was first published in the United States by California Pacific Computer Company, September 2, 1980," while "In 1979, Robert Sirotek and Fred Norman created Sir-tech Software, Inc. to distribute the game, and it was released in 1981." The info box puts the release more precisely at December 31st, 1981, so more than a year later than its rival.
Let's take a look at the sources for both claims. The Wizardry article quotes Swords & Circuitry: a Designer's Guide to Computer Role Playing Games by one Jana Hallford. This was released in 2001, a mere twenty years after the fact. I can't argue much with the reliability of that book, as I don't have access to it and can't check its sources (which I personally doubt the Wikipedia author did, but let's give them the benefit of that doubt), but it should be noted that the quoted bit only includes the year 1981, with the December 31 date (which I intend "prove" wrong in just a few minutes) left unreferenced.
The Ultima entry is a bit more fishy: It quotes "'U.S. Copyright Office'. Reg. #PA-317-501. Retrieved 2007-08-08." The site linked apparently has been restructured since and that specific entry isn't searchable, anymore. Either way the quote could only ever have referenced a copyright registration, not a release date.
But this isn't another big rant about the workings and lack of reliability at Wikipedia. Searching the web and various print publications for more accounts, one gets a wild mixture of claims for either 1980 or 1981. Wikipedia already beats most of them by actually stating where their date is coming from. The best one only ever gets elsewhere is Garriott's word in interviews, which also favors 1980. Yet there doesn't seem to be any copies of the game with the floppy dated as such around. The Museum of Computer Adventure Game History sure doesn't have one, they're all labeled copyright 1981, or later in case of re-releases.
Then I stumbled upon this gem of an article: Forgotten ruins: The roots of computer role-playing games: Sir-tech. I loved this one, not necessarily for its text body (because it happens to obfuscate facts with fancy writing and gets others wrong by merely glossing over the matter), but for its list of sources at the end. Here I learned - not being an US citizen and never having encountered the magazine in its time - that Computer Gaming World would be an excellent source for early home computer game history, and, just as importantly, that it was probably available online somewhere, as the web journalists who have the means and would bother to do actual research on physical old stuff surely can be counted on one's fingers. Turns out it is, indeed (check the list of links on the first page), and it was quite helpful, even though it didn't start getting published before late in 1981.
Weeding through the early issues of one of the first magazines focused on this new form of electronic entertainment, I finally hit gold in issue 2.5 (Sep/Oct 1982), page 2: The mag's "List of Top Sellers (as of 30 June 1982)" contained two entries very interesting to my cause:
24,000 Wizardry (Sir-tech Software, Sept. 1981)
20,000 Ultima (California Pacific Computer Co., June 1981)
Not only do we learn that Wizardry outsold Ultima - at least in the beginning - their actual releases apparently were much closer together than many sources make it sound like. Why does it matter? Well, aside from historic accuracy, it means for one that Wizardry itself could hardly have been influenced by Ultima. Even moreso as the Sir-Tech game was available in some kind of public beta / preorder state earlier that year, as High score!: the illustrated history of electronic games by Rusel DeMaria and Johnny L. Wilson tells us (among others). It also means that whatever common traits Ultima and Wizardry had weren't necessarily "old news" to early players of the latter.
But wait, there's still Akalabeth, isn't it? The supposedly highly influental "Ultima 0," programmed by Garriott in 1979 and also published via California Pacific in 1980. According to 1Up, "Akalabeth sold tens of thousands of copies." To quote the aforementioned book High Score!, this figure stems from a statement made by Lord British himself: "They sold 30,000 units, and my royalty was $5 per unit. Something that had taken four to six weeks to create had earned me $150,000."
Now developer interviews are the most deer and valuable - and often the only - resource video game journalists/historians can work with. However, the human memory is a fuzzy thing, begging to at least raise the question how much trust we can put on new answers about 20-30 year old questions. Granted, the amount that would have had to show up in his bank account surely is nothing forgotten easily, but for all we know, he could have confused figures with Ultima, or something in that manner. After all, the same man has been cited in another book (Dungeons and Dreamers: the rise of computer game culture from geek to chic) with a very different statement regarding the development time: It says: "Akalabeth was two years' worth of programming, but he had never meant it to be a real product," although it conforms with High Score! according the sales figures.
But why even question that statement to begin with? Well, let's take a look at the complete list from CGW 2.5:
List of Top Sellers (as of 30 June 1982)
35,000 K-RAZY Shoot-Out (K-Byte, Jan. 1982)
32,000 Zork I (Infocom, Feb. 1981)
30,000 Temple of Apshai (Automated Simulations, Aug. 1979)
30,000 Flight Simulator (Sublogic Communications, Dec. 1979)
25,000 Raster Blaster (BudgeCo., April 1981)
25,000 Wizard & the Princess (Sierra On-Line, Aug. 1980)
25,000 Snack Attack (Datamost, Oct. 1981)
24,000 Wizardry (Sir-tech Software, Sept. 1981)
23,000 Ghost Hunter (Arcade Plus, Nov. 1981)
23,000 Gorgon (Sirius Software, June 1981)
20,000 Ultima (California Pacific Computer Co., June 1981)
20,000 Super Invader (Creative Computing Software, Nov. 1979)
20,000 Castle Wolfenstein (Muse, Sept. 1981)
15,000 Apple Panic (Broderbund Software, July 1981)
15,000 Scarfman (The Cornsoft Group, Aug. 1981)
15,000 Pool 1.5 (Innovative Design Software, April 1981)
10,000 Galactic Chase (Spectrum Computers, Sept. 1981)
9,000 Choplifter (Broderbund Software, May 1982)
8,300 Canyon Climber (Datasoft, June 1982)
8,000 The Warp Factor (Strategic Simulations, Feb. 1981)
6,000 Photar (Softape, Feb. 1982)
5,000 Pac Attack (Computerware, Sept. 1981)
5,000 Horizon V (Gebelli Software, Feb. 1982)
5,000 Dragonquest (The Programmer's Guild., Jan. 1981)
5,000 Asylum (Med Systems, Feb. 1981)
4,500 International Gran Prix (Riverbank Software, Aug. 1981)
3,600 Tax-Man (H.A.L. Labs, Oct. 1981)
3,500 Rocket Raiders (Artworx Software, Dec. 1981)
3,500 Apventure to Atlantis (Synergistic Software, March 1982)
3,400 Rear Guard (Adventure International, Dec. 1981)
3,000 Voyage of the Valkyrie (Advanced Operating Systems, Aug. 1981)
2,000 The Game Show (Computer-Advanced Ideas, Oct. 1981)
2,000 Stone's Reversal (Powersoft, Nov. 1981)
1,000 Swordthrust #1 (CE Software, May 1981)
1,000 Hi-Res Computer Golf (Avant-Garde Creations, Nov. 1981)
1,000 ZX81 Classics (Lamo-Lem Laboratories, Jan. 1982)
1,000 Super Stellar Trek (Rainbow Computing, Aug. 1981)
So the list goes as far back as August 1979 (for Temple of Apshai), definitely before the commercial release of Akalabeth (the alternative 1979 date for the game refers to the dozen-or-so homemade copies Garriott sold before getting a publishing deal). What also sticks out is the yawning absence of Akalabeth. Now this can mean two things: Either the game was omitted from the list for some reason or accident, or it didn't sell much more (maybe even less) than 1,000 copies, at least not until it was bundled with later Ultima games (which happened quite early). The legendary rarity of the original also seems rather suspicious. If anyone had ever bothered to ask for and print a copy of Garriott's royalties check with California Pacific, we had a case, but as it is there stand his words, formulated decades later, against contemporary statistics.
But not all is well with that statistic, either. It came together by CGW conducting "a survey of 150 computer software manufacturers to find out what their best selling titles are." So did every company tell the truth? Did California Pacific only submit the most successful game they had? After all, Infocom also only included Zork I, despite them having very provably more 1,000+ sellers by that time, while others like Broderbund appear several times. But when Ultima had outsold Akalabeth with 20,000 units and Garriot received royalties for 30,000 units of the latter, wouldn't he also have gotten payment for Ultima, something Lord British stated never happened due to the publisher going out of business?
Although there still is no undeniable proof for either possibility, at least we now know that we don't know, and that's good to know, isn't it? At least it reminds to be wary when taking personal statements at face value when it comes to determine hard facts like release dates and sales figures. I want to stress once again that the aim of this article is not to question anyone's integrity, but to encourage the search for more solid evidence than word of mouth.
Of course, the question remains as to what degree video games journalists are, should and can be video game historians. If you're writing a 4-page restrospective on the Ultima series in a magazine, chances are you're not nearly paid enough to go through the same process I just did. Those were two free days "wasted" for research on old computer games. Although the mad historian in me wants to question if one really should write an article about a game if one cannot even get the release date straight, I'm well aware of how unrealistic that claim is. My own article on the history of video gaming in Korea contains more than one hundred footnotes over all its pages, and yet the whole thing is a horrible, shoddily put-together mess. Some sources are much less trustworthy than others, the founding date of the biggest Korean game developer/publisher for the 1980s might or might not be off by 6 years due to a typo in an old magazine, and release dates are a wild mixture between official sale dates, (contemporary) reported sightings in stores by magazines, probable-but-not-secured previous announcements, in-game copyrights, even educated guesses - it simply doesn't get any more easy. Surely, the proper way of dealing with it would be documenting the sources for all of those dates - but then I'd still be working on part 1 of the article, probably for a few years to come.
Even as it is, that article is an enormous time investment I'm still not sure I actually can afford to make, but who else is gonna do it? There is some great academic and semi-academic work done on the history of video games, but it's much, much to few and far between to really branch out into all relevant subjects, so the area is still totally dependent on the work of crazy nerds with the crave to spend all their free time to get trivial(?) facts straight.
The Birth of the JRPG
Another important chapter in Wizardry' history is the impact it had in Japan, where the series is still continued regularly, while it has been long been abandoned in the West. Officially, however, the original game hasn't been released there until 1985, when ASCII started to port the series to all the major Japanese computers. The same goes for Ultima, brought by Starcraft (oddly, it seems that the series started there with Ultima II and III, the first game doesn't show up in any release lists before 1988). Published more than a year earlier, in January 1984, there was The Black Onyx. Programmed by Henk Rogers, it channeled the Wizardry school of Western RPGs and became a huge hit on Japanese home computers. Did the Japanese learn about computer RPGs originally through the Black Onyx filter?
THE MAKING OF... Japan's First RPG by Edge magazine, which functions here as Black Onyx designer Henk Rogers' mouthpiece, states:
Voted game of the year by the readers of Login magazine (the best-selling Japanese gaming magazine at that time), Black Onyx sold around 150,000 copies, not counting huge numbers of rentals. The game's gigantic success paved the way for the other Japanese developers to bring their own RPG titles to market. The first Dragon Quest team went on the record praising Black Onyx as the influence for them investigating other western titles in the genre (specifically Wizardry). And so the RPG hacked and slashed its way into the Japanese videogame industry and consciousness.
Our own piece on old Japanese Computers tells another story, though:
Even though computer hardware rarely crossed borders, computer software proved to be much more flexible. A large number of Western games were ported to Japanese computer systems, with companies like Starcraft, Infinity, and Pony Canyon focusing almost exclusively on localizing English games. It was a rare time when large numbers of Japanese gamers were actively interested in Western games, an interest which has only just rekindled in the last few years. A little game called Dragon Quest famously arose out of a friendly argument over two Western games. As Koichi Nakamura has stated in an interview, "A game that I have fond memories of is Wizardry, which was popular in our office, but a co-worker of mine named Yuji Horii was hooked on Ultima at the time. Yuji kept saying we should make an RPG, but while I wanted to make a game like Wizardry, he wanted it to be like Ultima. We said to ourselves that we'd combine the interesting parts from both, and what we ended up with was Dragon Quest. So if it wasn't for Wizardry and Ultima, Dragon Quest wouldn't exist -- either in Japan or in the world."
For now it seems we have underestimated the influence of the Apple II hardware in Japan at least among computer buffs, as clearly Ultima, as well as almost certainly Wizardry, did have a noticeable impact on the Japanese programmer scene well before they were officially published on domestic computers. Let's explore this thread further:
The Edge article attributes the sole agency in bringing RPGs to Japan to BulletProof Software. But this wouldn't be the history of video games, if we didn't have conflicting reports. Wikipedia on Dragon Quest: "In 1982, Enix sponsored a video game programming contest in Japan which brought much of the Dragon Quest team together, including creator Yuji Horii. The prize was a trip to the United States and a visit to AppleFest '83 in San Francisco, where Horii discovered the Wizardry video game series."
The quote this time goes to an old article by HG101's own editor-in-chief, which... doesn't concern itself with that episode at all. Great, wrong citation. Hitting Google brings hundreds of regurgitations of the same story, while hints at a possible source are hard to find. This, however, would be possibly the most important question of JRPG history - as it would ultimately determine the nature of The Black Onyx' role as a mediator of the genre.
When digging further, one eventually happens upon an Enix-published making-of manga called "The Road To Dragon Quest" (more info), which depicts just the events described above. Though it is generally very open with the influences for Dragon Quest, even drawing Wizardry's cover in one panel, with no word does it seem to mention The Black Onyx, not even as an encouraging remark concerning its success.
The Enix guys certainly weren't the only ones who already had gotten wind of the new trend before Rogers' game. The case doesn't look as good for BulletProof's version of the story when looking at Japanese proto-RPGs like Koei's Ken to Mahou (剣と魔法) and Dungeon (ダンジョン) or Falcom's Panorama Island (ぱのらま島), all released prior to The Black Onyx and already clearly drawing inspiration from established Western RPGs. Falcom's game even boldly claimed its title as a "Fantasy role-playing game," taking a bit more wind out of the sails for Roberts' statement: "The word had not got out; nobody knew what an RPG was and we were on the brink of collapse." The same month The Black Onyx was released, Starcraft even published their first conversions of western RPGs, like Telengard.
This is not to deny the importance of The Black Onyx altogether: As the first big-selling RPG in Japanese, it certainly did a lot for the popularity of the genre in the Far East, but judging by the clues, we very likely would have gotten Dragon Quest, anyway.
List of Japanese RPGs up until January 1984. Dates are for the oldest known versions (most are according to the PC88 Game Library).
82-12 Dragon & Princess ドラゴンアンドプリンセス (PC-80, PC-88, FM-7)
83-03 Genma Taisen 幻魔大戦 (PC-6001, PC-88, PC-98, FM-7)
83-05 Kufu-Ou no Himitsu クフ王の秘密 (PC-80, FM-7)
83-05? Tokugawa Ieyasu 1. Shounen-hen 徳川家康 1.少年編 (FM-7, MZ-700)
83-07 Danchi Zuma no Yuuwaku 団地妻の誘惑 (PC-88, FM-7)
83-08 Ken to Mahou 剣と魔法 (PC-80, PC-88, FM-7)
83-11 Poibos Part 1 ポイボスPart1 (PC-88, FM-7, X1)
83-11 Seiken Densetsu 聖剣伝説 (PC-80, unrelated to Secret of Mana)
83-11? Parallel World パラレルワールド (X1, PC-88)
83-12 Dungeon ダンジョン (PC-80, PC-88, FM-7)
83-12 Bounded バウンドット (PC-88)
83-12 Panorama Toh ぱのらま島 (PC-88)
84-01 Telengard テレンガード (localization)
84-01 Voyager ボイジャー1号 (localization)
84-01 Fortress of the Witch King ウイッチキング (localization)
84-01 The Black Onyx ザ・ブラックオニキス
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Converting DVDs to XviD with MacTheRipper and ffmpegX
This has been sitting on my desktop for a while. Just posting it for searchability.
- Use MacTheRipper to rip the DVD to your hard drive. This not only removes encryption that prevents you from using your purchased media as you'd like, but also allows faster encoding times since you're not reading from a slow(er) disc drive.
- Launch ffmpegX and "Open" the VIDEO_TS directory MacTheRipper created.
- Choose an ffmpegX "Quick Preset". I like "XviD mencoder".
- Under the Video tab, first choose the "Title" and "Chapter" of the DVD content to encode. The default is usually enough for the main feature (i.e., the entire movie), but you can choose bonus material by opening the DVD in Apple's DVD Player, showing the Window > Navigation toolbar, and then browsing to the material you'd like. The proper Title and Chapter will be displayed and you'd enter those values into ffmpegX.
- Next, play around with the "Video parameters". Common ratios are 2.35:1 for a feature movie, 16:9 for widescreen video and 4:3 for standard, though you may have to do some test encodes with "5 sec test clip" under ffmpegX's Options tab to make sure you get it right.
- We're going to temporarily skip over the "Bitrate calculator" and head to the Audio tab. I tend to use 80 kbit/s and VBR but, in some cases, this depends on your output - if your output is a 700 MB CD, you may want to give more space to the video encode by setting the audio bitrate to 64 kbit/s. Depending on the source or length, you could use AC3 as opposed to MP3 for a higher quality audio - like for a 60 minute video or a LORD OF THE RINGS.
- Under the Filters tab is a handy "Autocrop"er which can shave off the black borders around your video. Simply click the "Autocrop" button and a preview window will appear with ffmpegX's suggestion. If it works, move on to Options, otherwise, tweak the four boxes (top, bottom, left, right). Unfortunately, if you do need to tweak the cropping, you'll have to do some test encodes to ensure accuracy.
- For a higher quality encode, there are a few things you'll want to turn on under the Options tab. "High Quality", "Use B-frames", "Two-pass encoding", "Trellis quantization" and "Scaling method" "bilinear" are all recommended. You'll also see the "5 sec test clip" option here if you'd like to experiment with your settings before queuing up a few hours of processing time.
- Back to the "Bitrate calculator" under Video. If you're looking for the best bitrate regardless of file size and based on your video size and framerate, click the "Best" button. Alternatively, you can define the number of minutes in your movie and the source destination (such as a CD or DVD) and click "Auto" to calculate the best value. For small clips, like movie trailers, I've decided on "5 MB for every 30 seconds" - a 1 minute 17 second clip would be entered into ffmpegX as "1.50 min" kept in "15 MB" of space. After clicking "Auto", the "Video Bitrate" is set and the "Video Size" ratio is recalculated to match my file size restrictions. Note that if you change any other setting under any tab, always come back here and click "Auto" again - you may be able to get a better bitrate and size.
Thu, 2008-03-06 04:34
Why XviD rather than any
Why XviD rather than any other format? Is it the best for archiving in some way?
Ooh, you're making me fill in a Captcha. Totally paying a hobo.
Fri, 2008-03-07 07:39
x264 can achieve smaller
x264 can achieve smaller filesize at the same bitrate as XviD, I've found in my experiences in video encoding.
Sun, 2008-03-09 11:31
The fact that it removes
The fact that it removes encryption that prevents you from using your purchased media and also allows faster encoding times makes it the best ripping software for Macs, thanks for posting the great find!
Tue, 2008-09-16 10:52
I recently switched from a PC
I recently switched from a PC to a Mac. I use the computer for sports editing. In the past I used a Roxio connector with a DVD player to load video in and then did my editing, I can't do that with the Mac. I want to take DVD footage from the game (the school uses a DV camcorder with the small discs) and I don't have access to the camera. I have downloaded MactheRipper and ffmpegX and the binaries, yet it gives me a failed result when I am trying to translate it to imovie compatability. What am I doing wrong?
just catching up on my RSS
just catching up on my RSS feed of this today, and want to thank you for this article.
one question: what do you use to stitch together the multiple parts of a long piece, like a movie?


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Medical Dictionary
Thebesian veinplay
Medical Definition of Thebesian vein
: any of the minute veins of the heart wall that drain directly into the cavity of the heart—called also Thebesian vessel
Biographical Note for thebesian vein
Thebesius \te-ˈbā-zē-əs\play ,
Adam Christian (1686–1732), German anatomist. Thebesius was the first to examine the details of the circulation of the blood in the heart. He described the valve at the orifice of the coronary sinus, now known as the coronary valve or the valve of Thebesius, and the small veins by which the blood passes from the walls of the heart to the right atrium.
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What made you want to look up Thebesian vein? Please tell us where you read or heard it (including the quote, if possible).


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While it may fashionable to believe America's civil liberties have been sacrificed in the name of dubious national security claims, a careful reading of recent history suggests the opposite is true, Victor Davis Hanson told a gathering of fellow conservatives last week.
Hanson, a nationally syndicated columnist, author and senior fellow with the Hoover Institution, addressed colleagues and supporters gathered together at the Kennedy Center last Thursday for the 2008 Bradley Prizes. He was among four new recipients.
Preachers, authors and filmmakers continue to ply their trade in an unfettered fashion, even as the embrace provocative, incendiary and often tasteless material, Hanson observed in his remarks.
The threat to freedom of expression in contemporary times comes not from government censorship, but instead stems from "the tyranny of good intentions" coupled together with an unwillingness to exercise moral judgment, he argued.
In response to those in the media and elsewhere who incessantly warn against renegade government officials restricting speech rights Hanson implored listeners to stop and "think for a minute."
"Is a western religious figure more in danger in this time of war of losing the right of free expression by publicly invoking God to damn the U.S. to his audience, or in simply and calmly referencing the historical relationship between Islam and Christianity such as Pope Benedict's quotation of a 14th Century Byzantine letter to the leaders of the Ottoman Empire?" he asked.
To further prove his point about exaggerated claims of an assault on civil liberties Hanson also referenced Gabriel Range's "Death of a President," a feature length film envisioning the assassination of President Bush, and "Checkpoint" a novel by Nicholson Baker, which involves two characters who contemplate the assassination of Bush.
"I raise these contrasts not to suggest that we should censor poor taste in a free society but simply to remind us again that the latest enemy of freedom of expression is not government statute... it is the tyranny of good intentions," he explained.
Throughout modern society there is a certain reticence to describe reality in unapologetic terms as a consequence of the moral relativism that now holds sway, Hanson observed.
Other recipients touch on the need for economic and cultural renewal.
Gary Becker, a professor of economics and sociology at the University of Chicago, called for a school voucher program that would open the way to greater competition in the nation's K-12 system. School choice would help to improve the quality for education for young people who are being "shortchanged" by the current system, he argued.
Unfortunately, it takes time for the right ideas to win out but "despair is never an option" Alan Charles Kors, a noted author and scholar told audience members. Over 60 years ago in the midst of a one sided public debate about the merits of "various collectivisms" one voice broke through the wilderness, Kors reminded listeners.
Friedrich Von Hayek's "Road to Serfdom" started a new discussion and "planted the seeds" for greater individual liberty that ultimately won out over time Kors pointed out. Today, even as the "intellectual class" seeks to "discredit and cheapen" the very institutions that make its own freedom possible, history suggests reality will win out against "moral self delusion," over time he said.
Kors is the co-founder of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) and the co-author of "The Shadow University."
The final recipient of the evening interweaved biblical references into his remarks to drive home the importance of faith-based initiatives that fill gap between individuals and government.
Robert Woodson is a former civil rights activist and founder of the Center for Neighborhood Enterprise. Although conservatives correctly point to the policy failures connected with the "War on Poverty," they need to move beyond simply calling for budget cuts and more free enterprise, Woodson suggested.
Instead, there should be a greater emphasis and attention devoted to "social entrepreneurs" who serve as witnesses to young people living in "toxic environments," he said.
The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation Prizes were established to celebrate and recognize the achievements and contributsion of individuals who help to strengthen democratic capitalism and foster the principles of limited government.


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|From: Matthias Felleisen (matthias at ccs.neu.edu)
Date: Sat Jul 18 11:03:15 EDT 2009
How would this work: (define (command-line-data-structure-explorer) (define (repl list-of-things-to-track) ... (repl (cons additional-string list-of-things-to-track))) ... ) ;; --- IN: (repl '())) For cons, you can use whatever you find more suitable. Sorry if this misinterprets your question -- Matthias On Jul 18, 2009, at 10:03 AM, Gregg Williams wrote: > Hi! I'm fairly new at Scheme, though I have written a number of > programs in the functional style with no problem. However, I'm hitting > a blind spot and would like somebody's opinion. > > I want to use Scheme to create an interactive environment for > exploring a data set (i.e., from the command line). Each datum is > represented by a string that I use as a key, so I will be building up > various named lists of strings and adding to them. > > Here's my problem: I can't seem to find a good way to add strings to a > list identified by a fixed variable name. I can't seem to use "define" > to overwrite the variable with a new list. I could use a vector, but > that would waste a lot of space if I made all vectors long enough for > practical purposes. I looked into using mutable lists, but > destructively splicing a second list onto the list connected to my > veritable name has repercussions. > > Am I missing something obvious, or do I have to just choose one of > these options and deal with the consequences? Thanks for your help. > _________________________________________________ > For list-related administrative tasks: > http://list.cs.brown.edu/mailman/listinfo/plt-scheme
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text:
gnarpowwrote a review of DAKINE Poacher Backpack - 2300 cu in on June 25, 2004
sweet pack
fairly big pack, probly wouldn't use it at a resort unless going OB. Plenty of room to go all day or light overnight. hikes great, good support, skis carry verry well diagonally with a big loop that accomadates fat skis. only cons: the hydration system covers up the the back access panel so you can't get to your gear easily if the bladder is full. LOTS of straps, if you don't snowboard you can cut extras off or short.


text:
The Division of Global Affairs organizes its research and teaching agenda into five concentration areas. Each area of concentration engages in critical issues that are shaping world politics and global systems. In addition to offering a variety of courses in these concentrations, the Division of Global Affairs faculty and graduate students are active researchers--publishing and lecturing globally--in these areas. Research and learning opportunities are enhanced by inter-university partnerships including with the Center for the Study of Genocide and Human Rights (CGHR) which holds a UNESCO Chair in Genocide Prevention.
The Division of Global Affairs produces a variety of published research resources and materials, including lectures and interviews, related to each of its concentrations. Access research resources by concentration:
In addition to these resources, DGA's defended dissertations are also available.


text:
A Jeanne Site
Pass? or Prepared?
California State University, Dominguez Hills
University of Wisconsin, Parkside
Latest update: July 10, 2000
Curran or Takata.
I have found a wonderful scholastic source for you. It is the Bryn Mawr Classical Review. You will find extensive reviews there of classics, ancient Greek, Latin, and ancient history. Now maybe that sounds a little far afield for most of our social science majors, but I don't really think so. My early degrees in literature studies led me in that direction. I once studied Old Provencal. I find the Middle Ages and Early Renaissance intriguing. And now I have this wonderful chance to share it with you.
We often fuss at you that you are not sufficiently disciplined, that you do not work hard enough, that you you don't take scholarship seriously. As though we all do! Well, in this Pass? or Prepared? I want to treat you to a glimpse of full blown scholars behaving badly, too. I suspect it's something we all do, much of the time, but it's oh so much easier to make it all your fault.
Join me now in scenes that made me giggle. But if you laugh, you must do so in John Portman's sense of schadenfreude, that mischievous giggle that escapes us when someone else get's what we figure is a justifiable comeuppance. And then I would like you to consider these materials quite seriously to see if we couldn't have found non-violent ways to overcome the structural violence of the system.
Students frequently find themselves in situations like this. They want a teacher to reconsider a grade, or a thesis, or an idea with which they disagree. Let's see what we can learn about that from this story.
The First Listserv Exchange
- The book being reviewed is on Roman Baths. Brief summary to go up shortly.
Stephan Busch, Versus balnearum: die antike Dichtung über Bäder und Baden im römischen Reich. Stuttgart and Leipzig: Teubner, 1999. Pp. xiv, 616. ISBN 3-519-07256-4. Reviewed by Stefanie A. H. Kennell.
- The book's author is furious with the reviewer. And here we will speak of perceived structural violence, and possible non-violent approaches that could have de-escalated the aggression..
- The book's reviewer is not pleased with the book's author. Violence begets violence, even when we think it's justified.
The Second Listserv ExchangeLest you think the last exchange was atypical and rare, behold this exchange. The subject this time is Philipp W. Rosemann's Understanding Scholastic Thought with Foucault. And I'll bet you thought you wouldn't be able to relate to the Classics at all.
Now just for fun, go read the review of the 14th Century Noblewoman. I also got that one on July 10, 2000. Actually, I'm going to put this one up on Mind Candy: The Academy.
July 10, 2000. Rosemann on Metzger on Rosemann
This exchange won't be up on the site for a week or so, but I'll add the links as soon as it is. Nag me. jeanne


text:
Join as a member. There's a certificate with your name on it.
Posted by TomDude48 on
This project is not covered by Drupal's security advisory policy.
Enterprise Video is an App for managing video content on your site. It is a part of the Open Enterprise distribution but can be installed on any Drupal 7 site.
- video content type using media fields
- view listing page and block of events that can be filtered by categories
- categories block view
- Install the module and dependencies. There are three ways to install using Drupal 7:
- Do a traditional install by downloading all the modules from Drupal.org and follow instructions
- One click install via the LevelTen Apps Server. You must install the apps connector modules first.*
- Start your site with the Open Enterprise Drupal distribution. The apps server connectors are included - along with a lot of other great stuff.*
* Using the apps server greatly streamlines the process.
- Once installed, a new Video item will appear on the main menu. Visit the page and click "+ Add video" to get started.
Note that Media 1.x branch is a dependency. The 2.x branch is currently unstable.
This module is sponsored and developed by LevelTen Interactive. LevelTen is a full service interactive agency focused on building online brands by integrating digital strategy, Drupal development and internet marketing. For more information, please contact us, or feel free to connect on Twitter and Facebook
Project Information
- Maintenance status: Actively maintained
- Development status: Under active development
- Module categories: Content, Features Package, Media, Views
- Reported installs: 83 sites currently report using this module. View usage statistics.
- Downloads: 12,677
- Last modified: 2 December 2014
- This project is not covered by the security advisory policy.
Use at your own risk! It may have publicly disclosed vulnerabilities.
|tar.gz (13.24 KB) | zip (16.75 KB)


text:
Welcome to E-Books Directory
This is a freely downloadable e-book.
Learning Cocoa with Objective-C
Read this book online or download it here for free
Custom Search
Learning Cocoa with Objective-C
by James Duncan Davidson
Publisher: O'Reilly Media, Inc. 2002
Number of pages: 384
This new edition covers the latest updates to the Cocoa frameworks, including examples that use the Address Book and Universal Access APIs. Also included is a handy quick reference card, charting Cocoa's Foundation and AppKit frameworks, along with an Appendix that includes a listing of resources essential to any Cocoa developer. This is the "must-have" book for people who want to develop applications for Mac OS X.
More Sites Like This
|Science Books Online
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Make this my Homepage
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text:
Milwaukee Event Calendar
The Eurydice Project Stage Two: No Looking Back
Jan. 26, 2013 7:30 p.m.
In stage two of a three-year collaboration with Carroll University students and faculty to celebrate 412 years of Eurydice-related repertoire, the Milwaukee Opera Theatre has commissioned three Milwaukee-based composers to contribute new works, adding their voices to a creative lineage dating back to Jacopo Peri's "L'Euridice" circa 1600. Join Joel Boyd, Nathan Wesselowski and Joanna Kerner as they present their original works in this one-night-only concert.
Tickets are $20 for premium reserved seating, $15 for general admission and $10 for students and seniors.
Carroll University100 N. East Ave.
Waukesha, WI 53186
Venue Description:Priding itself on the pillars of knowledge, value, skills and experience, Carroll University strives for an integrated education founded on the principles of its Presbyterian and liberal arts history.


text:
Setting Expectations
It is very important that you let new employees know their job expectations within the first two weeks after they are hired. This should be an ongoing process between the supervisor and the employees.
Setting expectations includes providing the employee with:
- A clear job description
- Orientation program checklists
- Distribution of departmental schedules and processes
- Information about accreditation programs
- Procedure manuals, lists, posters
- Messages from management
- Discussion with peers
- Creation of SMART goals, which are:
- Specific
- Measurable
- Attainable
- Relevant to the mission of the employee, the department and the institution
- Time limited


text:
MASHKAIL, PAKISTAN – More than 12,000 Pakistanis living in a remote, impoverished southwestern desert region near the Iranian border have been affected by this week's huge earthquake, a relief official said Thursday.
The 7.8-magnitude quake, which struck southeastern Iran on Tuesday, was the most powerful to strike the Islamic republic in five decades and killed 41 people — all but one of them in Pakistan.
The worst-affected area in Pakistan has been Mashkail, in Baluchistan, where the lack of paved roads, electricity, mobile phone coverage and medical facilities have hampered rescue efforts.
"We have done a rapid survey and found that over 12,000 people have been affected by the quake in Mashkail," said Meh boob Ali, a district coordinator for the Baluchistan Rural Support Program charity.
He said more than 3,200 homes, made mostly of mud, were either damaged or no longer habitable, forcing people to sleep out in the open or in makeshift shelters for a third night.
The military Thursday continued to fly in medicine and tents, but more supplies are desperately needed, said local official Syed Mureed Shah. "There's growing impatience among the people affected by the quake as they are not receiving relief goods," Shah said.


text:
The ability to do in-app purchases on your iPad and iPhone has been a real boon to both developers and consumers, with the sharp rise in freemium games due mainly to the ease of in-app purchases. But for families sharing an iPad, especially families with younger kids, in-app purchases can lead to a rather nasty surprise once the iTunes bill comes in the email, which is why it can be important to turn off in-app purchases on your iPad or iPhone if one of your kids uses it to play games.

In fact, a study unveiled that in-app transactions account for 72% of app revenue, and parents have found that some of this revenue is generated by small kids playing a seemingly free game. This has led to a class-action suit being filed because of the in-app game currency found in many free games.

So how do you turn off in-app purchases on your iPad?

Before you can turn off in-app purchases, you must enable iPad restrictions. These parental controls allow you to restrict access to certain features on the iPad. In addition to disabling in-app purchases, you can disable the app store completely, set up a download restriction using an age-based restriction to allow your child to only download appropriate apps, and also restrict access to music and movies.

First, you need to open the iPad's settings. These are accessed by touching the icon that looks like gears. Once in the settings, choose General settings from the menu on the left and scroll down until you see Restrictions on the right. (I've highlighted it in the photo above.)

When you turn on restrictions by tapping the button at the top of the screen the iPad will ask for a passcode. This is a four-digit code similar to an ATM code that will allow you to make changes to the restrictions in the future. Don't worry, you will be asked to enter the passcode twice, so you won't be locked out because of a typo.

The passcode does not "override" restrictions, it simply allows you to change the restrictions at a later date. For example, if you turn off app downloads, you simply won't see the app store on the iPad. And if you turn off in-app purchases and then attempt to purchase something inside of an app, you will be notified that in-app purchases have been turned off.

This passcode is also different than the passcode used to unlock the device. If you have an older child, you can allow them to know the passcode for using the iPad and keep the passcode for restrictions separate so that only you have access to the parental restrictions.

Once you have enabled the iPad restrictions, you will have access to turn off in-app purchases.

Now that you have parental restrictions turned on, you can easily disable in-app purchases. You may need to scroll down the screen a little bit to located in-app purchases in the Allowed Content section. Simply slide the On button to the Off setting and in-app purchases will be disabled.

Many of the restrictions offered in this section function implicitly, which means disabling app purchasing removes the app store completely and turning off the ability to delete apps removes the little X button usually displayed when you hold your finger down on an app. However, apps that offer in-app purchases will still do so if you turn off in-app purchasing. Any attempt to purchase something within an app will be met with a dialog box that informs the user that these purchases have been disabled.

If you are disabling in-app purchases because you have a small child in the household, there are several other useful settings, including the ability to restrict apps based on the parental rating of the app.

What Are the "Must-Have" iPad Apps?


text:
Halo 4
MLG pro StrongSide wins truck, win for non-casuals
You're browsing the GameFAQs Message Boards as a guest. Sign Up for free (or Log In if you already have an account) to be able to post messages, change how messages are displayed, and view media in posts.
Cpt_of_Industry posted...Ah, you're trolling. Ok. Nvm. <_< Carry on.
A bit of a late response, but there's nothing wrong with being passive. Especially when you don't care to enter the pissing contest that the "dominant" idiots have decided to have with each other. Why bring myself down to your level when I can just live my life without giving a ****?
Just pointing that out...
"This is the last load, get ready to pull out!" - G1 Megatron
yoshiisback (Topic Creator)4 years ago#72
Jazzy_Vel posted...
yoshiisback posted...Cpt_of_Industry posted...Ah, you're trolling. Ok. Nvm. <_< Carry on.
Associating dominance in a negative light doesn't point out anything.
Show me someone who doesn't like losing in Halo, I'll show you someone who doesn't like losing in real life. As with any event, whether it be professional sports or a workplace, those who strive to do well, will be more successful than those who simply don't care.
XBL GT: Yoshi eats
TridentWizard 4 years ago#73
yoshi dont you ever just like to sit back light up a j and play some halo with ur buddies?
nintendo forums: "what are lags?" - CO aSteRAGEnt9 9
yoshiisback (Topic Creator)4 years ago#74
TridentWizard posted...
yoshi dont you ever just like to sit back light up a j and play some halo with ur buddies?
For sure. Can't I troll in the mean time?
XBL GT: Yoshi eats
Glad he is winning. Proof surfaced of the french guy that was rank 1 cheating. Somehow the guy was doing multiple abandon games in a row with 60 kills and 1500+ score each game.
SS actually played legit and deserves it. The one pro I will actually say deserves another reward, why? Because he gives back to the community and is probably THE nicest pro. Dude is living the life.
TridentWizard 4 years ago#76
what team is strongside on now
nintendo forums: "what are lags?" - CO aSteRAGEnt9 9
Success. May the competitive spirit live on-!
Corrupting the human mind... one session at a time.
kushahilic 4 years ago#78
yoshiisback posted...
Cpt_of_Industry posted...And your condescending additude towards casuals is borderline insanity. You need serious help.
the fact that you refer to yourself as a non casual gamer, yet you are not known as a money making pro is hilarious. can you go waste more of your life please.
kushahilic 4 years ago#79
yoshiisback posted...
Jazzy_Vel posted...yoshiisback posted...Cpt_of_Industry posted...Ah, you're trolling. Ok. Nvm. <_< Carry on.
this is also hilarious. I strive for straight a's in school. I was a starter for every sports team that I have ever been on. I strive to be the best in things that are actually important! and no just because you say halo is important does not mean that it is. It is a freaking video game. If you take this game that seriously, then you need to reevaluate your life and priorities. Like I said, you dnot make money from this yet you act like you are making millions from twiddling your thumbs. Grow up.
yoshiisback (Topic Creator)4 years ago#80
kushahilic posted...
yoshiisback posted...Cpt_of_Industry posted...And your condescending additude towards casuals is borderline insanity. You need serious help.
I have made more money than most pros (almost all of which have quit/ moved to black ops) through local and online tournaments.
If you kept reading the topic, you'd find out how little I play this game during the schoolyear, but I wouldn't expect such from a kid named "kushahilic".
XBL GT: Yoshi eats
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