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Sales Have Ended
Sales Have Ended
Tartan Touch is Scottish Rugby's Fun, Simple and Social version of non-contact rugby!
The Tartan Touch season begins in May at 30 hubs around Scotland.
Join in the fun and get fit at a hub near you this summer for just £3 a session.
Tartan Touch Sessions will run at Whitecraigs RFC over 10 consecutive weeks from Wednesday 2nd May - Wednesday 4th of July), 7pm start time.


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Nikolai Leokov never thought he'd fall in love with...
Good Girl420672
- by Mandy_Miller
- Rating:
- Published: 30 Jul 2014
- Updated: 26 Aug 2014
- Status: In Progress
There's always a risk when you take a walk on the wild side. A risk that you may not be able to come back. That's what Erin Chandler fears when she meets a hot sculptor who takes what he wants and gets any woman he wants. Malachi Miuro is definitely not the right man for Erin. He's unstable, without a real job, and he knows how to take a girl with his dominant ways. Erin just wants to keep her head down so she can keep her job, but with Kai in the mix, that's impossible. Kai knows he's all wrong for Erin, but he wants what she's got. If it means he has to break through her defenses to free the wild child within, then that's what he'll do. Even if it shatters her world. But can Kai learn to love Erin without trying to control her? Can Erin become who she's really meant to be, or will she reject Kai along with her deepest dreams?
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subset: commoncrawl


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DENVER (AP) — Matt Cain didn't hang his head even after hanging a few pitches to give Colorado a big early lead.
He simply figured that there was plenty of time to get back into the game. After all, this is Coors Field, where no lead is safe.
Cain was correct.
The right-hander settled down after a bumpy beginning, Angel Pagan hit a tiebreaking two-run single in the sixth inning and the San Francisco Giants won their 10th straight over Colorado, rallying from a six-run deficit to beat the Rockies 8-6 on Thursday night.
"What a great comeback," manager Bruce Bochy said. "For the third game in a row, we dug ourselves a pretty good hole there."
Only this time, they were able to recover. That wasn't the case during a two-game series in Toronto, when the Giants were outscored 21-9.
Cain didn't travel with the team to Canada, instead arriving in Denver early. All he could think about was not putting his team in a bad predicament.
And that's precisely what he did.
Cain (3-2) struggled early, giving up homers on consecutive pitches to Todd Helton and Nolan Arenado in the second, along with a three-run homer to Wilin Rosario an inning later.
After that, Cain found his rhythm before being pulled with an out in the seventh. In 6 1/3 innings, he gave up nine hits but still moved to 3-0 this month.
"Playing in this ballpark, there are some runs out there," Cain said. "That's not always a fun thing, but it's something you always know. Runs can come in bunches here."
Jeremy Affeldt held the Rockies hitless in two innings of relief work before handing the ball to closer Sergio Romo, who got two outs to earn his 13th save in 15 chances. The Rockies only had one hit after Rosario's home run.
"When you get six early off a guy like Cain you've got to be able to put him away," Rockies manager Walt Weiss said. "You've got a guy who's one of the better pitchers in the league; you've got to get to him early. You've got to be able to put him away and not hang around."
Brandon Crawford added a three-run double to help San Francisco and Marco Scutaro extended his hitting streak to 15 games. The NL West-leading Giants also extended their mastery over the Rockies, improving to 31-9 since 2011.
Jhoulys Chacin (3-3) was the reverse of Cain — solid early before falling apart. He yielded a season-high eight runs in 5 1/3 innings to a powerful Giants lineup that came into the game hitting an NL-best .267.
With this performance, Chacin's ERA soared from 2.70 to 4.07.
"Cain pitched terrible, but Chacin pitched even worse," Carlos Gonzalez said. "Just a bad game for him. Those guys are really good pitchers. We were able to score six runs, and then Chacin, who's always a pitcher that gives us a chance to win — it just didn't happen tonight. It was just a bad game."
Trailing by six, the Giants climbed back into the game with a five-run fourth inning. Brandon Belt brought in a run with a walk, with Crawford later adding a bases-clearing double. Cain also got into the scoring act, driving in Crawford with a single. It was Cain's second RBI of the season.
Gregor Blanco tied the game in the sixth with a sacrifice fly to center. Pagan, the leadoff hitter, gave the Giants an 8-6 lead with a two-out, two-run single over the head of reliever Adam Ottavino, who was brought in for Chacin.
The bottom of the Giants' lineup certainly came through, driving in six runs.
"We're awesome," said Belt, the No. 6 hitter. "We got down early, but there was a lot of game left. We don't give up. It worked for us tonight."
Cain wrestled with his command early. He gave up three runs each in the second and third innings. Cain allowed back-to-back homers to Helton and Arenado. Helton stood at home plate to watch his two-run homer — not so much to admire his handiwork as see if it would curve foul. It didn't and he trotted around the bases.
On the next offering from Cain, Arenado lined a 91 mph fastball into the seats in left-center.
Rosario had the big blow in the third, hitting a three-run homer to right.
Still, Cain kept his composure on the mound.
"He didn't seem like he was starting to get angry," Belt said. "It seemed like he was bearing down even more. It showed from there. ... He did awesome."
NOTES: Bochy said the plan remains to pitch struggling RHP Ryan Vogelsong on Monday. "I talked to Vogey for quite a while and he said, 'Hey, if you need me in the pen the next couple of days I'm available,'" Bochy said. "He's earned some things, including a longer leash. That's something he's earned." ... Arenado made a diving grab at third in the eighth to throw out INF Brett Pill. ... Before the game, Colorado juggled its roster by placing LHP Jeff Francis (groin) on the 15-day disabled and designated INF Reid Brignac for assignment. The team also recalled INF D.J. LeMahieu and RHP Rob Scahill from Triple-A Colorado Springs.
DENVER (AP) — Matt Cain didn't hang his head even after hanging a few pitches to give Colorado a big early lead.


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Damian Lillard scored 34 points on 5- of-10 shooting from beyond the arc to lead the Portland Trail Blazers to a 124-112 win over the Los Angeles Lakers on Tuesday.
LaMarcus Aldridge registered a 31-point, 15-rebound double-double and Robin Lopez also contributed a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds in Portland's fourth straight win.
The winning streak is the club's longest since a five-game run Feb. 21-March 1.
With the win. the Trail Blazers pulled within 1 1/2 games of the Houston Rockets for fourth place in the Western Conference.
Nick Young dropped a season-high 40 points in a reserve role for the Lakers, who have lost three of their last four games.
Kent Bazemore tallied 17 points, Chris Kaman added 12 and Steve Nash netted 10 points with 10 assists in 21 minutes of action off the bench in the setback.


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Stephen Moyer to Join Carrie Underwood on TV's Sound of Music
The True Blood leading man will costar with the country superstar on NBC's version of the beloved musical
The hills are alive especially at night.
Stephen Moyer, best known as the vampire Bill Compton on HBO's True Blood, will play Capt. Von Trapp to Carrie Underwood's Maria in the live, three-hour NBC production of the beloved Rodgers and Hammerstein musical The Sound of Music, to air Dec. 5, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
Depending on how dedicated you are to the 1965 film version of The Sound of Music – which starred Julie Andrews as Maria and Christopher Plummer at the Captain – this may or may not be music to your ears.
English actor Moyer, 43, recently played the role of crooked lawyer Billy Flynn in a Hollywood Bowl production of the musical Chicago. Now he is set to portray the stern Austrian widower who falls for the bubbly governess of his seven children, to be played by Underwood, 30.
The original 1959 stage version starred Broadway legend Mary Martin and Theodore Bikel.
But will you find it weird seeing vampire Bill romancing a blonde who isn't Sook-eh? Or do you think Carrie Underwood and Stephen Moyer will make beautiful music together?


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ROCKFORD — Rockford Park District's next Operation Recreation event will take place from 7 to 8:45 p.m. July 1 at Sinnissippi Music Shell, 1401 N. Second St., as part of the Sounds of Summer music series.
The theme for the free event is "Honoring Our Country, Our Veterans and Our Greatest Music," and the Rockford Concert Band will perform.
The Operation Recreation initiative was formed in 2011 to provide discounts, events and programs to active military members, veterans and family members.
For information: 815-987-8800; rockfordparkdistrict.org.


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(BPT) – For most of us, checkups are a regular part of life. Dental visits, auto maintenance appointments and even glances in the bathroom mirror all help us catch potential problems and assure that all is "" or will be "" well. What's true of teeth, engines and grooming is also true of finances: regular checkups are recommended.
Why? Changes both great and small affect the strategies people have developed to help achieve their financial goals. Unfortunately, too many people act as though once their financial program is in place their work is done. This isn't so.
As a general rule, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans recommends that you should review your financial program at least once each year. Certain life changes "" the birth or adoption of a child, a change in marital status (married, divorced, widowed), the death of a family member or changes to your health "" should serve as reminders that a financial tune-up is in order. April is Financial Literacy Month, and serves as a good reminder to take a look at your finances and make sure changes over the past year haven't altered any personal financial strategies that may be in place.
Other changes in personal economics can also have a huge impact on financial programs. These may include shifts in employment status or salary (e.g. loss of job or a pay cut/freeze), home ownership changes, significant changes in total assets or debt, the receipt of an inheritance, and tax law changes that can all make previous strategies obsolete.
How can you perform a financial checkup? "If you have a do-it-yourself mentality, there are any number of print and electronic resources that exist to help monitor your finances," says Patrick Egan, a national retirement spokesperson with Thrivent Financial. "However, with the complexity and time commitment that may be involved, most can benefit from the knowledge, experience and insight that financial services professionals offer."
Qualified financial professionals can help people evaluate their present financial strategies and keep abreast of new laws, regulations, products and economic developments. Even more important, financial professionals can challenge unrealistic assumptions people may have and help them overcome money management's greatest threat: procrastination.
To live is to experience change. How and where change will appear is impossible to predict, but a financial checkup is one sure way to help your financial objectives "" and your sense of financial confidence "" keep pace with all that occurs.
About Thrivent Financial for Lutherans
Thrivent Financial for Lutherans is a faith-based, Fortune 500 financial services membership organization helping its nearly 2.5 million members to be wise with money and to live generous lives. Thrivent Financial and its affiliates offer a broad range of financial products and services. As a not-for-profit organization, Thrivent Financial joins with its members to create and support national outreach programs and activities that help congregations, schools, charitable organizations and individuals in need. For more information, visit Thrivent.com. Also, you can find the company on Facebook and Twitter.
Neither Thrivent Financial for Lutherans nor its respective financial representatives and employees provide legal or tax advice. For complete details, consult with your tax advisor or attorney.
Insurance products issued or offered by Thrivent Financial for Lutherans, Appleton, WI. Not all products are available in all states. Securities and investment advisory services are offered through Thrivent Investment Management Inc., 625 Fourth Ave. S., Minneapolis, MN 55415, 800-847-4836, a FINRA and SIPC member and a wholly owned subsidiary of Thrivent Financial for Lutherans. Thrivent Financial representatives are registered representatives of Thrivent Investment Management Inc. They are also licensed insurance agents/producers of Thrivent Financial.
For additional important disclosure information, visit Thrivent.com/disclosures.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
Nation & World
What those studies on mouthwash and coronaviruses actually mean
Nation & World
Man linked to far-right Boogaloo Bois charged after allegedly shooting at police precinct during Minneapolis Floyd protests
Letter to the editor: Selser will bring commitment, leadership to South Portland School Board
Another View: Justice Department taking off the gloves against Big Tech
The humble Farmer: Digital connection delivers real help, dubious 'news'


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Nate Silver, the statistician and psephologist, correctly predicted the winner in 49 out of 50 states in the 2008 presidential election, plus the winners of all 35 US Senate races. This time around he successfully predicted the winner in all 50 states, including the 9 "swing states". (He also predicted the winner in D.C., although that wasn't exactly a tough call.) On the morning of the election, Silver's FiveThirtyEight model gave Barack Obama a 90.9% chance of winning a majority of electoral college votes.
If Silver can perfect his model, it opens up some exciting possibilities for future elections. For one, it will obviate the need for people to actually go to the polls and vote. Silver will simply run his stats and tell us how Americans would have voted had they gone to the polls. Just think of all the time and money this will save!


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Our favorite post-apocalyptic TV series Jericho could be back... again. The last time Jericho graced the small screen was in 2008, but now sources are whispering that Netflix has reached out to CBS, in hopes of bringing it back.
After just one year CBS canned the show centered around a band of survivors of a nuclear attack. But thanks to an insanely loyal fanbase, and their amazing peanut mail-in, Jericho came back. Sadly the reprieve was only short-lived.
But now, according to TV Guide, Netflix has noticed the show's online popularity, and the company is currently in the process of trying to revive the series for Netflix.
This is not the first time we've heard of the return of Jericho — a few years back there was almost a deal with Comcast to bring back the series, but all those efforts crumbled. But maybe Netflix has the wherewithal to relaunch the show — assuming the cast would still be open to continuing their roles, many years later. We're cautiously optimistic, but wouldn't it be great to get Jericho back?


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Chardon High School shooter T.J. Lane sentenced to life without parole in Ohio courtroom
CHARDON, Ohio - T.J. Lane entered the courtroom Tuesday in a blue, button-down dress shirt.
He sat down, calmly, and stripped off the appropriate courtroom attire, revealing a white T-shirt with the word "Killer" written in black marker.
Lane, 18, kept a smirk on his face, even after Geauga County Common Pleas Judge David L. Fuhry sentenced him to three life terms without parole for shooting six students at Chardon High School.
"The hand that pulled the trigger that killed your sons now masturbates to the memory," he told the victims' family members in the courtroom. "(Expletive) all of you."
Lane then stuck his left middle finger up at the packed courtroom.
Just as he did last month when he pleaded guilty to three counts of aggravated murder, two counts of attempted murder and felonious assault, Lane rejected his defense team's advice.
"Defense counsel urges him not to make any statement as expected," attorney Ian Friedman said before Lane spoke.
Friedman also said he disagreed with Lane's refusal to allow him to present any mitigating evidence to show why he should be granted parole.
Lane, who originally pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, entered the high school on Feb. 27, 2012, and fatally shot 17-year-old Russell King Jr. and 16-year-olds Demetrius Hewlin and Daniel Parmertor. He wounded three others.
Geauga County Prosecutor James Flaiz said Lane's courtroom demeanor and choice of dress confirms what he believed all along -- that the incident was a cold, calculated shooting.
"He lied about hearing voices, he lied about being the victim of sexual abuse, he lied about saying the shooting was random," Flaiz said. "He still refuses to explain. The only explanation I can offer is that he is an evil person."
Nick Walczak, now an 18-year-old senior, was left paralyzed from the waist down. Nate Mueller, also a senior, was grazed in the ear by a bullet. Another victim, Joy Rickers, has since graduated.
Walczak and Mueller were at the sentencing but did not speak.
Walczak's mother, Holly Walczak, stared Lane straight in the eye as he smiled at her while listening to the pain he's caused her family.
"You're really lucky there's so many police in this room right now," she said. "You can smile all you want. I hate you for the pain you caused Nick. You chased him down and left him paralyzed. Why?"
Holly Walczak then looked over at Lane's biological parents, who lost custody of their son when he was 3.
"To Tom and Sarah -- the sperm donor and egg donor -- I went to school with you both," she said. "Why did you pick drugs over your kid?"
Lane -- who showed little emotion throughout any prior court proceeding -- struggled to hold back laughter as Crystal King, Russell's sister, spoke of how her only sibling was shot in the head.
Dina Parmertor, Daniel's mother, called Lane a pathetic coward.
"You murdered my son, Danny! You are a killer! You're a monster and will forever be titled a triple murderer," Dina Parmertor said. "I hope you have a cold, hard prison life with monsters like yourself."
Philip Carter, the brother of Demetrius, read a statement on behalf of his mother, who was unable to speak.
"On the days that my back hurt, he would put my shoes on for me," Carter read. "That child stole my baby's life."
Lane, who had been wearing a similar T-shirt with the word "KILLER" on it on the day of the murders, fired 10 shots from a Ruger he got from a relative's home.
The last shot was used to put one final bullet in the neck of Walczak, whom he chased down after shooting him in the cafeteria.
Fuhry said none of the victims, some of whom were once friends with Lane, deserved what they got.
"What was the motive for this?" asked the judge. "The answer is, we don't know. It appears to the court the defendant simply wanted to make a name for himself, to make front-page news."
One thing Fuhry said he does know for sure is that Lane faked mental illness the entire time.
Fuhry said recently uncovered evidence proved Lane knew exactly what he was doing. What exactly the evidence was has not yet been disclosed.
"The defendant was not suffering from any mental impairment whatsoever," Fuhry said. "He attacks with no discernible motive. Those juveniles were ambushed."
The judge added that the crime was especially heinous because Lane's own sister was in the cafeteria that morning. She gave a statement to the media, as did Lane's attorney, following the sentencing.
Lane's grandparents, Jack and Carole Nolan, also his legal guardians, sobbed through much of the sentencing but were ordered not to speak on his behalf by Lane.
At the end of the hearing, Friedman objected to Lane being sentenced to life without parole.
Lane then requested he have a new attorney appointed to him for his appeal, which must be filed within 30 days.
Meanwhile, Flaiz said he expects to file a motion to keep certain evidence, including the video of the shootings, under seal.
Geauga County sheriff's Deputy Jonathan Bilicic testified at an earlier hearing that he found Lane in a wooded area with a handgun and knife in Chardon Township after the shootings.
Lane repeatedly told Bilicic he was not under the influence of drugs or alcohol, was not suicidal, was not angry with anyone and was not being bullied.
When asked why he committed the murders, Lane reportedly replied, "I don't know why I did this."
Forensic psychiatrist Dr. Philip Resnick determined Lane suffers from a mental disease that caused him to hear voices at times. Prosecutors argued there was nothing in Lane's medical records to indicate he ever suffered from hallucinations.
Lane, who was not eligible for the death penalty since he was 17 at the time, was a student at Lake Academy in Willoughby, an alternative school. He was at Chardon High that day to catch a bus.
A civil suit against Lane that was filed by the families of the three boys who were killed is pending in Lake County Common Pleas Court.


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DHHR | BPH | Text size A A A
Additional Information for health care providers
HIV/AIDS Reference Websites
The inclusion of links to sites not produced by one of the above listed agencies does not mean the content of these sites has been reviewed, approved, or validated by the above agencies. The links are provided as a convenience for users of this site who must use their own judgment concerning the information contained on the linked sites.
CDC/DHAP - The Centers for Disease Control, Divisions of HIV/AIDS Prevention's mission is to prevent HIV infection and reduce the incidence of HIV-related illness and death, in collaboration with community, state, national, and international partners.
CDC/NCID/DASTLR - The Centers for Disease Control, National Center for Infectious Diseases, Division of AIDS, STD, and TB Laboratory Research was established in 1995 to centralize CDC's laboratory studies on human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), other human retroviruses, other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), hematologic disorders, and mycobacteria.
NIAID/NIH/DAIDS - The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Division of Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome was formed in 1986 to address the national research needs created by the advent and spread of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. The Division's mission is to increase basic knowledge of the pathogenesis, natural history, and transmission of HIV disease and to support research that promotes progress in its detection, treatment, and prevention.
U.S. FDA - The United States Food and Drug Administration HIV/AIDS Program works closely with outside individuals and advocacy groups on issues related to HIV/AIDS, informs the HIV-affected community of activities and policies at FDA related to HIV/AIDS, represents patient and community views and concerns to the agency, serves as a resource for HIV/AIDS-related information, explains the regulatory processes affecting development and approval of new therapies, represents FDA at a range of public and government meetings related to serious and life-threatening illnesses, and assists in development of federal government policies and regulations related to HIV/AIDS.
Johns Hopkins AIDS Service - This web site is provided as a resource for physicians and other health care professionals in providing care and treatment to patients with HIV/AIDS.


text: About 8200 System OverKote® TX - Type I - Chemical Resistant Epoxy - Textured Coating The TX formula utilizes a proprietary resin system to create a durable, textured, two-component, 100% solids anti-slip floor coating. Count on the advanced technology of Rust-Oleum OverKote TX for a textured floor coating that maintains its "like new" look. Ideal applications include high-traffic areas, areas requiring slip resistance or protection against chemicals and abrasion. OverKote TX can be easily combined with other systems, like 9000 System–FlorClad, or with additives like Aluminum Oxide for maximum performance and protection in your busy facility. Superior abrasion resistance Excellent chemical resistance Easy-to-mop and clean skid-resistant surface Textured finish minimizes flooring imperfections and provides anti-slip safety Can also be used as a vertical finish on concrete blocks


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Hormone Lowers Glucose Levels in Mice
Nov. 5 -- TUESDAY, Nov. 4 (HealthDay News) -- A hormone produced by fat tissues holds promise for people with insulin resistance or type 2 diabetes, a new report suggests.
The hormone, called apelin, significantly lowered blood sugar levels when injected intravenously into normal and obese mice, according to a study published in the November issue of the journal Cell Metabolism. Apelin also appeared to restore glucose tolerance and improve glucose uptake in mice that are obese and insulin resistant.
According to the finding, apelin seems to stimulate muscle and fat tissue so it better absorbs glucose from the bloodstream. It does this by activating a pathway for AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK), an enzyme that's key to control of skeletal muscle glucose and the metabolism of fatty acids, the researchers said.
"The present study reveals apelin as a new endocrine regulator of AMPK and strengthens the crosstalk between [fat] and skeletal muscle," the researchers wrote. "The involvement of AMPK in apelin-mediated glucose uptake represents an attractive pathway that could conceivably lead to a new drug target for the treatment of metabolic disorders."
Researcher Isabelle Castan-Laurell of the Institut National de la Sante et de la Recherche Medicale and the Universite de Toulouse, noted in a news release issued by the journal's publisher that previous studies have found similarities and parallels between the effects of apelin and insulin.
The effects of long-term apelin treatment in mice will be examined next to see if it can prevent obesity and insulin resistance, the researchers said.
More information
The U.S. National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases has more about diabetes.
SOURCE: Cell Press, news release, Nov. 4, 2008


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Local Event Premier Host
Cost: free admission
Join us for live music by the Special Ocassions Band from 6:30-9:30 PM!
More information:http://www.wineryatbullrun.com
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Sign up to be notified of wine, food & drink events online and in your neighborhood. It's free!


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The former chief financial officer of Refcopleaded guilty Wednesday to a $2.4 billion fraud in a criminal case stemming from the 2005 collapse of the futures and commodities broker.
Former CFO Robert Trosten's plea came less than a week after former Chief Executive Phillip Bennett also pleaded guilty to fraud and less than a month ahead of their trial. The case had drawn comparisons to the accounting fraud that drove telecommunications company WorldCom into bankruptcy.
Trosten, 38, pleaded guilty to conspiracy, securities fraud, bank fraud, wire fraud and money laundering charges during a hearing before U.S. District Judge Naomi Buchwald in Manhattan federal court.
"I take full responsibility for my conduct and my actions," Trosten told the judge, as his voice broke. "I apologize to my family and those I have harmed by my conduct, which I sincerely and deeply regret."
Bennett, Trosten and former President Tone Grant were scheduled to go to trial in March. The case was investigated by the U.S. Attorney's Office in Manhattan, along with the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.
As part of his guilty plea, Trosten has agreed to serve as a witness in trials of other defendants in the case.
Refco sustained hundreds of millions of dollars of losses through trading for itself and its customers, prosecutors said.
Trosten and others transferred many of those losses and made them appear as debt owed to Refco by a holding company that was controlled by Bennett, prosecutors added.
Refco and 23 affiliates filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Oct. 17, 2005.
Prosecutors have noted that on Oct. 10, 2005, Refco issued a press release saying in substance that it had discovered that it was owed a debt of about $430 million by an entity
controlled by Bennett.
Refco subsequently liquidated its operations.
In December, Santo Maggio, former president of the Refco Capital Markets unit, pleaded guilty in the case. Maggio also agreed to cooperate with U.S. authorities in their investigation of fraud at the company.
The same month, prosecutors, along with postal inspectors and the SEC, filed charges against Joseph Collins, a former outside lawyer for Refco. He has pleaded not guilty.
On Tuesday, the SEC also sued Bennett, accusing him of orchestrating the fraud that led to the company's demise.
Trosten is next scheduled to appear in court in February 2009.
"He deeply regrets his involvement in these fraudulent activities, and is attempting to rectify the misjudgment that he made ... by cooperating with the government," his lawyers said in a statement.


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Illinois ECE 498AL: Programming Massively Parallel Processors, Lecture 15: Kernel and Algorithm Patterns for CUDA
Licensed according to this deed.
Published on
Kernel and Algorithm Patterns for CUDA
- Reductions and Memory Patterns
- Reduction Patterns in CUDA
- Mapping Data into CUDA's Memories
- Input/Output Convolution
- Generic Algorithm Description
- What could each thread be assigned?
- Thread Assignment Trade-offs
- What memory Space does the Data use?
- Stencil Computation: Fluid Dynamics, Image Convolution
- Bonded Input/Output Convolutions
These lecture were breezed by Carl Pearson and Daniel Borup and then reviewed, edited ,and Uploaded by Omar Sobh.
Sponsored by
Cite this work
Researchers should cite this work as follows:


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processes: living paintings | phyletic museum | d 2008
video artist, director, producer: robert seidel
light designer, technical supervisor: florian licht
soundscape: robag wruhme
processes: living paintings is a 35 by 16 meter full façade projection with a corresponding light choreography, ambient music and synced sound effects shown on the 2/2/2008 in Jena, Germany. It was especially created for the 100th anniversary of the Phyletic Museum founded by Ernst Haeckel as well as the event Jena illuminated being part of the opening ceremony for Science City 2008.
The projection consists of five living paintings which turned the
Phyletic Museum into an architectural canvas. These tableaux vivants refer to the accommodated phylogenetic collection which was given to the public by Ernst Haeckel in 1908. Additional inspiration comes from the nearby Institute of Systematic Zoology and Evolutionary Biology, where Seidel used to study and which, for instance, researches the locomotion of animals. All these impressions of color, movement and form are combined with his personal artistic research into intertwining primordial structures, whirring micro-surfaces, traces of smeared motion-fragments, nostalgic optical aberrations, pulsating mirage shadows as well as biographical reflections.
The façade of the museum was immersed in shimmering light by a 35 by 16 meter 2K-video using 3 projectors. To create a connection with the interior, every window was illuminated from the inside and synced with occurrences in the cinematic structure. Reacting sound effects tied everything even closer together. The 5 minute video loop had an unique ambient soundtrack of 17 minutes that shifted constantly, generating singular experiences with every viewing. With this complex technical setup processes: living paintings was breathing life into the museum on that one and only winter night. Its multi-layered complexity freed the audience of around 20.000 to create their personal narrative flow and filled the museums square with a dense cloud of spellbound whisper...
Full Credits:
Video Artist, Director and Producer: Robert Seidel
Light Designer and Technical Supervisor: Florian Licht
Soundscape: Robag Wruhme
Video Documentation: Philipp Hirsch, Tilo Gehlmann
Photo Documentation: Christian Seeling, Marko Schmidt, Thoralf Müller
JenaKultur: Sandra Werner, Oliver Jahn, Gunnar Poschmann,
Carsten Müller, Dr. Margret Franz
Friedrich-Schiller-University: Prof. Dr. Martin S. Fischer, Dr. Gunnar Brehm, Elisabeth Bennemann, Karin Schneider, Gottfried Stief,
Rolf Kralisch, Sindy Krüger
Technical Setup: Hendrik Wendler, André "Willy" Willscher, Andreas Günther, Steffen Jochmann, Jörg Wolfermann
Projection Equipment: MX Wendler Video Software, e:cue lighting
control, PVS Jena, Radio Meixner
Special Thanks: Sebastian Schwartze, Tino Schmidt, Martin Rhiel, Jörn Bock, Vicky Gebhard, Henrik Hofmeister, Robert Berneis, Stefan Kraus, Sibylle Straub, Heiko Stark, Max Wolf, Gunther Schöbinger, Anne Petersdorff, Kai Uwe Hoffmann, Timespin, Freude am Tanzen / Musik Krause and my Family & Friends
copyright robert seidel 1996 - eternity


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Use of nurse-led telephone follow-up as a sole method of assessing patients after nasal surgery (England)
Case Study
posted by WM Admin on 9 April 2015
Patients undergoing nasal surgery have historically been routinely followed up in consultant led clinics some months after surgery. It has been noted that a significant proportion of these patients either did not attend these appointments or did not require them, impacting on the efficiency of ENT outpatient clinics.
A quality improvement project was undertaken to assess this problem and to propose a new patient pathway whereby patients are contacted by ENT nursing staff by telephone three months following surgery. During these telephone conversations only 9.5% of patients requested outpatient follow-up and all of these patients were discharged upon their follow-up. The project demonstrates that nurse-led follow up is an efficient, effective and safe way of managing patient care post-nasal surgery.
This article is available to read in free full text at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjquality.u208386.w3311
Sooby, P. & Kirkland, P. (2015). Use of nurse-led telephone follow-up as a sole method of assessing patients after nasal surgery. BMJ Quality Improvement Reports, 4.


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Introduction to AVR Build Quality – Part I: Range of Options by Supplier and Price
What does your money purchase inside the chassis of an AVR or Pre-Pro in an audio / video system? In this article, one in a three part series, I attempt to answer this question: I will open the top and look at the parts inside and show how each of the individual parts can affect the audio quality. We will see that dramatic differences exist at a given price point. While this article is focused on electronic components that perform the complex tasks in the audio channel of the AVR, I have always kept in mind the need to make the material understandable to a motivated reader.
Herein, we examine the components embedded in thirty AVRs and Pre/Pros from twelve manufacturers. I draw my observations from service manuals and the technical information found on the manufacturers' websites. Some of my manuals are dated by a couple years, but little has likely changed in the preamp sections of the units on which this article concentrates, with the exception of a handful of products that recently had a DAC upgrade.
It is not possible to focus only on current products because there is often a significant lag between a product's announcement and when I can get access to the schematic or service manual. Access to manuals from some companies is restricted to authorized service centers, or companies may sell them to consumers at very high prices.
For this article, there are no schematics to read, and I have kept the electronics jargon to the level of the features and specifications sections on a manufacturer's website. More technical material is deferred to Part II of this article. Part I covers all the concepts.
My attention centers on the data converters, e.g., DAC, and analog electronics that follow the preamp. Not shown in Figure 1 above are the multiple sets of stereo inputs. In direct mode, the stereo inputs can be connected to the volume control to bypass the digital signal processor (DSP). Alternatively, the inputs can be converted to a digital signal by an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) to drive the DSP. This path is also not shown in the diagram. A direct path for a set of 7.1 analog inputs to electronic volume controls (volume controls that have gain circuits embedded in the volume controls themselves) is also not shown in this diagram.
Many older AVRs had eight ADCs instead of the current standard of two. With eight ADCs, the DSP could process 7.1-multichannel analog signals. The additional six ADCs were costly. HDMI obviated them by enabling high-resolution multichannel digital signal transfer.
To make the discussion more manageable, I do not highlight quality differences in the stereo ADC path. This may be the subject of a later article.
Understanding DAC Specifications
The most important aspect of DAC performance is SNR, followed by level linearity error, pattern noise and THD. Other factors to note are whether the DAC is balanced or unbalanced, whether the DAC is a current-source device or a voltage-source device and the number of DAC channels inside the package"
The price of a DAC IC increases with performance. Improved performance is typically related to the size of the silicon utilized by the chip. Over time, performance improves for a constant price, especially for the entry level DACs. This is a consequence of innovations in circuit design and process technology.
A DAC manufacturer's worst-case specification on a datasheet establishes a performance bound (the lowest performance acceptable). If the DAC chip does not exceed the tests specification with the bound, then it is thrown out. Most chips that pass have better than worst-case performance. AVR designers must work with the worst-case numbers for all integrated circuits (ICs) to determine the unit's overall worst-case performance. The final worst case terminal specifications of the AVR provided to the consumer are set by the summation of the worst case specifications of the individual IC in cascade inside the unit. Unfortunately, most datasheets for analog ICs present worst-case values for only a few specifications. Most specifications provide only "typical" values. The percentage of parts that achieve this typical value is not specified.
Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) dominates the DAC's performance across the majority of the signal levels. Only as the signal level approaches 1/20 of the full-scale signal level does Total Harmonic Distortion (THD) assert itself.
Most DAC suppliers only provide SNR measurements with an A-weighted filter in the signal path. The A-weighted filter rolls off the low end of the spectrum, which is said to correspond to hearing test curves that show the ear is less sensitive to low frequency noise. The sensitivity of the ears to low frequency tones changes with SPL, so A-weighting often underestimates the perceived noise level.
Since the noise of a transistor, especially a MOSFET, tends to rise at low frequencies, adding the filter improves SNR when compared with an unfiltered measurement more than if the noise source were flat for all frequencies.
The deviation in amplitude of a sine wave from the theoretical value, as the digital input signal level is reduced, is also important. This is often called level linearity error. Level linearity error should also be checked at different frequencies and sampling rates, but one is lucky to find a single specification on most data sheets.
The noise floor of some DACs may have audible tones that cannot be observed using standard tests for DACs. These quasi-periodic oscillations are called pattern noise, idle-channel tones, or modulation noise. Quasi-periodic signals are difficult to measure; rarely, will it show itself as a distinct line in a spectral plot. Nonetheless, our ears can detect the tonality. These quasi-periodic tones can be observed by changing the digital equivalent of a DC voltage as it is applied to the DAC and monitoring the SNR. Other test methodologies have been proposed to produce a measurable result when the converter is exhibiting this behavior. The following reference offers additional information and includes extensive references:
The paper below by ESS engineers looks like an IEEE paper, but in fact it was never reviewed or published. Section IV of the paper addresses how ESS attempts to remove the quasi-periodic coloration of the noise floor.
Full scale THD at 1 kHz does not fully characterize the performance of the DAC. Distortion performance varies with the full frequency range from 20 Hz to 20 kHz. THD tends to increase with increasing frequency.
Digital Reconstruction Filter
Data sampling systems require reconstruction filters to eliminate out-of-band spectra that are artifacts (e.g., aliasing) of the sampling process. Modern audio DAC ICs use a digital filter to remove most of the off- band components. By doing so, the analog filter at the output of the DAC can be a simple circuit. The more complex the digital filter, the better its ability to reject the out-of-band components from the sampling process.
A more complex filter also has less frequency response ripple in its pass band. With high-resolution material sampled at 96k samples / second and above, the DAC filter may provide different, digitally selectable, filter roll-off rates. A slow mode improves the impulse response in the time domain by reducing the slope of the transition band. If the slow mode is used for a CD with 44.1 samples / second the response will start to rolloff at 10kHz and will be down -3dB at 20kHz which is obviously audible. For sampling rates above 96k samples / second slow mode is flat past 20kHz. In most cases, these options are documented in the datasheets for the DACs. However, ESS does not disclose this publically.
Information on digital reconstruction filtering process is found in Part II of his article
Some designers perceive an aural effect with different digital reconstruction filters. The paper below does extensive testing of different digital reconstruction filters and concludes different approaches do not change the sound.
The next link, below, is from Wolfson Semiconductor. It was presented at an AES conference, but never in the AES journal which has a more demanding review process. Wolfson draws different conclusions than the paper above.
The potential changes in sound quality of digital filters and the quasi- periodic tonal behavior of some DACs may explain an AVR designer's justification of selecting DAC ICs that do not maximize SNR and THD for a given chip price.
Number of DACs per Chip
The number of DACs per chip is typically two or eight. The eight-channel chips are often called octal DACs. The ability to increase the number of channels on a single chip results from transistor scaling as process technology advances, at least for the digital transistors. Analog components often do not scale, since this can affect noise, distortion, and level matching between channels. It thus should come as no surprise that the parts with a lower performing analog section were the first to be made available as octal DACs. These parts also minimize the amount of silicon taken by the digital filter. The datasheets for lower priced octal chips show the performance degradation of the digital filters in which the most significant is the amount of attenuation in the stop band. Digital filter specifications will be discussed in Part II.
The performance of DACs with eight channels improved when Cirrus offered parts with worst case SNR and THD improved by 10dB over previous octal parts in 2001. In the last few years ESS has shown that the analog performance need not be compromised offering almost all its parts with eight independent channels.
The advantage of octal chips is that only one chip is required instead of four on the PC board. An added benefit is the matching between channels is improved since all 8 are on a single chip.
In highly integrated chips, the two ADCs for conversion of analog stereo inputs to digital for DSP processing may also be integrated on the same chip. When both ADCs and DACs are on the chip, it is called a CODEC.
The most highly integrated mixed signal ICs for AVRs may also include the SPDIF input selector, as well as SPDIF timing and data recovery system. This is sometimes called the DIR for Digital Input Receiver. Combined with the latest multicore DSP chip and a highly integrated analog chip, to be discussed below, most of the audio portion of an AVR are found on three chips.
Recovery of digital audio from the HDMI inputs is performed by ICs on the video switching board of the AVR. The PCM streams from USB and Apple digital audio dock cables are produced by other chips in the AVR.
Improved Distortion and Noise Performance with Balanced DAC Output
All but the lowest cost DACs provide two outputs per channel. Each output actually comes from two separate DACs. One DAC output is out of phase with the other. This is called a balanced signal. A circuit called the balanced to single ended converter is connected to the balanced outputs of the DAC IC.
The balanced signals are subtracted from each other to form a single-ended output. In the process of converting the balanced analog signal to the single-ended output, some distortion produced by each DAC, in the balanced pair, is partially cancelled. Comparing the THD levels for single ended and balanced output DACs shows significant improvement for the balanced DAC. This will be seen on the chart below. In addition to improving distortion, balanced DACs may also show an improvement in SNR level.
The balanced-to-single-ended converter is also designed to provide the final reconstruction filtering in the analog domain. This low order filter removes folded tones that remain after the digital reconstruction filter. They are typically above 100 kHz and low in level, so only low-order filtering is required to remove them. Additional details on this analog filter and its typical frequency response can be found at the following link:
The analog reconstruction filter must be in the signal path for single ended and balanced DACs. Since the reconstruction filter uses an opamp in all but the lowest cost (below $350) AVRs, only a few passive parts are needed to add the balanced-to-single-ended conversion function.
Enhanced Distortion Performance with Current Mode DACs
DACs come in two types. DACs with a current output (current-mode DAC) require high-quality external opamps to convert the DAC's current output to a voltage. The current-to-voltage converter stage is often abbreviated as I/V.
A current-mode DAC allows the output pins of the DAC to stay at analog ground instead of moving with the music signal. This improves the distortion performance of the DAC. The I/V converter, as the name implies, produces a voltage output in proportion to the current flowing from the DAC. For reasons that will be outlined below, producing a very high performance opamp is difficult when the chip must perform other function. Since the I/V converter is a stand-alone opamp, it does the job more accurately (lower noise and distortion).
All current mode DACs have balanced outputs thus two I/V converters are required
Voltage output DACs put the opamps inside the chip, which prevents inherent THD from exceeding -100 dB worst case. The advantage of a DAC with a voltage output is that the two external opamps and the associated passive parts need not be placed on the PC board, reducing cost. All lower performance DACs have transitioned to voltage outputs to save the cost of the extra opamps.
Multiple DACs Combined to Produce a Single Channel
Data sheets for a company's top of the line two channel DACs often provide specifications for the chip running as a mono device. In this mode, the output of the two DACs are summed together so that a single output is produced. When this topology is used, the noise floor is reduced. If the DAC supplier intends a part to be used in mono mode, the SNR improvement is provided on the datasheet for mono DAC performance.
An internal digital control bit in the DAC sets the DAC to accept a single mono PCM input stream.
The simplest DACs to place in mono mode are the current mode topologies. The outputs of the two channels are connected together. This connection is specifically shown in the Analog Devices in the Analog Devices application manual below and is also described in the ESS datasheets. TI appears to require a more complex setup discussed in Part II of this article.
Mono modes are found only in top-of-the line DACs in a vendors lineup because it is typically cheaper to move up the product line for stereo DACs rather than stay at a lower rung and use two DAC chips in mono to produce a stereo signal. The only time this does not apply is if the lower rung parts are being used in very large quantities across a large number of AVRs at a specific company. The company would get a significant discount given the large quantities they purchase. The next rung up the ladder part would be targeted only for a top of the line AVR, and the price of the DAC could be much higher since high quantity discounts would not apply to it.
Octal ESS DACs provide to option to be wired as stereo DACs (four current output lines shorted together) or mono DACs (eight current output lines shorted together). Thus three sets of specifications are provided on the data sheet (mono, stereo and eight-channel). With the choice increased to three, it is less clear which ESS DAC will yield the lowest cost solution for an AVR that requires eight or more channels of conversion. Some products use a given ESS chip for mono or stereo operation for the main channels (L and R) and another single chip with the same part number for the remaining six outputs in a 7.1 system.
Cirrus Logic does not have a DAC which is specified to operate in a mono mode.
It is possible to add circuitry so an AVR with 6 stereo DACs (to provide 12 outputs for 11.1 applications) can be switched to use the DACs in mono for SNR improvement, but only 6 channels are available. Some 9.1 channel AVRs switch only the front channels to mono allowing 7.1 operation to be preserved.
Chart Presenting Build DACs used in AVRs Across Manufacturers and Price
Performance of the digital-to-analog (DAC) converter chip is wide-ranging across manufacturers and models. DAC performance with decreasing SNR is listed on the following chart. The ranking includes all DAC manufacturers actively producing parts found in AVRs. The main column for the SNR is for all channels of the DAC producing independent signal (two or eight channels).
The rankings are done with the worst-case values of SNR shown in red. For the ESS parts, this article in SECRETS is the first public disclosure of the worst case SNR figures. Only typical numbers are found on the ESS datasheets on the website.
The SNR values in the chart are the A-weighted values.
A separate column of SNR values supplied when the DAC is operated in mono mode if the DACs data sheet provided a value for this. For the special case of an ESS Octal parts operated in stereo mode (four current outputs connected together), the SNR value is shown at the rightmost position on the chart.
The THD of the DACs is also shown. ESS and Wolfson do not supply worst case distortion numbers. I have not provided information about the performance of the digital filter incorporated in the DAC chip to prevent the charts from becoming too cluttered with data.
Performance of some DACs changes with the sampling rate. Datasheets often provide specifications for sampling rates of 96K samples/sec and 192K samples/sec in addition to 48k samples/sec. Again, to make the chart readable I have only shown the data for 48k samples / second.
At the right of the chart are products with the DAC. As can be seen, several different companies may deploy the same DAC. The price of the AVR need not correlate with DAC performance. One product, for example, the $500 Harman Kardon AV1700 has DACs that have 108dB worst-case SNR spec and -94dB worst case THD spec. On the other hand, a $1600 Marantz AV1700 has a DAC with a 102dB worst case and -86dB worst case, respectively.
Towards the negative, I identified a couple companies who relatively recently downgraded a DAC for a given price point.
Towards the positive, improved DAC performance is evident in the just announced top of the line products from Pioneer and Yamaha. I have listed these units alongside older offerings to illustrate the improvements.
Most changes in DACs, for a given company, at a given price point, are lateral with a change less than +/- 3dB change in SNR or THD. Another semiconductor vendor may have won the socket or a part may have been discontinued and replaced by the incumbent vendor.
Some of the best DACs from the top manufacturers are not currently being used. Under these circumstances, I listed an older AVR that used the part. In some cases, I could only find two-channel products currently using these parts. I still listed the DACs since I wanted to show differences among the best parts from all DAC producers.
A small subset of AVRs may use lower performing DACs for extra surround or subwoofer channels. I do not note this in the chart. The chart (Table 1) is seen on the next page.
The Right Side of the Chart: More Details about the AVRs and Pre/Pros
Different AVR and Pre/Pros listed on the right side of the chart (Table 1 below) may have interesting aspects of the design not associated with the DAC IC. A small number shown after the product indicates that an aspect of the design deserves more discussion. A page of notes following the DAC list deciphers the numbers.
The chart and the note page offer a relatively complete picture of the build quality of the analog audio channel of the products to the preamp output at a level that obviates a deep dive to the schematic. The only missing item is the ADC and the circuits that drive it.
Service manuals are generally not circulated for the more expensive North American products because of their small production runs. Service calls only occur at corporate headquarters. I was able to include the Anthem AVM 50 and D2 because their designs were discussed on the website when the products debuted. The discussion was at such detail that almost every chip in the audio signal path was described. Subsequently, this information was removed from Anthem's website.
For the Anthem MRX 700, I referred to the review by Kevin Nakano in the LA Audiofile website. Kevin removes some boards in the unit to identify the key chips mounted on them. This requires great care to avoid damaging the unit. This is an especially difficult task in the absence of dis-assembly instructions found in the service manuals. www.laaudiofile.com/anthem_mrx700.html.
To see a larger version of the table, left mouse click on the small image and the larger image will appear. If you want to see it full size, right click on the larger image and select "View Image". Then you will see a mouse cursor with a + symbol. Left click on the larger image, and it will become full size. Use the back arrow to return to the text.
All DAC data are shown in dB. Typical values are black. Guaranteed minimum limits are shown in RED. SNR values are with an A-weighed filter in the signal path.
Part marked SI have a single ended output. Parts marked Bal have balanced outputs (see above)
Parts marked CM have current mode output (see above)
DACs with current output require two additional opamps and passive components per channel on the board for current-to-voltage conversion.
Specifications are for a sampling rate of 48k samples per second. Some parts degrade at higher sampling rates.
Parts marked ADC have 2 channels of conversion. If a part marked DIR the part has an SPDIF input selector, clock and data recovery.
* CS4226 6ch CS4382, CS4385 and CS4228 8ch The CS4226 and CS4228 include the ADC and DIR
Notes Section
- AVRs and Pre/Pros listed in black have a single Large Scale Integrated (LSI) chip that subsumes the majority of the unit's analog electronics.
- AVRs and Pre/Pros shown in green use multiple Small Scale Integrated (SSI) parts for analog signal switching and digital electronic volume control function.
Unless otherwise noted, external operational amplifiers are LM833, RC4558, or equivalent Far East second sources. The parts are the lowest-priced opamps with performance specifications just sufficient for audio applications.
1) Old design for reference with respect to the DAC usage only.
2) Asynchronous Sampling Rate Converter (ASRC) for jitter reduction. This can be internal to the DAC chip (ESS DACs) or precede the DAC as a dedicated IC. Other products may subsume the jitter reduction functions within the DSP chip. If this is the case, I cannot observe the circuitry.
3) Quasi-current mode balanced to single ended converter circuit that uses only one opamp instead of three. Use of this circuit increases distortion from value shown. Additional details in Part II of this article.
4) The operational amplifier quality improved to NE5332 (NJM2114 equivalent for Arcam). Roughly a 30% – 50% price increase. These have better performance and are found in many high-end two channel products.
4a) NE5532 opamp used in I/V converter stage that follows the current mode DAC. Other opamps are typically lower quality parts.
5) Significantly better opamp quality. There may be a two- to five-fold jump in price relative to the lowest cost opamps useful for audio applications.
6) Attention has been paid in reducing the nonlinear effects of DC block capacitors. More information on these effects can be found in a paper written in Audio Magazine that was placed on the web:
Service manuals often lack sufficient transparency to determine the grade of electrolytic capacitors in the signal path. The service manual does indicate if the number of DC blocking capacitors in the signal path has been minimized (higher quality opamps with lower DC offset voltages enable this). The presence of a film bypass capacitor in parallel with the electrolytic is another clear sign that the designer is worried about signal distortion from the electrolytic. If I observed this, a notation is placed next to the product.
7) Balanced electronic volume for DAC.
Details on ASRC, opamp quality and the balanced volume control are found in Part II of this article.
The Concept of Effective Bits
Signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and Total Harmonic Distortion (THD) of the DAC are expressed in dB. This is the convention adopted by DAC manufacturers for presenting the metrics on datasheets. It is a challenge to decipher the relationship of these numbers relative to the requirements to reproduce music recorded in high resolution. It is nonetheless possible to convert the SNR to an equivalent specification called Effective Bits of Performance with minimal effort. As the name implies, effective bits indicates the limit of the performance of the DAC.
We can calculate the effective bits for both SNR or THD.
While high resolution music is recorded with a 24 bit word per sample, the ADCs and analog electronics used for the highest quality recordings are limited to the 20 – 21 bit range.
|Effective bits
|SNR in dB
When the number of bits of the word coming into the DAC is subtracted from the effective bits the remainder is often called the marketing bits. For example if a DAC that has 20 effective bits of signal to noise and has an input word length of 32 bits, it has 12 marketing bits.
Effective bits are also a useful measure for analog signal blocks. The SNR and THD specifications are converted with the same equation to clarify when the performance of the analog block will swamp the performance of the DAC. More specifically, this occurs when the effective bit specification of the analog part is lower than that of the DAC.
For a few data sheets on data converters, notably the ESS products, the number of bits in the data path, or multiply-accumulate section of the digital signal processor, are presented. The large number of extra bits, relative to the analog resolution of the DAC in effective bits, are required to prevent round-off error in the digital computations occurring in the on-chip digital reconstruction filter and Asynchronous Sampling Rate Converter.
Single Chip Analog AVR LSI
The AVRs in the table, regardless of price, tend to have a single chip that subsumes almost all of the unit's analog electronics. This single chip serves a variety of functions:
- Eight channels of electronic volume controls to control the level at the preamp or power amp output.
- Eight channels of analog buffering for direct connection to the preamp output jacks or internal power amp inputs.
- A switch at each electronic volume control input to select the DAC output or the 7.1 analog inputs.
- A selector switch for the two-channel analog inputs (8 – 14) to be sent to the ADC, or in direct mode, sent to the electronic volume controls at the preamps output.
- The FL and FR volume control inputs have an additional position on the switch to the volume controls. This is for the direct (DSP bypass mode) mode of operation for two channel inputs. All other volume controls are grounded when stereo direct is selected.
- Two channels of electronic volume controls for the ADC input to adjust levels to prevent overload of the ADC, followed by a pair of opamp buffers.
- An independent selector switch for the two-channel analog inputs to be sent to the record output. An opamp buffer is placed between the selector switch and the chips output to isolate the selector switch from the load. In addition, switches are in series with the output that open to prevent a tape recorder self-loop fault condition. Some AVRs have no tape output and in that case this selector is for zone 2.
- Another independent selector switch for the two-channel analog inputs to be sent to an alternate record output. This output can also be used for zone 2 or 3 outputs. The selector switch is again buffered by a pair of opamps
Block diagrams will be supplied in the Part II of this article.
The number of transistor switches ranges from 100 to 150, and the opamp count typically lies between 16 and 30. Parts with high opamp counts support other functions such as analog bass management or add unity gain buffers into the main signal path.
Each electronic switch in a CMOS process requires two transistors in parallel: a PMOS that provides the lowest resistance path as the signal moves to its maximum voltage, and an NMOS switch that provides the lowest resistance as the signal moves to its minimum voltage.
Each electronic volume control consists of a resistor string to attenuate the incoming signal, and a block of transistor switches. Each switch selects a different volume level at each tap in the resistor string. A simple electronic volume control is shown in Figure 2 below. It has four resistors to provide four distinct output levels.
Consider the 4-position example in Figure 2 above, with each tap having the same value resistor between taps.
Level Reduction
The top point is always 0 dB
Tap 1 is down to 0.75 full level
Tap 2 is down to 0.5 full level
Tap 3 is down to 0.25 full level
Volume controls for audio have steps that decrease in constant decibel increments. The resistor values in an audio volume control are different between each tap to obtain this results. Each volume control in an AVR must have a large gain adjustment range, for example -96 dB to +32dB. When half dB steps are desired, 256 resistor segments and 512 transistors (2 transistors per switch) are required. The LSI chip has ten volume controls, eight for adjusting the level to the power amp and two, with a smaller range, for adjusting the level to the ADC to prevent overload. In total over 2000 resistors and 4000 MOS transistors are needed. More transistors are on the chip as digital gates to allow an external microcontroller to close the correct switch.
The number of pins for these parts runs between 80 and 100. Integrated circuits incorporating this quantity of electrical components are called Large Scale Integrated (LSI) circuit.
Missing from the LSI chips are the ADC, the DAC, and a pair of standalone opamps at the input of the ADC for anti-aliasing filtering. Eight standalone opamps are resident at the outputs of the DAC for reconstruction filtering and if the DAC is balanced the balanced to single ended conversion function.
By far, the Renesas R2A152XXFP is the most common single chip analog LSI family. The XX are the last two numbers of the chip and designate the size of the input switch network. Other similar chips are from Rohm (e.g., BD3473KS2) and New Japan Radio Co (JRC) (e.g., NJW1299). The datasheet for one of these chips can be found at
This chip (NJU72340) has a simpler input switching than what is found in current AVRs.
Datasheets for more complex chips listed above are not on the IC company's website. The Rohm and JRC chips are most readily accessible by entering the part number in Google and using a third-party datasheet storage website to download it. Renesas datasheets are not currently available on the web.
The block diagrams in the datasheets show every opamp and the switching blocks. The Rohm datasheets shows every switch pair. Some datasheets are more comprehensive than others especially with respect to the worst-case performance numbers. Different chip suppliers may not use the same test procedure. Taking this into account, it appears the typical THD and SNR of different LSI chips found in the AVRs I examined varied about 3 dB typical, but 6 dB worst case. No single chip had the best specs in all categories. A chip with the lowest noise might not have the lowest distortion.
The latest generation of AVR LSI chips has less noise and distortion than the ones offered in the prior decade, which explains their deployment in more expensive products. This is mostly a result of innovations, at the circuit level, in the design of the volume control section. The distortion performance, however, has not improved to the point where the AVR LSI volume chips are better than all but the least expensive DACs. Thus the final measured distortion at the preamp output is often dominated by the analog AVR LSI, and not the DAC. For higher performance DACs the noise will also be dominated by the AVR LSI chip.
An LSI chip can handle a maximum of eight channels. On products with more channels, such as 11.2 receivers, there will be two LSI chips to provide volume controls to cover the additional channels and the second and third zones.
Enhanced Performance with SSI Parts
Previously, a single chip analog AVR LSI was associated with lower priced AVRs. In contrast, higher-priced units would use Small Scale Integrated circuits (SSI) to provided performance advantages.
An opamp is an SSI chip. Opamp packages separately contain as many as four units.
To form the electronic volume control, an SSI part containing only resistor strings and switches is used. External opamps are added to form the complete circuit.
The switches are grouped in SSI packages with 4 – 50 switches pairs per package. Multiple switch packages are dispersed throughout the AVR to perform functions such as stereo analog input selection and signal routing to the electronic volume controls.
One downside of some AVRs built with SSI chips is the latitude afforded to the designer to incorporate extra functions to the analog path. This is most common in top-of-the-line Japanese designs using SSI chips. Additions, such as analog bass management high-pass filters, analog tone controls, and analog down mix add solid state switches and extra opamps to the main signal path even when the functions are bypassed. The additional components reduce channel separation and can increase distortion.
Limitations of Operational Amplifier Performance with the Single Chip Analog AVR LSI
Shoehorning these parts into one chip can limit performance because of size constraints. Power consumption of the opamp must be reduced to avoid overheating the LSI chip. The opamps in the LSI chips consume about half the current of a standalone audio opamp. The area of silicon taken by each opamp on the LSI chip must be reduced to fit them into the chip. Decreasing the size of an opamp and the current it consumes increases the noise of the opamp and causes more distortion, especially when driving resistor loads below 10 Ohm.
The power supply of the LSI chip decreases to ± 7 V, half of the standard value for analog audio chips. Doing so decreases the power consumption of the total chip by half, thereby permitting more parts to be placed in a single LSI chip. A smaller power supply provides less margin between the maximum signal swing of the signal at the output of the LSI chip and the power rails. The reduced headroom is another aspect of the LSI chip's design that increases distortion.
Process technology to produce an LSI analog chip differ from a process for SSI opamps. For example, MOS switches are not required. Some performance specifications for the individual bipolar transistor will be improved in the optimized opamp process. In turn, better measured performance from the opamp can be achieved than were it manufactured with LSI process technology. The typical process for opamps supports ± 15V.
The selection of specific opamps for optimal performance in an AVR is discussed in Part II of this article.
Limitations on the Performance of Semiconductor Switches with the Single-Chip Analog AVR LSI
Akin to the opamps, there is tradeoff between the level of integration and the size of switches. Smaller transistors pairs that make up the switches have higher resistance, which can result in more distortion.
Transistor switch resistance is also proportional to power supply voltage. The power supply voltage of the LSI chip has been reduced to half of what an SSI set of switches can support (±15 V). Lower voltage on the switch pair reduces the pair's effective resistance. In the Funk preamp reviewed on this site, the voltage on the switches was increased to ±20 V to reduce distortion further at the risk of exceeding the recommended maximum voltage for the SSI switch parts and reducing the lifetime of the product.
Combining the issues of the opamp and semiconductor switch performance degradation, the distortion of the LSI chip is 4 – 10 times larger than what can be achieved with an SSI solution. The LSI chip typical distortion is in the 15.5– 16 bit equivalent range. This drops by 3 bits worst case. SNR performance is, however, better than expected at 20 – 20.5 bit equivalent typical with a 2 bit drop worst case. The best implementation I found in a Pre/Pro using SSI parts produced an SNR about a bit equivalent better than this for both typical and worst case values.
Use of Relays to Achieve Better Performance
In stereo equipment, relays often substitute for solid-state switches. This is costly and can create reliability issues since the relay has mechanical parts; to the positive, the substitution imposes no noise or distortion. In an AVR or pre/pro built with SSI parts, a relay can replace transistor switches for routing analog signals inside the AVR. None of the products for which I have a service manual deployed relays for stereo analog input selection. I suspect higher-priced pre/pros produced in North America may use relays for this function, but cannot confirm this. I did find a relay routing the signal to the electronic volume control in one product.
A Very Brief Look at Changes in Power Amps in AVRs
The design quality of a power amplifier can vary across units at a given price point. Quality variations do not correlate with the design quality of the preamplifier section. Dissecting the power amplifier requires an understanding of schematics and analog circuitry at the transistor level. I will not attempt to rank the power amplifiers from different manufacturers.
When the hood is lifted on AVRs that are currently in production or have recently been discontinued, we find changes have occurred in the analog section (excluding the power amp) in medium to higher-priced products.
Intuition suggests the quality of the DAC in an AVR moves inversely with the added features list over time, i.e., to keep prices constant as features are added, DAC quality suffers. I was surprised to discover that the intuition turns out to be incorrect. Only after completing the exercise of compiling the products list did I fully appreciate the tradeoffs between functionality and cost control. In many cases, DAC quality is not the point of vulnerability; instead, the pinch point is the substitution of the SSI chips for the single-chip analog AVR LSI.
A key takeaway: circuit quality in the direct mode (stereo or 7.1) is almost always invariant to AVR prices in the range of $400 to $2,000. As examples, the $250 Yamaha RX-V367 and Marantz AV8801 ($3000) use the same Renesas LSI chip (R2A15220FP). With the LSI analog chip in these products, the sound of the direct mode is relatively constant, although a more robust power supplies, addition a quality output buffer and enhanced DC blocking capacitor quality can make small differences.
Unfortunately it is not possible to actually do this listening test just proposed in practice because the Yamaha RX-V367, like almost all low cost AVRS produced today, does not have preamp outputs. The experiment would be possible using the older RX-V665 ($550)
Even a low-cost stereo integrated amplifier will offer better performance in its analog input to its preamp output than an AVR in direct mode, since stereo products are made from SSI chips and, occasionally, relays. Value-priced stereo preamps with exceptional internal parts quality, including the electronic volume control chip, such as the Emotiva XSP-1 recently reviewed in Secrets (link shown below), will reveal any coloration of the LSI chip in the AVRs in direct mode.
The LSI analog chip also degrades the performance of the AVR when listening to the DAC for reasons outlined above.
Using multiple SSI analog chips was, a technique found in all top of the line AVRs for Japan but now only one is left. The use of multiple SSI analog chips remains in Pre/Pros designed and built in North America. Unfortunately, these units have higher prices. I cannot make definitive statements about top of the line units designed in the UK since I have no current service manuals
Most, not all, manufactures now fail to provide specific chip numbers on their website for components like the DAC, ADC, electronic volume controls, and opamps, leaving the consumer limited visibility with respect to parts quality. They have never specified the IC used for the multichannel electronic volume control if it is produced by Renesas, Rohm, or JRC.
A significant delay can occur between the time a product is released and when I gain access to the service manuals. Thus most of the products examined for this article are discontinued
Part II of this article will provide more technical information about:
- Construction options for improving performance of an AVR, Pre/Pro and stereo units with better performing analog SSI circuits.
- Signal flow in the LSI analog AVR chips.
I would like to thank Peter Aczel, Jim Clements, Howard Ferstler, Jay Haider, Stephen Hornbrook, Chris Heinonen and Robert Kozel for reviewing this article.


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Microsoft has often been mocked for their naming convention. The company's brands have a reputation for being confusing. While the jokes might have merit, Microsoft having multiple SKUs for their software make business sense. As the launch of Windows 8 nears, information of how Microsoft plans to simplify their products and have a better marketing campaign is surfacing.
The Windows Versions
Microsoft's audience isn't limited to those who crack the jokes, there's a wider and more complex market to cater to, add to that different geographic locations and their laws–for Microsoft, it's a complicated mess that requires a lot of thought.
Windows 7 and Windows Vista had 6 versions main SKUs:
- Starter
- Home Basic
- Home Premium
- Business (Vista) aka Professional (Windows 7)
- Enterprise
- Ultimate
If my information is correct, Windows Vista Starter was limited to emerging markets, while the rest were sold in the US. This was slightly changed for Windows 7; Starter was only available as pre-bundled on OEM machines whereas Home Basic was specifically for emerging markets.
According to documents accessed by Stephen Chapman at ZDNet, Microsoft will be simplifying the available Windows 8 SKUs. Chapman links to HP documentation where he only 3 Windows 8 SKUs were listed:
- Windows 8
- Windows 8 Professional
- Windows 8 Enterprise
We know that Windows 8 will have an ARM version but that, like Windows 7 Starter, will be available pre-bundled on OEM tablet devices. Microsoft has no plans to sell Windows 8 ARM (WOA) as an off the shelf product. The three SKUs will be available in 32 and 64 bit versions.
The 3 versions make a lot of sense. Having just 1 version for the consumer and two for the enterprise is a solution Microsoft should've tried with Windows 7. For those who remember, there was an uproar on the Internet when Microsoft's intended to restrict number of apps that can run at the same time on Windows 7 starter, was 3. This was however changed. There was no need of a Windows 7 Starter edition since there was little different compared to Windows 7 Home Basic.
For what it's worth, it's an excellent decision to completely remove any possible confusion for the end consumer by having a single SKU. That said, I won't be surprised to see some variants to meet the legal requirements, like in Europe.
The Windows Live and Zune brand
One of Microsoft's best and most subtle moves of late has been their slow and steady death of the Zune brand. Windows Phone 7 was called as the next Zune music player, the devices were slowly killed, and then company officials stopped using the name Zune. It was obvious, Zune's on its way out. The problem however was that Zune is Microsoft's music and entertainment brand as well as the sync client for Windows Phone 7. According to leaked information, Windows Phone 8 won't require Zune for syncing. Tom Warren writing for The Verge reiterated that the Zune offering will be rolled into Xbox LIVE. According to Tom Warren, with Windows 8, Microsoft will be killing the Windows Live brand. Tom says the following products will take over:
- Microsoft Account (Windows Live ID)
- Mail (Windows Live Mail)
- Calendar (Windows Live Calendar)
- People (Windows Live Contacts)
- Photos (Windows Live Photo Gallery)
- Music (Zune Music Player)
- Video (Zune Video Player)
CNET ran an exclusive story by Greg Sandoval that Microsoft is discussing a new Spotify-like subscription service with the labels. (As of now, Microsoft has Zune Pass.) Going by the adage that there's no smoke without fire, Zune Pass is probably on its way out too. This is a good thing.


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Filters: Author is Leuliette, E. W. [Clear All Filters]
Predictions of crustal deformation and of geoid and sea-level variability caused by oceanic and atmospheric loading." Geophysical Journal International 129 (1997): 507-517. Abstract"
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Closing the sea level rise budget with altimetry, Argo, and GRACE." Geophysical Research Letters 36 (2009): 04608. Abstract"
Balancing the Sea Level Budget." Oceanography 24, no. 2 (2011): 122-129. Abstract"
Integrating Jason-2 into a Multiple-Altimeter Climate Data Record." Marine Geodesy 33, no. 1 supp 1 (2010): 504. Abstract"
Calibration of TOPEX/Poseidon and Jason Altimeter Data to Construct a Continuous Record of Mean Sea Level Change." Marine Geodesy 27, no. 1 (2004): 79. Abstract"
Detecting time variations in gravity associated with climate change." Journal of Geophysical Research (Solid Earth) 107 (2002): 2112. Abstract"
Variations in global mean sea level associated with the 1997–1998 ENSO event: Implications for measuring long term sea level change." Geophysical Research Letters 26, no. 19 (1999): 3005-3008. Abstract"
Comment on "Estimating future sea level change from past records" by Nils-Axel Mörner." Global and Planetary Change 55 (2007): 358-360. Abstract"
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20th Century sea-level change along the eastern US: Unravelling the contributions from steric changes, Greenland ice sheet mass balance and Late Pleistocene glacial loading." Earth and Planetary Science Letters 250 (2006): 572-580. Abstract"


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An Australian man expected in Perth after being acquitted by a Malaysian court of drug trafficking charges that carried a mandatory death penalty has failed to show.
Dominic Bird, 34, was scheduled to arrive home about 2.30pm (WST) on Saturday, bringing to a close an ordeal of more than two years during which he twice overcame efforts by Malaysian authorities to have him executed after he was accused of supplying an undercover detective with 167 grams of methamphetamine in March 2012.
Under Malaysian law, possession of 50 grams or more of methamphetamine carries a mandatory death sentence.
Mr Bird was acquitted in September 2013 but re-arrested as he prepared to board a flight back to Perth after the Malaysian Department of Public Prosecutors (DPP) launched an 11th-hour appeal.
The Malaysian Court of Appeal rejected the DPP's case on Wednesday, upholding the original trial decision, and the DPP has confirmed in writing to AAP that the matter will not be pursued further.
It's understood Mr Bird departed Malaysia at 8.30am local time on Saturday on an AirAsia flight bound for Perth.
However, there was no sign of him at the other end of the journey. It is not known if he is still in Malaysia, has flown to another destination or is arriving on a later flight.


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Big Oil already pushing for partial waiver of 2014 RFS volumes
One week after the U.S. EPA finalized the 2013 volume requirements for the renewable fuels standard (RFS), the American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers and American Petroleum Institute are already gearing up to fight the 2014 RFS standards. The EPA has not yet proposed volume requirements for 2014.
On Aug. 13, the AFPM and API announced the filing of a joint petition with the EPA, asking the agency to waive 3.35 billion gallons from the 18.15 billion gallon statutory requirement for 2014. According to the petroleum groups, the reduction is "necessary to avoid the severe economic harm that will result from exceeding the 10 percent ethanol blendwall."
Under the reduction proposed by the AFPM and API, the 2014 RFS standard would be set at 14.8 billion gallons, which is significantly lower than the 16.55 billion gallon volume standard set by the EPA for 2013 last week.
In a statement, AFPM and API claim that using ethanol blends greater than E10 is corrosive and incompatible with today's engines, vehicles and infrastructure. "Waiving the 2014 volumes is the only available solution to avert the potentially disastrous implications of the blendwall," said the groups in a statement. The two petroleum trade organizations also claim that the requirements of the RFS will result in increased costs for transportation fuel and cause economic harm throughout the economy.
"EPA missed a golden opportunity to address the ethanol blendwall in 2013; however, we're encouraged the agency recognized there is a problem in its rule setting this year's biofuel requirement," said Charles Drevna, president of AFPM. "This petition will provide a roadmap for the agency to follow as it promulgates its 2014 waiver."
In the release issued by the EPA finalizing 2103 RFS requirements, the EPA specified that it will propose to use flexibilities in the RFS statute to reduce both the advanced biofuel and total renewable volumes in the forthcoming 2014 RFS volume requirement proposal. On page 67 of the final rule for the 2013 standard the EPA expands on that statement, noting that the statutory 2014 RFS volume requirement of 18.15 billion gallons includes a 14.4 billion non-advanced biofuel pool, comprised mainly of corn ethanol, along with 3.75 billion gallons of advanced biofuel. "A significant portion of the fuel available to meet the advanced biofuel requirement would also likely be ethanol, including domestically produced cellulosic and advanced ethanol, along with advanced ethanol imported from Brazil," said the EPA in the rule. "However, the maximum volume of ethanol that could be consumed as E10 in 2014 is projected to be just 13.2 billion [gallons]."
According to the EPA, in proposing the 2014 RFS requirements, it will estimate the available supply of cellulosic and advanced biofuel, assess the E10 blendwall, along with current infrastructure and market-based limitations and propose to establish volume requirements that are reasonably attainable. "We are currently evaluating a variety of options and approaches consistent with our statutory authorities for use in establishing RFS requirements for 2014. We will discuss these options in detail in the forthcoming [notice of proposed rulemaking] for the 2014 standards and expect to utilize the notice and comment process to fully engage the public in consideration of a reasonable path forward that appropriately addresses the blendwall and other constraints," said the agency in the final 2013 rule.
While the petition filed by the AFPM and API asks the EPA to waiv part of the 2014 standard, the filing shouldn't prompt any official action from the agency. Language included in Section 211 of the Clean Air Act, which established the the RFS program, clearly states that waiver must be filed by a state government or an obligated party to prompt EPA action. As trade organizations, neither the AFPM nor API fits that definition.
Growth Energy has spoken out to criticize the waiver filing. "The actions by API and AFPM are designed with one goal in mind –to eliminate any competition from clean, green biofuels in the liquid transportation fuels marketplace," said Growth Energy CEO Tom Buis. "It is time that oil companies and special interests stop worrying about maintaining their monopolistic practices and allow competition and choice in the marketplace. Not only should we provide consumers a choice and savings at the pump, we must stop putting our eggs in one basket when it comes to a national energy policy. Biofuels are a clean burning, reliable and sustainable alternative and it is time we start recognizing their cost savings and numerous benefits and end our addiction to a fossil fuels and Big Oil's price gouging."