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Privacy Policy
Last revised: 19 December 2019
BlackRock is committed to processing personal information ("PI"), including sensitive personal information ("SPI")1, in line with all applicable privacy and data protection laws. Most of our offices are located in countries with laws governing the processing of PI. "BlackRock", "we", "us" or "our" means BlackRock, Inc., and each of the direct or indirect subsidiaries of BlackRock, Inc. (the "BlackRock Group"). BlackRock, Inc., BlackRock Group functions and the entity you contract with are the controllers of your PI. If your contract with the BlackRock Group is in connection with an investment in a BlackRock managed vehicle, the management company of the fund, together with the fund entity and, in circumstances where the investment manager is part of the BlackRock Group, that investment manager, will be the controller.
References to "you" or "your" refers to individuals whose PI is processed by BlackRock, including clients with direct or indirect relationships (such as those who invest through an intermediary); employees, contingent workers, officers, agents (together "Representatives"); and beneficial owners of an organization or entity in connection with:
- the provision of services to potential and actual clients;
- transactions to which we are party (including those which we effect on behalf of clients); or
- services provided to us by a third-party vendor.
This Privacy Notice sets out the purposes for which we collect, use and disclose (collectively "processing") PI and how it is protected. It also sets outs individuals' rights in relation to the processing of their PI.
There may be additional terms, conditions and commitments that also govern how we collect, use and disclose your PI, which should be read in conjunction with this Privacy Notice.
Please click on the links below for further details:
- PI we collect about you
- Purpose and legal basis for processing your PI
- To whom we disclose your PI
- International transfers and transfers to service providers
- Marketing and exercising your right to opt-out of marketing
- Third party marketing/sale of PI
- PI retention
- PI security
- Your rights
- Contacting us
- Complaints
- Cookie Notice
- Linked websites
- Changes to this Privacy Notice
PI is information relating to an individual, which can be used either alone or with other sources of information to identify that individual. PI does not include information where the identity of the individual or the specific detail of the information has been removed and is therefore anonymous. SPI is a sub-category of PI that includes PI relating to race or ethnicity, religious or philosophical beliefs, sex life, sexual orientation, political opinions, trade union membership, information about health and genetic and biometric data.
The nature of the information that we collect will depend on the services we provide and our relationship with you. We categorize PI we process as follows (the PI listed for each category are non-exhaustive examples):
- Identification data
Full name, title, gender, marital status, date of birth, passport number, driving licence number, national identification number, signature
- Contact data
Personal address, telephone number, email address
- Electronic Monitoring data
To the extent permitted by law, we may record and monitor your electronic communications with us
- Financial data
Bank account number; credit card number
- Marketing and Communications data
Marketing and communication preferences; tracking data relating to whether you have read marketing communications from us
- Professional Information data
Position/job title, work address; telephone number; email address
- Profile data
Username and password for our online services that you have access to; investments made by you; services requested; marketing communications responded to; survey responses
- Services data
Payment details to and from you; details of services you have provided to us or we have provided to you
- BlackRock Building and Assets Security data
Records of visits to our premises; CCTV recordings
- Technical data
Your use of and interaction with our online services; your IP address; browser type and version; browser plug in types and versions; operating system
In limited circumstances, and where allowed by law, we may collect information about criminal convictions and offences, when legally required; dietary requirements if we are arranging catering; disability so that we can make reasonable accommodations for you in our buildings; sexual orientation if you provide details of your spouse or partner; political affiliations for us to determine whether you are a politically exposed person.
We collect PI in relation to you in a number of ways, including:
- when you provide it to us in connection with a BlackRock product or service, such as a completed investment application form
- if you are Representative of an organization or entity that is a client or vendor of BlackRock and that organization or entity provides us with your PI
- throughout the course of our relationship with you, including where you change your details, provide additional PI, or where the services we are providing to you change
- from public sources where you have manifestly chosen to make your PI public, including via public profiles on social media
- from third parties such as credit reference agencies
- from visits to our websites or through logging into any of our online services
We may also create or derive PI such as creating records of your interactions with us, subject to applicable law.
Unless we otherwise indicate that the provision of specific PI is optional, any PI we request is necessary for us to provide you or your organization or entity with the products and services requested. If you do not provide the PI requested, we may not be able to provide those products and services.
Purpose and legal basis for processing your PI
The below table sets out the purposes and basis for which we process PI.
|Processing Purpose
|Category of PI
|Basis of Processing
|To consider opening an account, or entering into a relationship at your request, including performing anti-money laundering, anti-terrorism, sanction screening, fraud and other due diligence checks
|To deliver the services you have requested, including liaising with third parties (e.. brokers for the purposes of executing transactions) and to provide access to our technology solutions services (e.. Aladdin)
|To manage payments, fees and charges and to collect and recover money owed to us
|To manager our relationship with you which will include notifying you about changes to our terms of business or this privacy notice
|To interact with governmental or regulatory bodies or other competent national authorities
|To detect or prevent fraud and/or other criminal activity and to protect our employees and assets
|To manage and protect our business, including improving data security, troubleshooting data and systems, system maintenance and testing, data hosting, managing our offices and other facilities
|To invite you to take part in market insight or other events, or client seminars or similar events, and to manage your participation in them
|To send you marketing (including by paper and electronic channels) communications and service updates.
In relation to vendor services:
|Purpose and/or activity
|Type of data
|Legal basis for processing
|To engage you or the organization or entity you work for as a new supplier, including performing anti-money laundering, anti-terrorism, sanctions, fraud and other background checks
|To manage payments, fees and charges and to collect and recover money owed to us
|Where we provide you access to our systems we need to manage and protect our business, including improving data security, troubleshooting data and systems, system maintenance and testing, and data hosting
In connection with one or more of the purposes outlined in the section 'Purpose and Legal basis for processing your PI' above, we may disclose PI in any jurisdiction to:
- other members of the BlackRock Group;
- professional advisors, third parties, agents or independent contractors that provide services to any member of the BlackRock Group (such as IT systems providers, platform providers, financial advisors, brokers, consultants (including lawyers and accountants);
- goods and services providers (such as providers of marketing services where we are permitted to disclose your personal information to them); intermediaries, brokers, and other individuals and entities that partner with us;
- competent authorities (including any national and/or international regulatory or enforcement body, agency, court or other form of tribunal or tax authority) or their agents where BlackRock is required or allowed to do so under applicable law or regulation;
- a potential buyer, transferee, merger partner or seller and their advisers in connection with an actual or potential transfer or merger of part or all of BlackRock's business or assets, or any associated rights or interests, or to acquire a business or enter into a merger with it;
- credit reference agencies or other organizations that help us to conduct anti-money laundering and anti-terrorist financing checks and to detect fraud and other potential criminal activity; or
- any person to whom disclosure is allowed or required by local or foreign law, regulation or any other applicable instrument.
International transfers and transfers to service providers
To provide global services and in the course of running our business, we may transfer PI to a location outside of the country where you reside or where services are provided to you or the organization or entity you work for, including BlackRock processing centers in the USA, Hungary, India and Singapore. Although the country to which PI may be transferred may not have the same level of privacy and data protection laws, we apply the same level of security and organizational controls to the processing of PI wherever it is processed. We require by contract that our third party service providers processing PI on our behalf to comply with BlackRock's criteria for PI processing.
If we transfer PI out of the EEA, we ensure a similar level of protection for your PI by ensuring the country to which the PI is transferred is considered by the EU Commission to provide an adequate level of protection, putting in place contractual clauses the EU Commission consider to provide the same level of protection. For third party service providers in the US, we may rely on the EU-US Privacy Shield certification.
Marketing and exercising your right to opt-out of marketing
We will not process your PI for marketing purposes if you have informed us you do not wish to receive marketing materials. You can request that we stop processing your PI for marketing purposes at any time by clicking on marketing opt-out links in any electronic marketing materials we send you, by making a request to your usual BlackRock contact or by using the contact details set out in the "Contacting Us" section of this Privacy Notice.
Third-party marketing/sale of PI
We do not share or sell your PI to third parties for the third party to use for their own marketing or other purposes.
We will process your PI for as long as is necessary to fulfil the purpose for which it was collected or to comply with legal, regulatory, accounting, reporting, internal policy requirements or for the establishment or defense of legal claims.
We use a range of physical, electronic and managerial measures to ensure a level of security appropriate to the risk of PI processing. These measures include:
- education and training of relevant staff to ensure they are aware of our privacy obligations when processing PI as well as training around social engineering, phishing, spear phishing, and password risks;
- the ability to ensure the ongoing confidentiality, integrity, availability and resilience of processing systems and services;
- the ability to restore the availability and access to PI in a timely manner in the event of a physical or technical incident;
- administrative and technical controls to restrict access to PI;
- technological security measures, including fire walls, encryption (industry standard SSL encryption with 128-bit key lengths), and anti-virus software;
- physical security measures, such building access controls;
- external technical assessments, security audits and vendor due diligence;
- perimeter security;
- segregation of networks;
- application security;
- endpoint security;
- real-time monitoring of data leakage controls;
- layered and comprehensive cybersecurity defences; and
- security incident reporting and management.
The security of data transmitted over the internet (including by e-mail) cannot be guaranteed and carries the risk of access and interception. You should not send us any PI by open/unsecure channels over the internet. We endeavour to protect personal information but cannot guarantee the security of data transmitted to us or by us.
In certain circumstances you may have the following rights in relation to the processing of your PI:
- Access
To request a copy of the PI we process in relation to you and to be informed about how we use and share your PI.
- Object
To object to the processing of your PI if (i) we are processing your PI on the grounds of legitimate interests or for the performance of a task in the public interest (including profiling); or (ii) if we are processing your PI for direct marketing purposes
- Correction
To request that we update the PI we process in relation to you, or to correct PI that you think is incorrect or incomplete.
- Erasure
To ask that we delete PI that we process in relation to you where we do not have a legal or regulatory obligation or other valid reason to continue to process it.
- Restriction
To request that we restrict the way in which we process your PI, for example, if you dispute the accuracy of your PI or have raised an objection which is under consideration.
- Portability
To request a copy of your PI that you have provided to us in a commonly used electronic format such as through the completion of an application form.
- Automated decision making
To request manual intervention if you are subject to automated decisions where the decision results in a legal or similar effect to you.
You may exercise your rights at any time by using the details set out in the Contacting us section. To the extent permitted by applicable law or regulation we reserve the right to charge an appropriate fee in connection with you exercising your rights.
We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access to the PI requested, or to exercise any of your other rights. This is to ensure that PI is not disclosed to any person who does not have authority to receive it. We may also request further information in relation to your request to help us to locate the PI processed in relation to you, including, for example, the nature and location of your relationship with us.
We aim to respond to all legitimate requests within one calendar month. If we think it may take us longer than one calendar month, (such as where your request is particularly complex or you have made a number of requests), we will notify you and keep you updated.
You will not be disadvantaged in any way by exercising your rights in relation to the processing of your PI.
The Global Head of Privacy and Data Protection oversees compliance with privacy and data protection at BlackRock. If you wish to exercise any of your rights, or have questions concerning this notice, please contact:
The Global Head of Privacy and Data Protection
12 Throgmorton Avenue
Email: email@example.com
If you are a California resident, you may also call us on +1 855 371 0019.
If you have any concerns or complaints about the way your PI is processed, please contact the Global Head of Privacy and Data Protection at firstname.lastname@example.com. You also have a right to complain to a data protection or other competent authority with jurisdiction over privacy and data protection law in the country you live or work, or in the country where you believe an issue in relation to the processing of your PI has arisen. Please contact email@example.com for further details.
Please see our separate Cookie Notice.
This Privacy Notice is not applicable to third party websites that we do not own or control, or to any third-party website where BlackRock advertisements are displayed.
Changes to this Privacy Notice
We may modify or amend this Privacy Notice from time to time and you are advised to visit our website regularly to check for any amendments. Any material changes will be communicated to you through an appropriate channel, depending on how we normally communicate with you.
BlackRock Cookie Notice
Last revised: 11 May 2018
What are cookies?
Cookies are small text files that are stored in your computer's memory and hard drive, in your mobile device or tablet when you visit certain web pages. They are used to enable websites to function or to provide information to the owners of a website, or other third parties which receive data obtained from that website.
When you visit any web site, it may store or retrieve information on your browser, mostly in the form of cookies. This information might be about you, your preferences or your device and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to. The information does not usually directly identify you, but it can give you a more personalized web experience.
Why do we use cookies?
Cookies help us to provide customized services and information. We use cookies on our Website to tell us, in general terms, how and when pages on our Website are visited, what our users' technology preferences are – such as what type of video player they use – and whether our Website is functioning properly. Depending on their purpose, some cookies will only operate for the length of a single browsing session, whilst others have a longer life span to ensure that they fulfil their longer-term purposes (as explained in more detail below). Please note that, however long the cookies' active life may be, you can delete cookies (and therefore stop any further data collection by them) as further described below.
If you are using one of our password-protected sites, then the Website may use cookies or other technology to help us authenticate you, store and recognize your configuration and user attributes, facilitate your navigation of the website and customize its content so that the information made available is likely to be of more interest to you.
In broad terms, we use cookies on our Website for the following purposes:
- Analytical purposes
Analytical cookies allow us to recognize, measure and track visitors to our Website and compile a record of this usage information. This helps us to improve and develop the way our Website works, for example, by determining whether site visitors can find information easily, or by identifying the aspects of websites that are of the most interest to them.
- Usage preferences
Some of the cookies on our Website are activated when visitors to our sites make a choice about their usage of the site. Our Website then 'remembers' the settings preferences of the user concerned. This allows us to tailor aspects of our sites to the individual user.
- Terms and conditions
We use cookies on our Website in order to record when a site visitor has seen a policy, such as this one, or provided consent, such as consent to the terms and conditions on our Website. This helps to improve the user's experience of the site – for example, it aids in avoiding a situation where a user is asked repeatedly to consent to the same terms. We also track whether a user has seen other similar documents (such as an online survey) before – again, to ensure that a user's experience of our Website is a smooth one.
- Session management
The software that runs our Website uses cookies for technical purposes needed by the internal workings of our servers. For instance, we use cookies to distribute requests among multiple servers, to authenticate users, and to determine what features of the site they can access, verify the origin of requests, keep track of information about a user's session and determine which options or pages to display in order for the site to function.
- Functional purposes
Functional purpose cookies store information that is needed by our applications to process and operate. For example, where transactions or requests within an application involve multiple workflow stages, cookies are used to store the information from each stage temporarily, in order to facilitate completion of the overall transaction or request.
- Advertising
Advertising cookies allow us (or third parties) to monitor the behaviour of users of our Website. This information is used to ensure that products and services highlighted to those individuals are targeted in a focused and relevant manner – e.g. through advertisements on BlackRock websites or through advertisements on third party websites (e.g., Bloomberg, Agefi.com, Handlesblatt.de, etc) which are based on your experience with our Website; or to monitor the effectiveness of those digital marketing campaigns. We also monitor whether the adverts displayed on our Website are of interest to users and retain this information to ensure that adverts seen by users of our Website over a period of time are appropriate.
Please note that third parties may use cookies. The kind of cookies and the consequent data processing carried out by such third parties are regulated by their privacy policies. Please see below for more information about third party cookies.
Your cookie preferences
Cookies are necessary in order for you to be able to make full use of BlackRock's Website. In addition, cookies help us provide you with personalized features on our Website. If you chose to disable cookies, some of BlackRock's Website's functionality might be impaired.
Local Flash Storage
On certain pages of our Website, we include content designed for display using Adobe Flash Player, such as animations, videos and tools. Local flash storage (often referred to as "Flash cookies") can be used to help improve your experience as a user. Flash storage is retained on your device in much the same way as standard cookies but is managed directly by your Flash software.
If you wish to disable or delete information stored locally in Flash, please see the documentation for your Flash software, located at www.adobe.com. Please note that, if you disable Flash cookies, some site functionality may not work.
Third party cookies
When you visit our Website, you may receive cookies that are set by third parties. These may include cookies set by Google, Bizo, LinkedIn, AppNexus, Xaxis, MediaMind and/or Rocketfuel. These cookies are used for the purposes described in the "Why Do We Use Cookies?" section of this policy. We do not control the setting of these third-party cookies, so we suggest you might wish to check the third party websites for more information about their use of cookies and how to manage them.
|Third Party
|Privacy Policy
|Verint Inc
Amending cookie preferences
If you wish to remove cookies set by our Website from your browser in the future, you may delete them. The instructions for removing cookies from your computer or mobile device depend on the operating system and web browser you use. Please note, however, that withdrawing your agreement to the use of cookies on our sites will impair the functionality of the sites.
The site www.allaboutcookies.org includes instructions for managing cookies on many commonly used browses, or you may consult the vendor documentation for your specific software.
Further information about cookies
If you would like to find out more about cookies in general and how to manage them, please visit www.allaboutcookies.org.
1 Please note not all privacy laws define SPI, for example Hong Kong, Singapore and Canada


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Tag Archives: federal register
75 Years of the Federal Register
The Federal Register has been around for 75 years! What is it? The "official daily publication for rules, proposed rules, and notices of Federal agencies and organizations, as well as executive orders and other presidential documents." It was created by … Continue reading
Posted in info.gov Tagged adminstrative law, census bureau, CFR, code of federal regulations, federal government, federal register, government info, health & human services department, law, legal research, poverty, regulations, regulatory law Comments Off on 75 Years of the Federal Register

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Bruce Caldwell may refer to:
- Bruce Caldwell (American sportsman) (1906–1959), American baseball player and American football running back
- Bruce Caldwell (rugby union) (born 1908), rugby union player who represented Australia
- Bruce Caldwell (historian of economic thought), American historian of economics
|This disambiguation page lists articles about people with the same name. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.
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Events for October 9, 2020
Events Search and Views Navigation
10:00 am
Corporate Fiber & Materials Benchmark (CFMB) Survey Drop-in Clinic
Join Here. The drop-in clinics provide a hassle-free opportunity for you to connect to the CFMB team (and others joining the clinic) to trouble-shoot particular problems or share benchmarking concerns. Together, we can quickly resolve issues, offer advice... or we might need to go away and find the solution if we can't answer on the spot. Either way, we will ... Read MoreFind out more »


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This content has been marked as final. Show 3 replies
1. Re: S29JL064J70BHI000 availabilityBushraH_91 Sep 12, 2018 4:24 PM (in response to mapec_3719846)
Hello Mark,
Thank you for contacting Cypress Community Forum. S29JL064J70BHI000 is production release part and as per Cypress Flash Memory Roadmap S29JL-J will be supported till 2022. Please contact local Cypress Sales for buying 4pcs. of the S29JL064J70BHI000 part.
Have a wonderful day
2. Re: S29JL064J70BHI000 availabilitymapec_3719846 Sep 19, 2018 2:08 AM (in response to BushraH_91)
Hi BushraH_91, Thank you for your response, that is reassuring the part is still active.
We are struggling to find a local supplier for these parts (we actually need around 130pcs). Are you able to advise a supplier for these parts in the UK?
3. Re: S29JL064J70BHI000 availabilityBushraH_91 Sep 19, 2018 5:19 PM (in response to mapec_3719846)
Hello Mark,
Please go to url for placing order http://www.cypress.com/cypress-store
Thank you


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MEETING SPOT FOR 2.5 Hour Learn to Mush Tour:
Our 2.5 Hour "Learn to Mush" meets at Rainbow Ranch Lodge, in Big Sky, Montana, which is convenient for those using the Free Public Transportation (Skyline Bus) that runs around Big Sky. Rainbow Ranch Lodge & The Corral are the last stop on the free shuttle bus, that runs from The Mountain to the Canyon. We meet a few minutes before your designated departure and then either transport you to our Basecamp in our vehicles, or if you have a 4WD/AWD vehicle you are welcome to follow us.
Rainbow Ranch Lodge Address is:
42950 Gallatin Rd, Big Sky, MT 59730
THERE IS NO CELL COVERAGE WITHIN 10 Miles of our camp. Save directions before coming out...
The one hour Basic Dog Sled Tour meets right at our Basecamp. Which is off of US Highway 191 (the road that runs from Big Sky to West Yellowstone) on Taylor Fork Rd. A 4wd vehicle is necessary to get to our camp.
OUR BASECAMP IS LOCATED 2.4 miles up Taylor Fork Rd, on the left.
Once you turn on Taylor Ford Rd, put your vehicle in 4wd and proceed up the plowed, but snow covered road for 2.4 miles. Stay in the center of the road, or right of center. Do Not Drive down the left side of the road (its a snowmobile zone)
After climbing a small hill, and winding through a beautiful little river valley (Look for Moose and wolves) you will see our green gate and Husky sign on the left. Turn in our driveway and proceed to our camp. We will be the first signs of humans you'll see on Taylor Fork Rd.


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Understanding the Value of Your Business Ecosystem
Whether an organization needs to meet the many requirements of a trading partner or quickly onboard a new customer, time is of the essence. The sad reality is that despite all the strides that integration technology has made, many companies have yet to fully embrace integration and its IT and business benefits. These enterprises are still relying on the tried-and-true legacy environments that they are comfortable with, rather than exploring something new.
And hey, we get it. Who doesn't have that comfy pair of slippers that you refuse to throw out? But eventually, those slippers get so chewed up by the dog and by time that they need to be replaced. In this day and age, you cannot waste employee resources on cobbling together ways to meet different integration requirements from a trading partner because they use a different protocol or non-standard data format. You need to expand your business ecosystem to places it's never been before, and the way to do that is through a business ecosystem integration platform.
Companies need to ensure that they can seamlessly exchange business data with all aspects of their ecosystems, from trading partners and customers to third-party vendors and SaaS applications. This is why your business ecosystem is the core of your organization, and without the right integration technology in place to handle it, you will not be serving the best needs of your ecosystem partners.
What is a Business Ecosystem?
There are a couple of different ways an enterprise can look at what it means when we throw out the term business ecosystem. The immediate thought is an ecosystem involves all of your trading partners and customers that you do business with. But a business ecosystem also includes an internal ecosystem that companies must have a full grasp of as well.
Internal Ecosystems
Organizations must have functionality that allows for the interoperability of their internal business systems and applications. From automated processes to end-to-end visibility, companies have extensive interaction requirements and need to move data between their disparate internal systems. Everything within an internal business must work cohesively, and for the greater good of the organization.
External Ecosystems
An external ecosystem is when we refer to a digital network of trading partners, customers, and third-party vendors outside your four walls. Enterprises need the ability to efficiently exchange data to and from this ecosystem across multiple industries and geographies as well as across systems, applications, customers, and partners.
Business Ecosystem Example
One business ecosystem example is a manufacturer that must do business with its source vendors, suppliers, and R&D teams to make the product, its transportation and logistics carriers, a distribution partner, and various online marketplaces to sell it on, including Amazon, Facebook Marketplace, and its own e-commerce storefront. All these external B2B and cloud connections, however, create EDI and non-EDI data flows that must be integrated into its own internal ERP, TMS, WMS, and EDI systems. The result is an internal and external network of data sources spanning systems, applications, people, and devices.
Advantages of Adopting a Business Ecosystem-Focused Strategy
The importance of connecting and improving relationships with your external ecosystem cannot be overstated. Cleo recently surveyed 100 IT decision-makers who are directly involved in the planning process for digital transformation. The respondents span multiple industries, such as supply chain, financial services, retail/e-commerce, healthcare, and more.
Most of those surveyed are fully aware of just how critical IT modernization is in their ability to drive revenue. As many as 95 percent surveyed say they maintain some form of ecosystem aspirations, but almost half (48 percent) said that modernizing their existing IT systems and applications is one of their biggest integration challenges. Upgrading legacy systems is so key to a successful modernization project that 81 percent said that replacing them will play a role in supporting emerging business initiatives. Add in here all those things you just said: Ecosystem integration improves partner onboarding time through prebuilt templates and connectors, enables you to modernize, etc.
Speeding up partner onboarding time is just one of the ways that integration technology can help your business ecosystem. Many enterprises struggle to onboard new customers due to customized requirements for new business flows, and it's especially difficult for cloud and SaaS organizations to onboard new customers and support all their data needs.
The companies that are adopting an "outward-in" strategy, however, are reaping the advantages of business ecosystem integration. By utilizing prebuilt templates and connectors, partner onboarding time has never been quicker. Companies also can modernize their legacy environment because they have an integration platform that supports any new technologies they require. Additionally, business ecosystem integration helps consolidate disparate technologies, automate data transaction processing, and provide better visibility into your end-to-end data flows.
Get Started with Business Ecosystem Integration
All of this sounds pretty great, right? So just how are you supposed to get started to see results from a highly enabled business ecosystem? An ecosystem integration platform allows you to say 'yes' to customers, regardless of their format, connector, protocol, or even SLA. Cleo delivers the platform necessary to secure and reliably support all your requirements.
Cleo Integration Cloud provides seamless integration between your customers and back-end systems, end-to-end data governance and agility, as well as business insight through real-time visibility via reports and alerts. Rather than continuing to patch together integrations into your legacy environment, Cleo Integration Cloud is a single, cohesive platform that enables digital interactions across your entire business ecosystem. By taking an "outside-in" approach, enterprises can focus on delivering real business outcomes by improving the trading partner relationships that drive revenue.
Access the 2019 State of Ecosystem and Application Report to learn how to develop your own business ecosystem strategy.
Adam Hughes is a Content Marketing Manager at Cleo. Previously, he spent over five years at TechTarget as a News Editor and Managing Editor covering cloud computing, mobility, and other emerging technologies.


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Engineered to innovate
Core materials — and the ways they are used — evolve to meet new challenges.
#aeroengines #boeing #marketing
The use of core materials became widespread in the 1970s, when composite sandwich construction was first developed to provide a stiffer, stronger and lighter alternative to solid laminates. In space and aircraft applications, aluminum honeycomb became the core of choice. Its ultralight, open network of thin-walled hexagonal cells was favored especially for its high strength-to-weight ratio and good crush resistance and the fact that it worked well with aerospace-standard autoclaved prepreg.
Today, aluminum honeycomb shares the market with aramid and carbon honeycombs in prepreg constructions, and honeycomb is no longer the only core in town. Advanced composite sandwich constructions are employed in a broad range of applications that involve perform- ance demands, molding methods and constraints on labor, time and cost that make honeycomb's open cell structure impractical.
Featured Content
Rethinking core in aircraft exteriors
Although honeycomb has been the core of choice for composite aircraft structures, condensation and accumulation of moisture within its open cell structure has been a perennial problem in these particularly weight-sensitive applications. Aircraft manufacturers, therefore, are exploring the use of several closed-cell foam products that not only prevent water ingress, but improve sandwich structure performance as well.
Albany Engineered Composites (Rochester, N.H.) has ramped up production of X-COR, its innovative structural core material, which has been selected for use in the new all-composite tailcone, part of a major upgrade of the U.S. Army's UH60M Black Hawk helicopter. X-COR is made by reinforcing lightweight polymethacrylimide (PMI) foam with very small-diameter pultruded carbon fiber/epoxy rods arranged in a tetragonal truss network (see photo, this page). X-COR rods (0.28-mm to 0.5-mm/0.011-inch to 0.020-inch diameter) protrude from the foam, and are embedded in the facesheets during sandwich panel manufacture. X-COR is targeted to cocured structures with gentle contours and/or thick (>1.27 mm/0.050 inch) facesheets. The truss network carries both shear and compressive loads, while the foam base provides buckling support - a combination that ensures high structural efficiency and inherent damage tolerance. The resultant product has mechanical properties that reportedly match and/or exceed properties achieved in high-performance honeycomb. According to John Tauriello, Albany's director of marketing and sales, X-COR construction can be tailored to customer performance criteria. "By changing the rod placement angle and insertion density, we can precisely engineer X-COR to handle unusual and specific loading patterns. In addition, high compression loads can be handled in precisely defined areas for hard point and fastener installation or for high point loading scenarios - without adding undesirable weight and labor cost associated with potting compound."X-COR can be thermoformed and supplied as net-shape details and can be processed using the same cure techniques employed on honeycomb-cored structures.
The venerable Black Hawk helicopter remains a major resource for U.S. Army aviation. Produced by Sikorsky Aircraft (Stratford, Conn.), the UH-60M Upgrade will improve lift, range, maneuverability and safety as well as extend the aircraft's service life. The benefit of using composites in the new all-composite tailcone is a significant decrease in structural weight (47 lb/21.3 kg), which will enable increased performance and lower Operation and Support costs. "An important technology enabler for the composite tailcone is X-COR, said Michele' Ozier, the Army Composite Tailcone Project manager. "Without it we would never have been able to achieve the results and benefits we are getting today."The first of six ship-sets of X-COR part details have been shipped to GKN Aerospace for processing into tailcone parts and the first all composite tailcone is scheduled for delivery and use as a static test article in the fourth quarter of 2006.
In a cost-reduction move, Northrup Grumman (Los Angeles, Calif.) recently transitioned from autoclaved cured prepreg and honeycomb core to vacuum infusion of dry reinforcements with vinyl ester resin to manufacture the dorsal cover on the U.S. Air Force's T-38 Talon jet trainer.
Honeycomb is impractical for infusion because under vacuum, it is difficult to prevent resin flow into the honeycomb cell structure. Northrup Grumman replaced the honeycomb with Soric XF3, a combined core material and flow medium produced by Lantor Composites (Veenendaal, The Netherlands). Soric is a pressure-stable (that is, it resists compression during vacuum bag consolidation) nonwoven polyester mat with a honeycomb-like cell construction designed to enable resin flow in infusion processes. The cells are filled with microspheres to reduce resin absorption and resist compression. The nonwoven channels between cells enable resin transport and provide adhesive bonding between the sandwich faceskins and Soric core. Normally, impregnation during resin infusion occurs from the top down as resin is transported across the surface of the laminate stack. Soric enables resin transport through the laminate stack thickness as well. The material is compatible with most typical resins and closed molding processes.
A quite different resin-infusible core, from WebCore Technologies (Miamisburg, Ohio), is enabling fabrication of what will be the first jet engine fan case made with a composite sandwich construction. A critical structural component, the fan case encircles the jet's turbine blade structure and, in the event of a blade failure, must contain the blade within the engine housing. Fan cases feature one of two types of blade containment rings. The "hard wall"type is designed to reflect the blade back into the engine. The "soft wall"design, however, permits the blade to penetrate the case, relying on a ballistic aramid fiber overwrap to act as a "catcher's mitt,"stopping the blade (see HPC May 2005, p. 76). Soft wall cases are lighter, but conventional metal designs still weigh more than 1,200 lb/544 kg for containment rings as large as 10-ft/3m in diameter. Solid laminates have been used for jet engine fan cases in smaller aircraft, typically with braided reinforcements, but large commercial jet engines, such as the GEnx engine from GE Aircraft Engines (Cincinnati, Ohio), selected for Boeing's new 787 aircraft, usually feature solid aluminum or titanium cases. The GEnx will be the first to use an all-composite solid laminate fan case.
WebCore began working with GE in 2002 to develop a lightweight composite sandwich design for the newest GE90 and GEnx engines, using WebCore's fiber-reinforced foam core materials, trademarked TYCOR. TYCOR is made by WebCore's proprietary manufacturing process, in which fiber reinforcement is stitched through the thickness of closed-cell foam sheets to form a vertical web or rib-stiffened core structure. The dry fiber web and faceskin fabric are resin-infused to form a sandwich panel with robust z-directional reinforcement.
WebCore is currently working on a soft wall design that promises a more than 50 percent weight reduction vs. current metal designs. "We're using a combination of TYCOR core and braided fabric skin, which is integrally stitched through the thickness of the entire sandwich structure,"says Rob Banerjee, WebCore's VP of business development. To ensure that the case maintains its integrity, WebCore is using custom-designed TYCOR, with carbon fiber reinforcement and rigid 100 percent PMI closed cell foam that provides high performance at lighter weight than honeycomb.
"After impact,"Banerjee explains, "you don't see any delaminations, just a clean hole. This ability to prevent delaminations helps us to maintain the strength and stiffness that is required after an engine blade impact."Impact testing at NASA Glenn Research Center (Cleveland, Ohio) has consisted of high-speed photography recording a titanium blade traveling at 500 ft/sec to 1,000 ft/sec as it impacts the fan case. To date, WebCore's sandwich fan case has shown excellent performance in ballistic impact and post-impact structural tests. Further testing is planned with a KEVLAR overwrap and other features. Banerjee projects that this technology will be ready to go into production by 2010. "We are taking the slow and steady approach,"he explains. "Our composite fan case is ... well within the cost target, which is based on metal fan cases.â€
WebCore has successfully completed two Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) programs, funded by NASA and the U.S. Air Force, to demonstrate building such a large composite sandwich fan case and scale-up of manufacturing. The company has finished all of the extensive design work, built four fan cases for manufacturing demonstrations and completed several rounds of ballistic impact testing at NASA Glenn Research Center.
Banerjee adds that WebCore is looking into designs for smaller business jets, with 3 ft to 4 ft (0.91m to 1.22m) diameter fan cases, and embedding "smart"circuitry into fan cases to provide structural monitoring so that operators can see if there has been a blade impact, and if so, where it occurred and how much damage resulted.
WebCore's TYCOR also is finding use in construction of lightweight, portable aircraft landing strips. WebCore has worked with the U.S. Air Force since 2001 to develop a lightweight alternative to AM-2, the U.S. military's workhorse airfield mat system, in use for more than forty years. The AM-2 system is currently comprised of 2-ft by 12-ft (0.61m by 3.66m) aluminum panels, which are 1.5-inch/38-mm thick aluminum extrusions with extruded end connectors along all four edges to provide a locking mechanism. WebCore's AMX composite mat system will offer lighter weight, improved joint design and easier assembly. A typical airfield large enough to support a fighter squadron requires 480 pallets of AM-2 matting, weighing around 1.3 million lb (about 590 metric tonnes). The AM-2 system weighs 6.4 lb/ft2 - roughly 150 lb/68 kg per 2-ft by 12-ft panel. The target weight is 3.2 lb/ft2, a 50 percent reduction. "We can offer significant weight savings with a composite structure,"states Banerjee, VP of business development for WebCore. "Our current design is a 4-ft by 7-ft [1.2m by 2.1m] panel with aluminum extrusion joints on four sides."WebCore is also working on new joint designs that will ease assembly, including some made from composites, for further weight savings. WebCore's new AMX airfield mat system has a simpler connection design, enabling efficient transfer of loads and quicker installation. WebCore's airfield mat solution uses a carbon noncrimp fabric/epoxy skin with a custom-designed TYCOR core made with carbon fiber reinforcement and high-performance PMI foam. The panels are molded via RTM or infusion. Large-scale testing by the Air Force began this August, involving more than 1,000 ft2/93m2 of panels, installed over soft soil to maximize structural stress and subjected to simulated landings by the F-15 fighter jet and the C-17 Globemaster III cargo transport. The F-15 produces a 35,000 lb (15,875 kg) single wheel load while the C-17's combined wheel loads total more than 500,000 lb (about 226,800 kg). Airfield mat panels must withstand 1,000 passes from each aircraft. If the new composite AMX system passes the test, the next step will be an Engineering and Manufacturing Development (EMD) phase, leading to a 10-year production contract, starting in 2008.
New cores for aircraft interior lightweightingIn aircraft passenger cabins, the strength, stiffness and low weight of composite sidewalls, overhead bins, flooring, air ducts, and other parts traditionally have been optimized with honeycomb. Recently, manufacturers of business and commercial aircraft have saved weight and reduced fabrication time and labor by using several alternatives. "One of the biggest problems in aircraft interiors is not the cost of the raw materials, but the finishing," explains Nick Tiffin, global business development manager for aerospace interiors for Ten Cate Advanced Composites Group (Nijverdal, The Netherlands). "Surface porosity and telegraphing of the honeycomb core through the skin require applying filler and primer, sanding, and then re-applying filler and primer — repeating the cycle until a cosmetically smooth, paintable surface is achieved."
To address weight and read-through issues, a premanufactured, thermoplastic-cored composite sandwich panel, CETEX System 3, has been qualified for a variety of interior structures on the Airbus A380 aircraft and as an "ultralight bin" option that airlines can select when ordering Airbus A340-500/600 aircraft. The name "System 3" denotes its three thermoplastic components: polyetherimide (PEI) skins, PEI tubular-celled core, and thermoplastic adhesive. The CETEX skins are manufactured by Ten Cate using ULTEM PEI supplied by GE Plastics (Pittsfield, Mass.), and the PEI tubular core is produced by Tubus Bauer (Bad Säckingen, Germany). (Note that Plascore Inc. of Zeeland, Mich. is a U.S. manufacturer of similar thermoplastic tubular core).
AIM Aviation (Southampton, U.K.) designed the bins and manufactures them in the company's Renton, Wash. production facility. "CETEX System 3 allows manufacturing of very low-rework structures for overhead baggage bins, galleys and lavatories," says Tiffin, noting that even when using single-ply skins as thin as 5 mils/0.005 inch, there is no porosity, no paint needed and no fire/smoke toxicity issues. CETEX System 3 is used in the sides and backs of overhead bins, where the material's pigmentation eliminates the need for paint or other finishes. This not only saves weight and cost, but also extends bin service life, because painted surfaces quickly deteriorate under heavy wear. According to Ten Cate, CETEX System 3's thermoplastic surface offers better wear resistance than phenolic resins used in sandwich construction for aircraft interiors.
The product also can be adapted for painting. "If the bins are going to be painted dark, we can provide a dark-tinted laminate," Tiffin explains. "If the bins are going to be painted white, we can supply an off-white tinted laminate." Tiffin claims that PEI can be painted directly, and bonds well.
Recent analysis of an aircraft cabin screen divider showed typical production times of seven hours for a traditional cored structure (1.5 hours molding; sand sweep, primer; sand sweep, primer; and finishes) compared with two to three hours total production time for the same part made with CETEX System 3 (15 minutes thermoforming, plus primer and finishes). Thermoforming is done at temperatures of 140°C to 150°C (284°F to 302°F).
CETEX System 3 also is being used in commercial aircraft flooring. Three team members have worked together to develop a structural thermoplastic composite pallet for the new fully reclining bed-type seats featured in premium class cabins. W & J Tods Ltd. (Somerset, U.K.) designed and developed the flooring, working with Ten Cate and Tubus Bauer to obtain certification in the Airbus A340 and Boeing's 747 and 777 aircraft. Fully reclining seats are one of the hottest new trends in commercial aircraft interiors. However, they present a design challenge, because they are placed at an angle to the aircraft wall but must attach to existing aluminum seat tracks, which run fore and aft, according to traditional aircraft seating patterns. In contrast to the customary rectangular honeycomb-cored sandwich flooring panels, the CETEX System 3 thermoplastic plinth is a complex-shaped oblong panel, roughly matching the outline of a fully reclined upper-class seat. The seat is attached to the plinth and the plinth is fastened into the aluminum seat track in place of the standard flooring, solving the angular attachment problem. According to Tom Hitchings, director of aerospace business for W & J Tods, "The pallet incorporates a carbon fiber structural beam to help support the seat, with its equipment and passenger, as well as the 16-G crash load it must withstand in accord with FAA regulations. These pallets have passed stringent dynamic testing, including seats being installed as in a real aircraft and subjected to real crash loads." Hitchings explains that the thermoplastic solution also reduces the amount of aluminum required to meet structural requirements vs. traditional sandwich panel materials. Another benefit is that PEI is basically impervious to moisture uptake, an issue with honeycomb-cored flooring made from NOMEX paper.
Airlines report that the biggest benefit of CETEX is the damage resistance of the its thermoplastic skins. For example, Virgin Atlantic Airways — one of the first big end-users — changes the carpets in high-wear, heavy traffic areas every two weeks. Carpet is attached with industrial double-stick tape, and when it is pulled up, some of the top faceskin on traditional prepreg/honeycomb flooring can be pulled away with it. Virgin Atlantic has had CETEX System 3 floor panels flying for two to three years with zero damage. There are more than 4,000 aircraft seats currently flying with the CETEX System 3 thermoplastic flooring plinth, and programs now under way will add another 3,000 to 4,000 seats within the next few years.
Elsewhere, the interiors of various business and VIP aircraft now feature sandwich panels with new Atvantage Composite Structural Core (CSC) and Composite Insulating Core (CIC) from National Nonwovens (Easthampton, Mass.). These nonwoven materials are manufactured from discontinuous (3 inch to 6 inch or 76 mm to 152 mm) aramid fibers or blends of aramid and other high-performance fibers, which are "interlocked" and "chemically enhanced" to meet customer specifications. Interlocking refers to the company's practice of manipulating fiber orientation in the x/y plane to achieve desired compressive strength, flexural modulus and splitting resistance and then needling the fiber stack to generate a high degree of z-directional fiber in the stack to optimize interlaminar sheer strength and vibration damping. The company claims it can orient fibers within 5° of multiple requested angles. Chemical enhancement can include a variety of "back coatings" that provide flame- and moisture resistance, anti-microbial protection or enhanced stiffness.
While CIC nonwovens are heavier than honeycombs, overall part weight reportedly can be decreased because the weight associated with edge-potting of honeycomb is eliminated. CIC edges are sealed much more simply by hand-applying a relatively small amount of resin. Further, the core's resin-impregnated fiber architecture improves the panel's ability to support fasteners and attachments and eliminates local potting. In addition, the material's inherent damping characteristics reduce the need for additional damping materials.
CSC products are compatible with most prepreg resins, and National Nonwovens claims that the increased number of bond sites between a prepreg and CSC increases its resistance to delamination, an issue common with conventional prepreg/honeycomb structures.
Core for rigorous environmentsDuring missions to space, launch vehicles and their payloads must withstand the extreme shock and vibration loads encountered during lift off and, once outside earth's atmosphere, must endure extreme temperatures. The superior strength- and stiffness-to-weight and low coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) of composites offer the best-case materials options.
For the GOCE (Gravity-field and Steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer) satellite program, Ultracor (Livermore, Calif.) is providing materials for two satellites and an engineering module to the prime contractor, Alcatel Alenia Space (Cannes, France). A manufacturer of specialty high-performance honeycomb cores for advanced composites applications, Ultracor has developed honeycomb from quartz/cyanate ester, carbon/carbon, mica/epoxy, Spectra fiber, continuous KEVLAR fiber, phenylene benzobisoxazole (PBO) and more than 50 types of carbon fiber constructions, including ultralow-density carbon and triax (a carbon fabric for which "triax" describes the fabric architecture) carbon honeycomb as well as corrugated carbon core materials. More than half of Ultracor's business is spacecraft, where the negative CTE, high thermal conductivity, stiffness and very light weight of pitch-based carbon honeycombs meet the rigorous structural demands.
The GOCE's first launch, by the European Space Agency (ESA) in 2006, will involve a satellite with an optical bench made from carbon fiber skins and Ultracor's Ultraflex "carbon/carbon" honeycomb measuring 1.5m by 1.5m and 0.1m in thickness (4.92 ft by 4.92 ft by 0.33 ft). (Ultracor produces what it calls its "carbon/carbon" honeycomb by impregnating a carbon fiber paper honeycomb with epoxy resin, then curing and completely carbonizing the result at between 1100°C and 1650°C or about 2000°F to 3000°F. Currently, Ultracor is the only producer of this type of honeycomb.) Ultraflex is one of Ultracor's newest products, a flexible honeycomb cell shape that can be made with any nonmetallic honeycomb material in any cell size. Since many satellite antennas need to be shaped, Ultraflex offers the ability to easily form the honeycomb to shape, enabling construction of sandwich panels with complex contours. Ultraflex also is enabling fabrication of multiple-contoured radomes and structures with double curvature for stealth aircraft.
Elsewhere, a variant of Albany's X-COR, known as K-COR, is being qualified by Boeing Integrated Defense Systems (St. Louis, Mo.) for use on the payload shroud of Boeing's Delta IV launch vehicles, due to its superior damage tolerance and ability to handle temperature extremes. K-COR uses reinforcing rods of 0.50mm/0.020-inch diameter or greater, with rods set flush to the foam surface; facesheets are either cocured or secondarily bonded to the core. Thermoformable K-COR is suitable for more complex contours. According to Albany's Tauriello, "Whereas unreinforced foam core cracks and disbonds, the carbon rods used in K-COR have a more closely matched coefficient of thermal expansion to the carbon/epoxy faceskins and can withstand the extreme temperature differentials near the liquid hydrogen fuel tank."
Like space exploration, Formula 1 auto racing has historically pushed boundaries. Racing teams began building monocoque body/chassis structures from carbon composites in the early 1980s. Now carbon is working its way under the skin, replacing aluminum honeycomb in monocoque structures. Ultracor is working with several Formula 1 teams to replace aluminum honeycomb with carbon honeycomb in separate nose structures and integral side impact structures on Formula 1 monocoques. According to Michael Fellman, president of Ultracor, "The theory is that carbon honeycomb should absorb more energy because, as it undergoes impact, it not only folds up but also fails catastrophically, which should consume a significant amount of energy." The nose and side impact structures consist of carbon fiber skins with carbon fiber honeycomb. Initial testing looks promising.
America's Cup syndicates are using KEVLAR honeycomb core in place of aluminum honeycomb in deck structures in response to a new race rule that prohibits the use of the latter. America's Cup yachtbuilders have historically used aluminum honeycomb to meet minimum America's Cup core density specifications of 2.7 lb/ft³ in the decks of racing vessels. In the past, this was easily achieved with aluminum honeycomb by under- or over-expanding the honeycomb core. Aluminum honeycomb was barred because after the races, boats typically are sold. When new owners change the deck hardware configuration, the potting of through-holes is often inexact. As a result, many of the boats were showing significant corrosion of the aluminum honeycomb in a very short time, with resulting safety issues.
Standard NOMEX honeycomb, however, is sold in a limited number of different densities, forcing many teams to use 3 lb/ft² core in order to meet the density requirement, but that means they are taking a 0.3 lb/ft² weight hit for the entire deck volume. To address this problem, Plascore Inc. has developed a special version of its PK2 honeycomb. To make the core, Plascore begins with KEVLAR 636 honeycomb paper from DuPont Advanced Fiber Systems (Richmond Va.), dips it in phenolic resin, impregnating it to the rule density minimum of 2.7 lb/ft². According to the company, the resulting core is four times stiffer than NOMEX on an equal density basis. Although the custom PK2 core comes at three times the cost of standard 3 lb/ft² NOMEX core, several America's Cup racing teams have considered the investment a good value.
Pre-engineering to minimize pre-mold modificationCore manufacturers are increasingly taking on the task of forming and/or machining core products for customers, in order to deliver a product that can confidently be used with little or no additional adaptation.
Gurit (formerly SP, Magog, Quebec, Canada) maintains an in-house technical staff that works closely with customers to optimize the use of Gurit materials in specific composite processes and applications, including its Corecell linear, styrene acrylonitrile (SAN) co-polymer foam. Formerly manufactured by ATC Chemicals, Corecell was originally developed for marine applications, as a tougher alternative to polyvinyl chloride (PVC) foam core. For curved parts, Gurit staff can precut or pre-score foam so that it can conform to the desired shape. As composites manufacturers have gravitated to vacuum infusion processes, however, additional surface cuts or grooves are required to aid in resin flow. However, the additional resin cured in the numerous channels can significantly increase weight and make a noticeable impact on mechanical properties and impact performance. "Too many cuts also introduce too much resin at one time," adds Al Horsmon, chief naval architect for Gurit. "The ideal process is what we call 'staged infusion,' where the appropriate number of cuts are used to impel the resin front in combination with multiple ports across the part in order to re-introduce resin as the impregnating front passes through." Horsmon says the company has investigated optimum Corecell cut configurations and completed extensive testing on over 30 different types of core cuts for infusion processing, and adds that Gurit can work with customers to select the best configuration for specific applications.
Ultracor optimizes its honeycomb core materials for adhesion, to save customers the cost in time and labor for prepping core to enhance core/facesheet bond. The company plasma treats core materials to enhance the surface energy on the contact surfaces. An increase in surface energy optimizes its potential to bond with faceskin materials and adhesives. Ultracor president Michael Fellman explains, "Our products are expensive, so we don't want the customer to have to do anything else to it." Nothing further is required on the customers part. "Don't prime it, vapor degrease it or use solvents, don't mechanically roughen the surface," he says, "Just open the box and use the core."
Ultracor also perforates honeycomb cell walls so that no pressure can build up inside the individual cells and cause faceskin disbonding. The holes allow vapors to move throughout the core, enabling it to equalize pressure under the severe temperature differentials of the extreme processing and service environments often seen by these high-tech composite cores.


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A node is a simple data structure that bundles together a value and a set of node pointers, each of which point to a node or to nothing. At its simplest, there is but a single node pointer.
To signify that a node pointer points to nothing, a sentinal value, usually named null or nil, is stored in the variable representing the node pointer.
Pictorially, a node is often drawn using a box to represent a node with arrows representing the value and node pointers. Usually, the value pointer is drawn in the downward direction:
Here, the value is "elephant" and a single node pointer is shown, set to null.
The typical node object holds a single value pointer and some number of node pointers. As an example, when nodes are used to build a singly linked-list, a single node pointer, usually named next, is sufficient.
class node { var value = ?; //points to the stored value var next = ?; //optional: for singly/doubly linked-lists var prev = ?; //optional: for doubly linked-lists var left = ?; //optional: for binary trees var right = ?; //optional: for binary trees //operations ... }
The initializers for value and the node pointer(s) are expected to be passed as arguments to the constructor.
The terms used in describing a node are:
A node is used to implement:
A node is a fundamental data structure often provided by the language processor or, if not provided, easily constructed using a heterogeneous array or object. A heterogeneous array can hold elements of different types (e.g. the first element can be an integer, the second a string, and so on). In the case of a heterogeneous array, the first slot can hold the value and subsequent slots can hold the node pointers.
This operation returns the value stored in the node.
This operation updates the value in the node with the given value.
This operation returns the node that is stored in the associated node pointer.
This operation updates the associated node pointer with the given node. The actual names of the operations depend on the number of node pointers.
Nodes, having usually one value pointer, are not traversed.


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AGP is happy to inform everyone that there is a new Diplomate directory available to the Diplomates and the general public. The directory can be found here:
Announcement |
December 20, 2017
AGP is happy to inform everyone that there is a new Diplomate directory available to the Diplomates and the general public. The directory can be found here:
News |
December 20, 2017
Congratulations to the 2017 Colorado Legacy Award winner, Robert W, Thompson P.E., D.GE, F ASCE. The honor is given annually by Engineering News Record's (ENR) regional...
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October 4, 2017
Join DFI for their 42nd Annual Conference on Deep Foundations in the Big Easy where you will network with the largest gathering of practitioners specializing in the deep...
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April 19, 2017
Congratulations to Enamul Hoque, PE, D.GE, F.ASCE, on his nomination to be inducted into the School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment (SSEBE) Academy of...
Ceremony |
April 12, 2017
National Civil Engineering Society Inducts New Class of Certified Geo-Professionals
Announcement |
March 27, 2017
The Academy of Geo-Professionals (AGP) is proud to announce that Charles Dowding, Ph.D., P.E., D.GE, Dist.M.ASCE, has been named a Distinguished Member of ASCE.
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January 12, 2017
ASCE has created the Civil Engineering Body of Knowledge 3 (BOK3) Task Committee to update the Civil Engineering Body of Knowledge (Second Edition). The committee will...
News |
November 28, 2016
The following contains a list of success stories where ASCE certifications were used as a differentiator.
Announcement |
November 4, 2016
Geoengineer.org along with support from the Shamsher Prakash Foundation announces the launch of the James K.
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October 7, 2016
Shamsher Prakash, PhD, PE, D.GE(Ret.), Dist.M.ASCE, Emeritus Professor, MST and President of SP Foundation is happy to inform everyone that all the papers and reports of 12...
News |
May 12, 2016
By Ben Walpole, Associate Editor, ASCE News
For world-renowned contributions to the understanding of soil dynamics in geotechnical engineering, Kenneth H. Stokoe II,...
News |
May 6, 2016
The Oklahoma Chapter of ASCE's Geo-Institute (OK-GI) recently named Dr. Garry H. Gregory, Ph.D., P.E., D.GE, M.ASCE, the 2016-2017 Outstanding Oklahoma Geotechnical Engineer....


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By Robert E. Kraut, Paul Resnick
Author note: Sara Kiesler (Contributor)
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5). Both theory and experiments suggest that—within reason—the more challenging goals are, the more effort they motivate. However, when goals are so challenging as to be obviously out of reach, they undermine commitment to the goal and may even be demotivating (Locke, Latham, and Erez 1988). Although it's possible that asking members to rate a thousand movies in the next week would have yielded fewer ratings, a request for sixty-four did not produce a statistically significant drop-off in contributions as compared to a request for thirty-two.
Mathieu, J. , and D. M. Zajac. 1990. A Review and Meta-Analysis of the Antecedents, Correlates, and Consequences of Organizational Commitment. Psychological Bulletin 108 (2): 171–194. O'Keefe, Patrick. 2008. Managing Online Forums: Everything You Need to Know to Create and Run Successful Community Discussion Boards. New York: AMACOM Books. Powazek, D. M. 2002. Design for Community: The Art of Connecting Real People in Virtual Places. Indianapolis: Pearson Technology. Preece, Jenny. 2000. Online Communities: Designing Usability and Supporting Sociability.
Chapter 2: Encouraging Contribution to Online Communities 4 41 Enhancing Intrinsic Motivations Many members of online communities are motivated because either effort toward the task or successful completion of the task is intrinsically rewarding, independent of other downstream consequences of performing the task. It is intrinsically rewarding to communicate with others in a health support group, solve programming challenges in an open source community, or kill monsters in an online game. Intrinsically motivated actions are ones that directly fulfill some basic desire.


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About 60 guests attended a ceremony held at the Hive on 23 October 2015 where Mr Chia Ban Seng, President of the Association of Nanyang University Graduates, presided over the official launch of the NTU Digital Project "Bibliography on the History of Nanyang University" 南洋大学历史参考资料目录. After speeches by University Librarian, Mr Choy Fatt Cheong, Chair, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Professor Liu Hong and Mr Chia Ban Seng, there was a talk "Studies on Nanyang University: Retrospective and Prospective" given by Associate Professor Lee Guan Kin, Distinguished Senior Research Fellow of the Centre for Chinese Language and Culture. There was also a short talk by Head of Chinese Library, Ms Ruan Yang, calling for "citizen historians" to contribute by checking for accuracy, contributing new records, or donating documents. The online bibliography currently has about 15,000 records of various format types since the 1950s, compiled and edited by NTU Chinese Library. If you are interested in finding out more about this topic, please contact us.
Author Archives: Lena Sam
Library Menus for Science 2.0 Researchers : May we take your order please?
Caught at the tail end of Nobuko Miyairi's Academic Publishing Talk Series Lecture entitled "Evolving Research Tools in Scholarly Communication" : that's Goh Su Nee, Scholarly Communication Group Senior Assistant Director, in an apron presenting NTU Libraries Menus for Science 2.0 researchers. Click on the menu to see appetizer, main course and dessert details. Bon appetit!


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Independent journalist Garry Leech has spent the last eight years working in the most remote and dangerous regions of Colombia, uncovering the unofficial stories of people living in conflict zones. Beyond Bogotá is framed around the eleven hours thatMoreIndependent journalist Garry Leech has spent the last eight years working in the most remote and dangerous regions of Colombia, uncovering the unofficial stories of people living in conflict zones.
Beyond Bogotá is framed around the eleven hours that Leech was held captive by the FARC, Colombias largest leftist guerrilla group, in August of 2006. He recalls nearly thirty years of travel and work in Latin America while weaving in a historical context of the region and on-the-ground reporting with each passing hour of his detention.More than $5 billion in U.S.
aid over the past seven years has failed to end Colombias civil conflict or reduce cocaine production. Leech finds that ordinary Colombians, not drug lords, have suffered the most and that peasants and indigenous peoples have been caught in the crossfire between the armed groups. Meanwhile, more than thirty Colombian journalists have been murdered over the last three decades, making Colombia one of the most dangerous countries in which to practice journalism.
Consequently, the majority of the Western media rarely leave Bogotá to find the real story. Leech, however, learns the truth about the conflict and the U.S. war on drugs directly from the source: poor coca farmers whose fields and food crops have been sprayed with toxic aerial fumigations, female FARC guerrillas who see armed struggle as their only option, union organizers whose lives are threatened because they defend workers rights, indigenous peoples whose communities have been forcibly displaced by the violence, and many others.Leech also investigates the presence of multinational oil and mining companies in Colombia by gaining access to army bases where U.S.
soldiers train Colombian troops to fight the guerrillas in resource-rich regions and by visiting local villages to learn what the foreign presence has meant for the vast majority of the population.Drawing on unprecedented access to soldiers, guerrillas, paramilitaries, and peasants in conflict zones and cocaine-producing areas, Leechs documentary memoir is an epic tale of a journalists search for meaning in the midst of violence and poverty, as well as a humanizing firsthand account that supplies fresh insights into U.S. foreign policy, the role of the media, and the plight of everyday Colombians caught in the midst of a brutal war.From the Hardcover edition.
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Our favorite city in Asia.
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- April 1st – 8th
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- Valid for travel on the outbound from March 1st – April 30th, 2014. Must purchase at least 4 days in advance of departure and by March 31st, 2014 — will not last until then.
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For more of the latest deals for Houston, visit our Denver fares page.
For the latest deals, follow us on Twitter, like us on Facebook, or follow us with RSS or via daily email Newsletter. To leave us feedback, hit us up on Twitter or Facebook.


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Letter: Health care is 'fundamental human right'
Letters to the editor illustrate that Planned Parenthood (PP) is one of the most controversial organizations in this country. Discussions involving PP should include research to obtain facts rather than dealing in generalities. Attitudes and philosophy are best expressed by officials who speak for the organization.
Margaret Sanger, founder of the organization that became PP, was a vocal eugenics enthusiast. In her desire to create a cleaner race, she penned her desire to exterminate individuals she deemed unfit for the human family. After all, birth control is nothing more or less than weeding out ... the unfit — the dead weight of human waste. (Pivot of Civilization, 1922)
While wanting to rid the world of inferior human groups she stated that feeble-minded persons, habitual congenital criminals, those afflicted with inheritable diseases, and others found to be biologically unfit should be sterilized. (American Weekly Magazine, 1934)
Also, the most merciful thing a large family does to one of its members is to kill it. (Woman and the New Race, 1920)
Moving forward, PP asserts that ten-year-olds have the right to contraception, sterilization and abortion without their parents' knowledge. (International Planned Parenthood Foundation, Adolescent Fertility, London, 1983)
When appearing before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Cecile Richards, president of PP, defended her organization against allegations of selling fetal tissue for profit.
Annual reports state PP is essential in providing health care. Instead, through its grotesque abortion policy, it is involved in the destruction of the unborn and society in general. Since Roe v. Wade, PP has taken the lives of more than seven million unborn children while collecting billions of taxpayer dollars. These funds would be better directed to health care centers that would provide a full range of health care for men, women and children.
Health care is a fundamental human right that should never include the destruction of humanity.
— Carol Schneider Milford


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Lets Get in Touch
Photography is the art, science and practice of creating durable images by recording light or other electromagnetic radiation, either chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film, or electronically by means of an image sensor. Typically, a lens is used to focus the light reflected or emitted from objects into a real image on the light-sensitive surface inside a camera during a timed exposure.
My Contact Information
Address: A32, Neelambari, Block – A, Shanthiniketan Apartments, City Link Road, Adambakkam, Chennai – 600088
Mobile: (+91) 7 3999 3999 5
Email: email@example.com


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Managed support cost and enhanced performance for the world's largest gaming enterprise
The customer is a global, multinational enterprise specializing in electronic games. They entered into new product segments through the inorganic route and wanted to bring together converged technology stacks under a single umbrella. This would enable them to deliver centralized customer data for a single customer view. Thus, they wanted to establish a conversion within CRM, BPM, MDM and BI and create a new application for efficient customer support.
Business challenge
Inconsistent customer data shared across various systems within an enterprise can undermine customer satisfaction. CRM software includes sales, services and customer support, call centers, sales force automation systems and order management. Ineffective implementation of a CRM system is a waste of the enterprise's time and resources.
Our customer wanted a robust solution that would help grow customer revenues, cut operating costs and boost IT efficiencies. The solution would also be required to:
- Gather accurate data and provide protection while being transmitted over a network through a Single sign-on (SSO) access mechanism for easy and rapid access to information.
- Implement a Knowledge Management (KM) application which would effectively capture legacy and new service knowledge, making it quickly available for all service technicians and users.
Our solution
Mindtree collaborated with the customer to develop a new application, keeping in mind present and future requirements such as:
- Distributed scenarios
- Offline capabilities
- Cloud deployment and seamless integration with line-of-business applications.
The key aim was ease of maintenance for both the operations and the development teams.
The final solution included:
- Transition and migration of the legacy CRM system to the sales force service Cloud in record time.
- Architecture, design and development of a state-of-the-art 'advisor' facing system using the sales force development platform for a global advisor base.
- Integration with a third party vendor for chat & phone, and social & knowledge functionality.
- A help portal to service worldwide customers using the sales force platform with Apex and Visualforce technologies.
Business impact
- Better control over costs related to the customer support function
- Faster response time and better customer experience in handling customer issues
- Increased efficiency and efficacy of customer staff


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Volunteering at Powys Archives
We are looking for volunteers here at Powys Archives in Llandrindod Wells. We are situated just north of town on the Ddole Road Industrial Estate.
Current Vacancies
In return for volunteering, we can give you an insider's view of what a fascinating resource we have here. This would be perfect for anyone with an interest in local history.
Apply here Apply to volunteer at Powys Archives
If you have any queries regarding volunteering please contact us.
Feedback about a page here


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Enjoy this guest post by Bob Cummings. Bob is a prolific writer who explores health from a mental and spiritual perspective. —
He shared a video of one of his house calls to a poor woman in another country who was very ill and in much pain. Using his humor, despite a language barrier, he had her sitting up, smiling, laughing, and singing. It was apparent that she experienced some relief from her suffering.
This was part of a talk I attended by Patch Adams (on whom the movie of the same name starring Robin Williams was based). "Patch" described how, as a doctor and a clown, he brings humor to the aid of those who are sick and suffering.
"Laughter comes right after breathing as just about the healthiest thing you can do," says Izzy Gesell¹, a speaker who brings the concepts of Improv Theater into the business world. "It relieves stress, instills optimism, raises self-confidence, defuses resistance to change, and enhances all your relationships."
Numerous clinical studies² on laughter have documented that laughter increases pain thresholds, reduces muscle tension, and improves the immune system – among other things.
The Bible says, "A merry heart doeth good like a medicine…"³.
But how does laughter help? It's not something administered to the body by a drug. It impacts thought. If consciousness affects health then it's better to have healthy thoughts. It's better to have funny thoughts.
Seriously! Patch shared that by keeping busy practicing medicine and sharing humor, during the past 50 years he has never thought a bad thought and never been sick.
It's clear to me that the key ingredient Patch delivers with his humor is his love for those who are suffering. He told the audience that he is not a religious man, but if he calls spiritual love into action, then that makes him a spiritual person. He said he once hugged a patient for 12 hours. He spoke of wanting a revolution in loving.
That's the thing then: calling spiritual love into action. Love is a spiritual thing that has its ultimate source in the divine. Laughter opens the heart to feel love and that brings comfort and healing.
¹See www.izzyg.com. ² See pubmed.org search on "laughter". ³ Proverbs 17:22.
(First published in the Traverse City Record-Eagle)
Bob Cummings is the spokesperson for Christian Science in Michigan and writes about spirituality and health at www.csinmichigan.com. He is a life-long Michigander, MSU graduate, former computer whiz and a pretty decent table tennis player.


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In an age where media plays a dominant role in the lives of American children, doctors are recommending that parents establish a media consumption plan for their families. A newly revised policy statement on children, adolescents and the media released on Monday by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) offers guidance for managing kid's use of media [1].
Good Bacteria Associated with Acne-free Skin
Researchers from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Washington University in St. Louis and the Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute have discovered that acne bacteria, which thrive in the oily pores of skin, consist of "bad" strains associated with pimples and "good" strains that may protect the skin and keep it healthy. The finding may help dermatologists develop new, strain-specific treatments for acne. The research is published in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology.
Oral Immunotherapy Shows Promise as Treatment for Egg Allergy
Giving children and adolescents with egg allergy small but increasing daily doses of egg white powder holds the possibility of developing into a way to enable some of them to eat egg-containing foods without having allergic reactions, according to a study supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The study results will appear online in the July 19th issue of the New England Journal of Medicine [1].
Study Suggests Light-to-Moderate Drinking During Pregnancy Is Ok
A series of research articles in the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology suggest that light-to-moderate drinking during pregnancy (up to 8 drinks per week) does not affect IQ [1], intelligence, attention, and executive function [2], selective and sustained attention [3], or general intelligence [4] in 5-year-old children.
New CDC Data Shows Drowning Rates Down Overall, Still High
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published a five-year review of drowning rates for 2005-2009 in a recent issue of the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report [1]. The report shows that overall drowning rates are decreasing, though drowning is still the leading cause of preventible death in children aged 1–4 [2].


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Slides sandals are handcrafted by Greek experienced artisans and made by soft suede leather in yellow color.
The Colombiana sandals are inspired by the famous ladies "Las Palenqueras" who live in Cartagena , city of Colombia. "Las Palenqueras" sell yummy fruits to tourists, wearing vibrant coloured dresses carrying fruit baskets on their heads.
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• Pinky Promise footwear are handmade very carefully up to the last detail with the respect to the customer. They are one of a kind, outstanding, durable, designed by qualitative materials.
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Thank you for visiting!


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- Home
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Wire rope sensors
Flexible sensors for fast integration
Properties of ConSenses wire rope sensors
For the simplest integration, double sided magnet mounts are integrated. Thus, the sensor is quick, simple and safely integrated - also in machines that are critical by means of capacity.
At ConSenses reference sensors, signal cables are designed to be detachable. This makes the sensors robust and simplifies the integration - especially, if the installation space is limited.
Depending on needs for precision, we are using potentiometric linear encoder or high precision digital encoders. This flexibility allows you solving your tasks with made-to-measure invest.
Wherever possible and profitable, ConSenses uses well known protocols and standards. Thus, sensors of ConSenses are allways compatible to existing hardware. Experienced users appreciate this flexibility.


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In the run-up to the upcoming promotions to the post of joint secretary in the civil bureaucracy, a section of bureaucrats, working in different ministries and divisions as deputy secretaries, are getting certificates on patriotism, integrity and efficiency from ministers and MPs of the Awami League (AL). Many officials, either not fit for promotion or deprived of promotion, are hunting for 'testimonials' to change their fortune. When visiting some ministries and divisions at the Bangladesh Secretariat, this correspondent came across a number of such certificates, known as demi-official (D.O.) letters, issued by some ministers and MPs for promoting their 'favourite' officials to the post of joint secretary.
The public representatives recently sent the D.O. letters to the secretary of the public administration ministry, recommending that the officials be promoted to the higher post.
Talking to The Independent, people in the know said the "D.O. culture" does not bode well for the civil bureaucracy and it cannot be an acceptable way to judge promotions.
If the authorities concerned take such D.O. letters into cognisance and promote officials to higher posts on their basis, it will hamper good governance by creating inefficient and biased officials, they said.
The public administration ministry secretary, however, said promotions are given on the basis of Superior Selection Board's recommendation.
Sources in the public administration ministry said that members of the Superior Selection Board (SSB) are holding several meetings at the Secretariat for recommending deputy secretaries to the post of joint secretary.
Primary education minister Mostafisur Rahman said he has issued D.O. letters to keep officials happy. "Candidates for promotion or job seekers of my area always want such D.O. letters," he added.
Mostafisur Rahman has issued a D.O. letter to a deputy secretary and it was forwarded to the secretary of the public administration ministry, recommending promotion of the official.
The primary education minister also said issuing D.O. letters for this kind of purposes is nothing new, adding that ministers in the
previous BNP government also issued D.O. letters in favours of officials.
The letter says: "He (not mentioning his name) is an administration cadre official, working in the religious affairs ministry as deputy secretary (DS) for the last 10 years. He is a resident of my parliamentary constituency and has been discharging his duties with honesty, efficiency and sincerity for the last four years."
"He is son of a freedom fighter. But he was deprived of promotion twice in the past, though his juniors, two batches behind him, had been promoted to the post of joint secretary," it states.
Like the D.O. letter, another letter has been issued by another minister. The letter was forwarded to the secretary of the public administration ministry, asking that the official be promoted to the post of joint secretary.
"His (official) integrity, work efficiency and patriotism are an example for others. He was deputy commissioner of a district and had discharged his duties as a believer in the spirit of the country's independence and the liberation war. If he is promoted, it will bring new dynamism and exhilaration in the civil administration. I believe that the nation and the country would be benefited if he is promoted," the minister said in the D.O. letter.
Like the ministers, some members of Parliament (MPs) were issuing D.O. letters for promotion of bureaucrats.
The MP of Rajbari-2, Md Zillul Hakim, has issued a D.O. letter in favour of a deputy secretary for promotion.
The MP, in the letter sent to the secretary of the public administration ministry, said: "He (official) is a deputy secretary in the public administration ministry, now working on a project of the food ministry as deputy project director."
"He is an official of the BCS railways cadre. He is a resident of my constituency. He and his family are devoted supporters of the Awami League and belong to pro-liberation forces. Both his brother and sister are presidents of the local Awami League. He is known as efficient and is a well respected person in his village home. I am requesting you to promote him to the post of joint secretary, considering his honesty, efficiency and goodwill," the MP in his D.O. letter.
The secretary of the public administration ministry, Faiz Ahmed, told The Independent that the bureaucrats are being promoted on the basis of recommendations by the Superior Selection Board (SSB), not on the basis of D.O. letters. "Yes, we've received D.O. letters from some ministers and MPs. The D.O. letters sometimes help us compare information about the officials contained in the D.O. letters and agency reports," he said.
Former cabinet secretary Ali Imam Majumder told this correspondent that D.O. letters are undesirable. "These are beyond the jurisdiction of the ministers and MPs," he said.
When contacted, Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) chief Dr Mozammel Haque Khan said issuing of D.O. letters is not ethical. "We can say that the issuance of D.O. letters and receiving them by any official for his/her promotion falls under corruption and is an offence," he said.
At present, the public administration ministry is going to promote at least 500 officials from the rank of joint secretary to the post of additional secretary, deputy secretary to the post of joint secretary and senior assistant secretary to the post of deputy secretary within this month.
As of August 9, a total of 78 senior secretaries, secretaries and acting secretaries are working against 75 duty posts, while 478 additional secretaries are working against 110 posts.
A total of 779 joint secretaries are working in different ministries and divisions, against 341 sanctioned posts, while 1,759 deputy secretaries are working against 828 sanctioned posts.
Editor : M. Shamsur Rahman
Published by the Editor on behalf of Independent Publications Limited at Media Printers, 446/H, Tejgaon I/A, Dhaka-1215.
Editorial, News & Commercial Offices : Beximco Media Complex, 149-150 Tejgaon I/A, Dhaka-1208, Bangladesh. GPO Box No. 934, Dhaka-1000.
Editor : M. Shamsur Rahman
Published by the Editor on behalf of Independent Publications Limited at Media Printers, 446/H, Tejgaon I/A, Dhaka-1215.
Editorial, News & Commercial Offices : Beximco Media Complex, 149-150 Tejgaon I/A, Dhaka-1208, Bangladesh. GPO Box No. 934, Dhaka-1000.