Signal automaton

In automata theory, a field of computer science, a signal automaton is a finite automaton extended with a finite set of real-valued clocks. During a run of a signal automaton, clock values increase all with the same speed. Along the transitions of the automaton, clock values can be compared to integers. These comparisons form guards that may enable or disable transitions and by doing so constrain the possible behaviors of the automaton. Further, clocks can be reset.
Example.
Before formally defining what a signal automaton is, an example will be given. Let one consider the language formula_1 of signals, over a binary alphabet formula_2, which contains signals formula_3 such that:
This language can be accepted by the automaton pictured nearby.
As for finite automaton, incoming arrows represents initial locations and double circle represents accepting locations. However, contrary to finite automata, letters occurs in locations and not in transition. This is because letters are emitted continuously and transitions are taken discretely. The symbol formula_7 represents a clock. This clock allow to measure the time since the last time where formula_4 was emitted. Thus formula_9 ensures that formula_4 is emitted discretely. And formula_11 ensures that no more than a unit of time can pass without formula_4 occurring.
Formal definition.
Signal automaton.
Formally, a signal automaton is a tuple formula_13 that consists of the following components:
An edge formula_29 from formula_30 is a transition from locations formula_31 to formula_32 which reset the clocks of formula_33.
Extended state.
A pair with a location formula_31 and a clock valuation formula_35 is called either an "extended state" or a "state".
Note that the word state is thus ambiguous, since, depending on the author, it may means either a pair or an element of formula_16. For the sake of the clarity, this article will use the term location for element of formula_16 and the term extended location for pairs.
Here lies one of the biggest difference between signal-automata and finite automata. In a finite automaton, at some point of the execution, the state is entirely described by the number of letter read and by a finite number of possible values, which are actually called "states". That means that, given a state and a suffix of the word to read, the remaining of the run is totally determined. Thus, the word "finite" in the name "finite automata". However, as it is explained in the section "run" below, in order to resume clocks are used to determine which transitions can be taken. Thus, in order to know the state of the automaton, you must both now in which location you are, and the clock valuation.
Run.
As for finite automata, a run is essentially a sequence of locations, such that there exists a transition between two locations. However, two differences must be emphasized. The letter is not determined by the transition but by the locations; this is due to the fact that the letters are emitted continuously while transitions are taken discretely. Some time elapse while in a location; the clock constraints labelling a location or its successor may constraint the time spent in a single location.
A "run" is a sequence of the form formula_38 satisfying some constraints. Before stating those constraints, some notations are introduced. The sequences are discrete but represents continuous events. A continuous verson of the sequences formula_39, formula_40, formula_41 are now introduced. Let formula_42 integral and formula_43, then
The constraints satisfied by run are, for each formula_42 integral and formula_52 real:
The signal defined by this run is the function formula_57 defined above. It is said that the run defined above is a run for the signal formula_57.
The notion of accepting run is defined as in finite automata for finite words and as in Büchi automata for infinite words. That is, if formula_59 is finite of length formula_60, then the run is accepting if formula_61. If the word is infinite, then the run is accepting if and only if there exists an infinite number of position formula_62 such that formula_63.
Accepted signals and language.
A signal formula_3 is said to be accepted by a signal automaton formula_15 if there exists a run of formula_15 on formula_3 accepting it. The set of signals accepted by formula_15 is called the language accepted by formula_15 and is denoted by formula_70.
Deterministic signal automaton.
As in the case of finite and Büchi automaton, a signal-automaton may be deterministic or non-deterministic. Intuitively, being deterministic as the same meaning in each of those case. It means that the set of start locations is a singleton, and that, given an extended state formula_71, and a letter formula_72, there is only one possible extended state which can be reached from formula_71 by reading formula_72. More precisely, either it is possible to stay in the location longer, or there is at most one possible successor location.
Formally, this can be defined as follows:
Simplified signal automata.
Depending on the authors, the exact definition of signal automata may be slightly different. Two such definitions are now given.
Half-open intervals.
In order to simplify the definition of a run, some authors requires that each interval of a run is right-closed and left-open. This restrict automata to accept only signals whose underlying partition satisfies the same property. However, it ensures that at each time formula_52, formula_88 for formula_89 representing any of the function formula_57, formula_91 or formula_32 introduced above.
Bipartite signal automaton.
A bipartite signal automaton is a signal automaton in which the run alternates between open intervals and singular intervals (i.e. intervals which are singletons). It ensures that the graph underlying the automaton is a bipartite graph, and thus that the set of locations can be partitionned into formula_93, the set of open locations and of singular locations. Since the first interval contains 0, it can not be an open location, it follows that formula_94. In order to ensure that each singular location is indeed singular, for each location formula_31, there must be a clock formula_96 which is reset when entering formula_31 and such that the clock constraint of formula_31 contains formula_9.
Any signal automaton can be transformed into an equivalent bipartite signal automaton. It suffices to replace each location formula_31 by a pair of locations formula_101 and introduce a new clock formula_7, such that for each formula_31, formula_104.
Nearby is pictured a bipartite automaton equivalent to the signal automaton from the example section. Rectangle states represents singular locations.
Synchronization of automata.
The notion of product of finite automaton is extended to signal automaton. However, such a product is called a synchronization of automaton to emphasize the fact that the time should pass similarly in both automata considered. The main difference between synchronization and product is that, when two finite automata read the same word, they take transition simultaneously. This is not the case anymore for signal automata, since they can take transition at arbitrary time. Thus, the transition relation of a signal automaton may allow transition to be taken in one or two automata.
Let formula_105 and formula_106 two signal automata, their synchronization is the signal automaton formula_107, where formula_30 contains the following transitions:
Difference with timed automata.
Timed automata is another extension of finite automata, which adds a notion of time to words. We now state some of the main differences between timed automata and signal automata.
In timed automata, letters are emitted on the transitions and not in the locations. As explained above when comparing signal automata to finite automata, letters are emitted on transitions when the words are emitted discretely, as for words and timed-words while they are emitted on locations when letters are emitted continuously, as for signals.
In timed automata, guards are only checked on transitions. This simplifies the definition of deterministic automaton, since it means that the constraint must be satisfied before the clocks are restarted.


Toguz korgol

Toguz korgool () or toguz kumalak (), is a two-player game in the mancala family that is played in Central Asia.
Board.
The game is played on a board with two rows of nine holes. There are two "kazna" between these rows, which are used to collect captured stones of each user, separately. At the beginning there are nine stones in each hole, except the kazna, which are empty, so players need a total of 162 stones.
Game start.
The board sides are labeled as black and white. The player sitting on the white side starts the game.
Game play.
Players move alternately. A move consists of taking stones from a hole and distributing them to other holes. On his/her turn, a player takes all the stones of one of his holes, which is not a tuz (see below), and distributes them anticlockwise, one by one, into the following holes. The first stone must be dropped into the hole which was just emptied. However, if the move began from a hole which contained only one stone, this stone is put into the next hole.
If the last stone falls into a hole on the opponent's side, and this hole then contains an even number of stones, these stones are captured and stored in the player's kazna. If the last stone falls into a hole of the opponent, which then has three stones, the hole is marked as a "tuz" ("salt" in Kyrgyz).
There are a few restrictions on creating a tuz:
The stones that fall into a tuz are captured by its owner. He may transfer its contents at any time to his kazna. The game ends when a player can't move at his turn because all the holes on his side, which are not tuz, are empty.
When the game is over, the remaining stones which are not yet in a kazna or in a tuz are won by the player on whose side they are. The winner is the player who, at the end of the game, has captured more stones in their tuz and their kazna. When each player has 81 stones, the game is a draw.
The rules of "Toguz korgool" game.
This game consists of the desk and 162 small balls. There are 9 pits - "üi" () - on each side of the desk and two bowls - "kazna" () - by one for each player. The "kazan" of the player situated at the right side. The kazna itself doesn't participate in game, it is only required for saving of balls.
The first position of the game is the following: there are 9 balls in each pit, the kaznas are empty. The aim of the game is that the player should win from the competitor more than 81 balls. The right to start the game is defined by mutual agreement or by sortition.
The player, who starts the game, takes all balls from any pit on his side, and starting with that pit places one ball in each pit anticlockwise. It is not allowed to jump over pit or to put by two or more balls in one pit. After the ninth pit from the first player's side follows the first pit of the competitor, etc. If the last ball falls into one of the competitor's pit, and the number of balls in this pit would be even, so the move is considered resulting and the player take all balls from this pit to his kazna. But if the last ball falls into one of his own pits, irrespectively of number of balls, they wouldn't be taken by anybody. If the move starts from the pit, where there is only one ball, so the ball is moving to the next pit, accordingly the previous pit becomes empty.
The players are coming one after one.
There is also the rule of "Tuz". If the last ball falls into the competitor's pit, where he has already two balls, so these three balls are moving to the player's kazna and he announces this pocket as "Tuz". Thus, the player wins the whole pit and all those balls that are falling to "Tuz"-pit are moving to his kazna.
Each player during the game can announce the "Tuz" pit only once. It is not allowed to change or to take another one "Tuz". According to the rules of the game the ninth pits couldn't become "Tuz". And also if the one player has announced the "Tuz"-pit, so another player can't announce the same pit as Tuz.
Competitions.
Similar to chess, Go and checkers, there are world championships which attract players from all over the world. The Toguz Korgool Federation was found in Bishkek, Kyrgyz Republic, in 1993. The Toguz Korgool World Championships are held every two years, the last ones were in Pardubice, Czech Republic, in 2012. The current Toguz Korgool World Champions are Asel Dalieva (women) and Nurbek Kabiyev (men). Best non-Asian player was Jurij Nold (Germany). There are many competitions on local, regional and national levels in Central Asia. In addition, there are annual tournaments in some European countries, including England (London), Germany (Schweinfurt), Switzerland (La Tour-de-Peilz), and the Czech Republic (Prague and Pardubice). Toguz korgool is now also included in the program of the World Nomad Games.
The game is considered a national sport in Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan. It is estimated that there are about 10,000 organized players and about 200 official trainers in Kazakhstan alone.


Emil Makai

Emil Makai (17 November 1870 – 6 August 1901), born Emil Fischer, was a Hungarian-Jewish poet, journalist, dramatist, and translator.
Biography.
Born to Rabbi Antal Enoch Fischer in Makó, Makkai went to Budapest in 1884, where he distinguished himself at the Budapest rabbinical seminary as a student by his poetical talent.
In 1888, Makai published his first volume of poetry, "Vallásos énekek" ("Religious Songs"). This was followed by a Biblical drama, "Absalon" (1891), and "Zsidó költők" ("Jewish Poets," 1892), translations of medieval Hebrew poetry, including the works of Shlomo ibn Gabirol, Yehudah ha-Levi, Shmuel ha-Nagid, Moshe ibn Ezra, Avraham ibn Ezra, Yehuda al-Harizi, and Imanuel ha-Romi. In 1893, his version of the Song of Songs ("Énekek éneke") was published. From 1892 Makai translated more than 100 dramas and operettas, included Abraham Goldfaden's "Sulamit" and "Bar Kochba".


Kevin J. Dooley

Kevin John Dooley (born ca 1961) is an American scholar, and Professor of Supply Chain Management at the W. P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University.
Biography.
Dooley studied at the University of Illinois, where he received his BS in Industrial Engineering in 1982, his MS in Industrial Engineering in 1984, and his PhD in Mechanical Engineering in 1987 for the thesis "A fault classification system for quality and productivity improvements in continuous processes" under supervision of Shiv G. Kapoor.
Dooley started his academic career at the University of Minnesota in 1992 as Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering. From 1992 to 1997 he was Assistant Professor, and from 1993 to 1997 also Director of the Industrial Engineering Program. In 1997 he was Professor of Management and Professor of Industrial Engineering at Arizona State University and since 2003 he is Professor of Supply Chain Management. At Arizona State University he is also Chief Research Officer at The Sustainability Consortium since 2008, and Senior Sustainability Scientist at the School of Sustainability since 2010.
Dooley is member of the editorial board of the "Decision Sciences" journal, and the "Journal of Operations Management." Dooley's research interests are in the field of the "application of complexity science to help organizations improve."


Takeshi Kawakami

 is a Japanese professional shogi player ranked 7-dan.
Early life.
Kawakami was born on July 12, 1972, in Adachi, Tokyo. As a junior high school first-grade student in 1985, he finished runner-up to fellow future shogi professional Nobuyuki Yashiki in the ; the following year, however, he won the same tournament. In 1987, he was accepted into the Japan Shogi Association's apprentice school at the rank of 6-kyū under the guidance of . Promoted to apprentice professional 1-dan in 1990, he full professional status and the rank of 4-dan in 1993 after winning the 12th 3-dan League (October 1992March 1993) with a record of 15 wins and 3 losses.
Shogi professional.
Kawakami finished runner-up to Torahiko Tanaka in the 3rd in 1994, but the tournament was not yet considered to be an official tournament at the time.
In 2013, he finished the finished the 71st Meijin Class C2 league (April 2012March 2013) with a record of 2 wins and 8 losses, earning a third demotion point which meant automatic demotion to "Free Class" play.
Promotion history.
The promotion history for Kawakami is as follows:


Syd Solomon

Syd Solomon (July 12, 1917 – January 28, 2004) was an American abstract artist. He spent most of his time in his homes in both East Hampton, NY and Sarasota, Florida which influenced many of his paintings. His works have been featured at The Guggenheim, The Whitney, Corcoran Gallery of Art, The Wadsworth Athenaeum and several others.
Early life.
Solomon was born in Uniontown, Pennsylvania to a Jewish family. He started painting in high school. He would eventually go on to study art at the Art Institute of Chicago from 1935 to 1938. In 1940 he enlisted in the Engineer Aviation Regiment, First Camouflage Battalion of the military. During this time Solomon helped design camouflage for the California coast near the San Francisco area. Later he was assigned to the Royal Engineer Camouflage Corps in London where he designed camouflage to be used against the Germans in World War II. He even went on to earn the Bronze star for his contributions during the Battle of the Bulge. During his time in London he mostly performed aerial reconnaissance which inspired his ideas of abstract art. After leaving the military he went on to attend classes at the French art school L’Ecole des Beaux-Arts in 1945.
Late life.
Solomon and his wife Annie moved to Sarasota, Florida in 1946. Sarasota is home to the Ringling Museum of Art where Solomon first began displaying his work. His was the first work by a contemporary artist to be displayed in the museum. His work was quickly noticed by the other artist and curators.
Solomon's art was included in several national exhibitions throughout the 1950s. In 1955 the couple first visited East Hampton, New York, which soon after became their second home. By 1959 the Solomons had developed the ritual of spending winter and spring in Sarasota and then autumn in the Hamptons. Solomon continued this dual lifestyle for over the next 30 years. The environmental settings of his two homes worked as inspiration in his paintings. By this point the Solomon family had also grown to include a daughter Michele, and later a son Michael. By 1959 the artist had begun regular showings in New York at the Saidenberg Gallery while also doing shows in both the Hamptons and in Miami.
In the 1960s Solomon's reputation reached a high point and he was being shown at many of the finest museums in the world. In 1961 he received several awards and accolades including the 13th New England Annual and the Painting of the Year from the Whitney Museum of American Art. This popularity made him an influential personality in both his Hamptons and Sarasota communities. He helped bring many well-established artists down to Florida after he started his Institute of Fine Art at New College. Through the school he brought many well-known artists to Florida, including James Brooks, Larry Rivers, and Conrad Marca-Relli. The Solomon home in the Hamptons had also become a sort of cultural gathering spot for many famous artist and writers.
In 1970 Solomon with the help of architect Gene Leedy built his award winning home and studio on Siesta Key in Sarasota. In 1975 the New York Cultural Center and the Ringling Museum held retrospective exhibitions of the artist's works.
Around 1990, Solomon began to display symptoms of Alzheimer's disease. After a long battle with the disease Solomon died on January 24, 2004 at 86 years old.
Style.
After the 1950s Solomon's style became heavily influenced by nature. His works illustrate his fascination with the climatic and overall environmental conditions of land, sea, and sky. In the 1960s he started using polymer tempera as a base and would then combine it with various colored inks and oils. Syd was also one of the premier artists to use acrylic paint. He became a fan of a specific resist technique that used a lactic caseing solution to mask the painting. His painting gestures usually consisted of circles, squares, and curves. Solomon was not concerned with perfection in his art strokes as much as rough edges that left for unpredictability. Although he used a range of colors in his paintings, the color black has always played a big part in his work.
Career/achievements.
Throughout his life Solomon taught at many different institutions including the Pittsburgh Art Institute, the Ringling Museum of Art, the Famous Artists School, New College in Sarasota, and the Sarasota School of Art.
He was also a visiting instructor at University of Illinois in Urbana, Robertson Center for the Arts, and the Tampa Bay Art Center.
He also received many awards in his lifetime including the State Department U.S. Cultural Exchange program to Israel and the Ford Foundation Special Purchase Grant for the Guggenheim Museum. Also he received the Painting of the year from the Whitney as well as the 13th New England Annual.


Noel Forster

Noel Armstrong Forster (15 June 1932 – 7 December 2007) was a British artist who trained at King's College Newcastle a part of Durham University, graduating in 1957.
Forster was born in Seaton Delaval, Northumberland and attended to Gosforth Grammar School.
He married Eileen Conlon in 1962, later having three sons with her. In due course he became Principal lecturer in Painting at the Chelsea College of Art & Design in Chelsea as well as Artist-in-Residence and Supernumerary Fellow at Balliol College Oxford University. In 1978 he won the John Moores Painting Prize His art can best be described as abstract, colourful and usually involving a cross-weaved fabric of straight or curved parallel lines drawn by hand, often executed in oil on linen. He died in London.
"Noel was in my view the most important post-War abstract painter in England, and his work combined performance, intellectual rigour and the artist's craft. It was simultaneously clever and sensuous. He was an influential teacher too and a very gifted musician. But he was also larger than life." Stephen Bury, Curator, British Library, 8 December 2007
"Noel was a splendid friend, and a wonderful painter.He thought endlessly about the relations of paint and light, and talked with extraordinary clarity - and complexity - about making works of art. He taught me a lot about looking.The ideas behind his own work were intricate and uncompromising."
http://www.noelforster.co.uk AS Byatt, Author, Dec 2007
"Noel Forster was an adventurous and productive artist whose glowing, audacious personality looked out from his canvasses."
Obituary in "The Times", 17 January 2008 Bernard Cohen, Artist, Dec 2007


Richard Zoellner

Richard Zoellner (1908-2003) was an American abstract painter, muralist, printmaker and art educator. During the New Deal, he was commissioned murals in the post offices of Cleveland, Georgetown, Hamilton, Medina, and Portsmouth in Ohio, as well as Mannington, West Virginia. He had a studio in Cincinnati from 1933 to 1942, and he taught at the University of Alabama from 1945 to 1978.


Luke Frost

 Luke Frost is a British abstract painter living in Cornwall, and is the son of the English painter Anthony Frost and the grandson of Sir Terry Frost.
His work featured in the "Art Now Cornwall" exhibition, at Tate St Ives, 2007, and he was Artist in Residence at Tate St Ives in 2008 following with a solo show from 24 January to 4 May 2009 .


Sakiko Odaka

 is a Japanese women's professional shogi player ranked 1-dan.
Promotion history.
Odaka's promotion history is as follows:
Note: All ranks are women's professional ranks.


Gianni Colombo

Gianni Colombo (Milan 1933 – Melzo 1993) was an Italian artist, member of the kinetic art movement.
In the 1960s, Colombo attended Accademia di Brera in Milan, where he met Davide Boriani, Gabriele De Vecchi, Giovanni Anceschi and Grazia Varisco. Together they formed "Gruppo T", a collective of artists interested in investigating the relationship between images and movement and the participatory element of art through kinetic forms.
Through his work Colombo dealt mainly with the perception of space, creating architectural environments and using a variety of supports including mechanical ones. He was awarded the Grand Prize of the Venice Biennale of 1968 with one of its most famous works, elastic space.
In 1985 he becomes director of Accademia di Brera where he also taught. In 1986 Colombo expanded his activities to theatre (he was a set designer for the Operstheater in Frankfurt) and architecture.


Yulia Neiman

Yulia Moiseevna Neiman (; 22 July 1907 – 1994), also known by the pen name Yu. Novikova (), was a Russian Jewish poet, essayist, and translator.
Biography.
Neiman's ancestors came from the Netherlands before settling in the Baltic area during the early nineteenth century. Her grandfather Solomon Neiman worked in the medical profession and all of his five sons, including Neiman's father became physicians.
Neiman attended the Higher Literary Academy, a new institution established to provide a five-year course in literature. She was accepted after presenting her manuscript of poetry. She was, however, forced to transfer to another school after it closed down after operating for four years. She graduated in 1930 from the literary faculty of the Moscow Institute of Philosophy, Literature and History.
Works.
Her poetry and translations—mostly from the Kalmyk and Avar languages—appeared in the pages of literary periodicals from the 1930s. Her first volume of poetry, "Bonfire on the Snow", was printed in 1974, and her second collection, "Thoughts on the Way", was released two years later. She published her final collection of verse, "Fancies of Memory", in 1990. Her works explored different themes including the war as was the case in her poem 1941, where she recollected her view of the conflict as a child.
Legacy.
A street in Elista, Kalmykia is named in Neiman's honour.


Takashi Kanezawa

 is a retired Japanese professional shogi player who achieved the rank of 5-dan.
Promotion history.
The promotion history for Kanezawa is as follows:


Kevin Connor (artist)

Kevin Connor (born 1932, Sydney), Australian artist who won the Archibald Prize twice; in 1975 for The Hon Sir Frank Kitto, KBE, and in 1977 for "Robert Klippel". He won the Sulman Prize in 1991/92 with "Najaf (Iraq) June 1991" and again in 1997 with "The Man with itchy fingers and other figures Gare du Nord".
He won a Harkness Fellowship for 21 months in the United States in 1966. He won the inaugural Dobell Prize in 1992 with "Pyrmont and the city", and also won it in 2005 with "Le Grand Palais, Clémenceau, de Gaulle and me".
He was a finalist in the 1994 Archibald Prize and also in the 2010 Archibald Prize.
Portrait.
A portrait of Kevin Connor by Danelle Bergstrom was exhibited in the Archibald Prize in 2006


Language Connect

Language Connect is a language translation and localization services company. The company's headquarters are in London. It provides a range of language services: translation, interpreting, localization, voice-overs, transcription, and multilingual search engine optimization.
Company.
Language Connect was founded in 2003 with the aim of assisting multinational organisations to operate efficiently without language barriers. Language Connect works with a worldwide network of more than 6,000 linguists covering more than 150 languages. The company's head office is in the Bermondsey Street area of London. It opened its first international operations in Munich in 2009 with subsequent branches opening in Melbourne (2009), New York City (2012), Istanbul (2012) and Singapore (2015). The firm is a member of the Association of Translation Companies and the Globalization and Localization Association (GALA). Language Connect is a Company Partner of the Market Research Society (MRS). Language Connect was acquired in 2018 by The Hut Group.
Community Connect.
The firm promotes languages and provides workshops for school children about careers in translation and interpreting. The company supports people in developing countries with microfinance for their businesses via Kiva.
In November 2012, Language Connect became a Gold Sponsor of Translators Without Borders after donating 10% of its profits to the non-profit organisation. The donation funded 200 days of training at a translator training centre operated by Translators Without Borders in Nairobi, Kenya.


Florian Ceynowa

Florian Ceynowa (Kashubian "Florión Cenôwa") (May 4, 1817 – March 26, 1881) was a doctor, political activist, writer, and linguist. He undertook efforts to identify Kashubian language, culture and traditions. He and Alexander Hilferding were not the only ones to study the language and legends of the Kashubians, but they had the greatest influence and prompted others to take up investigations. The individual nature of the Kashubian character and language was first described by Hilferding, to whom we are indebted for the first data about the range of Kashubian dialects. In 1856, he and Ceynowa traveled to the Kashubia. He awakened Kashubian self-identity, thereby opposing Germanisation and Prussian authority, and Polish nobility and clergy. He believed in a separate Kashubian identity and strove for a Russian-led pan-Slavic federation. He strove to create a program aimed at the introduction of a Kashubian standard in grammar, pronunciation and spelling, based on the spirit of the 1848 Revolution. He compiled treatises on Kashubian grammar and published Kashubian texts along with their translations into other Slavic languages. An important person for Kashubian literature, he was also a translator of Russian texts into Kashubian language.
Ceynowa was a pioneer of the nationalist movement among the Kashubian people in the mid-19th century. He was part of an attempt to take the Prussian garrison in Preußisch Stargard (Starogard Gdański) during 1846, but the operation failed when his 100 combatants, armed only with scythes, decided to abandon the site before the attack was carried out.


Kenneth Snelson

Kenneth Duane Snelson (June 29, 1927 – December 22, 2016) was an American contemporary sculptor and photographer. His sculptural works are composed of flexible and rigid components arranged according to the idea of 'tensegrity'. Snelson preferred the descriptive term floating compression.
Snelson said his former professor Buckminster Fuller took credit for Snelson's discovery of the concept that Fuller named tensegrity. Fuller gave the idea its name, combining 'tension' and 'structural integrity.' Kārlis Johansons had exhibited tensegrity sculptures several years before Snelson was even born. The height and strength of Snelson's sculptures, which are often delicate in appearance, depend on the tension between rigid pipes and flexible cables.
Biography.
Snelson was born in Pendleton, Oregon, in 1927. He studied at the University of Oregon in Eugene, at the Black Mountain College, and with Fernand Léger in Paris. His sculpture and photography have been exhibited at over 25 one-man shows in galleries around the world including the structurally seminal Park Place Gallery in New York in the 1960s. Snelson also did research on the shape of the atom. Snelson continued to work in his SoHo studio, occasionally collaborating with animator Jonathan Monaghan. He lived in New York City with his wife, Katherine.
He held five United States patents: #3,169,611: Discontinuous Compression Structures, February 1965; #3,276,148: Model for Atomic Forms, October 1966; #4,099,339: Model for Atomic Forms, July 1978; and #6,017,220: Magnetic Geometric Building System; and most recently, #6,739,937: Space Frame Structure Made by 3-D Weaving of Rod Members, May 25, 2004.
Snelson was a founding member of ConStruct, the artist-owned gallery that promoted and organized large-scale sculpture exhibitions throughout the United States. Other founding members include Mark di Suvero, John Raymond Henry, Lyman Kipp and Charles Ginnever.
After suffering from prostate cancer, Snelson died on December 22, 2016 at the age of 89.


Nela Arias-Misson

Nela Arias-Misson (September 8, 1915 – July 17, 2015) was a Cuban-born abstract expressionist painter and sculptor. Nela Arias-Misson was a contemporary and friend of the 20th-century painters Mark Rothko, Willem de Kooning, Franz Kline, Robert Motherwell, Karel Appel, Walasse Ting, and Antoni Tapies. She exhibited internationally and was connected to many established figures in the art world throughout her life. Her art synthesizes her experiences as an ahead-of-her-time, determined, female artist, linking abstract expressionism in Cuba, the United States, and Europe.
Biography.
Early life and education.
Nela Arias was born in Havana, Cuba on September 8, 1915. Her father, Amadeo Arias Rodriguez (who died when she was a child) and her mother, Sira Garcia Menendez, were from Asturias, Spain. They owned tobacco plantations in Cuba and traveled back and forth to Spain until World War I broke out and made trans-Atlantic travel impossible. As a result, they settled in Cuba.
From early childhood, Nela Arias was fascinated by the world of art and even then started positioning herself to become a part of it. She studied with Armando Maribona (artist, journalist, professor at La Academia de Bellas Artes de San Alejandro and also Nela's relative) in Havana in the 1930s. Maribona was Nela's childhood mentor and no doubt helped nurture her artistic vocation.
Life in the United States.
In 1941, Arias traveled to New York with her mother for medical treatment. They remained there several months and returned to Cuba by ship. On board, she met Willis Hesser Bird, a Sears, Roebuck & Company executive. Bird was a widower and had a six-year-old daughter, Barbara. They married in Havana two weeks later and moved to Haddonfield, New Jersey. Their daughter, Carole Bird, was born in Washington D.C. on August 9, 1942.
Right after Carole was born, Willis Hesser Bird was called to serve in the US Army in the Office of Strategic Services (precursor of the Central Intelligence Agency). After a brief time in Washington DC, he went overseas, serving in the China-Burma-India Theater. The Army moved Nela Arias, her mother, grandmother, Carole and Barbara to Sarasota, Florida, an option given to officers’ families during the war when no men were left at home. When the war ended, they all moved to New York City. Bird asked Nela to move the family to Thailand, where he chose to remain. She refused, deciding to stay in New York. Their marriage ended in 1949.
Career.
In the mid-to-late 1940s, Nela Arias studied fashion design and art at the Traphagen School of Fashion, at the Hans Hofmann School, and Parsons School of Design of New York City. In 1949, she married New York lawyer Sidney Kraft. Their marriage ended in divorce in 1955. During these years, she studied with Italian-American sculptor Leo Lentelli and at the Art Students League of New York, a formative school for the likes of Jackson Pollock, Lee Krasner, Clement Greenberg, Robert Rauschenberg, Roy Lichtenstein, Helen Frankenthaler, Mark Rothko and Cuban artist of Asturian background, Amelia Pelaez del Casal.
Provincetown.
Nela Arias was a student of Hans Hofmann (one of the major exponents of Abstract Expressionism and a former teacher at the Art Students League of New York) from 1957 to 1959. She became entrenched in the Provincetown, Massachusetts art community where she formed relationships and connected with internationally known figures such as Mark Rothko, Robert Motherwell, Franz Kline, and Willem de Kooning. She developed a friendship with Karel Appel, founder of the COBRA group. Nela Arias also became a close friend of Walasse Ting, an abstract-expressionist painter (with whom she collaborated on several works) known for authoring art books that included the participation of artists like Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Tom Wesselmann, James Rosenquist, Asger Jorn, Pierre Alechinsky, Karel Appel, Kiki Kogelnik, Joan Mitchell, and Sam Francis. During these years Nela Arias showed at the Provincetown Art Association and New Gallery in Provincetown and wins first prize at the National Association of Women Artists of the Argent Gallery in New York in 1959, from which she resigned, wanting to receive the same recognition that male artists did.
Europe.
From 1961 to 1976 Nela lived in Europe, settling first in Ibiza and Barcelona and later in Madrid and Brussels. She had exhibitions in: Britain, Denmark, Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, Italy, and Spain.
While living in Europe she met Joan Miró, who was then living in Palma de Mallorca, and Josep Llorens i Artigas, Miro's collaborator. She also was introduced to the painters of El Paso Group by her friend, artist Antoni Tapies. The artists invited her to join their group, but Nela rejected their offer. She preferred working independently.
In 1963, Nela married Belgian poet-novelist-artist, Alain Misson. When they married, they decided to combine their names, and from then on, both used the surname Arias-Misson. Alain Arias-Misson, a co-founder of the visual poetry movement, collaborated closely on projects and performances with artists Joan Brossa, Herminio Molero, and Ignacio Gomez de Liaño, with whom Nela became close friends.
In 1970, Galería Céspedes of Cordoba and Cult-Art Gallery in Madrid were hosts to Nela's solo exhibitions. These galleries were known for exhibiting artists like Manolo Valdes, the , Luis Eduardo Aute, and Juan Antonio Guirado. In 1974, she and her husband had a joint exhibition at the Galeria Senatore in Stuttgart. The two also collaborated with , Emile Kesteman, Carlfriedrich Clauss, and Seiichi Niikuni. In 1975, she participated in Phantomas, an exhibition of art and poetry at Musee d’Ixelles that included Enrico Baj, Bram Bogart, Marcel Broodthaers, Jean Dubuffet, Lucio Fontana, and Piero Manzoni, among others.
Return to the United States.
The Arias-Missons lived in Europe until 1976 when they returned to the United States, and moved to a rural part of New Jersey. Nela Arias-Misson continued to paint, but lived quietly and withdrew from the art world. She occasionally exhibited individual pieces in New York, Dallas, and Paris and Germany.
In 1993 she was in an automobile accident that required many major surgeries on her left arm and she was no longer able to paint as before.
In 1995 Nela moved to New York City where she lived until she made her final move in 2002 when she settled in Miami.
Legacy.
Nela Arias-Misson died in Miami on July 17, 2015, just a few weeks short of her 100th birthday. Her remains rest in a niche at El Cementerio de la Iglesia de San Esteban de Covera, Aviles, Spain.


Tony DeLap

Tony DeLap (November 4, 1927 – May 29, 2019) was a West Coast artist, known for his abstract sculpture utilizing illusionist techniques and meticulous craftsmanship. As a pioneer of West Coast minimalism and Op Art, DeLap's oeuvre is a testament to his willingness to continuously challenge the viewer's perception of reality.
Early career.
Born in 1927 in Oakland, DeLap grew up in the Bay Area and studied art, illustration, and graphic design at several Bay Area colleges, including the San Francisco Academy of Art, and he also attended the Claremont Colleges in Southern California. He returned to the Bay Area, where he taught at the California College of Arts and Crafts, the San Francisco Art Institute and at UC Davis until he secured a teaching position at the newly founded campus of the University of California, Irvine. Bruce Nauman, James Turrell and John McCracken studied with DeLap.
Along with artists such as Ellsworth Kelly, DeLap followed a path of Geometric abstraction and Minimal art embracing the principles of limited color, geometry, precise craftsmanship, and intellectual rigor. Since the early 1960s, he was associated with an emerging movement of West Coast minimalism referred to as "finish fetish," along with several other artists including Craig Kauffman, Larry Bell, and DeWain Valentine.
Career.
DeLap's work has been widely exhibited both nationally and internationally. Along with numerous solo exhibitions, DeLap was included in several important group exhibitions of the 1960s including; Primary Structures at the Jewish Museum; "American Sculpture of the Sixties" at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; and "The Responsive Eye" at The Museum of Modern Art, New York City. He died on May 29, 2019 at the age of 91.
Collections.
DeLap's work is in many private and public collections, including the San Jose Museum of Art; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; the Whitney Museum of American Art; The Museum of Modern Art; the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis; and The Tate Gallery, London, among others.


Dzongkha keyboard layout

The Dzongkha keyboard layout scheme is designed as a simple means for inputting Dzongkha (རྫོང་ཁ) and classical Tibetan (ཆོས་སྐད) text on computers. This keyboard layout was standardized by the Dzongkha Development Commission (DDC) and the Department of Information Technology and Telecom (DITT) of the Royal Government of Bhutan in 2000. It was updated in 2009 to accommodate additional characters added to the Unicode & ISO 10646 standards since the initial version.
Since the arrangement of keys essentially follows the usual order of the Dzongkha and Tibetan alphabet, the layout can be quickly learned by anyone familiar with this alphabet. Subjoined (combining) consonants are entered using the Shift key.
The Dzongkha (dz) keyboard layout is included in the XFree86 distribution.
Keyboard layout.
Dzongkha (Bhutan) - dz-BT


Fred Mitchell (artist)

Madison Fred Mitchell (November 24, 1923 – May 21, 2013) belonged to the New York School Abstract Expressionist artists whose influence and artistic innovation by the 1950s had been recognized around the world. New York School Abstract Expressionism, represented by Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Franz Kline and others became a leading art movement of the post-World War II era.
Biography.
Fred Mitchell was born November 24, 1923, in Meridian, Mississippi. Following graduation from Meridian High School, Mitchell attended the Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University), until his studies were interrupted by military duty. After serving in the Army, Mitchell enrolled in the Cranbrook Academy of Art, where he eventually received his M.F.A.
He died New York City on May 21, 2013.
Participation in the Downtown Art Scene.
In 1947 Mitchell was the winner of Pepsi Cola cash award of $1,500; He sailed to Rome. During his visit to Rome he met painters John Heliker, Afro (Basadella), and Philip Guston, who had major influence on his work. Returning to the US, in 1951 Mitchell moved to New York City and became one of the first painters to open a painting studio in the downtown seaport area along the East River known as Coenties Slip (Manhattan). He soon joined the "Downtown Group" which represented a group of artists who found studios in lower Manhattan. In 1952 Mitchell, Angelo Ippolito, Lois Dodd, Charles Cajori and William King organized the Tanager Gallery, which belonged to the Tenth Street galleries. His friend Philip Pavia introduced Mitchell to 'The Club'.
Mitchell was also a highly regarded teacher:


Van Emde Boas tree

A van Emde Boas tree (), also known as a vEB tree or van Emde Boas priority queue, is a tree data structure which implements an associative array with -bit integer keys. It performs all operations in time, or equivalently in time, where is the maximum number of elements that can be stored in the tree. The is not to be confused with the actual number of elements stored in the tree, by which the performance of other tree data-structures is often measured. The vEB tree has good space efficiency when it contains many elements, as discussed below. It was invented by a team led by Dutch computer scientist Peter van Emde Boas in 1975.
Supported operations.
A vEB supports the operations of an "ordered associative array", which includes the usual associative array operations along with two more "order" operations, "FindNext" and "FindPrevious":
A vEB tree also supports the operations "Minimum" and "Maximum", which return the minimum and maximum element stored in the tree respectively. These both run in time, since the minimum and maximum element are stored as attributes in each tree.
How it works.
 For the sake of simplicity, let for some integer "k". Define . A vEB tree over the universe } has a root node that stores an array of length . is a pointer to a vEB tree that is responsible for the values }. Additionally, "T" stores two values and as well as an auxiliary vEB tree .
Data is stored in a vEB tree as follows: The smallest value currently in the tree is stored in and largest value is stored in . Note that is not stored anywhere else in the vEB tree, while is. If "T" is empty then we use the convention that and . Any other value "x" is stored in the subtree where . The auxiliary tree keeps track of which children are non-empty, so contains the value "j" if and only if is non-empty.
FindNext.
The operation that searches for the successor of an element "x" in a vEB tree proceeds as follows: If then the search is complete, and the answer is . If then the next element does not exist, return M. Otherwise, let . If then the value being searched for is contained in so the search proceeds recursively in . Otherwise, we search for the value "i" in . This gives us the index "j" of the first subtree that contains an element larger than "x". The algorithm then returns . The element found on the children level needs to be composed with the high bits to form a complete next element.
 function FindNext(T, x)
 if x < T.min then
 return T.min
 if x ≥ T.max then "// no next element"
 return M
 i = floor(x/)
 lo = x mod
 if lo < T.children[i].max then
 return ( i) + FindNext(T.children[i], lo)
 j = FindNext(T.aux, i)
 return ( j) + T.children[j].min
 end
Note that, in any case, the algorithm performs work and then possibly recurses on a subtree over a universe of size (an bit universe). This gives a recurrence for the running time of , which resolves to .
Insert.
The call that inserts a value into a vEB tree operates as follows:
In code:
 function Insert(T, x)
 if T.min > T.max then "// T is empty"
 T.min = T.max = x;
 return
 if x < T.min then
 swap(x, T.min)
 if x > T.max then
 T.max = x
 i = floor(x / )
 lo = x mod
 Insert(T.children[i], lo)
 if T.children[i].min == T.children[i].max then
 Insert(T.aux, i)
 end
The key to the efficiency of this procedure is that inserting an element into an empty vEB tree takes time. So, even though the algorithm sometimes makes two recursive calls, this only occurs when the first recursive call was into an empty subtree. This gives the same running time recurrence of as before.
Delete.
Deletion from vEB trees is the trickiest of the operations. The call that deletes a value "x" from a vEB tree T operates as follows:
In code:
 function Delete(T, x)
 if T.min == T.max == x then
 T.min = M
 T.max = −1
 return
 if x == T.min then
 hi = T.aux.min *
 j = T.aux.min
 T.min = x = hi + T.children[j].min
 i = floor(x / )
 lo = x mod
 Delete(T.children[i], lo)
 if T.children[i] is empty then
 Delete(T.aux, i)
 if x == T.max then
 if T.aux is empty then
 T.max = T.min
 else
 hi = T.aux.max *
 j = T.aux.max
 T.max = hi + T.children[j].max
 end
Again, the efficiency of this procedure hinges on the fact that deleting from a vEB tree that contains only one element takes only constant time. In particular, the second Delete call only executes if "x" was the only element in prior to the deletion.
Python implementation.
from math import ceil, log2
van Emde Boas Tree is a data structure which gives O(log(log(u))
query time for operations like
insert, search, delete, successor and predecessor
VEB class contains attribute
min, max, u, w, cluster and summary
initially min=max=NULL
u = size of universe (the range of total possible entries)
w = word length (number of bits in u)
w = log2(u)
cluster is an array of VEB structures of size of sqrt(u)
summary is a VEB of size sqrt(u)
when the size of VEB structure reaches we don't store clusters and summary vector
min and max are enough to store this structure.
class VEB:
 """Index of x can be determined as the
 cluster number and the position inside the cluster
 for example lets consider 11
 in binary it is written as 1011
 so first half parts of the binary strinig give cluster number
 and 2nd half gives the postiton inside cluster
 cluster number= int(10)= 2
 position inside cluster= int(11)=3
 so 11 is in 2nd cluster at 3rd position
 where counting starts from 0th position
 0,1,2,3|4,5,6,7|8,9,10,11|12,13,14,15
 here we use 'c' to denote cluster number
 and 'i' to denote index inside the cluster
 so x can be represented as <c,i>
 where x = c * sqrt(u) + i
 def high(self, x):
 # high(x)=x//int(sqrt(u))
 return x » (self.w // 2)
 def low(self, x):
 # low(x)= x%int(sqrt(u))
 return x & (1 « (self.w // 2)) - 1
 def index(self, i, j):
 # return i*int(sqrt(self.u))+j
 return i « (self.w // 2) | j
 def __init__(self, u):
 This have been implemented using hash table
 to reduce the space complexity from O(U) to O(n*log(log(u))
 because u can be very large. for example if word size = 64 bits
 u= 2^64 = 16 million TB which can't be stored practically on ram.
 where as n*log*log*u can be O(3n) which can be easily stored.
 I have a different code for array implementation too.
 self.w = ceil(log2(u))
 # self.u = 2 ** self.w
 self.min = self.max = None
 if self.w >= 1: # when u==2^w=2 min and max are enough so we stop recursion
 self.summary = None
 def member(self, x):
 """Function to check if x is present in tree or not."""
 if x == self.min or x == self.max:
 return True
 elif self.w == 1:
 return False
 else:
 c = self.high(x)
 i = self.low(x)
 if c in self.cluster:
 return self.cluster[c].member(i)
 else:
 return False
 def insert(self, x):
 if self.min is None:
 self.min = x
 self.max = x
 return
 else:
 if x < self.min:
 x, self.min = self.min, x
 c = self.high(x)
 i = self.low(x)
 if self.w > 1:
 if c not in self.cluster:
 self.cluster[c] = VEB(2 ** (self.w // 2))
 if self.cluster[c].min is None:
 if self.summary is None:
 self.summary = VEB(2 ** (self.w // 2))
 self.summary.insert(c)
 if c not in self.cluster:
 self.cluster[c] = VEB(2 ** (self.w // 2))
 self.cluster[c].insert(i)
 if x > self.max:
 self.max = x
 def successor(self, x):
 if self.w == 1:
 if x == 0 and self.max == 1:
 return 1
 else:
 return None
 elif self.min is not None and x < self.min:
 return self.min
 else:
 c = self.high(x)
 i = self.low(x)
 if c in self.cluster:
 maxlow = self.cluster[c].max
 else:
 maxlow = None
 if maxlow is not None and i < maxlow:
 offset = self.cluster[c].successor(i)
 return self.index(c, offset)
 else:
 if self.summary is not None:
 succ_cluster = self.summary.successor(self.high(x))
 else:
 succ_cluster = None
 if succ_cluster is None:
 return None
 else:
 offset = self.cluster[succ_cluster].min
 return self.index(succ_cluster, offset)
 def predecessor(self, x):
 if self.w == 1:
 if x == 1 and self.min == 0:
 return 0
 else:
 return None
 elif self.max is not None and x > self.max:
 return self.max
 else:
 c = self.high(x)
 i = self.low(x)
 if c in self.cluster:
 min_low = self.cluster[c].min
 else:
 min_low = None
 if min_low is not None and i > min_low:
 offset = self.cluster[c].predecessor(i)
 return self.index(c, offset)
 else:
 if self.summary is not None:
 prev_cluster = self.summary.predecessor(c)
 else:
 prev_cluster = None
 if prev_cluster is None:
 if self.min is not None and x > self.min:
 return self.min
 else:
 return None
 else:
 offset = self.cluster[prev_cluster].max
 return self.index(prev_cluster, offset)
 def delete(self, x):
 if self.min is None:
 return
 if x < self.min or x > self.max:
 return
 if self.min == self.max:
 self.min = self.max = None
 elif self.w == 1:
 if x == 0:
 self.min = 1
 else:
 self.min = 0
 self.max = self.min
 else:
 c = self.high(x)
 i = self.low(x)
 if x == self.min:
 if self.summary:
 first_cluster = self.summary.min
 else:
 first_cluster = None
 if first_cluster:
 x = self.index(first_cluster, self.cluster[first_cluster].min)
 self.min = x
 if c in self.cluster:
 self.cluster[c].delete(i)
 if self.cluster[c].min is None:
 self.summary.delete(c)
 if x == self.max:
 summary_max = self.summary.max
 if summary_max is None:
 self.max = self.min
 else:
 self.max = self.index(summary_max, self.cluster[summary_max].max)
 elif x == self.max:
 self.max = self.index(c, self.cluster[c].max)
Discussion.
The assumption that is an integer is unnecessary. The operations formula_1 and formula_2 can be replaced by taking only higher-order and the lower-order bits of , respectively. On any existing machine, this is more efficient than division or remainder computations.
The implementation described above uses pointers and occupies a total space of . This can be seen as follows. The recurrence is formula_3.
Resolving that would lead to formula_4.
One can, fortunately, also show that by induction.
In practical implementations, especially on machines with "shift-by-k" and "find first zero" instructions, performance can further be improved by switching to a bit array once equal to the word size (or a small multiple thereof) is reached. Since all operations on a single word are constant time, this does not affect the asymptotic performance, but it does avoid the majority of the pointer storage and several pointer dereferences, achieving a significant practical savings in time and space with this trick.
An obvious optimization of vEB trees is to discard empty subtrees. This makes vEB trees quite compact when they contain many elements, because no subtrees are created until something needs to be added to them. Initially, each element added creates about new trees containing about pointers all together. As the tree grows, more and more subtrees are reused, especially the larger ones. In a full tree of elements, only space is used. Moreover, unlike a binary search tree, most of this space is being used to store data: even for billions of elements, the pointers in a full vEB tree number in the thousands.
However, for small trees the overhead associated with vEB trees is enormous: on the order of formula_5. This is one reason why they are not popular in practice. One way of addressing this limitation is to use only a fixed number of bits per level, which results in a trie. Alternatively, each table may be replaced by a hash table, reducing the space to (where is the number of elements stored in the data structure) at the expense of making the data structure randomized. Other structures, including y-fast tries and x-fast tries have been proposed that have comparable update and query times and also use randomized hash tables to reduce the space to or .


John Hopwood (artist)

John Hopwood was a British painter. His early work was figurative but his later work is mainly abstraction.
Early life.
John Hopwood was born in Wiltshire on 26 March 1942, and died on 3 January 2015. His parents were Daisy and Fred Hopwood, and he was an only child. The family moved when John was 3 years old to Hare Hatch in Berkshire, where John attended school. His parents worked for Lord and Lady Remnant of Bear Place as their chauffeur and cook. Hopwood studied art at Berkshire College of Art in Maidenhead (1958–1962).
Career.
John Hopwood painted continuously after leaving art school. His work was initially figurative. He lived in Wytham near Oxford for seven years and was briefly married (1970–1972). He left Wytham in 1975 and returned to Holt Cottage in Hare Hatch. He took a part-time job as a gardener for the Remnant family, in order to support himself while continuing to paint. He radically changed his painting style around 1990, towards a "semi-abstract" style. He moved to St Ives in 1997 and married Annie de Boel, in 1999.
Significant work.
Self Portrait in White (1970) (private collection), exhibited at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition in 1974, illustrated in Sir Ernst Gombrich “The Image and the Eye” (1981). His "Portrait of Andrew Logan" (private collection) was also exhibited at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition. Two of his paintings "Apparition: Sun Man" (1991) and "Tunnel of Trees" (2008) are in the National Collection, acquired by Reading Museum.
Exhibitions.
Gallery Five (Reading), Reading Museum and Art Gallery, Borlase Gallery (Newbury), Newman Rooms Gallery (Oxford), Century Galleries (Henley, 1992), In London he had exhibitions at Woodstock Gallery, Piccadilly Gallery, Mercury Gallery, Crane Calman, Pentonville Gallery and Quaker gallery (1992). He held a retrospective of his figurative paintings at the Julius Gottlieb Gallery, Carmel College (1993), exhibition of new work Henley Business school gallery (1993), exhibition of new work painted in St Ives at New Millenium Gallery, St Ives in 2005 and 2008 and Belgrave Gallery, St Ives (2015).


Sachiko Takamure

 is a retired Japanese women's professional shogi player ranked 4-dan.
Personal life.
Takamure is married to professional shogi player Yasuaki Tsukada, but plays professionally under her maiden name. The couple's daughter Erika is also a women's professional shogi player.
Promotion history.
Takamura's promotion history is as follows:
Note: All ranks are women's professional ranks.
Awards and honors.
Takamure received the Japan Shogi Association's received the "25 Years Service Award" in recognition of being an active professional for twenty-five years in 2010.


Professors in the United States

Professors in the United States commonly occupy any of several positions in academia. In the U.S., the word "professor" informally refers collectively to the academic ranks of assistant professor, associate professor, or professor. This usage differs from the predominant usage of the word professor internationally, where the unqualified word professor only refers to "full professors." The majority of university lecturers and instructors in the United States, , do not occupy these tenure-track ranks, but are part-time adjuncts.
Research and education are among the main tasks of tenured and tenure-track professors, with the amount of time spent on research or teaching depending strongly on the type of institution. Publication of articles in conferences, journals, and books is essential to occupational advancement. As of August 2007, teaching in tertiary educational institutions is one of the fastest growing occupations, topping the U.S. Department of Labor's list of "above average wages and high projected growth occupations", with a projected increase of 524,000 positions between 2004 and 2014. In 2011, a survey conducted by TIAA-CREF Institute senior researcher Paul J. Yakoboski estimated that 73% of professors with senior tenure ranged between the ages of 60 and 66 and that the remaining 27% were above the age of 66. Yakoboski estimated that 75% of these professors have acknowledged that they have made no preparations for retirement due to the ongoing financial crisis and reluctance to leave their profession. A 2013 survey conducted by Fidelity Investments would echo similar results when the question about retirement came up.
In 2013, the National Center for Education Statistics counted 181,530 professors, 155,095 associate professors, 166,045 assistant professors, 99,304 instructors, 36,728 lecturers, and 152,689 other full-time faculty.
Overview.
The term "professors" in the United States refers to a group of educators at the college and university level. In the United States, while "Professor" as a "proper noun" (with a capital "P") generally implies a position title officially bestowed by a university or college to faculty members with a PhD or the highest level terminal degree in a non-academic field (e.g., MFA, MLIS), the common noun "professor" is often used casually to refer to anyone teaching at the college level, regardless of rank or degree. At some junior colleges without a formal ranking system, instructors are accorded the courtesy title of "professor".
Although almost all tenured professors hold doctorates, some exceptional scholars without them are occasionally granted tenure: Jay Forrester (electrical engineering, M.I.T.) had only a master's degree; Saul Kripke (philosophy, Rockefeller) and Andrew Gleason (mathematics, Harvard) had only a bachelor's degree; Edward Fredkin (computer science, M.I.T.) and Erik Erikson (psychology, Harvard) did not even have bachelor's degrees. Tenure without a doctorate is somewhat more common in fields with an artistic component, as with Howard Nemerov (poetry, Washington, St. Louis) and Colin Rowe (architectural history and theory, Cornell). Until the middle of the 20th century, professors without doctorates were more common.
Tenured and tenure-track positions.
These full-time faculty members with PhDs or other highest-level terminal degrees (designated as acceptable by a university or college, including the "professional equivalent" to the doctorate at institutions such as Columbia University), engage in both undergraduate and graduate teaching, mentoring, research, and service. Only faculty in these positions are eligible for tenure.
The top administrative post in many academic departments is the "department chair." Prior to the 1970s, such administrators were called "chairmen" or "chairwomen", but the term in most institutions has since been the gender-neutral "chairperson", or shortened to "chair". While many department chairs also hold endowed chair positions, the two positions are distinct.
Educators who hold a formal title of "Professor" (referred to as tenured/tenure-track faculty) typically begin their careers as "assistant professors" (or "lecturers" and "senior lecturers"), with subsequent promotions to the ranks of "associate professor" and finally "professor". The titles are historical traditions; for example, it is not implied that an assistant professor "assists" more senior faculty. There is often a strict timeline for application for promotion from assistant to associate professor, most often 5 or 6 years following the initial appointment. Applicants are evaluated based on their contributions to research, teaching, and administration. The relative weightings of these contributions differ by institution, with PhD-granting universities usually placing more emphasis on research and liberal arts colleges placing more emphasis on teaching. The decision to grant tenure and promotion from assistant to associate professor usually requires numerous levels of approval, with a common sequence being:
A decision to reject a candidate for tenure normally requires that the individual leave the institution within two years (under the AAUP tenure guidelines). Otherwise, tenure is granted along with promotion from assistant to associate professor. Although tenure and promotion are usually separate decisions, they are often highly correlated such that a decision to grant a promotion coincides with a decision in favor of tenure, and vice versa. Promotion to associate professor usually results in an increased administrative load and membership on committees that are restricted to tenured faculty.
Some people remain at the level of associate professor throughout their careers. However, most will apply for the final promotion to full professor; the timeline for making this application is more flexible than that for assistant to associate positions and the associate professor does not normally lose his/her job if the application is rejected. As with promotion from assistant to associate professor, promotion from associate to full professor involves review at multiple levels, similar to the earlier tenure/promotion review. This includes external reviews, decisions by the department, recommendations by members of other departments, and high-ranking university officials. Usually, this final promotion requires that the individual has maintained an active research program and excellent teaching, in addition to taking a leadership role in important departmental and extra-departmental administrative tasks. Full professor is the highest rank that a professor can achieve (other than in a named position) and is seldom achieved before a person reaches their mid-40s. The rank of full professor carries additional administrative responsibilities associated with membership on committees that are restricted to full professors.
Two-year community colleges that award tenure often use the "professor" ranking system as well. Candidates for tenure at those institutions would not normally need to hold a PhD, only the degree necessary (usually a master's) for employment as an instructor.
Non-tenure-track positions.
Individuals in these positions who typically (though not always) focus on teaching undergraduate courses do not engage in research (except in the case of "research professors"), may or may not have administrative or service roles, and sometimes are eligible for job security that is less strong than tenure. They may still be referred to casually as "professor" and be described by the common-noun "professor", whether or not they officially designated that position title by the university or college. Likewise, the term "instructor" is very generic and can be applied to any teacher, or it can be a specific title (tenure or tenure-track) depending upon how an institution chooses to use the term.
Retired faculty.
Retired faculty may retain formal or informal links with their university, such as library privileges or office space. At some institutions, faculty who have retired after achieving the rank of professor are given the title "professor emeritus" (male) or "professor emerita" (female).
Tenure-track faculty ranks.
Although the term "professor" is often used to refer to any college or university teacher, there are different 'tiers' of professorship ranging from an entry-level position as an "assistant professor" to "full professor", a rank reserved for professors who have established themselves as experts within their academic fields. Contrary to some beliefs, assistant professors, associate professors, and full professors are all, in fact, technically professors. Usually students who have completed their doctoral studies seek positions as assistant professors in colleges and universities. As they progress in their established fields through research, teaching, and service, they can make bids for promotion and tenure, which typically elevates them to the rank of associate professor. Associate professors who continue to establish high profiles and become experts in their fields of study may bid for a promotion to full professor, which is considered an esteemed position reserved for the most successful professors working in their fields. College and university teachers who hold the rank of "lecturer" or "instructor" are typically not tenured/tenure-track faculty, usually focus on teaching undergraduate courses, and are generally not involved in research, nor are they typically involved in department and university decision-making. (Note that in other English-speaking countries, the term "lecturer" might have a different meaning. For example, in the United Kingdom and in Ireland, the position of lecturer is equivalent to that of assistant professor in the US system.)
Assistant professor.
The rank of assistant professor generally is held for a probationary period of five to seven years, after which the individual will either be promoted to associate professor and granted tenure (i.e., cannot be fired without cause and a formal hearing process) or will be terminated from employment. As of 2007, 23.1% of academics held the rank of assistant professor.
Competition for assistant professor positions in many fields is rapidly growing; the number of PhD graduates is rising, while the number of assistant professor openings remains roughly constant. The opposite is true, however, in business disciplines, where the anticipated shortfall of business faculty may reach 2,400 openings by 2012. The U.S. Occupation Outlook Handbook notes that a significant proportion of any growth in academic professor jobs will be due to "part-time and non tenure-track positions". As of 2003, the average age at which scientists received tenure in the United States was 39, which can make it difficult for professors to balance professional and family obligations.
The tenure process.
After several years at the rank of assistant professor, individuals are considered for a promotion and tenure. Tenure generally constitutes a lifetime employment agreement and could also serve as a means of protecting faculty whose research may be socially, politically, or scientifically controversial. Rates for achieving tenure vary, depending on the institutions and areas of study; in most places at least 50% of assistant professors will eventually become tenured and promoted to associate professors; however, this number can be as low as 10% in natural sciences departments of top universities or in non-PhD-granting schools. In unusual circumstances, it is possible to receive tenure but to remain as an assistant professor, typically when tenure is awarded early.
Associate professor.
Upon successfully receiving tenure, an assistant professor usually is promoted to the rank of associate professor. The mid-level position is usually awarded after a substantial record of scholarly accomplishment (such as the publication of one or more books, numerous research articles, a successful program of external research grant support, successful teaching, and/or service to the department); however, the specific requirements vary considerably between institutions and departments. As of 2007, 22.4% of academics hold the rank of associate professor.
Alternatively, a person may be hired at the associate professor level without tenure (which is a typical practice at some universities, often done as a financial inducement to attract someone from outside the institution, but who might not yet meet all the qualifications for tenure). If an applicant is appointed to the rank of associate professor without tenure, the position is usually tenure-track with an expectation that the person will soon qualify for tenure.
At some institutions, individuals are promoted to the rank of associate professor prior to receiving tenure. In these situations, the individual may eventually apply for tenure at that institution or, optionally, seek a tenured position elsewhere.
Professor.
Upon a sustained and distinguished track record of scholarly achievement within one's university and academic discipline, an associate professor may be promoted to professor (sometimes referred to as "full professor"). In most traditional colleges and universities, this position is always tenured; however, this may not be the case in a for-profit private institution or certain church-affiliated universities and colleges.
The rank of professor is the highest of the standard academic ranks in the United States, and is held by 29.5% of U.S. academics. Advancement past the rank of professor typically involves administrative duties (e.g., department chair, dean, or provost) or selection for an honorary title or endowed chair.
The absence of a mandatory retirement age contributes to "graying" of this occupation. The median age of American full professors (in 2006) was around 55 years. Very few people attain this position before the age of 40. The annual salary of full professors averages at $99,000, although less so at non-doctoral institutions, and more so at private doctoral institutions (not including side income from grants and consulting, which can be substantial in some fields); in addition, institutions in major cities or high cost of living areas will pay higher salaries.
In addition to increasing salary, each promotional step also tends to come with increased administrative responsibilities. In some cases, these changes are offset by reduced teaching or research expectations.
Special academic ranks (tenured).
Professor emeritus and emerita.
A full professor who retires in good standing may be referred to as a professor emeritus for men, or professor emerita for women. This title is also given to retired professors who continue to teach and to be listed. The title may also be given to full professors who have left for another institution but are still working full-time. The concept has in some places been expanded to include also tenured associate professors, or also non-tenure-track faculty. In some systems and institutions the rank is bestowed on all professors who have retired in good standing, while at others it needs a special act or vote. Depending on local circumstances, professors emeriti may retain office space or other privileges.
The word is typically used as a postpositional adjective ("professor emeritus") but can also be used as a preposition adjective ("emeritus professor"). There is a third, somewhat less common usage, following the full title (e.g., "professor of medicine, emeritus".)
Distinguished (research/teaching) professor.
Often specific to one institution, titles such as "president's professor", "university professor", "distinguished professor", "distinguished research professor", "distinguished teaching professor", "distinguished university professor", or "regents professor" are granted to a small percentage of the top tenured faculty who are regarded as particularly important in their respective fields of research. Some institutions grant more university-specific, formal titles such as M.I.T.'s "Institute Professor", Yale University's "Sterling Professor", or Duke University's "James B. Duke Professor".
Some academic and/or scholarly organizations may also bestow the title "distinguished professor" in recognition of achievement over the course of an academic career. For example, the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture annually recognizes up to five faculty at architecture schools in the United States and Canada with the ACSA Distinguished Professor Award.
Named/endowed chair.
The incumbent of a "named chair" or "endowed chair" is a professor who holds a specific position within a university system, typically department chair that is financially supported by an investment portfolio (i.e., an endowment) initially created by donated funds from a firm, person, or group of persons. Endowed chairs are typically named for the person or entity who donated these funds, or for a person whom the monies were donated in honor of, such as a distinguished emeritus professor at that institution. Endowed chairs are best classified as a position rather than a career rank, because professors of different ranks could hold such a chair. Investment income earned from the chair's endowment is typically used to supplement the professor's salary, to provide a yearly budget that can be used to support the professor's research activities, or both.
Other designations.
For non-tenure track teaching positions in the US, academic institutions use a wide array of different job titles depending on if the position is temporary or permanent, if the work is full-time or part-time, and numerous other factors. Adding to the confusion over the formal names of non-tenure track positions, in almost every case the common-noun descriptor "professor" is used informally for people who teach at a college or university, regardless of their formal job title, and the terms are often loosely interchanged by faculty and administrators. For example, US President Barack Obama is commonly referred to as having been a professor of law at the University of Chicago, when in fact he formally held the title of senior lecturer, causing some controversy during the 2008 US Presidential Election. The faculty of the University of Chicago Law School eventually published a statement noting that it is common for lecturers to be referred to as professors, and that they support the use of the term professor to describe Obama's role with the university.
Lecturer / Instructor.
"Lecturers" and "instructors" in the US can work full-time or part-time and may be referred to as "professor" by their classes. At some institutions, they teach as their primary purpose, but they can also serve on academic committees. Since these positions are usually non-tenure track, they often do not involve a research or publishing requirement, although many of these professors do publish, research, and consult. Alternatively, at US medical colleges, the title "Instructor" can be given to someone who is full-time faculty and who may conduct research with no teaching obligation. These appointments can be tenure-track in some universities.
Visiting professor.
An individual hired with a college or university to teach for a limited time is sometimes referred to as a "Visiting Professor" or "Visiting Lecturer"; this may be someone who is a professor elsewhere, or a scholar or practitioner who is not. The term may also refer simply to non-tenure track teaching appointments (usually 1 to 3 years) and/or post-doctorate research appointments. The title can mirror the naming conventions used in tenure-track positions, for example the professor in question could be called a "Visiting Assistant Professor", "Distinguished Visiting Professor", etc.
Adjunct professor.
An adjunct professor is a professor who does not hold a permanent or full-time position at that particular academic institution. Adjunct professors usually have no expectation of tenure as a part of their contract. An adjunct is generally not required to participate in the administrative responsibilities at the institution expected of tenure-track professors, nor are adjuncts paid for their research.
Traditionally the majority of adjuncts held full-time jobs outside academia, and taught one or two classes in their respective fields of expertise to provide a practical perspective to the often theoretical coursework taught by full-time professors. Since the 1990s, however, the nature of adjunct professorship in the United States and other nations has shifted to refer mainly to persons hired to teach courses on a short-term contractual basis. Such adjuncts generally have a teaching load below the minimum required to earn employment benefits such as health insurance or access to retirement accounts. In contrast with tenure-track professors, adjuncts do not usually have individual offices or a place to store possessions.
Adjuncts are not funded to maintain currency in their fields of expertise, nor to interact with students other than within the course(s) they are hired to teach. Often, adjuncts will work for several universities simultaneously, as working at one school often fails to provide adequate income to support oneself. These adjuncts have been called part of the "working poor". In 2014, a national news story described the situation of adjuncts as "Juggling multiple part-time jobs, earning little-to-no benefits, depending on public assistance: This is the financial reality for many adjunct professors across the nation." In 2015, an adjunct professor of law writing in "The Guardian" provided an anecdotal example of the low pay some adjuncts earn: teaching five courses with a gross salary of $15,000 for the year, less than a professional pet sitter.
Universities often treat adjuncts as inexpensive and replaceable when compared to tenure-track faculty, and as additional teaching resources to be called up as necessary. Adjuncts cannot count on employment: classes can be transferred from adjuncts to full-time professors, classes with low enrollment can be summarily canceled; and the teaching schedule from one semester to the next can be unpredictable.
In some cases, an adjunct may hold one of the standard academic ranks in another department, and be recognized with adjunct rank for making contributions to the department in question. Thus, one could be an "associate professor of physics and adjunct professor of chemistry".
In some universities, there are different ranks of adjunct faculty. For example, at the University of Iowa, the ranks are adjunct instructor, adjunct assistant professor, adjunct associate professor, and adjunct full professor; the University states that "the expectations at each rank are similar to those for the same rank on the tenure track".
Professor by courtesy/affiliated professor.
A professor who is primarily and originally associated with one academic department, but has become officially associated with a second department, institute, or program within the university and has assumed a professor's duty in that second department as well, could be called a "professor by courtesy." Example: "Dan Jurafsky is professor of linguistics and professor by courtesy of computer science at Stanford University". Usually, the second courtesy appointment carries with it fewer responsibilities and fewer benefits than a single full appointment (for example, affiliated professors rarely have voting rights in their courtesy department).
Research professor.
A professor who does not take on all of the classic duties of a professor, but instead focuses on research. At most universities, research professors are not eligible for tenure and must fund their salary entirely through research grants, with no regular salary commitment from internal university sources. In parallel with tenure-track faculty ranks, there are assistant and associate research professor positions.
Assistant, associate or full teaching professors.
These types of professors focus on teaching, often at higher loads than research faculty, and in departments with graduate students, supervising teaching assistants. They may be ranked assistant, associate, and full. At some institutions (like within the University of California system), these are full voting members of the Academic Senate who get tenured and promoted in the same manner as other tenure-track faculty, and have all the powers/rights of other faculty at the same rank (e.g. Principal investigator status, supervising doctoral dissertations, serving in academic leadership roles, etc.).
At some institutions, they may be full-time contingent instructors who are not required to meet the research requirements of the tenure track.
Clinical professor.
A clinical professor engages in practical instruction (of professional students) typically with an emphasis on practical skills as opposed to theory. This generally is not a "tenure track" position, but can be either full- or part-time. These types of appointments are common in law, medicine, and business schools, and are sometimes referred to as 'professor of practice'.
Honorary professor.
This is a title normally granted to those who have contributed significantly to the school and community (for example, by donation for furtherance of research and academic development), but may or may not have earned a PhD.
Demographics.
Most professors in the U.S. are male, liberal (in the contemporary American political sense), and upper middle class. A slight majority of professors ranked among the top 15% of wage earners, in 2005.
According to a study by Robert Lichter, a professor at George Mason University, "The vast majority of professors in the United States identify themselves as liberal, and registered Democrats commonly outnumber registered Republicans." However, this demographic tendency varies across departments. A 2010 study by Gross and Fosse found that the political persuasions of American professors had changed over the 20th century. In the 1800s professors were often clergymen and tended towards conservatism, gradually becoming more liberal with the Progressive Era and Great Depression. By the mid-20th century, the humanities and social sciences were dominated by liberal or Democratic professors, with Republicans or conservatives showing a slight majority in departments of business, agriculture and engineering. From the late 1970s to the mid 1980s there was a trend towards conservatism amongst professors (paralleling a national shift to the right with the "Reagan Revolution"): about 5% of professors identified themselves as strongly left-wing, about a third identifying themselves as liberals, about 25% identifying themselves as moderates, 25% as conservative, and 5% as strongly conservative. Since the 1980s, the percentage of liberal professors has grown steadily, with nationwide research consistently finding somewhere between 7 and 9 liberals for each professor of another political persuasion.
In terms of education, the vast majority of professors hold doctorate degrees. Professors at community colleges may only have a master's degree while those at four-year institutions are often required to hold a doctorate or other terminal degree. To some extent this is a result of "credential creep": why hire someone without a doctorate, since there are so many applicants with one? Older faculty, hired when doctorates were less common, are less likely to hold the degree.
Salary.
Most of the full-time tenured or tenure-track professors are paid by a college or university on nine- or ten-month contracts. Salary data for professors is typically reported as a nine-month salary, not including compensation received (often from research grants) during the summer. In 2006, the overall median 9-month salary for all professors in the U.S. was reported to be $73,000, placing a slight majority of professors among the top 15% of earners at age 25 or older. Yet, their salaries remain considerably below that of some other comparable professions (even when including summer compensation) such as lawyers (who earned a median of $110,000) and physicians (whose median earnings ranged from $137,000 to $322,000 depending on speciality). According to the U.S. Department of Labor,
[Academic year 2007] salaries for full-time faculty in the U.S. averaged $73,207. By rank, the average was $98,974 for professors, $69,911 for associate professors, $58,662 for assistant professors, $42,609 for instructors, and $48,289 for lecturers. Faculty in 4-year institutions earn higher salaries, on average, than do those in 2-year schools. In 2006–2007, faculty salaries averaged $84,249 in private independent institutions, $71,362 in public institutions, and $66,118 in religiously affiliated private colleges and universities.
Salaries vary widely by field and rank, ranging from $45,927 for an assistant professor in theology to $136,634 for a full professor in legal professions and studies. A 2005 study by the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources found the average salary for all faculty members, including instructors, to be $66,407, placing half of all faculty members in the top 15.3% of income earners above the age of 25. Median salaries were $54,000 for assistant professors, $64,000 for associate professors and $86,000 for full professors 2005. During the 2005–2006 year, salaries for assistant professors ranged from $45,927 in theology to $81,005 in law. For associate professors, salaries ranged from $56,943 in theology to $98,530 in law, while salaries among full professors ranged from $68,214 in theology to $136,634 in law. During the 2010–2011 year, associate professor salaries vary from $59,593 in theology to $93,767 in law. Full professors at elite institutions commonly enjoy six-figure incomes, such as $123,300 at UCLA or $148,500 at Stanford. The CSU system, which is the largest system in the U.S., with over 11,000 faculty members, had an average full-time faculty salary of $74,000 in 2007, which had been scheduled to increase to $91,000 by 2011. Unfortunately for these faculty, the ensuing crash of the U.S. economy resulted in temporary pay reductions and total salary stagnation at the 2007 level instead, in spite of ongoing inflation. Professors in teacher education sometimes earn less than they would if they were still elementary classroom teachers. In one case study report, it was shown that a beginning full-time tenure-track assistant professor in elementary teacher education at California State University, Northridge was hired in 2002 at a salary of $53,000, which was $15,738 less than she would have earned in her previous position as a 9-month public school kindergarten teacher ($68,738).
Non-tenure track faculty make from $1,500 to $4,000 per course, so that if teaching four courses per semester – a schedule difficult to maintain for reasons of distance and market saturation, and a higher teaching load than tenure-track faculty usually endure – they can earn from $12,000 to $32,000 per year.
The following table uses figures for the 2005–2006 academic year: