NER Dynamometer Car

The North Eastern Railway Dynamometer Car is a preserved railway dynamometer car. Built in 1906 by the North Eastern Railway (NER) at Darlington Works, its role was to scientifically measure the performance of trains in order to effect improvements.
In 1923 it was included in the acquisition of the NER by the LNER, and used extensively by Chief Engineer Nigel Gresley. In 1938 it was used to record world record high speed runs on the East Coast Main Line behind 4468 "Mallard". It was used in the 1948 Locomotive Exchange Trials by British Railways.
Part of the National Collection, it is preserved at the National Railway Museum in York.


Kathy Ensor

Katherine Bennett Ensor is an American statistician interested in spatiotemporal data, environmental statistics, financial modeling, and risk management. She is the Noah G. Harding Professor of Statistics and Director of the Center for Computational Finance and Economic Systems at Rice University. She also oversees the development of the Kinder Institute Urban Data Platform, a resource for the greater Houston area. She served as chair of the Department of Statistics from 1999 through 2013. In 2020, she was named the 117th President American Statistical Association (ASA) and served as ASA Vice President from 2018 to 2019.
Ensor earned bachelor's and master's degrees in mathematics from Arkansas State University in 1981 and 1982. She completed her Ph.D. in statistics in 1986 from Texas A&M University; her dissertation, supervised by H. Joseph Newton, was "Some Results in Autoregressive Modeling". She has been on the Rice faculty since 1987.
Ensor's results have included the discovery of a correlation between ozone and heart attacks, and of geographic patterns in severe asthma attacks in schoolchildren.
She became a Fellow of the American Statistical Association in 2000, and of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2013.


Infrared spectroscopy

Infrared spectroscopy (IR spectroscopy or vibrational spectroscopy) is the measurement of the interaction of infrared radiation with matter by absorption, emission, or reflection. It is used to study and identify chemical substances or functional groups in solid, liquid, or gaseous forms. The method or technique of infrared spectroscopy is conducted with an instrument called an infrared spectrometer (or spectrophotometer) which produces an infrared spectrum. An IR spectrum can be visualized in a graph of infrared light absorbance (or transmittance) on the vertical axis vs. frequency or wavelength on the horizontal axis. Typical units of frequency used in IR spectra are reciprocal centimeters (sometimes called wave numbers), with the symbol cm−1. Units of IR wavelength are commonly given in micrometers (formerly called "microns"), symbol μm, which are related to wave numbers in a reciprocal way. A common laboratory instrument that uses this technique is a Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectrometer. Two-dimensional IR is also possible as discussed below.
The infrared portion of the electromagnetic spectrum is usually divided into three regions; the near-, mid- and far- infrared, named for their relation to the visible spectrum. The higher-energy near-IR, approximately 14,000–4,000 cm−1 (0.7–2.5 μm wavelength) can excite overtone or combination modes of molecular vibrations. The mid-infrared, approximately 4,000–400 cm−1 (2.5–25 μm) is generally used to study the fundamental vibrations and associated rotational–vibrational structure. The far-infrared, approximately 400–10 cm−1 (25–1,000 μm) has low energy and may be used for rotational spectroscopy and low frequency vibrations. The region from 2–130 cm−1, bordering the microwave region, is considered the terahertz region and may probe intermolecular vibrations. The names and classifications of these subregions are conventions, and are only loosely based on the relative molecular or electromagnetic properties.
Theory.
Infrared spectroscopy exploits the fact that molecules absorb frequencies that are characteristic of their structure. These absorptions occur at resonant frequencies, i.e. the frequency of the absorbed radiation matches the vibrational frequency. The energies are affected by the shape of the molecular potential energy surfaces, the masses of the atoms, and the associated vibronic coupling.
 In particular, in the Born–Oppenheimer and harmonic approximations, i.e. when the molecular Hamiltonian corresponding to the electronic ground state can be approximated by a harmonic oscillator in the neighborhood of the equilibrium molecular geometry, the resonant frequencies are associated with the normal modes of vibration corresponding to the molecular electronic ground state potential energy surface. The resonant frequencies are also related to the strength of the bond and the mass of the atoms at either end of it. Thus, the frequency of the vibrations are associated with a particular normal mode of motion and a particular bond type.
Number of vibrational modes.
In order for a vibrational mode in a sample to be "IR active", it must be associated with changes in the dipole moment. A permanent dipole is not necessary, as the rule requires only a change in dipole moment.
A molecule can vibrate in many ways, and each way is called a "vibrational mode." For molecules with N number of atoms, linear molecules have 3"N" – 5 degrees of vibrational modes, whereas nonlinear molecules have 3"N" – 6 degrees of vibrational modes (also called vibrational degrees of freedom). As an example H2O, a non-linear molecule, will have 3 × 3 – 6 = 3 degrees of vibrational freedom, or modes.
Simple diatomic molecules have only one bond and only one vibrational band. If the molecule is symmetrical, e.g. N2, the band is not observed in the IR spectrum, but only in the Raman spectrum. Asymmetrical diatomic molecules, e.g. CO, absorb in the IR spectrum. More complex molecules have many bonds, and their vibrational spectra are correspondingly more complex, i.e. big molecules have many peaks in their IR spectra.
The atoms in a CH2X2 group, commonly found in organic compounds and where X can represent any other atom, can vibrate in nine different ways. Six of these vibrations involve only the CH2 portion: two stretching modes (ν): symmetric (νs) and antisymmetric (νas); and four bending modes: scissoring (δ), rocking (ρ), wagging (ω) and twisting (τ), as shown below. Structures that do not have the two additional X groups attached have fewer modes because some modes are defined by specific relationships to those other attached groups. For example, in water, the rocking, wagging, and twisting modes do not exist because these types of motions of the H atoms represent simple rotation of the whole molecule rather than vibrations within it. In case of more complex molecules, out-of-plane (γ) vibrational modes can be also present.
These figures do not represent the "recoil" of the C atoms, which, though necessarily present to balance the overall movements of the molecule, are much smaller than the movements of the lighter H atoms.
The simplest and most important or "fundamental" IR bands arise from the excitations of normal modes, the simplest distortions of the molecule, from the ground state with vibrational quantum number "v" = 0 to the first excited state with vibrational quantum number "v" = 1. In some cases, overtone bands are observed. An overtone band arises from the absorption of a photon leading to a direct transition from the ground state to the second excited vibrational state ("v" = 2). Such a band appears at approximately twice the energy of the fundamental band for the same normal mode. Some excitations, so-called "combination modes", involve simultaneous excitation of more than one normal mode. The phenomenon of Fermi resonance can arise when two modes are similar in energy; Fermi resonance results in an unexpected shift in energy and intensity of the bands etc.
Quantitative IR spectroscopy.
To a first approximation, the measured quantities reflectance and transmittance can be converted to absorbance by taking formula_1, where formula_2 for transmittance and formula_3 for attenuated total reflection spectroscopy or reflection-absorption spectroscopy. Absorbance is to a first approximation linearly related to the concentration according to the Beer-Lambert approximation:
Where
Allowing light to have wave properties, it can be shown based on wave optics and dispersion theory that the Beer-Lambert approximation works well if a material only has weak absorptions over the whole spectral range and/or a density that is below that of a condensed phase. If this is not the case, bands can shift and alter their shape as well as their peak intensity. In such cases the use of the wave optics based approach is advisable.
Practical IR spectroscopy.
The infrared spectrum of a sample is recorded by passing a beam of infrared light through the sample. When the frequency of the IR is the same as the vibrational frequency of a bond or collection of bonds, absorption occurs. Examination of the transmitted light reveals how much energy was absorbed at each frequency (or wavelength). This measurement can be achieved by scanning the wavelength range using a monochromator. Alternatively, the entire wavelength range is measured using a Fourier transform instrument and then a transmittance or absorbance spectrum is generated using a dedicated procedure.
This technique is commonly used for analyzing samples with covalent bonds. Simple spectra are obtained from samples with few IR active bonds and high levels of purity. More complex molecular structures lead to more absorption bands and more complex spectra.
Sample preparation.
Gas samples.
Gaseous samples require a sample cell with a long pathlength to compensate for the diluteness. The pathlength of the sample cell depends on the concentration of the compound of interest. A simple glass tube with length of 5 to 10 cm equipped with infrared-transparent windows at the both ends of the tube can be used for concentrations down to several hundred ppm. Sample gas concentrations well below ppm can be measured with a White's cell in which the infrared light is guided with mirrors to travel through the gas. White's cells are available with optical pathlength starting from 0.5 m up to hundred meters.
Liquid samples.
Liquid samples can be sandwiched between two plates of a salt (commonly sodium chloride, or common salt, although a number of other salts such as potassium bromide or calcium fluoride are also used).
The plates are transparent to the infrared light and do not introduce any lines onto the spectra.
Solid samples.
Solid samples can be prepared in a variety of ways. One common method is to crush the sample with an oily mulling agent (usually mineral oil Nujol). A thin film of the mull is applied onto salt plates and measured. The second method is to grind a quantity of the sample with a specially purified salt (usually potassium bromide) finely (to remove scattering effects from large crystals). This powder mixture is then pressed in a mechanical press to form a translucent pellet through which the beam of the spectrometer can pass. A third technique is the "cast film" technique, which is used mainly for polymeric materials. The sample is first dissolved in a suitable, non-hygroscopic solvent. A drop of this solution is deposited on surface of KBr or NaCl cell. The solution is then evaporated to dryness and the film formed on the cell is analysed directly. Care is important to ensure that the film is not too thick otherwise light cannot pass through. This technique is suitable for qualitative analysis. The final method is to use microtomy to cut a thin (20–100 μm) film from a solid sample. This is one of the most important ways of analysing failed plastic products for example because the integrity of the solid is preserved.
In photoacoustic spectroscopy the need for sample treatment is minimal. The sample, liquid or solid, is placed into the sample cup which is inserted into the photoacoustic cell which is then sealed for the measurement. The sample may be one solid piece, powder or basically in any form for the measurement. For example, a piece of rock can be inserted into the sample cup and the spectrum measured from it.
Comparing to a reference.
It is typical to record spectrum of both the sample and a "reference". This step controls for a number of variables, e.g. infrared detector, which may affect the spectrum. The reference measurement makes it possible to eliminate the instrument influence.
The appropriate "reference" depends on the measurement and its goal. The simplest reference measurement is to simply remove the sample (replacing it by air). However, sometimes a different reference is more useful. For example, if the sample is a dilute solute dissolved in water in a beaker, then a good reference measurement might be to measure pure water in the same beaker. Then the reference measurement would cancel out not only all the instrumental properties (like what light source is used), but also the light-absorbing and light-reflecting properties of the water and beaker, and the final result would just show the properties of the solute (at least approximately).
A common way to compare to a reference is sequentially: first measure the reference, then replace the reference by the sample and measure the sample. This technique is not perfectly reliable; if the infrared lamp is a bit brighter during the reference measurement, then a bit dimmer during the sample measurement, the measurement will be distorted. More elaborate methods, such as a "two-beam" setup (see figure), can correct for these types of effects to give very accurate results. The Standard addition method can be used to statistically cancel these errors.
Nevertheless, among different absorption based techniques which are used for gaseous species detection, Cavity ring-down spectroscopy (CRDS) can be used as a calibration free method. The fact that CRDS is based on the measurements of photon life-times (and not the laser intensity) makes it needless for any calibration and comparison with a reference
FTIR.
Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy is a measurement technique that allows one to record infrared spectra. Infrared light is guided through an interferometer and then through the sample (or vice versa). A moving mirror inside the apparatus alters the distribution of infrared light that passes through the interferometer. The signal directly recorded, called an "interferogram", represents light output as a function of mirror position. A data-processing technique called Fourier transform turns this raw data into the desired result (the sample's spectrum): Light output as a function of infrared wavelength (or equivalently, wavenumber). As described above, the sample's spectrum is always compared to a reference.
An alternate method for acquiring spectra is the "dispersive" or "scanning monochromator" method. In this approach, the sample is irradiated sequentially with various single wavelengths. The dispersive method is more common in UV-Vis spectroscopy, but is less practical in the infrared than the FTIR method. One reason that FTIR is favored is called "Fellgett's advantage" or the "multiplex advantage": The information at all frequencies is collected simultaneously, improving both speed and signal-to-noise ratio. Another is called "Jacquinot's Throughput Advantage": A dispersive measurement requires detecting much lower light levels than an FTIR measurement. There are other advantages, as well as some disadvantages, but virtually all modern infrared spectrometers are FTIR instruments.
Infrared microscopy.
Various forms of infrared microscopy exist. These include IR versions of sub-diffraction microscopy such as IR NSOM, photothermal microspectroscopy, Nano-FTIR and atomic force microscope based infrared spectroscopy (AFM-IR).
Other methods in molecular vibrational spectroscopy.
Infrared spectroscopy is not the only method of studying molecular vibrational spectra. Raman spectroscopy involves an inelastic scattering process in which only part of the energy of an incident photon is absorbed by the molecule, and the remaining part is scattered and detected. The energy difference corresponds to absorbed vibrational energy.
The selection rules for infrared and for Raman spectroscopy are different at least for some molecular symmetries, so that the two methods are complementary in that they observe vibrations of different symmetries.
Another method is electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS), in which the energy absorbed is provided by an inelastically scattered electron rather than a photon. This method is useful for studying vibrations of molecules adsorbed on a solid surface.
Recently, high-resolution EELS (HREELS) has emerged as a technique for performing vibrational spectroscopy in a transmission electron microscope (TEM). In combination with the high spatial resolution of the TEM, unprecedented experiments have been performed, such as nano-scale temperature measurements, mapping of isotopically labeled molecules, mapping of phonon modes in position- and momentum-space, vibrational surface and bulk mode mapping on nanocubes, and investigations of polariton modes in van der Waals crystals.
Analysis of vibrational modes that are IR-inactive but appear in Inelastic Neutron Scattering is also possible at high spatial resolution using EELS. Although the spatial resolution of HREELs is very high, the bands are extremely broad compared to other techniques.
Computational infrared microscopy.
By using computer simulations and normal mode analysis it is possible to calculate theoretical frequencies of molecules.
Absorption bands.
IR spectroscopy is often used to identify structures because functional groups give rise to characteristic bands both in terms of intensity and position (frequency). The positions of these bands are summarized in correlation tables as shown below.
Regions.
A spectrograph is often interpreted as having two regions.
In the functional region there are one to a few troughs per functional group.
In the fingerprint region there are many troughs which form an intricate pattern which can be used like a fingerprint to determine the compound.
Badger's rule.
For many kinds of samples, the assignments are known, i.e. which bond deformation(s) are associated with which frequency. In such cases further information can be gleaned about the strength on a bond, relying on the empirical guideline called Badger's Rule. Originally published by Richard McLean Badger in 1934, this rule states that the strength of a bond (in terms of force constant) correlates with the bond length. That is, increase in bond strength leads to corresponding bond shortening and vice versa.
Uses and applications.
Infrared spectroscopy is a simple and reliable technique widely used in both organic and inorganic chemistry, in research and industry. It is used in quality control, dynamic measurement, and monitoring applications such as the long-term unattended measurement of CO2 concentrations in greenhouses and growth chambers by infrared gas analyzers.
It is also used in forensic analysis in both criminal and civil cases, for example in identifying polymer degradation. It can be used in determining the blood alcohol content of a suspected drunk driver.
IR-spectroscopy has been successfully used in analysis and identification of pigments in paintings and other art objects such as illuminated manuscripts.
A useful way of analyzing solid samples without the need for cutting samples uses ATR or attenuated total reflectance spectroscopy. Using this approach, samples are pressed against the face of a single crystal. The infrared radiation passes through the crystal and only interacts with the sample at the interface between the two materials.
With increasing technology in computer filtering and manipulation of the results, samples in solution can now be measured accurately (water produces a broad absorbance across the range of interest, and thus renders the spectra unreadable without this computer treatment).
Some instruments also automatically identify the substance being measured from a store of thousands of reference spectra held in storage.
Infrared spectroscopy is also useful in measuring the degree of polymerization in polymer manufacture. Changes in the character or quantity of a particular bond are assessed by measuring at a specific frequency over time. Modern research instruments can take infrared measurements across the range of interest as frequently as 32 times a second. This can be done whilst simultaneous measurements are made using other techniques. This makes the observations of chemical reactions and processes quicker and more accurate.
Infrared spectroscopy has also been successfully utilized in the field of semiconductor microelectronics: for example, infrared spectroscopy can be applied to semiconductors like silicon, gallium arsenide, gallium nitride, zinc selenide, amorphous silicon, silicon nitride, etc.
Another important application of Infrared Spectroscopy is in the food industry to measure the concentration of various compounds in different food products
The instruments are now small, and can be transported, even for use in field trials.
Infrared Spectroscopy is also used in gas leak detection devices such as the DP-IR and EyeCGAs. These devices detect hydrocarbon gas leaks in the transportation of natural gas and crude oil.
In February 2014, NASA announced a greatly upgraded database, based on IR spectroscopy, for tracking polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in the universe. According to scientists, more than 20% of the carbon in the universe may be associated with PAHs, possible starting materials for the formation of life. PAHs seem to have been formed shortly after the Big Bang, are widespread throughout the universe, and are associated with new stars and exoplanets.
Recent developments include a miniature IR-spectrometer that's linked to a cloud based database and suitable for personal everyday use, and NIR-spectroscopic chips that can be embedded in smartphones and various gadgets.
Isotope effects.
The different isotopes in a particular species may exhibit different fine details in infrared spectroscopy. For example, the O–O stretching frequency (in reciprocal centimeters) of oxyhemocyanin is experimentally determined to be 832 and 788 cm−1 for ν(16O–16O) and ν(18O–18O), respectively.
By considering the O–O bond as a spring, the frequency of absorbance can be calculated as a wavenumber [= frequency/(speed of light)]
where "k" is the spring constant for the bond, "c" is the speed of light, and "μ" is the reduced mass of the A–B system:
(formula_13 is the mass of atom formula_14).
The reduced masses for 16O–16O and 18O–18O can be approximated as 8 and 9 respectively. Thus
The effect of isotopes, both on the vibration and the decay dynamics, has been found to be stronger than previously thought. In some systems, such as silicon and germanium, the decay of the anti-symmetric stretch mode of interstitial oxygen involves the symmetric stretch mode with a strong isotope dependence. For example, it was shown that for a natural silicon sample, the lifetime of the anti-symmetric vibration is 11.4 ps. When the isotope of one of the silicon atoms is increased to 29Si, the lifetime increases to 19 ps. In similar manner, when the silicon atom is changed to 30Si, the lifetime becomes 27 ps.
Two-dimensional IR.
Two-dimensional infrared correlation spectroscopy analysis combines multiple samples of infrared spectra to reveal more complex properties. By extending the spectral information of a perturbed sample, spectral analysis is simplified and resolution is enhanced. The 2D synchronous and 2D asynchronous spectra represent a graphical overview of the spectral changes due to a perturbation (such as a changing concentration or changing temperature) as well as the relationship between the spectral changes at two different wavenumbers.
Nonlinear two-dimensional infrared spectroscopy is the infrared version of correlation spectroscopy. Nonlinear two-dimensional infrared spectroscopy is a technique that has become available with the development of femtosecond infrared laser pulses. In this experiment, first a set of pump pulses is applied to the sample. This is followed by a waiting time during which the system is allowed to relax. The typical waiting time lasts from zero to several picoseconds, and the duration can be controlled with a resolution of tens of femtoseconds. A probe pulse is then applied, resulting in the emission of a signal from the sample. The nonlinear two-dimensional infrared spectrum is a two-dimensional correlation plot of the frequency ω1 that was excited by the initial pump pulses and the frequency ω3 excited by the probe pulse after the waiting time. This allows the observation of coupling between different vibrational modes; because of its extremely fine time resolution, it can be used to monitor molecular dynamics on a picosecond timescale. It is still a largely unexplored technique and is becoming increasingly popular for fundamental research.
As with two-dimensional nuclear magnetic resonance (2DNMR) spectroscopy, this technique spreads the spectrum in two dimensions and allows for the observation of cross peaks that contain information on the coupling between different modes. In contrast to 2DNMR, nonlinear two-dimensional infrared spectroscopy also involves the excitation to overtones. These excitations result in excited state absorption peaks located below the diagonal and cross peaks. In 2DNMR, two distinct techniques, COSY and NOESY, are frequently used. The cross peaks in the first are related to the scalar coupling, while in the latter they are related to the spin transfer between different nuclei. In nonlinear two-dimensional infrared spectroscopy, analogs have been drawn to these 2DNMR techniques. Nonlinear two-dimensional infrared spectroscopy with zero waiting time corresponds to COSY, and nonlinear two-dimensional infrared spectroscopy with finite waiting time allowing vibrational population transfer corresponds to NOESY. The COSY variant of nonlinear two-dimensional infrared spectroscopy has been used for determination of the secondary structure content of proteins.


KLOE (experiment)

KLOE (or the LOng Experiment) was both an experiment studying ϕ meson decays, and the particle detector used to conduct it. It was located in the DAϕNE collider at the INFN Frascati National Laboratory in Frascati, Italy. It ceased operation in 2006 and was replaced by the KLOE-2 detector, which began operation in 2014, and continues to operate to this day.
Etymology.
Both the DAϕNE collider and the KLOE detector were named after the two titular characters of the ancient Greek play Daphnis and Chloe, written in the second century AD. In the story, the two grow up and fall in love, experiencing various hardships before living happily ever after. The DAϕNE collider was designed with the KLOE experiment as its primary goal, leading to the two to be named as a pair.
KLOE.
The KLOE experiment was the first experiment performed by the DAϕNE collider. It began in ernest when the detector began taking data in 2000 and ended when data collection stopped in 2006.
The KLOE detector was designed to witness the decays of mesons that were created by colliding electrons and positrons at high speeds to generate large numbers of mesons, of which then decay into the pair, following the second most common decay mode. The detector was cylindrical in shape. It had a length of 6 meters and a diameter of 7 meters and was composed of a drift chamber surrounded by an electromagnetic calorimeter, both of which were kept within a constant magnetic field.
The interior drift chamber had a length of 3.3 meters and a diameter of 4 meters, within which it contained 52,000 wires, making it the largest drift chamber ever constructed at the time. The computer interpreting its data was able to calculate reconstructed particle trajectories with a precision of within 0.3%.
The electromagnetic calorimeter had a length of 4.5 meters and a diameter of 4 meters. It used alternating layers of lead with 15,000 kilometers of scintillating fibers before passing the energy from the fibers through 4880 photomultipliers. It was able to determine the energy released by a given particle to within 15% precision, and was able to distinguish between particles occurring at least 0.2 nanoseconds apart, but was limited to the computer's ability to calculate a maximum of 2000 events per second.
KLOE-2.
KLOE-2 began taking data in November 2014 and is scheduled to continue taking data until at least 2018. Its first run, Run-I was begun in November 2014 and continued until July 2015, observing a total of 1 billion neutral kaon decays. The second experiment, Run-II is still in progress and aims to reach 5 billion such observations. Its drift chamber has the same dimensions as KLOE. It also uses lead and scintillating fibers and the same number of photomultiplier tubes. It uses a magnetic field strength of 0.52T.


Croatian mile


Memory operations per second

Memory operations per second or MOPS is a metric for an expression of the performance capacity of semiconductor memory. It can also be used to determine the efficiency of RAM in the Windows operating environment. MOPS can be affected by multiple applications being open at once without adequate job scheduling.


5349 Paulharris


Pitch space

In music theory, pitch spaces model relationships between pitches. These models typically use distance to model the degree of relatedness, with closely related pitches placed near one another, and less closely related pitches placed farther apart. Depending on the complexity of the relationships under consideration, the models may be multidimensional. Models of pitch space are often graphs, groups, lattices, or geometrical figures such as helixes. Pitch spaces distinguish octave-related pitches. When octave-related pitches are not distinguished, we have instead pitch class spaces, which represent relationships between pitch classes. (Some of these models are discussed in the entry on modulatory space, though readers should be advised that the term "modulatory space" is not a standard music-theoretical term.) Chordal spaces model relationships between chords.
Linear and helical pitch space.
The simplest pitch space model is the real line. A fundamental frequency "f" is mapped to a real number "p" according to the equation
This creates a linear space in which octaves have size 12, semitones (the distance between adjacent keys on the piano keyboard) have size 1, and middle C is assigned the number 60, as it is in MIDI. 440 Hz is the standard frequency of 'concert A', which is the note 9 semitones above 'middle C'. Distance in this space corresponds to physical distance on keyboard instruments, orthographical distance in Western musical notation, and psychological distance as measured in psychological experiments and conceived by musicians. The system is flexible enough to include "microtones" not found on standard piano keyboards. For example, the pitch halfway between C (60) and C# (61) can be labeled 60.5.
One problem with linear pitch space is that it does not model the special relationship between octave-related pitches, or pitches sharing the same pitch class. This has led theorists such as M. W. Drobish (1855) and Roger Shepard (1982) to model pitch relations using a helix. In these models, linear pitch space is wrapped around a cylinder so that all octave-related pitches lie along a single line. Care must be taken when interpreting these models however, as it is not clear how to interpret "distance" in the three-dimensional space containing the helix; nor is it clear how to interpret points in the three-dimensional space not contained on the helix itself.
Higher-dimensional pitch spaces.
Other theorists, such as Leonhard Euler (1739), Hermann von Helmholtz (1863/1885), Arthur von Oettingen (1866), Hugo Riemann (who should not be confused with mathematician Bernhard Riemann), and Christopher Longuet-Higgins (1978) have modeled pitch relationships using two-dimensional (or higher-dimensional) lattices, under the name of Tonnetz. In these models, one dimension typically corresponds to acoustically-pure perfect fifths while the other corresponds to major thirds. (Variations are possible in which one axis corresponds to acoustically pure minor thirds.) Additional dimensions can be used to represent additional intervals including—most typically—the octave.
All of these models attempt to capture the fact that intervals separated by acoustically pure intervals such as octaves, perfect fifths, and major thirds are thought to be perceptually closely related. However, proximity in these spaces need not represent physical proximity on musical instruments: by moving one's hands a very short distance on a violin string, one can move arbitrarily far in these multiple-dimensional models. For this reason, it is hard to assess the psychological relevance of distance as measured by these lattices.
History of pitch space.
The idea of pitch space goes back at least as far as the ancient Greek music theorists known as the Harmonists. To quote one of their number, Bacchius,
"And what is a diagram? A representation of a musical system. And we use a diagram so that, for students of the subject, matters which are hard to grasp with the hearing may appear before their eyes." (Bacchius, in Franklin, "Diatonic Music in Ancient Greece".) The Harmonists drew geometrical pictures so that the intervals of various scales could be compared visually; they thereby located the intervals in a pitch space.
Higher-dimensional pitch spaces have also long been investigated. The use of a lattice was proposed by Euler (1739) to model just intonation using an axis of perfect fifths and another of major thirds. Similar models were the subject of intense investigation in the nineteenth century, chiefly by theorists such as Oettingen and Riemann (Cohn 1997). Contemporary theorists such as James Tenney (1983) and W.A. Mathieu (1997) carry on this tradition.
M.W. Drobisch (1855) was the first to suggest a helix (i.e. the spiral of fifths) to represent octave equivalence and recurrence (Lerdahl, 2001), and hence to give a model of pitch space. Shepard (1982) regularizes Drobish's helix, and extends it to a double helix of two wholetone scales over a circle of fifths which he calls the "melodic map" (Lerdahl, 2001). Michael Tenzer suggests its use for Balinese gamelan music since the octaves are not 2:1 and thus there is even less octave equivalence than in western tonal music (Tenzer, 2000). See also chromatic circle.
Instrument design.
Since the 19th century there have been many attempts to design isomorphic keyboards based on pitch spaces. The only ones to have caught on so far are several accordion layouts.


Victor Schumann

Victor Schumann (21 December 1841 – 1 September 1913) was a physicist and spectroscopist who in 1893 discovered the vacuum ultraviolet.
Schumann wished to study the "Extreme Ultraviolet" region. For this, he used a prism and lenses in fluorite instead of quartz allowing himself to be the first to measure spectra below 200 nm. Oxygen gas would absorb the radiation with a wavelength below 195 nm but Schumann placed the entire apparatus under vacuum. He prepared his own photographic plates with a reduced layer of gelatin.
He published on the Hydrogen line in the spectrum of Nova Aurigae and in the spectrum of vacuum tubes.
His work opened the way to atomic emission spectroscopy, leading eventually to the discovery of the hydrogen spectral lines series (Lyman series) by Theodore Lyman in 1914.


6230 Fram


929 Algunde

929 Algunde ("prov. designation:" "or" ), is a stony Flora asteroid from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, that measures approximately in diameter. It was discovered by German astronomer Karl Reinmuth at the Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory on 10 March 1920. The S-type asteroid has a short rotation period of 3.3 hours and is likely spherical in shape. It was named "Algunde", a common German female name unrelated to the discoverer's contemporaries, that was taken from the almanac "Lahrer Hinkender Bote".
Orbit and classification.
When applying the synthetic hierarchical clustering method (HCM) by Nesvorný, or the 1995 HCM-analysis by Zappalà, "Algunde" is a member of the Flora family (), a giant asteroid family and the largest family of stony asteroids in the main-belt. However, according to another HCM-analysis by Milani and Knežević (AstDys), it is a background asteroid as this analysis does not recognize the Flora asteroid clan. "Algunde" orbits the Sun in the inner asteroid belt at a distance of 2.0–2.5 AU once every 3 years and 4 months (1,224 days; semi-major axis of 2.24 AU). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.11 and an inclination of 4° with respect to the ecliptic. The body's observation arc begins at Heidelberg Observatory on 12 March 1920, two nights after its official discovery observation.
Naming.
This minor planet was named "Algunde", after a female name picked from the "Lahrer Hinkender Bote", published in Lahr, southern Germany. A "Hinkender Bote" (lit. "limping messenger") was a very popular almanac, especially in the alemannic-speaking region from the late 17th throughout the early 20th century. The calendar section contains feast days, the dates of important fairs and astronomical ephemerides. For 30 January, the calendar gives "Algunde" as the German name day analogue next to "Adelgunde" and "Martina", the protestant and catholic entries in the calendar of saints, likely referring to Saint Aldegonde and Martina of Rome.
Reinmuth's "calendar names".
As with 22 other asteroids – starting with 913 Otila, and ending with 1144 Oda – Reinmuth selected names from this calendar due to his many asteroid discoveries that he had trouble thinking of proper names. These names are not related to the discoverer's contemporaries. Lutz Schmadel, the author of the "Dictionary of Minor Planet Names" learned about Reinmuth's source of inspiration from private communications with Dutch astronomer Ingrid van Houten-Groeneveld, who worked as a young astronomer at Heidelberg.
Physical characteristics.
In the Tholen classification, "Algunde" is a common stony S-type asteroid. It is also an S-type in the Bus–DeMeo taxonomy and in the Tholen-like taxonomy of the Small Solar System Objects Spectroscopic Survey (S3OS2). Only in the SMASS-like taxonomy of the S3OS2, "Algunde" is an Sl-subtype asteroid that transitions between the S-type and the uncommon L-type.
Rotation period.
In March 2007, a rotational lightcurve of "Algunde" was obtained from photometric observations by Slovak astronomers Adrián Galád and Leonard Kornoš at Modra Observatory . Lightcurve analysis gave a well-defined rotation period of hours with a low brightness amplitude of magnitude, indicative of a spherical rather than elongated shape (). Between 2008 and 2018, numerous follow-up observations by other astronomers confirmed the period of 3.31 hours with brightness variation maxima between 0.11 and 0.17.
Diameter and albedo.
According to the survey carried out by the Japanese Akari satellite and the NEOWISE mission of NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE), "Algunde" measures () and () kilometers in diameter and its surface has an albedo of () and (), respectively. The "Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link" takes Petr Pravec's revised WISE data with an albedo of 0.2055 and a diameter of 12.45 kilometers based on an absolute magnitude of 11.86. Another publication by the WISE team gives a mean-diameter of () kilometers and an albedo of ().


Jill Dever

Jill A. Dever is an American statistician specializing in survey methodology who works as a senior researcher and senior director in the division for statistical & data sciences at RTI International.
Education.
Dever is a graduate of the University of Louisville. Majoring in mathematics there, she was encouraged by a faculty member, Steven Seif, to continue in statistics. She earned a master's degree in biostatistics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and completed her Ph.D. in survey methodology at the University of Maryland, College Park. Her 2008 dissertation, "Sampling Weight Calibration with Estimated Control Totals", was supervised by Richard Valliant.
Book.
With Richard Valliant and Frauke Kreuter, Dever is a co-author of the book "Practical Tools for Designing and Weighting Survey Samples" (Springer, Statistics for Social and Behavioral Sciences, 2013; 2nd ed., 2018).
Recognition.
In 2015 Dever was elected as a Fellow of the American Statistical Association.


Primary School Leaving Examination

The Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE) is a national examination in Singapore that is administered by the Ministry of Education and taken by all students near the end of their sixth year in primary school before they move on to secondary school. The examination test students' proficiency in the English language, their respective mother tongue languages (typically Chinese, Malay or Tamil), mathematics and science. Students have around two hours to complete each subject paper except for certain components of language subjects. Students answering multiple choice questions by shading their responses on a standardised optical answer sheet (OAS) that uses optical mark recognition to detect answers or by writing their workings and/or answers on the question booklet itself for certain sections of the paper.
The format of the PSLE and the presence of it in the Singapore education system gives it a part of its national culture. PSLE material has also been exported to some schools in other countries, particularly in Southeast Asia, China, India and Japan, having their students sit the international version of the exam, the iPSLE, to provide a benchmark of their performance by comparing to Singapore's educational standards.
In March 2018, calls for the removal of the PSLE was rejected in parliament by then Education Minister (Schools) Ng Chee Meng, he cited it as a "useful checkpoint" in a child's education journey. On 28 September 2018, Education Minister Ong Ye Kung reiterated his stance on keeping the
PSLE while announcing that the ministry will remove several mid-year and year-end exams across the board from primary one up to secondary four with the aim of reducing assessments based on exam results and to encourage students to be an all rounder.
History and past performance.
The Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE) was modeled after the British Eleven plus exam (11+) and was first conducted in 1960. Its predecessor was the Secondary School Entrance Examination (SSEE), which was conceived in 1952 when it was known as the Standard Six Entrance Examination up to 1954 and then as Secondary School Entrance Examination when the primary school classes were no longer named as Primary 1 & 2 and the standard 1 to 5 and started from Primary 1 to 6 instead. Promotion was to Form 2 in the secondary school instead of the previous Standard Six starting from January 1955, during the early days of self-government.
Though complaints were made about the 2007 PSLE Papers being out of syllabus and too challenging, this continued in the 2008 PSLE Paper. The difficult questions in the papers were intended to filter the higher average and lower average students, as explained by the Singapore Ministry of Education.
In 2009, such things happened again, with plenty of students unable to finish the maths paper. The entry scores for schools in 2009 dropped for many schools. For example, Hwa Chong Institution and National Junior College saw their PSLE cut-off point drop by two T-score marks.
Performance.
In 2005, 51 087 pupils sat for the examination, a 0.4% increase from the previous year. The majority (or roughly 97.8%) of the pupils qualified for secondary school. 62.2% of those who passed were eligible for the Special (Integrated Programme or The International Baccalaureate) or the Express stream (Either one for 4 years only) and the remaining 35.6% were eligible for either the Normal (Academic) or Normal (Technical) courses (Either one for 5 years). 1163 pupils (2.3%) of the cohort assessed were not ready for secondary school in 2006 or were more suited for vocational training.
39,286 students sat for the PSLE in 2015. The Ministry of Education (MOE) said that a total of 38,610 students (98.3 %) were eligible for secondary school. 66.2 % of the pupils qualified for the Express stream, 21.7 % for Normal (Academic), and 10.4 % qualified for Normal (Technical). The other 1.7 % had dropped out and did not continue on to secondary school.
Controversy on flaws in papers.
The 2005 mathematics paper for EM1 and EM2 students was flawed due to a question having no definite method of working the answer out. The "Question 13" was spotted by many and became infamous. The question was mathematically inconsistent in that one will get one set of answers when worked out one way and another set of answers when worked out by a different method. The Singapore Examinations and Assessment Board (SEAB) acknowledged the mistake a few days after the examination, annulling the question and awarding 2 marks to every student for the question.
Controversy on withholding of result slips.
In 2019, public debate arose concerning the practice of withholding PSLE result slips from students for failing to pay school fees. This ensued after news claiming that a student was withheld her PSLE result slip, due to being unable to pay school fees, circulated widely on social media. Subsequently, then Education Minister Ong Ye Kung asked for the Ministry of Education to re-evaluate the practice of withholding PSLE result slips from students due to unpaid school fees.
Other methods of admission to secondary schools.
Students have the choice to go to other schools which do not use the posting system. Some of the top schools and the government schools have Direct School Admission (DSA). Some can go to other schools such as Singapore Sports School, NUS High School of Mathematics and Science or School of the Arts and School of Science and Technology.
Direct School Admission.
Independent schools and Autonomous schools can admit up to 20% and 10% of their students via the Direct School Admission scheme (DSA) respectively. Students apply through exercises conducted by the schools around July and August, receiving notice of the results shortly after. Schools offering the Integrated Programme (IP) can take in as many students as they want via DSA. Other schools have also been granted permission by the Ministry of Education to take in students specialising in the schools' niche areas up to a maximum of 5% of their total student intake.
International schools.
Since 2004, two international schools were given licenses to operate under the Ministry of Education's compulsory practices such as playing the national anthem, and following the nation's bilingual policies, to allow Singaporean or Singapore Permanent Resident students to enter without the Ministry of Education's permission. These schools were granted the permission in April 2004 and started the school year in January 2005. They are Anglo-Chinese School (International) and Hwa Chong International School. Another school was granted the permission to set up a school similar to the original two in 2006, the school is Saint Joseph's International School, which offers a similar programme to ACS (International).
Singapore Sports School.
The Singapore Sports School is for students who are perceived by the school to excel in sports it offers. This includes swimming, badminton, table tennis, soccer, golf, track and field, netball and sailing. It was opened in January 2004 and the school takes students directly into the school provided they have an active background in the sports offered by the school. When the school had its first intake, many students applied who were judged to excel in their sport but were posted to the Normal (Academic) or Normal (Technical) streams. The school rejected these pupils as the school sought pupils who excelled both physically and academically. The school was criticised for being too result wise instead of grooming them into future sportspeople. Some of the students were finally accepted on an appeal basis after that. Students in the school aim for the International Baccalaureate (IB) paper, similar to the Singapore School Of the Arts.
NUS High School.
The NUS High School of Mathematics and Science opened in 2005 with an intake of 225 Secondary 1 and 3 students, offering a six-year programme leading to the NUS High Diploma. Students will also sit for Advanced Placement (AP) and Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT) examinations in the senior years for benchmarks for admission into foreign universities. The school offers an accelerated mathematics and science curriculum based on a modular system, also offering languages, humanities, arts, and other elective subjects integrated into its modular system. Students are admitted based on several factors, performance in an application form, interviews, tests, and an admission camp.
School of Science and Technology, Singapore.
The School of Science and Technology (SST) is located at Technology Drive, which is about seven minutes walk from Dover MRT station. There is also a bus stop outside the school campus.


HD 4308

HD 4308 is a single star in the southern constellation of Tucana. It has a yellow hue and is a challenge to view with the naked eye even under good seeing conditions, having an apparent visual magnitude of 6.54. This object is located at a distance of 72 light years, as determined from parallax measurements. It is a population II star and is considered to be a member of the thick disk. The star is receding from the Sun with a radial velocity of +95 km/s.
This is a Sun-like G-type main-sequence star with a stellar classification of G6VFe-0.9, where the suffix notation indicates an underabundance of iron in the spectrum. The age of the star is poorly constrained, with estimated ranging from 1.6 billion years up to 10 billion. It has 95% of the mass of the Sun but 104% of the Sun's radius. The star is radiating nearly the same luminosity as the Sun from its photosphere at an effective temperature of 5,714 K.
Planetary system.
In 2005, a low-mass planet was found in orbit around this star using the radial velocity method with the HARPS spectrograph. It is following a circular orbit close to its host star with a period of just 15.6 days. Unusual for a star with planets, HD 4308 has a metallicity lower than that of the Sun.


R v Kang-Brown

R v Kang-Brown, , is a constitutional decision by the Supreme Court of Canada on the limits of police powers for search and seizure. The Court found that police do not have the right to perform a sniffer-dog search (to use dogs to conduct random searches) of public spaces when such search is not specifically authorized by statute. In this case, a suspect's section 8 rights under the "Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms" ("Charter") were violated when a police officer stopped him at a bus station and sniffer-dog searched his bag finding drugs in his possession.
Background.
On January 25, 2002, at about 11:00 a.m. at the Calgary, Alberta, bus terminal, three police officers were involved in a special operation designed to detect drug couriers. While observing a bus arriving at the station, they spotted the accused, Gurmakh Kang-Brown, disembarking from the all-night Greyhound bus from Vancouver. The accused gave the officers an elongated stare. The officers found the accused's behaviour suspicious, stopped him and asked him if he was carrying narcotics. The accused said no. Then, one of the officers asked to look in the accused's bag. The accused put his bag down and unzipped it. When the accused was unzipping the bag, the officer went to touch the bag. The accused pulled it away, looking nervous. The officer signaled another officer to have a drug-sniffing dog sniff the man's bag. The dog indicated the presence of drugs in the bag.
The officers arrested the accused for possession of and/or trafficking in drugs, searched him and found drugs on his person and in his bag.
Lower court rulings.
Trial Court.
At trial, the judge found that the accused was neither detained nor searched unlawfully and that the odours from the bag, which emanated freely in a public transportation facility, did not constitute information in which the accused had a reasonable expectation of privacy. Accordingly, section 8 of the "Charter" was not implicated.
Court of Appeal.
On appeal, the Alberta Court of Appeal agreed with the trial judge that there had been no detention and that the question was whether the ordinary citizen who has committed no offence has a reasonable expectation of privacy which would be significantly invaded by the police action in question. To determine whether the accused had a reasonable expectation of privacy, the following factors were considered:
The Court concluded that there was no reasonable expectation of privacy for that limited information in that public place and that there was no search. He agreed with the trial judge that even if there had been a "Charter breach", the evidence ought not to be excluded under section 24(2) of the "Charter".
Supreme Court ruling.
The accused appealed to the Supreme Court. The Court found that the search and detention violated section 8 of the "Charter" and that the evidence should be excluded because it would interfere with the fairness of justice under section 24(2) of the "Charter". Hence, the conviction was set aside.
The following issues were put to the Court:
Opinion of the Court.
All the nine judges agreed that the dog sniff of the passenger's bag at the bus station amounted to a search within section 8 of the "Charter".
McLachlin CJ and Binnie, LeBel, Fish, Abella and Charron JJ agreed that the sniffer dog search of the passenger’s bag at the bus station violated section 8 of the "Charter" and that in the circumstances of this case, the evidence should be excluded pursuant to section 24(2) of the "Charter".
According to LeBel, Fish, Abella and Charon JJ, the sniffer-dog search breached section 8 because such a search was not specifically authorized by statute. In determining whether the police were authorized at common law to conduct the search in fulfillment of their general duty to investigate crime, the threshold for the exercise of police powers should not be lowered to one of "reasonable suspicion", since to do so would impair the important safeguards found in section 8 against unjustified state intrusion. The existing and well established standard of "reasonable and probable grounds" should be applied. In this case, the search did not meet this standard.
According to McLachlin CJ and Binnie J, a proper balance between an individual's section 8 rights and the reasonable demands of law enforcement would be struck by permitting such "sniff" searches on a "reasonable suspicion" standard without requiring prior judicial authorization.
Reasonable suspicion standard.
"Suspicion" is an expectation that the targeted individual is possibly engaged in some criminal activity. A "reasonable" suspicion means something more than a mere suspicion and something less than a belief based upon reasonable and probable grounds. Because sniffer dog searches are conducted without prior judicial authorization, the after the fact judicial scrutiny of the grounds for the alleged "reasonable suspicion" must be rigorous. Here, the police action was based on speculation. The sniff in this case was an unreasonable search since the RCMP officer did not have grounds for reasonable suspicion at the time the dog was called. However, because of R. v. MacKenzie, [2013] 3 SCR 250, 2013 SCC 50 (CanLII), police can now simply draw on their experience in the field to create broad categories of “suspicious” behaviour into which almost anyone could fall. Such an approach risks transforming the already flexible standard of reasonable suspicion into the “generalized” suspicion standard.
Dissent.
Bastarache, Deschamps and Rothstein JJ dissented. They found that the dog sniff of the passenger's bag at the bus station amounted to a search under section 8 of the "Charter". However, there is no need to determine whether the evidence should be excluded pursuant to section 24(2) of the "Charter" because the sniffer dog search of the passenger’s bag at the bus station did not violate section 8 of the "Charter".


3775 Ellenbeth


2074 Shoemaker

2074 Shoemaker, provisional designation , is a stony Hungaria asteroid, Mars-crosser and suspected synchronous binary system from the innermost regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 4 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 17 October 1974, by astronomer Eleanor Helin at the Palomar Observatory. She named it after American astronomer Eugene Shoemaker.
Orbit and classification.
"Shoemaker" is a bright member of the dynamical Hungaria group that forms the innermost dense concentration of asteroids in the Solar System. It orbits the Sun in the inner main-belt at a distance of 1.7–1.9 AU once every 2 years and 5 months (882 days). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.08 and an inclination of 30° with respect to the ecliptic. With a perihelion of 1.6521 AU, "Shoemaker" is a Mars-crossing asteroid as it crosses the orbit of Mars at 1.666 AU.
The body's observation arc begins with a precovery taken at Palomar in April 1954, more than 20 years prior to its official discovery observation.
Physical characteristics.
In the SMASS classification, "Shoemaker" is a Sa-subtype, that transitions form the common stony S-type asteroids to the A-type asteroids.
Rotation period.
Several rotational lightcurve of "Shoemaker" were obtained from photometric observations by American astronomer Brian Warner at his Palmer Divide Observatory () and CS3-Station (). Analysis of the best-rated lightcurves gave a well-defined rotation period of 2.5328 hours with a brightness amplitude of 0.13 magnitude ().
Suspected binary.
In October 2003, photometric observations of "Shoemaker" by Robert D. Stephens gave a long rotation period of 57.02 hours. After re-measuring the images with newer software and calibration techniques, two mutual occultation and eclipsing events were found, indicating that "Shoemaker" might be a synchronous binary asteroid with a minor-planet moon orbiting it every 55 hours. Observations in 2010, were difficult due to incomplete coverage and gave an orbital period of 27.39 hours for the secondary. Observations by astronomers at Etscorn Campus Observatory () in 2015, did not mention any mutual events.
In June 2017, Warner measured a rotation period of hours and an orbital period for the secondary of 44.28 hours at his CS3-Palmer Divide Station in California. The binary nature of "Shoemaker" remains unconfirmed.
Diameter and albedo.
According to the survey carried out by the NEOWISE mission of NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, "Shoemaker" measures 3.18 and 3.22 kilometers in diameter and its surface has an albedo between 0.41 and 0.52, respectively. The "Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link" assumes a standard albedo for stony asteroids of 0.20 and calculates a diameter of 4.93 kilometers based on an absolute magnitude of 13.9.
Naming.
This minor planet was named by the discoverer after her colleague, the American astronomer Eugene Shoemaker (1928–1997), who was a discoverer of minor planets and of the Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9 that collided with Jupiter. He is well known for his work on impact craters and his role in the lunar Ranger, Surveyor and Apollo programs.
The naming was also proposed by Brian G. Marsden, the director of the Minor Planet Center (MPC). The official was published by the Minor Planet Center on 1 November 1978 ().


Ancient Roman units of measurement

The ancient Roman units of measurement were primarily founded on the Hellenic system, which in turn was influenced by the Egyptian system and the Mesopotamian system. The Roman units were comparatively consistent and well documented.
Length.
The basic unit of Roman linear measurement was the pes or Roman foot (plural: "pedes"). Investigation of its relation to the English foot goes back at least to 1647, when John Greaves published his "Discourse on the Romane foot". Greaves visited Rome in 1639, and measured, among other things, the foot measure on the tomb of Titus Statilius Aper, that on the statue of Cossutius formerly in the gardens of Angelo Colocci, the congius of Vespasian previously measured by Villalpandus, a number of brass measuring-rods found in the ruins of Rome, the paving-stones of the Pantheon and many other ancient Roman buildings, and the distance between the milestones on the Appian Way. He concluded that the Cossutian foot was the "true" Roman foot, and reported these values compared to the iron standard of the English foot in the Guildhall in London (30.4919cm):
Smith (1851) gives a value of 0.9708 English feet, or about 295.9 mm. An accepted modern value is 296 mm.
The Roman foot was sub-divided either like the Greek "pous" into 16 "digiti" or fingers; or into 12 "unciae" or inches. Frontinus writes in the 1st century AD that the "digitus" was used in Campania and most parts of Italy. The principal Roman units of length were:
Other units include the schoenus (from the Greek for "rush rope") used for the distances in Isidore of Charax's "Parthian Stations" (where it had a value around ) and in the name of the Nubian land of Triacontaschoenus between the First and Second Cataracts on the Nile (where it had a value closer to ).
Area.
The ordinary units of measurement of area were:
Other units of area described by Columella in his "De Re Rustica" include the "porca" of 180 × 30 Roman feet (about ) used in Hispania Baetica and the Gallic "candetum" or "cadetum" of 100 feet in the city or 150 in the country. Columella also gives uncial divisions of the "jugerum", tabulated by the anonymous translator of the 1745 Millar edition as follows:
Volume.
Both liquid and dry volume measurements were based on the sextarius. The sextarius was defined as of a cubic foot, known as an amphora quadrantal. Using the value for the Roman foot, an amphora quadrantal can be computed at approximately , so a sextarius (by the same method) would theoretically measure , which is about 95% of an imperial pint (568.26125 ml).
Archaeologically, however, the evidence is not as precise. No two surviving vessels measure an identical volume, and scholarly opinion on the actual volume ranges between and .
The core volume units are:
Weight.
The units of weight or mass were mostly based on factors of 12. Several of the unit names were also the names of coins during the Roman Republic and had the same fractional value of a larger base unit: libra for weight and as for coin. Modern estimates of the libra range from with 5076 grains or an accepted figure. The "as" was reduced from 12 ounces to 2 after the First Punic War, to 1 during the Second Punic War, and to half an ounce by the 191 BC Lex Papiria.
The divisions of the libra were:
The subdivisions of the uncia were:
Unicode.
A number of special symbols for Roman currency were added to the Unicode Standard version 5.1 (April 2008) as the Ancient Symbols block (U+10190–U+101CF, in the Supplementary Multilingual Plane ).
As mentioned above, the names for divisions of an as coin (originally one libra of bronze) were also used for divisions of a libra, and the symbols U+10190–U+10195 are likewise also symbols for weights:
Time.
Years.
The complicated Roman calendar was replaced by the Julian calendar in 45 BC. In the Julian calendar, an ordinary year is 365 days long, and a leap year is 366 days long. Between 45 BC and AD 1, leap years occurred at irregular intervals. Starting in AD 4, leap years occurred regularly every four years. Year numbers were rarely used; rather, the year was specified by naming the Roman consuls for that year. (As consuls' terms latterly ran from January to December, this eventually caused January, rather than March, to be considered the start of the year.) When a year number was required, the Greek Olympiads were used, or the count of years since the founding of Rome, "ab urbe condita" in 753 BC. In the middle ages, the year numbering was changed to the Anno Domini count.
The calendar used in most of the modern world, the Gregorian calendar, differs from the Julian calendar in that it skips three leap years every four centuries to more closely approximate the length of the tropical year.
Weeks.
The Romans grouped days into an eight-day cycle called a "nundina", with every eighth day being a market day.
Independent of the "nundinae", astrologers kept a seven-day cycle called a "hebdomada" where each day corresponded to one of the seven classical planets, with the first day of the week being Saturn-day, followed by Sun-day, Moon-day, Mars-day, Mercury-day, Jupiter-day, and lastly Venus-day. Each astrological day was reckoned to begin at sunrise. The Jews also use a seven-day week, which began Saturday evening. The seventh day of the week they called Sabbath; the other days they numbered rather than named, except for Friday, which could be called either the Parasceve or the sixth day. Each Jewish day begins at sunset. Christians followed the Jewish seven-day week, except that they commonly called the first day of the week the "Dominica", or the Lord's day. In 321 Constantine the Great gave his subjects every Sunday off in honor of his family's tutelary deity, the Unconquered Sun, thus cementing the seven-day week into Roman civil society.
Hours.
The Romans divided the daytime into twelve "horae" or hours starting at sunrise and ending at sunset. The night was divided into four watches. The duration of these hours varied with seasons; in the winter, when the daylight period was shorter, its 12 hours were correspondingly shorter and its four watches were correspondingly longer.
Astrologers divided the solar day into 24 equal hours, and these astrological hours became the basis for medieval clocks and our modern 24-hour mean solar day.
Although the division of hours into minutes and seconds did not occur until the middle ages, ancient astrologers had a "minuta" equal to of a day (24 modern minutes), a "secunda" equal to of a day (24 modern seconds), and a "tertia" equal to of a day (0.4 modern seconds).


Grrr Records

Grrr Records is a French avant-garde jazz record label founded by Jean-Jacques Birgé in 1975.
The first LP was "Défense de" by Birgé-Gorgé-Shiroc which became a cult-album after having been quoted in the Nurse with Wound list. Grrr has been issuing CDs since 1987 with "L'hallali" by Un Drame Musical Instantané, led by multi-instrumentalist Jean-Jacques Birgé, trumpeter Bernard Vitet and guitarist Francis Gorgé, main group of the label which also produced the albums of multi-instrumentalist composer Hélène Sage, accordionist Michèle Buirette and female trio Pied de Poule (M. Buirette, bassist, Geneviève Cabannes, and singer Dominique Fonfrède). Barcelonian label Wah Wah has reissued "Défende de" and Austrian label Klang Galerie issues remastered CDs of all LPs by Un drame musical instantané.
In 1997, "Carton" by Birgé-Vitet (with Michel Séméniako's photographs) is their first enhanced-CD and Birgé's first multimedia artwork as an author. It will be followed by "Machiavel" by Un d.m.i. (CD-audio + CD-ROM), with an interactive video sessions of 111 loops by J-J. Birgé and Antoine Schmitt. Last albums produced by Grrr, are "Établissement d'un ciel d'alternance", duet with Birgé and famous French writer Michel Houellebecq who reads his own text (No. 26), "Échappée belle" by Hélène Sage (No. 27), 2 albums by Michèle Buirette and, in 2017, "Long Time No Sea" by trio El Strøm (N°29) and in 2018, The "100th Anniversary of Jean-Jacques Birgé" (N°30)! In 2020, for the double CD "Pique-nique au labo" (N°31-32), Birgé invites 28 famous improvisers to join him for friendly meetings which cover the period 2010-2019.
Since 2011 Grrr has issued freely downloadable material (84 unissued albums + a random radio which feature 1104 pieces and last 166 hours).
Grrr belongs to Les Allumés du Jazz, 90 French independent jazz and improvised music labels.
See also.
List of record labels


Seychellois units of measurement

Several units of measurement were used in Seychelles to measure quantities like, for example, capacity. The metric system has been compulsory in Seychelles (and adopted since 1880). Before metric adoption, old French, British and some additional units were used.
System before metric system.
Units from old French and British systems, were used before metrication.
Capacity.
In addition to old French and British units, following units were used:
1 cash = 227.11 l
1 velt = cash.


4205 David Hughes

4205 David Hughes, provisional designation , is a Mars-crossing asteroid from inside the innermost regions of the asteroid belt, approximately in diameter. It was discovered on 18 December 1985, by American astronomer Edward Bowell at Lowell's Anderson Mesa Station near Flagstaff, Arizona. The transitional X-type asteroid has a longer-than average rotation period of at least 24 hours. It was named for British astronomer David Hughes.
Orbit and classification.
"David Hughes" is a Mars-crossing asteroid, a member of the dynamically unstable group, located between the main belt and near-Earth populations, and crossing the orbit of Mars at 1.666 AU. It orbits the Sun inside the innermost region of the asteroid belt at a distance of 1.5–2.0 AU once every 2 years and 3 months (829 days; semi-major axis of 1.73 AU). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.15 and an inclination of 16° with respect to the ecliptic. On 12 October 2026 it will pass from Mars. Another close Martian approach will occur at a similar distance on 24 November 2103.
The body's observation arc begins with a precovery taken at the Siding Spring Observatory in June 1980, or five years prior to its official discovery observation at Anderson Mesa.
Physical characteristics.
In the SMASS classification, "David Hughes" is a Xe-subtype that transitions from the X-type to the very bright E-type asteroids.
Rotation period.
In August 2012, a rotational lightcurve of "David Hughes" was obtained from photometric observations by Italian amateur astronomers Roberto Crippa and Federico Manzini at the Sozzago Astronomical Station . Lightcurve analysis gave a rotation period of at least 24 hours with a brightness amplitude of 0.25 magnitude (). Most asteroids have a period shorter than 20 hours "(also see List of slow rotators)".
Diameter and albedo.
The "Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link" assumes an albedo of 0.20 and calculates a diameter of 3.92 kilometers based on an absolute magnitude of 14.4.
This makes "David Hughes" one of the smallest mid-sized Mars-crossing asteroids smaller than 1065 Amundsenia (9.75 km), 1474 Beira (8.73 km), 1011 Laodamia (7.5 km), 1727 Mette (est. 9 km), 1131 Porzia (7.13 km), 1235 Schorria (est. 9 km), 985 Rosina (8.18 km), 1310 Villigera (15.24 km) and 1468 Zomba (7 km), and much smaller than the largest members of this dynamical group, namely, 132 Aethra, 323 Brucia, 1508 Kemi, 2204 Lyyli and 512 Taurinensis, which are all larger than 20 kilometers in diameter.
Naming.
This minor planet was named after British astronomer and professor of astronomy at the University of Sheffield. The official naming citation was published by the Minor Planet Center on 2 November 1990 ().


2280 Kunikov


Karatmeter

The Karatmeter is a scientific instrument which uses X-rays to give an exact reading of the purity of gold. Due to its very high precision and fast result, X-ray analysis has been adopted by international agencies in India as part of the certification process used to hallmark gold. It is an accurate, non-destructive means of testing the purity of gold and other related elements. X-Ray method of Gold analysis gives the purity of gold up to 10-12 microns and hence it gives the analysis of coating only.
Using this technique, the precise percentage or karat (of karat) in a solid piece of jewellery can be determined in 30 seconds. It also accurately determines the element composition of all types of gold, white gold, platinum, silver, palladium, rhodium and related alloys.
Energy dispersive X-Ray fluorescence (ED-XRF) is a simple, accurate and economic analytical methods for the determination of the chemical composition of many types of materials. It is non-destructive and reliable, requires very little sample preparation and is suitable for solid, liquid and powdered samples. It can be used for a wide range of elements, from Chlorine (17) to Uranium (92), and provides detection limits at the sub-ppm level.
There are many models of Gold Purity Testing machines available - from portable (light weight) to industrial grade machines.
Apart from X-ray spectrometer technique, other older traditional methods are using the TouchStone and Acid to test the gold purity. But TouchStone and Acid are destructive testing - a tiny sample of gold is cut and then tested. The sample is rubbed on TouchStone and a drop of acid is put on it and the goldsmith observes the residue using a magnifying lens. Based on experience, gold smith can determine purity of sample.


Conservation Canines

Conservation Canines (CK9) is a non-profit organization that trains detection dogs and their handlers for the purposes of wildlife research. It is part of the Center for Conservation Biology at the University of Washington. Since 1997, led by Dr. Samuel Wasser, Conservation Canines has worked internationally with species including the Pacific Pocket Mouse, the Jemez Mountains salamander, Killer whales, and Tigers.
The training facility is located in Eatonville, WA. Current and former client partners include The Nature Conservancy, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Forest Service, as well as various universities and state and local agencies.
CK9 helped Western Ecological Research Center researchers survey conserved grasslands in San Diego County and found that indeed badgers are active.
Conservation Canines sources their dogs from shelters and rescue organizations. Dogs are trained using a ball or toy reward system.


958 Asplinda

958 Asplinda ("prov. designation": "or" ) is a resonant Hilda asteroid, approximately in diameter, located in the outermost region of the asteroid belt. It was discovered on 28 September 1921, by astronomer Karl Reinmuth at the Heidelberg Observatory in southwest Germany. The assumed C-type asteroid has a rotation period of 16.5 hours and is likely elongated in shape. It was named after Swedish astronomer Bror Asplind (1890–1954).
Orbit and classification.
"Asplinda" is a member of the distant orbital Hilda group of asteroids, which stay in a 3:2 orbital resonance with Jupiter. It is however not a member of the collisional Hilda family () but a non-family asteroid of the background population when applying the hierarchical clustering method to its proper orbital elements. It orbits the Sun in the outermost asteroid belt at a distance of 3.2–4.7 AU once every 7 years and 11 months (2,905 days; semi-major axis of 3.98 AU). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.18 and an inclination of 6° with respect to the ecliptic. The body's observation arc begins at Heidelberg on 24 October 1921, four weeks after its official discovery observation.
Naming.
This minor planet was named after Bror Ansgar Asplind (1890–1954), a Swedish astronomer and orbit computer. The following, sequentially numbered asteroids 959 Arne, 960 Birgit and 961 Gunnie are named after his three children, respectively. The was mentioned in "The Names of the Minor Planets" by Paul Herget in 1955 ().
Physical characteristics.
No spectral type has been published for "Asplinda". As an Hildian asteroid with a low albedo "(see below)" it is a carbonaceous C-type asteroid (assumed), or possibly a D-type or P-type asteroid, which are very common among the Hildian and more distant Jupiter trojan population.
Rotation period and poles.
In December 2017, a rotational lightcurve of "Asplinda" was obtained from photometric observations by Brian Warner, Robert Stephens and Daniel Coley at the Center for Solar System Studies in California. Lightcurve analysis gave a rotation period of hours with a high brightness amplitude of magnitude, indicative of an elongated, non-spherical shape (). The results supersedes previous observations with a period determination of by the same astronomers in 2016, and a period of published by Mats Dahlgren in 1998 ().
The 2017 observations by Warner, Stephens and Coley also gave two spin axes of (228.0°, 33.0°) and (46.0°, 45.0°) in ecliptic coordinates (λ, β) and a sidereal period of hours.
These results supersede the asteroid's 2016 modeled spin axes and lightcurve with a sidereal period of hours based on data from the Uppsala Asteroid Photometric Catalogue, the Palomar Transient Factory survey, and individual observers lead by Czech astronomers Josef Hanuš and Josef Ďurech, as well as sparse-in-time photometry from the NOFS, the Catalina Sky Survey, and the La Palma surveys .
Diameter and albedo.
According to the surveys carried out by the NEOWISE mission of NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE), the Infrared Astronomical Satellite IRAS, and the Japanese Akari satellite, "Asplinda" measures , and kilometers in diameter, and its surface has an albedo of , and , respectively.
Another published measurement by the WISE team also gives a mean-diameters of with corresponding albedo of . The "Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link" adopts the results from IRAS, that is, an albedo of 0.0415 and a diameter of 47.08 km based on an absolute magnitude of 10.71. An asteroid occultation on 15 August 2006, gave a best-fit ellipse dimension of 47.0 × 47.0 kilometers. These timed observations are taken when the asteroid passes in front of a distant star. However the quality of the measurement is poorly rated.


Shure Beta 58A

The Shure Beta 58A is a rugged dynamic supercardioid microphone developed by Shure Incorporated specifically for live vocal performances. The microphone won a TEC Award in 1996 for outstanding microphone technology.
Shure's Beta series of microphones was introduced in 1989. Originally the Beta 58 was available as the Beta 58C (chrome grill) or the Beta 58M (matte grill). The Beta 58C was eventually discontinued and the Beta 58M became just the Beta 58. The Beta 58 was then discontinued and replaced by the Beta 58A.
Development.
In 1996, Shure altered the Beta 58 to create the Beta 58A, with a completely new cartridge design, meant to mimic the old cartridge as far as polar pattern, output level, and frequency response, but with slightly different sounds characteristics; the revised design also removed the hum-bucking coil and added an output transformer.
Comparisons.
Regarding the difference between the Beta 58 and Beta 58A, the manufacturer's website says, "The Beta 58A has a completely new cartridge in it. While the new cartridge is meant to mimic the old cartridge as far as polar pattern, output level, and frequency response goes, it is a different cartridge and will sound slightly different. Two major differences are that we removed the hum bucking coil on the new model and added an output transformer."
Though the shape and intended applications are similar, the Beta 58A has little in common with the earlier and popular SM58. The Beta series uses a capsule and a transformer different from the SM series.
Performance.
The Beta 58A has a frequency response extending from 50 to 16,000 Hz, with frequencies attenuated below 500 Hz to counter the proximity effect. The Beta 58A has two high frequency presence peaks, one at 4 kHz and another at 10 kHz.


4327 Ries


Margaret K. Butler

Margaret Kampschaefer Butler (March 27, 1924 – March 8, 2013) was a mathematician who participated in creating and updating computer software. During the early 1950s, Butler contributed to the development of early computers. Butler was the first female fellow at the American Nuclear Society and director of the National Energy Software Center at Argonne. Butler held leadership positions within multiple scientific organizations and women's groups. She was the creator and director of the National Energy Software Center. Here, Butler operated an exchange for the editing of computer programs in regards to nuclear power and developed early principles for computer technology.
Early life and education.
Butler was born on March 27, 1924 in Evansville, Indiana.
Career.
Butler began her career in 1944 working as a statistician at the Bureau of Labor Statistics. While she worked there, she also taught math at the United States Department of Agriculture Graduate School and took graduate courses related to sampling theory. About a year later, she joined the United States Army Air Forces and worked as a civilian in Germany. She returned to the United States after two years and began working in the Naval Reactors Division of Argonne National Laboratory as a junior mathematician. While working at Argonne, Butler made calculations for physicists creating a prototype for a submarine reactor and attended atomic physics and reactor design classes. In 1949, she worked at the Bureau of Labor Statistics in Minnesota but returned to Argonne National Laboratory in 1951. Following her return to Argonne, Butler became an assistant mathematician in the Reactor Engineering Division and worked on AVIDAC, an early computer. In the 1950s Butler wrote software, reactor applications, mathematical subroutines, and utilities for three other Argonne computers, the ORACLE, GEORGE, and UNIVAC. From the late 1950s to early 1960s she led Argonne's Applied Mathematics Division's Application Programming. While working in this department, Butler developed teams to fix program problems in reactors, biology, chemistry, physics, management, and high energy physics applications. In 1960, Butler worked with others to establish the Argonne Code Center, which later became the National Energy Software Center (NESC). Butler would later become director of the NESC from 1972–1991. In 1980, Butler was promoted to Senior Computer Scientist at Argonne. Butler officially retired in 1991, but continued to work at Argonne from 1993 to 2006 as a "special term appointee".
Impact.
During her time in Argonne, Butler was very supportive of her female coworkers. Women working at Argonne described her as a role model with a welcoming presence. According to Margaret's son Jay, she thought women were "given all the responsibilities and none of the authorities" and had to work "harder and smarter" yet were still not treated as individuals. When Butler rose in the ranks at Argonne, she made sure to hire women and recommend them for promotions. Margaret worked with other women to organize an Association for Women in Science in Chicago. While in AWIS, Margaret held executive board positions and led two conferences for high school students, teachers, and administration.


Revengers

The Revengers is the name of different fictional teams appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics.
Publication history.
The Revengers is a fictional team of supervillains who were formed to fight A-Next in the MC2 series "A-Next". They were created by Tom DeFalco and Ron Frenz.
The Revengers is also the name of a comical parody of The Avengers in Earth-665, the setting of Marvel's parody comic "Not Brand Echh".
In September 2011, an Earth-616 version of the Revengers led by Wonder Man appears. They were created by Brian Michael Bendis.
Fictional team history.
MC2.
After a tragic mission that claimed the life of several Avengers including Hank Pym and the Wasp, their children were furious to see A-Next, a team of heroes referred to by people as the "next generation of Avengers". The children of Hank Pym and Wasp used their parents' technology to replicate their powers. The daughter Hope Pym duplicated her mother's powers as the Red Queen while her brother Henry Pym Jr. copied his father's powers as Big Man.
Red Queen also helped create an energetic villain called Ion Man, whom she sent to kill Mainframe. Although he failed (unknowingly, since Mainframe was later rebuilt), he passed her test. Red Queen soon added more villains to her fold (Spider-Girl's nemesis, Killerwatt, and Wild Thing's homicidal half-brother Sabreclaw). She waited until the members of the Avengers were at their most vulnerable before sending her team, the Revengers, to destroy them. Red Queen herself wanted to personally torture Stinger, as she felt that Stinger dishonored her parents' memories, but the reserve members of A-Next defeated the Revengers and Big Man turned himself in, stopping his crazed sister, as Big Man did not want to be a killer.
However, in "Last Planet Standing", the Revengers returned with the aid of Magneta to fight A-Next again. The fight was halted when Galactus came to destroy Earth. A-Next teamed up with a number of other heroes while the Revengers got away, minus Sabreclaw, who stayed behind to help fight and later joined A-Next to help fill out their roster.
Cancerverse.
In the Cancerverse reality of Earth-10011, the Revengers were that reality's version of the Avengers who were corrupted by that reality's version of Captain Marvel who turned them into servants of the Many-Angled Ones. They were allies with the Defenders of the Realm and the Ex-Men. The Revengers were all destroyed when Thanos brought Death to this Deathless reality.
Earth-616.
In 2011, another version of the Revengers appear in the Earth-616 universe. Formed by Wonder Man (whose ionic energy leaking problem has caused him to become convinced that the Avengers are not helping the world and that he must stop them), it consists of lesser-known heroes who he has convinced to help him as this antihero group. During the Revengers attack on Avengers Mansion where they fought the New Avengers, Ms. Marvel tries to reason with Wonder Man which doesn't work. This team manages to defeat the New Avengers and they move on to attack Stark Tower. Wonder Man has Atlas attack Stark Tower to get their attention upon calling a press conference. After failing to reason with Wonder Man, Iron Man trapped him in a stasis container. When the Avengers do not want to fight with so many civilians nearby, Thor teleports the Revengers to Citi Field and all three teams (the main Avengers, the New Avengers, and the Secret Avengers) gang up on the Revengers all at once. With the Revengers imprisoned at the Raft, each member has been interrogated with Captain America, Thor, and Iron Man watching the video feed of the interrogation. Beast later visits Wonder Man in his stasis container. Wonder Man insists that he is acting of his own free will and remains steadfast in his claim that the Avengers must disband before more people are hurt. He also adds something new: his realization that Scarlet Witch created him and that he probably is not even real. Appealing to their friendship, Wonder Man tries to extract a promise from Beast to shut the Avengers down when he realizes that Wonder Man is in the right, but a distressed Beast walks away. Various news programs are buzzing about the Avengers' lack of transparency and stonewalling tactics. Some openly speculate that the time for a self-appointed hero team is over and done. In his bubble, Wonder Man smiles and vanishes into a white light.
New Revengers.
As part of the "All-New, All-Different Marvel", Maker of W.H.I.S.P.E.R. assembles a new incarnation of the Revengers dubbed the New Revengers with plans to have them face the New Avengers. They consist of Asti the All-Seeing, Paibok, Vermin, White Tiger, and alternate versions of Angar the Screamer and Skar.
During the "Civil War II" storyline, the New Revengers gain City's O.M.N.I.T.R.O.C.U.S form as its latest member. At the time when A.I.M. was facing off against S.H.I.E.L.D., Maker took advantage of this by sending his New Revengers to attack them. While O.M.N.I.T.R.O.C.U.S. kept Sunspot trapped in his office while having his own defense system attack him, Angela del Toro fought with her aunt Ava Ayala while the other Revengers members attacked the rest of the New Avengers and the staff of Avengers Base Two. Donning a variation of Pepper Potts' Rescue armor, Toni Ho managed to slay the alternate Skar. Also, Mockingbird managed to get free from O.M.N.I.T.R.O.C.U.S.' clutches with the help of Warlock while Ava broke Angela free from the combined influences of the Tiger God and the Hand. The remaining members of the New Revengers faced off against the New Avengers and the rest of the A.I.M. staff. While the remaining members of the New Revengers were defeated, Maker got away.
In other media.
The Revengers is the name of a team that appears in the Marvel Cinematic Universe 2017 film "". The team is assembled by Thor out of necessity to escape the Grandmaster's domain and includes Thor himself, Valkyrie, Hulk and Loki with Korg, and Miek as associates. Thor appears to make up the name on the spot as he tries to reason that they all want revenge, though Banner claims that he is "undecided", Thor knowing that they can't use the proper term of Avengers as that name is taken, with himself and Banner as founding members. After making it to Asgard and confronting Hela, who makes short work of them, Thor quips that they should probably disband the Revengers.


Primary School Achievement Test (Malaysia)

Primary School Achievement Test, also known as Ujian Pencapaian Sekolah Rendah (commonly abbreviated as UPSR; Malay), was a national examination taken by all students in Malaysia at the end of their sixth year in primary school before they leave for secondary school. It is prepared and examined by the Malaysian Examinations Syndicate (Lembaga Peperiksaan Malaysia), an agency that constitutes the Ministry of Education.
The UPSR tests were first established in 1988 to replace the Standard Five assessment.
Starting from 2016, students in national schools (sekolah kebangsaan) are required to take six subjects. Students in Chinese and Tamil national-type schools (sekolah jenis kebangsaan) are required to take two additional language subjects, totalling eight subjects.
Multiple choice questions are tested using a standardised optical answer sheet that uses optical mark recognition for detecting answers.
This exam is held annually on the first Monday of September. The score is calculated based on a bell curve, thus the passing grade is reflected by the yearly performance.
Effective 2021, the UPSR exams were abolished and replaced with school-based assessments, seeing it suffer the same fate as the PMR examinations.
Subjects.
The subjects that are taken in this exam include:
Each of the two Bahasa Malaysia subjects is offered at two different levels: the harder SK level and the easier SJK level, due to the difference in the Bahasa Malaysia syllabus taught in SK and SJK. However, SJK students may opt to sit for the SK paper with permission from their schools.
Mathematics.
In 1995, UPSR Mathematics tests were changed to include subjective questions.
The mathematics examination is divided into two papers, paper 1 and paper 2.
Starting from 2016, the exam is one hour long for each paper. Paper 1 is a multiple choice paper and consists of forty questions, all have a one-point score value. Paper 2 is the subjective area of Maths. There are 15 questions here in total, the first five questions have a three-point score value, questions 6-10 have a four-point score value, and the last five have a five-point score value.
Questions that are frequently asked in this exam are fractions, subtraction, multiplication, division, addition, area and volume, mass, perimeter, decimal points, average, data, digit numbers, percentage, money, time, date and duration.
Science.
Science was first made a part of the UPSR in 1997.
Starting from 2016, the science examination is divided into two papers, paper 1 and paper 2. Each paper lasts for an hour.
For paper 1, students are given 40 multiple choice questions with a weight of one mark each. For paper 2, students answer subjective questions. In the subjective paper, there are eight questions and each question has 3 to 5 sub-questions which carry 1 to 3 marks depending on the question. The total weight that can be given here is 40.
Examining and result.
After the completion of all exams, the examination papers will be brought to centres across the country to be evaluated. The distribution of papers across all the states can be random or otherwise, according to the wishes of the invigilator. All objective answer sheets are examined by computer, and all subjective answer sheets are marked by professional examiners. After completion the examination of all papers, the marks will be registered into an online system. A council will be called to ascertain the specific marks for the grade of each subject (the standard mark for an 'A' grade is 80 and above, however, should the year's cohort perform badly, the marks may be lowered to 70+ and above for an 'A'). It also may be 85+ for an A.The results are then printed and distributed to the education department of every district. Usually, the results are announced on the last Thursday of the school year (it is the second-last day of school for all states except Terengganu, Kelantan,Kedah and Johor where it is the final day of school for the year), but in some years, it is published during the school holidays.
A new grading scheme was introduced in 2016 as below:
A: 80-100
B: 65-79
C: 50-64
D: 40-49
E: 0-39
Grade E is the only failing grade for all subjects.
Format change.
In 2016, several changes were made to the format of all the important subjects :
Pemahaman.
The "Pemahaman" paper has 2 sections, A and B. Section A has 20 objective questions for 40 marks and Section B has 5 questions for 60 marks.This exam lasted for 1 hour and 15 minutes.
Penulisan.
The new format for "Penulisan" consists of three sections, namely A, B and C. The time allowed is one hour and fifteen minutes.
For section A, a picture will be given. Then, pupils must build five compound sentences based on the picture. The marks allocated for this section is 20. Occasionally, however, pictures might not be provided and to substitute that, candidates might be asked to write sentences about a graph, a mind map, multiple images, or a time table.
For section B, candidates must write a review about the stimulus given to be written on the UPSR paper. The marks allocated for this section is 30 marks.
For Section C, The student must choose one out of two questions and write an essay of between 60 and 100 words.The marks allocated for this section is 50 marks.
English.
English now has Comprehension and Writing papers, unlike the previous single paper.
The questions in the Comprehension paper are grouped into two sections: A with 20 multiple choice questions dealing with Grammar, Vocabulary and Comprehension; and B with 5 questions, dealing with Social expressions, Comprehension, and HOTS (Higher Order Thinking Skills)
2014 paper leak.
On 10 September 2014, the Examinations Syndicate had made a statement stating that instead of the Science paper(018, 028, 038) being sat the next day, it would be postponed to 30 September. The reason given for the postponement was due to the fact that the question paper was leaked on social media. A few days later, another statement had been made saying that the English paper(014) has also been leaked and will be sat on the same day. About a week later, the Education Ministry announced that the Tamil(036, 037) and Maths (Paper 1(015/1, 025/1, 035/1)) papers were also found to be hacked, and would be sat on 9 October.
2021 abolishment.
On 28 April 2021, Senior Minister of Education and Society and Minister of Education Mohd Radzi Md Jidin announced through a press conference that the UPSR exam will be abolished from 2021 onwards. He also said that students will be evaluated using school-based assessments, a system which had been in effect since 2011. Talk of abolishing the examination had began in 2016 when the then-Education Minister, Mahdzir Khalid said that a study was being done to evaluate the future of UPSR.


357 Ninina

Ninina (minor planet designation: 357 Ninina) is a large main-belt asteroid. It was discovered by Auguste Charlois on February 11, 1893, in Nice.
The reference of its name is not known, though "Ninine" is a French personal name.


2223 Sarpedon

2223 Sarpedon is a dark Jupiter trojan from the Trojan camp, approximately in diameter. It was discovered on 4 October 1977, by astronomers at the Purple Mountain Observatory near Nanking, China. The D-type asteroid belongs to the 30 largest Jupiter trojans and has a rotation period of 22.7 hours. It was named after the Lycian hero Sarpedon from Greek mythology.
Orbit and classification.
"Sarpedon" is orbiting in the trailing Trojan camp, at Jupiter's Lagrangian point, 60° behind its orbit in a 1:1 resonance . It is also a non-family asteroid of the Jovian background population.
It orbits the Sun at a distance of 5.2–5.3 AU once every 11 years and 12 months (4,376 days; semi-major axis of 5.24 AU). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.02 and an inclination of 16° with respect to the ecliptic. The body's observation arc begins with its official discovery observation at Nanking.
Physical characteristics.
In the Tholen classification, "Sarpedon" is similar to a dark D-type asteroid, though with an unusual spectrum (DU).
Rotation period.
In April 1996, a rotational lightcurve of "Sarpedon" was obtained from photometric observations by Italian astronomer Stefano Mottola at ESO's La Silla Observatory using the Bochum 0.61-metre Telescope. Lightcurve analysis gave a rotation period of 22.741 hours with a brightness amplitude of 0.14 magnitude (). A previous observation by Mottola gave a similar period of 22.77 hours from a lower-rated lightcurve ().
Diameter and albedo.
According to the surveys carried out by the Infrared Astronomical Satellite IRAS, the Japanese Akari satellite and the NEOWISE mission of NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, "Sarpedon" measures between 77.48 and 108.21 kilometers in diameter and its surface has an albedo between 0.027 and 0.051.
The "Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link" adopts the results obtained by IRAS, that is, an albedo of 0.034 and a diameter of 94.63 kilometers based on an absolute magnitude of 9.41.
Naming.
This minor planet was named from Greek mythology after the Lycian hero Sarpedon from the "Iliad", who was killed by Patroclus, during the Trojan War. The official naming citation was published by the Minor Planet Center on 1 August 1981 ().