Monotone likelihood ratio

A monotonic likelihood ratio in distributions formula_1 and formula_2
The ratio of the density functions above is increasing in the parameter formula_3, so formula_4 satisfies the monotone likelihood ratio property.
In statistics, the monotone likelihood ratio property is a property of the ratio of two probability density functions (PDFs). Formally, distributions "ƒ"("x") and "g"("x") bear the property if
that is, if the ratio is nondecreasing in the argument formula_3.
If the functions are first-differentiable, the property may sometimes be stated
For two distributions that satisfy the definition with respect to some argument x, we say they "have the MLRP in "x"." For a family of distributions that all satisfy the definition with respect to some statistic "T"("X"), we say they "have the MLR in "T"("X")."
Intuition.
The MLRP is used to represent a data-generating process that enjoys a straightforward relationship between the magnitude of some observed variable and the distribution it draws from. If formula_1 satisfies the MLRP with respect to formula_2, the higher the observed value formula_3, the more likely it was drawn from distribution formula_11 rather than formula_12. As usual for monotonic relationships, the likelihood ratio's monotonicity comes in handy in statistics, particularly when using maximum-likelihood estimation. Also, distribution families with MLR have a number of well-behaved stochastic properties, such as first-order stochastic dominance and increasing hazard ratios. Unfortunately, as is also usual, the strength of this assumption comes at the price of realism. Many processes in the world do not exhibit a monotonic correspondence between input and output.
Example: Working hard or slacking off.
Suppose you are working on a project, and you can either work hard or slack off. Call your choice of effort formula_13 and the quality of the resulting project formula_14. If the MLRP holds for the distribution of "q" conditional on your effort formula_13, the higher the quality the more likely you worked hard. Conversely, the lower the quality the more likely you slacked off.
Families of distributions satisfying MLR.
Statistical models often assume that data are generated by a distribution from some family of distributions and seek to determine that distribution. This task is simplified if the family has the monotone likelihood ratio property (MLRP).
A family of density functions formula_25 indexed by a parameter formula_26 taking values in an ordered set formula_27 is said to have a monotone likelihood ratio (MLR) in the statistic formula_28 if for any formula_29,
Then we say the family of distributions "has MLR in formula_28".
Hypothesis testing.
If the family of random variables has the MLRP in formula_28, a uniformly most powerful test can easily be determined for the hypothesis formula_34 versus formula_35.
Example: Effort and output.
Example: Let formula_13 be an input into a stochastic technology – worker's effort, for instance – and formula_37 its output, the likelihood of which is described by a probability density function formula_38 Then the monotone likelihood ratio property (MLRP) of the family formula_11 is expressed as follows: for any formula_40, the fact that formula_41 implies that the ratio formula_42 is increasing in formula_37.
Relation to other statistical properties.
Monotone likelihoods are used in several areas of statistical theory, including point estimation and hypothesis testing, as well as in probability models.
Exponential families.
One-parameter exponential families have monotone likelihood-functions. In particular, the one-dimensional exponential family of probability density functions or probability mass functions with
has a monotone non-decreasing likelihood ratio in the sufficient statistic "T"("x"), provided that formula_45 is non-decreasing.
Most powerful tests: The Karlin–Rubin theorem.
Monotone likelihood functions are used to construct uniformly most powerful tests, according to the Karlin–Rubin theorem. Consider a scalar measurement having a probability density function parameterized by a scalar parameter "θ", and define the likelihood ratio formula_46.
If formula_47 is monotone non-decreasing, in formula_3, for any pair formula_49 (meaning that the greater formula_3 is, the more likely formula_51 is), then the threshold test:
is the UMP test of size "α" for testing formula_55
Note that exactly the same test is also UMP for testing formula_56
Median unbiased estimation.
Monotone likelihood-functions are used to construct median-unbiased estimators, using methods specified by Johann Pfanzagl and others. One such procedure is an analogue of the Rao–Blackwell procedure for mean-unbiased estimators: The procedure holds for a smaller class of probability distributions than does the Rao–Blackwell procedure for mean-unbiased estimation but for a larger class of loss functions.
Lifetime analysis: Survival analysis and reliability.
If a family of distributions formula_57 has the monotone likelihood ratio property in formula_28,
But not conversely: neither monotone hazard rates nor stochastic dominance imply the MLRP.
Proofs.
Let distribution family formula_64 satisfy MLR in "x", so that for formula_65 and formula_66:
or equivalently:
Integrating this expression twice, we obtain:
First-order stochastic dominance.
Combine the two inequalities above to get first-order dominance:
Monotone hazard rate.
Use only the second inequality above to get a monotone hazard rate:
Uses.
Economics.
The MLR is an important condition on the type distribution of agents in mechanism design. Most solutions to mechanism design models assume a type distribution to satisfy the MLR to take advantage of a common solution method.


Chi (unit)

The chi is a traditional Chinese unit of length. Although it is often translated as the "", its length was originally derived from the distance measured by a human hand, from the tip of the thumb to the tip of the forefinger, and is similar to the ancient span. It first appeared during China's Shang dynasty approximately 3000 years ago and has since been adopted by other East Asian cultures such as Japan ("shaku"), Korea ("ja/cheok"), and Vietnam ("thước"). Its present value is standardized at around , although the exact standards vary among the mainland of the People's Republic of China, its special administrative region of Hong Kong, and Taiwan.
In its ancient and modern forms, the chi is divided into 10 smaller units known as cun (the "Chinese inch"). 10 chi are equal to 1 zhàng.
Modern values.
In the People's Republic of China "chi" has been defined since 1984 as exactly 1/3 of a metre, i.e., . However, in the Hong Kong SAR the corresponding unit, pronounced "chek" in Cantonese, is defined as exactly .
The two units are sometimes referred to in English as "Chinese foot" and "Hong Kong foot".
In Taiwan, "chi" is the same as the Japanese "shaku", i.e., .
Historical values.
The study of ancient rulers and other artifacts whose size in the contemporary "chi" was known allowed modern researchers to surmise that during the 2nd century BC to 3rd century AD the (Qin Dynasty to Han Dynasty to the Three Kingdoms period), the value of the "chi" varied between . Even earlier, during the Warring States era, the value of "chi" was essentially the same.
It is thought that the ancient Chinese astronomers also used "chi" as an angular unit; modern analysis of historical records indicates that it may have been equal to one degree.
In the 19th century, the value of the "chi", depending on the part of the country and the application, varied between . According to an 1864 British report, in most of China the "chi" used by engineers in public works was equal to , the surveyors' "chi" was , while the value generally used for measuring distances was . In Guangzhou, however, the "chi" used for local trade varied from – i.e., very close to the modern "chek". The value fixed by a Sino-British treaty for the purposes of customs duties in Hong Kong was .
Usage in Chinese language.
Due to its long history and its widespread usage, "chi" (along with "cun") has also seen metaphorical usages in the Chinese language. For example, "chi cun" (), a word made up of the units "chi" and "cun", refers to the dimensions of an object, while the idiom "dé cùn jìn chǐ" () means "extremely greedy".
In informal use in China, "chi" is also sometimes used to refer to the US or imperial foot.


Buttonwood Agreement

The Buttonwood Agreement is the founding document of what is now New York Stock Exchange and is one of the most important financial documents in U.S. history. The agreement organized securities trading in New York City and was signed on May 17, 1792 between 24 stockbrokers outside of 68 Wall Street. According to legend the signing took place under a buttonwood tree where their earliest transactions had occurred. The New York Stock Exchange celebrates the signing of this agreement on May 17, 1792 as its founding.
History.
In March 1792, twenty-four of New York's leading merchants met secretly at Corre's Hotel to discuss ways to bring order to the securities business. Two months later, on May 17, 1792, these men signed a document called the Buttonwood Agreement, named after their traditional meeting place under a buttonwood tree – not because it was signed there.
There were too many brokers involved to meet under a tree. Business was conducted in various offices and coffee houses. In 1793, they coordinated their business inside the Tontine Coffee House on the corner of Wall and Water streets.
The document is now part of the archival collection of the New York Stock Exchange.
Document agreement.
In brief, the agreement had two provisions: 1) the brokers were to deal only with each other, thereby eliminating the auctioneers, and 2) the commissions were to be 0.25%. It reads as follows:
Signers.
The twenty-four brokers, known as "Founding and Subsequent Fathers", who signed the Buttonwood Agreement were (including business location):


List of tools for code review

This is a list of collaborative code review software that supports the software development practice of software peer review.


John Kostuck

John T. Kostuck (October 7, 1892 – August 2, 1960) was an American salesman, piano tuner, and legislator.
Born in Stevens Point, Wisconsin, Kostuck was blinded at age fourteen in a blasting accident while working on a farm. Kostuck went to the Wisconsin School for the Blind for his high school education. Kostuck then went to University of Wisconsin–Madison and then taught high school at the Virginia School for the Deaf and the Blind in Staunton, Virginia. He then became a salesman and piano tuner in Stevens Point.
Political life.
Kostuck ran in the 1926 Republican primary election for Wisconsin's 8th congressional district against incumbent Edward E. Browne, in a district so Republican that neither the Democrat nor the Socialist had the right to appear on the general election ballot; he came in a distant third in a three-way race. He tried again in 1928, receiving 22.3% of the vote in a head-to-head contest with Browne.
In 1930 he chose instead to run for the Republican nomination for the Portage County seat in the Wisconsin State Assembly as a progressive. He won his party's nomination, and unseated Democratic incumbent Michael Mersch, becoming the first blind member of Wisconsin's legislature. He would be re-elected fourteen times to that seat, the first time (1930) as a Republican, the next four times (1934-1940) as a member of the newly created Wisconsin Progressive Party. In 1942, he switched his affiliation to the Democratic Party, and ran unopposed in both the primary and general elections, as he would in every subsequent election through 1958. He died in Stevens Point in 1960 while still in office and was succeeded by fellow Democrat Norman Myhra (himself disabled; he had lost both hands in combat during World War II)


Noise-canceling microphone

A noise-canceling microphone is a microphone that is designed to filter ambient noise.
Technical details.
The development is a special case of the differential microphone topology most commonly used to achieve directionality. All such microphones have at least two ports through which sound enters; a front port normally oriented toward the desired sound and another port that's more distant. The microphone's diaphragm is placed between the two ports; sound arriving from an ambient sound field reaches both ports more or less equally. Sound that's much closer to the front port than to the rear will make more of a pressure gradient between the front and back of the diaphragm, causing it to move more. The microphone's proximity effect is adjusted so that flat frequency response is achieved for sound sources very close to the front of the mic – typically 1 to 3 cm. Sounds arriving from other angles are subject to steep midrange and bass rolloff. Commercially and militarily useful noise-canceling microphones have been made since at least 1935 (Amelia Earhart used one on her 1935 flight from Hawaii to California) and have been made since the 1940s by Roanwell, Electro-Voice and others.
Alternative technologies.
Another technique uses two or more microphones and active or passive circuitry to reduce the noise. The primary microphone is closer to the desired source (like a person's mouth). A second mic receives ambient noise. In a noisy environment, both microphones receive noise at a similar level, but the primary mic receives the desired sounds more strongly. Thus if one signal is subtracted from the other (in the simplest sense, by connecting the microphones out of phase) much of the noise is canceled while the desired sound is retained. Other techniques may be used as well, such as using a directional primary mic, to maximize the difference between the two signals and make the cancellation easier to do.
The internal electronic circuitry of an active noise-canceling mic attempts to subtract noise signal from the primary microphone. The circuit may employ passive or active noise canceling techniques to filter out the noise, producing an output signal that has a lower noise floor and a higher signal-to-noise ratio.


Alternate versions of Invisible Woman

The Invisible Woman (Sue Storm Richards) is a fictional Marvel Comics character, who has had many alternate versions through various media.
1602.
In the miniseries "Marvel 1602", Susan Storm is a member of the Four from the Fantastick, in reference to the ship upon which she and three others gained their powers in the Sargasso Sea. Unlike in the Marvel Universe, she is weightless and cannot become visible. She is related to the alchemical element of air as stated by Neil Gaiman.
At the start of "", Susan is visibly pregnant with Sir Richard Reed's child. He forbids her to join him in his pursuit of Otto von Doom while in this condition, but she goes anyway. Much to Miss Doris Evans' shock, Sir Richard and Susan are not married. She displays the ability to create force fields but becomes visible when doing so.
Adam Warlock.
On Counter Earth, counterparts of the Fantastic Four hijack an experimental spaceship in order to be the first humans in space. Man-Beast negates the effects of the cosmic radiation for all of them except Reed Richards who succumbs to the effects a decade later. When their craft crashes, Sue Storm falls into a coma from which she does not awake.
Age of Apocalypse.
In the alternate reality known as the Age of Apocalypse, Susan never became the Invisible Woman, but instead helped her boyfriend Reed Richards in his attempt to evacuate a large group of humans from Manhattan when Apocalypse came into power. Along with Ben Grimm as the pilot and her brother Johnny as crew, they used one of Reed's prototype rockets to fly off the island. However, a mutant sabotaged the launch and both Reed and Johnny sacrificed themselves to let the others blast off safely.
Susie and Ben join the Human High Council as hired muscle. They are sent to the Eurasian Security Field Command Center to retrieve Bruce Banner, the scientist who worked on the nuclear warhead project that made the Council's pre-emptive nuclear strike possible. They found the facilities barraged by a Thing. The two are able to defeat the monster and retrieve Banner so they can board Mikhail Rasputin's mothership as one of a few select representatives allowed to board the Horseman's vessel as part of a false peace convoy. The humans are hoodwinked and held captive on the ship until Tony Stark, another captive on Mikhail's vessel, short circuits the craft with his mechanized heart. After they are freed, Ben and Susan help with the evacuation of the humans, piloting the ships after Banner to unify all the transfer arks into a single fleet used to flee from Earth.
Age of Ultron.
In the "Age of Ultron" story, Invisible Woman is the only surviving member of the Fantastic Four, and joins a group of surviving heroes. The group goes to the Savage Land to find Nick Fury, with a plan of going forward in time to destroy Ultron in the future, where he is coordinating his attack. Wolverine, however, believes they should go back in time and kill Hank Pym before he creates Ultron, arguing Pym would see a warning not to create the robot as a challenge, and create Ultron regardless.
The group decides against this, and several members go to the future. Wolverine then goes to the past, with the intent of assassinating Pym. Invisible Woman stows away with him in hopes of convincing him otherwise. When Wolverine attacks Pym, Invisible Woman creates a force field to stop the killing blow. Torn between Hank's pleas for help, and Wolverine's reminders of what will happen if he lives, Sue allows Wolverine to kill Pym. After the consequences of this decision were realized, Wolverine went back to this point again and convinced his past self to stand down. The Wolverines and Sue manage to help Pym create a backdoor in Ultron's programming that will stop him before he can launch his attack in the first place.
Age of X.
In the "Age of X" reality where mutants are hunted, Sue is the only free member of the Fantastic Four left after she betrayed the other three to the government for harboring a mutant after the mutant attacked Franklin. Unlike some of her colleagues in the mutant-hunting Avengers, Sue merely wishes to contain mutants rather than kill them, and eventually sacrifices herself to save the mutant retreat from a suicide bombing by her former teammate, the Hulk.
Exiles.
Sue has appeared many times in the pages of Exiles. First, she was married to Black Bolt and helped him defeat that reality's tyrannical dictator Iron Man. More recently, another version of Sue has appeared as Madame Hydra (Empress Hydra), controller of Captain America, Slaymaster, and Wolverine. She has even developed romantic feelings for Wolverine. This version of Sue has killed billions and plans to move onto other Earths. Along with the Exiles, she is opposed by that reality's Reed Richards and Elektra. After the Exiles defeated her, she escaped into another dimension and began recruiting villains defeated by the Exiles across various dimensions to form a team to defeat them. In another reality, she was the only survivor of the test flight that endowed her with her powers. Rescued by Namor, she subsequently marries him and bears him two children, Gambit and Valeria Fen.
Earth-65.
In Ghost-Spider's universe, Susan and Johnny Storm went missing on a trip to Latveria. When they return to New York, they are shown twisted to evil and murderers of their own mother.
Marvel Apes.
In the alternate universe of "Marvel Apes", the Invisible Girl is an ape who unwillingly turns human after gaining her powers. This causes her great distress. She reaches out in friendship to another human, Charles Darwin, also stranded in the ape-verse. Later, she assists in the defense of her universe against zombie invaders. She is flash-fried and consumed by her zombie 'brother'.
Marvel Mangaverse.
In the alternate universe of the Marvel Mangaverse, the Invisible Girl is Sioux Storm. Her half-sister is Jonatha Storm. Sioux has near psychosis-level emotional detachment and may suffer from Borderline personality disorder. In order to get her to fight or show any interest, Reed has programmed her battle suit to inject near-overdoses of battle stimulants and aggressor hormones into her bloodstream. She is a member of the Megascale Metatalent Response Team Fantastic Four. The team uses power packs that allow them to manifest at mecha-sized levels. Sioux projects a tall "invisible friend" constructed from her invisible force fields. The team fights Godzilla-sized monsters from various alien xenocultures that attack Earth in order to put an end to experiments that endanger all of reality. In "Mangaverse" volume 1 the team destroys a mecha-like Annihilus.
In "New Mangaverse" Sioux is murdered by ninja assassins dispatched by the Hand.
Marvel Zombies.
The Marvel Zombies universe's version of Reed Richards deliberately infected his team, including Sue, with the zombie virus, following madness from the murder of their children at the hands of a zombified She-Hulk. The Zombie Fantastic Four subsequently make contact with their Ultimate counterparts, attempting to escape into the Ultimate Marvel universe. Zombie Reed is neutralized when the Ultimate Invisible Girl destroys a chunk of his brain. After a brief period of imprisonment, Sue and the zombie Fantastic Four are killed by Ultimate Doctor Doom and returned to their universe.
MC2.
In the MC2 universe, Sue and Reed recently returned from space, where Sue had been holding back a rift in reality with her force powers. Sue is instrumental in battling Galactus during the "Last Planet Standing" miniseries in which she deployed psionic force fields to prevent a tsunami from leveling New York.
Mutant X.
In the darker reality of Mutant X, Sue does not have superpowers, but wears a high tech "stealth" suit. She is shown dead along with several other super heroes who attempted to stop the Beyonder.
Ultimate Marvel.
The Ultimate Marvel version of Susan Storm is an eighteen-year-old biochemistry prodigy who grew up in the Baxter Building in the gifted and talented program supervised by her father. Though her newfound fame and beauty has brought her unsought attention from the likes of billionaire playboy Tony Stark, the former Baxter Building scientist turned villain, Mole Man, the Atlantean criminal Namor, and even her own friend and teammate, Ben Grimm, she remains romantically attached to Reed Richards despite her concerns about his over devotion to science. Throughout the series, Sue has been a major player in events such as "Ultimate Secret" and "Ultimate Power". In "Ultimate Salem's Seven", Sue Storm leaves Reed Richards and moves to Oregon to study a bizarre sentient organism. It has been shown that this organism is responsible for creating the Salem's Seven. She returns to Oregon to destroy the creature with Namor and the rest of her team. In the ensuing explosion Reed is trapped by molten lava. When Sue saves him with her invisible force field, they reconcile. She would later play a part in the Ultimatum event where she pushes back a tidal wave that floods New York with a colossal psionic field. She saves the city, but the mental strain puts her into a deep coma. She would later be awoken from her coma through the combined efforts of Mole Man and the Thing, during the course of which it is revealed that Ben harbors romantic feelings towards Susan. After the Ultimatum Sue breaks up with Reed and follows in her mother's footsteps after proposing to Ben. She is later assaulted, along with other heroes, by Reed, who had turned to villainy.
This version of Sue Storm is an accomplished scientist in her own right. Reed even describes her as "just a teeny bit smarter than him", but when Reed once mentioned this to Ben, Susan responded with "Reed is an idiot," as she always envies Reed's abilities and considers him the "king of physics". (See ) It is Sue who does research into the biomolecular basis of the Fantastic Four's powers and she manages to understand how Reed's and her brother Johnny's powers as Mister Fantastic and the Human Torch work.
"What If?".
Marvel's "What If?" comic book series featured several alternate versions of Sue Storm and the Fantastic Four.
Spider-Man in the FF.
On the world designated Earth-772, in "What If?", Spider-Man joined the Fantastic Four, but his presence resulted in Sue feeling increasingly sidelined in favour of the four male members of the team, resulting in her leaving the team to marry the Sub-Mariner. Although Reed was briefly driven insane and declared war on Atlantis, he eventually recovered and the two apparently reconciled, resulting in the 'Fantastic Five' reforming once again in time to confront Annihilus in the Negative Zone to help Susan give birth.
Vol. I #6.
In "What If?" #6 (Dec 1977), after the team are exposed to cosmic rays, they develop powers based on their personalities. Sue Storm gains the ability to stretch and reshape her body, because her personality caused her to try to fit in with the more dominating friends, while Reed Richards vast intellect causes him to become a giant floating brain. Sue takes the name "Ultra Woman" in this reality.
This version of the Fantastic Four reappeared in the Volume II story arc 'Timestorm', summoned by the Watcher to persuade the man who would become Kang/Immortus not to become a threat. Sue, along with the other members of this alternate Fantastic Four, are killed by Immortus.
Vol. I #11.
In "What If?" Volume 1, #11 (May 1978), an alternate universe is shown wherein the original 1960's staff of Marvel Comics are exposed to cosmic rays Skrulls. Then Marvel Comics secretary Flo Steinberg gains the powers of the Invisible Girl. Together with Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, and Sol Brodsky, she continues to work by day at Marvel Comics, while operating in secret as a member of the Fantastic Four.
Vol. II #11.
In "What If?" vol. 2 #11 (March 1990), the origins of the Fantastic Four are retold, showing how the heroes lives would have changed if all four had gained the same powers as the individual members of the original Fantastic Four.


Functional boxplot

In statistical graphics, the functional boxplot is an informative exploratory tool that has been proposed for visualizing functional data. Analogous to the classical boxplot, the descriptive statistics of a functional boxplot are: the envelope of the 50% central region, the median curve and the maximum non-outlying envelope.
To construct a functional boxplot, data ordering is the first step. In functional data analysis, each observation is a real function, therefore, different from the classical boxplot where data are simply ordered from the smallest sample value to the largest, in a functional boxplot, functional data, e.g. curves or images, are ordered by a notion of band depth or a modified band depth. It allows for ordering functional data from the center outwards and, thus, introduces a measure to define functional quantiles and the centrality or outlyingness of an observation. Having the ranks of functional data, the functional boxplot is a natural extension of the classical boxplot.
Construction.
In the classical boxplot, the box itself represents the middle 50% of the data. Since the data ordering in the functional boxplot is from the center outwards, the 50% central region is defined by the band delimited by the 50% of deepest, or the most central observations. The
border of the 50% central region is defined as the envelope representing the box in a classical boxplot. Thus, this 50% central
region is the analog to the "interquartile range" (IQR) and gives a useful indication of the spread of the central 50% of the curves.
This is a robust range for interpretation because the 50% central region is not affected by outliers or extreme values, and gives a
less biased visualization of the curves' spread. The observation in the box indicates the median, or the most central observation which is also a robust statistic to measure centrality.
The "whiskers" of the boxplot are the vertical lines of the plot extending from the box and indicating the maximum envelope of the
dataset except the outliers.
Outlier detection.
Outliers can be detected in a functional boxplot by the 1.5 times the 50% central region empirical rule, analogous to the 1.5 IQR empirical rule for classical boxplots. The fences are obtained by inflating the envelope of the 50% central region by 1.5 times the
height of the 50% central region. Any observations outside the fences are flagged as potential outliers. When each observation is simply a point, the functional boxplot degenerates to a classical boxplot, and it is different from the pointwise boxplots.
Enhanced functional boxplot.
By introducing the concept of central regions, the functional boxplot can be generalized to an enhanced functional boxplot where the 25% and 75% central regions are provided as well.
Surface boxplot.
Spatio-temporal data can be viewed as a temporal curve at each spatial location, or a spatial surface at each time. In the latter case, a volume-based surface band depth can be used to order sample surfaces and leads to a three-dimensional surface boxplot with similar characteristics as the functional boxplots. Similarly, the fences are obtained by the 1.5 times the 50% central region rule. Any surface outside the fences are flagged as outlier candidates. The surface boxplot is a natural extension of the functional boxplot to R3.
Statistics code.
The command fbplot for functional boxplots is in fda R package, and MATLAB code is also available.


Deslandres table

In electronic spectroscopy, constructing a Deslandres table is a useful method to assign vibronic transitions. In such a table, the frequencies of the lines seen in an electronic spectrum of a molecule are collected so that the differences in energy between adjacent columns or rows are all the same (within experimental error). Every line seen in the spectrum corresponds to a transition from the lower-lying electronic energy state to an excited electronic state (molecular electronic transition): associated with this, there are corresponding transitions between the vibrational levels of the two states, that give rise to many closely spaced lines. The intensity of the lines is governed by the Franck–Condon principle.
When a Deslandres table is filled correctly, the columns represent the vibrational energy levels of the lower electronic state ("v""), while the rows represent those for the upper electronic state ("v'"). Clearly, the difference in energy between two successive rows (columns) must remain constant for any column (row) in the table because this represents the energy difference of two given vibrational levels within the same electronic state. Thus, by completing a Deslandres table it is easy to assign the correct vibrational quantum numbers "v"" and "v'" for the transition, allowing important molecular properties to be calculated, such as the dissociation energy.


Parasoft Virtualize

Parasoft Virtualize is a service virtualization product that can create, deploy, and manage simulated test environments for software development and software testing purposes. These environments simulate the behavior of dependent resources that are unavailable, difficult to access, or difficult to configure for development or testing. It simulates the behavior of dependent resources such as mainframes, ERP systems, databases, web services, third-party information systems, or other systems that are out of direct developer/tester control.
The product is used in conjunction with hardware/OS virtualization to provide developers and testers with the resources they need to execute their development and testing tasks earlier, faster, or more completely. Its technologies for automating continuous testing are used as part of continuous delivery, continuous integration, and continuous release.
Background.
In 2002, Parasoft released technology to "create service implementation stubs which emulate critical functionality that cannot be made available for testing.". This technology was introduced in Parasoft SOAtest. Since 2002, the technology was extended with "intelligent stubs [that] emulate the behaviour of a running system, allowing the developer to test services in the context of an application's actual behaviour and not on the live running system.". In 2009, the technology was extended with "application behavior virtualization," which can "create copies of both applications and back-end systems so a developer can reference such applications or systems when developing software."
The technology was extended and released as a separate product in 2011.
Parasoft created a free community edition in 2017 that allows individual users and small projects to use service virtualization at no cost.
Industry recognition.
Parasoft Virtualize was awarded the 2012 Jolt Awards Grand Prize by a panel of Dr. Dobb's Journal-appointed judges. This annual award showcases products that have "jolted" the industry with their significance and made the task of creating software faster, easier, and more efficient. The most recent awards/recognitions received were being named "leader in functional and test automation tools" in Forrester's Functional Test Automation Tools evaluation and "innovation and technology leader" in voke's Service Virtualization Market Mover Array.


5535 Annefrank

5535 Annefrank (), provisional designation , is a stony Florian asteroid and suspected contact binary from the inner asteroid belt, approximately 4.5 kilometers in diameter. It was used as a target to practice the flyby technique that the Stardust space probe would later use on the comet Wild 2.
The asteroid was discovered 23 March 1942, by German astronomer Karl Reinmuth at Heidelberg Observatory in southwest Germany. It was named after Anne Frank, a victim of the Holocaust.
Orbit and classification.
"Annefrank" is a member of the Flora family, one of the largest collisional populations of stony asteroids in the main-belt. It orbits the Sun in the inner main-belt at a distance of 2.1–2.4 AU once every 3 years and 3 months (1,202 days). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.06 and an inclination of 4° with respect to the ecliptic.
The body's observation arc begins at Crimea–Nauchnij in 1978, with its identification as , 36 years after its official discovery observation at Heidelberg.
Physical characteristics.
"Annefrank" has been characterized as a common S-type asteroid.
Diameter, albedo and shape.
On 2 November 2002, the Stardust space probe flew past "Annefrank" at a distance of 3079 km. Its images show the asteroid to be 6.6 × 5.0 × 3.4 km, twice as big as previously thought, and its main body shaped like a triangular prism with several visible impact craters. From the photographs, the albedo of "Annefrank" was computed to be between 0.18 and 0.24. Preliminary analysis of the Stardust imagery suggests that "Annefrank" may be a contact binary, although other possible explanations exist for its observed shape.
Rotation and poles.
In October 2006, ground-based photometric observations were used in an attempt to measure "Annefrank"s rotational period. Analysis of the ambiguous lightcurve gave a period of hours and a brightness variation of 0.25 magnitude with two alternative period solutions of 12 and 22.8 hours, respectively ().
In January 2014, photometric observations at the Palomar Transient Factory gave a rotation period of and hours with an amplitude of 0.17 and 0.20 magnitude, respectively ().
The lightcurve data suggests that "Annefrank" is not Lambertian, meaning that surface features, such as shadows from boulders and craters, play a role in the object's perceived brightness and not just the asteroid's relative size when seen from that orientation.
The body's shortest axis is approximately aligned perpendicular to its orbital plane.
Naming.
This minor planet was named after Anne Frank, the Dutch-Jewish diarist who died in a Nazi concentration camp (World War II). The official naming citation was published by the Minor Planet Center on 14 May 1995 ().


Hot band

In molecular vibrational spectroscopy, a hot band is a band centred on a hot transition, which is a transition between two excited vibrational states, i.e. neither is the overall ground state. In infrared or Raman spectroscopy, hot bands refer to those transitions for a particular vibrational mode which arise from a state containing thermal population of another vibrational mode. For example, for a molecule with 3 normal modes, formula_1, formula_2 and formula_3, the transition formula_4 ← formula_5, would be a hot band, since the initial state has one quantum of excitation in the formula_3 mode. Hot bands are distinct from combination bands, which involve simultaneous excitation of multiple normal modes with a single photon, and overtones, which are transitions that involve changing the vibrational quantum number for a normal mode by more than 1.
Vibrational hot bands.
In the harmonic approximation, the normal modes of a molecule are not coupled, and all vibrational quantum levels are equally spaced, so hot bands would not be distinguishable from so-called "fundamental" transitions arising from the overall vibrational ground state. However, vibrations of real molecules always have some anharmonicity, which causes coupling between different vibrational modes that in turn shifts the observed frequencies of hot bands in vibrational spectra. Because anharmonicity decreases the spacing between adjacent vibrational levels, hot bands exhibit red shifts (appear at lower frequencies than the corresponding fundamental transitions). The magnitude of the observed shift is correlated to the degree of anharmonicity in the corresponding normal modes.
Both the lower and upper states involved in the transition are excited states. Therefore, the lower excited state must be populated for a hot band to be observed. The most common form of excitation is by thermal energy. The population of the lower excited state is then given by the Boltzmann distribution.
In general the population can be expressed as
where kB is the Boltzmann constant and E is the energy difference between the two states.
In simplified form this can be expressed as
where "ν" is the wavenumber [cm−1] of the hot band and "T" is the temperature [K]. Thus, the intensity of a hot band, which is proportional to the population of the lower excited state, increases as the temperature increases.
Combination bands.
As mentioned above, combination bands involve changes in vibrational quantum numbers of more than one normal mode. These transitions are forbidden by harmonic oscillator selection rules, but are observed in vibrational spectra of real systems due to anharmonic couplings of normal modes. Combination bands typically have weak spectral intensities, but can become quite intense in cases where the anharmonicity of the vibrational potential is large. Broadly speaking, there are two types of combination bands.
Difference transition.
A difference transition, or difference band, occurs between excited states of two different vibrations. Using the 3 mode example from above, formula_9 ← formula_10, is a difference transition. For difference bands involving transfer of a single quantum of excitation, as in the example, the frequency is approximately equal to the difference between the fundamental frequencies. The difference is not exact because there is anharmonicity in both vibrations. However the term "difference band" also applies to cases where more than one quantum is transferred, such as formula_10 ← formula_12.
Since the initial state of a difference band is always an excited state, difference bands are necessarily "hot bands"! Difference bands are seldom observed in conventional vibrational spectra, because they are forbidden transitions according to harmonic selection rules, and because populations of vibrationally excited states tend to be quite low.
Sum transition.
A sum transition (sum band), occurs when two or more fundamental vibrations are excited simultaneously. For instance, formula_4 ← formula_14 and formula_15 ← formula_16, are examples of sum transitions. The frequency of a sum band is slightly less than the sum of the frequencies of the fundamentals, again due to anharmonic shifts in both vibrations.
Sum transitions are harmonic-forbidden, and thus typically have low intensities relative to vibrational fundamentals. Also, sum bands can be, but are not always, hot bands, and thus may also show reduced intensities from thermal population effects, as described above. Sum bands are more commonly observed than difference bands in vibrational spectra


List of railway test tracks

Railway test tracks include:


The Flenser

The Flenser (also known as Flenser Records) is a San Francisco-based record label specializing in experimental music. The Flenser's risk-taking ethos has been rewarded with notoriety in the international heavy metal music community. Notable bands that work with or have worked with The Flenser include: Have a Nice Life, Botanist, Deafheaven, Wreck and Reference, Bosse-de-Nage, and Planning for Burial.


Ruth Clark (pollster)

Ruth Clark (1917 – February 20, 1997) was an American pollster and researcher. Her 1979 report "The Changing Needs of Changing Readers" was influential on the renewal of American newspapers, leading to a greater focus on service journalism and local news.
Biography.
Ruth Clark was born Ruth Fine in 1917 in New York City. She graduated from Hunter College in 1936. A Communist in her youth, she moved to Moscow in 1950 with her husband Joseph Clark, foreign editor for the Daily Worker; they became disillusioned with the Soviet regime and returned to the United States in 1953.
Clark worked as a door-to-door interviewer for marketing campaigns during the 1950s. In 1960 she was hired by Louis Harris' firm, working for John F. Kennedy campaign. Clark was credited to introducing exit polls in American election surveys. She became vice-president of Louis Harris and Associates in the 1960s, moving to Yankelovich, Skelly & White around 1970.
The "Changing Needs of Changing Readers" survey.
In 1979, the American Society of Newspaper Editors, concerned about the declining readership of newspapers, commissioned a study for analysing that situation. Clark, vice-president at Yankelovich, Skelly & White, conducted a survey with 120 readers in a dozen focal groups; the readers said they felt alienated by the newspapers' focus on hard national, political news, they wanted more palatable local news stories and everyday tips. Clark's findings were published in the report "The Changing Needs of Changing Readers." The report influenced newspapers in the United States and around the world; its findings translated into innovations in news coverage, like the increased focus on local stories, "news you can use" and the modular layout of pages, which were adopted by several outlets, especially USA Today.
In 1983, Clark left Yankelovich, Skelly and White to found her own firm, Clark, Martire & Bartolomeo. They conducted surveys for newspapers such as The New York Times, The New York Daily News and The Chicago Tribune.
Clark died on February 20, 1997 of lung cancer.
Personal life.
Ruth Clark was married to Joseph Clark (d. 1988). She had two children: radical activist Judith Clark (born 1949), and Andrew.


Matriculation Certificate (Malta)

The Matriculation Certificate is a qualification awarded to students leaving the secondary school system of Malta and intending to matriculate into the University of Malta. The Matriculation Certificate examinations are equivalent to the British A Level.
Students are required to sit for six subjects from various areas in one session of the examination. The choice of subjects includes a language, a humanities or a business subject, mathematics or a science subject, and any other two subjects. The sixth subject is Systems of Knowledge, which is compulsory. Two of the subjects must be at Advanced level, three at Intermediate level and Systems of Knowledge, which is also rated as an Intermediate level subject. The certificate was first offered in 1997, when it was awarded to 1309 candidates. In 2005 there were 2455 candidates.
In order for a student to be successfully awarded the Matriculation Certificate students must achieve both of following criteria:
Students must be awarded this certificate in order to be accepted into the University of Malta. In addition, some courses at the university also require specific subjects at specific grades. This is the case for courses such as engineering, medicine, science, and commerce.
Choice of subjects.
Subjects are divided into 4 groups. Each group representing Languages, Humanities, Sciences and Practical/Technical subjects. A student must choose one of each of the first three groups, and another two subjects chosen from any of the groups.
items marked * are offered at Intermediate Level only.
Grading.
Grades are given from A-F, with A being the best, and F indicating a Fail. Each grade obtained gives the candidates a number of points, which when added up can be used to give an overall grade.
 Advanced Level Intermediate Level
 Grade A - 30 grade points Grade A - 10 grade points
 Grade B - 24 grade points Grade B - 8 grade points
 Grade C - 18 grade points Grade C - 6 grade points
 Grade D - 12 grade points Grade D - 4 grade points
 Grade E - 6 grade points Grade E - 2 grade points.
After adding up the points, the following may be used to calculate the overall grade:
 Grade A - 80 -100 grade points
 Grade B - 64 - 78 grade points
 Grade C - 44 - 62 grade points


Combolin

The Combolin was invented by Roy Williamson of The Corries in the summer of 1969. The combolin combined several instruments into a single instrument. One combined a mandolin and a guitar (along with four bass strings operated with slides), the other combined guitar and the Spanish bandurria, the latter being an instrument Williamson had played since the early days of the Corrie Folk Trio.
Originally conceived as a way to combine several of the many instruments they carried around on tour - the Corries' long row of chairs behind them on stage bearing instruments is legendary - the combolins in fact became an additional two instruments for the tour van. Most often, Browne played the guitar/mandolin instrument with bass strings, and Williamson the other, which also had 13 sympathetic strings designed to resonate like the Indian sitar. The wood for the instruments was obtained from antique hardwood furniture as well as premium-grade Tyrolean spruce, and featured Williamson's artistic embellishments in silver and mother of pearl.
The Corries' album, Strings and Things (1970), was specifically designed to showcase the new instruments and featured detailed descriptions of them on the rear sleeve. Many consider it their best album. On stage, when the combolins were played, the Corries would swap their seating position around from the conventional Williamson to Browne's right. Usually the combolins were played to accompany long ballads such as The Silkie of Sule Skerry and The Gartan Mother's Lullaby, as well as a number of the compositions of Peebles baker George Weir & Alister Rae, including Lord Yester and Weep ye Weel by Atholl.
During her lifetime, Roy's late daughter, Karen Williamson, would have arguments with her sister Sheena as to who would inherit which of the Combolins when The Corries retired. Apparently, the sisters had decided that the soundholes on the instruments gave one of them a 'sad' look, and the other 'angry', and, as Karen recounted in her biography of Roy, 'Flower of Scotland', hers was to have been the 'sad' one, and the 'angry' one was to have been Sheena's. However, the instruments passed to Roy's friend Davie Sinton instead.
The immense strain on the instruments caused by the multitude of strings meant they needed regular maintenance later in their life, and one of Williamson's best friends, instrument repairer David Sinton, maintained them. After Williamson's death, Sinton was bequeathed the two combolins. He has since issued a CD of tunes played on them, Caledonian Sunset, although it took many years to perfect the playing of these complex instruments, as well as deal with the undoubted emotional difficulty in playing them.


Snap gauge

A snap gauge is a form of go/no go gauge. It is a limit gauge with permanently or temporarily fixed measurement aperture(s) (gaps) which is used to quickly verify whether an outside dimension of a part matches a preset dimension or falls within predefined tolerances.
Details.
The surfaces which define the edges of the aperture are the anvils, which may be made of separate pieces of hard material such as tungsten carbide for wear resistance. Two apertures are frequently used to provide Go/No-Go testing and are often arranged such that a part being measured can pass through the two apertures in sequence; a part that is within tolerance will pass through the first maximum size limit aperture but will not be able to pass through the minimum size limit aperture. A snap gauge usually has a "C" shaped frame with the aperture(s) at the opening of the "C". Snap gauges may be machined and ground out of a single block of metal or adjustable snap gauges, which have movable anvils that may be adjusted over a limited range of sizes, may be used. They may also be of built up construction in which one or more gauge blocks or feeler gauges are sandwiched between two anvils. Adjustable snap gauges may be reset to compensate for wear or re-tasked for measuring a different dimension and can be purchased off the shelf and set rather than needing to be fabricated from scratch when a new gauge is needed. Gauge blocks would typically be used to initially set the width of the measuring aperture(s).
A variation is the snap indicator gauge, which incorporates a dial indicator or electronic digital indicator as one of the anvils. This indicator displays the deviation from the preset dimension and the indicator may have high and low tolerance limits marked by means of two extra needles, alteration of the dial face, or programming into an electronic indicator. Another variation adds, in addition to the dial or electronic indicator, a micrometer adjustment on the anvil opposite the indicator anvil. This may be referred to as a snap gauge or an indicating micrometer and may be quickly preset for short runs of parts.
Snap gauges facilitate making interchangeable parts. Snap gauges have been in existence and referred to by that name since at least 1898. In a manufacturing plant, snap gauges would normally be re-calibrated at scheduled intervals. Often, snap gauges will be calibrated by skilled workers and used by semi-skilled workers; the snap gauge is faster than a micrometer and requires less skill to use correctly.
Some vendors who resell a different measuring instrument, bore gauge, muddy the waters by referring to them as snap gauges, unlike the manufacturer who uses the correct nomenclature. Unlike a snap gauge, these measure inside (bore) dimensions, not outside dimensions, and are usually reset for each part measured.


283 Emma

283 Emma is a large asteroid of the asteroid belt and the namesake of the Emma family. It was discovered by Auguste Charlois on 8 February 1889, in Nice, France. The reason for its name is unknown.
Measurements made with the IRAS observatory give a diameter of 145.70 ± 5.89 km and a geometric albedo of 0.03 ± 0.01. By comparison, the MIPS photometer on the Spitzer Space Telescope gives a diameter of 145.44 ± 7.72 km and a geometric albedo of 0.03 ± 0.01. When the asteroid was observed occulting a star, the results showed a diameter of 148.00 ± 16.26 km.
Satellite.
A companion for 283 Emma was detected on 14 July 2003 by W. J. Merline et al. using the Keck II telescope and is designated S/2003 (283) 1. The announcement is contained in the International Astronomical Union Circular (IAUC) 8165. The satellite orbits at a semi-major axis of about 581 km with an eccentricity of 0.12. Emma has a hill sphere with a radius of about 28,000 km.


Pharmafabrik

Pharmafabrik is an independent record label based in Slovenia and founded in 1993, most noted for their comprehensive and critically acclaimed Fabriksampler compilation albums with artists Final, Lull, KK Null, Alexei Borisov, Nordvargr, Surgeon, Eraldo Bernocchi, Franck Vigroux, Mike Browning, PureH, Chris Wood, Psychedelic Desert, Pharmakustik, P.C.M., Daniel Buess, The Cherry Blues Project and others.


4343 Tetsuya


The Polar Express (film)

The Polar Express is a 2004 American computer-animated adventure film co-written and directed by Robert Zemeckis, based on the 1985 children's book of the same name by Chris Van Allsburg, who also served as one of the executive producers. The film features human characters animated using live-action motion capture animation. It tells the story of a young boy who, on Christmas Eve, sees a mysterious train bound for the North Pole stop outside his window and is invited aboard by its conductor. The boy joins several other children as they embark on a journey to visit Santa Claus preparing for Christmas. The film stars Tom Hanks, who was also one of the film's executive producers, in multiple distinct roles, with Daryl Sabara, Nona Gaye, Jimmy Bennett and Eddie Deezen in supporting roles.
Castle Rock Entertainment produced the film in association with Shangri-La Entertainment, ImageMovers, Playtone and Golden Mean Productions for Warner Bros. Pictures, as Castle Rock's first animated film. Its visual effects and performance capture were done at Sony Pictures Imageworks. The film was made with a production budget of $165 million, a record-breaking sum for an animated feature at the time.
"The Polar Express" was released in both conventional and IMAX 3D theaters on November 10, 2004. The film grossed $286 million worldwide during its initial run, and $314 million with subsequent re-releases, and was later listed in the 2006 "Guinness World Records" as the first all-digital capture film. It also marks Michael Jeter's last acting role before his death, and the film was thus dedicated to his memory.
Plot.
On the night of Christmas Eve, 1957, a boy, who is skeptical of the existence of Santa Claus, notices a steam locomotive riding on the street while on his bed during the night. Named the Polar Express, the train is on its way to the North Pole. Initially reluctant, the boy jumps aboard and meets a spirited girl and a smart know-it-all boy. The train then picks up a boy named Billy, who sits alone in the train's observation car and is provided hot chocolate by the girl.
The ride to the North Pole involves a dance sequence where the passengers are served hot chocolate; the girl losing her ticket and the boy saving it; and the boy encountering a hobo that skis with him on the top of the train and tells him stories about Santa Claus and ghosts. There are obstacles to the ride, including a herd of caribou cleared by the conductor pulling Smokey's beard, causing him to let out animal-like noises; and the throttle's split pin coming off and accelerating the train uncontrollably while on a block of ice that nearly breaks, which the split pin is replaced by Smokey's hair pin.
The train arrives at the North Pole, where the conductor announces that one of the passengers will be chosen to receive the first gift of Christmas from Santa himself. Discovering Billy still alone in the observation car, the girl and boy persuade him to come along. However, the boy accidentally uncouples the car; sending it back along a route towards a railway turntable in Santa's workshop. The children make their way through an elf command center and a gift sorting office before sliding down a massive slide that leads them to a funnel before being dumped into a giant sack of presents, where they discover that the know-it-all has stowed away. The elves escort them out before Santa and his reindeer arrive.
A bell flies loose from the galloping reindeer's reins; the boy initially cannot hear it ring, until he finds it within himself to believe. He shows the bell to Santa, who selects him to receive the first gift of Christmas. Santa agrees to let him keep the bell, and the boy places it in his robe pocket. The rear car is returned to the train as the children board to return home, but the boy discovers that he lost the bell through a hole in his pocket he unconsciously ripped while entering the Polar Express. He returns home and awakens on Christmas morning to find a present containing his lost bell. He and his younger sister Sarah joyfully ring the bell, while their parents, not believing in Santa, do not hear the bell and say that the bell is broken. The boy reflects on his friends and sister eventually growing deaf to the bell over the years as their belief faded. However, despite his now old age, the bell still rings for him, as it does "for all who truly believe".
Production.
Development.
Hanks optioned the book in 1999 with the hopes of playing the conductor and Santa Claus. One of the conditions of the sale was that the resulting film not be animated. Zemeckis, however, felt that a live-action version was unfeasible, claiming that it "would look awful, and it would be impossible – it would cost $1 billion instead of $160 million." Zemeckis felt that such a version would rob the audience of the art style of the book which he felt was "so much a part of the emotion of the story". The two acquired the rights to the book the following year. In order to keep his vision a new process was created by which actors would be filmed with motion capturing equipment in a black box stage which would then be animated to make the resulting film. Hanks stated that this method of working was "actually a return to a type of acting that acting in films does not allow you to do", comparing the process to performing a play in the round. The idea of a Scrooge puppet was conceived when Zemeckis looked at his toys he used to have, one of which was a puppet.
Hanks plays five roles in the film including that of a small child (whose voice would later be dubbed in by Daryl Sabara). Initially Zemeckis considered having him play every role, but after trying this, Hanks grew exhausted, and they whittled down the number.
Filming.
Principal photography of the motion-captures sequences began in June 2003, and wrapped in May 2004.
Architecture.
The buildings at the North Pole refer to a number of buildings related to American railroading history. The buildings in the square at the city's center are loosely based on the Pullman Factory in Chicago's Pullman neighborhood.
Polar Express Locomotive.
The locomotive featured in the film is an American 2-8-4 Berkshire type steam locomotive modeled after the Pere Marquette 1225, which had spent many years on static display near Spartan Stadium in East Lansing, Michigan on the campus of Michigan State University, where Chris Van Allsburg recalled playing on the engine when attending football games as a child. The engine in the movie, however, is noticeably different from the real Pere Marquette 1225, and somewhat closer to looking like an S-1 from the Erie Railroad. These include the headlight being mounted into the smokebox, like many Delaware & Hudson steam locomotives, instead of being on a platform or the cow catcher, and the whistle being mounted on the upper right hand side of the boiler mounted upright, instead of on top of the boiler, mounted horizontally. It also lacks the feedwater heater, marker lights, number boards, and builders plates the real Pere Marquette 1225 has. The cow catcher is also bigger than it is in real life, with slats extending to the pilot beam, and it also lacks a coupler.
In July 2002, Warner Bros. approached the locomotive's owner, the Steam Railroading Institute, to study the engine. The engine in the film is modeled from the PM No. 1225's drawings and the sounds from recordings made of the 1225 operating under steam. The whistle, however, was taken from Sierra Railway No. 3.
Soundtrack.
The soundtrack of the film was released on November 2, 2004, through Warner Sunset Records.
Release.
IMAX 3D version.
In addition to standard theatrical 35mm format, a 3D version for IMAX was also released, generated from the same 3D digital models used for the standard version.
Home media.
The film was released on DVD as separated widescreen and full-screen versions in single and two-disc special editions (with bonus features) and on VHS on November 22, 2005, one year after the film originally came out in theaters. It was released on HD-DVD with bonus features in 2006 and on Blu-ray with bonus features on October 30, 2007, both presented in the original widescreen aspect ratio.
Reception.
Box office.
The film opened at #2 behind "The Incredibles", and earned $23,323,463 from approximately 7,000 screens at 3,650 theaters, for a per-theater average of $6,390 and a per-screen average of $3,332 in its opening weekend. It also brought in a total of $30,629,146 since its Wednesday launch. The weekend total also included $2,100,000 from 59 IMAX theaters, for an IMAX theater average of $35,593, and had a $3,000,000 take since Wednesday. In its second weekend, the film dropped 33%, and grossing $15,668,101, averaging $4,293 from 3,650 venues and boosting the 12-day cumulative gross to $51,463,282. In its third weekend, which was Thanksgiving weekend, the film increased by 24%, earning $19,389,927, averaging $5,312 from 3,650 venues and raising the 19-day cumulative gross to $81,479,861. The film has made $187,224,490 domestically, and $126,275,943 overseas for a total worldwide gross of $313,500,433 (including all re-releases). It appeared at No. 3 in the "25 Highest-Grossing Christmas Movies of All Time at the U.S. Box Office" list by "Forbes", placed after "Home Alone" and "How the Grinch Stole Christmas".
The film had its network television premiere on ABC on December 1, 2006. The airing brought in 13.2 million viewers, winning its timeslot and ranking 20th in the Nielsen ratings that week, according to TVTango.com.
Critical response.
According to review aggregator Metacritic, which reports a weighted average score of 61 out of 100 based on 36 critics, "The Polar Express" received "generally favorable reviews". On Rotten Tomatoes, 56% of 208 critics gave the film a positive review, and an average rating of 6.42/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Though the movie is visually stunning overall, the animation for the human characters isn't lifelike enough, and the story is padded." "The Independent" reported in 2011 that the film "is now seen by many as a classic". CinemaScore reported that audiences gave the film a rare "A+" grade.
Roger Ebert gave the film his highest rating of four stars, saying, "There's a deeper, shivery tone, instead of the mindless jolliness of the usual Christmas movie", and "it has a haunting, magical quality". Acknowledging comments by other reviewers, Ebert said, "It's a little creepy. Not creepy in an unpleasant way, but in that sneaky, teasing way that lets you know eerie things could happen." Richard Roeper and Mick LaSalle also gave highly positive reviews to the film, with the former saying that it "remains true to the book, right down to the bittersweet final image" and the latter giving it his highest rating of five stars, calling it, "an enchanting, beautiful and brilliantly imagined film that constitutes a technological breakthrough." James Berardinelli gave the film 3.5 out of 4 stars, stating that it is "a delightful tale guaranteed to enthrall viewers of all ages", and ranked it as the 10th best film of 2004, tying with "The Incredibles". Ian Nathan of "Empire Magazine" gave the film three out of five stars, and said, "For all the fairy-lit wonder, some will rail at the idea of "Back to the Future"s director dabbling with such a schmaltzy tale. Cynics will sneeze in shock; children will cuddle up and dream along." Peter Bradshaw of "The Guardian" also gave the film three out of five stars, saying, "After a promising and distinctive start, a railway adventure to meet Santa runs off the rails."
The character design and animation were criticized for dipping into the uncanny valley. Peter Travers of "Rolling Stone" gave the film one out of four stars, and called it "a failed and lifeless experiment in which everything goes wrong". Stephanie Zacharek of "Salon" gave the film 1.5 stars out of 5 and said, "I could probably have tolerated the incessant jitteriness of "The Polar Express" if the look of it didn't give me the creeps." Geoff Pevere of the "Toronto Star" stated, "If I were a child, I'd have nightmares. Come to think of it, I did anyway." Paul Clinton from CNN called it "at best disconcerting, and at worst, a wee bit horrifying". Manohla Dargis of "The New York Times" wrote, "There's no way of knowing whether they drank the company Kool-Aid. Still, from the looks of "The Polar Express" it's clear that, together with Mr. Zemeckis, this talented gang has on some fundamental level lost touch with the human aspect of film."
Accolades.
In 2008, the American Film Institute nominated "The Polar Express" for its Top 10 Animated Films list. The film was nominated at the 77th Academy Awards in the categories of Best Sound Editing (Randy Thom and Dennis Leonard), Best Sound Mixing (Randy Thom, Tom Johnson, Dennis S. Sands and William B. Kaplan), and Best Original Song for "Believe" (music and lyrics by Glen Ballard and Alan Silvestri). The film was nominated at the 3rd Visual Effects Society Awards in the category of "Outstanding Performance by an Animated Character in an Animated Motion Picture."
Train trips.
The film has also spawned multiple real-world holiday train-travel experiences based loosely on the film's train journey all over the United States, as well as Canada, and even the United Kingdom under license from Rail Events Inc.
These include the Polar Express train ride held at the Grand Canyon Railway, the Polar Express Train Ride of the Great Smoky Mountains Railroad, the Polar Express Train Ride of the Texas State Railroad, and The Polar Express Train Ride at Aspen Crossing. The Pere Marquette 1225 itself pulls a similarly-themed Christmas train, albeit under the name of the North Pole Express.
The UK's first Polar Express train rides were hosted on the Dartmoor Railway and the Weardale Railway which were both owned by the company British American Railway Services. These services were all diesel hauled, however in 2016, Telford Steam Railway became the first UK line to run the Polar Express with steam, powered by one of two American-built S160 2-8-0 locomotive's No's. 5197 & 6046 courtesy of Churnet Valley Railway in Staffordshire. The only other known steam operated Polar Express train rides in the UK are by Vintage Trains, which operated Great Western 4-6-0 Hall class No. 4965 Rood Ashton Hall for the ride, albeit being renamed Polar Star, and PNP Events' Polar Express Train Rides in the Yorkshire Dales and South Devon. The Polar Express Train Ride also operates on the Mid-Norfolk Railway, Wensleydale Railway, South Devon Railway and the Seaton Tramway operate the "Polar Express Tram Ride".
The "Polar Express" Experience.
In November 2007, SeaWorld Orlando debuted the "Polar Express" Experience, a motion simulator ride based on the film. The attraction was a temporary replacement for the Wild Arctic attraction. The building housing the attraction was also temporarily re-themed to a railroad station and ride vehicles painted to resemble Polar Express passenger cars. The plot for the ride revolves around a trip to the North Pole on Christmas Eve. Guests feel the motion of the locomotive as well as the swinging of the train on ice and feeling of ice crumbling beneath them. The attraction was available until January 1, 2008, and was open annually during the Christmas season. 2015 was the final year of operation for the "Polar Express" Experience and Wild Arctic has since operated on a year-round schedule.
The 4D film, distributed by SimEx-Iwerks, has been shown at other amusement parks around the world including Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden, Stone Mountain, Dollywood (during the annual Smoky Mountain Christmas event), Vancouver Aquarium (2009—2010), and Warner Bros. Movie World (during the White Christmas events in 2010 and 2011).
Video game.
A video game based on the film was released on November 2, 2004 for GameCube, Game Boy Advance, PlayStation 2 and Windows, developed by Blue Tongue Entertainment and published by THQ. The plot of the game is somewhat different than the film version. Within the game, the Ebenezer Scrooge puppet—who is set as the main antagonist of the game—attempts to prevent the children from believing in Santa Claus by stealing their tickets and trying to stop the children from making it to the North Pole.
Toy trains.
Model railroad builder Lionel continues to make Polar Express train sets and equipment, including locomotives, traincars, and trackside buildings.


2795 Lepage


2038 Bistro

2038 Bistro (), provisional designation , is a stony asteroid from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 12 kilometers in diameter. The asteroid was discovered on 24 November 1973, by Swiss astronomer Paul Wild at the Zimmerwald Observatory near Bern, Switzerland. It was named for the Bistro restaurant.
Orbit and classification.
"Bistro" orbits the Sun in the inner main-belt at a distance of 2.2–2.7 AU once every 3 years and 10 months (1,388 days). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.09 and an inclination of 15° with respect to the ecliptic. The asteroid's observation arc begins with its official discovery observation at Zimmerwald.
Physical characteristics.
In the SMASS classification, "Bistro" is a Sa-type asteroid, which transitions from the common S-types to the A-type asteroids.
Lightcurves.
In April 2013, a rotational lightcurve of "Bistro" was obtained from photometric observations at the Bassano Bresciano Observatory in Italy. Lightcurve analysis gave a rotation period of 17.051 hours with a brightness variation of 0.12 magnitude ().
The results supersede three previously published results from fragmentary lightcurves that gave a much shorter period between 7.88 and 8 hours ().
Diameter and albedo.
According to the surveys carried out by the Japanese Akari satellite and NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer with its subsequent NEOWISE mission, "Bistro" measures between 10.55 and 13.52 kilometers in diameter and its surface has an albedo between 0.1342 and 0.25.
The "Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link" derives an albedo of 0.1739 and a diameter of 12.69 kilometers based on an absolute magnitude of 12.0.
Naming.
This minor planet was named Bistro, the small type of restaurant that originated from Paris. As with the precedingly numbered 2037 Tripaxeptalis, the name may also alludes to a numbers game, this time to 1019 Strackea, as . The approved naming citation was published by the Minor Planet Center on 1 June 1980 ().


Staalplaat

Staalplaat is an independent record label that is located in Amsterdam with a separate store in Berlin. Founded in 1982, the company's mission was to create a sound forum for sound artists, who write and perform new and experimental music.


348 May

May (minor planet designation: 348 May) is a large Main belt asteroid. It was discovered by Auguste Charlois on 28 November 1892 in Nice.


New standard tuning

New standard tuning (NST) is an alternative tuning for the guitar that approximates all-fifths tuning. The guitar's strings are assigned the notes C2-G2-D3-A3-E4-G4 (from lowest to highest); the five lowest open strings are each tuned to an interval of a perfect fifth {(C,G),(G,D),(D,A),(A,E)}; the two highest strings are a minor third apart (E,G).
All-fifths tuning is typically used for mandolins, cellos, violas, and violins. On a guitar, tuning the strings in fifths would mean the first string would be a high B, something that was impractical until recently. NST provides a good approximation to all-fifths tuning. Like other regular tunings, NST allows chord fingerings to be shifted from one set of strings to another.
NST's C-G range is wider, both lower and higher, than the E-E range of standard tuning in which the strings are tuned to the open notes E2-A2-D3-G3-B3-E4. The greater range allows NST-guitars to play repertoire that would be impractical, if not impossible, on a standard-tuned guitar.
NST was developed by Robert Fripp, the guitarist for King Crimson. Fripp taught the new standard tuning in Guitar-Craft courses beginning in 1985, and thousands of Guitar Craft students continue to use the tuning. Like other alternative tunings for guitar, NST provides challenges and new opportunities to guitarists, who have developed music especially suited to NST.
NST places the guitar strings under greater tension than standard tuning. Standard sets of guitar strings do not work well with the tuning as the lowest strings are too loose and the highest string may snap under the increased tension. Special sets of NST strings have been available for decades, and some guitarists have assembled NST sets from individual strings.
History.
New standard tuning (NST) was invented by Robert Fripp of the band King Crimson in September 1983. Fripp began using the tuning in 1985 before beginning his Guitar Craft seminars, which have taught the tuning to three thousand guitarists.
The tuning is (from low to high): C2-G2-D3-A3-E4-G4. The original version of NST was all-fifths tuning.
However, in the 1980s, Fripp never attained the all-fifth's high B. While he could attain A, the string's lifetime distribution was too short. Experimenting with a G string, Fripp succeeded. "Originally, seen in 5ths all the way, the top string would not go to B. so, as on a tenor banjo, I adopted an A on the first string. These kept breaking, so G was adopted." In 2012, Fripp suggested that Guitar Circle members experiment with an A String (0.007) from Octave4Plus of Gary Goodman; if successful, the experiment could lead to "the NST 1.2", C2G2D3A3E4-A4, according to Fripp. In 2010, Fripp suggested renaming the tuning as "Guitar Craft Standard Tuning or C Pentatonic tuning".
Properties.
The lowest five strings are tuned in perfect fifths from a low C. The first string is a minor third up from the E to a G. Since the lowest five strings are tuned in fifths, guitars with NST can be played with the fingerings for chords and scales used on the violin, cello, and mandolin.
The first five strings of NST have all-fifths tuning, and so its all-fifths chords are movable around the fretboard. In contrast, standard tuning has an irregular major-third interjected among its perfect fourths, which complicates the learning of chords by beginners.
The distinct open-notes {C,G,D,A,E} are the notes of the major pentatonic scale on C, which contains only consonant intervals. The C-pentatonic scale omits the open B of standard tuning and all-fifths tuning, which forms a dissonant second-interval with C. With the 1980s King Crimson, Fripp had used pentatonic harmony in "Discipline", "Thela Hun Ginjeet", and "Sartori in Tangier".
Harmonics: Overtones.
New standard tuning lists four notes (C,G,E,G) from the harmonic sequence (overtones) for the note C. When the low open-note C-string is struck, its harmonic sequence begins with the notes
To strengthen a given chord, Vincent Persichetti's "Twentieth-century harmony" recommends adding perfect fifths above the initial overtones, rather than adding higher overtones, such as B and the higher C. Persichetti's book influenced Fripp. In new standard tuning
Range.
Like all-fifths tuning, NST has a greater range than the standard tuning, a perfect fifth greater (a major third lower and a minor third higher).
Chords: Perfect intervals rather than thirds.
Asked whether NST facilitates "new intervals or harmonies that aren't readily available in standard tuning", Fripp responded, "Yes, that's part of it. It's more effective. It's a more rational system, but it's also better sounding—better for chords, better for single notes." To build chords, Fripp uses "perfect intervals in fourths, fifths and octaves", so avoiding minor and major thirds. Quartal and quintal harmony was stressed from the beginning of Fripp's teaching of Guitar Craft. Fripp began a 1986 course with these directions: "Now, pick a note from the following series—[it was a series of fourths or fifths]. "When you are ready"—do not be in any hurry, but "when you are ready" play your note, then pick others and play them as the situation demands it. Your first note will be the first "intentional" note you have played in a week."
It is a challenge to adapt conventional guitar chords to new standard tuning. NST has wider intervals between consecutive strings than standard tuning.
Historical background.
Modern quartal and quintal harmony revives the polyphonic traditions of medieval Europe. Before the common practice period, European polyphony emphasized unison intervals and octaves and also perfect fifths. From the Renaissance to 1900, Western symphonic music was diatonic, emphasizing the tertian harmony of major and minor scales, keys, and chords. Much popular music, especially rock, retains diatonic harmony.
String gauges.
With traditional guitar strings, the low C may be loose and the high G may be too tight. Special gauges are therefore more suitable for NST. For steel-stringed acoustic-guitars, many Guitar-Craft participants use either an .011–.058 inch set or an .011–.059 inch set; string-sets may be purchased as a set from a manufacturer or purchased singly and assembled by the guitarist.
In 2012, a 0.007 inch gauge was being evaluated by Fripp and other members of Guitar Circle, who are considering replacing the first string's G note with an A note, the better to approximate the B note of all-fifths tuning. The 0.007 inch gauge was produced by Octave4Plus of Gary Goodman. Robert Fripp uses lighter strings for electric guitar.
Artists who use NST.
Robert Fripp has used the New Standard Tuning since 1984.
Fripp has taught NST in his Guitar-Craft courses. In Guitar Craft and since 2010 in the successor Guitar Circles, students use only New Standard Tuning. Having to use a new tuning, the students are challenged to approach their playing with greater mindfulness, putting to rest their habitual use of automatic chords or licks. With the new tuning, guitarists have to find new ways of musical expression.
The tuning is used by students of Guitar Craft, of which there have been three thousand. Guitar-Craft alumni who continue to practice NST are called "crafty guitarists" or "crafties". Some crafty guitarists formed The League of Crafty Guitarists (LCG), which toured with Robert Fripp and released several albums. The Guitar-Craft experience and the League of Crafty Guitarists trained guitarists who went on to form new bands, such as the California Guitar Trio and Trey Gunn; the California Guitar Trio and Gunn toured with Fripp as The Robert Fripp String Quintet. Other alumni of the League of Crafty Guitarists include members of Los Gauchos Alemanes, such as U.S. guitarist Steve Ball; Ball is associated with the Seattle Guitar Circle, along with LCG alumnus Curt Golden.
The collection "A Plague of Crafty Guitarists" features the following Guitar-Craft alumni, who were listed in a review by Barry Cleveland: Tobin Buttram, Nigel Gavin, Geary Street Quartet, Bill Hibbits, Janssen and Jensen, Alejandro Miniaci and From Power Trio /Project , Sur Pacifico, Playmovil, and Santos Luminosos.
NST has been adapted for instruments besides guitar. Trey Gunn (Crimson's warr guitar player from 1994 to 2003) and Markus Reuter (TUNER with Crimson drummer Pat Mastelotto) have adapted NST for their 8- and 10-string instruments; in 2007 Reuter used a B-F-C-G-D-A-C-D tuning. Finnish musician Heikki Malmberg uses a 7-string guitar tuned in NST with an additional low F. Additionally, British musician Michael Linden West plays the oud in NST.


Paraguayan harp

The Paraguayan harp is the national instrument of Paraguay, and similar instruments are used elsewhere in South America, particularly Venezuela.
It is a diatonic harp with 32, 36, 38 or 40, 42 or 46 strings, made from tropical wood, pine and cedar, with a rounded neck-arch, played with the fingernail. It accompanies traditional songs in the Guarani language. It stands 4.5–5 feet tall and weighs 8–10 pounds.
Construction.
The Paraguayan harp is constructed in three parts which are never glued or attached in fixed form; the head (also called the neck) the arm and the body. Characterized by a long cone shaped sound box constructed in three parts with face attached and with a flat oval base and two to three sound oval holes on the backside ranging 3–4 inches in diameter each. It has two legs on the bottom which are 4  inches long. The Paraguayan Harp weighs approximately 8 pounds and is carried via the “arm” the center pole which creates tension between the sound box and the “head”.
Traditionally, in harps older than 50 years, the strings were made of catgut tightly twisted. However, modern harps made within the last 50 years are strung with nylon strings. The harmonic curve encompasses four ranges from brilliant at top to clear to soft to muted. The head is made mostly from native Palo Santo wood. The strings are strung up through the center of the head, a defining feature distinguishing Paraguayan Harps from other South American Harps, whose strings are strung on the side of the head. Tuning pegs were traditionally hand carved, but newer harps employ guitar levers. High-end harps use sharping levers, which raise the tone of the affected string by a half step, allowing the harp to be played in a variety of keys.
The strings are made from single strand imported nylon of varying dimension in the high octaves and double wrapped nylon in the lower octaves. The harps range from 4+ to nearly 8 octaves depending on the maker. There are 34, 36, 38, 40 and 42, 46 strings, depending on the maker. Each maker creates a proprietary and immediately recognizable variant to the exterior hand carvings or lack thereof on the head and body sides as well as the quantity of strings. Harps from other parts of the world universally use red to denote C strings and blue to denote F strings, but placement of the red or blue strings and what note (high C or F) they represent varies among Paraguayan harp makers. Dedicated players play only their variant of tuned string color codes, thereby creating two schools of harps, those with the red C and the ones with the blue C.
History.
In Brazil and Uruguay Portuguese Capuchin missions produced harps, guitars, and violins, based on 16th- and 17th-century Portuguese and Spanish models, for import to European royal courts. These were handcrafted by native Tupi-Guarani workers who became widely respected in Europe for their fine woodworking skills.
The Spanish Franciscan friars who established missions in Paraguay were less successful in subjugating the Tupi Guarani Indians to forced labor source so that the Guarani they became a more powerful culture in Paraguay, and Guaraní became the country's official second language, making Paraguay the only nation in the Americas with an indigenous official national language. Guaraní and Mestizo instrument makers were entrepreneurs in Paraguay and the local music came to reflect Guarani folklore and legends and appreciation of their environment in songs largely about birds, women and Guarani lore. The Paraguayan harp, the dominant instrument for "campesinos" (country folk), became the national instrument of Paraguay, its historical roots associated with liberation from the missionary systems of the more repressive neighboring countries. It is the national symbol of Paraguay.
Between the 1930s to late 1950s Paraguayan had influence across the world and many famous Paraguayan performers began with the Paraguayan harp and guitar. Paraguayan harp is played solo or in duet with another Paraguayan harp, a guitar or rarely (until 50 years ago) a violin. It often accompanies singing in Guarani or Spanish or a mixture of the two and is played mostly by men. Traditionally women did not play at all until the late 20th century: Guarani traditions prohibited women from playing music for religious reasons. There is no traditional percussive accompaniment.
Accomplished male harpists ventured out of Paraguay in the 20th century, mostly to Europe, Japan and, on occasion, the Middle East, greatly modifying musical styles to include western influences including classical harp, jazz and “elevator music”. Modern Paraguayan harpists consider themselves more accomplished if they can play popular hits, while the true measure of accomplishment requires performance of a handful of national harp pieces; "La Missionera" ("The Missionary Woman"), "El Tren Lechero" ("The Milk Train", based on lore about the first national train with a steam engine – the first in South America and a source of great national pride), "Pajaro Campana" ("Bell bird", a small, very loud bird, the national bird of Paraguay) and "Cascada" ("The Waterfall", referring to the Iguazu Falls).
Technique.
The Paraguayan harp, like all Latin American harps, is played with the fingernails, which are kept long. The right hand is used for the upper octaves and the left is used for the lower octaves. The right thumb is used for percussive rhythmic "thumping” on the bass strings and glissando on the upper strings. The left hand carries the rhythm on the bass strings. Players in all Latin American harp styles except the Venezuelan traditionally only use the first four fingers of each hand, starting with the thumb, although newer generation harpists are using all 10 fingers. Trademark fingering techniques are passed down from master to student only. The music is largely unwritten, and is passed from master to student through oral tradition only. It is played mostly by ear. Tuning for each octave is a seven-note natural diatonic scale. The intricate rhythms played are ¾ beat to 2 beat creating an attractive “lilt” compared in oral tradition to the gait of a horse missing a leg. Minor keys are employed to express the soul of the Guarani.


350 Ornamenta

Ornamenta (minor planet designation: 350 Ornamenta) is a relatively large main-belt asteroid, measuring 118 km in diameter. It is classified as a C-type asteroid and is probably composed of carbonaceous material.
Ornamenta was discovered by Auguste Charlois on December 14, 1892, in Nice, France. It was named in 1905 after Antoinette Horneman, who was a member of the Société astronomique de France.
This object is the namesake of a family of 14–93 asteroids that share similar spectral properties and orbital elements; hence they may have arisen from the same collisional event. All members have a relatively high orbital inclination.


Costa Rican units of measurement

A number of units of measurement were used in Costa Rica to measure measurements in length, mass, area, capacity, etc. In Costa Rica, metric system has been adopted since 1910, and has been compulsory since 1912, by a joint convention among Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Salvador.
Pre-metric units.
Before the metric system, a number of modified Spanish (i.e., Spanish Castilian), English and local units were used.
Length.
A number of units were used to measure length. One vara was equal to 0.8393 m. Some other units are given below:
1 cuarta = vara
1 tercia = vara
1 mecate = 24 varas.
Mass.
Several units were used to measure mass in Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and El Salvador. Some units are given below:
1 caja = 16 kg
1 fanega = 92 kg
1 carga = 161 kg.
As a typical coffee measure, fanega was equal to 46 kg of coffee.
Area.
Several units were used to measure area in Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and El Salvador. One manzana was equal to 10,000 square varas or 6960.5 m2. One caballeria was equal to 64 manzanas.
Capacity.
Several units were used to measure capacity in Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and El Salvador. One botella was equal to 0.63 to 0.67 l. One cajuela was equal to 16.6 l. The capacity of one cuartillo is very variable.


Opportunity class

Opportunity Classes (OC classes) in New South Wales, Australia are government primary school classes operated by the New South Wales Department of Education and Communities for gifted and talented children.
History.
Opportunity classes have a long history in NSW, with the first ones established in 1932. The impact of attending Opportunity classes varies with individual students, with some reporting negative experiences, while others report a strong sense of community and wellbeing.
Opportunity classes have been regarded by some parents as feeder schools for selective schools; however, not all students in opportunity classes successfully gain admission to selective schools. The reality is that entry to both OC and Selective High School classes is via standardized testing that focuses on ability in mathematics, english and general ability (basically an IQ-style test), and that there are fewer places available for entry to OC (~1800) than to Selective High School (4214 places in 2015), so in theory it is 'harder' to gain entry into OC than Selective High School and a large percentage of students attending OC classes gain entry to Selective High School, or gain a scholarship to a private high school.
Admission.
Parents of prospective applicants for opportunity classes complete an "Intention to Apply" form provided by the school, then complete an online application. Prospective applicants undertake an aptitude test, consisting of mathematics and English literacy components, the marks for which are sent with assessment scores based on the student's performance in Years 3 and 4 by the applicant's school principal.
List of schools with opportunity classes.
The following schools offer admission to opportunity classes in Year 5 & 6.


Cavity ring-down spectroscopy

Cavity ring-down spectroscopy (CRDS) is a highly sensitive optical spectroscopic technique that enables measurement of absolute optical extinction by samples that scatter and absorb light. It has been widely used to study gaseous samples which absorb light at specific wavelengths, and in turn to determine mole fractions down to the parts per trillion level. The technique is also known as cavity ring-down laser absorption spectroscopy (CRLAS).
A typical CRDS setup consists of a laser that is used to illuminate a high-finesse optical cavity, which in its simplest form consists of two highly reflective mirrors. When the laser is in resonance with a cavity mode, intensity builds up in the cavity due to constructive interference. The laser is then turned off in order to allow the measurement of the exponentially decaying light intensity leaking from the cavity. During this decay, light is reflected back and forth thousands of times between the mirrors giving an effective path length for the extinction on the order of a few kilometers.
If a light-absorbing material is now placed in the cavity, the mean lifetime decreases as fewer bounces through the medium are required before the light is fully absorbed, or absorbed to some fraction of its initial intensity. A CRDS setup measures how long it takes for the light to decay to 1/"e" of its initial intensity, and this "ringdown time" can be used to calculate the concentration of the absorbing substance in the gas mixture in the cavity.
Detailed description.
Cavity ring-down spectroscopy is a form of laser absorption spectroscopy. In CRDS, a laser pulse is trapped in a highly reflective (typically R > 99.9%) detection cavity. The intensity of the trapped pulse will decrease by a fixed percentage during each round trip within the cell due to absorption , scattering by the medium within the cell, and reflectivity losses. The intensity of light within the cavity is then determined as an exponential function of time.
The principle of operation is based on the measurement of a decay rate rather than an absolute absorbance. This is one reason for the increased sensitivity over traditional absorption spectroscopy, as the technique is then immune to shot-to-shot laser fluctuations. The decay constant, τ, which is the time taken for the intensity of light to fall to 1/e of the initial intensity, is called the ring-down time and is dependent on the loss mechanism(s) within the cavity. For an empty cavity, the decay constant is dependent on mirror loss and various optical phenomena like scattering and refraction:
where "n" is the index of refraction within the cavity, "c" is the speed of light in vacuum, "l" is the cavity length, "R" is the mirror reflectivity, and "X" takes into account other miscellaneous optical losses. This equation uses the approximation that ln(1+"x") ≈ "x" for "x" close to zero, which is the case under cavity ring-down conditions. Often, the miscellaneous losses are factored into an effective mirror loss for simplicity. An absorbing species in the cavity will increase losses according to the Beer-Lambert law. Assuming the sample fills the entire cavity,
where α is the absorption coefficient for a specific analyte concentration at the cavity's resonance wavelength. The decadic absorbance, "A", due to the analyte can be determined from both ring-down times.
Alternatively, the molar absorptivity, ε, and analyte concentration, "C", can be determined from the ratio of both ring-down times. If "X" can be neglected, one obtains
When a ratio of species' concentrations is the analytical objective, as for example in carbon-13 to carbon-12 measurements in carbon dioxide, the ratio of ring-down times measured for the same sample at the relevant absorption frequencies can be used directly with extreme accuracy and precision.
Advantages of CRDS.
There are two main advantages to CRDS over other absorption methods:
First, it is not affected by fluctuations in the laser intensity. In most absorption measurements, the light source must be assumed to remain steady between blank (no analyte), standard (known amount of analyte), and sample (unknown amount of analyte). Any drift (change in the light source) between measurements will introduce errors. In CRDS, the ringdown time does not depend on the intensity of the laser, so fluctuations of this type are not a problem. Independency from laser intensity makes CRDS needless to any calibration and comparison with standards.
Second, it is very sensitive due to its long pathlength. In absorption measurements, the smallest amount that can be detected is proportional to the length that the light travels through a sample. Since the light reflects many times between the mirrors, it ends up traveling long distances. For example, a laser pulse making 500 round trips through a 1-meter cavity will effectively have traveled through 1 kilometer of sample.
Thus, the advantages include:


Minute (angle)


Kellie Archer

Kellie Jo Archer (born 1969) is a biostatistician specializing in microarray analysis techniques. She is a professor of biostatistics and chair of the biostatistics department at the Ohio State University.
Education and career.
Archer graduated summa cum laude from Franklin College in 1991.
After earning a master's degree at the Ohio State University in 1993, she worked for several years as a medical data analyst before completing her Ph.D. at the Ohio State University in 2001. Her dissertation, "Goodness-of-Fit for Logistic Regression Models Developed Using Data Collected from a Complex Sampling Design", was supervised by Stanley Lemeshow.
She became an assistant professor at Virginia Commonwealth University in 2002, earning tenure there in 2009, becoming director of the VCU Massey Cancer Center Biostatistics Shared Resource in 2011, and being promoted to full professor in 2015. She moved to Ohio State in 2016, and continues to hold an affiliate position at Virginia Commonwealth University.


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