Romanian major

Romanian major, also known as lydian dominant flat 2 or flat 9, is a musical scale, noted for its flattened 2nd and sharpened fourth degrees, the latter a distinctive feature of Romanian traditional music. A C Romanian major scale has the notes C, D, E, F, G, A, B, which is 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. Though it is called a major scale, it is typically played over a C13 (9) (11) (also F major over C) dominant chord.
The 5th mode, Jazz minor flat 5, also known as Jeth's Mode, is a jazz minor or melodic minor scale with a flattened 5th, and is named after Dutch composer Willem Jeths. It can also be thought of as a whole half diminished scale omitting the augmented fifth. It can be used for soloing instead of regular jazz minor. The Jazz minor flat 5 mode in C contains the notes C, D, E, F, G , A, B, which has the formula 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7.
Modes.
The scale contains the following modes:


Indonesian units of measurement

A number of units of measurement were used in Indonesia to measure length, mass, capacity, etc. Metric system adopted in 1923 and has been compulsory in Indonesia since 1938.
System before metric system.
Old Dutch and local measures were used under Dutch East Indies. Local measures were very variable, and later they have been legally defined with their metric equivalents.
Length.
A number of units were used to measure length. One depa was equal to 1.70 m by its legal definition. Some other units and their legal equivalents are given below:
1 hasta = depa
1 kilan = depa.
Mass.
A number of units were used to measure mass.
Ordinary.
One pikol (or one pecul) was equal to kg by its legal definition. Some other units and their legal equivalents are given below:
1 thail = pikol
1 catti = pikol
1 kabi = pikol
1 kulack = 0.0725 pikol
1 amat = 2 pikol
1 small bahar = 3 pikol
1 large bahar = 4.5 pikol
1 timbang = 5 pikol
1 kojang (Batavia) = 27 pikol = 1667.555 kg
1 kojang (Semarang) = 28 pikol = 1729.316 kg
1 kojang (Soerabaya) = 30 pikol = 1852.839 kg.
For precious metals.
One thail was equal to 54.090 kg by its legal definition. Some other units and their legal equivalents are given below:
1 wang = thail
1 tali = thail
1 soekoe = thail
1 reaal = thail.
For opium.
One thail was equal to 38.601 kg by its legal definition. Some other units and their legal equivalents are given below:
1 tji = thail
1 tjembang Mata = thail
1 hoen = thail.
Area.
Several units were used to measure area. One bahoe (or 1 bouw) was equal to 7096.5 m2 and lieue2 (Geographic) was equal to 55.0632 km by its legal definition.
Capacity.
Two systems, dry and liquid, were used to measure capacity.
Dry.
Several units were used to measure dry capacity. One kojang was equal to 2011.2679 l by its legal definition. One pikol was equal to kojang.
Liquid.
A number of units were used to measure liquid capacity. Some other units and their legal equivalents are given below:
1 takar (for oil) = 25.770 l
1 kit (for oil) = 15.159 l
1 koelak (for oil) = 3.709 l
1 kan (for various products) = 1.575 l
1 mutsje (for various products) = 0.1516 l
1 pintje (for oil) = 0.0758 l.
Sumatra.
Several local units were used in Sumatra.
Length.
Units for length included:
1 etto = 2 jankal
1 hailoh = 2 etto
1 tung = 4 hailoh = 12 feet.
Capacity.
Units for capacity included:
1 koolah = 2.1173 bushel
1 pakha = 0.14535 gallon.
Mass.
Units for mass included:
1 catoy = 2.118 lb
1 maund = 77 lb
1 pecul = lb
1 candil = lb
1 ootan (for camphor) = 4 lb.
Java.
Several local units were used in Java. Old Dutch units too were in use, and other units were varied for example one town to another.:
Length.
One covid was equal to yard and other units were Dutch.
Mass.
Units for mass included:
1 gantang (for coffee) = 10 catties
1 pecul = 100 catties = 135.6312 lb
1 bahar (at Bantam) = 396 lb
1 bahar (at Bantam; used for pepper) = 406.78 lb
1 bahar (at Batavia) = 610.17 lb
1 timbang (for grain) = 677.9625 lb
1 tael (at Bantam) = 0.1511 lb
1 tael (at Batavia) = 0.0847 lb.
Capacity.
Units for capacity included:
1 kanne = 0.394 gallons
1 legger (for arrack) = 160.0 gallons
1 bambou (at Bantam) = 0.09223 bushels
1 koyang = 147.568 bushels
1 koyang (at Batavia; measure for rise) = bushels.
Celebes (Modern Sulawesi).
Units were resemble or identical with the units of neighbouring islands under Netherlands.
Mass.
One pecul was equal to 135.64 lb.
Molucca Islands.
Dutch units and other units resembling the units in Java, Sumatra, etc. were used.
Amboyna.
Mass.
Units included:
1 bahar = 597.61 lb
1 mace = grain
1 tael = 55.3371 bushel.
Ternate.
Mass.
One catty was equal to 1.3017 lb.


Oxford, Cambridge and RSA Examinations

OCR (Oxford, Cambridge and RSA Examinations) is an examination board that sets examinations and awards qualifications (including GCSEs and A-levels). It is one of England, Wales and Northern Ireland's five main examination boards.
OCR is based in Cambridge, with an office in Coventry. It is part of the University of Cambridge's Cambridge Assessment, which operates in over 160 countries and celebrated its 160th anniversary in 2018. OCR delivers GCSE and A Level examinations in the United Kingdom whereas for other countries Cambridge Assessment operates the examination board Cambridge International Examinations (CIE). An important distinction between OCR and CIE is that the British exam board OCR is required to comply with UK government regulations and CIE with international GCSEs and GCE A Levels is not.
History.
The name OCR reflects the fact that it was created in 1998 through the amalgamation of the University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate (UCLES) and the Royal Society of Arts Examinations Board (RSAEB). At the time of the merger, UCLES's qualifications were offered by two wholly owned subsidiaries: the Oxford and Cambridge Examinations and Assessments Council (OCEAC) for A Level and the Midland Examining Group (MEG) for GCSE and Certificate of Achievement. RSAEB offered vocational qualifications. After the merger, the OCR name replaced all previous names. The overall supervisor for the merger was Joseph Dudley.
UCLES had previously taken over the University of Oxford Delegacy of Local Examinations (founded 1857) and the Oxford and Cambridge Schools Examinations Board (founded 1873). Both were acquired by UCLES in 1995; earlier, it had taken over the Southern Universities Joint Board (SUJB). The acquisition of RSAEB was completed in 1998 and brought a new range of qualifications and activities to the UCLES Group because RSEAB's principal activity was in vocational qualifications.
The formation of OCR represented the culmination of several decades of corporate activity on the part of UCLES, activity that came about as a response to the policies of successive British governments towards public examinations and the provision of qualifications as well as moves to strengthen the regulatory framework.
Cambridge Assessment is a non-teaching department of the University of Cambridge, making Cambridge the only British University to maintain a direct link with a school exam board.
OCR have gained a reputation over the years for significant mistakes and inaccuracies its work, these range from inaccurate or even fictitious content in subject specifications, to errors in exam papers.
Controversies.
1998: All the UK schools examinations and vocational qualifications of the UCLES Group were transferred to OCR. Subsequent Physics syllabuses released by OCR included the fictional units the "Ocrawatt" and "Ocrajoule" due to overzealous find-and-replace on MEG's part (in previous and later syllabuses, the units were correctly written as "Megawatt" and "Megajoule".)
2008: The answer to one question in a GCSE Music paper was given away by accident in the copyright declaration printed on the back of the question paper.
2011: OCR set an impossible maths question. In addition, there were errors in Section B of the Latin Literature paper, confusing names of both authors and characters. 2011 also saw the start of, by now regular, social media protests against the content in exam papers. An A2 Biology paper on Control, Genomes and Environment (F215) had a large emphasis on Ecology, deemed by many students to be ‘unfair’. This issue was made public on a Facebook page which generated support from thousands of students. "The Times" and "The Times Educational Supplement" reported on this story.
2012: A Channel 4 News investigation revealed that examiners were making the most basic errors, such as wrongly adding up marks on hundreds of papers, which in some cases led to candidates in 2011 getting an incorrect grade. A senior supervisor at OCR, David Leitch, ordered his team perform supplementary checks on scripts by the same markers, and found hundreds of errors. This led to OCR ordering these additional checks to stop, and to only inform those schools which had specifically requested scripts to be re-marked. David Leitch was suspended from OCR, after reporting the incident to Ofqual, and informing 30 schools about the mistakes himself. Ofqual have said to have subsequently investigated the exam board, and asked the exam board "to carry out extended checks, identify the weaknesses in its processes and to put these right in time for the January exams". The Department for Education said the level of error was "simply unacceptable".
2015: The then Chief Executive of OCR suggested that students should be allowed to use Google and the Internet to research information during examinations. This statement evoked a heated debate with support on the one hand and criticism on the other.
2017: A question in the reformed OCR GCSE English Literature exam, sat by over ten thousand students, swapped the surnames of the families in the play Romeo and Juliet, asking how Tybalt's hatred of the Capulets influenced the outcome of the play, when in fact, Tybalt is a Capulet himself. OCR apologised, undertook to ensure no candidates would be disadvantaged while the regulator Ofqual stated it was "very disappointed to learn of the error". OCR also apologised for "poorly wording" an A Level Psychology Paper and assured candidates that it could correct it in its marking. Ofqual asked OCR to go through all its remaining papers again to make sure there were no further errors. OCR was eventually fined £175,000 for their error on the English Literature exam, which Ofqual deemed not fit for purpose, as the question was "unanswerable".
Social media was again widely used by students to express concern that the formula for [null standard] deviation was not included in the A Level Biology paper.
2019: After a leak of the A-Level Grade Boundaries ahead of results day, it emerged that in order to pass the new specification Mathematics A-Level (H240), candidates needed to score 13% (40 marks out of 300) to pass. Edexcel (another British exam board) also had similarly low grade boundaries. After these extremely low grade boundaries added flavour to many news headlines, Ofqual said that they were confident the grade boundaries this year were "sound", so shifted their focus onto the previous year's grade boundaries for the new Mathematics A-Level for the 2,000 students who sat it after studying it for one year. Ofqual said "We want to understand why the grade boundaries were so different between the two years.", and had called the significant shifts in boundaries "unusual". None of the exam boards decided to re-open the 2018 award, after being asked to look at them again by the regulator. This could potentially result in students who sat the new specification Mathematics A-Level in 2018 having their results changed.
The exams regulator, the Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation (Ofqual) reports on the frequency of errors from all exam boards annually.


Case study in psychology

Case study in psychology refers to the use of a descriptive research approach to obtain an in-depth analysis of a person, group, or phenomenon. A variety of techniques may be employed including personal interviews, direct-observation, psychometric tests, and archival records. In psychology case studies are most often used in clinical research to describe rare events and conditions, which contradict well established principles in the field of psychology. Case studies are generally a single-case design, but can also be a multiple-case design, where replication instead of sampling is the criterion for inclusion. Like other research methodologies within psychology, the case study must produce valid and reliable results in order to be useful for the development of future research. Distinct advantages and disadvantages are associated with the case study in psychology. The case study is sometimes mistaken for the case method, but the two are not the same.
Advantages.
One major advantage of the case study in psychology is the potential for the development of novel hypotheses for later testing. Second, the case study can provide detailed descriptions of specific and rare cases
Disadvantages.
Case studies cannot be used to determine causation.
References.
^ Schultz & Schultz, Duane (2010). Psychology and work today. New York: Prentice Hall. pp. 201–202. .


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International English Language Testing System

The International English Language Testing System, or IELTS (), is an international standardized test of English language proficiency for non-native English language speakers. It is jointly managed by the British Council, IDP: IELTS Australia and Cambridge Assessment English, and was established in 1989. IELTS is one of the major English-language tests in the world.
IELTS is accepted by most Australian, British, Canadian, European, Irish and New Zealand academic institutions, by over 3,000 academic institutions in the United States, and by various professional organisations across the world.
IELTS is the only Secure English Language Test approved by UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) for visa customers applying both outside and inside the UK. It also meets requirements for immigration to Australia, where Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) and Pearson Test of English Academic are also accepted, and New Zealand. In Canada, IELTS, TEF, or CELPIP are accepted by the immigration authority.
No minimum score is required to pass the test. An IELTS result or Test Report Form is issued to all test takers with a score from "band 1" ("non-user") to "band 9" ("expert user") and each institution sets a different threshold. There is also a "band 0" score for those who did not attempt the test. Institutions are advised not to consider a report older than two years to be valid, unless the user proves that they have worked to maintain their level.
In 2017, over 3 million tests were taken in more than 140 countries, up from 2 million tests in 2012, 1.7 million tests in 2011 and 1.4 million tests in 2009. In 2007, IELTS administered more than one million tests in a single 12-month period for the first time ever, making it the world's most popular English language test for higher education and immigration.
History.
The English Language Testing Service (IELTS), as IELTS was then known, was launched in 1980 by Cambridge English Language Assessment (then known as UCLES) and the British Council. It had an innovative format, which reflected changes in language learning and teaching, including the growth in ‘communicative’ language learning and ‘English for specific purposes’. Test tasks were intended to reflect the use of English language in the ‘real world’.
During the 1980s, test taker numbers were low (4,000 in 1981 rising to 10,000 in 1985) and there were practical difficulties administering the test. As a result, the IELTS Revision Project was set up to oversee the redesign of the test. In order to have international participation in the redesign, the International Development Program of Australian Universities and Colleges (IDP), now known as IDP: IELTS Australia, joined Cambridge English Language Assessment and the British Council to form the international IELTS partnership which delivers the test to this day. This international partnership was reflected in the new name for the test: The International English Language Testing System (IELTS).
IELTS went live in 1989. Test takers took two non-specialised modules, Listening and Speaking, and two specialised modules, Reading and Writing. Test taker numbers rose by approximately 15% per year and by 1995 there were 43,000 test takers in 210 test centres around the world.
IELTS was revised again in 1995, with three main changes:
Further revisions went live in 2001 (revised Speaking Test) and 2005 (new assessment criteria for the Writing test).
IELTS characteristics.
IELTS Academic and IELTS General Training are designed to cover the full range of ability from non-user to expert user. The Academic version is for test takers who want to study at tertiary level in an English-speaking country or seek professional registration. The General Training version is for test takers who want to work, train, study at a secondary school or migrate to an English-speaking country.
The difference between the Academic and General Training versions is the content, context and purpose of the tasks. All other features, such as timing allocation, length of written responses and reporting of scores, are the same.
IELTS Academic and General Training both incorporate the following features:
IELTS test structure.
Modules.
There are two modules of the IELTS:
There's also a separate test offered by the IELTS test partners, called IELTS Life Skills:
The four parts of the IELTS test.
The test total time is: 2 hours and 45 minutes.
Listening, Reading and Writing are completed in one sitting. The Speaking test may be taken on the same day or up to seven days before or after the other tests.
All test takers take the same Listening and Speaking tests, while the Reading and Writing tests differ depending on whether the test taker is taking the Academic or General Training versions of the test.
Listening.
The module comprises four sections, with ten questions in each section. It takes 40 minutes: 30 - for testing, plus 10 for transferring the answers to an answer sheet.
Sections 1 and 2 are about every day, social situations.
Sections 3 and 4 are about educational and training situations
Each section begins with a short introduction telling the test taker about the situation and the speakers. Then they have some time to look through the questions. The questions are in the same order as the information in the recording, so the answer to the first question will be before the answer to the second question, and so on. The first three sections have a break in the middle allowing test takers to look at the remaining questions. Each section is heard only once.
At the end of the test students are given 10 minutes to transfer their answers to an answer sheet. Test takers will lose marks for incorrect spelling and grammar.
Reading.
The Reading paper has three sections and texts totalling 2,150-2,750 words. There will be a variety of question types, such as multiple-choice, short-answer questions, identifying information, identifying writer's views, labelling diagrams, completing a summary using words taken from the text and matching information/headings/features in the text/sentence endings. Test takers should be careful when writing down their answers as they will lose marks for incorrect spelling and grammar.
Texts in IELTS Academic
Texts in IELTS General Training
Writing.
The Writing paper has two tasks which must both be completed. In task 1 test takers write at least 150 words in about 20 minutes. In task 2 test takers write at least 250 words in about 40 minutes. Test takers will be penalised if their answer is too short or does not relate to the topic. Answers should be written in full sentences (test takers must not use notes or bullet points).
IELTS Academic
IELTS General Training
Speaking.
The speaking test is a face-to-face interview between the test taker and an examiner.
The speaking test contains three sections.
Scoring.
Test takers receive a score for each test component – Listening, Reading, Writing and Speaking. The individual scores are then averaged and rounded to produce an Overall Band Score.
Band scale.
There is no pass or fail. IELTS is scored on a nine-band scale, with each band corresponding to a specified competence in English. Overall Band Scores are reported to the nearest half band.
The following rounding convention applies: if the average across the four skills ends in .25, it is rounded up to the next half band, and if it ends in .75, it is rounded up to the next whole band.
The nine bands are described as follows:
Conversion table.
This table can be used to convert raw scores (out of 40) to band scores (out of 9). This helps test takers understand how many correct answers they need to achieve a particular band score. This chart is a guide only because sometimes the scores adjust slightly depending on how difficult the test is.
Results.
For a computer-delivered test, results are released between 3–5 days. For a paper-based test, a Test Report Form is posted to test takers 13 days after their test. It shows:
Test takers receive one copy of their Test Report Form, apart from test takers who are applying to the Department of Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) or UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) who receive two copies.
Test Report Forms are valid for two years.
Locations and test dates.
Test takers can take IELTS in more than 140 countries and in over 1,600 locations.
There are up to 48 test dates available per year. Each test centre offers tests up to four times a month depending on local demand. The Academic version is available on all 48 dates per year and the General Training version is available on 24 dates.
There used to be a minimum time limit of 90 days before which a person was not allowed to retake the test. However this restriction has been withdrawn and currently there is no limit for applicants to retake the test.
Global test scores.
In 2019, approximately 77% of test takers took the Academic version and 23% of test takers took the General Training version. The average overall score in the Academic version was 6.04 for male test takers and 6.10 for female test takers. In the General Training version, it was 6.57 for male test takers and 6.63 female test takers.
Countries with highest average scores (Academic).
In 2019, of the 40 most common places of origin, the countries ranked in the top five for mean band scores for the Academic IELTS test were:
Countries with highest average scores (General Training).
In 2018, of the 40 most common places of origin, the countries ranked in the top five for mean band scores for the General Training IELTS test were:
Results by first language of test taker (Academic).
In 2019, of the 40 most common self-reported first language backgrounds, the countries ranked in the top five in the Academic IELTS test were from test takers whose first languages were:
Results by first language of test taker (General Training).
In 2019, of the 40 most common self-reported first language backgrounds, the countries ranked in the top five in the General Training IELTS test were from test takers whose first languages were:
Level required by academic institutions for admission.
Just over half (51%) of test takers take IELTS to enter higher education in a foreign country. The IELTS minimum scores required by academic institutions and by course vary. As a general rule, the top ranked universities in the United States tend to require a higher IELTS band (typically 7.0). Most universities accept scores between 6-7 as being suitable for undergraduate study in English.
IELTS is used by over 9,000 educational institutions worldwide. This section provides just a few examples of IELTS requirements in different countries. Full details about the organizations which accept IELTS and the scores they require can be found on the IELTS Global Recognition System.
United States.
IELTS is accepted by over 3,000 U.S. institutions. The highest IELTS Band required by a university is 8.5, by the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University.
Most top ranked U.S. universities, as listed by the TES 2015 World University Rankings, require a minimum score of around 7.0. For example:
United Kingdom.
Most top ranked UK universities, as listed by the THE 2020 World University Rankings, require a minimum score of 6.5-7.0. For example:
Canada.
Most top ranked Canadian universities, as listed by the TES 2015 World University Rankings, require a minimum score of 6.5 with a minimum subscore of 6.0 for each individual part.
Australia.
Most top ranked Australian universities, as listed by the TES 2015 World University Rankings, require a minimum score of approximately 6.5. For example:
Along with the universities, the test results are directly relevant for applying a student Visa (Subclass 500). The candidates need at least an IELTS score of 5.5. The precise requirements depend on the university.
Non-native English speaking countries.
Most top ranked universities in non-native English speaking countries, as listed by the TES 2015 World University Rankings, require a minimum score between 6.0-7.0 For example:
IELTS use for immigration purposes.
A number of Commonwealth countries use IELTS scores as a proof of prospective immigrants' competence in English.
Australia.
Australia's immigration authorities have used IELTS to assess English proficiency of prospective migrants since May 1998, when this test replaced the access: test that had been previously used.
There are different IELTS score requirements for different types of visa.
New Zealand.
New Zealand has used the IELTS test since 1995. There are different IELTS score requirements for different types of visa and type of applicant.
Originally, applicants who could not achieve the required score could pay a NZ$20,000 fee instead, which would be fully or partially refunded later if the migrant were able to successfully take the test within a certain period (3 to 12 months) after his or her arrival to the country. A few years later, the policy was changed: the fee was reduced, and, instead of being potentially refundable, it became treated as a "pre-purchase" of post-arrival ESL tuition.
Canada.
Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) uses IELTS and/or TEF as evidence of one's ability to communicate in English and/or French. The CELPIP (Canadian English Language Proficiency Index Program) test scores are an alternative to IELTS.
The Canadian Language Benchmarks (CLB) are the national standards used in Canada for describing, measuring and recognizing the English language proficiency of prospective immigrants. The following table shows the IELTS scores needed for each CLB level.
There are different language requirements for different types of immigration program as shown below:
Submitting one's IELTS scores is also one of the several ways to prove one's proficiency in an official language when applying for Canadian citizenship (minimum of CLB level 4 required).
United Kingdom.
On 6 April 2015, UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) changed its English language requirements for UK visa and immigration applications. IELTS tests are now one of only two exams included on the UK government list of Secure English Language Tests (SELTs).
IELTS assesses all four language skills and is accepted by UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) at levels B1 to C2 of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR).
A new test, IELTS Life Skills, assesses Speaking and Listening at CEFR level A1 and at CEFR Level B1. IELTS Life Skills can be used to meet the English language requirements for some classes of visa application, including 'family of a settled person' visas and indefinite leave and citizenship.
To be used for visa and immigration purposes, IELTS and IELTS Life Skills must be taken in test centres approved by the UKVI.
For UK visa purposes the test is designed to meet certain administrative requirements specified by UKVI. These Test Report Forms are slightly different, to show that the test taker has taken the test at an IELTS UKVI session. The actual test taken is the same – same content, examiners, format, level of difficulty, scoring and so on.


La Vie nouvelle

A New Life (French: La Vie nouvelle) is a 2002 French experimental film directed by Philippe Grandrieux and starring Zachary Knighton and Anna Mouglalis.
Plot.
The story involves a young American who falls obsessively in love with a mysterious courtesan named Melania against the backdrop of a dilapidated Eastern European landscape.


Amorfon

Amorfon is a Japanese experimental music record label, located in Tokyo. Founded in 2004 by Yoshio Machida. Amorfon releases experimental and avant-garde music from all genres - from Electronica to World music.


Roll hardness tester

A roll hardness tester is a device to measure the roll hardness, hardness profile and hardness variation of paper rolls.
Method.
In the preparation phase, the plunger, guide bar and guide disk are pushed forward by the compression spring. At the end of the movement the hammer mass is hooked by the pawl. During the loading phase the hammer is pushed towards the surface in a controlled movement. The hammer mass remains locked in place by the pawl. This has the effect of stretching the impact spring to put it under tension.
Impact Rebound: At the very end of the movement, the pawl spring releases the hammer mass. The impact spring contracts causing the hammer mass to strike against the plunger. This is the impact. The hammer mass then rebounds back to the body of the hammer and distance travelled is recorded on the scale.
The rebound distance depends directly on the hardness of the roll under test:
A softer roll will absorb more of the impact energy and the rebound distance will be less.
A harder roll will reflect more of the impact energy and the rebound distance will increase.
Application.
Roll hardness is one of the most important parameters when deciding whether a paper roll is good or bad. A roll that is wound too softly can go out of round when handled. A roll that is wound too hard, on the other hand, can crack during transportation. These variations are difficult to detect. Above all, it is typically the variation in hardness across a given roll that relates most directly to such converting issues with soft edges being perhaps the biggest contributor.


Ritual Productions

Ritual Productions is a London-based independent record label launched in 2010.
Biography.
On the summer solstice of 2010, Ritual put out their first release, Ramesses' "Take the Curse". The album artwork features images by Jake and Dinos Chapman of their work "Fucking Hell", from the 2008 "If Hitler Had Been a Hippy How Happy Would We Be" exhibition at London's White Cube Gallery. Additionally, Ramesses have released the following albums on Ritual Productions: "Chrome Pineal", "Possessed By The Rise Of Magik" (with the LP featuring remixes from Justin Broadrick) and re-issues of "We Will Lead You to Glorious Times," "The Tomb", and "Misanthropic Alchemy".
Drone rock band Bong have too released numerous albums with Ritual Productions: "We Are, We Were and We Will Have Been", "Beyond Ancient Space", "Mana-Yood Shushai", "Stoner Rock", "Thought and Existence" and a re-issue of the band’s rare debut "S/T", which came with a previously unreleased bonus track.
During 2013, Ritual released "Superunnatural" by new psychedelic rock group 11PARANOIAS, followed by "Spectralbeastiaries" in 2014 and "Stealing Fire From Heaven" in 2015. The band released their latest full-length, "Reliquary For A Dreamed Of World" in October 2016. The LP and CD formats for "Reliquary For A Dreamed Of World" came with a ‘Multi-Dimensional Paranoid Vision Key’ – based on the RGB colour model, a set of three coloured filters reveals different layers to the album artwork. 2019 saw the band release a new album, 'Asterismal', with artwork courtesy of contemporary British artist Toby Ziegler.
2015 saw heavy rock improv duo GHOLD release ‘Of Ruin’ – their debut on Ritual Productions. A second full-length for Ritual Productions, PYR, was released in 2016 and included an expanded line-up with the addition of multi-instrumentalist Oliver Martin.
2016 further saw three new bands, and their subsequent releases, added to the Ritual Productions roster. The Poisoned Glass from Seattle/Atlanta, consisting of Edgy59 and G. Stuart Dahlquist, released their debut album "10 SWORDS"; Horse Latitudes from Helsinki released "Primal Gnosis" – their first on the Ritual Productions label - and NYC's Thralldom released their first music in over a decade, titled "Time Will Bend Into Horror", the latter being only available on digital formats.
New band, Ancient Lights, signed to Ritual Productions in summer 2017. The band is composed of Adam Richardson (11PARANOIAS, Ramesses), Ben Carr (INTRCPTR, 5ive) and Tim Bertilsson (Switchblade). The band met in the early 2000s whilst playing shows together, eventually recording their debut album in North London during 2017.
In 2018, Ritual Productions announced the signing of Drug Cult, a four-piece occultist doom collective hailing from Mullumbimby, Australia. The band's debut rite was released in June 2018.
2019 saw the label re-release Brazilian band Basalt's debut album, 'O Coração Negro da Terra' on digital formats. The album has been exclusively remastered by labelmate Adam Richardson (11PARANOIAS, Ancient Lights, Ramesses).
Ritual Productions further released the album by Italian psychedelic black/doom metal trio,'Salbrox' in May 2019.
In collaboration with Diagonal Records, Ritual Productions released electronic noise artist Viviankrist's 2019 LP 'Cross Modulation'.
2020 saw Ritual Productions release Basalt's new album, 'Silêncio Como Respiração', their first full-length for the label. The year further included the release of Viviankrist's 'Cross Modulation - Bootleg Remixes' and a cassette tape boxset comprising four Viviankrist albums; 'Live in Studio 2018', 'Pop Incentive', 'Heavy Sleep' and 'Alabaster White'.
Ritual Productions sees all of its releases as serious artistic processes which deserve and get the utmost care and attention to detail, only releasing the best quality products.
To date, 5 Ritual Productions artists have appeared at the esteemed Roadburn Festival in Tilburg, Netherlands.
Discography.
Ritual Production's catalogue is available for order or digital download.


CAPLE

CAPLE (Centro de Avaliação de Português Língua Estrangeira or Centre for Evaluation of Portuguese as a Foreign Language) is a certificate of proficiency in Standard European Portuguese as a second language offered in Portugal and 45 other countries and territories. The official CAPLE examinations and certificates/diplomas are developed, delivered, and accredited by a tri-partite collaboration in Portugal between the School of Arts and Humanities at the University of Lisbon and the Instituto Camões, which administers the examination procedures on behalf of the Portuguese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Eligibility.
To take the test, applicants must be at least 14 years of age, be a national of a country where Portuguese is not an official language, or, if they are from a country whose official language is Portuguese, they must meet two of the following conditions:
Levels.
CAPLE exams take place in May, July, and November in all testing centres, in addition to February, March, August, September, and October in Lisbon only. CAPLE exams are offered at six levels; however, there are a few places that may not offer the ACESSO level.
Test Format.
There are four parts of evaluation in every level that tests all four major language abilities - reading, writing, listening, and speaking. There is also an additional part called "Competência Estrutural" that appears on only the DIPLE, DAPLE, and DUPLE tests. The weight and amount of time allocated for each section varies by level.
Scoring.
The minimum passing mark to receive the certificate or diploma for any test is 55%. Four categories of results dictate how well a candidate does.
Recognition.
CAPLE certificates/diplomas do not expire over time and are recognized across Portugal by various national and international institutions for the benefit of foreigners looking to:
See also.
CELPE-Bras - Exam of Brazilian Portuguese for Foreigners developed by the Brazilian Ministry of Education
TELC - The European Language Certificates (Portuguese available at Level B1 only)


Scituate Proving Ground

Scituate Proving Ground was a proving ground of the United States Army located in Scituate, Massachusetts. It became operational in 1918, when 115.25 acres were purchased between June and July. In November 1919 the site was declared excess, and it was used as a storing ground until June 1921. During its brief period of operation it was intended to proof fire the production of 155mm and 240mm howitzer carriages that were built elsewhere in Massachusetts. The proving grounds in Scituate did not have the ability to test the projectiles or fuses, so it was used to test cartridge cases, primer and powder. The grounds had its own heating and power plants as well as a garrison of 10 officers and 130 enlisted men. Recently, the site was used for housing, although former structures dating from the use of the grounds could be seen up until 2018, when the Toll Brothers began to develop the site. Toll Brothers plans to build "Seaside at Scituate", which will have 142 townhouses in a condo setting for people 55 years and older when completed.


White Hole (film)

 is a 1979 Japanese experimental film by Toshio Matsumoto. The music was composed by Joji Yuasa.
Summary.
A mesmerizing trip through the psychedelic vastness of space.


Optical dilatometer

An optical dilatometer is a non-contact device able to measure thermal expansions or sintering kinetics of any kind of materials, unlike traditional push rod dilatometer, it can push up to the dilatometric softening of the specimen. It is a device for measuring changes in the dimensions of a specimen, optically, the achieved resolution can result in greater values than those of a conventional pushrod dilatometer. A monochromatic light source, such as a laser, illuminates the specimen. Some of the light is reflected by the specimen and interferes with the incoming light, creating optical interference fringes. As the specimen contracts or expands, there is a proportional movement of the interference fringes, which can be measured using a camera system. The measurement resolution is determined by the wavelength of the light, and is typically 0.5 μm for blue light. Optical dilatometers are used to measure thermal expansion.
The optical dilatometer is in fact complementary to the traditional higher resolution push rod dilatometer when it comes to measure dimensional changes of materials, as a function of temperature, and no contact between specimen and instrument is required.
Structure and types.
The most recent types of optical dilatometer use a direct-beam system so as to avoid contact-related problems by measuring the image that the specimen projects on an image sensor, when irradiated by a light beam. By using a single beam of light with short wavelength and a very high resolution image sensor it is possible to achieve good resolutions, although not comparable to those of the standard dilatometers. For example, using a blue light with a wavelength below 1500 micrometers, it is possible to achieve images with an actual resolution of nearly 1500 micrometers/pixel of the camera (not an interpolated resolution but an actual resolution). By using two light beams, which illuminate two small portions of material at the extremities of the sample, set perpendicularly to the beams direction, it is then possible to achieve an absolute measurement of longitudinal variation while heat-treating the specimen.
There are two major types of optical dilatometers which are currently in use:
History.
The first optical dilatometer was invented by Abbe and Fizeau in the second half of 19th century. This design has a reflected beam of monochromatic light and the measurement of the displacement is carried out by counting the interference fringes between the forward going beam and the reflected beam. After the Abbe invention, many improvements were achieved on the original design and there are now many models available on the market, which use modern optics and designs.
Over the last five decades, interest has grown in the use of thermomechanical technologies for characterising materials in different fields of science and engineering. In particular, the use of optical methods has been playing a role in the field of ceramics and have been used to measure the coefficient of thermal expansion of bodies and glazes in order to ensure an optimal match of their thermomechanical behaviour.
Applications and fields of research.
In order to measure thermal expansion up to high temperatures, the material to be tested has to be set on a sample holder inside an oven which has its own thermal expansion. In order to achieve a good accuracy it is necessary to measure the expansion of the sample holder and to subtract it from the actual expansion of the specimen. The best approach is to split the laser beam into two beams of light, which are reflected by the top-edge of the sample and by the top-edge of the sample holder, or by both longitudinal edges of the specimen. By detecting the longitudinal variations at both the extremities of the specimen the measurement achieved is absolute and there is no need for further corrections. This is the most accurate way of measuring thermal expansion and it may attain nanometric resolution. This is the type of instrument used by the suppliers of certified standard materials. For example, the National Institute for Standards and Technology uses a Fizeau double-beam interferometer to certify the thermal expansion of their certified reference materials. This method has proved to be very accurate, with a resolution of a fraction of the wavelength of the incident light, but it is limited by the reflectivity of the surface of the specimen. If the specimen is not reflective, or it becomes non reflective during the test, it is then necessary to use a mirror, which is set in contact with the specimen by using a refractory push rod. By doing so such method loses the advantage of being non contact and becomes substantially similar to the electronic dilatometer.
Optical dilatometers are used along traditional dilatometers in ceramics for non-destructive testing of a sample's behavior during a thermal treatment. Optical dilatometers are used for thermal analysis of various types of materials, such as incoherent materials (expansion and contraction of an incoherent granular frit, as applied, for example, on raw tiles) and polymers (behaviour above the glass transition temperature, where the surface tension starts pulling the edges and making the sample shrink), as well as for analysis of various processes in materials manufacturing, for example, sintering kinetics, thermal expansion and sintering behaviour of thin glaze layer or polymer thin films.


305 Gordonia

Gordonia (minor planet designation: 305 Gordonia) is a fairly typical, although sizeable Main belt asteroid.
It was discovered by Auguste Charlois on 16 February 1891 in Nice and named after James Gordon Bennett Jr., his patron.
The light curve of 305 Gordonia shows a periodicity of , during which time the brightness of the object varies by in magnitude.


3352 McAuliffe

3352 McAuliffe (), provisional designation , is a rare-type asteroid and suspected binary system, classified as near-Earth object of the Amor group, approximately 2 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 6 February 1981, by American astronomer Norman Thomas at Lowell's Anderson Mesa Station near Flagstaff, Arizona, United States.
Originally, this asteroid was the target of the 1998 Deep Space 1 mission, but that mission was eventually rerouted to 9969 Braille. It was named in memory of Challenger crew member Christa McAuliffe.
Orbit.
"McAuliffe" orbits the Sun at a distance of 1.2–2.6 AU once every 2 years and 7 months (941 days). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.37 and an inclination of 5° with respect to the ecliptic.
It has an "Earth minimum orbital intersection distance" of , which translates into 79.5 lunar distances. Due to its eccentric orbit, "McAuliffe" is also a Mars-crosser. As no precoveries were taken, and no prior identifications were made, the body's observation arc begins with its official discovery observation at Anderson Mesa in 1981.
Physical characteristics.
Spectral type.
In the SMASS taxonomy, "McAuliffe" is a rare A-type asteroid, meaning that it is rich in olivine. In addition, the large-scale survey conducted by PanSTARRS also classified as a SQ-type, a transitional type between the common stony and Q-type asteroids, indicating the presence of pyroxene minerals.
Diameter and albedo.
The "Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link" assumes an albedo of 0.18 and derives a diameter of 1.99 kilometers, based on an absolute magnitude of 16.068, a figure previously obtained by the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer with its subsequent NEOWISE mission, and later revised by Czech astronomer Petr Pravec.
Rotation period.
Between 1998 and 2016, several rotational lightcurves of "McAuliffe" were obtained from photometric observations taken by astronomers Petr Pravec at Ondřejov Observatory, Czech Republic, by Andreas Howell at Willowcroft Observatory, Florida, as well as by Brian Warner at his Palmer Divide Observatory, Colorado, and at the Center for Solar System Studies, California. The best-rated lightcurve gave a rotation period of 2.206 to 2.212 hours with a brightness variation between 0.08 and 0.12 magnitude ().
Suspected moon.
During the photometric observations in March 2012, Brian Warner found evidence of the existence of a minor-planet moon orbiting "McAuliffe" every 20.86 hours. However, it is only a "possible" synchronous binary system, as no mutual eclipsing/occultation events were observed. Follow-up observations in September and October 2016, did not confirm the binary nature of "McAuliffe".
DS 1 mission.
"McAuliffe" together with comet 76P/West–Kohoutek–Ikemura had been the original fly-by targets for the Deep Space 1 (DS1) mission.
Launched was scheduled for 1 July 1998. A delay in the delivery of the spacecraft's power electronics system as well as insufficient time to test the flight software, caused the launch to be postponed to 24 October 1998. Due to this delay, new targets had to be selected.
In July 1999, DS1 passed the alternative target 9969 Braille a distance of 15 kilometers, in January 2001, comet 107P/Wilson–Harrington was encountered, and in September 2001, short-period comet 19P/Borrelly was passed at distance of only 2,200 kilometers.
Naming.
This minor planet was named in memory of Christa McAuliffe (1948–1986), teacher, civilian astronaut and one of the seven crew members who died in the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster on 28 January 1986. The minor planets , , , , , and were named for the other crew members of the ill-fated STS-51-L mission. The approved naming citation was published by the Minor Planet Center on 26 March 1986 ().


2507 Bobone


Fourth Dimension Records

Fourth Dimension Records is a British record label, specialising in international underground music. It was founded by Gary Levermore as an offshoot of his Third Mind label before being taken over by Richard Johnson (aka Richo) in 1984. The label became quite successful in the 1990s, releasing music by Simon Wickham-Smith & Richard Youngs, KK Null, The Gerogerigegege, Circle, Splintered (band), Thurston Moore, Hijokaidan (band), and Merzbow, side projects by members of Amp and Skullflower and myriad 7" and 10" singles by experimental artists from the UK, US, New Zealand, the Netherlands and Japan. Alongside the label, Johnson also ran a mail order service, stocking rare underground releases from around the world.
Shortly before taking over the label, Johnson began editing a fanzine called Grim Humour, initially covering non-mainstream artists such as Big Black, Swans, Killing Joke, Lydia Lunch, Whitehouse and Sonic Youth. These often came with cassette or vinyl compilations (usually given FD catalogue numbers) with participants including the aforementioned Sonic Youth, Cindytalk, Ausgang, Con Demek and Portion Control. The fanzine ceased in the mid 1990s but Johnson has since launched a new title, Adverse Effect, which has been praised by Record Collector and Ptolemaic Terrascope, lasted four editions and now can be found as a blogspot and via the Fourth Dimension website.
Although Fourth Dimension was dormant for a short while in the late 1990s, it has since relaunched with further releases from Merzbow and Circle, as well as albums by Johnson's own project Theme, The Fields of Hay and British sound artist Andrew Liles. He has also begun a second label, Lumberton Trading Company, a joint venture initially started with Hassni Malik The Vitamin B12. It has issued a number of albums by artists including Experimental Audio Research, Theme, Thighpaulsandra, Human Greed and Michael Gira. More releases are also planned.
Besides the fact Fourth Dimension and Lumberton Trading Company continue to this day, Richard Johnson is still writing about music, is involved in Theme (band), plans to oversee a reissue campaign by his last group, Splintered (band) and is working on a book devoted to his Grim Humour fanzine. Another book dedicated to Adverse Effect will then follow.


List of hyperbolic comets

This is a list of parabolic and hyperbolic comets in the Solar System. Many of these comets may come from the Oort cloud, or perhaps even have interstellar origin. The Oort Cloud is not gravitationally attracted enough to the Sun to form into a fairly thin disk, like the inner Solar System. Thus, comets originating from the Oort Cloud can come from roughly any orientation (inclination to the ecliptic), and many even have a retrograde orbit. By definition, a hyperbolic orbit means that the comet will only travel through the Solar System once, with the Sun acting as a gravitational slingshot, sending the comet hurtling out of the Solar System entirely unless its eccentricity is otherwise changed. Comets orbiting in this way still originate from the Solar System, however. Typically comets in the Oort Cloud are thought to have roughly circular orbits around the Sun, but their orbital velocity is so slow that they may easily be perturbed by passing stars and the galactic tide. Astronomers have been discovering weakly hyperbolic comets that were perturbed out of the Oort Cloud since the mid-1800s.
Prior to finding a well-determined orbit for comets, the JPL Small-Body Database and the Minor Planet Center list comet orbits as having an assumed eccentricity of 1.0. (This is the eccentricity of a parabolic trajectory; hyperbolics will be those with eccentricity greater than 1.0.) In the list below, a number of comets discovered by the SOHO space telescope have assumed eccentricities of exactly 1.0, because most orbits are based on only an insufficient observation arc of several hours or minutes. The SOHO satellite observes the corona of the Sun and the area around it, and as a result often observes sungrazing comets, including the Kreutz sungrazers.
The Kreutz sungrazers originate from the progenitor of the Great Comet of 1106. Although officially given an assumed eccentricity of 1.0, they have an orbital period of roughly 750 years (which would give an actual eccentricity of ~0.99988), and an inclination of 144 degrees. Many of the Kreutz sungrazers do not survive perihelion, as they are quite literally "sungrazers" – their average perihelion distance is 0.0050 AU, and the radius of the Sun is 0.0046 AU; i.e. they pass 50,000 km above the surface of the Sun.
Three other sungrazing groups, the Meyer, Marsden, and Kracht groups, have respectively a perihelion distance of 0.035, 0.044, and 0.049 AU, an inclination of 72, 13, and 26 degrees, and a period of at least a decade, 5.6, and 3–4 years.
Some comets in this list are designated with an X-designation. This is used for comets whose orbits have not been calculated for various reasons: often they were observed so long ago that nobody recorded their location accurately enough for an orbit to be determined, or they were observed in modern times over such a short period that their long-term orbit was too uncertain to calculate.
Interstellar objects generally have strongly hyperbolic orbits, for example the first known object of this class 1I/2017 U1 ʻOumuamua has an eccentricity of 1.192.


Cycleonium

The cycleonium is a computer based music instrument. Every day objects like a bicycle and a bottle, and also a propeller are put in a new context and form the base of the sound design. They lose their conventional function consequently and have to be considered as indispensable parameters of this instrument." It was developed by Daniel Dominguez Teruel from 2007–2009 and built with the support of Chiron-Werke GmbH & Co. KG.
The physical and mechanical work that is required to make this sound-machine sound basically doesn’t differ from traditional musical instruments. For instance, a guitar: it sounds, respectively do we perceive it acoustically, if the strings are excited or the corpus is oscillated somehow or other. So the player expends energy and translates it into the instrument. The user and viewer of the cycleonium is to be made aware of that, in principle, musical instruments are nothing else than objects that only operate with a certain energy expenditure. The energy flow that is emerged thereby plays here a primary role. Therefore we use the word fluxus, but more in a semantically significance (lat. flux, fluidum = flow) than artistic aesthetics. Any kind of sounds require energy to sound. They have self-energy indeed, but it first has to be excited. Otherwise every sound is only a sounding abstraction (they aren’t a perpetual motion machine) that we don't hear. The player of the cycleonium produces, amongst others, kinetic energy that excites a propeller that simultaneously blows air on the aperture of a bottle: a pitched sound is audible.
Description.
"The cycleonium consists basically of four pieces: a bicycle (...), a bottle and a propeller that form the hardware and a computer for software-based sound processing (live-electronics).
The bicycle is rebuilt in such a way that it resembles a stationary bicycle. In this way the propeller can be powered whereby the emerging air flow hits the angle of the aperture of the bottle. Likewise in a flute, a periodical oscillating air column that is perceivable as a tone pitch is produced in the corpus of the bottle [...]. The intensity of the sound depends on the speed of the propeller and consequently on the expended force of the player...The breath of the player and the sound of the chain and arbor of the bicycle are as equally important as the sound of the bottle itself. The produced sounds are amplified and real-time processed.
The live-electronics take place in Max/Msp [...] on a Laptop. The sounds can be pitched, transposed, filtered, recorded and played and processed with delay or reverb. Each Parameter can be controlled with a MIDI-controller. The following microphones are used:
For instance, over the keynote of the bottle can be formed an overtone scale with 15 partials or more that are controllable individually. The spatialization is realized with delays, which can be filtered, pitched and assigned to the respective audio-outputs discretely in real-time [...]. To bring the bottle in the best possible position to the airflow one can adjust it in height, distance and angle to the propeller."
Purpose.
"The player perches on it like on a stationary bicycle and starts to pedal. The midi-controller and the Laptop can be put on a tray that is at the height of the handlebar. By using a dynamic microphone that is at the height of the mouth he can experiment with his [sic] voice respectively breath and modify it per MIDI in real-time. The sound of the arbor at the propeller and the chain is recorded with a condenser microphone (cardioid). Through reverse turns of the pedals the sound of chain and arbor becomes more concisely and is at the same time a variation of sound. By alternating forward and reverse turns a percussive rhythmical complement is built to the laminary sound of the bottle that mainly can be modified in the pitch. Dense and complex structures of sound can be achieved by adding overtones, glissandi and delays."
From the work with the cycleonium Daniel Dominguez Teruel developed the piece "5 Klangaktionen" that was nominated for the competition for electroacoustic music IMEB Bourges 2009. Also in 2009 the cycleonium was presented at the "6th Sound and Music Computing Conference" in Porto and the "ton:art" in Karlsruhe.


Sri Lankan units of measurement

A number of different units of measurement were used in Sri Lanka to measure quantities like length, mass and capacity from very ancient times. Under the British Empire, imperial units became the official units of measurement and remained so until Sri Lanka adopted the metric system in the 1970s.
Traditional units.
Various units were used in Sri Lanka at different times and some only in certain regions. Some of these remained in use well into the colonial period. The following is only a partial list.
Length.
One covid was equal to 0.464 m (18.5 in). The Bam̆ba (Fathom), still in use as of 2016, is the distance between a man's outstretched arms. It is roughly 6 feet in length. "Bam̆ba" is usually used to measure depth in wells and pits. Units used in measuring long distances included the "Gavuva", "Yoduna", and "Usaba" (plurals Gavu and Yodun - a Yoduna was 4 Gavu) and the "hoo kiyana dura", which was the audible distance of a shout of 'hoo' by a person. Base of these system of measuring length was the human body.
King Nisshankamalla have established milestones called "Gaavutha Kanu" from a Gavu to another. Two of such have been found in Katugahagalge and Valigaththa in Southern Province.
The smallest unit was known as "Paramaanuwa", which was equal to (). A typical span was taken roughly equal to 22.86 cm (9 in). These small units of measurement were used in making of statues and buildings. Following are the relationships between the units used in ancient times.
Area.
Measurements of area used in ancient Sri Lanka was a system derived from paddy agriculture. Area was often measured in terms of the land that could be sown with a specific amount of seed or rice, including the Pǣla, Amuna, Kiriya (4 amunas), and the Riyana. In one region, a Kiriya was about 8 acres. Following are relationships between some typical measures of area.
In an stone inscription written by King Bhathikabhaya Abhaya at Dunumadalakanda in Anuradhapura District, it is stated that he offered a land of 1 Kareesa to a temple in the area. In another stone inscription written by King Kutakannabhaya Thissa at Horiwila in Anuradhapura District, it is stated that he offered a land of 8 Kareesa to a temple named 'Thissa' in the area.
James Prinsep, writing in 1840, stated that "at ... Ceylon ... English measures only are used, or at least a cubit based on the English measure of 18 inches."
Weight.
One candy, or one bahar, was equal to 226.8 kg, or 500 lbs, or according to "The Indian Trader's Guide" 480 Dutch pounds or 520 pounds Avoirdupois. Small weights could be measured in seeds, such as the Thala (Sesame), Amu, Vee (Rice) (3 Amu), Madati (8 Vee), Majadi, Maditi, Kalanda, and Manjadi. In ancient times, there have been an accurate system to measure weights. Following are some such weight measuring units used. Units like Madati ( "Adenanthera pavonina" ), Vee (Rice) are based on weights of those seeds.
It is stated that frauds in weighing was a punishable offence and only weights approved by the government should be used in weighing, in Sorabora Wewa Pillar Inscription (Badulla Pillar Inscription) which was written by King Udaya IV.
Capacity.
Different units were used for liquid and dry capacity.
Liquid.
One seer was equal to 1.2 quarts and one parrah was equal to 6.75 gallons. Another source suggests that a seer was equal to 1.86 imperial pints or 1.06 litres. These were mostly introduced in the period which coastal areas were governed by Portuguese and Dutch.
Dry.
Units to measure dry capacities were mainly used in agriculture. Some of them are as following:
One ammonam was equal to 203.4 l. One parrah = ammonam, oneseer = ammonam and the chundoo was equal to nearly half a pint.
Maccauly stated in 1818 that to the north of Colombo an "Ammonam" contained 16 "Parahs", and "Ammonams" equalled one "Acre", but that to the south there were 8 "Parahs" to the "Ammonam". He describes the "Parah" as a measure 16.7 inches wide and 5.6 inches deep.
Montgomery, writing in 1835, described the interior measurement of a "Parrah" as a perfect cube of 11.571 inches, and the seer as a cylinder of depth 4.35 inches and diameter 4.35 inches.


Vibing Up the Senile Man (Part One)

Vibing Up the Senile Man (Part One) is the second studio album by English rock band Alternative TV, released in March 1979 by record label Deptford Fun City. On this album, the band followed an even more experimental and avant-garde approach than on "The Image Has Cracked" (1978).
Recording.
The album's tracks were all reportedly recorded in a single take.
Musical style.
Regarding its musical style, Alternative TV frontman Mark Perry recalled: "There are free jazz influences; I'd got into the Art Ensemble of Chicago, Sun Ra [...] I'd moved into this house with an amazing music room – pianos, clarinets, you name it – and we'd always be picking up stuff from junk shops."
Reception.
According to Simon Reynolds in "", the album received a "uniformly hostile" response from reviewers upon its release. "Trouser Press" described the record as being "up the pseudo-avant creek without a paddle".
in his retrospective review of the album, Dean McFarlane of AllMusic noted: "On the second album of Alternative TV, Mark Perry and friends did to punk exactly what the movement had intended for the establishment. About-facing punk and turning it on its ear would be a difficult task in 1980, and while Alternative TV's peers headed down new wave paths or into commercialism [...] who would have expected a follow-up as avant-garde abstraction that challenges P.I.L's "Second Edition" for absolute left-field swing? With Genesis P-Orridge in the ranks, "Vibing Up the Senile Man" became closer to free improvisation and avant-garde jazz without a punk anthem in sight, and a dub edge to some of the tracks of the double LP suggest that Alternative TV had similar modernist aspirations to John Lydon's post-Sex Pistols project. Captain Beefheart and Frank Zappa spring to mind as much as Pere Ubu and the Red Krayola, who were similarly exploring the avant-garde liberties of post-punk and disappointing the punks and record industry alike. What "Vibing Up the Senile Man" represents two decades later is a door opening on multi-faceted post-rock music – which draws on avant-garde, noise and jazz and arguably makes more sense in the context of year 2000 as a musical treasure much more than in 1980, when it seemed simply a spit in the eye to the industry that codified punk."
Legacy.
Paul Hegarty, in "Noise Music: A History", described the album as "forming the bridge into industrial music".
The record was placed at number 19 on "Mojo"'s list of readers' choice of 50 "Weirdest Albums".


Multiple granularity locking

In computer science, multiple granularity locking (MGL) is a locking method used in database management systems (DBMS) and relational databases.
In multiple granularity locking, locks are set on objects that contain other objects. MGL exploits the hierarchical nature of the "contains" relationship. For example, a database may have files, which contain pages, which contain records. This can be thought of as a tree of objects, where each node contains its children. A lock on this structure (such as a shared or exclusive lock) locks the targeted node as well as all of its descendants.
Multiple granularity locking is usually used with non-strict two-phase locking to guarantee serializability.
Lock modes.
In addition to shared (S) locks and exclusive (X) locks from other locking schemes, like strict two-phase locking, MGL also uses intentional "locks", which do not directly lock a node, but instead denote the existence, or intent to add, a lock of the specified type lower in the node hierarchy. Intentional locks include "intention shared" (IS), "intention exclusive" (IX), and the combined "shared and intention exclusive" (SIX) locks. IS locks conflict with X locks, while IX locks conflict with S and X locks. The null lock (NL) is compatible with everything.
To lock a node in S (or X), MGL has the transaction lock on all of its ancestors with IS (or IX), so if a transaction locks a node in S (or X), no other transaction can access its ancestors in X (or S and X). This protocol is shown in the following table:
Determining what level of granularity to use for locking is done by locking the finest level possible (i.e., at the lowest leaf), and then escalating these locks to higher levels in the file hierarchy to cover more records or file elements as needed in a process known as "lock escalation". MGL locking modes are compatible with each other as defined in the following matrix.
Following the locking protocol and the compatibility matrix, if one transaction holds a node in S mode, no other transactions can have locked any ancestor in X mode.


Tucker (dog)

Tucker is a scat detection dog famous for his ability to find orca scat from the prow of a boat. A black Labrador retriever mix, he was born in August 2004, and adopted by Conservation Canines in May 2006 from SnoLine Kennels in Arlington, WA. Aside from studying resident killer whales in Washington state, he has twice been to the Alberta oil sands to survey for caribou, grey wolf, and moose, and he has located iguanas in the Caribbean.


Limma

The word limma or leimma (from Greek: λείμμα, "leimma"; meaning "remnant") can refer to several different musical intervals, whose only common property is their small size.


Hemispherical electron energy analyzer

A hemispherical electron energy analyzer or hemispherical deflection analyzer is a type of electron energy spectrometer generally used for applications where high energy resolution is needed—different varieties of electron spectroscopy such as angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and Auger electron spectroscopy (AES) or in imaging applications such as photoemission electron microscopy (PEEM) and low-energy electron microscopy (LEEM).
It consists of two concentric conductive hemispheres that serve as electrodes that bend the trajectories of the electrons entering a narrow slit at one end so that their final radii depend on their kinetic energy. The analyzer, therefore, provides a mapping from kinetic energies to positions on a detector.
Function.
An ideal hemispherical analyzer consists of two concentric hemispherical electrodes (inner and outer hemispheres) of radii formula_1 and formula_2 held at proper voltages. In such a system, the electrons are linearly dispersed, depending on their kinetic energy, along the direction connecting the entrance and the exit slit, while the electrons with the same energy are first-order focused.
When two voltages, formula_3 and formula_4, are applied to the inner and outer hemispheres, respectively, the electric potential in the region between the two electrodes follows from the Laplace equation:
The electric field, pointing radially from the center of the hemispheres out, has the familiar planetary motion formula_6 form
The voltages are set in such a way that the electrons with kinetic energy formula_8 equal to the so-called "pass energy" formula_9 follow a circular trajectory of radius formula_10. The centripetal force along the path is imposed by the electric field formula_11. With this in mind,
The potential difference between the two hemispheres needs to be
A single pointlike detector at radius formula_14 on the other side of the hemispheres will register only the electrons of a single kinetic energy. The detection can, however, be parallelized because of nearly linear dependence of the final radii on the kinetic energy. In the past, several discrete electron detectors (channeltrons) were used, but now microchannel plates with phosphorescent screens and camera detection prevail.
In general, these trajectories are described in polar coordinates formula_15 for the plane of the great circle for electrons impinging at an angle formula_16 with respect to the normal to the entrance, and for the initial radii formula_17 to account for the finite aperture and slit widths (typically 0.1 to 5 mm):
As can be seen in the pictures of calculated electron trajectories, the finite slit width maps directly into energy detection channels (thus confusing the real energy spread with the beam width). The angular spread, while also worsening the energy resolution, shows some focusing as the equal negative and positive deviations map to the same final spot.
When these deviations from the central trajectory are expressed in terms of the small parameters formula_20 defined as formula_21, formula_22, and having in mind that formula_16 itself is small (of the order of 1°), the final radius of the electron's trajectory, formula_24, can be expressed as
If electrons of one fixed energy formula_8 were entering the analyzer through a slit that is formula_27 wide, they would be imaged on the other end of the analyzer as a spot formula_27 wide. If their maximal angular spread at the entrance is formula_16, an additional width of formula_30 is acquired, and a single energy channel is smeared over formula_31 at the detector side. But there, this additional width is interpreted as energy dispersion, which is, to the first order, formula_32. It follows that the instrumental energy resolution, given as a function of the width of the slit, formula_27, and the maximal incidence angle, formula_16, of the incoming photoelectrons, which is itself dependent on the width of the aperture and slit, is
The analyzer resolution improves with increasing formula_14. However, technical problems related to the size of the analyzer put a limit on its actual value, and most analyzers have it in the range of 100–200 mm. Lower pass energies formula_9 also improve the resolution, but then the electron transmission probability is reduced, and the signal-to-noise ratio deteriorates accordingly.
The electrostatic lenses in front of the analyzer have two main purposes: they collect and focus the incoming photoelectrons into the entrance slit of the analyzer, and they decelerate the electrons to the range of kinetic energies around formula_9, in order to increase the resolution.
When acquiring spectra in "swept" (or "scanning") mode, the voltages of the two hemispheres – and hence the pass energy – are held fixed; at the same time, the voltages applied to the electrostatic lenses are swept in such a way that each channel counts electrons with the selected kinetic energy for the selected amount of time. In order to reduce the acquisition time per spectrum, the so-called "snapshot" (or "fixed") mode can be used. This mode exploits the relation between the kinetic energy of a photoelectron and its position inside the detector. If the detector energy range is wide enough, and if the photoemission signal collected from all the channels is sufficiently strong, the photoemission spectrum can be obtained in one single shot from the image of the detector.


National Testing Agency

National Testing Agency (NTA) is an Indian government agency that has been approved by the Union Council of Ministers and established in November 2017 to conduct entrance examinations for higher educational institutions. The government appointed Vineet Joshi as the first Director-General of the agency. NTA is responsible for conducting the Joint Entrance Examination – Main (JEE Main), National Eligibility cum Entrance Test-Undergraduate (NEET UG), National Eligibility Test (NET), Common Management Admission Test (CMAT) and Graduate Pharmacy Aptitude Test (GPAT).
History.
The roots of the agency can be traced to the Programme of Action 1992, related to National Policy of Education 1986, which mentioned conducting national level common entrance tests to professional and non-professional programmes of study. Its actual start was in 2010 with a report submitted to the Ministry of Human Resources Development (MHRD) by a committee consisting of some of the directors of the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), which recommended that the national testing agency be "created by an Act of Parliament". The report mentioned that a statutory agency can ensure independence and transparency in testing of the magnitude that is being envisaged. In 2013 the MHRD constituted a seven member task force to "prepare a blue print for creating a special purpose vehicle to take the concept of National Testing Agency (NTA) forward". This was following a decision made in April 2013 to set up the agency. In 2017 an announcement about NTA was made by the Finance Minister in the budget speech of 2017, and this was followed by cabinet approval.
On 7 July 2018, Union HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar stated during a press conference that the NTA will be holding the Joint Entrance Examination – Main (JEE Main) and the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test-Undergraduate (NEET UG) twice a year, and will also be holding National Eligibility Test (NET), Common Management Admission Test (CMAT) and Graduate Pharmacy Aptitude Test (GPAT).
Finance.
Union cabinet has granted an initial amount of to NTA to start its operations in the first year.
Members and their nature.
The administration of the NTA has been entrusted to the Governing Body.
Examinations conducted by NTA.
NTA conducts the following examinations.
Controversies and credibility of NTA.
2020 JEE Main Assam topper scam.
In 2020 Neel Nakshatra Das, a candidate for JEE Mains used a substitute to give the exam. He subsequently scored 99.8 per cent and topped in his state, Assam. Seven persons have been arrested including Bhargav Deka, owner of a city-based coaching institute Global Edu Light, Tata Consultancy Services employees, the candidate (Neel Nakshatra Das), Neel's father - Dr. Jyotirmoy Das, and an invigilator.
NEET (UG) related.
In NEET (UG) 2020 exam, NTA incorrectly declared that Vidhi Suryavanshi of Madhya Pradesh’s Chhindwara district had only scored 6 marks which were later found out to be false after Vidhi committed suicide. Vidhi's response sheet proved that she had actually scored 590 marks.
In NEET (UG) 2020 exam, NTA had allegedly declared Mridul Rawat as failed. Rawat claimed that he challenged the NTA and after rechecking his OMR sheet and Answer Key, it was found that he is an All India Topper (ST Category). Rawat also claimed that even after the rechecking, in the revised scorecard, his score was 650 but only three hundred twenty-nine were written in words. NTA refuted the claims of Mridul Rawat. Director-General Vineet Joshi of NTA said “An aspirant has claimed that he has 650 marks whereas he has obtained 329 marks in NEET 2020 results. The emails purported to have been written by NTA are also fake. This news has been broadcast by some local news channels in some cities. This news is totally fake, fabricated, and one-sided and news channels should have confirmed from NTA prior to broadcasting it. In the instant case, a complaint is being filed by NTA with the cybersecurity cell under the IT Act at Noida, UP.”


750 Oskar

750 Oskar is a minor planet orbiting the Sun that was discovered by Johann Palisa on 28 April 1913 in Vienna. Photometric observations made in 2012 at the Organ Mesa Observatory in Las Cruces, New Mexico, produced a light curve with a period of 6.2584 ± 0.0002 hours and a brightness variation of 0.21 ± 0.02 in magnitude. This is a member of the Nysa family of asteroids that share similar orbital elements.


John J. Hopfield (spectroscopist)

John Joseph Hopfield (8 August 1891 – 8 January 1953) was a Polish-American spectroscopist, discoverer of the Hopfield bands of oxygen and co-discoverer of the Lyman-Birge-Hopfield bands of nitrogen. Hopfield's major research pursuits included vacuum ultraviolet spectroscopy and solar ultraviolet spectroscopy. He was well known in these disciplines. Hopfield published frequently and produced several patents.
Life and education.
Hopfield was born in Poland in 1891. In 1917 he received an A.B. from Syracuse University. From 1918 to 1920 he continued at Syracuse as a Physics Instructor.
For the term 1920–1921 Hopfield was awarded a Whiting Research Fellowship. From 1921 to 1923 he was Associate in Physics, then from 1923 to 1925 was Instructor in Physics, and in 1925 appointed to Assistant Professor of Physics at the University of California, Berkeley.
Hopfield earned his Ph.D. in Physics, Chemistry in 1923 from the University of California, Berkeley. His advisor was Raymond T. Birge and his thesis subject was: "Spectra of hydrogen, nitrogen, and oxygen in the extreme ultra-violet".
At Berkeley, a graduate student working under Hopfield was Gerhard Heinrich Dieke.
In 1928 John Joseph Hopfield received a Guggenheim Fellowship appointment: "for experimental study of the Zeeman effect on the infra-red spectra of oxygen and nitrogen with reference to the classification of the extreme ultra-violet spectra of these elements, chiefly with Professor F. Paschen, of Berlin."
By the time he left Berlin in 1929, the stock market crash and depression had ended most new faculty hiring. Purdue University appointed him as a National Research Council Fellow for two years. He next was employed in creating the physics exhibit for the 1933 ‘Century of Progress’ World’s Fair in Chicago, followed by a position with the Libby-Owens-Ford glass company in Toledo Ohio. With the onset of WWII, physicists were again in great demand, and he moved to Washington DC to participate in war-related research. The end of his career was spent at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory and at the Naval Research Laboratory in the Optics Division in Washington, D.C.. On 8 January 1953, Hopfield died after a brief illness.
Known for and credits.
John J. Hopfield is known and credited for:


GACE

The Georgia Assessments for the Certification of Educators, also known as GACE (abbreviated) is a standardized test all teachers in the US state of Georgia must pass in order to teach at public schools and gain a credential.
The basic skills section is divided into three parts, three multiple choice (selected-response) sections of Reading, Writing, and Mathematics and one essay (constructed-response) portion which is part of the Writing section. Timing is for the entire exam, so examinees may take as much time in any testing area as needed, however the total exam time is four hours.


August Herman Pfund

August Herman Pfund (December 28, 1879 – January 4, 1949) was an American physicist, spectroscopist, and inventor.
Early life.
Pfund was born in Madison, Wisconsin and attended Wisconsin public schools until his entry into the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he earned a B.S. degree in physics and studied under Robert W. Wood.
Career.
Both Wood and Pfund left Wisconsin for Johns Hopkins University in 1903. From 1903 to 1905 Pfund was a Carnegie research assistant and continued to work under Wood. In 1906 Pfund earned his Ph.D. in physics and was a Johnston scholar from 1907 to 1909. He remained at Hopkins for the remainder of his career, eventually becoming a full professor and later chair of the physics department. From 1943 to 1944 Pfund served as the president of the Optical Society of America.
Within the hydrogen spectral series Pfund discovered the fifth series, where an electron jumps up from or drops down to the fifth fundamental level. This Series is known as the "Pfund series". He also invented the Pfund telescope, which is a method for achieving a fixed telescope focal point regardless of where the telescope line of sight is positioned, and the Pfund sky compass, which arose from Pfund's studies of the polarization of scattered light from the sky in 1944, and which greatly helped transpolar flights by allowing the determination of the Sun's direction in twilight. Pfund is also noted for his work into the area of infrared gas analysis.


German submarine U-480

U-480 was an experimental "Kriegsmarine" Type VIIC U-boat of World War II. Considered by many to be the first stealth submarine, it was equipped with a special rubber coating (codenamed "Alberich", after the German mythological character who had the ability to become invisible), that made it difficult to detect with British ASDIC (sonar).
The U-boat was laid down in the Deutsche Werke in Kiel as yard number 311 on 8 August 1942, launched on 14 August 1943 and commissioned on 6 October 1943 under "Oberleutnant zur See" Hans-Joachim Förster. "U-480" carried out three war patrols, all under Förster's command. Because of its coating, the boat was sent to the heavily defended English Channel. The "Alberich" worked; "U-480" was never detected by sonar.
Design.
German Type VIIC submarines were preceded by the shorter Type VIIB submarines. "U-480" had a displacement of when at the surface and while submerged. She had a total length of , a pressure hull length of , a beam of , a height of , and a draught of . The submarine was powered by two Germaniawerft F46 four-stroke, six-cylinder supercharged diesel engines producing a total of for use while surfaced, two Siemens-Schuckert GU 343/38–8 double-acting electric motors producing a total of for use while submerged. She had two shafts and two propellers. The boat was capable of operating at depths of up to .
The submarine had a maximum surface speed of and a maximum submerged speed of . When submerged, the boat could operate for at ; when surfaced, she could travel at . "U-480" was fitted with five torpedo tubes (four fitted at the bow and one at the stern), fourteen torpedoes, one SK C/35 naval gun, (220 rounds), one Flak M42 and two twin C/30 anti-aircraft guns. The boat had a complement of between forty-four and sixty.
Service history.
On its first patrol, the boat was attacked by a Canadian PBY Catalina flying boat of 162 Squadron RCAF, piloted by Laurance Sherman. The aircraft was shot down.
On the second patrol, Förster departed from Brest in occupied France on 3 August 1944, and sank two warships and two merchantmen:
For his success, Förster was awarded the Knight's Cross on 18 October 1944.
Fate.
"U-480" left Trondheim, Norway, on 6 January 1945 for its third and last patrol. It did not return. In 1997, the wreck of a Type VIIC U-boat was discovered by accident by divers at , southwest of the Isle of Wight. The following year, it was correctly identified as the Alberich-coated "U-480" by nautical archaeologist Innes McCartney. Subsequent research by the Naval Historical Branch established that it had fallen victim to the secret minefield 'Brazier D2' some time between 29 January and 20 February. A mine had damaged the stern of "U-480", sending it to the bottom down. The entire crew of 48 was lost. Helmsman Horst Rösner only survived because he had been left behind in Norway for training.
The coating.
The Germans developed a 4-millimetre (0.16 in) thick sheet of synthetic rubber anechoic tile. The coating reduced echoes by 15% in the 10 to 18 kHz range. This frequency range matched the operating range of the early ASDIC active sonar used by the Allies. The ASDIC types 123, 123A, 144 and 145 all operated in the 14 to 22 kHz range. However, this degradation in echo reflection was not uniform at all diving depths due to the voids being compressed by the water pressure. An additional benefit of the coating was it acted as a sound dampener, containing the U-boat’s own engine noises.
The rubber contained a series of holes, which helped break up sound waves. There were problems with this technology: the material performed differently at different depths, due to the holes being compressed by water pressure, and securing the tiles to the submarine's hull required a special adhesive and careful application. The first tests were conducted in 1940, but it was not used operationally until 1944, with "U-480". According to the "Naked Science" television episode "Stealth Submarine", "U-480" had a perforated inner rubber layer covered by a smooth outer one. This formed air pockets with the right separation and size to muffle sonar waves.


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Second solar spectrum

The second solar spectrum is an electromagnetic spectrum of the Sun that shows the degree of linear polarization. The term was coined by V. V. Ivanov in 1991. The polarization is at a maximum close to the limb (edge) of the Sun, thus the best place to observe such a spectrum is from just inside the limb. It is also possible to get polarized light from outside the limb, but since this is much dimmer compared to the disk of the Sun, it is very easily polluted by scattered light.
The second solar spectrum differs significantly from the solar spectrum determined by the intensity of light.
Large effects come around the Ca II K and H line. These have broad effects 200 Å wide and show a sign reversal at their centers. Molecular lines with stronger polarization than the background due to MgH and C2 are common. Rare-earth elements stand out far more than expected from the intensity spectrum.
Other odd lines include Li I at 6708 Å which has 0.005% more polarization at its peak, but is almost unobservable in the intensity spectrum. The Ba II 4554 Å appears as a triplet in the second solar spectrum. This is due to differing isotopes and hyperfine structure.
Two lines at 5896 Å 4934 Å being the D1 lines of sodium and barium were predicted not to be polarized, but nevertheless are present in this spectrum.
Continuum.
The continuum in the spectrum is the light with wavelengths between the lines. Polarization in the continuum is due to Rayleigh scattering by neutral hydrogen atoms (H I) and Thomson scattering by free electrons. Most of the opacity in the sun is due to the hydride ion, H− which however does not alter polarization. In 1950 Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar came up with a solution for the degree of polarization due to scattering, and predicted 11.7% polarization at the limb of the Sun. But nowhere near this level is observed. What happens at the limb is that there is a forest of spicules poking out from the edge, so it is not possible to get parallel to such a rough surface.
For most of the solar disk the degree of linear polarization of the continuum is under 0.1%, but it rises to 1% at the limb. The polarization also depends strongly on the wavelength, and for near ultraviolet 3000 Å the light near the limb is 100 times more polarized than red light at 7000 Å. At the limit of the Balmer series a change happens where at shorter wavelengths more bound-bound Balmer series transitions cause more opacity. This extra opacity drops the polarization degree by a factor of two near 3746 Å.


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Parity plot

A parity plot is a scatterplot that compares experimental data against tabulated data. Each point has coordinates ("x", "y"), where "x" is the tabulated value, and "y" is the corresponding experimental value.
A line of the equation "y" = "x" is sometimes added as a reference. When an experimental value equals a tabulated value, the point will lie on the line.
Parity plots are found in scientific papers and reports, when the author wishes to compare their data to accepted values in an easily understandable way.


Spatially offset Raman spectroscopy

Spatially offset Raman spectroscopy (SORS) is a variant of Raman spectroscopy that allows highly accurate chemical analysis of objects beneath obscuring surfaces, such as tissue, coatings and bottles. Examples of uses include analysis of: bone beneath skin, tablets inside plastic bottles, explosives inside containers and counterfeit tablets inside blister packs. There have also been advancements in the development of deep non-invasive medical diagnosis using SORS with the hopes of being able to detect breast tumors.
Raman spectroscopy relies on inelastic scattering events of monochromatic light to produce a spectrum characteristic of a sample. The technique usually uses the red-shifted photons produced by monochromatic light losing energy to a vibrational motion within a molecule. The shift in colour and the probability of inelastic scatter is characteristic of the molecule that scatters the photon. A molecule may produce over 10 to 20 major lines, though this is restricted only by the number of bonds and symmetry constraints. Importantly, the spectrum produced by a mixture forms a linear combination of the component spectra, enabling relative chemical content to be determined in a simple spectroscopic measurement using chemometric analysis.
Methods.
Conventional Raman spectroscopy is limited to the near-surface of diffusely scattering objects. For example, with tissue it is limited to the first few hundred micrometres depth of surface material. Raman spectroscopy is used for this purpose in many applications where its high chemical specificity enables chemical mapping of surfaces, e.g., tablet mapping. Measurement beyond the surface of diffusely scattering samples is limited because the signal intensity is high in the region of laser excitation and that dominates the collected signal.
The basic SORS technique was invented and developed by Pavel Matousek, Anthony Parker and collaborators at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in the UK. The method relies upon the fact that most materials are neither completely transparent to light nor completely block it, but that they tend to scatter the light. An example is when a red laser pointer illuminates the end of a finger - the light scatters throughout all of the tissue in the finger. Wherever the light goes there will be some inelastic scattering due to the Raman effect, so, at some point, most parts of an object will generate a detectable Raman signal, even if it is not at the surface. The trick with SORS is to make a measurement that avoids the dominating excitation region.
A SORS measurement will make at least two Raman measurements; one at the source and one at an offset position of typically a few millimetres away. The two spectra can be subtracted using a scaled subtraction to produce two spectra representing the subsurface and surface spectra. For a simple two-layer system, such as powder in a plastic bottle, the powder spectrum can be measured without knowing the bottle material or its relative signal contribution. To do this without using an offset measurement would be severely restricted by photon shot noise generated by Raman and fluorescence signals originating from the surface layer.
Scaled subtraction works well for two-layer systems but more complicated examples, such as where the overlying material contains components included in the sub-layer (living tissue, for example), may require multi-variate analysis. When multi-variate techniques, such as principal component analysis are used, it is necessary to take several spectra at varied offset distances. As the spatial offset increases the ratio of the spectral contribution sub-surface/surface increases. However, the total signal also decreases with increasing offset, so the ratio cannot increase forever in a practical measurement.
Inverse SORS is a useful sub-variant of SORS that improves certain measurements such as analysis of tissue "in vivo". Rather than use a spot collection geometry and a circular spot for illumination the constant offset can be maintained by illuminating the sample with a ring of light centred on the collection region. This has several advantages, including lowering the total power density and allowing simple manipulation of offset distance.
Micro-spatially offset Raman spectroscopy (micro-SORS) combines SORS with microscopy. The main difference between SORS and micro-SORS is the spatial resolution: while SORS is suited to the analysis of millimetric layers, micro-SORS is able to resolve thin, micrometric-scale layers.


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