Zachman Framework

The Zachman Framework is an enterprise ontology and is a fundamental structure for Enterprise Architecture which provides a formal and structured way of viewing and defining an enterprise. The ontology is a two dimensional classification schema that reflects the intersection between two historical classifications. The first are primitive interrogatives: What, How, When, Who, Where, and Why. The second is derived from the philosophical concept of reification, the transformation of an abstract idea into an instantiation. The Zachman Framework reification transformations are: Identification, Definition, Representation, Specification, Configuration and Instantiation.
The Zachman Framework is not a methodology in that it does not imply any specific method or process for collecting, managing, or using the information that it describes.; rather, it is an ontology whereby a schema for organizing architectural artifacts (in other words, design documents, specifications, and models) is used to take into account both who the artifact targets (for example, business owner and builder) and what particular issue (for example, data and functionality) is being addressed.
The framework is named after its creator John Zachman, who first developed the concept in the 1980s at IBM. It has been updated several times since.
Overview.
The title "Zachman Framework" refers to The Zachman Framework for Enterprise Architecture with version 3.0 being the most current. The Zachman Framework has evolved in its thirty-year history to include:
In other sources the Zachman Framework is introduced as a framework, originated by and named after John Zachman, represented in numerous ways, see image. This framework is explained as, for example:
Beside the frameworks developed by John Zachman, numerous extensions and/or applications have been developed, which are also sometimes called Zachman Frameworks, however they generally tend to be graphical overlays of the actual framework itself.
The Zachman Framework summarizes a collection of perspectives involved in enterprise architecture. These perspectives are represented in a two-dimensional matrix that defines along the rows the type of stakeholders and with the columns the aspects of the architecture. The framework does not define a methodology for an architecture. Rather, the matrix is a template that must be filled in by the goals/rules, processes, material, roles, locations, and events specifically required by the organization. Further modeling by mapping between columns in the framework identifies gaps in the documented state of the organization.
The framework is a logical structure for classifying and organizing the descriptive representations of an enterprise. It is significant to both the management of the enterprise, and the actors involved in the development of enterprise systems. While there is no order of priority for the columns of the Framework, the top-down order of the rows is significant to the alignment of business concepts and the actual physical enterprise. The level of detail in the Framework is a function of each cell (and not the rows). When done by IT the lower level of focus is on information technology, however it can apply equally to physical material (ball valves, piping, transformers, fuse boxes for example) and the associated physical processes, roles, locations etc. related to those items.
History.
In the 1980s John Zachman had been involved at IBM in the development of business system planning (BSP), a method for analyzing, defining and designing an information architecture of organizations. In 1982 Zachman had already concluded that these analyses could reach far beyond automating systems design and managing data into the realms of strategic business planning and management science in general. It may be employed in the (in that time considered more esoteric) areas of enterprise architecture, data-driven systems design, data classification criteria, and more.
"Information Systems Architecture" framework.
In the 1987 article "A Framework for Information Systems Architecture" Zachman noted that the term "architecture" was used loosely by information systems professionals, and meant different things to planners, designers, programmers, communication specialists, and others. In searching for an objective, independent basis upon which to develop a framework for information systems architecture, Zachman looked at the field of classical architecture, and a variety of complex engineering projects in industry. He saw a similar approach and concluded that architectures exist on many levels and involves at least three perspectives: raw material or data, function of processes, and location or networks.
The Information Systems Architecture is designed to be a classification schema for organizing architecture models. It provides a synoptic view of the models needed for enterprise architecture. Information Systems Architecture does not define in detail what the models should contain, it does not enforce the modeling language used for each model, and it does not propose a method for creating these models.
Extension and formalization.
In the 1992 article "Extending and Formalizing the Framework for Information Systems Architecture" John F. Sowa and John Zachman present the framework and its recent extensions and show how it can be formalized in the notation of conceptual graphs. Also in 1992:
Later during the 1990s
Framework for enterprise architecture.
In the 1997 paper "Concepts of the Framework for Enterprise Architecture" Zachman said that the framework should be referred to as a "Framework for Enterprise Architecture", and should have from the beginning. In the early 1980s however, according to Zachman, there was "little interest in the idea of Enterprise Reengineering or Enterprise Modeling and the use of formalisms and models was generally limited to some aspects of application development within the Information Systems community".
In 2008 Zachman Enterprise introduced the Zachman Framework: The Official Concise Definition as a new Zachman Framework standard.
Extended and modified frameworks.
Since the 1990s several extended frameworks have been proposed, such as:
Zachman Framework topics.
Concept.
The basic idea behind the Zachman Framework is that the same complex thing or item can be described for different purposes in different ways using different types of descriptions (e.g., textual, graphical). The Zachman Framework provides the thirty-six necessary categories for completely describing anything; especially complex things like manufactured goods (e.g., appliances), constructed structures (e.g., buildings), and enterprises (e.g., the organization and all of its goals, people, and technologies). The framework provides six different transformations of an abstract idea (not increasing in detail, but transforming) from six different perspectives.
It allows different people to look at the same thing from different perspectives. This creates a holistic view of the environment, an important capability illustrated in the figure.
Views of rows.
Each row represents a total view of the solution from a particular perspective. An upper row or perspective does not necessarily have a more comprehensive understanding of the whole than a lower perspective. Each row represents a distinct, unique perspective; however, the deliverables from each perspective must provide sufficient detail to define the solution at the level of perspective and must translate to the next lower row explicitly.
Each perspective must take into account the requirements of the other perspectives and the restraint those perspectives impose. The constraints of each perspective are additive. For example, the constraints of higher rows affect the rows below. The constraints of lower rows can, but do not necessarily affect the higher rows. Understanding the requirements and constraints necessitates communication of knowledge and understanding from perspective to perspective. The Framework points the vertical direction for that communication between perspectives.
The current version (3) of the Zachman Framework categorizes the rows as follows:
Focus of columns.
In summary, each perspective focuses attention on the same fundamental questions, then answers those questions from that viewpoint, creating different descriptive representations (i.e., models), which translate from higher to lower perspectives. The basic model for the focus (or product abstraction) remains constant. The basic model of each column is uniquely defined, yet related across and down the matrix. In addition, the six categories of enterprise architecture components, and the underlying interrogatives that they answer, form the columns of the Zachman Framework and these are:
In Zachman's opinion, the single factor that makes his framework unique is that each element on either axis of the matrix is explicitly distinguishable from all the other elements on that axis. The representations in each cell of the matrix are not merely successive levels of increasing detail, but actually are different representations — different in context, meaning, motivation, and use. Because each of the elements on either axis is explicitly different from the others, it is possible to define precisely what belongs in each cell.
Models of cells.
The Zachman Framework typically is depicted as a bounded 6 x 6 "matrix" with the Communication Interrogatives as Columns and the Reification Transformations as Rows. The framework classifications are repressed by the Cells, that is, the intersection between the Interrogatives and the Transformations.
The cell descriptions are taken directly from version 3.0 of the Zachman Framework.
Since the product development (i.e., architectural artifact) in each cell or the problem solution embodied by the cell is the answer to a question from a perspective, typically, the models or descriptions are higher-level depictions or the surface answers of the cell. The refined models or designs supporting that answer are the detailed descriptions within the cell. Decomposition (i.e., drill down to greater levels of detail) takes place within each cell. If a cell is not made explicit (defined), it is implicit (undefined). If it is implicit, the risk of making assumptions about these cells exists. If the assumptions are valid, then time and money are saved. If, however, the assumptions are invalid, it is likely to increase costs and exceed the schedule for implementation.
Framework set of rules.
The framework comes with a set of rules:
The framework is generic in that it can be used to classify the descriptive representations of any physical object as well as conceptual objects such as enterprises. It is also recursive in that it can be used to analyze the architectural composition of itself. Although the framework will carry the relation from one column to the other, it is still a fundamentally structural representation of the enterprise and not a flow representation.
Flexibility in level of detail.
One of the strengths of the Zachman Framework is that it explicitly shows a comprehensive set of views that can be addressed by enterprise architecture. Some feel that following this model completely can lead to too much emphasis on documentation, as artifacts would be needed for every one of the thirty cells in the framework. Zachman, however, indicates that only the facts needed to solve the problem under analysis need be populated.
John Zachman clearly states in his documentation, presentations, and seminars that, as framework, there is flexibility in what depth and breadth of detail is required for each cell of the matrix based upon the importance to a given organization. An automaker whose business goals may necessitate an inventory and process-driven focus, could find it beneficial to focus their documentation efforts on What and How columns. By contrast, a travel agent company, whose business is more concerned with people and event-timing, could find it beneficial to focus their documentation efforts on Who, When, and Where columns. However, there is no escaping the Why column's importance as it provides the business drivers for all the other columns.
Applications and influences.
Since the 1990s the Zachman Framework has been widely used as a means of providing structure for information technology engineering-style enterprise modeling. The Zachman Framework can be applied both in commercial companies and in government agencies. Within a government organization the framework can be applied to an entire agency at an abstract level, or it can be applied to various departments, offices, programs, subunits and even to basic operational entities.
Customization.
Zachman Framework is applied in customized frameworks such as the TEAF, built around the similar frameworks, the TEAF matrix.
Other sources:
Standards based on the Zachman Framework.
Zachman Framework is also used as a framework to describe standards, for example standards for healthcare and healthcare information system. Each cell of the framework contains such a series of standards for healthcare and healthcare information system.
Mapping other frameworks.
Another application of the Zachman Framework is as reference model for other enterprise architectures, see for example these four:
Other examples:
Base for other enterprise architecture frameworks.
Less obvious are the ways the original Zachman framework has stimulated the development of other enterprise architecture frameworks, such as in the NIST Enterprise Architecture Model, the C4ISR AE, the DOE AE, and the DoDAF:
Example: One-VA Enterprise Architecture.
The Zachman Framework methodology has for example been used by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to develop and maintain its One-VA Enterprise Architecture in 2001. This methodology required defining all aspects of the VA enterprise from a business process, data, technical, location, personnel, and requirements perspective. The next step in implementing the methodology has been to define all functions related to each business process and identify associated data elements. Once identified, duplication of function and inconsistency in data definition can be identified and resolved, .
The Department of Veterans Affairs at the beginning of the 21st century planned to implement an enterprise architecture fully based on the Zachman Framework.
Eventually an enterprise architecture repository was created at the macro level by the Zachman framework and at a cell level by the meta-model outlined below.
This diagram has been incorporated within the VA-EA to provide a symbolic representation of the metamodel it used, to describe the One-VA Enterprise Architecture and to build an EA Repository without the use of Commercial EA Repository Software. It was developed using an object oriented database within the Caliber-RM Software Product. Caliber-RM is intended to be used as a software configuration management tool; not as an EA repository.
However, this tool permitted defining entities and relationships and for defining properties upon both entities and relationships, which made it sufficient for building an EA repository, considering the technology available in early 2003. The personal motivation in selecting this tool was that none of the commercial repository tools then available provided a true Zachman Framework representation, and were highly proprietary, making it difficult to incorporate components from other vendors or from open source.
This diagram emphasizes several important interpretations of the Zachman Framework and its adaptation to information technology investment management.
Row-six provides measured return on investment for Individual Projects and, potentially, for the entire investment portfolio. Without row-six the Framework only identifies sunk-cost, but the row-six ROI permits it to measure benefits and to be used in a continuous improvement process, capturing best practices and applying them back through row-two.
Criticism.
While the Zachman Framework is widely discussed, its practical value has been questioned:
This criticism suggests that the Zachman Framework can hardly reflect actual best practice in EA.


Gwin Foster

Gwin Stanley Foster (December 25, 1903 – November 25, 1954), also known as Gwen or Gwyn, was an old-time/country harmonica and guitar player who was known for work in The Carolina Tar Heels and the .
He was born in Caldwell, North Carolina, and died in Gastonia, North Carolina, the son of Joe Foster and Myra Elizabeth (nee Day). He worked in the textile mills, where he met banjoist Coble "Dock" Walsh, and they formed the band.


United Nude

United Nude is a design company specialising in high heels. The brand's shoes are sold in over 50 countries world, with concept stores in Amsterdam, Vienna, Tel Aviv, Tokyo, Taipei, Beijing, Guangzhou and Los Angeles.
History.
The company was founded by Rem D. Koolhaas (not to be mistaken for architect Rem Koolhaas, his namesake and uncle) and British shoemaker Galahad Clark, whose family founded the Clarks brand.


Dwight Diller

Dwight Diller (born 1946) is an American banjo and fiddle player and teacher. He is considered to be one of the most prominent exponents of the clawhammer banjo tradition.
Diller lived in Hillsboro, West Virginia and now Marlinton, and is an inheritor of the old-time music tradition of the Hammons Family of West Virginia. He has conducted banjo workshops around the United States and in England. He has released a number of recordings and instructional videos.


Deterministic finite automaton

In the theory of computation, a branch of theoretical computer science, a deterministic finite automaton (DFA)—also known as deterministic finite acceptor (DFA), deterministic finite-state machine (DFSM), or deterministic finite-state automaton (DFSA)—is a finite-state machine that accepts or rejects a given string of symbols, by running through a state sequence uniquely determined by the string. "Deterministic" refers to the uniqueness of the computation run. In search of the simplest models to capture finite-state machines, Warren McCulloch and Walter Pitts were among the first researchers to introduce a concept similar to finite automata in 1943.
The figure illustrates a deterministic finite automaton using a state diagram. In this example automaton, there are three states: S0, S1, and S2 (denoted graphically by circles). The automaton takes a finite sequence of 0s and 1s as input. For each state, there is a transition arrow leading out to a next state for both 0 and 1. Upon reading a symbol, a DFA jumps "deterministically" from one state to another by following the transition arrow. For example, if the automaton is currently in state S0 and the current input symbol is 1, then it deterministically jumps to state S1. A DFA has a "start state" (denoted graphically by an arrow coming in from nowhere) where computations begin, and a set of "accept states" (denoted graphically by a double circle) which help define when a computation is successful.
A DFA is defined as an abstract mathematical concept, but is often implemented in hardware and software for solving various specific problems such as lexical analysis and pattern matching. For example, a DFA can model software that decides whether or not online user input such as email addresses are syntactically valid.
DFAs have been generalized to "nondeterministic finite automata (NFA)" which may have several arrows of the same label starting from a state. Using the powerset construction method, every NFA can be translated to a DFA that recognizes the same language. DFAs, and NFAs as well, recognize exactly the set of regular languages.
Formal definition.
A deterministic finite automaton is a 5-tuple, , consisting of
Let be a string over the alphabet . The automaton accepts the string if a sequence of states, , exists in with the following conditions:
In words, the first condition says that the machine starts in the start state . The second condition says that given each character of string , the machine will transition from state to state according to the transition function . The last condition says that the machine accepts if the last input of causes the machine to halt in one of the accepting states. Otherwise, it is said that the automaton "rejects" the string. The set of strings that accepts is the language "recognized" by and this language is denoted by .
A deterministic finite automaton without accept states and without a starting state is known as a transition system or semiautomaton.
For more comprehensive introduction of the formal definition see automata theory.
Complete and incomplete.
According to the above definition, deterministic finite automata are always "complete": they define a transition for each state and each input symbol.
While this is the most common definition, some authors use the term deterministic finite automaton for a slightly different notion: an automaton that defines "at most" one transition for each state and each input symbol; the transition function is allowed to be partial. When no transition is defined, such an automaton halts.
Example.
The following example is of a DFA , with a binary alphabet, which requires that the input contains an even number of 0s.
 where
The state represents that there has been an even number of 0s in the input so far, while signifies an odd number. A 1 in the input does not change the state of the automaton. When the input ends, the state will show whether the input contained an even number of 0s or not. If the input did contain an even number of 0s, will finish in state , an accepting state, so the input string will be accepted.
The language recognized by is the regular language given by the regular expression codice_1, where codice_2 is the Kleene star, e.g., codice_3 denotes any number (possibly zero) of consecutive ones.
Closure properties.
If DFAs recognize the languages that are obtained by applying an operation on the DFA recognizable languages then DFAs are said to be closed under the operation. The DFAs are closed under the following operations.
For each operation, an optimal construction with respect to the number of states has been determined in state complexity research.
Since DFAs are equivalent to nondeterministic finite automata (NFA), these closures may also be proved using closure properties of NFA.
As a transition monoid.
A run of a given DFA can be seen as a sequence of compositions of a very general formulation of the transition function with itself. Here we construct that function.
For a given input symbol formula_4, one may construct a transition function formula_5 by defining formula_6 for all formula_7. (This trick is called currying.) From this perspective, formula_8 "acts" on a state in Q to yield another state. One may then consider the result of function composition repeatedly applied to the various functions formula_8, formula_10, and so on. Given a pair of letters formula_11, one may define a new function formula_12, where formula_13 denotes function composition.
Clearly, this process may be recursively continued, giving the following recursive definition of formula_14:
formula_20 is defined for all words formula_21. A run of the DFA is a sequence of compositions of formula_20 with itself.
Repeated function composition forms a monoid. For the transition functions, this monoid is known as the transition monoid, or sometimes the "transformation semigroup". The construction can also be reversed: given a formula_20, one can reconstruct a formula_24, and so the two descriptions are equivalent.
Local automata.
A local automaton is a, not necessarily complete, DFA for which all edges with the same label lead to a single vertex. Local automata accept the class of local languages, those for which membership of a word in the language is determined by a "sliding window" of length two on the word.
A Myhill graph over an alphabet "A" is a directed graph with vertex set "A" and subsets of vertices labelled "start" and "finish". The language accepted by a Myhill graph is the set of directed paths from a start vertex to a finish vertex: the graph thus acts as an automaton. The class of languages accepted by Myhill graphs is the class of local languages.
Random.
When the start state and accept states are ignored, a DFA of states and an alphabet of size can be seen as a digraph of vertices in which all vertices have out-arcs labeled (a -out digraph). It is known that when is a fixed integer, with high probability, the largest strongly connected component (SCC) in such a -out digraph chosen uniformly at random is of linear size and it can be reached by all vertices. It has also been proven that if is allowed to increase as increases, then the whole digraph has a phase transition for strong connectivity similar to Erdős–Rényi model for connectivity.
In a random DFA, the maximum number of vertices reachable from one vertex is very close to the number of vertices in the largest SCC with high probability. This is also true for the largest induced sub-digraph of minimum in-degree one, which can be seen as a directed version of -core.
Advantages and disadvantages.
DFAs are one of the most practical models of computation, since there is a trivial linear time, constant-space, online algorithm to simulate a DFA on a stream of input. Also, there are efficient algorithms to find a DFA recognizing:
Because DFAs can be reduced to a "canonical form" (minimal DFAs), there are also efficient algorithms to determine:
DFAs are equivalent in computing power to nondeterministic finite automata (NFAs). This is because, firstly any DFA is also an NFA, so an NFA can do what a DFA can do. Also, given an NFA, using the powerset construction one can build a DFA that recognizes the same language as the NFA, although the DFA could have exponentially larger number of states than the NFA. However, even though NFAs are computationally equivalent to DFAs, the above mentioned problems are not necessarily solved efficiently also for NFAs. The non-universality problem for NFAs is PSPACE complete since there are small NFAs with shortest rejecting word in exponential size. A DFA is universal if and only if all states are final states, but this does not hold for NFAs. The Equality, Inclusion and Minimization Problems are also PSPACE complete since they require forming the complement of an NFA which results in an exponential blow up of size.
On the other hand, finite-state automata are of strictly limited power in the languages they can recognize; many simple languages, including any problem that requires more than constant space to solve, cannot be recognized by a DFA. The classic example of a simply described language that no DFA can recognize is bracket or Dyck language, i.e., the language that consists of properly paired brackets such as word "(()())". Intuitively, no DFA can recognize the Dyck language because DFAs are not capable of counting: a DFA-like automaton needs to have a state to represent any possible number of "currently open" parentheses, meaning it would need an unbounded number of states. Another simpler example is the language consisting of strings of the form "anbn" for some finite but arbitrary number of "a"'s, followed by an equal number of "b"'s.
DFA identification from labeled words.
Given a set of "positive" words formula_25 and a set of "negative" words formula_26 one can construct a DFA that accepts all words from formula_27 and rejects all words from formula_28: this problem is called "DFA identification" (synthesis, learning).
While "some" DFA can be constructed in linear time, the problem of identifying a DFA with the minimal number of states is NP-complete.
The first algorithm for minimal DFA identification has been proposed by Trakhtenbrot and Barzdin in and is called the "TB-algorithm".
However, the TB-algorithm assumes that all words from formula_29 up to a given length are contained in either formula_30.
Later, K. Lang proposed an extension of the TB-algorithm that does not use any assumptions about formula_27 and formula_28 the "Traxbar" algorithm.
However, Traxbar does not guarantee the minimality of the constructed DFA.
In his work E.M. Gold also proposed a heuristic algorithm for minimal DFA identification.
Gold's algorithm assumes that formula_27 and formula_28 contain a "characteristic set" of the regular language; otherwise, the constructed DFA will be inconsistent either with formula_27 or formula_28.
Other notable DFA identification algorithms include the RPNI algorithm, the Blue-Fringe evidence-driven state-merging algorithm,
Windowed-EDSM.
Another research direction is the application of evolutionary algorithms: the smart state labeling evolutionary algorithm allowed to solve a modified DFA identification problem in which the training data (sets formula_27 and formula_28) is "noisy" in the sense that some words are attributed to wrong classes.
Yet another step forward is due to application of SAT solvers by Marjin J..H. Heule and S. Verwer: the minimal DFA identification problem is reduced to deciding the satisfiability of a Boolean formula. The main idea is to build a augmented prefix-tree acceptor (a trie containing all input words with corresponding labels) based on the input sets and reduce the problem of finding a DFA with formula_39 states to "coloring" the tree vertices with formula_39 states in such a way that when vertices with one color are merged to one state, the generated automaton is deterministic and complies with formula_27 and formula_28.
Though this approach allows finding the minimal DFA, it suffers from exponential blow-up of execution time when the size of input data increases.
Therefore, Heule and Verwer's initial algorithm has later been augmented with making several steps of the EDSM algorithm prior to SAT solver execution: the DFASAT algorithm.
This allows reducing the search space of the problem, but leads to loss of the minimality guarantee.
Another way of reducing the search space has been proposed in by means of new symmetry breaking predicates based on the breadth-first search algorithm:
the sought DFA's states are constrained to be numbered according to the BFS algorithm launched from the initial state. This approach reduces the search space by formula_43 by eliminating isomorphic automata.


Sophie Gimbel

Sophie Gimbel (1898 – November 28, 1981) was an American fashion designer for Salon Moderne of Saks Fifth Avenue. She was a leading designer for nearly 40 years and an innovator of the "New Look" that gained popularity after World War II.
Early life.
Born in Houston, Texas, Sophie was the daughter of Caroline (née Kiam) and Felix Haas. Her father was a tobacco merchant who died when she was four and her mother remarried a year later to John Alexander McLeay, whence the family moved to Atlanta, Georgia. As a young girl, Sophie cut her designing teeth making clothing for her dolls. She attended Agnes Scott College for a time before marrying at age 19 to Jay Harry Rossbach and moving to Philadelphia. They had one son, Jay Harry Rossbach Jr. While she was raising her son, she was employed as a part-time stage costume designer. The couple divorced after nine years in 1926.
Fashion career.
Sophie was hired as a stylist for Saks by Adam Long Gimbel, grandson of Adam Gimbel, the founder of department store chain Gimbels. In 1929, she was asked to take over the Salon Moderne of the Saks Fifth Avenue flagship store. In her role as lead fashion designer, she often traveled to Paris to purchase clothes from designers. She married Gimbel in 1931.
Salon Moderne was not particularly successful or prestigious prior to her arrival. Gimbel designed costumes for Broadway shows to generate interest and bring in new business. She created many ready-to-wear fashions and is credited with introducing culottes (divided skirts) to the American market. Gowns designed by Gimbel were known for their simplicity, elegance, and use of expensive fabrics. She designed elegant haute couture dresses and gowns for an exclusive clientele. Gimbel designed a red coat and dress for Lady Bird Johnson to wear at Lyndon B. Johnson's 1965 inauguration.
Gimbel was a contemporary and competitor of Hattie Carnegie, whose boutique was close to Saks Fifth Avenue. Gimbel took a conservative approach to fashion, decrying vanishing hem lines and exposed flesh. In a newspaper guest column, she wrote "I believe there should be a law against short shorts. " Though she wasn't a trendsetter, her designs had a widespread appeal for their use of simple lines and subdued elegance.
Gimbel was featured on the cover of Time magazine on September 29, 1947. She was not the first fashion designer to appear there, having been preceded by Elsa Schiaparelli in 1934, but she was the first American designer to grace the cover. The Couture Group of the New York Dress Institute named Gimbel among the best-dressed fashion personalities of 1959.
Personal life.
Gimbel died of a heart attack at Mount Sinai Hospital at the age of 83 on November 28, 1981. Her son, Jay Harry Rossbach Jr., was an executive at Saks Fifth Avenue for over thirty years. Gimbel enjoyed playing golf and skiing. She collected china dogs and raised rhododendrons and tulips. Along with her husband, she is the namesake of the Adam and Sophie Gimbel Art and Design Library in New York.


Vamp (shoe)


S. V. S. Rama Rao

Seelamsetty Venkata Sri Rama Rao (1913–1970) was an art director, motion picture director and producer of Telugu films. He was one of the debutant technicians in the film industry, right from the era of non-talkies to the talkies of the late 1970s. He was the only art director who had designed the art work for the movie on the Lord Venkateswara by the title "Sri Venkateswara Mahatyam" (directed by P. Pullaiah under the banner Padmasri Pictures in 1959-1960). He belongs to the Kapu-Telaga Community of Andhra Pradesh. His children are son late Arvind Prakash, Mechanical Engineer and two daughters Devi Chandra and late Sathyavathi. His Grandchildren of Late. Arvind Prakash are Kumar, Kishore and Prasad. And Grandchildren of Devi Chandra are Poonam Kiran and Thrivikram Suman. Whereas since his last daughter late Satyavathi has expired in month of July dated 9the of 2000.
Career.
He has worked as an art director in both Telugu and Tamil languages around 450 movies for various banners like Vahini Studios, Raagini and Vijaya Productions. He was closely associated with the Producer/Director named Ghantasala Balaramayya and the Music Director, Master Venu.
He also produced movies under his own banner called "Jaimini Productions", viz. "Santha Balanagamma", "Chinnamma Katha" starring Siva Rao, Vengal Reddy and Krishna Kumari.
He won distinguished award for his artistry work, painting on the folk ladies named "Lambadi kanya" from the British Government in the year 1934. His well-known art directed movies in Telugu and Tamil are "Sri Venkateswara Mahatyam" (In which his painting of "Lord Venkateswara" is still in Salarjung Museum, Hyderabad. It was said that he was the only person who was allowed to portrait the Lord at Tirumala Tirupathi Devasthanam).


Sophia Forero

Sophia Forero is a jewelry designer. She creates jewelry with colors and textures inspired by her study of international cultures, including Tuareg culture and Byzantine art.
Biography.
Educated at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for her undergraduate degree and then at the University of Chicago for her Master's, Sophia Forero lived in Eastern Europe working for the US Peace Corps as a teacher. She first became interested in designing jewelry while writing her masters thesis on indigenous cultures of Sub-Saharan Africa. While in the Peace Corps in Hungary, she visited bead factories and gathered materials from all over Europe, the former Soviet Union, and the Balkans.
In 2002, Sophia won Marshall Field's Distinction in Design award, coming in first place over hundreds of designers. In 2004, Fashion Group International selected Sophia Forero Jewels as its 2004 recipient of the Style Makers & Rule Breakers award. The award "honors Sophia Forero as a trendsetter in the Accessories category...(and) identifies Sophia Forero as an innovator, a creator, a visionary and a formidable talent in the fashion and design industries."
In 2013, Sophia completed the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses program, an initiative to help businesses launch the next stage of growth. To date, SFD is set to introduce an augmented series to the mosaic collection with diamond and sapphire. Using the talents of sculptor Mauricio Forero to create new designs, the couple will unveil the Caviar collection in 2014.
Sophia lives and works in Illinois with her husband and four children.


Mark Lorenzen

Mark Lorenzen (born 1966) is a video game designer and former entrepreneur. He is best known for his work with Doug TenNapel.
Biography.
Lorenzen was born in Huntington Beach, California. He got primary education from Huntington Beach High School, and later attended Point Loma Nazarene University, finishing it in 1988 on art specialty. Here he studied along with Doug TenNapel.
Career.
Lorenzen first entered the video game industry by joining Blue Sky Software in the early 90s. While there, he served as design director on such games as Jurassic Park, Vectorman and , working alongside TenNapel. After leaving Blue Sky in 1995 Lorenzen joined Shiny Entertainment, working on Earthworm Jim 2. The level "Lorenzen's Soil" was named in his honour. In 1996 Doug TenNapel formed The Neverhood, Inc. (further history could be read here), with Lorenzen and number of people from Shiny joining in. He worked on game with his brother Tim, who worked at 7th Level. Lorenzen and TenNapel created the history of the game, which spans 38 screens and could be read in Neverhood's "Hall of Records". Lorenzen later led art design on The Neverhood, Inc.-made Skullmonkeys and BoomBots.
In 1999 The Neverhood, Inc. went bust, and Lorenzen with its former workers formed the game company Monkeytropolis, based in Rancho Santa Margarita, California. The company was active for 3 years and then went bust. Its only project was an extreme sports title for Activision.
In April 2002 Lorenzen joined Electronic Arts.
In January 2014, Pencil Test Studios announced that Lorenzen was working as the lead programmer on their upcoming Armikrog game.
Personal life.
Lorenzen is married to his wife Angela, and has two children: son Christian and daughter Caroline. He is based at Sandy, Utah.


Silent protagonist

In video games, a silent protagonist is a player character who lacks any dialogue for the entire duration of a game, with the possible exception of occasional interjections or short phrases. In some games, especially visual novels, this may extend to protagonists who have dialogue, but no voice acting like all other non-player characters. A silent protagonist may be employed to lend a sense of mystery or uncertainty of identity to the gameplay, or to help the player identify better with them. Silent protagonists may also be anonymous. Not all silent protagonists are necessarily mute or do not speak to other characters; they may simply not produce any dialogue audible to the player.
Origin.
The earliest player characters in video games, including the likes of Mario, Samus, and Link, were silent protagonists. Characters such as these may rarely speak through text or blurt occasional words, but are otherwise limited to making gestures, oral noises, or remaining silent entirely. The same was true for early role playing games; these games originated from pen and paper games such as "Dungeons & Dragons" and when put on the screen, did not require or have any spoken dialogue, since the games' plot and mechanics were all picture and motion based. Players are expected to put themselves into the role of the silent hero, and since the player does not talk in the game, neither does the on-screen avatar.
Uses.
Many games have made use of a silent protagonist out of utility, because of technology, time, or budget limitations, or as a narrative device. Whether the player is supposed to "be" the protagonist or is merely assuming control of an established character and whether the game allows the player freedom of choices that would be difficult to believably justify with spoken narrative influence this decision. Some have cited "Myst" as an example of a first person adventure, where the main character is merely an avatar for the player's choices and dialogue would not be needed or helpful. "Grand Theft Auto III", as another example, had no dialogue for its protagonist, as was common for its time, and also to allow players of many backgrounds and personalities identify with the character they control in the game's open world environment.
In most of the games of the "Command & Conquer" series, (e.g. ' or ') the game treats the actual player as the protagonist. Game characters talk to the player as if talking to one present among them, and the camera angle matches the player's eyes. As such, no traces of the protagonist could be found in the game, including voice. Similarly, in "Lords of the Realm II" the player operates a protagonist who is not only silent, but also lacks a body (and a face, when seen as an avatar). Invisible serfs and servants in turn report to the player in the form of announcements, pointed commentary, and comic bathos. In the "Half-Life" series, the protagonist is the silent Gordon Freeman, but is distinct from the player. Game writer Marc Laidlaw, who worked on "Half-Life" and "Portal" (both of which feature silent protagonists) with game developer Valve, stated that he did not recommend keeping protagonists silent due to the difficulties that arise during development, but noted that limiting oneself to a silent protagonist can lead to more creativity.
Some games such as the 2012 game "Dishonored" and 2011 game "" have protagonists that only make noise when struck, but in certain scenarios are allowed to choose from a list of available options of what the protagonist would say at that time, or to move the game forward. For example, in "Dishonored," the silent protagonist is allowed the option to tell Samuel the Boatman that he is ready to travel to the next area.
Silent protagonists can also apply to the avatars of certain games such as "Minecraft" and "Terraria", where player characters are free to interact with their surrounding environments (either on single-player or multiplayer), without the need of any spoken dialogues, and can only make noise when hurt. Both games also use a chat system that allow players to communicate with other players through typing, however, this system doesn't affect the gameplay itself.
Serge's status as a silent protagonist in "Chrono Cross" is used as a narrative hint for the player at one point to demonstrate that he is no longer himself by having him begin participating in dialogue.
Critical reaction.
Reception has varied widely according to its use, ranging from praise for its help immersing a player in the game, with titles such as "Half-Life 2" and franchises such as "Mario" and "The Legend of Zelda" frequently cited, while the protagonist's lack of communication has at times been noted as hindersome to plot development, as in one reviewer's comments on "Grand Theft Auto III", or multiple accounts on the "Crash Bandicoot" franchise. Others have stated that real immersion in a game would require a character to speak, since in such situations, the player would naturally vocalize and the protagonist does not.
CJ Miozzi called franchises that still use the technique a "crutch" for bad storytelling, saying "just as narration has become a hallmark of terrible movies through improper use, silent protagonists have become the trademarks of a weak storyline in a game."


Victor Dada

Victor Dada was a popular performance art, poetry and music group active in the Dallas, North Texas area between 1970 and 2000. They were well known in Dallas and instrumental in the revival of the Deep Ellum, Dallas, Texas arts scene of the 1980s where they opened Club Dada as a performance venue.
The group was founded in 70s by Joe Stanco and Gary Deen, who began experimentation with performance pieces by banging pots and pans in their living room while they recited poetry. Farley Scott was also a member who joined the group later. The group's original name, "Victor Dada and the Ten O'clock Kaon," which came from the street co-founder Joe Stanco lived on in Dallas and the influence of the Dada art movement on the overall irreverent tone of their work.
Some of Victor Dada's popular works included the titles "His & Herpes", "Ranch Style Beans from Outer Space", "Monotony", "(Take Me Up Your) Love Canal" and "No Jacuzzi", among many other more serious Dada and nonsense works.
Joe Stanco, one of the founding members of the group, died of malignant melanoma on June 5, 2002 bringing an end to Victor Dada's reign as one of Dallas' top performance poetry groups. Some of Stanco's poetry may be found on his page on DallasArtsRevue.com.


K. K. Barrett

Keith "K. K." Barrett (born 1952) is an American production designer known for his work on feature films by Spike Jonze and Sofia Coppola, among others.
Early life.
Barrett was born in Omaha, Nebraska. He lived in Springfield, Missouri and Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, before moving to Tulsa, Oklahoma. There, he spent his last two years of high school, and graduated from Memorial High School in 1971. He studied painting at Oklahoma State University, graduating in 1976. He lived in New York and in Los Angeles, where he was a drummer for The Screamers, an electropunk band. He appears in the 1986 punk rock musical "".
Career.
Barrett moved into production design on music videos (winning MTV awards for his work on "Tonight, Tonight" by Smashing Pumpkins and "The New Pollution" by Beck), and worked on videos with Spike Jonze, leading to their first film collaboration on "Being John Malkovich". Together with set decorator Gene Serdena, he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Production Design for the film "Her" (2013).


Joy Kingston

Joy Kingston (December 6, 1922 – January 30, 2010) was a fashion designer. She was born in Kansas City, Missouri. Kingston graduated from high school at the early age of 15, in June 1938. She subsequently studied at the University of Missouri for one year, and then attended The University of Wisconsin beginning in 1939, where she majored in Art in the university's School of Home Economics. In her studies there, an emphasis existed on dress design and interior decoration, which influenced her aspirations for these occupations. Kingston also studied for one additional semester at the Kansas City Art Institute.


Jeff Melvin

Jeff A. Melvin is a Canadian set decorator. Best known for his work on the 2017 film, "The Shape of Water", for which he won Academy Award for Best Production Design, with production designer Paul Denham Austerberry, and set decorator, Shane Vieau. The trio also won the BAFTA award for Production Design on February 18.


Artincidence

Artincidence is a nonprofit performance art company founded by Annabel Guérédrat based in Trois-Îlets, Martinique. Guérédrat is its principal performer and choreographer. Started as a dance company in 2003, it moved into performance work in 2010. Its current members include visual and performance artist Henri Tauliaut, choreographer, performer and researcher Ana Monteiro, drummer and sound designer Franck Martin, choreographer Javier Contreras Villaseñor, and Martinican artist Gwladys Gambie.
Projects include Guérédrat and Tauliaut's performance works and international residencies, FIAP, a Martinique-based performance art fair, and a bimonthly workshop in body art and land art at the Savanes des Petrifications in the island's south.
Artincidence has, among other things, overseen Guérédrat and Tauliaut's interdisciplinary residencies in Santiago, Chile, Paris (including at Centre National de la Danse and Cent Quatre), and Lisbon (at the Gaivotas Cultural Center and Forum Dança), all in 2016.


Unambiguous finite automaton

In automata theory, an unambiguous finite automaton (UFA) is a nondeterministic finite automaton (NFA) such that each word has at most one accepting path. Each deterministic finite automaton (DFA) is an UFA, but not vice versa. DFA, UFA, and NFA recognize exactly the same class of formal languages.
On the one hand, an NFA can be exponentially smaller than an equivalent DFA. On the other hand, some problems are easily solved on DFAs and not on UFAs. For example, given an automaton "A", an automaton "A" which accepts the complement of "A" can be computed in linear time when "A" is a DFA, it is not known whether it can be done in polynomial time for UFA. Hence UFAs are a mix of the worlds of DFA and of NFA; in some cases, they lead to smaller automata than DFA and quicker algorithms than NFA.
Formal definition.
An "NFA" is represented formally by a 5-tuple, "A"=("Q", Σ, Δ, "q0", "F").
An "UFA" is an NFA such that, for each word "w = a1a2 … an", there exists at most one sequence of states "r0,r1, …, rn", in "Q" with the following conditions:
In words, those conditions state that, if "w" is accepted by "A", there is exactly one accepting path, that is, one path from an initial state to a final state, labelled by "w".
Example.
Let "L" be the set of words over the alphabet {"a","b"} whose "n"th last letter is an "a". The figures show a DFA and a UFA accepting this language for "n=2".
The minimal DFA accepting "L" has "2n" states, one for each subset of {1..."n"}. There is an UFA of "n"+1 states which accepts "L": it guesses the "n"th last letter, and then verifies that only "n"-1 letters remain. It is indeed unambiguous as there exists only one "n"th last letter.
Inclusion, universality, equivalence.
Three PSPACE-hard problems for general NFA belong to PTIME for DFA and are now considered.
Inclusion.
It is decidable in polynomial-time whether an UFA's language is a subset of another UFA's language.
Let "A" and "B" be two UFAs. Let "L"("A") and "L"("B") be the languages accepted by those automata. Then "L"("A")⊆"L"("B") if and only if "L"("A"∩"B")="L"("A"), where "A"∩"B" denotes the Cartesian product automaton, which can be proven to be also unambiguous. Now, "L"("A"∩"B") is a subset of "L"("A") by construction; hence both sets are equal if and only if for each length "n"∈ℕ, the number of words of length "n" in "L"("A"∩"B") is equal to the number of words of length "n" in "L"("A"). It can be proved that is sufficient to check each "n" up to the product of the number of states of "A" and "B".
The number of words of length "n" accepted by an automaton can be computed in polynomial time using dynamic programming, which ends the proof.
Universality, equivalence.
The problem of universality and of equivalence, also belong to PTIME, by reduction to the inclusion problem.
Checking whether an automaton in unambiguous.
For a nondeterministic finite automaton "A" with "n" states and an "m" letter alphabet, it is decidable in time "O(n2m)" whether "A" is unambiguous.
It suffices to use a fixpoint algorithm to compute the set of pairs of states "q" and "q' " such that there exists a word "w" which leads both to "q" and to "q' ". The automaton is unambiguous if and only if there is no such a pair such that both states are accepting. There are "Θ"("n"2) state pairs, and for each pair there are "m" letters to consider to resume the fixpoint algorithm, hence the computation time.
State complexity.
Mathematical proofs that every UFA for a language needs a certain number of states were pioneered by Schmidt. Leung proved that a DFA equivalent to an formula_1-state UFA requires formula_2 states in the worst case, and that a UFA equivalent to a finitely ambiguous formula_1-state NFA requires formula_4 states in the worst case.
Jirásek, Jirásková and Šebej researched state complexity of basic regular operations on languages represented by UFA. They proved in particular that for every formula_1-state UFA where formula_6, the complement of the language it accepts is accepted by a UFA with at most formula_7 states. This result was later improved by Indzhev and Kiefer to at most formula_8 states for all formula_9.
For a one-letter alphabet Okhotin proved that a DFA equivalent to an formula_1-state UFA requires formula_11 states in the worst case.


Robotics;Notes DaSH

Robotics;Notes DaSH, short for "Daru the Super Hacker", is a visual novel video game developed by Mages. It is part of the "Science Adventure" series, and is a sequel to the 2012 game "Robotics;Notes". It was released in 2019 in Japan for the PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch, and was released in English in 2020 for the same platforms and Microsoft Windows by Spike Chunsoft. The game was written by Toru Yasumoto and Chiyomaru Shikura and produced by Tatsuya Matsubara, with character designs by Tomonori Fukuda, mechanical designs by Makoto Ishiwata and Yukihiro Matsuo, and music by Takeshi Abo.
The story is set half a year after the events of "Robotics;Notes", and follows the former members of the robotics club. It features several crossover elements with other games in the series, including the appearance of the "Steins;Gate" character Itaru "Daru" Hashida. The game's story branches into different directions throughout the game, based on destinations the player chooses in the in-game mobile app Deluoode Map.
Reviewers enjoyed the game's writing and visuals, as well as its depiction of Tanegashiman culture, and considered it appealing to fans of "Steins;Gate" and the "Science Adventure" series in general due to things like Daru's involvement in the story.
Overview.
"Robotics;Notes DaSH" is a visual novel, and is a sequel to "Robotics;Notes", following the former members of the robotics club, including Kaito Yashio and Akiho Senomiya who now have graduated high school and are exploring their dreams. The game includes several crossover elements from other games in the "Science Adventure" series, including the "Steins;Gate" characters Itaru "Daru" Hashida and Nae Tennouji, the former of which is described as having a major role. The game is set on Tanegashima island in 2020, half a year after the events of "Robotics;Notes" and about ten years after "Steins;Gate". Tanegashima is preparing for a summer festival, and JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) is simultaneously preparing for a space mission.
In the game, the player takes the role of Kaito, and chooses destinations in the mobile app Deluoode Map on the in-game personal digital assistant PokeCom to cause the story to branch into different directions. In addition to Kaito, the game also features sequences seen from other characters' perspectives.
Plot.
In summer 2020, six months after the Tanegashima Robotics Club saved the world from Kō Kimijima's Project Atum, Itaru "Daru" Hashida travels to Tanegashima for undisclosed reasons, arriving at the same time as Kaito, who is taking a break from his studies to become an astronaut. Daru is greeted by Nae, who introduces him to Kaito and the rest of the Robotics Club. Akiho, Subaru, Frau, and Junna have volunteered to help run the local Tanegashima Gun Festival, while Airi continues to live as Kaito's adopted sister. However, at the commencement of the festival, Kimijima reappears using artificial delusion technology, challenging the Robotics Club to find all of the Geotags he has scattered around the island before he initiates his plan to take over the world. With the rest of the Robotics Club having their hands full managing the festival, Kaito and Daru are recruited to search for the Geotags and thwart Kimijima's plot.
However, the Robotics Club begin to notice that this current Kimijima seems less malicious than the one they previously dealt with, as he only seems to use his artificial delusions to commit harmless pranks which seem to only make the festival more popular. Once the festival is halfway done, Daru observes the affects of Kimijima's delusions to figure out that Daru's own delusions were unintentionally influencing Kimijima's actions. Kimijima then becomes hostile and attempts to sabotage the festival, but is thwarted when Daru uses his own powerful delusions to "hack" Kimijima's artificial delusion technology, buying enough time for the Robotics Club to track down and shut down the equipment, seemingly getting rid of Kimijima for good.
With Kimijima defeated, Daru and Kaito are free to celebrate the rest of the festival with Nae and the Robotics Club. With Daru's help, Airi, Frau, and Junna are able to overcome their social insecurities, while Subaru finds the courage to make amends with his father over his dream to build robots. Meanwhile, Kaito helps Nae thwart and apprehend an assassin targeting Misaki. He also restarts his relationship with Akiho, after having put it on pause during his studies abroad. With Daru's help, the Robotics Club also rebuilds Gunbuild-2 in time for the final day of the festival, though Kimijima resurfaces in a rebuilt SUMERAGI and attacks. Kai takes control of Gunbuild-2 and supported by artificial delusions provided by Daru, Kai is able to defeat SUMERAGI. Daru then traps Kimijima in a storage device, his true objective this entire time. Daru then returns to Tokyo, where he parts amicably with the Robotics Club. Meanwhile, Misaki is released from the hospital and makes amends with Kaito and Akiho.
Upon returning to Tokyo, Daru receives a warning from his friend Rintaro Okabe, telling him "the worldline trembles." Upon further investigation, Daru realizes that the Kimijima he captured is merely a flawed copy, and the original version of Kimijima is carrying out a series of hacking attacks on supercomputers and infrastructure grids all over the globe, plunging the world into chaos. Daru returns to Tanegashima to consult with the Robotics Club, Sawada, Nae, and Misaki, and they come to conclusion that Kimijima is hijacking the world's supercomputers in an attempt to achieve technological singularity. Daru uncovers evidence that Kimijima has placed himself inside a satellite. The robotics club fights an army of rogue robots to clear a path to JAXA's space communication center, where Daru proceeds to hack the satellite. He introduces a special program called "ANTARES", which permanently neutralizes Kimijima and prevents him from making any more copies of himself.
With the crisis averted, the Robotics Club celebrates, and Daru decides to bring his fellow Lab Members to Tanegashima in the future to meet them.
Development.
"Robotics;Notes DaSH" was developed by Mages, and was written by Toru Yasumoto and Chiyomaru Shikura and produced by Tatsuya Matsubara. The characters were designed by Tomonori Fukuda, the mechanical designs were handled by Makoto Ishiwata from Polygon Bangcho and Yukihiro Matsuo, and the music was composed by Takeshi Abo. The game's opening theme, "Avant Story", was written by Shikura and performed by Zwei; one of the ending themes, , was performed by Kanako Itō, and the other, "Trust", was performed by Yumi Matsuzawa. The game also features the songs "Tu Ru Tu Ru Dance" by Enako, and "Anubis", which was written by Shikura and performed by Konomi Suzuki.
The game was announced at the Chiyo-ST Live 2017 Genesis event in Tokyo in May 2017, and a trailer was shown at Tokyo Game Show 2017. The game was published by 5pb. in Japan for PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch on January 31, 2019, following two delays from early 2018 and November 22, 2018.
In Japan, the game was in addition to the standard release also made available in a bundle with "Robotics;Notes Elite HD", an updated version of the original "Robotics;Notes" game. An English localization by Spike Chunsoft, announced at Anime Expo 2019, is planned to be published bundled with "Elite HD" on PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch on October 13, 2020 in North America and on October 16 in Europe, and as a stand-alone, world-wide release for Microsoft Windows on October 13, 2020.
A single containing "Avant Story" and an audio drama monologue featuring Yoshino Nanjō as Akiho Senomiya was released on December 26, 2018, and the complete "Robotics;Notes DaSH Original Soundtrack" album on February 13, 2019.
Reception.
During its debut week in Japan, "Media Create" and "Famitsu" weekly sales charts respectively reported 3,943 (19th rank) and 4,360 (17th rank) physical copies sold for PlayStation 4; the Nintendo Switch version sold 2,834 physical copies and ranked 24th according to "Famitsu", but did not appear on "Media Create" top 20 chart. "Famitsu" also reported a sell-through rate of about 60% for both versions. Neither "Famitsu" nor "Media Create" revealed sales numbers for the "DaSH" and "Elite HD" bundles for PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch, although "Media Create" listed both as ranking higher than the Nintendo Switch stand-alone version of "DaSH".
"Famitsu" writers enjoyed the game, saying that they liked the comedic writing, the characters' growth, and the focus on each robotics club member, as well as the depiction of Tanegashiman culture. The graphics and visuals were also well received, with praise given to the 3D characters' animations and the background artwork. They considered the game appealing to fans of "Steins;Gate" and of the "Science Adventure" series in general, due to things like Daru's heavy involvement in the story.


Lewis Pulsipher

Lewis Errol Pulsipher (born January 22, 1951), often credited as Lew Pulsipher, is an American teacher, game designer, and author, whose subject is role playing games, board games, card games, and video games. He was the first person in the North Carolina community college system to teach game design classes, in fall 2004. He has designed half a dozen published boardgames, written more than 150 articles about games, contributed to several books about games, and presented at game conventions and conferences.
Early work.
Pulsipher graduated from Albion College (Albion, MI) in 1973, and earned a Ph.D. in military and diplomatic history from Duke University (1981). He discovered strategic gaming with early Avalon Hill wargames.
In college, he designed many "Diplomacy" variants; while living in England in the late 1970s he wrote magazine articles about "Dungeons & Dragons" ("D&D"), and other role-playing games, and at one time or another was Contributing Editor to "Dragon" magazine, "White Dwarf", and "The Space Gamer" as well as a columnist for "Imagine" magazine. He also contributed monsters to TSR's original "Fiend Folio", including the Elemental Princes of Evil, denzelian, and poltergeist.
He published what may have been the first science fiction and fantasy game magazine, "Supernova" (later sold to Flying Buffalo Inc.), as well as other non-commercial magazines. He made presentations at game conventions as early as Origins 82.
He also designed several games published mostly in the 1980s. He is the designer of "Dragon Rage", "Valley of the Four Winds", and "Swords & Wizardry". His game "Britannia", was described in an "Armchair General" review as "one of the great titles in the world of games", and is the progenitor of a series of similar games. He received the 1987 Charles S. Roberts Award Nomination, Best Pre-World War II Boardgame, Britannia for this game.
He taught college-level computer networking, Web development, and game design in North Carolina. He is retired from teaching now.
Later work.
Pulsipher now teaches video game related subjects online through Udemy.com, writes regularly for Gamasutra and GameCareerGuide, and continues to design board and card games.
He lives with his wife in southeastern North Carolina.


Jane Hillston

Jane Elizabeth Hillston (born 1963) is British professor of Quantitative Modelling and Head of School in the School of Informatics, University of Edinburgh, Scotland.
Early life and education.
Hillston received a BA in Mathematics from the University of York in 1985, an MSc in Mathematics from Lehigh University in the United States in 1987 and a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Edinburgh in 1994, where she has spent her subsequent academic career. Her PhD thesis was awarded the BCS/CPHC Distinguished Dissertation Awards in 1995 and has been published by Cambridge University Press.
Research and career.
She has been an EPSRC Research Fellow (1994–1995), Lecturer (1995–2001), Reader (2001–2006) and Professor of Quantitative Modelling since 2006. Hillston is a member of the Laboratory for Foundations of Computer Science at Edinburgh. In 2018 she was appointed Head of the School of Informatics at Edinburgh, taking over from Johanna Moore.
Jane Hillston is known for her work on stochastic process algebras. In particular, she has developed the PEPA process algebra, and helped develop Bio-PEPA, which is based on the earlier PEPA algebra and is specifically aimed at analyzing biochemical networks.
Hillston serves in the editorial board of Logical Methods in Computer Science; Elsevier Theoretical Computer Science, as one of the editors in the area of Theory of Natural Computing, and as an Associate Editor of ACM Transactions on Modeling and Computer Simulation (TOMACS).
Awards.
In 2004, she received the first Roger Needham Award at the Royal Society in London awarded yearly for a distinguished research contributor in computer research by a UK-based researcher within ten years of their PhD. In March 2007 she was elected to the fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. In 2018, Hillston was elected the membership of the Academia Europaea. In 2018 she was a recipient of the Suffrage Science Award for Computer Science.
She led the University of Edinburgh School of Informatics in applying for an Athena SWAN Award, which they subsequently achieved silver in. The award shows that the department provides a "supportive environment" for female students.


Rebelstar (video game)


Colin Gibson (production designer)

Colin Gibson is an Australian production designer. He is known for his collaborations with George Miller, including "Babe", ', "Happy Feet", "Happy Feet Two", and ', the latter of which resulted in winning the Academy Award for Best Production Design and an AACTA Award. Gibson's other work includes "The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert", for which he shared a BAFTA award nomination with Owen Paterson.
Career.
Colin Gibson designed the bus for the film "The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert" and all the vehicles in "Mad Max: Fury Road". He joined the production of the latter film in 2000, and first began building cars in 2003. The film soon entered development hell and did not resume production until 2011. Director George Miller insisted that all the vehicles and props be fully functional, including a flame-throwing guitar that was played live.


Kimberley Garner

Kimberley Garner (born 10 February 1991) is an English swimwear designer, television personality and socialite best known for her role in the series "Made in Chelsea". She was also in "The Wright Stuff".
Life.
Kimberley Garner was educated at St George's School, Ascot, where in the sixth form she took courses in politics, photography, art, and religion. She is the daughter of Russell Garner, a property developer, and Geraldine Garner. She has a brother, Christopher Garner, and a sister, Countess Faye de Pelet. After leaving school, she studied at LAMDA and RADA, two acting schools in London, and then at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute in West Hollywood, California. A Christian, she is a regular worshipper at Holy Trinity Brompton. She first came to national attention as a cast member of the show "Made in Chelsea, and left in November. She also became a property developer in her own right.
In May 2013, Garner launched her first swimwear collection and has gone on to release many collections since. She is director of Kimberley London Ltd and of Young London Events Ltd.
She has developed numerous home properties in London and Miami. In 2019 she took the female lead in Nick DeCell's indie short movie Sweetheart.
Kimberley's latest business venture is a men's swimwear line 'Sunday For Lovers' due to launch soon.


Organization of the Chinese Communist Party

The organization of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is based upon the Leninist idea of democratic centralism.
Mechanisms and regulations.
In May 2013, the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party issued a resolution on which bodies were empowered to draft, approve, publish, amend and abolish party regulations, making it the first party document since 1921 (when the party was founded) on how to regulate party life. Professor Gu Su, a constitutional law expert from Nanjing University, believed it was "a significant step by the new leadership to introduce rule of law into the management of party members amid a legitimacy crisis due to widespread abuse of power and corruption".
Inner-party democracy.
History.
It has been the party's policy since the 8th Central Committee (1956–1969) to democratize the CCP, and by 1994 the goal was to promote people's democracy by developing inner-party democracy. The meaning of democracy in CCP parlance has its basis in Vladimir Lenin's concept of democratic centralism. From its establishment in 1921 to it seizing power in 1949, the CCP was in effect continuously at war, and the centralizing element of democratic centralism became the basis on how the party was ruled. However, with its rise to power, members began to demand the democratization of the party. The 8th Central Committee, elected by the 8th National Congress, promulgated an 8-point resolution in 1956;
First, the CCP must without exception implement the principle of collective leadership and expand internal party democracy. Second, the principle of democratic centralism was defined as democracy under the guidance (rather than under the leadership) of centralism and the essence of democratic centralism is democracy rather than centralism. Third, all the business of the 8th Central Committee was made public. Fourth, there should be no idolatry. Fifth, the CCP should have regular deputies to Party congresses. Sixth, a strict and effective supervision mechanism within the CCP should be established. Seventh, the CCP should explore fixed terms of appointment (rather than lifelong terms). Eighth, the CCP should protect and expand the democratic rights of members."
However, these points were not implemented under Mao Zedong, in most parts because of the Cultural Revolution in which the CCP returned to the norm of issuing policy on the basis of centralism. However, with the end of the Cultural Revolution and the death of Mao Zedong, the party began looking in on itself, reflecting on the ills which had manifested themselves under its guidance. The 3rd Plenary Session of the 11th Central Committee was the first to dwell on these issues. In 1980, Deng Xiaoping published "On the Reform of the System of Party and State Leadership", in which he criticized the party's emphasis on unified leadership which, he believed, had led to power concentration in the hands of a few persons. In practice this was made even worse because executive committees at all levels concentrated all power, and this power was then re-concentrated in the hands of the head or heads of the committee. He then concluded that because of the unified leadership system thought, most decisions were taken by all-powerful individuals (more often than not first secretaries) rather than by the party. The 6th Plenary Session of the 11th Central Committee endorsed these views. This stance was mentioned again in the Political Report to the 13th National Congress (held in 1987), in which it was stated that developing democracy within the party was a feasible project to develop socialism. The 14th Plenary Session of the 14th Central Committee became the CCP's first endorsement of developing intra-party democracy so as to develop people's democracy. This line has continued to this day. The Political Report to the 16th National Congress stated that strengthening the democratic character of the party was a "life and death issue" for the party (without more democracy the CCP would face the same fate as the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, CPSU). The party has made it clear, with announcements from both party and state organs, that the policy of strengthening the party's democratic character will continue.
National Congress.
The National Congress is the party's supreme organ, and is held every fifth year (in the past there were long intervals between congresses, but since the 9th National Congress in 1969, congresses have been held regularly). According to the party's constitution, a congress may not be postponed except "under extraordinary circumstances". A congress may be held before the given date if the Central Committee so decides, or if "one third of the party organizations at the provincial level so request". Under Mao, the delegates to congresses were appointed; however, since 1982 the congress delegates have been elected, due to the decision that there must be more candidates than seats. At the 15th National Congress in 1997, for instance, several princelings (the sons or daughters of powerful CCP officials) failed to be elected to the 15th Central Committee; among them were Chen Yuan, Wang Jun and Bo Xilai. The elections are carried out through secret ballots. Despite this, certain seats are not subject to elections; instead, the outgoing Central Committee "recommends" certain choices to the party electorate. These figures are mostly high-ranking members of the party leadership or special guests. For instance, at the 15th National Congress, 60 seats were given to members who had joined the CCP before 1927, and some were given to the outgoing members of the 15th Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) and the 15th Central Committee.
The party constitution gives the National Congress six responsibilities: (1) electing the party's Central Committee; (2) electing the CCDI; (3) to examining the report of the outgoing Central Committee; (4) examining the report of the outgoing CCDI; (5) discussing and enacting party policies; and (6) revising the party's constitution. However, the delegates rarely discuss issues in length at the National Congresses; most discussion takes place before the congress, in the preparation period.
Constitution.
According to the CCP-published book "Concise History of the Communist Party of China", the party's first constitution was adopted at the 1st National Congress. Since then several constitutions have been written, such as the second constitution, adopted at the 7th National Congress. The constitution regulates party life, and the CCDI is responsible for supervising the party to ensure that it is followed. The constitution currently in force was adopted at the 12th National Congress. It has many affinities with the state constitution, and they are generally amended either at party congresses or shortly thereafter. The preamble of the state constitution is largely copied from the "General Program" (the preamble) of the party constitution.
Central Committee.
The Central Committee is empowered by the party constitution to enact policies in the periods between party congresses. A Central Committee is "de jure" elected by a party Congress, but in reality its membership is chosen by the central party leadership. The authority of the Central Committee has increased in recent years, with the leaders rarely, if ever, going against Central Committee, which often occurred during the early years of the People's Republic. The Central Committee is required to meet at least once every year; however, in the early years of the People's Republic there were several years when it did not convene at all; 1951–53, 1960, 1963–65, 1967, 1971, 1974 and 1976.
While the Central Committee is the highest organ in the periods between party congresses, few resolutions cite its name. Instead, the majority of party resolutions refer to the "Party Centre" ("Dangzhongyang"), an indirect way of protecting the powers of, and resolutions produced by, the Politburo, the Politburo Standing Committee and the General Secretary. This method shields the central party leadership from lower-level bodies, reducing accountability, as lower levels can never be sure which body produced which resolution. In contrast to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV), the CCP Central Committee does not have the power to remove general secretaries or other leading officials, despite the fact that the party constitution grants it those rights. When the CPV dismissed its General Secretary Do Muoi, it convened a special session of its Central Committee, and when it chose its new general secretary, it convened another Central Committee plenum. In contrast, in China, when the CCP dismissed Hu Yaobang (in 1987) and Zhao Ziyang in 1989, the Politburo, not the Central Committee, convened a special session. Not only did the meeting itself break constitutional practices, since the CCP constitution clearly states that a Central Committee session must be called, but the meeting included several party veterans who were neither formal members of the Politburo nor of the Central Committee. In short, the CCP Central Committee, in contrast to the CPV Central Committee, is responsible to the higher bodies of the party (the Politburo and the Politburo Standing Committee), while in Vietnam the higher bodies are accountable to the Central Committee.
Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.
The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) is responsible for monitoring and punishing CCP cadres who abuse power, are corrupt or in general commit wrongdoing. CCDI organs exist at every level of the party hierarchy. The CCDI is the successor to the Control Commission, abolished in 1968 at the height of the Cultural Revolution. Although the CCDI was originally designed to restore party morale and discipline, it has taken over many of the functions of the former Control Commission. The CCDI is elected by the National Congress, held every fifth year.
Bodies of the Central Committee.
General Secretary.
At the party's founding in 1921, Chen Duxiu was elected as the party leader, holding the position of Secretary of the Central Bureau. As the party expanded, the title changed several times over the next 3 years, until in 1925 the title General Secretary was introduced. The term General Secretary continued in general use until 1943, when Mao Zedong was elected as Chairman of the Politburo. In 1945, Mao was elected Chairman of the CCP Central Committee, the title he held for the rest of his life. The office of General Secretary was revived in 1956 at the 8th National Congress, to replace the office of CCP Secretary-General, but it functioned as a lesser office, responsible to the office of the CCP Chairman. At a party meeting in 1959, Mao explained the relationship between the CCP Chairman and the CCP General Secretary as follows: "As Chairman, I am the commander; as General Secretary, Deng Xiaoping is deputy commander."
The office of CCP Chairman was abolished in 1982, and replaced with that of CCP General Secretary. According to the party constitution, the General Secretary must be a member of the Politburo Standing Committee (PSC), and is responsible for convening meetings of the PSC and the Politburo, while also presiding over the work of the Secretariat.
The party's leader holds the offices of General Secretary (responsible for civilian party duties), Chairman of the Central Military Commission (responsible for military affairs) and state president (a largely ceremonial position); in the recent past, the party leader has first been elected General Secretary and then later been appointed to the other two offices. Through these posts the party leader is the country's paramount leader.
Politburo.
The Politburo of the Central Committee "exercises the functions and powers of the Central Committee when a plenum is not in session". It is formally elected at the first plenary meeting of each newly elected Central Committee. In reality, however, Politburo membership is decided by the central party leadership. During his rule, Mao controlled the composition of the Politburo himself. The Politburo was "de facto" the highest organ of power until the 8th National Congress, when the PSC was established. The powers given to the PSC came at the expense of the Politburo. The Politburo meets at least once a month. The CCP General Secretary is responsible for convening the Politburo.
Since 2003, the Politburo has delivered a work report to every Central Committee plenum, further cementing the Politburo's status as accountable to the Central Committee. Also, from the 16th National Congress onwards, the CCP has reported on meetings of the Politburo, the PSC and its study sessions. However, the reports do not contain all the information discussed at the meetings; the end of the reports usually notes that "other matters" were also discussed at the meeting.
In the Politburo, decisions are reached through consensus, not through votes. In certain cases, straw votes are used to see how many members support or oppose a certain case (these straw votes do not necessarily affect the ultimate decision). Every member has the right to participate in the collective discussion. The CCP General Secretary convenes the Politburo and sets the agenda for the meeting. Each Politburo member is told of the agenda beforehand and is delivered briefing materials by the General Secretary on the agenda matters. The first person to speak at the meeting is the member who proposed the agenda. After that, those who know about the subject, or whose work is directly related to it, may speak. Then those who doubt or oppose the agenda proposal speak. Lastly, the General Secretary speaks and usually supports the agenda proposal, as he supported tabling it for discussion in the first place. When the General Secretary is finished speaking, he calls for a vote. If the vote is unanimous or nearly so, it may be accepted; if the vote is nearly unanimous, but members who directly work in the area discussed oppose it, the issue will be postponed. When the Politburo enacts a decision without all the members' agreement, the other members usually try to convince their opponents. In many ways, the CCP Politburo's policy decision-making is very similar to that of the Politburo of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union after Nikita Khrushchev's removal.
Politburo Standing Committee.
The Politburo Standing Committee (PSC) is the highest organ of the Communist Party when neither the Politburo, the Central Committee, nor the National Congress are in session. It convenes at least once a week. It was established at the 8th National Congress, in 1958, to take over the policy-making role formerly assumed by the Secretariat. The PSC is the highest decision-making body of the Communist Party, though since Hu Jintao's term as General Secretary there is some evidence to suggest a greater role for the collective consultation of the entire Politburo. Despite formal rules stating that a PSC member must serve a term in the Politburo before advancing to the PSC, this rule has been breached twice, first in 1992 when Hu Jintao was appointed to PSC, and again in 2007 when Xi Jinping and Li Keqiang were appointed to it.
Even though the PSC is officially said to be accountable to the Central Committee, in practice, the PSC supersedes the Central Committee and is superior to it. For example, there is no known instance for which the Central Committee has reversed a decision by the PSC. Moreover, many extremely important decisions in party history were made by the PSC alone, such as the decision to invoke martial law during the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. The membership of the PSC has historically varied between 5 and 11 members, and usually consist an odd number of people to avoid tie-breaking votes. The way by which membership has been determined has varied widely throughout history, from direct personal appointment by the party leader to extremely lengthy consultations with retired and existing party leaders.
Secretariat.
The Secretariat of the Central Committee is headed by the General Secretary and is responsible for supervising the central party organizations: departments, commissions, newspapers, etc. It is also responsible for implementing the decisions of the Politburo and the Politburo Standing Committee. The Secretariat was abolished in 1966 and its formal functions taken over by the Central Office of Management, but it was reestablished in 1980. To be appointed to the Secretariat, a person has to be nominated by the Politburo Standing Committee; the nomination must be approved by the Central Committee.
Central Military Commission.
The Central Military Commission (CMC) is elected by the Central Committee, and is responsible for the PLA. The position of CMC Chairman is one of the most powerful in China, and the CMC Chairman must concurrently serve as CCP General Secretary. Unlike the collective leadership ideal of other party organs, the CMC Chairman acts as commander-in-chief with the right to appoint or dismiss top military officers as he pleases. The CMC Chairman can deploy troops, controls the country's nuclear weapons, and allocates the budget. The promotion or transfer of officers above the divisional level must be validated by the CMC Chairman's signature.
In theory, the CMC Chairman is under the responsibility of the Central Committee, but in practice, he reports only to the paramount leader. This is in many ways due to Mao, who did not want other Politburo members to involve themselves in military affairs. As he put it, "the Politburo's realm is state affairs, the CMC's is military". This state of things has continued until today. The CMC has controlled the PLA through three organs since 1937: the General Staff Department, the General Political Department and the General Logistics Department. A fourth organ, the General Armaments Department, was established in 1998.
National Security Commission.
The Central National Security Commission (CNSC) was established at the 3rd Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee (held in 2013). It has been established to "co-ordinate security strategies across various departments, including intelligence, the military, foreign affairs and the police in order to cope with growing challenges to stability at home and abroad." The idea of establishing a CNSC was first mentioned in the 1980s, but was muted "by vested interests that stand to lose power in a reshuffle". Currently little is known of the body outside of the CCP, but it is generally believed to have strengthened the party's control over the People's Liberation Army (PLA), the Chinese armed forces. On 24 January 2014 Xi Jinping, the current CCP General Secretary, was appointed CNSC Chairman, while Li Keqiang, the Premier of the State Council, and Zhang Dejiang, the Chairman of the Standing Committee of the NPC (head of parliament), were appointed CNSC deputy chairmen.
Leading groups.
A Central Leading Group, also translated as a "Leading Small Group", () is an ad hoc supra-ministerial coordinating and consulting body formed to build consensus on issues that cut across the government, party, and military systems when the existing bureaucratic structure is unable to do so. The authorization for the formation of leading groups comes from Chapter IX of the Constitution of the Communist Party of China.
There are two types of LSGs. Party leading small groups manage policy for the Politburo and Secretariat, and State Council leading small groups coordinate policy implementation for the government. These groups provide a mechanism for top decision-makers to exchange views – both formally and informally – and to develop recommendations for the Politburo and the State Council.
LSGs do not formulate concrete policies (), but rather issue guiding principles about the general direction in which bureaucratic activity should move (). A "fangzhen" provides the framework for the development of "zhengce". The recommendations of leading groups are likely to have considerable influence on the policymaking process because they represent the consensus of the leading members of the relevant government, party, and military agencies. In some cases, the Chinese leadership will adopt an LSG's recommendation with little or no modification. LSGs, which have no permanent staff, rely on their General Offices () to manage daily operations and for research and policy recommendations. Consequently, the effectiveness of an LSG often depends on the effectiveness of its General Office.
Other organs.
There are several organs under the auspices of the Central Committee. The following are the most important:
Lower-level organizations.
Party committees exist at the level of provinces; autonomous regions; municipalities directly under the central government; cities divided into districts; autonomous prefectures; counties (banner); autonomous counties; cities not divided into districts; and municipal districts. Party committees also exist at the neighborhood level and even within landlord and property management organizations. These committees are elected by party congresses (at their own level). Local party congresses are supposed to be held every fifth year, but under extraordinary circumstances they may be held earlier or postponed. However that decision must be approved by the next higher level of the local party committee. The number of delegates and the procedures for their election are decided by the local party committee, but must also have the approval of the next higher party committee.
A local party congress has many of the same duties as the National Congress, and it is responsible for examining the report of the local Party Committee at the corresponding level; examining the report of the local Commission for Discipline Inspection at the corresponding level; discussing and adopting resolutions on major issues in the given area; and electing the local Party Committee and the local Commission for Discipline Inspection at the corresponding level. Party committees of "a province, autonomous region, municipality directly under the central government, city divided into districts, or autonomous prefecture [are] elected for a term of five years", and include full and alternate members. The party committees "of a county (banner), autonomous county, city not divided into districts, or municipal district [are] elected for a term of five years", but full and alternate members "must have a Party standing of three years or more." If a local Party Congress is held before or after the given date, the term of the members of the Party Committee shall be correspondingly shortened or lengthened.
A local Party Committee is responsible to the Party Committee at the next higher level. The number of full and alternate members at the local Party Committee is decided by the Party Committee at the next higher level. Vacancies in a Party Committee shall be filled by an alternate members according to the order of precedence, which is decided by the number of votes an alternate member got during his or hers election. A Party Committee must convene for at least two plenary meetings a year. During its tenure, a Party Committee shall "carry out the directives of the next higher Party organizations and the resolutions of the Party congresses at the corresponding levels." The local Standing Committee (analogous to the Central Politburo) is elected at the first plenum of the corresponding Party Committee after the local party congress. A Standing Committee is responsible to the Party Committee at the corresponding level and the Party Committee at the next higher level. A Standing Committee exercises the duties and responsibilities of the corresponding Party Committee when it is not in session.
Private sector.
Under Xi Jinping, party committees have become increasingly prevalent in the private sector, in both Chinese companies as well as foreign owned companies.
In September 2020, the CCP announced that it would strengthen United Front work in the private sector by establishing more party committees in regional federations of industry and commerce (FIC), and by arranging a special liaison between FICs and the CCP.
Members.
Probationary period, rights and duties.
To join the party an applicant must be 18 years of age, and must spend a year as a probationary member. In contrast to the past, when emphasis was placed on the applicants' ideological criteria, the current CCP stresses technical and educational qualifications. However, applicants and members are expected to be both "red and expert". To become a probationary member, two current CCP members must recommend the applicant to the local party leadership. The recommending members must acquaint themselves with the applicants, and be aware of the "applicant's ideology, character, personnel records and work performance" while teaching them about the party's program and constitution, as well as the duties and responsibilities of members. To this end, the recommending members must write a report to the local party leadership, reporting their opinion that the applicant is either qualified or unqualified for membership. To become a probationary member, the applicant must take an admission oath before the party flag. The relevant CCP organization is responsible for observing and educating probationary members. Probationary members have duties similar to those of full members, with the exception that they may not vote in party elections nor stand for election.
Before 1949, joining the CCP was a matter of personal commitment to the communist cause. After 1949, people joined to gain good government jobs or access to universities, which were then limited to CCP members. Many joined the CCP through the Communist Youth League. Under Jiang Zemin, private entrepreneurs were allowed become party members. According to Article 3 of the CCP constitution, a member must "conscientiously study Marxism–Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought, Deng Xiaoping Theory and the important thought of Three Represents, study the Scientific Outlook on Development, study the Party's line, principles, policies and resolutions, acquire essential knowledge concerning the Party, obtain general, scientific, legal and professional knowledge and work diligently to enhance their ability to serve the people." A member, in short, must follow orders, be disciplined, uphold unity, serve the Party and the people, and promote the socialist way of life. Members enjoy the privilege of attending Party meetings, reading relevant Party documents, receiving Party education, participating in Party discussions through the Party's newspapers and journals, making suggestions and proposal, making "well-grounded criticism of any Party organization or member at Party meetings" (even of the central party leadership), voting and standing for election, and of opposing and criticizing Party resolutions ("provided that they resolutely carry out the resolution or policy while it is in force"); and they have the ability "to put forward any request, appeal, or complaint to higher Party organizations, even up to the Central Committee, and ask the organizations concerned for a responsible reply." No party organization, including the CCP central leadership, can deprive a member of these rights.
Composition of the party.
As of the 18th National Congress, farmers, workers and herdsmen make up 31 percent of the party membership; 9 percent are workers. The second largest membership group, "Managing, professional and technical staff in enterprises and public institutions", makes up 23 percent of CCP membership. Retirees make up 18 percent, "Party and government staff" make up 8 percent, "others" make up another 8 percent, and students are 3 percent of CCP membership. Men make-up 77 percent of CCP membership, while woman make up 23 percent. The CCP currently has 82.6 million members.
Communist Youth League.
The Communist Youth League (CYL) is the CCP's youth wing, and the largest mass organization for youth in China. According to the CCP's constitution the CYL is a "mass organization of advanced young people under the leadership of the Communist Party of China; it is a school where a large number of young people learn about socialism with Chinese characteristics and about communism through practice; it is the Party's assistant and reserve force." To join, an applicant has to be between the ages of 14 and 28. It controls and supervises Young Pioneers, a youth organization for children below the age of 14. The organizational structure of CYL is an exact copy of the CCP's; the highest body is the National Congress, followed by the Central Committee, Politburo and the Politburo Standing Committee. However, the Central Committee (and all central organs) of the CYL work under the guidance of the CCP central leadership. Therefore, in a peculiar situation, CYL bodies are both responsible to higher bodies within CYL and the CCP, a distinct organization. As of the 17th National Congress (held in 2013), CYL has 89 million members.


PALASM

PALASM is an early hardware description language, used to translate Boolean functions and state transition tables into a fuse map for use with Programmable Array Logic (PAL) devices introduced by Monolithic Memories, Inc. (MMI). The language was developed by John Birkner in the early 1980s. It is not case-sensitive.
The PALASM compiler was written by MMI in FORTRAN IV on an IBM 370/168. MMI made the source code available to users at no cost. By 1983, MMI customers ran versions on the DEC PDP-11, Data General NOVA, Hewlett-Packard HP 2100, MDS800 and others. A widely used MS-DOS port was produced by MMI. There was a Windows front-end written sometime later.