Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part C

The Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part C: Journal of Mechanical Engineering Science is a peer-reviewed scientific journal that covers the fundamentals of engineering science and its application to the solution of challenges and problems in engineering. The journal obtained its current name in 1989 when it was split off from the "Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers". It is published by SAGE Publications on behalf of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. The editor-in-chief is J.W. Chew (University of Surrey).
Abstracting and indexing.
The 'journal is abstracted and indexed in Scopus and the Science Citation Index Expanded. According to the "Journal Citation Reports", its 2016 impact factor is 1.015.


S-mount

S-mount may refer to:


Filter dryer

A filter dryer is a piece of process equipment used during the filtration and drying phase of a pharmaceutical, bio pharmaceutical or chemical process for an active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) or other compounds production.
Filter Dryers are designed for washing and isolating solids with or without integrated containment systems.
Several actions have to be undertaken as part of the filtration and drying process including:
An agitated nutsche filter dryer (ANFD) is one class of such filter dryers that has been specifically designed so all these operations can take place within one vessel.
A Turbo Filter-Dryer is another class of filter dryer which also incorporates the listed operations, but works on a different set of filtration principle.
The ANFD class of filter dryer consists of a main insulated jacketed vessel and filtration base which can be lowered for inspection and replacement of the filter media. The vessel base is secured to the main vessel body via manually operated c-clamps or an automated bayonet locking system. The vessel is sealed with an O-ring sealing system utilizing FDA approved materials such as perfluoroelastomer.
The charging of slurry, solvent or water is carried out via nozzles mounted in the head of the vessel and the filtration process is performed under pressure using nitrogen purge and vacuum from beneath the filter base.
Different manufacturers use different heating technology, ANFDs should have a heating jacket on the walls as standard, on the top dome if necessary and heated agitator shaft and blade options for direct contact with the cake if required. One method of drying is through direct under-plate heating systems that are located in the filter plate at the bottom of the vessel.


Peripheral

A peripheral or peripheral device is an auxiliary device used to put information into and get information out of the computer. The term peripheral device refers to all hardware components that are attached to a computer and are controlled by the computer system, but they are not the core components of the computer, such as the CPU or power supply unit. In other words, peripherals can also be defined as the devices which can be easily removed and plugged into a computer system.
Several categories of peripheral devices may be identified, based on their relationship with the computer:
Many modern electronic devices, such as Internet-enabled digital watches, keyboards, and tablet computers, have interfaces for use as computer peripheral devices.


Alexander W. Dreyfoos Jr.

Alexander Wallace Dreyfoos Jr. (born 1932 in New York City, United States) is an American entrepreneur and philanthropist based in West Palm Beach, Florida, and Saranac Lake, New York. He is the only son of cellist Martha Bullard Whittemore Dreyfoos (1898–1977) and photographer-inventor Alexander W. Dreyfoos Sr. (1876–1951) of Apeda Studios.
Biography.
Dreyfoos graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1954 with a BS focusing on electronics, optics, and physics, assisted by MIT financing after the death of his father. Having also completed ROTC, Dreyfoos then served in the U.S. Air Force in Sembach, Germany, 1954–1956, commanding a 40-man photo lab critical to reconnaissance missions at age 22. Returning home, under the GI Bill he earned an MBA at Harvard Business School in 1958.[4] Dreyfoos earned his pilot's license in 1960, and multiple ratings over time including airline transport pilot (ATP). He has owned six airplanes, including two Citation jets, and two turbine helicopters, all of which he flew single-pilot.
Dreyfoos founded Photo Electronics Corporation (PEC) in 1963, with George W. Mergens, to address problems in color print reproduction. They developed their groundbreaking Video Color Negative Analyzer (VCNA) in Dreyfoos’ Port Chester, New York basement, then set up a factory in a former church in Connecticut. The VCNA was marketed worldwide by Eastman Kodak Company. Dreyfoos moved PEC to Florida in 1969, and in 1970 a motion-picture version of the VCNA earned an Academy Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. From 1990 to 2006, the VCNA was part of the “Information Age: People, Information and Technology” display at the American History Museum of the Smithsonian Institution and remains in its permanent collection. Dreyfoos later invented the innovative LaserColor Printer and assisted his son, Robert Dreyfoos, in developing a digital version of the VCNA for PEC called the Professional Video Analyzing Computer (PVAC).
Dreyfoos holds ten U.S. and many foreign patents covering his inventions.
Dreyfoos owned television station WPEC TV-12, the ABC affiliate in West Palm Beach, Florida, from 1973 to 1996. Beginning in 1977, under his direction, his staff developed the world-class Sailfish Marina Resort in Palm Beach Shores, Florida, which he sold in 2004. It was the success of PEC that enabled these purchases, and their subsequent sales that enabled Dreyfoos to practice philanthropy, for which he formed The Dreyfoos Group in 1996.
After founding in 1978 what became the Cultural Council of Palm Beach County, Dreyfoos led efforts that culminated in the 1992 opening of the fully funded Raymond F. Kravis Center for the Performing Arts, cultural centerpiece of Palm Beach County. He remained its board chair until 2007, and remains a board member for life and its single largest donor at $7,000,000. As of June 30, 2016, the Kravis Center ranked in theatre venue ticket sales #11 in the world, #6 in the nation, and #1 in Florida.
To address his wife Renate's motion sickness, Dreyfoos helped to design their unique SWATH yacht Silver Cloud built by Abeking & Rasmussen in Lemwerder, Germany. When launched in 2008, Silver Cloud was the first pleasure yacht with the SWATH design, first used for commercial vessels. In 2015 Silver Cloud completed circumnavigation of the world after Dreyfoos went to extreme measures to travel safely through terrorist-controlled waters. For part of the achievement, Dreyfoos received the World SuperYacht 2010 Voyager's Award.[22]
Dreyfoos has been a photographer since childhood and is known for his travel and underwater photos. In 2015 he compiled 587 of his favorites in the book "A Photographic Odyssey: Around the World with Alexander W. Dreyfoos" (ed. Lise M. Steinhauer), with proceeds supporting the Cultural Council of Palm Beach County (). In 2016 Dreyfoos commissioned his biography, "Alexander W. Dreyfoos: Passion & Purpose" by Lise M. Steinhauer and David Randal Allen, with proceeds to The Raymond F. Kravis Center for the Performing Arts, Inc. ().
Philanthropy.
Dreyfoos made the largest donation in Florida history to a public school when he gave $1,000,000 in 1997 to Palm Beach County School of the Arts, renamed Alexander W. Dreyfoos School of the Arts. His support inspired other philanthropists to fund scholarships and enhancements to the high school. The Dreyfoos School of the Arts has been consistently well viewed. Most recently (2016), U.S. News & World Report ranked it #10 in Florida public high schools and #66 nationally.
With his financial commitment at its launch in 1998, Dreyfoos became the first founding member of the marine conservation organization International SeaKeepers Society.
In 2004, Dreyfoos donated $1,000,000 to kick off support of Scripps Florida on the John D. MacArthur Campus of Florida Atlantic University in Jupiter, Florida. This biomedical research facility of the California-based Scripps Research Institute was joined by the Max Planck Florida Institute for Neuroscience, to which Alexander and Renate Dreyfoos also gave $1,000,000 in 2014. Dreyfoos was elected as trustee to both The Scripps Research Institute and Max Planck Florida Institute.
Dreyfoos’ largest gift has been $15,000,000 to MIT for the Stata Center, which consists of two buildings, named for Dreyfoos and Bill Gates. Dreyfoos dedicated this gift to his late mentor and MIT physics professor, Arthur C. Hardy. Dreyfoos has also endowed an Alexander W. Dreyfoos Professorship at MIT's Media Lab since 1995. Dreyfoos’ relationship with MIT has been continuous. In 2013 the MIT Corporation named the auditorium atop its Media Lab Complex in Dreyfoos’ honor for years of service. He remains a Life Member Emeritus of The MIT Corporation.
One of Dreyfoos' donations to the Raymond F. Kravis Center for the Performing Arts was his funding of the George W. Mergens Memorial Organ, dedicated in 2016, a custom-made electronic virtual pipe organ with a massively parallel processing (MPP) digital computer.
Recognition.
Following are just some of the many honors and awards Dreyfoos has received for his achievements and dedication to community and education:
(1975) Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO) Member
(1982) World Presidents’ Organization (WPO) Member
(1985) Chief Executives Organization (CEO) Member
(1990) Florida Division of Cultural Affairs: Florida Arts Recognition Award
(1991) Nova Southeastern University Entrepreneur Hall of Fame
(1992) Palm Beach Atlantic University American Free Enterprise Award
(1994) Northwood University Outstanding Business Leader
(1995) Town of Palm Beach United Way: Alexis de Tocqueville Distinguished Citizen Award
(1996) Florida Atlantic University Entrepreneur of the Year
(1997) M.I.T. Marshall B. Dalton Award
(1997) M.I.T. Bronze Beaver Award
(1999) Lynn University Honorary Doctor of Science Degree
(1999) Palm Beach Post 100, for the 2000 book, "Our Century: Featuring the Palm Beach Post 100: the People Who Changed the Way We Live"
(2004) American Academy of Arts & Sciences Fellow
(2006) Woodrow Wilson Center Award for Corporate Citizenship
(2006) Sons of the American Revolution Member
(2007) Cultural Council of Palm Beach County Lifetime Achievement Award
(2007) Kellogg School of Science and Technology, The Scripps Research Institute: Honorary Doctor of Science Degree
(2007) Palm Beach County Commission and City of West Palm Beach: proclamations declaring March 23, 2007, Alexander W. Dreyfoos Day
(2008) Association of Fundraising Professionals: Lifetime Achievement Award
(2010) Boat International's 2010 World SuperYacht Voyager's Award
(2012) Palm Beach Civic Association William J. “Bill” Brooks Community Service Award
(2013) Historical Society of Palm Beach County Archival Evening Honoree
(2013) Ellis Island Medal of Honor
(2014) National Society, Sons of the American Revolution: Gold Good Citizenship Medal, Military Service Medal, and Certificate of Patriotism, #1


Ergodic flow

In mathematics, ergodic flows occur in geometry, through the geodesic and horocycle flows of closed hyperbolic surfaces. Both of these examples have been understood in terms of the theory of unitary representations of locally compact groups: if Γ is the fundamental group of a closed surface, regarded as a discrete subgroup of the Möbius group G = PSL(2,R), then the geodesic and horocycle flow can be identified with the natural actions of the subgroups "A" of real positive diagonal matrices and "N" of lower unitriangular matrices on the unit tangent bundle "G" / Γ. The Ambrose-Kakutani theorem expresses every ergodic flow as the flow built from an invertible ergodic transformation on a measure space using a ceiling function. In the case of geodesic flow, the ergodic transformation can be understood in terms of symbolic dynamics; and in terms of the ergodic actions of Γ on the boundary "S"1 = "G" / "AN" and "G" / "A" = "S"1 × "S"1 \ diag "S"1. Ergodic flows also arise naturally as invariants in the classification of von Neumann algebras: the flow of weights for a factor of type III0 is an ergodic flow on a measure space.
Hedlund's theorem: ergodicity of geodesic and horocycle flows.
The method using representation theory relies on the following two results:
(1) As a topological space, the homogeneous space = can be identified with } with the standard action of as matrices. The subgroup of has two kinds of orbits: orbits parallel to the -axis with ; and points on the -axis. A continuous function on that is constant on -orbits must therefore be constant on the real axis with the origin removed. Thus the matrix coefficient = satisfies = for in . By unitarity, |||| = = , so that = for all in = = . Now let be the matrix formula_1. Then, as is easily verified, the double coset is dense in ; this is a special case of the Bruhat decomposition. Since is fixed by , the matrix coefficient is constant on . By density, = for all in . The same argument as above shows that = for all in .
(2) Suppose that is fixed by . For the unitary 1-parameter group ≅ , let be the spectral subspace corresponding to the interval . Let be the diagonal matrix with entries and for || . Then . As || tends to infinity the latter projections tend to 0 in the strong operator topology if or . Since = , it follows = in either case. By the spectral theorem, it follows that is in the spectral subspace ; in other words is fixed by . But then, by the first result, must be fixed by .
The classical theorems of Gustav Hedlund from the early 1930s assert the ergodicity of the geodesic and horocycle flows corresponding to compact Riemann surfaces of constant negative curvature. Hedlund's theorem can be re-interpreted in terms of unitary representations of and its subgroups. Let be a cocompact subgroup of = } for which all non-scalar elements are hyperbolic. Let = where is the subgroup of rotations formula_2. The unit tangent bundle is = , with the geodesic flow given by the right action of and the horocycle flow by the right action of . This action if ergodic if
 = , i.e. the functions fixed by are just the constant functions. Since is compact, this will be the case if = . Let = . Thus acts unitarily on on the right. Any non-zero in fixed by must be fixed by , by the second result above. But in this case, if is a continuous function on of compact support with = , then = . The right hand side equals , a continuous function on . Since is right-invariant under , it follows that is constant, as required. Hence the geodesic flow is ergodic. Replacing by and using the first result above, the same argument shows that the horocycle flow is ergodic.
Ambrose−Kakutani–Krengel–Kubo theorem.
Induced flows.
Examples of flows induced from non-singular invertible transformations of measure spaces were defined by in his operator-theoretic approach to classical mechanics and ergodic theory. Let "T" be a non-singular invertible transformation of ("X",μ) giving rise to an automorphism τ of "A" = L∞("X"). This gives rise to an invertible transformation "T" ⊗ id of the measure space ("X" × R,μ × "m"), where "m" is Lebesgue measure, and hence an automorphism τ ⊗ id of A L∞(R). Translation "L""t" defines a flow on R preserving "m" and hence a flow λ"t" on L∞(R). Let "S" = "L"1 with corresponding automorphism σ of L∞(R). Thus τ ⊗ σ gives an automorphism of "A" L∞(R) which commutes with the flow id ⊗ λ"t". The induced measure space "Y" is defined by "B" = L∞("Y") = L∞("X" × R)τ ⊗ σ, the functions fixed by the automorphism τ ⊗ σ. It admits the "induced flow" given by the restriction of id ⊗ λ"t" to "B". Since λ"t" acts ergodically on L∞(R), it follows that the functions fixed by the flow can be identified with L∞("X")τ. In particular if the original transformation is ergodic, the flow that it induces is also ergodic.
Flows built under a ceiling function.
The induced action can also be described in terms of unitary operators and it is this approach which clarifies the generalisation to special flows, i.e. flows built under ceiling functions. Let "R" be the Fourier transform on L2(R,"m"), a unitary operator such that "R"λ("t")"R"∗ = "V""t" where λ("t") is translation by "t" and "V""t" is multiplication by e"itx". Thus "V""t" lies in L∞(R). In particular "V"1 = "R" "S" "R"∗. A ceiling function "h" is a function in "A" with "h" ≥ ε1 with ε > 0. Then e"ihx" gives a unitary representation of R in "A", continuous in the strong operator topology and hence a unitary element "W" of A L∞(R), acting on L2("X",μ) ⊗ L2(R). In particular "W" commutes with "I" ⊗"V""t". So commutes with "I" ⊗ λ("t"). The action "T" on L∞("X") induces a unitary "U" on L2("X") using the square root of the Radon−Nikodym derivative of μ ∘ "T" with respect to μ. The induced algebra "B" is defined as the subalgebra of commuting with . The induced flow σ"t" is given by .
The "special flow corresponding to the ceiling function" "with base transformation" is defined on the algebra "B"("H") given by the elements in commuting with . The induced flow corresponds to the ceiling function "h" ≡ 1, the constant function. Again "W"1, and hence commutes with "I" ⊗ λ("t"). The special flow on "B"("H") is again given by . The same reasoning as for induced actions shows that the functions fixed by the flow correspond to the functions in "A" fixed by σ, so that the special flow is ergodic if the original non-singular transformation "T" is ergodic.
Relation to Hopf decomposition.
If "S""t" is an ergodic flow on the measure space ("X",μ) corresponding to a 1-parameter group of automorphisms σ"t" of "A" = L∞("X",μ), then by the Hopf decomposition either every "S""t" with "t" ≠ 0 is dissipative or every "S""t" with "t" ≠ 0 is conservative. In the dissipative case, the ergodic flow must be transitive, so that "A" can be identified with L∞(R) under Lebesgue measure and R acting by translation.
To prove the result on the dissipative case, note that "A" = L∞("X",μ) is a maximal Abelian von Neumann algebra acting on the Hilbert space L2("X",μ). The probability measure μ can be replaced by an equivalent invariant measure λ and there is a projection "p" in "A" such that σ"t"("p") < "p" for "t" > 0 and λ("p" – σ"t"("p")) = "t". In this case σ"t"("p") ="E"(["t",∞)) where "E" is a projection-valued measure on R. These projections generate a von Neumann subalgebra "B" of "A". By ergodicity σ"t"("p") formula_3 1 as "t" tends to −∞. The Hilbert space L2("X",λ) can be identified with the completion of the subspace of "f" in "A" with λ(|"f"|2) < ∞. The subspace corresponding to "B" can be identified with L2(R) and "B" with L∞(R). Since λ is invariant under "S""t", it is implemented by a unitary representation "U""t". By the Stone–von Neumann theorem for the covariant system "B", "U""t", the Hilbert space "H" = L2("X",λ) admits a decomposition L2("R") ⊗ formula_4 where "B" and "U""t" act only on the first tensor factor. If there is an element "a" of "A" not in "B", then it lies in the commutant of "B" ⊗ C, i.e. in "B" B(formula_4). If can thus be realised as a matrix with entries in "B". Multiplying by χ["r","s"] in "B", the entries of "a" can be taken to be in L∞(R) ∩ L1(R). For such functions "f", as an elementary case of the ergodic theorem the average of σ"t"("f") over [−"R","R"] tends in the weak operator topology to ∫ "f"("t") "dt". Hence for appropriate χ["r","s"] this will produce an element in "A" which lies in C ⊗ B(formula_4) and is not a multiple of 1 ⊗ "I". But such an element commutes with "U""t" so is fixed by σ"t", contradicting ergodicity. Hence "A" = "B" = L∞(R).
When all the σ"t" with "t" ≠ 0 are conservative, the flow is said to be "properly ergodic". In this case it follows that for every non-zero "p" in "A" and "t" ≠ 0, "p" ≤ σ"t" ("p") ∨ σ2"t" ("p") ∨ σ3"t" ("p") ∨ ⋅⋅⋅ In particular ∨±"t">0 σ"t" ("p") = 1 for "p" ≠ 0.
Theorem of Ambrose–Kakutani–Krengel–Kubo.
The theorem states that every ergodic flow is isomorphic to a special flow corresponding to a ceiling function with ergodic base transformation. If the flow leaves a probability measure invariant, the same is true of the base transformation.
For simplicity only the original result of is considered, the case of an ergodic flow preserving a probability measure . Let = and let be the ergodic flow. Since the flow is conservative, for any projection "p" ≠ 0, 1 in "A" there is a "T" > 0 without σ"T"("p") ≤ "p", so that . On the other hand, as "r" > 0 decreases to zero
in the strong operator topology or equivalently the weak operator topology (these topologies coincide on unitaries, hence involutions, hence projections). Indeed, it suffices to show that if ν is any finite measure on "A", then ν("a""r") tends to ν("p"). This follows because "f"("t") = ν(σ"t"("p")) is a continuous function of "t" so that the average of "f" over [0,"r"] tends to "f"(0) as "r" tends to 0.
Note that . Now for fixed "r" > 0, following , set
Set "r" = "N"–1 for "N" large and "f""N" = "a""r". Thus 0 ≤ "f""N" ≤ 1 in L∞("X",μ) and "f""N" tends to a characteristic function "p" in L1("X",μ). But then, if ε = 1/4, it follows that χ[0,ε]("f""N") tends to χ[0,ε]("p") = 1 – "p" in L1("X"). Using the splitting "A" = "pA" ⊕ (1 − "p")"A", this reduces to proving that if 0 ≤ "h""N" ≤ 1 in L∞("Y",ν) and "h""N" tends to 0 in L1("Y",ν), then χ[1−ε,1]("h""N") tends to 0 in L1("Y",ν). But this follows easily by Chebyshev's inequality: indeed , so that , which tends to 0 by assumption.
Thus by definition "q"0("r") ∧ "q"1("r") = 0. Moreover, for "r" = "N"−1 sufficiently small, "q"0("r") ∧ σ"T"("q"1("r")) > 0. The above reasoning shows that "q"0("r") and "q"1("r") tend to 1 − "p" and "p" as "r" = "N"−1 tends to 0. This implies that "q"0("r")σ"T"("q"1("r")) tends to (1 − "p")σ"T"("p") ≠ 0, so is non-zero for "N" sufficiently large. Fixing one such "N" and, with "r" = "N"−1, setting "q"0= "q"0("r") and "q"1= "q"1("r"), it can therefore be assumed that
The definition of "q"0 and "q"1 also implies that if δ < "r"/4 = (4"N")−1, then
In fact if "s" < "t"
Take "s" = 0, so that "t" > 0 and suppose that "e" = σ"t"("q"0) ∧ "q"1 > 0. So "e" = σ"t"("f") with "f" ≤ "q"0. Then σ"t"("a""r")"e" = σ"t"("a""r""f") ≤ 1/4 "e" and "a""r""e" ≥ 3/4 "e", so that
Hence ||"a""r" − σ"t"("a""r")||∞ ≥ 1/2. On the other hand ||"a""r" − σ"t"("a""r")||∞ is bounded above by 2"t"/"r", so that "t" ≥ "r"/4. Hence σ"t"("q"0) ∧ "q"1 = 0 if |"t"| ≤ δ.
The elements "a""r" depend continuously in operator norm on "r" on (0,1]; from the above σ"t"("a""r") is norm continuous in "t". Let "B"0 the closure in the operator norm of the unital *-algebra generated by the σ"t"("a""r")'s. It is commutative and separable so, by the Gelfand–Naimark theorem, can be identified with "C"("Z") where "Z" is its spectrum, a compact metric space. By definition "B"0 is a subalgebra of "A" and its closure "B" in the weak or strong operator topology can be identified with L∞("Z",μ) where μ is also used for the restriction of μ to "B". The subalgebra "B" is invariant under the flow σ"t", which is therefore ergodic. The analysis of this action on "B"0 and "B" yields all the tools necessary for constructing the ergodic transformation "T" and ceiling function "h". This will first be carried out for "B" (so that "A" will temporarily be assumed to coincide with "B") and then later extended to "A".
The projections "q"0 and "q"1 correspond to characteristic functions of open sets. "X"0 and "X"1 The assumption of proper ergodicity implies that the union of either of these open sets under translates by σ"t" as "t" runs over the positive or negative reals is conull (i.e. the complement has measure zero). Replacing "X" by their intersection, an open set, it can be assumed that these unions exhaust the whole space (which will now be locally compact instead of compact). Since the flow is recurrent any orbit of σ"t" passes through both sets infinitely many times as "t" tends to either +∞ or −∞. Between a spell first in "X"0 and then in "X"1 "f" must assume the value 1/2 and then 3/4. The last time "f" equals 1/2 to the first time it equals 3/4 must involve a change in "t" of at least δ/4 by the Lipschitz continuity condition. Hence each orbit must intersect the set Ω of "x" for which "f"("x") = 1/2, "f"(σ"t"("x")) > 1/2 for 0 < "t" ≤ δ/4 infinitely often. The definition implies that different insections with an orbit are separated by a distance of at least δ/4, so Ω intersects each orbit only countably many times and the intersections occur at indefinitely large negative and positive times. Thus each orbit is broken up into countably many half-open intervals ["r""n"("x"),"r""n"+1("x")) of length at least δ/4 with "r""n"("x") tending to ±∞ as "n" tends to ±∞. This partitioning can be normalised so that "r"0("x") ≤ 0 and "r"1("x") > 0. In particular if "x" lies in Ω, then "t"0 = 0. The function "r""n"("x") is called the "n"th return time to Ω.
The cross-section Ω is a Borel set because on each compact set {σ"t"("x")} with "t" in ["N"−1,δ/4] with "N" > 4/δ, the function "g"("t") = "f"(σ"t"("x")) has an infimum greater than 1/2 + "M"−1 for a sufficiently large integer "M". Hence Ω can be written as a countable intersection of sets, each of which is a countable unions of closed sets; so Ω is therefore a Borel set. This implies in particular that the functions "r""n" are Borel functions on "X". Given "y" in Ω, the invertible Borel transformation "T" is defined on Ω by "S"("y") = σ"t"("y") where "t" = "r"1("y"), the first return time to Ω. The functions "r""n"("y") restrict to Borel functions on Ω and satisfy the cocycle relation:
where τ is the automorphism induced by "T". The hitting number "N""t"("x") for the flow "S""t" on "X" is defined as the integer "N" such that "t" lies in ["r""N"("x"),"r""N"+1("x")). It is an integer-valued Borel function on R × "X" satisfying the cocycle identity
The function "h" = "r"1 is a strictly positive Borel function on Ω so formally the flow can be reconstructed from the transformation "T" using "h" a ceiling function. The missing "T"-invariant measure class on Ω will be recovered using the second cocycle "N""t". Indeed, the discrete measure on Z defines a measure class on the product Z × "X" and the flow "S""t" on the second factor extends to a flow on the product given by
Likewise the base transformation "T" induces a transformation "R" on R × Ω defined by
These transformations are related by an invertible Borel isomorphism Φ from R × Ω onto Z × "X" defined by
Its inverse Ψ from Z × "X" onto R × Ω is defined by
Under these maps the flow "R""t" is carried onto translation by "t" on the first factor of R × Ω and, in the other direction, the invertible "R" is carried onto translation by -1 on Z × "X". It suffices to check that the measure class on Z × "X" carries over onto the same measure class as some produce measure "m" × ν on R × Ω, where "m" is Lebesgue measure and ν is a probability measure on Ω with measure class invariant under "T". The measure class on Z × "X" is invariant under R, so defines a measure class on R × Ω, invariant under translation on the first factor. On the other hand, the only measure class on R invariant under translation is Lebesgue measure, so the measure class on R × Ω is equivalent to that of "m" × ν for some probability measure on Ω. By construction ν is quasi-invariant under "T". Unravelling this construction, it follows that the original flow is isomorphic to the flow built under the ceiling function "h" for the base transformation "T" on (Ω,ν).
The above reasoning was made with the assumption that "B" = "A". In general "A" is replaced by a norm closed separable unital *-subalgebra "A"0
containing "B"0, invariant under σ"t" and such that σ"t"("f") is a norm continuous function of "t" for any "f" in
"A"0. To construct "A"0, first take a generating set for the von Neumann algebra "A" formed of countably many projections invariant under σ"t" with "t" rational. Replace each of this countable set of projections by averages over intervals [0,"N"−1] with respect to
σ"t". The norm closed unital *-algebra that these generate yields "A"0. By definition it contains "B"0 = C("Y"). By the Gelfand-Naimark theorem "A"0 has the form C("X"). The construction with "a""r" above applies equally well here: indeed since "B"0 is a subalgebra of "A"0, "Y" is a continuous quotient of "X", so a function such as "a""r" is equally well a function on "X". The construction therefore carries over "mutatis mutandis" to "A", through the quotient map.
In summary there exists a measure space ("Y",λ) and an ergodic action of Z × R on "M" = L∞("Y",λ) given by commuting actions τ"n" and σ"t" such that there is a τ-invariant subalgebra of "M" isomorphic to formula_19(Z) and a σ-invariant subalgebra of "M" isomorphic to L∞(R). The original ergodic flow is given by the restriction of σ to "M"τ and the corresponding base transformation given by the restriction of τ to "M"σ.
Given a flow, it is possible to describe how two different single base transformations that can be used to construct the flow are related. be transformed back into an action of Z on "Y", i.e. into an invertible transformation "T""Y" on "Y". Set-theoretically "T""Y" ("x") is defined to be "T""m"("x") where "m" ≥ 1 is the smallest integer such that "T""m"("x") lies in "X". It is straightforward to see that applying the same process to the inverse of "T" yields the inverse of "T""Y". The construction can be described measure theoretically as follows. Let "e" = χ"Y" in "B" = L∞("X",ν) with ν("e") ≠ 0. Then "e" is an orthogonal sum of projections "e""n" defined as follows:
Then if "f" lies in "e""n" "B", the corresponding automorphism is τ"e"("f") = τ"n"("f").
With these definitions two ergodic transformations τ1, τ2 of "B"1 and "B"2 arise from the same flow provided there are non-zero projections "e"1 and "e"2 in "B"1 and "B"2 such that the systems (τ1)"e"1, "e"1"B"1 and (τ2)"e"2, "e"2"B"2 are isomorphic.


Maus au Chocolat

Maus au Chocolat is an interactive dark ride that opened 9 June 2011 in Phantasialand, Germany. The ride is situated in the Berlin area of the park.
Story.
It is Berlin in the 1920's. The kitchens of master pâtissier Gustav E. Lehmann are infested with mice. In order to get rid of them he calls Oskar Koslowski, a pest controller who uses rather unconventional methods to avoid the use of toxic substances that could ruin Lehmann's cakes. Koslowski arms himself with pastry bags to fight the rodents with shots of cream and chocolate. There are too many mice for Koslowski to handle on his own so guests are called in as reinforcements to get rid of the mice.
Design and Operation.
Maus au Chocolat was inspired by Toy Story Midway Mania and was designed for Phantasialand by Eric Daman in collaboration with ETF Ride Systems, 3DBA and Alterface. The ride immerses guests behind the scenes of a large pâtisserie infested with mice. The ride was part of the reorganisation of the central area of the park and was built in a new building bordering Wuze Town.
The entrance of the ride is through the storerooms of the pâtisserie. As guests make their way through the queue-line they find that all the food has been locked away and discover the presence of the pâtisserie's little intruders.
On the loading platform, a pair of 3D glasses is given to each guest before boarding their vehicle. The vehicles leave in groups of three and each can contain four guests (two on each side). Each guest has a pastry bag in front of them to shoot virtual chocolate at the mice that appear on seven screens throughout the ride, with the ride vehicles briefly stopping at each. Guests gain points for each mouse they hit. In the last scene the scores and winner for each ride are announced.
The exit is through a tea room that opened the same year as the ride.
The name of the ride is a play on words between Maus (German for mouse) and Mousse au chocolat.


Holt Ashley

Holt Ashley (January 10, 1923May 9, 2006) was an American aeronautical engineer notable for his seminal research of aeroelasticity.
Early life and education.
He was born in San Francisco, California.
Ashley attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, from which he received a Master of Science degree in aeronautical engineering in 1948 and later a Doctor of Philosophy degree in 1951, also in aeronautical engineering.
Career.
From 1951 to 1954, he was a member of the faculty at MIT. Ashley served as an MIT associate professor from 1954 to 1960. He became a full professor at MIT in 1960, serving in that position until 1967.
In 1967, Ashley joined the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at Stanford University, located in Palo Alto, California, where he was a professor of aeronautics and astronautics.
He was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1970 "for contributions to the field of aerolastic structures and unsteady aerodynamics, aiding in the solutions of problems in vibration and gust loading".
Ashley served as president of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA).
He also served on the advisory boards of NASA, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, the U.S. Air Force and the U.S. Navy.
He died on 9 May 2006, age 83.
Legacy.
The AIAA established an award in Ashley's honorthe Holt Ashley Award for Aeroelasticity.


Pen gun

A Pen gun is a firearm that resembles an ink pen. They generally are of small caliber (e.g., .22 LR, .25 ACP, .32 ACP, .38-caliber, etc.) and are single shot. Early examples of pen guns were pinfired, but modern designs are rim or centerfire. Some pen guns are not designed to fire regular cartridges, but rather blank cartridges, signal flares or tear gas cartridges.
In the United States, pen guns that can fire bullet or shot cartridges and do not require a reconfiguration to fire (e.g., folding to the shape of a pistol) are federally regulated as an Any Other Weapon (Title II). They require registration under the National Firearms Act and a tax in the amount of five dollars is levied.
According to the FBI, pen guns have been widely used for self defense in the 20th Century.


DIN 1.0/2.3

The DIN 1.0/2.3 connector is a RF connector used for coaxial cable at microwave frequencies. They were introduced in the 1990s for telecommunication applications. They are available in 50 Ω and 75 Ω impedance and are compatible with the most widely used cable sizes. It has a push/pull lock and release feature. The DIN 1.0/2.3 is ideally suited to applications where space limitation is a factor. In broadcasting applications the 75 Ω version is used for Serial Digital Interface video data up to maximum frequency of 4 GHz. The 50 Ω connector can be used to a maximum of 10 GHz.


Bass drum pedal


576th Flight Test Squadron

The 576th Flight Test Squadron is a United States Air Force direct reporting unit assigned to Air Force Global Strike Command. The 576th is stationed at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California.
Mission.
The mission of the 576th is to execute Air Force Global Strike Command (AFGSC)'s Force Development Evaluation program for America's Intercontinental Ballistic Missile Force and serve as the command's experts for missile systems capability and Air Force application demonstrations.
In executing the Intercontinental Ballistic Missile Initial Operational Test and Evaluation and Force Development Evaluation programs, the 576th Flight Test Squadron prepares for and conducts ground and flight tests to collect, analyze, and report performance, accuracy, and reliability data for the Joint Staff, United States Strategic Command, Air Staff, and AFGSC. The 576th Flight Test Squadron identifies missile system requirements, demonstrates current and future war fighting capabilities, and validates missile system improvements and upgrades.
History.
World War II.
The 576th Flight Test Squadron was first activated at Davis-Monthan Field, Arizona, on 26 January 1943 as the 576th Bombardment Squadron (Heavy) where it participated in the strategic bombardment campaigns of Europe and Germany as part of Eighth Air Force. Their involvement during the Normandy invasion and the Battle of the Bulge resulted in seven European-African-Middle Eastern Theater campaign streamers and one Distinguished Unit Citation.
The 576th was inactivated on 13 September 1945 with the close of World War II. It was reactivated on 24 September 1947 as a very heavy bombardment squadron at Barksdale Field Louisiana, the squadron's mission was changed in November 1947 to a light jet bomber squadron. It was again inactivated in November 1949.
Intercontinental Ballistic Missile Squadron.
The squadron was reactivated on 6 March 1958 as the 576th Strategic Missile Squadron at Cooke Air Force Base (later renamed Vandenberg Air Force Base). On 1 April 1958, the 576th was assigned to Strategic Air Command (SAC) as an SM-65 Atlas ICBM unit, the nation's first ICBM unit. The squadron became the first SAC unit to place an ICBM on alert, when it placed one of its Atlas D missiles on alert on 31 October 1959 at Vandenberg.
Initially, the 576th operated launch sites 576 Alpha 1, 2 and 3, which consisted of open support towers with SM-65D Atlas ICBMS standing in the open. The open launch pads remained on nuclear alert until 1 May 1964. In the spring of 1960, began using the "coffin" type shelters and missile erectors at Vandenberg Baker pads 1,2, and 3 along with 576 Charlie, Foxtrot and Golf that were used as a testing pad for the operational testing of the SM-65E Atlas and site 576 D for Atlas F operational testing.
The squadron went off ICBM nuclear alert duties with the inactivation of Alpha 1, 2 and 3, however it continued operational testing of the Atlas ICBM until 1965 when the weapons system was retired and the missiles sent to Norton Air Force Base California for long term storage and use as satellite launch vehicles for NASA. On 2 April 1966, the 576th was once again inactivated.
ICBM Testing Squadron.
Redesignated the 576th Test Squadron on 29 August 1991, it was again activated on 1 September 1991 as part of the activation of the Twentieth Air Force, America's only ICBM numbered Air Force. The 576th designation was chosen to ensure the history and lineage of the 576th would continue with the important job of testing ICBMs. The 576th has almost made a complete circle since the 576th Strategic Missile Squadron tested the Atlas missile in the late 1950s and early 1960s. In July 1993, the 576th was assigned to the Fourteenth Air Force at Vandenberg AFB. The squadron was re-designated the 576th Flight Test Squadron (FLTS) on 1 July 1994. Then, on 22 February 1996 the squadron was reassigned from the Fourteenth Air Force to Space Warfare Center (SWC) at Schriever Air Force Base, Colorado.
On 14 March 1996, the 576th, the 30th Maintenance Squadron and portions of the 30th Logistics Support Squadron merged to form the new 576 FLTS. Whereas the three organizations previously reported, through different commanders, to the 30th Space Wing at Vandenberg AFB, this merger aligned all personnel directly involved with Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) testing at Vandenberg under one commander. As part of the merger, the 576 FLTS also became a direct reporting unit to the Space Warfare Center, which later became the Space Innovation & Development Center (SIDC).
On 1 December 2009 the 576 FLTS was reassigned, along with the Air Force's ICBM mission, to Air Force Global Strike Command (AFGSC).


Imraan Faruque

Dr. Imraan Faruque is an American who is most known as a designer and author in the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) field. He is the designer responsible for a variety of UAVs, including several currently operational in Iraq, the most well-known being the R-series UAVs which are based on commercial airframes, along with work on Insitu's ScanEagle. These vehicles are normally deployed as a part of reconnaissance missions as they are unarmed but carry either a significant camera or FLIR unit.
Personal life.
He was born on August 9, 1984 in Alexandria, Virginia, but soon moved to Charlottesville, Virginia, where he lived until 2002 when he moved to Blacksburg, Virginia, where he earned a B.S. in aerospace engineering at Virginia Tech. Also was in US FIRST robotics competition. Imraan is the brother of fellow Virginia Tech graduate, Ruel Faruque, a researcher and team member for the Virginia Tech DARPA Urban Challenge team.
On July 16, 2016 he was married to Rachel Mumbert.
Organizational involvement.
Faruque is a member of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, an alumnus founding member of the Royal Aeronautical Society's Human Powered Aircraft Group at Virginia Tech, a Minta Martin Endowed Fellow at the University of Maryland, and is reported to do advisory work for various government and university agencies in unmanned aerial vehicle design and flight test at the Army's Fort Benning, GA; Eglin Air Force Base, FL; Tyndall Air Force Base, FL; and Patuxent River Naval Air Station, MD . He serves as a worship leader for Chi Alpha Campus Ministries. Imraan is a post-doctorate scholar of the Virginia University of Maryland Autonomous Vehicle Laboratory where he has worked on "insect-like robots."
Published works.
Faruque's published works include


Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part I

The Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part I: Journal of Systems and Control Engineering is a peer-reviewed scientific journal that covers systems and control studies. The journal was established in 1991 and is published by Sage Publications on behalf of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.
Abstracting and indexing.
The journal is abstracted and indexed in Scopus and the Science Citation Index Expanded. According to the "Journal Citation Reports", its 2018 impact factor is 1.166.


ENSERG


Joseph Francis Shea

Joseph Francis Shea (September 5, 1925 – February 14, 1999) was an American aerospace engineer and NASA manager. Born in the New York City borough of the Bronx, he was educated at the University of Michigan, receiving a Ph.D. in Engineering Mechanics in 1955. After working for Bell Labs on the radio inertial guidance system of the Titan I intercontinental ballistic missile, he was hired by NASA in 1961. As Deputy Director of NASA's Office of Manned Space Flight, and later as head of the Apollo Spacecraft Program Office, Shea played a key role in shaping the course of the Apollo program, helping to lead NASA to the decision in favor of lunar orbit rendezvous and supporting "all up" testing of the Saturn V rocket. While sometimes causing controversy within the agency, Shea was remembered by his former colleague George Mueller as "one of the greatest systems engineers of our time".
Deeply involved in the investigation of the 1967 Apollo 1 fire, Shea suffered from stress. He was moved to an alternative position in Washington and left NASA shortly afterwards. From 1968 until 1990 he worked as a senior manager at Raytheon in Lexington, Massachusetts, and thereafter became an adjunct professor of aeronautics and astronautics at MIT. While Shea served as a consultant for NASA on the redesign of the International Space Station in 1993, he was forced to resign from the position due to health issues.
Early life and education.
Shea was born September 5, 1925, and grew up in the Bronx, the eldest son in a working-class Irish Catholic family. His father worked as a mechanic on the New York City Subway. As a child, Shea had no interest in engineering; he was a good runner and hoped to become a professional athlete. He attended a Catholic high school and graduated when he was only sixteen.
On graduating in 1943, Shea enlisted in the U.S. Navy and enrolled in a program that would put him through college. He began his studies at Dartmouth College, later moving to MIT and finally to the University of Michigan, where he would remain until he earned his Doctorate in 1955. In 1946, he was commissioned as an Ensign in the Navy and received a Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics. Shea went on to earn a MSc (1950) and a Ph.D. (1955) in Engineering Mechanics from the University of Michigan. While obtaining his doctorate, Shea found the time to teach at the university and to hold down a job at Bell Labs.
Systems engineer.
After receiving his doctorate, Shea took a position at Bell Labs in Whippany, New Jersey. There he first worked as systems engineer on the radio guidance system of the Titan I intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) and then as the development and program manager on the inertial guidance system of the Titan II ICBM. Shea's specialty was systems engineering, a new type of engineering developed in the 1950s that focused on the management and integration of large-scale projects, turning the work of engineers and contractors into one functioning whole. He played a significant role in the Titan I project; as George Mueller writes, "[H]e contributed a considerable amount of engineering innovation and project management skill and was directly responsible for the successful development of this pioneering guidance system." In addition to Shea's technical abilities, it quickly became obvious that he was also an excellent manager of people. Known for his quick intellect, he also endeared himself to his subordinates through small eccentricities such as his fondness for bad puns and habit of wearing red socks to important meetings. During the critical days of the Titan project Shea moved into the plant, sleeping on a cot in his office so as to be available at all hours if he was needed.
Having brought in the project on time and on budget, Shea established a reputation in the aerospace community. In 1961 he was offered and accepted a position with Space Technology Laboratories, a division of TRW Inc., where he continued to work on ballistic missile systems.
NASA career.
In December 1961, NASA invited Shea to interview for the position of deputy director of the Office of Manned Space Flight (OMSF). D. Brainerd Holmes, Director of the OMSF, had been searching for a deputy who could offer expertise in systems engineering, someone with the technical abilities to supervise the Apollo program as a whole. Shea was recommended by one of Holmes' advisors, who had worked with him at Bell Labs. Although Shea had worked at Space Technology Labs for less than a year, he was captivated by the challenge offered by the NASA position. "I could see they needed good people in the space program," he later said, "and I was kind of cocky in those days."
Lunar orbit rendezvous.
When Shea was hired by NASA, President John F. Kennedy's commitment to landing men on the Moon was still only seven months old, and many of the major decisions that shaped the Apollo program were yet to be made. Foremost among these was the mode that NASA would use to land on the Moon. When Shea first began to consider the issue in 1962, most NASA engineers and managersincluding Wernher von Braun, the director of the Marshall Space Flight Centerfavored either an approach called direct ascent, where the Apollo spacecraft would land on the Moon and return to the Earth as one unit, or Earth orbit rendezvous, where the spacecraft would be assembled while still in orbit around the Earth. However, dissenters such as John Houbolt, a Langley engineer, favored an approach that was then considered to be more risky: lunar orbit rendezvous, in which two spacecraft would be used. A command/service module (CSM) would remain in orbit around the Moon, while a lunar module would land on the Moon and return to dock with the CSM in lunar orbit, then be discarded.
In November 1961, John Houbolt had sent a paper advocating lunar orbit rendezvous (LOR) to Robert Seamans, the deputy administrator of NASA. As Shea remembered, "Seamans gave a copy of Houbolt's letter to Brainerd Holmes [the director of OMSF]. Holmes put the letter on my desk and said: Figure it out." Shea became involved in the lunar orbit rendezvous decision as a result of this letter. While he began with a mild preference for earth orbit rendezvous, Shea "prided himself", according to space historians Murray and Cox, "on going wherever the data took him". In this case, the data took him to NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, where he met with John Houbolt and with the Space Task Group, and became convinced that LOR was an option worth considering.
Shea's task now became to shepherd NASA to a firm decision on the issue. This task was complicated by the fact that he had to build consensus between NASA's different centersmost notably the Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston headed by Robert Gilruth, and the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, headed by Wernher von Braun. Relations between the centers were not good, and it was a major milestone in the progress of the Apollo program when von Braun and his team finally came to accept the superiority of the LOR concept. NASA announced its decision at a press conference on July 11, 1962, only six months after Shea had joined NASA. Space historian James Hansen concludes that Shea "played a major role in supporting Houbolt's ideas and making the ... decision in favor of LOR", while his former colleague George Mueller writes that "it is a tribute to Joe's logic and leadership that he was able to build a consensus within the centers at a time when they were autonomous."
During his time at the OMSF, Shea helped to resolve many of the other inevitable engineering debates and conflicts that cropped up during the development of the Apollo spacecraft. In May 1963, he formed a Panel Review Board, bringing together representatives of the many committees that aimed to coordinate work between NASA centers. Under Shea's leadership, this coordination became far more efficient.
Program manager.
In October 1963, Shea became the new manager of the Apollo Spacecraft Program Office (ASPO) in Houston. Although technically a demotion, this new position gave Shea the responsibility for managing the design and construction of the Apollo command and lunar modules. Of particular concern to Shea was the performance of North American Aviation, the contractor responsible for the command module. As he later recounted:
I do not have a high opinion of North American and their motives in the early days. Their first program manager was a first-class jerk. ... There were spots of good guys, but it was just an ineffective organization. They had no discipline, no concept of change control.
It was Shea's responsibility to bring that engineering discipline to North American and to NASA's management of its contractors. His systems management experience served him well in his new post. In the coming years, any change to the design of the Apollo spacecraft would have to receive its final approval from Shea himself. He kept control of the program using a management tool that he devised for himself—a looseleaf notebook, more than a hundred pages in length, that would be put together for him every week summarizing all of the important developments that had taken place and decisions that needed to be made. Presented with the notebook on Thursday evenings, Shea would study and annotate it over the weekend and return to work with new questions, instructions, and decisions. This idiosyncratic tool allowed him to keep tabs on a complex and ever-expanding program.
Shea's relationship with the engineers at North American was a difficult one. While Shea blamed North American's management for the continuing difficulties in the development of the command module, project leader Harrison Storms felt that NASA itself was far from blameless. It had delayed in making key design decisions, and persisted in making significant changes to the design once construction had begun. While Shea did his part in attempting to control the change requests, Storms felt that Shea did not understand or sympathize with the inevitable problems involved in the day-to-day work of manufacturing.
Shea was a controversial figure even at the Manned Spacecraft Center. Not having been at Langley with the Space Task Group, he was considered an "outsider" by men such as flight director Chris Kraft, who recalled that "the animosity between my people and Shea's was intense". Relations between Shea and other NASA centers were even more uneasy. As the deputy director of OMSF, Shea had sought to extend the authority of NASA Headquarters over the fiercely independent NASA centers. This was particularly problematic when it came to the Marshall Space Flight Center, which had developed its own culture under Wernher von Braun. Von Braun's philosophy of engineering differed from Shea's, taking a consensual rather than top-down approach. As one historian recounts, von Braun felt that "Shea had 'bitten off' too much work and was going to 'wreck' the centers engineering capabilities."
The friction between Shea and Marshall, which had begun when Shea was at OMSF, continued after he moved to his new position. He became deeply involved in supporting George Mueller's effort to impose the idea of "all up" testing of the Saturn V rocket on the unwilling engineers at Marshall. Von Braun's approach to engineering was a conservative one, emphasizing the incremental testing of components. But the tight schedule of the Apollo program did not allow for this slow and careful process. What Mueller and Shea proposed was to test the Saturn V as one unit on its very first flight, and Marshall only reluctantly came to accept this approach in late 1963. When later asked how he and Mueller had managed to sell the idea to von Braun, Shea responded that "we just told him that's the way it's going to be, finally."
Shea's role in resolving differences within NASA, and between NASA and its contractors, placed him in a position where criticism was inevitable. However, even Shea's critics could not help but respect his engineering and management skills. Everyone who knew Shea considered him to be a brilliant engineer, and his time as manager at ASPO only served to solidify a reputation that had been formed during his time on the Titan project. Of Shea's work in the mid-1960s, Murray and Cox write that "these were Joe Shea's glory days, and whatever the swirl of opinions about this gifted, enigmatic man, he was taking an effort that had been foundering and driving it forward." Shea's work also won wider attention, bringing him public recognition that approached that accorded to Wernher von Braun or Chris Kraft. Kraft had appeared on the cover of "Time" in 1965; "Time" planned to offer Shea the same honor in February 1967, the month in which the first manned Apollo mission was scheduled to occur.
Apollo 1 fire.
Background.
Problems with the Apollo command module continued through the testing phase. The review meeting for the first spacecraft intended for a manned mission took place on August 19, 1966. One issue of concern was the amount of Velcro in the cabin, a potential fire hazard in the pure-oxygen atmosphere of the spacecraft, if there were to be a spark. As Shea later recounted:
And so the issue was brought up at the acceptance of the spacecraft, a long drawn-out discussion. I got a little annoyed, and I said, "Look, there's no way there's going to be a fire in that spacecraft unless there's a spark or the astronauts bring cigarettes aboard. We're not going to let them smoke." Well, I then issued orders at that meeting, "Go clean up the spacecraft. Be sure that all the fire rules are obeyed."
Although the spacecraft passed its review, the crew finished the meeting by presenting Shea with a picture of the three of them seated around a model of the capsule, heads bowed in prayer. The inscription was simple:
It isn't that we don't trust you, Joe, but this time we've decided to go over your head.
On January 25, 1967, the Apollo 1 crew began a series of countdown tests in the spacecraft on the pad at Cape Kennedy. Although Shea had ordered his staff to direct North American to take action on the issue of flammable materials in the cabin, he had not supervised the issue directly, and little if any action had been taken. During pad testing, the spacecraft suffered a number of technical problems, including broken and static-filled communications. Wally Schirra, the backup commander for the mission, suggested to Shea that Shea should go through the countdown test in the spacecraft with the crew in order to experience first-hand the issues that they were facing. Although he seriously considered the idea, it proved to be unworkable because of the difficulties of hooking up a fourth communications loop for Shea. The hatch would have to be left open in order to run the extra wires out, and leaving the hatch open would make it impossible to run the emergency egress test that had been scheduled for the end of the day on the 27th. As Shea later told the press, joining the crew for the test would have been "highly irregular".
A "plugs-out" spacecraft test, simulating the launch countdown, took place on January 27. While Shea was in Florida for the beginning of the test, he decided to leave before it concluded. He arrived back at his office in Houston at about 5:30 p.m. CST. At 5:31 p.m. CST (6:31 p.m. EST) a massive fire broke out in the Apollo command module. Unable to escape, the three astronauts inside the spacecraft, Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee, were killed.
Investigation.
Immediately after the fire, Shea and his ASPO colleagues at Houston boarded a NASA plane to the Kennedy Space Center. They landed at about 1:00 a.m., only five hours after the fire had broken out. At a meeting that morning with Robert Gilruth, George Mueller and George Low, Shea helped to determine the individuals who would be on the NASA review board looking into the causes of the fire. Additionally, he persuaded George Mueller, head of NASA's Office of Manned Space Flight, to allow him to act as Mueller's deputy in Florida, supervising the progress of the investigation.
Named to the advisory group chosen to support the review board, Shea threw himself into the investigation, working eighty-hour weeks. Although the precise source of ignition was never found, it soon became clear that an electrical short somewhere in the command module had started the fire, probably sparked by a chafed wire. What was less clear was where to apportion responsibility. NASA engineers tended to point to what they saw as shoddy workmanship by North American Aviation. By contrast, North American executives blamed NASA management for its decision over their objections to pressurize the command module with pure oxygen to a pressure far in excess of that needed in space, in which almost any materialincluding Velcro, with which the cabin was filledwould instantly burst into flames if exposed to a spark. Whatever the precise distribution of responsibility, Shea remained haunted by the feeling that he, personally, was responsible for the deaths of three astronauts. For years after the fire, he displayed the portrait given to him by the Apollo 1 crew in the front hallway of his own home.
Breakdown.
The pressure of the investigation took a psychological toll on Shea. He had trouble sleeping and began to resort to barbiturates and alcohol in order to help him cope. Shea was not the only NASA employee who found the aftermath of the fire difficult to handle: Robert Seamans wrote that "key people from Houston would fly up to Washington to testify and literally sob all the way on the plane", and a man who worked under Shea suffered a nervous breakdown and was reportedly taken to a mental hospital in a straitjacket. A few weeks after the fire, Shea's colleagues began to notice that he too was behaving erratically. Chris Kraft, whose father had suffered from schizophrenia, later related Shea's behavior in one meeting:
Joe Shea got up and started calmly with a report on the state of the investigation. But within a minute, he was rambling, and in another thirty seconds, he was incoherent. I looked at him and saw my father, in the grip of dementia praecox. It was horrifying and fascinating at the same time.
NASA administrator James Webb became increasingly worried about Shea's mental state. Specifically, he was concerned that Shea might not be able to deal with the hostile questioning that he would receive from the congressional inquiry into the Apollo 1 fire. Senator Walter Mondale had accused NASA engineers of "criminal negligence" with regard to the design and construction of the Apollo command module, and it was expected that Shea would be in the firing line. In March, Webb sent Robert Seamans and Charles Berry, NASA's head physician, to speak with Shea and ask him to take an extended voluntary leave of absence. This would, they hoped, protect him from being called to testify. A press release had already been prepared, but Shea refused, threatening to resign rather than take leave. As a compromise, he agreed to meet with a psychiatrist and to abide by an independent assessment of his psychological fitness. Yet this approach to removing Shea from his position was also unsuccessful. As one of his friends later recounted:
The psychiatrists came back saying, 'He's so smart, he's so intelligent!' Here Joe was, ready to kill himself, but he could still outsmart the psychiatrists.
Reassignment.
Shea's superiors were finally forced to take a more direct approach. On April 7 it was announced that Shea would be moving to NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C., where he would serve as George Mueller's deputy at the Office of Manned Space Flight. He was replaced as chief of the Apollo Spacecraft Program Office by George Low. While Shea had already acted as Mueller's "de facto" deputy in Florida during the investigation, the reality of this permanent posting was very different. When Shea's reassignment was announced, one of his friends gave an anonymous interview to "Time" magazine in which he said that "if Joe stays in Washington, it'll be a promotion. If he leaves in three or four months, you'll know this move amounted to being fired."
Shea accepted the reassignment reluctantly, feeling that "it was as if NASA was trying to hide me from the Congress for what I might have said". Once in the job, he grew increasingly dissatisfied with a posting that he considered to be a "non-job", later commenting that "I don't understand why, after everything I had done for the program ... I was only one that was removed. That's the end of the program for me." Only six months after the fire, and some two months after taking his new position, Shea left NASA in order to become a Vice President at the Polaroid Corporation in Waltham, Massachusetts. He was never called to testify before the congressional inquiry into the fire.
Post-NASA career.
In 1968, Shea took a position at Raytheon in Lexington, Massachusetts. He would remain with the company until his retirement in 1990, serving as Senior Vice President for Engineering from 1981 through 1990. After leaving Raytheon, Shea became an adjunct professor of aeronautics and astronautics at MIT.
In February 1993, NASA administrator Daniel Goldin appointed Shea to the chairmanship of a technical review board convened to oversee the redesign of the troubled International Space Station project. However, Shea was hospitalized shortly after his appointment. By April he was well enough to attend a meeting where the design team formally presented the preliminary results of its studies, but his behavior at the meeting again called his capacities into question. As "The Washington Post" reported:
Shea made a rambling, sometimes barely audible two-hour presentation that left many of those present speculating about his ability to do the job. A longtime friend said, "That's not the real Joe Shea. He is normally incisive and well-organized."
On the day following the meeting, Shea offered his resignation, becoming instead a special advisor to Daniel Goldin. NASA reported that he had resigned due to health reasons. However, "The Scientist" offered a different interpretation, quoting sources who speculated that the bluntness of his speech, including criticisms of Goldin, may have been controversial in NASA circles.
Shea died on February 14, 1999, at his home in Weston, Massachusetts. He was survived by his wife Carol, six daughters, and one son.


Erik Guldentops

Erik Guldentops (born ca. 1941) is a Belgian computer scientist and management consultant, who was systems engineer at SWIFT and Executive Professor at Antwerp Management School, known for his work on IT governance.
Biography.
Guldentops started his Humanities study at the 1960 at the Onze-Lieve-Vrouwcollege in Antwerpen, where he graduated in economics in 1967. In 1969 he proceeded to study Computer science at the Karel De Grote Hogeschool, where he graduated in 1971. Subsequently after another year at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, he received a Post-graduate degree in computer science.
Guldentops started his career at the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) in 1974 as Chief Inspector, and was Director Information Security from 1996 to 2001. From 1993 to 2001 he was also Vice President Research at the ISACA (Information Systems Audit and Control Association). In 1998 he was appointed Executive Professor at the Antwerp Management School. Since his retired in 2010, he is Visiting Lecturer at the Antwerp Management School. In 2009 he also had started his own consultancy firm. Guldentops has been member of the International Federation for Information Processing IFIP TC11 WG11.5.
In 2000 Guldentops received the 2000 J.Lainhart Award for "his impact on the profession’s Common Body of Knowledge", and in 2005 the J.Wasserman Award for "his overall contribution to the IT Audit profession."
Selected publications.
Guldentops authored and co-authored several publications. Books:
Articles, a selection:


Field-aligned irregularity

A field-aligned irregularity (FAI) is an anisotropic (different values when measured in different directions) perturbation of plasma density associated with magnetic fields. FAIs are often thought of in the context of the Earth's ionosphere where several natural processes generate FAIs in the E-region and F-region.
They occur at 50 and 140 MHz, where electrons associated with the event become vertically aligned with Earth's magnetic field. FAI may occur for several hours after it starts. Optimum times for observance appear to be between 8 PM and midnight.


Apple Mighty Mouse

The Apple Mouse (formerly Apple Mighty Mouse) is a multi-control USB mouse manufactured by Mitsumi Electric and sold by Apple Inc. It was announced and sold for the first time on August 2, 2005, and a Bluetooth version was available from 2006 to 2009. Before the Mighty Mouse, Apple had sold only one-button mice with its computers, beginning with the Apple Lisa 22 years earlier. The Mighty Mouse supported two buttons, and a miniature trackball for scrolling.
On October 20, 2009, the wireless Mighty Mouse was discontinued and replaced by the multi-touch Magic Mouse. The wired version of the device remained available, but was renamed the "Apple Mouse" as of the same date, due to trademark issues with another manufacturer of a device named "Mighty Mouse". As of June 5, 2017, the Apple Mouse is no longer available to buy on Apple's website.
Design.
The Mighty Mouse is made of white plastic and has a recessed Apple logo on the mouse's face. The mouse has four functional controls: a left capacitive sensor, a right capacitive sensor, a track ball with a pressure sensor and side squeeze sensors. The track ball enables users to scroll a page or document in any direction, including diagonally. Instead of mechanical buttons, the touch-sensitive topshell (mentioned below) and the pressure-sensing trackball allow the mouse to detect which side is being touched or whether the trackball is being held in.
The mouse emits a faint clicking sound when the scroll ball is rolled or the side squeeze sensors are depressed, but this is not directly caused by the ball moving or side buttons being pressed; the sound is actually produced by a tiny speaker inside the mouse. There is no way to disable this feature other than physically disabling the speaker inside the mouse.
Currently, Mac OS X is the only operating system that fully supports the mouse without third-party software. When used with Mac OS X, the sensors can be set to launch applications or trigger features of the Apple operating system, such as Dashboard and Exposé. If not used with Mac OS X, the mouse behaves as a four "button" mouse with a vertical and horizontal scroll wheel. There are third-party drivers (XMouse, AppleM) that provide more functions to users of other platforms such as Windows.
The Mighty Mouse does not report whether the right and left sensors are activated simultaneously. In fact, it reports a right-click only when there is "no" finger contact on the left side of the mouse. Thus a right-click requires lifting the finger off the mouse, then right-clicking. This also means that the Mighty Mouse cannot support mouse chording, used by CAD software, games, and other applications where multiple functions are mapped to the mouse.
Criticism.
Although the Mighty Mouse can sense both right and left clicks, it is not possible to press both sensors simultaneously. The user must learn to lift the left finger off the sensor surface before attempting a right-mouse click.
The scroll ball will eventually become clogged with dirt and require cleaning. While there are methods to clean the ball without dismantling the mouse some users have complained that the Mighty Mouse is difficult to clean because the scroll ball mechanism is hard to take apart.
Name.
Prior to launching the device, Apple received a license to the name "Mighty Mouse" from Viacom, and subsequently CBS Operations, as owner of the Mighty Mouse cartoon series, the title having been registered in the US as a trademark with respect to various merchandise (such as T-shirts and multivitamins) associated with the character. However, the trademark did not cover computer peripherals, and CBS did not apply to trademark the term in the US with respect to computer mice until mid-2007.
On May 21, 2008, it was announced that Man & Machine Inc., a supplier of keyboards and mice to laboratories and hospitals, had sued Apple Inc. for trademark infringement over its use of the name Mighty Mouse. Man & Machine Inc. had four registered or pending trademarks on various computer pointing related technologies, including "Cool Mouse", "Really Cool", and "Man and Machine and Design". The particular Mighty Mouse trademark in dispute was first filed by Man & Machine Inc., on December 18, 2007, with the description "Computer cursor control devices, namely, computer mice"—after CBS's filing, but claiming first use in 2004, before the introduction of the Apple device. There also was another scroll mouse named Mighty Mouse developed by NTT and ETH Zürich in 1985.
Following opposition proceedings on both sides against the other, CBS subsequently withdrew its application, allowing Man & Machine to register the US trademark for computer mice. As a result, Apple stopped selling mice under the "Mighty Mouse" name on October 20, 2009, when it introduced the wireless Magic Mouse and renamed the existing wired mouse the "Apple Mouse".
Incidentally, CBS "was" successful in registering "Mighty Mouse" as a trademark for computer mice in some other countries, including Canada, although Apple nevertheless chose to change its product name internationally.


KH-2002

The KH-2002 "Khaybar" ( ) is an Iranian-designed assault rifle, derived from the DIO S 5.56 assault rifle (an unlicensed clone of the Chinese Norinco CQ, which in turn is an unlicensed copy of the American M16) and further developed by Iran's Defense Industries Organization (DIO). It was designed in 2001 with samples produced in 2003 with the eventual production of the KH2002 commencing in 2004. It is similar in appearance to the FAMAS and Steyr AUG assault rifles.
Its improved version, released in 2009, was known as "Sama".
History.
According to a Global Security Studies report, it was observed that Venezuela received 18,000 KH-2002s sold to them by Iran in 2007. In the same year, an investigation was carried out in Uruguay in an attempt to bring KH-2002s into the country through Venezuela, which was a violation of UN embargo rules against Iran, according to reports in the Washington Times. According to the article, all 18,000 rifles and 15,000 rounds of Iranian-made 5.56mm NATO ammunition were confiscated.
In 2008, Iran had sent ten samples of the KH-2002 to Syria in order to compete for a potential contract with the Syrian Army against the AK-74M. Eight KH-2002s used in field tests jammed numerous times, leaving two of them in working condition.
It has been suggested that production of the KH-2002 was discontinued in 2012 after DIO was unable to find customers willing to buy the assault rifle.
Design.
The KH-2002 features a four-position fire selector lever which is situated toward the rear of the left side butt-stock behind magazine housing with the M16-type magazine release button on the right side of the magazine housing. The weapon is not entirely ambidextrous since the ejection port is located on the right side of the rifle. It uses STANAG magazines, though it usually uses 20 or 30-round magazines.
The selector offers semi-automatic, fully automatic and three-round burst options, with the safety selection in the forward position. It operates as a gas operated, rotating bolt-type rifle.
The DIO promotes the KH-2002 as a "low-recoil, highly accurate, lightweight" weapon, with "modular construction for easy maintenance" and a rotating bolt locking mechanism, presumably designed to facilitate ambidextrous firing, protected under a carrying handle that contains the rear sight. The carrying handle can also be used to mount optical or night sights.
The weight of the KH-2002 with the long barrel and an empty 30-round magazine is given as 3.7 kg. The weapon can also be fitted with an optional bipod and a bayonet. Field stripping the rifle is most likely based on the M16.
The Sama-type rifle has improvements made over initial production models such as having a longer carry handle to accommodate longer optics or scopes. Other improvements include a foregrip extension below the barrel to better handle the rifle, two picatinny rails on the receiver were included and the bolt carrier design changed to fit the ejection port.
According to an October 2013 report by SIPRI, it's suggested that China may have provided technical assistance to Iranian engineers in designing the rifle.
Variants.
The variants consisted of the following:


Halloween Horror Nights

Halloween Horror Nights (formerly known as Fright Nights) is an annual special event that occurs at Universal Studios theme parks in Florida, California, Singapore, and Japan. The parks remain operational during the day and transition to Halloween Horror Nights at night. The Halloween-themed event occurs during the fall season and features haunted houses, scare zones and live entertainment, many of which use Universal Studios' characters. Its intended audiences are teenagers and adults. Currently, Halloween Horror Nights are on hiatus, in all Universal parks, for the 2020 season due to the COVID-19 pandemic and its spread to Florida and to California.
History.
Halloween Horror Nights began at Universal Studios Florida in 1991 under the title Fright Nights. It began as a three-night event on October 25, 26, and 31, 1991, with one haunted house, "The Dungeon of Terror". The first year, the admission price was $12.95. From 1991 to 2001, the event was held at Universal Studios Florida.
The event was renamed "Universal Studios Florida Halloween Horror Nights" in 1992 and advertised as the second annual Halloween Horror Nights. There were two haunted houses, with "The Dungeon of Terror" returning to the Jaws queue building, and "The People Under The Stairs" making its debut in Soundstage 23. The event ran five nights, October 23, 24, 29, 30, and 31.
The Third Annual Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Florida saw the event increase to seven nights. Due to the re-opening of the Jaws attraction, the in-park haunted house moved from the Jaws queue in Amity to the Nazarman's facade in the New York area. The number of haunted houses increased to three, with the third at the Bates Motel set at Universal Studios Florida.
Halloween Horror Nights 4 expanded to an eight-night run in 1994. This year marked the return of a newly designed "Dungeon of Terror", along with three more haunted houses. In addition to Nazarman's and the Bates Motel, the new locations were in the overflow queue and the Boneyard. This year also marked the first use of the term "Scaracters", as well as the first official "Ghoul School" for actors participating in the event.
Ticket prices increased to $36 this year.
Halloween Horror Nights V featured a 12-night run and three haunted houses, one of which was a dual-path house. It was also the first time Universal themed the event around a character, in this case "Tales from the Crypt"s Crypt Keeper. The event was subtitled "The Curse of the Crypt Keeper".
Universal Studios Hollywood had featured Halloween attractions in 1986 and 1992. Bearing little resemblance to the modern event, the 1986 effort was actually a tram tour, and was marred by the accidental death of a retail employee who, like many employees at the time, had volunteered to perform in the event. The 1992 event was a direct result of the success of "Fright Nights" at Universal Florida the year before, but was not successful. Halloween Horror Nights officially launched at Universal Studios Hollywood October 9, 1997, running through the 2000 season. From 2001 to 2005, Halloween Horror Nights went on hiatus at Universal Studios Hollywood, then returned in 2006. It has continued yearly since. Between 2007 and 2014, Universal Studios Hollywood made use of Universal's House of Horrors, its permanent haunted attraction, as a part of Halloween Horror Nights, by re-theming it for the event.
Back in Florida, Halloween Horror Nights VI through X followed the formula developed for Halloween Horror Nights V in 1995, growing from 15 nights in 1996 to 19 in 2000. There were three haunted houses each year, although from 1998 on, two each year were dual-path houses, for a total of five experiences. One notable change was the first 3-D haunted house, in 1999, in the Nazarman's facade. By 1999, ticket prices were $44. In 2000, Universal launched its first in-house created Icon, Jack the Clown.
Because the September 11 attacks occurred so close to Halloween Horror Nights XI, Universal made many changes to tone down the event. Much gore was scrapped from the event, and blood was replaced with green "goop". The names of several houses, scare zones, and shows were changed. The original icon character "Eddie" was scrapped. Edgar Sawyer was conceived as a demented, chainsaw-wielding horror movie buff that had been disfigured by a fire. He was supposed to be a threat to previous icon Jack and the tagline "No more clowning around" was used, and seen on early advertisements and merchandise. Eddie was ultimately removed from the event before it began, although he was still appearing on that year's logo and merchandise with the official "I.C.U." tagline. As a hurried replacement, Jack would return along with a line of merchandise bearing the tagline "Jack's Back." Eddie's back-story was changed, and his name was changed to Eddie Schmidt, Jack's younger brother. The event again ran for 19 days, admission was $48, with five haunted houses. The dual house was in Soundstage 22.
Halloween Horror Nights moved to Universal's Islands of Adventure in 2002. The Caretaker was not the original icon for Halloween Horror Nights 12 in 2002. Cindy (sometimes spelled "Sindy"), the daughter of mortuary owner Paul Bearer, was originally the icon of the event. In the event's premise, every land would be ruled over by her "playthings". After several child abductions in the area, the Cindy concept was abandoned and her father Paul Bearer changed into Dr. Albert Caine, also known as The Caretaker. Cindy would eventually appear in 2006's "Scream House Resurrection", 2009's "Shadows of the Past" and 2010's "The Orfanage: Ashes to Ashes". Halloween Horror Nights 12, the first to be held at Universal's Islands of Adventure park, featured five haunted houses, with admission set at $49.95.
Halloween Horror Nights 13 again took place at Islands of Adventure. It featured six haunted houses. The Icon was The Director.
For Halloween Horror Nights 14 in 2004 the resort experimented with a dual-park format, which connected and utilized parts of both parks. The fourteenth edition featured a mental patient. It ran 18 nights and featured seven haunted houses.
Halloween Horror Nights 15 in 2005 ran 19 nights, had seven haunted houses, and an admission of $59.75. This year was the first time an entire alternate reality (Terra Cruentus) was the basis for the entire event. Universal offered backstage tours of the Halloween Horror Nights sets.
In 2006, "Horror Comes Home" to the Universal Studios Florida park for its sweet 16 celebration with the four previous icons. Admission was $59.95. It ran 19 nights, featuring seven haunted houses.
For Halloween Horror Nights 17 in 2007, Universal Studios acquired the rights to use New Line Cinema's characters Freddy Krueger, Jason Voorhees, and Leatherface for Halloween Horror Nights. There were eight haunted houses. The event ran 23 days, with a ticket price of $64.95.
2008's Reflections of Fear featured a new icon in the form of Dr. Mary Agana, an original take on the Bloody Mary legend. The event revolved around the realm of reflections where Mary dwelled.
A musical tribute to "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" was added for the 18th and 19th installments.
2010 marked the 20th installment of the event at the Orlando park. It was titled "Twenty Years of Fear", and it featured Fear as the event's icon. There were eight haunted houses. The event ran 23 nights and admission was $74.99.
2011 (Halloween Horror Nights 21) and 2012 (Halloween Horror Nights 22): eight and seven haunted houses, respectively; 25 nights and 22 nights, respectively; $81.99 and $88.99. "Roaming hordes" replace scare zones and "The Walking Dead" arrive as the event icon in 2012.
In 2011, Universal Studios Singapore began their Halloween Horror Nights event. There was one haunted house, the event ran seven nights, and admission was S$60.00. Universal Studios Singapore Halloween Horror Nights 2 in 2012, ran seven nights, had three haunted houses, with admission at S68.00. By 2015, Singapore's Halloween Horror Nights 5 had grown to four haunted houses, three of which were designed using local Singaporean horror legends and myths. Singapore's Halloween Horror Nights 6, in 2016, featured five haunted houses, ran 16 nights, with admission at S$69.00.
In 2012, Universal Studios Japan joined the Halloween Horror Nights franchise with an event themed to the "Biohazard" video games (known as "Resident Evil" in other countries). It ran 36 nights, from September 14 through November 11. Tickets were ¥8,400. By 2015, Universal Studios Japan had increased its "Universal Surprise Halloween at Universal Studios Japan" (which includes Halloween Horror Nights) to 59 days, featuring both daytime and nighttime activities.
2013 Florida's Halloween Horror Nights 23 featured a haunted house based on "An American Werewolf in London", another based on "The Cabin in the Woods", and a third based on "Resident Evil", plus five more, for a total of eight. "The Walking Dead" continued as the event icon and The Rocky Horror Picture Show Tribute returned. It ran 27 nights. Admission was $91.99.
Florida's Halloween Horror Nights 24 in 2014 featured eight haunted houses and a return to the use of scare zones, absent since 2012. Universal again made use of licensed properties from others, including "The Walking Dead", "Alien vs. Predator", "From Dusk till Dawn", "Halloween", and "The Purge". There were two shows, Bill and Ted and the Rocky Horror Tribute.
Halloween Horror Nights 25, in 2015 at Universal Studios Florida, brought back Jack the Clown as the icon along with his icon friends. HHN 25 ran a record 30 nights. HHN 25 featured nine haunted houses, with admission reaching $101.99 during the prime days.
Halloween Horror Nights 27 was the final year Bill & Ted's Excellent Halloween Adventure was performed at Universal Studios Florida. The show had been running at HHN since 1992.
Universal Studios Florida debuted a brand new lagoon show entitled "Halloween Marathon of Mayhem" during HHN 29 that features "iconic scenes from top horror films, cult classics and TV shows.
Universal Studios Hollywood included Throwback Thursdays as part of Halloween Horror Nights 2019. With a special welcome from Chucky and had "Beetlejuice" and a live DJ playing 1980s hits. Along with local Los Angeles 80s cover band, Fast Times, performing on select nights for the event.
Halloween Horror Nights 30 was initially planned for 2020, but it was cancelled and delayed to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic's impact on theme parks. They later decided to feature two of the planned haunted houses as attractions for guests for the initially planned 2020 season. For the Halloween weekend of 2020, the originally planned Beetlejuice house was featured
for a limited engagement.
Event icons.
Halloween Horror Nights has amassed a number of lead characters, known as icons. These icons usually have elaborate back-stories that involve the events' themes, houses, or scare zones. Predominantly, they have been used for promotional materials and merchandising. The first unofficial icon was Crypt Keeper, from the TV series "Tales from the Crypt", a series popular at the time of his first event appearance. The Crypt Keeper returned the next year for one of the houses, but was not featured in the advertising campaign. After the Crypt Keeper, the event continued for three years without an icon. In 1999, Imhotep served as Icon. for Halloween Horror Nights X, Jack the Clown was featured as an icon. This represents the first time Universal created an icon in-house.
Halloween Horror Nights has had an icon, and in some cases, multiple icons, every year since, excluding Halloween Horror Nights XIV,
22-24 and 27-29. These characters have included Jack the Clown, The Caretaker, The Director, The Storyteller, Bloody Mary, The Usher, Fear, Lady Luck, and Chance. Chance was the icon for Halloween Horror Nights 2016. She was a new icon but used to serve as a "sidekick" to Jack (though there are rumours that they have a romantic relationship) in his shows (her role and look being inspired by Batman antagonist Harley Quinn). In 2007, for Halloween Horror Nights 17, Universal again licensed intellectual properties from others, in this case New Line Cinema for Freddy Krueger, Jason Voorhees, and Leatherface, however, Jack the Clown was still featured. Jack the Clown returned in 2015 for Halloween Horror Nights XXV followed by Chance in 2016 at Halloween Horror Nights 26.
Attractions.
Haunted houses.
The haunted houses are the main attractions at the event. When the event first started as "Fright Nights" at Universal Studios Florida, there was simply one haunted house: the "Dungeon of Terror". As the event progressed through the years, the number has increased to as many as ten different houses, as of Halloween Horror Nights 28 in 2018. The houses are enumerated in the expandable charts above for each park, sorted by year. The event typically averages nine haunted houses along with numerous scare zones.
Scare zones.
Halloween Horror Nights IV was the first year to introduce a "scare zone", a name given to specific outdoor areas that feature costumed characters that fit the zone's theme with the intent of scaring people who walk through the areas. To get to certain areas of the park, it is necessary to travel through these scare zones. In 2012, Orlando re-envisioned the scare zones as "street experiences," claiming that scare actors were no longer restricted to specific "zones." Instead, there were a number of "hordes" which would change their location in the park every 90 minutes. By 2014, the traditional scare zones returned with The Purge: Anarchy (inspired by ), Face Off: In the Flesh, Bayou of Blood, and MASKerade: Unstitched. However, Hollywood Horror Nights in California still has specific scare zones, that range in themes. In recent years, Halloween Horror Nights in Orlando has adjusted the locations of its scare zones, forcing attendees to walk through at least one zone when entering the park. While actors cannot touch guests and vice versa, many of them can surround you at one time. Many actors in these areas have props like bats, chainsaws and fake guns and can act like they are going to attack you with their "weapons". Actors are also allowed to chase visitors in and out of the scare zones. From time to time, actors will pose as regular event guests, only to be captured by various hoards, specifically fan-favorite The Purge.
Entertainment/Shows.
Halloween Horror Nights has featured several live entertainment shows. Recurring shows have included "The Rocky Horror Picture Show A Tribute", "Bill and Ted's Excellent Halloween Adventure", Robosaurus and Academy of Villains. Bill and Ted's show appeared in every Halloween Horror Nights from 1992 until its closure following Halloween Horror Nights 27 in 2017.
It was "...a scatter-shot mashup of pop culture, popular radio and unexpectedly mature content" according to a review.
For the first time, Universal Studios Florida will debut a brand new lagoon show entitled "Halloween Marathon of Mayhem" during HHN 29 that will feature "iconic scenes from top horror films, cult classics and TV shows.
Rides.
Several rides remain operational during the event. In past event years, some rides were re-themed for the event such as Kongfrontation becoming Tramway of Doom during Halloween Horror Nights II. Diagon Alley has been open for Halloween Horror Nights since 2015. It was closed-off in 2014 despite opening just a few months earlier and to date it has not been re-themed or had any scare actors present.
Commercials, media, and awards.
Universal's Halloween Horror Nights is known for the dark tone of its advertisements and commercials. a majority of them were directed by Dean Kane. In 2010, the directors of "Daybreakers", Michael Spierig and Peter Spierig, directed the commercial for Halloween Horror Nights.
Universal Studios Florida has won "Amusement Today"s Golden Ticket Award for "Best Halloween Event" 12 of the 14 times it has been awarded, including the last eleven years straight.
COVID-19 pandemic impact.
Due to COVID-19 and its spread to Florida and to California, Universal Orlando announced Halloween Horror Nights' 30th annual event would not be taking place in 2020 as originally planned in Orlando or Hollywood. In a statement “Universal Orlando Resort will be focusing exclusively on operating its theme parks for daytime guests, using the enhanced health and safety procedures already in place,” the resort said in a news release Friday morning. “We know this decision will disappoint our fans and guests. We are disappointed, too. But we look forward to creating an amazing event in 2021.” However, Universal opted to open the Halloween Horror Nights merchandise store.
On September 9, Universal Singapore announced that they made a decision to not hold the event this year.


Donald Firesmith

Donald G. Firesmith (born June 14, 1952) is an American software engineer, consultant, and trainer at the Software Engineering Institute.
Biography.
Firesmith received his B.A. in Mathematics and German from Linfield College in 1975 and his M.A. in Mathematics from Arizona State University in 1977. He also studied one year at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich.
Firesmith started working in the computer business as a software developer in 1979 and has been quality engineer, configuration manager, and data manager for Computer Science Corporation in the US, Germany, and Switzerland. From 1984 to 1988 he was an OO methodologist at Magnavox Electronic Systems Corporation. And from 1988 to 1995 he was President of Advanced Software Technology Specialists, a small consulting and training company. From 1994 to 1997 he has been an acquisition editor and editor and chief of Reference Books at SIGS Books. And further he was a Senior advisory software engineer at StorageTek, where he worked as a technical leader, requirements engineer, and software architect, Chief architect Lante Corporation, which specialized in producing eMarketplaces, and Chief architect for the North American Business Unit of Cambridge Technology Partners.
Since 2003 he is a Principal Engineer at the Software Engineering Institute where he works in the Client Technical Solutions Software Solutions Division helping the United States Government acquire software-intensive systems.
Firesmith was named a Distinguished Engineer by the Association of Computing Machinery in 2015.
Work.
Method Engineering (ME) and Open Process Environment and Notation (OPEN).
Firesmith is a co-founder with Brian Henderson-Sellers and Ian Graham of the international OPEN Consortium. Firesmith was the principal developer of the OPEN Modeling Language. Firesmith is the founder of the OPEN Process Framework Repository Organization and the developer of its large repository of free, open-source, reusable method components.
The OPEN approach to software development is founded on situational method engineering (SME). This is a means by which a software development team can construct a method and process that is appropriate for their own particular situation or circumstances. Fragments of methods, conformant with an international software engineering metamodel standard such as ISO/IEC 24744 and stored in a repository, are individually selected and the method composed from these method fragments. The SME approach is based on research by many groups worldwide – results from a recent conference are published.
Method Framework for Engineering System Architectures (MFESA).
Firesmith is the primary developer of the Method Framework for Engineering System Architectures (MFESA). This framework consists of the following:
Publications.
He is the author of several technical books in system and software engineering as well as numerous technical articles, conference papers, and tutorials A selection:
Firesmith is also the author of several modern paranormal fantasy, apocalyptic science fiction, action and adventure novels:


Bushmaster Arm Pistol

The Bushmaster Arm Pistol was a 5.56×45mm NATO firearm, categorizeable as either a long pistol (under the American legal definition of a pistol) or compact carbine rifle, produced by the Gwinn Firearms Company, and later Bushmaster Firearms Inc. The firearm was a new design, having a tipping-block bolt system combined with a long stroke piston system similar to the AK-47 rifle.
Some AR-15 parts were used in its construction and it used STANAG type magazines.
Production ceased in 1988 for the pistol variant and 1991 for the rifle following Bushmaster's acquisition by the Quality Products Company the previous year; the company now known as Bushmaster is primarily known for making the more common AR-15 type rifles.