Bandwidth extension is an effective technique for enhancing the quality of audio signals by reconstructing their high-frequency components. In this paper, a novel blind bandwidth extension method is proposed based on phase space reconstruction. Phase space reconstruction is introduced to convert the low-frequency modified discrete cosine transform coefficients of wideband audio to a multi-dimensional space, and the high-frequency modified discrete cosine transform coefficients of the audio signal are reconstructed by a non-linear prediction model. The performance of the proposed method was evaluated through objective and subjective tests. It is found that the proposed method achieves a better performance than the typical linear extrapolation method, and its performance is comparable to the conventional efficient high-frequency bandwidth extension method.
According to formal and informal listening tests, the listeners usually prefer the bandwidth-limited audio signals over the heavily distorted full-band signals. So, the high-frequency components (HFC) of audio signals are partly or completely discarded in many audio coding methods at low bit rates in order to increase coding efficiency. If a high-frequency reconstruction module is embedded into audio codecs, the quality of the reproduced audio signals could be improved.
Bandwidth extension (BWE) plays an important role in high-frequency reconstruction of audio signals. Generally, BWE can be divided into non-blind BWE and blind BWE. In the non-blind BWE method, some side information, such as time/frequency envelope of high-frequency (HF) band, noise floor, level of inverse filtering, and additional sine signals, should be extracted and coded in advance at the encoder and transmitted together with the encoded low-frequency components (LFC). At the decoder, the components in the low-frequency (LF) band were copied into the HF band based on the received side information . This method is often called spectral band replication (SBR) [2, 3]. A well-known audio codec utilizing SBR is high-efficiency advanced audio coding (HE-AAC) [4, 5], which has been applied in mobile multimedia players, mobile phones, and digital radio services. In addition, the non-blind BWE methods used in extended adaptive multi-rate - wideband (AMR-WB+)  and audio/video coding standard for mobile multimedia applications (AVS-M)  also exhibit good BWE performance by adopting a linear prediction model to describe the spectral envelope and extending the bandwidth of audio signals based on the time/frequency envelope. Compared to LFC coding, non-blind BWE can help an audio codec to produce a much higher decoding quality with side information, but it takes up more channel resource for transmission. Thus, the non-blind BWE method is unusable when the transmission channel cannot afford enough bit rates for additional side information.
For the blind BWE, the HFC of audio signals are often completely discarded at the encoder, and there is no side information related to the HFC for coding and transmission. Only the LFC are coded at the encoder. The high-frequency reconstruction completely depends on the decoded LFC. Blind BWE can be easily applied within different audio codecs. Traditional blind BWE methods have been studied extensively for narrowband speech based on the speech generation model . However, there is as yet no efficient method for blind BWE of audio signals. A straightforward method is to linearly extrapolate the HFC from the LFC under the assumption that the audio amplitude spectrum with logarithm scale is linearly declined with the frequency increase [8, 9]. However, this assumption of audio amplitude spectrum is not true in most cases due to the complicated characteristics of the audio spectrum. Actually, audio signals have more non-linear characteristics, and an efficient non-linear prediction method is essential for reconstructing the HFC in blind BWE. Efficient high-frequency bandwidth extension (EHBE)  could reproduce some new HF harmonic components using non-linear filtering methods. In the EHBE method, after the highest octave presented in the decoded LF information was extracted as the fundamental by a band-pass filter, the harmonics could be created by half-wave rectification. Then, the desired part of the complete harmonic signal was extracted by another band-pass filter and scaled by gain G. Combined with the delayed input signals, the full-frequency audio signals could be obtained. Due to frequency mixing, auditory distortion is also perceived following the application of the EHBE method.
In this paper, a blind high-frequency reconstruction method of audio signals based on phase space reconstruction (PSR) and non-linear prediction is proposed. Here, PSR is used to convert the LF modified discrete cosine transform (MDCT) coefficients of wideband audio to a multi-dimensional space. In order to improve the performance, the energy and harmonic components of the reconstructed HF spectrum are further adjusted according to listening perception. The objective and subjective evaluations show that the proposed method achieves a better performance than linear extrapolation (LE) method  and is comparable to the EHBE method .
The outline of this paper is as follows: First, we describe the PSR of audio signals and discuss the calculation of embedding dimension and embedding delay related to PSR. Section 3 describes the high-frequency reconstruction principle of audio signals, followed by a more detailed description of the prediction of the HF-MDCT coefficients and the adjustment of energy and harmonics of HFC. The performance of the proposed method is evaluated in Section 4. Finally, the conclusions are given in Section 5.
Motivated by the previous works [11, 12], the PSR method, which is similar to the delay reconstruction method , is used to convert the LF-MDCT coefficients into a multi-dimensional space. A non-linear prediction model is built up in the phase space to simulate the hidden relationship between the given phase points and the unknown MDCT coefficients. By using this model, we can restore the audio spectrum of the HF components from the LF components in the phase space. So, the primary problem is how to build a multi-dimensional phase space from a one-dimensional audio signal.
where y k , k = 1,2,…, M-(m-1)τ is a m-dimensional row vector, and it represents a phase point in phase space, the embedding dimension m represents the minimum dimension number of phase space, and the embedding delay τ describes the distance between adjacent components of each phase point. Thus, once the phase space of LF-MDCT coefficients is reconstructed, the relationship between the phase points and MDCT coefficients can be described by a non-linear model. The HFC of audio signals can be intra-frame restored from these phase points in phase space based on non-linear prediction, according to the assumption of the strong correlation between HF and LF spectra of the audio signals.
According to the PSR principle, we can obtain the phase points y5, y6,…, containing the HF-MDCT coefficients, x(7), x(8),…. The (linear or non-linear) relationship between phase point y5 and its adjacent phase points, such as y3 and y4, can be used to predict the component x(7) included in phase point y5. Once the component x(7) within the phase point y5 is determined, we can use a similar method to estimate the component x(8) within phase point y6, and so on. This procedure does not stop until the final component corresponding to the cutoff frequency of the full band is determined.
In order to reconstruct the phase space, two important parameters m and τ should be calculated in advance. The details of calculating embedding dimension m and embedding delay τ will be given in the following two sub-sections.
The embedding delay τ should be neither too small nor too large. If τ is too small, the difference between the adjacent components of each phase point in the phase space will become too small. If τ is too large, there will be no any correlation between adjacent components of each phase point in the phase space. These two cases will not correctly reflect the true relationship between the MDCT coefficients, and the PSR will be ineffective. We found that for the MDCT spectrum of audio signals, a slight change of τ will lead to the adjacent phase points becoming completely uncorrelated. In this case, BWE from LF to HF is impossible. Therefore, a trade-off of embedding delay τ is crucial for the PSR.
where x ¯ denotes the mean of LF-MDCT coefficients, and i = 0,1,2, …, M - 1 is the index of R(i).
It is found that the phase space will be reconstructed as long as the embedding delay τ is limited to a certain range, even though τ has a small deviation. Here, when the first zero value or the first minimum value of R(i) appears, the corresponding index i is chosen as the embedding delay τ. This can reduce the computational complexity since it does not need to compute all R(i).
In this paper, we adopt the false nearest neighbors (FNN)  method to calculate the embedding dimension m. The basic idea is to gradually determine the false nearest neighbors of each phase point by increasing the dimension number of phase space. The dimension number that makes the adjacent phase points completely unfolded is chosen as the final embedding dimension m.
D 2 k d + 1 = D 2 d k + x k + τd - x NN k + τd 2 .
f d k = D 2 d + 1 k - D 2 d k D 2 d k 1 2 = x k + τd - x NN k + τd D d k .
If f d (k) > fD, the phase point y k NN is determined as the false nearest neighbor of the phase point y k , where fD is a threshold value used for verifying whether the nearest neighbor of phase point is false or not. Here, fD is a fixed value between 10 and 50.
In order to find the embedding dimension m, the Euclidean distance D d (k) and Dd + 1(k) between each phase point and its nearest neighbors are first calculated by increasing the dimension number of phase space d with step length 1 given the embedding delay τ. Then, f d (k) is obtained by Equation (6). By comparing f d (k) with fD, the false nearest neighbors for all the phase points are verified. Furthermore, the percentage of the false nearest neighbors in all nearest neighbors of all phase points is defined as β(d).
In our experiment, the initial value of d is set to 1. If β(d) > βD, where βD is a percentage threshold between 5% and 10%, d is increased by 1. The comparison between β(d) and βD will not stop until β(d) < βD. The value d that makes β(d) to be less than βD is chosen as the final embedding dimension m.
Once the embedding delay τ and the embedding dimension m are determined, the phase space can be reconstructed from audio spectrum by Equation (2). In order to visualize the structure of audio spectrum, the phase space could be mapped into three-dimensional space. As a visualized example, we selected an audio signal produced by a violin to analyze the phase trajectories in the reconstructed phase space. The semitone of violin segment is D4, and the pitch is about 296 Hz. Embedding delay and embedding dimension were set to 3 and 1, respectively. Audio signals with the length of 20 ms were transformed by MDCT. The spectral envelope was removed to obtain the fine spectrum of audio signals, and the phase space was reconstructed. The trajectories of the fine spectrum in the phase space for LF and HF signals are demonstrated in Figures 1 and 2, respectively. It is manifest that the phase trajectories turn dispersed with the increase of frequency, but nearly all the phase vectors are localized in a certain range to form a hyper-ellipsoidal structure. Similar results have been obtained for audio spectra of other orchestral instruments, symphony, and pop music in our experiments. This indicates that audio spectrum is characterized by regular dynamic structure and is predictable. Moreover, the audio spectra of some percussion music and live background sound were also analyzed in three-dimensional phase space. Although the phase vectors of these two cases are scattered in a disorderly way over a certain area, the trajectories of both LF and HF fine spectra show similar characteristics of randomness. Based on this fact, the non-linear prediction method is introduced in this paper to recover the HF fine spectrum from the LF spectrum.
Example of phase trajectory for LF fine spectrum of audio signal.
Example of phase trajectory for HF fine spectrum of audio signal.
Step 5. Take an inverse MDCT of full-band audio signals.
Block diagram of the proposed high-frequency reconstruction method.
Step 1 and step 5 are well known, so we will not discuss them here. Step 2 has been described in Section 2. In this section, we will discuss step 3 and step 4, respectively.
Once the phase space is reconstructed based on LF-MDCT coefficients, the HF-MDCT coefficients can be predicted according to the hidden relationship between the given phase points and the unknown MDCT coefficients . In this paper, the non-linear prediction method is utilized to obtain HF-MDCT coefficients based on the laws that the adjacent phase points have similar characteristics. We use 2τ phase points at the bottom of Equation (2) to predict the HF-MDCT coefficients because they have more relationship with HF-MDCT coefficients. The high-frequency band is divided into L regions in terms of 2τ interval, and the cutoff frequency of audio signals is located in the L th region.
The block diagram of the non-linear prediction method of HF-MDCT coefficients is shown in Figure 4. At first, the LF phase point corresponding to the predicted HF-MDCT coefficient is determined, and its neighbors are selected from the LF phase points. Then, the weight parameters of non-linear prediction are calculated from the neighbors though the recursive least square (RLS) algorithm, according to minimize the weighted error. Finally, the HF-MDCT coefficients are recovered by using non-linear prediction point by point until the frequency reaches up to the cutoff frequency 14 kHz.
Block diagram of non-linear prediction of HF-MDCT coefficients.
h x = 1 1 + e - x .
In Equation (7), the region index l of high-frequency band starts to count from 1 and those phase points used for prediction are updated by circularly increasing kc. Thus, we can use Equation (7) to predict the HF-MDCT coefficients within the L bands.
where D i , i = 1, 2,…, p is the Euclidean distance between x(k1), i = 1, 2, …, p, and x(kc + 2τl), kc = M - 2τ + 1, M - 2τ + 2,…, M, l = 1, 2, …, L, Dmin is the minimum value of D i , i = 1, 2,…, p.
Q i = R i - 1 Z i γ + Z i T R i - 1 Z i .
R i = 1 γ R i - 1 = R i - 1 Z i Z i T R i - 1 γ + Z i T R i - 1 Z i .
where i represents the index of sub-bands, Msub is the number of MDCT coefficients in the i th sub-band, and j is the index of MDCT coefficients in the i th sub-band.
η i = S e i S e i - 1 , i = 1 , 2 , ⋯ N sub - 1 .
where AD is the threshold value of ξ and here it is set to 0.95.
where i represents the index of HF sub-bands, Msub is the number of MDCT coefficients in the i th sub-band, and j is the index of MDCT coefficients in the i th sub-band.
We found that the harmonic components are not sufficient in the reconstructed HF spectrum. It is necessary to adjust the high-frequency harmonic components with some LF harmonic components. Our experiments have shown that the audio quality can be improved by introducing some LF harmonic components into the HF spectrum. We use the following four steps to adjust the harmonic components.
Step 4. Modify high-frequency spectrum energy with the aforementioned method.
Thus, we finish the reconstruction of the HF-MDCT coefficients. The full-band MDCT coefficients are obtained by connecting the LF-MDCT and HF-MDCT coefficients. The audio signals in the time domain can be reconstructed by an inverse MDCT.
In this section, the reconstructed audio signals that are independent of audio codecs are firstly used for objective evaluation. According to the definition from the International Telecommunication Union-Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU-T) , super wideband (SWB) audio signals with a 14-kHz bandwidth were sampled at 32 kHz and were transformed into frequency domain though MDCT with a Kaiser-Bessel window. Every 20 ms, the most recent 1,280 audio samples were fed to the MDCT and were transformed into a frame of 640 spectral coefficients centered at 25-Hz intervals. First, the last 360 coefficients of these audio signals above 7 kHz were discarded to obtain the wideband (WB) audio signals with a 7-kHz bandwidth. Then, the proposed BWE method was employed to extend the bandwidth of these WB audio signals to 14 kHz. Finally, we compared the performance among the proposed method, LE method, and EHBE method. Here, the half-wave rectification was used as the non-linear device in our experiment with respect to EHBE method, and it provides the best performance compared with other non-linear devices according to the experimental results.
In the objective evaluation, 18 audio files were chosen for testing. The length of each audio signal is between 10 to 20 s, and they were sampled at 32 kHz. These audio signals used for testing were divided into three types: simple audio, complicated audio, and singing audio. Each type includes six audio files. For simple audio signals, the number of instruments performed is less than four. For the complicated audio signals, the number of instruments performed is much larger than four. Here, singing with accompaniment is called singing audio. Moreover, the input of BWE is WB audio signals generated from SWB audio signals, and its level was normalized to -26 dBov.
where i denotes the index of audio frame, and P i and P ^ i are the power spectra of the original SWB audio signals and the extended audio signals, respectively. Nhigh and Nlow are the indices corresponding to the upper and lower bound of the frequency band from 7 to 14 kHz.
LSD results with a 95% confidence interval for the three BWE methods are shown in Figure 5. Through Figure 5, we found that the LSD of the complicated audio signals is larger than the other types of audio signals. The reason is that many instruments are involved in complicated audio signals, and their energy in the HF spectrum is relatively high and not easy to accurately estimate. For simple audio signals, the energy attenuation of true HF components is obvious; thus, it may lead to low distortion. In addition, we can also find that the LSD of the PSR method is lower than EHBE and LE methods for complicated audio signals and singing audio signals. For simple audio signals, the LSD of the PSR method is a little higher. This may be because the energy attenuation of the extended HF spectrum in the PSR method is heavier than that of the true HF spectrum for harmonic-like signals.
LSD with 95% confidence intervals for the three BWE methods.
An example of a symphony spectrogram reconstruction is shown in Figure 6. From the spectrogram, we can find that the spectra derived from LE and EHBE have some artifacts. This may cause the audio quality to be degraded. This result is identical to the objective evaluation.
An example of audio spectrogram reconstruction. (a) Original spectrum. (b) Discarded spectrum. (c) Reconstructed spectrum by LE. (d) Reconstructed spectrum by EHBE. (e) Reconstructed spectrum by PSR.
Besides objective evaluation, our PSR method and the referential methods were applied into the G.722.1 WB audio codec  at 24 kb/s in order to further evaluate the subjective quality of BWE methods. The extended audio signals were compared with the SWB audio signals reproduced by G.722.1C  at the same bit rate by using a multiple stimuli with hidden reference and anchor (MUSHRA) listening test .
Fifteen male and five female expert listeners took part in the test with headphones. The test was arranged in a quiet room. The listening files in Additional file 1 include six audio signals, where five audio signals were used for test and one audio signal was used for training listeners. In MUSHRA listening test, the original audio signal was considered as a hidden reference and the low-pass filtered audio signal with bandwidth of 3.5 kHz was used as an anchor. The audio quality for G.722.1 codec, G.722.1C codec, LE method, EHBE method, and the proposed PSR method was evaluated for subjective listening test with a 100-point scale (100~80, excellent; 80~60, good; 60~40, fair; 40~20, poor; 20~0, bad). The result is illustrated in Figure 7 with a 95% confidence interval.
Mean subjective scores with 95% confidence intervals for the MUSHRA listening test.
As shown in Figure 7, the subjective scores for the three different kinds of audio signals are similar in the MUSHRA test. In addition, the audio quality of G.722.1 with PSR is better than the original G.722.1 WB audio codec, but is inferior to the G.722.1C SWB audio codec. LE method shows its lower performance compared with PSR and EHBE methods. Both PSR and EHBE are preferred over the G.722.1 WB audio codec, while EHBE is better than the proposed PSR method on average. According to the informal listening tests, the tonal distortion which is caused by the non-linear filtering in EHBE is not sensitive to the listeners because the phase of the extended spectrum is comparatively continuous. Moreover, the PSR method can also reproduce the SWB audio signals whose subjective quality is similar to the EHBE method. So, the proposed PSR method is able to improve the quality of the WB audio signals decoded by G.722.1.
This paper presents a blind bandwidth extension (BWE) method of audio signals. Our BWE method consists of phase space reconstruction and high-frequency reconstruction of the audio signals. This blind BWE method incorporates both non-linear prediction and linear prediction. The objective tests show that the audio quality with the proposed method is a little bit better than the LE method and EHBE method. This BWE method was proved to be effective in quality enhancement of audio signals. In addition, the proposed method, LE method, and EHBE method were employed to extend the bandwidth of the audio signals decoded by the ITU-T G.722.1 WB codec. Subjective test results presented in this paper show that the proposed method greatly improved the auditory quality of the WB audio signals decoded by G.722.1. The bandwidth extension performance of the proposed method is higher than that of the typical LE method and is comparable to that of the conventional EHBE method.
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under grant numbers 61072089 and 60872027, and the Beijing Natural Science Foundation Program and Scientific Research Key Program of Beijing Municipal Commission of Education (no. KZ201110005005). The authors wish to thank Dr. Christian Ritz, an associate professor in the University of Wollongong, for polishing the English language and for commenting on our paper. The authors also wish to thank the anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments that helped in significantly improving the presentation of our paper.


For correct answers, see below.
Backyard pools need only be fenced if they are below the ground.
It is okay to swim alone in my own pool.
As long as I'm not going off a diving board and I can see the bottom, it's safe to dive in any depth of water.
It's unsafe to swim or dive after you've "had a few" drinks.
Taking a swim or going in the water can help you sober up after an afternoon of drinking at the beach.
Non-swimmers are safe as long as they are wearing "swimmies" or using floating rafts or toys in the pool.
Children under five are the typical drowning victims at public pools and beaches.
People with seizure disorders (epilepsy) can swim safely.
Non-swimmers are always safe if they stay in the shallow end of the pool.
I could get into trouble at the local swimming hole even if I bring a buddy.
False. All pools, including home pools, should be made inaccessible to children. Generally, a fence at least four feet high with self-closing, self-latching gates is needed. See your local code enforcement officer for specifics about access to your above ground pool from your yard or deck.
False. You should never swim alone, always swim with a "buddy". And keep an eye on each other, even at a guarded pool or beach. And parents, keep an eye on young children even when they are with another person and a lifeguard is present.
False. It's always best to know the water depth before you dive. You will need at least eight feet of water in and around the area of your dive.
True. Alcohol slows your reaction times, affects balance and impairs judgement. High summer heat and fatigue can increase the effects of alcohol.
False. Only time sobers you up.
False. These devices are not designed to act as life preservers. They often tip over or deflate. Also, non-swimmers may have a false sense of security and go into water too deep for their swimming ability.
False. Young children should be closely watched even when a lifeguard is present. However, the most common drowning victims are males in their teen years through their mid 20's.
True. Although they need to take a few precautions. They should only swim with someone who knows about their condition and who can help them if they need assistance. People having a seizure submerge quickly and silently. Swimming is not recommended for those with poorly controlled or uncontrolled seizure disorders.
False. Non-swimmers should not go deeper than chest deep. Remember young children who are only 42 inches tall are already over chest deep in the three-foot "shallow end" of most pools.
True. Currents can be deceiving and treacherous, posing a risk for even strong swimmers. Also, you may not be able to tell the depth of the water or see submerged obstacles such as trees and rocks.


Answering a question about mixed gender Freemasonry in Denmark, a Dutch freemason mentioned the Maria Ordenen. Never having heard of it, the world wide web was consulted to see what this order could be. It proves to be a fairly big order in Scandinavia and a little abroad with 41 lodges in Norway, 15 in Sweden, 6 in Denmark, 1 in Iceland, 2 in Finland and 2 in Germany with a number 7500 members. If this is true, a lodge has well over 100 members.
Information is (naturally) mostly available in Scandinavian languages, but in in Google translation, the Norwegian Wikipedia page is quite informative.
The order was founded in 1916 in Norway by Dagny Kristensen who led the order for almost 40 years. The name refers to the many Marias mentioned in the Bible and elsewhere. The order would be even more secretive than Freemasonry, since not only member lists are not public, but neither are the by-laws, but recently the ordered has opened up a bit. The order operates “close to Freemasonry”, probably meaning that they use their buildings and that many members are wives of Freemasons. Just as a large part of Scandinavian Freemasonry, the Maria Ordenen requires a belief in God of its members. They also have to be at least 25 years of age.
There is a seven grade system and the symbolism is more focused on the woman.
It all sounds a bit like the order of the Weavers in Netherlands who also operate “closely to Freemasonry”, with a similar structure, but with different symbolism.
Are there more countries with such initiatives?
The Honorable Order of Universal Co-Masonry (before April 2017 “The Honorable Order of American Co-Masonry”) is what remained when the American federation of Le Droit Humain split off the Supreme Council in Paris. Some lodges (6) decided to keep working under Le Droit Humain, the majority (8) formed the new order The Honorable Order of American Co-Masonry and the members of 4 other lodges spread over lodges of the two new orders.
From the viewpoint of the Honorable Order, they are the continuation of the mixed gender order that started in the USA in 1903. The headquarters of what used to be the American Federation are now the headquarters of the Honorable Order. The current American Le Droit Humain is the split-off in this scenario.
Be that as it may, since 1994 there were two branches from the same tree.
Both Le Droit Humain and the Honorable Order grew since. Le Droit Humain has some 16 lodges, the Honorable Order 29. What is perhaps a little ironic, the Honorable Order is nowdays an international order again with lodges in Argentinia and Chile (one each) and two in Brazil.
It is good to (virtually) run into people, since the website of the Honorable Order does not seem to say anything about the foreign lodges, but now I was able to make the respective country-pages more complete.


Given federal budget woes, if you were asked to save taxpayers as much money as possible without harming occupational health and safety (OHS) efforts, how would you answer?
I would consider reforming the administration of the Federal Employees Compensation Act (FECA) in two fundamental ways.
The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) centrally administers FECA.The other 17 participating departments appear at the mercy of management decisions outside their control and suffer a charge-back system that makes them pay for DOL policy – good, bad or indifferent. This reminds me of discredited central planning.
WC claims management should be at the lowest viable administrative unit, managed by the lead OHS professional. This is the optimal point and integrates the local OHS program with this fundamental OHS performance measure. The DOL function could be reorganized along the lines of state WC commissions.
Currently, FECA administration rewards injury. States recognize rewarding injury leads to waste, fraud and abuse. An incentive to return to gainful employment is required. The federal system appears to violate this principle in two ways. First, claims below a certain threshold are not contested. Those of us who have improved WC management efforts know dealing with questionable claims means skirmishing, not just battles.
Second, employees can elect 45 days of continuation of regular pay while out on a claim. Nearly all private sector workers accept a sum below their own or a state average weekly income and the duration is dependent on injury recovery. The lack of equivalent pay in the private sector might appear unfair, unless one recalls the legal defenses employers surrendered during the formation of WC systems (e.g., assumed risk, own negligence, co-worker negligence). Also, 45 days exceeds the generally recognized 30-day threshold after which workers risk long-term social problems.
I estimate federal WC performance at $1.60 in benefits per $100 payroll. The national average appears to be $1.20 in benefits per $100. My own state averages $0.80 of benefits per $100.
The total federal WC benefit payout is running about $2.4 billion. I suspect costs could be halved by both decentralized WC oversight and eliminating disincentives regarding return-to-work.


The army of Catalonia "Exèrcit de Catalunya" was an army created on the 9th of July from 1713 by the Catalan Government. On the same day, the Catalan authorities declared the war to the Kingdom of France and the Duke of Anjou, as the Catalan constitution from 1906 did not recognise him as a king of the Hispanic Monarchy. The army started recruiting levies and the first units created were the Regiment de la diputació del General de Catalunya and the Regiment de la ciutat de Barcelona, under the commandment of Antoni de Villarroel. Right after, the Catalan Generality recruited five more regiments of Line Infantry, which were the following: - Regiment de la Immaculada Concepció - Regiment de Santa Eulàlia - Regiment d'Infanteria de la Mare de Déu dels Desemparats - Regiment de Sant Narcís - Regiment de Nostra Senyora del Roser A part from this regiments, every city had it´s own regiment of line infantry during the whole Modern Age, called Coronela, the most importants were the following: - Coronela de Tarragona - Coronela de Barcelona - Coronela de Tortosa - Coronela de Lleida - Coronela de Manresa The Catalan constitutions recognised the rights of every city to raise regiments to protect themselves. The people on those regiments were people from the City Guilds. Also Catalonia raised a good chivalry army, to support the Line infantry. The regiments conforming this Chivalry army were this ones: - Regiment de cavalleria Rafael Nebot - Regiment de cavalleria La Fe - Regiment de cavalleria Sant Jordi - Regiment de cavalleria Dragons de Sant Miquel - Regiment de cavalleria Sant Jaume - Regiment de cavalleria Pere de Bricfeus - Companyia de cavalleria n.1 d'Hússars Hongaresos - Companyia de cavalleria n.2 d'Hússars Hongaresos - Companyia de cavalleria de Jordi Badia The artillery was under the commandment of the General Joan Baptista Basset, and they were mainly deployed in Barcelona. The Marina Catalana was quiet weak as it just had 4 or 5 big battle ships and a garrison of 200 orphan boys. Also, the Miquelets enjoyed a certain prominence in the war. The Miquelets were Catalan and Valencian light mountain troops created by Miquelet de Prats, a Cesar Borgia's man. The Catalan army was finally defeated in Barcelona on the 11th of September 1714, after violent combats against the invaders from the Spanish and the French armies. Regiments of Miquelets were also integrated in the Spanish army and fought in other places of the Spanish Empire, outside Spain. For example, the First Free Company of Volunteers of Catalonia, which was composed of Catalan Miquelets, was destined in New Spain. From there, the Company played a crucial role in the Spanish colonization of the Pacific Northwest, building Fort San Miguel, the first formal European settlement in British Columbia, from 1790 to 1792. Its captain, Pere d'Alberní i Teixidor, received military decorations and even was appointed Interim Governor of California in 1800.
The army of Catalonia "Exèrcit de Catalunya" was an army created on the 9th of July from 1713 by the Catalan Government.
On the same day, the Catalan authorities declared the war to the Kingdom of France and the Duke of Anjou, as the Catalan constitution from 1906 did not recognise him as a king of the Hispanic Monarchy.
The army started recruiting levies and the first units created were the Regiment de la diputació del General de Catalunya and the Regiment de la ciutat de Barcelona, under the commandment of Antoni de Villarroel.
The Catalan constitutions recognised the rights of every city to raise regiments to protect themselves. The people on those regiments were people from the City Guilds.
The artillery was under the commandment of the General Joan Baptista Basset, and they were mainly deployed in Barcelona. The Marina Catalana was quiet weak as it just had 4 or 5 big battle ships and a garrison of 200 orphan boys.
Also, the Miquelets enjoyed a certain prominence in the war. The Miquelets were Catalan and Valencian light mountain troops created by Miquelet de Prats, a Cesar Borgia's man.
The Catalan army was finally defeated in Barcelona on the 11th of September 1714, after violent combats against the invaders from the Spanish and the French armies.
Regiments of Miquelets were also integrated in the Spanish army and fought in other places of the Spanish Empire, outside Spain. For example, the First Free Company of Volunteers of Catalonia, which was composed of Catalan Miquelets, was destined in New Spain. From there, the Company played a crucial role in the Spanish colonization of the Pacific Northwest, building Fort San Miguel, the first formal European settlement in British Columbia, from 1790 to 1792. Its captain, Pere d'Alberní i Teixidor, received military decorations and even was appointed Interim Governor of California in 1800.


Who Are Asia's Worst Dictators?
Over the past couple of years, many of the world's dictators have died or been deposed. Some are new to the scene, while others have been holding on to power for more than a decade.
Mike Pompeo, Kim Jong-un, March 2018.
His father, Kim Jong-il, died in December of 2011, and youngest son Kim Jong-un took over the reins in North Korea. Some observers hoped that the younger Kim, who was educated in Switzerland, might make a break from his dad's paranoid, nuclear-weapons-brandishing style of leadership, but so far he seems to be a chip off the old block.
Among Kim Jong-un's "accomplishments" thus far are the bombarding of Yeonpyeong, South Korea; the sinking of the South Korean naval vessel Cheonan, which killed 46 sailors; and the continuation of his father's political labor camps, believed to hold as many as 200,000 unfortunate souls.
Kim the younger also showed a bit of sadistic creativity in his punishment of a North Korean official accused of drinking alcohol during the official mourning period for Kim Jong-il. According to media reports, the official was executed by mortar round.
President of the Syrian Arab Republic Bashar Assad during talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, 17 May 2018.
Bashar al-Assad took over the presidency of Syria in 2000 when his father died after a 30-year-long reign. Touted as "The Hope," the younger al-Assad has turned out to be anything but a reformer.
He ran unopposed in the 2007 presidential election, and his secret police force (the Mukhabarat) has routinely disappeared, tortured, and killed political activists. Since January of 2011, the Syrian Army and security services have been using tanks and rockets against members of the Syrian opposition as well as ordinary civilians.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the president of the Islamic Republic of Iran -- United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 21 June 2012.
It's not entirely clear whether President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad or Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khameini should be listed here as the dictator of Iran, but between the two of them, they are certainly oppressing the people of one of the world's oldest civilizations. Ahmadinejad almost certainly stole the 2009 presidential elections, and then crushed the protestors who came out on the street in the abortive Green Revolution. Between 40 and 70 people were killed, and about 4,000 arrested for protesting the rigged election results.
Under Ahmadinejad's rule, according to Human Rights Watch, "Respect for basic human rights in Iran, especially freedom of expression and assembly, deteriorated in 2006. The government routinely tortures and mistreats detained dissidents, including through prolonged solitary confinement." Opponents of the government face harassment from the thuggish Basij militia, as well as the secret police. Torture and mistreatment are routine for political prisoners, especially in the horrific Evin Prison near Tehran.
Nursultan Nazarbayev has served as the first and only president of Kazakhstan since 1990. The Central Asian nation became independent of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Throughout his reign, Nazarbayev has been accused of corruption and human rights abuses. His personal bank accounts hold more than $1 billion US. According to reports by Amnesty International and the US State Department, Nazarbayev's political opponents often end up in prison, under terrible conditions, or even shot dead out in the desert. Human trafficking is rampant in the country, as well.
President Nazarbayev has to approve any changes to the Constitution of Kazakhstan. He personally controls the judiciary, the military, and the internal security forces. A 2011 New York Times article alleged that the government of Kazakhstan paid American think tanks to put out "glowing reports about the country."
The aging Nazarbayev may (or may not) release his grip on power any time soon.
Like Nursultan Nazarbayev in neighboring Kazakhstan, Islam Karimov has been ruling Uzbekistan since before its independence from the Soviet Union - and he seems to share Joseph Stalin's style of rule. His term of office was supposed to have been up in 1996, but the people of Uzbekistan generously agreed to let him continue as president by a 99.6% "yes" vote.
Since then, Karimov has graciously allowed himself to be re-elected in 2000, 2007, and again in 2012, in defiance of Uzbekistan's Constitution. Given his penchant for boiling dissidents alive, it's little wonder that few people dare protest. Still, incidents like the Andijan Massacre must have made him less than beloved among some of the Uzbek populace.
Karimov, who died 2 September 2016, of multiple organ failure secondary to a severe stroke, ending a decades-long, ruthless rule, was succeeded by Shavkat Mirziyoyev.


in that topic, I was going to develop a "side-by-side 3D model viewer". (please see the attached image); two models should be placed side-by-side and I want those similar models rotate simultaneously around their axis As I drag the mouse to left or right.
Now I need to know how to start. I have developed a simple 3d model viewer thanks to JPCT and helps of Dear EgonOlsen.
Blitting itself is really easy. It simply means that you paint a 2d image onto the screen. In jPCT, this would be a texture (or a part of it). The method described in the thread is a little more complicated than that. You don't render the image onto the screen but into a texture. To do that, you assign a render target (=texture) to your framebuffer and render the scene: http://www.jpct.net/doc/com/threed/jpct/FrameBuffer.html#setRenderTarget(com.threed.jpct.Texture). After rendering into the texture, you remove the render target again http://www.jpct.net/doc/com/threed/jpct/FrameBuffer.html#removeRenderTarget(), set a a second texture as render target for your second scene and repeat the process. In the end, you have two scenes of two different models rendered into two different textures. All that's left now, is to blit these textures onto the actual screen (without any render target set).
...but before I go into even more detail: Is this for desktop Java or for Android?
I hope there would be a slight amount of required changes when converting the "desktop code" to "Android code"
No, it's basically the same thing. The reason why I was asking is that the Android version supports NPOT-textures while the desktop version doesn't, and they might be useful for this. Anyway, you can start with the desktop version.
Thanks for introducing NPOT-Textures. I am glad to have that option in Android. it is useful for my work.
but I have a question before coding; when you say "In the end, you have two scenes of two different models rendered into two different textures", what Should I do in order to join those two scenes so they create a side-by-side look?
I assume that the key action for joining two scenes is inside the blit function parameters, right?
Not quite. You render one scene in one texture, the other in the other and than do two blitting operations to display them both.


He is correct. The angles of a triangle add up to 180°. Therefore if a and b are 60 C must be 60 and therefore the triangle is equivalent.


Rebekah would see Isaac approaching them in the distance, in which she got down from her camel and asked Eliezer: "Who is that man in the field coming out to meet us?
In the last article we'd learnt, that Rebekah's family had finally given Abraham's chief servant Eliezer -- permission to take their sister Rebekah, back to his homeland. Rebekah would go with Eliezer, in order for her to become Isaac's wife.
Now after Eliezer had received the good news, that he could take Rebekah back with him, we find that he would once again, bow down to give thanks unto the Almighty God.
Nonetheless, when Eliezer was done giving thanks to the Lord -- he would then present Rebekah with costly jewels, that were crafted from the precious metals of gold and sliver.
Now it would also be at this time, that Eliezer would also give Rebekah many fine articles of clothing. And on top of this, Eliezer had presented Rebekah's family with expensive gifts as well. Next we find, that Eliezer and his men -- had now decided to replenish their bodies, by finally eating, and drinking the food that Rebekah's family had brought out to them earlier. Be that as it may, after Eliezer and his men had finished eating their meals and drinking, they decided to rest for the night.
As the night had passed, and morning had come, Eliezer had awakened. And it was at this time, that we find him to be anxious to head back home to his master Abraham, so he could tell him about the success of his "wife finding mission." For he was excited to be able to present Isaac, with his new wife. Not wanting to just get up and leave without notice, Eliezer decides to ask Rebekah's family, if it was okay for him to head back: "Send me back on my way to my master." Eliezer had asked.
Rebekah Staying Another Ten Months?
However, after hearing this, Rebekah's family stayed persisted -- when it came to Rebekah staying home, for at least another ten months. And on top of this, they'd hoped, that she would be in agreement with them. So Rebekah's family decided to ask her, if she wanted to leave at this time: "Let's call Rebekah and ask her about it?"
Now after Rebekah was before them, they'd asked her: "Will you go with this man?" And after hearing this, Rebekah responded by saying: "I will go." So out of respect, when it came to her decision -- they sent Rebekah, and her nurse attendants on their way.
On a side note -- the passage that follows this event, seems to suggest, that perhaps... Rebekah's family were familiar with the "Abrahamic Covenant?" And on the other hand, Eliezer might have told them about that as well. Notice the blessing that Rebekah's family sends her off with: "Our sister, may you increase to thousands upon thousands; may your offspring possess the gates of their enemies." For they would say this to Rebekah -- as she, and her nurse attendants, mounted their camels and headed out with Eliezer.
Now a few days had gone by, and we now find ourselves back on the other side of the Arabian Desert. And it's at this time, the Sacred Record would reveal to us -- that Isaac had went out into a field, that was located from within the Negev, in which he'd lived. And it would be at this time, that we find Isaac beginning to do his daily meditation, for this is something, in which he routinely did. However, after Isaac had started to do his meditation -- we find him looking towards a group, that he'd saw afar off, which was approaching towards him on camels.
So Isaac decides to go out and meet with them. Now after Isaac had done this, he would notice -- that this particular group, would be Eliezer returning back from his "wife finding mission" -- that Abraham had sent him on. And it would also be at this time, that Rebekah would see Isaac approaching towards them from a distance. And after seeing this, she got down from her camel and asked Eliezer: "Who is that man in the field coming out to meet us?"
Isaac and Rebekah Finally Meet?
And after hearing this, Eliezer would answer her by saying: "He is my master." So Rebekah took her veil and covered herself. Now keep in mind, that Rebekah had done this, for it was seen as an act of: modesty, subjection and humility -- when it came to Isaac, and his respected position. Nonetheless, after Isaac had finally met up with the group, Eliezer began to tell him all about his "wife finding mission" that Abraham had sent him on.
Next, we find that the Sacred Record would reveal -- that Isaac ended up bringing Rebekah back into the tent of his mother Sarah, and soon after, they were married there. And so therefore, she became his wife. And make no mistake, Isaac loved Rebekah, for she had brought him comfort and peace. Now keep in mind, that Isaac's mother Sarah, had passed away some three years before. Now I'm pointing this out, because who knows, perhaps there were some type of emotional void... that was being filled, from within Isaac's heart and mind, as well?
Now that Isaac and Rebekah had finally met and wedded. The Sacred Record now turns our attention back towards Abraham. Its been about three years since Abraham's wife Sarah had passed, we will see if Abraham is now ready to continue on with life.


I gave notice on my rental house a couple of weeks ago and will be moving into my new place on Wednesday. However, as we were paid up to the end of February I gave notice up until then, which means we have the keys and are technically still the tenants, even if we're not actually sleeping here (my housemate will be moving out on Saturday).
Regardless of when we move, we're still the legal tenants until 29 February and we are still supposed to enjoy all the rights of tenants. My landlady either has no idea of our rights (likely) or doesn't care (also likely). She has been around here about 10 times, and has only given advance notice twice. I woke up the other morning to find someone tapping on the wall outside my bedroom window - she had a painter here and he was checking whether the wood had rotted. When I went outside she said, "Oh, hello" as though it were perfectly okay, then asked if she could show him inside. She expressed some surprise that I was home (it was a weekday), which leads me to suspect that she had intended to show him in without me even knowing. Today I saw her husband walk up the driveway and start ripping bits of wood off the side of the house. I walked out and said hello - somewhat coldly, I admit - and he said, "Do you remember me?" I said, "Yes, but I didn't receive any notice that you'd be coming." He said, "I didn't know you required notice." Then his wife walked up and said, "Oh hi - sorry, I didn't think you'd be home." She has no clue that it's illegal for her to enter the property without notice - whether I'm home or not. She's just so money-hungry that she doesn't want to miss a day's rent, so she is trying to get all the repairs done while we're still here.
I'm letting it go because I want to get my bond back, but still I'm so annoyed about it. When they arrive I don't feel like I can leave because I'm so convinced they're going to be coming inside the house. She's also organised painters and other workmen to come and do stuff next week - she hasn't bothered to confirm with me when that will be, and suggested that it might be inconvenient for me to have a removalist here on Wednesday if there are tradesmen here who will want to use the driveway! Mate... such cheek.


Why Doesn't My Stereo Skip To Specific Tracks With My Burned CD's?
If possible, when burning an audio CD, you should try to use the "disk at once" option. If your CD burner software has it and your hardware supports it, "disk at once" causes the CD to be burned all in one continuous pass without ever stopping the laser, whereas otherwise the laser is turned off after each track and then started again for the next track. This starting and stopping of the laser causes slight discontinuities between the tracks, and while this generally should not stop an audio player playing the CD through, it often will stop an audio player from being able to find individual tracks on the CD when you try to use things like programmed play, random play, or even just to manually skip to a track other than the first track on the disk.


In this podcast (with supporting text), Oxford statistician Dr. Jennifer Rogers explores the numbers behind recent headlines linking processed meat with bowel cancer.
It was a bad day in 2016 for meat eaters when the news broke, with The Sun opting for the headline 'Banger out of order – sausages and bacon top cancer list'.
The worries stemmed from a report released by the World Health Organization. Last year, bacon made its way on to a list that also includes arsenic, asbestos, alcohol, and tobacco because scientists found a 'statistically significant' increased risk of getting bowel cancer.
Mass-produced factory bacon is made by injecting salt water and chemicals, including nitrates, into pork belly before it's cured.
Dr. Rogers explains that: 'If we look at lung cancer and smoking, for every 400 people we would expect four people to get lung cancer anyway, even without smoking. If you look at people who smoke 25 or more cigarettes every day, that goes up to 96 in every 400 people.
'Now compare that to what we get for bacon. Bowel cancer affects just over 6% of the population. So for every 400 people, you'd expect about 24 people to get bowel cancer anyway. Eating 50g of bacon every day increases this risk by 18%, which means if you were to take 400 people all who ate bacon every day, you would now expect 28 of those to get bowel cancer – an increase of four people in every 400, compared with 92 in 400 for smoking.
We should also note, says Dr. Rogers, that people who eat lots of processed meat are perhaps less likely to live healthy lifestyles in general, which may contribute to the increased risk of bowel cancer. That's one of the problems with drawing conclusions from observational studies, as opposed to strictly controlled clinical trials, she adds.
While the WHO report did cause bacon sales to suffer a short-term hit, things seem to have recovered since the more measured reality around the initially startling headlines came to light.
Dr. Rogers, who has her bacon sandwiches with red sauce, no butter, and toasted bread, concludes: 'I think that sometimes numbers and percentages can be hard to get our heads around and it's easier just to say, "I'm not going to eat bacon."
'I was recently asked to comment on something else that had been added to the "gives you cancer" list – drinking really hot drinks. This time around, the newspapers were contacting statisticians before they wrote their headlines and articles because they'd learned a lesson from the bacon story.
'It turned out that you needed to be drinking really extreme temperatures of mate tea in South America – not the temperatures that we have our hot drinks at.


I hope you slept well. We both hate you. Can you supply me with everything I need? Why do sheep not shrink in the rain? Pontus has what it takes. Harry was hurt. They smiled at one another. That's classified information. Don't mislead me. I met a Mr. Kimura at the party.
The president abolished slavery. This is for Scotland, not for Sparta. As for me, I think the play was quite interesting. Do you get much snow in the winter? The options are clear. I need you to help me with this. Scot says he feels fine. The luggage is piled up in the truck. Don't start a sentence with "but". I get along well with them.
The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power. He and his sisters are currently living in Tokyo. How many lines are there in this paragraph? We could not tell the twins one from the other. You'll never get her to agree. My Internet connection is slow. Leslie tried to talk Brian out of going. Guido will never be able to do that. This is the first time I've heard that word. How can we convince Harmon that it wasn't his fault?
The trouble with fiction... is that it makes too much sense. Reality never makes sense. I've got no answer to my letter. I just finished cleaning the attic. Margaret was real competitive. Words failed him. She fled Australia. Stacy seems to like the same kind of music as Hughes. The small business man failed and his business went down for the count. In spite of the fact that she was busy, she came to see me. I can't move my leg.
The weather is fine in Boston. He made no effort to apologize. She put out the light before she went to bed. Dalton says Carsten doesn't like Boston. I can't believe Mwa and Marci have been together for ten years. Peek-a-boo, I can see you! Praise is more valuable than blasphemy. We're not wrong. In a way, you're wrong. I should be very grateful if you would send them by air.
My favorite Pizza is Hawaiian. Do you like the taste of beer? Can't you just be nice to each other? Nobody understands. Your lips are blue. You should get out of the water. I don't think there's any point in discussing this. I don't expect him to understand my innermost thoughts but I wonder what I can do to get him to hold an interest. Ladies and gentlemen... Tell me what's wrong with them. I got these a week ago.
Tirana is an Albanian town. Ask him about it when he comes. I haven't played this game before. The customers have been complaining a lot lately. I know where Leigh's office is. The doctor's careful examination of the patient brought about his speedy recovery. Ronni certainly seems to be good at playing the guitar. Now I'm going to cook, I'll be back later. It's warm enough to swim. The record stands at 254,321 points.
I groped around in the dark for my flashlight. I finished that work up all on my own. Stacy voted for it. Rayan lived in Boston for a few years. Look, I told you Dorian is a friend of mine. Let's get the work over with so we can relax. Rhonda has a loud voice. That's something we need to think about. The President's speech was calculated to ease world tensions. I don't need a history lesson.
Could you excuse us for a second? It's a peacock. It was a peacock that cried just now. I've got the best way to get her to be your girlfriend. There was nothing interesting on TV, so I turned it off. What can have induced him to behave so cruelly? If problems come up, call me. We have a natural desire to want to help others. They offered Harold a gift. This looks like a good spot for fishing. I think Amigo is pretty cute, too.
Thousands of candles illuminated the church during the ceremony. Po will have dinner. They didn't even know who they were supposed to meet. The market opens at 9:00 a.m. I love to be alone. I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude. He lives within a stone's throw of the school. Here we are at Tokyo Station. Judge and Ned are watching TV in the living room. My cat weighs about ten pounds. He is everything but a gentleman.


After disinviting the Philadelphia Eagles from their White House visit because so few players were expected to attend, a new statement from Trump attempts to shift blame for the cancellation onto the team.
The White House disinvited the Philadelphia Eagles from the traditional post-championship visit on Monday after as few as two players were expected to be in attendance.
The White House blamed the Eagles, accusing the team of "abandoning their fans."
The White House instead hosted a "celebration of the American flag," at which Trump did his best to sing along to "God Bless America."
The Philadelphia Eagles did not end up taking part in their scheduled ceremonial White House visit after being disinvited on Monday night just hours before the event was set to take place.
On Tuesday, the White House elaborated on its decision to cancel the event, accusing the team of "abandoning its fans" in a statement.
As the statement explained, the White House expected 81 individuals to attend the event, but later attempted to reschedule because many players would not attend. President Trump was set to be traveling on the other days proposed by the team.
"Unfortunately, the Eagles offered to send only a tiny handful of representatives, while making clear that the great majority of players would not attend the event, despite planning to be in D.C. today. In other words, the vast majority of the Eagles team decided to abandon their fans.
"Upon learning these facts, the President decided to change the event so that it would be a celebration of the American flag with Eagles fans and performances by United States Marine Band and the United States Army Chorus."
According to some reports, as few as just two Eagles players were expected to attend the event. As the NFLPA noted in their statement on the cancellation, many Eagles players were planning on being in DC for the day to take part in community events.
Eagles safety Malcolm Jenkins also responded to the cancellation with a statement of his own. Jenkins, one of the Eagles to raise his fist during the anthem, cited the work that the team had done throughout the year in the community and noted that none of his teammates knelt during the anthem during the 2017 season, making the White House's emphasis on patriotism incongruous at best.
"The decision was made to lie, to paint the picture that these players are anti-America, anti-flag and anti-military," says Jenkins near the end of his statement.
While the Eagles were not present, the Trump still did host an event on Tuesday, which the White House claimed was to be "a celebration of the American flag."
Skipping out on the ceremonial White House visit may continue to become more and more of a regular occurrence.
Players from both teams competing in the NBA Finals have expressed that their teams would not be attending should they go on to win the championship. And while the reigning World Series champion Houston Astros did visit the White House photo op, the scene included quite a staredown towards Trump from its star player.


Perhaps I should start by asking a question - can a team be made up of 2 people? At our school there are 2 of us working in primary IT and there are 2 librarians who we also think of as part of our team. Today, however, I met with just my fellow IT teacher to discuss how we work together in our team.
Conflict is the irritant that shapes the pearl. It brings possibilities for deeper relationships, new perspectives, appreciation of differences and clarity of beliefs that shape an individual's and the team's actions. it is the disequilibrium that brings equilibrium.
Teams that handle conflict smoothly move to the performing stage of development quickly. They use conflict to deepen their understanding of individual members' perspectives and to enrich their experiences. They tap individual expertise so that all members benefit from the collective expertise they share. They appreciate conflict for the opportunities and possibilities it holds rather than fear it or hide its existence.
When teams first come together they are merely a collection of individuals who have their own perspective, frames of reference and goals. However as team members work together over time with a clear purpose and with success they develop a deep sense of interdependence.
Collaborative professional learning teams do not result from luck or magic but from discipline and commitment. A team is a collection of individuals who commit to working together to accomplish a common goal. Team members choose to share their individual knowledge, talents and expertise so that the team benefits. Every member takes personal and collective responsibility for the team's success.
To answer your first question, yes, I think that 2 constitutes a team when the two are working together! As always, really good reflection on what it means to be a team and what challenges teams face. I hope that this teaming is a successful one for you both.


Usually take the form of a guided discussion or focus group. Discussions are based on a series of questions that are developed before the group session.
Can help you identify important issues and generate ideas for improvement.
Can be a way of testing assumptions.
Take one to two hours.
Identify the purpose of your discussion.
Think about what you are trying to learn.
Identify participants (ideally 6 to 10 per group). Develop a list of attributes for participants, depending on the purpose of your discussion.
time employed by your organization.
type of vehicles driven for work.
Deal with outspoken group members.
Ensure all participants are heard.
Using a computer or tape recorder.
Questions should be open-ended, not ones requiring a yes/no answer.
Ensure the questions will help you get the information you need as specified in your purpose.
Order questions so that they go from general to specific.
An introduction to welcome the group.
How the information will be reported and used.
Select a location for the discussion group. It should be a comfortable space with a setting that encourages conversation. Participants will need to sit in a circle, U-shape or around a large table so everyone can see each other.
name tags or cards if appropriate.
Introduce themselves, any co-facilitators and the recorder.
Have the participants introduce themselves.
How the information will be recorded and reported.
That individuals’ responses will be kept confidential.
That participants' responses will not be identified in any reports summary report.
Conduct the discussion group according to the script.
Ask follow-up questions that arise from the discussion to probe deeper into the topic.
Immediately following the discussion group, the facilitator(s), recorder and any other observers should review the session to capture any immediate impressions.
If a person recorded the session, as soon as possible following the session, they should organize their notes to make sure they are clear and accurate.
Write a summary of the session.
Common feelings, beliefs or opinions.
Strongly-held feelings, beliefs or opinions.
An introduction stating the purpose.
Ensure that discussion group participants are not individually identified or identifiable in the report.
The discussion group report will become part of the data that you can use to help plan for action to reduce your organization’s occupational road safety risk.
If you were the CEO, what changes might you introduce at _________________ (your organization) to improve the safety of employees who drive while they are working?
How would this change improve the safety of employees?
How do you feel about the policies and procedures at _________________ (your organization) relating to driving on the job?
How effective and appropriate are these policies and procedures?
What additional policies and procedures would you like to see?
How well are these policies and procedures communicated?
How appropriate are the communications to employees relating to safety and driving?
What improvements would you make to these communications?
When you make suggestions, how are they treated by managers?


Your hunch is correct. Your cat decided to live with you, not the other way around. The sad truth is, it may not be a final decision.
But don't take this feline diffidence personally. It runs in the family. And it goes back a long way -- about 12,000 years, actually.
Those are among the inescapable conclusions of a genetic study of the origins of the domestic cat, being published today in the journal Science.
The findings, drawn from an analysis of nearly 1,000 cats around the world, suggest that the ancestors of today's tabbies, Persians and Siamese wandered into Near Eastern settlements at the dawn of agriculture. They were looking for food, not friendship.
They found what they were seeking in the form of rodents feeding on stored grain. They stayed for 12 millennia, although not without wandering off now and again to consort with their wild cousins.
The story is quite different from that of other domesticated animals: cattle, sheep, goats, horses -- and dogs, cats' main rivals for human affection. It may even provide insight on the behavior of the animal that, if not man's best friend, is certainly his most inscrutable.
"It is a story about one of the more important biological experiments ever undertaken," said Stephen J. O'Brien, a molecular geneticist at the National Cancer Institute's laboratory in Frederick, Md., and one of the supervisors of the project.
"We think what happened is that cats sort of domesticated themselves," said Carlos A. Driscoll, the University of Oxford graduate student who did the work, which required him, among other things, to befriend feral cats on the Mongolian steppes.
Today, there are 37 species in the family Felidae, ranging from lions through ocelots down to little Mittens. All domestic cats are descended from the species Felis sylvestris ("cat of the woods"), which goes by the common name "wildcat."
The species is indigenous to Europe, the Middle East and East Asia. The New World, Japan and Oceania lack wildcats. North America's closest counterpart is the lynx.
There are five subspecies of wildcats, and they look very much like many pet cats, particularly non-pedigree ones. The Scottish wildcat, for example, is indistinguishable from a barn cat with a mackerel tabby coat. These animals, however, are a true wild species. They are not escaped pets that have become feral, or reverted to the wild.
Driscoll and his collaborators, who included Oxford zoologist David Macdonald, took blood samples and ear punch biopsies from all wildcat subspecies as well as from fancy-breed cats, non-pedigree pet cats and feral cats. They analyzed two kinds of genetic fingerprints: nuclear DNA, which carries nearly all of an animal's genes and reflects inheritance from both parents, and mitochondrial DNA, which exists outside the cell nucleus, carries only a few genes and descends through the generations only from mothers.


Like her mother, the girl had special abilities in styling and in her dress.
in styling and from her dress.
in styling and in her dress.
in the styling and in the dress.
in styling and her dress.
in her style and in her dress.
"Styling" and "her dress" are two different objects of the same verb "had." As such, the two words need to employ parallel structure and be in the same form. The answer choice that features a parallel structure is "in her style and in her dress."
The school sought to create well-rounded individuals, making students who were painters, musicians, and participating in athletics.
who were painters and musicians and participate in athletics.
who were painters, musicians, and participate in athletics.
who were painters, musicians, and athletes.
who were painting, musicians, and participating in athletics.
who were painters, musicians, and participating in athletics.
The list in the underlined portion of the sentence features three objects attached to the same verb, but these three objects are different kinds of words, describing different things. Any list like this one must feature a parallel structure, where all the items match in terms of tense and word form. The only answer choice to have such a parallel structure is "who were painters, musicians, and athletes."
The new organization needed people who could write, sell, and marketing their products.
who could write, sell, and marketing their products.
who could write, sell, and in marketing their products.
who could writing, sell, and marketing their products.
who could write, sell, and market their products.
who could write, selling, and marketing their products.
The list contained in the underlined portion of the sentence features unlike elements, meaning that the verb describes unlike objects. The list needs to feature a parallel structure of elements that each have the same tense and word form. The only answer choice that features a correct parallel structure is "who could write, sell, and market their products."
Whether or not a protest was made, every decision was either reviewed or debating by the committee.
either reviewed or debating by the committee.
either reviewed or debated by the committee.
either reviewed or debating in the committee.
either reviewed or debating by a committee.
either be reviewed or debating by the committee.
In any "either . . . or" phrase, the elements compared must be of the same type, so that an equal comparison can be made. In the sentence, "reviewed" and "debating" do not follow such a parallel structure, because "reviewed" is a past tense verb while "debating" is a present participle. The only answer choice that employs parallel structure correctly is "either reviewed or debated by the committee."
His management style was to always be remarkably energetic, neither too intense nor too calming.
neither too intense nor too calm.
neither too intensely nor too calming.
neither too intense, nor too calming.
neither too intense nor too calmed.
neither too intense or too calming.
"Intense" and "calming" are two different parts of speech, but are joined in the same "neither...nor" phrase. In any such phrase, the two items described must have a parallel structure. The only answer choice with a parallel structure is "neither too intense nor too calm."
The boys had to choose either playing with the new video game or to run outside.
either playing with the new video game or to be run outside.
either playing with the new video game or running outside.
either playing with a new video game or to run outside.
either playing with the new video game, or to run outside.
either playing with the new video game or to run outside.
Any "either...or" construction has to feature a parallel structure that includes each item given, and this sentence uses a gerund and an infinitive. The two forms must be the same to be grammatically correct. Therefore, the correct answer choice is "either playing with the new video game or running outside."
From a young age, she enjoyed outdoor activities like hiking, climbing, and her kayak.
like hiking, climbing, and kayaking.
like hiking, to climb, and her kayak.
like hiking, climbing, and her kayak.
like hiking climbing and her kayak.
such as hiking, climbing, and her kayak.
The list featured in the underlined portion of the sentence contains unlike items (two gerunds and one straightforward noun) as its objects. A list that forms the objects of the sentence must feature a parallel structure, so that the verb is describing similar objects. The only answer choice with the correct parallel structure is "like hiking, climbing, and kayaking."
The veteran favored his left leg because of an old war injury in his right leg that never healed properly or settling well.
that never healed properly nor settling well.
that never healed properly or settled well.
that never healing properly or settled well.
that never healed properly or settling well.
that ever healed properly or settling well.
The underlined portion of the sentence features an "or" phrase with two different kind of verb phrases as the final elements of a dependent clause. The phrase actually needs to feature a parallel structure among its two parts. The only answer choice with a proper parallel structure is "that never healed properly or settled well."
As a ballplayer, he was creative, imaginative, and worked hard.
creatively, imaginative, and worked hard.
creative, imaginative, and he worked hard.
creatively, imaginatively, and worked hard.
creative, imaginative, and worked hard.
creative, imaginative, and hard working.
The list contained in the underlined portion of the sentence has three items with three different forms: two adjectives and a verbal phrase. Any such list needs to have a parallel structure, where all three items are similar. The only answer choice to feature such a parallel structure is "creative, imaginative, and hard working," in which "hard working" is a participle.
The obstacle course was fun for the new recruit, as he enjoyed running, crouching, and to find new paths.
as he enjoyed running, crouching, and finding new paths.
as he enjoyed running, crouching, and to find new paths.
as he had enjoyed running, crouching, and to find new paths.
because he enjoyed running, crouching, and to find new paths.
as he enjoying running, crouching, and to find new paths.
The list that forms the objects of the second independent clause contains objects that have different forms. Any such list needs to feature all three items as similar things that can be compared. The only answer choice with such a parallel structure is "as he enjoyed running, crouching, and finding new paths."


Equity is the legal term for the cash amount held in your property. For instance if your house is worth £150,000 and you have £100,000 outstanding on your mortgage then you have £50,000 in Equity.
I Co-own My Property; who does it Belong to?
Unless you have made specific provision by way of a Deed of Trust then the equity will be owned equally between the co-owners, no matter how many of you there are. This is irrespective f whether one person put in more money for the original purchase or has paid the mortgage or for improvements.
When Would I Need to do a Transfer of Equity?
The most common circumstances that require a Transfer of Equity are as a result of marital or partnership breakdown. Sometimes the parties agree to sell the property and split the cash but occasionally one of them may want to stay in the house. Since the deeds need to be kept up to date in the event of a change in circumstances then one person may buy the other person's 'share' in the property and thus own it outright. The phrase 'Transfer of Equity' is merely the name given to the legal process which allows this change to take place.
It is a sad fact that not all marital splits are amicable; but even if this is the case with you then you must still make sure that you get advice from a Solicitor specialising in divorce ( I am including the breakdown of common-law and civil partnerships in this). You need to be absolutely certain that everything is fair and equitable, otherwise it could come back to bite you a few years down the line.
How much is to be paid for the outgoing owners share? If you aren't sure of the value of the property then get at least 3 independent valuations and agree on a reasonable figure from there.
How are you going to raise the money to buy the share? If you intend to get a further advance on your current mortgage or remortgage then you need to speak to an independant financial advisor.
Even if you don't need to remortgage or raise any money on the house to buy the additional share, you will still need to get consent from your current lender. They will need to execute the transfer document as well and they must have approved the transfer before you appoint a conveyancer to help you. The mortgagee is not obliged to allow the transfer to take place if you can't prove that you can afford the mortgage payments.
Once you have been through these points and you are both happy then, and only then, do you contact a conveyancer to deal with the legal work. You don't necessarily have to have the same conveyancer, in fact if the situation between you is less than friendly then it is highly advisable for you to have separate representation - it costs twice as much but at least you are both protected and there is no chance of anyone being favoured.
Stamp duty or stamp duty tax(SDLT) as it is now known is a tax levied by the Inland Revenue on any 'dispositions of land and property for chargeable consideration'; this is a pointlessly posh way of saying that it is payable on any sale of land for money or value.
At the time of writing there is no SDLT payable on transfers of equity where it is as a result of a matrimonial split. If you are just old college buddies selling a flat then you will have to pay - sorry. For up to date advice and an accurate figure you must speak to your conveyancer, Accountant or tax lawyer. You could also try looking it up on the Inland Revenue website.


What are the most common causes of bedwetting?
Bedwetting is usually a combination of factors and is rarely caused by a physical anomaly. It can happen that a child produces more urine at night than other children. Stress can also play an important role.
Bedwetting never happens because your child drank too much during the evening. And your child also doesn't wet the bed because it sleeps too deeply. However, your child doesn't wake up as easily.
The cause of bedwetting is often that the child has not learned (yet) to become aware of a full bladder during the night. A full bladder transmits a signal to the brain. The brain must then learn that this signal means a need to wake up. During the day, children are much more aware of this process. That is why children are usually sooner potty-trained during the day than at night.
Luckily, it means that there is no physical issue. There's only an issue with timing! And the timing of going to the bathroom can be taught through training.


Why Doesn’t Intel Just Buy AMD?
Would it be worth it for Intel to buy out the last real x86 competitor?
In a world where ARM (NASDAQ:ARMH) is now a viable alternative instruction set architecture in the broad computing market (tablet, notebook, desktop) and, indeed, some could say the dominant architecture, why doesn't Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) put an end to AMD by simply buying it?
While also unlikely, it really does seem that, other than the shut-AMD-down-in-PCs angle, Intel could get everything that it needs vis-à-vis graphics from NVIDIA, and would even be able to completely dominate HPC with NVIDIA hardware/software. If NVIDIA, under Intel's wing, were to build its GPUs on Intel's in-house process, then Intel/NVIDIA could potentially increase its GPU market share to such a degree that it could potentially put an end to AMD/ATI, as AMD would not be able to compete on performance or power consumption.
It also helps that NVIDIA's balance sheet is clean as a whistle, with billions in net-cash. Further, ex-Tegra (which is losing money), NVIDIA's cash flow (which is already robust) would look even better under Intel's wing. The main thing blocking such a deal, in this Fool's view, is that NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun Huang seems dead set to leading NVIDIA to glory on its own (which, if successful, could generate more value for shareholders than an Intel buyout would).
The real reason that Intel is unlikely to buy AMD is simple -- there are better buys out there, including Intel/AMD competitor NVIDIA. Further, with Intel continuing to push AMD out of the x86 business with its own products, it seems that the idea of buying AMD is only compelling from a graphics perspective, or perhaps to keep AMD's x86 business out of the hands of a competitor (although the cross-licensing deal between AMD/Intel would make this difficult for a competitor, anyway).
AMD doesn't really seem to be a compelling take-out target in a world where ARM is so pervasive and where everybody is investing heavily in graphics. There's still probably a good amount of value in AMD's GPU IP, but the value will diminish as others ramp investments and AMD cuts R&D. In short, AMD needs to build value organically to drive a meaningful share price increase.


How much does it cost to go to school for a International Economics major and what are the most affordable colleges? The average annual out-of-state cost for a bachelor program in International Economics is $51,167 with an estimated average four year degree total cost of $204,668. The most affordable bachelor program is offered by Weber State University at an annual $24,860 out of state total cost. This represents a 51% discount from the national average program cost. University of California Los Angeles has the nation's most popular bachelor program for International Economics with 37 degrees awarded per year.


Ionis Pharmaceuticals develops and commercializes drugs used for treating various health conditions that include viral, inflammatory, metabolic, cardiovascular and dermatologic diseases, and cancer. The company is a leader in the discovery and development of antisense drug, exploiting their own novel and highly efficient drug discovery platform to generate a pipeline drugs that are first in class.
IONS’s antisense technology provides a direct route from genomics to drugs. The company discovers and conducts early development of new drugs and out-licenses their drugs to their partner companies. IONS maximizes their discovered drugs’ value by entrusting them to leading pharmaceutical companies with expertise in late-stage development, marketing, and commercialization.
Such companies include GlaxoSmithKline, Biogen Idec, Roche, AstraZeneca, and Genzyme, a Sanofi company. For instance, IONS’s partner, Genzyme, is currently commercializing KYNAMRO, IONS’s lead product, in the U.S. for homozygous familial hypercholesterolemia (HoFH) patients.
Ionis Pharmaceuticals also works with smaller companies that have the potential to exploit IONS’s technologies and drugs in areas outside of the company’s core focus. This unique business strategy allows IONS to keep their organization small and focused. As an innovator in the discovery and development of RNA-targeted drugs, IONS has designed and implemented a patent strategy that has provided the company with strong protection for their drugs and many aspects of the discovery, development, and manufacturing of their antisense drugs.
Ionis Pharmaceuticals is traded in the OTC markets under the stock symbol IONS. With the company’s prolific and highly-efficient drug discovery platform, they can expand their pipeline and their partners’ pipelines with antisense drugs. The company’s strategy is to discover unique, high-quality antisense drugs and then develop the drugs to key clinical value inflection points. The company’s strong financial position has resulted from their successful business strategy execution, as well as their capabilities for inventive and focused research and development.


What is the best part about being a software developer?
I love writing code. It feels like playing a logic puzzle game, but the rules are always changing so it never gets boring.
I also love the autonomy and flexibility. This is something that doesn't come automatically with every development job, but if you build a reputation for delivering without being micromanaged, a good manager will leave you alone and let you do your thing.
Thoughts on the Low Code Development trend?
Right now software development is a pain point for businesses. Humans are expensive and unpredictable. Businesses would like to reduce costs and get the messy humans out of the way so they can make more money. Low code development is the seed of the slow process to replace developers.
I have no doubt that most developers will eventually, over several decades, be replaced by low and no-code visual development tools. They aren't advanced enough to replace us now, but they will be.
When banks first started installing ATMs in the 1960's, I imagine bankers didn't take them very seriously. ATMs were dumb, clunky machines that customers didn't understand and didn't want to use. It took about 50 years, but ATMs have nearly replaced tellers. They can do almost everything a teller can, only faster and without the awkward small talk.
We're deceiving ourselves if we think software development is different. The tools will start with routine tasks, like building relational databases and RESTful APIs, and grow from there. Eventually, the average business person will be able to build tools that now take a team of developers, testers and product managers.
The good news is that we don't need to panic about our job security. It will take decades for the tools to advance enough, and the businesses to adapt enough to replace developers. By then, many of us will be nearing retirement, and there will still be room for us to work on legacy projects.
The bad news is that demand for developers will stop growing long before we can actually be replaced. To keep our wages from flattening out, we'll need to continuously refresh our skill set and stay out of areas that are being automated.
As a society, we also need to build a safety net for people whose jobs are automated away. Whether it's through job retraining programs or something like a universal basic income, we have to find some solution to the fact that jobs are changing too fast for most humans to keep up. And we have to stop telling ourselves that this could never happen to us.
Your Twitter bio says "Success is getting a different error message." Explain.
The most important thing that software development has taught me is that failure is a necessary step on the path to success. If you keep making the same mistake and getting the same error message, you're not learning and you'll never succeed. On the other hand, if you're not getting any error messages, it's NOT because you're awesome--it's because you're too afraid to build anything!
If your code, your career, your life is breaking in NEW ways, you're doing it right.
Your Github page says "One day there was a girl with a dream to build." Tell us about this.
I put that up there because it sounded good and went well with the design of the site. Honestly, though, I recoil a bit when I read it. It strikes me as fake and "canned". I didn't really have a dream to build. I had a dream to get the hell out of banking, and to find a job that felt meaningful and put more than just a few crumbs on the table for my kids.
Luckily it turned out that being a developer was much more than that for me. Code is this beautiful link between the logical and creative sides of my brain. It's something I would do for fun if I didn't do it for work. I count myself very, very lucky to have a job like that.
Tell us about your ebook "How to Become a Web Developer".
Changing careers and teaching myself to code was difficult and confusing. I wished I'd had a guide book that would tell me what to focus on learning, what to expect in interviews, and how to get my first job. I also wanted to be reassured that it was possible--that I could actually be successful jumping into a completely different career without getting a new degree.
How to Become a Web Developer is the book I wish I'd had. If you're looking to become a software developer, you can find it on Amazon.com. You also might be interested in the blog post I wrote for FreeCodeCamp: How to Become a Web Developer Without Losing Your Mind.
What dev tools do you use?
My preferred tools are: a Mac or Linux machine, Vim text editor, and Tmux session manager. Tmux makes it feel like you have an unlimited number of monitors, because you can flip back and forth between sections of code, Bash sessions, etc. You can also have other developers SSH into your Tmux session so you can code together.
I like these tools because, even though they're hard to master, they give you an incredible amount of power. On Unix-based systems (Mac and Linux), you're only limited by your own knowledge (and possibly your user permissions). The downside is that you can also get yourself into a lot of trouble if you're not careful.
At work I currently use a Windows laptop and Intellij IDE. I absolutely hate working on Windows because it's very inflexible and too much of the functionality is hidden. I find Intellij decent to work in, but it's very memory-hungry and can crash if you don't have enough available memory.
To beginners, I recommend using a Mac if you can afford one, since it's the most user-friendly platform for developers. Installing Ubuntu or Fedora on a PC is a good alternative if you don't want to drop $800 on a laptop. I'd recommend Atom for a text editor since it's free and very simple to use, but also has plenty of plugins that can make life easier once you've gotten the basics down.
Thoughts on open source software?
It's like a Utopian fantasy. The idea that software developers across the world work together to solve common problems, and then freely give away those solutions so others can expand and improve them--I wouldn't believe it if I didn't know it was real.
Imagine what we could accomplish as a species if other fields, like medical research, open-sourced some of their best tools and techniques. What if, instead of trying to patent every newly discovered gene, scientists shared the information openly so others could use it to create gene therapies, trace a person's heredity, or whatever else they could think of?
Pick one online service where you would want to get a first hand and behind the scenes look at how the developers work.
I would love to see inside Atlassian. Their tools--Confluence, Bitbucket, HipChat--are so beautifully designed and virtually bug-free.
State a challenging question you would pose to a developer interviewee.
"Imagine I'm a robot that knows nothing about laundry. Explain to me how to wash a load of laundry."
I asked this question because I wasn't trying to assess their knowledge of a particular language. I wanted to know how well they could break down the problem in a familiar domain (most people have done laundry at some point) and transform it into a step-by-step process. There was no way they could have anticipated the question, so I got a unique opportunity to watch their thought process.
One candidate was especially detailed. "This is clothing. First, we need to sort the clothing into dark and light piles. Anything darker than this item should go in the dark pile..."
I also remember a candidate who had trouble breaking the process down into an ordered list of steps. He ping-ponged back and forth from washing, to drying, to sorting, back to washing. He got sidetracked and talked about why a robot would do laundry, but he never gave me a real list of steps.
I wouldn't have hired or disqualified a candidate solely based on their response to a question like that, but it did help me get a sense of how each candidate thought.
Pay attention to both your technical skills and your job search skills. If you're having trouble getting interviews, you need to work on networking with other humans. If you're having trouble passing technical interviews, you should focus on your technical skills.
Your skills and experience are the assets that keep you employed. Don't let them decay. Fight to get onto projects that will teach you something new. Fight for the opportunity to go to conferences, or just spend work hours taking an online course. If your employer doesn't value continuous learning, find one that does.