CHINESE have developed the "world's first"
mind-reading chip that they claim enables people to control
computers using just brain signals. Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) are devices that have been designed to
create simple communication between the human brain and computers.
A collaboration between Tianjin University and the
state-owned China Electronics Corporation led to the recent unveiling of “Brain
Talker,” a computer chip designed specifically for use in BCIs.
“The signals transmitted and processed by the brain are
submerged in the background noise,” Tianjin University researcher Ming Dong
said in a press release. “This BC3 [Brain-Computer Codec Chip] has the ability
to discriminate minor neural electrical signals and decode their information
efficiently, which can greatly enhance the speed and accuracy of brain-computer
interfaces.”
Ming believes the chip could help bring BCIs out of labs and
into the mainstream. "The Brain Talker chip advances BCI technology allowing it to become
more portable, wearable, and accessible to the general public."
In future, this technology could be used for a variety of purposes,
such as imparting education to disabled people, gaming, or creating
medical devices for people that have problems with body movements, for
example, those suffering from motor neurone disease. The researchers have not yet revealed whether Brain Talker will be worn outside the body or embedded in the user's brain.
Stephen Hawking had a vision that the universe expanded out of a
dimensionless point, rather like a shuttlecock. Recently, his stunning
proposal has come under attack, but a vigorous defense has been mounted.
“If you know the wave function of the universe, why aren’t you rich?” — Murray Gell-Mann
" The “no-boundary proposal,” which Hawking and his frequent
collaborator, James Hartle, fully formulated in a 1983 paper, envisions
the cosmos having the shape of a shuttlecock.
Just as a shuttlecock has a diameter of zero at its bottommost point
and gradually widens on the way up, the universe, according to the
no-boundary proposal, smoothly expanded from a point of zero size.
Hartle and Hawking derived a formula describing the whole shuttlecock —
the so-called “wave function of the universe” that encompasses the
entire past, present and future at once — making moot all contemplation
of seeds of creation, a creator, or any transition from a time before.
Hartle and Hawking’s proposal radically reconceptualized time. Each
moment in the universe becomes a cross-section of the shuttlecock; while
we perceive the universe as expanding and evolving from one moment to
the next, time really consists of correlations between the universe’s
size in each cross-section and other properties — particularly its
entropy, or disorder. Entropy increases from the cork to the feathers,
aiming an emergent arrow of time. Near the shuttlecock’s rounded-off
bottom, though, the correlations are less reliable; time ceases to exist
and is replaced by pure space. As Hartle, now 79 and a professor at the
University of California, Santa Barbara, explained it by phone
recently, “We didn’t have birds in the very early universe; we have
birds later on. … We didn’t have time in the early universe, but we have
time later on.”
Military life can also involve difficulties for families,
particularly in managing the expectations of military and civilian
cultures. Values that may be important in a military context such as
discipline and obedience to authority may not always mesh with civilian
behaviours and values, such as negotiation and compromise.
Mental health issues can impact on a person’s ability to parent
effectively. For example, a parent with depression may find he or she
has little motivation or energy, and therefore struggles to interact
with the children; he or she may become irritable and less patient with
children or may lack the confidence to set limits.
The practical
realities of military life have perhaps the most significant impacts on
family functioning, including long absences during training and
deployments, changes in roles and responsibilities, adapting to regular
relocations, and managing upheavals in partners’ careers and children’s
schooling. Military families have to cope with the potential for
exposure to extraordinary risks, such as the injury or death in combat
of a family member. A potentially challenging period for some is the
transition out of the military. Separation from Defence can involve
changes in location, finances and family roles (e.g., the partner of a
veteran becoming the main income earner).
The emotional and physical impact of exposure to combat,
humanitarian, peacekeeping and peacemaking experiences for veterans can
have long-term consequences for many families. For example, recurring
depression, chronic substance abuse or posttraumatic stress disorder
(PTSD) may lead to long-term conflict or disengagement within the
family. Anxiety about the veteran’s mental health and taking on the role
of carer can also take a toll on family members.
The difficulties encountered by military families have had varied
impacts across generations and for different conflicts. For example, the
Vietnam War involved conscription as well as deployment of full-time
professional forces. Many families of conscripted veterans were shaped
by the unexpected impact of the war and what often turned out to be well
over 300 days of absence. It was not unusual for Vietnam veterans to
have started a relationship or a family just before being conscripted,
and to return markedly changed by their war experience. For more than
half of recent veterans, their families have had to cope with multiple
deployments, which can place significant strains on relationships,
change parenting roles, and impact on the whole family’s social networks
Children who have a
parent with a mental health issue are more likely to experience behavioural
problems, difficulties in forming and maintaining relationships, poor
coping skills, academic difficulties, and are more likely to develop
mental health issues themselves. These issues can continue into
adulthood. For example, adult children of Vietnam veterans have a higher
rate of accidental death and suicide
the findings:
Combat trauma experiences, such as engaging directly with the enemy,
were associated with more negative outcomes. But psychological trauma,
such as witnessing noncombatant injuries or injuries of a comrade, and
physical injuries, sometimes resulted in improved outcomes for families.
Meadows explained that in some cases, the service member may have
gained a greater appreciation for family and life in these cases. These
findings merit more exploration, researchers noted.
Across the
deployment cycle, on the average, couples become less satisfied with
their marriage. But those changes aren’t significantly different from
the changes experienced by matched couples that didn’t deploy. Meadows
said it’s not unusual for marital satisfaction to decline in civilian
couples, too.
For spouses, more frequent communication with
the service member during deployment is associated with greater marital
satisfaction after the deployment.
There was no overall
significant effect of deployment on psychological or behavioral health
problems for service members or spouses. But service members who
experienced deployment trauma showed an increase in depression,
post-traumatic stress and anxiety symptoms, compared with their levels
before deployment. When the service member was injured during the study
deployment, the spouse showed increases in these symptoms, as well as in
binge drinking. Researchers recommended, during that post-deployment
phase for military families, that programs, services and polices should
target families whose service member experienced deployment trauma.
Leaving the military in the post-deployment period had effects on
service members and spouses. For spouses, there was lower marital
satisfaction; and deployed members who subsequently separated from or
retired from the military showed increased levels of psychological
symptoms. Addressing psychological problems around the time of
separation from the military may be important for avoiding longer-term
problems, the researchers noted.
There generally was no
significant effect from deployment on children and teens. But an
exception was found from spouses who reported concerns following a study
deployment about their children who were younger than 11. There were
more difficulties, such as emotional conduct and peer problems, and more
need for child mental health services, compared with these younger
children in matched families who didn’t experience a deployment during the research period.
Sometimes teens disagreed with their parents’ perceptions of how the
family was adjusting after the deployment. Teens said after the
deployment, family cohesion was not as good, and the relationship with
the parent at home was not as good. Some said that after the deployment,
the relationship with the deployed parent was not as good. Of the 425
teens who provided information, the changes the researchers saw "were
enough to be statistically significant," Meadows said.
Teens
reported that their drug use increased slightly after deployment. They
self-reported drug use as very low (around "never") before and during
deployments, but increased afterward to just slightly more than "never."
Service members and spouses who engaged in predeployment activities
reported higher satisfaction with parenting post-deployment.
Financial distress declined during the deployment for both the spouse and the service member.
Communication with other military families and other military teens
during the deployment was strongly associated with more positive
outcomes.
A Father’s War, A Son’s Toxic Inheritancehttps://www.propublica.org/…/a-fathers-war-a-sons-toxic-inh… Psychological Problems in Children of War Veterans with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2525831/ https://at-ease.dva.gov.au/professionals/client-resources/mental-health-advice-book/12-impact-veterans-experiences-their https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2016/04/11/study-families-experience-generally-few-long-term-effects-from-deployment/
There are two methods of fabricating
reinforced concrete. The first is to pour the liquid material into forms at the building site; this is so-called in situ concrete. Insitu reinforced concrete, precast concrete and structural steel
are popular and dominates in the framing market of multi storey buildings. The In Situ reinforcement concrete structural frame is common used as a frame for both single and multi-storey buildings
such as residential flats and commercial offices. The use of reinforced in-situ cast concrete as a structural material for building is a frame combination with columns, beams, reinforced concrete
floors and roof.
In huge reinforced concrete structures, it is often difficult to distribute the reinforcing bars, especially at the connection regions, to keep the spacing between bars within the minimum acceptable limits as recommended in the global specifications standard, by using the common methods such as, overlapping or welding, therefore, a new method for bonding was introduced, using mechanical joints and electro fusion bonding method, and comparing these methods with the maximum strength of reinforcing bars without joints and the failure location within maximum strength limits outside the joints.
COST
Cost is one of the crucial factors need to be
considered in the selection of structural framing options and this costs of framed structures can be affected by the market condition. The insitu reinforced concrete frame is much cost efficiency
compared to the steel structural frame. This is due to steel is particularly volatile and always influence by the exchange rates due to international competitions. Adversely, cement price is more
stable. Cement is one of the main components in the concrete mixture and thus cause the concrete price generally will be cheaper. Therefore it is wisely no to propose steel frame as its price
fluctuate more frequently in comparing with concrete.
SPEED OF
CONSTRUCTION
In principle, the insitu reinforced concrete
frame has a disadvantage in term of construction speed it is relatively slow due to the time consumed for curing.
ABILITY TO
STANDARDIZE
The insitu reinforced
concrete frame is more flexible and tolerant in any alteration during the construction process. Any subsequence alteration is straightforward and it would not much affect the following construction
sequence, process, cost and importantly greater delay would not happen.
A process or set of rules to be followed in calculations or other problem-solving operations, especially by a computer.
What Is a Programming Algorithm?
So, what is a programming algorithm? You can think of a programming algorithm as a recipe that describes the exact steps needed for the computer to solve a problem or reach a goal. We've all seen food recipes - they list the ingredients needed and a set of steps for how to make the described meal. Well, an algorithm is just like that. In computer lingo, the word for a recipe is a procedure, and the ingredients are called inputs. Your computer looks at your procedure, follows it to the letter, and you get to see the results, which are called outputs. A programming algorithm describes how to do something, and your computer will do it exactly that way every time. Well, it will once you convert your algorithm into a language it understands!
However, it's important to note that a programming algorithm is not computer code. It's written in simple English (or whatever the programmer speaks). It doesn't beat around the bush--it has a start, a middle, and an end. In fact, you will probably label the first step 'start' and the last step 'end.' It includes only what you need to carry out the task. It does not include anything unclear, often called ambiguous in computer lingo, that someone reading it might wonder about.
It always leads to a solution and tries to be the most efficient solution we can think up. It's often a good idea to number the steps, but you don't have to. Instead of numbered steps, some folks use indentation and write in pseudocode, which is a semi-programming language used to describe the steps in an algorithm. But, we won't use that here since simplicity is the main thing. Other folks just use a diagram called a flowchart, which we will discuss soon.
Programming Algorithm Example
Okay, you probably wish you could see an example, right? So, what exactly does an algorithm in programming look like? Well, asking a user for an email address is probably one of the most common tasks a web-based program might need to do, so that is what we will use here for an example. An algorithm can be written as a list of steps using text or as a picture with shapes and arrows called a flowchart. We will make one of each which you will see here:
Wasn't that easy? Notice how the top of our example is just a numbered list of steps using plain English, stating exactly what we want the procedure to do (no more, no less). The bottom is the very same algorithm, but this time, we used shapes and arrows in a flowchart (like a map of the route), so that a reader can visualize the journey. That's a nice thing here, because in one of our steps (step 7) a decision must be made and, depending on the result of that decision, our steps may not go in order from start to end.
Okay! Let's take a quick run through our little recipe:
1. Step 1 is really just a reminder that this is a procedure with a beginning and an end.
2. In step 2, we make a place in the computer to store what the user types in, also called a variable
3. In step 3, we clear this variable because we might need to use it again and don't want the old contents mixed in with the new.
4. In step 4, we prompt the user for an email address
5. In step 5, we stick it in our nifty variable.
6. In step 6, we tell our computer to take a close look at this email address-- is it really an email address?
Qualities of a good algorithm
Input and output should be defined precisely.
Each steps in algorithm should be clear and unambiguous.
Algorithm should be most effective among many different ways to solve a problem.
An algorithm shouldn't have computer code. Instead, the algorithm should be written in such a way that, it can be used in similar programming languages.
Step 1: StartStep 2: Declare variables num1, num2 and sum. Step 3: Read values num1 and num2. Step 4: Add num1 and num2 and assign the result to sum. sum←num1+num2 Step 5: Display sum Step 6: Stop
Step 1: StartStep 2: Declare variables a,b and c.Step 3: Read variables a,b and c.Step 4: If a>b If a>c Display a is the largest number. Else Display c is the largest number. Else If b>c Display b is the largest number. Else Display c is the greatest number. Step 5: Stop
Write an algorithm to find all roots of a quadratic equation ax2+bx+c=0.
Step 1: StartStep 2: Declare variables a, b, c, D, x1, x2, rp and ip;Step 3: Calculate discriminant D←b2-4acStep 4: If D≥0 r1←(-b+√D)/2a r2←(-b-√D)/2a Display r1 and r2 as roots. Else Calculate real part and imaginary part rp←b/2a ip←√(-D)/2a Display rp+j(ip) and rp-j(ip) as rootsStep 5: Stop
