text:
Java 1A Practical Class
Table of Contents
In this workbook you will use your implementation of
PackedLong from last week as a data structure in a simple implementation of Conway's Game of Life. Using this data structure imposes severe constraints on the size of game board which can be simulated. Next week you will overcome this limitation by making use of a Java array to store a game board of an arbitrary size.
Please replace
your-crsid with your own username in all examples and instructions.
Remember to check the course website regularly for announcements and errata:
John Conway was an undergraduate at Cambridge and read Mathematics. He stayed on at Cambridge to study for a Ph.D. and afterwards as a Lecturer. Conway invented the Game of Life in 1970. You can play the Game of Life with physical game pieces (a set of stones from Go[1] are a good choice) but a computer simulation of the Game of Life allows for quicker experimentation.
The game board, or world, for the Game of Life is a two-dimensional grid of square cells. Each cell in the world is in one of two states, dead or alive. The world transitions through a set of discrete generations, starting from the initial state of the cells at time zero, which is determined by the human player. The rules of the game describe how to transition from generation t to generation t+1, and are as follows:
a live cell with fewer than two neighbours dies (caused by underpopulation);
a live cell with two or three neighbours lives (representing a balanced population);
a live cell with with more than three neighbours dies (caused by overcrowding and starvation); and
a dead cell with three live neighbours comes alive (colonisation).
The game calls for these rules to be applied simultaneously to all cells in order to produce the next generation i.e. a cell which dies due to underpopulation could also play a role in colonisation of another cell. We will implement this by applying the rules to each cell in turn and writing the results into a new, blank, world rather than updating the current one. An example showing the application of the rules is given in Figure 1, "Applying the Game of Life rules".
In this workbook you will build an implementation of Conway's Game of Life using the
PackedLong class you wrote last week. The
PackedLong class is capable of storing at most 64
boolean values in a variable of type
long. We will use these
boolean values to represent the liveness of a cell; in other words, if the cell is alive then
true is stored, and if the cell is dead then
false is recorded. The limit of 64
boolean values restricts the size of the game board to an eight-by-eight world. Given this size restriction, this particular implementation of Conway's Game of Life is called TinyLife in this workbook.
You may recall that, given a variable
v of type
long, the
set method of
PackedLong class is able to set bit
i of
v to the value
val with the method call:
v = PackedLong.set(v,i,val)
Note in particular the use of the assignment operator to update the value stored in the variable
v. Similarly, the state of bit
i of the variable
v of type
long can be retrieved and stored in variable
b of type
boolean using the method call:
b = PackedLong.get(v,i)
To use
PackedLong to store the state of the world, a mapping from cell location on the game board to the bit location in the variable is required. In order to maintain compatibility with the examples and test cases in this workbook you must use the mapping described here, although in principle there are 64 factorial possible valid mappings to choose from (most of which would be more tedious to implement than the one used here).
In this workbook you should use the bits stored by the
PackedLong class so that the state of top left cell of the board is stored in the least significant bit, the bottom right cell of the board is stored in the most significant bit, with the cells in between stored, in increasing bit positions, in row order. Figure 2, "Bit positions in
PackedLong used to store the state of cells in TinyLife" contains a graphical illustration of this specification.
We will refer to an individual cell in the Game of Life by its column, c, and row, r, in the grid, written as a pair: (c,r). The cell (0,0) is at the very top left of the world, and the cell (7,7) is at the bottom right of the world. For example, in Figure 2, "Bit positions in
PackedLong used to store the state of cells in TinyLife", the state of cell (0,0) is recorded at bit position 0, and the state of cell (3,2) is recorded at bit 19.
Initialising the world in TinyLife is easy: simply define a new variable of type
long which contains the bit pattern representing the state of each of the 64 cells in the world. For example, the definitions of the variables
oscillator and
glider below contain the correct bit patterns to represent the worlds shown in Figure 3, "Example TinyLife worlds". The printed workbook depicts the state of these worlds at generation zero; the on-line version of this workbook contains animated graphics which depict how the state of the world evolves over time. (These graphics are animated GIF files; you will learn how to build your own such animated graphics in Tick 3*.)
long oscillator = 0x20272000027202L; long glider = 0x20A0600000000000L;
Left, a two phase oscillator (code:
0x20272000027202L) and right, a glider (code:
Figure 3. Example TinyLife worlds
As you proceed through this workbook, you will fill in key parts of a program which will draw the state of TinyLife as textual characters to your terminal. The program that you will create will form your submission for Tick 2. Open a text editor and create a new class called
TinyLife inside the package
Add a special "main" method to the class
TinyLife. Check that your skeleton class works by inserting a Java statement to print out your name and compile and run your program.
Copy the file
PackedLong.java, which you submitted as part of your work for last week, into the same directory as
TinyLife.java . You will need a copy of
PackedLong.java in the same directory as
TinyLife.java so that your modifications to
TinyLife can make use of the features provided by
PackedLong. If you have not yet completed your implementation of
PackedLong you will need to complete this first before continuing with this workbook.
Remember to change the package of the PackedLong class to reflect its new location. You should not
leave the PackedLong class in the tick1 package and call it from the tick2 package. If you did this it would
make your tick submission difficult because your
tick submission will rely on the previous week's submission.
In this section you will write two methods which will be used later in your implementation of TinyLife. A method is a unit of computation associated with a class in Java. A method provides a well-defined interface, specifying the values required to perform the computation described by the method, and the type of the result returned (if any). You saw two example methods last week when you wrote your implementation of
PackedLong; the methods were called
set and
A method has a prototype which describes the types of the arguments which will be provided when the method is invoked, and the type of the result returned when the execution of the method finishes. The prototypes of the two methods you will write are in this section are:
public static boolean getCell(long world, int col, int row)
public static long setCell(long world, int col, int row, boolean value)
A method also has a body, which is a sequence of statements describing the computation the method should perform. The body of a Java method is encapsulated with opening and closing curly brackets (
{ and
}). In Java the method prototype and body form a method definition and must be placed directly inside a Java class; you cannot place a method definition inside another method in Java.
When writing the body of a method, it is a good idea to check the values provided to the method to make sure they are reasonable. This is sometimes called input sanitisation. For example, the method
getCell accepts three arguments. All possible values of type
long for the
world argument of
getCell are valid descriptions of a world in TinyLife, therefore no input sanitisation is required for this variable. The values of the second and third arguments,
col and
row, are only valid in the range from zero to seven; and input sanitisation must ensure that the method handles the case when the values of either
col or
row are outside this valid range. In the case of
getCell, an acceptable solution is to return the value
false from the method if
col or
row are greater than seven or smaller than zero. (This is equivalent to saying cells which are outside the 8-by-8 world are always dead.)
To do this input sanitisation we need to check the value of
col or
row and execute a different piece of Java program if the value of the variable is outside the valid range. In Java, conditional execution is performed with an
if statement. You saw an example
if statement in the body of the method
PackedLong.set in Tick 1. An
if statement is written as follows in Java:
if (boolean_expression) statement1 else statement2
You can replace
statement1 or
statement2 with a Java statement (e.g. "
i = 2 * 6;"). If you want to execute more than one Java statement conditionally, then you can use curly brackets to group together a set of Java statements into a basic block and use the basic block in place of
statement1 or
statement2. The
else clause and
statement2 can be removed if you only want to execute statements if
boolean_expression evaluates to
true. Here are some examples:
if (true) i=1; if (i == 1) { System.out.println("true"); i = 0; } else { i = 1; }
An alternative form of conditional execution operates within a Java expression, and has the form:
boolean_expression ? expression1 : expression2
Here, if
boolean_expression evaluates to
true then
expression1 is evaluated; otherwise
expression2 is evaluated. A typical usage of this latter form of conditional execution is:
int i = boolean_expression ? one_var : another_var;
in which the value of
i is initialised with the current value stored in
one_var if
boolean_expression evaluates to
true, or with the current value stored in the variable
another_var if
boolean_expression evaluates to
Your next task is to use conditional execution to write an implementation of
getCell. Your method's prototype should match the one given above. If either
col or
row are out of range it should return false, otherwise it should work out the corresponding bit-position, call the
PackedLong.get method and return the result.
You should test your code by updating your copy of
getCell in
TinyLife.java and placing a temporary piece of test code at the end of the
main method. The temporary code should invoke
getCell with the values of
col and
row as shown in Table 1, "Test patterns for the
getCell method" and print out the value returned by the method. You should check that the return values of your implementation of
getCell agrees with those found in the result column of the table. For example, to test the first pattern in the table you may like to use the following code:
Table 1. Test patterns for the
getCell method
Type in the following as a new method into your class
public static void print(long world) { System.out.println("-"); for (int row = 0; row < 8; row++) { for (int col = 0; col < 8; col++) { System.out.print(getCell(world, col, row) ? "#" : "_"); } System.out.println(); } }
Do not worry about the use of
for statement at the moment; you will find out what the
for loop does in the next section. The
TinyLife and providing a suitable value for the parameter
In order to step forward in time, we need a way of updating the cells of the world. Add a method called
setCell to your class
TinyLife with the following prototype:
public static long setCell(long world, int col, int row, boolean value)
setCell method should use the
PackedLong.set method to update the cell (
row) stored in
world with the value
value. The method should return the updated version of
world at the end of the method body. Please ensure that your implementation of
setCell performs input sanitisation where necessary.
You should make use of the
setCell method works correctly. (Hint: initialise a variable called
world with a well-known pattern, update the variable with a call to
setCell, such as "
world = setCell(world, 1, 1, true)", and print out the contents of
world to confirm the correct cell was updated.)
In this section you will use the two methods you wrote in the previous section to apply the rules of the Game of Life to the world and explore different generations. There are three basic tasks to perform when applying the rules of the Game of Life to calculate generation t+1 from the state of the world in generation t. These are: (1) for each cell, count the number of neighbours; (2) for each cell, given the number of neighbours, compute whether the cell lives or dies; and (3) generate a new data structure to represent the next generation. We can capture these three phases into three methods:
public static int countNeighbours(long world, int col, int row)
public static boolean computeCell(long world,int col, int row)
public static long nextGeneration(long world)
You will complete implementations of these three methods in this section. Notice that these methods work together to provide a solution to calculating the state of the next generation:
computeCell should use
countNeighbours, and
nextGeneration should use
computeCell. Your first task in this section is to complete the method body for the function
countNeighbours. The method receives a description of the game board as the variable
world together with a specific indexed cell (
row). Your implementation should count the number of neighbours which are alive in the eight locations immediately adjacent to the cell (
row). For example, if your method is called as follows:
then your program should return the number of live cells which are adjacent to cell (6,6), which in this case is 5. (You can check that 5 is the correct answer by viewing world
0x20A0600000000000L in Figure 3, "Example TinyLife worlds".)
Your next task in this section is to complete the implementation for
computeCell which should use your implementations of
getCell and
countNeighbours to compute the value that the specified cell should have in the next generation. A skeleton implementation of the method is shown below. You should complete the sections marked
public static boolean computeCell(long world,int col,int row) { // liveCell is true if the cell at position (col,row) in world is live boolean liveCell = getCell(world, col, row); // neighbours is the number of live neighbours to cell (col,row) int neighbours = countNeighbours(world, col, row); // we will return this value at the end of the method to indicate whether // cell (col,row) should be live in the next generation boolean nextCell = false; //A live cell with less than two neighbours dies (underpopulation) if (neighbours < 2) { nextCell = false; } //A live cell with two or three neighbours lives (a balanced population) //TODO: write a if statement to check neighbours and update nextCell //A live cell with with more than three neighbours dies (overcrowding) //TODO: write a if statement to check neighbours and update nextCell //A dead cell with three live neighbours comes alive //TODO: write a if statement to check neighbours and update nextCell return nextCell; }
for loop. In general the
for loop has the following syntax:
for (initialisation; boolean_expression; step) statement
initialisation section is used to initialise a new or existing variable (if any). The
boolean_expression is evaluated to determine if the body of the
for loop should be executed (
true implies the body is executed and
false implies otherwise);
boolean_expression is re-evaluated every time the loop is executed. Finally,
step is an expression which is executed after every iteration through
statement. As you've seen for the
if statement already, you can use curly brackets (
{ and
}) to group together multiple Java statements together into a basic block, and use the basic block in place of
Another useful construct in Java for executing the same Java statement repeatedly is a
while loop. The
while loop has a simpler syntax than the
for loop:
while (boolean_expression) statement
while loop will repeatedly execute
statement while
boolean_expression evaluates to
true; if
boolean_expression evaluates to false then execution continues with the next Java statement immediately following
statement. You can use a basic block to place multiple Java statements inside the body of the
while loop.
Write an implementation of the
nextGeneration method. The method accepts a value of type
long which represents the state of the world at generation t; the method should return a value of type
long which represents the state of the world at generation t+1. The
nextGeneration method should make use of the
computeCell method to calculate the future state of a particular cell, and then use the
setCell method to update a local copy of the world held in a variable of type
long. You need to perform this action on all 64 cells in TinyLife. Rather than writing code to update all 64 cells individually, you should use a pair of nested
for loops. (Hint: start off with a copy of the
nextGeneration and rather than printing out the contents of each cell, use the
for loops to update each cell stored in a local variable representing the world at generation t+1.)
Add the following method to
public static void play(long world) throws Exception { int userResponse = 0; while (userResponse != 'q') { print(world); userResponse = System.in.read(); world = nextGeneration(world); } }
and update your copy of the
main method to read:
public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception { play(Long.decode(args[0])); }
If you have written your implementations of the five functions
setCell and
nextGeneration correctly and included the provided methods
play and
main you should now be able to invoke your Java program from the command line and supply a description of the initial state of the world as a
long literal value. For example:
crsid@machine:~> java uk.ac.cam.your-crsid.tick2.TinyLife 0x20A0600000000000
should display a world containing a glider. Pressing Enter will display
successive generations of the world, and typing q followed by Enter will terminate your program.
Note that when running your program from the command line you should not type the trailing
on the end of a
long literal.
Figure 4, "Example TinyLife worlds" contains two further examples which you may wish to try. The on-line version of this work book has animated versions of these worlds which you may wish to view in order to confirm your program is operating correctly.
Left, a five phase oscillator (code:
0x1824428181422418L) and right, a still life (code:
Figure 4. Example TinyLife worlds
In the course of this Tick you should have written five methods:
setCell and
nextGeneration, as well as including three provided methods
play and
main into a class called
TinyLife. In addition you should also have produced an
answers.txt file and copied across your implementation of
PackedLong from last week.
To submit your tick for this week, produce a jar file called
crsid-tick2.jar with the following contents:
META-INF/ META-INF/MANIFEST.MF uk/ac/cam/your-crsid/tick2/TinyLife.class uk/ac/cam/your-crsid/tick2/TinyLife.java uk/ac/cam/your-crsid/tick2/PackedLong.class uk/ac/cam/your-crsid/tick2/PackedLong.java uk/ac/cam/your-crsid/tick2/answers.txt
The jar file should have it's entry point set to
uk.ac.cam.your-crsid.tick2.TinyLife so that you can invoke TinyLife from the command line as follows:
crsid@machine:~> java -jar crsid-tick2.jar 0x20A0600000000000
Once you have produced a suitable jar file and tested that it works as shown above, you can submit it by emailing it as an attachment to


text:
CHICOPEE, Mass. – Elms College's Stephen Cameron downed a team-high eight kills but MIT's Ken Siebert smashed a match-high nine kills as Tim Lee handed out 30 assists to help lead the Engineers to a 25-12, 25-13, 25-18 sweep of the Blazers in Saturday afternoon's North East Collegiate Volleyball Association (NECVA) New England Division men's volleyball match at Picknelly Arena.
With the loss, Elms fell to 0-1 overall and in NECVA New England play, while nationally-ranked No. 8 MIT improved to 3-0 on the season and in conference action.
MIT opened up a 10-6 lead in the first set before going on a 10-1 run highlighted by three Siebert kills, a kill from Benson George and Evan Wang, and two George service aces to take a 20-7 lead. Cameron, Yonalvy Acosta, and an assisted block by Acosta and Wilfrido Fermin cut the Blazers' deficit to 10 points. Elms pulled to within 10 on two more occasions, capitalizing on an Engineers' attack error and a kill by Bryson Rainey but a kill by Malcolm Bean, a service ace by Patrick Vatterott, and a Blazers' attacking error allowed MIT to claim the opening set 25-12.
The second frame played out in similar fashion as MIT established an early 13-8 lead and used an 11-4 run to post a 24-12 advantage. Elms' Michael Martin drilled a kill to halt the run but an error on the ensuing serve attempt gave the Engineers a 25-13 win and a 2-0 lead in the match.
In the third stanza, MIT built a 21-13 lead before Elms rallied to score five of the next eight points on the strength of two kills by Rainey, a kill by Kevin Welsh, and an assisted block from Fermin and Cameron to pull the Blazers to within six (24-18). From there, a service error by Elms resulted in a win for the Engineers.
George and Vatterott both downed eight kills and hit above a .600 clip for the match as MIT was .333 as a team through three sets. Caine Jette notched a match high 10 digs as Jeremy Velazquez recorded nine digs to lead MIT's defensive effort.
Acosta finished second for Elms in kills with five, and added six digs, while Martin downed three kills and notched seven digs in the losing effort. Daniel Lebron collected a team-high 10 digs while Fermin finished with three kills and five assisted blocks.
Release Courtesy of Elms College Sports Information

subset: commoncrawl


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text:
Student Worker Position Available
The Graduate Program in Public Administration is seeking one or more student office assistants for the summer and, preferably, the coming academic year. Duties include reception, telephone messages, photocopying, filing, data base entry, and assistance with mailings in support of the director, assistant director, and MPA program faculty. Hours may be tailored to fit your schedule, but the prime office hours are 2:00pm-6:00pm Monday through Thursday. Standard pay rates apply. Experience with MS Word necessary. Interest in governmental affairs a plus.
For further information, please drop off a resume at DTC room 659 or contact Tom Kinsella at 6-5197 or e-mail (tkinsella) or David Beam (dbeam).


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I posted this on the Kodi board, but it occurred to me that this one might be more appropriate. I've had a trawl through numerous postings but can't find any reporting this exact problem, so I'm wondering if I've found a bug.
I've got a bit of a problem with fanart not being overwritten.
I have a pretty large music collection, 35k+ tracks, many of which are pretty obscure blues and world music performers that no scraper is ever going to pick up. For this reason I've always tended to use my own fanart, I've been doing it a long time and I know what I'm about.
Today I found an image I wanted to use, put it in the requisite folder, pointed artist information at it, and it's duly displayed. Un fortunately it cut off the artist's head, so I edited it in Photoshop, saved the new image as fanart.jpg, and tried to use the context menu to replace the old fanart with the new. But it wouldn't overwrite, despite the original image no longer being on the server. When I drill down through artist information to the image in question, it's still the old one, even though the new one is now in the artist's folder on the NAS. This has happened a couple of times, yet when I tried to do something similar with another file it worked perfectly. This is a procedure that I have performed countless times, never with any problem at all.
Something that may have a bearing is that the artist in question is on a compilation CD. I've created a folder to contain the artwork so the path is:
NAS server/Music/iTunes/compilations/Alligator Records 20th Anniversay Collection/ A. C.Reed/ fanart.jpg. In this case fanart.jpg is the new picture that I want to use.
But if the problem was it being a compilation why did it find and show the fanart in the first place?
The alteration that worked perfectly was a named artist in her own stand alone folder, rather than a compilation.
I've tried rebooting, both the XIOS box and the NAS server, no difference.
So I'm rather mystified. I've checked time and again to see if I've somehow changed a setting but cannot find it if I have, and in any case this isn't anything that I haven't done many times before. I use Transparency! but have tried it out with Confluence with exactly the same result, so I don't think that it's a skin issue.
Set up is:
Linux XIOS box running Helix, administered via a MacBook
Library on NAS server
Expert settings
I'm perfectly prepared to be told that I'm doing something so obviously wrong that only a complete idiot could have managed it, it'd be a small price to pay to get this sorted.


text:
The third //BUILD/ conference takes place June 26-28 in San Francisco. Tickets went on sale back on April 2nd and sold out in the blink of an eye. Good news if you missed the chance to buy tickets and still want to go. This Wednesday more tickets will go on sale.
At Build we're expecting to learn all about the Blue update coming to all of Microsoft's products and service later this year. If you're a developer and want to attend you'll have another shot this Wednesday, May 15, at 9 A.M. PDT. Tickets will cost $2,095 for the three day event that includes keynotes, developer sessions, and a hackathon. Bookmark the source below if you want to get tickets.
Daniel and I will be there to cover the event. Who else can we expect to see there?
Source: Build Windows


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Will Fracking Ruin German Beer?
Germany's association of beer brewers said Thursday it has warned politicians against hydraulic fracturing, citing concerns that any threat to the water supply is a threat to the purity of the country's beer. Photo: Getty Images.
This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.
... the the ... news ... of a straight line wants the Constable ... found fracking hands and chairman of drool Asta soiree to the Wall Street Journal's Klaus Abreu joins us now from Frank but to give us the skinny on this ... the class thanks for joining us ... here are ... some so plows fracking is of course the novel was known as hydraulic fracturing it's a way to get natural gas out of shale formations and that has proved hostas worried why ... well basically have to see that there is ... one thousand three hundred breweries get all over Germany had with one thousand three hundred breweries get all the country ... and whether these stocks crime tracking tracking ... it was only too well that's the isthe some of them ... for brewing beer and that's ... really where ... many were the cause of the Pierrotin walls ... of the job and moving up there and in Gemini run ... yes ... well ... I did some research to show up and and actually happened in Texas company how to crawl into the air ... the back to the one thousand ... what is the one that you mention the euro deal of fifteen sixty ... all ... told us the slip in the ... Catholic and a ... Protestant church ... which says only mull ... policies and wanted to use and the one after the course of ... an extremely good quality ... it's it's the most important ingredient awful thing ... unless you have to go to water you'll be getting any goopy are ... now lives the present a timeline of the Gemini pink as natural gas comes from Gemini through the Ukraine to the tothe to have a story from from Russia for you ... disseminate also the same way it comes to attend to the UK ... and EU now it is sometimes against close off that sometimes the pipeline gets close all for whatever reason some iTunes it's um I'm a ... free app for natural gas meekly like both but if it's a choice between the two ... which when the Germans come ago and in your job and you tell us ... not depends on what kind of that's the real Nazis yes in some might say we go for piano in ... it with every probably be a little bit more and all of ... it ... what you mention is of course an important factor ... also something that has to do to limit the discussion because that's when you actually wrote a letter they wrote into a scuffle of ministers in the German government ... environmentalist peace of mind or ... an ... economics minister for the Roos ... and ... Tooele tones in the current warrants on Tuesday offer of fracking ... my as you want fracking to happen very often ... only in isolated places up to the truth is thinking more about the energy supply for Germany which is in the midst of turning away from nuclear power ... so it needs any kind of other resources to find ... and so the rules that I get ... whisk between those two and get more points about ... what we need to do ... on tablets of of of of all of that still


text:
Get the confidence to follow the road - and your heart - wherever it may lead.
If you select the right tyre size for your car, we can give you even better results
The width of the tyre indicated in millimeters, measured from sidewall to sidewall.
Aspect ratio describes the height of the sidewall as a percentage of the width of the tyre. Touring tyres usually have a higher aspect ratio, indicating a higher sidewall and resulting in a smoother ride. High performance tyres usually have a lower aspect ratio, resulting in better lateral stability.
This number specifies the outer edge of a wheel, holding the tyre, measured in inches.
A numerical code associated with the maximum load a tyre can carry at the speed indicated by its Speed index. A higher number indicates that the tire has a higher load capacity.
The letter indicating the maximum speed at which the tyre can carry a load corresponding to its Load Index.
Experience the cutting edge of premium tyre technology with the Bridgestone Europe eLibrary App. Available for iOS and Android, the app introduces the full Bridgestone summer and winter line-up via a series of inspiring videos, dynamic photography and other interactive content. So you can discover the superior safety, reliability and performance of Bridgestone tyres at a single touch. Download now:


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Guidance Note: data protection considerations when vetting prospective employees
- Purpose of the Guidance Note
This guidance note focuses on data protection considerations that must be taken into account before vetting prospective employees/volunteers/students in certain specified sectors. It provides guidance for organisations on how to treat information that is provided to them on foot of a vetting procedure. This note also provides background information about how vetting procedures currently operate in this jurisdiction.
Under the Data Protection Acts information about the commission or the alleged commission of an offence by a person falls within the definition of sensitive personal data. Currently, there is no comprehensive statutory basis which underpins the vetting process. The Office of the Data Protection Commissioner supports the current procedure for managing requests for vetting in this jurisdiction. The procedure is based on the consent of the person to the release of certain types of information held by An Garda Síochána in respect of that person.
- How the vetting process works
a) Who can be requested to undergo vetting?
The Central Vetting Unit within An Garda Síochána conducts vetting for organisations that are registered with the Unit for this purpose. At present, employees/volunteers/students are requested to consent to a vetting procedure before working in the following roles:
- Prospective employees of the Health Service Executive and agencies funded by the Health Service Executive where the work involves access to children and vulnerable adults;
- New teachers in the primary and post-primary sector;
- New employees and volunteers in the youth work sector and certain sports organisations;
- Staff, students and volunteers in the childcare sector;
- Staff working in care homes for older people.
Vetting also takes place in relation to:
- State employees;
- Employees covered by the Private Security Services Act 2004.
Standard procedures are in place for organisations registered with An Garda Síochána for vetting purposes. For vetting to occur, vetting subjects must complete a formal Garda Vetting Application Form. Vetting subjects must give written authorisation for An Garda Síochána to disclose to the registered organisation details of all prosecutions, successful or not, pending or completed and/or details of all convictions, recorded in the State or elsewhere in respect of them held on record by An Garda Síochána. Only specific people recognised as authorised signatories in the approved organisations can submit signed authorisation forms to the Garda Vetting Unit for processing. Once processed, vetting results are transmitted from the Garda Central Vetting Unit directly to the authorised signatory that submitted the application in respect of the individual for further consideration by the organisation.
b) Information that may be released as part of the vetting process
When a vetting subject gives their written permission for An Garda Síochána to disclose details of all prosecutions, successful or not, pending or completed and/or details of all convictions, recorded in the state or elsewhere in respect of them to a registered organisation, all such details as held on record by An Garda Síochána in respect of the vetting subject are disclosed. In the case where vetting subjects have been prosecuted, notwithstanding the court outcome in respect of the prosecution, the factual details contained in the resultant court outcome are disclosed to the authorised signatory.
c) Dispute Resolution
All organisations registered for Garda Vetting participate in a dispute resolution procedure designed to address any instance in which a vetting subject disputes the details contained in the relevant Garda Vetting disclosure. The procedure may be activated by the vetting subject by indicating the basis of their dispute in writing to the authorised signatory who received the Garda Vetting disclosure. The authorised signatory then resubmits the complete application file to the Garda Central Vetting Unit for the conduct of further checks.
d) Probation Act 1907 and Vetting
In instances where, in the court outcome, the court applies the provisions of the Probation Act 1907, the charges are dismissed. However, in order to avail of the provisions of the Probation Act 1907, the case is marked as 'proved'. While individuals often consider that they do not have a formal criminal record, when a person gives their written authorisation for vetting to be conducted the authorised signatory for the registered organisation is informed of the charge as a 'non-conviction' rather than a formal conviction.
e) Age
There is no Garda Vetting for people under the age of 16. However, if a candidate is aged 16/17 and requires vetting (e.g. to enter a child care course in college) the consent of a parent or guardian is sought by An Garda Síochána.
f) Retention of vetting forms by An Garda Síochána Central Vetting Unit
When the Garda Vetting Unit has complied with a vetting request, the original vetting application form is returned to the authorised signatory for the registered organisation. The Garda Vetting Unit does not retain a copy of this documentation. Information about the retention of these forms by registered organisations is dealt with in the next section.
- Important data protection guidance regarding the use/storage and retention of information received by an organisation which carries out vetting
a) Can information received as part of the vetting process be shared by one organisation with another?
As mentioned previously, the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner supports the current procedure for managing requests for vetting in this jurisdiction.
As outlined in Section 2 of this guidance note, the consent given by an individual for vetting is specifically linked to the disclosure of their information to a specific registered organisation to allow the organisation to make an assessment decision about allowing that individual to take on a particular role within that organisation. The Office of the Data Protection Commissioner does not consider it appropriate that information disclosed to one named organisation for this sole purpose would be shared by that organisation subsequently with any other organisation, even with consent (except where the registered organisation is clearly undertaking the vetting on behalf of a related organisation). There are a number of data protection reasons for this.
Firstly, as the vetting process may involve the provision of sensitive personal information about a person, it is absolutely imperative that there is no drift in terms of the use to which such information may be put or in terms of the identity of the organisation using the information (other than within the restricted context outlined previously).
Secondly, An Garda Síochána ensures that confidentiality and data protection requirements are met by restricting vetting disclosures to persons trained as authorised signatories. The further disclosure of such information to other parties, even with the consent of the vetting subject, would not be appropriate and will increase the potential for breaches of data protection rights.
Aside from data protection concerns, An Garda Síochána wish to ensure the integrity of the vetting process. To achieve this it is necessary that each organisation should separately vet each person rather than share potentially dated information that was supplied as part of a previous vetting request.
b) Secure storage of vetting information
The secure storage of vetting disclosures made by An Garda Síochána to authorised signatories is another key data protection consideration in this area. The content of such disclosures constitute sensitive personal data. Therefore they must be held in a secure manner with access restricted to a small number of authorised personnel.
Vetting disclosures may only be used for the purpose for which they were provided to an organisation in accordance with the consent of the vetting subject. They cannot be further processed or disclosed to other parties.
c) Retention of vetting information
Personal data must be destroyed when the purpose for which it was sought has expired. This can be problematic in relation to the continued holding of vetting disclosures as the Data Protection Commissioner is concerned that their long-term retention creates the potential for unauthorised access and use. Accordingly, the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner recommends that vetting disclosures should be routinely deleted one year after they are received except in exceptional circumstances. In case of future queries or issues in relation to a vetting disclosure, the reference number and date of disclosure may be retained on file and this can be checked with An Garda Síochána. This practice is sufficient for all organisations engaged in vetting, including organisations subject to external statutory inspection of staff vetting practices.
In regard to all unsuccessful employment applications, the vetting disclosure and all other personal data collected in the recruitment process should be deleted after a year in line with standard advice in this area. It is important that organisations are aware that an individual has the right to make a request for a copy of information held about them.
This requirement that an organisation does not share with another organisation information on individuals received as part of the vetting process does not prevent the supply of the vetting response to the vetting subject. It is good practice to give it to them and in any case they would have a right to access a copy of their personal data under section 4 of the Data Protection Acts 1988 & 2003.
This requirement that an organisation does not share with another organisation information on individuals received as part of the vetting process does not prevent the supply of the vetting response to the vetting subject. It is good practice to give it to them and in any case they would have a right to access a copy of their personal data under section 4 of the Data Protection Acts 1988 & 2003.
- Can Garda Vetting be carried out by employers in sectors other than those mentioned in Section 2 of this guidance note?
In general, An Garda Síochána will only carry out vetting for approved organisations in designated sectors. Such a service is not generally available to other employers. While An Garda Síochána are required to provide information from their records in response to access requests from individuals, the responses to such requests are not of the standard applied to vetting applications.
Under section 4(13) of the Data Protection Act,s it is an offence for an employer to require an employee or prospective employee to make an access request related to their employment (an "enforced subject access request").


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Lloyd Mats ® - Classic Loop Black Front Floor Mats For Chevrolet Avalanche 2007-13 With Avalanche Silver Embroidery
- Description
Customized Front floor mat set for Chevrolet Avalanche 2007 to 2013, With Avalanche Silver Embroidery on Black Mats. Emblem size 10 1/2" x 1 1/4".
Decorate the interior of your vehicle with Lloyd Mats Classic Loop. Classic Loop is a new custom fit floor mat, that doesn't sacrifice quality or durability. The dense loop style construction produces a crush resistant face, providing a level of wear resistance that allows Lloyd to warranty Classic Loop mats for a full five years. Classic Loop features a unique process whereby the color is added to the liquid polypropylene before the material solidifies and is woven into yarn. This creates a carpet that is inherently fade, stain and soil resistant.
- Economically priced
- Rugged appearance
- Soil and stain resistant Polypropylene yarn
- Loop style carpet construction of 20 ounce per yard
- Multi-layer backing for stiffness, moisture protection and traction
- Two year warranty against defects in design, workmanship and materials
- Eight OEM matched colors
- Customize with hundreds of automotive, lifestyle and personalized designs
- Equipped with factory compatible, or Lloyd's anchoring system
- If you want different mat color please let us know.
- Upon check out please notify us with your vehicle year and features.
- Lloyd Mats will only fit vehicles that have not been modified.
Classic Loop:
This is an economically priced custom mat that features a unique process whereby the color is added to the liquid polypropylene before the material solidifies and is woven into yarn. This creates a carpet that is inherently fade, stain and soil resistant. It features a low, dense, loop that is extremely wear resistant, allowing Classic Loop mats to be warranted for Two years. Lloyd's signature multi-layer backing with final TractionBac completes these economically priced custom fit mats.
Lloyd Mats Product Comparison Chart:
Lloyd Mats is the industry's largest aftermarket manufacturer of all makes and models, custom fit carpet logo floor mats for passenger cars, trucks, vans and SUVs. Lloyd's Ultimat, Velourtex, LUXE, Berber 2 and Classic Loop custom floor mats are produced in their state of the art Northridge, California facility from materials made in the USA. Their exact fit, precision cut mats are available for vehicle applications from the 1950s to the present and include many one-piece mats for complete passenger area coverage, trunk and cargo areas. They offer over 1000 licensed automotive trademark emblems, lifestyle, military and personalized embroidered designs on their carpet auto mat products.
- Additional Information
Additional Information
Fits on 2007 - 2008 - 2009 - 2010 - 2011 - 2012 - 2013 Chevrolet Avalanche Models Color No Warranty Two Year Warranty Item Availability In Stock
- Fitment
Fits on: 2007 - 2008 - 2009 - 2010 - 2011 - 2012 - 2013 Chevrolet Avalanche Models
- Reviews
User Reviews (3)
they look great and arrived quickly by 5589patricia (6/19/2017)
as described.fast ship by splicer7 (5/24/2017)
Item as described by doubleaj (3/18/2017)
Add review


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***Calling all Crossfit New Englanders! Judi, Denise and Tom are spearheading an effort to send shirts to our kids in Kenya to reward them for "Pride in Effort". Please click HERE for more information.***
Dimension X
30 Pull-ups
50 Thursters (45#)
1000m Row
Post times to comments.
Coaches Corner with Coach Harry
The Essential Z's
Next to air, food, and water, sleep is a simple must for overall health. Lack of sleep not only leads to rough workouts in the gym, but it affects our mood, our thought-process, and how we treat others. Constant sleep deprivation has been linked to weight gain, high blood pressure, a weakened immune system… the list goes on. You don't want to be there.
We pay close attention to quality food choices – now let's do the same for our sleeping habits. As adults, we want to aim for 7 to 9 hours of sleep a night.
Below you will find 10 tips to increasing your quality of sleep. Choose 2-3 of these to start, and dial them in for the first week. Once you feel completely comfortable in those, add in another, and hold steady until you feel comfortable to take on another. Keep repeating the process until we reach all 10.
1. Sleep in complete, total darkness. On a hormonal level, even an inch of dim light on the body prevents you from getting the deep sleep we need. So turn off the TV, the night light, and even cover the alarm clock. Consider black-out curtains. Put anything that lights up – to include your cellphone – away in the bathroom. Simply put that temptation away to a spot you can't easily reach from bedside.
2. Create a before-bed ritual. Just like how our CFNE warmup primes us for the WOD, a before-bed ritual will prime us for sleep. A consistent pattern here will train the body to understand that rack time is quickly approaching, and will gradually wind down in preparation. To some extent, we already do this – many of us associate the brushing of our teeth with bedtime.
Add onto that, and create a 15 minute routine that winds you down mentally and physically. Take a warm shower, change into pajamas, read a book… make it a relaxing and consistent ritual that will ease you into bed.
3. Establish a sleep-schedule. Don't view this as an all-or-nothing ordeal. Start small – set a safe "no later than" bed time to start. But be diligent in following it. Every 1-2 weeks, reset that standard 15 minutes earlier. Now it's 10:15 instead of 10:30. Continue the process until you've reached your goal.
4. Improve the quality of your bed. This doesn't mean you need to invest in a new bed – start with new sheets. 300 thread-count sheets are worth the ~$85. You sleep on these sheets every night… it's worth it.
5. Cool Out. According to the New York Times, the optimal temperature for sleep is around 60-68 degrees. The decrease in core temperature induces sleep, whereas a higher temperature can cause restlessness. Cooler than you might guess – but think about those colder winter nights, and how comfortable you are wrapped in several sheets. It's cozy. No two ways about it.
6. White-noise. Turn on a fan to block out all excess noise from traffic, neighbors, and others who don't adhere to this advice (just kidding… but not really)
7. Cut off caffeine after 2pm. The half-life of caffeine is measured at just under 6 hours. Some of us can have a cup of joe moments before bed and still find our way to sleep, but it's beyond that. We can't reach the deepest levels of REM sleep, where we truly reap the recuperative benefits, if caffeine is present in our system.
8. Taper down liquids after 5pm. Many of us have the (great) goal of drinking more water. Let's frontload that in the earlier hours of the day, and taper off towards the evening. By noon, aim for 50% (or more) of your daily oz's.
9. Naturally regulate your sleep cycle. Ever felt exhausted after a day in the sun? Ever felt restless after a day in the office? There's a reason for that – sun light regulates our sleep hormones, and exposure during the day will help us get to sleep at night. Take your breaks outside, exercise in the sun when you can, and open the curtains at home or the blinds at work as much as possible.
10. Track your sleep. Try this for a week. Write down what time you got into bed, and what time you rose the following morning. This can be valuable data that you simply can't remember without writing it down. How many hours did you sleep 4 nights ago?
There are a million and one things that could get in the way of a good nights sleep. I'd bet you a million of those however are actions that could wait until the following day. We need our sleep to optimize our lives.
Overnight results. For real this time.


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posted by Thom Holwerda on Tue 25th Jul 2006 20:46 UTC, submitted by Bryan
The editors of ResExcellence.com, a popular Macintosh website and longtime Mac enthusiasts, have switched to Linux. "I've been making my living as Mac-specific developer for several years now... I was a true Mac die-hard," stated Bryan, who also runs a Mac software company, on his blog, "but the Macintosh community, with its bad attitudes and diva-esque nature, rained on my parade. Sure there were other reasons why I switched. But that was the tipping point."


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BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN (AFP) - Brunei has postponed its implementation of harsh Islamic punishments, due to begin on Tuesday, that have earned condemnation from the United Nations and sparked rare criticism at home.
No confirmed new date was given for the start of the punishments - which will eventually include flogging, the severing of limbs and death by stoning - but an official told the Brunei Times they would begin "in the very near future".
The new criminal code brings in execution by stoning as the punishment for gay sex and adultery as well as rape.
It also introduces the death penalty for defamation of the Prophet Mohammed, blasphemy and declaring oneself a non-Muslim.
Brunei's Sultan Hassanal is on a trip to Singapore, and it is thought that his government decided it could not introduce the new law without the Islamic monarch - the driving force behind the move - kicking it off.
Jauyah Zaini, assistant director of Brunei's Islamic Legal Unit, was quoted by the Brunei Times as saying implementation had been delayed "due to unavoidable circumstances". He did not elaborate nor give a new date.
Authorities in the oil-rich sultanate said a sharia "declaration ceremony" would go ahead as planned on April 30 to launch the first phase of the new penal code.
Sultan Hassanal - one of the world's wealthiest men - had announced in October that new sharia law punishments would be phased in.
The UN's human rights office criticised the raft of harsh new measures this month, saying it was "deeply concerned" about the revised criminal code.
The move also sparked an outcry earlier this year on social media - the only outlet for public criticism of authorities in Brunei, where questioning the 67-year-old sultan is taboo.
Non-Muslims have also expressed anxiety over mixed messages on whether the punishments would apply to them.
Situated on Borneo island, which it shares with Malaysia and Indonesia, Brunei practises a more conservative form of Islam than its Muslim-majority neighbours, banning the sale of alcohol and heavily restricting other religions.
The sultan has backed the strengthening of Islam in his country, setting up a "firewall" against what he calls potentially harmful outside influences.
Officials have previously said sharia cases would require an extremely high burden of proof and judges would have wide discretion applying it.
Brunei already has the death penalty, but has not carried out any executions since 1957.


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Featured News - Current News - Archived News - News Categories
Eighteen agreements reached over three years
New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli has announced he has reached agreement with five Fortune 500 companies - Southwest Airlines, Dr Pepper Snapple Group, Plum Creek Timber Company, Harley-Davidson and Noble Energy - to disclose political spending made with corporate funds.
"Shareholders have a right to know how companies are using corporate money for political purposes," DiNapoli said. "These companies deserve credit for embracing transparency and reducing potential risk to shareholder value by disclosing direct and indirect contributions made with corporate funds. To date, 18 companies have reached agreements with the New York State Common Retirement Fund to disclose their political spending - it's time for more good corporate citizens to follow their lead."
All five agreements on disclosure of political spending include commitments to make public all direct and indirect monetary and non-monetary political contributions, including contributions to trade associations that are used for political purposes.
Through his Office of Corporate Governance, DiNapoli has engaged portfolio companies held by the New York State Common Retirement Fund to disclose political spending. In 2010, the fund, along with other members of the Council of Institutional Investors, sent letters to 430 S&P 500 companies calling on them to disclose contributions made with corporate funds for political purposes.
In 2011 and 2012, the fund filed 27 shareholder resolutions seeking disclosure of political spending, reaching agreement with 10 companies. For 2013, DiNapoli has filed 26 resolutions on the issue of political spending disclosure, reaching agreement with eight companies, including KeyCorp and PepsiCo (see full list below).
Last year, the DiNapoli wrote to the Securities and Exchange Commission supporting a petition for rulemaking regarding disclosure of political expenditures. In March, DiNapoli and New York City Public Advocate Bill de Blasio penned an op-ed that appeared in the New York Times urging incoming SEC Chairwoman Mary Jo White to take up this issue once she is confirmed.
In mid-February, the fund and telecommunications giant Qualcomm announced the company had agreed to settle a lawsuit brought by the fund in the Delaware Court of Chancery, which sought to compel it to disclose how shareholder funds were being spent for political purposes. As a result of that settlement, Qualcomm revealed previous political spending and agreed to disclose future use of corporate funds for political purposes.
As of March 28, the fund owned:
that have agreed to disclose their political spending:


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Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus Review
Finding a good heatsink can be quite a tough job to tackle. There are many factors to consider when deciding what to buy for your CPU. Probably the most important factors to consider are how well the heatsink performs and how big of a hole it eats out of your wallet. Yet another factor to consider is how much headroom you have when overclocking. A good heatsink needs to be able to take the increased heat of an overclocked CPU. Known for its great cases and cooling devices, CoolerMaster delivers yet another fine product, namely the Hyper 212 Plus. Does this heatsink deliver like CoolerMaster's other products? Read on further to find out.
Closer Look:
So you wish to know more about the Hyper 212 Plus. The Hyper 212 Plus comes packaged in a white box with purple in the right hand corner and features the cooler on the front face. The front also bears the name of the cooler as well as its new support for i7, AM3, and LGA1156/1366. On one side of the box is the list of specifications that goes on to mention that it also supports LGA775 and AMD sockets AM2 and 939.
Once out of the box, you'll see the CoolerMaster fan with larger blades. It would appear the fan could move a lot of air from the large blades but it does make a lot of noise because of this design. According to the side packing, the fan delivers a maximum of 76.6CFM at a maximum of 32dBA. Not a bad noise level, at least for me anyway, it's up to you in the end if this bothers you. Upward and onward you will find along with the heatsink is the backplate. Upon further investigation of the packaging and the manual I found it quite interesting how versitile CoolerMaster made the hardware that secures the cooler to the CPU. Unlike most heatsinks, this one only has one retention bracket and one backplate, which is applicable for all of the sockets it supports. This means that after assembly you won't (or shouldn't) if you assembled it properly, have any left over parts to hold on to, with I suppose the exception of the bitthey give you to use to secure the nuts on the backplate.
Now that we have it unpacked, let's take a closer look at what we have.


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LoRa simulation using ATDI's RF Solution
General overview of LoRa, and network planning approach in ATDI's RF engineering tools.
LPWAN (Low-power wide area network)
Low-power WAN (LPWAN) is a wireless wide area network technology that is specialized for interconnecting devices with low-bandwidth connectivity, focusing on range and power efficiency.
It is designed for machine-to-machine (M2M) networking environments. Such network requires decreased power, longer range and lower cost compare to commercial mobile network. The networks can also support more devices over a larger coverage area than consumer mobile technologies and have better bi-directionality.
LPWAN is a key factor for large-scale communication networks typically required in Smart-City applications and Internet of Things, known as IoT. Recently, narrowband and spread-spectrum technologies surfaced as cost-effective candidate technologies to fulfil low throughput and long-range communication.
Bluetooth, ZigBee and Wi-Fi are adequate for consumer-level IoT implementations. The need for a technology such as LPWAN is much greater in industrial IoT, civic and commercial applications. In these environments, the huge numbers of connected devices can only be supported if communications are efficient and power costs low.
The most critical factors in a LPWAN are:
- Network architecture
- Communication range
- Battery lifetime or low power
- Robustness to interference
- Network capacity (maximum number of nodes in a network)
- Network security
- One-way vs two-way communication
- Variety of applications served
|Local Area Network (LAN)
|Low Power Wide Area
|Cellular Network
|Short Range Communication
|Internet of Things
|Traditional M2M
|Bluetooth, WiFi, ZigBee
|Well established standard in building
|Lowe power consumption, Low cost positioning
|Existing coverage, High data rate
|Battery live, Provisioning
Network cost and dependencies
|Low data rate,
Emerging standards
Total cost of ownership is high
Lora® and LoraWan™
LoRaWAN™ is a LPWAN specification intended for wireless battery operated Things in regional, national or global network. LoRaWAN target key requirements of internet of things such as secure bi-directional communication, mobility and localization services. This standard has been widely spread in IoT industries with its strong interoperability among smart Things with the benefit of low demand in complex local installations.
LoRa® is the wireless modulation to create long range communication link. It is based on chirp spread spectrum modulation, which maintains the same low power characteristics but significantly increases the communication range.[1]
The main advantage of LoRa® is in its long range capability, which allows a single gateway or base station to cover entire cities or hundreds of square kilometres. LoRa® and LoraWAN™ provides larger link budget compare to other technologies in environment or obstruction of a given location. [2]
LoRa® physical layer
LoRa is a spread-spectrum modulation scheme that that uses wideband linear frequency modulated pulses whose frequency increases or decreases over a certain amount of time to encode information.
The main advantages of this approach are twofold: a substantial increase in receiver sensitivity due to the processing gain of the spread spectrum technique and a high tolerance to TX and RX frequencies misalign.
Network model
LoRa is simply a transmission modulation; the technology can be applied to any network model such as Mesh, P2P and P-MP such as star topology. The network components are the Gateway and Endpoints. The end points can be sensors for different applications.
Key challenges
Regardless whether LoRa or NB wireless system – there are RF limitations inherited from the use-case itself. The End-points (EP) can be deep-indoor, in the basement and even under-ground. Most noticeable challenge is the EP and/or the gateway can be as little as 2m height pushing additional pressure to RF simulators and link-level predictions.
End-Point installation location and variable height requirement
Classical mobile coverage planning has typically addressed outdoor and indoor planning requirements separately by deploying macro-sites, micro-sites and DAS for in-building. Accordingly, statistical propagation models have evolved to assist in area planning. M2M communication networks are P-MP in nature with sensors installed at different floors including basement. These requirements push network planners to adopt 3D digital maps and apply path-specific full deterministic propagation models.
[1] Section 2, Technical Overview of LoRa® and LoRaWAN™, Technical Marketing Workgroup 1.0, Lora Alliance Org. (Nov. 2015)
[2] Section 2, Technical Overview of LoRa® and LoRaWAN™, Technical Marketing Workgroup 1.0, Lora Alliance Org. (Nov. 2015)
Building impact in urban environment
Smart-City means large buildings and skyscrapers. Such environment has been hard to manage due to its traffic density nature and short signal travel distance. Planning GW station location can be a challenge due to vast obstructions in the vicinity of the transmitter leaving network planners completely blind to the overall coverage footprint in such environment. Every candidate location can produce a completely varying coverage. Hence, LoRa network simulation model must support high-resolution 3D building layer and be able to predict outdoor diffraction and indoor signals with high precision.
Link adaptation modelling
LoRa supports multiple spreading factors from 6 to 12. With 12 being the most robust but also the longest in terms of air-time occupancy. Having large number of End-Points with such link mode can completely exhaust the GW resources and hence deliver the wrong network design. Network dimensioning should rely on accurate signal level prediction to work out the SF distribution amongst target End-Points.
Interference calculations and dimensioning
Interference protection is not guaranteed with LoRa targeting unlicensed bands. "Polite transmission protocols" are encouraged for all devices. With LoRa promising many kms of coverage – practical range can be less than what is expected due to current band utilization and overall spectral noise density.
Co-existence with 2G/3G/4G
Lack of international and/or regional harmonization for ISM bands can be a threat to budget receiving devices. Manufacturers have to support US, Europe, AUS and APAC markets. Improving receiver's selectivity for a specific market is an additional challenge for these devices before they undergo and large scale deployment. For instance, US ISM band on 900 MHz extend to GSM900 in Singapore creating an overlap that can potentially overload small devices even if operating on adjacent band due to poor selectivity and high sensitivity.
Propagation models
Empirical models and their requested tunning
Empirical models model the environment as a series of random variables. These models are the least accurate but require the least information about the environment and use much less processing power to generate predictions. An example of these types of model are the Stanford University Interim (SUI) channel models developed under the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) 802.16 working group. These models are not available on purpose in ICS Telecom: medium resolution cartography can indeed be processed very easily (from SRTM/Landsat data for instance), making this propagation modeling without detailed cartography not accurate enough with regards to the results that could be obtained using other models. Other examples of empirical models is COST-231 Hata model. Although empirical propagation models for mobile systems have been comprehensively validated (mainly macrocell 2G/3G planning, but not for IoT analysis), it has not been established if they are appropriate for M2M systems.
These models are less dependent on the quality of the cartography: they try to re-create the urban environment and the resulting mean path loss using typical inputs such as the distance, the average building height (giving by the clutter file), the average street width…
The cartographic dataset loaded in ICS Telecom will differentiate the signal propagation between downtown Hong Kong or in a medium size French city using a deterministic model, whereas it is the tuning of the empirical model itself that will make the difference. Requiring less cartographic input is a major asset for the empirical models, but their main drawback is the fact they require tuning in order to be accurate. And this model-tuning phase cannot be achieved without accurate measurements, that need to be performed according to the same technology and the same urban environment as the one that will be simulated afterwards.
Deterministic models and planning margins
The deterministic models make use of the laws governing electromagnetic wave propagation to determine the received signal power at a particular location. They require a 3-D map of the propagation environment: the more compatible the accuracy of the cartography with a certain technology to simulate, the better the coverage accuracy (for a given set of technical parameters for the base stations / Terminals / CPEs). Typical examples are the ITU-R 525/526 models, used with appropriate additional propagation effects (diffraction, sub-path attenuation and 3D ray tracing).
Depending on the type of technology to simulate, the receiver can be placed either above the urban clutter codes (Fixed Wireless Access type of networking), or "dug" into the clutter. In this case, attenuation associated to the signal strength received at each pixel will be attenuated based upon the selected diffraction model.
The limitation of statistical models with HR data
Empirical models are used in order to simulate by mathematical terms topographical characteristics that are not available on the cartographic dataset used as a basis for the propagation calculation, such as the average height of the buildings in the area, the width of the streets… All of these are already available in a High Resolution cartographic dataset, making the characteristics of the empirical model redundant with the cartographic dataset itself. The urban environment is described as close to reality as possible, making deterministic models much more efficient in terms of accuracy than empirical models when HR data is used.
Dense urban environment: ATDI uses full set of 3D GIS input and deterministic propagation models which are proved in numerous use cases over three decades and validated its accuracy in field measurements for urban environment. These models are described as path-specific, which is a perfect candidate for P-MP non-mobile scenarios, typically deployed for IoT applications.
ATDI's LoRa® network planning approach
End-point PATH SPECIFIC
ATDI adopts a set of full 3D and deterministic propagation models proven in case-studies and validated by field measurements for urban environment. These models are described as path-specific. Unlike classical models such as Hata which is typically used for macro-coverage predictions and street level mobile receivers. Deterministic model such as ITU-R P.525 + Deygout94 is governed by rules of physics and require full descriptive RF environment such as digital terrain model, clutter and buildings.
Path specific models are the perfect candidate for P-MP non-mobile scenarios typically deployed for the IoT.
Building impact prediction
Buildings have two-fold impact; shadowing and absorption. Thanks to our dedicated building layer – the tool is able to distinguish outdoor and indoor receivers and switch accordingly. Signal crossing multiple buildings can undergo diffraction on few buildings and absorption on the last building where the EP is installed. Such effect is only possible with fully-deterministic model and separate building layer model. See Figure 1 for full predictions at every level. Separate clutter classes can be defined for under-ground installations. Also see Figure 2 for building impact on outdoor signal level.
LoRa Gateway reserves SF12 mode for first transmitted packet and worst links to guarantee service initiation and maintain the session for poor RF links. While this is tolerable for first few packets; maintaining the link with higher SF means longer transmission duration, longer queues and poor handling of resources. This will also effect the overall capacity of the serving Gateway. After first transmission, the gateway signals the sensor to switch to better spreading-factors if permissible by the RF link-level. The network design would ideally target lower spreading factors to increase efficiency and to cater for the daily traffic demand. Urban environment, see Figure 2, can be heavily shadowed outdoor with varying signal levels that would require high spreading-factors especially indoor. With most of the sensor nodes being indoor or outdoor in fixed locations; it is of high importance to predict the path-specific link level for every node taking into account all obstacles within the path as described in the section "Deterministic propagation models".
Link adaptation modeling
LoRa overcome some of the urban challenges by adopting 7 different spreading factors (SF) and 4 coding-rate scheme (see AN1200.22). Varying SF result in different SNR and packet duration. While such scheme has its merits and de-merits – it's necessary to simulate this behaviour while trialling the network in preparation to the full-scale deployment. Figure 3 and Figure 4 show coverage ranges and adaptive link performance for suburban and urban environments respectively.
Figure 3 shows LoRa spreading-factor adaptation outdoor and indoor in a suburban environment taking into account 3D building layer. The Gateway is installed 5m AGL with End-Points being 3m AGL. Coverage include interference margin and reliability calculations and outdoor to indoor penetration when applicable.
Figure 4 shows LoRa spreading-factor adaptation outdoor and indoor in a heavy urban environment taking into account 3D building layer. The Gateway is installed 5m AGL with End-Points being 3m AGL. Coverage include interference margin and reliability calculations and outdoor to indoor penetration when applicable.
Co-existence analysis
LoRa's blocking immunity is roughly 82.5dB, 86.5dB and 89dB for 1, 2 and 10 MHz respectively (see sx1272 datasheet). The immunity is measured in reference to LoRa's receiver sensitivity plus 3dB. The presence of strong near-by transmitter can compromise the performance of the receiver by overloading the RF front. The receiver is not necessarily optimized for the hosting band-plan given the discrepancy in band plan adoption amongst regions and countries.
See calculations below for LoRa 125kHz, SF=12 co-existing with 2G carrier being at +/- 2MHz:
|· Interference threshold due to blocking = Lora Sensitivity + 3dB + LoRa_Blocking_Immunity
· Interference threshold due to blocking = -137dBm + 3dB + 86.5
= -47.5 dBm
With GSM transmitting typically in the order of 100W EIRP with 86dB MCL for urban environment. 3GPP estimates 70dB MCL including antenna gain (4.5.1 3GPP TR 36.942). Hence GSM power received is (50dBm – 86 dB) = -36dBm.
Additional protection required = -36dBm – (-47.5dB) = 11.5dB


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Eggs are available year round, even in chilly New England, but they seem like the first food of the growing season. Perhaps it's because they're on holiday tables this time of year (for their symbolism of rebirth, fertility, and more), and for days, even weeks, afterward, fridges are full of egg cartons and skillets hit the stovetop morning, noon, and night.
For years eggs had very little flavor because the hens that laid them were confined, rather than scratching around in the dirt. Today you can find egg farmers who handle hens with care, letting them run around a yard and eat well, until their eggs produce golden, sometimes orange, yolks and delicate whites.
Some people think of eggs as the perfect portable protein. Others see them as ingredients in baked goods. But you can also make eggs the star of a dish.
Scramble a bowlful and stir in sauteed mushrooms, add them to a simmering, highly seasoned tomato sauce to make the popular North African shakshuka, or take the hard-cooked eggs off your holiday table and turn them into tuna-stuffed rounds.
Continue reading below
If it happens that you have too many eggs on hand, you're in luck.


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Brief SummaryRead full entry
The American Alligator is one of the largest North American reptiles. This species is native to the South-East United States, where it inhabits wetlands on the Atlantic coast from North Carolina to Florida, and in the Northern Gulf of Mexico west to Texas (Scott 2004). Alligators mostly inhabit marshes and swamps, but can also be found in rivers, streams, lakes, and ponds. Although they cannot survive in seawater, they do tolerate brackish water and venture into salt marshes, mangrove swamps, and other estuarine habitats (Scott 2004).
Adults and subadult alligators prey on a variety of aquatic organism including fish, crabs, snakes, turtles, mammals, birds, and other alligators (Jensen et al. 2008). Juveniles eat insects, amphibians, crayfish, molluscs and small fish (Jensen et al. 2008, Scott 2004).


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Welcome to the CRG Discussion Forum!Forum registration problems: Make sure you enter your email correctly and you check your spam box first. *Then* email KurtS2@gmail for help.Classified ads are not allowed on the forum.
While not perfectly streetable, this build would make a great pattern for someone trying to replicate an early TransAm Camaro...................http://www.rhoadescamaro.com/build/?m=201211BTW........I don't post much here but am a daily reader and fully enjoy the postings from all of you.I hope everyone has a safe and Happy Thanksgiving


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The Red Roof Inn at 6055 Shelby Oaks Drive has traded hands for the second time in a year and for the same sales price of $1.6 million.
6055 Shelby Oaks DriveMemphis, TN 38134Sale Amount: $1.6 million
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sneak peakWednesday, September 12, 2007
The buttons have been chosen. (The back side, not the wrong side, because I think they are oh, so right.)
37 comments
ooh, cant wait to see it!!!ReplyDelete
Like a well-borne lady of a bygone era who deigns to entice with just enough, thank you very much!ReplyDelete
Enjoy yourself. Will look forward to the big reveal shortly.
I love those buttons. Perfect for your SB! I have some similar for my SB, but haven't even chosen the yarn yet!!ReplyDelete
I have just found you via the SB KAL, and I love the messenger bag you made a while ago. Where is the pattern from? I would love to make it. Yours looks absolutely fab!
Have a good trip!
Gosh you made that fast! ooooo, it's looks gorgeous! Can't wait for the pics!ReplyDelete
Have a great long weekend - lucky dog!
Leslie, please change your blog name to 'Landspeed Record Knitter' because you are unbelievably fast!! Please tell me that you stay glued to your phenomenal patio all day with that trusty Ikea mug and KNIT ALL DAY while those kids are at school....because that is the only acceptable explantion....ReplyDelete
Oooh, can't wait for the unveiling!ReplyDelete
You picked out the most perfect buttons for that sweater! I am squealing with excitement..can't wait to see this.ReplyDelete
Enjoy your trip!!
So exciting! Can't wait...ReplyDelete
wow that was fast!! i cannot wait to see the finished project - i think the buttons will be perfect!ReplyDelete
those buttons are beautiful....as is the sweater. can't wait to see more!ReplyDelete
you ARE a tease! we are all excitedly awaiting the photos that will reveal all... have a great trip.ReplyDelete
Leslie, you are such a tease!ReplyDelete


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Identifying, managing feline acne, non-parasitic otitis and allergic dermatitis
Feline non-parasitic causes of otitis and ear masses Most veterinarians are familiar with the clinical signs and treatment of ear mites in cats and kittens, but what about the feline patient with chronic otitis in which ear mites have been ruled out?
Otitis in cats, other than infection due to ear mites, is uncommon, possibly due to their upright pinna and mostly hairless ear canals. Chronic bilateral recurrent ceruminous otitis, with or without pinnal inflammation and pruritus, is common in cats with underlying food allergy or atopy, and often is resistant to therapy unless the underlying cause is identified and treated. Geriatric cats may develop failure of ear canal epithelial self-cleaning, leading to the formation of large ceruminoliths lodged against the tympanic membrane. Any cat with unilateral, medically resistant otitis externa or otitis media should be evaluated for feline nasopharyngeal polyps or other otic neoplasia.Feline nasopharyngeal polyps, most common in young cats or kittens, may originate from the pharyngeal mucosa, the middle ear, or the auditory (eustachian) tube. These polyps may be congenital (may be seen in siblings) or secondary to bacterial or viral infections, such as calicivirus. Most polyps are unilateral, in rare cases they can be bilateral. The most common clinical signs include unilateral otic discharge (ceruminous, purulent, or hemorrhagic), head-shaking, and a pink well-encapsulated mass in the horizontal or vertical ear canal. If the mass involves the middle ear, head tilt, nystagmus, Horner's syndrome and ataxia may be seen. Occasionally, the mass can only be visualized by examining the area under the soft palate under sedation. Surgical removal of the polyp, often with bulla osteotomy, is usually needed for complete cure. Simply ripping or pulling out the polyp with a hemostat is traumatic, can cause excessive bleeding and damage to delicate ear canal tissue, and often fails to remove the base of the polyp, leading to regrowth. For these reasons, this procedure is not recommended for ear polyp removal.
Other otic neoplasms seen primarily in older cats include ceruminous gland adenomas and adenocarcinomas. In cats, ear canal tumors are malignant in 50 percent of the cases. Clinical signs include unilateral otic hemorrhage, necrotic odor, secondary bacterial otitis, head-shaking and ear scratching. Swelling with hemorrhage and drainage below the ear in the salivary gland region may be seen. A pink-white often dome-shaped ulcerated and bleeding mass is seen on otoscopic evaluation in the horizontal or vertical canal. The only effective treatment is surgical removal of the mass, and ear canal ablation surgery with bulla osteotomy often gives the best result. Ceruminous gland adenocarcinomas may be locally invasive into regional lymph nodes or parotid glands, and may metastasize to the lungs. Radiotherapy can be used for incompletely excised tumors.
Feline acne Feline acne, an idiopathic disorder of follicular keratinization, affects cats of any age, gender or breed. The pathogenesis is unknown, but underlying localized seborrhea with the production of abnormal sebum, changes in the hair cycle, viruses (calicivirus, herpes virus), stress, immunosuppression, chin trauma (due to excessive scent marking by rubbing the chin on vertical objects, or from scratching the chin due to underlying food or environmental allergies), plastic food dish contact allergy or bacterial contamination from rubbing the chin in food (especially old dried canned food), or poor grooming habits have all been proposed as possible causes. Most likely, the problem is multi-factorial. Early clinical signs include asymptomatic crusts and comedones on the chin and lower lip. Some cases stay in the comedone stage, while others progress to folliculitis/furunculosis (with formation of papules, pustules and draining cysts/nodules) and in severe cases, cellulitis with painful edematous swelling of the chin and lips. Cats with folliculitis/furunculosis are often pruritic and will rub or scratch the chin. Regional lymphadenopathy may occur. More common organisms isolated in moderate-severe cases of feline acne include Pasteurella, beta-hemolytic Streptococci and Malassezia). Differential diagnoses include dermatophytosis, demodicosis, eosinophilic granuloma (collagenolytic granuloma) and neoplasia. It is important to evaluate cats with feline acne for other signs of allergic dermatitis during your physical examination. Diagnostic tests that should be run in all cases of feline acne include skin scrapings to rule out demodicosis, and fungal culture. In refractory or more severe cases, bacterial culture/sensitivity and biopsy for histopathology should be performed to rule out eosinophilic granuloma/collagenolytic granuloma lesions, underlying allergy, fungal infection and neoplasia. Histopathology results of feline acne include comedo formation with follicular dilatation, keratosis and plugging. Folliculitis, furunculosis and pyogranulomatous dermatitis may be seen in severe cases. Underlying allergy may be diagnosed, and dermatophytosis or other fungal infection can be ruled out. If an underlying allergy is diagnosed, then a flea control trial, an appropriate 10-12 food week elimination diet, and, if nonresponsive to these treatments, intradermal allergy testing should be performed.
Treatment for feline acne varies according to the severity and extent of lesions, and with how much the condition is bothering the cat (and owner)! Cats with only asymptomatic comedones do not require treatment, but may benefit from cleaning the chin once a day with a medicated antibacterial wipe, changing to a dry diet, and feeding out of ceramic or stainless steel bowls that are washed with soap and water daily, rather than plastic. In more severe cases with folliculitis and furunculosis, prolonged oral antibiotic treatment with bactericidal antibiotics used for deep pyoderma treatment should be prescribed. Amoxicillin-clavulanic acid (Clavamox®) enrofloxacin (Baytril®), cephalexin/cefadroxil, clindamycin and metronidazole are recommended and should be continued for six to eight weeks, until all lesions have been resolved for at least two weeks. The chin should be gently washed with anti-seborrheic, antibacterial shampoos such as those containing sulfur-salicylic acid, ethyl lactate, or benzoyl peroxide. Alternatively, moist wipes such as Malacetic® wet wipes are very useful and well-tolerated. The chin should be cleaned once daily initially, then cleaning can be decreased to twice weekly. Topical mupirocin (Bactoderm®) or Zn7 Derm®, a zinc- and L-lysine-containing lotion, applied to the chin every 12 hours is often helpful. In refractory cases, human topical acne treatment products can be prescribed, and are sometimes effective. Examples include Benzamycin® gel, (3 percent erythromycin, 5 percent benzoyl peroxide gel), Metrogel® (0.75 percent metronidazole topical gel), and Retin-A (0.01-0.025 percent cream or gel). Initially these are applied one-two times daily then decreased to every other day. If redness or irritation occurs, reducing the shampoo or cream application frequency or changing to a less drying topical medication is indicated. Omega-6 and Omega-3-containing fatty acid supplementation (DermCaps® liquid) are often helpful as an adjunctive treatment in reducing inflammation and normalizing keratinization. Anecdotal reports of improvement with daily oral low-dose alpha-interferon (30 u orally once a day, seven days on, seven days off) may support a viral etiology.


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Junior Jillian Van Ness
Final Stats
SPRINGFIELD, MA-The University of Massachusetts Dartmouth's indoor track and field team turned in several strong performances at the Springfield Invitational at Blake Track Saturday.
UMass Dartmouth's men finished third in a nine-team field with 91 points. MIT was first with 166 points, while Springfield was second with 104. The women were sixth of 10 teams with 41 points. MIT finished first with 163 points.
For the men, freshman Adam Jones (Amesbury, MA/Triton Regional HS) finished first in the high jump with a school record of 6-6 1/4. He also finished sixth in the triple jump at 43-7 1/4. Freshman Aaron Amado(Randolph, MA/Thayer Academy) was third in the high jump at 6-1 1/4 and fourth in the triple jump at 43-10 3/4.
The 4 x 200 meter relay team of freshman Phito Gondre (New Bedford, MA/New Bedford HS). Sophomore Chris Perry (Providence, RI/Dighton-Rehoboth HS/BCC), freshman Francois Cherduville (Brockton, MA/ Brockton HS) and senior Hymlaire Lamisere(Newton, MA/Newton North HS/Iona) finished first in a school record time of 1:33.74. Gondre tied for first at 60 meters in 7.08 seconds, Cherduville was fourth in 7.13 seconds, and Lamisere sixth in 7.25. Gondre was also second in the long jump at 21-11 1/2.
Perry was second in the triple jump at 46- feet, eight inches. In the shot put, Cole finished third at 46- feet, 1/2 inch, the fourth best throw at UMD, while Yarbough was fifth at 45-1 1/2. In the weight throw, Yarbough was second at 54 feet. 4 ½ inches, while Cole was ninth at 42-11. At 800 meters, junior Scott Connolly (Sharon, MA/Sharon HS) was third in 2:01.80, sophomore Matt Hinthorne (Braintree, MA/Braintree HS) was fifth at 600 meters in 1:25.19, Lamisere was sixth at 200 meters in 24.14 seconds, and freshman Kanoa Culverhouse (Salisbury, MA/Triton Regional HS) was sixth in the 60 meter hurdles in 9.13 seconds. The team o Connolly, freshman Jake Texeira (Seekonk, MA/Seekonk HS), sophomore Zach Switaj(Tamworth, NH/Kennett Regional HS) and Hinthorne was fourth in the 4 x 400 meter relay in 3:32.40.
For the women, junior Jillian Van Ness (Agawam, MA/Agawam HS) tied the school record when she ran 7.97 seconds in the 60 meter trials, then finished second in the finals when she ran 8.06. Sophomore Ezra Banks (Boston, MA/Newton South HS) was fifth in 8.14 seconds. In the shot put, sophomore Jessica Masse (Somerville, MA/Somerville HS) was third at 38 feet, 5 1/2 inches, while senior Brittany Cole(Dartmouth, MA/Dartmouth HS) was fifth at 35-8 3/4.
The 4 x 200 meter relay team of Van Ness, sophomore Lauren Roche (Norfolk, MA/King Philip Regional HS), sophomore Isabelle Pierre (Port-au-Prince, Haiti/.West Roxbury HS) and Banks finished third, and broke the school record with a time of 1:49.05. The 4 x 400 meter relay team of freshman Katie Sheehan (Scituate, MA/Scituate HS), senior Meaghan Bohigian (Barre, MA/Quabbin Regional HS), freshman Megan Cutler (Attleboro, MA/Attleboro HS) and sophomore Kim Urena (Marlborough, MA/Marlborough HS) was fourth in 4:18.10. Sheehan was third at 1000 meters in 1:05.17, while Bohigian was fifth in 3:10.07. Van Ness was fourth at 200 meters in 26.98 seconds, while senior Courtney Testa (Hopkinton, MA/Hopkinton HS) finished sixth in the mile in 5:19.56. "Both meets featured high quality competition," said UMass Dartmouth Head Coach Steve Gardiner. "There were three teams in the top 25 in the men's meet. MIT has been a top five team for the last five years, and Springfield is a top 15 team, and this was a very strong performance for our guys. The women also faced a very strong field. Both teams had some really outstanding performances which will serve us well as we head to BU next week."
The Corsairs will return to action at Boston University next Saturday.


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Dear Reader,
It's been one week and two full nights sleeps without a visit from the 2 hours-of-insomnia Fairy. I have a lot on my mind, so let's just begin.
To the confessional--
I confess after WAY too many years (eighteen, I think) I am getting rid of my haunted armoire.
|Hello, I must be going...
I use the haunted armoire to keep my lingerie and pajamas in. So you can only imagine what my family thinks to find me standing in front of it at 2 am digging through my bras asking questions like, "Do I take medicine?" And saying random things like, "Oh my God, I've forgotten about the bird."
You may wonder why someone would keep a haunted armoire for so long, especially one that I have such a strange midnight relationship with.
Well, because as much as I've blamed my sleep issues on this armoire, I guess I really haven't believed it's been the real cause of it. I mean, can you imagine me telling my doctor that I have terrible sleep issues (and have since I was 24) and it's not because of anxiety or stress, but because I purchased a haunted armoire in 1993 that brings me over to at night searching for medicine or birds. She would think I was looney.
So I've kept it, for the last 18 years believing it's not you, Armoire, it's me.
But this weekend I visited my friend Nancy Pagh (who is an incredible poet by the way--here's her book, No Sweeter Fat) and I went to sleep in her armoireless room and slept for 10 hours straight. No waking up, no insomnia, no trying to feed dead birds that don't exist. It was magical.
I texted my husband from Nancy's house, "When I get home, we must move the haunted armoire out of our bedroom." When I came home, the had already moved the armoire out. And for the past 2 nights I have slept.
I now however am taking the next big step, I sent out an email this morning to my friends that says my haunted armoire is up for grabs or it's going to our local donation center this Friday. Yes, I am breaking up with my armoire (and I should have done this YEARS ago).
Oh and I did include the details that the armoire is in fact, haunted, or has weird energy that makes you think that birds and medicine live in it, but they already knew that--it's not as if I haven't spent the last eighteen years talking about this.
So I feel as if I'm moving on. I cannot wait to get to it out of my house completely.
I told my daughter I was thinking of dragging down to the corner and putting a FREE sign on it and she said that we'll probably look out window and see all our neighbors looking for medicine in it and not understanding why. Which made me laugh. Which made me realize I have put way too much energy in this armoire and while I love how beautiful it is, it really needs to go.


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Bowe Bergdahl's Views Shifted After First Taste of War
Private Was Gung-Ho, but Soon Complained About Army's Strategy
Bowe Bergdahl arrived in Afghanistan ready to kill.
Like many soldiers heading into a war zone for the first time, the 22-year-old Army private was eager to get into the fight. As he and his unit prepared for battle in late 2008, he approached his squad leader at their Alaska military base with a memorable question.
"The first thing he...


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