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The delicate proportions of this youthful dress illustrate Worth's ability to design for and suit a client base widely diverse in age and type. Although the house embraced the challenge of designing for generously proportioned clients, it was also capable of flattering and emphasizing the charms of a more delicate lady.
Bodice: Boned, fitted; waist-length, short split tails; wide neck, pleated velvet band, lace bertha collar, applied bows at center front, center back, and at shoulders; puffed, elbow-length velvet sleeves, gathered at inner elbow, lace ruffle at opening; integral velvet sash with center back butterfly bow; center front lace-up closure.
Skirt: Floor-length with train; lengths joined with selvages exposed; pleated and gathered at waist all around.
Garment structure
The lace bertha obscures the front-lacing system of its boned bodice. The lower bodice edge is finished with a single row of corded piping. The panels on the bodice back are cut and seamed to form a mirror image of the motif. The pleated and gathered skirt panels are joined along their selvages—hand sewn with wrong sides together—and decoratively featured. The skirt has a pocket in right side seam and a dust ruffle along the hem.
Owned by donor's mother
Gift of Mr. Datus C. Smith, Jr., 1974.
This grand evening dress was designed to stun the beholder with the oversized scale of its sweeping motifs, which were additionally emphasized through the application of lead crystal brilliants. Mrs. Stanford White was a very large, short-waisted woman, but in Worth's accomplished hands, she appeared sleek and statuesque at the head of a receiving line. Only those well-acquainted with the shortcomings of her imbalanced figure could appreciate the gown's deceptive flattery.
Bodice: Boned, fitted, waist-length, deep center front busk point, net panels either side of center front; low sweetheart neck, pleated tulle inset; short puffed tulle sleeves, lace overlayer; bead tassels at hem.
Skirt: Floor-length with train, flat front, full in back; clusters of bead tassels center front, waist to hem.
Garment structure
The fabric pattern is mirror imaged on both the front bodice and skirt. The short puffed tulle sleeves are sewn in by hand and have a delicate gathered lace overlayer. The bodice is constructed to be adjustable in size. The laced back, which is entirely concealed beneath a velvet overlap that fastens with hooks and eyes, has two points on either side of the center. When the points are lapped one on top of the other, the fabric pattern matches at center back; however, the back is designed so it can be let out 3½" and have both points show at the waist.
The floor-length skirt is flat in front with a full back and train. Five clusters of beaded motifs with beaded tassels are applied at the center front from the waist to the hem. The skirt has a taffeta slip with a dust ruffle on the back hem. The dust ruffle is pinked on upper edge with pinked Van Dyke points on the lower edge. The shirring is done by hand, and the ruffle hand-sewn to the underside of the slip.
Worn by Mrs. Stanford White.
Anonymous gift, 1946.
"Harper's Bazar" (the second 'a' was added in 1929) published an illustration of a comparable late-17th century inspired gown available from Maison Worth as early as 1893, but variations of it remained high on their design roster for much of the decade's balance. Celebrated Metropolitan Opera soprano Emma Eames was so fond of its design that she wore an on-stage version in her role as the Countess in "Les Noces de Figaro" as well an off-stage rendition: a tea gown worn in her dressing room.
Fitted from shoulder to bust, flaring into floor-length skirt with train, overlapping front panels joined with selvages exposed, pleated at back; open center front bust to hem, satin underlayer, applied lace either side center front, wired black satin rosette at center front bust; lace yoke, tassel fringe; high satin band collar, center back satin bow, lace falling collar with deep points; long sleeves, exaggerated puff from shoulder to elbow over fitted peach silk undersleeve, wired slit opening, brocade inset, bows and tassels at slit, fitted from elbow to wrist, applied lace, full-length back.
Garment structure
Deceptive in its seemingly easy, flowing form, the lightly boned bodice is fitted at the shoulders and bust before flaring into a full floor-length skirt and short train. The inner bodice structure is silk taffeta and has a center back hook-and-eye closure. Silk seam binding stay pockets are hand sewn into the seam allowances. All seams are hand overcast.
The gown is trimmed with handmade bobbin tape lace on the sleeves, yoke, and large falling collar. The black silk rosette is constructed with of wide ribbon, its selvages woven to include wiring for shaping. Wide strips of lace are applied to the satin underskirt at center front, revealed only when the gown is in motion.
The gigot sleeves have two upper sleeves: an exaggerated puff on the oversleeve from shoulder to elbow and a fitted peach silk undersleeve. The lower sleeve is fitted from the elbow to the wrist with lace applied to the lower sleeve and part of the upper sleeve. The sleeves fasten with button loops and fabric covered buttons. The split front of the gown features selvages as a decorative device.
Worn by Mrs. Calvin Brice
Anonymous Gift, 1942.
Tea or reception gowns were a Worth specialty, their designs borrowing from the house's virtuosic theatrical and fancy dress repertoire. The vibrantly contrasting voided velvet of this piece is here combined with a Renaissance-style lace yoke, evoking the picturesque garments illustrated by the Pre-Raphaelite artist Edward Burne-Jones. The lightly boned interior of the gown allowed its wearer to receive guests within her own home while wearing little more than unconstructed lingerie beneath.
Semifitted, boned bodice, full, floor-length skirt with slight train; lace over satin yoke, gilt lace edging; round neck; long sleeves, exaggerated puffed velvet sleeve upper arm to elbow, fitted, lace over satin sleeve elbow to wrist, lace extending beyond wrist, four cream silk bound buttons at wrist; satin lining.
Garment structure
The simplicity of this tea gown belies the inner structure and the boned bodice that support the dress. The bodice has been professionally let out 4" by inserting four ribbon godets. These additions appear to be a part of the original garment, rather than a later alteration. The lining silk has been slashed, the edges turned under and sewn to the godets with slipstitches—possibly the client had gained weight from the time of her last fitting.
Worn by either Kate or Helen Brice, daughters of Mrs. Calvin Brice.
Anonymous Gift, 1942.
This gorgeously vulgar afternoon dress bespeaks the ostentatious lifestyle of its nouveau-riche owner, combining an undulating feather brocade with velvet, lace, and cut-steel beadwork. Only a hand as skilled as Worth's could have plausibly combined such disparate elements into one garment, and only a client of Mrs. Brice's scale—with her 36-inch corseted waist—could have carried it off.
Bodice: Boned, fitted, waist-length; wide draped brocade revers, applied beads at edges; brocade stand collar, integral lace jabot; velvet gigot sleeves, flared cuff, brocade lining, lace ruffle at wrist; center front button closure.
Skirt: Floor-length with train, flat in front, full in back; brocade overskirt open right of center front, steel cut beads at edges, velvet panel at opening; pleat left of center front, knee to hem.
Garment structure
The bodice body and split overskirt is made from the elaborately patterned brocade. Velvet is used for the sleeves, front yoke, and underskirt panels. The boned bodice is closely fitted and has an asymmetrical velvet yoke, wide draped brocade revers, and a brocade stand collar. Its front extends to the waist with six tails at the back to create a very small bustle effect. It has button and buttonhole closure at center front. The velvet gigot sleeves balloon outward and the sleeve cap is stiffened and supported by a shorter undersleeve. The edges of the collar and skirt opening are trimmed with copper-and-silver and silver metallic cord, and steel cut beads.
Typically, unmatched seams indicate that a Worth garment has been modified, but in this unaltered exception most of the structural seams are not matched. Only the center back seam bears the typical mirrored imagery.
Worn by Mrs. Calvin Brice.
Anonymous Gift, 1942.
The designs of Maison Worth took advantage of the proportions of large women to showcase magnificent, grand-scale textiles that would overwhelm more diminutive clients. This ball gown, made for Mrs. Calvin Brice, is dominated by its spectacular variegated American Beauty rose brocade. To offset the power of the textile, the designer softens the neckline and sleeve edges with a bib and ruffles of rich gold metallic lace and caps the sleeve with a cluster of silk flowers.
Bodice: Boned, fitted, waist-length, rounded busk points center front and center back; waist-length V-shaped lace bib at front; off-the-shoulder neck; organza cap undersleeve, gathered lace ruffle, flower clusters at armholes and shoulders.
Skirt: Trumpet shape, floor-length with train.
Garment structure
The boned bodice extends to the waist with rounded points at both the center front and center back. Close fit is achieved with seams from the shoulders to the waist on the front and from the armholes to the waist on the back. The waist edge is finished with a single line of corded piping. The bodice laces at center back. The gathered lace flounces around the armholes overlay and are supported by organza undersleeves. The trumpet-shaped skirt has a floor-length train. The skirt front is flat with inverted pleats on either side of the center.
Worn by Mrs. Calvin S. Brice.
Anonymous Gift, 1942.
Compound weave with silk warp, silver metallic weft, cut and uncut pink velvet brocade, en broché, in floral spray and garland patterns; silver metallic loop trim. A) Bodice: Fitted, waist-length, deep point CF; off-the-shoulder, double ruffle; short, flared, double-tiered sleeves; metallic trim, ruffles and sleeves; lace-up closure. B) Skirt: Bell shape, pleated all around; floor-length, double-tiered.


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It's no surprise that Alabama head coach Nick Saban is the highest paid coach in college football according to a new report by USA Today.
Saban has a total yearly salary of $5,545,852.
Right behind Saban is Texas head coach Mack Brown. The embattled Longhorns coach has a total package of $5,453,750.
Number three might just surprise you. You would think it's a safe bet that it might be Les Miles, Urban Meyer or Bob Stoops, right? Nope, it's Arkansas head coach Bret Bielema. His total salary? $5,158,863 a year.
LSU head coach Les Miles is the seventh highest paid college coach in the country with a total pay of $4,459,363.
Ahead of Miles is Saban, Brown, Bielema, Butch Jones, Stoops and Meyer.
Click here to read the complete USA Today report and see how ULM head coach Todd Berry's contract compares to that of Crimson Tide head coach Nick Saban.
Copyright 2013 WAFB. All rights reserved.

subset: commoncrawl


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The entire list
Mr. Adnan Oktar in all his work emphasizes the importance of Unity of Islam and frequently revives the words of Hazrat Said Nursi regarding this subject.
The calls of Mr. Adnan Oktar regarding the fact that Muslims need to emphasize the importance of this subject have had repercussions in a lot of different sections of society. Recently, Bekir Fuat, columnist in Milat Newspaper, wrote an article where he mentioned the subject with the words of Hazrat Said Nursi..
January 13th, 2013 - A9 TV
Adnan Oktar: "Hazrat Mahdi will appear in 1980" says Hazrat Said Nursi, he says, "He will destroy Darwinism and materialism. He will write books" He says he will do it with science, knowledge, wisdom and love. "Some students who fully have the attribute of solidarity " Not all, some of them will help Hazrat Mahdi (PBUH) in preparing these books, he says. "Some students. No matter how few they are" They are few, maybe 10 maybe twenty people "...spiritually they are strong and precious like an army" That is to say neither the communists, nor America, nor Russia can beat them. They will beat them all with science and knowledge, with the permission of Allah. Look, when he said this, it was the 1920's . There was nobody yet. I mean, he informs us in that period what Hazrat Mahdi (PBUH) would do, when he would proceed to attack intellectually. "He will proceed to attack in the year of 2010" says Bediuzzaman and gives dates.
A9 TV – November 15th, 2013
Adnan Oktar: 'Allah will send Upright Muhammad Mehdi, who is gentle and good-tempered in the eye of people, with his students. '' In other words, Allah will not send Hazrat Mahdi (PBUH) only; He will send his students too. His 300 students will be sent too, or 313. Allah will make him meet his students as if it was coincidence. He meets some of them on the street, he meets some others otherwise. They are not aware but all are sent together.
'However, Allah will conquer the easts and the wests of the earth for them (Hazrat Mahdi and his students) '' Spiritually. ''Know that they are true believers'' Look, it doesn't say ''believers'' it says "true believers". Because Allah bestows the World upon true believers.
April 2nd, 2013 - A9 TV
February 17th, 2014 - Risale Haber
Bekir Fuat, a columnist at Milat Newspaper, wrote in his article that Bediüzzaman Said Nursi had said "If I were in Mecca, I would come to Anatolia again to serve Islam", pointing out that the faith movement that is lived in Anatolia will constitute the groundwork for the Unity of Islam and added the following:


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IBM lacks custom silicon expertise
Keywords:chip maker IBM EDRAM trench capacitor
The following opinion article was contributed anonymously by a current and long-time employee of IBM's semiconductor group in response to our recent series on the outlook for IBM as a chip maker.
Semiconductor process technology is vital to IBM's server business, but it's not clear even some of IBM's top executives understand that reality.
As an employee of IBM's microelectronics division, I am biased but I think there is still a place for our Z-series and P-series computers using processors based on that silicon technology. Perhaps our servers will not sell at the volumes they once enjoyed, but I think they could find a smaller market for banks that can't afford to go over to the cloud.
One of the key process technologies at IBM is silicon-on-insulator, and one of its key uses is making trench capacitors for embedded DRAM. This technology offers huge competitive advantages and has been presented at top technical conferences such as ISSCC. EDRAM only really works if you use a trench capacitor, not a stack as the ability to wire a stack capacitor would drive extra critical metal levels.
To a certain extent, Intel recognises the value of this technology in its own heavy use of memory with its processors. Interestingly back in the 64Kbit DRAM days, IBM bought the trench process from Intel as it was exiting DRAM to concentrate only on CPUs. IBM at the time looked at DRAM not just to sell but also to drive lithography for its logic chips.
Having EDRAM for high-end L3 and L4 processor caches is really important. If IBM sold its microelectronics unit to someone such as Globalfoundries as recent stories suggest, it raises questions about whether the buyer would continue the EDRAM process and if so at what price. If the IBM server group has to pay for chips in merchant-market dollars, they may be so expensive that the server group will not be able to market machines competitively anymore.
I don't think that IBM's server processors can make the transition to using a bulk wafer with no EDRAM. Certainly, we see when other designs try to move to other fab companies the success rate is not great. Apple has not been able to wean itself off of Samsung to move to TSMC. In fact, the rumours are that Apple is looking at Globalfoundries now because its processes are close to those of Samsung so Apple's designs should port over easier than to TSMC.
Speaking of sharing process technology, the technology IBM develops with our partners is called the Common Platform, but a better phrase would be a common foundation. Within a node, there is both bulk and SOI developed staying as common as possible.
In the past, IBM has kept the SOI and the partners took the bulk. However, each partner has different tools in their fabs so the bulk process in one company won't be precisely the same as the bulk in another. Until the development of the fully depleted SOI, the partners did not use the SOI in their own offerings.
As for IBM's future as a chip maker, there is a lot of talk about IBM's 300mm fab in Fishkill being long in the tooth. I think this is wrong. The fab does not have a production EUV tool yet, but then that tool does not exist. The company also lacks 450mm wafers, but then no one else is using them yet either.
IBM's 193nm wet lithography tools are on a par with any state-of-the-art fab. So, I don't think the stock analysts are correct about the age of the Fishkill fab. What it does not have is the capacity of say the new Globalfoundries fab in Malta.
I think the view of IBM's chief executive Viginia Rometty is that IBM will become a software-only company. This view may be shaped in part by her degree in computer science. When she received that degree, CS was all about programming and not about the actual architecture of the CPU.
So I worry about our willingness to abandon the chip business. We give different messages. On one hand, we promote the Open Power Consortium, but on the other hand, we show we have no staying power, so why would anyone commit to it. At IBM headquarters in Armonk, they are proud of eliminating business that does not perform to stated expectations.
My personal view is that the 22nm node that has just been announced may be the last new process node at IBM.
- Anonymous IBM employee
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Pictures: West Hartford's Wheel Fun Day
Sunday, May 19, at 8 a.m., 100 cyclists took to West Hartford's Main Street to show cars and bikes can share the road. The early morning ride went from Bishops Corner to Town Hall, where riders enjoyed food, music and of course everything a cyclist could need. The first Wheel Fun bicycle festival was created by the West Hartford Bicycle Advisory Committee.
Copyright © 2018, Hartford Courant


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Top Reasons to Stay at Westward Look Wyndham Grand Resort & Spa
- Built in the early 1900s, this hacienda-style hotel sits on 80 acres in the desert foothills of the Santa Catalina Mountains.
- There are two dining venues onsite. At Gold restaurant, you can use the included $45 breakfast credit to sample contemporary specialties such as southwest omelets with roasted corn and chorizo ($14) and tropical french toast ($14). Lookout Bar & Grille serves casual comfort food and assorted tequilas out on the terrace.
- The AAA Four Diamond–rated hotel recently underwent a $14 million renovation that included updates for all guest rooms, outdoor areas, and restaurants.
- Head to Sonoran Spa for a massage or a botanical facial. The shirodhara, an ancient desert ritual, includes an herbal hand and foot treatment and an oil-based scalp massage.
- Just outside the hotel, you'll find miles of scenic hiking, biking, and horseback-riding trails running through the mountains and the surrounding Sonoran Desert. The front desk offers rental bikes and will organize guided hikes and private horseback rides.
- Original architectural features include wrought-iron chandeliers, mahogany floors, a beehive fireplace, and a ceiling covered with native ocotillo branches.
- All guest rooms feature either a private balcony or patio with views of the mountains, desert, or city. Chic southwestern decor fills the 650-square-foot junior suites, and the posada rooms have vaulted wood-beam ceilings.
Tucson, Arizona: Southwestern History and Culture Amid the Cacti
Tucson—or the Old Pueblo—is a bastion of southwestern history surrounded by mountains and desert. A blend of European, Native American, Mexican, and Asian traditions has shaped the city's culture. This unique blend is especially evident in the downtown restaurant scene, where you can get authentic chilies rellenos, delicately prepared sushi, and upscale bistro fare with fine wines from nearby vintners. Those willing to make the short trip outside of downtown can soak up the area's gorgeous natural landscape at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, a combined botanical garden and zoo. There, mountain lions, gila monsters, and more than 1,200 kinds of plants spread across 21 acres of desert scenery. Mission San Xavier del Bac, the "White Dove of the Desert," is one of the oldest intact European structures in Arizona. The sprawling white adobe church, located about 10 miles south of downtown, was built in the 1700s. It's a striking example of the area's Spanish colonial architecture, with interiors lined with frescoes and sculpture.


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I was checking out the metal container they are building to cap the oil leaks. i noticed they were welding it up with either arc or Flux-cored wire feed. Pretty amazing construction. I think they are using Miller and Lincoln. How much you think theyre making?
No announcement yet.
The oil spill metal container four stories tall
new posts
The oil spill metal container four stories tallTags: None
how many portable welders can u spot in the picture =PLincoln tombstone AC/DC
Hitachi Chop saw
Victor HEAVY Duty Torch set (propane)
ATLAS Model 618 Steel lathe Traded for a RED face SA 200
Hitachi Grinders
Lot of hand tool and hammers
150LB Anvil+ a forge
Lincoln SA 200x4
MillerMatic 212 auto set
i counted 7.
Senior Member
- Dec 2008
- 811
If they weren't so new looking, I'd look like a Lincoln boneyard.Miller Syncrowave 200
Homemade Water Cooler
Spectrum 375
60 year old Logan Lathe
Select Machine and Tool Mill
More stuff than I can keep track of..
Senior Member
- Oct 2007
- 2949
Probably SAE 500's with Stainless Steel cases."Bonne journe'e mes amis"
DW Metalworks LLC
Miller Trailblazer 302
Miller 8RC Feeder
Miller Passport Plus
Miller Dynasty 200 DX W/Coolmate 1
Hobart Handler 135
Hypertherm PowerMAX 30
Smith O/A Torch Set
Plus more tools then my wife will ever know about....
That is a pretty big box to just look at it. I would imagine dropping it 5000 feet and trying to hit an area where it will cover a whole leak is going to be quite a job. Compared to the floor of the gulf that box is nothing. Good luck BP.
Senior Member
- Feb 2007
- 546
Originally posted by diamondback View PostThat is a pretty big box to just look at it. I would imagine dropping it 5000 feet and trying to hit an area where it will cover a whole leak is going to be quite a job. Compared to the floor of the gulf that box is nothing. Good luck BP.
I just envision the little quarter game where you drop your quarter into a box of water and try to land it on a little piece of plastic to win a drink. An the water is only a foot deep and the box has a small foot print.
If they are able to do they are some amazing target shooters.
I like to know how this all started, wondering if they were trippin pipe or drilling ahead. And how many wells they had punched around that area.
Hate the fact that some have died. When I heard this I shed a tear, I know what it's like to be up in the tree or on the floor when you get a kick. I've had 2 fires back in the day. If they were trippin pipe, that drill string could be a bird's nest on bottom around the BOP and all hydraulic line severed. Could be why they're unable to close any of the rams.
Still what a mess. Hope this box works
God bless the missing and there familiesLast edited by FabTech; 05-07-2010, 08:18 PM.Fab Tech
The box didn't work according to the ABC World News. Fire was caused by methane gas if I understood correctly. They[rig workers] said a gyser of water shot as high as 240' in the air before the gas exploded. Those that survived are lucky.Dynasty 200DX "Blue Lightning"
Bernard 3500ss water-cooler
Rockwell vertical mill
Beverly Shear B-3
Beverly Shear JR
Home-made English wheel
Milwaukee Porta-band
" Sawz-all
Tennsmith 36" stomp shear
Fixer upper 1968 Redface Lincoln sa200
Powcon 300st
If that is the case, when they took the kick all the drilling fluid came up out of the hole, when that gas and mud comes racing out of the hole through the rotary table the bushing pop up and if they strike metal that your spark it's like a giant blow torch. They might of panic, and no one kicked the valves to the bag. Or maybe the Bag didn't work at all. I know when I was a rough-neck that drill was practice over and over again. Still wondering if they were drilling ahead or trippin pipe anyone know?Fab Tech
They were casing the well. I know 3 guys that worked on the rig, 2 of which were off the other was on it when it blew out luckly he made it off alive.Last edited by PipeLayer; 05-09-2010, 09:05 AM.Miller Dialarc 250
Miller Dynasty 200 DX "Blue Lightning"
Miller Spectrum 625 X-treme
Miller Bobcat 225
Pipelayer, glad your friends are ok.
This only means that the BOP failed. Running casing is an open hole. The Shear and blind ram should have worked. So here they go finger pointing at Halliburton for setting a bad plug.
Any rig welders out there?Fab Tech


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The electric field of a given charge distribution can in principle be calculated using Coulomb's law. The examples discussed in Chapter 23 showed however, that the actual calculations can become quit complicated.
An alternative method to calculate the electric field of a given charge distribution relies on a theorem called Gauss' law. Gauss' law states that
" If the volume within an arbitrary closed mathematical surface holds a net electric charge Q, then the electric flux [Phi] though its surface is Q/[epsilon]0 "
Gauss' law can be written in the following form:
where [theta] is the angle between the electric field and the normal of the surface (see Figure 24.1). To apply Gauss' law one has to obtain the flux through a closed surface. This flux can be obtained by integrating eq.(24.2) over all the area of the surface. The convention used to define the flux as positive or negative is that the angle [theta] is measured with respect to the perpendicular erected on the outside of the closed surface: field lines leaving the volume make a positive contribution, and field lines entering the volume make a negative contribution.
The field generated by a point charge q is spherical symmetric, and its magnitude will depend only on the distance r from the point charge. The direction of the field is along the direction (see Figure 24.2). Consider a spherical surface centered around the point charge q (see Figure 24.2). The direction of the electric field at any point on its surface is perpendicular to the surface and its magnitude is constant. This implies that the electric flux [Phi] through this surface is given by
which is Coulomb's law.
Charge is uniformly distributed over the volume of a large slab of plastic of thickness d. The charge density is [rho] C/m3. The mid-plane of the slab is the y-z plane (see Figure 24.3). What is the electric filed at a distance x from the mid-plane ?
As a result of the symmetry of the slab, the direction of the electric field will be along the x-axis (at every point). To calculate the electric field at any given point, we need to consider two separate case: - d/2 < x < d/2 and x > d/2 or x < -d/2. Consider surface 1 shown in Figure 24.3. The flux through this surface is equal to the flux through the planes at x = x1 and x = - x1. Symmetry arguments show that
The flux [Phi]1 through surface 1 is therefore given by
The amount of charge enclosed by surface 1 is given by
Applying Gauss' law to eq.(24.7) and eq.(24.8) we obtain
Note: this formula is only correct for - d/2 < x1 < d/2.
The flux [Phi]2 through surface 2 is given by
The charge enclosed by surface 2 is given by
This equation shows that the enclosed charge does not depend on x2. Applying Gauss's law one obtains
A large number of electrons in a conductor are free to move. The so called free electrons are the cause of the different behavior of conductors and insulators in an external electric filed. The free electrons in a conductor will move under the influence of the external electric field (in a direction opposite to the direction of the electric field). The movement of the free electrons will produce an excess of electrons (negative charge) on one side of the conductor, leaving a deficit of electrons (positive charge) on the other side. This charge distribution will also produce an electric field and the actual electric field inside the conductor can be found by superposition of the external electric field and the induced electric field, produced by the induced charge distribution. When static equilibrium is reached, the net electric field inside the conductor is exactly zero. This implies that the charge density inside the conductor is zero. If the electric field inside the conductor would not be exactly zero the free electrons would continue to move and the charge distribution would not be in static equilibrium. The electric field on the surface of the conductor is perpendicular to its surface. If this would not be the case, the free electrons would move along the surface, and the charge distribution would not be in equilibrium. The redistribution of the free electrons in the conductor under the influence of an external electric field, and the cancellation of the external electric field inside the conductor is being used to shield sensitive instruments from external electric fields.
The strength of the electric field on the surface of a conductor can be found by applying Gauss' law (see Figure 24.4). The electric flux through the surface shown in Figure 24.4 is given by
where A is the area of the top of the surface shown in Figure 24.4. The flux through the bottom of the surface shown in Figure 24.4 is zero since the electric field inside a conductor is equal to zero. Note that eq.(24.15) is only valid close to the conductor where the electric field is perpendicular to the surface. The charge enclosed by the surface shown in Figure 24.4 is equal to
where [sigma] is the surface charge density of the conductor. Eq.(24.16) is correct if the charge density [sigma] does not vary significantly over the area A (this condition can always be met by reducing the size of the surface being considered). Applying Gauss' law we obtain
Thus, the electric filed at the surface of the conductor is given by


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pull on a building element then its cross-section becomes
smaller and the element itself longer. This phenomenon is
described physically by Poisson's ratio μ. It is completely contrary to our everyday experience that when we pull on a building element its cross-section increases. Yet Auxetic Structures have precisely this characteristic; they possess a negative Poisson's ratio μ. The result is that the building element has fascinating structural characteristics which on this scale have to date been regarded as unachievable.
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20.11.2018 | Physics and Astronomy


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Contact: Kate Shepherd
Indianapolis, IN -- Indiana Secretary of State Todd Rokita today praises the arrest of and filing of additional criminal charges against Phillip Butler by Clinton County Prosecuting Attorney Louis Evans. The investigation, initiated by Rokita's office, has led to three more felony counts against Butler. Butler is now charged with selling unregistered securities, selling securities without being registered and fraudulent sale of securities. All three counts are Class C felonies, which are each punishable by up to eight years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000. Butler had previously been charged with 12 felony counts related to Greentree Marketing and Corporate Development Strategies, Incorporated.
Butler allegedly sold stock in the company Panamed even though the investment was not registered with the Secretary of State's office as required by law. The two victims allegedly bought $10,000 worth of unregistered stock in the company. Officials also allege that Butler failed to tell the victims he had been convicted in 1991 on four counts of securities fraud in Clinton County and in 1990 of forgery and receiving stolen property in Hamilton County. His employment in the securities industry was terminated in 1989 when he was barred by the National Association of Securities Dealers from association with any of its members.
"This is the kind of repeat criminal activity that needs to stop," Rokita said. "My office spent a great deal of time and effort to build a case against Mr. Butler. These charges send a clear message that Indiana will not stand by and let its citizens be victimized."
Rokita's office referred the case to Prosecutor Evans, who under Indiana law has the authority to file criminal charges. The offices continued working together to develop the case.
"I want to congratulate Prosecutor Evans and his staff for their hard work on this case. I am also proud of the work done by Securities Commissioner James Joven, Tasha Gail and Paul Lawson from my office's Prosecution Assistance Unit, as well as Jennifer Thompson and John Cochran from my Securities Division," Rokita said.
Rokita reminds Hoosiers to check out any opportunity before investing. All corporations should be registered with Rokita's office, as should investments and their sellers. Information can be verified by visiting Rokita's website, www.sos.IN.gov, or by calling 1-800-223-8791.


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Workflow Orchestration Using Spring AOP and AspectJ
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1. Introduction
You need to implement a flow-like process, preferably embedded and you want it to be configurable, extensible and easy to manage and maintain. Do you need full scale BPM engine which comes with its own load of abstractions that might seem heavy for a simple flow orchestration you are looking for, or are there any light-weight alternatives we can use without committing to a full scale BPM engine? This article demonstrates how to build and orchestrate highly configurable and extensible yet light-weight embedded process flow using Aspect Oriented Programming (AOP) techniques. The current examples are based on Spring AOP and Aspect J, however other AOP techniques could be used to accomplish the same results.
2. Problem
Before we get any further, we need to get a better understanding of the actual problem first, and then try to match our understanding of the problem to a set of available patterns, tools and/or technologies and see if we can find a fit. Our problem is a process itself, so let's get a better understanding of it. What is the process? Process is a collection of coordinated activities that lead to accomplishing a set goal. Activity is a unit of instruction execution, and is the building block of a process. Each activity operates on a piece of shared data (context) to fulfill part of the overall goal of the process. Parts of the process goal that have been fulfilled signify accomplished facts which are used to coordinate execution of remaining activities. This essentially redefines the process as nothing more than a pattern of rules operating on the set of facts to coordinate execution of the activities which define such process. In order for the process to coordinate execution of the activities it must be aware of the following attributes:
- Activities - activities defining this process
- Shared data/context - defines mechanism to share data and facts accomplished by the activities
- Transition rule - defines which activity comes next after the end of previous activity, based on the registered facts
- Execution Decision - defines mechanism to enforce Transition rule
- Initial data/context (optional) - initial state of the shared data to be operated on by this process
Diagram below shows high level structure of the process:
We can now formalize a process in the following set of requirements:
- Define mechanism to assemble process as a collection of activities
- Define individual activities
- Define placeholder for shared data
- Define mechanism that coordinates execution of those activities in the scope of the process
- Define Transition rules and Execution Decision mechanism which enforces Transition rules based on the facts registered by the activities
3. Architecture & Design
We'll begin defining the architecture by addressing the first 4 requirements:
- Define mechanism to assemble process as a collection of activities
- Define individual activities
- Define placeholder for shared data
- Define mechanism that coordinates execution of those activities in the scope of the process
Activity is a stateless worker which should receive a token containing some data (context). Activity should operate on this shared data token by reading from it and writing to it, while performing business logic defined by this activity. Shared data token defines execution context of a process.
To stay true to the light-weight principles that we have set earlier, there is no reason not to define our Activity as Plain Old Java Objects (POJO) implementing Plain Old Java Interfaces (POJI).
Here is the definition of the Activity interface, with a single
process(Object obj) method where the input parameter represents a placeholder for a shared data (context):
public interface Activity { public void process (Object data); }
Placeholder for a shared data could be structured or un-structured (i.e., Map) object. It is entirely up to you. Currently our Activity interface defines it as java.lang.Object for simplicity, but in the real environment it would probably be represented as some type of structured object graph the structure of which is known to all participants of the process.
Since process is a collection of the activities, we need to figure out the mechanism to assemble and execute such collection.
There are many ways to accomplish that. One of them would be to stick all activities in some type of ordered collection and then iterate through it invoking each activity in the pre-defined order. Configurability and extensibility in this approach would definitely suffer due to the fact that all aspects of the process control and execution would be hard coded.
We can also look at the process in somewhat unconventional way and say that process is a behavior-less abstraction with no concrete implementation. However, filtering this abstraction through a chain of Activity Filters will define the nature, state and the behavior of this process.
Let's assume that we have a class called GenericProcess which defines
process(..) method:
public class GenericProcess { public void process(Object obj){ System.out.println("executing process"); } }
If we were to invoke the
process(..) method directly passing input object, not much would happened, since
process(..) method doesn't do much and the state of the context would remain unchanged. But if we were to somehow find a way to introduce an activity before the call to a
process(..) method and have this activity modify the input object, the
process(..) method would still remain unchanged, but since the input object is pre-processed by the activity, overall result of the process context would change.
The technique of applyingIntercepting Filters to a target resource is well documented in Intercepting Filter pattern and is widely used in today's enterprise applications. Typical example would be Servlet Filters.
The Intercepting Filter pattern wraps existing application resources with a filter that intercepts the reception of a request and the transmission of a response. An intercepting filter can pre-process or redirect application requests, and can post-process or replace the content of application responses. Intercepting filters can also be stacked one on top of the other to add a chain of separate, declaratively-deployable services to existing resources with no changes to source code - http://java.sun.com/blueprints/patterns/InterceptingFilter.html
Historically this architecture was used to address non-functional concerns, such as Security, Transaction etc... But you can clearly see that the same approach could be easily applied to address functional characteristics of the application by assembling the process-like structures from the chain of intercepting filters representing individual Activities.
Figure below shows how call to a Process is intercepted by the filter chain where each filter tied to individual Activity of the process, which leaves the actual target Process component with nothing left to do, making it empty and reusable target object. Switch the filter chain and you have yourself a different Process.
The only thing left to do is to see if there is a framework out there which can help us to assemble something like this in the elegant way.
Proxy-based Spring AOP seem to be the perfect candidate, since it provides us with the simple structure and most importantly the execution mechanism. It will allow us to define an ordered collection of intercepting filters that represent the Activities of a given process. Incoming process request will be proxied through these filters decorating the process with the behavior implemented in the Activity Filters.
This leaves us with only one remaining requirement:
- Define Transition rules and Execution Decision mechanism which enforces Transition rules based on the facts registered by the activities
The beauty of proxy-based filters is transition mechanism itself. The Intercepting filters will be invoked one after another by the proxy mechanism, every time we invoke target object(process). This comes for free, and works perfectly well in a situation where each and every Activity must always be invoked. But in reality this is not always the case. One of the statements we made earlier in the Problem definition is: "Parts of the process goal that have been fulfilled signify accomplished facts which are used to coordinate execution of remaining activities" - which means that completion of one activity does not necessarily grant transition to another activity. In the real process, transitions must be strictly based on facts accomplished and/or un-accomplished by the previous activity. These facts must be registered with the shared data placeholder, so they can be interrogated.
Accomplishing it is as simple as throwing an IF statement inside of our intercepting filter:
public Object invoke(MethodInvocation invocation){ if (fact(s) exists){ invoke activity } }
But that would create several problems. Before we go into what they are let's clear one thing; In the current structure each intercepting filter is closely coupled with corresponding POJO Activity, and rightfully so. We could easily keep all Activity logic inside of intercepting filter itself. The only thing that stops us from doing it is our desire to keep our Activity as POJO, which means the code in intercepting filter will simply delegate to Activity callback.
This means that if we put transition evaluation logic inside of the Activity we would essentially couple two concerns together (activity transition logic and activity business logic), which would violate the basic architectural principle of separation of concerns and would result in concern/code coupling. Another issue would involve repeating the same transition logic across all intercepting filters. We call it concern/code scattering. Transition logic cross-cuts all intercepting filters and as you might have guessed AOP yet again comes to mind as the technology of choice.
All we need is to write an around advice that will allow us to intercept the invocation to the target method of the actual filter class, evaluate input, and make a transition decision by either allowing or disallowing the target method to execute. The only caveat is that our target class happened to be intercepting filter itself. So essentially we are trying to intercept the interceptor. Spring AOP unfortunately can't help us here simply because it is proxy-based and since our intercepting filters are already a part of a proxy infrastructure we simply cannot proxy the proxy.
But one of the best features of AOP is that it comes in several different flavors and implementations (i.e., proxy-based, byte-code weaving etc...). And although we can't use proxy-based AOP to proxy another proxy, nothing stands in the way of using byte-code weaving AOP, which will instrument individual intercepting filters of our proxy by weaving (compile-time or load-time) our transition evaluation logic into them, thus keeping transition and business logic separate. This could be easily achieved using framework such as AspectJ. By doing so we are introducing a second AOP layer into our architecture, which has very interesting implications. We are using Spring AOP to address functional concerns such as instrumenting process with activities, while AspectJ is used to address non-functional concerns such as activity navigation and transition.
Diagram below documents the final structure of the process flow shown as two AOP layers, where Functional AOP Layer is responsible for assembling a process form the set of ordered intercepting filters, while Non-Functional AOP Layer addresses the issue of transition governance.
To demonstrate this architecture at work we are going to implement a sample use case - Purchase Item which defines a simple process flow.
4. Use Case (Purchase Item)
Imagine you are shopping on line. You've selected the item, placed it in the shopping cart, went through checkout phase, gave your credit card information and finally submitted purchase item request. The system will initiate Purchase Item process.
Process must receive data which contains item, billing and shipping information
1. Validate item availability
2. Get Credit authorization
3. Process shipping
This process currently defines 3 activities as shown in the diagram below:
This diagram also shows the ungoverned activity transition. But in reality, what should happen if item is not available? Should "Get Credit Authorization" activity execute? Should "Process Shipping" follow?
Another interesting caveat is based on the condition where credit authorization could not be achieved automatically (authorization network is down) and you or customer service representative has to call credit company directly to get authorization number. Once such authorization number is obtained and entered into the system, at what point should this process be restarted or continued? Beginning or go straight into shipping? I would say go into shipping, but how? How can we restart the process from the middle without maintaining and managing a lot of execution control?
The interesting thing is that using AOP we don't need to maintain neither execution control nor the direction of the process. It is done by the framework itself while proxying the request through the chain of intercepting filter activities. All we need to do is come up with a mechanism which will allow or disallow individual filters to execute based on the registered facts.
"Validate Item availability" will register the fact that item is available. This fact should serve as pre-requisite for "Get Credit Authorization", which will also register the credit authorized fact, which will serve as pre-requisite to "Process Shipping" activity. The existence or lack of a fact could also be used to determine when not to execute a particular activity, which brings us back to "manual credit verification" scenario and how to restart the process from the middle or even better question: How can we restart the process without repeating the activities that were already performed within the context of this process?
Remember, the shared data token(context) also represents the state of the process. This state contains all the facts which were registered with this process. These facts are evaluated to make transition decisions. So, in our "manual credit verification" scenario if we were to resubmit the process as a whole from the very beginning, our transition management mechanism, upon encountering the first activity "Validate Item Availability", would quickly realize that item available fact is already registered and this activity does not have to be repeated, so it will skip to the next activity - "Credit Verification". Since credit authorized fact was also registered (through some type of manual entry), it would skip again to the next activity which is "Process Shipping" allowing only this activity to execute and complete the process.
Before we move to the actual example there is one more important topic yet to be discussed and that is the order in which activities are defined.
Although it might seem like at first, the order of the activities does not play any role in transition decision of the process defined by these activities.
The order of the Activities in the process only represents the equilibrium of the process itself - the strategy based on the likelihood and probability of facts, existence of which would create an ideal environment for the next activity to either execute or preclude its execution. Changes to the order of the activities must never affect the overall process.
d - depends
p - produces
ProcessContext = A(d-1, 2; p-3) -> B (d-1, 3; p-4, 5) -> C(d-4, 5);
According to the formula above, when a process is started within a given ProcessContext, the first activity to be looked at is A, which depends on Facts 1 and 2 to exist before it is invoked. Assuming the facts 1 and 2 do exist within the ProcessContext, activity A is going to execute and will produce fact 3. The next activity in line is B which depends on Fact 1 and 3. Knowing our process we determined that the likelihood and probability of Fact 3 occurring before activity A is extremely low. However the likelihood and probability of Fact 3 to exist after activity A is invoked is quite high, hence the order of activity B where B follows A.
But what would change if we were to flip the order of activities B and A?
ProcessContext = B (d-1, 3; p-4, 5) -> A(d-1, 2; p-3) -> C(d-4, 5);
Not much. When process is invoked, ProcessContext which maintains the registry of Facts will quickly determine that not enough facts are registered to permit invocation of activity B, so it would skip to the next activity which is A. Assuming that facts 1 and 2 do exist, the evaluation of facts would determine that there are enough facts registered to permit invocation of A activity and so on. Activity C would be skipped as well, as it is missing prerequisites which are produced by activity B. If process is resubmitted with the same ProcessContext, activity B would be invoked, since Activity A in the previous invocation of the process registered fact required by activity B to satisfy its precondition. Activity A would be skipped since ProcesContext is aware that activity A did its job. Activity C would also be invoked, since activity B registered enough facts to satisfy precondition of activity C.
So as you can see switching the order of activities will not change the process behavior but might affect process's automation characteristics.
5. Example
The example consists of the following artifacts:
Implementation of the Generic Process, which as you can see contains no significant code, and in fact should never contain any significant code. The only purpose for this class is to serve as a target class to apply intercepting filter chain representing individual activities.
Its coresponding Spring definition:
The rest of the configuration of Purchase Item process consists of 3 parts:
Part 1 (line 14) - Process Assembly AOP configuration which consists of pointcut defining GenericProcessImpl.execute(..) method as Join Point. You can also see that we are using bean(purchseItem) pointcut expression to qualify which bean we are intercepting. This will allow us to define more then one process by creating another instance of GenericProcessImpl with different bean name applying different filter chain.
It also contains references to the Activity filters implemented as Aopaliance interceptors. By default, filters are chained in the order of top to bottom, however to be more explicit, we are also using order attribute.
Part 2 (line 30) - configures activity interceptors by defining three instances of ActivityFilterInterceptor. Each instance is being injected with corresponding POJO Activity bean defined later as well as facts attribute. Facts attribute defines a simple rule mechanism which allows us to specify a simple condition based on which an underlying activity will be allowed or disallowed to execute. For example: validateItemFilter defines "!VALIDATED_ITEM" fact rule, which will be interpreted as: Invoke activity unless VALIDATED_ITEM fact is registered within fact registry. This fact will be registered with the fact registry as soon as validatItemActivity executes, which will allow this activity to execute if fact is not yet registered and protect this activity from executing again if process is resubmitted with the same execution context where this fact is already registered.
Part 3 (line 47) - configures three POJO activities for our process.
ActivityFilterInterceptor - All it is doing is invoking the underlying POJO Activity and registers the facts returned by this activity (line 53), allowing POJO Activity to remain agnostic as to the location of the Fact Registry or any other infrastructure components of this process (see below). However, as we will see later, the invocation of this interceptor itself is controlled by AspectJ advice (second AOP layer) based on the fact rules specified in the configuration of each interceptor, thus controlling the execution of individual activities.
Individual POJO Activities simply return the String array of all facts they want to register which are then registered with Fact Registry by owning interceptor (see above).
TransitionGovernorAspect - is an AspectJ component that intercepts invocation of each Spring AOP interceptor which represents individual Activity. It does so by using Around advise where it evaluates the fact rules vs. registry of current facts, making a decision about proceeding or skipping the invocation of underlying activity interceptor. It does so by either invoking proceed(..) method of its own invocation object(ProceedingJoinPoint thisJoinPoint) or invoking proceed(..) method of intercepting filter's invocation object (MethodInvocation proxyMethodInvocation).
Since it is implemented as AspectJ aspect we need to provide configuration in
META-INF/aop.xml (see below).
Since we will use load-time AOP, we need to register the weaver in Spring configuration. We'll do it by using
context name space:
At this point of time we are ready to test. As you see there is nothing special about the test. Here are the steps:
- Get ApplicationContext
- Get GenericProcess object
- Create a list of Fact Registry
- Create Object (Map in our case) which represents the input data as well as execution context
- Invoke process method
Since we are utilizing AspectJ load-time weaving we need to provide -javaagent option as our VM argument.
The VM argument is:
There is already
spring-agient.jar in the lib directory.
After execution you should see output similar to this:
As you see from the test, the initial list of facts is empty, but if you were to populate it with existing facts, the process flow would be altered.
Give it a try by un-commenting the line which adds fact to the registry.
Uncomment the following line in your test:
// factRegistry.add("VALIDATED_ITEM");
And your output should change:
6. Conclusion
The approach demonstrates how to use two layers of AOP to assemble, orchestrate and control the process flow. The first layer is implemented using Spring AOP and assembles the process as the chain of intercepting filters, where each filter is injected with individual activity. The second layer is implemented using AspectJ and provides for orchestration and flow control of the process. Proxying our process through the chain of intercepting filters allows us to define and maintain direction of the process. But proxying mechanism also provides execution environment without requiring a separate engine such as BPM. We do it by using existing technology (Spring AOP) which provides control and execution mechanism.
The approach is a light weight and embedded. It uses existing Spring infrastructure and is build on the premise where process is a collection of orchestrated activities. Each activity is a POJO and is completely unaware of any infrastructure/controller components that manage it. This presents several benefits. Aside from typical architectural benefits of loose coupling and with the ever growing popularity and adoption of technologies such as OSGi, keeping activities and activity invocation control separate, opens the door for an activity to be implemented as an OSGi service, allowing each activity to become independently managed units (deployed, updated, un-deployed etc...). Testing is another benefit. Since activities are POJOs, they could be tested as POJO, outside of the process they are applied. They have a very well defined input/output contract (data it needs and data it expects to output). You can test each activity in isolation.
Separating control logic (intercepting filters) from business logic (POJO Activities) will also allow you to plug in more sophisticated rules façade to process fact rules, as well as testing where testing transition control logic should not affect the business logic implemented by the underlying activity.
Activities are independent building blocks and could be re-used as part of some other process. For example "Credit Validation" activity could be easily re-used while assembling some other process which requires credit validation.
7. References and Resources
8. About the Author
Oleg Zhurakousky is an IT professional currently working as Senior Consultant for SpringSource, with 14+ years of experience in software engineering across multiple disciplines including software architecture and design, consulting, business analysis and application development.
After starting his career in the world of COBOL & CICS in the early nineties, he has been focusing on professional Java and Java EE development since 1999. Since 2004 Oleg has been heavily involved in using several open source technologies and platforms (Spring in particular), while working on a number of projects around the world spanning industries such as Telecommunication, Banking, Law Enforcement, US DOD and others.
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Small change
Tuomas Kassila
Re: Small change
Oleg Zhurakousky
One thing to remember is that this example was greatly simplified and generalized from the actual implementation that was delivered, but here are couple of points to keep in mind.
Although at first it might seem like each Activity delivers a single fact, in reality that is not true. Each fact is nothing more then a signal of some accomplishment therefore if you have a complex activity there could me more them a single fact registered per such Activity. However, if you decide that a particular Activity is transactional and must output all the facts or none, then you should implemented as such, but by default I am not implying transactional characteristics on fact registry, which means that a failed Activity could still register few facts based on things it managed to accomplish.
Branching, etc
Re: Branching, etc
Oleg Zhurakousky
Having said that, I do have to acknowledge that this sample and this article is greatly simplified from what I am currently working on along the lines of Workflow Orchestration and BPM, where branching/forking, asynchronous processes, event handling and cloud-deployable tasks are all part of the implementation.
Tool Support
John Reynolds
Re: Tool Support
Oleg Zhurakousky
That's a good question and I'll be honest, I haven't given it much thought yet. For now it's more about experimenting/prototyping with several different implementations at the conceptual level without set scope or constraint.
However, BPMN (in my view) is notation mechanism to document and understand "business processes" while formalizing them around basic elements such as Events, Activities, Gateways, Connections etc. . . It also recognizes and formalizes various process modeling patterns such as Basic Control, Branching and Synchronization, Iteration etc. . . However, BPMN doesn't mandate an implementation model (although one might argue this from BPEL perspective). In any event, I am currently more curious in trying to experiment with different (lighter-weight) approaches of implementing such concepts and patterns outside of current execution models implemented around BPEL. So, although I don't see any conflict in how Business process is documented (BPMN or Flow Chart), I am drawing a clear separation between Process Modeling and Process Execution.
Re: Tool Support
Suresh K
I am somewhat confused as to whether AOP is really adding any advantage to a simple bean doing the same.
<bean id="workflowExecutor" class="com..WorkflowExecutor">
<property name="processors">
<ref bean="bean1"/>
<ref bean="bean2"/>
<ref bean="bean3"/>
I am not advantage of AOP but in this particular case, is it really needed to facilitate the activities?
Tom McCuch
Re: Tool Support
Oleg Zhurakousky
As far as AOP adding any advantage is rater objective and is up to the community to decide.
Having said that. . .
In your example WorkflowExecutor must maintain the code to build the list (although Spring's property editor will take care of it) of activities, then it has to iterate through it and invoke each activity etc. . . In other words you are defining the execution model, which in AOP you don't have to since AOP already defines the execution model to trigger invocation of every interceptor in the order they were defined. Second, in your example, bean1,2,3 seem to be invoked without any rule, unless the rules are programmatically maintained by WorkflowExecutor. Applying second layer of AOP allows you to introduce control and transition governance model separate from the execution model. It also allows you to introduce transition changes without changing individual activities.
Re: Scalability
Oleg Zhurakousky
AOP in this particular example is just an enabler to address two concerns:
1. Execution and direction of the activities
2. Activity transition which is based on the facts
Concurrency and parallelism comes from the actual implementation of the Activity and Transitioning interceptor(s)
Let's assume the process made of 3 activities A, B and C. Following the formula described in the article let's say it looks like this:
ProcessContext = A(d-1, 2; p-3) -> B (d-1, 3; p-4, 5) -> C(d-4, 5);
Let's say Activity B is implemented as asynchronous activity which means that B and C will be invoked "almost" concurrently. However C depends on the facts that must be registered by activity B, which most likely will not be present in the fact registry when C is invoked so it will be skipped. Activity B, however based on its implementation could easily, upon completion and fact registration, resubmit the actual process, thus allowing activity C to complete. You could also implement the wait with timeout inside of transitioning interceptor allowing activity C to wait for required facts. Don't forget, activities could register more then one fact throughout its execution which means that while activity B is still executing it might register enough facts to allow activity C to begin its execution before B is actually finished.
As for multiple VMs, activities do not have to be bound to the single JVM and could reside in the distributed environment, as long as they are reachable by some remoting mechanism(i.e., RMI or going all the way to utilize technologies such as Terracota, GridGain etc. . .)
Re: Scalability
Suresh K
Nevertheless, I completely agree with your solution.
Ah! Execution Model is handled by AOP in your example. My question was more around the benefit provided by AOP for this particular use case - "light-weight" workflow orchestration solution.
Re: Scalability
Oleg Zhurakousky
1. Execution (functional)
2. Transition/orchestration (non-functional)
Read the previous post for more details.
What about debugging?
Ze Ro
I want to re-design the project to a single process model based on Spring. This article is really great and gave me a lot of ideas, but:
1. What about debugging? Is Aspectj debuggable with load time weaving?
2. I am not experienced in AOP (know the principles), so all the configuration is a bit hard to catch. I need an *easy* way to design new processes with exisiting Activities. This example does not look like easy and I think I would rather prefer Suresh's version of defining a process, since it's more intuitive and easier to grasp (although from the SW architectural point of view I understand the good ideas behind the Oleg's article).
Thanks, Roman
Gustavo Stachera
But, before start my refactoring, I really would like a suggestion about how to deal with Spring Transitions, for example, if I have some Activities in my Process that I would like to set with Transitions, and others without. How does the workflow can deal with the problem?
Could you give me any advice?


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iPad 3 alternatives – iPad 2
You've heard the hype about the iPad 2, you know Apple's sold more of these than Malcolm Tucker has sold lies – but there's a reason for that. Not just the iPad 2's specs like the A5 dual-core processor or its 8.8mm depth – it's Apple's ability to make everything work perfectly.
If you want to check emails, play games, watch films, socialise online, write a document… alright, it does most things. And it all comes at a cheaper-than-the-latest-iPad price, making it still a perfectly capable tablet for most.
Read our iPad 2 review here.
iPad 3 alternatives – Huawei MediaPad 10
Huawei has really been pulling out all the stops of late. Not only has it been responsible for some pretty snazzy smartphones, but it's brought its A-game to the tablet arena too, with the quad-core toting MediaPad 10.
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Read our Huawei MediaPad announcement story here.
iPad 3 alternatives – Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1
Samsung's stylus-packing 5.3in Galaxy Note has almost doubled in size, to become the Galaxy Note 10.1. It may have been stripped of its call-making abilities, but Sammy's gone and packed its second-gen rectangle with a bevy of headline specs –10.1in 1280 x 800 pixel screen, Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and front (2MP) and rear cams (3MP).
Scribbling on the screen is made easy thanks to the S Pen – and with more doodle space, the Galaxy Note 10.1 is more than ideal for annotating... and defacing Facebook pics. Find out what we thought of it in our hands-on review.
iPad 3 alternatives – Asus Padfone
Asus finally introduced its versatile, form-changing PadFone to the public at Mobile World Congress. Part phone, part tablet – with its tech twist on the Russian doll, the PadFone is a truly unique device. As a phone it's a good looking, high-end handset that serves up a 9.2mm thick, 4.3in Super AMOLED qHD display, Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and an 8MP shooter, complete with an LED flash and f/2.2 autofocusing lens.
The Padfone's most distinguishing feature however, is its ability to turn into a 10.1in tablet with the optional tablet station. You can even add an optional battery-boosting keyboard dock for a proper typing experience. Finally, you get a Galaxy Note-inspired stylus, which also doubles up as a nifty headset for receiving calls. We went hands-on with it at MWC - find out what our first impressions were.
iPad 3 alternatives – Kindle Fire
Amazon's Kindle Fire might not be available in our neck of the woods just yet, but its wallet-friendly price tag has many gadgeteers holding onto their cash in anticipation.
It's not just the price that's attractive. Combining Amazon's e-reading nous with tablet features and a tiny price tag means the Kindle Fire has gone down a treat in the US. It may have ditched the sunlight-friendly, backlight-free E Ink screen, but in its place comes a sharp, colourful, 7in 1024 x 600 LCD display and a bespoke interface, complete with a scrolling 3D carousel, one-click shopping and the all-new Silk browser.
Find out if it's worth the wait by reading our review.
UPDATE: Read our in depth new iPad 3 review here.
Apple iPad 3 will have an A5X processor, quad-core A6 will debut in iPhone 5
BBC will broadcast part of the Olympics in Ultra HD


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The purpose was to offer youths a platform to freely express themselves and share ideas and opinions.
On most weekends you can find youths hanging out at the mall or going to the movies, and adults catching up on chores or resting from a long work week. That wasn't the case on April 27, when families gathered to attend WRAAP's "Are You Listening?" Community Youth Day Event at Freedom's Way Ministries.
The purpose was to offer youths a platform to freely express themselves and share ideas and opinions on a myriad of adolescent topics in a fun, safe, nurturing environment.
While the event centered on a youth panel discussion and entertainment, there were fun activities for the entire family to enjoy.
Community Youth Day began with opening remarks from Daryl Dockery, CEO and founder of WRAAP, or Wilmington's Residential Adolescent Achievement Place.
That was followed by entertainment from Soldiers for Christ, Travis Corpening and special guest Election Sure.
Afterward, nine middle and high school students took center stage to talk about real life issues and situations that young people confront on a daily basis in and out of school.
Jamelle Grant, master of ceremonies, led the young panelists through a series of topics such as bullying, education, school safety, early sexual activity, career choices, drugs, juvenile crime and teen alcohol.
The crowed was captivated by the panelists' candidness to some very sensitive questions.
At moments you heard laughter; other times you felt emotions ranging from anxiety to excitement to pain and discomfort in their voices.
The panel discussion concluded with comments from Juan Betha, who gave an inspiring story about his struggles during childhood. Now he's working two jobs and plans to attend Cape Fear Community College in the fall.
Organizations such as CFCC, the University of North Carolina Wilmington, New Hanover County Sheriff's Office, the Wilmington branch of the Food Bank of Central & Eastern North Carolina Department and others were there to talk about services in the community.
If you would like more information about WRAAP or the Community Youth Day event, call Daryl Dockery at 392-6007 or visit www.nc-wraap.com.
WRAAP is nonprofit youth organization whose mission is to bridge educational and social gaps that exist among youths, families, and communities.
The After School Enrichment Academy Program is under the umbrella of WRAAP and operates out of Freedom's Way Ministries, 1952 Dawson Street.
The StarNews welcomes and will consider publishing articles contributed by readers. They should be 400 words or less and accompanied by a good-quality photograph. Contact Community News Editor Si Cantwell at 343-2364 or email@example.com.


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May God bless you and your...
Valenda Newell
November 08, 2016 | Indianapolis, IN
1934 - 2013
CLIBURN--Van. The Juilliard School deeply mourns the death of our distinguished alumnus, Van Cliburn, a person of exceptional talent and artistry whose exquisite taste in all that he engaged was a hallmark of his remarkable life. Through his extraordinary career, he set a standard for performance...Read More
Not sure what to say?
Valenda Newell
November 08, 2016 | Indianapolis, IN
Happy Birthday precious Van. Thank you for the inspiration you have been to the entire world. You have the dignity that proceeds from a life well lived. I will love and remember you forever.
Joan Rentel
July 12, 2015 | Exeter, NH
Thank you, Mr. Cliburn for sharing your gift
of brilliance on the piano..You are the best
pianist among many fine pianists..Thanks be to God for you. You are a beautiful soul..I love the way you honored your parents, and
how you cared for others in a broad sense.
Enjoy your heavenly reward. You live on in
our thoughts always.
Christina Sims
October 18, 2014 | Thomaston, CT
In loving memory of a wonderful person. We will love you and miss you always.
August 02, 2013 | MI
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Mr. Cliburn!!
Today we celebrate your life..
Thank you for being here, thank you for all your Love, for your great life, utterly dedicated to Music, to giving Hope, to creating the greatest Message to people- love each other, Music is Connection. You will always be my best teacher, being my Star since I was 14, and you will be forever the Absolute Pianist for me.
Through my joy ?nd my sorrow,
In the Promise of Another Tomorrow...
I'll never let you...
Elena Kuznetzova
July 12, 2013 | Ukraine, Kiev
I first heard Van Cliburn play in the 2 story wood frame Music School at Centenary College where I as a young teen ager was studying piano at the time in the early-mid 1950's. I have thrilled to and been inspired by him and his incredible musical gifts ever since. I still play the piano. I was so delighted to see him at the midnight Christmas service at Holy Cross Episcopal Church on several occasions. Sally Fox
Sally Fox
April 15, 2013 | Shreveport, LA
I saw Van Cliburn in Chicago, a few months after he won the Tchaikovsky prize. Over 100,000 people were there (such a crowd has never been there since). He was remarkable. And he treated us to five encores!
Alan Wright
March 23, 2013 | Aurora, IL
I can't stop listening to Chaikovsky Concert No 1 brilliantly performed by Van Cliburn... RIP, Maestro
Julia Goryaeva
March 19, 2013 | Moscow, Russia
Mr. Cliburn was my inspiration to learn classical piano. I remember spending hours practicing to his 33 RPM album. Just an inspirational person.
Kathryn Hawley
March 18, 2013 | Ocean, NJ, NJ


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Reading Development
Risk Factors for Reading Problems
Get the facts on risk factors for reading problems to help put all kids on the path to reading success, right from the start.
Children in the Nemours BrightStart! Program Make Great Progress
Each year, our research has shown that the Nemours BrightStart! curriculum significantly improves the early literacy skills of prekindergarteners at risk for reading failure.
Based on our long-term follow-up, we also have evidence that most of those at-risk children make good progress with reading from kindergarten through third grade.
Since the beginning of Nemours BrightStart! in 2005:
- Tens of thousands of prekindergarteners have been screened on early literacy skills, and thousands of at-risk children have received Nemours BrightStart! intensive educational instruction.
- Two-thirds of participating at-risk children who have received the Nemours BrightStart! intensive educational instruction have moved to the typical range in their reading readiness skills.
- At-risk prekindergarteners completing the Nemours BrightStart! intensive educational instruction gain an average of 114 percent on their reading readiness score.
A Case Study: Getting Children Ready to Read
Nemours BrightStart! program helps close reading readiness gap in Florida's Duval County Public Schools.
Now in its fifth year, the Nemours BrightStart! partnership with Florida's Duval County Public School District continues to improve the reading readiness scores of pre-K students at risk for reading failure.
During the 2012-2013 school year, nearly 200 kids participated in the Nemours BrightStart! small-group enrichment program. By the end of the year, kids participating in the program saw a 125 percent gain in reading readiness scores, compared to a 32 percent gain by their peers who did not receive the intervention. The intervention helped to close the reading readiness performance gap noted in the beginning of the school year.
The eight-month intervention consisted of scripted, evidence-based, multisensory instruction provided by classroom teachers to promote skills like phonological awareness and alphabet knowledge that set the foundation for reading. The program aims to engage diverse learners as the interactive curriculum stimulates participants to use all of their senses in the learning experience. It also uses a unique approach to target children before they enter kindergarten, as research shows students who have strong reading readiness skills excel in reading when they enter K-12 school systems.
2005-2010 School Years
Nemours BrightStart! is helping to close the reading achievement gap before children ever have a chance to fail.
The graph above illustrates two critical points:
- How far behind the at-risk children are in their early literacy
skills at the beginning of prekindergarten (fall pre-test average scores).
- How much they improve after receiving the Nemours
BrightStart! targeted instruction (spring post-test average scores).


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Cooler Master Real Power 1250 Review
With all the newest, fastest, and baddest computer components coming out these days, you need to make sure you have enough juice to power them all. Under load, the ATI 2900XT draws approximately 300 watts for a single card setup. Go Crossfire and you are looking at about 600 Watts maximum draw. You favor nVidia cards? The 8800GTX draws about 225 watts at full load with one card and around 450 watts with two cards running in SLi (Scalable Link Interface). Now look at your current power supply and what is the maximum wattage it allows? The average user has a 600 to 800 watt power supply and that does not have much room for any other components. For today's hardcore gaming systems you need at least a kilowatt or more. Do I have you scared and running out to buy a new PSU now? Well wait one minute and let me introduce the Cooler Master Real Power Pro 1250 watt PSU to you before you go and spend your hard earned cash.
Closer Look:
This Cooler Master Real Power 1250 came in a huge box that was the heaviest power supply I have ever picked up. On the front is an image of the bottom of the Real Power 1250, along with the logo for the five year warranty. The back highlights the key features of the Cooler Master Real Power 1250, along with the specifications and a list of the connections available.
The sides just display the basic bar codes and name of the product.
Once you get it open you see why the box is so huge. Look at all that cabling; it takes up almost as much space as the Real Power 1250 itself. It would have been nice to have the Real Power 1250 with modular cables to keep the airflow inside the case at a maximum without having "dead cabling" laying everywhere. I do like how Cooler Master packs the box keeping the Real Power 1250 safe.
Once we get everything all out we get to see what is packed in that box. You have the Cooler Master Real Power 1250, the power cable, mounting screws, Cooler Master case badge, and a Cooler Master branded bottle opener key chain.
Now that we have everything out let's get a better look at the Real Power 1250.


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Russell Brand Skinny Pants
Russell Brand traded in his typical skinny denim in favor of a more dressed up skinny pant for his appearance at a California school.
Russell Brand Bomber Jacket
Russell Brand's bomber jacket gave the usually totally-edgy star a more subtle and classic look.
Browse: Russell Brand | Skinny Pants | Bomber Jacket
Show Skinny Pants Looks For:


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|START Conference Manager
ASIST 2012 Annual Meeting
Baltimore, MD, October 26-30, 2012
Quality of Health Answers in Social Q&A
Sanghee Oh, Yong Jeong Yi and Adam Worrall
Tuesday, 1:30pm
The purpose of the current study is to investigate perceptions regarding the quality of online health answers that people share in social contexts. The current study differs from previous studies by focusing on the topic of health, comparing the evaluations of users against experts. Three groups of participants-librarians, nurses, and users of Yahoo! Answers-were invited to assess the quality of health answers posted in Yahoo! Answers. Forty participants from each group reviewed a total of 400 health answers, rating them with a 5-points Likert scale according to 10 evaluation criteria: accuracy, completeness, relevance, objectivity, source credibility, readability, politeness, confidence, knowledge, and efforts. Findings indicated that there was no significant difference of the quality ratings between librarians and nurses. There was, however, significant difference between those two expert groups (librarians and nurses) and users. Librarians and nurses rated the quality of answers lower on most of the evaluation criteria than users. This research will help librarians and nurses better understand how laypeople, such as their patrons and patients, evaluate online health information in social contexts, leading to the offering of better health information services to these audiences.


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The Microsoft OneDrive tent between Gobi and Mojave may be the perfect haven for festival-goers during the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival. Not only is it air conditioned, but it has phone chargers and a fun photo booth.
But what's even more awesome is its Coachella Capsule that chronicles the mega festival through the years — from 1999 to the present — through digital photos. The images are presented on big screens throughout the tent that automatically switch up from acts like Yeah Yeah Yeahs to last year's headliners The Red Hot Chili Peppers.
"We wanted to show how OneDrive is a perfect place for Coachella pics," said OneDrive spokesman Harrison Hoffman of Microsoft's cloud-based storage system that gives users the ability to access photos, videos and documents across several devices from a smartphone to tablet and laptop.
OneDrive and festival organizers partnered in January to curate the nearly two decade-long music festival through images, Hoffman said.


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How to Manage International Expansion
You cant run foreign plants from Springdale or Buffalo, but you can put in place the proper local infrastructure to increase the chances of success.
Going global is a given. As overseas economies move toward creating a universal middle class with increased individual spending power, food and beverage makers recognize vast untapped demographics of consumers.
Note to the CEO
James Rice, vice president and country manager-China for Tyson Foods Inc., has recommendations for companies moving into China, or anywhere outside of the U.S. for that matter.
Be ready to adjust your business model, both culturally and structurally, for the market you're going into. You cannot copy and paste the American business model to another culture or country; U.S. companies that do this always fail.
Review your business model every year. Don't come in with the attitude, "It's the American way or the wrong way."
Low cost means you have to enter a market with a value proposition relevant to the local consumer. Outside the U.S., this is generally low margin-high volume.
You must hire a local team to run the local operation. You cannot run an overseas business by remote control.
For the Chinese market, there are three key factors: speed, flexibility and low cost. These are strengths of the Chinese companies which you will compete with, and is something American companies still are not naturally good at.
This is especially important when considering the tighter purse strings of the middle-class consumer here at home. But before going overseas, anyone planning to build, manage or link up to an international operation has to lay the groundwork or risk all.
"It starts with having the right people on the ground, those who really understand the marketplace," says Kevin Malchoff, president of the international business group for Rich Products Corp., Buffalo, N.Y. "That will ensure you have an accurate understanding of the unique cultural aspects of the country you are attempting to do business in, and ultimately will resonate with the customers with whom you're attempting to build a relationship."
That said, Malchoff also points out there are certain values that are universal across cultural barriers. "All of our customers across the globe are highly focused on product quality and safety," he says. "While laws and regulations may differ from country to country, demonstrating your ability as a company to produce high quality, safe products, in a safe process are the table stakes of doing business anywhere in the world."
The standards Rich's sets for itself in the U.S. are the same standards it follows everywhere else. The company's motto on the subject is, "Do what's right no matter what." Based on that, Rich's doesn't compromise safety or quality, even if the standards are lower in the host country.
Another critical aspect to consider when planning international expansion is logistics, especially for food companies with refrigerated or frozen products. "The distribution infrastructure in developing countries just aren't as advanced as they are in North America, and it can be a challenge to find a reliable cold-chain transportation and warehousing network to meet your needs," Malchoff says.
To solve this problem in China, Rich's established a joint venture relationship with a local cold chain logistics company, KX Logistics. "The partnership we developed with KX provided us with much greater distribution access in China and confidence our products will be warehoused and delivered in a quality-preserving and safe manner," explains Malchoff. "It's been a key driver in the accelerated growth we've experienced in China."
Rich's has built an international manufacturing network that includes locations in Brazil, Canada, Mexico, China, South Africa, Thailand, India and the U.K. And this month, the company will be celebrating the grand opening of a state-of-the-art non-dairy topping and icing facility in Vietnam.
Because of its global plant experience, Rich's is forming a consulting service to help other companies looking into setting up operations in foreign countries, with a focus on China. "We've been doing business internationally for more than a quarter century, so we've dealt with many of the challenges companies new to international business expansion may encounter," Malchoff continues. "We think we can leverage our global expertise to help guide other companies as they begin to expand beyond their borders."
Avoiding cereal killers
Establishing a global operation can happen without leaving North America. While most persons thinking of a foreign plant focus on Asia, it's easy to forget the two major markets in our back — and front — yards: Mexico and Canada.
One of the most recent expansions for U.K.-based Weetabix Co. was into Canada. The ready-to-eat cereal giant had long "gone global" when it took over cereal, bar and cookie-maker Barbara's Bakery, Petaluma, Calif. Its expansion to the U.K.'s "other colony," Canada, posed its own challenges.
"While certainly Canada has a culture much like the U.S., it also has its own consumer complexities to consider," says Kent Spalding, vice president of marketing of Weetabix North America/Barbara's Bakery. "We worked to understand the taste preferences — especially flavor profiles — that are most popular."
The company then looked at both competitive and out-of-category offerings to determine trends that appeared to be emerging. Ideally, Spalding explained, a company should seek a trend or functionality it already is well positioned to compete with through both its intellectual and process capabilities.
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Jack Nicklaus Autographed 16 x 20 with Tiger Woods Photograph
This 16 x 20 photograph has been personally handsigned by golf great Jack Nicklaus. This product includes the official Golden Bear hologram and an individually numbered, tamper evident hologram from Fanatics Authentic. To ensure authenticity, the hologram can be reviewed online. This process helps to ensure that the product purchased is authentic and eliminates any possibility of duplication or fraud.
- Autographed photo
- Fanatics Authentic Presented by Mounted Memories
- Hand-signed
- Includes tamper evident hologram to ensure authenticity
- Measures approximately 16" x 20"


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PORTSMOUTH — The parents of Kathryn "Kat" McDonough believe that Seth Mazzaglia manipulated their daughter and prevented her from contacting them over a number of months dating back to March, the family's lawyer said Wednesday.
PORTSMOUTH — The parents of Kathryn "Kat" McDonough believe that Seth Mazzaglia manipulated their daughter and prevented her from contacting them over a number of months dating back to March, the family's lawyer said Wednesday.
Portsmouth residents Denise and Peter McDonough "are living a nightmare. They are living a parental nightmare," Portsmouth attorney Jay Nadeau told the Herald in an interview.
The McDonoughs hired Nadeau after their daughter, Kat McDonough, 19, was arrested on Christmas Eve on charges alleging she lied to police who are investigating the disappearance of Elizabeth "Lizzi" Marriott, a 19-year-old marine biology student at the University of New Hampshire.
Mazzaglia, now 30, was dating and living with McDonough at his Sawyer Mill apartment in Dover prior to his arrest Oct. 13 on a second degree murder charge for allegedly strangling or suffocating Marriott on Oct. 9.
According to Nadeau, Kat McDonough moved out of her parents' home in Elwyn Park during February school vacation at Portsmouth High School, where she was a senior at the time. Denise McDonough found a note from her daughter left on her bedroom pillow when she returned home from work one day, Nadeau said.
The letter did not indicate where Kat McDonough was going, and only through some friends was Denise able to find out that her daughter had moved in with Mazzaglia, 30, who resided in the Sawyer Mill apartments on Mill Street in Dover.
According to a Dover police incident report obtained by the Portsmouth Herald through a Right to Know request, a Dover officer responded to Mazzaglia's apartment on March 11 around 10 p.m. for a reported disturbance in a hallway. The officer found Kat and Denise "actively involved in conversation, but not yelling."
"I spoke with Denise McDonough, who told me her 18-year-old daughter, Kathryn McDonough, had moved out of her house and into 1 Mill St. #341 with her 29-year-old boyfriend, Seth Mazzaglia," officer Sean Kennedy wrote in the report. "Denise said Kathryn had lied to her and she came to confront Kathryn and try to convince her to move back with her."
According to the report, Denise McDonough understood that her daughter was 18 and was free to live wherever she chose. Kat McDonough told the officer "she was choosing to live with Mazzaglia and she no longer wished to live with her mother in Portsmouth," the report states.
The officer closed the report by noting that the mother and daughter agreed to talk about the issue another time and not in the hallway of the apartment building, where they could disturb other residents.
Nadeau described that March conversation as a difficult one for Denise McDonough. "There was no argument. There was a lot of tears," he said.
According to Nadeau, when Denise McDonough arrived to confront her daughter, Mazzaglia stood in front of the doorway with his chest out and his arms crossed.
"They felt that he was blocking access for Mrs. McDonough to see her daughter," Nadeau said. "They felt then, as they continue to feel now, that Mr. Mazzaglia, who is significantly older than their daughter, manipulated her into moving out of their home and moving in with him."
Nadeau said Kat McDonough suddenly moving out was "shocking" and "upsetting" to her parents. He said there had been no troubles at home before she moved out, but once she moved in with Mazzaglia, she cut off all contact with her parents.
The parents had never met Mazzaglia before that March 11 encounter, but Kat McDonough may have been dating him from the time she was 17 years old, he said. He said the parents did not know anything about their relationship.
Mazzaglia has a black belt in karate and acted and choreographed fights for Seacoast theater productions. Kat McDonough also was involved in the local theater scene, and they appeared together in a 2011 production of "Last Rites" at Players' Ring in Portsmouth.
"She was under his power, his manipulative power," Nadeau said. "That's their opinion. They felt that then, and they still feel that way today."
Despite the falling out and the lack of contact between Kat McDonough and her parents in the months that followed, they helped her post her $35,000 cash or corporate surety bail and have accepted her back into their home as a condition of her release from jail.
"This has been a nightmare for the McDonoughs. They love their daughter very much," Nadeau said. "They're happy that she's home. They wish it wasn't under these circumstances, but they're glad that she is back."