Topic for reporting any Nop Smart Product Collections plugin problems.
IMPORTANT NOTE: There is a known issues with installing new plugins in nopCommerce. Please read this post for more information how to resolve it.
Hi. In Category Product Collections, the Tab Builder for any Category cannot be re-opened. You have to delete it and start again if you wish to make any changes.
Could you please submit a ticket and provide access to your store so that we can investigate and advise?
When a tab is added for a category. The sort method selection should only pull items from the selected Category.
Example is when I have a tab called sale, and select on sale in sort method. It should only select sale items from the selected category and not all sale items.


Jacksonville's Emily Hillis goes for a basket during a basketball game against QND Friday at the 2015 Country Financial Prep Showcase held at the JHS Bowl.
The Jacksonville High girls' basketball team trailed by double digits at halftime and never recovered in a 68-52 loss to Quincy Notre Dame at the 2015 Country Financial Prep Showcase held at the JHS Bowl Friday.
JHS coach Jeannette Barlow said one of her biggest concerns coming into the game was Quincy Notre Dame's full-court press, which the Lady Raiders utilize almost constantly. The Crimsons actually handled the pressure pretty well. The problem was, Quincy Notre Dame can also score.
QND had three players finish with 12 points or more, with Olivia Hyer posting a team-high 21 points.
Jacksonville got off to a good start in the game. Westasia Jackson scored two quick buckets to help Jacksonville to an early lead. But from there, QND embarked on a 13-4 run and eventually took an 18-13 lead into the second.
QND held Jacksonville scoreless for the last 1:05 of the first quarter, and then kept the Crimsons off the board for the first four minutes of the second.
Emma Fenner broke the scoreless streak with a 3-pointer, and Emily Hillis scored inside to cut the deficit down to five, but QND ended the half on a 13-6 run that gave the Lady Raiders a 36-24 lead at the break.
QND outscored JHS 16-15 in the third quarter and 16-13 in the fourth to take the win.
Olivia Kaufmann was the game's high scorer, finishing with 26 points, including three 3-pointers and 5-of-6 free throw shooting.


Well I've just put a little summery together of my favorites looks of the fall ready-to-wear NYC shows. This is a great look seen at Carolina Herrera where the hair just worked with the "streamlined" and "straightforward" look. Lush simplicity. A great way of creating a small head - soft inwards roll: elegant, interesting, clever.
Love this beautiful sleek top knot styled by Eugene Souleiman, seen at Donna Karan. It was the perfect look for this show, great work Eugene!
Jeremy Scott. Love how they mirrored the neon "haute nineties" feeling in powerful colours with youthful and playful ponytails.
At Narciso Rodriguez a nice twist was added to create a simple look - a loose, airy, textured ponytail defined by an unforced knot.


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Alberto Gerchunoff, né à Proskourov (Empire russe), le  et mort à Buenos Aires (Argentine), le , est un écrivain, essayiste et journaliste argentin. Il a écrit de nombreux ouvrages, dont Les Gauchos juifs (), porté à l'écran par la suite.

Vie de famille
Le père d'Alberto Gerchunoff, Rab Gershon Ben Abraham Gerchunoff, a été assassiné par un gaucho bien qu'on n'en connaisse pas la date exacte. Sur la tombe du cimetière de Moisés Ville, on lit le .

Cependant, Gerchunoff lui-même dans son autobiographie qui figure dans le livre  (ed Plus Ultra, 1973, page 23) date la mort de son père d'avant la  (Pâque juive). De même qu'on ne sait pas à quelle date ni sur quel navire il est arrivé, il n'existe pas non plus de date certaine de la mort de Gershon Ben Abraham Guerchunoff.

Enfance et sa jeunesse
Alberto Gerchunoff naquit le  à Proskourov, dans l'Empire russe ; aujourd'hui la ville s'appelle Khmelnytskyï et est située en Ukraine. Sa famille émigra en 1889 et s'installa dans la colonie juive de Moisés Ville, située dans la province de Santa Fe, en Argentine, où son père, Gershon Gerchunoff, fut assassiné par un gaucho jaloux, puis dans une colonie de même genre, appelée Colonia Rajil, dans la province de Entre Ríos (cette ville se trouve à proximité de Villaguay, fondée par le Baron Moritz Hirsch, un philanthrope, comme refuge pour les Juifs qui fuyaient les pogroms européens). C'est entre ces deux localités que Gerchunoff passa son enfance travaillant dans l'agriculture et l'élevage.

En 1895, il s'installe à Buenos Aires. Prénommé à l'origine Abraham, il se fit appeler Alberto lorsqu'il devint citoyen argentin. Très jeune, il commença son activité de journaliste qu'il devait exercer jusqu'à sa mort, notamment dans le journal La Nación de Buenos Aires.

Il fut professeur d'université et rédacteur en chef de nombreux journaux et magazines. À son sujet Jorge Luis Borges a déclaré :

Parmi les nombreux romans et essais qu'il a écrits sur la vie des Juifs en Amérique latine on remarquera Los gauchos judíos (1910), composé en hommage au centenaire de la révolution de Mai, où il recueille des images et des récits sur l'immigration juive en Argentine inspirés par les souvenirs de son enfance et de son adolescence.

Œuvres
 La jofaina maravillosa
 Los gauchos judíos (Les Gauchos juifs). La Plata, 1910. [traducción inglesa: The Jewish Gauchos of the Pampas, Nueva York, 1955]
 Nuestro Señor Don Quijote. Buenos Aires, 1913.
 El nuevo régimen. Buenos Aires, 1918.
 Cuentos de ayer. Buenos Aires, 1919.
 El cristianismo precristiano. Buenos Aires, 19[20?].
 La jofaina maravillosa; agenda cervantina. Buenos Aires, 1922.
 La asamblea de la boardilla. Buenos Aires, 1925.
 Historias y proezas de amor. Buenos Aires, 1926.
 El hombre que habló en la Sorbona. Buenos Aires, 1926.
 Pequeñas prosas. Buenos Aires, 1926.
 Enrique Heine, el poeta de nuestra intimidad. Buenos Aires, Madrid, 1927
 Las imágenes del país. Azul, 1931.
 Los amores de Baruj Spinoza. Buenos Aires, 1932
 El hombre importante, novela. Buenos Aires, Montevideo, 1934.
 La clínica del doctor Mefistófeles; moderna milagrería en diez jornadas. Santiago de Chile, 1937.
 El problema judío. Buenos Aires, 1945.
 Entre Ríos, mi país. Buenos Aires, 1950.
 Retorno a Don Quijote. Buenos Aires, 1951.
 Argentina, país de advenimiento. Buenos Aires, 1952.
 El Pino y La Palmera. Buenos Aires, 1952
 La Lechuza

Notes et références

Notes

Références

Voir aussi

Articles connexes
 Gauchos juifs
 Histoire des Juifs en Argentine

Liens externes

Écrivain argentin
Essayiste argentin
Écrivain de langue espagnole
Naissance en janvier 1883
Naissance à Khmelnytsky
Décès en mars 1950
Décès à Buenos Aires
Décès en Argentine
Décès à 67 ans

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Q: I have date with this format in my db '1631363150' i want to change it to dd-mm-yyyy (DART) I have date with this format in my db '1631363150' i want to change it to  dd-mm-yyyy (DART)

A: Let's try if it would be your reference time
void main() {
   var date = DateTime.fromMillisecondsSinceEpoch(1631363150 * 1000);
   print("get time: ${DateFormat("dd-MM-yyyy").format(date)}");
}
output: get time: 11-09-2021

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Pennette with Calamari and Tomatoes | One Picture, A Million Words.
My husband was pretty much seafood-phobic until after we were married and it was settled that between the two of us, I, the lover of all seafood, would be the one doing the cooking. He's gotten more adventurous over the years but seafood will never be his first choice of protein. So whenever he is not home for dinner, I see it as a chance to cook calamari, something both my kids love, thank goodness for me ;) Is it strange that my 4 year old daughter freaks out over chicken but devours calamari as if it's marshmallow? Totally. But I don't plan on questioning her about it.
This pasta meal is very quick to put together as none of the ingredients take long to cook. In fact, it is one of those sauces that can be efficiently made in the time the pasta cooks, exactly like what you see on cooking shows. I made many changes to the recipe; substituted flat-leaf parsley for basil, omitted pine nuts, raisins and capers, and squeezed in the juice of half a lemon without adding in the zest (I didn't have organic lemons to hand). But I like what I made, as did my children, so much so that we finished the entire pan ourselves!
Well, I made soooooo many omissions as I was lazy to shop that what I ended up with must taste very different from the original recipe. But I think the original recipe sounds good.
: ) I was mostly curious about the squid because I love eating calamari rings and the tentacley parts in restaurants, but I've never prepped a whole squid at home.
It is really easy if you buy squid already cleaned and prepped by your fish guy. Mine is :) Simply slice the body into thick or thin rings before cooking!
That does sound easy; thanks!


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Polygraph Testing in New York, NY
We are the lie detection specialists in New York County
We offer our polygraph exams to customers and clients living in Hamilton County, Ulster County, Wayne County, Genesee County, Fulton County, Dutchess County, Tompkins County, Tioga County, Nassau County, Madison County, Chautauqua County, Queens County, Livingston County, Essex County, Rockland County, Columbia County, Clinton County, Orange County, Chemung County, Saratoga County, Cayuga County, Allegany County, Schenectady County, Wyoming County, Monroe County, Oswego County, Ontario County, Westchester County, Schoharie County, Montgomery County, Yates County, Albany County, Steuben County, Cattaraugus County, Schuyler County, Onondaga County, Orleans County, Chenango County, Saint Lawrence County, Washington County, Warren County, Richmond County, Greene County, Delaware County, Suffolk County, Putnam County, Kings County, Niagara County, Jefferson County, Oneida County, Erie County, Rensselaer County, New York County, Cortland County, Otsego County, Lewis County, Seneca County, Sullivan County, Broome County, Franklin County, Bronx County, Herkimer County,
How to Teach Your Kids to Spot a Lie
Polygraph Expert, Lisa Ribacoff, Tests Comedy Duo Rhett & Link

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Lizzo launches reality TV search for 'big grrrls'
Washington DC, USA Published: Mar 20, 2021, 09:22 AM(IST)
Lizzo performs onstage during the 62nd Annual GRAMMY Awards at STAPLES Center on January 26, 2020 in Los Angeles Photograph:( AFP )
A release date and title for the reality show have yet to be announced.
U.S. musician Lizzo is making a reality TV series to find big women to join her on stage.
"It`s time to find my dream team of beautifully talented big grrrls," the 'Good As Hell' singer, a three-time Grammy winner and role model for body positivity, wrote on her Instagram page on Friday.
The reality series for Amazon Studios is the first in a deal between Lizzo and the streaming platform that was announced last year, under which she will develop and produce TV series.
A post shared by Lizzo (@lizzobeeating)
Amazon said on Friday that the show will follow Lizzo, 32, as she searches for dynamic, full-figured dancers and models to perform with her on stage, and on the runway.
"Have you felt underrepresented and under appreciated? THEN I`M LOOKIN FOR YOU!," Lizzo wrote on Instagram.
Lizzo, who trained as a classical flute player, had a break-out year in 2019 with hits like 'Truth Hurts' and 'Juice' and a role in the movie 'Hustlers'. The rapper and R&B singer was named best new artist at last year`s Grammy Awards and Time magazine`s 2019 entertainer of the year.


WEST HAM host Burnley at the London Stadium as they hope to move further away from the relegation zone.
Last weekend's loss to Swansea has left them just three points above the drop as they face a Burnley side who are seventh in the league.
THIS game takes place on Saturday, March 10.
The match will be held at the London Stadium.
UNFORTUNATELY, this game will not be shown live in the UK.


Medical disposable razors wholesaler and manufacturer, WangLi Shaver Manufacturing Company located in middle-east of China, it's founded in 2009 and specialized in best cheap disposable razors for personal care distributor, supermarket supply chain, hotel guestroom amenities and other non-food consumer goods wholesaler etc. We have one blade disposable razor, double blade razor, and triple blade disposable razors. With convenient transportation and cheap cost, our product has gain good reputation from clients worldwide.
New technologies and applications have sprung up, including sensors, the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, 3D printing, big data, and more. Human beings are entering the third technological revolution. Productivity and production relations are being dismembered and reconstructed. The need for social health products and services also forces the industry to use new technologies continuously. And demographic changes – the ageing of the population and the decline in fertility have increased the demand for chronic diseases and rehabilitation.
These rapid changes will have ripple effects throughout the health system, affecting practitioners and new entrants. Based on knowing about the industry, ongoing analysis, and conversations with practitioners, Business Insider Intelligence summarizes 5 major trends in digital health in 2018.
1. The digital health industry will develop rapidly in emerging markets and surpass mature markets.
Market gap. Compared to developed markets such as the British and the US, emerging markets have fewer established businesses and legacy infrastructure, which means that digital health companies face fewer barriers to developing new products and building new services. At the same time, in order to support the rapid growth of emerging industries, the government will also eliminate some of the regulatory constraints.
Has a large mobile Internet crowd. Emerging markets such as India, Indonesia, and China have a large population base and high mobile Internet penetration, which is an important foundation for the successful launch of digital health products and services. Some companies have achieved remarkable success. For example, according to Ernst & Young's data, China's O2O healthcare platform has a total of 77 million registered users, even more than the total population of the UK.
The needs of healthcare solution. PwC's survey shows that emerging markets have a large population of people living in rural and poor areas, which means that successful healthcare solutions must be accessible and inexpensive. One of the big advantages of digital healthcare is the ability to provide remote services at low prices.
2. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will speed up legislation, which will also promote industry development and the application of new technologies.
Digital health technology is growing at a much faster rate than the US government's ability to regulate these new services. The FDA began setting up digital health-related regulations in 2017 and will begin to influence the industry in 2018. According to mHealthIntelligence, the FDA introduced more than 12 regulations on telemedicine in 2017. The focus of these bills is on accelerating the entry of innovative products into the market, such as the updated Medical Device User Fee Agreement (MDUFA).
3. Health care providers in the future must have technologies of AI, machine learning and chat robots and other technologies.
Throughout 2017, the power of AI has gradually emerged: the North Carolina Rheinberg Comprehensive Cancer Center shows that IBM's AI technology Watson may be an effective cancer treatment tool; Stanford University researchers have developed a deep learning algorithm. Tests have proven that the accuracy of diagnosis of pneumonia has exceeded that of human radiologists; MdLIFE found that its chat robots are more effective than traditional e-mail marketing methods in facilitating user registration.
In 2018 we are expected to see more AI technology applied to the digital health field to improve the effectiveness of services. At the same time, with the increase in the competition in the digital health market, AI technology can also help companies establish their own barriers. According to data from TM Capital, AI Health Investment Trading and Funds reached a record high of five years in 2016, with a total of 90 transactions and a total investment of US$794 million.
4. With the rapid development of digital health, medical services will be more adversely affected by cyber attacks than ever before, so medical health service providers with data security problems will be strongly resisted by users.
The medical industry needs to address security threats. According to a survey released by Accenture and the American Medical Association (AMA), 83% of American doctors have experienced some form of cybersecurity attack. In order to reduce cybersecurity issues, the healthcare industry has invested heavily, Becker's Hospital Review suggest the cyber security remediation has cost $6.2 billion over the past two years.
With the paperlessness and electronicization of medical health records, the probability of user data being damaged by cyber attacks is also increasing. Data security issues can lead to the loss of users and negative public opinion. This may prompt regulators to step in, increase penalties for service providers lacking digital security garantee, and place new demands on these companies.
5. The healthcare industry will be highly integrated, as practitioners, technology giants and digital start-ups are hoping to gain a higher position in the growing healthcare arena.
According to Mobi Health News, there were more than 40 mergers and acquisitions in the digital health industry in 2017. This number will rise further in 2018 as the healthcare industry continues to innovate while traditional companies are also competing with technology intruders and consumerization. There are three specific forms: traditional medical companies will merger to deal with potential threats; traditional medical companies will acquire digital startups; technology giants will cooperate with traditional medical companies.
"More than anything else technology creates our world. It creates our wealth, our economy, our very way of being." Says W.Brian Arthur in <The Nature of Technology> .This sentence applies equally to the medical industry: technology brings endless wealth to the health care industry, creating a high level of prosperity in the medical industry. The medical industry is constantly using new technologies to innovate products and services so that everyone can enjoy quality, convenient and personalized medical and health services. The use of digital tools is not the starting point, and will not be the end point.
Medical disposable razors wholesaler in China export good quality mens disposable shavers and ladies disposable razors at low price. WangLi Shaver Manufacturing Company has rich industry experience, with more than 160 employees, 20 sets plastic injection machines, 10 sets automatically razor cartridge assembly systems and 4 sets packing machines working in 10,000 square meters workshops. Thank you for your visiting and look forward to hearing from you soon.


Batteries are a necessary part of every photographers life. With these handy caddies you can organize, store, protect and carry your batteries in a simple and easily managed fashion. Originally designed for pilots, we believe photographers of all levels will soon find they can't live without these little guys.


Roofing is a division of D & D Roofing and Sheet all roofing Bel-Alton Metal based out of City, Nevada. We are the leading roofing company in the area, serving the . commercial roofing Brier Hos Book Direct and Save on over 4,000 Best Western. Best Western International is the The World s Biest Ho FamilyR with more than 4,000 hos in overcountries and territories worldwide. Book your ho. Royal Homes Minden Information Ontario Custom Home and. national roofing contractors association Chadds-Ford Why you should choose Royal Homes Ltd. as your custom roofing replacement Pflugerville home builder? Experience Twentythree years of building excellence and roofers Bexar-County thousands of satisfied.


Ok, ok. The title would have been a bit more apropos back in March or April. Whatever. Here's a video of me practicing a tricky board break I saw Walter Mattson complete at a demo many years ago. He dangled his board from the tip of a sai–a bit cooler, I admit–but the basic idea's the same.
The trick to this is to stay really loose and to only tighten your arm and first at the point of impact. A little extra recoil doesn't hurt either. The premise behind the break is similar to Bruce Lee's legendary one-inch punch. If you haven't seen him perform it before, take a look!
Have you tried any tricky breaks lately? Anything that require finesse over power? Share a link or a video here!
This entry was posted in Karate and tagged board breaking, Bruce Lee, karate, shohei-ryu, Walter Mattson. Bookmark the permalink.
2 Responses to String Break!
Here's a cool break that was stuck in the 'ole spam filter. Provided to us courtesy of Sensei Steve Brigante!
I agree that learning to stay relaxed and then tighten on impact is a great way to balance speed and strength. Also, Lee would sink his body weight on impact which created a great deal of power.


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Do we care about the lives of non-Americans?
Thread: Do we care about the lives of non-Americans?
https://bigthink.com/videos/danny-sj...4db27-43618197
Are lives around the globe just as valuable as American lives?
U.S. Army strategist and military historian Danny Sjursen says Americans don't value all lives the same. They continually fight people who don't look like them, making it easier to not care as much about their lives. If the U.S. military is to be truly engaged around the world, it may need to learn how to value all lives equally. NOTE: The views expressed in this video are those of the guest speaking in an unofficial capacity and do not reflect the official policy or position of the Command and General Staff College, Department of the Army, Department of Defense, or the US government.
A short 4 minute video from an Army strategist on whether America cares about non-American lives. Mostly directed at the U.S. population writ large. I think his points are valid, and our foreign policy would be more effective if our nation emphasized more with those beyond our borders. I suspect there are deeply embedded psychological inclinations that cause to default to putting people into simple categories, and 90% of those categories we don't consider as human as our own. I somehow suspect this is universal trait, not simply an American one.
A good catch, though I did wonder at his knowledge when he referred to Pashto people; when that is the language of the Pashtuns or Pathans.
I do wonder what the impact is of these factors: information or reporting, via the media, providing little real knowledge allied to the accessibility of outsiders and those brave enough in situ to report beyond their borders - no imagery, nowt happening; despair at how a good chunk of the world is and frustration there is little that can be achieved e.g. DRC; and the potency or impotence of expatriate communities within countries such as ours.
So do we (UK) care? Yes, in different ways to how we are perceived. Charitable donations is one (£10.3b in 2017), especially when disaster strikes - though not like the Band Aid phenomena when Ethiopia was starving. UK foreign aid is now massive; £14 billion in 2017 and is set in law as 0.7 Gross National Income. Not that UK aid is not flawed.
Somewhat related:
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/b...lion-statistic
Joseph Stalin is reputed to have said that the death of one person is a tragedy; the death of one million is a statistic. And Mother Teresa once said, "If I look at the mass I will never act." When Stalin and Mother Teresa agree on a point, I sit up and pay attention. It turns out that the human tendency to turn away from mass suffering is well documented. Deborah Small and Paul Slovic have termed this phenomenon the collapse of compassion. It's not simply that as the number of victims goes up, people's sympathy levels off. No, when the numbers go up, the amount of sympathy people feel goes perversely down. And with it goes the willingness to donate money or time to help.
To David's point, the West donates money to NGOs to assist those less fortunate in their own countries and around the world, and most advanced Western countries have their version of USAID that provides assistance to those less fortunate (often tied to advancing national interests). However, to the Major's point due we care about the deaths of innocent victims in the wars we're waging the question, I think that is a different question than our willingness to provide aid to the less fortunate around the world. It just so happens that our current wars are against non-Caucasians, but in my view that is an unfair accusation. First off our countries have diverse populations, and second we had no problems killing tens of thousands of German civilians during WWII. Something about the war on terror seems different though, and I can't quite put my finger on it.
Something about the war on terror seems different though, and I can't quite put my finger on it.
Could it be fear? Fear for the USA on 9/11 - for the public and most institutions - of a successful attack by an enemy unknown to them. An enemy then thought to be capable / considering further attacks.
Nation-states rarely react well to a threat that appears to upset the assumptions made about public security threats, i.e. a minimal risk to the population and normal society operation. Public, not national security. Even more so for the USA which via geography and power - to name two - that has kept such intrusions at a distance.
AQ was a largely unknown enemy after 9/11 and the USA, plus many others reacted often desperately to gain more information. Using methods it normally would avoid. We did exactly the same in the early year of 'The Troubles'.
What is the quickest and easiest political response to such an attack, with due allowance made for that simple motive revenge? "Find 'em and kill 'em".
Quick Navigation Social Sciences, Moral, and Religious Top


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Michael Paul Chan
Character actor Michael Paul Chan spent the first half of his career accumulating small roles in numerous films and television series, particularly of the crime variety. Building up a résumé playing officers, criminals, and civilians alike in "CHiPs" (NBC 1977-1983), "Falling Down" (1993), and even superhero films like "Batman Forever" (1995), the talented actor was a prime candidate for a crime series of his very own, or perhaps two: In 2005, Chan signed on to play Lt. Mike Tao in "The Closer" (TBS 2005-2012), carrying the character forth into the series' spinoff "Major Crimes" (TBS 2012-). Michael Paul Chan was born on June 26, 1950 in San Francisco, California to second generation Chinese-American parents. Before taking to the screen as a professional actor, Chan contributed to the founding of San Francisco's Asian American Theater Company in 1973. Two years later, he married his wife, Christina Ann Chan, and began working in both film and television, including parts in series like "Police Story" (NBC 1973-78) and films like the screwball comedy "Up Yours" (1979). The decade to follow landed Chan a number of one-off appearances on dramatic television series, including "CHiPs" (NBC 1977-1983) and "T.J. Hooker" (ABC/CBS 1982-86), as well as a few bit parts in high profile movies including "Runaway" (1984) and "The Goonies" (1985). Both trends continued into the 1990s, including "Jake and the Fatman" (CBS 1987-1992), "The Wonder Years" (ABC 1988-1993), and "The Joy Luck Club" (1993), in which he played the overbearing husband to Laura Tom's character Lena. That same year, Chan also appeared in the Joel Schumacher film "Falling Down" (1993) and the Dolph Lundgren-starring action drama "Army of One" (1993). After a starring turn on "Valley of the Dolls" (Fox 1994), a short-lived soap opera series that only wound up broadcasting in select American cities, Chan reunited with "Goonies" director Richard Donner for the western reboot "Maverick" (1994), and with Schumacher for the comic book movies "Batman Forever" (1995) and "Batman & Robin" (1997). The decade to come would grant Chan a wealth of small screen work, beginning with a regular role on the animated comedy "The PJs" (Fox/The WB 1999-2002). In the realm of live action, Chan starred on the crime procedural "Robbery Homicide Division" (CBS 2002-03) and played a recurring role as Judge Lionel Ping on the acclaimed sitcom "Arrested Development" (Fox 2003-06 / Netflix 2013-). In 2005, he began playing the character of Lt. Mike Tao in the crime series "The Closer" (TBS 2005-2012). Chan sustained his relationship with Mike Tao upon joining several of his fellow "The Closer" cast members in spinoff series "Major Crimes" (TBS 2012-).
Megiddo: Omega Code 2Chinese Premiere
The Glass HouseMr Kim
Once in the LifeBuddha
The Big TeaseClarence
The InsiderNorman--The Cameraman
Heaven and EarthInterrogator
The Joy Luck ClubHarold
Falling DownMr Lee
Rapid FireCarl Chang
1000 Pieces of GoldHong King
Quicksilver2nd Asian Gang Member
The GooniesData's Father
RunawayWilson
ThiefWaiter at Chinese Restaurant
Spider-Man The Dragon's ChallengeActor


As soon as you launch NoSleep it prevents your Mac from sleeping until quit, or the battery charge level drops below a specified amount .
You can schedule the time it quits so that you can leave it unattended. Do this in Preferences.


Image Title: Murphy Bed Depot Best Beds Reviews Wall With Remodel 10. Filename: murphy-bed-depot-best-beds-reviews-wall-with-remodel-10.jpg. Image Dimension: 500 x 500 pixels. Images Format: jpg/jpeg. Publisher/Author: Edd Dibbert. Uploaded Date: Friday - June 15th. 2018 13:06:12 PM. Category: Architecture. Image Source: homestyler.com.
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Last research results show positive expectations in regard to business performance, cooperation with foreign clients, increase in the number of employees and increase in selling prices at the aggregate level of Vojvodina economy.
Positive evaluation of current and future business climate is observed in sectors Manufacturing, Wholesale and Retail Trade, Repair of Motor Vehicles and Motorcycles, Agriculture, Forestry and Fishery, Construction and Information and Communication.
The last edition of RAV Business Barometer can be downloaded here.


Just ahead of his upcoming shows, comedian, Seyi Law and his wife, Stacey are celebrating their seventh year wedding anniversary.
The comedian took to social media to share a throwback photo with the caption; "Please don't laugh o.
Love Ya to the moon and beyond.
May God the love be sweeter and our troubles be minimal and our joy overflow.
Good Health, greater wisdom, better finances and bigger grace in Jesus name.


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Granholm Announces Grant for Infrastructure Improvements in Marine City
Bridget Beckman
$81,340 grant to Marine City in St. Clair County
LANSING – Governor Jennifer M. Granholm today announced an $81,340 grant to Marine City in St. Clair County to support downtown public infrastructure improvements. The grant is being made available by the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) with funds provided by the federal Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program. An MEDC official presented a ceremonial check to Marine City officials today
"Helping our cities create vibrant downtown areas is an important part of building a strong and diversified economy in Michigan," Granholm said. "Infrastructure projects like this one in Marine City attract new business investment and bring new jobs to our cities."
Marine City is contributing $135,090 to the project, which will include improving the facades of four downtown buildings located in the core downtown district, replacing windows and doors, removing and replacing old exterior siding, repainting exteriors, installing new exterior lighting and repairing damaged bricks and mortar.
"I am excited about this project for Marine City and its property owners," said John Gabor, city manager. "It has taken a long time to develop the grant, but the end result will be the standard for Marine City's future. I consider this phase one and anticipate our downtown property owners will join this rebuilding effort in future grant applications."
The MEDC is able to award approximately $40 million in federal CDBG funds each year. There are 1,655 local governments in Michigan eligible to apply for these funds. Projects are approved contingent upon compliance with state and federal requirements.
"The CDBG program is an excellent resource that helps communities promote new business development and job creation," MEDC President and CEO Greg Main said. "The MEDC is pleased to work with city officials toward strengthening Marine City's downtown."
AGS Automotive Systems expanding in Sterling Heights, building on state's leadership in autonomous and electric vehicle manufacturing


text:
In Holt during November of 1961, John Allison began what was to be one of the most forward thinking plumbing and heating businesses in North Norfolk. John had a vision for his company and set about running it with a strong family ethos, hard work ethics and a vision for his company. Already a qualified plumbing and heating engineer, it was only 2 years from starting his business that he employed his first apprentice in 1963. John believed it was important to pass on trades to the younger generation.
From 1967-1970 John formed a partnership with Ray Foreman and operated a shop from New Street in Holt. In 1976 Allison Heating and Plumbing became one of the first firms to be involved in solar water heating systems. In 1984 John purchased land at Old Station Way in Holt. He constructed a building to enable him to have workshops, storage areas and garaging for the firms vehicles. Just a couple of years later he applied for retail planning permission. This allowed him to appoint a salesman and store man for the sale of plumbing materials and goods. That initial building is the same site occupied by the company today.
Allison Heating Plumbing Ltd. remains a family business with John's son in law Simon Elliott and John's son Michael Allison as company directors. Additionally, his daughter's Sharon Morter and Jackie Elliott work for the business, as company secretary and showroom manager, respectively.
"We are a family business and we treat our customers as part of our extended family, with care and respect."
– Simon Elliott, Company Director


text:
\section{Introduction}

Light microscopy at low light illumination is desirable to avoid damaging
the specimen (e.g., the biological samples)~\cit
{Brida,Taylor,Lemos,Ono,Israel}. At very low light level, it might be more
efficient to use nonclassical light for illumination, such as twin beams
from a parametric down-converted light~\cite{Brida} and amplitude squeezed
light~\cite{Taylor}. Recently, polarized light microscopy using
path-entangled $N$-photon states (i.e., the N00N states) $\sim (|N,0\rangle
+|0,N\rangle )$ was demonstrated to enlarge the contribution of each photon
to the image contrast~\cite{Ono,Israel}, where $|m,n\rangle \equiv |m\rangle
_{H}\otimes |n\rangle _{V}$ denotes the product of photon Fock states of two
orthogonal polarization modes $H$ and $V$. From binary-outcome photon
counting~\cite{Ono,Israel}, it was found that the birefringence phase shift
of a sample $\phi (x,y)$ can be estimated beyond the shot-noise limit, i.e.,
the phase sensitivity $\delta \phi (x,y)<1/\sqrt{N}$. However, the phase
sensitivity diverges at certain values of phase shift, which in turn reduces
the quality of microscopy images~\cite{Israel}.

Compared with the N00N states, the twin-Fock states $|n,n\rangle $ are
easier to prepare and more robust against photon loss~\cit
{HB,FWSun,GYXiang10,Xiang}. Recently, it was shown that the visibility of
the 6-photon count rate could reach $\sim 94\%$~\cite{Xiang}, significantly
better than that of a five-photon N00N state~\cite{Afek}. In addition, the
achievable phase sensitivity can surpass that of the N00N states with a
binary-outcome photon counting~\cite{Xiang}. Similar to Ref.~\cite{Israel},
however, we will show that quantum-enhanced microscopy illuminated by the
twin-Fock state of the light (or any finite-$N$ input state) also suffers
from the divergence of the phase sensitivity. To remedy this problem, we
propose a scheme to lock the phase shift sensed by the beams at the optimal
working point using three estimators nearby, as illustrated schematically by
Fig.~\ref{fig1}(a). We further show that a combination of two binary-outcome
photon counting, one with a fixed offset phase and the other without any
offset phase, also works to remove the singularity. Our results can be
generalized to any kind of binary-outcome measurement that has been widely
adopted in quantum metrology~\cit
{Bollinger,Dowling,Gerry,Cohen,Brivio,Distante,XMFeng}, and recently in
quantum-enhanced microscopy~\cite{Ono,Israel}.

\section{Binary-outcome photon counting using twin-Fock states of light}

As illustrated schematically in Fig.
\ref{fig1}(a), we consider a quantum-enhanced microscopy illuminated by the twin-Fock states of light $|n,n\rangle $~\cite{HB,FWSun,GYXiang10,Xiang}, with the number of photons $N=2n$. The microscopy
images can be constructed from the coincidence photon counting at the output
ports~\cite{Ono,Israel}. Theoretically, the conditional probability for detecting $n_{1}$ photons in
the $H$ polarization mode and $n_{2}$ photons in the $V$ polarization mode
is given by
\begin{equation}
P(n_{1},n_{2}|\theta )=\left\vert \langle n_{1},n_{2}|e^{-i[\varphi +\phi
(x,y)]J_{y}}|n,n\rangle \right\vert ^{2},  \label{Pn1n2}
\end{equation
where $\varphi$ is a controllable offset phase, $\phi (x,y)$ is the spatially
dependent phase shift caused by the birefringence of the polarized beams
inside the sample~\cite{Israel}, and $\theta (x,y)\equiv \varphi +\phi (x,y)
. The phase accumulation $\exp (-i\theta J_{y})$ can be implemented with a polarization Mach-Zehnder interferometer~\cite{Yurke,Sanders95,Kim98}, corresponding to a
rotation around the $y$-component of the Stokes vector $\boldsymbol{J
=(a_{H}^{\dagger },a_{V}^{\dagger })\boldsymbol{\sigma }(a_{H},a_{V})^{T}/2
, where $a_{H}$ ($a_{V}$) is the annihilation operator of the polarization
mode $H$ ($V$), and $\boldsymbol{\sigma }$ denotes the Pauli operator.

The photon detection event $n_{1}=n_{2}=n$ is of interest~\cit
{FWSun,GYXiang10,Xiang} and is denoted as the outcome \textquotedblleft $+
\textquotedblright . This is indeed a projection measurement, or
equivalently, a binary-outcome measurement (see Appendix A). The output
signal is $\langle \mu (\theta )\rangle \equiv \langle \psi (\theta )|\mu
|\psi (\theta )\rangle =P(n,n|\theta )$, where $\mu =|n,n\rangle \langle n,n|
$ and $|\psi (\theta )\rangle =\exp (-i\theta J_{y})|\psi _{\mathrm{in
}\rangle $. For each given phase shift $\theta \in (-\pi ,\pi )$, after
\mathcal{N}$ binary-outcome measurements, the signal is measured by the
count rate $P(n,n|\theta )\simeq \mathcal{N}_{+}/\mathcal{N}$, where
\mathcal{N}_{+}$ is the occurrence number of the event $n_{1}=n_{2}=n$. In
Fig.~\ref{fig1}(c), we show the statistical average of $\mathcal{N}_{+}
\mathcal{N}$ and its standard deviation (the circles and the bars) obtained
from numerical simulation: first we generate $\mathcal{N}$ random numbers
\{\xi _{1},\xi _{2},...,\xi _{\mathcal{N}}\}$~\cite{Pezze&Smerzi} uniformly
distributed within $[0,1]$, then we obtain the occurrence number $\mathcal{N
_{+}$ as the number of counts for $\xi $ to lie within the interval
[0,P(n,n|\theta )]$. Here, to take the experimental imperfections into
account, we have replaced $P(n,n|\theta )$ with $a_{0}P(n,n|\theta )+b_{0}$,
with $a_{0}$ and $b_{0}$ related to the imperfect visibility and reduced
peak height at the phase origin, respectively (see Appendix B). As depicted
in Fig.~\ref{fig1}(c), the averaged signal, fitted by $P_{\mathrm{fit
}(n,n|\theta )$, show multifold oscillations and the first dark fringe
appears at $\theta _{\mathrm{dark}}\simeq \pi /2$, $\arccos (\sqrt{1/3})$,
and $\arctan (\sqrt{2/3})$, from the top to the bottom.

\begin{figure}[tbph]
\begin{centering}
\includegraphics[width=1\columnwidth]{fig1.eps}
\caption{(a) Polarized light microscopy with a feedback offset phase. (b)
Quasi-probability distributions of the input $|n,n\rangle $ and the output
\exp (-i\protect\theta J_{y})|n,n\rangle $ on the Poincar\'{e} sphere, where
$\protect\theta =\protect\varphi +\protect\phi (x,y)$. (c) Statistical average of the count rate (red circles) and its standard deviation (bars) from $\mathcal{N}=100$ measurements and $20$ repetitions. (d) Phase uncertainty of the maximum likelihood estimator (red circles) and the phase sensitivity (blue solid) using $P_{\mathrm{fit}}(n,n|\protect\theta)$. The red dashed line: the sensitivity with the exact $P(n,n|\theta)$. Horizontal grid lines: shot-noise limit $1/\protect\sqrt{N}$ and $\protec
\delta \protect\theta _{\mathrm{QCRB}}$ for $N=2n=2$, $4$, $6$.}
\label{fig1}
\end{centering}
\end{figure}

The microscopy images can be reconstructed from the inversion phase estimator~\cite{Israel}, which is a solution of the equation $
P(n,n|\theta )=\mathcal{N}_{+}/\mathcal{N}$ (see Appendix A). To avoid the phase ambiguity
\cite{Pezze,Higgins,Berry}, we assume that true value of the phase shift lies within a
monotonic regime of $P(n,n|\theta )$, e.g., $\theta \in (0,\theta _{\mathrm{dark}})$. The image quality is determined
by the phase uncertainty $\delta \theta =\Delta \mu /|\partial \langle
\mu (\theta )\rangle /\partial \theta |=1/\sqrt{F(\theta )}$, where, for a
single-shot measurement, the fluctuations of signal $(\Delta \mu )^{2}\equiv
\langle \mu ^{2}\rangle -\langle \mu \rangle ^{2}=P(n,n|\theta
)[1-P(n,n|\theta )]$ and $F(\theta )$ is the classical Fisher information of
the binary-outcome photon counting measurements (see Appendix A). In Fig.
\ref{fig1}(d), we plot the phase sensitivity as a function of $\theta $,
using the exact (fitted) expression of $P(n,n|\theta )$. For the exact cases
(the red dashed lines), the sensitivity reaches minimum at $\theta =0$~\cit
{FWSun}. Due to the experimental imperfections, however, the best
sensitivity occurs at $\theta _{\min }\simeq 0.88$, $0.37$, and $0.26$ (
\sim 15^{\circ }$~\cite{Xiang}), from the top to the bottom, as depicted by
the blue solid lines of Fig.~\ref{fig1}(d).

At the optimal working point $\theta _{\min }$, the sensitivity can surpass
the shot-noise limit by an enhancement factor $\eta =1/(\sqrt{N}\delta
\theta _{\min })\simeq 1.39$ (for $N=2$), $1.61$ ($N=4$), and $1.85$ ($N=6
). Theoretically, the enhancement factor can be predicted by calculating the
quantum Fisher information of a phase-encoded state $\exp (-i\theta G)|\psi
_{\mathrm{in}}\rangle $~\cite{Helstrom,Braunstein,Giovannetti}, where $G$ is
a hermitian operator that encodes a phase shift on the input state $|\psi _
\mathrm{in}}\rangle $. The optimal choice of $G$ is fully determined by
quantum correlation of the input state~\cite{Kitagawa,Wineland,Ma,Toth,Lucke
. For a twin-Fock state, the quasi-probability distribution spreads along
the equator of the Poincar\'{e} sphere; see Fig.~\ref{fig1}(b). This
observation suggests that the phase generator can take the form $G=J_{x}\cos
\alpha +J_{y}\sin \alpha $ for arbitrary $\alpha $ ($=\pi /2$ in Eq.~(\re
{Pn1n2})), which results in the quantum Fisher information $F_{Q}=N(N+2)/2$
and hence the quantum Cram\'{e}r-Rao bound $\delta \theta _{\mathrm{QCRB}}=1
\sqrt{F_{Q}}\simeq \sqrt{2}/N$. Therefore, the enhancement factor is given
by $\eta =1/(\sqrt{N}\delta \theta _{\mathrm{QCRB}})=\sqrt{(N+2)/2}$.

The sensitivity diverges at certain values of $\theta $ (e.g., $\theta =0$,
\pm \theta _{\mathrm{dark}}$). This is because at those points, the slope of
the signal $\partial \langle \mu (\theta )\rangle /\partial \theta =0$, but
\Delta \mu \neq 0$, so that $\delta \theta \rightarrow \infty $ (see also
Appendix B). Such a singularity could take place for any finite-$N$ input
state, e.g., a single-photon state $|1,0\rangle $ and the multi-photon N00N
states~\cite{Israel}. For a general binary-outcome measurement, we show that
the inversion estimator is indeed the same as the asymptotically optimal
maximum likelihood estimator (MLE)~\cite{Fisher}, so the same divergence
also occurs for the MLE (see Appendix A). This problem can not be completely
avoided even when all the $(N+1)$ outcomes are taken into account.

\section{Simulated microscopy images}

To reconstruct the microscopy images, one first calibrates the interferometer (with no
sample present, as done in Ref \cite{Israel}) to obtain the averaged signal
P_{\mathrm{fit}}(+|\theta )$ as a function of the phase shift $\theta$. Next, at each spatial point of the sample, one
performs the binary-outcome measurements for $\mathcal{N}$ times to record the
occurrence frequency for the detection event of
interest, and then inverts the averaged signal $P_{\mathrm{fit}}(+|\theta )
\mathcal{N}_{+}(x,y)/\mathcal{N}$ to obtain the inversion estimator $\theta
_{\mathrm{est}}(x,y)$. If an offset phase $\varphi $ is applied before the
sample, then the estimator becomes $\phi _{\mathrm{est}}(x,y)=\theta _
\mathrm{est}}(x,y)-\varphi $~\cite{Israel}, where the offset phase $\varphi $
is chosen such that the total phase shift $\theta =\varphi +\phi (x,y)\in
\lbrack \theta _{\min },\theta _{\mathrm{dark}})$~\cite{senrange}.

The birefringence phase shift used here is $\phi (x,y)=0.1+0.437\cos
^{6}[2(x-\pi /2)^{2}+y^{2}]\in (0.1,0.537]$, which can be discretized into
pixels $(i,j)$, with $i,j=0,1,2,\cdots $. At each pixel, performing the
photon-counting measurements for $\mathcal{N}$ times and inverting the
signal, one can obtain the inversion estimator $\phi _{\mathrm{est
}(i,j)=\theta _{\mathrm{est}}(i,j)-\varphi $, where $\theta _{\mathrm{est}}$
is a solution to $P_{\mathrm{fit}}(+|\theta )=\mathcal{N}_{+}(i,j)/\mathcal{
}$. For each input twin-Fock state, $P_{\mathrm{fit}}(+|\theta )$ has been obtained from the
calibration of the interferometer (see the blue solid lines of Fig.~\re
{fig1}(c), and also Appendix B), and $\mathcal{N}_{+}(i,j)$ denotes the
occurrence number of the outcome \textquotedblleft $+$" at the pixel $(i,j)$.

To simulate the microscopy illuminated by a classical light, we consider a
single-photon state $|1,0\rangle $ as the input and treat the detection
event $n_{1}=1$ and $n_{2}=0$ as the outcome \textquotedblleft $+
\textquotedblright , which occurs with probability $P(+|\theta )=\cos
^{2}(\theta /2)$. Photon counting over the other outcome gives $P(-|\theta
)=\sin ^{2}(\theta /2)$, as demonstrated recently by Israel \textit{et al}
\cite{Israel}. Both of them exhibit the same phase dependence as that of a
coherent-state input light $|\alpha \rangle \otimes |0\rangle $~\cit
{Distante,XMFeng}.

Figure~\ref{fig2} shows the simulated microscopy images using the inversion
estimator $\phi _{\mathrm{est}}(i,j)$ for the input twin-Fock states
|n,n\rangle $ with $n=N/2=1,2,3$, and that of the single-photon state
|1,0\rangle $. To keep exactly $600$ photons at each pixel, we use the
number of measurements $\mathcal{N}=600$ (a), $300$ (b), $150$ (c), and $100$
(d). From Fig.~\ref{fig2}(d), one can note that for the $6$-photon state
|3,3\rangle $, the simulated microscopy image is \emph{less} accurate at
some spatial points (see the speckles). This is because the sensed phase
shift $\theta =\varphi +\phi (i,j)\sim \theta _{\mathrm{dark}}$, at which
the phase sensitivity diverges. Similar phenomenon takes place for the
triphoton N00N state~\cite{Israel}, and also for any finite-$N$ photon state.

\begin{figure}[hptb]
\begin{centering}
\includegraphics[width=1\columnwidth]{fig2.eps}
\caption{Simulated microscopy images ($30\times 60$ pixels) reconstructed
from the phase estimator $\protect\phi_{\mathrm{est}}(i, j)$ for the
single-photon state (a), and the twin-Fock states with $N=2n=2$ (b), $4$
(c), and $6$ (d). The number of photons at each pixel $\mathcal{N}\times N=600$. Within the area enclosed by the green solid lines, the
phase shift sensed by the beams is almost optimal, and numerical simulation of the local standard deviation from $20$ repetitions gives $\mathrm{LSD}_{|1,0\rangle }=0.0413$, $\mathrm{LSD}_{|1,1\rangle }=0.0297$, $\mathrm{LSD}_{|2,2\rangle }=0.0253$, and $\mathrm{LSD}_{|3,3\rangle }=0.022$, indicating $\mathrm{LSD}_{|1,0\rangle }/\mathrm{LSD}_{|n,n\rangle}\approx \sqrt{(N+2)/2}$.  }
\label{fig2}
\end{centering}
\end{figure}

The image quality is improved with the quantum source of the light as long
as the sensed phase shift is far from the singular points~\cite{Israel}. To
quantify such a improvement, we calculate standard deviation of $\phi _
\mathrm{est}}(i,j)$ within a local area enclosed by the green solid lines of
Fig.~\ref{fig2}, as denoted by $\mathrm{LSD}_{|\psi _{\mathrm{in}}\rangle }
. Similar to Ref.~\cite{Israel}, we focus on the relative noise $\mathrm{LSD
_{|1,0\rangle }/\mathrm{LSD}_{|n,n\rangle }$, which gives a measure of the
improvement in the image quality beyond the classical illumination. From
each image of Fig.~\ref{fig2}, one can extract $\mathrm{LSD}_{|\psi _
\mathrm{in}}\rangle }$ and hence the relative noise. Taking $20$ pictures
for each input state, we obtain $\mathrm{LSD}_{|1,0\rangle }/\mathrm{LSD
_{|n,n\rangle }=1.39$ (for $n=N/2=1$), $1.63$ ($n=2$), and $1.88$ ($n=3$),
in agreement with the enhancement factor $\eta $.

\section{Phase locking to the optimal working point}

Due to the divergence of the phase sensitivity, the sensing range of the
quantum-enhance microscopy becomes narrow, especially when a higher-$N$
nonclassical state is injected. In order to remedy this problem, we propose
a scheme to control the offset phase at each spatial point of the sample
according to three estimators nearby, as illustrated schematically by Fig.
\ref{fig1}(a).

The basic idea is to insert a spatially dependent offset phase $\varphi (i,j)
$, such that the total phase sensed by the beams is close to the optimal
working point: $\theta (i,j)\equiv \varphi (i,j)+\phi (i,j)\sim \theta
_{\min }$. To determine the offset phase, we need some prior information to
the unknown phase $\phi (i,j)$ before the measurements. Quantum measurements
with adaptive feedback maximizes the information gain in subsequent
measurements and have been experimentally shown to be a powerful technique
to achieve the precision beyond the shot-noise limit~\cite{GYXiang10,Higgins
. However, application of the existing feedback-based phase estimation (see
e.g., Ref.~\cite{Berry2000}) in the microscopy is generally very
challenging. For our binary-outcome measurements, a global feedback strategy
for $\mathcal{N}_{\mathrm{tot}}$ measurements requires solving a set of
nonlinear equations with $2^{\mathcal{N}_{\mathrm{tot}}+1}-1$ unknown
variables~\cite{Berry2000}. Recently, Hentschel and Sanders~\cite{Sanders}
proposed an approximate scheme that reduces the number of unknown variables
to $\sim O(\mathcal{N}_{\mathrm{tot}})$. Here we are interested in
estimating the values of the phases at all the pixels of the sample, which
typically requires $\mathcal{N}_{\mathrm{tot}}=\mathcal{N}\times N_{\mathrm
pixels}}\sim 10^{6}$, where $N_{\mathrm{pixels}}$ denotes total number of
pixels. In this case, even the approximate strategy becomes formidable.

We present a simple but effective scheme that adjusts the offset phase after
every $\mathcal{N}$ measurements per pixel. Specially, we first estimate the
true value of phase shift at the pixel $(0,0)$, e.g., $\phi _{\mathrm{est
}(0,0)\simeq 0.1\mathrm{rad}$. From the starting point, we can obtain all
the estimators by adjusting the offset phase as illustrated in Fig.~\re
{fig3}(a) and (b). For instance, to estimate $\phi (1,0)$, we adjust the
offset phase as $\varphi (1,0)=$ $\theta _{\min }-\phi _{\mathrm{est}}(0,0)
, which ensures the phase locking to the optimal working point $\theta
(1,0)=\varphi (1,0)+\phi (1,0)\simeq \theta _{\min }$, provided $\phi
(1,0)\simeq \phi _{\mathrm{est}}(0,0)$. With this offset phase, one performs
$\mathcal{N}$ measurements at the pixel $(1,0)$ to obtain a local phase
estimator $\phi _{\mathrm{est}}(1,0)=\theta _{\mathrm{est}}-\varphi (1,0)$,
where $\theta _{\mathrm{est}}$ is a solution to $P_{\mathrm{fit}}(+|\theta )
\mathcal{N}_{+}(1,0)/\mathcal{N}$. Similarly, one can obtain the estimator
\phi _{\mathrm{est}}(0,1)$. To estimate $\phi (1,1)$, we use the three
estimators in a rectangle and adjust the offset phase to $\varphi
(1,1)=\theta _{\min }-[\phi _{\mathrm{est}}(0,1)+\phi _{\mathrm{est
}(0,0)+\phi _{\mathrm{est}}(1,0)]/3$, which helps to lock $\theta
(1,1)=\varphi (1,1)+\phi (1,1)$ at the pixel $(1,1)$ to the optimal working
point $\theta _{\min }$. Repeating the above procedures, one can measure the
phase of all the pixels over the entire sample.

\begin{figure}[hptb]
\begin{centering}
\includegraphics[width=1\columnwidth]{fig3.eps}
\caption{Two steps of the phase locking (a) and (b), the simulated microscopy
image for the input 6-photon state $|3,3\rangle$ (c), and the true
value of phase shift (d). In (a), the offset phase is tuned as $\protec
\varphi (i, 0)=\protect\theta_{\min}-\protect\phi_{\mathrm{est}}(i-1,0)$,
and $\protect\varphi (0,j)=\protect\theta_{\min}-\protect\phi_{\mathrm{est
}(0, j-1)$; in (b), it becomes $\protect\varphi (i,j)=\protect\theta_{\min}-
\protect\phi_{\mathrm{est}}(i-1,j)+\protect\phi_{\mathrm{est}}(i,j-1)
\protect\phi_{\mathrm{est}}(i-1,j-1)]/3$. In (c) $\mathcal{N}=100$ to
keep exactly $600$ photons at each pixel. The inset in (d): the simulated
estimators at the pixel $y=30$ as a function of $x$ (blue solid) and that of the true value of phase shift (red dashed).}
\label{fig3}
\end{centering}
\end{figure}

In Fig.~\ref{fig3}(c), we show the microscopy image for the 6-photon state
|3,3\rangle $ using the phase locking method. The main advantage of this
method is that the singular points (i.e., the speckles) disappear.
Furthermore, compared with previous adaptive feedback schemes~\cit
{GYXiang10,Berry2000,Sanders} that adjusts a controllable phase after each
single measurement, our scheme updates the offset phase every $\mathcal{N}$
measurements. This costs much less computational resources, while it can
still improve the image quality significantly. The overall quality of the
image can be quantified by the root-mean-square error, i.e., $\mathrm{RMSE}
\sqrt{\sum_{i,j}[\phi _{\mathrm{est}}(i,j)-\phi (i,j)]^{2}/N_{\mathrm{pixels
}}$, which approaches the optimal value of the standard deviation $\mathrm
LSD}_{|3,3\rangle }=0.022$, as depicted in Fig.~\ref{fig2}(d). This
observation implies that at most of the pixels, the phase shift sensed by
the beams is optimal.

\section{Combination of two binary-outcome measurements}

The phase locking scheme requires control of the feedback phase after every
\mathcal{N}$ measurements at each pixel. To further reduce the cost, one can
use a fixed offset phase $\varphi $ (as implemented experimentally in Ref.
\cite{Israel}) and then perform two sequences of binary-outcome photon
counting measurements: one sequence with the offset phase $\varphi $ and the
other sequence without any offset phase. Then we combine
all the measurement results to obtain the MLE and hence the microscopy images, i.e., $\phi
_{\mathrm{mle}}(i,j)$.

Following Ref.~\cite{Israel}, let us begin with the calibration the
interferometer using different known values of phase shift $\phi $ and a
fixed offset phase $\varphi $ for each input state. Performing $\mathcal{N
_{1}$ measurements without the offset phase, one can obtain the occurrence
number $\mathcal{N}_{1}^{(+)}$ for the outcome $n_{1}=n_{2}=n$. In the
presence of the offset phase, one performs another $\mathcal{N}_{2}$
measurements over the output state $\exp [-i(\phi +\varphi
)J_{y}]|n,n\rangle $ to obtain the occurrence number $\mathcal{N}_{2}^{(+)}
. In the upper panel of Fig.~\ref{fig4}, we plot the averaged count rates
\mathcal{N}_{1}^{(+)}/\mathcal{N}_{1}$ and $\mathcal{N}_{2}^{(+)}/\mathcal{N
_{2}$ (the circles) as functions of $\phi $ and fit them as $P_{\mathrm{fit
}(+|\phi )$ (the blue solid) and $P_{\mathrm{fit}}(+|\varphi +\phi )$ (the
red dashed), respectively.

\begin{figure}[hptb]
\begin{centering}
\includegraphics[width=1\columnwidth]{fig4.eps}
\caption{Simulated count rates (a)-(c) and uncertainty of the MLE (d)-(f) for $\varphi =-0.3\times \protect\theta _{\mathrm{dark}}$ and $\mathcal{N}_{1}=\mathcal{N}_{2}=\mathcal{N
/2$, where $N\times\mathcal{N}=1200$ is fixed for the input states $|1,1\rangle $ (left), $|2,2\rangle $ (middle), and $|3,3\rangle $ (right). Red dashed lines in (d)-(f): the phase sensitivity $1/\sqrt{F(\phi)}$, with the locations of $\theta _{\mathrm{dark}}$ indicated by the vertical lines; Blue solid lines: the sensitivity with the total Fisher information (see text). The inset: statistical average of $\protect\phi_{\mathrm{mle}}$ as a function of $\protect\phi$ for $20$ repetitions.}
\label{fig4}
\end{centering}
\end{figure}

Next, we perform the above binary-outcome photon counting at each pixel of
the sample for totally $\mathcal{N}$ ($=\mathcal{N}_{1}+\mathcal{N}_{2}$)
measurements to retrieve $\phi _{\mathrm{mle}}$ that maximizes the
likelihood function:
\begin{eqnarray}
\mathcal{L}(\phi )\!\! &\varpropto &\!\!\left[ P_{\mathrm{fit}}\left(
+|\varphi +\phi \right) \right] ^{\mathcal{N}_{2}^{(+)}}\left[ 1-P_{\mathrm
fit}}\left( +|\varphi +\phi \right) \right] ^{\mathcal{N}_{2}-\mathcal{N
_{2}^{(+)}}  \notag \\
&&\times \left[ P_{\mathrm{fit}}\left( +|\phi \right) \right] ^{\mathcal{N
_{1}^{(+)}}\left[ 1-P_{\mathrm{fit}}\left( +|\phi \right) \right] ^{\mathcal
N}_{1}-\mathcal{N}_{1}^{(+)}},  \label{likelihood2}
\end{eqnarray
where the occurrence numbers $\mathcal{N}_{1}^{(+)}$ and $\mathcal{N
_{2}^{(+)}$ are spatially dependent, containing phase information of the
sample. At each pixel $(i,j)$, the phase estimator $\phi _{\mathrm{mle}}$
and its uncertainty $\sigma $ can be obtained by numerically finding the
peak of the likelihood function and the  $68.3\%$ confidence interval around
the peak~\cite{Pezze&Smerzi}. The inset of Figs.~\ref{fig4}(d)-(f) shows
statistical average of the estimator $\langle \phi _{\mathrm{mle}}\rangle
_{s}=\phi $, indicating that $\phi _{\mathrm{mle}}$ is unbiased for $\phi
\in (0,\theta _{\mathrm{dark}})$. Interestingly, we find that the averaged
phase uncertainty per measurement $\sqrt{\mathcal{N}}\langle \sigma \rangle
_{s}$ (the circles) follows the lower bound of the phase sensitivity $\delta
\phi \!=\!\sqrt{\mathcal{N}}/\sqrt{F_{\mathrm{tot}}(\phi )}$ (the blue solid
lines), where $F_{\mathrm{tot}}(\phi )=\mathcal{N}_{1}F(\phi )+\mathcal{N
_{2}F(\phi +\varphi )$ is the total Fisher information of all the two
sequences of binary-outcome measurements and $F(\phi)$ is the Fisher information of a single sequence of the measurements (see Appendix A, Eq.~(\ref{CFI})).
Obviously, the singularity of $\delta \phi $ can be completely eliminated by
a suitable choice of the offset phase $\varphi $ (which maximizes the total
Fisher information), in sharp contrast to the previous result~\cit
{Israel,senrange}.

In Fig.~\ref{fig4}, we show that with a fixed offset phase $\varphi
=-0.3\times \theta _{\mathrm{dark}}$ for each input twin-Fock state, the
unbiased estimator $\phi _{\mathrm{mle}}$ does not show any singularity and
its uncertainty can surpass the shot-noise limit as $\phi $ increases up to
\sim \theta _{\mathrm{dark}}$. It is therefore useful for estimating the
phase information of a sample at the sub-shot-noise limit through $\phi _
\mathrm{mle}}(i,j)$.

\section{Conclusion}

In summary, we have investigated theoretically the binary-outcome photon
counting and its potential applications in quantum-enhanced microscopy using
the input twin-Fock states of light. Our results show that the inversion
estimator is the same to the asymptotically optimal maximum likelihood
estimator. Both estimators may suffer from a divergent uncertainty that
reduces the quality of the microscopy images. To remedy this problem, we
propose a simple method to lock the phase shift sensed by the beams at the
optimal working point with a spatially dependent offset phase. The overall
image quality outperforms the case of classical light illumination by a
factor $\sim \sqrt{(N+2)/2}$. We further show that a combination of two
sequences of binary-outcome photon counting measurements, one sequence with
a fixed offset phase and the other sequence without any offset phase, also
works to remove the singularity. Our results remain valid for any kind of
binary-outcome measurement and pave the way for realistic implementations of
quantum-enhanced microscopy that uses high-$N$ nonclassical states of the
light.

\begin{acknowledgments}
We would like to thank S. Rosen and Y. Silberberg for kindly response to our
questions, as well as P. Liu and T. Li for their assistance in plotting the
figures. This work has been supported by the NSFC (Grant Nos. 11421063,
11534002, 11274036, and 11322542), the National 973 program (Grant Nos.
2012CB922104, 2014CB921403, and 2014CB848700). G.R.J. also acknowledges
support from the Major Research Plan of the NSFC (Grant No. 91636108).
\end{acknowledgments}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaArXiv


Regular and consistent attendance is essential in ensuring that pupils make good progress. We are currently judged to be in the top 20% of schools nationally for our attendance and want to be able to sustain this high performance.
Please see the link below which gives the government guidance on pupil attendance and absence followed by the school policy on requests for leave of absence.
The law states that you do not have the right to take your child out of school for holidays during term time. The Local Authority works with schools to reduce the numbers of children missing school because of holidays taken in term time and schools can refuse your request to take your child out of school.
From September 2013 schools are no longer to authorise holiday requests during term time as well as the statutory threshold of ten school days. Parents who propose taking their children out of school during term time will still need to complete 'leave of absence' applications but only in exceptional circumstances can these now be recorded as an authorised absence.
5.1 Term-time holidays (leave of absence) are intended for children whose parents are unable to take holiday at any other time.
5.2 Eskdale School will consider every application individually; its policy is NOT to grant leave of absence for a holiday other than in exceptional circumstances. Time off school for family holidays is not a right. An application must be made in writing, with appropriate evidence, in advance of the intended holiday.
· parents who are subject to a strict and un-negotiable holiday rota.
5.4 Eskdale School will NOT authorise a holiday during periods of national tests, i.e. SATS.
All requests are subject to the headteachers discretion.
The 2007 regulations set out the procedures for issuing penalty notices (fines) to each parent who fails to ensure their children regular attendance at school or fails to ensure that their excluded child is not in a public place during the first five days of exclusion. Parents must pay £60 if they pay within 28 days; or £120 if they pay within 42 days.
Amendments to 2007 regulations will reduce the timescales for paying penalty notices. Parents must, from 1st September, pay £60 within 21 days or £120 within 28 days. This brings attendance penalty notices in line with other types of penalty notices and allows local authorities to act faster on prosecutions.


Awnings are a great protection against the intensive solar radiation for big areas like terraces, balconies and beer gardens.
We offer nearly one hundred different fabric patterns and colours together with four different colours for aluminium constructions. An awning can be made for the dimension given by the customer. Furthermore, there are weather sensors and a wide range of electrical controls.


SHOW SUMMARY: In this edition of the PWTorch Livecast, PWTorch editor Wade Keller is joined by Jason Powell from ProWrestling.net. They talk about last night's Raw with a focus on the Ambrose Asylum reunion of The Shield and the A.J. Styles-John Cena contract signing, plus TNA Slammiversary and TNA's financial difficulties, MITB predictions, some Roster Split conjecture, and more.


This week, the EU drugs agency (EMCDDA) embarks on a year-long presidency of a network of nine EU Justice and Home Affairs agencies ('JHA network'), which play key advisory, operational and coordination roles in implementing EU priorities in the areas of freedom, security and justice (1).
Taking over from the Vienna‑based Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA), the EMCDDA will act as chair of the network until 31 December 2017, before handing over to the Vilnius‑based European Institute for Gender Equality in 2018 (2). The agencies work together on a wide range of issues, including human trafficking, migration and border management, drug trafficking and combating organised crime.
The network was established in 2006 to boost cooperation in the migration and security fields and to develop synergies in areas of common interest (e.g. operational work, training, external relations). In 2017, the agencies will continue to provide technical support and deliver cross-agency evidence-based input to the policy- and decision-making processes at EU level.
EMCDDA Director Alexis Goosdeel said: 'Current migration and security situations in Europe call for ever closer cooperation between the EU Justice and Home Affairs agencies. Through this small network, the nine agencies assess how to improve their collaboration in areas such as information exchange, strategic analysis or work on the ground in migration "hotspots", in order to respond in a timely and efficient way to a dynamic and changing situation in the areas of migration and internal security. Strong cooperation within this cluster of agencies over the last decade has shown what can be achieved when agencies build solid working relationships and exchange ideas on issues of common interest'.
The theme chosen by the network for 2017 will be the internet. From 20–21 April, a group of experts will address: 'The expanding influence of the internet, the exploitation of cyberspace and the transformational nature of new technologies — challenges and opportunities for the work of the JHA agencies'. Discussions will focus on: monitoring open source information; drug supply on the darknet; and online secure communication.
Three regular network meetings will take place at the EMCDDA in the course of the year, culminating in a fourth and final meeting in November bringing together the Directors of the nine agencies to assess results (see 'Calendar of meetings'). Additional expert meetings in 2017 will be organised to: provide fora for discussion; trigger relevant cooperation between the agencies; and help coordinate joint actions in strategic areas. Among the themes being addressed by the agencies are the: coordination of capacity- building activities in the EU Member States and non-EU countries; enhanced and joined-up support in migration 'hotspots' in Greece and Italy; operationalisation of EU classified information (EUCI); and the exchange of non-classified sensitive information at EU level.
Since 2009, the JHA agencies have been required to report jointly to the Council's Standing Committee on Operational Cooperation on Internal Security (COSI) (3) on the progress and the achievements on bilateral as well as multilateral cooperation in the network. A formal report, to be endorsed by the Heads of the JHA agencies in November in Lisbon, will be presented to COSI by the end of the year.
(1) The nine agencies are CEPOL, EASO, EIGE, EMCDDA, eu-LISA, Eurojust, Europol, FRA and Frontex. For more, see brochure and video.
(2) Presidencies to date: 2016 FRA; 2015 eu-LISA; 2014 EASO; 2013 CEPOL; 2012 Frontex; 2011 Eurojust; 2010 Europol. The EMCDDA joined the network in 2012.


text:
Q: How to get Tweets by keyword and hashtag for specific user?(PHP API) I need to get tweets based on specific keyword and hashtag for a specific user.
for example, if we search "user= @test; hashtag= hiphop". So, any @test tweets will appear in the feed, and any time the hashtag #hiphop is used, those tweets will be pulled in as well.
Thanks.

A: Tweets from @test containing #hiphop or hipop, using the q parameter :
from:@test (#hiphop OR hipop)
(a space is an AND)


–> Furthermore, producing a study paper will allow someone to discover the fact that is infallible that the earth exterior has a unique guidelines and boundaries. The following Dont's and Dois will present why: Do consider hard to get a theme that is good. Only some individuals can have a workable subject for his or her research-paper at their course's beginning. The majority will, probably, remain unaware of the things they will reveal until the official start in their function. Speaking with the lecturer works well for individuals who simply doesn't always have of what might be a good theme, a. Examining guides is also a good way to begin. If one currently has a general theme in your mind, he should begin reading supplies linked to the industry to slim down his issue; and, he must speak with his lecturer about this. Determining a subject should be done in the most early feasible time for you to give ample time for research. Do not neglect to have interesting question.
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"Tragedy & Hope: A History of the World in Our Time" by Carroll Quigley.
Profesor Carroll Quigley was Bill Clinton's instructor at Georgetown University. This book outlines the truth about the world financial elite and their plan to create a worldwide feudalistic system under their control. The plates to the book were destroyed by the publisher, Macmillan, apparently to prevent dissemination of Professor Quigley's information.


BainUltra®'s latest luxury spa tub has finally arrived in West Hollywood: the Sherle Wagner showroom in the LCDQ has just put the Illuzio chromatherapy on display. To celebrate, the showroom is hosting a cocktail party on Thursday, Sept. 14, and offering a spa weekend giveaway.
each with a stimulating or soothing therapeutic purpose.
The illusion of color radiating from the walls of the tub is achieved through a chromatherapy system of LED lights cleverly tucked away inside the structure of the bathtub walls. Six concealed oval shaped lights glow beautifully through the translucent acrylic shell to deliver a highly effective chromatherapy bathing experience. The Illuzio's radiant beams of colors are unveiled when the chromatherapy lights are activated. When not in operation, the LED lights and any sign of chromatherapy are invisible.
BainUltra, inventor of the air jet bath, manufactures therapeutic baths, care units and complementary products to improve relaxation, health and well-being. BainUltra introduced the first hypoallergenic Air jet tubs, followed by new technologies like the Aromacloud® essential oil diffuser. Sherle Wagner's La Cienega Boulevard showroom has the Illuzio, Ophalia and Evanescence Oval bathtubs on display, all equipped and customizable with chromatherapy functions.
Sherle Wagner has been making luxury bath fittings, accessories and hardware since its founding in New York in 1945. From 24-kt-gold dolphin faucets and malachite bathroom fittings to hand-painted porcelain wash basins and sinks in Italian marble, Sherle Wagner's collections represent the finest in American-made heritage, artistry and craftsmanship. The brand's timeless classics and custom commissions have made way for cutting-edge contemporary collections in the 21st century.
To RSVP for the Fall Party at Sherle Wagner, email events@sherlewagner.com.
839 N. La Cienega Blvd.


text:
Skip to main content Arts & Entertainment Books Movies Music Museums Theater & Dance TV Comics Going Out Guide Crosswords
Ayad Akhtar: On Muslim identity, and life in America
Ayad Akhtar was awarded the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for his play "Disgraced." It opens on Oct. 23 at the Lyceum Theatre on Broadway. (Nina Subin/Little, Brown)
By Steven Levingston
Steven Levingston
Book World Editor
To appreciate the relevance of playwright Ayad Akhtar's work, you need look no further than two eerie coincidences that shadowed his debut drama, "Disgraced." The play, which portrays the downfall of a Muslim American lawyer, won the Pulitzer Prize for drama in 2013. The day the award was announced, two Muslims deposited pressure-cooker bombs near the finish line of the Boston marathon. A second grisly coincidence came a few weeks later. On the day "Disgraced" opened in London two Muslims murdered and tried to behead a British soldier on a busy street in what one said was revenge for the British army's killing of Muslims in Iraq and Afghanistan. Nobody linked these attacks to Akhtar's play, but they were nonetheless chilling reminders of the violence that hovers at the edges of the territory he explores. "The work I'm doing is in direct dialogue with what's happening in the Muslim world," he said recently over dinner in New York.
The 43-year-old playwright is a man of meditative calm, soft-spoken and genial, in stark contrast to the volcanic scenes he presents onstage. A graduate of Brown and Columbia, he roams easily across a vast intellectual expanse, gliding from a discussion of statecraft in Shakespeare to the mysteries of the prophet to plots and subplots in "Seinfeld." But what most absorbs him is the question of Muslim identity in the turbulent post-9/11 world. It's the subject that informs all of his work. Akhtar himself has struggled to come to terms with his heritage, and his deeply personal exploration into his faith and culture have led him to an artistic awakening. In a flurry over the past few years, he has crafted a series of powerful dramas that have established him as a dazzling new voice in American theater. His masterfully constructed plays are brainy, incisive and humorous. His characters are hyper-modern blending ancient beliefs with beeping cellphones and online dating. His themes, though seen through a Muslim lens, are universal: self-awareness, religious devotion, sibling love, a father's dreams for his daughter. "The funny thing is, I don't feel like I'm writing about Muslim American life," Akhtar explains. "I feel like I'm writing about American life."
In "Disgraced," which opens on Broadway on Oct. 23, corporate lawyer Amir Kapoor conceals his Muslim background from his firm with devastating consequences. "The Who & the What," now playing at New York's Lincoln Center Theater until July 27, features tech-savvy but traditional Afzal Jatt who fractures his family when he rejects his daughter's interpretation of the prophet and the role of women in Islam. "The Invisible Hand," a financial thriller about an American investment banker kidnapped in Pakistan, premiered in St. Louis to rave reviews and will have its New York debut in November.
'A process of coming out'
By some measures, Akhtar is thoroughly American: born on Staten Island and raised in the Midwest. Both his parents are doctors who emigrated from Pakistan in the late 1960s. A Muslim identity pervaded his family to varying degrees — his father abstained from practice while his grandmother was so devout she lowered her eyes every time the prophet was mentioned. Young Ayad was drawn to his faith and went through a period of intense religious commitment. As he got older, he wanted to fit into American life but often felt invisible among the white kids in his suburban Brookfield, Wis., neighborhood. "I didn't have a place in the culture in the same way that my white friends did," he recalls.
Acceptance, he imagined, required a denial of his ancestry. When he was in his 20s at a dinner party in Paris, someone asked him where he was from, and he gave his standard reply: America. His dinner companions weren't satisfied. "No, but where are you from?" they pressed him. "No, I'm from America," he repeated. They challenged him again, demanding to know why, if his origins were Pakistani, he insisted on saying he was from America. "Well," Akhtar shot back, "because I'm not from Pakistan." At this time he was deep into writing a novel about a poet who worked at Goldman Sachs. Although the main character had Pakistani roots, the story line had little to do with Pakistan, or Islam — Akhtar wasn't ready yet to explore his heritage. Instead he strove to create a generic exploration of a man's inner life — a tale, he was certain, was destined to be the next Great American Novel. "I was convinced of that, without any irony," he says. He completed the novel after six years and soon had to admit its failure. No publisher, no literary agent was interested. Even his friends panned it. "It was just not me," he recalls. "I thought I was writing what I knew, but I wasn't."
Aasif Mandvi, left, and Omar Maskati in a scene from Ayad Akhtar's play "Disgraced" during its 2012 run at the Lincoln Center. (Erin Baiano/Rinaldi Publicity via Assoiciated Press)
By 2003, he was completing the film program at Columbia and was writing a screenplay with two fellow students. The subject was a difficult one, given the still-fresh terror attacks of 2001 and the launch of the U.S. war in Iraq. "The War Within," which was released in 2005, centers on a radicalized Pakistani engineering student who comes to America to carry out a suicide bombing in New York's Grand Central Station. In addition to co-writing the script, Akhtar plays the lead role of the bomber Hassan. His portrayal subtly reveals Hassan's inner conflicts over his terrorist action. "The War Within," which was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for best screenplay, pushed Akhtar toward an artistic epiphany. He was finally ready to address his religious inheritance. "The film was the preparatory gesture," he says. "It was part of a process of coming out in some way. It was me fully accepting that I was going to represent myself as Pakistani, as Muslim."
Over the next few years Akhtar had a burst of inspiration. A novel came: the acclaimed coming-of-age tale, "American Dervish." Plays came: Over a fervid eight-month period he wrote drafts of all three plays that have landed in New York — and one other that is still in his desk drawer. He had ideas for still more plays, and he started a new novel. Akhtar had found his voice, and he became obsessed by the task at hand. He now works constantly to bring his vision to life. Some years ago, he took up meditation and at times breaks off from his labors, as he describes it, "to enter a kind of pregnant fertile blankness." Then he's back at it, writing, researching, attending rehearsals: "I don't have a personal life." Not that he's complaining. He knows he's living the writer's dream. After the Pulitzer, he was showered with attention and requests to take on new projects — none of which he has time to pursue. He just wants to keeping writing and learning to write better. "It's an amazing blessing that people take any interest in my work," he says. "I'm not just saying that. After being through so much struggle for a long time, I really recognize the beauty and the blessing."
'It's tribal. . . . It's in the bones'
In some ways, the world can't help but take notice, for Akhtar's plays reflect intractable historical conflicts. The scenes of Sunni extremists sweeping over parts of Syria and Iraq, slaughtering many in their path, are only the latest examples. As the playwright puts it: "There are subtle ways in which private life is affected by upheavals happening all over the planet." In "Disgraced," a sophisticated New York dinner party disintegrates when the Muslim American mergers-and-acquisitions lawyer Amir admits that he felt a twinge of pride as he watched the Twin Towers collapse on Sept. 11. A woman from his firm challenges him: "Pride about what?" she wants to know. "About the towers coming down? About people getting killed?" By all appearances Amir is a successful American: he has an expensive New York apartment, drinks pricey malt whiskey and wears $600 Charvet shirts. But his reply reveals a primal instinct lurking in his ancient past. The terror attacks, he tells his colleague, made him proud "that we were finally winning. . . . I guess I forgot . . . which we I was. . . . It's tribal. . . . It's in the bones."
Akhtar turns an introspective eye on Islam's tough questions. Like the daughter Zarina in "The Who & the What," he has long wondered about the true nature of the prophet Muhammad. In the play, Zarina has written a novel portraying the seventh-century founder of Islam as a real man; her aim, as she puts it, is to consider "who he really was" — to view him not just as a figure of worship but as a human. In considering the prophet, Zarina raises questions about the treatment of women under Islam. "I hate what the faith does to women," she says. "For every story about [the prophet's] generosity or his goodness, there's another that's used as an excuse to hide us, erase us." Her father, Afzal, is outraged not only because of her blasphemy but because of the dangerous implications for a daughter he loves beyond measure. "In Pakistan, she would be killed for this," he cries. Then, trembling at such a prospect, he adds: "If anything happened to her . . . ." But in the end, his ire gets the best of him and he wants to erase Zarina from his mind, telling her: "You make me regret the day you were born." Akhtar has been obsessed with the prophet since he dreamed about him at age 8. He fully understands Afzal's frenzy, but he also is in sympathy with Zarina. "I'm still trying to understand what the Prophet means not only to me but to our community," he says.
The impassioned characters and raw emotions of Akhtar's plays make for gripping stage entertainment. But the acrimony of the debates sometimes is too much for the playwright himself. Akhtar is amazed — and a little stunned — that these are characters he created: the intolerant Afzal, the rash Zarina, the callous Amir. While they reflect shades of a reality he's witnessed, he finds it hard at times to listen to their lines in rehearsal. "An actor will say something and suddenly I'll be shocked that I've written this thing," he says. "I can't believe it. I want to leave the room."
The Who & the What continues through July 27 at the Lincoln Center Theater, 10 Lincoln Center Plaza, New York. 212-875-5456. www.lincolncenter.org.
Steven Levingston Steven Levingston is nonfiction editor of The Washington Post and author of "Barack and Joe: The Making of an Extraordinary Partnership" and "Kennedy and King: The President, the Pastor, and the Battle Over Civil Rights." Follow


Hind Sbihi holds an Engineering degree from Ecole Polytechnique Montreal (B.Eng) and Ecole Centrale de Paris (M.Eng), and a Master of Science in Occupational and Environmental Hygiene from the University of British Columbia (UBC). Hind recently defended her doctoral work conducted within the UBC School of Population and Public Health where she investigated air pollution exposure assessment methods for birth cohort studies of childhood asthma and allergies.
Throughout her PhD, Hind was supported by the Canadian Institute of Health Research Banting and Best doctoral award, the four year UBC doctoral fellowship and the Killam Pre-doctoral fellowship. In 2011, she received a David Bates Scholarship, a British Columbia air quality fund, which recognizes graduate students in the field of environmental and air quality sciences.
She is currently involved in the Canadian Healthy Infant Longitudinal (CHILD) study, and is examining the contribution of traffic-related air pollution to indoors exposures as well as the role of features of the built environment, more specifically air pollution, green and blue spaces, in the aetiology of childhood asthma. Hind is also involved in the Monetization project using BC Generations cohort looking at influences of the built environment on physical activity and how this relationship affects obesity and ultimately costs associated with obesity and obesity-related co-morbidities through linkages with health administrative data.
Hind Sbihi's research interests are related to methods to measure environmental exposures related to the built environment for epidemiological studies of children's health. Assessing exposures is a key element that requires rigorous and precise methods to advance our understanding of environmental contaminants source-health effects links and to determine what aspects of the urban form should and could be modified to enhance the health of different segments of the population.
Hind is responsible for ethics and data access approvals with BC Cancer Agency and Population Data BC. She has been tasked with preparing data for the BC Cancer Agency and linkage to Population Data BC. Hind will conduct epidemiologic analyses for the monetization project and will provide ad hoc statistical support for the HCD Lab's various projects.