Leadership | .:: computer geek's diary ::.
Soft skills enhance your technical skills.
In almost all jobs, your people skills – also known as "soft skills" – have as much of an impact on your success as your technical skills. That's especially true when you're in a management or leadership role.
So, how good are your people skills? Take this short quiz to assess your current skill levels. Once you've answered these questions, we can then point you toward specific tools and resources that you can use to develop and improve this important area of competency.
16-36 Your technical skills may have taken precedence over your people skills in your career to date. You aren't making the most of the relationships you have at work, and this may be limiting your career growth. It's time to assess how you can work better with others in the workplace and develop a more collaborative, understanding, and open approach to getting your needs met – while still achieving team and organizational objectives.
37-58 You recognize that working well with others in the workplace is important; and you are trying to work collaboratively while still making sure your needs are met. There is room for improvement, however, as old habits may creep in during times of stress and pressure. Make a plan to work actively on your people skills so that they form the natural basis for how you approach workplace relationships.
59-80 Your people skills are good. You understand the give and take involved in working well with other people. You might not always approach situations perfectly, however you have a sufficiently good understanding to know when and where you need to take steps to rectify things. Keep working on your people skills, and set an example for the rest of your team. And take some time to work on the specific areas below where you lost points.
Very many people spend more time working with other people than they do working on their own. This means that they need to communicate well with others, and this means that communication skills are some of the most important skills in the workplace.
Message barriers:These occur when the person communicating fails to communicate clearly.If you find that you often confuse people, then a good starting point for fixing this is to figure out what you want to say. Do you want to persuade? Are you trying to motivate? Are you simply informing? Or are you attempting to build a relationship? The purpose of your communication will largely determine what you say and how you say it, and article on Communications Planning shows you how to prepare for a variety of communication exchanges.
Receiving barriers:These barriers occur on the receiver's end of the communication, and they typically result from ineffective listening. We hear and understand faster than we speak, and this can lead to boredom and a wandering mind when on the listening end of communication.To combat this you should try to listen actively to what the speaker is saying. When you engage in active listening, you respond in a way that makes it clear that you understand the feelings and intent of the speaker. In article Active Listening, you'll find some useful guidelines to follow when you are on the receiving end of communication.
Decoding barriers:Here the real message is not fully grasped or translated because of misperceptions, misinterpretations or missing information.The most common problem here is with mismatched non-verbal communication. A lot of non-verbal communication is unconscious – meaning that the sender isn't aware of the messages he or she is sending, yet these messages can reveal a great deal about the way that someone is thinking.If you can learn to understand people's non-verbal communication, you can improve your people skills significantly. Article on Body Language will show you how to understand other people's non-verbal communication – and manage your own.
Because of this, respecting and managing the differences between people can be one of the most important skills you can develop! Indeed, it can be a huge advantage if you can learn to celebrate and enjoy differences, and make them work to your advantage.
Key to this is recognizing that, in many cases, conflict is not "bad". In fact, conflict often causes significant, positive change. It spawns creative and novel approaches to problem solving, and can actually improve organizational performance if managed properly. In article Resolving Team Conflict, we discuss how you can build stronger teams by facing and embracing personal differences. And then, with article Conflict Resolution tool, we outline how to use the Interest-Based Relational (IBR) approach for solving interpersonal issues. Both of these articles outline how you can emerge from conflict with strong and healthy relationships.
When resolving conflict, it helps a lot if you can understand other people's needs and points of view – this can often help you find solutions that may otherwise not have occurred to you. And when you take the time to understand another person's perspective, you are demonstrating your willingness to work together to find a solution. Articles on Empathy at Work and Perceptual Positions can help you develop this aspect of people skills.
Finally, you need to be appropriately assertive if you're going to manage differences effectively. Aggression is clearly counter-productive if you're trying to resolve conflict, but also, if you fail to recognize your own needs in a situation, you run the risk of agreeing to a solution that works against your own interests. Again, it's important to remember that differences aren't necessarily negative, so suppressing your thoughts and ideas just to come to an easy agreement isn't efficient. You can read more about assertiveness in the article here. And Yes to the Person, No to the Task is a useful approach to use in everyday situations where you need to manage differences assertively and effectively.
While managing differences may be an obvious application of people skills, managing agreement may not seem to be. However, helping people come to agreement is important, and it needs a great deal of skill!
"Synergy" is one of the most important things that you're looking for with teamwork. This is where the team's output is better or greater than the sum of each individual's input. To achieve synergy, you need to get people working together collaboratively.
If you've ever participated in a team decision-making process, you probably realize that reaching a decision by yourself can be much more straightforward! The problem with individual decision-making, though, is that you miss out on all of the insights that other people can give. With strong people skills, you don't need to back away from collaborative situations: you can approach team meetings with a genuinely positive attitude!
When you're engaging in group decision-making, make sure you avoid the common pitfalls. See article on Groupthink for more!
Part of this involves feeling comfortable with different kinds of questions, and with when to use them, and how. In article on Questioning Techniques, we look at open and closed questions, as well as other common types of question that you can use to keep conversation flowing and get the specific information you need.
As well as this, it's useful to have a good selection of Problem Solving Tools in your arsenal. When you are confident in your ability to find solutions you will be more likely to participate in these conversations and add value to your team. In article Opening Closed Minds, we can see how to get your point across effectively, so that you can reach the agreement you are seeking. These types of tools will give you the confidence you need to confront differences, knowing that you can also manage the agreement side of the equation.
Another aspect of managing agreement relates to feedback. When given poorly, people reject feedback: it's viewed as destructive criticism, and it can damage relationships. Delivered well, however, feedback can lead to an improved understanding of one another's needs and perspectives, as well as improving performance and productivity. Look at this in detail in article, Giving and Receiving Feedback. Also, in article looking at the Johari Window we outline a great technique for increasing interpersonal understanding through self-disclosure.
Integrity is the cornerstone of people skills. Integrity means basic honesty and truthfulness when dealing with others. It also means working with people openly, and in such a way that people's interests aren't compromised for the sake of the team or the organization.
Basic courtesies like saying "thank you" often, and giving credit where it is due, are the types of people-oriented behaviors that can make all of the difference to other people. Whether you are in a leadership position or not, recognizing your teammates' contributions and acknowledging their efforts will go a long way towards creating a positive, harmonious, and productive team climate.
Articles on Rewarding Your Team and Leading by Example are great resources that help you learn how to behave with integrity on a daily basis.
These are all skills that can be learned and developed. As such, even the most technically-oriented worker can begin to incorporate people skills in his or her work setting.
Be alert for signs of unhappiness.
Which members of your team would you miss most if they left tomorrow? And what makes them so valuable?
Chances are, they've been there long enough to know exactly how the organization works. Highly competent at what they do, efficient, organized and with excellent soft skills, they know who to talk to in other departments to solve major problems. As such, they're the "go to people" whenever things get difficult.
When you've got these kind of people around, your team achieves more – not only through their direct contribution, but because they set the standard in attitude, behavior and results for everyone else.
As a manager, you really want to keep these valued players happy, so that your team continues to benefit from their exceptional performance.
But what if you notice signs that some of your leading people may feel that their futures lie elsewhere? If you get to the point where you receive their resignations, your team is likely to be in trouble. Just a few of the consequences are loss of knowledge, disruption, lower collective morale, and the time and effort wasted recruiting and training replacements. All in all, it might take months – or years – to rebuild your team.
Understanding how to handle this sort of situation, or even better, being able to avoid it happening in the first place, is critical to keeping valued team members happy, effective and engaged.
This article helps you to recognize and avoid the issues that might push a team member to leave. Use step-by-step approach to help avoid potential pitfalls, so that you can continue to get the best from your team's star players.
The sooner that you detect that someone might be thinking of leaving, the better chance you have of changing their mind. This is why you should always be on the look-out for significant changes in the behavior of members of your team.
Impatience, either with people or tasks.
Disengagement from the team, perhaps by being "absent" mentally, or using increased sick leave.
The venting of negative feelings in "water cooler conversations".
Be aware that any change in behavior may be significant when it comes to making sure that valued team members are happy. In some cases, a seemingly positive change may be just as much of a warning sign as an obviously negative one. For example, a team member whose productivity suddenly increases may perhaps see this as a way of impressing a potential new boss in another department, or she may be anxious to leave with a clear desk and a clear conscience.
Similarly, a colleague who used to stay focused on his work, but who begins to chat at colleagues' desks, may be avoiding doing work that he no longer enjoys.
There's no need to become cynical about such changes, but do consider them in the context of that team-member's performance and behavior. Then you can decide the best way to sustain that person's contribution to the team.
There are particular times in the calendar year when you need to be especially alert to changes in people's attitudes. When people have longer periods away from their jobs, such as during summer or end of year vacations, they may be prompted to rethink their situation.
Such "moments of truth" can also occur at the signing-off of long projects, or even at the end of the financial year. Team members who've been in their role for some time may feel a responsibility, or even a moral obligation, to make a move only when one activity is finished and the next hasn't yet started.
Of course, it can often be difficult to link the symptoms of unhappiness with their underlying causes. For example, one team member may withdraw from office chit-chat because she feels overworked. Another with the same problem – feeling overworked – might take refuge in muttered discussions at the coffee machine.
However, there are several tools that can help you understand why someone might want to leave a job.
According to influential researcher, Frederick Herzberg, people become dissatisfied with their jobs when certain "hygiene factors" are not being fully provided.
Salary is traditionally given as an example of a job hygiene factor. However, in an economic climate where people's pay expectations have decreased, other hygiene factors – such as good relationships with supervisors – will often be more important.
Herzberg's model also states that, even when there are no hygiene factor problems causing a team member to be dissatisfied with their job, they won't necessarily be satisfied with their work. To experience job satisfaction, "motivating factors" need to be in place. Typical motivators are the content of work itself, recognition of effort, and the availability of growth opportunities.
Often the reasons for a valued team member "wanting out" involve a combination of inadequate hygiene factors and missing motivators, so make sure that you consider both when looking for early warning signs that someone might be considering leaving.
This states that people are motivated to work harder when they feel that the effort they put in will lead to a certain performance level, and that this performance level will, in turn, lead to a desirable outcome.
So, when you're considering someone who appears to be de-motivated, look for situations in which the link between effort and outcome has been broken. Was a project they were working on cancelled just before implementation, for example? Are results no better, despite the team member working hard to implement new initiatives? Or has the bonus pot been slashed?
Once you've thought about what the issues might be, it's time to have a friendly chat with your team member to see if anything's troubling him or her. Use informal, open questions, in a private, one-to-one session.
Sometimes all it takes is a question like "How's it going?" or "How do you feel about project X?" to get the person to open up. Make sure that you listen carefully, and that you both have enough time for everything that needs to be said.
Work on a plan to improve the situation together.
Depending on the situation, you should be able to find some helpful suggestions in Mind Tools articles on Dealing with Poor Performance and Re-engaging Team Members.
Try to find a solution which plays to your valued team member's particular strengths. This can often be more profitable for both the person and the organization than focusing on eradicating weaknesses in performance. Using the Reflected Best Self™ Exercise is a good way to help team members define exactly what their strengths are, helping them to go even further with their current job.
Making sure that you work on building the trust of your team, so that your people feel confident discussing their jobs with you.
Helping to create job satisfaction for individual team members.
Rewarding your team in ways that make people feel appreciated and recognized. This doesn't need to cost anything!
At the end of the day, you need to accept that there will be some factors that you just can't influence. For example, a team member may wish to work in another city or country for personal reasons. Or someone may accept a career promotion, which means a move to a different part of the organization, because your department simply can't offer a similar opportunity right now.
Understanding that these kinds of factor do exist, and that you can't do anything about them, will help you manage these departures so that they minimize the impact on other key players. Explain the situation to your team, and use the methods outlined in this article to keep the rest of your valued team members on board.
Keeping valued team members means not only maintaining the right work environment, but also being sensitive to signs of change. You can avoid resignations by paying attention to factors like team trust and job satisfaction. By appropriate monitoring of changes in employees' behavior, and careful analysis of the possible causes, you can handle problems with less effort and more success.
Don't leave your team stranded.
As organizations adapt to changing business environments, the need for effective leadership is especially critical.
When times are good, leading a company or a team is exciting. Resources are plentiful, customers are satisfied, and opportunity is everywhere. However, when the economic conditions are challenging, this excitement and positive energy tend to weaken. People often feel the pressures of work, and they fear for their job security. These worries and fears present a major challenge for leaders who want to keep their teams on target and productive.
Good leadership is good leadership, regardless of the economic climate. However, during difficult times, top-notch leadership skills become even more important. Second-rate leaders might be able to keep a company going in a strong economy, but you need high-performing leaders to succeed in tough times.
Of course, you need leaders who can control costs and conserve cash. However you also need leaders who see opportunity – and who will strive to seize that opportunity – despite all the negativity. You need leaders who remain committed to their people. And you need leaders who can transfer their own positive outlook to the people around them.
Review your strategy – Figure out which objectives you're meeting, which ones need more emphasis, and which ones you should reconsider or drop as the environment around you changes.
Lead by example – Now, more than ever, you have to lead 'from the front' by setting an example. Take personal responsibility for customer care and contact. Actively pursue new business. Show that you're willing to make extra effort to commit to the organization's success.
Add value – One of the ways that leaders can gain greater market share and improve operations is by really listening to their customers. Look for innovative ways to add value without adding costs, and win customers who aren't being well served by your competitors.
Use market conditions to create a stronger business model for the future – If you're a senior manager, consider looking for bargains, in terms of mergers and acquisitions, which will improve your company's future competitive position. Whatever level you're at, negotiate keener rates with suppliers, which you can continue to enjoy after the economy recovers.
Take the opportunity to trim costs – Encourage cost-consciousness within your team or organization. Now is a great time to do this – everyone knows that times are tough, and people will be more willing than ever to cut unnecessary costs.
Implement a continuous improvement plan – Look at your systems and processes to find efficiency opportunities. Lead the way in building a culture of continuous improvement. You can use these savings to pursue the numerous opportunities created by the downturn.
Negative messages are all too common during economic downturns. People are losing their jobs, unemployment rates are going up, and personal and corporate bankruptcies are increasing. This can weaken morale, both in the workplace and in society as a whole, and it can tip people into panic, severely damaging their productivity.
It doesn't have to be that way. Don't abandon your people. Use this time to reinforce how important they are, and build the skills they need to help the company survive.
Invest time in leadership skills training – Leadership is key to success. The better your leaders are, the better it is for you, your team, and the organization. OK, you may not want to spend a lot of cash on leadership training, however, when times are slow, you may be able to invest much more time than before in management and leadership development.
Retain your best people – Part of good leadership is keeping costs under control. However, profits are made by your people. Don't cut back on attracting quality people, and make every effort to retain your best team members by treating them with dignity and respect.
Be creative with recruitment and retention – Salary increases may not be possible, but you can do lots of other things to create attractive work conditions.
Treat people fairly – When you can't avoid layoffs, give people as much warning as you sensibly can. Talk honestly about what's happening, and how cutbacks will affect them. And if you're cutting people, try to cut the volume and scope of the work you do so that you don't overload those who are left.
Provide useful work for which people are recognized – Be careful about reassigning the workloads of people who have been laid off. Take time to determine who is best suited for which tasks, and remember to give lots of praise. Match people's skills and interests with the work you need done.
Foster good relationships at work – If you have to stop the Friday company-sponsored lunch at a restaurant, replace it with a low-cost potluck event. Try to avoid cutting it entirely.
For more ideas on building motivation in the workplace, and improving individual motivation and performance, see Herzberg's Motivators and Hygiene Factors.
Expect great things from your people – Within reason, the more you demand, the more opportunity you give people to perform, which can be highly motivating. However, don't push too hard, and remember to communicate your expectations.
Keep in touch with your people – Use the MBWA (Management By Wandering Around) technique (members only) to find out what's going well, and what needs your attention. Remember to recognize and praise success. Staying connected builds relationships and trust. In tough economic times, you need your staff to perform especially well. The more they know you care, the more likely they are to respond to your call for action.
Be visionary – Leaders with vision, passion, energy, enthusiasm, and real engagement with their staff, are the key drivers of economic growth. Stay focused on the big picture, and manage to the best of your abilities.
Take care of yourself – Respect your own feelings and emotions during difficult times. Where appropriate, share your concerns with people you trust, and build a network of people you can talk to, however work hard to remain upbeat – if you're constantly worried, others will sense this. Get enough rest to keep yourself fresh, and manage your emotions to keep your creativity and self-confidence high.
Leadership during good economic times has its challenges. But those challenges increase when the economy is tough, and staff are worried about keeping their jobs and paying their bills.
In these conditions, leaders and managers must keep a sharp eye on their environment, prepare for recovery, support their people, and project enthusiasm and energy. By remaining positive, supporting your people, and looking for new business opportunities, you can help your company survive – and succeed – through the difficult times. Leadership performance is critical to organizational success, so use all of the assets available to you.
Good leaders help others shine and grow.
I am holding in my hand a graceful, inspirational book entitled "Ramban's Ladder: A Meditation on Generosity and Why It is Necessary to Give" by Julie Salamon. The book is based on the teachings of Ramban, a physician and philosopher who, more than a thousand years ago, developed Ramban's Ladder, which outlines the various forms of giving from the lowest – handing out money begrudgingly, as one might to a panhandler – to the highest, helping someone become self-reliant. I have long been meditating on the whole issue of generosity as an important quality of leadership: observing leaders who had it, and those who lacked it.
When we think of generosity, our thoughts automatically drift to gifts of money or charity. In the context of leadership, there are other gifts that don't have a monetary value, but whose value is beyond price. These include giving someone a chance; giving someone the benefit of the doubt; and giving others a reason to want to work for you. It entails giving others latitude, permission to make mistakes, and all the information that they need to do the job. It's giving them the authority that goes with responsibility – it's giving them due credit for their ideas. In a nutshell, all of this translates to generosity of spirit, a quality we admire in leaders.
Generosity, a word which once meant 'of noble birth,' used to be associated with members of the aristocracy who, by virtue of their privileges, were expected to show generosity towards those in lesser standing. A leader too, by virtue of her position, and the power and privileges that she holds relative to those she leads, has the same expectations and obligations. A prime obligation is to lead with a generous heart, and to be guided by a nobility of mind. A leader's generosity has a positive spreading effect – conversely, its absence has a series of negative consequences that, if a leader paused to reflect on them, may stop her in her tracks.
I am a firm believer that people need more than just 'a nice job close to home.' Most people want to find meaning in their jobs – they want to feel that they are a part of something bigger and something better. They want to know that what they do matters. A leader with a generous spirit understands this need, and connects the dots for people – the dots that help them see how the work they perform, no matter how small it may be in the scheme of things, has a bearing on the ultimate vision of the company.
There is a well-known anecdote that is related by Tom Peters about a hospital in the US that treats cancer. During a series of staff interviews, an interviewer asked the housekeeper what her job entailed. She responded, "I help to cure cancer." Somewhere in that hospital, a leader connected the dots for this individual, and made her feel that she was an integral part of the hospital's mission. Do you do that for the people who do the work in your unit or organization?
A leader with a generous spirit delegates not just routine work, but understands about delegating worthwhile work that becomes a gift of development and growth for someone else. How we love those leaders! These are the leaders that make us want to get out of bed in the morning and go to work to give that person the very best that we have to offer. These are the leaders who get our discretionary effort, every day.
And what about gifts of information? In a survey on effective motivation published by 1000 Ventures, one of the top items that individuals want in the workplace is the ability to be 'in' on things. This was rated 9 on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the highest. Managers ranked this item as 1! This is a large chasm in understanding. The quickest way to satisfy this need in constituents is to share information. We have all come across some leaders who are inclined to hoard crucial information as the currency of power. Leaders with a generous spirit give employees a chance to get under the hood and to be a part of the inner circle. Freely and generously sharing know-how, expertise, and ideas is not only beneficial for employees – it's a smart way of doing business.
There is an African village where the greeting words for 'good morning' or 'hello' are: "I am here if you are here." Imagine the gift we give others when we are fully present with them – when we truly see them. Perhaps this is what Ralph Waldo Emerson meant when he said: "The only gift is the gift of thyself." Bill Clinton recently ended a speech to a 6,000-member audience with an exhortation to "see more people." This preceded his reference to all the people who do the clean-up work behind the scenes after the audience leaves. Do we give a thought to the people who are unnoticed in our organizations, those who quietly work in the background?
While generosity in its pure sense is altruistic, you do still get something back from it: surprise dividends in the form of a recycling of goodwill, a surplus of cooperation, and the sheer satisfaction of seeing another benefit from our giving of ourselves, our time, our attention, our knowledge, and the very best that we have to offer those who cross our paths at work or life. We will never know what opportunities we may have missed in life by showing up tight-fisted. It is hard to receive anything if we don't open our hands to give.
There are many different power bases that a leader can use.
These include problematic ones such as the power of position, the power to give rewards, the power to punish and the power to control information. While these types of power do have some strength, they can put the person being led in an unhealthy position of weakness, and can leave leaders using these power bases looking autocratic and out of touch.
More than this, society has changed hugely over the last 50 years. Citizens are individually more powerful, and employees are more able to change jobs. Few of us enjoy having power exerted over us, and many will do what they can to undermine people who use these sorts of power.
However, there are three types of positive power that effective leaders can use: charismatic power, expert power and referent power.
This article teaches the technique of building expert power.
Expert power is essential because, as a leader, your team looks to you for direction and guidance. Team members need to believe in your ability to lead in a worthwhile direction, give sound advice, and co-ordinate a good result.
If members of your team see you as a true expert, they will be much more receptive when you try to persuade them to do something, and when you want to inspire them to make more of an effort.
If team members respect your expertise, they'll trust you to show them how to work effectively.
If team members respect your judgment, they'll trust you to guide their efforts in such a way that you'll make the most of their hard work.
If they can see your expertise, they'll believe that you have the wisdom to direct their efforts towards a goal that is genuinely worthwhile.
Taken together, if your team sees you as an expert, you'll find it much easier to motivate your people to perform at their best.
So how do you build expert power?
Gain expertise: The first step is fairly obvious (if time consuming) – gain expertise. And, if you are already using tools like information gathering, the chances are that you have already progressed well ahead in this direction.
Promote an image of expertise: Since perceived expertise in many occupations is associated with a person's education and experience, a leader should (subtly) make sure that subordinates, peers, and superiors are aware of his or her formal education, relevant work experience, and significant accomplishments.
One common way of doing this is to display diplomas, licenses, awards, and other evidence of expertise in a prominent location in your office – after all, if you've worked hard to gain knowledge, it's fair that you get credit for it. Another tactic is to make subtle references to prior education or experience (for example, "When I was chief engineer at GE, we had a problem similar to this one"). Beware, however: this can easily be overdone.
Maintain credibility: Once established, you should carefully protect your image of expertise. Avoid making careless comments about subjects on which you are poorly informed, and avoid being associated with projects with a low likelihood of success.
Act confidently and decisively in a crisis: In a crisis or emergency, subordinates prefer a "take charge" leader who appears to know how to direct the group in coping with the problem. In this kind of situation, your people will associate confident, firm leadership with expert knowledge. Even if you're not sure how to deal with a crisis, you'll lose influence with members of your team if you appear confused.
Keep informed: Expert power is exercised through rational persuasion and demonstration of expertise. Rational persuasion depends on a firm grasp of up-to-date facts. It is therefore essential that you keep well-informed of developments within your team, within your organization, and in the outside world.
Recognize team member concerns: Use of rational persuasion should not be seen as a form of one-way communication from the leader to members of his or her team. Listen carefully to the concerns and uncertainties of your team members, and make sure that you address these.
Avoid threatening the self-esteem of subordinates: Expert power is based on a knowledge differential between the leader and team members. Unfortunately, the very existence of this differential can cause problems if you're not careful about the way in which you exercise expert power.
Team members can dislike unfavorable status comparisons where the gap is very large and obvious. And they are likely to be upset by a leader who acts in a superior way, and arrogantly flaunts his greater expertise.
In the process of arguing for what they want, some leaders lecture their team members in a condescending manner and convey the impression that the other team members are "ignorant." Guard against this.
Being Accountable to Yourself In Leadership"I swear by Apollo"… so starts the Oath of Hippocrates, an oath of ethical, professional behavior sworn by all new physicians – a promise to practice good medicine to the best of their ability, for the good of their patients. It essentially boils down to a commitment to "do no harm". Wouldn't it be great to have such an oath for leaders – an oath of personal accountability, not just for business outcomes and for leading others, but for leading oneself. I am reminded of the proverb "Physician, heal thyself", suggesting that one should take care of one's own faults first before correcting the faults of others – so I add to the above: Leader, lead thyself.
Any nuts-and-bolts leadership primer will explain that one of the key leadership competencies is holding others accountable. This entails, among other things, setting clear expectations and guidelines, clearly communicating goals and objectives, following up to ensure fulfillment of responsibilities, providing feedback on performance, coaching those whose performance is not up to par and, finally, taking any necessary corrective action. But a leader cannot expect to hold others accountable successfully if they are not holding themselves accountable first.
While this is an important dimension of leadership, it is easy to slip, when it comes to accountability for our own behavior. This can happen even to leaders who do a great job at holding themselves accountable for the big ticket items such as driving for results, whether in sales, operations, marketing or financing, identifying root causes for business problems, developing a vision and strategy and managing resources effectively.
You have a chronic problem employee but you don't make the tough decision to let the individual go, because you want to be a nice person. Instead, after much deliberation and agony, you decide to transfer the person to another department – essentially moving the problem to another part of the company and hoping it goes away. Deep down, your intuition is whispering to you that the problem has not been solved but, in your elation at having found the solution to a nagging problem, you hush your intuition. You come to the office the next day, with a spring in your step and a song in your heart – relieved at having shed a burden.
A senior member of your team has a habit of treating less influential ones very poorly in meetings, interrupting them, discounting their contributions and generally exhibiting poster-like bad behavior. It mortifies the recipients, embarrasses other team members and even bothers you. Again, though, because you value harmony and hate confrontation of any kind, you choose to ignore the offending behavior and hope that it will stop on its own. The fact that the perpetuator is an aggressive, high achiever, successfully delivering results, makes it even harder for you to step up and do something.
You have just announced the company's drastic cost cutting measures and asked for everyone in your department to cooperate by eliminating all discretionary spending. You delivered a genuinely inspiring speech to your team and everyone is on board to make this work. Two days later, employees see a $1,000 chair delivered to your office – an earlier purchase you had genuinely forgotten to cancel. Others, of course, don't judge us by our intentions – they only have the appearance of events to judge you by.
A mistake was made, the ownership of which falls on several shoulders including yours. Driven by the anxiety and chaos that ensues, you minimize your role in the fracas, and even unwittingly suffer from temporary corporate amnesia, forgetting that you were fully briefed in advance. You set out to find a scapegoat, genuinely convincing yourself that it is surely their fault. This can easily happen in times of stress because, as a leader, you handle dozens of issues on a daily basis. However, others involved only handle a few issues and remember the course of events with laser-like precision.
Well, the list can go on. Some slips are due to personality preferences, others just from the sheer amount of work and stress that leaders often experience. The reasons are multiple and really not important. It's the behaviors that are important.
They are all examples of behaviors you would not condone in others when you set out to hold them accountable. And as we all know, when there is a disparity between what you tell others to do and what you do yourself, people will believe your actions and not your words. The fallout of this scenario is an erosion of trust, one of the high prices we pay for lack of self-accountability.
Let's also not neglect to mention that, as a leader, you sometimes have to take unpopular decisions and this can, by itself, elicit criticism. You are always in a fishbowl.
So what strategies can you adopt to be more careful, to be self-accountable – essentially to report to yourself?
Just as companies are rightfully concerned about how they are viewed by customers or shareholders, consider taking time to reflect on how your actions are viewed by all stakeholders: your direct reports, your peers, your clients. Go through a formal 360 Leadership Assessment process or simply get hold of a leadership assessment form and use it to reflect on how others in your team would rate you on each dimension.
For example: Puts the interests of the team before own interests; Shares credit for successes; Readily shares relevant information; Asks how am I doing; Treats others with respect regardless of their position; Fosters teamwork across all departments; Stands behind decisions made by the team; Provides honest feedback in a timely basis. Would others respond in this way about you?
At the end of each day, when you clear your desk before you head home, take a few short minutes to mentally go over your day. Think about significant conversations you held, meetings you attended, emails you sent and other actions you undertook.
Are you proud? Could you have done better? This will inspire you to plan your next day around your highest purpose. Getting into this habit of introspection will pay dividends in the long run.
Decide to hold yourself accountable for developing other leaders. By mentoring a protégé to enhance their personal and professional growth, you strengthen your own leadership skills and reinforce your determination to be self-accountable as you become the model.
To that end, consider reading John G. Miller's book: QBQ! The Question behind the Question: Practicing Personal Accountability in Work and in Life. Reading the book inspires one to move away from the blame game we have all been tempted to play at one time or other and take ownership of issues.
Think about promises you make to new hires during the interviewing courtship period. In our zeal to want to attract the brightest and most talented, we can easily over promise. Keep a record of your interview notes and what you promised to candidates. If subsequent events make it impossible to keep the promises, at least you can address them with the individual. This is better than forgetting about them altogether.
What about promises you made to yourself? Write out your personal and professional goals with clear targets. Read them once a week. Are your day-to-day action aligned with your values, your standards, your philosophy of leading? What are your boundaries? Do you take measures to protect them? If your answers to these questions are negative, what is causing this? What insights does this give you? Use this information as a means to spur you to action rather than guilt.
Moliere, 17th century French dramatist, said: "It is not only what we do, but also what we do not do, for which we are accountable." Is there anything that you are avoiding doing that needs to be done? For example, are you putting off a difficult conversation? Are you delaying any important decisions? Are you delegating away responsibilities that should stay in your court?
Self-accountability, then, is staying true to ourselves despite difficult circumstances. It's doing the right thing even when we are tempted to bend a few rules for expediency's sake. Perhaps Deborah Lee put it best: "Self-accountability is who you are when no one is looking". It's also the best antidote to feeling victimized by circumstances and in so doing, frees up precious creative energy for us to accomplish what matters to us. Above all, it entails owning up to the consequences of our decisions and choices, because there is no choice without accountability.


text:
\section{Introduction}

A classical problem in minimal surface theory in $\R^3$ is the \emph{Björling problem} \cite{Bjo}. This problem was posed in 1844 by Björling and asks the following:
\begin{quote}
\emph{Given a regular analytic curve $\beta(s)$ in $\R^3$ and an analytic distribution of oriented planes $\Pi(s)$ along $\beta(s)$ such that $\beta'(s)\in\Pi(s)$, find \emph{all} minimal surfaces in $\R^3$ containing $\beta(s)$ and such that the tangent plane distribution along $\beta(s)$ is given by $\Pi(s)$.}
\end{quote}

In 1890 Schwarz \cite{Sch} solved this problem via an integral representation formula, using holomorphic data. This problem can be applied in other generic situations: for instance, to study surfaces with certain symmetries \cite{DHKW}, and to solve global problems in the minimal surface theory \cite{AlMi,GaMi1}; see also \cite{ACG, GaMi2,GaMi3} and references therein for an outline on the development of the \emph{geometric Cauchy problem}. The Björling problem has been also studied when the mean curvature is a non-vanishing constant, see \cite{BrDo}.

Our objective in this paper is to prove existence and uniqueness of the Björling problem for a certain class of \emph{prescribed mean curvature surfaces} immersed in $\mathbb{R}^3$. Specifically, let be $\Sigma$ an oriented, immersed surface in $\R^3$ and $\H\in C^1(\S^2)$. We say that $\Sigma$ has \emph{prescribed mean curvature} $\mathcal{H}$ (in short, $\Sigma$ is an $\mathcal{H}$-surface) if the mean curvature $H_\Sigma$ of $\Sigma$ satisfies
\begin{equation}\label{defHsup}
H_\Sigma(p)=\mathcal{H}(\eta_p),\hspace{.5cm} \forall p\in\Sigma,
\end{equation}
where $\eta:\Sigma\rightarrow\mathbb{S}^2$ is the \emph{Gauss map} of $\Sigma$.

In general, the study of hypersurfaces in $\mathbb{R}^{n+1}$ defined by a prescribed curvature function in terms of the Gauss map goes back, at least, to the famous Christoffel and Minkowski problems for ovaloids, see e.g. \cite{Chr}. In particular, the existence and uniqueness of ovaloids with prescribed mean curvature \eqref{defHsup} was studied among others by Alexandrov and Pogorelov \cite{Ale,Pog} but the global geometry of these surfaces remained largely unexplored. In \cite{GaMi4} the authors studied uniqueness of immersed $\mathcal{H}$-spheres obtaining a Hopf-type theorem for this class of immersed surfaces, and in the making they proved a standing conjecture by Alexandrov. The global properties of $\mathcal{H}$-hypersurfaces immersed in $\mathbb{R}^{n+1}$ have been recently developed in \cite{BGM}, where the authors studied several topics such as classification of rotational $\mathcal{H}$-hypersurfaces, a priori height estimates and a structure theorem for properly embedded $\mathcal{H}$-surfaces in $\R^3$, and curvature estimates for stable $\mathcal{H}$-surfaces immersed in $\mathbb{R}^3$.

This paper is organized as follows: in \textbf{Section \ref{sec:resolutionbjorling}} we prove existence and uniqueness of the Björling problem for the class of analytic functions $\mathcal{H}\in C^\omega(\mathbb{S}^2)$ by applying Cauchy-Kovalevskaya theorem. This theorem has been used in other works to prove existence and uniqueness of the Björling problem for minimal surfaces in three-dimensional Riemannian and Lorentzian Lie groups via a Weierstrass-type representation formula, see e.g. \cite{CMO,MMP, MeOn}.

In \textbf{Section \ref{sec:hmobius}} we restrict ourselves to the class of analytic functions $\mathcal{H}\in C^\omega(\mathbb{S}^2)$ satisfying the symmetry condition $\mathcal{H}(-x)=-\mathcal{H}(x),\ \forall x\in\mathbb{S}^2$. This condition on $\mathcal{H}$ ensures us that Equation \eqref{defHsup} is independent of the orientation chosen on the $\mathcal{H}$-surface. Bearing this in mind, we use the existence and uniqueness of the Björling problem for adequate Björling data to construct non-orientable $\mathcal{H}$-surfaces with the topology of a Möbius strip. A particular analytic function with this symmetry condition is the one given by $\mathcal{H}(x)=\langle x,e_3\rangle,\ \forall x\in\mathbb{S}^2$. The $\mathcal{H}$-surfaces arising for this prescribed function are the \emph{self-translating solitons of the mean curvature flow} in $\R^3$, a well studied class of surfaces in the past decades. See e.g. \cite{CSS,Hui,MSHS} and references therein for relevant works regarding this topic. As an application, we construct self-translating solitons of the mean curvature flow in $\R^3$ with the topology of a \emph{Möbius strip}. After a detailed search in the literature, we can assert that these \emph{translating Möbius strips} are the first known examples of self-translating solitons with non-orientable topology.

Finally, in \textbf{Section \ref{sec:masejemplos}} we use the solution of the Björling problem to construct further examples of $\mathcal{H}$-surfaces for analytic prescribed functions. In particular, we construct \emph{helicoidal} $\mathcal{H}$-surfaces, and $\mathcal{H}$-surfaces similar to Enneper's classical minimal surface.
\vspace{.5cm}

\textbf{Acknowledgment.} The author wants to express his gratitude to his Ph.D. advisor Pablo Mira, for fruitful conversations about this topic.

\section{The Björling problem for $\mathcal{H}$-surfaces}\label{sec:resolutionbjorling}
In this paper we will denote by $C^\omega(\mathbb{S}^2)$ to the class of \emph{analytic functions} defined on the sphere $\mathbb{S}^2$ in $\R^3$.

\begin{definition}
Let be $I\subset\mathbb{R}$ an open interval. A pair of \emph{Björling data} for $\mathcal{H}$-surfaces in $\R^3$ is a regular analytic curve $\beta:I\rightarrow\R^3$ and an analytic vector field $B:I\rightarrow\R^3$ along $\beta(s)$ such that $|\beta'(s)|-|B(s)|=\langle\beta'(s),B(s)\rangle=0,\ \forall s\in I$.
\end{definition}

From this definition, we get two obvious consequences: First, given $\mathcal{H}\in C^\omega(\mathbb{S}^2)$, a regular analytic curve $\beta(s)$ and an oriented distribution of planes $\Pi(s)$ along $\beta(s)$, we get a pair of Björling data by just defining $B(s)=J\beta'(s)$, where $J$ denotes the $\pi/2$-rotation in the tangent plane $\Pi(s)$. And second, let us denote by $\nabla$ to the Riemannian connection of $\Sigma$ and suppose that $\beta(s)$ is parametrized by arc-length. Moreover, suppose that $\beta(s)$ is not a straight line. Then there exists $s_0\in\mathbb{R}$ such that $|\beta''(s_0)|\neq 0$. Let $I_0$ be the largest subinterval of $I$ containing $s_0$ such that $|\beta''(s)|\neq 0$ for all $s\in I_0$. If we define $V(s):=\nabla_{\beta'(s)}\beta'(s)$ then $B(s)=V(s)/|V(s)|$ is an analytic unit vector field along $\beta(s)$ such that $\langle\beta'(s),B(s)\rangle=0$. Thus, $B(s)$ determines an oriented distribution of planes $\Pi(s)$ along $\beta(s)$ by defining $\Pi(s)=\beta(s)+B(s)^\bot$. In particular, the Björling problem generalizes the problem of finding a surface which contains a given curve as a geodesic.

Although we do not have a Weierstrass representation for $\mathcal{H}$-surfaces, and thus we cannot solve the Björling problem with an \emph{explicit} integral representation formula just as in the case $\mathcal{H}=0$ (see e.g. \cite{Mir}), we can prove existence and uniqueness of this problem by applying different methods, as other have done in similar situations; see e.g. \cite{CMO, MeOn}.

Let $\Sigma$ be an orientable Riemannian surface and let $\psi:\Sigma\rightarrow\R^3$ be an isometric immersion of $\Sigma$ in $\R^3$. Then, it is well known that the coordinates of $\psi$ satisfy the elliptic PDE
\begin{equation}\label{laplainmersion}
\Delta_\Sigma\psi=2H_\Sigma\eta,
\end{equation}
where $\Delta_\Sigma$ stands for the Laplace-Beltrami operator on $\Sigma$, $\eta$ denotes the Gauss map of $\Sigma$ and $H_\Sigma$ is the mean curvature of $\Sigma$ computed with respect to $\eta$.

Recall that $\Sigma$ inherits a Riemann surface structure induced by its first fundamental form, and thus we can consider a conformal coordinate $z=s+it$ defined in a simply connected domain $\Omega\subset\mathbb{C}$, and we define the usual \emph{Wirtinger operators} $\partial_z=1/2(\partial_s-i\partial_t)$, $\partial_{\overline{z}}=1/2(\partial_s+i\partial_t)$. Then, the induced metric on $\Sigma$ is expressed as $\langle\cdot,\cdot\rangle=\lambda^2|dz|^2$, where $|dz|^2$ is the flat metric on $\Omega$ and $\lambda^2=\langle\partial_s,\partial_s\rangle=\langle\partial_t,\partial_t\rangle>0$ is the \emph{conformal factor}. For such a conformal coordinate, the operator $\Delta_\Sigma$ writes as
\begin{equation}\label{laplainmersion2}
\Delta_\Sigma=\frac{1}{\lambda^2}\Delta_0=\frac{1}{\lambda^2}(\partial_{ss}+\partial_{tt})=\frac{4}{\lambda^2}\partial_{z\overline{z}},
\end{equation}
where $\Delta_0$ denotes the usual flat Laplacian, and we used the relation of the Laplace-Beltrami operator between two conformal metrics. On the other hand, the Gauss map $\eta$ of $\Sigma$ has the following expression with respect to $z$:
\begin{equation}\label{normalconforme}
\eta=\frac{2}{i}\frac{\psi_z\wedge\psi_{\overline{z}}}{\sqrt{\langle\psi_z\wedge\psi_{\overline{z}},\psi_z\wedge\psi_{\overline{z}}\rangle}}=\frac{2}{i\lambda^2}\psi_z\wedge\psi_{\overline{z}}.
\end{equation}

Suppose now that the immersion $\psi:\Sigma\rightarrow\R^3$ defines an $\mathcal{H}$-surface for some $\mathcal{H}\in C^\omega(\mathbb{S}^2)$. By Equations \eqref{laplainmersion2} and \eqref{normalconforme}, Equation \eqref{laplainmersion} writes as
\begin{equation}\label{pdeinmersion}
\psi_{z\overline{z}}=-i\mathcal{H}(\eta)\psi_z\wedge\psi_{\overline{z}}.
\end{equation}
Viewing the immersion in coordinates $\psi=(\psi_1,\psi_2,\psi_3)$, then Equation \eqref{pdeinmersion} can be seen as a system of partial differential equations. In this setting, we can prove existence and uniqueness of the Björling problem for the class of $\mathcal{H}$-surfaces, as stated next:

\begin{theorem}[\textbf{Björling problem for $\mathcal{H}$-surfaces}]\label{thbjorling}
Let be $\mathcal{H}\in C^\omega(\mathbb{S}^2)$ and $\beta(s),B(s)$ a pair of Björling data defined on a real interval $I$. Then, there exists an open domain $\Omega\subset\mathbb{C}$ containing $I\times\{0\}$ and a conformal immersion $\psi:\Omega\rightarrow\R^3$ that solves the following system
\begin{equation}\label{ecubjorling}
\left\lbrace\begin{array}{l}
\psi_{z\overline{z}}=-i\mathcal{H}(\eta)\psi_z\wedge\psi_{\overline{z}},\\
\psi(s,0)=\beta(s),\\
\psi_t(s,0)=B(s).
\end{array}\right.
\end{equation}

As a consequence, $\psi$ defines an $\mathcal{H}$-surface $\Sigma$ that contains the curve $\beta(s)$, and the tangent plane distribution $T_{\beta(s)}\Sigma$ at each point $\beta(s)\in\Sigma$ is spanned by the vectors $\beta'(s)$ and $B(s)$.
\end{theorem}

\begin{proof}
The system \eqref{ecubjorling} is elliptic and of \emph{Cauchy-Kovalevskaya} type, and thus it has local existence and uniqueness; see \cite{Pet} for a proof of Cauchy-Kovalevskaya theorem. As the system \eqref{ecubjorling} is elliptic without characteristic points, we have that the existence and uniqueness extends to the whole interval $I$ where $\beta(s)$ and $B(s)$ are defined. Thus, there exist $\delta>0$ and functions $(\psi_1,\psi_2,\psi_3)$ defined in $I\times (-\delta,\delta)\subset\mathbb{C}$ such that $\psi=(\psi_1,\psi_2,\psi_3)$ is a solution of \eqref{pdeinmersion} satisfying $\psi(s,0)=\beta(s),\ \psi_t(s,0)=B(s),\ \forall s\in I$.

First, observe that equation $\langle\psi_{z\overline{z}},\psi_z\rangle=0$ holds by substituting $\psi_{z\overline{z}}$ for its expression \eqref{pdeinmersion}, and thus the function $\langle\psi_z,\psi_z\rangle$ is holomophic. As $\psi$ satisfies the described initial conditions, the function $\langle\psi_z,\psi_z\rangle$ evaluated at $(s,0)$ is equal to $|\beta'(s)|^2-|B(s)|^2-2i\langle\beta'(s),B(s)\rangle$. This expression vanishes identically, as $\beta'(s)$ and $B(s)$ are orthogonal vector fields with the same length. In this conditions, $\langle\psi_z,\psi_z\rangle$ is a holomorphic function vanishing at the real axis and by the identity principle of holomorphic functions, $\langle\psi_z,\psi_z\rangle$ is identically zero in $I\times(-\delta,\delta)$. We conclude that the map $\psi:I\times(-\delta,\delta)\rightarrow\R^3$ is conformal.

By Equation \eqref{ecubjorling}, the regularity of $\beta(s)$, and the orthogonality of $\beta'(s)$ and $B(s)$, it is clear that $\psi$ defines an immersion on an open set $\Omega\subset\mathbb{C}$ containing $I\times\{0\}$. Thus, $\psi$ is a conformal immersion of an $\mathcal{H}$-surface.

This concludes the proof of Theorem \ref{thbjorling}.
\end{proof}

\begin{remark}
As we pointed out, in general system \eqref{ecubjorling} cannot be explicitly integrable, as happens when $\mathcal{H}=0$. However, we can numerically solve it for producing images of $\mathcal{H}$-surfaces in $\mathbb{R}^3$. Indeed, let us denote by $\psi(s,t)=(\psi_1(s,t),\psi_2(s,t),\psi_3(s,t))$. Given $\mathcal{H}\in C^\omega(\mathbb{S}^2)$, $\beta(s),B(s):[s_0,s_1]\rightarrow\R^3$ a pair of Björling data and $\delta>0$, the solution of the Björling problem can be plotted using standard software with the command
\end{remark}
\vspace{-.3cm}

\texttt{ParametricPlot3D\textcolor{blue}{[}\\
Evaluate\textcolor{orange}{[}\\
First\textcolor{red}{[}$\{\psi[s,t]\}$/.\\
NDSolve\textcolor{green}{[}$\textcolor{purple}{\{}$\\
$D[\psi[s,t],s,s]+D[\psi[s,t],t,t]==2\mathcal{H}[\eta[s,t]]D[\psi[s,t],s]\wedge D[\psi[s,t],t]$,\\
Thread[$\psi[s,0]==\beta[s],D[\psi[s,t],t][s,0]==B[s]$]$\textcolor{purple}{\}}$,\\
$\{\psi_1,\psi_2,\psi_3\},\{s,s_0,s_1\},\{t,-\delta,\delta\}$\textcolor{green}{]}\textcolor{red}{]}\textcolor{orange}{]},$\{s,s_0,s_1\},\{t,-\delta,\delta\}$\textcolor{blue}{]}}.
\vspace{.3cm}

For example, consider the analytic function $\mathcal{H}(x)=\langle x,e_3\rangle,\ \forall x\in\mathbb{S}^2$. The $\mathcal{H}$-surfaces arising for this prescribed function are the \emph{self-translating solitons of the mean curvature flow}. The rotational self-translating solitons of the mean curvature flow are classified as follows: an entire, strictly convex vertical graph  that intersects the axis of rotation orthogonally, called the \emph{bowl soliton}; and a one parameter family of properly embedded annuli, with both ends pointing towards the $e_3$ direction, called the \emph{wing-like solitons} or \emph{translating catenoids}. The family of wing-like solitons are parametrized by the \emph{neck size}, i.e. the minimum distance to the axis of rotation, attained at a circumference of radius equal to the \emph{waist}, see \cite{CSS} for details.

Bearing this in mind, we can recover this family by choosing adequate Björling data. Indeed, consider the one parameter family of Björling data $\beta_\tau(s)=\tau(\cos s,\sin s,0)$ and $B_\tau(s)=(0,0,\tau),\ \forall s\in\mathbb{R},\ \tau>0$. Then, for each fixed $\tau>0$, the translating soliton $\Sigma_\tau$ generated by this Björling data corresponds to the wing-like soliton with neck size equal to $\tau$. When $\tau\rightarrow 0$, the sequence $\Sigma_\tau$ converges smoothly to a double cover of the bowl soliton minus the vertex. See Figure \ref{fig:hcatbjorling} for a plot of the wing-like soliton with neck size equal to 1.

\begin{figure}[h]
\centering
\includegraphics[width=.75\textwidth]{hcatbjorling.pdf}
\vspace{-1.5cm}
\caption{A wing-like soliton for the Björling data $\beta(s)=(\cos s,\sin s,0)$ and $B(s)=(0,0,1),\ s\in\mathbb{R}$.}
\label{fig:hcatbjorling}
\end{figure}

\section{$\mathcal{H}$-Möbius strips in $\R^3$}\label{sec:hmobius}

The Björling problem adds a large amount of $\mathcal{H}$-surfaces to the ones studied in \cite{BGM}, for any given $\mathcal{H}\in C^\omega(\mathbb{S}^2)$. By choosing adequate Björling data, the examples arising may have some prescribed symmetries, as well as some topological properties. In this context, the Björling problem motivates us for the search of \emph{non-orientable} surfaces. However, we must recall that our $\mathcal{H}$-surfaces are supposed to be oriented, in virtue of Definition \ref{defHsup}, and thus the concept of non-orientable $\mathcal{H}$-surface makes no sense for an arbitrary function $\mathcal{H}$. For instance, if $\mathcal{H}$ is chosen as a positive constant, examples with non-orientable topology do not exist. Thus, some condition on the prescribed function $\mathcal{H}\in C^\omega(\mathbb{S}^2)$ must be imposed in order to make Definition \ref{defHsup} independent on the orientation chosen on the $\mathcal{H}$-surface. Bearing this in mind, the mildest hypothesis is that $\mathcal{H}$ has to be \emph{antipodally antisymmetric}, that is $\mathcal{H}(-x)=-\mathcal{H}(x)$ for all $x\in\mathbb{S}^2$.

Going back to the propose of studying non-orientable $\mathcal{H}$-surfaces, the most recurrent examples are the surfaces with the topology of a \emph{Möbius strip}; we advise \cite{Mee,Mir} as two relevant works regarding minimal Möbius strips in $\mathbb{R}^n$ given as the solution of the Björling problem. The following result is inspired in the ideas developed in \cite{Mir}.

\begin{proposition}\label{hcintas}
Let $\mathcal{H}\in C^\omega(\mathbb{S}^2)$ such that $\mathcal{H}(-x)=-\mathcal{H}(x),\ \forall x\in\mathbb{S}^2$, and let $\beta(s),B(s)$ be Björling data such that $\beta(s)$ is $T$-periodic and $B(s)$ is $T$-antiperiodic, i.e. $B(s+T)=-B(s)$, for some $T>0$.

Then, the $\mathcal{H}$-surface generated by Theorem \ref{thbjorling} for this Björling data has the topology of a Möbius strip, with fundamental group generated by $\beta(s)$.

Conversely, every $\mathcal{H}$-\emph{Möbius strip} is generated in this way.
\end{proposition}

\begin{proof}
We will give a sketch of the proof, since it is an adaptation of the one used to prove Lemma 3 in \cite{Mir}.

First, let $\psi:\mathcal{M}\rightarrow\R^3$ be an immersion of an $\mathcal{H}$-Möbius strip, and let $\Gamma(s)$ be a regular, analytic, closed curve in $\mathcal{M}$ that generates its fundamental group. As $\Gamma(s)$ is closed, it is $T$-periodic for some $T>0$. Denote by $\widetilde{\mathcal{M}}$ to its \emph{two sheeted cover}, where we have defined an antiholomorphic involution $I$ without fixed points, and let $\pi:\widetilde{\mathcal{M}}\rightarrow\mathbb{R}^3$ be the canonical projection. In this setting, there exists a regular, analytic, closed curve $\widetilde{\Gamma}(s)$ that generates the fundamental group of $\widetilde{\mathcal{M}}$, defined by $\Gamma(s)=\pi(\widetilde{\Gamma}(s))$, and in particular it is $2T$-periodic.

If we consider $\widetilde{\psi}:\widetilde{\mathcal{M}}\rightarrow\mathbb{R}^3$ given by $\widetilde{\psi}=\psi\circ\pi$, then $\beta(s)=\widetilde{\psi}(\widetilde{\Gamma}(s))$ is a regular, analytic $T$-periodic curve in $\mathbb{R}^3$. Denoting by $\Pi(s)$ the oriented tangent plane distribution of $\widetilde{\psi}$ along $\beta(s)$ we have that $\Pi(s+T)$ and $\Pi(s)$ agree with opposite orientation. Therefore, if $B(s):=J\beta'(s)$ is the $\pi/2$ rotation of $\beta'(s)$ in $\Pi(s)$, it happens that $B(s+T)=-B(s)$. Thus, we have proved that every $\mathcal{H}$-Möbius strip defines a pair of Björling data with the periodicity properties stated.

\begin{figure}[h]
\centering
\includegraphics[width=.8\textwidth]{hmobius.pdf}
\vspace{-1cm}
\caption{A self-translating soliton of the mean curvature flow with the topology of a Möbius stirp, generated by the Björling data $\beta(s)=1/2(\cos 2s,\sin 2s,0),\ B(s)=\cos s(\cos s,\sin s,0)+\sin s(0,0,1),\ \forall s\in\mathbb{R}$.}
\label{fig:hmobius}
\end{figure}

Conversely, let $\beta(s)$ and $B(s)$ be a pair of Björling data such that $\beta(s)$ is $T$-periodic and $B(s)$ is $T$-antiperiodic. In particular, they are defined on the entire real line. Let $\psi:\Omega\rightarrow\mathbb{R}$ be the solution of this Björling problem given by Theorem \ref{thbjorling}. The $2T$-periodicity of $\beta(s)$ and $B(s)$ along with the uniqueness of the Björling problem, ensures us that $\psi$ is well defined on the quotient $\Omega/(2T\mathbb{Z})$, which is a topological cylinder.

We can suppose that $\Omega$ is symmetric with respect to the conjugation, i.e. $\overline{z}\in\Omega,\ \forall z\in\Omega$, and thus we can define on $\Omega/(2T\mathbb{Z})$ the map
\begin{equation}
\begin{array}{cccc}
I&:\Omega/(2T\mathbb{Z})&\longrightarrow&\Omega/(2T\mathbb{Z})\\
& z&\longmapsto& \overline{z}+T.
\end{array}
\end{equation}

It is also clear that $I$ is an antiholomorphic involution without fixed points, and thus it reverses the orientation of $\Omega/(2T\mathbb{Z})$. Moreover, $I$ defines the following equivalence relation on $\Omega/(2T\mathbb{Z})$: two points $z,w\in\Omega/(2T\mathbb{Z})$ are related if and only if $I(z)=w$. In this situation, the cylinder $\Omega/(2T\mathbb{Z})$ is the orientable two sheeted cover of the space $(\Omega/(2T\mathbb{Z}),I)$, with the canonical projection $\mathfrak{p}:\Omega/(2T\mathbb{Z})\rightarrow(\Omega/(2T\mathbb{Z}),I)$.

Because $\psi$ is an immersion, the unitary vector field $\eta:\Omega\rightarrow\R^3$ as defined in \eqref{normalconforme} is a well defined, unitary, normal vector field for $\psi$. Given $z,w\in\Omega/(2T\mathbb{Z})$ such that $w=I(z)$, the uniqueness of the Björling problem implies that the unit normals $\eta(z)$ and $\eta(w)$ are opposite. Bearing this in mind, we have:
\begin{equation}\label{pegan}
H_{\psi}(\psi(w))=\mathcal{H}(\eta(w))=\mathcal{H}(\eta(I(z)))=\mathcal{H}(-\eta(z))=-\mathcal{H}(\eta(z))=-H_{\psi}(\psi(z)),
\end{equation}
and thus the mean curvature at the point $\psi(z)$ has opposite sign to the mean curvature at the point $\psi(I(z))$, for all $z\in\Omega$.

Again, the uniqueness of Theorem \ref{thbjorling} allows us to conclude that the quotient map $\widetilde{\psi}(z)=(\psi\circ\mathfrak{p})(z)$ for all $z\in\Omega/(2T\mathbb{Z})$ is a well defined, conformal immersion of an $\mathcal{H}$-surface in $\R^3$ having the topology of a Möbius strip, and in particular is non-orientable. This concludes the proof of Proposition \ref{hcintas}.
\end{proof}

Note that the function $\mathcal{H}(x)=\langle x,e_3\rangle,\ \forall x\in\mathbb{S}^2$ lies in the hypothesis of Proposition \ref{hcintas}. Thus, we ensure the existence of self-translating solitons of the mean curvature flow with the topology of a Möbius strip, which we will refer to as \emph{translating Möbius strips}, see Figure \ref{fig:hmobius}. After a detailed search in the literature, we can assert that this construction gives the first example of a self-translating soliton of the mean curvature flow with non-orientable topology.

In Figure \ref{fig:noorientable} we show the construction of a non-orientable translating soliton constructed by half-rotating the vector field $B(s)$ 7 times along the curve $\beta(s)$ before it closes. This surface is homeomorphic to the Möbius strip showed in Figure \ref{fig:hmobius}. When the mean curvature vanishes, the minimal surfaces as the one appearing in Figure \ref{fig:noorientable} were firstly constructed in \cite{Mir}, see also the independent work of \cite{MeWe}. These surfaces are commonly known as \emph{bended helicoids}.

\begin{figure}[H]
\centering
\includegraphics[width=.65\textwidth]{noorientable.pdf}
\vspace{-1cm}
\caption{An $\mathcal{H}$-bended helicoid with the topology of a Möbius strip for the analytic function $\mathcal{H}(x)=\langle x,e_3\rangle,\ x\in\mathbb{S}^2$.}
\label{fig:noorientable}
\end{figure}

\section{Further examples of $\mathcal{H}$-surfaces via the Björling problem}\label{sec:masejemplos}

In this last Section we show the existence of some examples of $\mathcal{H}$-surfaces immersed in $\R^3$, motivated by the analogous examples defined in the minimal surface theory. The main difference with the minimal case $\mathcal{H}=0$ in $\R^3$ is that we fail to have a Weierstrass representation, and thus explicit parametrizations of these surfaces are not expected. Even so, we can prove existence and uniqueness by means of Theorem \ref{thbjorling} for adequate Björling data with some prescribed symmetries, and obtain $\mathcal{H}$-surfaces that are the analogous to the famous examples in the minimal surface theory.
\vspace{.5cm}

\textbf{\underline{$\mathcal{H}$-Helicoids}}

We choose as Björling data the vertical curve $\beta(s)=(0,0,s)$ and a $T$-periodic, analytic, unitary vector field $B(s)$ along $\beta(s)$, for some $T>0$, and let $\Sigma$ be $\mathcal{H}$-surface given as the solution of the Björling problem for this Björling data.

The unit normal vector field at the $e_3$-axis, namely $\eta(s):=\beta'(s)\wedge B(s)$, is a horizontal vector field satisfying $\eta(s)=\eta(s+T),\ \forall s\in\mathbb{R}$, and the Björling data $\beta(s+T),B(s+T)$ agree with the Björling data $\beta(s)+T e_3,B(s)$. Moreover, as the condition $\eta(s)=\eta(s+T),\ \forall s\in\mathbb{R}$ holds, the points $\beta(s)$ and $\beta(s+T)$ have the same mean curvature.

Bearing this in mind, if we denote by $\Theta(p)=p+T e_3,\ \forall p\in\R^3$ , the uniqueness of the Björling problem ensures us that $\Sigma$ is invariant by the discrete group of translations $T\mathbb{Z}\Theta$ in the $e_3$-direction. Moreover, starting at some $s_0\in\mathbb{R}$, $\Sigma$ \emph{twists} jointly with $\eta(s)$ around the $e_3$-axis until reaching the instant $\eta(s_0+T)=\eta(s_0)$, generating a simply connected \emph{fundamental part} of $\Sigma$. Repeating this process, which is just translating this fundamental part of $\Sigma$ under the action of $\Theta$, we get the whole $\mathcal{H}$-surface $\Sigma$.

We will refer to these $\mathcal{H}$-surfaces as $\mathcal{H}$-helicoids, since they generalize the usual minimal helicoids in $\R^3$. See Figure \ref{fig:hhelicoide} for a plot of an $\mathcal{H}$-helicoid for the particular function $\mathcal{H}(x)=\langle x,e_3\rangle$, and the Björling data $\beta(s)=(0,0,s),\ B(s)=(\cos s,\sin s,0)$.

\begin{figure}[H]
\centering
\includegraphics[width=.25\textwidth]{hhelicoide.pdf}
\caption{An $\mathcal{H}$-helicoid for the analytic function $\mathcal{H}(x)=\langle x,e_3\rangle,\ x\in\mathbb{S}^2$.}
\label{fig:hhelicoide}
\end{figure}
\vspace{.5cm}

\textbf{\underline{Enneper-type $\mathcal{H}$-surfaces}}

Finally, we construct $\mathcal{H}$-surfaces based on some curves contained in the well-known Enneper's surface, one of the most famous examples in the minimal surface theory.

First, consider the curve
$$
\beta(s)=(0,-s(1-s^2/3)/3,-s^2/3)
$$
and the vector field
$$
B(s)=1/3(1+s^2)(1,0,0).
$$
Then, both $\beta(s)$ and $B(s)$ are analytic and satisfy $|\beta'(s)|-|B(s)|=\langle\beta'(s),B(s)\rangle=0,\ \forall s\in\mathbb{R}$, i.e. they can be chosen to be Björling data. If $\mathcal{H}=0$, then the surface given by Theorem \ref{thbjorling} is Enneper's minimal surface. In particular, the curve $\beta(s)$ is obtained as intersecting Enneper's minimal surface with the plane $\{x=0\}$, which is a plane of reflection symmetry of Enneper's minimal surface. For the function $\mathcal{H}(x)=\langle x,e_3\rangle,\ \forall x\in\mathbb{S}^2$, the $\mathcal{H}$-surface arising is a translating soliton of the mean curvature flow that resembles indeed to Enneper's minimal surface, see Figure \ref{fig:henneper}.

\begin{figure}[H]
\centering
\includegraphics[width=.6\textwidth]{henneper.pdf}
\vspace{-1cm}
\caption{An $\mathcal{H}$-surface constructed over the curve in Enneper's minimal surface invariant under the reflection with respect to the plane $\{x=0\}$; here $\mathcal{H}(x)=\langle x,e_3\rangle,\ \forall x\in\mathbb{S}^2$.}
\label{fig:henneper}
\end{figure}

We can also choose as Björling data the following
$$
\begin{array}{c}
\beta(s)=(-\cos s-1/3\cos(3s),\sin s-1/3\sin(3s),\sin(2s)),\\
B(s)=(\cos s+\cos(3s),2\cos(2s)\sin s,-2\sin(2s)).
\end{array}
$$
Again, for $\mathcal{H}=0$ the surface given by Theorem \ref{thbjorling} is Enneper's minimal surface, and we will call $\beta(s)$ \emph{Enneper's core curve}, see \cite{LoWe}. For the function $\mathcal{H}(x)=\langle x,e_3\rangle,\ \forall x\in\mathbb{S}^2$, the translating soliton arising also resembles to Enneper's minimal surface, see Figure \ref{fig:ennepers}, left. This time we cannot guarantee that the \emph{hole} in the middle will eventually close, as we fail to have an explicit parametrization. If we make the vector $B(s)$ twist along the curve $\beta(s)$ and odd number of times, we get another translating soliton with the topology of a Möbius strip; see Figure \ref{fig:ennepers}, right.

\begin{figure}[H]
\vspace{-2cm}
\hspace{-2cm}
\includegraphics[width=.7\textwidth]{enneperagujero.pdf}
\hspace{-2cm}
\includegraphics[width=.7\textwidth]{enneperhelicoide.pdf}
\vspace{-3cm}
\caption{Two self-translating solitons of the mean curvature flow based on Enneper's core curve.}
\label{fig:ennepers}
\end{figure}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaArXiv


text:
El Infiniti G (Q50 y Q60 a partir de 2013) es un automóvil del segmento D producido por el fabricante japonés Infiniti entre los años 1990 y 1996, y luego desde 1998. Entre los competidores del G se encuentran el Acura TSX, Nissan 350Z, Audi A4, el BMW Serie 3, el Lexus IS, el Mercedes-Benz Clase C, el Saab 9-3 y el Volvo S60.

Las primeras dos generaciones del G son esencialmente idénticas a los Nissan Primera de primera generación (P10) y segunda generación (P11). Se vendían únicamente con carrocería sedán de cuatro puertas. El único motor era un gasolina de cuatro cilindros en línea y 2.0 litros de cilindrada, que se ofrecía con caja de cambios manual de cinco marchas o automática de cuatro marchas. la primera se vendió entre los años 1990 y 1996, y la segunda entre 1998 y 2002.

La tercera generación del G fue puesta a la venta a mediados de 2002. Está emparentada con el Nissan Skyline V35, el Infiniti FX y el Infiniti M. Su motor gasolina es un V6 de 3.5 litros de entre 265 y 302 CV de potencia máxima. Se ofrecía con carrocerías sedán o cupé, con tracción trasera ("Infiniti G35") o a las cuatro ruedas ("Infiniti G35x"), y con una caja de cambios manual de seis marchas o una automática de cinco marchas.

La cuarta generación del G, puesta a la venta a fines de 2007, coincide con el Skyline V36. Mantiene la plataforma de la generación anterior pero recibe motores gasolina V6 nuevos: un 2.5 litros de 218 CV ("Infiniti G25"), un 3.5 litros de 306 CV ("Infiniti G35") y un 3.7 litros de 320 CV ("Infiniti G37").

La quinta generación del modelo cambio de denominación a Infiniti Q50 para la variante sedán. Se estrenó en el Salón del Automóvil de Detroit de 2013 y se comenzó a vender en el tercer trimestre de ese año. Los motores de gasolina son un cuatro cilindros en línea de 2,0 litros y (214 CV, y un V6 de 3,7 litros y 333 CV. También se ofrece un híbrido eléctrico-gasolina, que eroga 364 CV. En tanto, el Diesel es un cuatro cilindros de 2,2 litros y 170 CV.

Enlaces externos

 Infiniti G37 Cabrio
  Infiniti G37 Coupe

G
Modelos de automóviles del segmento D

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


The D700 is a great camera I moved up to one from a D300s and going FX was the difference or I should say the IQ I have been searching for in a DSLR.
I sold my D700 for $1800 with 4,000 activations on it last week to get the D600, I was so nervous waiting for the D600 to arrive, wondering if I had done the right thing as I haven't even seen one or use one in a shop .
But it arrived from Hong Kong this week and I'm really impressed with it the IQ, White Balance and Exposure they are spot on and the detail I can abstract from the shadow areas is amazing. One main reason for going to the D600 and the 24MP sensor was to give me the option to crop tighter without any loss in IQ .
I was a bit shocked with the weight of the D600 compared to the D700 but after a few days I don't really notice much difference now.
I loved my D700 but this D600 to me is a big improvement.


This year I have officially lost my mind. I'm attempting to take part in both National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) and National Blog Posting Month (NaBloPoMo). I may have no hair left come December, but I'm hoping it's a challenging and rewarding experience. Maybe I'll make crafts with the hair I lose for Christmas presents!
I've participated five times and finished NaNoWriMo four times so far. Each experience was different and rewarding. Although I'm not always able to join in the fun, I look forward to each November with zeal and trepidation.
Part of the fun is supporting other writers and watching them meet their goals. Word sprints, cheering each other on, giving and receiving advice, it's all a valuable experience. Even when I can't participate or can't finish, I still enjoy my time spent with other writers struggling to make word count.
My current word count is in the sidebar on the right side of the screen if you'd like to follow my progress.
Last year was my first time participating in NaBloPoMo. I met some passionate bloggers and some of the nicest people on the net. I was surprised at how supportive the blogging community could be! So, although I'm doing NaNoWriMo, I didn't want to give up NaBloPoMo. I'm excited to see what amazing things people post this year and hopefully make a few new blogging friends along the way.
I just might be insane, but it's going to be an interesting November!
NaNoWriMo challenges participants to write 50,000 words during the month of November. This can seem like a daunting and time consuming task and when you have a house to run as well, it can seem almost impossible. With some preparation, you can make November run more smoothly.
I've looked at quite a few prep lists for NaNo and noticed that mine was a little different. I decided to share it in hopes it might help someone else. I know this is a little late. I'll try to repost the revised version of this list a little earlier next year.
Dust off that crockpot. Your crockpot can be a time saver and is for more than just making roast. You can find a ton of crockpot recipes online and I'll try to post a few of my favorites during NaNo.
Jot down notes or make an outline. While there are many people that can sit down to a blank screen and just start typing, I'm not always one of them. Faced with a deadline, I feel more comfortable with some kind of direction in mind.
For those of you participating this year, write like the wind! I'd love to hear/read how you're doing so feel free to comment on a post or drop me an email.


text:
foss-eda-tools / third_party / shuttle / mpw-one / slot-035 / aafbfe0ea6ed3667ef4cddeee3c511c7cab11614 / . / openlane / accelerator_top / runs / build-dec17-newpdn / results / magic / sky130_fd_sc_hd__a21oi_4.ext
blob: 7ca280294175bac44fdd8af93864299130e183ee [file] [log] [blame]
port "B1" 3 18 199 80 207 li
port "B1" 3 18 207 286 283 li
port "Y" 8 116 317 376 341 li
port "Y" 8 119 74 157 123 li
node "li_1073_17#" 0 0 1073 17 obsli 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
node "li_457_51#" 0 0 457 51 obsli 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
node "B1" 0 0 18 207 li 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
equiv "B1" "B1"
node "Y" 0 0 455 135 li 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
equiv "Y" "Y"
node "li_36_359#" 0 0 36 359 obsli 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Meghan Winters is a population health researcher leading a research program on the linkages between health, transportation, and city design. She works in close collaboration with cities and stakeholders to conduct research and create tools that address real-world challenges. Dr. Winters is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Health Sciences, and leads the Cities, Health and Active Transportation Research (CHATR) lab.


A few years ago I woke up drenched in sweat in a small riverine village in the Brazilian Amazon. My guide handed me a plastic cup of steaming hot acai porridge. At about 8 in the morning, it was already over 90 degrees outside, but she urged me to drink it. "It will give you strength and cool you down," she said. I was skeptical—but she might have been on to something.
Back in 2012, a guy named Ollie Jay was studying the way the body stores and distributes heat at the University of Ottawa. Jay and some colleagues put people on exercise bikes, got them good and sweaty, then measured their body temperatures after giving each participant a drink of water. Some folks got cool water, some people got warm water. Initially, the body temperatures of the people who drank the warm water went up, as you might expect, but after everyone had time to sit around and dry off, they found the warm water drinkers had actually stored less body heat than their cool water counterparts. How'd they do it? Through their sweat.
Sweat is your body's natural response to heat. Collectively, all those little droplets are just energy, or heat, leaving your body. In a nice, dry climate, that excess energy evaporates off your skin and leaves you a little bit cooler. The evaporation is the most important part—in Jay's study, the authors noted that they only saw body heat storage decrease when their test subjects were "under conditions permitting full sweat evaporation." In other words, a room with plenty of ventilation and very little humidity. When you consume something hot, it warms up your esophagus and stomach, which then triggers your body to start sweating in order to release some of that heat. Under the right conditions, the more you sweat, the more heat you're purging from your body.
So the next time someone hands you a steaming cup of something in the midst of an Indian summer, take it. As luck would have it, you really can fight fire with fire. Well, sorta.


Roscommon Women's Network (RWN) | Positive Parenting - Directory of services and organizations for parents and their children in Galway and Roscommon.
Roscommon Women's Network support women throughout the county Roscommon and surrounding area. We offer a confidential listening ear and guidance on all issues affecting women's lives. RWN offers, information, personal development, mindfulness, counselling, volunteering, training, referrals to other services with continuous support throughout the process, and many progression opportunities. We do this through our information / drop in centre in Castlerea and through our outreach worker who will meet women anywhere in the county to discuss and access their individual needs in a compassionate, non-judgemental and confidential manner. RWN workers in the centre and around the county refer or signpost women to appropriate supports which will meet their specific needs. RWN will remain in contact with the woman as a support and advocate for as long as needed. We also provide access to many part time or full time accredited and non-accredited training courses, both in our training centre in Castlerea or in local community locations around the county. We work with women from all different cultures and backgrounds and we work collaboratively and effectively with all agencies to help ensure we get the best outcome for all women in the county, individually and collectively.
All women over the age of 18 living in the county Roscommon and surrounding areas.


text:
Customer: Sicor Spa
Activity field: traction systems for elevators
Headquarters: Rovereto
Workforce: 150
Open its new high-tech headquarters
Implementing research to manufacture new gearless motors
Exchange the old headquarters of the company with an industrial complex owned by Trentino Sviluppo
+ 60% increase in productive capacity
+ 30% increase in turnover
+ 35 jobs created
New hi-tech headquarters for Sicor
Bigger spaces grant a higher turnover and new jobs
«It's in crisis that inventive is born, as well as discoveries, and big strategies.». This quote of Albert Einstein is printed on a scroll and displayed in the hall of the headquarters of Sicor to state the company's vision. Nevertheless, for Sicor - the company of Rovereto that manufactures traction systems for elevators - facts speak louder than words: 150 employees, 48 million euros in turnover, 20 million euros invested in research projects, new commercial networks, and - more importantly - new headquarters.
New high-tech headquarters; the best bet for the future
The «new» Sicor is growing in an abandoned industrial centre called former Gardafilo, located at number 32 of Viale Caproni in Rovereto. This space has been provided by Trentino Sviluppo and it has been renovated by the company after two years of work and an expense of 14.3 million euros.
In this new industrial facility the company will launch the production of its new traction systems for elevators with gearless motors. Giacomo Spezzapria, young CEO of the company, explains: «This technology allows for the reduction of energy consumption by 20-30% and it can even halve the dimensions of a traditional geared lift system».
The truth is in the numbers; increase in the turnover and new jobs created
Thanks to the spaces newly made available and its advanced equipment, Sicor expects to increase its productive capacity in order to reach 40,000 machines per year, besides launching in Rovereto the production of electromagnetic brakes - which is currently externalized - and a new environmentally friendly line of products for water coating.
The leap forward in terms of turnover - from 33 million euros in 2011 to more than 50 million euros in 2013 - is strongly due to the commercial initiatives carried out in the Middle East. «It's a strongly growing market - confirms Spezzapria - and it involves countries like Egypt, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Iran, Iraq, and Kuwait. This market covers 40% of our turnover, while another 50% is covered by other foreign countries, particularly Russia and countries in Europe, Asia, and South-America».
Even the workforce of the company is expanding: 115 jobs have been granted until 2018 thanks to an agreement signed with the Autonomous Province of Trento, a figure that reaches 128 employees if we consider also the workers employed on temporary contracts but with the possibility of obtaining a permanent working position within the company.
Two research projects with the University
The investment made on research and development bore its fruits, thanks to the support received through Provincial law 6/1999 and the strong collaboration with the University of Trento. In particular, two research projects amounting to a total investment of 3.3 million euros allowed Sicor to reduce the weight and dimensions of its traction systems and launch the production of new small gearless motors.
An induced benefit of 3.5 million euros for 32 small enterprises
The activities of Sicor produced also a significant induced profit in Trentino, where the company forged industrial partnerships with manufacturers of steel bars, worm-screws, crown wheel shafts, brake groups, and electrical components. The total expense paid by Sicor for the supply of components, products, and services offered by companies established in Trentino amounts to 3.5 million euros, 16% of its total expenses. This activity generates a turnover and an economic activity for 32 companies, even small enterprises, which provide work for 448 employees.
Eco-Sistemi: a start-up that purifies water with recycled bottle caps
An environmentally friendly water purification system doesn't need high-technology solutions, it just needs recycled plastic bottle caps. «We buy the bottle caps from public benefit organizations that


text:
Q: Remove Item from Kendo Grid without refreshing datasource I have a Kendo Grid where one of the columns is a Boostrap progress bar. It is animated and represents a file upload.(the width value is modified with angular)
Once the item is done I remove the item with the remove function like this"
Grid.dataSource.remove(item);

However all the rest of items in the grid get refreshed somehow and the progress bars go back to zero and get refilled. So if an item in the list is at 70%, it will go back to zero and get refilled quickly.
It happens very fast in a split second but it just looks bad.

Is it possible to stop the refresh of other items and only remove a single item in the datasource?

A: Here is what has been working for me, as long as you have selected the row you want to remove.
var grid= $("#Grid").data("kendoGrid");
grid.removeRow(grid.select());

If you have not manually selected it, you can do it via js:
grid.select(-1); //this cleans the current selection
var tr = $("#Grid").find("tbody").find("tr")[index]; // 0 based index of the item you want to select
grid.select(tr);

Try that and let me know if it helped

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
<!--- Copyright (C) 2009-2017 Lightbend Inc. <https://www.lightbend.com> -->
# The Logging API

Using logging in your application can be useful for monitoring, debugging, error tracking, and business intelligence. Play provides an API for logging which is accessed through the [`Logger`](api/scala/play/api/Logger$.html) object and uses [Logback](http://logback.qos.ch/) as the default logging engine.

## Logging architecture

The logging API uses a set of components that help you to implement an effective logging strategy.

#### Logger
Your application can define [`Logger`](api/scala/play/api/Logger.html) instances to send log message requests. Each `Logger` has a name which will appear in log messages and is used for configuration.  The Logger API is based on SLF4J, and so `Logger` is based on the `org.slf4j.Logger` interface.

Loggers follow a hierarchical inheritance structure based on their naming. A logger is said to be an ancestor of another logger if its name followed by a dot is the prefix of descendant logger name. For example, a logger named "com.foo" is the ancestor of a logger named "com.foo.bar.Baz." All loggers inherit from a root logger. Logger inheritance allows you to configure a set of loggers by configuring a common ancestor.

Play applications are provided a default logger named "application" or you can create your own loggers. The Play libraries use a logger named "play", and some third party libraries will have loggers with their own names.

#### Log levels
Log levels are used to classify the severity of log messages. When you write a log request statement you will specify the severity and this will appear in generated log messages.

This is the set of available log levels, in decreasing order of severity.

- `OFF` - Used to turn off logging, not as a message classification.
- `ERROR` - Runtime errors, or unexpected conditions.
- `WARN` - Use of deprecated APIs, poor use of API, 'almost' errors, other runtime situations that are undesirable or unexpected, but not necessarily "wrong".
- `INFO` - Interesting runtime events such as application startup and shutdown.
- `DEBUG` - Detailed information on the flow through the system.
- `TRACE` - Most detailed information.

In addition to classifying messages, log levels are used to configure severity thresholds on loggers and appenders. For example, a logger set to level `INFO` will log any request of level `INFO` or higher (`INFO`, `WARN`, `ERROR`) but will ignore requests of lower severities (`DEBUG`, `TRACE`). Using `OFF` will ignore all log requests.

#### Appenders
The logging API allows logging requests to print to one or many output destinations called "appenders." Appenders are specified in configuration and options exist for the console, files, databases, and other outputs.

Appenders combined with loggers can help you route and filter log messages. For example, you could use one appender for a logger that logs useful data for analytics and another appender for errors that is monitored by an operations team.

> Note: For further information on architecture, see the [Logback documentation](http://logback.qos.ch/manual/architecture.html).

## Using Loggers
First import the `Logger` class and companion object:

@[logging-import](code/ScalaLoggingSpec.scala)

### The default Logger

The `Logger` object is your default logger and uses the name "application." You can use it to write log request statements:

@[logging-default-logger](code/ScalaLoggingSpec.scala)

Using Play's default logging configuration, these statements will produce console output similar to this:

```text
[debug] application - Attempting risky calculation.
[error] application - Exception with riskyCalculation
java.lang.ArithmeticException: / by zero
    at controllers.Application$.controllers$Application$$riskyCalculation(Application.scala:32) ~[classes/:na]
    at controllers.Application$$anonfun$test$1.apply(Application.scala:18) [classes/:na]
    at controllers.Application$$anonfun$test$1.apply(Application.scala:12) [classes/:na]
    at play.api.mvc.ActionBuilder$$anonfun$apply$17.apply(Action.scala:390) [play_2.10-2.3-M1.jar:2.3-M1]
    at play.api.mvc.ActionBuilder$$anonfun$apply$17.apply(Action.scala:390) [play_2.10-2.3-M1.jar:2.3-M1]
```

Note that the messages have the log level, logger name, message, and stack trace if a Throwable was used in the log request.

### Creating your own loggers

Although it may be tempting to use the default logger everywhere, it's generally a bad design practice. Creating your own loggers with distinct names allows for flexible configuration, filtering of log output, and pinpointing the source of log messages.

You can create a new logger using the `Logger.apply` factory method with a name argument:

@[logging-create-logger-name](code/ScalaLoggingSpec.scala)

A common strategy for logging application events is to use a distinct logger per class using the class name. The logging API supports this with a factory method that takes a class argument:

@[logging-create-logger-class](code/ScalaLoggingSpec.scala)

### Using Markers and Marker Contexts

The SLF4J API has a concept of markers, which act to enrich logging messages and mark out messages as being of special interest.  Markers are especially useful for triggering and filtering -- for example, [OnMarkerEvaluator](http://logback.qos.ch/manual/appenders.html#OnMarkerEvaluator) can send an email when a marker is seen, or particular flows can be marked out to their own appenders.

The Logger API provides access to markers through the `play.api.MarkerContext` trait.

You can create a MarkerContext with the Logger by using the `MarkerContext.apply` method:

@[logging-marker-context](code/ScalaLoggingSpec.scala)

You can also provide a typed MarkerContext by extending from `DefaultMarkerContext`:

@[logging-default-marker-context](code/ScalaLoggingSpec.scala)

Once a MarkerContext has been created, it can be used with a logging statement, either explicitly:

@[logging-log-info-with-explicit-markercontext](code/ScalaLoggingSpec.scala)

Or implicitly:

@[logging-log-info-with-implicit-markercontext](code/ScalaLoggingSpec.scala)

For convenience, there is an implicit conversion available from a `Marker` to a `MarkerContext`:

@[logging-log-info-with-implicit-conversion](code/ScalaLoggingSpec.scala)

Markers can be extremely useful, because they can carry contextual information across threads where MDC may not be available.  For example, using [Logstash Logback Encoder](https://github.com/logstash/logstash-logback-encoder#loggingevent_custom_event) and an implicit conversion, request information can be encoded into logging statements automatically:

```
implicit def requestToMarkerContext[A](request: Request[A]): MarkerContext = {
  import net.logstash.logback.marker.LogstashMarker
  import net.logstash.logback.marker.Markers._

  val requestMarkers: LogstashMarker = append("host", request.host)
    .and(append("path", request.path))

  MarkerContext(requestMarkers)
}

def index = Action { request =>
  logger.debug("index: ")(request)
  Ok("testing")
}
```

### Logging patterns

Effective use of loggers can help you achieve many goals with the same tool:

@[logging-pattern-mix](code/ScalaLoggingSpec.scala)

This example uses [[action composition|ScalaActionsComposition]] to define an `AccessLoggingAction` that will log request data to a logger named "access." The `Application` controller uses this action and it also uses its own logger (named after its class) for application events. In configuration you could then route these loggers to different appenders, such as an access log and an application log.

The above design works well if you want to log request data for only specific actions. To log all requests, it's better to use a [[filter|ScalaHttpFilters]]:

@[logging-pattern-filter](code/ScalaLoggingSpec.scala)

In the filter version we've added the response status to the log request by logging when the `Future[Result]` completes.

## Configuration
See [[configuring logging|SettingsLogger]] for details on configuration.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Monday thru Friday 7 AM to 6 PM. Saturdays 8 AM to Noon.
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text:
from oslo_config import cfg

from nova.tests.functional.v3 import api_sample_base
from nova.tests.unit.image import fake

CONF = cfg.CONF
CONF.import_opt('osapi_compute_extension',
                'nova.api.openstack.compute.extensions')

class ImageSizeSampleJsonTests(api_sample_base.ApiSampleTestBaseV3):
    extension_name = "image-size"
    extra_extensions_to_load = ["images", "image-metadata"]
    # TODO(gmann): Overriding '_api_version' till all functional tests
    # are merged between v2 and v2.1. After that base class variable
    # itself can be changed to 'v2'
    _api_version = 'v2'

    def _get_flags(self):
        f = super(ImageSizeSampleJsonTests, self)._get_flags()
        f['osapi_compute_extension'] = CONF.osapi_compute_extension[:]
        f['osapi_compute_extension'].append(
            'nova.api.openstack.compute.contrib.image_size.Image_size')
        return f

    def test_show(self):
        # Get api sample of one single image details request.
        image_id = fake.get_valid_image_id()
        response = self._do_get('images/%s' % image_id)
        subs = self._get_regexes()
        subs['image_id'] = image_id
        self._verify_response('image-get-resp', subs, response, 200)

    def test_detail(self):
        # Get api sample of all images details request.
        response = self._do_get('images/detail')
        subs = self._get_regexes()
        self._verify_response('images-details-get-resp', subs, response, 200)


text:
Q: Best way to download data from Wordpress website I want to write an iOS app that must download data from a website using Wordpress as content managment system. What' s the best way to do this? thanks!

A: What kind of data ?
If this is post, page , comment you should use XML-RPC : http://codex.wordpress.org/XML-RPC_wp

A: Uhm, one solution is to use the wordpress export function (wp-admin/export.php). It gives to you an XML file that you can parse.
After you are logged into the account, you can issue a simple get. Or, you can download your posts/pages via XML-RPC, as already noted!http://codex.wordpress.org/XML-RPC_wp