text:
\section{Introduction}\label{sec:introduction}

We begin by discussing the rationale and assumptions underlying the process chosen to model our change in wealth over each infinitesimal time interval. The model employs deflated (``constant") dollars and assumes that the investor borrows at the risk-free rate. The optimal control function ensures that the investor will only be able to borrow an amount of money such that, with probability 1, $X(t) \ge 0$ for all $t$. Like \cite{Cover}, the model assumes that the investor can either put money into or take out money out of the market in continous time and that there is no transaction fee for doing so.

The investor chooses to invest solely in the ``Sharpe asset," explicitly defined on page 12 of \cite{Foster}.  \cite{Foster} proves that the Sharpe asset has close to unit variance (this is why $\sigma=1$ in the volatility term $\sigma f(X(t))dW(t)$). In formalizing the Ito process, we first normalize our unit of time so that the Sharpe asset is expected to return 100 percent over a unit time interval. This normalization forces $r=1$ in the term $rf(X(t)dt$. We proceed to normalize salary. Our monetary unit, which we will call a ``superdollar," is normalized such that we have a steady income of $dt$ in each time interval of length $dt$. We need a fortune of $M$ superdollars to retire and wish to retire as early as possible. See \cite{Merton2} and \cite{Merton} for broader economic discussion of retirement processes.

The solution to this optimal control problem in retirement investing is especially interesting because it involves what seems to be a new phenomenon in boundary behavior, where a process hits a boundary and
reflects ``softly'' from it, without the need for local time as in reflecting
Brownian motion. We show the reflection takes place by using what seems to be
a new approach to stochastic differential equations which avoids the clock
changing methods of \cite{IandM} and \cite{HPM}, namely by first defining a particular
``unit'' diffusion, which is a diffusion where the diffusion coefficient is
identically unity, which is then easier to construct using Picard's method than
a general diffusion. If we then take a particular monotonic function of the
unit diffusion to construct the diffusion which is obtained as the answer,
$f_0$, above, where the monotone function is everywhere nonnegative, it follows
that the final diffusion is also always nonnegative.

We also consider a more general model of retirement investing where the
diffusion coefficient, $f$, is replaced by $Af^\alpha$. The general case
reveals that the optimal investment strategy as well as the expected time
until retirement are very strongly dependent in interesting
ways on the particular model used.

\section{Formal Model and Approach}\label{sec:formal_model_approach}

Formally, the problem is stated as follows: given $0 \le x \le M$, and a Brownian motion, $W(t), ~t \ge 0$,
to find a nonanticipating process, $f(t), ~t \ge 0$, so that if $\tau^f_M$ is
the hitting time of $M$ of the Ito process $X(t) = X^f(t), ~t \ge 0$, with
$X(0) = x$, and
\begin{eqnarray*}
dX(t) = (1+f(X(t)))dt + f(X(t)) dW(t)
\end{eqnarray*}
then $V(x;f) = \expesub{x}{\tau^f_M}$ is a minimum over all such allowable $f$. Note that
we are assuming that the state space for this optimal control problem is the
right half line so that we do not allow negative values of $X(t)$. Later, we will prove that, in our setup, $X(t)$ cannot be negative. If
$X(t) < 0$ for some $t < \tau^f_M$, which is possible if $f(t)$ is bounded
away from zero and also bounded, then there is a need to define what happens
if the investor is in debt; we assume the game is over in this case and then
$\tau^f_M = \infty$ so that with our definition, we do not even achieve a
finite expectation, much less a minimum. Other definitions allow for borrowing additional capital, but our model
assumes that we are extremely adverse to being in debt.

We will show that under this assumption, the optimum control, $f_0$, exists and
is unique. Any reasonable person would guess that $f(t) = f(X(t))$, i.e.,
that the optimal $f$ is ``Markovian'', i.e., the optimal strategy depends only
on the present fortune. But even if we guess that $f$ should be Markovian, how
do we learn which particular $f$ is best? There is a nice way, involving a lot
of nice guessing. Once one guesses $f$ the proof that it is optimal is routine
crank-turning, by martingale theory as we will see.

\section{Formal Statement of Results}\label{sec:formal_statement_results}

To get lower bounds on $V(x) = \inf_f V(x;f)$, one needs to find, in the usual
way, a function, ${\bar{V}}(x)$, with ${\bar{V}}(M) = 0$, for which, for any
$f$, the process, $Y(t) = t + {\bar{V}}(X^f(t) )$ is a submartingale. If this
is the case, then, we have from optional sampling $\expesub{x}{Y\parens{\tau^f_M}} \ge Y(0)$.
This gives that for any $f$ and $0 \le x \le M$,
\begin{eqnarray*}
\expesub{x}{\tau^f_M} = \expe{Y(\tau^f_M)} \ge Y(0) = {\bar{V}}(x)
\end{eqnarray*}
and since this holds for any $f$ and $0 \le x \le M$, we get that $V(x) \ge {\bar{V}}(x)$.

Equality will hold for all $x$, for the greatest lower bound, ${\bar{V}}$.
The class of all such ${\bar{V}}$'s is a convex class determined by the
Ito inequalities defining a submartingale, which are that ${\bar{V}} \ge 0$,
and that for all $x$ and all $f$,
\begin{eqnarray*}
\cexpe{dY(t)}{\mathcal{F}_t} = {\bar{V}}^\prime(x) (1 + f) dt + \frac{f^2}{2}{\bar{V}}^{\prime \prime}(x) dt + dt \ge 0
\end{eqnarray*}

Since this must hold for all choices of $f$ and all choices of $x = X(t)$ in
$[0,\infty)$, and since this is quadratic in the real variable $f$ (if this
seems somewhat aggressive with respect to logic, recall that we are just using
this reasoning for \textit{guessing} the right ${\bar{V}}$). For any such
${\bar{V}}$, we have that for any $f$, $V(x;f) \ge {\bar{V}}(x)$, which gives
us the lower bound, ${\bar{V}}(x)$ on $V(x)$. Which ${\bar{V}}$'s satisfy the
above submartingale condition?

Setting the derivative wrt. $f$ equal to zero we see that we must have for each
$x$, ${\bar{V}}^{\prime \prime}(x) > 0$, and then the minimum occurs at
$f = f(x) = -\bar{V}^\prime(x) / \bar{V}^{\prime \prime}(x)$.
Putting this $f$ back into the submartingale inequality we need that
\begin{eqnarray*}
1 + {\bar{V}}^\prime(x) - \frac{1}{2}\frac{({\bar{V}}^\prime)^2(x)}{{\bar{V}}^{\prime \prime}(x)} \ge 0
\end{eqnarray*}

For the best $f$, we need equality to hold everywhere in the string of
inequalities above so that we would choose ${\bar{V}}$ to satisfy the last
inequality with equality throughout. If we set
\begin{eqnarray*}
g(x) = -{\bar{V}}^\prime(x) \ge 0
\end{eqnarray*}

then we seek $g$ to satisfy
\begin{eqnarray*}
g^\prime(x) \parens{\frac{1}{g(x)} - \frac{1}{g^2(x)}} \equiv \frac{1}{2}
\end{eqnarray*}

Integrating, we have for some integration constant $c$
\begin{eqnarray*}
\frac{1}{g(x)} + \log{(g(x))} = \frac{x+c}{2}
\end{eqnarray*}

Since the left side is of the form $\frac{1}{y} + \log{y} \ge 1$ for all
$y > 0$, it is tempting to choose $c = 2$ since this makes the right side
greater than or equal to one for $x \ge 0$ (it is our privilege to do
this, since we are just guessing). We have almost arrived at a guess for the
best ${\bar{V}}$, namely we have to solve the last equation for
$g(x) = -{\bar{V}}^\prime(x)$, and then ${\bar{V}}$ is determined because we
have ${\bar{V}}(M) = 0$.

A plot of $y$ vs. $\frac{1}{y} + \log{y}$ is given in Figure 1 which shows
that the inverse function defining $g(x)$ by
\begin{eqnarray*}
\frac{1}{g(x)} + \log{(g(x))} = 1+ \frac{x}{2}
\end{eqnarray*}

is not unique since the inverse is not one-one.

\begin{figure}[htp]
\centering
\includegraphics[width=2.5in]{fig1.pdf}
\caption{$y$ vs. $\frac{1}{y} + \log{y}$ }
\label{fig:fig1}
\end{figure}

Which one do we use, the left
side branch or the right side branch to define $g(x)$ for each $x \in [0,M]$?
Recall that we must have $g^\prime(x) = -{\bar{V}}^{\prime \prime}(x) < 0$, so
we guess to use the left side to determine $g(x)$. There is then clearly a
unique solution, $g(x)$, and we declare this as our guess at $g(x) = -{\bar{V}}^\prime(x)$.

Using the condition ${\bar{V}}(M) = 0$, we have
\begin{eqnarray*}
{\bar{V}}(x) = -\int_x^M{\bar{V}}^\prime(u) du = \int_x^M g(u) du
\end{eqnarray*}

We have already set up the proof that this ${\bar{V}}(x) \equiv V(x)$.
We have also seen that any optimal choice of $f = f_0$ must satisfy $f(x) = -{\bar{V}}^\prime(x)/{\bar{V}}^{\prime \prime}(x)$, which we can express in terms of the $g(x)$ we have already defined because we
have seen that $V^\prime$ can be expressed in terms of $g$, and so we get that
\begin{eqnarray*}
f_0(x) = \frac{g(x)}{-g^\prime(x)} = 2\parens{\frac{1-g(x)}{g(x)}}
\end{eqnarray*}

Near $x = 0$, we can easily show through Maclaurin expansions for $\dfrac{1}{1-\sqrt{x}}$ and $\text{log}\parens{1-\sqrt{x}}$ that $g(x) \sim 1 - \sqrt{x}$, and so it
follows that

\begin{eqnarray*}
f_0(x) = 2\parens{\frac{1}{g(x)} -1} \sim 2 \sqrt{x}
\end{eqnarray*}
For an approximation of $g(x)$ when $x$ is large, recall that we have defined $g(x)$ for $x\geq 0$ as the smaller of the two
solutions of:

\begin{eqnarray} \label{eq:equation1}
\frac{1}{g(x)} + \log{(g(x))} = 1+ \frac{x}{2}
\end{eqnarray}

We proceed to define:

\begin{eqnarray*}
a=\frac{1}{g(x)}\,\,\,\,\,\, b=1+\frac{x}{2}
\end{eqnarray*}

Rewriting (\ref{eq:equation1}) in terms of $a$ and $b$, we arrive at:

\begin{eqnarray} \label{eq:equation2}
a-\text{log}\, a=b
\end{eqnarray}

We now need an approximation for $a$ in terms of $b$. \\

We guess:

\begin{eqnarray} \label{eq:equation3}
a \approx b + \text{log}\, b
\end{eqnarray}

Substituting our approximation into (\ref{eq:equation2}) we obtain:

\begin{eqnarray*}
b + \text{log} \,b-\text{log}(b + \text{log}\,b)= b-\text{log}\parens{1+\frac{\text{log}\,b}{b}}
\end{eqnarray*}

When $b$ is large, $\frac{\text{log}\,b}{b}$ is small, so the left hand side of (\ref{eq:equation2})  is very close to $b$. Substituting our definitions of $a$ and $b$ into (\ref{eq:equation3}), we obtain:

\begin{eqnarray*}
\frac{1}{g(x)} \approx 1+ \frac{x}{2}+\text{log}\parens{1+\frac{x}{2}}
\end{eqnarray*}

Or, equivalently,

\begin{eqnarray*}
g(x) \approx \frac{1}{1+ \frac{x}{2}+\text{log}\parens{1+\frac{x}{2}}}
\end{eqnarray*}

\begin{eqnarray*}
f_0(x)= 2\parens{\frac{1}{g(x)}-1}\approx x+2 \, \text{log}\parens{1+\frac{x}{2}}
\end{eqnarray*}

To complete that proof that this $f = f_0$ is optimal, with this choice of
$f = f_0$, and ${\bar{V}}$, the inequalities now hold for every other choice
of $f$ that $Y^f(t) = t+{\bar{V}}^f(X^f(t))$ is a submartingale. It follows
that $V(x) \ge {\bar{V}}(x)$ for all $x > 0$. We need to show that equality
holds for $f = f_0$ given above. It is true that in this case the submartingale
is a {\em local} martingale, except possibly at zero. We need to show the
equality $\expe{Y(\tau_M)} = Y(0)$ holds, where $Y$ is the process,
$Y(t) = t + {\bar{V}}(X^f_0(t) )$. It is enough to prove that $\tau_M < \infty$
w.p. 1. The difficulty is that the process, $X(t) = X^{f_0}(t)$ hits zero
uncountably many times with positive probability starting from any
$0 \le x < M$. How do we know that $X$ cannot take negative values? When
$X(t) = 0$, then the unit drift moves it to the right, but how do we know that
the term $f_0(X(t) ) dW(t)$ does not cause the process to reach the negative
half-line, or to get stuck at zero? Intuitively, each time the process hits
zero, imagine that $f(x)$ is turned off, so that $f(x) = 0$ for
$0 \le x \le \epsilon$. There is still a unit drift present so that the process
takes time $\epsilon$ to reach the point $x = \epsilon$. The probability
starting at $\epsilon$ that the process hits $M$ before it reaches zero again
is easily seen to be $1- c\epsilon$. It seems to follow from this that the
expected time to reach $M$ starting from any $x$ is finite and the conclusion
seems to follow. However, there is a mystery as to how the process pushes off
from zero and we shall now resolve this point.

It seems remarkable that the process $X^{f_0}$ behaves as if there is a
reflecting barrier at zero. It does not pass through zero to the negative
half-axis because $f_0(0) = 0$. This means that it slows down as it gets
near zero, but, unlike the Black-Scholes process \cite{Scholes}, it actually hits zero.
The drift, $1+f(0) = 1$, so that it then moves away from zero but it hits zero
uncountably many times (if it hits it once), just as the reflecting Brownian
process, $|W(t)|$, does, because the set of zeros of $X(t)$ is a perfect set.

It is instructive to consider a closely related reflecting process, the process
\begin{eqnarray*}
dX(t) = dt + 2\sqrt{X(t)} dW(t)
\end{eqnarray*}

How does one prove that $X(t) \ge 0$ for all $t$? This appears to be difficult
because $X(t) = 0$ uncountably many times, until one realizes that $X(t)$ is
simply $W^2(t)$.
\begin{thm}
$X$ reflects off zero even though there is no local time in its Ito representation.
\end{thm}

\begin{proof}
It is interesting that $X$ reflects off zero even though there is no local
time in its Ito representation. The way we prove that this makes sense seems to
be new and it seems to shed much light on the basic existence proofs of Ito
theory. In Ito theory, Picard iteration shows easily that a diffusion,
$X = X(t,\omega)$ with a {\em unit} diffusion coefficient,
\begin{eqnarray*}
dX(t) = A(X(t) )dt + dW(t), ~~t \ge 0, ~~X(0) = x_0
\end{eqnarray*}
can be constructed on any space on which a process $W(t,\omega)$ with
continuous sample paths is available, path by path, if $A$ has bounded
difference quotients. It is then possible to construct a very general
diffusion, $Y(t)$, satisfying
\begin{eqnarray*}
dY(t) = a(Y(t) ) dt + b(Y(t) ) dW(t)
\end{eqnarray*}
by constructing the unit diffusion, $X(t)$, with appropriate drift, $A(x)$,
and then setting $Y(t) = g(X(t) )$, for an appropriate function, $g = g(x)$.
It is easy to check that to make $Y$ into an $a(y),b(y)$ diffusion, we must
choose $A(x), g(x)$ as follows:
\begin{eqnarray*}
g^\prime(x) = b(g(x)) \quad \text{and} \quad A(x) = \frac{a(g(x)) -\frac{1}{2} b^\prime(g(x))g^\prime(x)}{b(g(x))}
\end{eqnarray*}

If we do this for the case of $f_0$ which solves the problem, we see that
$g(x) \ge 0$, so it follows that the diffusion never goes negative and
reflects softly at $x = 0$, just as in the case of $W^2(t), ~t \ge 0$.

It seems remarkable that $g$ is defined only by the diffusion coefficient, $b$.
But this is somewhat illusory, because $A$ enters as well in that the unit
diffusion process, $X$, depends on $A$, and if $A$ does not satisfy a Lipschitz
condition then the domain of the $X$ diffusion may be a subset of the whole
line. Let us look at the case
\begin{eqnarray*}
dY(t) = dt + c\sqrt{|Y(t)|} dW(t), ~~t \ge 0, ~~Y(0) = 0
\end{eqnarray*}
in more detail since
this is an example which is very similar to the optimal control process of the
paper. We can carry out the steps of the determination of $B,g,A$, above to see
that
\begin{eqnarray*}
B(y) = \int_0^y \frac{du}{c\sqrt{u}} = \frac{2}{c}\sqrt{|y|} \sgn{y}, \quad g(x) = \frac{c^2x^2}{4} \sgn{x}, \quad A(x) = \frac{2\parens{1-\frac{c^2}{4} \sgn{x}}}{c^2|x|}
\end{eqnarray*}

We see there is an infinite singularity in $A$ at $x = 0$ except if $c = 2$.
If $0 < c < 2$ the process $X$ never hits zero, but if $c > 2$, then $X(t)$
cannot be defined after it hits zero, at least not by the diffusion equation
above.
\end{proof}

This completes the proof that for the optimal investment strategy, $f = f_0$,
the fortune of the young man reaches $M$ in a finite time with minimum expected
value. It is remarkable that the young man goes broke repeatedly with positive
probability before achieving his goal.

\begin{remark}
It is often remarked of some rich people that because they were
``aggressive, they went into bankruptcy several times before making it."
Somehow, mathematics seems to have already been aware of this common
observation! Note that it is always true that $V(x) \le M-x$ since an investor
can always choose $f \equiv 0$ and ``save the way to retirement''.
\end{remark}
A graph of $g(x) = - V^\prime(x)$ is given in Figure \ref{fig:fig2}, a graph of the optimal
payoff, $V(x)$, is given in Figure \ref{fig:fig3}, and a graph of the optimal investment
strategy, $f_0$, is given in Figure \ref{fig:fig4}.

\begin{figure}[htp]
        \centering
        \begin{subfigure}[c]{0.4\textwidth}
                \centering
                \includegraphics[width=1.5in]{fig2.pdf}
                \caption{}
                \label{fig:fig2}
        \end{subfigure}%
        ~

        \begin{subfigure}[c]{0.4\textwidth}
                \centering
                \includegraphics[width=1.5in]{fig3.pdf}
                \caption{}
                \label{fig:fig3}
        \end{subfigure}\\
        ~

        \begin{subfigure}[c]{0.4\textwidth}
                \centering
                \includegraphics[width=1.5in]{fig4.pdf}
                \caption{}
                \label{fig:fig4}
        \end{subfigure}
        \caption{Left: Plot of $g = g(x); 1/g + log(g) = 1 + x/2$, Right: Plot of the optimal $f = f_0, f (x) = \dfrac{g(x)}{g'(x)}$, Bottom: Plot of the optimal payoff, $V_{M}^{f}(x), M = 10, f = f_0$ }
\end{figure}

\section{Generalization of the problem}

A more general model for retirement than the one of Section \ref{sec:formal_statement_results}, namely,
\begin{eqnarray*}
dX(t) = (1+f(X(t))) dt + f(X(t) ) dW(t), ~~ X(0) = x
\end{eqnarray*}
would allow the diffusion term to be any fixed function of $f(X(t) )$ rather
than simply $f(X(t) )$ itself. The most natural choice was made above because
this is used in the Black-Scholes-Samuelson model for stock prices which was
arrived at under the argument that doubling an investment empirically seems to
double the volatility, but this is a crude argument and other possibilities
seem to be worth exploring. We propose considering the more general model:
\begin{eqnarray*}
dX(t) = (1+f(X(t) ) dt + \phi(f(X(t))) dW(t), ~~ X(0) = x
\end{eqnarray*}
where $\phi(u)$ is any increasing function. For tractibility, we will
restrict the discussion to the particular forms $\phi(u) = Au^\alpha$, where
$A > 0$, and $\alpha > 0$ are parameters.

The same method of proof shows that for $\alpha = 1$, as before, but using
general $A$, we have
\begin{eqnarray*}
g(x;A;\alpha = 1) = -V^\prime(x;A;\alpha = 1) = g\parens{\frac{x}{A^2};A = 1;\alpha = 1}
\end{eqnarray*}

It follows that
\begin{eqnarray*}
V(x;A;\alpha = 1) = A^2 V\parens{\frac{x}{A^2};A = 1;M = \frac{M}{A^2}}
\end{eqnarray*}

This is as expected; the original model used $f$ as both the drift and the
diffusion parameter because one could scale time to make the diffusion equal
to one in appropriate time units. However if one wants to {\it compare} models,
then the parameter $A$ must be retained. If one does this, one sees that
\begin{eqnarray*}
g(x;A;\alpha = 1) \rightarrow g(0;A = 1;\alpha = 1) \equiv 1
\end{eqnarray*}

so that
\begin{eqnarray*}
\lim_{A \rightarrow \infty} V(x;A;\alpha = 1) = \int_x^M du = M - x
\end{eqnarray*}

The conclusion is that if the investor has the choice of investing in a risky
market or instead to be conservative by saving his salary without investing,
then the conservative strategy is asymptotically (as $A \rightarrow \infty$)
superior even though the resulting time to retirement is $M - x$, which is the
maximum delay among all models since there is no advantage to investment. The
conservative investment advice to avoid risk is usually given to older
investors; our modelling assumptions conclusions bear this out, even for young
investors in the limit as risk gets very large.

We next consider the case $A = 1$, and $\frac{1}{2} \le \alpha <1$. Since the
diffusion speed is larger for $\alpha < 1$ than for $\alpha  = 1$, one would
think that as $\alpha$ decreases the expected time would increase and investing
would be disadvantageous, but this is surprisingly not the case, as we see
below. Moreover we will show that for $A = 1$, and $0 < \alpha < \frac{1}{2}$,
one can find investment strategies that allow retirement in time $\epsilon$,
arbitrarily small. Another surprise is that there is a sharp discontinuity in
$V(x,\alpha)$ as $\alpha \uparrow \frac{1}{2}$. We show that $V(x,\alpha) = 0$
for $\alpha < \frac{1}{2}$ but as we see below
\begin{eqnarray*}
V\parens{x;\alpha = \frac{1}{2}} = \frac{1}{2} \parens{e^{-2x} - e^{-2M}}
\end{eqnarray*}

We turn to the $A > 0,\alpha \in [.5,1)$ problem: again we define
$V^f_M(x) = \expesubsup{x}{f}{\tau_M}$, and we want to find $V_M(x) = \inf_f V^f_M(x)$.

Again we seek any function ${\bar{V}}(x)$ for which
\begin{eqnarray*}
Y(t) = {\bar{V}}\parens{X^f(t)}+t
\end{eqnarray*}

is a submartingale for any choice of $f$. Any such ${\bar{V}}(x)$ will be a
lower bound on $V(x)$ since we will again have
\begin{eqnarray*}
\expesub{x}{{\bar{V}}(X^f(\tau_M))}+\expe{\tau^f_M} \ge \expesub{x}{{\bar{V}}(X^f(0))} = {\bar{V}}(x)
\end{eqnarray*}

To be a submartingale, we need in the same way as in the case, $\alpha = 1$,
\begin{eqnarray*}
{\bar{V}}^\prime(x)(1+f)+\frac{A^2}{2}{\bar{V}}^{\prime \prime}(x)f^{2\alpha} + 1 \ge 0, ~~0 \le x \le M, ~~f \ge 0
\end{eqnarray*}

For fixed $x$, this is a minimum in $f$ at the point
\begin{eqnarray*}
f(x) = f_0(x) = \tothepow{\frac{-{\bar{V}}^\prime(x) }{{\bar{V}}^{\prime \prime}(x)}\frac{1}{A^2\alpha}}{\frac{1}{2\alpha -1}}
\end{eqnarray*}

Requiring that $Y$ be a martingale for the best choice of $f = f_0$ above
gives an ode for $g(x) = g(x,A,\alpha) = -{\bar{V}}^\prime(x,A,\alpha)$.
After a calculation, very similar to the one above for $A = \alpha = 1$, the
ode is:
\begin{eqnarray*}
\frac{-g^\prime(x)(1-g(x))^{2\alpha-1}}{g^{2\alpha}(x)} = \frac{\tothepow{1-\frac{1}{2\alpha}}{2 \alpha -1}}{A^2 \alpha}
\end{eqnarray*}

Integrating gives
\begin{eqnarray*}
\int_{g(x)}^1 \frac{(1-u)^{2\alpha -1}}{u^{2\alpha} } du = x \frac{\tothepow{1- \frac{1}{2\alpha}}{2 \alpha -1}}{A^2 \alpha} + c
\end{eqnarray*}

Again we guess that $c = 0$ and we can solve for $g(x) \in [0,1]$ for any
$x \ge 0$. We see that so long as $\alpha > .5$, there is no trouble. We can
write (since $V(M) = 0$),
\begin{eqnarray*}
V(x) =\int_x^M -V^\prime(u) du = \int_x^M g(u)du &=& \int_x^M \frac{g(u)}{g^\prime(u)} g^\prime(u) du\\&=& b(\alpha) \int_0^{g(x)} \tothepow{\frac{1-u}{u}}{2\alpha -1}du
\end{eqnarray*}

where
\begin{eqnarray*}
b(\alpha) = \frac{\tothepow{1-\frac{1}{2\alpha}}{2\alpha -1}}{\alpha A^2}
\end{eqnarray*}

Finally we have that $f_0 =f_0(x,A,\alpha)$ is given by
\begin{eqnarray*}
f_0(x) = \parens{\frac{1}{g(x)} - 1}\frac{1}{1-\frac{1}{2\alpha}}
\end{eqnarray*}

\section{General Model in the Case of $\alpha < \frac{1}{2}$}\label{sec:alpha_lessthan_half}

The case $\alpha < \frac{1}{2}$ is especially interesting. The argument given
for guessing the optimal ${\hat{V}}$ breaks down.

\begin{thm}
There is no ${\hat{V}}$ that will make ${\hat{V}}(X^f(t) ) + t$ a submartingale for all
choices of $f = f(x)$ except the trivial case ${\hat{V}}(x) \equiv 0$. This is
the best lower bound that submartingale theory can provide which lead one to
suspect that $V(x;\alpha) \equiv 0$ for $\alpha < \frac{1}{2}$. \end{thm}

\begin{proof} Here we assume that $A=1$. We need to find an $f$ that makes the expected time to reach $M$ arbitrarily
small. Consider the investment strategy
\begin{eqnarray*}
f(x) = 0, 0 \le x \le \epsilon, ~~f(x) = c, ~~\epsilon < x < M
\end{eqnarray*}

If we can find a function, $g = g(x) = g_{\epsilon,c}(x), 0 \le x \le M$ for
which $Y(t) = g(X_t) + t$ is a martingale and $g(M) = 0$, then the martingale
theorem gives that $g(x) = Y(0) = \expesub{x}{Y(\tau_M)} = \expesub{x}{\tau_M}$. Ito calculus
gives that $g$ must be, for appropriate constants, $A^\prime,B,D$,
\begin{eqnarray*}
g(x) = \begin{cases}
D - x, ~~&0 \le x \le \epsilon \\
\frac{M-x}{1+c} + A^\prime\parens{\exp{-\frac{2(1+c)}{c^{2\alpha} }x} - \exp{-\frac{2(1+c)}{c^{2\alpha}}M}}, &\epsilon \le x \le M
\end{cases}
\end{eqnarray*}

We determine from continuity at $x = \epsilon$ of $g$ and $g^\prime$ that
\begin{eqnarray*}
A^\prime  &=& \frac{c^{2\alpha + 1}}{2(1+c)^2}\,\exp{\frac{2(1+c)}{c^{2\alpha}} \epsilon}\\
D &=& \frac{M-\epsilon}{1+c} + A^\prime\parens{\exp{-\frac{2(1+c)}{c^{2\alpha}}\epsilon} - \exp{-\frac{2(1+c)}{c^{2\alpha} }x}}, ~~\epsilon \le x \le M
\end{eqnarray*}

Finally, set $\epsilon = \frac{1}{1+c}$, and let $c \rightarrow \infty$ and
verify that $A^\prime$ and $D$ tend to zero as $c \rightarrow \infty$ and we
have shown that $V(x;\alpha) \equiv 0$ for $\alpha < \frac{1}{2}$.
\end{proof}

\begin{remark}

Under this model one can retire in arbitrarliy small expected time. This should probably
be interpreted that the model with $\alpha < \frac{1}{2}$ does not represent
the real world; models should be looked at carefully and rejected if they do
not conform to reality, unless of course, reality is incorrect.

\end{remark}

\acks
We thank Professor Lawrence Brown and Professor Michael Harrison for their invaluable advice.

\bibliographystyle{apt}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaArXiv


text:
Articles: disaster response
Puerto Rico Pets: Please Help
animal shelters, cats, disaster response, dogs, Featured, human animal bond, veterinary health
What's the truth about the situation in Puerto Rico? And how are the companion animals enduring? People have asked, "How can help the dogs and cats; what organization should I donate?" There is no easy answer for that. Here's the closest I came up with: Defensa Animal de Rincon Puerto Rico appears an excellent choice.…
Save Animals from Hurricane Regions, But Never Forget Local Animals In Need
cat behavior, cats, disaster response, dogs, Featured, Steve Dale, veterinary health
Following Hurricanes Irma and Harvey companion animals were delivered to many urban areas far away from the disaster zones, including Chicago, San Diego, Los Angeles and others. Sounds good? In some ways, maybe not. Certainly, lives do get saved as mostly these animals are successfully adopted. There's a curious celebrity value for animals rescued from…
Holiday Inn Turns Away Family Dogs During Hurricane
animals, disaster response, dogs, Featured, human animal bond
This story about the Holiday Inn Express & Suites in Katy, Texas, is shocking. Most of the largest shelter facilities in Houston and nearby cities are accepting pets, including the George R. Brown Convention Center, which is the largest of them all, and as I wrote about, even two furniture stores, which between them accepted around 800…
Fort McMurray Pet Update
disaster response, Featured, Steve Dale, Steve Dale arhives
The wildfires in Fort McMurray, Alberta Canada have had a devastating effect on residents and local animals, from horses to dogs, cats and other family pets. Over 80,000 residents were forced to flea, many with only the clothes on their back. Some people evacuated, assuming it would be for a short time, and then would…
Plight of Animals in Fort McMurray
animal news, disaster response, veterinary health
Fort McMurray residents were ordered to evacuate so quickly many didn't take their pets when the wildfires quickly hit May 3. Others were away when the evacuations occurred, and weren't allowed to retrieve pets, or anything else for that matter. Aside from emergency crews, no one is allowed to return the city, leaving animals to…
Dogs in Flint Reported with Lead Poisoning
disaster response, dogs, human animal bond, Steve Dale, Steve Dale arhives, veterinary health
Several dogs in Flint, MI have tested positive for lead during three recent screenings by Michigan State University's College of Veterinary Medicine. It was bound to happen. Daniel Langlois, assistant professor with MSU's College of Veterinary Medicine, said 14 of more than 170 dogs tested showed lead in their blood during the free screenings being…
Oklahoma Tornado Survivor Finds A Friend in Rubble
disaster response, dogs, human animal bond, pets
Few were found in the rubble in Oklahoma, the devastation left behind as a result of the tornadoes. Barbara Garcia was one of many Moore, OK residents whose home was destroyed. Her on-camera interview with CBS following the storm began like many others as she described grabbing her dog and taking shelter in the bathroom of…
September 11 Brought Us Together….What Happened?
disaster response, pets, Search and Rescue dogs, Steve Dale
By Steve Dale What do our pets really know? Of course, I remember exactly what I was doing on Sept. 11, 2001. I happened to be watching the Today Show when the first tower of the World Trade Center was hit. Soon, it became apparent that America was under attack. My wife, Robin, who then…
Family Reunited in Joplin
animal shelters, cats, disaster response, dogs, pets
In Joplin, MO Jeremy Williams said that his family's two-story home was literally blown away, though that wasn't his most major concern. True most of the family survived the 200 mile-per-hour winds – and without injury – except for one. One family member remained missing until May 26, the family dog, Betty. A registered nurse…
Animal Rescuers Are Angels on Earth
American Humane Association, cats, disaster response, dogs, horses, pets
By Steve Dale Of course, there's no way to count the lives saved by the American Humane Association's Red Star Emergency Services teams since its inception in 1916 to help animals on the battlefield during World War II. Since then, Red Star has responded to disasters across the U.S., from Hurricane Katrina and 9/11 to…

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Abstract: Papers of the American poet, playwright, novelist, editor of Contemporary Verse, 1917-1925, translator of Scandinavian verse, educator. Collection includes correspondence, mostly in connection with Contemporary Verse; and writings, in manuscript and published versions, including essays, novels, plays, and poems; photographs; and extensive family and literary correspondence (1899-1970).
Charles Wharton Stork was an American author, a graduate of Haverford and of Harvard, and taught in the Department of English at the University of Pennsylvania. Stork produced poems, plays, novels, and translations of Scandinavian verse, and was the editor of Contemporary Verse from 1917-1925.
The Charles Wharton Stork Papers consist of manuscripts, published material, legal papers such as wills and deeds, clippings, scrapbooks, photographs and correspondence. The vast majority of the collection consists of writings, both manuscript and unpublished. The inventory below includes a small original accession and a substantially larger 1993 accession; there are also smaller additions that do not appear on this finding aid. The collection has not been processed and remains in original order; following is a box list only.
The collection has not been processed and remains in original order. The original accession contains BOTH manuscripts and published material; these items are listed separately below but are intermingled in the boxes. Note that box numbering restarts with the 1993 accession so box numbers are not unique; please specify accession and box number when requesting material.
Stork, Charles Wharton, 1881- Archives.
Little magazines -- United States.
See Published material below for a list of books contained in Boxes 1-7.
Box 1 "T.S. Eliot Revises His Creed" - typescript, 20 pp.
Box 2 The Egoist - typescript, 180 pp.
Box 2 Falstaff on Broadway - typescript carbon, 66 pp.
Box 2 Walt: The Pageant of an American - typescript, 113 pp.
Box 3 Early Reflections of	Ezra Pound - typescript, 18 pp.
Box 4 "Recalling a Breton Sailor" - typescript, 4 pp.
Box 4 "A Visit to Pandit Nehru" - typescript, 4 pp.
Box 4 "The Western Lake, Hangchow" - typescript, 3ppp.
Box 4 "Coffee With Sibelius" - typescript, 4 pp.
See Published material below for a listing of Box 5 contents.
Box 6 "Personal Impressions of Bernard Shaw" - typescript, 16 pp.
Box 6 "The Later Yeats Revisited" - typescript, 9 pp.
Box 6 "Three Variations" - typescript, 8 pp.
Box 6 "When You Go to Oxford" - typescript, 6 pp.
Box 6 "The Homebreaker" - typescript, 37 pp.
Box 6 "Of Food and Eating" - typescript, 13 pp.
Box 6 "The Ball of Twine" - typescript, 17 pp.
Box 7 Alcibiades - Galleys.
See Manuscripts above for a list of manuscripts contained in Boxes 1-7.
Box 1 The Poetic Year for 1916: A critical Anthology by William Stanley Braithwaite. CWS poem included.
Box 3 The Golden Year: The Poetry Society of America Anthology (1910-1960).	New York; The Fine Editions Press, 1960. poem of CWS included.
Box 2 The Motherless by Bengt Berg - translation by CWS typescript ms.
Box 2 The Motherless by Bengt Berg - translation by CWS holograph ms.
Box 2 The New Spirit in American Poetry - holograph ms.
Box 2 The Wind That Shakes the Barley by James Barke - review by CWS typescript and holo.
Box 5 Mustard Magill - typescript/manuscript in envelope "Baseball Novel"
Box 6 Box Containing plays "Sharing" and "Getting Together"
Box 9 Misc. Children's poems by Elizabeth P. Stork?
Box 15 England Reclaimed by Sir Osbert Sitwell - review by CWS typescript and holo.
Box 15 Lead, Kindly Light by Vincent Sheean - review by CWS typescript and holo.
Box 16 Misc. clippings in "Clipping File"
Box 17 Loose poems "To Joseph Sevem" and "Love and Life"
Box 17 "The Influence of the Popular Ballad an Wordsworth and Coleridge"
Box 17 "The Poetry of Viktor Rydberg"
Box 18 Delaware Tercentenary 1638-1938 "Tercentenary Hymn" p.4 "The Quarter-Deck"
Box 18 "Ten Years of American Poetry"
Box 18 Old Penn Weekly Review "Eminent American Poet to Lecture"
Box 18 NY Center P.E.N.
Box 19 "The House That Bert Built"
Box 19 "Time Will Tell"
Box 20 "Three Volumes of Recent Verse"
Box 20 "From Olympus to Asphalt"
Box 20 "Personality and Art"
Box 28 Albertson, Charles C.
Box 28 Allinson, Francis G.
Box 28 Benson, Adolph B.
Box 28 Buck, Pearl S.
Box 29 Carroll, Ellen M.
Box 29 Cunningham, Nora B.
Box 29 Douglas, Hugh A.
Box 29 Draper, John W.
Box 30 Frederick, John T.
Box 30 Samuel French, Inc.
Box 30 Gummere, Richard M.
Box 32 Klapp, William H.
Box 33 Lindabury, Richard V.
Box 33 Longfellow, Herbert H.
Box 33 McGee, Margaret B.
Box 33 Mencken, H. L.
Box 34 Morris, Harrison S.
Box 34 Murphy, Charles R.
Box 34 Nimitz, Chester W.
Box 35 Peel, Robert P.E.N.
Box 35 Pfeiffer, Edward H.
Box 36 Roe, Robert J.
Box 36 Rolvaag, O. E.
Box 38 Thayer, William R.
Box 39 Washburn, Oliver M.
Box 39 Weil, James L.
Box 39 Wrinn, Mary J. J.


RAM Commander is the pioneering Reliability and Safety software for reliability professionals and design engineers. RAM Commander combines ingenuity of approach, calculation accuracy, convenience of use. Designed by reliability engineers, RAM Commander covers the entire scope of engineering tasks related to reliability of electronic, electro-mechanical and mechanical systems.
RAM Commander is modular software allowing a customer the flexibility of gradual addition of the modules to the package in accordance with the requirements of a project or the budget constraints. List of RAM Commander modules contains Reliability Maintainability, RBD, Fault Tree Analysis, Event Tree Analysis, Safety Assessment, Spare Parts optimization, Derating, FMECA and Testability Analysis, Process&Design FMEA and more.


This month I have organised for Ian Randall (@Kiwipom) to talk at the April XDDN meeting.
I have also created a new twitter account @XDDN_AU from which I will be tweeting all of the sessions for Melbourne, Sydney & Perth. Be sure to follow it.
Learn about creating great MVVM applications with LESS CODE. Ian Randall will be demonstrating how to use Caliburn.Micro to create cleaner XAML based applications. These techniques will work with WinRT (Windows 8), Silverlight, Windows Phone 7 and WPF.
Time: 5:30 pm networking & pizza.
Caliburn.Micro (http://caliburnmicro.codeplex.com/) is more than just an MVVM library, it's a client application framework that works every bit as hard for your app that a web framework does: Logging, composition, binding, and much, much more.
This session will cover getting started with Caliburn.Micro and give practical demonstrations of Convention Over Configuration, Actions, Screens & Conductors and will go a bit deeper under the covers (if we get time).
He loves Melbourne, partly for the friendly Victorian people, but mostly for @aeoth's legendary chocolate brownies.
Windows 8 has been announced to the public and is being branded as "Windows reimagined". This introductory session will show some of the new features coming with Windows 8.
A touch first interface, user account syncing via the cloud, "charms", app to app data sharing, and the ability to use a picture password to log into windows will all be demonstrated.
So you've heard that Windows 8 has a new way of applications known as "Metro styled immersive apps", but what does this actually mean? What is WinRT? Is Microsoft really making developers use HTML5 to create desktop apps? What about your previous investments in Silverlight?
Join David Burela as he helps clarify what the new programming model is and what impact it will have on you. Explanations of WinRT and how to create basic applications will be shown.


The October full Moon on the 15th stirs a remarkable vulnerability with Moon in a very delicate gap point between Pisces and Aries. At 22:23 MDT, the fullness of the Moon arrives at the edge of Pisces, just past 29 degrees. The portal between endings and beginnings is activated, awake, alive. Pure vulnerability is provoked at this time, while simultaneously ushering in mystical and spiritual power. The Pisces/Aries gandanta (gap) is particularly challenging as Moon shifts from water into fire, release and liberation into hope and possibility.


text:
Q: how to destroy activity if I'm in a surfaceView I have two activities. My MainActivity has a button with OnClickListener that starts second activity using
startActivity(new Intent(MainActivity.this,Second.class));

In my second activity I set up some SurfaceView:
setContentView(new SecondView(this));

From that SecondView class I call other classes and do some tasks. After a certain user input I want to exit/destroy second activity and go back to main activity. I've tried this (found it as answer to someones question):
SecondActivity getBack = new SecondActivity();
getBack.finish();

but it does not work -> app has stopped.
My question is: how to stop/exit activity In this kind of situation? Or should I approach this some other way?
Regards, Coding_for_fun
(As before, if I find a solution on my own I'll paste it here so others can use it.)
EDITED
Ok, this is what I have in LogCat(don't know what you need):
04-27 15:18:42.107: I/ActivityManager(383): Displayed com.example.nova/.MainActivity: +1s834ms
04-27 15:19:21.287: E/SoundPool(383): error loading /system/media/audio/ui/Effect_Tick.ogg
04-27 15:19:21.287: W/AudioService(383): Soundpool could not load file: /system/media/audio/ui/Effect_Tick.ogg
04-27 15:19:21.297: I/ActivityManager(383): START u0 {cmp=com.example.nova/.GameActivity} from pid 3101
04-27 15:19:21.317: E/SoundPool(383): error loading /system/media/audio/ui/Effect_Tick.ogg
04-27 15:19:21.317: W/AudioService(383): Soundpool could not load file: /system/media/audio/ui/Effect_Tick.ogg
04-27 15:19:21.317: E/SoundPool(383): error loading /system/media/audio/ui/Effect_Tick.ogg
04-27 15:19:21.317: W/AudioService(383): Soundpool could not load file: /system/media/audio/ui/Effect_Tick.ogg
04-27 15:19:21.327: E/SoundPool(383): error loading /system/media/audio/ui/Effect_Tick.ogg
04-27 15:19:21.327: W/AudioService(383): Soundpool could not load file: /system/media/audio/ui/Effect_Tick.ogg
04-27 15:19:21.327: E/SoundPool(383): error loading /system/media/audio/ui/Effect_Tick.ogg
04-27 15:19:21.327: W/AudioService(383): Soundpool could not load file: /system/media/audio/ui/Effect_Tick.ogg
04-27 15:19:21.327: E/SoundPool(383): error loading /system/media/audio/ui/KeypressStandard.ogg
04-27 15:19:21.327: W/AudioService(383): Soundpool could not load file: /system/media/audio/ui/KeypressStandard.ogg
04-27 15:19:21.327: E/SoundPool(383): error loading /system/media/audio/ui/KeypressSpacebar.ogg
04-27 15:19:21.327: W/AudioService(383): Soundpool could not load file: /system/media/audio/ui/KeypressSpacebar.ogg
04-27 15:19:21.327: E/SoundPool(383): error loading /system/media/audio/ui/KeypressDelete.ogg
04-27 15:19:21.327: W/AudioService(383): Soundpool could not load file: /system/media/audio/ui/KeypressDelete.ogg
04-27 15:19:21.327: E/SoundPool(383): error loading /system/media/audio/ui/KeypressReturn.ogg
04-27 15:19:21.327: W/AudioService(383): Soundpool could not load file: /system/media/audio/ui/KeypressReturn.ogg
04-27 15:19:21.327: E/SoundPool(383): error loading /system/media/audio/ui/KeypressInvalid.ogg
04-27 15:19:21.327: W/AudioService(383): Soundpool could not load file: /system/media/audio/ui/KeypressInvalid.ogg
04-27 15:19:21.337: W/AudioService(383): onLoadSoundEffects(), Error -1 while loading samples
04-27 15:19:21.677: D/LightsService(383): Excessive delay setting light: 447ms
04-27 15:19:21.727: D/LightsService(383): Excessive delay setting light: 53ms
04-27 15:19:21.907: W/EGL_emulation(3101): eglSurfaceAttrib not implemented
04-27 15:19:22.217: I/Choreographer(3101): Skipped 34 frames!  The application may be doing too much work on its main thread.
04-27 15:19:22.407: D/(3101): HostConnection::get() New Host Connection established 0xb8491668, tid 3117
04-27 15:19:22.807: I/ActivityManager(383): Displayed com.example.nova/.GameActivity: +1s426ms
04-27 15:19:24.397: D/dalvikvm(3101): GC_FOR_ALLOC freed 309K, 12% free 2962K/3360K, paused 45ms, total 47ms
04-27 15:19:26.617: D/dalvikvm(3101): GC_FOR_ALLOC freed 433K, 17% free 2962K/3552K, paused 35ms, total 41ms
04-27 15:19:26.917: W/EGL_emulation(3101): eglSurfaceAttrib not implemented
04-27 15:19:37.907: W/ActivityManager(383): Activity destroy timeout for ActivityRecord{b4165e70 u0 com.example.nova/.GameActivity t41 f}
04-27 15:20:52.987: D/ConnectivityService(383): Sampling interval elapsed, updating statistics ..
04-27 15:20:53.077: D/ConnectivityService(383): Done.
04-27 15:20:53.077: D/ConnectivityService(383): Setting timer for 720seconds
04-27 15:20:53.267: D/MobileDataStateTracker(383): default: setPolicyDataEnable(enabled=true)
04-27 15:20:53.317: V/BackupManagerService(383): Running a backup pass
04-27 15:20:53.327: V/BackupManagerService(383): clearing pending backups
04-27 15:20:53.327: V/PerformBackupTask(383): Beginning backup of 7 targets
04-27 15:20:53.357: I/LatinIME:LogUtils(521): Dictionary info: dictionary = UserHistoryDictionary.en_US.dic ; version = ? ; date = 1398626453
04-27 15:20:53.357: I/PerformBackupTask(383): Initializing (wiping) backup state and transport storage
04-27 15:20:53.377: D/BackupManagerService(383): Now staging backup of android
04-27 15:20:53.397: D/BackupManagerService(383): Now staging backup of com.android.providers.settings
04-27 15:20:53.407: D/BackupManagerService(383): Now staging backup of com.android.providers.userdictionary
04-27 15:20:53.407: D/BackupManagerService(383): Now staging backup of com.android.dialer
04-27 15:20:53.417: D/BackupManagerService(383): Now staging backup of com.android.sharedstoragebackup
04-27 15:20:53.427: D/BackupManagerService(383): Now staging backup of com.android.browser
04-27 15:20:53.427: D/BackupManagerService(383): Now staging backup of com.android.calendar
04-27 15:20:53.437: V/LocalTransport(383): wiping all data
04-27 15:20:53.467: D/PerformBackupTask(383): invokeAgentForBackup on @pm@
04-27 15:20:53.467: E/PerformBackupTask(383): Error invoking for backup on @pm@
04-27 15:20:53.487: I/PerformBackupTask(383): Backup pass finished.
04-27 15:20:53.487: E/PerformBackupTask(383): Duplicate finish

Now my app goes back to MainActivity but but just freeze there.

A: Your approach is wrong, you create a new class and call finish to it. But this class is not related to any Activity in Android so the application will crash.
To fix it, you should use the instance which you pass to it when you create it
setContentView(new SecondView(this));

You should edit your SecondView class to save it.
So create a field
private Activity activity;

and in your constructor
activity = (Activity)context;

Then, when you want to destroy the activity
activity.finish();

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Q: Running .NET .exe in Azure Data Factory I have an .exe (console application) file written in C# , which I want to run using Azure Data Factory.
What are the steps I need to do to achieve this?
I know that for .dll files we have options to run them in azure, but what about .exe files?

A: You can't. Stop trying to put a square peg in a round hole. It will have to be wrapped up as an ADF custom activity.
You need to inherit from the ADF base class and call the IDictionary execute method.
For example:
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;

using Microsoft.Azure;
using Microsoft.Azure.Management.DataFactories.Models;
using Microsoft.Azure.Management.DataFactories.Runtime;

namespace ClassLibrary1
{
    public class Class1 : IDotNetActivity
    {
        public IDictionary string, string Execute(
                IEnumerable linkedServices,
                IEnumerable datasets,
                Activity activity,
                IActivityLogger logger)
        {
            logger.Write("Start");

            //Get extended properties
            DotNetActivity dotNetActivityPipeline = (DotNetActivity)activity.TypeProperties;

            string sliceStartString = dotNetActivityPipeline.ExtendedProperties["SliceStart"];

            //Get linked service details
            Dataset inputDataset = datasets.Single(dataset = dataset.Name == activity.Inputs.Single().Name);
            Dataset outputDataset = datasets.Single(dataset = dataset.Name == activity.Outputs.Single().Name);

            /*
                DO STUFF
            */

            logger.Write("End");

            return new Dictionary string, string();
        }
    }
}

Source: https://www.purplefrogsystems.com/paul/2016/11/creating-azure-data-factory-custom-activities/
Whatever methods you have in the console app just rewrite them as a class that can be instantiated by the Azure Batch Service compute pool, which is where ADF passed the compiled to.
This is how ADF does it.
Hope this helps.

A: Try function app where you can write same C# code and call the app from ADF as a HTTP call

A: As Paul Andrew has pointed out, you need to use the custom activities SPI as described at https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/data-factory/data-factory-use-custom-activities. You have three options:

*

*Change your project into a class library

*If you need the executable for some other purpose, refactor your solution into three separate projects: a class library containing the common logic, an executable project, and a data factory custom activity

*If you cannot change the code for some reason, you can create an activity that calls the .exe directly. A sample is provided at
https://github.com/Azure/Azure-DataFactory/blob/master/Samples/RunRScriptUsingADFSample/InvokeRScript.cs


text:
Q: ASM Replacing scancodes with ASCII characters I have this code:
bits 16

org 0x7C00
start: jmp main

key: dw 0x1e, 'a', 0x30, 'b'

print:
    mov ah, 0x0E
    int 0x10

keyboard:
    cli
    in al, 0x64
    test al, 1
    jz return
    test al, 0x20
    jnz return

    in al, 0x60

    call convert

    call print
    sti

convert:
    mov bx, 0
    .LOOP:
        cmp al, [key+bx]
        je .conv
        add bx, 2
        jmp .LOOP
    .conv:
        mov al, [key+bx+1]
        ret

return:
    ret

main:
    call keyboard
    jmp main

times 510 - ($-$$) db 0
dw 0xAA55

It checks for keypressess and everytime I press a key, I save it to register al and then wanna print it out.
But it is only the scancode that gets saved and i need to replace it with ASCII character, I do that with the array 'key', but it doesn't work and only prints out only 1 key and then the program just lags.

A: I fixed it by separating keydowns and keyups
The code:
bits 16

org 0x7C00
mov cl, 0
start: jmp main

keydown: db 0x1e, 'a', 0x30, 'b'

keyup: db 0x9e, 'a', 0xb0, 'b'

print:
    mov ah, 0x0E
    int 0x10

keyboard:
    cli
    in al, 0x64
    test al, 1
    jz return
    test al, 0x20
    jnz return

    in al, 0x60

    cmp cl, 0
    je keypress
    jmp keyrelease

keyrelease:
    mov cl, 0
    sti
    ret

keypress:
    mov cl, 1
    call convert
    call print
    sti
    ret

convert:
    mov bx, 0
    .LOOP:
        cmp al, [keydown+bx]
        je .conv
        add bx, 2
        jmp .LOOP
    .conv:
        mov al, [keydown+bx+1]
        ret

return:
   ret

main:
    call keyboard
    jmp main

    times 510 - ($-$$) db 0
    dw 0xAA55


text:
From The Cure Parkinson's Trust Website
Alison Anderson – Fundraiser of the Year 2017
We are delighted that Alison Anderson is the Alex Flynn Award winner of 2017! Following her diagnosis with Parkinson's, Alison was determined to move forward with optimism – so she took on an awesome and inspiring challenge…
Alison Anderson was diagnosed with Parkinson's at 46. Although devastated initially, she was determined to move forward in a positive way. Inspired by a meeting with the late Tom Isaacs, President and Co-founder of The Cure Parkinson's Trust (CPT), Alison decided to embark upon an ambitious cycle challenge. She gathered together an awesome team of fellow cyclists with her at the helm to cycle 500km from Vietnam to Cambodia, raising funds and awareness for The Cure Parkinson's Trust (CPT). We, of course, are delighted to announce that Alison is the recipient of the 2017 Alex Flynn Award!
Following her diagnosis, Alison found hope and support from others in a similar situation. Her introduction to CPT and fellow person with Parkinson's (PwP) Tom Isaacs made a lasting impression, and provided her with optimism and a real sense of hope for the future. "His positivity, humour and all that he had achieved made me realise that with the right attitude there is no limit to what we can do," she recalls. Undeterred by her condition and motivated by the benefits of exercise for those living with Parkinson's, Alison decided to take on the huge cycling challenge in support of CPT.
Alison's team of fifteen others, mostly non-cyclists, and known as 'The Cyclopaths' dedicated themselves to ten months of rigorous training in preparation for the 500km route which lay ahead, taking them from Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam to Ankor Wat in Cambodia.
Cycling up to 90 kilometres per day in the unrelenting humidity of Southeast Asia, through dirt track roads and untrodden paths is no mean feat for even the most seasoned of cyclists. Yet, The Cyclopaths completed the challenge with unyielding enthusiasm. Their route took them along the Mekong Delta, to the Khmer capital of Phnom Penh and on to Siem Reap and finally on to the famous World Heritage site of Angkor Wat. "I loved every single minute of it" says Alison. "We saw the real Cambodia and Vietnam, far away from the tourist routes. It was physically demanding and time consuming but we had so much fun. We became a fantastic team and we all shared and gained something from this wonderful experience."
In addition to this incredible challenge, the group also spent months raising funds through a variety of other means, from coffee mornings and cake sales to concerts, barn dances and fashion shows. Alison and her team raised more than £42,000 for CPT, exceeding their initial target by over £7,000. We are so grateful to Alison and all our fundraisers who give their time to support our work.
"Alison is an inspiration. She is an adventurer in the way she designed and undertook the Cyclopath's challenge whilst raising such significant funds for CPT, but she is also a phenomenal advocate for Parkinson's research, informed and insightful. She is a mentor to others with Parkinson's and is greatly respected and admired for her empathy, knowledge, understanding and encouragement."
Helen Matthews, Deputy CEO, The Cure Parkinson's Trust.
In the run up to the challenge and throughout her journey, Alison recorded the team's adventure in a blog. Despite never having used social media before, Alison garnered the support of hundreds of followers, creating a real focus around the event and further raising awareness of the cause. "It took me out of my comfort zone but was great fun. All the team contributed their own perspectives and stories to the blog and it's a wonderful record of our team challenge from concept to completion."
Not only did Alison's adventure raise a huge amount of funds and awareness for CPT, but her story has gone on to provide hope and inspiration to so many others. We are pleased to report that The Cyclopaths will continue cycling their way through 2018, with a new adventure from Land's End to John O'Groats currently being planned!


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Worth Dying For, by Lee Child
Reacher has become one of my favorite characters over the past few years and Worth Dying For doesn't disappoint. As usual, he doesn't go looking for trouble, but it certainly finds him. When he runs into a drunk doctor in Nebraska refusing to treat what is almost certainly a case of domestic abuse, Reacher wades with both fists wailing and changes a county for the better, solving a twenty-five year old child abduction case as well. The ending is never in doubt, but the path from A to B is suspenseful and exciting.
A solid story and great characters are the hallmarks of Child's novels, but I must admit I was a bit frustrated at the cold open. In the previous episode Reacher was caught in an explosion that he seemed unlikely to survive. Here, we find him simple wandering into a motel for a cup of coffee and cheap bed for the night with no explanation of how he escaped—much less avoiding the aftermath undetected. Didn't hurt the story at all, but Child needs to figure out if these books are going to be isolated tales of cowboy justice or if they are truly a progression through time.
Eldridge Tyler was driving a long straight two-lane road in Nebraska when his cell phone rang.
Categories: author:child, crime, fiction, mystery, series, thrillers
Gilligan's Wake: A Novel, by Tom Carson
This is an amazing book, a true pop-culture smorgasbord. Seven vignettes make up this novel, one for each castaway from Gilligan's Island. However, the characters aren't as we remember or expect. We find Gilligan committed to the Cleaver Ward (across the hall from the Burt Ward) of a psychiatric hospital, insisting that he is Maynard G. Krebs and attended to by Dr. Kildare F. Troop. The Skipper describes his time serving in the U.S. Navy with McHale, JFK, and Nixon. Thurston Howell is a naive millionaire that gets mixed up with Alger Hiss and Communist spies; his wife Lovey a morphine-addicted lesbian paired with Daisy Buchanan. That's when things start to get weird!
Ginger's story (fittingly titled Hello Nurse) tells how she got into bondage porn with Bettie Page before getting thrown out of Sinatra's house after a post-coital insult to Sammy Davis, Jr. The Professor is a narcissistic pedophile that was a part of the Manhattan Project, founded a secret society with Roy Cohn and Henry Kissinger that purposefully instigated schemes such as the Suez Canal crisis and the homeless problem, and briefly turns into Godzilla. Mary-Ann dates Jean-Luc Goddard in Paris and discovers she is not only doomed to be a perpetual virgin, but a fictional character to boot.
Subtle and not-so-subtle nods to the television series abound, such as each tale having a character or artifact named with an anagram of Gilligan, or working the word "castaway" and "minnow" into several passages. A man named John Gilbert Egan also figures into each story; at the close of the novel Mary-Ann's imaginary roommate explains that Egan is actually the author and causes a breach in the fourth wall explaining to us, the readers, how the individual tales all knit together.
Surreal, clever, and inventive, this book was utterly fantastic.
Skippertoo and get me home, I mean if you really want to hear about it.
Categories: alternate history, author:carson, entertainment, fiction, tv


text:
Home Projects Science Laboratory Technology ASYMPTOMATIC BACTERIURIA AMONG PREGNANT WOMEN ATTENDING ANTENATAL CLINIC OF GENERAL HOSPITAL
ASYMPTOMATIC BACTERIURIA AMONG PREGNANT WOMEN ATTENDING ANTENATAL CLINIC OF GENERAL HOSPITAL
Chrisantus Oden
ASYMPTOMATIC BACTERIURIA AMONG PREGNANT WOMEN ATTENDING ANTENATAL CLINIC OF GENERAL HOSPITAL EKWULOBIA
PREVALENCE OF ASYMPTOMATIC BACTERIURIA IN PREGNANCY
COMPLICATION OF ASYMPTOMATIC BACTERIURIA IN PREGNANCY
EXPECTATION (PROGNOSIS)
TREATMENT OF ASYMPTOMATIC BACTERIURIA
Studies on asymptomatic bacteriuria among pregnant women attending antenatal clinic of the General Hospital Ekwulobia was undertaken, hundred urine samples were collected then centrifuged and 1 ml of the supernatant was inoculated on the prepared Nutrient Agar and Macconkey agar then incubated at 370c for 48 hours. Pure colonies were obtained by sub culturing. Morphological and biochemical characterization of the isolates identified bacteria of the general Staphylococcus, Streptococcus, Proteus and Escherichia. The result showed that 72(72%) of the pregnant women are asymptomatic. E. coli was sensitive to Reflacine but resistant to Tarivid, Staphylococcus aureus was sensitive to gentamicin and resistant to Nalidixic acid. There is need for routine screening of urine of pregnant women as part of antenatal health care for pregnant women in Nigeria.
Asymptomatic bacteriuria refers to the presence of bacteria in Urine. It is a conduction in which urine reveals a significant growth of pathogens that is greater than 105 bacteria/ml, but without the patient showing symptoms of urinary tract infection (UTI) (Girbert et al; 2005).
This common during pregnancy. The apparent reduction in immunity of pregnant women appears to encourage the growth of both commensal and non-commensal microorganism (Scott et al; 1990).
The physiological increase in plasma volume during pregnancy decrease urine concentration and up to 70% pregnant women develop glycosuria, which encourage bacteria growth in urine (Patterson et al; 1987 luces et al; 1993).
Pregnancy enhances the progression from asymptomatic bacteriuria which could lead to pyelonephritis and adverse obstetric out comes such as prematurity, low birth weight (Connolly et al; 1999) and higher foetal mortality rates (Nicolle, 1994, Delzell et al; 2000) the adverse effects of undiagnosed asymptomatic bacteriuria on mother and child have made researchers to suggest routine culture screening for all pregnant women attending antenatal clinic (Kirlam, 2005) in order to prevent mother and child from any form of complication that may arise due to infection.
However, in many hospitals in developing countries including Nigeria, routine urine culture test is not carried out for antenatal patients. Probably due to cost implication and time factors for culture result (Usually 48 hour period) instead many clinicians opt for the strip urinalysis method for accessing urine in pregnant women.
The true picture of such urine specimen cannot be fully accessed as the strip cannot qualify the extent of infection in such a patient as well as provide antimicrobial therapy which is usually seen in the case of culture test. In many health centers in developing countries. The attention of clinicians and health care providers is usually on the presence of glucose and protein in urine specimens with less attention on possible asymptomatic infection.
The incidence of asymptomatic bacteriuria is reported as 2-4% during pregnancy. Pregnant women and their unborn foetuses may be at risk of complication Guyton, 1996, Lindsay, 2003, Blumberg etal; 2005).
Quantitative criteria for identifying significant bacteriuria in an asymptomatic person is at least 100 cfu/mc of urine from a catheterized specimen (Warren et al; 1982, husky et al; 1987, saint et al; 2003). According to the infections disease society of America (IDSA) guideline. The diagnosis of asymptomatic bacteriuria in pregnant women is appropriate only if the same species is present in quantities at least 10 cfu/ml in at least two consecutive voided specimens (Nicolle, 2003, Nicolle et al; 2005).
AIM OF STUDY
Asymptomatic bacteriuria is common in pregnant women and if untreated could lead to serious complications. Although asymptomatic bacteriuria could also lead to such complications, this fact is not well known.
This study is to determining the prevalence of asymptomatic bacteriuria among pregnant women attending antenatal clinic at the General Hospital Ekwulobia.
SIGNIFICANCE OF STDY
The importance of this study is to determine the bacterial load, kinds or species that would be recovered from urine samples of pregnant women attending antenatal at General Hospital Ekwulobia.
SCOPE OF STUDY
This study is therefore undertaken to determine the prevalence of asymptomatic bacteriuria in pregnant women attending antenatal clinic at General Hospital Ekwulobia and to identify the microorganism involved, determine their relative proportions and their antibiotic sensitive.
Asymptomatic bacteriuria is common, with varying prevalence by age sex, sexual activity and prevalence of genitourinary abnormalities (Bakke, et al: 1999, Weities et al; 1993, Chaudhry et al (1993). Escherichia coli is the most common organism isolated from patients with asymptomatic bacteriuria.
Infecting organisms are diverse and include: Enterobacteriaceae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Enterococcus species and the group of Streptococcus. Organisms isolated in patient with asymptomatic bacteriuria will be influenced by patient variable. Healthy person will likely have E. Coli, where as a nursing home resident with a catheter is more likely to have multidrug resistant polymicrobial flora (e.g P. aeruginosa).
Some studies have postulated that since asymptomatic bacteriuria, usually caused by aerobic gram-negative bacilli or staphylococcus haemolyticus can lead to urinary tract infection (UTI), a urine culture should be stained from all women early in pregnancy even in the absence of urinary tract infection symptoms (Connolly et al; 1999, Delzell et al; 2000).
In Ghana, Turpin et al; (2007) reported a prevalence of 7.3% at Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital. The predominant organism were Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus. Akerele et al; (2001) also reported 8.6.6% in Benin City. A prevalence rate of 7% in pregnant women has been reported in Ethiopia (Gebre-Selsassic 1998). In Canada the prevalence rate varies from 4-7%. The prevalence is higher among individual in lower socioeconomic classes and those with a past history of asymptomatic urinary tract infection (Nicolle, 1994).
In Nigeria, Olusanya et al: (1993) reported prevalence rate of 23.9% in Sagamu. Also in research paper published by (Onyeagba et al; 2007) on asymptomatic bacteriuria among pregnant women attending antenatal in Abakaliki Ebonyi State, out of the 150 subjects screened 78.7% (118) had asymptomatic bacteriuria while 21.3%(32) had none. Thirty (30% )of the subjects had one type of bacteria. The frequency of isolation of bacteria. The frequency of isolation of organism was Staphylococcus aureus (27.1%). Escherichia coli (25.2%), klebsiella (23.7%), Proteus (10.2%), Streptococcus (8,.5%) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (5.1%) pregnant woman in their third trimester had the higher prevalence of asymptomatic bacteriuria (36.4%, the age group 31-35 years had the highest prevalence with respect to age while farmers had the highest (90%) with respect to occupation.
More so, the incidence of asymptomatic bacteriuria in pregnant women attending antenatal clinic in Usmanu Danfodiyo University Teaching hospital Sokoto state revealed that (8.0%) was significant, mainly caused by Escherichia coli
The apparent reduction in immunity of pregnant women appears to encourage the growth of both commensal and non-commensal microorganism (Scott et al; 1990). Other factors to be considered include, age of the mother, gestational age, socio-economic factors ( occupation), parity, kidney transplant patients, pregnant mother, patients with cord injuries,. Patient with indwelling urethral catheters.
In healthy women, the prevalence of bacteriuria increase with age, from 1% in females 5-14 years of age to more than 20% in women at least 80 years of age living in the community (Nicolle, 2003).
Studies of women with diabetes show no difference between initially asymptomatic bacteriuria and non-bacteriuria women in the incidence of urinary tract infection mortality progression to diabetic complications at 18 months or 14 years (semet kowska et al; 1995, Geerlings et al; 2001)
Patients with chronic indwelling foley catheters are uniformly bacteriuric, but catheters are warranted only if the patients is symptomatic (warren et al; 1982).
The highest prevalence of asymptomatic bacteriuria was observed among women in their third trimester (33.1%) and least in first trimester (30.5%) (Onyeagba et al; 2007).
Also based on occupation, farmers had the highest prevalence of asymptomatic bacteriuria (90%). Olusanya et al; (1993) observed that most pregnant women with significant bacteriuria belong low socio-economic group.
By definition, asymptomatic bacteriuria showing no symptoms. The symptoms of a urinary tract infection (UTI) include burning during urination, an increased urgency to urinate and increase frequency to urination (Richard et al; 2006).
Acute pyelonephritis, foetal growth restriction and stillbirth in pregnant women have been associated with asymptomatic bacteriuria (Ryan et al; 1990, Zhao and Wu 2014, Hill et al; 2005).
Individuals in high risks group have a significant risk of progressing to a true kidney infection if a bacteria is not treated. In certain case, such as renal transplant recipient, kidney infection may lead to loss of kidney functions (warren et al; 1999).
Women with asymptomatic bacteriuria during pregnancy are more likely to deliver premature or low-birth infants and have a 20 to 30 fold increase risk of developing pyelonephritis during pregnancy compared with women without bacteriuria (Kincaid et al; 1965).
Most pregnant women with asymptomatic bacteriuria who do not have risk factors for complications do extremely well, and do not have any increased rates of symptoms, infection or decrease in kidney function or (Warren et al; 1999).
The prognosis for treatment in the high risk group category is good if the infection is detected early, but the outlook depends on the asymptomatic person underlying conditions or illnesses.
Not all patients with asymptomatic bacteriuria respond to treatment or even need treatment. The infections disease society of America (IDSA) recommends a course of 3-7 days of antimicrobial therapy for pregnant women with asymptomatic bacteriuria (Nicole et al; 2005).
Because leucocyte esterase and nitrite test have low sensitivity for identifying bacteriuria in women who are pregnant, these patient should be screened with urine culture (Bachman et al; 1993). However the optimal frequency of urine culture screening has not been established.
A single urine culture of the end of the first trimester generally is recommended based on clinical outcome and cast effectiveness (Stenguist et al; 1989, Wadland et al; 1989).
Women with asymptomatic bacteriuria or asymptomatic urinary tract infection during pregnancy should be treated and should undergo periodic screening for the during of their pregnancy. Urine that is cloudy or fowl smelling often prompts a call from along term care facility to the physical with an expectation that an evaluation, if an antibiotic therapy, will be ordered.
However, in the asymptomatic patient cloudy or foul smelling urine is not an indication for urinalysis, culture, or antimicrobial treatment. A study of residents in long-term care facilities wit chronic indwelling catheters and bacteriuria who were treated with cephalexin (keflex) or no therapy showed no difference in the incidence of fever or reinfection, however, patients who received antibiotic therapy had twice the incident of subsequent microbial resistance to cephalexin (warren et al;1982). When possible, the indwelling catheter should be removed, and the patient should receive clean intermittent catheterization to reduce the risk of symptomatic urinary tract infection. The replacement of a chronic indwelling foley catheter is associated with a low risk for bacteriuria and antimicrobial treatment or prophylaxis is not indicated for this procedure (Bregenzer et al; 1997). A study in young women with short term catheterization reported increased symptomatic infection over two weeks following catheter removal, when asymptomatic bacteriuria persisted 48hours after the removal of the indwelling catheter (Harding et al; 1991).
According, the IDSA recommended that symptomatic bacteriuria should not be screened for or treated in patients with an indwelling urethral catheter, but that treatment of women with persistence catheter-acquired bacteriuria at least 48hours after catheter removal may be considered (Nicolle et al; 2005).
The presence of simultaneous pyuria does not warrant treatment by its itself.
Screening for asymptomatic bacterium with urine culture and treatment with antibiotics is recommended during pregnancy, because it significantly reduces symptomatic urinary tract infections, low birth weight, and preterm delivery (Lin 2008, Smaill et al; 2007).
This has not been proven for older people or people with diabetes, bladder catheters or spinal cord injuries (Colgan et al; 2005).
Kidney transplant recipients children with vesicoureteral reflux or others with structural abnormalities of the urinary tracts, people with infected kidney stones and those who are having urological procedures might be more likely to benefit from treatment with antibiotics for asymptomatic bacteriuria (Nicolle et al; 2005).
Bacteria can be detected with a urine dipstick test for urinary microscopy, although bacterial culture remains the most specific and formal tact (the gold standard). Bacteriuria can be confirmed if a single bacterial species is isolated in a concentration greater than 100,000 colony forming units per milliliter of urine in clean-catch midstream urine specimen (one for men, two consecutive specimens with the same bacteriuria for women). For urine collected via bladder catheterization, the threshold is 100 colony forming units of a single species per millilitre for women displaying urinary tract infection symptoms(sam et al;1991).
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Humble bowl food found itself basking in the spotlight last year, when Harry and Meghan announced to a surprisingly shocked nation that they wouldn't be serving their guests the usual plated fare at the wedding breakfast. Instead, they were opting for food served – gasp – fashionably concave.
The furore that followed would imply that journalists were either desperate to write about any conceivable aspect of the wedding of the year or that Middle England isn't up to date on its Instagram trends. Or possibly both.
I've never been to a royal wedding so I'm assuming they usually serve gold-plated swan. That's the only explanation for the level of chatter about Harry and Meghan's shocking modernity.
Ever since the Big Day, I've haughtily told the kids that their supper isn't Weetabix – it's BOWL FOOD. But they just give me that look and go back to You Tube.
So I finally got round to upping my game and creating something that can actually be graced with the now-royal appellation.
This hearty ham soup is so much more than a soup. A bowlful of flavour, health and filling goodness, it brings together ham (obviously), onions, carrots, pearl barley, lentils and potatoes for a healthy meal that won't feel like a dull penance. This is the food that will get you through January on track.
• Heat the olive oil in a wide saucepan or casserole over a low heat. Add the onion and carrots and fry very gently for 10 minutes until the onion is translucent. Stir the pearl barley into the pan and pour in the stock. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 30 minutes.
• Add the lentils and diced potato, top up with 1 litre (4 cups) water and cook for a further 30 minutes.
• Add the shredded ham to the pan and cook for a further 5 minutes. Stir in the parsley just before serving.


Dendrite is a social learning platform. A good first step after registering is to learn how the platform works and how to get the most from it. This collection will help you through that.
Scroll down and click on the video guide to suit. There are a simple set of core features and some more complex features for advanced users.
Guides are being developed all the time so come back to learn more.
Join the community to add new threads.
Join the community to add new comments.


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    :business => ['production@theodi.org'],
    :citizen => ['production@theodi.org']
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


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Millions of men, women and children from all around the world walk across the intricate terrazzo surfaces of these popular and iconic Colorado institutions every year. Durable, dramatic and unlike anything else, tile and terrazzo installed by the artisans at Colorado Design, Inc. can be found all around the Denver Metro Area. After decades of experience, and miles of installations, Colorado Design, Inc. is the best choice for government buildings, hospitals, schools and malls.
If you can dream it, we can install it. After partnering for decades with the most prominent firms in the state, Colorado Design Inc. understands the creative process of architects and interior designs. We employ highly-skilled craftsmen and utilize the latest technology to translate even the most sophisticated designs accurately into terrazzo flooring and surfaces.
Recycled materials and low VOC epoxy make Colorado Design Inc.'s terrazzo flooring and counters an environmentally-friendly option for commercial buildings, and may provide vital points towards LEED® certification. Additionally, some custom terrazzo designs may qualify for public art status in Colorado and be eligible for state funding.
Colorado Design, Inc. demonstrates accountability and pro-active project management throughout the entire installation process. We don't just follow the project plan, we drive it. Our long record of rewarding partnerships serves as testament for our high level of service, quality and adherence to timelines and budget. Terrazzo and tile installed by Colorado Design Inc. will last the lifetime of its building, and will stay as beautiful and luminous as the day it was installed.
There's a separate set of instructions for cooking at higher altitudes and terrazzo is no exception. Epoxy behaves differently in the Rockies, and so do the materials mixed in it. Colorado Design Inc. knows and understands the subtleties of a successful terrazzo installation in our state. Don't let ignorance or inexperience cause unnecessary delays in your timeline.


The DataGrid is a Web control that encapsulates a lot of functionality that is common to most data driven pages. You can easily create a dynamic data driven page that does a lot of things that would have taken you tons of code if done in classic ASP. Of course, the easiest way to explain the power is through a series of examples. Veteran Web developers will recognize these examples as those that they constantly need to create for each Website.
This example is the simplest of them all. In fact, in this one, I'm purposely adding a little code, rather than set everything through the DataGrid's properties, so that you can have a slightly better understanding of how it works.
Let us first simple create a new ASP.NET page that displays information from a Access table. The code in file PCQ6-1.ASPX on the CD along with the file PRODUCTS.MDB allows you to see the DataGrid in action.
So now for an explanation of what goes on, check table 1 (in the ASP tables for CD) on CD.
These lines define the way that the DataGrid displays the data. The grid is given the name "MyDataGrid" and sets a few display parameters such as the cellpadding and cellspacing as well as whether the grid lines should be shown or not.
The HeaderStyle element within the DataGrid defines the style of the table's header — the one that shows the names of the fields being displayed. The ItemStyle on the other hand sets the style of the actual data being shown as well.
As you can see, the amount of code in this is comparable to one that you could have written in ASP. But let us now look at a slightly more complex example.
In this example, we shall create a data list similar to the one above, but will have each alternating item in the list in a different color. You will have seen such effects on many commercial sites that display a list of products for you to choose from. Don't mind the garish colors in the sample — they're for demonstration only.
Although the file PCQ6-2.ASPX on the CD gives you the full code, the only change between this and the previous one is the DataGrid definition itself as shown in table 3 on CD.
All the rest being the same, only the addition of a new AlternatingItemStyle element makes it different. This element defines the style of each alternate element and changes it accordingly.
Here is where you start seeing the benefit of using a DataGrid. Doing this in classic ASP would require you to keep an alternating counter and checking the value each time before you draw the table out. With ASP.NET and the DataGrid this becomes a very simple task.
Another major task in ASP is creating lists that span "pages". That is, a user should be able to view only a few records on one page and to see the rest he has to navigate to them. In ASP, this requires a ton of coding and error checking.
In ASP.NET and DataGrid, all it takes is setting a few properties. Take a look at the following DataGrid definition on table 4 on CD.
There are basically 4 properties changed here. AllowPaging=True simply turns on the paging abilities for the DataGrid. PageSize sets the number of rows to show, in this case 5. The EnableViewState is tuned on so that the DataGrid "remembers" which page you are on currently. And the OnPageIndexChanged is the event that is fired when you click on any of the paging navigation controls — in this case a < and > sign to move to the previous and next page respectively.
The code that does the paging is simple as well (see table 4a).
This simply sets the current page index of the DataGrid to the page index that is passed by the page navigation control. It then applies the data binding again. As simple as that!
Modify the DataGrid to use the code in table 5 on CD.
The PagerStyle element defines the pager to have a right aligned, bold, yellow font, on a blue background and change the style from the next-previous style to page numbers and to have a maximum of 5 page number buttons in the pager.
You can check out what this looks like in the PCQ6-4.ASPX file on the CD. The pager is automatically created with page number buttons, and if the number of pages exceeds what you have entered, it also automatically adds the controls for navigating to the next set of page numbers. All without making any changes or additions to the code at all! By now you would have a fair idea of the power of the DataGrid. So let's get moving.
Sorting data especially in paged records could be a real chore in ASP. However, ASP.Net allows you to do this too very easily. Again, simply modify the DataGrid element as in table 6 on CD.
The AllowSorting attribute turns the sorting ability of the DataGrid on. In this, all header elements become hyperlinks that raise the OnSortCommand event when clicked. You can therefore trap this event and assign it to your own sort function.
The sort function in this case, MyDataGrid_Sort, looks like table 7 on CD.
This simply gets the value of the sort expression clicked on and sends it to the BindDataGrid function. This function needs to be modified only slightly from the one in the first example. See table 8 on CD.
This has only two small changes made — one, an optional parameter that defines the sort order (and defaults to the field iProdID if none was given) is added and a new line that sorts the DataView by the given sort order is placed just before the DataGrid is bound to the data. The file PCQ6-5.aspx on the CD allows you to view how this page works.
And as a final example to showcase the power of the DataGrid, we shall allow selecting and editing data in place for any record in the DataGrid. This uses one of the most powerful features of the DataGrid — templates.
Templates typically allow you to use outlines or guides for different uses of the DataGrid. Till now you've seen templates for static elements such as the header, pager, item and alternating item styles. However now, you will see a set of much more dynamic templates that can not only customize the way the data is shown, but also allow you to perform a lot of different actions on them.
There are a few new attributes in the DataGrid. The DataKeyField specifies which is the field in the grid that is like a primary key and can uniquely identify any row.
The OnEditcomand, OnUpdateCommand and onCancelCommand attributes assign event handlers to these events (we shall come them very shortly). And finally the AutoGenerateColumns is turned off so that we can supply the way the data is to be shown ourselves.
Within the DataGrid, now a new element called Columns is created. Within this, templates for each column to be shown is specified. The first is a simple bound column that simply shows the product id. Note that the text for the header can also be specified here.
The next one specifies the template for the product name field, and sets the header accordingly. Also specified is the sort field to use when this is clicked. Within this, the normal Item style is to use a Label element to display the data.
The <%# %> syntax allows for data binding the control. Another template — the EditItemTemplate is used when the item is in "edit" mode. This uses a textbox with the value pre-filled as part of the style. The last field also has a similar template.
The final column is not one from the database. Instead it is an edit command button that takes the form of a link and has different text values defined for the different modes it can work in.
The file PCQ6-6.aspx on the CD has the complete code for viewing, and editing the data in the DataGrid itself. Since this is more of an example of the DataGrid, the result of trying to update a record is only a display of the SQL statement that would get executed. It is left as an exercise to you to do the actual update into the database.
Hopefully, this long article would have shown you how powerful the DataGrid control is and the various possiblities available. You can try out the many different options it has and be able to get various types of output–all without investing too much time in the code.


The Center Director is responsible for the daily operations, management, and quality child care of the Child Care Center to which they are assigned.
He/She works under the direct supervision of the Operations Manager and the general supervision of the Child Development Director.
He/She has direct supervision of teachers, family workers, home visitors, and other staff as assigned.
The candidate will have a minimum of a Bachelor's degree in Early Childhood Education; 3-4 years management experience including supervision experience; marketing skills; experience in planning and monitoring a budget; and experience related to fiscal issues including but limited to fee collection. Must carry adequate automobile insurance and be able to provide proof of insurance.
1. Provide leadership and direction in planning for the training, development, and mentorship of all staff in order to meet or exceed requirements, and as a means of ensuring quality experiences for infants/toddlers, preschoolers, and their families.
2. Possess good interpersonal and communication skills, including the ability to work as a part of a team, communicate effectively both orally and in writing, receive and provide feedback, and manage dynamic interchanges in meetings.
3. Demonstrate commitment to job performance in keeping with professional standards, maintaining boundaries and ethical conduct.
4. Responsible for daily operations and management of the center.
5. Responsible for enforcing all center policies and procedures in compliance with Child Care Licensing Standards and ensure re-licensing.
6. Development of action plans in the event of unforeseen circumstances and ensuring that these plans are clearly communicated to all involved. (Snow policy, emergency closings, staff illness, staff vacancy, loss of power, etc.).
7. Responsible for maintaining a quality child care program that is in compliance with NAEYC and Head Start Performance Standards.
8. Maintain and monitor center waiting list and assure 100% enrollment.
9. Timely submittal of ADP payroll and weekly/monthly paperwork requirements.
10. Support staff in correcting deficits noted in content specialists monitoring visits and reports; working cooperatively with content specialists to assure corrections.
11. Complete monthly site update reports for review with Operations Manager.
12. Oversee the organization and implementation of curriculum, goals, and objectives that are appropriate for both Early Head Start and Head Start aged children.
13. Responsible for compliance with Child Care Scholarship requirements for eligible families.
14. Collect appropriate fees for CC services from each family and maintaining A/R records for the fiscal department at SNHS, Inc.
15. Responsible for staff scheduling and adhering to child to teacher ratios effectively and efficiently.
16. Send required reports (classroom attendance reports, meal tallies, petty cash reports, receiving reports, etc.) to Central Office weekly or monthly as needed.
17. Responsible for collecting and documenting all In-Kind donations, as well as sending materials to the child development billing clerk by required date.
18. Responsible for establishing and maintaining an on-going effective rapport with the community-at-large and the host organization in particular.
19. Attend leadership meetings as assigned and report information to the center staff in a timely manner.
20. Responsible for yearly evaluation with teachers, family workers, and other staff as assigned.
21. Attend conferences and trainings as appropriate.
22. Support and enforce the Child Development Program and SNHS, Inc. Code of Ethics and Code of Conduct.
23. Present a professional and positive image as a representative of the center, Child Development Program and SNHS, Inc.
24. Will maintain professional boundaries with all current, past, and prospective clients, and maintain the confidentiality of clients and staff, in accordance with SNHS policy and procedure.
25. Responsible for having adequate knowledge of all SNHS programs and will gather sufficient intake information to make referrals to other SNHS programs which are beneficial to the client and his/her family.
26. Abide by all SNHS Safety policies and procedures.


text:
Universities cut number of degree courses by 27%
Research shows there are almost 20,000 fewer full-time undergraduate courses available than in 2006. The number of degree courses on offer at British universities has been slashed by more than a quarter in the past six years, new research suggests. It reveals that there are almost 20,000 fewer full-time undergraduate courses available now than there were in 2006.
The study, by the University and College Union (UCU) found cuts across a range of subjects, from the sciences, to arts and humanities. England, where tuition fees will rise to a maximum of £9,000 a year this autumn, has been the hardest hit, with almost a third fewer courses on offer, it claims. UCU said that the findings showed that funding cuts were affecting course availability, which could be damaging to students.
The report's authors analysed official course data, and a sample of single-subject degree courses to investigate whether there had been any noticeable change in what was on offer. It found a sharp reduction in the total number of full-time undergraduate degree courses in Britain: a fall of 27% between 2006 and 2012. In total, there are 51,116 degree courses available this year, compared with 70,052 in 2006. Within the UK, England has seen a 31% fall in courses, while Northern Ireland has seen a drop of 24%, Wales 11% and Scotland 3%.
In England, six out of nine regions have seen a cut of a quarter or more. Among those with the largest reductions are the south-west, with a drop of 47%; the east, which was down 41%; and the north-west, which had a cut of 40%. At the other end of the scale, only 1% of courses have been cut in the East Midlands. The report found that among the single-subject courses examined in the UK, there has been a fall of 14.6% in science, technology, engineering and maths (Stem subjects), while social science courses have dropped by 12.8%, and arts and humanities are down by 14%.
Sally Hunt, UCU general secretary, said: "While successive governments have been dreaming up new ways to increase the cost of going to university, the range of subjects available to students has fallen massively. The UK's global academic reputation is built on the broad range of subjects available and on the freedom of academics to push at the boundaries and create new areas of study.
"This report shows that, while government rhetoric is all about students as consumers, the curriculum has actually narrowed significantly."
She added: "Although students in England are expected to pay up to £9,000 a year to study, there is much less choice for them.
"hifting the burden of funding from the state to the student means nervous universities will look to axe even more courses that they worry won't make a profit. However, we simply cannot have areas of the country where local students do not have access to the courses they want to study."
According to official figures published by the university admissions services Ucas, the numbers of applications to university had been rising up until this year. As of January, 462,507 UK students had applied for courses beginning in the autumn, compared with 506,388 at this point last year – a drop of 8.7%.
Posté par : pcassuto à 22:01 - Budget - Permalien [#]
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C2rp - budget 2018
The college of southern idaho has $43.2m in total revenues in its budget
Two oklahoma city colleges closing child care centers due to budget concerns
North dakota university system faces lowest budget in a decade
Ga. higher ed budget primer for state fiscal year 2019
Terra state projects first budget surplus in years
When faculty lines pay for themselves
Cvtc projects $91.3m in expenditures for 2018-2019 budget
Florence-darlington technical college cuts budget, builds cash reserve
2% budget increase for illinois's public colleges
« février 2012 »


Núria Campabadal is a videomaker and video editor from Barcelona. As a video editor, she has specialized in documentary editing, and has worked in projects for the main tv channels in Spain. As a videomaker she has directed several projects, mainly focused in historical memory, human rights, politics and culture.


In the first half of 2015, Jiaxing has finished service outsourcing contract value, implementation value, offshore implementation value 793 million RMB, 534 million RMB and 45.0889 million RMB representatively, which accounting for 68.25%, 59.41% and 50.1% of annual target representatively. It accomplishes "half of mission in half of time". The first one is to keep market and to increase the total. Jiaxing government organizes enterprises to participate China (Shanghai) International Technology Fair, China International Software and Information Service Fair and Industrial Matchmaking Meeting, keeps market share, signs 1,741 contracts which increasing 656 year-on-year, undertakes service outsourcing offshore businesses from 40 countries and locations which increasing 9 year-or-year. The business performance increases 61.1% y-o-y that is nearly 59% higher than that of the whole province. The second one is to keep direction and to improve quality. To lead service outsourcing forms to transfer from low-end to high-end; to promote KPO businesses such as industrial design, inspection and examination, engineering design being stripping from manufacturing via door-to-door guidance, training conference, enterprises symposium; to accomplish implementation value of KPO is 242 million RMB, which accounting for 45% of total implementation amount. Compared with BPO, it becomes from 26:54 at the same time of last year to 45:34 of this year; the implementation value of contract from industrial design, inspection and examination increase 100.58% and 51% year-on-year representatively, both of them totally accounting for 36.58% of total implementation amount. The third one is to keep investment and to increase staying power. Bureau of Commerce in Jiaxing organize 3 times service outsourcing investment promotion activities rounding building economy of "a series of investment", introduce foreign investment project of service outsourcing; the total investment number and amount are 32 and 535 million USD, which increasing 16 and 298 million USD year-on-year representatively. There are 6 enterprises those have more than 30 million USD of total investment value; 2 enterprises have a billion USD.


"Since'07,3YearYearsInTheMaking… ". That's right. A full LP from Blu! Sadly the quality is pretty disgusting and I know most will hate on the single .mp3. But this is what people want right? Blu doing what he does best? I'm gonna do my best and find out whats what and I'll update as more info comes to light. An official separated version is on it's way. Fully equipped with flicks, words from Blu and more. Stay tuned.