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The Story of Rhodesia/Colony of Southern Rhodesia before WWII

Flag
The flag of Southern Rhodesia was a blue ensign, later changed to a sky-blue ensign, with the coat of arms of Southern Rhodesia on it. The flag was in use in Southern Rhodesia (later Zimbabwe) from 1923 to 1953 and from 1964 to 1965. It was also used by the unrecognised Rhodesia from 1965 to 1968. The flag was initially used unofficially internally before being approved for use outside of the colony by the Colonial Office in 1937. The colour was changed to sky blue in 1964 to protest the treatment of Southern Rhodesia after its inclusion in the failed Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland.

The flag of Southern Rhodesia was adopted in 1923 by the Southern Rhodesian Legislative Assembly, owing to Southern Rhodesia's status after voting for responsible government separate from the British South Africa Company instead of joining the Union of South Africa. This could have created a situation that would have made it the "Ulster of South Africa" as termed by Sir Charles Coghlan. As a result, it was governed by the Dominion Office and not the Colonial Office as a Crown colony. In 1925, the organisers of the British Empire Exhibition asked the Southern Rhodesian High Commission which flag to use to represent them. The Southern Rhodesian government suggested the flag of Southern Rhodesia. However in 1928, the Colonial Office stated that Southern Rhodesia did not have consent to use the flag of Southern Rhodesia officially and instead claimed that the Union Jack was the only official flag for Southern Rhodesia despite the government approving it as a flag badge. The confusion over the flag was resolved in 1937 after it was agreed that for the Coronation of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, Southern Rhodesia should have its own flag to represent it. The Colonial Office agreed it would be the most appropriate to use the flag designed by the Southern Rhodesian High Commission and made it official however the Southern Rhodesian High Commissioner stated that this only approved the flag of Southern Rhodesia for official use outside the colony and the Union Jack was the official flag internally.

1924 General Elections - First Elections since the grant of responsible government
The Southern Rhodesia general election of 29 April 1924 was the first election to the Legislative Assembly of Southern Rhodesia following the grant of responsible government to the colony. It saw a comprehensive victory for the Rhodesia Party, which had been formed by the supporters of responsible government, who won 26 out of the 30 seats.

The Letters Patent granting the colony the right to self-government in 1923 made no change to the pre-existing franchise. The law provided that voters must have been resident in Southern Rhodesia for at least six months, and have the ability to complete the claim form for the electoral register in their own handwriting if the registrar required, and to write from dictation 50 words in the English language. In addition, voters had to meet one of three criteria for their financial means: either occupy property worth £150 in their Electoral District, or own a registered mining claim within the colony (for which residence was not required), or receive annual salary of £100 in the colony.

Since the previous election, and the grant of responsible government, the Responsible Government Association had organised itself under the leadership of Sir Charles Coghlan into the Rhodesia Party and been appointed as the new government. In addition the Rhodesia Labour Party, which had been formed some years before, entered into the election. However a substantial number of candidates fought as Independents on their own record. In general these candidates represented small farmers, small businesses and mining interests.

The Labour Party had supported the Responsible Government Association in its campaign for a separate government for the colony, and in opposition to union with South Africa, and members of both parties hoped to reach agreement on an allocation of seats between them so that they did not oppose each other. Negotiations were unsuccessful and where candidates of the parties were fighting for seats, the fight between them became bitter. The independent candidates were also in opposition to the 'establishment' party and many stressed the need for a strong opposition in the new Assembly.

Coat of Arms
The coat of arms of Rhodesia was used from 1924–1981, for the self-governing British colony of Southern Rhodesia in 1923–1964 and 1979–1980, known simply as Rhodesia from 1964–1979, Zimbabwe–Rhodesia in 1979, and Zimbabwe from 1980.

Official authorisation by Royal Warrant for the coat of arms was granted on 11 August 1924.

The shield features a red lion passant and two thistles, taken from the family arms of Cecil Rhodes, after whom the colony was named, and the Latin motto Sit Nomine Digna (May She Be Worthy of the Name) is a reference to Rhodes. The pick, in gold on a green field, represents mining, the economic mainstay of the colony. Also featured above the shield is the soapstone statuette of the Zimbabwe Bird found in the ruins of Great Zimbabwe.

The shield of the arms was used on the flag of the colony by being placed in the fly of a British Blue Ensign, in the tradition of most other British colonies. This design changed in 1964 when the field of the flag was changed to light blue. In November 1968, the full coat of arms was placed in the centre of a new Rhodesian flag which was a green, white, green triband. After Rhodesia was declared a republic in 1970, the arms also featured on the President's flag.

The arms remained unchanged following the renaming of the country as Zimbabwe Rhodesia in 1979, and were initially used by the government of Zimbabwe from 18 April 1980 to 21 September 1981, following which the present coat of arms of Zimbabwe were introduced.

1928 Elections
The Southern Rhodesia general election of 19 September 1928 was the second election to the Legislative Assembly of Southern Rhodesia. The Rhodesia Party, who had won an overwhelming victory at the previous election, were re-elected with a slightly smaller majority.

At this election the franchise was codified for the first time by the Electoral Act, 1928. The basis for the act was a consolidation of the previous regulations created by Order in Council, but the opportunity was taken by the Legislative Assembly to change some of the regulations which they had come to dislike. The principal change in the franchise was to restrict registration to British subjects only, whether by birth or naturalisation; previously, resident aliens could take an oath of allegiance to qualify themselves.

A change was also made to the literacy requirements for voters, where the test of writing fifty words of English at the dictation of the registering officer was dropped and the would-be voter merely had to be able to fill in the form in their own handwriting. The financial means qualification was the subject of a minor wording change, whereby the word "income" was added as an alternative to salary or wages.

The development of political parties had advanced since the colony was granted self-government. The Progressive Party, an opposition group opposed to monopolies and advocating more development of Matabeleland, had been formed in June 1927 from a group of independent members, and was able to nominate 22 candidates for the 30 seats. The Rhodesia Labour Party had increased its strength in the towns.

Also in 1927 the Country Party had been formed by dissident farmers in the Rhodesian Agricultural Union.

1933 Elections
The Southern Rhodesia general election of 6 September 1933 was the third election since the colony of Southern Rhodesia was granted self-government. It is notable as one of only two general elections in Southern Rhodesia which led to a defeat for the sitting government, as the Reform Party won a narrow majority of two seats in the Legislative Assembly. Their victory was to be short-lived.

The Progressive Party, which had won four seats to become the official opposition in 1928, merged with the County Party and reorganised itself as the Reform Party in October 1929.

1934 Elections
The Southern Rhodesia general election of 7 November 1934 was the fourth election since the colony of Southern Rhodesia was granted self-government. The election was called only a year after the previous election when the Prime Minister, Godfrey Huggins, formed the United Party as a merger of the conservative section of his Reform Party and the former governing Rhodesia Party. Huggins succeeded in winning a landslide, defeating all but one of his Reform Party opponents.

The Reform Party was believed by many in Rhodesia to be a left-wing party but Huggins had presented a cautiously conservative Cabinet after winning power in 1933. In particular, Finance Minister Jacob Smit was a strong believer in conventional economics and opponent of Keynesianism. The course of government led eventually to a confrontration in August 1934 with the left-wing of the party over reform to the Rhodesian railways. Huggins decided to approach Sir Percy Fynn, leader of the Rhodesian Party, who pledged support for a National Government under Huggins.

However, the Acting Governor refused a dissolution on the grounds that the Assembly had many years left, and the government had not been defeated. Huggins persuaded the majority of the Executive of the Reform Party to suspend the party's constitution to allow a National Government on 17 September, and then formed the United Party with Fynn, asking a second time for a dissolution on the basis of a changed party alignment. This time the Acting Governor acceded.

1937 Electoral Act
In 1937, a new Electoral Act was passed. The franchise was extended slightly to those who were not British subjects but who had been in active wartime service in the armed forces. Electors were also required to have lived for three months in their electoral districts. The requirement for qualifying for the vote on the basis of receiving salary or wages of £100 per annum was extended also to people with income of £100 per annum, a change which principally benefited those who had investment income but few assets. Voters were also no longer required to demonstrate proficiency in English through a dictation test. The postal vote, which had been introduced in 1928, was extended in 1937 to all voters living more than 25 miles away from the nearest polling station. Finally, those who had drawn government rations were disenfranchised.

1939 Elections - Last Elections before WWII

The Southern Rhodesia general election of 14 April 1939 was the fifth election since the colony of Southern Rhodesia was granted internal self-government. Prime Minister Godfrey Huggins' United Party government were re-elected in a landslide. The election was called slightly earlier than the deadline as Huggins feared a European War.

The occupation of Czechoslovakia by Nazi Germany in March 1939 convinced Huggins that war was imminent. Seeking to renew his government's mandate to pass emergency measures, he called an early election in which his United Party won an increased majority. Huggins rearranged his Cabinet on a war footing, making the Minister of Justice Robert Tredgold Minister of Defence as well. The territory proposed forces not only for internal security but also for the defence of British interests overseas. Self-contained Rhodesian formations were planned, including a mechanised reconnaissance unit, but Tredgold opposed this. Remembering the catastrophic casualties suffered by units such as the Royal Newfoundland Regiment and the 1st South African Infantry Brigade on the Western Front in World War I, he argued that one or two heavy defeats for a white Southern Rhodesian brigade might cause crippling losses and have irrevocable effects on the country as a whole. He proposed to instead concentrate on training white Rhodesians for leadership roles and specialist units, and to disperse the colony's men across the forces in small groups. These ideas met with approval in both Salisbury and London and were adopted.

Southern Rhodesia would be automatically included in any British declaration of war due to its lack of diplomatic powers, but that did not stop the colonial government from attempting to demonstrate its loyalty and legislative independence through supportive parliamentary motions and gestures. The Southern Rhodesian parliament unanimously moved to support Britain in the event of war during a special sitting on 28 August 1939.


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User:Ygyzys

Hi.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: User:Ygyzys


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LMIs in Control/Applications/HelicopterInnerLoopLMI

This is a Helicopter Inner Loop LMI. Optimization methods and optimal control have had difficulty gaining traction in the rotorcraft control law community. However, this LMI derived in the referenced paper attempts to address the issues with a LMI for Robust, Optimal Control.

The System
Continuous Time:

\begin{align} \dot x(t)&=\hat{A}x(t)+B_1w(t)+\hat{B_2}u(t),\\ z(t)&=C_1x(t)+D_{12}u(t)\\ \end{align}$$

The Helicopter model is given by knowledge of the stability and control derivatives which populate the elements of the $$ \hat{A}, \hat{B_2} $$ matrices in the dynamic equations above.

The state vector is given by the typical elements of a rigid 6-DOF body model. $$ x = \begin{bmatrix} u,w,q,\theta,v,p,\psi,r\end{bmatrix}^T $$. The input vector is given by $$ u = \begin{bmatrix}\delta_0,\delta_{1s},\delta_{1c},\delta_T\end{bmatrix}^T $$ which pertain to the main rotor collective, longitudinal/lateral cyclic and tail rotor collective blade angles in radians.

The gust disturbance is denoted by $$w(t)$$ and is assumed to be random in nature. The stability and control derivative matrices are modeled with uncertainty as follows:

\begin{align} \hat{A} = A + \Delta A, \hat{B_2} = B_2 + \Delta B\\ \end{align}$$

The $$\Delta $$ terms represent the uncertainties in the helicopter system model.

The Data
The Data required for this LMI are the stability and control derivatives that populate the A and B-matrices of the system above which can be obtained from linearizing non-linear models. It can also be obtained from experimental methods such as step responses and swept sines (System Identification.)

The Control Architecture
A control architecture for the inner loop of the helicopter model mentioned above is designed using a state feedback control law.

$$u = Kx(t) $$

The objective for the inner loop control is to design a full state feedback law such that the closed-loop helicopter system satisfies the following 3 performance specifications.

The Optimization Problem
Objective 1: The closed-loop system is internally stable for any admissible uncertainty.

Objective 2: Poles of the close-loop system lie within the disk $$ D(-q,r)$$ with center $$-q+j_0$$ and radius $$r, q>r>0$$, for any admissible uncertainty.

Objective 3: Given gust disturbance suppression index $$\gamma$$, for any admissible uncertainty, the effect of the gust disturbance to selected flight states and control input is in the given level, i.e.

$$\int_0^{\infty} \! \{x^T(t)Qx(t)+u^T(t)Ru(t)\} \ \mathrm{d}x < \gamma^2\int_0^{\infty} \! w(t)^Tw(t) \, \mathrm{d}t.$$

where $$w(t)\in L_2(0,\infty).$$ $$Q$$ and $$R$$ are weighting matrices with appropriate dimensions and $$Q=Q^T \geq 0, R = R^T>0.$$

It can be shown that the inner loop performance specifications listed in Objectives 1-3 can be met with a state feedback control law if the LMI described in the following section is true.

 * Objective: Objectives listed above
 * Variables: Controller Gains
 * Constraints: Rotorcraft Dynamics and Modeled Actuator Limits

The LMI: H-Inf Inner Loop D-Stabilization Optimization
The paper derives and LMI of the form below and asserts that the if there exists a constant $$\epsilon$$, matrix $$Z$$ with appropriate dimensions and a symmetric positive matrix $$P$$, such that

\begin{align} \\

\begin{bmatrix} \Psi_{11} & B_1 & XC_1^T+Z^TD_12^T & A_{\alpha}X_+B_2Z & XF_1^T+Z^TF_2^T & \epsilon H \\ B_1^T & -\gamma ^2 I & 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 \\ C_1X+D_{12}Z & 0 & -I & 0 & 0 & 0 \\ XA_{\alpha}^T + Z^TB_2^T & 0 & 0 & -rX & XF_1^T+Z^TF_2^T & 0 \\ F_1X+F_2Z & 0 & 0 & F_1X+F_2Z & -\epsilon I & 0 \\ \epsilon H^T & 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 & -\epsilon I \end{bmatrix} < 0 \\

\end{align}$$ where, $$\Psi_{11} = A_{\alpha}X+XA_{\alpha}^T+B_2Z+Z^TB_2^T,A_{\alpha}=A+\alpha I $$

This LMI is shown to satisfy Objectives 1, 2,3, and the control law is given by

\begin{align} u(t) = Kx(t)\\ K = ZX^{-1} \end{align} $$

Conclusion:
The LMI for Helicopter Inner Loop Control design provides an optimization-based approach towards achieving Level 1 Handling Qualities per ADS-33E. This is an interesting way to approach a very difficult problem that has usually been approached through classical control methods and with extensive piloted simulation and flight test.

Implementation
A link to CodeOcean or other online implementation of the LMI

Related LMIs
Links to other closely-related LMIs

 * Optimal_Output_Feedback_Hinf_LMI


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User:Lingweizan

hello! my name is ling weizan, i’m a multilingual ixtp 5w4 4w5 8w7 so/sx true-neutral neutral-evil ravenclaw thunderbird mixed brown-sino daydreamer, storyteller, editor, car enthusiast, and onomast, and i like helping people with their stories, characters, blog posts, language-learning journeys, clapbacks, love lives, and whatnot.

title: User:Lingweizan


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History of wireless telegraphy and broadcasting in Australia/Topical/Stations/4BH Brisbane/Notes

1931 08
"'B' CLASS STATIONS. Another for Brisbane. 4BH's Powerful Plant. Within three months Brisbane should have another powerful B class broadcasting station on the air. The Postmaster-General's Department has granted a license for a B station to Broadcasters Australia Limited. The call sign 4BH and a wavelength of 217 metres have been allotted to the station. The construction of the transmitting station has been begun on a site at Bald Hills, on the Redcliffe Road. The studio will be located on the first floor of G. J. Grice's music warehouse, and the registered office of the company will also be there. The musical activities of G. J. Grice, Ltd., including the use of the recital hall, has been made available to the company. A director of the company yesterday told 'Listener' that a statement made in a section of the Press that 4BH will be 'a new Catholic broadcasting station' was incorrect, but that the activities of the Roman Catholic Church in Queensland will be broadcast by this station. The general activities of the station, he said, would be entirely a matter for the directors to decide. He added that it was the intention of the company to erect one of the most powerful 'B' class stations in the Commonwealth. It would be of most modern design and would incorporate all the latest principles of transmission which are in use in the most up-to-date stations in other parts of the world. Tests, he said, would take place within two and a half months, and it was expected that the station would be on the air for the first performance within three months."

1931 11
4BH reported intending to use both medium and short wave transmitters "Dual Transmission. SHORT AND LONG WAVES. Brisbane's proposed new station 4BH, which is to be opened about December 15, will have something new to offer in the way of transmission. An excellent short-wave transmission set is being inaugurated for transmission throughout the State. This will give dwellers in the outbacks greater chances of reception during the day, when the A and B class stations do not penetrate."


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Free Knowledge Culture Calendar/March 30

Today in 2000 freedesktop.org was launched.


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User:Onlyshabaz1

E-631 is pig fat

title: User:Onlyshabaz1


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User talk:Onlyshabaz1

Warning
—Atcovi (Talk - Contribs) 14:02, 3 December 2020 (UTC)

title: User talk:Onlyshabaz1


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Issues in Interdisciplinarity 2020-21/Truth in Pain

Introduction
Pain is a discomforting experience that involves sensory and emotional aspects, possibly attributed to tissue damage, informing the body of noxious stimuli or a problem with internal functioning. However, it is not fully understood in terms of its biological and psychological interaction.

Biology
Biology takes a positivist approach to pain, arguing that the only way of knowing is through biological processes that offer an objective representation of reality and therefore hold the data from sensory encoding as empirical data. A stimulus is detected by nociceptors that respond to noxious stimuli, which leads to an action potential being fired. Once the pain threshold is passed, individuals will feel the pain, with the strength of pain corresponding to the frequency of action potentials.

Neuroimaging
Neuroimaging techniques allow us to observe pain objectively through neural activity. An example of this is the use of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRIs) in the diagnosis of fibromyalgia, a condition which causes severe pain all over the body. Fibromyalgia patients have increased neural activity in the pain matrix - a group of brain structures activated during pain. In this case, neuroimaging is used to reach the truth of pain in an objective manner.

Psychology and Philosophy
Psychology and Philosophy offer an interpretivist approach to pain, emphasizing how the experience varies significantly depending on individual interpretation and situational perception.

Perception
In philosophy of perception, interpretivism suggests that human perception is not simply a reaction to external stimuli, it depends on the intention attached to it; different people react differently depending on their interpretation. An example of the importance of individual interpretation is masochism, characterised by sexual gratification derived from experiencing pain. While pain is usually synonymous with suffering, masochism demonstrates how this is not always true, as masochists contrarily derive pleasure from their pain.

Scepticism
Philosophical scepticism questions the certainty of an objective reality; pyrrhonists established sets of arguments claiming that reality constitutes of experiences which vary based on circumstances and individual interpretation therefore, the experience of pain cannot be reduced solely to biology. Scepticism argues for the suspension of judgment, hence, despite the uncertain nature of an objective reality, the subjective experience of pain in humans is real and represents the truth of pain.

The placebo effect is an example of this; one study demonstrates this phenomenon using patients suffering from migraine attacks - the efficacies of the real drug "Maxalt" labelled as a placebo, and a placebo labelled as Maxalt were very similar in reducing pain in patients. Furthermore, when the patients were given the placebo labelled as "placebo", "Maxalt or placebo", then "Maxalt", the pain experienced decreased progressively, demonstrating that although they should physiologically and objectively experience pain, this is not the reality.

Anthropology
Anthropology takes a social constructivist approach to pain, focusing on different cultures' attitudes in how pain is understood, and how the meaning and use of words vary across cultures.

Differences in attitude
In some cultures, pain is not seen as an issue: a study in rural Nepal found that pain was common, yet no one ever sought help regardless of the severity; pain was perceived to be a normal part of aging, and not related to any health issue. Cultures such as those in American Indian, Asian, Black and Hispanic groups are stoic regarding pain and are reluctant to report it, seeing it as a weakness - whereas Arab and Iranian cultures encourage the emotive expression of pain. In China, pain is often seen as a test to improve their standing in life after death, therefore they encourage bravery and stoicism.

Differences in language
Different cultures describe their pain differently - this was demonstrated in a study conducted using participants from Nepal and America that suffered from chronic pain. Descriptors such as "stabbing", "burning" and "sharp" were common across the samples to describe pain, but those unique to Nepalese participants were "catching" and "cloudy". Furthermore, 91.7% of the Nepalese participants used metaphors to describe their pain, which was much less common in the other sample. The results highlight how the meaning and use of words can vary across cultures, suggesting that language is not always a valid measure of pain, as the meaning of words may be misinterpreted by another culture.

Critiques of Positivism
Positivism employed in biological fields may lead to reductionism and the personal account of the subjective experience being bypassed. For example, a patient who complains of pain may receive the wrong dosage of pain medication if the physician neglects the description of the pain severity by the patient and simply orders medical tests, such as an X-ray, blood test or CT scan, to be carried out to find material evidence of the pain. Such cases may be seen when pain is not reported yet there is physical evidence, such as when perception overrides physiology as seen in the placebo effect, or when pain is reported in the absence of physical evidence, such as pain in phantom limbs or tactile hallucinations.

Critiques of Interpretivism
Interpretivism considers the personal account of pain to understand the patient's experience, however, social constructivists argue that the experience and account are influenced by different cultural attitudes and language use. Individuals from stoic cultures may deny experiencing pain, and cultures that view pain as a test or a normal part of ageing may not see pain as a threat to their health. The validity of the patient's account is also limited by differences in the use and meaning of words, as social constructivists argue language is a social construct, possibly leading to misinterpretation. This demonstrates how the interpretivist approach is perhaps too simplistic, as it may fail to recognise how individual experience and accounts are influenced by cultural differences.

Critiques of Social Constructivism
Social constructivists argue that, due to cultural differences, accounts of pain vary so much that we cannot deduce the reality of pain. However, positivists state that the physiology of pain remains the same across all humans regardless of different cultural attitudes towards pain, therefore the assessment of cultural differences would be of no use. This is demonstrated in positivist methods of pain assessment, opposing techniques revolving around communication and language, where cultural background is relevant. Through a positivist perspective, pain is studied in a reliable, objective way, allowing inferences to be made by using data that is universally comparable between different individuals.

Interdisciplinary Solutions
Recently there has been a shift towards research in Neurophenomenology; the discipline's combination of a positivist and interpretivist approach has been supported as a robust means of obtaining truth in pain.

The McGill Pain Questionnaire, designed with the intent of combining positivism and interpretivism, uses many pain categories such as "pressure", "tension", "temporal", "spatial", etc. combined with different pain dimensions such as "flashing", "throbbing", "pounding", etc., and compares these descriptors of sensation to descriptors of feeling, such as "exhausting", "suffocating", etc. The results are organised by summing values associated with descriptors to produce a number that represents pain quality in a positivist manner, based upon incorporating interpretivist principles.

Through these examples we can see real world implications that have a strong impact on people's lives, along with the necessity for including interdisciplinary approaches in the investigation of pain.


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User talk:Allmaterial

Blocked
You cannot edit for indefinite due to disruptive editing. You are welcome to contribute constructively when editing privileges are restored. You may appeal this action with a reasonable argument by adding the text below. —Atcovi (Talk - Contribs) 17:14, 3 December 2020 (UTC)

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User:FreeRighter/sandbox

Biography of Anton Chekhov:
Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (29 January 1860 – 15 July 1904) was a Russian playwright and short-story writer who is considered to be among the greatest writers of short fiction in history. His career as a playwright produced four classics, and his best short stories are held in high esteem by writers and critics. Along with Henrik Ibsen and August Strindberg, Chekhov is often referred to as one of the three seminal figures in the birth of early modernism in the theatre. Chekhov practiced as a medical doctor throughout most of his literary career: "Medicine is my lawful wife", he once said, "and literature is my mistress." Chekhov renounced the theatre after the reception of The Seagull in 1896, but the play was revived to acclaim in 1898 by Konstantin Stanislavski's Moscow Art Theatre, which subsequently also produced Chekhov's Uncle Vanya and premiered his last two plays, Three Sisters and The Cherry Orchard. These four works present a challenge to the acting ensemble as well as to audiences, because in place of conventional action Chekhov offers a "theatre of mood" and a "submerged life in the text". Chekhov had at first written stories to earn money, but as his artistic ambition grew, he made formal innovations which have influenced the evolution of the modern short story. He made no apologies for the difficulties this posed to readers, insisting that the role of an artist was to ask questions, not to answer them.

Publication Information about “The Bet”:
On 17 December 1888 Nikolai Khudekov asked Chekhov to write a story for Peterburgskaya Gazeta which he was an editor of. Chekhov came up with "The Cobbler and the Devil" (published on 25 December) and informed Alexey Suvorin of that. Suvorin, the Novoye Vremya's editor, took it almost as an insult, so Chekhov promised to produce a similar kind of fable for this newspaper before the New Year Eve. He started writing it on 22 December, and on the 30th sent the story by post. Divided into three parts, it appeared in the 1 January 1889, No. 4613 issue of Novoye Vremya, titled "Fairytale". With a new title, "The Bet", revised and cut (part 3 of the original text now has gone) it was included in Volume 4 of Chekhov's Collected Works, published in 1899–1901 by Adolf Marks. "As I was reading the proofs, I came to dislike the end, it occurred to me that it was too cold and cruel," he explained the reason for the omission in 1903.

Summary:
In the short story “The Bet”, Anton Chekhov describes the bet that was placed between two young men, a banker, and a lawyer, regarding capital punishment and imprisonment for life.

According to this bet, the lawyer- who claims that imprisonment for life is preferable than capital punishment- should experience imprisonment for fifteen years under the banker’s watch. The banker believes that lifelong imprisonment is more inhumane than death penalty. The reward of the bet would be two million dollars that the banker should give to the lawyer if the second can endure solitary confinement in a lodge in the banker’s garden for the time they had agreed on. Even though the lawyer would have whatever he wants during his imprisonment, the only way of communication with others would be through a very small window.

Chekhov presents the lawyer’s imprisonment by describing his psychological state, his thoughts, and his hobbies. He reports the prisoner’s relationship with wine, food, smoking, and music, and he also emphasizes the prisoner’s relationship with books and writing. Even though the prisoner suffered severe loneliness and depression in the first years, his relationship with all books totally changed him as a person. During the span of the fifteen years of isolation, the prisoner read many kinds of books that help him value and understand himself and life in general. When the fifteen years have almost passed, the banker decides to kill his prisoner one day before the time fixed so as to not pay the money.

As the banker gets ready to kill the lawyer, who is asleep at the table, he stops to read the letter the lawyer was writing to him. In this letter the lawyer explains that he plans to break the compact since he learned that material goods are not worth anything compare to divine salvation. Shocked and happy after reading the letter, the banker returns home without killing the lawyer. Learning the next day that the lawyer has escaped, the banker locks the letter in his safe to prevent the spread of rumors.

Analysis:
In the short story “The Bet”, Anton Chekhov portrays the psychological states and effects that social isolation could have on a person’s perspective of life and freedom. The setting of the story helps the author to communicate his message to the audience. The fact that the lawyer was isolated in a small lodge in the banker’s garden that had only one small window made him unable to be a part of a community. The prisoner did not have any contact with other people, and he went through different psychological stages to not feel depressed, and emotionally distressed. Moreover, the fact that the lodge where the lawyer was imprisoned for fifteen years was in the banker’s garden also played an important role on how the audience perceives the two men. This setting presents the lawyer as one of the banker’s possessions and shows the banker’s inhumanity and immorality.

One of the most important elements of this narrative that helps the author to better explain the sense of isolation and the way in which people change through isolation is the symbolism of books and writing. Over the span of the fifteen years, the prisoner read many different books from chemistry to poetry and from philosophy to foreign language studies, and he wrote many letters. The different types of the books that the prisoner was reading and the letters he wrote represent his psychological state and his need to explore and understand himself and the world around him. Through writing, the prisoner was able to express himself, come closer to his inner self, and understand his feelings and emotions. By writing his thoughts down and reading them to himself afterwards, the prisoner was engaged in a form of psychotherapy.

Moreover, through the books that he was reading the prisoner was learning new things and feeling productive, something that helped him to value himself and view the world from different perspectives. The fact that the prisoner asked to read different types of books shows the different mental and psychological stages that he went through in the span of the fifteen years. The prisoner created a form of community with the books he was reading. The books indirectly were part of a unique community with the lawyer. They offered him company and relaxation, they made him wonder about different issues and life in general, and they also made him develop feelings and emotions that were hidden deep inside him. The prisoner started reading languages, philosophy, and history. These three studies made him wonder about the world and life in general and helped him create a general understanding about people and life. One year later, the prisoner’s companionship was the Gospel, books that offered him relaxation and enjoyment. After spending one whole year reading nothing but the Gospel, the prisoner continued his studies with theology and histories. Through these studies the prisoner learned to value all kinds of ideas, beliefs, and theories, and view the world in different perspectives. After that, the prisoner started reading natural science, chemistry, and medicine as well as novels, Shakespeare, and Byron. Through these studies the prisoner broadened his knowledge and his imagination, became more creative and understand better the physical and nonphysical world.

The two main characters of the story, the banker, and the prisoner, also play an important role in the way that the author communicates his message to the audience. Even though in the beginning of the story both characters appear young and naïve, in the end of the story they are totally different with each other. The banker in the beginning of the story appears as a young, nervous, and rich man who believed that life imprisonment is more immoral and inhumane than the death penalty since it is a slow death. In the end of the story, the banker is no longer young and rich, but he is a cruel, greedy, and desperate man who decides to kill the prisoner before the bet is completed so as to keep his money. He does not seem to appreciate the lawyer’s success and he only cares about material possessions. On the other hand, the prisoner in the beginning of the story is a 25-year-old lawyer who believes that the life imprisonment is preferable rather than the death penalty and agrees to the banker’s bet to give away his freedom for two million dollars. In the end of the fifteen years imprisonment, the prisoner appears more intellectual, he has found his identity, and he has a better understanding about life. In contrast with the banker, the lawyer in the end of the story does not care about the material goods, but his primary concern is about nonmaterial virtues such as truth and beauty.

This image shows a dark room that gets light only from a very small window. This room can easily be the room where the young lawyer spent the fifteen years imprisonment. It gives a sense of isolation that creates sad feelings to the audience.

Glossary:

 * Life Imprisonment: any sentence of imprisonment for a crime under which convicted persons are to remain in prison either for the rest of their natural life or until pardoned, paroled or otherwise commuted to a fixed term.

 * Capital Punishment: a government-sanctioned practice whereby a person is put to death by the state as a punishment for a crime, also known as death penalty.

 * Depression: a mental disorder that is characterized from states of low mood and aversion to activity and can negatively affect a person's thoughts, behavior, motivation, feelings, and sense of well-being.

 * Loneliness: an unpleasant emotional response to perceived isolation.

Critical thinking questions:

 * In your opinion which do you think is more immoral and inhumane, the death penalty or life imprisonment? If you think they are equal explain why.
 * Do you think there was a moral lesson in Chekhov’s short story? Explain what it is if so.
 * Do you think the banker would have gone through with the killing if he had not found the prisoner’s letter? Do you feel that it would been the only option for him? Explain why?
 * Would the outcome have been the same if the prisoner did not have all those resources at his disposal? Explain.

Similar Stories:

 * “An Honest Thief” by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
 * “How Much Land Does a Man Need?” by Leo Tolstoy
 * “The Open Window” by Saki
 * “The Country of the Blind” by H.G. Wells

More Short Stories by Anton Chekhov:

 * “A Letter to a Learned Neighbor” – (First short story he wrote)
 * “Betrothed” – (Last short story before his death)
 * “The Trial”
 * “A Woman’s Revenge”

title: User:FreeRighter/sandbox


text:
Chess/The Endgame/Endings with 3+ Minor Pieces

Endgames with multiple minor pieces are rare and pretty easy to win.

(With the exception of 3 bishops which are all the same color)

Three knights
The general strategy is to take squares away from the king, push the king to the edge, and then checkmate. When two knights are protecting each other there's a nice 3 square wall.

1. Kf3, Kc3?, 2. Nd3, Kd4, 3. Kf4 (Only 1 move!), Kc3, 4. Ke3, Kb3, (There's going to be a wall) 5. Kd2, Ka3, 6. Kc1, Kb3, 7. Nd5!, Ka3?, 8. Kb1! (the king is already contained, no need to push to the corner), Kb3, 9. Nc5+, Ka3, 10. Nc4#


text:
Lentis/Predictive Policing

= Origins of Predictive Policing =

Background
The first symposium on predictive policing was in Los Angeles in 2009. Predictive policing seeks to track trends in crime and try to better prevent it. Though predictive policing has come to focus on technological solutions, a major precursor to more modern Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the collection of crime statistics into a database to track crime. According to Charlie Beck, police chief of the LAPD, “The predictive vision moves law enforcement from focusing on what happened to focusing on what will happen and how to effectively deploy resources in front of crime, thereby changing outcomes.” Common data analysis strategies used in predictive policing include data mining,  crime mapping,  geospatial prediction, and  social network analysis. These strategies are used to predict high-crime locations and aid in police decisions. Results of predictive policing are increased surveillance and patrolling of areas deemed to be high risk and increased surveillance of individuals marked at risk of being involved in criminal activity.

CompStat
CompStat, a performance management system and the direct precursor to today’s AI predictive policing, was an early software that allowed police to create a database of information, allowing them to make their own predictions of future crime from the accumulated data. By collecting this data, it leads departments to “place a strategic focus on identifying problems and their solutions.” According to Garry McCarthy, Superintendent of the Chicago PD, “CompStat is not a solution. It’s a method to obtain solutions.” This is a difference between CompStat and the AI systems that followed it as these systems took what CompStat did a step further, using the data to guide police resources and directly providing solutions.

PredPol
PredPol was one of the earliest AI software to be used in predictive policing and it was created back in 2010 by UCLA scientists working in conjunction with the LAPD. PredPol works by identifying locations where serious crimes are likely to occur over a period of time, based on the data input of the town or city's past criminal activity. This is then frequently used to direct officers to specified locations for their patrols. PredPol claims to be twice as accurate as human analysts but this has not been confirmed by independent study.

Racial Bias
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and other civil rights organizations have raised serious concerns about racial biases in the results from this software. These concerns have lead to lawsuits raised against departments employing the use of predictive policing technologies. Independent studies have also found that targets of predictive policing technology tend to align closer to race rather than actual criminalized activity. One such simulation study tracking PredPol targets for policing against actual estimated drug use by race found that drug use by white residents was over triple that of the percent PredPol targeted for policing.

= Participants =

Police Departments
A large number of major police departments employ predictive policing, including the NYPD, and other police departments have only ended their long running programs in 2020, including the Chicago PD and the LAPD. Some departments feel that by using predictive policing programs, they can more accurately police high crime areas, and say that even if the programs do not directly predict crimes, just knowing that there is a predictive policing program in place will be a deterrent for criminals. Despite multiple complaints of racial biases in predictive policing by advocacy groups and citizens, departments continue to use the programs, with one LAPD spokesman saying "It is math, not magic, and it is not racist."

At this time, no police departments or police affiliated groups have come out against predictive policing.

Companies that Create Predictive Policing Software

Companies that sell predictive policing technology, such as Palantir or PredPol, often market their solutions as being “data driven” and reducing the work of police officers. Palantir aggregates data about individual arrest records or citations in order to target specific people who they consider likely to commit crimes, while PredPol compiles location data in order the identify hot spots where crimes are likely to occur.

Transparency issues tend to plague these programs, and multiple police departments have been sued in efforts to find out how they work. Most of these lawsuits are driven by claims of racial biases within the programs, which police departments deny, although they often refuse to release data to back up their claims. Neither PredPol nor Palantir has directly responded to racial bias complaints, although PredPol has a section on their website where they reiterate that their data is not based on demographics.

The Communities Being Policed
Community members report feeling targeted and over-policed, with one person saying that asking "how often do I see police in my area is like asking me how many times do I see a bird in the day.” Because predictive policing is based on previous police data, many communities argue that it simply reinforces existing racial biases in policing, creating a "feedback loop" where communities that have historically been over-policed will continue to be over-policed. This is supported by studies which show that information in police databases can be heavily racially biased, since police are more likely to stop people of color rather than white people; this leads to predictive policing programs producing heavily biased outcomes.

Advocacy Groups
Advocacy groups include both large organizations like the ACLU and the Brennan Center, and smaller community based ones like the Stop LAPD Spying Coalition (SLSC). These groups do not support predictive policing, with the ACLU saying that American policing “is systemically biased against communities of color and allows unconscionable abuses of police power,” and that giving them a supposedly neutral algorithm allows them to deny allegations of racism. The ACLU and the Brennan Center have both sued police departments to try and gain information about their predictive policing programs.

With LAPD's predictive policing program being shut down, many members of the SLSC feel hopeful about future fights, with cofounder Hamid Khan saying "Predictive policing has roundly been discredited. This [decision] was clearly [the result of] the organizing that was done. This was clearly the community rising up.”

= Case Study: Predictive Policing in LAPD in the 2010s =

The Los Angeles Police Department has a long history with racism and abuse (the beating of Rodney King in 1992), and predictive policing software it injected into its structure in the early 2010’s has helped revitalize a push against the organization.

LASER Program
Beginning as a research project in 2009, and first being put into use by the LAPD 2011, the Los Angeles Strategic Extraction and Restoration program is a point automation system used to flag citizens in Los Angeles who may be likely to commit a crime. A target is assigned and accumulates points based on interactions with police officers, non-violent crimes, and parole status. If one collects enough points, they will be added to a list of “Chronic Offenders”. The LAPD will then send officers to monitor that person periodically until they manage to get off the list.

PredPol
Created as a collaboration between the LAPD and UCLA Anthropology professor Jeffrey Brantingham, PredPol is a crime predication software that analyzes historical records to generate estimated times of crime incidents in a particular area around the city. PredPol is mostly used for motor vehicle related crime, specifically burglary and grand theft auto, and is stated as largely a preventative program, seeking to reduce crime rates by increasing police presents in areas predicted to have a crime happen.

Community and LAPD Response
Both of these predictive policing software tools have come under fire from both academics (at UCLA and elsewhere), as well as concerned citizens represented in the SLSC. These groups argue that the presumption of bias-free algorithms is negated by the use of historical crime data as input, and also criticize Professor Brantingham’s role in the collaboration as a violation of anthropology’s ethical obligation to not harm the civilization of study.

The LAPD also published an internal report on the use of predictive policing for the past 10 years. The study found that both the LASER program and PredPol software were ineffective at producing crime prevention and generating information at a rate any greater than the police officers already patrolling the city. The report notes that the racial makeup of both the hot districts and "Chronic Offenders" match the historical data of the 2000s and 2010s well, but this presumes absolute equity in reported crime and arrests for this period as well.

Future of Predictive Policing in the LAPD
As it stands now, in response to the 2019 internal study regarding the inefficacy of current predictive policing algorithms, the LAPD phased out the use of the LASER program in 2019, and PredPol in 2020. Note that this was internally and externally communicated as disappointment with the outcomes of the software and a lack of funds due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and not the underlying principles that some groups are concerned with. A major roadblock is the fact that predictive policing data (and sometimes even use) is not publicly available, and the LAPD has not allowed outside research professionals or LA organizations access.

= Conclusion =

Predictive policing remains a controversial technology but is still being used in departments across the country. Police departments don't want to get rid of it because they see it as a useful tool to help them perform their job, while the people being policed do not trust the latent functions. In the future, some extensions of this research that may be helpful could be the inclusion of research into how other countries have used predictive policing and the issues they have faced. Additionally, as this page was written during the pandemic, it may be helpful to update how police departments change their usage of predictive policing software after the pandemic as many are currently facing pandemic-related budget cuts, causing them to temporarily abandon the technology.

title: Lentis/Predictive Policing


text:
User:ShayMTR/sandbox/Epistemology/Reliabilism

In the last chapter, we saw that all JTB+X analyses are vulnerable to Gettier cases due to the fallibility of the justification condition. In this chapter, we will discuss a view called "reliabilism" where the justification condition is replaced with a condition requiring that the belief be formed by a reliable process.

h


text:
LMIs in Control/pages/LMI for L2-Optimal State-Feedback Control under Time-Varying Input Delay

This page describes a method for constructing a full-state-feedback controller for a continuous-time system with a time-varying input delay. In particular, a condition is provided to obtain a bound on the $$ L_2 $$-gain of closed-loop system under time-varying delay through feasibility of an LMI. The system under consideration pertains a single discrete delay in the actuator input, with the extent of the delay at any time bounded by some known value. Moreover, the delay is assumed to vary only slowly in time, with a temporal derivative bounded by a value less than one, although results may also be attained if no bound is known. Solving the LMI for a particular value of the bound, while minimizing a scalar variable, an upper limit on the $$ L_2 $$-gain of the system can be shown for any time-delay satisfying this bound.

The System
The system under consideration is one of the form:

\begin{align}

\dot{x}(t) &= Ax(t) + B_2u(t-\tau(t)) + B_1 w(t) & t&\geq t_0, & 0&\leq\tau(t) \leq h, & \dot{\tau}(t)&\leq d<1 \\ z(t) &= C_1x(t) + D_{12}u(t-\tau(t))

\end{align} $$

In this description, $$ A $$ and $$ A_1 $$ are constant matrices in $$ \mathbb{R}^{n\times n} $$. In addition, $$ B_1 $$ is a constant matrix in $$ \mathbb{R}^{n\times n_w}$$, and $$ B_2 $$ is a constant matrix in $$ \mathbb{R}^{n\times n_u}$$, where $$ n_w,n_u\in\mathbb{N} $$ denote the number of exogenous and actuator inputs respectively. Finally, $$ C_{1} $$ and $$ D_{12} $$ are constant matrices in $$ \mathbb{R}^{n_z\times n}$$ and $$ \mathbb{R}^{n_z\times n_u}$$ respectively, where $$ n_z\in\mathbb{N} $$ denotes the number of regulated outputs. The variable $$ \tau(t) $$ denotes a delay in the actuator input at time $$ t\geq t_0 $$, assuming a value no greater than some $$ h\in\mathbb{R}_+ $$. Moreover, we assume that the function $$ \tau(t) $$ is differentiable at any time, with the derivative bounded by some value $$ d<1 $$, assuring the delay to be slowly-varying in time.

The Data
To construct an $$ L_2 $$-optimal controller of the system, the following parameters must be known:

$$ \begin{align} A&\in\mathbb{R}^{n\times n} \\ B_1&\in\mathbb{R}^{n\times n_w} \\ B_2&\in\mathbb{R}^{n\times n_u} \\ C_1&\in\mathbb{R}^{n_z\times n} \\ D_{12}&\in\mathbb{R}^{n_z\times n_u} \\ h&\in \mathbb{R}_+ \\ d&\in [0,1) \end{align} $$

In addition to these parameters, a tuning scalar $$ \epsilon>0 $$ is also implemented in the LMI.

The Optimization Problem
Based on the provided data, we can construct an $$ L_2$$-optimal full-state-feedback controller of the system by testing feasibility of an LMI. In particular, we note that if the LMI presented below is feasible for some $$ \gamma>0 $$ and matrices $$ \bar{P}_2^{-1}>0 $$ and $$ Y $$, implementing the state-feedback $$ u(t)=Kx(t) $$ with $$ K=Y\bar{P}_2^{-1} $$, the $$ L_2 $$-gain of the closed-loop system will be less than or equal to $$ \gamma $$. To attain a bound that is as small as possible, we minimize the value of $$ \gamma $$ while solving the LMI:

The LMI: L2-Optimal Full-State-Feedback for TDS with Slowly-Varying Input Delay

\begin{align} &\text{Solve}:\\ &\qquad\min \gamma \\ &\text{such that there exist}:\\ &\qquad \bar{P},\bar{P}_2,\bar{R},\bar{S},\bar{S}_{12},\bar{Q}\in\mathbb{R}^{n\times n}, \quad Y\in\mathbb{R}^{n_u\times n}\\ &\text{for which}:\\ &\qquad \bar{P}>0,\quad \bar{P}_2>0,\quad \bar{R}>0,\quad \bar{S}>0  \\ &\qquad \begin{bmatrix} \begin{array}{c c c c | c c} \bar{\Phi}_{11} & \bar{\Phi}_{12} & \bar{S}_{12} & B_2Y+\bar{R}-\bar{S}_{12} & B_1 & \bar{P}_2^T C_1^T \\ \end{array} \end{bmatrix}<0 \\ &\text{where}:\\ &\qquad \Phi_{11} = A \bar{P}_2 + \bar{P}_2^T A^T + \bar{S} + \bar{Q} -\bar{R}\\ &\qquad \Phi_{12} = \bar{P}-\bar{P}_2+\epsilon \bar{P}_2^T A^T \\ &\qquad \Phi_{22} = -\epsilon \bar{P}_2-\epsilon\bar{P}_2^T + h^2 R \end{align}
 * & \bar{\Phi}_{22} & 0 & \epsilon B_2Y & \epsilon B_1 & 0\\
 * & * & -\bar{S}-\bar{R} & \bar{R}-\bar{S}_{12}^T & 0 & 0 \\
 * & * & * & -(1-d)\bar{Q}-2\bar{R}+\bar{S}_{12}+\bar{S}_{12}^T & 0 & Y^T D_{12}^T \\\hline
 * & * & * & * & -\gamma^2 I & 0 \\
 * & * & * & * & * & -I

$$

In this notation, the symbols $$ * $$ are used to indicate appropriate matrices to assure the overall matrix is symmetric.

Conclusion:
If the presented LMI is feasible for some $$ \gamma,Y,\bar{P}_2 x(t) $$, implementing the full-state-feedback controller $$ u(t)=Kx(t)=Y\bar{P}_2^{-1} $$, the closed-loop system will be asymptotically stable, and will have an $$ L_2$$-gain less than $$ \gamma $$. That is, independent of the values of the delays $$ \tau(t) $$, the system:

\begin{align} \dot{x}(t)&=Ax(t)+B_2Kx(t-\tau(t))+B_1 w(t) \\ z(t) &= C_1x(t)+D_{12}Kx(t-\tau(t)) \end{align} $$

with:

 * $$ \|z\|_{L_2} < \gamma \|w\|_{L_2}

\begin{align} K=Y\bar{P}_2^{-1} \end{align} $$

will satisfy:

 * $$ \|z\|_{L_2} < \gamma \|w\|_{L_2} $$

Here we note that $$ \bar{P}_2^{-1}x(t) $$ is guaranteed to exist as $$ P_2 $$ is positive definite, and thus nonsingular.

It should be noted that the obtained result is conservative. That is, even when minimizing the value of $$ \gamma $$, there is no guarantee that the bound obtained on the $$ L_2 $$-gain is sharp, meaning that the actual $$ L_2 $$-gain of the closed-loop can be (significantly) smaller than $$ \gamma $$.

In a scenario where no bound $$ d $$ on the change in the delay is known, or this bound is greater than one, the above LMI may still be used to construct a controller. In particular, if the presented LMI is feasible with $$ \bar{Q}=0 $$, the closed-loop system imposing $$ u(t)=Kx(t)=Y\bar{P}_2^{-1} $$ will be internally exponentially stable with an $$ L_2 $$-gain less than $$ \gamma $$ independent of the value of $$ \dot{\tau}(t) $$.

Implementation
An example of the implementation of this LMI in Matlab is provided on the following site:

 * https://github.com/djagt/LMI_Codes/blob/main/L2_OptStateFdbck_cTDS.m

Note that this implementation requires packages for YALMIP with solver mosek, though a different solver can also be implemented.

Related LMIs

 * - Bounded real lemma for continuous-time system with slowly-varying delay

 * - LMI for Hinf-optimal full-state-feedback control in a non-delayed continuous-time system

 * - LMI for Hinf-optimal output-feedback control in a non-delayed continuous-time system


text: User talk:NickMoon1

title: User talk:NickMoon1


text:
LMIs in Control/pages/Reachable set diagonalNB

Reachable sets with unit-energy inputs; Diagonal Norm-bound uncertainty
A Reachable set is a set of system States reached under the condition $$u = Kx$$. On this page we will look at the problem of finding an controller $$K$$, that  $$E \supseteq RS$$ - reachable set.

The System

\begin{align} \dot{x} &=A x + B_w w + B_u u +B_q p \\ q &= C_q x + D_{qw} w + D_{qu} u + D_{qp} p\\ u &= Kx \end{align} $$

Where:

\begin{align} x & \in R^{n} \\ w & \in R^{m} \\ u & \in R^{k} \\ \end{align} $$ In case of Diagonal Norm-bound uncertainty, we have:

\begin{align} p_i & = \delta_i(t) q_i \\ & |\delta_i(t)| \leq 1;\;\;\;\; \text{for } i = 1, ... , N_q \end{align} $$

The Data
$$N_p = N_q$$

The matrices $$ A \in R^{n\times n};\; B_{w} \in R^{n\times m} ;\; B_{u} \in R^{n\times k}; B_{p} \in R^{n\times N_p}; K \in R^{k\times n}  $$.

$$ C_q \in R^{N_q\times n};\; D_{qu} \in R^{N_q\times k} D_{qw} \in R^{N_q\times m} D_{qp} \in R^{N_q\times N_p} $$.

Reachable set
The reachable set can be defined:

\begin{align} RS &= \{x(T) | u = Kx; \;\; x(0) = 0; \;\; T \geq 0 ;\;\; \int_{0}^T w^T w dt <1 \} \\ \end{align} $$

The elipsoid $$ E = \{ \varepsilon\in R^n | \varepsilon^T Q \varepsilon\leq 1\} \supseteq  RS $$

The Optimization Problem
The following optimization problem should be solved:

\begin{align} \text{Find} \; &M >0: Y\\ & \begin{bmatrix} QA^T + A Q + B_{u }Y + Y^TB^T_{u} + B_{w}B^T_{w}+  B_p M B_p^T & (C_q Q + D_{qu}Y)^T \\ C_q Q + D_{qu}Y & -M I\end{bmatrix}< 0 \\ & K = Y Q^{-1} \end{align} $$

Conclusion:
This LMI allows us to investigate stability for the robust control problem in the case of polytopic uncertainty and gives on the controller for this case

Implementation:

 * - Matlab implementation using the YALMIP framework and Mosek solver

Related LMIs:

 * - Reachable sets with unit-energy inputs; Polytopic uncertainty
 * - Reachable sets with unit-energy inputs; norm bound uncertainty
 * Stabilizing State-Feedback Controllers with Structured Norm-Bounded Uncertainty

Return to Main Page:

 * Main Page.


text:
User talk:Feminist06

Issues in Interdisciplinarity 2020-21/Lockdown chapter
Hello, this page was not created by accident. I created it for an academic task for my university. The scope of the information that will be presented on this page is that it will talk about three disciplinary approaches (economics, social sciences, public health) towards assessing the effectiveness of nation-wide lockdowns that took place due to the pandemic. Let me know if anything is still unclear. --Feminist06 (discuss • contribs) 20:06, 5 December 2020 (UTC)
 * Alright, I've removed the query tag. I only added the tag because there doesn't seem to be any content in the main page. —Atcovi (Talk - Contribs) 22:50, 5 December 2020 (UTC)

title: User talk:Feminist06


text:
History of video games/Platforms/Odyssey series

History
The Odyssey series was a follow up to the original Magnavox Odyssey console made following the acquisition of Magnavox by Philips in 1974. This series of consoles began to be released in 1975 as cheaper dedicated consoles with built in games, as opposed to the original Odyssey's ability to play multiple games via jumper cards. Unlike the original Odyssey which attempted to offer games from sports to a haunted mansion, Odyssey series consoles stuck to popular sports games.

The last Magnavox Odyssey series consoles were released in 1977 and the last Philips Odyssey console was released in 1978. The Odyssey series of consoles were followed by the Magnavox Odyssey², a far more capable console capable of running software on cartridges.

Models
As more models were released, significant technical improvements were made, though these improvements were mostly iterative rather than groundbreaking.

Magnavox Odyssey 100
The Magnavox Odyssey 100 was released in 1975. The system was built in the USA with a simple single layer circuit board and four Texas Instruments integrated circuits. Uniquely, the system uses cardboard shielding internally, instead of more durable materials or materials that offered improved radio frequency properties. The system can play either Tennis or Hockey and can generate sound, a notable feature which was not a given in video games at the time.

Magnavox Odyssey 300
The 1976 Odyssey 300 offered an improved experience with the ability to display game scores on screen. Previously scorekeeping on Odyssey consoles had been an exercise left to the player.

A different version of the Odyssey 300 that was built into a television set was also sold. This was part of a small trend aimed at a niche market where specific models of television sets were integrated with a specific model of game console, typically for the purpose of saving space, making setup easier, or adding a sales point to a television model at the cost of increased expense and lower reliability.

External Resources

 * Pong Story - Contains history, console photos, box art, and screenshots for the Odyssey series.
 * Old Computers Museum - Odyssey 100 article.


text:
User talk:Knovva A

Blocked
You cannot edit for indefinite due to disruptive editing. You are welcome to contribute constructively when editing privileges are restored. You may appeal this action with a reasonable argument by adding the text below. —Atcovi (Talk - Contribs) 19:09, 4 December 2020 (UTC)

title: User talk:Knovva A


text:
Issues in Interdisciplinarity 2020-21/Truth in Definitions of Race and Implications in Black Maternal Care

Introduction
The case of black maternal care provides a microcosm in which the wider concept of race can be examined. The truth behind a biological basis of race has been challenged since the concept’s inception, and yet racial categorizations are still used to inform medical practice. To define is to reach a consensus that attributes a meaning to a word, so that each word reflects a truth that allows people to communicate. By exploring how misguided definitions of race adversely affect health outcomes for black patients in the US and the UK, this chapter highlights the problems caused by different conceptions of truth. Care provided to black women during pregnancy will serve to exemplify our arguments by applying them to reality.

Bio-Anthropology
As a discipline concerned with the synergy between biology and culture, biological anthropology has often been looked upon to inform wider definitions of race. With the discipline’s origins rooted in Western Euro-American scholarship however, early conceptions of race within anthropology were marked by racial discrimination and prejudice. Emphasis on morphology combined with the existing white-supremacist ideology arguably led to the black and white dualism which has since been regarded as a true natural distinction upon which biological research should be based. Since, biological anthropology has moved away from evolutionist definitions and has instead focused on ancestry, genetics or society to inform their notions of race. The variability in approaches to understanding ‘race’ however, has meant that definitions of race are unstable and localised – a major issue when used to inform medical interventions. Researchers investigating genetic research have either stressed the need to reevaluate biological conceptions of race, which, as they note, are "so disputed and so mired in confusion", or falsified the entire notion. As such, contemporary anthropologists have come to understand race as a social construct used to arbitrarily categorise groups based on physical characteristics. Despite this, due to the higher prevalence of certain conditions in some groups, racial categories have been maintained in healthcare and are still used to inform maternal treatment. This can affect black patient outcomes two-fold: there is a risk of misguidedly extrapolating data on health from people with European ancestry to people with African ancestry (where relevant biological variation may eventually be found), and of black patients being treated differently based on unfounded conceptions of racial differences which are both reinforced by and products of, both personal and institutional biases.

Biomedicine
Within biological taxonomy, where race is considered no more than an informal rank, races are “thought to be discrete, exclusive, permanent, and relatively homogenous”. While that may have been popular opinion when races were first classified, we have come to understand through anthropology that genes unique to racial ancestry are very rare.

Articles using the term 'race' rarely offer a definition, and it is often used as a term for environmental, behavioural and genetic factors. This ambiguity favours the prevailing belief that “race” means “gene pools”, thus neglecting the sociological and anthropological factors that lie at the very foundation of race. Therefore the greatest issue with research lies not in the definition of race, but the lack thereof.One widely publicised study connected higher rates of preterm birth in black patients to genetics, but gave no genetic evidence to support this. Articles like these, in which racial inequalities are attributed to gene pools, through eliminating social factors alone, falsely pose as empirical truths and misinform practitioners.

Using race as a blanket term for both environmental and genetic factors is also problematic. For example, where Sickle Cell Disease – which causes many complications in pregnancy – can be reliably traced back to malaria-prevalent countries, increased rates of high-blood pressure and pre-eclampsia are largely attributed to environmental factors. Both of these complications are classified by race in research, but relate to distinct ancestral (genetic) and environmental (sociological) aspects. Clarifying these differences is necessary if we are to minimise the ambiguity surrounding ‘race’, and its impact on health outcomes.

Sociology
Healthcare access has long been thought to be influenced solely by the socio-economical and/or geographical circumstances of the individual, especially in the US, where free healthcare is not assured by the state. However, regardless of personal background, black mothers still suffer under racial disparities in maternal care outcomes, including a 30% higher pregnancy related mortality rate. Whilst positivist truth can be obtained empirically, sociology emphasises constructive truth. These contrasting belief systems shed light on how healthcare is impacted by racial biases.

Stereotyping and racial biases influence practitioners' and advisors' recommendations, widening the gap of racial disparities. Women who experienced racial discrimination during previous treatments were almost three times more likely to avoid postpartum treatments – regardless of their socioeconomic background, potentially resulting in further complications. Practitioners' racial biases are perhaps grounded in education, as research has found medical students commonly believe black people are less susceptible to pain. The ‘strong black woman’ narrative observed in Euro-American societies delegitimises patient's claims, which can lead to worse actual and perceived health outcomes.

Raising racial awareness in medical education should help to eliminate biases before they become embedded into medical practice. There is a pressing need for new policies to improve regulations in women’s health services, thus a collaborative approach to public policy will be critical.

Statistics and its Implications in Policy making
Public policy making is significantly influenced by statistics, which supposedly represent reality. However, policies addressing disparities in women’s maternal care involve defining race, which is problematic due to limitations in producing unbiased statistical data. Thus, statistics shape both policies which directly affect black maternal care, and the definition of race in medicine itself.

In statistics, the race of an individual is classified either by self-identification or by others’ perception. Individual classification is more frequently used for its consistency, nevertheless, it is common for a person’s race to be defined by an outsider – whose judgement may be based upon phenotypic characteristics. These judgements are disputable as they imply that physical features correspond with genetic or biological variation, a relationship which, as mentioned previously, has never been scientifically demonstrated.

Further, in a world of growing racial diversity, maintaining race-based statistics is increasingly challenging and decreasingly appropriate. A potential solution is to substitute the notion of race and instead establish categories through cultural partitioning. Culture-related habits and environment have been shown to have a greater impact on health than genetics and race, therefore a collaborative approach between statisticians and cultural anthropologists would be uniquely beneficial in achieving a more accurate classification system.

Conclusion
Ultimately, healthcare institutions may believe they are following positivist truths about race founded in biology in their practice, when in fact their medical interventions are informed by notions of race which are constructed by the society in which they live. The failure to consider the social and environmental factors involved in health outcomes for black patients further reinforces the assumption of a biological basis for race. It becomes obvious therefore, that only an interdisciplinary approach combining anthropology, biology and sociology among others, can reveal the truth about race and its implications in healthcare. A proposal to shift from a race-based to a race-conscious approach in medicine has been suggested to overcome structural racism which results in major health inequalities.


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User talk:SouthParkFan65

Welcome!
Welcome, SouthParkFan65!

If you have any questions, you can ask in the assistance reading room or possibly contact me personally. —Atcovi (Talk - Contribs) 01:23, 5 December 2020 (UTC)

Portland, Oregon
This book / page has been deleted because it was flagged as inappropriate for Wikibooks. This kind of page is more suitable for Wikipedia or Wikivoyage. Xania   talk 05:26, 29 October 2023 (UTC)

title: User talk:SouthParkFan65


text:
Talk:Issues in Interdisciplinarity 2020-21/Power in Plastic Surgery

Wikibooks Chapter title
DISCLAIMER: The title of this Wikibooks chapter is Power in Cosmetic Surgery, but we have had some trouble changing it. While we were able to change it in the Issues in "Interdisciplinarity 2020-21" page, we have not been able to change it in this page. When we told our seminar leader, he suggested we let the graders know through the discussion page. --Cannedtomatoes (discuss • contribs) 13:49, 11 December 2020 (UTC)

I think I finally managed to change the title of the main page, but for example, the discussion page is still called "Talk:Issues in Interdisciplinarity 2020-21/Power in Plastic Surgery ". I will try to change it as well, but I am keeping this disclaimer in the discussion just in case there are other incoherences along with the Wikibook chapter. --Cannedtomatoes (discuss • contribs) 13:47, 12 December 2020 (UTC)

Summary of today's meeting 04/12
After meeting a couple of days ago, we decided that we should start researching about the topic without a clear direction, and then discuss what we had found in the meeting we had today. In today's meeting, the main thing we discussed was the structure of our Wikibooks chapter and the disciplines we wanted to discuss concerning cosmetic surgery. Even though every member of the group had gathered information from various disciplines, we had no problem agreeing about what to discard and what to include in the chapter, as we all had a very similar vision about its direction. There were several disciplines that we had to get rid of because of the word count, such as ethics, new technologies or economy, but agreed on trying to mention them on the "interdisciplinary tensions" section. We also agreed on adding two final paragraphs about the power dynamics and the interdisciplinary tensions in this felid, so that we refer to those key components of the chapter explicitly. After today's meeting, each one of us will do their independent research on their discipline in shared documents so that we can all see the approach each member is taking, and in a few days, we will share our progress and work on the common paragraphs together. Cannedtomatoes (discuss • contribs) 02:35, 5 December 2020 (UTC)

 * I have just added the notes we discussed in Friday's meeting, outlining the basic structure we are aiming for. Based on these notes (that we created all together), we are now working on writing the corresponding sections for 'Medicine', 'Psychology' and 'Sociology'. Bienchen4338 (discuss • contribs) 11:11, 6 December 2020 (UTC)

I believe that a part of psychology about doctors not being qualified to evaluate the psychological risks of cosmetic surgery patient could be a moved and emphasized in interdisciplinary tensions section. Also, the negative influence on patients' mental health contradicts social benefits cosmetic enhancements provide, which can also be discussed in the interdisciplinary tensions section. Obsolete obscurantism (discuss •

contribs) 18:49, 8 December 2020 (UTC)

Summary of today's meeting 08/12
During today's meeting, we shared and read each others' contributions covering different disciplines and uploaded them to our Wikibook page as well as discussed their contents and topic for interdisciplinary discussion. Also, we decided how we are going to write the introduction, interdisciplinary tensions and conclusion sections and agreed on when we will have our next meeting and the tasks we will do in the meantime. Obsolete obscurantism (discuss • contribs) 19:00, 8 December 2020 (UTC)

I just divided the psychology section because, even though the information and the text flow perfectly fine, I feel like it would be easier and more pleasant to the reader to find that section organised into paragraphs. Let me know if you agree with my decision and feel free to restructure them. --Cannedtomatoes (discuss • contribs) 21:07, 8 December 2020 (UTC)

 * I completely agree. I think this new structure has improved the general presentation of the section and effectively highlights the different perspectives/points I am trying to communicate. It appears to be more organised and is less intimidating than simply a huge chunk of text. Thank you for making these changes. (Bienchen4338 (discuss • contribs) 10:38, 9 December 2020 (UTC))

I just tried changing the title of the WikiBook Chapter from plastic surgery to Cosmetic surgery as we discussed, and I manage to do it in the "Issues in Interdisciplinarity 2020-21" page, but I cannot find where to change it in our page. I will keep trying to do so but if anyone knows how to do it, it would be a lot of help if you change it. --Cannedtomatoes (discuss • contribs) 12:58, 9 December 2020 (UTC)

 * I think what you have to do is click on "edit" in the "Issues in Interdisciplinarity 2020-21" page and change the name within the brackets as well (from plastic surgery to cosmetic surgery). However, when I tried this the preview made the link appear red - as though there is no page that will be linked to the "Issues in Interdisciplinarity 2020-21" page. Im not sure whether this means that we have to create a completely new page. I will continue trying to figure it out - but unfortunately I can not help any further at the moment. Bienchen4338 (discuss • contribs) 17:04, 9 December 2020 (UTC)

Within the 'medicine' section, a really good point was made about how surgeons perceive "ethic correction" and their understanding of how western ideals are interpreted differently in different cultural contexts. While this is relevant to the 'medicine' section, I believe it may be even more impactful and important to mention, when we discuss power dynamics. I have therefore taken the liberty to move it to our combined notes, so we can incorporate it into the 'power dynamics' section. Let me know if you agree with this or if you feel this is a crucial part that should remain in the 'medicine' paragraph. Bienchen4338 (discuss • contribs) 21:00, 9 December 2020 (UTC)

 * Thank you for pointing this out, I agree with you and I feel like having the information organised into paragraphs will make our Chapter more fluent and comfortable to read. --Cannedtomatoes (discuss • contribs) 13:55, 12 December 2020 (UTC)

I have just added the introduction. As we discussed in our meeting, I briefly mentioned everything we are going to talk about in the Wikibooks Chapter, while trying to keep it concise because of the word count. There are some sentences I am not quite sure they work, for example, the one that starts with "In this Wikibooks chapter...", so if you have any suggestions or changes you feel might improve its quality please feel open to do them. --Cannedtomatoes (discuss • contribs) 12:42, 10 December 2020 (UTC)

Summary of today's meeting 13/12
Yesterday during the meeting, we added the rest of paragraphs (power dynamics and interdisciplinary tensions) to our draft in google document. We realized we were more than 200 words over the word limit, so we started cutting down words but at the same time we really tried to keep the main points, so that we would still have the same arguments, which appeared to be a truly difficult task. However, by today morning we managed to cut down enough words and now we will be adding references. Obsolete obscurantism (discuss • contribs) 12:01, 14 December 2020 (UTC)

 * We have now added all of the referencing in Vancouver style, making sure there are no repeated citations. With our word count below 1200, we are now doing some last fine tuning, to ensure we are happy with the final document. (Bienchen4338 (discuss • contribs) 14:23, 14 December 2020 (UTC))


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User:TheColdPrince

Hello

title: User:TheColdPrince