text:
Lentis/The U.S. Pandemic Response: Influenza, 1918-1919

The origins of the influenza of 1918-1919 are unknown. The Avian flu, infected one third of the world’s population. It killed 50 million worldwide, more than all the soldiers and civilians killed during WW1. The Influenza pandemic is known as the deadliest pandemic of the modern world. No country was safe from it, and with the lack of knowledge and technological advances, the US was at the mercy of the unification of its people. The influenza pandemic came in three separate waves. The first wave was the least deadly, starting in the spring of 1918. Two subsequent waves occurred in the fall of 1918 and the winter/spring of 1919.

Background
The influenza of 1918 had an unusually a high mortality rate among the young. People ages 15-31, who typically are more resistant to illness, were the most susceptible to dying from the influenza. Symptoms of the first wave included typical flu symptoms such as sore throats, headaches, and fevers. The first wave occurred during the first quarter of 1918 and was the least deadly. In 1918, roughly 75,000 flu deaths were recorded. Compare this to the 63,000 flu deaths that occurred during the same time period three years prior.

The second wave was much more deadly than the first. In the United States approximately 292,000 flu deaths were recorded in the fall of 1918. Only 26,000 deaths were recorded during the fall of 1915. The flu would cause patients faces to turn blue and blacken limbs and torsos. Nose and mouth bleeds, coughing fits, and muscle aches were also common. The cause of death was usually bacterial pneumonia, an infection of the lungs. A few hours to days after infection, the patient would pass due to fluid filling the lungs.

History
The first recorded case of the influenza in the United States was in Kansas, 1918. In the spring of 1918, the US was in the middle of WWI World War 1, (World war 1 ended November 11, 1918) Historians say the war allowed the 1918 flu to spread faster. Constant movement of troops allowed the virus to spread worldwide (troops were being moved from camp to camp, as well as country to country, during battle and as prisoners of war). Furthermore, there was mass malnourishment, overcrowded medical camps, and hospitals had poor hygiene, all of which promoted bacterial superinfection.

US Government Response
Different cities throughout the United States had different responses to the 1918 influenza pandemic. Some of the most restrictive regulations were in places like San Francisco. Citizens caught not wearing a mask in public would be arrested for disturbing the peace and fined five dollars or up to two hundred dollars (five dollars is around 100 dollars today). Other regulations in San Francisco included banning social gatherings, closing places of recreation, and closing schools. Other areas of the country waited before going into lockdown. The city of Philadelphia hosted a 200,000 person parade for World War I. Three days later the hospital beds were filled to capacity. Fifteen days later and more than 3,000 people died in a single week.

US Public Response
Originally there was small scale noncompliance with masking laws, but trolley drivers and store owners refused to turn away unmasked customers. Those who opposed mask mandates during the 1918-1919 pandemic were known as “Mask-Slackers” and were prevalent during the influenza of 1918-1919. On October 22, 1918, Mayor James Rolph signed “The Mask Ordinance”, making San Francisco the first United States city to mandate masks. Gradually, support of the anti-mask movement grew and became organized. This culminated with the Anti-Mask rally at Dreamland Rink in San Francisco, organized by the "Anti-Mask League" of San Francisco, where around 2000 people met to discuss ways to defeat the mask mandate. The league held many of the same values anti-maskers do today, such as not trusting the scientific data and claiming an overreach of their civil liberties. Protests against mask mandates led to civil unrest, and many who did not comply with the rules were arrested.

Preventative Response
Social campaigns were established to reduce the spread of the influenza virus and to manage the outbreak. Isolation and quarantine of the ill was one strategy used to prevent further spread. Hospitals created additional wards to separate flu patients from other hospital patients. Periodic disinfectant was used to clean hospital rooms between uses. Ambulances were also sanitized with antiseptic. Public health campaigns were started to inform the public of healthy habits and dangerous habits. The American Public Health Association (APHA) campaigned for legislation to prevent the use of common cups for drinking and used posters to communicate the importance of hand washing and the danger of spit. “Spit Spreads Death” was a common phrase used on signs. Masks made from gauze were introduced with the intention to prevent virus particles from escaping the mouth and nose and vice versa. Organizations like the Red Cross made official statements on mask wearing “Wear A Mask and Save Your Life” while also addressing those noncompliant with “The man or woman or child who will not wear a mask is now a dangerous slacker.” Antiseptic solutions were also created to be used on the hands like modern hand sanitizer.

Parallelism with Covid-19
“Both the Influenza, and the new Covid19 share many similarities. Both spread between people who are in close contact through respiratory droplets released through talking, sneezing or coughing. These droplets can be inhaled. These viruses also spread if a person touches a surface with the viruses on it and then touches his or her mouth, nose, or eyes”. As the Covid19 pandemic reaches its 2 years anniversary, how exactly has the US, learning from the influenza, reacted?

With Influenza, the US lacked the technology for diagnosis and treatment. So, the country took a well-known approach: Enclosure. “Communities across the country did what they could, closing their schools, churches, theaters, shops and salons”. Personal hygiene, use of disinfectants and use of masks in public were demanded. With a one century of difference, the same tactic was applied for COVID19, with different results.

Roughly 675,000 Americans died from the 2 years of Influenza. With Covid, as for October 12th 2021, roughly 715K deaths have been reported in the US. Why, with better technology for diagnosis and cleaning, and previous pandemic experiences, is the US struggling to keep the pandemic at bay?

One theory argues that it is due to the influence of young adults. The 1918 influenza killed a disproportionate number of 25–40-year-old, which accounted for 40% of deaths from the 1918 influenza; COVID-19 mostly affects those over the age of 65. Affecting the largest section of the population, the theory argues that young-adults took the pandemic seriously. The problem with this theory is that the Influenza happened during WW1, where young adults were obligated to be on the field in close proximity to each other and in poor hygienic conditions, explaining its mortality rate.

Another theory argues that it comes from the effects of social media, with one side promoting the tactics of Lockdown and social distancing, while the other side undermining the effects of the virus.

Conclusion and Further Research
The influenza came to an end by the summer of 1919. Historians believe the end of the pandemic was because partial herd immunity was reached. The virus infected or killed enough people that the world population no longer had enough susceptible people for the strain to become a pandemic once again. The 1918-1919  flu was one of the first of three flu pandemics caused by the H1N1 influenza, with the most recent being the 2009 swine flu.

Social conditions and events of the time (Red Summer, Progressive Era, First Red Scare) and their relation to the pandemic and sentiment in the United States at the time would be a good source of expansion of the chapter. The chapter could also be expanded to include interactions with other countries at time in addition to World War I. Different repsonses in cities throughout the United States and the lack of response from the White House could be included.


text:
Talk:Graphic Design/Web Design

A website specialist is a visual craftsman who is answerable for planning the design, convenience, and visual appearance of a site. An effective website specialist should have a variety of inventive, realistic, and specialized abilities. A web engineer is somebody who fabricates and keeps up the center construction of a site. Totally yes! Website composition and web advancement are similarly significant and firmly associated parts of the site creation measure. This is the reason website specialists and web engineers frequently share comparative capacities and abilities, including 3D illustrations plan and capability in HTML/CSS and JavaScript dialects.

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

title: Talk:Graphic Design/Web Design


text:
Robotic Pets for Psychosocial Therapeutics

Robotic animals have been developed as a substitute for animals in animal-assisted therapy (AAT). In AAT, an animal is used as a facilitator to help individuals aid in recovery from, or cope with medical conditions. Animals have a unique ability to break down barriers that may exist between a client and therapist in a relatively short period of time, and thus aids in building trust between client and therapist, to create a more relaxed and comfortable atmosphere. It is highly effective in eliciting communication and interaction from clients who would otherwise prove difficult to engage. Working with live animals has many limitations such as zoonotic disease, allergies, or animal welfare concerns. Robotic pets can bring therapeutic benefits of animal-assisted therapy, while nullifying negative issues associated with living pets such as increased. Robotics technology has been applied in a variety of ways in mental healthcare scenarios. Such applications include interventions for conditions ranging from autism spectrum disorder to cognitive impairments, as well as ways to encourage physical activity and provide companionship to individuals living alone.

Current State of the Art
Currently, there are dozens of different robotic pets commercially available with a wide variety of features ranging from $100-$6,000. For $100, the Hasbro Joy for All Pets line includes multiple colors of cats and dogs. The cat can blink, purr, meow, wash its face with its paw, and even roll onto its back for belly rubs, and the dog has a realistic heartbeat, can bark in response to voices and move its head around to nuzzle up against the user. At a higher price point of $500, the Tombot Jennie has a moving head and is covered in touch sensors and microphones that allow it to realistically respond to touch and bark in response to voice commands. Aibo, costing $2,900, is able to move around on its own, and has artificial intelligence (AI) powered learning that allows it to develop a unique personality over time. It can pick up a special bone it recognizes, roll over and respond to human interaction through touch or voice, and even sports a fake peeing animation where it lifts a back leg and plays the sound of water being poured on a hard surface through its built-in speakers. Unlike many robotic pets that attempt to mimic it’s real life counterparts, aibo has no fur, instead sporting a metallic dog-like form. For $6,000, PARO, a seal-like pet, holds the Guinness World record for “Greatest reduction in stress levels by a robot”. PARO has been in use in Japan and throughout Europe since 2003. PARO’s cameras allow it to actively seek eye contact with its users, and can even remember faces and associate them with different names for the robot – if the same unit is used for multiple patients, it will recognize each user and respond to the name each has assigned to it.

Therapeutic benefits of a robotic pet mostly parallel those of a living animal. Robotic animals used for AAT have been shown to improve moods and make patients more communicative, improve activity of cortical neurons in patients with dementia, and reduce stress as revealed from urinary tests. In treating loneliness in elderly patients living in long-term care facilities, no statistical difference was shown between treatment groups of a robot, aibo, and living dog, both resulting in similar improvements. Anecdotally, some residents and staff were initially reluctant to interact with aibo; however, with exposure, this resistance largely dissipated. Acceptance of interactive robots suggests their widespread use in geriatric facilities is feasible from a therapeutic standpoint. Research has indicated it is not the mere presence of a robotic animal that produces therapeutic effects, but that it is animated. When the “Haptic Creature”, a furry-animal like device, was breathing compared to inactive, respiration rate, heart rate, and anxiety were lower, and emotional valence was more positive. Additionally, touch has been suggested to promote stress-reducing effects. When participants were touched by a “NAO” robot, compared to absence of touch, arousal reduction was observed through decreased heart rate and respiration rate.

Ethical Concerns
As robotic technology forays into our daily lives, special consideration must be given to ethical concerns in using robotics for psychosocial therapeutics. Experts in rehabilitative therapy have expressed concerns on privacy and deception. This differs from concerns of users primarily being decreased human contact, followed by deception, dignity, infantilization.

Privacy
Data collected from the multitude of sensors could be leaked or stolen. The Wakamura robot was designed as a companion, but it can also be used for monitoring elderly, delivering messages and reminding them about medicine. A healthcare provider may have access to sensor data for patient safety, consequently making the patient under constant surveillance and losing all right to privacy. The issue becomes more complex if the client’s mental state deteriorates. A person with Alzheimer’s may forget the robot was monitoring them, and could perform acts or say things thinking they are in the privacy of their own home.

Social Contact
AAT is known to aid in loneliness and encourage social interactions; however, the technology is only intended as a supplement, not a replacement. At present, robots are far from being real companions. They can interact with people, and even show simulated emotions, but their conversational ability is still extremely limited. They cannot form adequate replacements for human love and attention. Nonetheless, some are advertised as such: the Geeko CareBot claims to be “a new kind of companion”. Presence of a robotic animal in a user's presence may justify inattentiveness and a lack of contact; for instance, caregivers in a nursing home may devote more time to residents who do not have the AAT, neglecting those who do. Similarly, family members may use the robotic pet to alleviate guilt for not spending time with an older family member. These effects of robotic pets demonstrate Jevons Paradox: attempting to increase social interaction with the robotic animal can ultimately reduce social contact overall.

Deception
Deception is another primary concern. Caregivers and family members that market the robot as a real pet to users can be seen as inherently deceitful and as treating users with less dignity. These concerns are exacerbated when the user has cognitive impairments from diseases such as dementia and autism, conditions of which AAT is commonly used for. Morphology is a richly debated topic in the community, with many studies showing people will anthropomorphize and form attachments to nearly anything conveying animacy. Increasingly realistic representations not only convey inaccurate expectations, but may be unethical when treating vulnerable populations. This deception is a form of infantilization by treating older adults as children. It can be seen as disrespectful and can damage their family’s perception of them; thus further decreasing desire to interact and isolating them. Whether users care they are being lied to and treated in such a way vary greatly and a universal consensus of harm cannot be determined. On one hand, “a diagnosis of dementia does not erase the need to be treated with dignity” ; however, clients could still enjoy, and benefit, from interacting with a robotic pet without thinking it is actually sentient. Turkle et al. found seniors interacting with robots showed considerable variations in their attitudes and behavior towards them: some wanted to know how they worked in a mechanical sense, whereas others were content to interact with them “as they presented themselves” with no interest in their underlying mechanism. Robotic pets for psychosocial therapy is a tool that still needs more psychological research to provide a clearer picture of beliefs that elderly hold about the robots they encounter and should be used with discretion based on how the patient wants to be treated. A few individual factors have been found to influence acceptance of robots among older adults, such as previous experience with technology. Notably, culture, an increasingly important aspect of healthcare, also plays a role not only in attitudes and behaviors toward robots, but also in preferences in relation to appearance along with verbal and nonverbal communication. Wang et al. found in a cross-cultural study between Chinese and American participants, robots that respect cultural norms are more likely to be accepted. Barua argued the behavior of a robot is a reflection of the creators’ values, which means for robots to be effectively integrated into healthcare, they ought to be created culturally competent and compassionate.

Conclusion
With increased use of robots as service machines in the medical context, human-robot interactions are more and more frequent in healthcare. Robots interacting with humans in a way that supports mental and physical well-being have potential for directly supporting individuals at risk and also the healthcare system in general. As technology advances and robot morphology becomes increasingly closer to their real-life counterparts, their potential technological dangers and ethical social issues must be considered in future developments.

Refrences
{{Reflist| {{shelves|Robotics|Medicine}} {{one-page book}}


text: Ethiopian History/Printable version

title: Ethiopian History/Printable version


text: Windows 8/Printable version

title: Windows 8/Printable version


text: Windows Registry Hacks/Printable version


text:
Windows Vista/Printable version

 =Front matter=
 * 1) Introduction
 * 2) New features
 * 3) Edition comparison

Introduction

New features

Edition comparison
 =Interface=
 * 1) Installation
 * 2) Aero
 * 3) Windows Explorer

Installation

Aero

Windows Explorer
 =Programs=
 * 1) Programs
 * 2) Windows Mail

Programs

Windows Mail
 =Power Usage=
 * 1) Filesystem structure and conventions

Filesystem structure and conventions
{{:Windows Vista/Filesystem}

 =Authors & Contributors=

title: Windows Vista/Printable version


text: Microsoft Project Crash Course/Printable version


text:
Talk:Robotic Pets for Psychosocial Therapeutics

Introduction
Madeleine Hoang

Current State of the Art
Seth Dolin, Madeleine Hoang

Ethical Concerns (Privacy)
Seth Dolin, Madeleine Hoang

Ethical Concerns (Social Contact)
Evan Clark, Madeleine Hoang

Ethical Concerns (Deception)
Evan Clark, Madeleine Hoang

Conclusion
Madeleine Hoang


text: Microsoft Office/Printable version

title: Microsoft Office/Printable version


text: Financial Modelling in Microsoft Excel/Printable version


text: Badminton/Printable version

title: Badminton/Printable version


text: Standard ML Programming/Printable version


text: YafaRay/Printable version

title: YafaRay/Printable version


text: Xandros/Printable version

title: Xandros/Printable version


text:
Lentis/Robotic Pets for Psychosocial Therapeutics

Robotic animals have been developed as a substitute for animals in animal-assisted therapy (AAT). In AAT, an animal is used as a facilitator to help individuals aid in recovery from, or cope with medical conditions. Animals have a unique ability to break down barriers that may exist between a client and therapist in a relatively short period of time, and thus aids in building trust between client and therapist, to create a more relaxed and comfortable atmosphere. It is highly effective in eliciting communication and interaction from clients who would otherwise prove difficult to engage. Working with live animals has many limitations such as zoonotic disease, allergies, or animal welfare concerns. Robotic pets can bring therapeutic benefits of animal-assisted therapy, while nullifying negative issues associated with living pets such as increased. Robotics technology has been applied in a variety of ways in mental healthcare scenarios. Such applications include interventions for conditions ranging from autism spectrum disorder to cognitive impairments, as well as ways to encourage physical activity and provide companionship to individuals living alone.

Current State of the Art
Currently, there are dozens of different robotic pets commercially available with a wide variety of features ranging from $100-$6,000. For $100, the Hasbro Joy for All Pets line includes multiple colors of cats and dogs. The cat can blink, purr, meow, wash its face with its paw, and even roll onto its back for belly rubs, and the dog has a realistic heartbeat, can bark in response to voices and move its head around to nuzzle up against the user. At a higher price point of $500, the Tombot Jennie has a moving head and is covered in touch sensors and microphones that allow it to realistically respond to touch and bark in response to voice commands. Aibo, costing $2,900, is able to move around on its own, and has artificial intelligence (AI) powered learning that allows it to develop a unique personality over time. It can pick up a special bone it recognizes, roll over and respond to human interaction through touch or voice, and even sports a fake peeing animation where it lifts a back leg and plays the sound of water being poured on a hard surface through its built-in speakers. Unlike many robotic pets that attempt to mimic it’s real life counterparts, aibo has no fur, instead sporting a metallic dog-like form. For $6,000, PARO, a seal-like pet, holds the Guinness World record for “Greatest reduction in stress levels by a robot”. PARO has been in use in Japan and throughout Europe since 2003. PARO’s cameras allow it to actively seek eye contact with its users, and can even remember faces and associate them with different names for the robot – if the same unit is used for multiple patients, it will recognize each user and respond to the name each has assigned to it.

Therapeutic benefits of a robotic pet mostly parallel those of a living animal. Robotic animals used for AAT have been shown to improve moods and make patients more communicative, improve activity of cortical neurons in patients with dementia, and reduce stress as revealed from urinary tests. In treating loneliness in elderly patients living in long-term care facilities, no statistical difference was shown between treatment groups of a robot, aibo, and living dog, both resulting in similar improvements. Anecdotally, some residents and staff were initially reluctant to interact with aibo; however, with exposure, this resistance largely dissipated. Acceptance of interactive robots suggests their widespread use in geriatric facilities is feasible from a therapeutic standpoint. Research has indicated it is not the mere presence of a robotic animal that produces therapeutic effects, but that it is animated. When the “Haptic Creature”, a furry-animal like device, was breathing compared to inactive, respiration rate, heart rate, and anxiety were lower, and emotional valence was more positive. Additionally, touch has been suggested to promote stress-reducing effects. When participants were touched by a “NAO” robot, compared to absence of touch, arousal reduction was observed through decreased heart rate and respiration rate.

Ethical Concerns
As robotic technology forays into our daily lives, special consideration must be given to ethical concerns in using robotics for psychosocial therapeutics. Experts in rehabilitative therapy have expressed concerns on privacy and deception. This differs from concerns of users primarily being decreased human contact, followed by deception, dignity, infantilization.

Privacy
Data collected from the multitude of sensors could be leaked or stolen. The Wakamura robot was designed as a companion, but it can also be used for monitoring elderly, delivering messages and reminding them about medicine. A healthcare provider may have access to sensor data for patient safety, consequently making the patient under constant surveillance and losing all right to privacy. The issue becomes more complex if the client’s mental state deteriorates. A person with Alzheimer’s may forget the robot was monitoring them, and could perform acts or say things thinking they are in the privacy of their own home.

Social Contact
AAT is known to aid in loneliness and encourage social interactions; however, the technology is only intended as a supplement, not a replacement. At present, robots are far from being real companions. They can interact with people, and even show simulated emotions, but their conversational ability is still extremely limited. They cannot form adequate replacements for human love and attention. Nonetheless, some are advertised as such: the Geeko CareBot claims to be “a new kind of companion”. Presence of a robotic animal in a user's presence may justify inattentiveness and a lack of contact; for instance, caregivers in a nursing home may devote more time to residents who do not have the AAT, neglecting those who do. Similarly, family members may use the robotic pet to alleviate guilt for not spending time with an older family member. These effects of robotic pets demonstrate Jevons Paradox: attempting to increase social interaction with the robotic animal can ultimately reduce social contact overall.

Deception
Deception is another primary concern. Caregivers and family members that market the robot as a real pet to users can be seen as inherently deceitful and as treating users with less dignity. These concerns are exacerbated when the user has cognitive impairments from diseases such as dementia and autism, conditions of which AAT is commonly used for. Morphology is a richly debated topic in the community, with many studies showing people will anthropomorphize and form attachments to nearly anything conveying animacy. Increasingly realistic representations not only convey inaccurate expectations, but may be unethical when treating vulnerable populations. This deception is a form of infantilization by treating older adults as children. It can be seen as disrespectful and can damage their family’s perception of them; thus further decreasing desire to interact and isolating them. Whether users care they are being lied to and treated in such a way vary greatly and a universal consensus of harm cannot be determined. On one hand, “a diagnosis of dementia does not erase the need to be treated with dignity” ; however, clients could still enjoy, and benefit, from interacting with a robotic pet without thinking it is actually sentient. Turkle et al. found seniors interacting with robots showed considerable variations in their attitudes and behavior towards them: some wanted to know how they worked in a mechanical sense, whereas others were content to interact with them “as they presented themselves” with no interest in their underlying mechanism. Robotic pets for psychosocial therapy is a tool that still needs more psychological research to provide a clearer picture of beliefs that elderly hold about the robots they encounter and should be used with discretion based on how the patient wants to be treated. A few individual factors have been found to influence acceptance of robots among older adults, such as previous experience with technology. Notably, culture, an increasingly important aspect of healthcare, also plays a role not only in attitudes and behaviors toward robots, but also in preferences in relation to appearance along with verbal and nonverbal communication. Wang et al. found in a cross-cultural study between Chinese and American participants, robots that respect cultural norms are more likely to be accepted. Barua argued the behavior of a robot is a reflection of the creators’ values, which means for robots to be effectively integrated into healthcare, they ought to be created culturally competent and compassionate.

Conclusion
With increased use of robots as service machines in the medical context, human-robot interactions are more and more frequent in healthcare. Robots interacting with humans in a way that supports mental and physical well-being have potential for directly supporting individuals at risk and also the healthcare system in general. As technology advances and robot morphology becomes increasingly closer to their real-life counterparts, their potential technological dangers and ethical social issues must be considered in future developments.


text:
Talk:Lentis/Robotic Pets for Psychosocial Therapeutics

Introduction
Madeleine Hoang

Current State of the Art
Seth Dolin, Madeleine Hoang

Ethical Concerns (Privacy)
Seth Dolin, Madeleine Hoang

Ethical Concerns (Social Contact)
Evan Clark, Madeleine Hoang

Ethical Concerns (Deception)
Evan Clark, Madeleine Hoang

Conclusion
Madeleine Hoang


text: Wikimedia/Printable version

title: Wikimedia/Printable version


text: Using YouTube Videos/Printable version

title: Using YouTube Videos/Printable version


text: Using Ratpoison/Printable version

title: Using Ratpoison/Printable version


text: Using Plasma/Printable version

title: Using Plasma/Printable version


text: Tomato Firmware/Printable version

title: Tomato Firmware/Printable version


text:
User:Jawardma

 Managed Dedicated Server – Proper or Awful Preference? The industry of web hosting provides you with different alternatives. There are a few not unusual dissimilarities between the controlled committed server Netherlands and the others. If you need to get palms-on, you must have a fundamental understanding of the servers. You need to understand why you have to select it and what benefits will you get in the course of the provider. The services of shared hosting are generally for people and small commercial enterprises with non-public websites. It isn't always cautioned for an ongoing enterprise site. Though, you may take a look at a few positives and negatives of web website hosting to make a decision that is maximum advantageous for your online mission. Fine factors of utilizing devoted web hosting: it has the gain of being for autonomous use. You could with no issue pick those internet servers for his or her additional advantage of dedicated Ip address, bandwidth, server space, universal overall performance, and safety as well. The charge is quite better compared to other internet servers but the internet site is bound to be extra worthwhile. There are loads more picks to manipulate incoming site visitors each day. You may be completely freed from tensions for the webserver loading issues or errors. You can get whole freedom to hold the statistics like vital passwords and sufficient reminiscence area for the garage. The growth of your enterprise may even be passed perfectly with the fine sort of cheap dedicated server Netherlands. Some will consider its fee to be a disadvantage. There are special appealing functions and crucial advantages of using an internet server. You can without any trouble spend your cash however returns are fee the real charge. At the start, you may begin with a constrained plan and minimum value. Then you may add a few more offerings on the way to being an intelligent choice. The reasonable but unmanaged website hosting will put more degree of strain on your admin work. Even though quit consumers can’t observe the dissimilarity of a controlled or unmonitored committed hosting, however, you would be on the hard facet. Arranging the server may be hard for first-time proprietors of an internet site. You can study extremely more for entire plans and installation to pick while hiring the offerings of a dedicated web server. Electricity, root access, enhancements, and fairly greater turn into regular a part of the manner of website hosting. With the help of a you ought to have talented hardware for the useful provider. Your powerful speed and safety are the advantages of utilizing it. There is no want to worry regarding viruses and hackers whilst you deploy firewall settings and anti-virus towards the damaging consequences of hosting.

title: User:Jawardma


text: TiddlyWiki/Printable version

title: TiddlyWiki/Printable version


text: TiddlyWiki Manual/Printable version

title: TiddlyWiki Manual/Printable version


text: The Stack Exchange User Guide/Printable version


text: The Developer's Guide to WordPress/Printable version


text:
The Developer's Guide to WordPress/Optimal Hosting

Hosting for speed
Not all hosts are created equal, and this can impact page load times. Page load times greatly impact the user experience. In general look for the following in a host:
 * Good bandwidth
 * Close to your users
 * Serves content from fast storage, such as an SSD instead of an HDD.

Hosting for reliability and resiliance
Reliability is a key, and often overlooked attribute. Some services allow you to take advantage of features which help improve reliabiliy or at least help improve resiliance to failure.
 * Automatic backups (Not a replacement for doing your own manual backups, but can be useful in a pinch)
 * Geographically distributed

Take the load off with a cache
Wordpress is a dynamic CMS, which means it does significant backend processing. For pages which are commonly accessed but do not change, a common practice is to use a cache to speed retrieval. One common solution is to use the open source varnish cache, which has a numbler of existing plugings.


text: 5 in a Row/Printable version

title: 5 in a Row/Printable version


text: Symbian/Printable version

title: Symbian/Printable version


text: Slackersbible/Printable version

title: Slackersbible/Printable version


text: Scribus/Printable version

title: Scribus/Printable version


text: Sage/Printable version

title: Sage/Printable version


text: Radmind/Printable version

title: Radmind/Printable version


text: POV-Ray/Printable version

title: POV-Ray/Printable version


text: Category:Book:Praat

title: Category:Book:Praat


text: Praat/Printable version

title: Praat/Printable version


text: Perlwikibot/Printable version

title: Perlwikibot/Printable version


text: OpenOffice.org/Printable version

title: OpenOffice.org/Printable version


text: Open Source Psychology/Printable version


text:
Lentis/Guerrilla Urbanism

Introduction
Guerrilla urbanism (GU) is a form of community-based renovations in public spaces. Communities work to change how a space looks or feels. These changes are not necessarily legal, and groups may start renovations without permission in hopes to receive them after. Although public art is the most common example, other forms of guerrilla urbanism can have political motivations behind them. They can seek out policy changes from the ground up, instead of waiting on institutional change. Social media has allowed for more rapid development of guerrilla urbanism. Guerrilla art can be spread faster, getting more people involved and informed. Movements typically begin from smaller communities but have the potential to become a widespread phenomenon.

Guerrilla Urbanism vs. Tactical Urbanism
While also called tactical urbanism, there is a difference in connotation behind “guerrilla” versus “tactical”. Guerrilla is “suggestive of guerrillas especially in being aggressive, radical, or unconventional”. In contrast, tactical is “adroit in planning or maneuvering to accomplish a purpose”. Both are related to achieving a goal, but guerrilla has a combative nature and implies a power imbalance. The contrast shows guerrilla urbanism being a rash action that derives from desperation, and tactical urbanism as a more sophisticated form of advocacy. The intentional word choice may also stem from many GU demonstrations being illegal, which adds to the aggressive and unconventional parts of guerrilla’s definition.

Motivations of Guerrilla Urbanism (GU)
Guerrilla Urbanism (GU) takes on many forms. Although policymakers are often involved in the process, that is not always the case. Most forms of GU come from community desire or concern. If the problem is large or important enough, policies are a common outcome of GU demonstrations.

Test or Show Viability of Projects
Policymakers are unlikely to carelessly spend money on social projects, so proof of viability is often needed. In Calgary, Canada, communities were given ActivateYYC microgrants to create temporary public spaces. After seeing the widespread participation, the project was handed over to the Federation of Calgary Communities.

Incite Public Discussion
In its most basic form, guerrilla urbanism can be a way to start conversation. A small group of citizens may have a concern or idea, and GU can be one way to attract attention to the issue. In Raleigh, NC, Walk Friendly Communities (WFC) created a program, Walk Raleigh, meant to bring support to increasing walkability. QR codes and a website were placed on 27 signs at 3 different intersections with information about WFC’s, and specifically Walk Raleigh’s, mission for creating walk friendly cities.

Make a Statement
Guerrilla Urbanism lets citizens change their communities or express concerns to others. These expressions are usually artistic and large or very prominent. In Porirua, New Zealand, the citizens living and working on Fantame Street used planter boxes, paintings, and public seating to warn drivers to slow down. This changed the dangerous and crash-prone street into a safe one.

Mobilize Action
Guerrilla urbanism can be caused by citizens being unhappy with government action, or lack thereof. GU demonstrations allow communities to show governments the issues that are important to their community, and where policy change should be focused. Some cases are a community’s last resort to push for policies after being ignored by policymakers. In Miami, FL, parking medians on Biscayne Boulevard were changed into a public space. The Florida Department of Transportation eventually granted funding towards plans to make the change permanent.

Guerrilla Urbanism Around the World
There are many common examples of guerrilla urbanism throughout the world. Communities exist in every country that create the changes they want to see, even without permission. These communities often risk arrest in pursuit of their agenda.

Guerrilla gardening in London
Richard Reynolds is a prominent figure in the guerrilla gardening community in London. He created his own blog, GuerrillaGardening.org to help spread pictures and plans of “troop digs” to anyone interested. The goal of these digs are to beautify neglected public spaces through gardening. They usually consist of trash removal, then planting late at night so people don’t see the change until the next day. The blog lists some of their biggest accomplishments, such as the planting in the Elephant & Castle Roundabout and “seed bombing” the Tate Modern in Southwark, London.

Reynolds has been a guerrilla gardener since October 2004, the first time he illicitly gardened in London. Guerrilla gardening falls under a gray part of the law. It’s illegal, as it is changing public or private property without permission, but many officials are supportive of Reynold’s actions. When David Noakes, the councilor of the London Borough of Southwark, was asked about Reynolds, he said “Generally I’m supportive of what Richard’s doing. He’s providing an example of the kind of member of a community that we want”. However, Reynolds has been approached by the police before in one of his troop digs. A group of guerrilla gardeners were confronted by the police as they worked on a traffic circle close to Reynolds building. The police threatened to arrest Reynolds for causing “criminal damage" Even with the threat of arrest, the group still finished the job over the course of the night.

Guerrilla gardeners push the boundary of legality for a noble cause. They personally risk arrest to make the community more beautiful. According to Reynolds, the goal is to “fight the filth with forks and flowers”.

Bike Lanes in Brussels
In Brussels, Belgium, the city has taken its own measures of guerrilla urbanism in building bike lanes. In September 2021, almost overnight, the Rue de la Loi - the central-most street to several major government buildings (including the office of the Prime Minister, among other Belgian and EU offices) - was transformed from a four-lane motorway to having space marked off for cycle paths. Before waiting on the permits to officially clear, Belgian officials took to unofficially marking out bicycle lanes along the roads after the plan had been approved of in Parliament. The intent is to introduce the lanes to Brussels citizens without having to wait for official clearance, and let the people adapt as soon as possible. Olliver Willocx, from the Brussels Enterprises Commerce and Industry (BECI) states that "...this latest feat is an extreme example of the 'guerrilla urbanism' that the environmental movement is so fond of using to speed up radical measures and infrastructure works".

While the bicycle lanes are not yet officially built with elevated markings physically separating them from vehicle traffic, they are still an informal recognition of the city's need to change. The city had implemented stricter speed limits of 20 km/h to protect pedestrians and other non-automobile users of the road (including bicyclists). Drivers enjoyed up to 12 meters of width to drive through, while cyclists only had 5.5 meters. Concerns arose during the COVID-19 pandemic, with cyclists crammed into that narrow of a space breathing closely to each other, and so came the decision to expand the bike lanes, accompanied by other reasons. Traffic safety is another major concern in the area. Bart Dhondt, Brussels alderman, states "in general, 70% of motorists drive too fast [in the Rue de la Loi], which is why we are making traffic safety an absolute priority. These cycle paths are just a continuation of that". The dedicated cycling paths are being built to protect cyclists from automobile traffic, and no time was spent waiting for the permits to clear - Brussels government officials signed off on laying down temporary markings, and will be built over with proper construction efforts later. "The analysis established that the Rue de la Loi has a serious problem with road safety".

Societal Impact
As mentioned prior, guerrilla urbanism is an informal process of change in a community, not processed via government bureaucracy or passed through formal elections and committees; it is direct action taken out, via the or catering towards the will of the people. The changes and suggestions guerrilla urbanism may suggest to a community are not always readily apparent. As with Reynolds' guerrilla gardening project or Brussels' project to improve biking viability in the central streets of the city were not immediately vocalized concerns of their respective communities, or at least not directly raised to anyone in particular. These ill-addressed issues of the community are realized by the efforts made by guerrilla urbanism and brought to attention. The efforts made by guerrilla urbanists may not always be complete answers to problems facing a community - Richard Reynolds doesn't intend to single handedly clean up torn down lots via his and his cooperators own efforts, the city of Brussels don't intend to use the bike markings for a long period of time before putting down permanent structures - but they illustrate a way forward.

title: Lentis/Guerrilla Urbanism


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text: Mac OS X Leopard/Printable version

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Lentis/Driving Speed Enforcement

Introduction
One of every driver’s worst fear is seeing flashing blue lights in their rear view mirror. Being pulled over is one of the most anxiety provoking situations behind the wheel. The officer asks, “do you know why I pulled you over?” or “do you know how fast you were going?” These questions are specifically aimed at admitting guilt to be used as evidence in a court of law. Despite this stressful deterrent, speeding is prolific in the US because it’s not looked down upon culturally. Movies like the popular Fast & Furious franchise glorify speeding and street racing. For the majority of casual drivers, driving 5-10 mph over the speed limit on a regular basis is normal.

Background
In 2019, 36,096 Americans died from motor vehicle accidents–26% of which were attributed to speeding. Although the number of speeding related deaths has declined from the early 2000’s, where there were over 13,000 speeding related deaths per year, it remains a leading cause of car accidents. The most common methods of speed limit enforcement is through speeding tickets and criminal penalties: In the US, police give around 42 million speeding tickets a year, totaling around 6.2 billion dollars. Over one in five drivers are given a speeding ticket every year.

Case Study: Germany and the United States
Speeding is a notorious cause of death on the road. The United States has 7.3 deaths per billion kilometers traveled, of which many result from driving over the speed limit. Germany, on the other hand, has unrestricted speed limits on certain sections of their Autobahn freeway system. Even with an unrestricted speed limit, Germany has just 4.2 deaths per billion kilometers traveled. How does Germany have 40% less deaths than the US per billion kilometers traveled?

There are several differences between American and German driver training that contribute to safer driving in Germany. Drivers in Germany are safer because they receive more training before obtaining a license. In the US, drivers only need around 6 hours of supervised driving and a final 15-20 minute behind the wheel test before being granted a license. In Germany, driver training is much more rigorous. Drivers must take theory classes, take a theoretical test, have special lessons, take practice tests, and a final long behind-the-wheel driving test.

In addition to more rigorous training, Germany has strict laws about certain driving procedures. While the Autobahn highway has sections of unrestricted speed limits, the sections that do have speed limits are strictly enforced using speed cameras and police officers. Going 25 mph over the speed limit can result in a 1 month license suspension, and going more than 43 mph over the speed limit can result in a 3 month suspension. Passing on the right by moving into slower traffic on the Autobahn is punishable with a €450 fine. This law reduces rear end collisions where the speed delta is high between cars. Additionally, trucks are only allowed to travel in the right lane, further reducing traffic congestion.

German cultural differences allow for a derestricted Autobahn to work. In the US, drivers often don’t follow the rules and are often glorified for driving dangerously. This is not the case in Germany as German citizens are much more likely to abide by and follow traffic laws. “In most daily interactions, the Germans do not need anyone to enforce their rules. They follow them and remind one another to follow them through impromptu lectures that are often heated because they are raised to know that is what they are supposed to do,” according to the New York Times. German driving laws may be more strict, but the cultural accountability is what helps keep German roads safe from small town roads to traveling over 100mph on the Autobahn.

Everyday Speeders
Many drivers engage in "everyday speeding," which may consist of driving within a certain tolerance of the speed limit or speeding in emergency scenarios. One poll from AAA showed that nearly half of all participants reported exceeding highway speed limits by more than 15 mph in the past month, and nearly half of the participants reported going more than 10 mph over the speed limit on residential streets in the past month. Many speeders use "common sense" speeding techniques, such as driving in packs or slowing down in possible speed trap locations. Certain advocacy groups claim to represent these drivers, such as the National Motorists Association, which advocates for tolerance of the "reasonable majority ."

"Super Speeders"
Other drivers engage in more reckless behavior. "Super speeders" respect these limits less, driving faster and using more aggressive tactics to avoid penalty. In addition to those used by everyday speeders, avoidance techniques can include radar/LIDAR detectors and jammers, speed trap maps, or even outrunning the police. Online forums may also host discussion to share strategies and information regarding these techniques. Although they share a similar interest to everyday speeders–that is, getting from one place to the next–they have less respect for speeding laws and use more aggressive strategies to speed.

Police Departments
Police departments in charge of enforcing limits have a mix of interests. Although departments are interested in maintaining safety, some may have "minimum expectations" of officers despite laws prohibiting ticket quotas. These de facto quotas may be to generate revenue for the locality or win department grants. However, not all police approve of these tactics. The Virginia Police Benevolent Association has advocated for the elimination of quotas to promote safety, improve public reputations, and improve policing. Techniques of enforcement include speed guns, cameras, or aircraft enforcement.

Cyclists
Like drivers, cyclists are interested in reaching their destination. Since they are significantly more vulnerable in car crashes, many bicyclists highly value safety. One survey conducted in 2002 found over half of bicyclists in the U.S. were dissatisfied with their community's design for cycling safety. 13% felt threatened on their most recent day of cycling–88% of whom felt threatened by motorists. Consequently, advocacy groups such as the League of American Bicyclists have lobbied for more strict speed limit enforcement, as well as lower speed limits to promote safety.

Pedestrians
Pedestrians, too, seek safe transportation. From the same survey, 6% felt threatened on their most recent day of walking–62% of these felt threatened by motorists. Advocacy groups such as the Vision Zero Network call for "safe speeds for everyone" and advocate for enforcement methods such as speed cameras.

Conclusion
Speeding is among the leading causes of driving fatalities in the United States. Speed limits not only protect drivers, cyclists, and pedestrians, but are also a major source of revenue in rural localities.

Safety advocates like the Vision Zero Network and the American League of Bikers have advocated for stricter speed limits and stronger enforcement to improve road conditions for all users. Other groups, such as the National Motorists Association, advocate for fewer restrictions and greater leniency. However, most participants are everyday bikers, pedestrians, and drivers–speeders or non-speeders–that simply want to get to their destination and aren't involved in advocacy groups.

The future of speed limits and their enforcement will likely be shaped by increasingly car-free cities, police reform, and government revenue sources.

title: Lentis/Driving Speed Enforcement


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User:TimeEngineer

TimeFrame

title: User:TimeEngineer


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Talk:Lentis/The U.S. Pandemic Response: Influenza, 1918-1919

Julia Rudy: I worked on the Background, History and parts of the Public Response/Conclusion sections. Sarah Saas: I worked on the main Response and Conclusion sections and the newspaper citations. Pedro: I worked on Parallelism with Covid-19 and Background.


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Lentis/Iron Triangles in the U.S. Federal Government

= Introduction = Iron triangles are substructures within the U.S. Federal Government composed of congressional subcommittees, interest groups, and the bureaucracy. Each of these groups have needs and functions that feed naturally into each other, leading to a self sustaining cycle cementing these relationships. Iron triangles were first mentioned in 1956 in the Congressional Quarterly Weekly Report but were first popularized by Gordon Adams with his 1981 book The Politics of Defense Contracting: The Iron Triangle. Notably, in 1961, in Eisenhower’s farewell address he warned “In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.” He is alerting the public to the dangerous relationship between the tremendous power of the bureaucracy and congress’ relationship with it. While not directly mentioning Iron Triangles, he highlights the risks of one of its essential relationships.

= Definitions and Elements = The iron triangle is a description of the tight relationship between the U.S. Congress, Special Interest Groups, and the governmental bureaucracies. These structures exist as a result of each element of the triangle working to satisfy the needs of the other two, resulting in a closed system.

Congress
The United States Congress is the most well-known element of the iron triangle. This group comprises the House of Representatives and the Senate. Within the U.S. Federal Government, only the Congress has the ability to write laws, giving this piece of the government significant power over what laws are passed and what those laws do. In addition to writing laws, each of its 535 members must be elected by the people of the state or district they represent and can be reelected as many times as the people they represent decide. This constant cycle of reelections can cause significant stain on the politician as running campaigns are a costly and time-consuming process. In addition, it is important for the politician to stay popular with their constituency so that they can keep their position.

Special Interest Groups
Special Interest groups are non-governmental groups that have important effects on the United States government. These groups are not elected, but rather are made up of individuals and corporations who feel strongly about the issue their group focuses on. Good examples of this are the National Rifle Association being dedicated to limiting gun regulation and the League of Conservation Voters wanting to ensure environmental policy is passed. One important way these groups influence the government is through the use of legislation scorecards, where the group will rate the legislator’s actions on the issues that are important to the group and distribute the information to voters. They will also endorse, and more importantly help finance, the candidates that will help protect their interests.

Government Bureaucracies
Bureaucracies play an important role in both the United States government and in the iron triangles. These groups are created to ensure the laws written by Congress are carried out. To a certain extent, these groups can also control how those laws are enforced through creating regulations or through deciding how grants are distributed. However, these groups must also rely on the funding given to them by Congress and can face hearings to review their performance. Additionally, while the heads of each bureaucracy are selected by the executive branch, these heads must be approved by Congress before they are given power.

= Examples in the U.S. Government =

AARP
There are multiple examples of the iron triangle in the U.S. government. First, the AARP, an active lobbying organization representing the interests of elderly and retired people, helped influence the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. This act was signed on November 15th, 2021 and allocated $283 billion to transportation (roads and bridges, electric buses, and rail). Increased allocation of funds to internet infrastructure and public transportation options helps represent the interest of the AARP members because it facilitates the movement and travel of those who cannot do so easily without help. By influencing congress members to support the passing of such legislation in return for supporting that congress member by distributing funds during their election campaigns, they are able to leverage their power and attain what they want at the expense of those who do not share the same interests.

NRA
Additionally, the National Rifle Association (NRA) is known for contributing campaign money to Senate races in return for their vote against gun policies such as background checks. Among the 46 senators who voted to prevent any expansion of background checks in 2013, 43 received help from pro-gun interests since 2000. In aggregate, this amount is $8.5 million. Lee Drutman, who has studied the role of gun money in politics for the Sunlight Foundation, stated “Members of Congress pay attention to these numbers, and they know that in the election cycle the NRA spent $18.6 million on various campaigns. They know what the NRA is capable of doing and the kinds of ads they’re capable of running, and especially if you’re someone facing a close election, you don’t want hundreds of thousands and potentially millions of dollars in advertising to go against you.”

F-35
The iron triangle has had negative effects on U.S. Defense Programs and there are three eminent examples of the results of iron triangles – the F-35, the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier, and the M-1 Abram tank. These programs are often characterized as “unnecessary and overly expensive programs that exist due to interest groups.”  The U.S. is known for its relatively large military industrial complex and the F-35 program specifically has come under fire for its poor performance and cost overruns. This extremely expensive project costs $7000 per taxpayer. Despite its downfalls, the F-35 program is a “too big to fail” program because of its role in the military industrial complex, which is facilitated by the Iron Triangle. The project provides business to a large “global network of contractors” including Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin. This network ranges 1,000 suppliers in 45 states and provides 133,000 jobs. This economic integration makes it difficult to call off the project midway without significant pushback from workers and contractors. When these large defense companies band together to work on such projects, they obtain the power needed to influence Congress to act in their interests, in this case, seeing the project to fruition despite its failure to arrive on time and on budget. This is often at the expense of taxpayers who would like to see their money being allocated elsewhere.

= Effect of Iron Triangles on American Democracy = Because of the strength of these relationships and the inherent resistance to change of the bureaucracy and congress, iron triangles are well entrenched in the process of creating and enforcing federal laws. Since their direction is governed by the values of the interest groups that drive them, there is disproportionate influence by a select few people that control the interest groups. American democracy, at its most fundamental, is intended to give every individual equal power, primarily through voting those who represent their interests into elected office. However, in the face of the strength of iron triangles, elected officials can easily be more beholden to the funding from interest groups rather than their own constituents. Iron triangles are slowly shuffling the federal government from a representative democracy to a corpo-oligarchy, where a select few groups have all the power and non-elected corporations have significant influence.

= Sociological Implications =

Iron Law of Oligarchy
Darcy K. Leach says that “Bureaucracy happens. If bureaucracy happens, power rises. Power corrupts.” This statement, if true, dooms every large organization to collapse into an oligarchy. Unwieldy entities, like the U.S. Federal Government, have to implement bureaucracies to properly function. This structure, because of the “incompetence” of the populace, leads to power being consolidated solely in the bureaucracy’s leadership. This power will then inherently be used to maintain the power of the leadership. In the context of iron triangles, large federal agencies, although they are supposed to be apolitical, fundamentally are not leading them to naturally form relationships with congress and interest groups.

Corporatocracy
A corporation’s sole focus is to make money for its shareholders, and as governments have significant influence over that goal, it is in the best interest of the corporation to have counter-influence back over the government. If the corporations have something that elements of the government need, such as money, then that counter-influence is completely doable. With too much corporate influence a government can tend towards corporatocracy, where the government is completely controlled by corporations, and can neglect the people it is supposed to represent. Iron triangles optimize this process by cementing the influence in a way that cannot be easily disrupted.

= Conclusion = In a democratic government, it is assumed that the power to make changes lies with the voters. However, when interest groups and bureaucracies have so much power these organizations can make changes against the interests of the voters. The unique case of the iron triangle shows the necessity of power balances and oversight in the federal government.

Areas in this topic that would require further research include the presence of iron triangles in foreign governments, as well as the actions being taken to combat these inherently undemocratic power structures.


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Talk:Lentis/The School to Prison Pipeline

For our casebook chapter, the work was done remotely then uploaded to wikibooks. Will Pfister wrote about the Origin and Effectiveness of Discipline Policies, Rod Aryan wrote about Current Policies and the Influence of Technology, and Roberto Bryan wrote on the topic of Alternative Solutions.


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Lentis/Biofuels Vs. Food in Developing Countries

Introduction:
With increasing population and urbanization in the 21st century, universal energy accessibility has become one of the greatest challenges in meeting sustainable development goals (O'Malley & Searle, 2021). One alternative approach that developing economies are implementing to meet sustainability goals is the development of crops for biofuels. Biofuels are energy sources made from recently grown biomass (plant or animal matter), and serve as an alternative to fossil fuels. Therefore, biofuels have received considerable attention due to concerns over fluctuating high energy prices, volatility of oil supply, depletion of finite fossil fuel reserves, emission of dangerous gasses, terrestrial and aquatic pollution, climate change, and irreparable environmental degradation (Braun, 2007).

Biofuels serve as a renewable energy source because they are continually replenished, environmentally friendly, have feedstock availability, and have the ability to be sold in solid, liquid, and gaseous states (Dufey, 2006). There are two main types of biofuels: bioethanol and biodiesel. The production of bioethanol is made from sugarcane, corn, and wheat. Brazil (using sugarcane) and the USA (using mostly corn and some soya) are the main producers, accounting for 70% of the global supply. Biodiesel is derived from oil or tree-seeds such as rapeseed, sunflower, soya, palm, and coconut.

Due to the many types of crops that can be turned into fuels, the proliferation  of biofuels triggers a cascade of impacts on food production, agriculture, and energy systems. As a result, competition within, as well as new, markets can be created. A dilemma arises as whether to divert farmlands to produce biofuels, mitigating greenhouse gas emissions and improving developing countries energy security while increasing food prices, or sustaining food production to humans with cheaper prices and high greenhouse gas emissions.

Pro-Biofuels:
Examining the dilemma presented, for developing countries, the production of biofuels could be a net benefit. Along with economic gain due to the introduction of a new market, modern biofuel related agriculture methods could utilize “marginal” land that is not suitable for food production to plant crops solely cultivated for biofuel production (von Braun, 2006). In addition to national economy boosts, these benefits extend to increased economic prosperity in local communities by providing employment opportunities and a higher profit gain for farmers due to high demand for biofuels from wealthy countries. Lastly, biofuel energy sources are more sustainable than current nonrenewable energy sources, like fossil fuels, due to their role in the carbon cycle (Jeswani, 2020). Therefore, biofuels can act as an important player in global transitions to clean energy sources.

Anti-Biofuels:
Despite the possible benefits, biofuel expansion in developing countries poses numerous challenges. A central concern is how the utilization of biofuel technologies could exploit the land and environment in the nearby ecosystem, harming local people's ability to have successful food crops (D. Barnabè, 2013). There is also a concern of “wealth hoarding”. Farmers and other individuals who have control over the crops and the profits from biofuel ventures may accumulate wealth, creating a socioeconomic gap between those involved and other local peoples. (Von, 2006).

One of the strongest argument against the expansion of biofuel technologies in developing countries is coined as the “Food vs. Fuel” debate. Critics argue that the escalation of biofuel usage in developing countries leads to higher food prices and facilitates food insecurity in surrounding communities. There is research done that supports a correlation of higher food prices for biofuel related crops and biofuel technology usage (Anderson, 2010). According to the International Food Policy Research Institute, food crops such as cassava, oil seeds and maize, would see price increases by the 2020’s as biofuel growth increases in developing nations (Von, 2006). Adversaries of biofuels reason that this leads to a trade-off between food and fuel, increasing food insecurities for poorer communities who cannot adapt to higher prices of food.

Farmers
As mentioned in the introduction of the biofuels vs. food debate, farmers play an impactful role in biofuel production. With increasing demand for agriculture products created by biofuel production, farmers will be able to enter into a new market where potential for job growth and economic gain is possible. In addition, there are many potential avenues for farmers to adjust their crops and therefore many routes for which farmers can participate. For example, many developing countries already grow or could grow energy crops such as corn, soybeans, rapeseed, and palm oil (de Fraiture et al., 2008).

Although the production of biofuels presents a large potential benefit, it also poses challenges for the poor farmers in developing countries. For example, farm lands may have to be redesigned to fuel crops instead of food, which could harm both the local peoples and the farmers as it could decrease their access to food, or increase food prices in already impoverished regions (de Fraiture et al., 2008). Additionally, associated deforestation can result in a loss of biodiversity and excessive use of fertilizers and pesticides, therefore degrading the land and water resources that the farmers depend on (de Fraiture et al., 2008). An example of this is seen in Tanzania and Brazil, where diverting of farm crops have affected the income and land ownership of local farmers (Tenenbaum, 2008).

Locals
Influence of biofuel production can be beneficial to local peoples due to the potential for both local and national economies to flourish with the introduction of a new market. However, concern arises when large-scale biofuel production is instituted for a few reasons. Most relevant, land use for fuel rather than food can harm local peoples food security due to lack of edible crops (von Braun, 2007). This stressor can affect the delicate economics of food prices, impacting impoverished citizens. Additionally, large-scale production to try to supply a global market also introduces an issue of neo-colonialism. Rich countries, corporations, and outside investors may be incentivized into going into a region with either fertile or an abundance of land, then entering into joint-venture agreements with local governments or farmers that ultimately results in a transfer of land that negatively impacts the community (Pisces, 2009). As a result, a feedback loop can be created such that biofuel infrastructure harms access to food, impacts price of food, and displaces land so that they are unable to sustain continued food growth.

Leaders
Due to the socio-technical nature of this issue, both local and global policy will play a key role in any conclusions regarding this debate (von Braun, 2007). So, attention should be paid as to how are leaders are handling this issue, particularly local governments. As established, introducing the biofuel industry to the country would have a lot of economic benefits as they can supply biofuels to rich countries while potentially boosting their own energy security. Though, this is under the condition that infrastructure already exists in the region such that they are able to process their own biofuel crops into useable fuel, or that there is ability to develop this infrastructure.

Understanding of how this issue is being dealt with can already seen. And, biofuels are seeing a lot of support from governmental entities. In fact, biofuels are so popular that a lot of countries, such as Indonesia and Brazil, have already set in place incentives and other strategies to encourage production of biofuels (Schoneveld et al., 2010). However, as already established, there are a plethora of consequences at the risk of the citizens' health and livelihood, creating problems that leaders will then have to solve.

Conclusions
The debate of "Fuels vs Food" is complex and there are many arguments and actors influencing the topic. While the goal of decreasing carbon emissions is important, and associated economic boosts are exciting, developing countries that seek to export biofuels may be vulnerable to bad actors when entering into the global market. Moreover, the issue of food security and increasing food prices cannot be blamed solely on biofuel production, and current insufficient objective data leads to interesting geo-political discussions. So, both local and global policymakers should be monitored for how they go about increasing biofuel production and trade, and other participants should be monitored to ensure livelihoods are maintained. To continue this evaluation, it would be beneficial to examine case-studies as the biofuel vs. food atmosphere is very different on a country-by-country basis due to legislation, types of crops grown, and existing infrastructure.


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User:Alvin Mukiibi

Alvin Kelly Mukiibi, was born in 1996 in Kampala, the capital city of Uganda.

title: User:Alvin Mukiibi


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User talk:CiaraNSmith1

Breakup of Work
Kingsford Yeboah: Kingsford wrote the introduction and worked with Ciara to write about farmers as participants Brian Lee: Brian presented the argument of food vs. fuels Ciara Smith: Ciara wrote about the local people, leaders, and worked with King to write about farmers. She also wrote the conclusion. All members contributed with editing and reference creation.

title: User talk:CiaraNSmith1


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User:Gentle kizz

i am ekene ezenwagu from Anambra state

title: User:Gentle kizz


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User:Shymbolat UVA

Hi

title: User:Shymbolat UVA


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Lentis/Algorithmic bias by gender

Algorithmic bias is any program that is designed to learn from large amounts of data to produce predictions on new data. Examples include facial recognition, self-driving cars, and resume analyzers.

Gender Bias in AI
Algorithmic bias occurs when an algorithm produces “systematically unfair” outcomes due to biases encoded in data. Gender bias often appears in male-dominated fields. Medical data often lacks female participants, leading to potentially inaccurate diagnoses and treatment suggestions. Hiring algorithms for computer science tend to favor males due to the imbalance of males in the field. These algorithms become self-reinforcing. Decisions due to the algorithm’s bias create data that enforces the bias for future generations of the algorithm.

Sources of Bias
AI training data can include biased human decisions or reflect historical and social inequalities. These human biases often form the basis of all algorithmic biases. This bias can result in incorrect decision-making. For instance, researchers at MIT showed that facial analysis technologies have higher error rates for minorities and women. This was due to unrepresentative training data: most of the training images were white males.

Another form of bias comes from intentionally encoded bias. Natural Language Processing models “word embeddings” are used to process text. A word embedding is a mechanism of identifying hidden patterns in the words of a given block of text, considering language statistics, grammatical and semantic information, and human-like biases. This intentional accounting of human-like bias can increase the accuracy of these models, as human writing often includes human biases, but it can have negative consequences in applications that make use of the models.

Case study
In 2018, Amazon stopped using a hiring algorithm after discovering that it was biased towards selecting male applicants. This came from a bias in NLP; however, it was not due to intentionally encoded biases. Rather, most of the resumes the model trained on came from males, as tech is a male-dominated field. This led the algorithm to prefer words that males typically used. By not ensuring equal gender representation in the data, Amazon created an AI that further reinforced the gender imbalance in their field.

Social Perpectives
The effort to eradicate gender bias in AI algorithms is fought by many different social groups, all with their own approaches and efforts.

Corporations
Tech companies such as Google, Apple, and Facebook make most of the progress on the latest machine learning models which are then open-sourced for the world to use. When these models have bias, that bias propagates to many applications. For example, Google’s Switch Transformer and T5 models, which are used by other businesses for NLP applications, were shown to have “been extensively filtered” to remove black and Hispanic authors, as well as materials related to gay, lesbian, and other minority identities. This affected countless NLP applications without the authors of the applications being aware. Activists argue that a few engineers at the largest tech firms bear the responsibility for building unbiased AI, not the broader public. Corporations often publicly commit to addressing algorithmic bias. Algorithmic bias negatively affects AI performance, and these companies recognize the necessity of mitigating this impact.

Feminist Data Manifest-No
The Feminist Data Manifest-No is a manifesto committed to the cause of “Data Feminism”. This movement aims to change how data is collected, used, and understood to better line up with the ideals of gender equality espoused in modern day feminism.

Manifest-No consists of a series of points broken into a refusal and a commitment. The refusal consists of a rejection of a currently established idea about data and algorithms prefaced with the words “we refuse.” The commitment then offers a rebuttal to that idea in the form of a new standard embraced by the authors of the paper, prefaced with the words “we commit”. The language creates a sense of community within the manifesto and enables the authors to clearly lay out both their understanding of the current world and their vision for a better one. This Manifest-No, while not always explicitly used or cited, forms a basis for many of the modern approaches to combating gender bias in algorithms.

Berkeley Haas Center for Equity, Gender, and Leadership
The Berkeley Haas Center for Equity, Gender, and Leadership has written a large playbook for business leaders to mitigate algorithmic bias within their companies. This playbook consists of overviews and deep dives into the issue of bias in AI algorithms and how businesses can address the issues. The existence of this playbook indicates the belief of its authors that effective mitigation of this issue must come from the top down. However, the authors understand that effective incentives for change can be provided by grassroots organizers, even when these organizers often lack the power necessary to actually implement the change.

To this end, the Berkeley Haas Center for Equity, Gender, and Leadership maintains a list of gender-biased algorithms that have been used by different companies over the years. Recognizing the negative press associated with using biased algorithms, the use of this list aims to encourage the correction and avoidance of bias by making it public when it occurs.

Conclusion and further steps
The tech companies and organizations should make sure that researchers and engineers who collect data and architect AI algorithms should be aware of potential bias against minorities and underrepresented groups. Some companies seem to be taking steps in this direction. For example, Google has published a set of guidelines for AI use both internally and for businesses that use its AI infrastructure.

It is imperative to study the anticipated and unforeseen consequences of using artificial intelligence algorithms in a timely manner, especially as current government policies may not be sufficient to identify, mitigate and eliminate the consequences of such subtle bias in legal relations. Solving algorithmic bias problems solely by technical means will not lead to the desired results. The world community thought about the introduction of standardization and the development of ethical principles to establish a framework for the equitable use of artificial intelligence in decision-making. It is necessary to create special rules that set limits for algorithmic bias in all sectors.

title: Lentis/Algorithmic bias by gender


text: Category:Book:Yesod web framework

title: Category:Book:Yesod web framework


text: Nordic History/Printable version

title: Nordic History/Printable version


text: Multibody Mechanics/Printable version

title: Multibody Mechanics/Printable version


text: MUMPS Programming/Printable version

title: MUMPS Programming/Printable version


text: AppleScript Programming/Printable version


text: NetHack/Printable version

title: NetHack/Printable version


text: California Public Policy and Citizen Participation/Printable version


text:
LMIs in Control/Matrix and LMI Properties and Tools/Generalized Negative Imaginary Lemma

Introduction
These systems are often related to systems involving energy dissipation. But the standard Positive real theory will not be helpful in establishing closed-loop stability. However, transfer functions of systems with a degree more than one can be satisfied with the negative imaginary conditions for all frequency values and such systems are called systems with negative imaginary frequency response.

The System
Consider a square continuous time Linear Time invariant system, with the state space realization $$(A,B,C,D)$$

\begin{align} \dot x(t) = Ax(t)+Bu(t)\\ y = Cx(t) + Du(t) \end{align} $$

The Data
$$A\in\mathbb R^{n\times n}, B\in\mathbb R^{n\times m}, C\in\mathbb R^{m\times n}, D\in\mathbb S^m$$

The LMI
Consider an NI transfer matrix G1(s) and an SNI transfer matrix G2(s) = C2(s1 - A2)-1 B2 + D2. The condition λ̅ (G1(0)G2(0) < 1 is satisfied if and only if
 * ST(-C2A2-1B2 + D2)S < 1,

Conclusion
The above equation holds true if and only if S ST = G1(0).

Implementation
This can be implemented in any LMI solver such as YALMIP, using an algorithmic solver like Gurobi.

Related LMIs

 * Negative Imaginary Lemma


text:
LMIs in Control/Matrix and LMI Properties and Tools/Negative Imaginary System DC Constraint

Introduction
These systems are often related to systems involving energy dissipation. But the standard Positive real theory will not be helpful in establishing closed-loop stability. However, transfer functions of systems with a degree more than one can be satisfied with the negative imaginary conditions for all frequency values and such systems are called systems with negative imaginary frequency response.

The System
Consider a square continuous time Linear Time invariant system, with the state space realization $$(A,B,C,D)$$

\begin{align} \dot x(t) = Ax(t)+Bu(t)\\ y = Cx(t) + Du(t) \end{align} $$

The Data
$$A\in\mathbb R^{n\times n}, B\in\mathbb R^{n\times m}, C\in\mathbb R^{m\times n}, D\in\mathbb S^m$$

The LMI
Consider an NI transfer matrix $$\bold G_1(s)$$ and an NI transfer matrix $$\bold G_2(s) = \bold C_2(s\bold 1 - \bold A_2)^{-1} \bold B_2 + \bold D_2$$. The condition λ̅ $$(\bold G_1(0)\bold G_2(0) < 1$$ is satisfied if and only if
 * $$\bold S^T(-\bold C_2 \bold A_2^{-1} \bold B_2 + \bold D_2) \bold S < \bold 1$$,

Conclusion
The above equation holds true if and only if $$\bold {S}\bold{S}^T = \bold G_1(0)$$.

Implementation
This can be implemented in any LMI solver such as YALMIP, using an algorithmic solver like Gurobi.

Related LMIs

 * Negative Imaginary Lemma


text:
LMIs in Control/pages/LMI for Attitude Control of BTT Missiles Roll Channel

LMI for Attitude Control of BTT Missles, Roll Channel

The dynamic model of a bank-to-burn (BTT) missile can be simplified for practical application. The dynamic model for a BTT missile is given by the same model used for nonrotating missiles. However, in this case we can assume that the missile is axis-symmetrically designed, and thus Jx = Jy. We assume that the roll channel is independent of the pitch and yaw channels.

The System
The state-space representation for the roll channel can be written as follows:

$$ \begin{align} \dot{x}(t) &= A(t)x(t) + B_{1}(t)u(t) + B_{2}(t)d(t) \\ y(t) &= C(t)x(t) + D_{1}(t)u(t) + D_{2}(t)d(t) \end{align} $$

where $$ x(t) = [\omega_{x} \quad \phi]^{\text{T}}$$ is the state variable, $$ u(t) = \delta_{x} $$ is the control input, and $$ y = \phi $$ is the output. The parameters $$ \omega_{x} $$, $$ \phi $$, and $$ \delta_{x} $$ refer to the roll angular velocity, the roll angle, and the aileron deflection, respectively.

The Data
The system can be described as:

$$ \begin{align} \begin{bmatrix} \dot{\omega}_x(t) \\ \dot{\phi}(t) \end{bmatrix} = \begin{bmatrix} -c_1(t) & 0 \\ 1 & 0 \end{bmatrix} \begin{bmatrix} \omega_x(t) \\ \phi(t) \end{bmatrix} + \begin{bmatrix} -c_3(t) \\ 0 \end{bmatrix} \delta_x(t) \end{align} $$

$$ \begin{align} y(t) = \phi(t) \end{align} $$

which can be represented in state space form as:

$$ \begin{align} A(t) = \begin{bmatrix} -c_{1}(t) & 0 \\ 1 & 0 \end{bmatrix} \end{align} $$

$$ \begin{align} B_{1}(t) = \begin{bmatrix} -c_{3}(t) \\ 0 \end{bmatrix}, \quad B_{2}(t) = \begin{bmatrix} 0 \\ 0 \end{bmatrix} \end{align} $$

$$ \begin{align} C(t) = \begin{bmatrix} 0 & 1 \end{bmatrix} \end{align} $$

$$ \begin{align} D_{1}(t) = 0, \quad D_{2}(t) = 0 \end{align} $$

where $$ c_{1}(t) $$ and $$ c_{3}(t) $$ are the system parameters.

The Optimization Problem
The optimization problem is to find a state feedback control law $$ u=Kx$$ such that:

1. The closed-loop system:

$$ \begin{align} \dot{x} &= (A+B_{1}K)x + B_{2}d \\ z &= (C + D_{1}K)x + D_{2}d \end{align} $$

is stable.

2. The $$ H_{\infty} $$ norm of the transfer function:

$$G_{zd}(s) = (C + D_{1}K)(sI-(A+B_{1}K))^{-1}B_{2} + D_{2}$$

is less than a positive scalar value, $$ \gamma $$. Thus:

$$ ||G_{zd}(s)||_{\infty} < \gamma $$

The LMI: LMI for BTT missile attitude control
Using Theorem 8.1 in [1], the problem can be equivalently expressed in the following form:

$$ \begin{align} &\text{min} \quad \gamma \\ &\text{s.t.} \quad X > 0 \\ &\begin{bmatrix} (AX+B_{1}W)^{T} + AX+B_{1}W & B_{2} & (CX+D_{1}W)^{T} \\ B_{2}^{T} & -\gamma I & D_{2}^{T} \\ CX + D_{1}W & D_{2} & -\gamma I \end{bmatrix} < 0 \end{align}$$

Conclusion:
As mentioned, the aim is to attenuate the disturbance on the performance of the missile. The parameter $$ \gamma $$ is the disturbance attenuation level. However, it should be noted that this model for the roll channel for a BTT missile is very simple and easy to handle, there is no disturbance to attenuate. This problem is presented here for completeness when used in a full BTT missile model along with the pitch/yaw channels. When the matrices $$ W $$ and $$ X $$ are determined in the optimization problem, the controller gain matrix can be computed by:

$$ K = WX^{-1} $$

Implementation
A link to MATLAB code for the problem in the GitHub repository:

https://github.com/scarris8/LMI-for-BTT-Missile-Roll-Control

Related LMIs
LMI for Attitude Control of BTT Missiles, Pitch/Yaw Channel

LMI for Attitude Control of Nonrotating Missiles, Pitch Channel

LMI for Attitude Control of Nonrotating Missiles, Yaw/Roll Channel

Return to Main Page
LMIs in Control/Tools


text:
LMIs in Control/Stability Analysis/Continuous Time/Output Energy Bound for Non-Autonomous LTI Systems

Introduction
Wile in the case of autonomous systems, they only need initial input constraints and cannot be changed using external inputs; the non-autonomous systems on the other hand can have changes happen to its behavior using a controller.

The System
Consider the continuous-time LTI system with state space realization $$\bold{\dot x} = \bold{Ax}+\bold{Bu}$$ $$\bold{y} = \bold{Cx}+\bold{Du}$$

The Data
$$\bold A \in\mathbb R^{n \times n}$$, $$\bold B \in\mathbb R^{n \times m}$$, $$\bold C \in\mathbb R^{p \times n}$$, $$\bold D \in\mathbb R^{p \times m}$$ & $$\bold x(0) = \bold x_0$$

Determining the bound
The output of this system must satisfy $$ \int_{0}^{T} \bold{y^Ty}dt=\left\vert\left\vert \bold{y} \right\vert\right\vert_{2T}^2 \leq \gamma^2 (\left\vert\left\vert \bold{x}_0 \right\vert\right\vert_2^2 + \left\vert\left\vert \bold{u} \right\vert\right\vert_{2T}^2 ,\forall T \in \R_{\geq0}$$ if there exists some matrix $$ \bold{P} \in \S^p$$and scalar $$ \gamma \in \R_{>0}$$, where $$ \bold{P} > 0$$, such that $$ \bold{P} - \gamma\bold{I} \leq0$$,

$$ \begin{bmatrix} \bold{PA}+\bold{A^TP} & \bold{PB} & \bold{C^T} \\ \end{bmatrix} \leq0$$.
 * & -\gamma\bold{I} & \bold D^T \\
 * & * & -\gamma\bold{I}

Implementation
This can be implemented in any LMI solver such as YALMIP, using an algorithmic solver like Gurobi.

Conclusion
Given a non-autonomous system with initial operating conditions and a controller, the parameter $$ \gamma$$ can be used to determine the feasible bound on the output of that system.

Related LMIs

 * LMIs in Control/Stability Analysis/Discrete Time/Output Energy Bound for Autonomous LTI Systems
 * LMIs in Control/Stability Analysis/Discrete Time/Output Energy Bound for Non-Autonomous LTI Systems


text:
LMIs in Control/Stability Analysis/Discrete Time/Output Energy Bound for Non-Autonomous LTI Systems

Introduction
Wile in the case of autonomous systems, they only need initial input constraints and cannot be changed using external inputs; the non-autonomous systems on the other hand can have changes happen to its behavior using a controller.

The System
Consider the discrete-time LTI system with state space realization $$\bold{x}_{k+1} = \bold{A}_d \bold{x}_k + \bold{B}_d \bold{u}_k$$ $$\bold{y}_k = \bold{C}_d \bold{x}_k + \bold{D}_d \bold{u}_k$$

The Data
$$\bold A_d \in\mathbb R^{n \times n}$$, $$\bold B_d \in\mathbb R^{n \times m}$$, $$\bold C_d \in\mathbb R^{p \times n}$$, $$\bold D_d \in\mathbb R^{p \times m}$$

Determining the bound
The output of this system must satisfy $$ \sum_{i=0}^{k} \bold{y}_i^T\bold{y}_i=\left\vert\left\vert \bold{y} \right\vert\right\vert_{2k}^2 \leq \gamma^2 (\left\vert\left\vert \bold{x}_0 \right\vert\right\vert_2^2 + \left\vert\left\vert \bold{u} \right\vert\right\vert_{2k}^2 ,\forall k \in \Z_{\geq0}$$ if there exists some matrix $$ \bold{P} \in \S^p$$and scalar $$ \gamma \in \R_{>0}$$, where $$ \bold{P} > 0$$, such that $$ \bold{P} - \gamma\bold{I} \leq0$$,

$$ \begin{bmatrix} \bold{PA}+\bold{A^TP} & \bold{PB} & \bold{C^T} \\ \end{bmatrix} \leq0$$.
 * & -\gamma\bold{I} & \bold D^T \\
 * & * & -\gamma\bold{I}

Implementation
This can be implemented in any LMI solver such as YALMIP, using an algorithmic solver like Gurobi.

Conclusion
Given a non-autonomous system with initial operating conditions and a controller, the parameter $$ \gamma$$ can be used to determine the feasible bound on the output of that system.

Related LMIs

 * LMIs in Control/Stability Analysis/Discrete Time/Output Energy Bound for Autonomous LTI Systems
 * LMIs in Control/Stability Analysis/Continuous Time/Output Energy Bound for Non-Autonomous LTI Systems


text:
LMIs in Control/Stability Analysis/Discrete Time/Transient Output Bound for Discrete-Time Autonomous LTI Systems

The System
Consider the discrete-time LTI system with state-space realization $$\bold x_{k+1} = \bold A_d \bold x_k$$, $$\bold y_{k} = \bold C_d \bold x_k$$

The Data
$$\bold A_d \in\mathbb R^{n \times n}$$ and $$\bold C_d \in\mathbb R^{p \times n}$$

The LMI
The Euclidean norm of the output satisfies $$\left \vert \left \vert y_k \right \Vert \right \vert _2 \leq \gamma \left \vert \left \vert x_0 \right \Vert \right \vert _2, \forall k \in \mathbb{Z}_{\geq 0}$$ if there exist \bold P \in\mathbb S^n and \gamma \in\mathbb R_{>0}, where \bold P > 0, such that $$\bold P - \gamma\bold 1 \leq 0$$, $$\begin{bmatrix} \bold P & \bold C_d^T \\ $$\bold A_d^T \bold {P} \bold A_d - \bold P \leq 0$$
 * & \gamma \bold 1 \end{bmatrix} \geq 0. $$

Implementation
This can be implemented in any LMI solver such as YALMIP, using an algorithmic solver like Gurobi.

Conclusion
By using this LMI the transient state bound can be analyzed for a given autonomous LTI system.

Related Links

 * LMIs in Control/Stability Analysis/Discrete Time/Transient Bound for Discrete-Time Non-Autonomous LTI Systems


text:
LMIs in Control/pages/LMI for Attitude Control of BTT Missiles PitchYaw Channel

LMI for Attitude Control of BTT Missles, Pitch/Yaw Channel

The dynamic model of a bank-to-burn (BTT) missile can be simplified for practical application. The dynamic model for a BTT missile is given by the same model used for nonrotating missiles. However, in this case we can assume that the missile is axis-symmetrically designed, and thus Jx = Jy. We assume that the roll channel is independent of the pitch and yaw channels.

The System
The state-space representation for the pitch/yaw channel can be written as follows:

$$ \begin{align} \dot{x}(t) &= A(t)x(t) + B(t)u(t) \\ y(t) &= C(t)x(t) + D(t)u(t) \end{align} $$

where $$ x(t) = [\omega_{z} \quad \alpha \quad \omega_{y} \quad \beta]^{\text{T}}$$ is the state vector, $$ u(t) = [\delta_{z} \quad \delta_{y}]^{\text{T}} $$ is the control input vector, and $$ y = [n_{z} \quad n_{y}]^{\text{T}} $$ is the output vector. The parameters $$ \omega_{z} $$, $$ \alpha $$, $$ \omega_{y} $$, and $$ \beta $$ refer to the pitch angular velocity, the pitch angle (angle of attack), yaw angular velocity, and yaw angle, respectively. The parameters $$ \delta_{z} $$ and $$ \delta_{y} $$ refer to the elevator and rudder deflections, respectively. Finally, the parameters $$ n_{z} $$ and $$ n_{y} $$ refer to the overloads on the normal and side directions, respectively.

The Data
The model for the pitch/yaw channel is as follows:

$$ \begin{align} \begin{bmatrix} \dot{\alpha}(t) \\ \dot{\beta}(t) \\ \dot{\omega}_z(t) \\ \dot{\omega}_y(t) \\ n_y(t) \\ n_z(t) \end{bmatrix} = \begin{bmatrix} \omega_z(t)-\omega_x(t)\beta(t)/57.3-a_4(t)\alpha(t)-a_5(t)\delta_z(t) \\ \omega_y(t)-\omega_x(t)\alpha(t)/57.3-b_4(t)\beta(t)-b_5(t)\delta_y(t) \\ -a_1(t)\omega_z(t)+a'_1(t)\dot{\alpha}(t)-a_2(t)\alpha(t)-a_3(t)\delta_z(t)+(J_x-J_y)/(57.3J_z)\omega_x(t)\omega_y(t) \\ -b_1(t)\omega_y(t)+b'_1(t)\dot{\beta}(t)-b_2(t)\beta(t)-b_3(t)\delta_y(t)+(J_z-J_x)/(57.3J_y)\omega_x(t)\omega_z(t) \\ V(t)/(57.3g)(a_4(t)\alpha(t)+a_5(t)\delta_z(t)) \\ -V(t)/(57.3g)(b_4(t)\beta(t)+b_5(t)\delta_y(t)) \end{bmatrix} \end{align} $$

which can be represented in state space form as:

$$ \begin{align} A(t,\omega_x) = \begin{bmatrix} -A_{11}(t) & A_{12}(t,\omega_x) \\ A_{21}(t,\omega_x) & A_{22}(t) \end{bmatrix} \end{align} $$

with

$$ \begin{align} A_{11}(t) = \begin{bmatrix} a'_1(t)-a_1(t) & -a'_1(t)a_4(t)-a_2(t) \\ 1 & -a_4(t) \end{bmatrix} , \quad A_{22}(t) = \begin{bmatrix} -b_1(t)-b'_1(t) & b'_1(t)b_4(t)-b_2(t) \\ 1 & -b_4(t) \end{bmatrix} , \quad A_{12}(t,\omega_x) = \omega_x(t)/57.3 \begin{bmatrix} (J_x-J_y)/J_z & -a'_1(t) \\ 0 & 1 \end{bmatrix} , \quad A_{21}(t,\omega_x) = \omega_x(t)/57.3 \begin{bmatrix} (J_z-J_x)/J_y & -b'_1(t) \\ 0 & 1 \end{bmatrix} \end{align} $$

$$ \begin{align} B(t) = \begin{bmatrix} -a_{1}(t)a_5(t) & 0 \\ -a_5(t) & 0 \\ 0 & -b'_1(t)b_5(t)-b_3(t) \\ 0 & -b_5(t) \end{bmatrix} \end{align} $$

$$ \begin{align} C(t) = \begin{bmatrix} 0 & 0 & 0 & -b_4(t) \\ 0 & a_4(t) & 0 & 0 \end{bmatrix} \end{align} $$

$$ \begin{align} D(t) = V(t)/(57.3g) \begin{bmatrix} 0 & -b_5(t) \\ a_5(t) & 0 \end{bmatrix} \end{align} $$

where $$ a(t) $$, $$ a'(t) $$, $$ b(t) $$, and $$ b'(t) $$ are the system parameters.

The Optimization Problem
The optimization problem is to find a state feedback control law $$ u=Kx_v(t)$$ with $$ v $$ being an external input such that:

the closed-loop system:

$$ \begin{align} \dot{x} &= A_c(t,\omega_x)x(t) + B(t)v(t) \end{align} $$

where

$$ \begin{align} A_c(t,\omega_x)x(t) &= A(t,\omega_x) + B(t)K \end{align} $$

is uniformly asymptotically stable.

The LMI: LMI for BTT missile attitude control
Let $$ A_i $$, $$ B_i $$, $$ i = 1,2,...,n $$ be defined by the set of extremes of the uncertain parameters of the system.

Using Theorem 7.8 in [1], the problem can be equivalently expressed in the following form:

There exist $$ P > 0, W $$ which satisfy $$ A_iP+B_{i}W + PA_i^{T} + W^{T}B_{i}^{T} < 0, \quad i = 1,2,...,n $$

Conclusion:
The goal of this LMI is to find a controller that can quadratically stabilize the missile at all operating points. When the matrices $$ W $$ and $$ P $$ are determined in the optimization problem, the controller gain matrix can be computed by:

$$ K = WP^{-1} $$

Implementation
A link to MATLAB code for the problem in the GitHub repository:

https://github.com/scarris8/LMI-for-BTT-Missile-PitchYaw-Control

Related LMIs
LMI for Attitude Control of BTT Missles, Roll Channel

LMI for Attitude Control of Nonrotating Missles, Pitch Channel

LMI for Attitude Control of Nonrotating Missles, Yaw/Roll Channel

Return to Main Page
LMIs in Control/Tools


text:
History of video games/Platforms/Action Gamemaster

Development
The Action Gamemaster was a vaporware handheld system developed by Active Enterprises of Miami, Florida. The company was famous for developing the Cheetahman IP and the Action 52 game multipack.

The system was announced by January 5th, 1993.

The system was shown at the CES 1994 trade show.

Legacy
While contemporary sources seemed warm to the device, later sources are skeptical that the console as advertised was technically feasible. The mid to late 2000's would see handhelds capable of playing NES, SNES, and Genesis games via emulation or hardware clone chips, realizing the stated capabilities of the Gamemaster, though not its ambitious goals of playing current generation home console games on a portable device.

Compute
The console was simply said to be "16-bit". This provides little real technical information, though it does show the importance of the label during the "Bit wars" of the era. A more meaningful indication of the compute power of the system is found in the stated capabilities of the system, which would put it on par with, or superior to, common home consoles of the time. Portable consoles able to match the capabilities of the SNES or Genesis would not find widespread popularity till around the end of the 1990s or early 2000s.

Display
The LCD screen used by the console was 3.2 in. At the time this would have been a comparatively large display for a portable console.

Expandability
The device was said to have supported add ons such as an external CD-ROM drive, TV tuner, and car power adapter. While other contemporary portable systems could be found with support for car adapters or even TV tuners, the ability for a external CD-ROM drive to be used with a portable console was far more unusual and distinctive.

Games
The device was said to run its own games, as well as NES, SNES, and Genesis games via adaptors.


text:
User talk:87.127.214.18

hello jhib

skeleton
skeleton program

title: User talk:87.127.214.18


text:
HKDSE Geography/M7/Heat Island Effect

Urban heat island refers to a higher mean air temperature in urban areas than rural areas. Urban heat effect is intensified in following ways
 * Blanket effect from pollutants and water vapour
 * Man-made heat from air-conditioners and transportations
 * Tall and dense buildings block airflow
 * Less vegetation leads to little evapotranspiration

title: HKDSE Geography/M7/Heat Island Effect


text:
User:Buddpaul/SandboxA

Doom Editing Guide

DOOM is a computer game, originally released in 1993. The game established the genre of 1st-person shooters in PC gaming.

title: User:Buddpaul/SandboxA